Beginner's Surprise
[Please create your in-game avatar]
Normally, if someone would likely be acting out their revenge on a behemoth like the Frost Group, and the other powerful families and companies which participated in making his life a living hell, they would likely completely alter their appearance to prevent those people from recognising him in the real world. However, Jack knew the catch that came with being able to completely modify your appearance.
Even if it was slightly modified, your control over the new avatar would be considerably lower compared to those who chose their real-world appearance. If he wanted to get revenge on them, he needed to become incredibly strong in-game, in order to create enough influence in the real world to allow him to enact his revenge in-game and in the real world.
However, this would be nearly impossible to accomplish if he changed his appearance.
'Keep it the same as my real self'
[Confirmed.]
[Please select a class and a subclass.]
[Class:]
[Heavy Knight, Swordsman, Lancer, Monk, Assassin, Scout, Archer, Tamer, Summoner, Mage, Necromancer, Death Priest, Light Priest]
[Subclass:]
[Bard, Boxer, Tanner, Fletcher, Doctor, Librarian… Tinkerer, Blacksmith]
Well, although the Class list was incredibly long compared to all other VR games, the subclasses list was so dizzyingly long that was essentially impossible to go through it all. The reason? Simply, because almost each and every daily occupation the NPCs had, was a subclass option, continuously expanding as newer jobs were discovered.
However, Jack already had his mind set, and he immediately selected basing his class on what he had chosen in his previous life. After all, no class was better than the other, as each of them could potentially grow to legendary class rank, just with different methods and results.
Furthermore, with each subclass, it would have differing effects on your gameplay.
[Your class and subclass have been selected. Stat points will be assigned accordingly.]
[Logging in]
[Logged in]
[Welcome, Erebus, to the world of Tether]
.
…
As Jack opened his eyes, he found himself in the familiar location of the forest… completely naked.
This was just the way the game was, without any parental control, or graphics settings to reduce gore or pain limiters. Of course, the real you would never feel or remember the pain, but the present feeling of pain within the game would feel as real as could be.
Jack glanced at his status screen before quickly beginning his search for a weapon of any kind around him, since the 'newbie welcoming ceremony' that 'they' prepared for all new players would be arriving soon.
==========
Status
Name: Erebus
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Guild: None
Level: 0
Experience Points: 0/100
Class: Mage
Subclass: Engineer
Condition: Normal
Location :Leon Kingdom
---------------
Stats
Vitality: 1
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 4
Awareness: 2
Charisma: 2
Resilience: 1
Mana: 2
Unassigned Stats: 0
---------------
Dependent Stats
Health: 10
Attack: 12
Defence (%): 1
M. Attack: 12
M. Defence: 012
Agility: 2
Luck: 2.1
Hit Rate (%): 10
Evasion Rate(%): 10
Critical Hit Rate (%): 0
Critical Hit Damage(%): 110
Magic Resistance (%): 20
Magic Reflect (%): 20
Health Regen (%/s): 1
Mana Regen (%/s): 1
EXP Rate (%): 100
---------------
Equipment
None
---------------
Passive Skills
Active Skills
---------------
Notice: None
==========
Rummaging through the bushes all around him, Jack found a fairly large stone, which he immediately picked up.
[You have equipped Common grade Stone]
[Effect: +1 attack]
[Durability: 10/10]
However, he did not wait to read the notification, as he knew exactly what to do, and instead, quickly rushed up a nearby tree. His physical strength was a little low at the moment, but his intellect was incredibly high, which essentially involved the game in helping him spot the better places to climb from without him having to actively think too much about it.
After climbing up, he just wanted. Thankfully, he did not have to wait too long, as, within just moments of his reaching the lowest branch of the tree, the leaves under the tree began to rustle, before a slime appeared.
[Slime Lv 1]
Without wasting any time, Jack left off the tree, with the stone in his hand as he jumped straight into the unsuspecting slime. Normally, even an attack when equipping the stone would not be able to damage the slime too badly, most likely just bouncing right off.
However, due to the speed at which he was falling, which added to the calculation of the attack power, the rock actually managed to slide right into the translucent body of the slime, and just barely touched the only solid object within the slime, its core.
Being as delicate as a slime core was, it was immediately turned to dust as the slime collapsed, having lost its core.
[You have killed Slime Lv 1]
[You have gained 5 Experience Points]
Sighing at actually doing what had been done in the player guide in his previous life, Jack stood back up, leaving the liquidated corpse of the slime in its place, and instead deciding to climb up the tree and prepare some things while waiting for a nearby slime to be attracted by the smell of a fallen comrade and come over to investigate.
Although his Hit Rate was pathetic at the moment, the hit rate was increased to 100% temporarily while he was on his first life within this forest. Once he died, and even if he somehow made it back to this forest, the temporary boost which was not visible on the status screen but was found out by another player would vanish.
Breaking a line vine that grew along the trunk of the tree, Jack tried to tie it to the stone. Although he had been given survival lessons in the army, and had even had to conduct survival missions in real life, he did not have to support himself on stones and vines. Therefore, it took him a few tries to get it right. However, before he could fully complete his weapon, another slime came, and Jack conducted the same jump and killed it off. Since both times, he would land on the slime to cushion his fall, just before it was killed by the descending stone, he did not lose any health thus far.
However, now that his first weapon was completed, things would be different.
One should know that the subclass engineer, as well as the stats assigned to him due to becoming a mage, had allowed him to quickly and rapidly made something usable out of random objects, and most other players, even crafters, would at first just try to confront the slime, and upon seeing that their attacks were not working, would try to escape, only to realise that the slime, although slower than the human, had already reached your leg, and slowly but surely would encompass your body, dissolving it until you were killed and respawned on the other side of this beginner forest.
Jack decided not to climb up the tree anymore, and instead, actively begin his search with his new weapon while checking out the player forums.
[You are the first to create a Player Created item]
[+1 Prestige]
[You have conducted a basic technical task]
[+1 Experience to Subclass Engineer]
[You have equipped Common grade PC Sling]
[Effect: +1.5 attack, +10% hit rate]
[Durability: 14/15]
[Note: PC means Player Created]
==========
Forum
Human Race
Leon (Medium sized kingdom)
Roland (Medium sized kingdom)
Cretes (Medium sized kingdom)
==========
Clinking on the Leon kingdom, Jack began reading through the various threads which had been created, before entering the open public threat.
[Sh*t! I have died to a slime]
[Beware! The slimes are faster than you think!]
[Arg! It burns really bad! The Slime does not instantly kill you, but melts you alive! What kind of shitty game is this!]
[To the person above, please remember that this is not a game, but something straight out of fantasy. It was clearly an alien civilisation so much more advanced than humans, draconians, and dwarves that they could not just speak to each and every person together, but also assassinate a member of the leaders in each civilisation!]
[Yeah. This is not a game, but a battlefield. But what kinds of rewards did they hide here?]
Soon, however, the chat wandered off into a different target with people cursing at each other after their terrible first death within Tether. However, what they did not know was that they missed out on a huge opportunity. No matter how, when or where you entered the game, you would always arrive in such a beginner forest with killer slimes. Almost everyone here would either die to the slimes, of the incredibly strong Lv 10 creatures just outside the forest, or of hunger, which would slow you down the longer you did not eat, and after a few hours of not eating you would begin to receive damage before dying.
However, if you were able to survive, and kill enough slimes before dying of hunger, you would receive a rather useful passive skill, especially in the later game periods.
In this game, every player would have both passive and active skills, which could be levelled up with time. However, there would be a limit on the number of skills you could have. For every class the player would get to keep 4 active skills. Due to the limit placed on the number of skills a player could have, as well as the fact that most players would rather stick with their current skills which they have levered up a few times rather than a new one meant that these active skills were abundant in nature and low priced.
On the contrary, passive skills could be learned infinitely, and would be passively levered up as long as conditions were satisfied. The fact that each player could theoretically have infinite passive skills meant that there would always be a shortage of such skills, making them incredibly rare to come across, even in the late game that Jack had joined in his previous life.
This time around, Jack found two slimes coming towards him together. However, this did not deter him, because the extra range offered to him because of the Sling he had created, as well as the 100% hit rate, meant that he simply could not miss. And so, he began swinging the sling around him viciously, until it came into contact with the side of one of the slimes, and just barely managed to get to the core.
Jack however did not wait to see if the rock had reached the core as he immediately let go of the sling as soon as it came into contact with the slime, since the other slime was menacingly approaching it.
Thankfully, he was just barely faster than the slime, and manage to take it on a round trip within the forest before returning here and picking up his Sling, allowing him to finish it off as well.
This time around, Jack did not ignore the slime collected on the grassy ground, and instead laid down on it before rolling in it, essentially covering his body in the slime. Now that the core had been killed, it would no longer produce acid which would melt him, and instead would simply act as a cover so that the other slimes in the area would no longer see him as an invader but instead see him as one of them.
Now that he had a weapon as well as a good cover to hide himself, Jack could finally begin his hunt for slimes until he received the passive skill