004. Do [not] Rage

Winter Pov

after logging in I am taken to a strange screen with a list of races scrolling through them 3 taken my personal interest.

Automata

a mechanical being similar to a robot but within its forged body lies a soul, a strong metal body unaffected to certain debuffs like hunger, poison and do not need to breathe so can go into various hazardous areas. being an Atlisien decent being powerful and advanced appeals to me but feels rather cold and like something is missing. from test footage, I can see that they branch out a little too much for my taste but have high powered weaponry unlocked in more advanced stages as monstrous characters can evolve in more advanced forms but cant use certain weaponry types suck as Rogers being unable to equip crossbows or complicated machinery in their larger evolutions. with various subspecies having a weakness to EMP weaponry while some do not.

Spirit is a magical race, small and one of the physically weakest races but comes with a lot of magical power but are extremely weak to many materials on other worlds such as various metals and being bound by object or curse, with only a few dozen subspecies they can take magician then upgrade to sorcerors job to get an enlargement spell to grow to human size but will lose much of their mobility so is recommended they take up the Scout, Ranger or assassin to improve speed, but those would still provide minimal strength boosts as depending on the evolution the player would need to smart.

and then there's the choice that screams at me to choose after much debating

Lux Elf

a subspecies of elf adapting more to healing and support magic, while their strength is low they make up for it with their diversity in self buffing spells, agile movements and flexibility. extremely powerful in nature-rich worlds and weak in polluted worlds, from the small videos of each race this one seems to fight similar to myself but more gracefully and the diversity of the magic does give me ideas to try out with my own semblance. after choosing Lux Elf a character creation screen appears.

Choosing the gender female was the first thing I did, long flowing silver hair and blue eyes, a height of 6ft5 with a slightly muscular build over the thin lith form, not too bulky more along a swimmers body. Before decking her out in a simple white dress and white heels.

"Hmm, let's see," I say to myself seeing the next list to appear being the jobs for starters, going through the small list of beginner jobs I choose sword user since after unlocking a magic job later on I can evolve it into a spell blade. Seeing amongst the beginning swordsman weaponry a wooden rapier laying on a small pedestal caught my eye seeing its description makes me automatically choose it instead of the others.

{Wooden beginner rapier}

A wooden rapier made from a broken branch of the world tree while it is now as strong as other starter weaponry but more than makes up for it with its indestructibility, due to its rather simplistic design it is never chosen or even looked at by players a true diamond in the rough

Physical damage +5

Magical damage +10

Immortal object

Upgradeable??????????

soul bound object

The question marks involuntary makes me raise my brow before comparing it to other wooden blades

{wooden sword basic}

A basic wooden blade carved from a branch of the massive trees from the forest of Jura

Physical damage +15

Speed -3

Durability 250/250

15% chance to inflict bleeding debuff after breaking on an enemy

Upgradable

Resources needed to upgrade

Greater wood golem limb. Jagras hair X 5 and an elemental core of the desired element

Seeing the speed debuff was a bit off-putting with many of these swords as my style in real life relied on speed, power and precision sacrificing any of it for more power is ridiculous to me, but would appeal to other players since I am sure not many would choose Elf type species and then choose a physical job right from the get-go, having my character finally leave the room she found her self in a bright flash of light blinds her before the girl from the promotional video appears seeming to have just returned from a Succesful hunt if the bag with various plants that I assume to be freshly picked medical herbs tied to her belt that was not in the promotion videos she also appears to be wearing lightly armoured shin and elbow guards with small spike for close-ranged attacks sporting a long ponytail from that reaches all the way to just below her rear, judging from the size of my character she appears to be around 5ft9 in her mid-teens.

"Hey I am Seras, Seras Nyx an Iron ranked Seeker nice to meet you, want to join the Seeker's guild we could use members as strong looking as you" she introduced herself in a happy mood

Feeling myself pausing for a moment at how friendly she is even for an NPC I see 4 options displayed to respond to her, [Huh?] a [No thank you] a [Lets fight] and [Maybe later] choosing the first option she tilts her head before explaining ing about seekers.

"Oh guess you don't know what we do, do you" she sighs before laughing to bring the mood to happier vibe" Seekers are those who adventure out and explore worlds, while our main task is bringing back research samples and medical herbs we do get a lot of battle-related jobs from exterminating pests and monsters to guarding which I personally love to do since cna out and see the world, Seekers are ranked by plate system, Starting from Copper to Iron, those are called rookies or starters and usually it's pretty hard to advance by yourself but I am just that good," she says puffing her chest in pride "then Silver to Gold those are what we call experienced Seekers or veterans, they typically are way more specialised for certain tasks with some of them taking on only a specific monster race a lot of them are rather unique in personality but don't let the gruff ones fool you they are mostly big softies if they play the macho type" she trials off giggling from what I am certain is experiencing the veteran seekers uniqueness in her past before continuing onwards. "Now the for the Heroic ranked Seekers they are Platinum and Mithril and they are whom the people in power call whenever larger hordes of bloodthirsty monsters pop up with Mithril often specializing in the extermination of high ranked monsters and typically move in a squad of 5, I'll tell you more about squads if you wish to join us later on, now then we get to the Legendary Seekers those whose movement affects the country they are stationed in they are Oricaluculm and Adamantite and are typically those we call in if a kingdom or a world is in great danger. We seekers bassed our ranking system on the metals that were used and their rarity for when the first seeker started our guild over 300 years ago with our name tag being made of the material we are ranked, nowadays there are more things to use for enchantments and just weapons in general but its the feeling that counts" she winks at me, as her speech fills me with a sense of longing as a huntress/military applicant I can relate to wanting to see the world alongside those I trust as so much of ours is covered in Grimm with them encroaching our lands more and more each passing second seeing the option to join the guild I push yes and she once again begins to speak.

"So you want to join us huh, well that's good we always need more manpower, now let's see Squads is what I was gonna talk about next right ?, Squads are teams of seekers they are typically a group of 4-5 but the max size is 10 with you having to get a license to form a clan to start making larger groups with the max amount of a clan squad is 25, Squads are typically those who trust each other and have great synergy when in battle, its best to have a leader and a second in command just in case the leader is struck down, squads are rather diverse with some knuckleheads of those with the same job teaming up and barley advancing, while its good to have something in common amongst your peer's diversity is one of the most important things when it comes to teamwork. Appreciate the differences you each have in skill and tactics to your very race" she finished off before grabbing my character by the wrist and running like a mad man hopped up on caffeine before dropping me off at what appears to be a random city gate with 2 armed guards in bone white knight styled armour equipped with a tower shield and lances looking to have been forged by the element of lighting its self as the from the grip the lower and top portions are literal metallic lighting contained within a white energy field

"This is the city of beginnings on the planet Arexus the planet of connections and meetings the centre of the united races alliance against various interplanetary threats, get strong enough and you will be able to afford to get to another of the major cities and maybe even explore the cosmos after getting a starcraft or mobile clanship base, these 2 heavily armed gentlemen are Douglas and Dale Ignis stubborn twins that are as strong as silver tier seeker team, their family has defended this city for 200 years since moving here, while powerful they are rather lazy and choose to work as entrance guards since they don't have to move much, even had their armour enchanted to be lightweight and preserve stamina" she states irritating the guard on the left

"And unfortunately this prankster's childhood friends, greetings I am Dale and that is my elder brother Douglas on the right, seeing how excited she is you chose to join the Seekers guild I bet she was so happy she forgot to ask you your name" Dale huffs whilst his older brother chuckles as Seras turns bright red and start fidgettings and looking towards my character as the naming option comes up

"Hmmm, Maybe this one' I hummed thinking back on Klein's nicknames for my siblings and I, shelving the thought of Seras being a bit airheaded for later.

"Snow Flake is it, a fine name for a Seeker, if you are ever in need come find a member of our clan we typically wear this on our left shoulder" Dale points out to the symbols of fire made of what appears to be solid Ruby with an orange glow dwelling inside the crystal

"Now you better report to the guildhall before heavy traffic sets in Seras I don't want Gem to drag us to the tavern to vent about you wasting all those rare medical herbs you tend to find, I swear she can nag even a dragon to death" Douglas finally speaks and once more Seras already pale complexion blanches even more before paying the toll of 10 coppers for us before once more speeding down the road with my characters hand in her own dropping us towards a large building with people of various races inside dragging us to the line with the sign Reports on it luckily for us vacant of anyone else as we approach a beautiful chestnut-coloured brunette with green eyes and a rather large bust in a business suit greets us with an enchanting smile

"Well it isn't the guilds number one prankster I see the boy's reminded you to come back on the double, good maybe ill buys the ma burger or two for saving me from some stress" she hums in a happy mood as Seras pouts at her mumbling angrily "I also see she picked up a new recruit, Nice to meet you My name is Gem Abbadon I handle reports for missions and appraisal, if you head to the corridor on the left you can sign up with Rebeca the silver haired girl with fox ears and golden eyes, she is in charge of new recruits and job upgrades, don't let her cuteness fool you she had the potential for gold rank but like so many of my childhood friends she is very lazy and prefers paper work over physical work" Gem huffs before continuing once more "Her sister Emma is the one with silver fox tail and emerald eyes she typically just handles the request board and supplies in the shop feel free to check it out or head to the practice area to get some practice" she waves me off as I follow her instructions and find Rebecca currently free looking bored before pepping up spotting my character, I take note how advanced these NPC AI are for a simple tutorial even if some of the responses we can choose are basic they reply to us with such life it's rather impressive

"Why hello there, looks like we have a hopeful recruit, welcome to the Seekers guild, I assume you have the basic knowledge from a member to have found little old me" she Winks at me before 4 choices appear once more. [Saras told me] [yepp always wanted to be a seeker] [nah just lucky] [hmm] choosing the first option again I see her expression change from happy to pouting

"Dang it, she always gets to tell the fun part and lets me explain the boring bits" her fox ears deflate a little before she coughs and begins her explanation again.

"Knowing her she probably never explained how the plates function, while they are cheap for the starter plates, on the back of each of them are a magic circle that shows all your stats with Seekers able to get stronger faster than non-licensed individuals but we follow the rules on each world, those who break them are labelled oath breakers and thus have the power granted to them revoked by the circles as they are linked to your soul the plates will shatter after 3 strikes, low-level crimes like littering will only be worth half a strike but hight tier crimes such as murder and kidnapping are 3 strikes. Afterwards, the oath breaker will be immediately marked as the magic that once was used for the plate will mark them to all those with a license or a knighthood showing everyone where they are located, Now the license acts as a teleportation device for small ranged jumps in guild controlled space, credit card for major purchases, a navigation system wit ha new friend function to tell you if your allies are nearby or how they are in general with friends able to message each other at any time, and an interface to learn more skills with higher-ranked plates having a hammerspace for items. Gold has 5 slots that can be full of 1 large item or 99 small items of the same kind per slot, platinum gets 15, Mithril 30, Orichalcum 100 and Adamantite unlimited space. The card also allows the slain to be revived within the closest church or city with only minimal loss of battle power due to being revived unless your corpse being cursed then you will drop in power by half each time"

As she finishes her tale I can't help but feel envious of the game worlds warriors the ability to revive and fight again was a grand ability as you would be able to go battle the Grimm without fear winter naively thought to herself as the thought of being immortal would help benign able to keep her loved ones safe.

"Now while the cards won't show the guild your stats they will show your skills, knowing that, would you still like to join our family I warn you there are a lot of knuckleheads," she asks me and I can't help but melt like the warm sensation that fills my chest at the world Family hitting yes her smile beams even brighter before handing out ab strange crystal ball upon a pedestal with the bright crimson cushion it rests upon.

"Just place your hand over the crystal ball then your tag will be printed out from the slot on my side freshly engraved and ready for action", following her advice my character places her left hand over the crystal ball and a beautiful display of colors glow mesmerizing me once more as it looked like the brother gods themselves painted an aurora and animated it to gaze upon. Before a green shine ends the light show as Rebecca hands me the finished card

"Pretty wasn't it, I can never get sick of both it and the looks you Rookies have when it happens, you're just in luck as well since nowadays you can learn skills from others withs job unrelated to your own for 5 skill points with you starting out with 15 points as soon as you sign up, you can earn more points by ranking up, training, or quests with quest offering points or money depending on the quest giver, with the low ranked quests going for 5 copper to the high quest giving up to 1 rex coins, if you are new to our system then let me tell you about how we do our currency, 10 copper coins make up a silver 10 silver makes gold and 100 gold makes up the diamond coin and 10 diamond coins make a Rex coin, a normal family spends about 15 silver a week so most folks never see anything above gold since diamond coins are used mostly for business transactions on the ridiculous sacel and Rex coins are more often used by royalty to show they grant you favour. Now that's that is settled if you want to earn more points I recommend you take the 2 hours combat course from hell by Kurotabo a large Oni gold-ranked seeker after spending at least 10 points on your card, he may look mean but big bozo is a teddy bear on the inside and spends most his cash on donating to the orphanages across the planet, just got to grab you card scroll to the guild and then pick the place you want to go, it doesn't work in the lobby or inside the main building for teleporting to but can teleport to other areas such as shop and training area we are currently working on hooking up the church to it so you won't have to walk back to resupply, now go forth young seeker the world is calling" she finishes off her passionate speech by waving me away as I choose to walk back to Seras and maybe learn a thing or 2 from her

================================================================

[Snow Flake]

Copper ranked seeker

Quests completed N/A

Lux Elf

Racial skills

[Light born]

Light abilities are in your blood. Deals extra damage to dark aligned targets

[magical scholar]

Your race has long loved magic and you are no different. Magic related abilities grow twice as fast

[Sword user]

[thrust ]

A basic lunge attack

[parry]

A basic counter move

[Points 15]

================================================================

Having returned to the lobby area where Seras has finished up her goods I goto towards her hoping to talk clinking on her, she turns to me happier than ever.

"Yay you really joined, as your senior let me offer up a skill or 2, My jobs are Gunner and Ranger both specializing in ranged attacks with Ranger giving me some options for close-ranged combat Gunner is poorly suited for both capped at 10, most beginner jobs can go up to 10 before branching out the skills I am offering you are [burst] a magic attack that can be used to accelerate or change directions if timed well form Gunner and [Snare] a trap skill that makes a small rope trap, levelling the skill up helps make a stronger magic threat so can use it to climb or even bind enemies would you like them while pricy at 5 points each they are helpful"

Buying both seeing as they would link well to other spells or abilities I could learn in the future, I click to send a friend request to her as while she is just a program each and every character running into felt more alive than most of those living in Atlas, call me pathetic but I enjoyed meeting and interacting with them. Seeing the friendship accepted by her I could not help but feel delighted and truly thankful to Klein for both the scroll and inadvertently getting me hooked even if haven't actually played yet, I begin to snicker hoping to purchase more from them without Jacques knowing

"Of course, I'll be your friend dummy, I brought you here so might as well help you out if you need it in the future, you want to go spar for a bit ill take it a bit easy on you since your new but after that, I got to hit up Kurotabo I really want to get the skill [long shot] it increases the range of all abilities if you max it out or do you want to spend the rest of your points before hitting the training area?"

Seeing her point I buy [minor heal] and [power strike] for 2 points each and [flare] a small fire spell that evolves into [fireball] at level 5 for 1 point before teleporting to the battle training area with her, a large arena bigger than even our estate rather impressive.

"ooh, looks like the training area is free that's rare but we only got a few minutes till Kurotabo's training starts but a quick spar shouldn't hurt, we can go all out and do killing blows due to the magic circle on the roof" she points towards the large dome above this large combat arena and like she said there's a large red magic circle covered in foreign glyphs glowing a dim blue between the borders of the circle, she gestures to a coin in her hand before speaking once more

"When this coin lands we begin the fight" she tosses the coin upwards as the world freezes before the battle controls are explained and showing I have a 10% chance of victory against her, feeling my blood rush in excitement at overcoming an almost certain defeat I press continue as the world

She starts rushing backwards from my point of view hoping to keep a distance to avoid my blade, I rush to the left barely dodging her twin before getting a risky idea, using [Burst] to travel in mid-air closing the distance quickly and rapidly firing [flame] 4 times getting close enough to her to strike with [Lunge] her startled expression making it worth it as she gets a wide grin at seeing my skill, the thoughts "oh no, she's a battle maniac" echoing within my mind before she uses snare to trip me up before dealing a devastating blow to my stunned character before clapping at me once I respawn in blue light.

"That was awesome for your first battle, never seen someone use [Burst] to get airborne before only seen it used to after a leaping skill to change directions in air combat, Don't mind me for using your trick later on Snowflake" she grins at me before going in from the sounds of it a bone-breaking hung as the doors to the area opens up and an 8ft tall giant of a man walks in decked in, skin of red and eyes of crimen wearing a simple mistrilian outfit that highlights the power he wields subtly, even from beyond the screen I can feel the respect his gallant figure demands from others

[Pic]

"Oh I see some students are rather early today, and from the looks of it we have a Newborn Seeker with us today, Greetings young chick and welcome to hell, I am your Sensei if your up to it, call me Kuratabo Sensei" his fatherly grin makes me feel week but his challenges soon flood me with desire for him to acknowledge I choose the only option my tunnel vision lock on to,

"Bring it old man" she declares her own challenge as both she and Seras smirk dangerously