1 Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the End

The cold winter breeze swept against his side. The streets were dark and damp. By no means could the night be considered a good one, and yet, Haru was elated. Today was finally the day. The day where he would get his much-needed breath of fresh air from the dreary reality of the world around him. Our protagonist, bag in hand, approaches the door of his apartment.

As soon as he enters, he immediately goes straight for the box containing the Soul Bridge. It was a large box, but Haru rips through it in no time at all. He quickly gets to the device itself, and picks it up. The headset was sleek, and somewhat small. As opposed to being a bulky hunk on your head, it is more similar to a visor that covers the eyes. He starts up the system, and it had about 30% battery.

"Eh, so I guess I'll get a good 2 hours of this first session, no way I'm waiting for this thing to charge!" He slips the visor onto his head, and begins the game process. Text begins to line his screen.

Welcome to Nature's Grace. Would you like an overview of the World of Yore? (Tutorial)

(YES/NO)

"Sure, couldn't hurt I guess." Somehow, his thoughts extended, and selected the yes option. It was quite a strange process. The system begins speaking.

Welcome to the World of Yore! In this game, you will be tasked with leveling up and slaying monsters, but our game is like no other! You will become a random person, so I wish you luck! In addition, the AI system is extremely advanced, so without others telling you, there will be no way to distinguish NPC from player! In addition, you will start in a random place according to your character, but you will always be in a settlement, we're not that cruel! Oh, and don't even try suicide if you get a bad character! Your body will be permabanned from our system, so no getting a new system either! Every character will have 1-3 features that make them unique. These can be good or bad, good luck out there! Are you ready to find out your stats?

(YES/NO)

"Alright, let's do this." Haru sighed in anticipation, hoping that he would be able to get a good start.

Player Name: Lloyd Infyre

Stats:

Strength - 8

Speed - 12

Defense - 7

Go to an Omnistone to learn all of your stats.

Trait(s) - Go to an Omnistone to find out.

Haru had many questions upon seeing his stats. Are those good? What are all the stats he can have? What is his trait? The text changed to a countdown.

5..

4..

3..

2..

1..

WELCOME TO .... THE WORLD OF YORE

The voice rang out in my ears. I sat up and looked around. I am in some sort of thatch hut with makeshift bedding, and the sun had just risen. I stretched and yawned. The bed I'm on is quite rough, with fibers poking out in places, a sign that I'm was already not in a great economic situation or location, but all I could help to do was stay optimistic. My body has a fairly toned build, was tall, and had blonde hair. He wore a thin tunic and shorts, a villager's attire.

"Lloyd, huh? Guess that's me now." I was still in a state of awe regarding my miraculous transformation.

"Lloyd, get yer ass out of bed! It's sunrise already! Yer headed with me to the fields today!" I could hear the cries of an old man outside the shack, clearly familiar with me somehow.

"Aw, come on pops, do I really have to do farm work?" (Lloyd)

"It's yer fuckin rent! Now get your ASS out here!" (Old Man)

"You know what? I'll pass." (Lloyd)

The old man, clearly angry, opens up the door, and sees me sitting there. His eyes widen for a second. "I'll let you off fer today, but I'm not gonna be havin anymore of this, you hear?" he says before he leaves the shack.

"What was that all about? Eh, whatever, I'm just gonna go look for an Omnistone." I get off the bed, open the door, and the world was before me. I'm in a fairly small village, with about 2 dozen or so houses. To the left of me lay the farming fields, and to the right was the forest. Near the entrance to my house is a red-haired man tuning his bow. I walk up to him and ask, "Hey, um, do you know where I could perhaps find an Omnistone?"

"Ah, another one? Well, you're not gonna find one of those for a little while, this place is too small to have one, gotta have a Church institution for that. By the way, the name's Edward O'Reilly, how about you?" There was a slight grimace on his face.

"The name's Lloyd Infyre, nice to meet you!" (Lloyd)

"I'll finish this up shortly, you wanna head to those woods with me after that? I've heard that there's a bit of a goblin problem in there as of late." (Edward)

"Sounds great! Do you have something I can use as a weapon? I don't really have one, myself." (Lloyd)

"I can help, but the most I can give you is this little dagger here." (Edward)

He hands me a dagger about 1 foot in length, clearly not meant for combat, but I'll take what I can get.

"Thanks, I'm ready to head out when you are." (Lloyd)

"Alright, gimme a few minutes and we'll be set." (Edward)

While I waited for him to be ready, we talked about a few things.

First off, monsters. They are beings said to be forces of pure, unbridled, evil. Some are driven only by instinct, yet some, the much more dangerous kind, are capable of thought and innovation.

Opposed to the monsters are the Church and Adventurer's Guild. They are the forces of light that help humanity in destroying the evil monsters. The Church is led by the pope and the archbishops. They are the symbols of justice in this world. They are said to be the kindest souls you will ever find. They have branches in many places. At their churches the people can seek aid for medical reasons. For this reason, the church is the only group with any real knowledge about the diseases.

They teach what has been confirmed, but most of their knowledge is not concrete enough to release to the public. They don't want to risk releasing false information. However, many of the problems with disease can be solved with magic. The bishops and above can use healing magic, and they can be found in any settlement that has reached small city class.

Speaking of that, settlements are divided into classes. The lowest class is village. It has to have a population of about 20. The place where I spawned was a village. Above that is large village. It has a population of at least 100. This is where you will start to get churches. However, at this stage, they just send disciples. These are priests-in-training who travel and lead a large village church to complete their training. After that, they can enter many fields such as medicine, faith, and battle. The next class is small town. A small town has a population of at least 500, and if it gains some importance, can even contain a priest. They are disciples who finished their training and chose the faith route. This is where you'll start to find towns with Omnistones. A medium town has a population of at least 2500 people and they occasionally have priests. A large town contains a minimum 10,000 people and they typically have at least 1 priest, if not 2 or 3. The next level is small city. That is where you first might see a bishop. If there is no bishop, there are at least multiple priests, and these have at least 25,000 people. A medium city always has a bishop and possibly multiple churches. It houses at least 50,000 people. A large city has 100,000 people at the smallest, and definitely has multiple churches. Above that is a major city, which contains at least 250,000 people. These are typically capitals, and it is not uncommon for an archbishop to live there. It is the highest rank of settlement you can reach, and there are very few.

The other power to oppose the monsters is the Adventurer's Guild. They are seen at large towns and above, and they are where people go for monster problems. The adventurers that are affiliated with them kill the monsters and earn rewards. They can earn fame and power, amongst many other worldly pleasures. It is many a village child's dream to become an adventurer. There are 10 ranks for an adventurer. There is wood, stone, copper, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, ruby, amethyst, and diamond. Adventurers above platinum usually only take personal requests. They are the best of the best. Copper adventurers are typically the minimum requirement to make a living.

That's definitely what I'm aiming for, who plays an MMORPG to not fight things? Not me, that's for sure.

"Alright, you ready?" (Edward)

"Ready as I'll ever be." (Lloyd)

We set off into the woods. For about 15 minutes, the journey was fairly uneventful. However, all of a sudden, a system message appeared.

ERROR - The connection to the host has been lost.

And so it started. The Beginning of the End.