Legendary Class

I opened my eyes and found myself standing in the inn I logged off from. I was about to head out the door when I was greeted by a wave of notifications.

[Pain calibration now permanently set to 50%]

[Player call feature now available]

[You have 3 missed calls and 4 unread messages]

I was intrigued by the new minor changes. I have never played at a pain calibration higher than 30% so questing would now be interesting, to say the least. I checked my missed calls and unread messages.

All of them were from Ellie so I guessed she didn't realize I was offline. I skipped reading the messages and just returned the call.

[Calling Ellie Vault…]

[Connected 0:01]

"Hey Ellie, what's up? I just got on. Where do you wanna meet?" I asked.

"H-Hi Tristan, you got on what? I don't understand that part. Ah, we can meet in front of the pub we went to yesterday." Ellie replied, a bit flustered.

"Ah don't worry about that part...I was just rambling. Alright, I'm on my way. I'll see you there." I replied.

"Yeah, see you." Ellie said as she cut the call.

I made my way out of the inn and headed towards the pub. The town today was way more packed than yesterday. I guess word is starting to spread more now that everyone has seen how amazing the game is.

I found Ellie leaning against the front of the pub, with her arms folded and her katana sheathed on her back. She was wearing a new set of leather armor and a gold cross earring on her left ear…. that's new. I gulped as I neared her. She looked really hot.

"Hey Ellie, are you ready to head out?" I inquired calmly, trying not to focus on her graceful figure.

Ellie turned to face me and let out a kingdom-toppling smile. She nodded her head and said,

"Hey Tristan. Yeah I'm ready, let's head out."

"Sweet" I replied, as Ellie came towards me.

"Lets go to the local merchant store first, I wanna sell my loot from yesterday and buy some leather armor. The clothes I'm wearing will probably not help." I suggested, gesturing at my beginner clothes.

Ellie agreed and we both set off towards the merchant store using my map. Once we got there, I inspected the merchant, who was smoking a pipe.

[Igor Yaheck | Lvl.11 | Merchant]

"Hey, I would like to sell these." I said to him as I cleared out my inventory and placed all my loot on the counter in front of him.

Igor took a look at all the items I placed on his counter, did a quick mental calculation and looked at me.

"Aye…this is all worth 2000 silver. Before I give you your coins, is there anything you'd like to buy?" he said in a gruff voice.

"Give me the best leather armor my money can afford." I said while folding my arms.

Igor nodded and brought out a set from the ones displayed using his system. He looked at me before saying.

"Costs 1500 silver."

I nodded and inspected the armor.

[Standard Leather armor]

[Rarity: Common] [Tier B]

[Description: Your average leather armor set]

[Stats: +100 Physical Defense , -10 Movement Speed]

The corners of my lips curved slightly upwards upon seeing the stats of the armor. It seems like Altered Reality really thought out their gear system.

Both Physical Defense and Movement Speed were sub-stats derived from Strength and Agility respectively, similar to Attack Power.

Therefore, increasing them specifically means a very balanced gear system.

If this was a typical VR game, gear would have boosted the strength or agility entirely , thereby increasing other sub-stats in the process and making the overall gear system highly unbalanced and unrealistic.

I pulled up my system interface to confirm my thoughts.

Like I thought, I was right.

「Physical Defense (Strength x0.5): 7

Description: Your resistance against attacks. Works by subtracting your Physical Defense from the total damage of the attack received」

「Movement Speed (Agility x10): 140

Description: Your top speed when moving. May be reduced in other mediums, e.g water」

After I stored the armor in my inventory, Igor then gave me 500 silver. Ellie and I were about to leave, but he suddenly stopped us by saying,

"You two look like strong adventurers. I plan on moving some cargo to Blue Sky city which is a few kilometers north of here and I'll need some protection. What do you say? You lot up for the job?."

Immediately, a system notification appeared in front of me and Ellie.

[Quest: Escort the Merchant]

[Description: Help Igor Yaheck transport his goods to Blue Sky city]

[Difficulty: B]

[Objectives:

1. Protect the transport convoy throughout the journey to Blue Sky city.

2. Ensure the safe delivery of the goods upon arrival at Blue Sky city.

[Rewards: 6,500 exp, 50 gold]

[Failure Penalty: None]

[Do you want to accept the quest Y/N?]

Ellie was about to click yes, but I stopped her. The quest looked a bit sketchy. Why was the quest difficulty B for simply transporting goods? I frowned and looked at Igor,

"What goods are you transporting?" I asked indifferently.

Igor hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether to tell me. Eventually, he puffed out some smoke from his pipe and replied lazily,

"They're private goods so I can't disclose too much information. Just know that they're not illegal."

'Interesting…Well, let's just see how this goes..'

"Alright, we'll help you." I responded, clicking yes and gesturing to Ellie to do the same. If the goods were not illegal, then it was safe to take the quest.

The fact that the quest difficulty is B means there's definitely going to be attacks on his cargo. I didn't want to be implicated and jailed for transporting illegal goods if guards attacked us. After all, given the realism of the game, anything was possible.

Igor gave me the leather armor and told us to wait for a few minutes so he could call his guards and the rest of the escorts for the journey to Blue Sky city.

As we waited, I decided to make small talk with Ellie seeing as there was nothing else to do,

"You sleep alright?" I asked, somewhat softly, as I looked at her.

Ellie was surprised for a moment, not expecting the question, though she replied a few moments later,

"Yeah, I also said goodbye to all my friends as well as the nun in charge of the orphanage."

I was rather confused hearing that; why did she have to say goodbye? She was making it sound like we were going on a quest of no return. Thus, I asked,

"Why did you say goodbye? It's not like we're leaving forever."

Ellie shook her head,

"I have already decided on the path of an adventurer. Most adventurers leave their homes for extended periods, with most never returning. You also said that we were going to be questing a lot so I thought we would probably be constantly on the move and I'd have no time to come back to visit." She said, in a firm determined voice.

I nodded my head in understanding. It made sense, and she was right. Though, I was surprised that she was not scared whatsoever. After all, she was an NPC who could die, while I could always respawn at the nearest church so I asked curiously,

"You aren't scared of the danger that lies ahead?"

Ellie smiled and looked at the sky, her hair fluttering in the wind.

"Ah, I'm definitely scared. I'm just a country girl seeking adventure with a boy she just met. I've never stepped out of this little town all my life." she started

She then turned to me, made a fist and added,

"However, I choose to confront that fear head on and conquer it. I desire a life of glory and conquest, a life of magical adventures, just like my role model, Emperor Artorius. To reach the stars, we must transcend our limits, and I'm simply taking my first step towards it." she finished, with a faint powerful aura in her voice.

I couldn't help but stare at her blankly, shocked at what she just said. I wasn't expecting her to have this side to her personality. I was completely enamored by her valor and spirit.

'Damn, this girl is really hot' I thought, with my teenage mind.

I quickly snapped out of my thoughts when I remembered she mentioned someone called Emperor Artorious, wondering who that was. I was yet to know the lore of the world and was about to ask her who Emperor Artorious was but Igor showed up and interrupted me.

"The convoy is ready, let's move out." he said, in his gruff voice.

I simply nodded and followed Igor, gesturing to Ellie to come along; we stopped at an inn on the way out of the city so I could change into my new leather armor set seeing as there was no equip option.

Soon, we reached the outskirts of the town and stopped in front of Igor's convoy.

The convoy consisted of a large medieval looking carriage, and a group of 20 men armed to the teeth, with weapons, and armor. They looked battle hardened and each one of them was on horseback; Ellie gulped seeing them.

The fierce aura they were giving off was intimidating for a country girl like her who was yet to see the world; It didn't affect me though. To me, they looked like a bunch of weaklings, which is understandable considering the fact that most of them were between levels 10-13.

Igor brought us to our horses. They were brown and looked sturdy.

Intrigued, I inspected them,

[Arabian Horse | Lvl. 3]

[HP: 1500/1500 (100%)]

'It seems like all animals have levels in this game, regardless of whether they are wild or not' I thought, upon inspecting the horse.

I turned to look at Ellie who was staring at the horse curiously, as if she hadn't seen one before. I smiled faintly, before asking,

"Have you ridden a horse before?"

Ellie looked at me and immediately blushed, dropping her head down in embarrassment.

"N-No." she stuttered meekly, feeling embarrassed.

I laughed; she was still as cute as always.

"Here, I'll show you how to mount it." I offered amiably, walking over to her in order to show her how to mount the horse and ride it.

Soon, we left Morningwood town, and embarked on the journey towards Blue Sky city. As we rode, I decided to teach Ellie various gaming terms, and strategies, as well as educate her on the workings of guilds. As a veteran player, I had a lot of experience playing games so I was able to drill her thoroughly.

Unsurprisingly, she absorbed my teachings like a sponge, and asked a lot of questions, especially when I told her more about [♱Trinity], and the rest of the other top guilds.

"So what's the strongest guild right now?" she inquired curiously,

'Well, if we go by the rankings, its [✾ Arcane Chaos], though that may change in this game.' I thought, thinking of how to answer her.

I was about to reply, but I was suddenly interrupted by a loud, system voice, which echoed throughout the world, displaying a large panel in the sky for everyone to see.

[World-wide System Announcement]

[Beware the age of darkness that looms above us. The Harbinger of Doom, Despair and Destruction has been born in the Northern Continent]

[An unknown player has acquired the hidden Legendary Class: 'The Overlord of Death']

[This Class is no longer obtainable for players]