Chapter 4

I woke up laying in a field of slightly moist grass, the clouds flying in the sky above me. My head started throbbing as I sat up, I could feel I slight bump on my head. As I sat up I looked around and Ocura appeared by my shoulder. "Hey, Its the little goblin!"

"For the last time, I'm not a goblin. Goblins are large green creatures, with little intelligence. I am nothing like them!" He said, clearly upset with my statement. "Since you fell unconscious after your fall and missed the explanation I was sent here to fill you in. The game system is relatively simple, you can open different tabs via voice activation. You have tabs such as Inventory, skills, profile, stats, shop, etc."

"Profile." As I said this a blue holographic rectangle appeared before me. It looked like something out of a manhwa, with its semi-transparent background, slight gold shimmer around the corners, and white text.

Username: Apostle

Specialty: none

Level: 0, 50xp until next level

Hp: 100/100

Status: Healthy

Fame: 0

Skills: ???'s blessing

User ID: 0893

"What's this username?" I said pointing towards the screen, "This isn't what I entered." Ocura glanced over and gave a half-assed "Hm, I don't know." Before continuing to talk "If you will look over there you will see the tower, as well as the four trials." Following the direction he was pointing I could see a large, sleek, tower in the distance, surrounded on all sides by four smaller identical looking towers.

"Why are they so bland looking?"

Ignoring my question he continued talking. "The tower is where the game takes place. The goal of the game is to climb to the top. But before you enter the tower you have to complete the four trials. Think of them as tutorials. Each of the trials have ten floors, when you conquer all ten you receive something new that will help you in your journey. After you complete all four trials you can enter the main tower-"

"Okay, I get it. Your explanation is taking forever, can we just go?"

Annoyed that I cut him off, he snapped his fingers and teleported us in front of the tower.

Now that I was in front of the tower I could feel a slight breeze on my face. As the sun slowly set I noticed some soft lights coming from several different camps. On closer inspection I found all sorts of people around, Some were selling equipment, some were selling food, some just sat around and drank with friends.

Walking up to one of the camps, I could smell the scent of roasted meat from 20 feet away. A man was sitting at a crudely made stand. The light of the campfire behind him lit up a sign that was leaning against the stand. "1 portion of meat, 5 Copper coins."

"5 copper coins?" I asked confused about the currency. The man, dressed in jeans, and overalls looked at me for a second, his eyes showing a slight hint of confusion, he eventually said "You must have just gotten here, I heard there were a few people who hadn't arrived at camp yet. We get copper coins, as well as other items from killing the animals found on the first floor of the trial of swords."

"Trial of swords?"

"The first of the trial towers, The trial of swords. Apparently each of the trial towers provides the players with different needed skills, and equipment. The trial of swords is the first tower, after that its the Trial of defense magic, attack magic, and aoe magic*."

"So I cant buy any food without copper coins?"

"Nope, American dollars are completely useless here." He answered, pointing at the dimly lit campfire behind him. after looking at the campfire closer I realized that dollar bills of various dominations were being used as kindling.

"So weird to see a $100 dollar bill be used for kindling." I mumbled to myself as I sat down next to the communal fire. Slightly disappointed that I wasn't able to procure any food, I laid down next to the fire. As people talked, and the fire crackled under the moonlit night I feel asleep, thinking "It's a lot more peaceful then I thought it would be."

In the morning I woke up and made it towards the Trial of swords. By the time I made it to the tower, there was already several parties of players preparing to enter the trial. Eventually I found my way through the crowd of players both gossiping, and preparing, I found myself in front of a giant door with golden light shining through the cracks. Despite what I was expecting, the door was actually looked pretty unsightly. "They really don't hire designers here do they?" I muttered as I made my way to the door.

As I placed my hand against the cold door, A circle of white light appeared beneath my feet. Withing seconds the light shot up in a beam and enveloped my body. It sensation felt like I was underneath a warm blanket during the cold winter. After a moment I was transported and fell flat on my ass. Getting up I realized I was in the middle of a forest.

As I stood up a cold breeze slapped my face, a stark contrast to the warmness I felt from the beam of light. Looking around I saw a forest of pine surrounding me, as well as several stumps from cut down trees and a couple stray axes.

Soon another holographic system window opened in front of me, offering me weapons. "Choose one" The text read, underneath the text there were three options to choose from.

[Rusty merchant's sword]

[atk +3] [Reach +1]

[A rusty sword, it once was used by a traveling merchant to fend of bandits.]

[broken mercenary's dagger]

[atk +2] [+Short range throw]

[This dagger was once used by a small time mercenary. Its broken in half but still sharp enough to use as a weapon]

[chipped blacksmith's hammer]

[atk +4] [Speed -1]

[this hammer was used by a blacksmith at one point, its slightly chipped but will still do damage.]

"Broken mercenary's dagger." As I said that a broken dagger appeared in my hand, there was barely more than an three or four inches. The end was broken off in a way that there was an odd looking point at the end that hadn't broken off with the rest of the dagger.

After a couple seconds the system window disappeared and I heard the howl of a group of wolves.

Another window appeared, this one was above my head.

[Quest]

[Defeat Wolves 0/5]

[Reward, 5 Copper coins,]

Suddenly, a pack of seven wolves ran out of the forest. leaving the leaves of the trees shaking as they burst out of the woods, they surrounded me.

Growling, one of them lunged at me. Surprised I jumped to the side, and plunged my dagger into the wolf's side. The wolf fell onto the ground, now a limp corpse. A window appeared beside me.

[+2 Copper coins]

[+10 Xp]

As soon as the wolf's body hit the ground, three overs leaped onto me. "They're wild animals, of course they wouldn't fight me one on one."

Now pinned to the ground, the wolves began to tear into me, one biting my shoulder, one my arm, and one my leg.

I quickly kicked the one by my leg and it whimpered and ran a few feet away, before taking a defensive position and snarling at me. As the second wolf tore into my shoulder, I maneuvered my wrist and drove the dagger into the belly of the third wolf.

[+2 Copper coins]

[+10Xp]

I Quickly pushed the corpse of the third wolf off my arm, and grabbed the third wolf and rolled over, before stabbing the wolf between in the throat. The wolf released a short yelp, before falling still.

Standing up, I could feel a piece of the skin from my left shoulder slightly hanging ajar.

I quickly stood up and lunged towards the wolf I had kicked earlier, the wolf bared its teeth and growled at me, before I plunged the dagger into its chest.

Of the remaining three wolves, one jumped at me from behind and bite into my back, and one tried to leap onto my leg. I swiftly kicked the wolf in midair and it fell down, not quite dead yet I threw the dagger into its back, and it fell still. The other wolf, now adamant about staying on my back, latched on harder, tearing into my skin. I released a scream of pain, and rammed my back into a nearby tree. "I'm going to have back pain aches tomorrow." The impact caused the wolf to release its grip, and I grabbed the knife back from the corpse of the other wolf, and quickly shoved it into the chest of second wolf.

Turning around I threw the knife at the remaining wolf, and it landed slightly crooked in it's chest. As the wolf died, I fell down and slumped up against a nearby pine tree. with my blood streaked down the tree, and my heart beating faster than I had ever felt before, I finally paid attention to the system windows that had popped up.

[Wolf slain]

[Wolf slain]

[Wolf slain]

[+4 more]

[Quest completed]

[You have been awarded 5 Copper.]

Breathing heavily, I swiped away the messages, and a second window appeared.

[First hunt completed, +50Xp]

[7 wolves slain.. Calculating rewards.]

[skill (???'s Blessing) is doubling the rewards.]

[You have been awarded 28 Copper coins, +140Xp]

[You have leveled up!, You have leveled up!]

[str +5] [speed +3]

[You have used (???'s blessing) for the first time, You will now start feeling the negative effects.]

"???'s blessing? I didn't know I had this skill." I said between breaths. "Skills" A new system window opened, this one listing my skills.

[Dagger throw, lvl1] [???'s blessing, lvl1]

"Show ???'s blessing."

[???'s blessing]

[This was a blessing granted by (???). This blessing grant double growth the its user.]

[This blessing grows with its user.]

"It grows with its user?" Before I could contemplate the meaning behind those words, I felt a rumbling throughout the woods. A party of people, came crashing through the woods. As I stood up, a large health bar appeared over my head. "Mini-Boss"