Chapter 2 - Starting Point

Altean City. A poor fishing city to the North of Reneruth Kingdom. Having a long history dating back more than a thousand years, the city has a custom of sailing small ships into the sea at the start of every year to honor the dead. When winter comes, the sea would freeze and the merman living in the distant islands would attack the city.

But that is only flavor text. Description to make the city more interesting to players. It makes no actual difference. Those were the kind of thoughts on Yuu's mind as he sat in a dark alley somewhere inside Altean City.

It had already been 30 minutes since the game had started. He had been transported to the city square with hundreds of other players and the NPCs there had stared at the players like they were seeing aliens. Of course, unable to bear the gaze of so many people, Yuu—now Karna— had quickly run away.

"Aika… Where are you… Don't leave me alone…" he clutched his head with both hands and muttered. He was the perfect representation of what a young boy who had been separated from his mother looked like— except he wasn't a kid and Aika wasn't his mother.

"You there." A voice interrupted his thoughts.

Standing at the entrance of the alley was Aika, wearing the default beginner equipment.

"Little Sister!!" Karna ran up to hug Aika. For a moment, he had thought that it was someone else due to her voice change.

"I get it… I know how much you love me...so just release me." Aika struggled to get out of his embrace.

"Is that any way to treat your brother?" Karna complained. But in his mind, he was feeling extremely relieved. He didn't know what he would do without Aika.

"How do you like my new voice though?"

"Did you change it in the character customization?"

"Yup."

"It's fine I guess. But not as good as your original voice."

"...Really brother? Aren't you just biased because that's the voice I use to insult you all the time?"

"Definitely not." Karna nodded. No matter how good it sounded, he would not accept Aika's new voice that had tricked him into thinking that she was someone else. "Okay. Now that we're done with our heartwarming reunion, why don't we get down to business."

"I don't understand how any of that counts as a heartwarming reunion but okay."

Both of them opened their status menus. Of course, Karna could only see his own screen.

Karna <Novice>

Level 1

HP:100/100 MP:100/100

STR:10

DEX:10

AGI:10

INT:10

VIT:10

FREE ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 0

Karna had read through many books about Xion Online; the official guides released by the game company to serve as references for the players and even various speculations written by fans and beta testers.

Novice was the class every player started with. To choose one of the base classes, a player would have to get to Level 10 and allocate attribute points to the five statuses: STR, DEX, AGI, INT, VIT. The allocation of those points would then decide what base classes the players were allowed to choose.

Karna checked the skill menu. It was empty. They would need base classes to get skills. So the first thing they should do was to get to level 10 and unlock those classes.

According to the official guide, there were three main ways to level up in Xion Online: completing quests from NPCs, killing monsters, and running dungeons. And the most efficient method for grinding experience would be killing monsters with a proper party.

"We should find a good place to grind monsters," Karna told Aika.

"Hm… Whatever you say, brother. Are we going to hunt slimes or something?"

"Maybe. Let's go." Karna left the alley with Aika a few steps behind him.

Many of the players were hunting mermen on the frozen seas. Due to the lack of skills, there was nothing flashy; just players bashing the mermen with Beginner Swords. Those were the swords every player was provided with from the start. Karna had one in his inventory too.

However, Karna walked out of the town without bothering to go to the zone where the mermen were. Soon, he was out of the city. A field of pure, white snow stretched out in front of him.

"There nothing here brother."

Right at that moment, something came out from underneath the snow. A pair of red eyes and long white ears. It was a snow rabbit.

<Level 1 Snow Rabbit>

A label appeared above its head.

Karna immediately equipped the beginner sword in his inventory and swung down at the little creature. With a burst of light particles, the bunny vanished.

<Defeated Level 1 Snow Rabbit +1000 EXP>

With a "ding" sound, Karna reached Level 2.

"Holy cows!! I didn't know these bunnies would give so much EXP!!!"

With that, the two siblings started playing whack-a-bunny.

Even though each snow rabbit gave a lot of experience points, their spawn rate was quite abysmal. The two of them spent a few hours before they got to level 10. At least it wasn't cold despite all the snow. They had to thank the fact that they were in a game.

Now it was time for the status allocation.

"What status are you going for, Aika?"

"I already put all my points into Vitality."

"Huh?! Why would you do that? How can you kill any monsters without any damage?" Karna almost shouted. A full VIT built was sheer folly. With no damage, leveling would become a pain later on. They were only fine now because the snow bunnies could be killed with one hit. There was no way higher leveled monsters would be the same.

"...Isn't it fine? You can do the killing. I'll just watch"

She sounded selfish but Karna had an idea. If his sister was going to go full VIT, he could leave the tanking to her and go full damage.

But what status should I focus on?

He opened the status menu.

Karna <Novice>

Level 10

HP:1000/1000 MP:1000/1000

STR:10

DEX:10

AGI:10

INT:10

VIT:10

FREE ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 100

He tried to recall the recommended builds he had read about. For a physical damage dealer, STR, DEX, and AGI. For a magical damage dealer, INT, and DEX. And a party should have both physical and magical damage dealers to be effective against different types of monsters.

But Karna did not plan on partying with anyone else. He had to be the sole damage dealer in the two-man party.

So STR and INT were out of the question. If he tried to raise both, he wouldn't have enough points.

Maybe DEX, AGI? But AGI would not be necessary if he got a mage class.

Full DEX then.

Karna allocated all 100 points into DEX. None of the guides he read had anything written about the base classes. It was a huge gamble.

<100 points allocated. Base Classes Unlocked>

<Gunner - a class specializing in dealing damage from a distance> <Physical + Magical>

<Assassin - a class that featuring high burst damage using swords or daggers> <Physical>

<Art - for those who have dedicated themselves to reaching the peak of dexterity. A class that allows you to manipulate the very air with your hands.>

<Physical + Magical> <Special Class>

Okay… the first two classes seem pretty normal. What's with the third class though? Art? The peak of dexterity?

"Aika, what classes did you get?"

"Paladin, Defender, and Vampire. What about you, brother?"

"Gunner, Assassin, and Art. I wonder what I should choose. Not an assassin because it is physical… what does art even do anyway…"

"Dunno what you are talking about but can't we just choose whatever sounds fun?"

"No… It is written in the guide that we cannot change classes…"

"Um… I already chose Vampire Special Class. Is that bad? It says I can suck the enemies' blood."

"Lifesteal, huh… It's actually good. Good for people like us without a healer."

"Heh. I told you I am a genius. You can pat my head. Wait… Actually, no… don't touch my head with your dirty hands…"

Karna gave her head a light pat anyway. "Guess I'll go with the special class too."

⧫

It was an understatement to say that Karna felt cheated. No, the ship carrying all his hopes and expectations had been dashed onto rocks and had sunk.

After choosing the <Art> class, he had not gained a single skill. Even Aika's class gave two passive skills. One which allowed her to heal when enemies died nearby and another which gave her +10% HP.

"Why do I have to be so unlucky…" Karna sighed.

"Don't worry brother. I'll carry you all the way."

"That just makes me feel more miserable…"

The two of them were now on the way to the dungeons. In Xion, dungeons were the best way to farm equipment. They planned to use the teleportation portal in Atlean city to get to the mountain where the dungeons were. The portal could be used to get to all the key locations near Altean city. It could also be used to travel to other cities but the prerequisite for traveling from one city to another was for the player to have already visited both cities.

There was also the option of climbing the snow mountains themselves but Karna was in no mood to enjoy the snowy scenery. He had messed up badly from the start by choosing a useless class.

"Hopefully they will buff this class in the next update…" Karna muttered.

"Cheer up. Aren't you the one who said the dungeons are where the fun begins?"

"Yea… my bad… let's go."

The two of them stepped into the blue portal which looked like a whirlpool.

They found themselves in a large clearing, the blue sky stretching out over them. Over a hundred players were standing in small groups, chatting. It seemed like many players who had chosen Altean City as a starting point had reached Level 10 and were ready to challenge the dungeons.

"Hey, isn't that Yuu?!" Karna heard the shrill voice of a girl calling out his real name.

He whipped his head around to search for the source of the voice.

It was a girl with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a silver set of armor. At her side was a boy wearing a similar armor. The pair was staring at him.

****!!! It's them. Why are they here?

"Hey!!! Yuuu!!!" the girl shouted and started walking towards him.

"Are they your friends, brother? No… you don't have any friends. Former classmates?" Aika said in a soft voice.

"Yea… something like that." Karna knew them of course. The girl with brown hair was Saionji Chiryuri. Her boyfriend —the one at her side— was Takano Shoji.

The couple reached the two siblings.

"Yuu!! It's been so long… How are you doing?" Chiyuri asked, smiling.

"I'm fi—"

"Never thought I would ever see the loser again." Shoji interrupted from the side.

A moment of silence. Then...

"What did you just say?" Aika glared at him.

"I'm just saying the truth." Shoji shrugged.

"Oh, it's nothing. Shoji is just kidding. We're all old classmates, you know?" Chiyuri interjected. She looked somewhat troubled by Shoji's attitude. "Anyway, nice to meet you. My name is Saionji Chiyuri. What's your name?"

"Yuki Aika. I'm Yuu's girlfriend."

Wait... What!!!!