Initiated

And so, the days passed. Dave managed to leave the hospital and went back to his small town.

His injuries never healed as his right leg and hand were still a mess right now. He would limp every time he tried to move, and his right hand was unable to even properly lift a cup. His former boss kicked him out from the gas station because of that but blamed it on his tardiness and absence at work.

  Dave couldn't do anything but sulk from the injustice that happened to him. Now, even daily life was torture, as he had to rely on his left hand to do most of the menial tasks. Making each of his actions awkward and unfamiliar. Normally you can use your off-hand for such things without too much thought but, when you start focusing on it, it just feels wrong. Thankfully, Dave was not without friends. He has a friend named Ralph who just came back to town and saw his condition. He didn't want to involve him with his problems, but after his friend's multiple questions, he decided to share the cause of his injuries.

"I fell down from the cliff. It is not as serious as it looks, like Ralph, so don't worry." Dave tried to sound honest but his tone betrayed his plans. The image of the gun on Body Builder's hip resurfacing in his mind.

"Listen up man. I know I don't have the right to say this, but you should have finished your studies and went to college. At least you could get a decent job, or at least enough experience to get a desk job. Working part-time or doing this kind of works has no future…" Ralph sighed, after a brief moment of silence, he asked: "I will tell you what, do you know about Conquest?"

"Ah, that game? Yes, I read about it. But what does this have to do with my studies man?

You can't earn money out of a game, right?" Dave asked skeptically.

"No, this is where you are wrong," Ralph replied with grin. "I am a member of one of the strongest guilds in the game. I even receive a commission by just playing and doing some tasks. Though I am not a core member, I still manage to get about $5,000 a month by just playing. And due to the time difference between the game and reality, I can manage to play for a long time doing different quests. Last month I managed to get $12,000 because I completed a hard quest, getting the name of our guild in a server announcement." He exclaimed; his face full of pride.

"Wait, wait, are you saying that you got $12,000 just from playing a game? Holy Shit! I could barely get a third of that by working my ass off for a whole month!" Dave cried out with a shock on his face.

"Yes, you heard me right. That was just because I happened to be on the same party that did the quest. The guy who discovered the quest received $50,000 from the leader. This is all about commerce and sponsorship basically. If you can get to do a Legendary quest and manage to get the name of your guild or party up in the server announcement, you can input the name of one of your sponsors there, doing publicity to them. Sponsors pay a lot of money for that." Ralph smirked seeing that he got his friend's attention.

"What the fuck Ralph? You should've told me about this sooner!" Dave stopped thinking about the pain as he shouted. He could already imagine the money he could earn from the game. "I've been wasting my life away while you're making a killing on a game!" Ralph sighed and shook his head "Dave ... The game has been out for 3 years now. Almost everyone knows about this." he replied. "You've just been living under a rock, wallowing in your own self-pity that you never noticed." Dave grimaced, looking away from Ralph. "Now listen." A serious expression formed on Ralph's face. "The equipment costs around $10 grand, but if you manage to get one you can immediately start and create your own character, once you do that you will be able to join the game. Listen up, there is a minimum requirement for joining our guild, it's to hit level 150. Once you are level 150 you will be eligible to access the guild, with a recommendation from me of course.

"But do note, just because you joined the guild doesn't mean you will be immediately paid. You will need to start doing some quests and help to achieve some objectives. And if you discover a new dungeon or region you will be awarded by the guild. It's not easy, as the game has progressed, more and more regions have already been discovered. You will have to be lucky if you want to bring home the big bucks."

"So, this means nothing... I will never be able to do anything. As you said, the game started 3 years ago, and by what I heard many bosses have been taken down, and many dungeons have been conquered. What would an insignificant person like me achieve, I better just stick with regular work." Dave shrank as he spoke.

"Hey now, don't you dare crawl back under that rock of yours. If everything was that easy, everyone and their mother would quit their jobs and start playing Conquest" Ralph smacked his hands on the table. "Who said that you need to do just quests. There is a contribution system in the guild. Each month, you can exchange your contribution points from the guild for money or gold coins"

"Oh, I presume that those contribution points are easy to come by?" Dave asked Ralph smiled seeing Dave coming back to reality. "Yes, you just need to farm some dungeons, do some repetitive quests. And this is where you have an advantage. You have more time on your hands than most right now. If you gather 5000 contribution points you will be paid the exact same in cold hard cash. On the other hand, by doing these quests, you will earn some gold coins. The exchange rate is 1:1"

"Oh, so 1 gold coin is one dollar that is not bad." Said Dave. "Although I'm not sure whether I

should be excited or offended at that underhanded compliment."

Ralph waved his hand as if nothing happened. "Doesn't matter. Now, this doesn't mean it is easy to get gold coins, however, it is also not hard. It is much more profitable too. Do you remember the hype about bitcoins? This is almost like that, except the gold coins can be exchanged quick and easily. So, what do you say? Wanna join?" asked Ralph, excitement clearly plastered on his face.

"It sounds interesting enough," said Dave. "But I will have to decline for now. I don't really have enough cash for the moment" Dave lied. He swallowed, knowing well enough why. "I will join the moment I have enough cash to buy one," Dave said.

He knew that Ralph was a good friend of his, and he knew that the moment he joins the game he will dote on him and try to help him as much as he can. If he were to do that, it would bother him a lot.

Dave wanted to rely on himself as when he used to play old MMORPG games, he always went solo. Doing stuff like joining guilds was never his thing. But before he joins the game, he would need to do massive amounts of research.

"Hey, listen up, I can help you buy a gaming helmet," Ralph said, but Dave immediately interrupted, saying "Thank you, man, I mean it, but I can't take your money. You've known me for a long time and you know I don't take loans. Even from my best friend," said Dave. Ralph sighed, "Do whatever you want bro. Anyway, if you ever join, send me a private message. My in-game name is Blaster."

"Alright Blaster," said Dave snickering "I will send you a PM once I join."

They spent most of the evening talking about the game and catching up. Ralph bade Dave farewell and left before it got too dark.

The night was still young and Dave went back into his apartment.

It was a shabby place but it wasn't filthy, filled with just the bare necessities. Two chairs and a small table, a desk near his bed and a small kitchen and a shower for his use. It was not the best of places but the rent was really cheap.

Currently, Dave's balance was about $17 000 that remained from the money he was given by Body Builder. Truth to be told he felt disgusted at using the money, but as he still was unable to get a job, he had no choice but to use it.

"It seems that I will be needing to use this to buy a helmet… Thanks, Ralph, but I can't burden you with my problems...I hope you understand."

That day, Dave went online and began by doing some research about Conquest.

There were several classes in the game, ranging from hunters, thieves, berserkers, and many other classic classes. There were even some hidden classes, with superior attributes, but they need to be unlocked by following a questline or doing some various odd jobs.

The game world was separated into multiple kingdoms, city-states, and empires. The players had the ability to conquer territories and claim the lands for themselves. However, due to the three years since the establishment of the game, the political map of the game has been changed. The majority of the original kingdoms were no longer the current rulers of their countries; large guilds have already overthrown and laid claim to many of the major territories. 

All you need to do to capture a kingdom is to kill the king of that country. As long as it has been properly planned, a guild could assassinate the king and steal the ownership rights of the kingdom. Although this sounds easy enough, it also means that ruling rights could be taken from them in just the same manner. 

This, however, is only applicable under certain conditions; the kingdom must be forced to undergo war. This was not easy to achieve. There is an item that is needed to start a conquest; a Conquest Right. Those items are dropped by High tier monsters and by rare Ancient Crimson Chests.

These high tier monsters would require thousands of players to fight against and even if they defeat them, the chances of the territory attack conquest to drop are abysmally small. To the extent that ever since the release of Conquest, only three of such items were found. With these items, in the hands of the top-rated guilds, the three major kingdoms have been conquered.

As such the current game rulers are three guilds. Blood Rage, that took the icy Northern Kingdom under it. Heaven's Dawn, who claimed the Southern Kingdom of the desert. Then The Devastators, who took over the lush Western Kingdom.

Naturally, these super guilds have strong backing. Above each of these three are three rulers. Zhang Shi, head of the Korean Guild Blood Rage, who took over the guild and was declared king in the north. Warlord, who is an American player and leader of The Devastators that rules over the Western Kingdom. Lastly is Wan Yi, ruler of the Southern Kingdom and leader of the Heaven's Dawn guild.

Each kingdom was named after their guilds. And Ralph was obviously a member of The Devastators.

The world map was split into four great regions. Each of these regions has its own territories and quests and geography. Each of these regions has tens of thousands of miles of territory.

To travel from one end to the other of the map would take about ten months of travel on foot.

This just serves to speak of the immense size of the game. The designers of the game have implemented a super AI that is managing the game and creating more terrain and quests by each passing minute. Thus, the game never suffered any setbacks and always moved forward with new content.

Of all the four regions, only the Eastern region was left without a guild to command due to the nature of that kingdom it is an impossibility for it to be conquered. Why? Because it is ruled by an eastern emperor who rules over actual living dragons!

There were several pieces of footage showing the might of the eastern army. They actually claim to be an empire and have ruled over the land for thousands of years. Also, their position is in a highly dangerous area with monsters of high level.

Normally the highest level in the game is 1000.

While the highest player currently is the leader of The Devastators, Warlord with level 422. Even after three years of gaming, no one managed to reach the max level. This just tells people how vast the world of Conquest is.

As the domain of the Eastern Kingdom is so vast it harbors many highly tiered monsters and creatures. The lowest level of beasts ranges from level 400 to 450. Even the highest-level player cannot take on these beasts, thus showing the almost impossibility to conquer the Kingdom. Still, this doesn't mean that they didn't try but looking at the footage, many had seen how impossible it is for casual or even Hardcore players to take down the Kingdom, even reaching the borders with an intent to fight is rewarded with instant death from the superior guards of the place.

So, for the moment, many players are intending on leveling up their characters in order to conquer the land and gain a huge income.

Due to the nature of the game, once a king establishes rule over a land, they are entitled to a percentage of the gold that circulates in the territory. Mainly, taxes. The rulers get to hog taxes from the Kingdom, from fixing equipment, or buying anything, a small percentage of the money is sent toward the Kingdom's treasury, and the king of the land is able to use that money to either reinforce his Kingdom or use it as his own.

The rulers of the three super guilds are currently billionaires, due to the amount of money that is circulating, however, they don't use that cash just for themselves. They use it to empower their guilds and reinforce their lands. This way they will not fear the day when someone tries to take over their Kingdom and take away their golden egg-laying goose. The game encourages people to conquer new lands and new dungeons. The person who conquers a new dungeon will be eligible to Hogue the dungeon for themselves and will be able to set a fee for everyone else to access the dungeon. This, of course, is another means to get rich, however, most of the dungeons are owned by one of the three major guilds. Still, some players were lucky enough to gain access to some dungeons.

Dungeons rights can also be sold, and many players who manage to conquer dungeons would sell these rights to one of the three guilds for a huge sum of the money. Basically. This game is about gaining power, financial power. Many companies are supporting the three major guilds for a share of the pie by giving financial support and organizing events to gain advertisement.

After the long and exhaustive and exhausting read about the basic info on the game, Dave felt thrilled.

If he were to own a small dungeon or conquer a dungeon, he might be set for life. but to do so, he must first level up and go to uncharted territories. This is not easy especially after knowing that others had about 3 years head start. This will be really hard, but if he is lucky enough, he might be able to turn this situation upside down.

Dave submitted a purchase order for the gaming helmet and waited for it to arrive.

It took two days for the gaming helmet to arrive, and in that time, Dave did his homework on the game's mechanics and classes.

Once he set up the gaming helmet, he put it on, while hoping that the 10 000$ would not be a waste, he logged into the game.

A white light soon blinded him for a moment before a blue notification showed up before him.

[ Welcome to Conquest!]

[ Please speak to ALFRED!]

The notification soon disappeared.

Dave looked at where he stood.

It was a blue platform where an old man wearing a sparrow tailed suit and white gloves. He had a monocular on one of his eyes which he adjusted and moved toward Dave.

"Welcome to the world of conquest, Adventurer. Here, you should know, that everything you will be doing will affect not only you but anything and everything around you. Please allow me to make this brief and start with your race, which race would you like to be?" asked the butler while with a wave of his hand he showed all available races

From Humans to Elves, Dwarfs, Gnomes, even Orcs, and Trolls. Looking at the characters one would see the difference in each of their characteristics and basic stats. Basically, it was the normal thing that most MMORPGs had.

"Name Death Stroke. Race: Human, keep the same features," said Dave in a rush,

Though he cringed hearing himself say the character name he couldn't help but chuckle a bit. It was always the name of his characters in all MMORPG games he played since he was young. It gave him a nostalgic feeling.

"Very well, quite direct I may say." Said the butler named Alfred.

"Then where would you like to start your journey?" asked Alfred.

"I am more of a solo player, I would like to start near the Eastern Kingdom," I said

"The Eastern Kingdom… I don't think you will be able to survive there… especially with that" said Alfred as he looked at my right hand.

"Ah… I totally forgot about this!"

"Worry not," said the butler and with another wave of his hand the mangled right hand and right leg were like new.

"Wow! That is amazing? How did you do that?"

"The Headgear is attached to your brain, I just tempered with your brain waves, now you would not be bothered by your injuries in this game but do know that once you leave the game the injuries will not disappear." Said the butler

"Ah, I can't thank you enough. I was going to go for a caster class due to this but now that I can move my hand like I used to … I should probably go for the regular tank class." 

"You cannot choose a class here; you must do the required tasks first before that."

  "Oh, thanks a lot, old man," Dave said.

"Now be on your way, if you have nothing else to ask. you have a world to conquer."

  "No no! wait!" said Dave. 

"What is it, Adventurer?"

"What are legacies? I never had the chance to study them, would you mind explaining some of them to me?" Asked Dave.

"Hmm, this is currently known knowledge. I can answer anything that is already been divulged to the public. Legacies are powers given by the Gods of this game, there are several legacies throughout the game which you will need to discover. These Legacies are separated into Tiers from S to E.

S being the strongest. For every class, there is one major legacy that is given by the Deity of the said Class, those are all unique inheritance and are given to only one person throughout the game The Berserker class has the inheritance of the God of War. It gives immense power to the wielder and a lot of special sets of skills specialized for the class. However, for the moment most of the S class inheritance of the known classes has been found and are already owned.

"Most? that means there is still more S class legacies" said Dave with a smirk.

"Hmm, indeed, there are some S class legacies yet to be discovered. However, this doesn't mean that they are easy to acquire." said the butler 

"Thank you for the information." Said Dave.

"Anyway, this is all I wanted to ask. Let's meet again then" said Dave as he waved his hand to the butler.

"By the way," said the butler

"I am the AI of the game if you happen to find a bug or something that you deem worthy of my guidance or a question, please do not forget to call upon my name. Now be on your way," said the butler as he waved his hand and a portal appeared before me. He then disappeared.

"Ah, shit! I didn't ask him where my exact location will be!" said Dave to himself. "Well, it doesn't matter. Let's just look where we will land and hope it is not somewhere dangerous."

Right after that Dave walked through the portal and found himself in an almost vacant town. He looked at his character and saw that he was wearing some brown wool pants and a white shirt.

The basics of basics.

"Status screen!"

Level 1

Health 100 Mana NA

Stamina 100 Rage/Focus NA

Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10

Dexterity 10 Agility 10

Vitality 1 Strength 10

Magic Resist 0 Defense 0

HP Regen 0.1/sec Mana Regen NA

Stamina Regen 10/sec Rage/Focus

Regen NA

Title NA

This looks all right…

"Hmm, Rage? Focus? Ah, it seems that these are related to classes, I guess by the moment I gain a class I will be eligible to access those stats."

"So basic of basics, strength for attack power, stamina for endurance, intel and wisdom for magic... neat."

"I should probably get myself some equipment, but to get the equipment, I need to do some quests! Time to start the newbie quest!" said Dave as he happily moved towards a character who had an exclamation mark on their head, but first he must know where he is.

Chapter 2B (Yes chapter two there was a mistake with the chapter order)

Dave began to appreciate his surroundings. Looking at the town where he stood, the dimly lit skies and the dark atmosphere. This place was unlike anywhere he had been to before. The buildings had a medieval theme to them. There was an interface that he had access to, it was at the side of his vision if he would focus clearly, he could see many different icons. Dave opened the Map interface and the first thing on his mind was to find out his starting location. Looking at the map from a third-person point of view, Dave understood that he was actually near the borders of the Eastern Kingdom. This city or town was named Moria. It was an old town and was very small, the population was only around 300 people, without taking into account the players.

Still, it was strange that there were no players around. Dave began to think that this town was too far away from the main cities and not many players would want to venture this far, or at the very least that this place was of no interest to everyone else thus the lack of other players.

Right after he verified his location, he "zoomed" his view on the map to look at the town where he was.

Three major things caught his attention here; the teleportation gate, the church, the training center.

The teleportation circle is a gateway that can teleport a player from city to city. So that they do not waste time going traveling from place to place. The church was where he could take the simplest and easiest quest to acquire a class, a paladin. And the training center where he could train his character to learn the basic skills that every class has.

"Well, let's start by going to the training center, at least I could get a basic weapon and shield and start with training," Dave said.

He then moved towards his new destination, ignoring the man with the question mark on his head.

When he arrived, he saw many NPCs doing various move sets and attacking dummies. There was a large buffed man, who was leaning on a pole and watching the NPCs. That man must be the instructor as he had a yellow Question mark on his head.

"Hey sir," Dave saluted

The gruff-looking man made an inspecting look at Dave and said

"Oh, fresh blood, you must be one of those Adventurers, right? I have seen many of you. Truth be told I am envious of your ability to revive even after you die, still, that does not make you invincible. Ahh, I guess you want to learn the basic skills and train, right?" Dave was a bit stunned, not at the man but the way he spoke and the expressions he had on his face. Though he was but an artificial character, he displayed envy and even gave advice to Dave. This was for him a first, how can a fictional character display human emotion? Dave could only praise the work behind such a game. Perhaps this is a reason why people are hooked on Conquest.

"Ah, Yes, I was hoping to learn some basic skills, others have said that they will be useful to train later on. Would you be kind to teach me?" asked Dave.

"I have no problem with that, but first you must do me a favor. I have been looking over these grunts for the past few hours and I am feeling a bit hungry. Take this and go to the bakery, my wife works there. I forgot my lunch, so I would like you to fetch it for me." said the man

You have obtained a new Quest. Bring us some food Xp +200.

Go to the bakery and bring back instructor Juda's lunch. Bring the instructor, Juda, his lunch. Even an idiot can do this.

Quest difficulty: NIL

Dave squinted his eyes at how rude the notification had been but didn't voice he complains. He took a small stamp that had the name Juda on it and went to where he was supposed to go. A new location was now clinging to his map and he understood that, that was the bakery. It took him a couple of minutes to get there. Once he was there a woman who had an exclamation mark on her head was there. She was the bakery shop owner.

"Mr. Juda had asked me to bring him his food," said Dave and brought forward the letter.

  "Oh, that idiot had forgotten to take his lunch… here you go give it to him while it is still hot."

Quest update.

Bring back the food to the instructor Juda.

You have 3 minutes time limit or else the food will turn cold and your quest will fail. 

Are you going to fail this, are you?

'Again, with the rude notification…'

Dave took the food and it was instantly placed in his inventory. It was a small pouch that said.

Hot food.

Simple.

When Dave got the food from the woman he went straight towards the instructor. It didn't even take 30 seconds before he was there and gave the Instructor the item he wanted. 

"Oh, very well, it is still hot too. Thank you, lad!" 

Quest cleared.

+200Xp

Time spent 33 seconds.

Bonus reward +50 XP

Only then did, Dave fully understood the meaning behind this idiotic quest. Any character that has an exclamation mark can give quests. The quests have scores on them, and the better one manages their time and quests under the conditions of the quests, the more one can one earn by doing them. This was a simple quest that many must have done to familiarize themselves with the system. Dave was no exception.

Looking at Dave's gauge bar he understood that he just got a quarter of the needed XP to level up.

Juda the instructor soon disappeared and after a minute or so, he appeared again.

"That was very satisfying. Anyway, kid, you wanted to learn the basic skills right. You should know though, this is a training facility for warriors, if you want to learn magic you will need to go to the magic tower in this town." The instructor pointed at a tower that was a bit far but still within the small town.

"No, I wish to learn the way of the sword."

"Then you came to the right place, but you need some muscles on those scrawny arms before you can carry a weapon, you still lack strength. Let me tell you, you see those weights there, start by picking them up, once you gained at least 15 strength, then you can start by training with the sword." Said the instructor.

"Ah, so you can gain strength by lifting weights…" said Dave

"Well, what do you think? If there is another way to do that then please tell me!" said the man with a laugh.

"Ok, I will start then" Dave then went towards a corner of the courtyard where there was a lot of weight spread across the ground.

Starting with the 10-pound weights he grabbed each of them. Inspecting them gave Dave an idea about them.

Lifting Weights: 10pounds.

Training for 1 hour = +1 strength.

Capped at +5 strength. (No longer useful above 15 strength) 

5 stamina/lift.

Oh, this was interesting.

Dave then looked at another one.

Lifting Weights: 20 pounds.

Training for 1 hour = +1 strength.

Capped at +5 strength.(No longer useful above 20 strength) 

25 stamina/lift.

He then understood. There was a way to gain strength, but he will need to grind. Looking at the number of weights, he understood that he could train with all of them all the way to weights that had +500 pounds. Normally that would be difficult for anyone to carry but this was just a game.

Calculating the total amount of Strength, that he could gain, he understood that once he trains with every tier of weights here in the courtyard, he will gain +100 strength!

However, there was a problem with this. If he were to calculate the time needed for him to reach such strength, it would take him at least 5 hours of training per tier. Looking at the 20 tiers of weights. He calculated that it would take need him about 100 hours to train all the way to +100 strength, with 1 strength per hour. This will be an arduous task however, that was under typical circumstances.

Because not only would he be lifting weights, he will be spending a lot of stamina to use them. So, he will need to grind up not only his strength but also his stamina. So, it might take much longer than just 100 hours, especially at how much high the stamina consumptions reach once he looked at the heavier weights.

The last weight needed at least 250 stamina/lift! Something that he didn't even have. But thankfully Dave understood that there was a ratio where the game worked with. A basic Strength of stamina conversion.

The more strength one has, the lesser the needed stamina to do a job. Therefore, when Dave reaches higher levels of Strength, the weight that now looks like it needs 250 stamina/lift would probably be about 100 stamina per lift. Still, that was too much, and it would take him a lot just to do so.

There was also the lifting animation, the character needs not to bother with manually lifting the weights, he could just let the animation do the job for him. It is capped under a certain amount of lifts/hour.

"Mr. Instructor," said, Dave, as he came back to ask the instructor about something that was bothering him.

"What is it?" asked the instructor.

"How does one train their Stamina?" asked Dave.

"Stamina is easy to train, not only would weight lifting increases our stamina. You can also try jogging around. It will help greatly with increasing your stamina." Said the instructor.

"Oh, that is interesting…" said Dave.

So, running and weight lifting can increase stamina… this sounds logical, but what if I do both then?

Dave then picked the lightest of weights and began lifting them. Indeed, he entered an animation where he didn't need to do anything but watch his character lifting the weights. Still, he willed himself to move and the animation was canceled. He then started to manually lift the weights.

Not only that, but he also began to jog around the courtyard while lifting the small weights on both of his hands.

This was an experiment if the character was to gain strength while manually lifting and manually jogging it should be much simpler and time-efficient than to train lifting weights for an hour then do some jogging afterward.

However, what Dave did not account for was the stamina consumption. Normal jogging would consume about 10 stamina per second. While weight lifting would consume 5 per second. In total, Dave was spending 6 stamina per second. In addition, in doing so he could only train continuously for about 16 seconds before his stamina is fully depleted, then he will have to wait for 10 seconds before he would proceed again. His stamina regen was 1/second.

Dave kept on doing this until an unexpected result showed up. It was barely was 30 minutes before results were already apparent.

You have gained +1 Strength!

You have gained +1 Stamina!

Surprisingly so, manual training was much faster than automatic lifting. This way Dave was sure that he could manage to finish the whole training in at least 50 hours instead of the 100 hours total that he calculated before.

Dave continued on with the routine. It was actually interesting first, for the few hours that Dave saw his Stamina and Strength slowly climbing. However, after almost eight hours, Dave began to feel bored.

Extremely so. A man cannot help but feel bored doing the same thing for hours to no end. Still, he kept on, why? Because he had a very slow start, many people started before him. And compared to them he is far behind. If he could manage to get his fundamentals high enough, he would be able to make a difference later on in the game.

Dave had logged out and did more research on this topic, then he understood something. Thankfully he didn't level up to level 2 like many did before they understood that for every level you reach, the weightlifting training is decreased by half!

So, for a level 1, if they do the full weightlifting training, they can gain 100 strength by the end! But if one levels up to level 2, they will be capped at 50 strength! This was a huge setback.

Dave then understood that not only Strength but even Intelligence and Wisdom can increase. He was not the first to discover this, there were many others that found out about this and did this. They trained for hours and hours and managed to get at least 100 in the element of their choice before they would try to level up. Once they had reached the cap for beginner training, they would no longer be able to increase their stats by normal means. They will only be able to do so using equipment or stats from leveling up.

There were some that did all the training and gained a title for it!

This was foundation building, if a player is not dedicated enough, they will not be able to benefit from this small bonus.

Dave then made sure that after he takes his meal and a bath. He would continue on doing the training until he caps the Strength Training level without leveling up!

Thanks to the time dilation between the game and reality, it was possible to spend three days in the game for only 1 day in real life. However, humans need food and sleep. Dave could only dedicate 16 hours from his day to the game. 7 hours, for his sleep and 1 hour for his meals, spread out through the day.

Dave logged back in the game and continued with his grinding session.

It was boring; however, for him, it was of great importance.

Dave discovered something while he was training. He could also train his agility!

By doing the weightlifting session, he was skipping trying to maximize his training and was met with a surprising result.

You have gained +1 Agility!

It seems that training made him earn more Agility, it was free stats so he didn't bother and kept on doing his thing, mixing weightlifting with punches, and even doing squats.

You have gained+1 Dexterity!

Amazing! I can also train my Dexterity.

Dave did not bother with these stats at first, his aim was to increase his Strength and Stamina. He wanted to become a paladin, and their basic stats were revolved around; Strength, Stamina, and Intelligence!

However, Dexterity and Agility never hurt.

Dexterity would increase the reaction time of a person. Making them able to hit from difficult angles or move their bodies more fluently. While Agility could increase their speed and attack speed.

Both of them are stats that are not harmful to any class.

The training session that was going to waste 50 hours of Dave's time now took much more!

Dave was a greedy person, he knew he only needed to train just his basic stats, but now that he had the ability to train more, he would not want to waste it lest that he would regret it in the future! He wanted to have the title like others got.

The training session increased until he had spent more than 1-week game time!

Then and only then did he check on his status screen to see the improvement he brought to himself.

Level 1

Name Death Stroke Race Human Health 100

Mana NA Stamina 200 Rage/Focus NA Intelligence 10

Wisdom 10 Dexterity 110 Agility 110 Vitality 10

Strength 110 Magic Resist 0 Defense 0 HP Regen 0.1/sec

Mana Regen NA Stamina Regen 10/sec Rage/Focus Regen NA

Title NA

"Fantastic!" Said, Dave, as he admired his perseverance! It took him a lot of time to finally reach this point, he even ignored the instructor's advice to come back to him after having 15 strength, now that Dave gained the bonus 100 stats that can be obtained at level 1, he felt rather proud of having achieved something of great value after being consistent and persevered through it.

Sadly, he couldn't level up his vitality skill, he tried hitting himself with batons and sticks but it never increased even if his HP decreased.

"Now if I gained this much just by doing physical training… how can someone gain Intelligence and Wisdom?" said Dave to himself.

Then he went back to the instructor to ask him about it, after all, he was the only one who gave him tips about training his body.

"You want to increase your Intelligence? Why don't you go to the library and read some books, I might look like a brute but I do know that reading books can make you smarter." The man laughed.

"Hmm, so reading books…" thought Dave to himself as he looked at the map trying to find a library.

There was none to Dave's dismay.

There was, however, another choice for him… the Wizard's Tower. It is only logical; wizards would need to have a high level of Intelligence and Wisdom to cast their spells.

Dave then headed towards the Wizard's Tower ignoring the instructor once again.

Dave did not want to proceed with Skill learning before he claimed all the bonus points that one can have.

Once at the Wizard's Tower he met a beautiful woman that wore a pointy wizard's hat. She was at the front door with an exclamation mark on her head… this must be the magic instructor.

"Can I please ask you on the ways to increase one's Intelligence." Said Dave in a polite manner. Being courteous never hurt anyone, this was a moto Dave always abided with. "Oh, such a young one seeks the wisdom of the sages. Your request must be related to the way of the arcane, indeed, one must be smart and wise before they would learn to cast spells. You may get inside the tower. If you wish to learn magic from me, I need you to have at least 15 Intelligence before you could begin learning the most basic of skills." She spoke in a manner that showed her elegance and with an attitude of superiority.

Once again, Dave was surprised at the game's creator's sense of ingenuity. They can make artificial characters behave like humans.

"Thank you for your kindness." Said Dave and went inside the tower.

There were a lot of bookshelves and desks filled with various books.

Dave then picked a book related to the basics of magic and began to read.

Dave could not believe that all of these books were related to magic, if so, how much time would, the AI must have spent to write the lore and theories of magic in this huge "Library" Then again, he was disappointed. The moment he opened the first book he understood that it only had two pages worth of words and the rest were empty.

The book he had in his hand related to the theory of mana and magic in the world, there were just a bunch of words to make fantastical ideas look logical. However, once he finished reading the book he was met with a pleasant surprise.

You have gained +1 Intelligence!

You have gained +1 Wisdom!

It only took Dave one book to level up his stats, and both of them at the same time!

Without wasting time Dave then began reading another book.

However, he was not rewarded with anything until he read his third book.another one.

Then he understood that the more stats he gains, the harder it is to gain more. This was simple logic; one cannot fill a full cup. Once a person knows too much of the world, he will find it hard to learn new things. Well, this was the theory and Dave had nothing to lose. So, he started reading more and more books. It was not easy though; it took him about 20 hours of straight book reading to finish everything this library had to offer. Thankfully, each book had at most 2 pages worth of words, but by reading the last one of these books. Dave was met with a pleasant surprise!

Not only had he managed to gain 100 intelligence and 100 wisdom, he gained the title he wanted!

You have gained a new title!

I know it All!

+5% towards all basic stats!

A title that adds bonus stats was unbelievably op, it might not be much right now. 5% stats are not a great deal at the moment, however, in the late game, this 5% can become monstrous!

In addition, this title only needed the person to do all the menial tasks and gain all the bonus attribute points before they reach level two.

Many players had it, and he was not the only one. But it still made it an achievement.

Dave did not wait until he looked at his status screen and was amazed at what he saw. 

Level: 1

Name: Death Stroke

Race: Human

Health: 100+(5)

Mana: 1100 +(55)

Stamina: 200 (10)

Rage/Focus: NA

Intelligence: 110 +(5.5)

Wisdom: 110 +(5.5)

Dexterity: 110 +(5.5)

Agility: 110 +(5.5)

Vitality: 10 +(0.5)

Strength: 110 +(5.5)

Magic Resist: 0

Defense: 0

HP Regen: 0.1/sec +(0)

Mana Regen: 1.1/sec +(0)

Stamina Regen: 10/sec +(0.5)

Rage/Focus Regen: NA

Title: I know it all!

He just noticed his mana bar and mana regen was unlocked.

This past week was a good haul for Dave. Once he finished his reading, he headed back to Juda the Instructor. He was going to start learning his new basic skills!