Ch 8- Leveling up

Glacé opened his status bar 'wooh! Almost level three already! Now I just need to grind to level ten before I can turn on my broadcast'.

"Alright Yuki! Now that we've finished tutorials what's my first task?".

Yuki showed an elegant smile "Do you know why you can't transform into a human before level ten?".

Glacé stared at the cloud dome above his head for a moment before looking back at Yuki and shaking to show he really didn't.

"That's because any player who is categorized as a mythical beast will have a harder time adapting to the game. So the game requires such players to master skills in their avatar's original form before they can truly leave the starting area and explore the game".

Glacé titled his head seemingly understanding and yet not understanding at the same time. Yuki stared at his puzzled expression and held his head as he sighed. "Even though you just started the game I'm sure you've already seen how lifelike the game is".

'Of course, the AI's individuality and thoughts are quite unique and expressive and the landscape is gorgeous so far' Glacé couldn't help but praise mentally.

"This game is meant to be a real-life simulation, skills aren't learned instantaneously. The game requires players to adapt and put in hard work to grow. So for players like you whose races aren't traditionally humanoid, the game set a mandatory learning curve so as not to mess up the player's future and leave them disadvantaged.

For example: there are items in this game that can force mythical/ animal beasts back to their original form, or if you lose too much health your form would also revert. Now let's say that happens to you if the game didn't force you to learn how to move and use your wings and if you didn't take the initiative to learn; it would hinder your ability to hide and escape. So in cases where players end up with a non-humanoid race, the game gives players a restriction to focus their first ten levels on doing tasks pertaining to understanding and fully utilizing their races' inherent skills and talents".

"Wow. That's actually rather smart and well planned out, so not all races will have initial restrictions?".

"That is correct".

"Okay then, so where do we start?".

"Your first task is to do 20 wing flaps".

'That's it?' Glacé felt the task was rather simple. He slowly tried to feel for his wings muscles; which led to him continually tensing his back muscles until he experienced a back spasm.

"Ahh!". Glacés hooves all spread flat on the ground and he wailed like a dying hog as his back kept twitching in pain.

Meanwhile, Yuki had been sitting on that raggedy wooden chair watching Glacé's actions and once again was trying to hold back his laughter. Yuki sent a short clip of data to the main brain who in turn expressionlessly opened it. The main brain saw the scene of a small winged unicorn continually flexing and relaxing its back until it spasmed and collapsed on the ground. Along with the video Yuki sent a short message 'this first player is quite amusing'. The main brain smirked for a short millisecond and went right back to its tasks.

Glacé stayed on the ground motionless even after the spasm ended; pretending he was dead. 'Why is this so hard? I can't find my wing's existence at all'.

Glacé silently opened the task menu and clicked on his first task to see if there were any hints or tips listed.

'Active Quest- Earning your "wing" in Winged Unicorn:

Task one- complete 20 basic wind flaps (just move your wings up and down 20 times; it's that simple)'

Glacé stared at the text motionless. 'Why is this game so fricken good at pulling hate? The developers must have it out for me, or actually, I guess it'd be the main brain. So damn hateful'.

Glacé stared at the text ruefully before spotting Yuki hunched over laughing. His face turned black as the bottom of the pot, he tried to stand back up. However, his legs were all spread flat; his belly touching the ground. He didn't have the necessary strength to pull himself back up and after a few attempts of him stretching and straining his neck trying to stand he looked back at Yuki pitifully.

"Yuki can you please help me up? I also can't seem to find the feeling for my wings, can you help direct me or maybe give me some pointers?". Glacé asked somewhat sheepishly.

Perceiving Glacé's emotional fluctuations Yuki put his amused face away and stepped up to help. After standing Glacé up, Yuki spoke seriously "because I feel your rather pitiful right now I'm gonna help you out once, make sure you observe and feel the movement carefully".

'Aren't tutorial NPCs supposed to guide players until they understand the basic things?' Glacé felt a bit hurt and aggravated but said nothing and watched Yuki with rapt attention.

Yuki slowly walked behind Glacés back and gently pulled out his folded wings, he then proceeded to gently open them completely and flapped them up and down a few times before closing them up again.

"Can you feel the muscles now?".

Glacé nodded hesitantly and slowly tried to move the newly found muscles; his wings slowly sputtered out in a stiff and robotic type of motion. Glacés face lit up and whipped his head to Yuki his iridescent eyes gleaming as if to see 'look at me! Look at me! I did it!'

'Maybe this player really is suited to be a unicorn; simple and naive'. Yuki thought teasingly and smiled as he nodded in affirmation to Glacé who slowly, repetitively moved his muscles. He finally managed to flap his wings up and down smoothly once. Glacéd observed that his stamina bar had already dropped a whole quarter, he ignored it though, and slowly moved his wings up and down four more times before sitting back on the ground.

'Why is my stamina so trash?'.

Glacé stared at Yuki and the other spoke promptly "because you are only a newborn calf, it's very normal not to have much strength. We have fruit trees right outside, you should eat some food and take a rest before finishing your wing exercises".

'Hateful. Everything about this game is hateful'. So Glacé bitterly took a snack break and shortly after continued to practice until he finished his wing flaps.

*Ding!* Quest 'Earning your 'Wing' in Winged Unicorn- Task one 'complete 20 basic wing flaps' Complete! +200 EXP: +20 Stamina'.

'Woow 200 EXP for flapping my wings, seem rather profitable'. With this task complete Glacé reached level three.

*Ding!* Unlocked Quest 'Earning your 'Wing' in Winged Unicorn- Task two: hover above the ground for at least 20 minutes (the time can be broken apart; just need an overall 20-minutes flight time)'.

'Isn't that a bit of a jump? From moving my wings straight to hovering?'.

Glacé grumbled internally but faithfully got to work, it took him over 8 hours to complete the task as continuously moving his wings to lift off took a lot of energy from him. So he had to constantly stop to recharge his stamina, the rewards for this task however were even more generous than the previous, and Glacé directly reached level 6 along with his stamina bar drastically increasing.

His last task for the 'Earning the 'Wing' in winged unicorn' made Glacé slightly apprehensive.

'Task three - Keep flying towards the sky until you're soaring above the clouds: after reaching the required height fly freely for at least five minutes and then find your way back to the sanctuary'.

Glacé didn't have a fear of heights. However flying so high without any fail-safe or reassurance, only relying on his wimpy wings that he'd just learned to use made him feel a bit scared. Glacé trotted out of the house after taking a short nap and meal. Hewalked to the middle of the sanctuary, stood still and looked up at the sky. He sighed before subconsciously looking around for Yuki, Yuki was back in his original form and slowly wandered next to Glacé.

Glacés eyes shined "are you going with me?".

Yuki gave a light nod "I'll watch from a distance but won't interfere if you fall and die your own your own".

Glacé was thoroughly dumbfounded "didn't you say our race was kind and pure? Watching me fall to death doesn't seem to fit the description very well".

"This is something all young in our race experience, the elders watch but don't have the right to interfere. If a Winged unicorn can't fly on its own then it will die regardless, so this is a survival test. Good luck".

Glacé decided to ignore this NPC and he started flapping his wings gently and took off, at some point, Glacé noticed Mole was sitting on his head; grabbing his mane and cheering him on gleefully.

Glacé felt the wind rushing through his mane and wings and he felt alive! His eyes glowed and he increased his speed. The next moment he broke through the silver clouds to reveal dazzling hues of red and purple "it must be close to sunset" Glacé whispered softly to Mole and continued to glide in the shimmering light. After staying in the air for a while when he started to feel tired, he started his descent. His hooves softly landed on the ground of the sanctuary after some time.

*Ding!* congratulations Player Glacé completing the quest "Earning your 'Wing' in Winged Unicorn".

+1000 EXP, +Book of elementary magic, + tribes acknowledgment.

'Tribes acknowledgment? What does that mean?'.

As soon as the notification ended Glacé heard the sound of doors opening one after another and slowly a group of people and winged unicorns slowly approached him.