1 01 - Legendary

"Damien, how was the job interview?" A middle-aged woman with an affectionate expression asked the young man sitting in front of her.

Hearing this, the young man was a little embarrassed, but still answered. "It didn't go well... From what I realized, they didn't want an employee, they wanted a slave."

"What a pity... One day you will find something right, then," the woman said with a small smile before leaving the dinner table and going to sleep.

Damien continued to sit at the table alone while thinking about all of this. The expression that his mother just made, he knew that smile very well. She was disappointed in him... again. As much as she tried to hide it, since he had been her son for 20 years, Damien knew very well to differentiate which smile meant what thing.

Things at home were not going very well. Damien's mother was a teacher at the municipal school, but because of the many years she had spent working in the profession, she slowly developed tendonitis in her hand and had to be removed from teaching. To compensate, she started planting some vegetables in her backyard and going to sell them at the local fair.

After that, Damien's father had to accept a job on the night shift, only allowing him to stay at home 6 hours a day - practically just the amount of time it took for him to sleep, which was wearing him out a lot.

His younger brother was only 6 years old and did not understand anything; he just knew that they were poor and were unable to buy anything he wanted, which made him more considerate, and he did not ask his parents for anything.

Damien had already graduated from school two years ago and was unable to stay in any job for more than 3 months, as he always had a strong personality and did not accept injustices happening around him. Initially he would tolerate one thing or another, but when people started wanting to take unfair advantage over him, every time Damien hit someone or threatened them.

Back at school Damien had not been like that. After all, he was a very thin boy who just liked video games. But 5 years ago, a certain game was announced, and alongside the game's announcement, the developers said the game would analyze the player's real body and determine the player's class based on their body. So if people had a weak body, but a very high logical thought, that person would automatically be considered a magician.

That was exactly why Damien had started training at the gym. He was always a huge fan of warriors, both because of the incredible armor they wore and their ability to crush assassins while carrying a smile on their face.

But with his old body, Damien would never be considered a warrior. So since the game's announcement 5 years ago, Damien had worked out enough to have a body considered perfect for a bodybuilder.

And seeing that he wasn't the only Nerd in the gym, Damien knew that this game would be a success. Around the world, the academies became more crowded, the libraries became more frequented, the Boy Scout groups received a large consignment of candidates, the bow and arrow clubs also received a lot of people. Everywhere, players were preparing for the launch of the game, everyone trying to acquire enough skills to stay in the class they wanted in the game.

Damien even signed up for a Kendo class, but because of the large number of applicants, the dojo master had to refuse the surplus people, which forced Damien to train at home by watching videos on YouTube.

Now, that game was the only thing that distracted Damien from the real world, the only thing that distracted him from poverty. Fortunately Damien used his first wages to buy the virtual reality capsule, so even though he was poor, he still had the opportunity to play.

Looking at the clock, Damien saw that it was already 9:49 pm.

Leaving the problems aside in his head, the animation appeared in Damien's expression again. Today was the day of the launch of Destiny Online. The game server would open at exactly 22:00, so he soon entered the virtual reality pod, lay down in a comfortable position and started the machine he was already familiar with.

Fortunately, the capsules had a device that allowed the player to enter a state of 'sleep', where even though they were awake in the game, their body would rest as if they had slept perfectly, even allowing people with jobs to play the games. After all, one could work during the day and play while they should be sleeping.

In an instant, the whole environment around Damien changed. The dark interior of the capsule slowly changed to a giant golden castle. Around Damien it was possible to see millions of small blue fireballs, which represented the "souls" of players other than Damien.

Nobody could talk to each other, but being able to see that so many other people were there at that moment, it just made everything even more epic.

When 10 seconds were left, a large screen appeared at the top of the golden castle with a countdown.

9 ...

8 ...

7 ...

6 ...

5 ...

4 ...

3 ...

2...

1…

0!!

When the counter reached 0, all the souls were sucked into the castle's great portal that had opened, and Damien felt like he was on the most incredible roller coaster in the world. Gradually, he realized that the souls were separating and entering different rooms along the way. Each soul had its own room, and in a few seconds it was Damien's turn.

When faced with the room's door, to enter, Damien needed to input his desired username.

"Hmm... I hope it's available..."

[Are you sure you want to use 'Ares' as your username?]

"Yes!" Damien confirmed.

[Name confirmed, now define your appearance.]

Appearance-wise, Damien was a big fan of warriors, he never liked character classes such as elves, who were known for their beauty and for being slim. Damien's definition of beauty was a big, muscular man, carried by scars that practically turned him into a storybook, with each scar coming from a different place in a different adventure.

As the amount of modification of his own appearance in the character was limited, Damien only made his skin slightly more tanned, his long blond hair turned black, still long, while some scars adorned different places along his body, including his face, in addition to changing the color of the eyes from blue to red. Otherwise, his appearance didn't have much of a difference in the game.

When he entered the room with the new appearance, Damien saw that there was a tanned and strong man waiting for him there. But before Damien could get the idea wrong, the man explained himself.

"Congratulations, boy, for the first time in decades I finally found someone who could receive my legacy! I often thought that I would never find a successor to my techniques, but fate sent you, and in this world, fate is never wrong. We may not understand what fate means initially, but it understands us better than ourselves, and one day we will understand the reason for everything."

Hearing this, Damien's heart sped up. This was exactly what he wanted most. The company that developed the game once said that among the classes that players would receive, if they met certain secret requirements, they could receive a secret class different from the basic classes.

Seeing the man's way of speaking, saying that he had spent dozens of years looking for a successor to his techniques, Damien knew that this man had a special class. A normal warrior would not have taken that long to find an apprentice.

Seeing that the man's body was as muscular as his and the man's imposing and glorious way of speaking, Damien was sure that the man was a Legendary warrior! If Damien got that class, he could certainly be at the top of the Destiny Online charts among the strongest players.

Without thinking twice, Damien stood up straight and answered the man honestly, "Sir, I would love to accept your legacy!"

Seeing Damien's disposition without even knowing what his class was, the man chuckled and felt he was even more right to accept this boy. "Very well, boy, don't let me down."

In a flash, Damien's consciousness faded and in the next second he found himself sitting on the ground, propped up against a tree in the middle of a forest.

Looking around, Damien marveled at the world. He had already played other virtual RPG's to get acquainted with the capsule, but none reached the feet of this game. While the others looked like they had tried to look realistic, Destiny Online went so far as to be identical to real life.

But something caught Damien's attention even more. As he marveled at the world, a notification arrived:

[Congratulations on getting a special class. Having accepted the class without even considering asking what it was, the player received a title: "Believer of Destiny", which increases the player's luck by +5.

For accepting Ornn's legacy, the player accepted one of the 11 Legendary classes, receiving a +10 bonus on all stats.]

Seeing this warning, Damien was extremely excited. He really got one of the special classes, and not just any of the special classes, but one at the top, one of the Legendary classes!

The Legendary classes were different from the normal special classes. While a shadow warrior was considered special, there could be thousands of shadow warriors. But for the Legendary classes, there could only be one Legendary warrior in the world.

"I became the Legendary warrior..." Damien was still shocked to have achieved this class... Everything he ever wanted, all the dedication he had during these 5 years before the game's release, finally showed that he hadn't struggled in vain.

But to Damien's surprise, a notification saying something he didn't expect came up.

[Congratulations player for becoming one of the 11 Legendaries. You are now the Legendary Blacksmith!]

...

"Blacksmith!?!?!?!?!" Damien was shocked.