Chapter 9 - Earth Ruins

[3rd Person POV]

January 1st, 2137, 6 am...

A notification alarm was activated on the first day of the year. That alarm caused several people around the world to wake up with strong hangovers, others woke up calmly for not being interested in the festive period, and some just grabbed their cellphones, having woken up earlier than that, or maybe they didn't even sleep during New Year's Eve. But what did all these people have in common?

Simple, they were all YGGDRASIL players! That notification was from the game, apparently there was an update request for the new year, and everyone did it without question. Everyone, including a gaming journalist, who was currently writing something on his website.

"EH?! An Update?! But I wasn't even told about that!!" the journalist, Keiko Kobayashi, exclaimed when he saw that notification, after all, he was sponsoring the game using his family's company, he was expected to know that beforehand to already have a pre-made news to send at in time! Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

Irritated, he opted for the most normal option in that situation, he left the computer on, downloading the new update while he went to test something. Usually people never leave their apartments because of the toxic air, but for Christmas he got a rather interesting present.

This gift was a brand new breathing suit, it was a new prototype that will start to be sold around October 2137. Before that, did equipment exist with this function? Of course! But this prototype seemed to be much more flexible in joint areas, including the hips and knees, allowing the person to run using it, something that is practically impossible using models that are on the market today.

He also took another item that he won at Christmas last year, a kind of hoverboard that could be fueled using carbon gas, to be soon after transformed into heat, energy and light. It was an ecological way of helping the planet so to speak, using the thing that is destroying us for mobility and light. That item had become very famous in 2129, but few people used it, as they found it super difficult to move around while wearing protective clothing, making the hoverboard more useful for carrying heavy items when they are out of their houses.

However, with the prototype outfit Kobayashi received, that would be completely fantastic for him!

"Let's see how this beauty works." He said, standing in the entryway underneath the building he lives in.

More updated buildings, since 2100, have two entrances, the bottom and the top. The top entrances are for people to access the electromagnetic roads, created exclusively to give more space for electric cars to move. Even so, the concrete roads still existed, usually used as a pedestrian area. The project of still using concrete roads for this didn't expect that, even after 30 years, the world would not be very safe to walk around outside a car. But world leaders still believed it was a good thing we had this, after all... maybe some miracle could happen and the world would be safe again to move freely.

Before going up on the Hoverboard, Keiko checked if all the equipment on his suit was properly closed, also using the watch, which was underneath the suit, to calculate if there was any leakage. With a happy sigh, it appeared that the watch was reporting 0.001% toxins, and as the suit was a prototype, that was seen as completely acceptable, and within the margin of error.

Thus, he put his foot on top of the item and began to give light impulses with his right foot on the ground to gain an initial speed, with that achieved, the hoverboard seemed to propel itself forward without assistance. It was an interesting image to see, some of the toxic fog ahead being sucked in by entrances in the front and sides of floating item, to soon after generate energy that kept it afloat, there were five luminous points to help in location, two in front, two behind and one that was below, also directly illuminating the ground through which it passed.

"Hm... The maximum speed of this is 30 m/s according to the manual..." Keiko spoke to himself as he made the watch again test the level of toxicity inside the suit, and it was still the same as before.

One of the reasons he chose to use the concrete streets to test this, was because there were two types of toxins in the air currently, a heavier one, and a lighter one. The lighter one would obviously affect higher areas, while the heavier one would be more concentrated the lower it is. The heaviest has an absurd amount of carbon, which means the Hoverboard can be on full fuel no matter how much it accelerates.

Moving faster, the boy arrived at maximum speed, with the help of the frontal light, he could identify that in front of him the street had some holes. Due to the way the clothes were made, he was able to move his hip areas well to avoid the holes and ended up jumping into an open stream there, managing to land easily on the other side. But because he had a building right ahead, he was forced to make a very close turn, leaning heavily to accomplish this feat.

The young Kobayashi whistled, impressed by the way that hoverboard was working. It was better than expected. "Amazing indeed!" He thought, as he began to recognize where he was.

He knew that a few streets ahead, there was a set of luxury residences, it was literally a big dome with houses inside. Yes, they were real houses, not buildings... And among the houses in that place, there was one that belonged to a family that four decades ago became rich. The current man of this family has a beautiful and young wife, a studious daughter, the same age as the young journalist, and a quiet life, having a job that would be seen in the past as dangerous, but with high responsibility.

"Touch-san..." Yes, nearby, there was the house of a police detective, and Keiko's great friend, well known by his nickname in YGGDRASIL, Touch_Me!

"Hm... maybe it's better to visit him another day..." he thought a little more and finally went back towards the building he lived in.

He had a feeling Touch_Me wouldn't be home for various reasons. One of them is about why his internet connection during a small New Year's party inside the MMO-RPG was a little bad than usual, like he was in an unplanned place to play. Another reason was related to him having left at least 6 times in the middle of the game to do something, possibly he could be visiting relatives in another city. But anyway, it's good to confirm this kind of thing in a calmer moment and without so many tasks to do. And this was Keiko's logic.

—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—.—

[Hikari POV]

"How interesting! Very nice to see that!" I exclaimed, eyes shining.

It had taken about 8 hours IRL, but finally the update was installed. I had barely finished accessing my YGGDRASIL user account when an interesting system window popped up, it was clearly a warning related to what's new this year.

[Warning! Big Heteromorph Update!]

[Recently we saw how several players of the Heteromorphic race have been hunted around, thanks to the reward system involving very specific Job Classes! And because of that, most of the new players are deciding never to choose these monstrous but super interesting races! To combat this, we've decided to release some new races of Heteromorphs that can be chosen for character creation!]

[Most of the new races that can be selected are from monsters that already existed in the YGGDRASIL environment, but the team of this DMMORPG decided to give them a chance as an option. Others are completely original for players, with the small probability of, depending on how y'all react to them, being put into the game as NPCs too!]

[Among the Heteromorph options that we are adding are: Skeletons; Zombies; Undead Golems; Slimes; Lesser Fairies! There will be races other than the most famous ones mentioned!]

I was really happy to see a bigger incentive to have heteromorph players. Really the whole situation of hunting provoked by human players was annoying, even though I was using a human character, I could feel how dangerous it must be, because until now, most of the people on my friend list, were from races considered as monsters. But another message popped up, leaving me stunned.

[If one of the newly added races was one you wanted, but ended up choosing another because you had no choice. We will be giving all players an item called "Reborn Leaf". This item will make the player reset the character, but still keeping the attribute and level points, to be able to use them in their new attempt. It will not be possible to use this item to reset your attributes and your character while remaining in the same race, as an item like this is already being developed!]

[This item will be usable until February 15, 2137, after which it will lose its function and become completely decorative! So if you don't want to use it, keep it as a commemorative gift for YGGDRASIL's first New Year's Eve. Sincerely, Dev Team.]

A method of switching races but keeping EXP?! This is extraordinary, now I understand why they didn't tell me. They wanted me to surprise myself with this idea!

Most likely, after some time, there may be items that do these things again. But for now, having a human character is better for me... It's not that I wouldn't want to be a heteromorph, it's more because I love being a jack-of-all-cards, and for that, I have to focus on Job-Classes only. The only way to do this without ending up with a super weak character is to be a human.

"It would be cool to see others with these new races, I bet it will be a great experience to interact with players like that." I ended up saying to myself as my surroundings were finally being constructed, I had spawned inside a tavern in Álfheimr. It was where I and some players, who were inside the game before, celebrated the new year.

The place seemed empty at the moment, with the exception of an NPC maid there, so I just sat down in one of the chairs and opened a system window to see my friend list. It was amazing how, even after becoming a YGGDRASIL journalist, I still had less than 50 names on that list, the vast majority were newbies that I helped both in game and through my website, but besides them, there were those two devs, [TrjegulFreyjaha ] and [Great-oDoll], and my two partymates [Touch_Me] and [Luci★Fer].

Among the last two, only that angel player was online, so I decided to send him a message. Creating a sort of floating keyboard above the table, and started typing.

[-][-][-][-][-][-]

[Hikari]: AYO! Luci-kun! I just logged in and saw that there's only you online among my colleagues, do you want to go farm some EXP?

[Luci★Fer]: Oh... Ohayō, Hikari. I'm in an area of ​​Midgard waiting for some guys who agreed to participate in a tour to farm EXP and some specific items for the production of basic potions. If you want I can ask them if we can have one more person together to participate.

[Hikari]: Alright, ask them, if I can come let me know.

*10 minutes in game passed*

[Luci★Fer]: Okay, they said it's ok, the more people the better. It's weird that they just accepted without me saying your name or level.

[Hikari]: Maybe they're just desperate to get lots of items. After all, I heard that the devs implemented, at Christmas, a monster increase system when there are more players in an area.

[Luci★Fer]: True. It reminds me of how irritated Touch was when he saw that the amount of monsters had decreased in the place you normally farmed.

[Luci★Fer]: (￣y▽￣)╭ Ohohoho.....

[Hikari]: Okay, want to send me the location?

[Luci★Fer]: No need, because I'm not in combat and you're my party leader, you can teleport directly here, right?

[Hikari]: Oh right... sometimes I forget this feature. So wait for me there!

[Luci★Fer]: d==(￣▽￣*)o

[-][-][-][-][-][-]

Now with something to do today, I opened my party menu and activated that function. My body started to became surrounded by a bluish light beam, making me unable to see my surroundings. But when everything became visible, I ended up falling sitting on the ground, because I was teleported while sitting on some a chair at the tavern, and I could hear a classic laugh rising in my ears.

"Haha! You really always end up falling!" That angel said, standing next to me, and I had no way of refuting him. Until now, every time I appeared next to him without walking, I ended up falling to the ground.

"Ha... ha! How funny... says the guy named after an angel who literally fell." I tried to fight back the teasing, but it turned out worse than I thought.

"So... where are the people?" I asked as he helped me to my stand up.

He just pointed in one direction and I noticed that from there, person was coming up on a horse, in addition to some guys following the horse on foot. They all appeared to be human or demihuman players, they, with the exception of the guy in the horse, were wearing uniforms with hoods covering their faces. The exception to the rule was an elf player, with red hair and who seemed to be carrying a giant greatsword on his back.

Luci★Fer waved his arms, drawing attention to us, and slowly those players stopped nearby, with the one that was using a horse, simply getting off it and making the animal disappear in the air, turning it into a data crystal. He took that and then stared at me for a bit, then extended his hand.

"Hm. Hello! I'm [SaintElvBlade], but everyone just calls me Blade. And would you be?" We gave a handshake as he spoke.

"I'm [Hikari], it doesn't have much to do with my name, so you can call me by the same... my friend here said you were going to a good place to farm, I was interested, since I don't have nothing planned for this first week of the year." I straightened my neck, making a popping sound.

"Well, the idea is that we're actually going to a dungeon nearby." He commented, thumbs up.

"Don't exaggerate... this is more like a buggy area that increases the amount of monsters drastically." Said one of the girls in that group. Counting better, I saw that the group that arrived was 7 people.

"I was going to ask where the dungeon was, because I never heard of one in these areas... thanks for clearing my doubts." I gave the girl a smile, who subtly hid her face further into her hood, as if she was shy.

With that done, we walked a bit until we reached the entrance to said buggy area. It was a part of the scenery that resembled a mansion that collapsed, but still has some parts still standing, with vegetation covering some walls and floors. It was what I would expect from a structure destroyed by time.

"Okay, before we get into it for real, I think I'd better talk aboutwhat I'm good, after all, I went into this group out of nowhere." I made that light comment, Blade nodded and allowed me to continue talking with everyone listening me.

"I'm a blade expert." SaintElvBlade chuckled at the irony of it, but I continued. "My main JobClass is [Rouge], but I'm also great at using some ranged spells, as I also have the JobClass [Wizard]. Already saying beforehand, because of some achievements I completed during my playing time, these JobClasses have evolved into [Assassin] and [High-Wizard], so if we need sneak attacks or magical offensive skills, you can call without fear."

"A-Anything else we need to know?" Said that shy hooded girl.

"I could help even more if I was the leader of the party, since I have the [Commander] JobClass as well. Since there are some buffs gained by having someone like that as the leader. Not that I'm trying to steal your spot, Blade-san , I'm just saying the most suitable situation for me to use this specific JobClass."

"No problem, I don't have this JobClass because I think it's a waste of time, but if I see that we really need more buffs than normaç, I'll leave it configured to pass the leadership to you." He smoothed his red hair while claiming that.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. What about you guys?" I asked out of curiosity.

Soon, Blade began to speak. "We understand that you are someone who has a few Job Classes that point in different directions, but our group prefers to focus more on one thing. In short, I am a [Paladin], and about the others we have a [High-Cleric], two [Archer], a [Berserk], a [War-Wizard] and..."

"I'm a [Shooter]!" Said the shy girl, showing me a kind of rifle.

"Cool, my colleague here is just a [Magician]." I commented, pointing to Luci★Fer, who just got annoyed with me and stamped his foot on the floor, but he really couldn't do anything about it, after all, he literally had this JobClass at maximum, having only [Fighter] as Secondary JobClass, and I can say secondary with capslock on, because he just had that for cases that he is with 0 MP.

Thus, everyone there already knew about the main JobClasses of the others, so we could enter with confidence in what would be the roles of each one. The entrance in front of me was a broken door, I entered through it with Blade and the Berserk guy, while the others decided to enter through holes in the wall in two groups of three players, to have a better view of what would be ahead.

I kept walking calmly, my right hand ready to catch one of the daggers at my hip. The Berserk in our group was carrying a greataxe, while Blade had his greatsword already equipped, holding it with both hands. Suddenly, we saw a reddish glow flickering back and forth in the hallway ahead.

"What monsters are around here, Blade?" I asked, since it was my first time there, I never focus on Midgard, so even though I'm a human player, I was slightly ignorant to this realm.

"Normally it's [Dark Boar]... the levels vary depending on how many players enter the ruins... Last time I checked, the maximum was Lvl 30."

"That certainly wasn't a [Dark Boar]..." I said before something appeared in front of us, making me grab my two daggers.

It was a humanoid monster with a bright red body on the sides, while the rest was dark reddish skin, as well as having a pair of horns on the sides of its head. Yes, with absolute certainty, that was a [Fire Devilsh] a low-level variant of [Lesser Demon] race monsters. But what would it be doing here?!? Usually this type of monster appears in Múspellsheim, the fire realm!

"What the hell is that?!" our berserk said as the enemy launched a sphere of fire at us.

Seeing this, I was forced to change my equipment, no longer having my light gloves to now be using my forearm protections, taking advantage of the fact that the one on the left side had a shield attached, I helped the Berserk, defending him.

[Player Hikari received damage from Lesser Fireball.]

[Due to Resistance in the Shield-Glove, the damage was nullified.]

After that, I saw Blade advancing against the enemy, trying to attack it using his large greatsword, but because of the angle, he hit the enemy with the blade being sideways.

[Fire Devilsh Lvl 32 received strike damage. Not very effective.]

"What?! But why is a beast above Level 32 here?!" Blade exclaimed, confused.

Taking advantage of the confusion, the Fire Delvish started delivering several consecutive punches to Blade's stomach area. I've definitely never seen an absurd amount of windows indicating damage, rising so quickly like this, luckily his JobClass caused all that to be reduced due to the type of monster.

"Will you help?" I watched our Berserk, who just shook his head.

"That guy always ends up doing stupid things like that, usually I let him get his ass kicked before I help so he learns not to throw himself around."

"Says the group's Berserk about the Party Leader... Wow, what a tight group." I commented sarcastically as I walked forward to help Blade.

[Wizard Second Lesson: Thunderbolt]

I activated one of my magic skills, enchanting my feet and hands to increase my agility attributes and to be able to deliver attacks with a paralyzing effect. The Fire Devilsh noticed this and moved away from Blade, now to focus on me, dodging my dagger's slash by ducking and then it got up trying to give me a fire punch. Keyword... tried.

[Rouge's 101: Thief's Dash]

I used one of my base movement skills, my body quickly appearing behind the enemy. The moment it got up to do the fire punch, I stabbed him horizontally from side to side in the back, hitting the shiny areas of his body, which are clearly his weak point.

[Fire Delvish Lvl 32 received slash damage.]

[Fire Devilsh Lvl 32 received paralysis effect.]

It screamed in pain as Blade and I backed away from the enemy, me behind and the red-haired elf still in front, with the Berserk behind Blade just watching. As if analyzing the battle as a whole.

"He's paralyzed! Hit the shiny areas!" I exclaimed to Blade, who soon advanced using a sword skill.

[Sword's Magic: Great Slash]

His greatsword's blade became blue and soon he charged at the enemy. When making a horizontal blow where I ordered it, the Fire Delvish screamed in pain and began to spurt dark blood, but which gave off a lot of heat, as if it were lava.

[Fire Devilsh Lvl 32 received fatal damage.]

[Fire Devilsh Lvl 32 was killed.]

I watched as the monster began to disappear like smoke, leaving only a few Data Crystals behind. Since the berserk player didn't participate in the fight, only Blade and I got EXP from that. But as usual, I gave a sly smile, watching the system window pop up for me.

[Due to title "Born to Kill", the enemy killed by a fatal damage gave you 2x EXP.]

Some might consider this cheating, but to me it was very fair. I figured the red elf wasn't familiar with that type of monster, so I just showed him the weak point to make things easier and with the enemy being paralyzed, it was the perfect circumstances for a fatal method damage. I wouldn't have minded if Berserk wanted to fight too, but thanks to that, I gained EXP equivalent to what I would gain in a solo fight. Split it in two for me and Blade, but I won twice.

With these small advantages, I can level up faster, even if it takes a while, it won't be as extensive! If I had known the beginning of this secret advantage that the title gave me, I would never be hiding it.

"Great, that was a nice EXP gain... but how did you know the monster's weakness?" Blade asked as he cleaned his sword.

"Pulsing and flashing bright spot logic, pretty classic. But also from experience! I know a lot about these types of monsters... and so it was strange at first, these things shouldn't show up in Midgard." I said keeping my daggers on my hips.

"Because of experience? Like you play too much? What level are you?" For some reason the other player was curious about that, and I just sighed.

However, before I could speak, a loud explosion noise could be heard near us, causing us to start running in that direction. This time, I had one hand resting on the handle of my katana, while we saw a very strong glow ahead.

"H-Help!!!" I heard that scream and I could recognize the voice, it was that little girl from before.

"The people must be in trouble!" I spoke and increased my speed.

"How?! The group isn't that big, it's not supposed to have many enemies so soon..." Blade grumbled, as if that really was impossible to happen.

"Sometimes it's not good to be completely confident about this type of information!" I exclaimed, and when we were close enough to see the situation, my eyes widened.

"Is that... 10 Fire Devilshs...?" Blade tried to describe what he was seeing, his voice sounded scared.

"No... apparently there are some goblins in the middle." The berserk with us commented, also analyzing the scene.

Soon I managed to correctly identify where the group responsible for that part was and I jumped towards them to help, unsheathing Kuwoi-Muramasa in the air, I planned to give an interesting blow, to save them from that tight situation.

[Kuwoi Unique Skill: Blood Rush Fever]

Yeah, this will definitely work.