Infiltration
[01:38 | April 11, 2035]
"Graaawgh."
A three-meter orc fell face-first into the ground. Arrows, cuts, and scorch marks littered its back. Steaming hot blood bubbled out from its wounds. The massive slab of rock in its hand was left beside its corpse as the orc's hands lost strength.
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[YOU REACHED LEVEL 25]
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[Character Page]
[Nickname: [Shin] | Level: 25 | Specialization: Savant | Profession: Manufacturing]
[Attributes]
Strength: 33 | Agility: 33 | Intelligence: 33
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[Congratulations! Your basic skills have advanced to Tier III and evolved]
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[Perception III] - Increase the awareness of nearby surroundings. Your reaction time has increased. Furthermore, your cognitive ability has increased.
[Proficiency III] - Increases your proficiency at wielding most weapons and tools. You will no longer receive reduced attributes from equipped weapons. Consecutive attacks now deal 10% more damage to a maximum of 40%. This effect is lost after 3 seconds of not attacking an enemy.
[Enhance III] - Focus your mana to apply a strengthening effect to an object of your choosing within a short radius. Your body has been enhanced automatically to reduce the stamina required to perform certain actions.
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[You have unlocked Tier III skills]
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[Accelerate LEVEL: 1/3] - Enhance a projectile or weapon you shoot or throw to rapidly increase its speed while airborne.
[Collapse LEVEL: 1/3] - Create a field 1/2/3 meters wide that draws in objects towards the center. You are not affected by its effects unless you choose to be.
[Elemental Mastery LEVEL: 1/5] - Imbue an equipped weapon with an element of your choice. Additional elements will unlock as you level this skill: Fire/Ice/Wind/Lightning/Dark
[Spatial Mastery] - Freely control equipped items within 25 meters of you.
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Shin sat down next to the orc's body as it slowly faded into nothingness. Shin and Nightingale were positioned underneath a massive stone overhang. The sparks from the fire crackling between them landed on sticks of meat held up by the rocks surrounding the fire.
"Do you like what you see?" Nightingale asked while looking through his codex.
"Yeah, these seem pretty interesting." Shin replied.
"Seems like I can use gravity magic to pull things towards the center of a point like a weak blackhole of some sort. I also got the ability to accelerate anything I throw or shoot. Uhhh… [Elemental Mastery] seems to let me imbue my weapon with an element and my [Retrieval] got upgraded to [Spatial Mastery]." Shin continued. As Shin expected, level 25 was a major milestone.
"Wow… That's a mouthful. How rude of that orc to interrupt us! At least we get to celebrate our level up with a side of dinner, haha." Nightingale laughed out loud.
Nightingale picked up one of the sticks of meat.
"I got some new fire and wind magic. One of them conjures a fire pillar beneath the enemy. The other one lets me create a concentrated gust of wind. Oh, this one lets me hover in the air for a short time!"
"You know what? It's strange that I haven't unlocked any magic for other elements but I suppose that might just be my affinity." Nightingale said while playfully waving around the stick of meat.
The two of them told each other about their new abilities.
"I can't wait to eat some normal meat again." Shin muttered while leaning backward with a stick in his hand.
"Maybe some sukiyaki or even Mongolian beef sounds so good right about now." Nightingale replied after biting into the stick of meat.
"This "deer" meat isn't it." Shin said while staring at the sizzling meat.
While Shin and Nightingale were leveling, the player count of Mythos Online multiplied exponentially. The day after John Miller's speech went live, packages of Zero VR devices went out to every household in the world. What followed was a surge of players. People from every background and almost every demographic began to play the game. The demographic that didn't play Mythos Online were the elderly and the homeless.
News media across the world stopped broadcasting information on hemoxythra overnight as their programming was replaced by advertisements for Mythos Online and other Pentrafil-associated products.
Shin sat up again after biting off a chunk of meat.
"I'm gonna head off to sleep soon. I have big plans tomorrow after all."
Shin ate in-game to settle his stomach temporarily as his body was not yet adjusted to the fasting schedule he put himself on to reserve food. He would still have to leave the game to put real food in his body eventually.
Nightingale decided against raiding the Stormwatch guild headquarters. He didn't want any unneeded attention drawn to him, as he was already taking major risks by data mining the game, an activity strictly forbidden by Finale Studios.
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[08:14 | April 11, 2035]
Shin logged in again after satisfying his self-allotted calorie count.
The cold stone floor immediately contrasted with the warm air-conditioned room that he was in.
He looked around and found a note that Nightingale left behind.
"I'm heading out to explore around. I wish you the best of luck with your plan. I'm going to check out the other cities nearby that the other players have been gossiping about. - Nightingale"
Shin imbued an arrowhead with [Elemental Mastery] and burnt the note into ash. He stood up and yawned while stretching.
"Let's get to work."
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[08:32 | April 11, 2035]
Shin investigated the perimeter of the Stormwatch guild headquarters. If it weren't for the royal family's castle at the center of the city, the headquarters would be the tallest structure in Freila.
The building itself resembled a castle but it was accented with symbolism from the Church of Lexicon. Crosses and sigils could be seen at the tops of windows. Four watchtowers stood tall at each corner of the castle.
Clothiers, armories, and other stores surrounded the building. It was just a five minute walk north from the commercial district. The building's location was akin to placing an office building in the middle of a outdoor shopping plaza. Busy streets ran up each side of the castle. NPCs and players walked the streets and armed knights guarded the entrance to the building.
Shin scanned the area and found a few dark alleyways that seemed promising.
"It would be safe to assume that security would be tough." Shin thought to himself.
He remembered his new skills and decided to try what they were capable of before sneaking into the building. He already tried [Elemental Mastery] so he decided to try [Accelerate] next.
Shin picked up a pebble on the ground. He positioned his fingers into a position where he could flick the pebble using his index finger and thumb. He placed the pebble between the two digits, imagined the pebble moving faster, and flicked it toward a wooden board leaning against the walls of the alleyway one meter away. The pebble shot forward and ricocheted off the board, scattering wooden splinters everywhere before landing on the floor.
He was about to walk to the pebble to pick it up again but he stopped himself. Shin reached his hand out toward the pebble as if he was trying to grab it.
"[Collapse]."
The pebble scraped against the floor before lifting off the ground and toward Shin. Once the pebble was close enough, he canceled the skill and snatched it out of the air.
He found dust and other debris along with the pebble.
Shin found the pulling capabilities of [Collapse] interesting, but it didn't seem too different from [Spatial Mastery] so long as he casted it in his hands. Shin found that the main difference was that he didn't have to equip the manipulated item and he could place the suction field a fair distance away from him.
Next, he took out his dagger and tossed it in the air. He performed the same [Retrieval] gesture that he had grown accustomed to.
The dagger hung suspended in the air. Wherever Shin imagined the dagger, the dagger moved in that direction. Left, right, down, father, and closer.
Shin grabbed the dagger out of the air.
"Alright, with that out of the way…" Shin said casually while toying with the dagger in hand.
He moved his eyes toward a balcony overhang protruding from the castle. He took out a rope and tied a knot through the hole in the hilt of the dagger.
Using his new skill, Shin carefully levitated the dagger up to the balcony and lodged it between two balusters.
Shin tugged on the rope to test its sturdiness.
He looked around to make sure no one was watching before starting to climb up. As he reached the ledge of the balcony, he peered over the ledge. A maid with a cart crossed the door leading to the balcony. Shin ducked under the ledge to avoid her gaze. He waited for the sounds of the cart to recede before peeking out again.
Shin hoisted himself up onto the balcony, dislodged his dagger, and slid into a corner. He cut the rope with his dagger and put the rest into his item pouch. Shin took a glance inside from the open door.
The interior of the castle was extravagant. Ornate carpet lined the floors. Marble pillars supported high vaulted ceilings. Brilliant gold chandeliers hung from the ceiling of the hallway. Two-meter-high doors occasionally broke the pattern of the gilded wallpaper.
To Shin, the interior of the headquarters was made of money. However, what he planned to do was far worse than petty theft.