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Realms and levels. This is one of the most striking difference of The New World compared to other rpg virtual games of this century. In the New World game system, there are two power system, level ups and realms where level ups are a subset of realms. In simpler terms, us, players, start as level 1 Apprentices. After that, we do quests, we kill monsters, we kill people, we burn down forests and build cities and then burn down these cities and for every such actions, we are rewarded xp points. When we accumulate a certain amount of xp points, we automatically level up to the next level, which for us would be level 2 Apprentice. And we do this until we reach level 10 Apprentice.

After which, we can do a Mortal Milestone Quest and if we pass it, all our xp points turn back to zero and we start anew. Lol, I'm kidding. We become level 1 Warrior, which is the second realm of the Mortal Phase.

We do the very same things, burn down forests and villages, kill a butt-load of people and all and accumulate xp points. But this time, in order break through to the next realm, we need to reach level 20 Warrior. Breaking through, we reach level 1 Seeker and so on and on.

The realms that are known to the public are as follows.

Mortal Phase: -

1. Apprentice

2. Warrior

3. Seeker

4. Master

5. Grandmaster

Power Phase: -

1. King's Path

2. X

3. X

4. X

Divine Phase: -

1. X

2. X

3. X

Ultimate Ruler – X

The final objective of this game is of course to become the Ultimate Ruler of the New World. And all the 'X' means unknown or that nobody has reached this stage, yet.

There is also a system for xp points which are.

1. All issued quests will have a reward xp points equivalent to the difficulty of the quest.

2. Xp points gained from killing monsters is 100*(level of the monster). For monsters of 1 realm higher than player, xp point = 100*(max number of levels of the player's current realm) + 200* (monster level in its current realm). As you can see, there is a higher xp gain for killing monsters of higher realm than players, just like all other games.

3. Xp points gained from killing humans is the same as monsters with an additional 25% xp gain, clearly indicating that the New World and Unicorn condone massive manslaughter.

4. As for how much xp points required to level up, its very simple. To level up one needs, 100*X, where 'X' is the amount of xp awarded to player by the system for killing a monster of same realm and same rank.

To sum it up, for a level 1 Apprentice, like me, to level up I need to farm 10,000 xp points or by killing 100 level 1 Apprentice monsters.

For a level 2 apprentice, to level up, he/she needs to farm 20,000 xp points or kill 100 level 2 apprentice monster or 250 level 1 apprentice monsters. Why 250 you ask, you see there is a xp reduction system where an individual would receive only 50% of the normal xp point for killing a monster/human with 1 level lower than him/her and this xp reduction adds up, like for 2 level higher the reduction is 75% or only 25% gain, 3 levels high means 87.5% reduction or only 12.5% gain and so on. For 1 entire realm higher individual, for example a level 1 Warrior to kill a level 1 Apprentice, the xp gain would be further diminished by entire 50%, so the actual gain would be less than 99.9999%. Pretty meaningless.

But NOTE: there is only a reduction and not total elimination. So, technically the killer would receive a minute percentage of xp points which ultimately becomes massive, especially at higher realms. Another fact which shows that the devs of this game condone massive manslaughter.

Anyway, this concludes our general discussion.

…

After checking all the essentials, I'm finally ready to begin my adventure. Currently, I'm wearing a clean cotton woven shirt and pant and armed with a 30cm long knife which is nothing but a little larger kitchen knife.

Anyway, after tying the knife and it's supplementary scabbard by my waist, I dive into the forest in the heavy downpour.

"Man! It's been ages since I've played in the rain!" I mutter to myself as I walk steadily into a certain direction. The rain felt too real to me, the thud sound when striking against the ground, the strength with which each droplet hits my body and most importantly, the fog which has covered my entire field of view. Fuck! I can't see nada in this weather!

For a moment, it seems like it was a bad idea to go out in this weather, which it probably is but I'm adamant. And as such, with the help of the compass which is a part of my survival kit and the beast-skin drawn map, I make my way towards Brimlow town.

After walking for a good half-an-hour, the weather finally seems to cool its balls down as the downpour slow turn into a light trickle. My field of view expands from measly 1 meter to hundreds of meters and once again, I'm surprised by the detail and realism of the virtual world. The humidity, the soaked leaves and earth, the small streams weaving through the forest floor and of course the earthen smell. Mhmmm! Fantastic!

But soon, it was all disrupted by a loud bestial roar.

"WRRAAAARRRRRRR!!!"

Fuck!!!

Almost immediately, I duck down and cover my head, an instinctive response to grave danger as taught by my school but soon I realized that it was irrelevant. I slowly stood up and sat in a crouching position and scanned my surroundings. There were no signs of predators but I can't be less cautious. Predators are sneaky.

I took out my compass and my map and predict the direction from where the roar came from.

'So, the roar came from here and… I'm going over there… shit!'

There was good news and bad news. The good news was that the roar didn't come from the direction where I was going, that is the direction of the town. The bad news was, it was extremely close to the direction where the town was. It was like, the direction where I'm going is north while the roar came from north-west, not exactly close but not far enough that if the monster or whatever hibi-jibi it is to catch my scent and chase after me. And I'm 100% sure I'm not going to outrun an animal which can roar like that.

Okay, Ave—I mean Rubik, calm yourself and think of a possible solution. What are my solutions? 1. Go where you wanna go and pray to god that the monster doesn't catch your smell. 2. Go where the roar came from and pray to god that whatever it is doesn't eat you alive. 3. Stay where you are and pray that all animals consider you a statue and leave you be. 4. Go back and commit seppuku to reincarnate in a reincarnation hall in the town.

Hmm…. Let's take option number 2, I think to myself but my heart is screaming at me. After all, option 1 is no solution and so is 3. And as for 4, I'm kinda afraid of that. I mean, the realism of this game is pretty dope and all and it scares me. What if the 'Real-Death Experience' that I turned on is actual 'Death'. I would be pretty fucked. So, my only option is 2.

After making that decision, I heave in and out to calm myself down before moving as stealthily as possible towards the direction where the roar came from. I was initially hoping that I would unlock the stealth skill or something but I didn't.

I move through the moderately thick undergrowth of the forest as stealthily as possible with my knife in my hand and soon enough, I reach my first clue. A large scratch marks on the tree trunks. The scratch marks were nearly 50cm long, 10cm deep and was smeared with blood. I cast my identify skill and soon get a result.

<Blood—The scratch marks are smeared with human blood, possibly from a conflict with a large monster>

<Scratch marks of a large beast>

I look down and soon found the footsteps of both the humans and the beast in question.

<Footsteps—these footsteps are deep and heavy. It seems like the wearer was dressed in heavy armor>

<Footsteps—these footsteps are light and nearly fading away. The wearer must be lightly armor and quick in foot>

<Pawprints—these paw prints are of a heavy beast, possibly a bear or any large cats. Which one it is, is hard to tell>

I look at the proficiency meter and find that it was 25% filled, 5% for each identification. But leaving that aside, I'm certainly sure that there was a fight going on between humans and beasts.

'Should I go… no! I have to go!' I steel myself, after all, rewards come with danger! Not only that, if they are human, they are sure to go to Brimlow town to resupply and if they find me on their path… things could be a little messy with my identity being a demi-human.

With conviction and determination, I walk as stealthily as possible to the battle site. As I walked, I came across more clues. Torn clothes, disposable shields, potion bottles even a dead bod—oh my fucking god! A dead body!!!!

I jumped back in fright but then I saw the deep gash in the man's front steel armor. His entire rib cage and lungs were visible from where I stood and from the fact that the body has still not disintegrated, it means that the fight with the beast hasn't finished yet.

Gulping down hard and overcoming the nauseating feeling deep down in my tummy, I walk closer to the dead body and try to search/loot him. The man looked to be in his early twenties with blondish hair and beard, his eyes were filled with horror and shock and his mouth wide open when he died. His entire chest cavity was broken and smashed. He must've died then and there but it seems like the beast was so enraged that it did not mind tearing the flesh open. Just think how powerful that beast is to tear away a steel armor. Tear away STEEL ARMOR.

I had an extremely uncomfortable urge to vomit but I hadn't eaten anything, according to the virtual world so I couldn't vomit. Holding my revolting stomach, I pat my hand all over the body but didn't discover many things.

'I guess his party mates took all his essentials.' The only non-essential things left in his body were his cotton shirt and pants—wait! There is something under the body!

I weave my hand under the dead body, something totally unique for a city-boy like me and caught a hold of a handle-like thing. I exerted a little force and out came a large knife with a greenish tint.

<Congratulations! You obtained a rare Poison-Fanged Blade>

<Poison-Fanged Blade (Rare)— it is a dagger of length 50cm and is coated with the poison of Rhek'su, the giant serpent of the Dragon Burrow dungeon. A lethal poison has been applied to it recently. Uses left—3 times. Effect—50-70% chance of poisoning the target with a damage/sec of 35>

"This… is pretty good!" I mutter to myself while replacing my original dagger with this one. And therefore, with a new and more powerful weapon in my hand, I stealthily creek to my target with a little more confidence.

…

"WRRARRRRRR! WWWRRRRARRRRRR!!!"

"Shut up already, you damn bitch!" shouted a human hunter as it punched the humongous Scarlet Bear right in the face with its bare hand. The Scarlet Bear was nearly 4 meters in length and 1 and a half meter wide with thick, trunk-like limbs. Its face was triangular shaped and its large, red-pupiled eyes were glaring daggers at its human captives. Its name, Scarlet Bear came from its rich brownish-red coat and also due to the fact that some King Scarlet Bear can wield Flame magic.

"Stop it already, Bane." Said the other middle-aged guy who wore a shiny steel armor which was now smeared in blood. The man was currently reorganizing his equipment and cleaning his sword which was smeared in blood.

"Stop it! This fucking beast killed five of our brothers and sisters like match-sticks, Karl! How can I NOT punch its damn face!!!" said Bane, the hunter who wore a compact leather armor which was, like Karl, smeared in blood and was even torn in a few places.

The Scarlet Bear, which they were hunting as a party, laid on the floor, its body riddled with wounds and slash-marks while both of its legs were shorn due to large, glowing bear-traps. The Scarlet Bear huffed madly and looked to be in its last breath and both Bane and Karl noticed it. Bane even went and spit right into the bear's face, "Take that you bloody bitch!" he said but while he was cursing the Scarlet Bear, a vicious glint flashed across Karl's eyes.

After insulting all he could, Bane turned around and said, "Karl, how 'bout we take the body of this—Puchi!"

All of a sudden, Karl who was cleaning his sword until now, tiptoed stealthily near Bane and right when he turned around, drove a greenish dagger right under his left armpit, directly into his lungs. Almost immediately, Karl jumped back and distanced himself from Bane.

Bane looked shocked at the sudden pain that flushed him from his left side before fury overtook him, "How could you do this, kaaarrllll…." Unfortunately, before he could finish, the poison entered his blood and he fell flat on his face.

Karl smiled wickedly at Bane before driving his sword through his back and straight to the heart. A notification rung confirming his kill.

"Haha… idiot." Karl spoke before turning towards the Scarlet Bear and speaking in a weirdly sexual tone, "Don't worry, dearie. You will be fed well in the Cult's hands."

The Scarlet Bear growled angrily at Karl but Karl didn't mind it at all. Instead, it went near Bane and pulled out his dagger from his body and coated it with more poison. While he was doing that, the Scarlet Bear sighed internally and was ready to give up hope when it saw a strange being. At a distance of 100 meters, there was a kid, no older than 14 looking at the battle with intent. For a moment, the bear thought it was from the same party as this human named Karl but then it noticed the boy's eyes. His eyes had a strange purplish hue, something which no human has and immediately, she understood what he was.

In a fit of desperation, it cried out in pitiful tone. When the kid heard it's pitiful roar, it looked troubled for one second before a resolute expression came over his face.

The boy nodded with determination.

…