2 Starting The Eternal Glory Game, and Getting A Quest!
The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself standing amidst a sea of players. He was now in a ghost state, able to see others but others couldn't see him, the ethereal world it was called. Just as his awareness became solid, a soft sound appeared in his mind:
"Welcome player to Eternal Glory game. Now you have to determine two things before starting the game, one is your class, second is your place of start. Do you need any illustrations regarding both things?"
He perfectly knew everything related to classes in this game, and he had to admit, the system of this game was really a notch higher than the Titans Revolut game.
In the Eternal Glory game, players can choose among seven factions to play, weapon wielder, shield bearer, staff holder, shade sons, light daughters, controllers, and finally martial artists.
Each faction had other classes to sprout under, like the weapon wielder had the swordsman class, and the staff holder had the wizard class. choosing a faction determined the distribution of the attribute points gained with each level.
Each level gave, normally, five attribute points, two were forcibly allocated by the system according to the faction player belonged to, and three were free for the player's own choices.
This game was all about choices, what to do and the consequences of your choices later on. it was a very detailed game, well thought of, not like his previous game.
He knew which faction and class he would start with. As for the starting point, he already chose it the moment he decided to wreck this game.
There were five big continents in this game, with one continent so special than others. From the long years of knowledge about this game, he knew the mainland continent was the centre of everything, nearly all the major events and main storylines of the game had to start or pass over this place.
Inside this continent, there was only one large empire, and eight smaller kingdoms. The mainland continent was positioned at the centre of the game, with straights connecting it with other continents scattered all around it.
"I choose to start as a weapon wielder faction, choosing the swordsman class, at the mainland continent, inside the Ondary Empire lands," he said, stating his own reply to the game.
He thought of being an assassin, to be able to do what he pleased in the game, but he refrained from this. He didn't know anything about assassins, and being one wouldn't be an advantage but a hindrance.
So he chose what he already excelled at.
"Good choices, you will be transported there now. you have one hour and fifty minutes before the start of the game. I wish all the luck to you."
The voice disappeared, and the whole world around him changed, shifting to another place, and his ghost mode vanished, as he was now inside the game.
The first thing he did was to check his own gear. The game gave players standard gears for beginners, and this gear had no real value, as all players would ditch them and gain another gear later on.
The gear inside the game was a problem, a very known problem, as monsters nearly didn't drop them, and their prices at the market were way off the roof.
No ordinary player could afford buying the latest gear matching his new level, but there was another way around… leveling up the gear itself.
That made this beginner set he had worthless, as he couldn't upgrade them. The game had a fixed rule, giving each player a chance to collect gears from monsters when players reached level three, and this chance was the only free given chance ever.
"So, I only have a sword that gives only one strength point, a thin armor that gives one defense point, and a rusted helmet that gives only one vitality point," he muttered after checking the three gears he already had.
The next thing he did was to open his character profile, checking the scarce info there, which was mainly related to his stats.
"Display character profile," he said, as the game used the verbal commands, in the early stages of course.
A thin, semi-transparent screen, invisible to others, visible only to him, appeared on his side of vision. The way it was placed there didn't affect his overall view of the world, which made him commend on this smart choice.
"Character profile:
Player name: Bloom
Player faction: Weapon wielder
Player class: Swordsman
Player level: 0
Player XP: 0\ 300
Player Inventory: Empty.
Player Wealth: 100 copper coins.
Player stats:
Vitality (Vit): 1
Strength (Str): 1
Intelligence (Int): 1
Resilience (Res): 1
Physique (Phs): 1
Charisma (Chr): 1
Wisdom (Wis): 1
Luck (Lu): 1
Health Points (HP): 10
Attack points (Atp): 5
Magic Points (Mp): 5
Stamina (Stm):10
Speed (Sp): 5
Defense (Def): 5
Control power (Cp): 5
Gaia power (Gp): 5
Will power (Wp): 5
Beginner's gift: Free Attribute points (Faps): 10
Do you want to start allocating the Faps now?"
Bloom examined the short list in front of him in silence. The Eternal Glory game was renowned for its detailed system, as each faction already had its own form of energy to use.
Weapon wielders used the Atp, shield bearers had Def, staff holders had Mp, Controllers had Cp, light daughters had Gp, shade sons had Wp, and finally martial artists had Stm.
Each form of energy had its own main stat that was derived from, like Atp came from Str. So, raising the main stat would reflect upon the energy stat, which players would use in their skills and fights.
Bloom didn't think twice, as he muttered:
"I agree."
"System alert: per player's faction, the system will allocate three points to the Vit, and two points to Str. The other five points are left for the player to decide."
He read the words written on the screen, and heard the soft voice of the game in his ears. He wasn't surprised by this message, as these two stats were the main stats of his faction.
"I choose to allocate two points to Vit, and three points to Str."
"System alert: points have been allocated."
He checked his profile again, and after that initial boost to every player, he had his HP value skyrocketed to sixty points, as his Atp had welled up to thirty points.
This was enough in his initial phase. After finishing this, he closed the screen by waving his hand over it to close, before looking around him, examining the famous festival of this game.
Any virtual reality game up till now let the players start at a place known as the beginner's village, except for this one. Players start directly at a festival, inside the heart of the capital city, the largest city, of their empire or kingdom selected.
Then from there, players could buy a ticket, a teleportation ticket to either wilderness or battlefield. Each had a different path than the other, where wilderness would be filled up with monsters, and many dungeons to conquer, while battlefields will have armies of the empires and kingdoms fighting each other.
One path led to the adventure route, while the other led to the generals and lords route, making this game really appealing to a grand sector of gamers and normal players.
Bloom knew more than that, as for instance the place players would choose to go wouldn't have any means to buy potions or scrolls. This would make the first ten levels of the game quite challenging.
He also knew the first five levels were widely known as the honeymoon levels, as the XP needed to raise them were small, in comparison with the XP needed for higher levels. Also monsters up to level five would have low amounts of Hp, in regard to higher level monsters.
Bloom was walking amongst the wide, clean, and luxuriously paved with marble streets while checking the scenes around him. Everything here was considered as a perfect celebrating day, however he wasn't walking to enjoy sightseeing, he was looking for someone.
This game was all about options; if players chose to wander around, enjoying their time, they would miss some opportunities here. this wasn't the welcoming party as many mistook, it was the only place provided by the game to novice players to restock their empty inventory with anything useful.
All what players needed to do was to search harder, and look with care and interest for these opportunities, the wandering NPCs.
Bloom looked around himself, with his experienced eyes, to detect those NPCs. From their nickname, they would wander the festival, dressing like players and trying to act like them, but for him it wasn't that hard to detect the first one after walking for ten minutes.
This NPC wasn't marked by any special color mark above his head like usual virtual games, so it wasn't that easy to spot him at all. Bloom had noticed another thing, the walking pattern, as players tend to walk carefree, without a certain pattern or order in the walk.
On the contrary, NPCs had a fixed pattern. So, amidst this chaos, where players kept leaping and laughing, enjoying their time, the NPC, he just spotted, was walking calmly, with stable steps, with fixed gaps between the steps. Bloom hurried to run and walk beside him, as he started to say:
"Oh, didn't know you sir will be walking with us here today."
"Are you speaking with me?" the NPC asked, trying to act as a fool.
"Yes, I mean you, sir NPC. Tell me, why are you wandering among us today? Do you need anything? Do you want any help?"
This was the way to trigger this quest, asking this NPC about his needs. According to what Bloom knew, this quest was missed from players for months, until one time a new player came and stumbled upon one NPC, and then he told the whole world about it.
This caused quite a sensational reaction worldwide, as older players lamented their luck in not finding about this quest early on.
"Oh, yes, yes, I'm looking for some help, please," the NPC replied, and at this moment a system notification popped in front of Bloom's eyes.
"System alert: Wandering NPC, Reaman, is asking you for help. Do you want to accept this quest?"
"Sure, tell me more about it," Bloom replied, and at the same time he received another notification about accepting the quest.
"My apprentice went on a mission and he didn't come back. He told me before leaving to take care of his eight years child, and she asked for a stuffed bear doll as a festival present. Can you get me this stuffed doll?"
Once this NPC, named Reaman, narrated the story, Bloom received more detailed info regarding the quest.
"Helping Wandering NPC Reaman Quest:
Grade: Welcoming festival quest.
Task: Find a stuffed bear doll and bring it to NPC Reaman.
Time limit: until you leave this festival.
Reward: Five welcoming Hp potions."
Bloom smiled in triumph, as he had successfully triggered the quest. There was no XP bonus from such quests, but they would give to players the precious supporting potions for nearly no money.
"I will go and bring you the stuffed bear doll at once," Bloom instantly replied, as he went to another street where he recalled seeing many bears there.
Once he reached the street, he found a stall selling these bears. He started observing the dolls. There were a lot of stuffed bear dolls here, with different shapes, sizes and colors. Bloom picked the lowest one in size, as he asked:
"What is the price of this doll?"
The NPC standing on this stall looked with no interest while replying:
"One is worth ten copper coins."
Bloom knew this doll would never fetch this price at all, but he knew too this was the game setting. No matter what quest players would gain, they had to pay ten copper coins each time to fulfill it.
Regarding each player having one hundred copper coins in their possession, the maximum number of welcoming guests a single player can have would be ten.
"I will take it, here is the money," Bloom said, before opening the character interface, choose the one hundred coins and select ten to be sent to this NPC, who just accepted them without saying a word.
Bloom hurriedly returned to Reamen, who was still walking with his typical pace, not far away from the place Bloom left him at.
"Here I got the doll, what do you think about it?" Bloom hurried to give him the bear doll once he reached him. Reamen observed the doll with happy face, as he said:
"Thanks, thanks a lot, you are really helpful. Here, take this to express my gratitude."
Once Reamen said this, a system notification rang in Bloom's ears, informing him about the end of the quest.
"System alert: Player has completed the Helping Wandering NPC Reaman Quest.
Grade: Welcoming festival quest.
Task: Find a stuffed bear doll and bring it to NPC Reaman.
Evaluation: Gold evaluation
Reward: Five welcoming Hp potions, plus a gratitude gift of another five Hp potions."
'Wow, I got ten potions in one go. I didn't know finishing the quest so rapid would grant me extra rewards," Bloom muttered to himself, with a wide grin over his face.
"Do you want any more help?" he asked Reamen again, who shook his head, disappointing Bloom.
Bloom knew this was a game setting, so he didn't waste any more time, starting to look again for another wandering NPC to help.
