6 Chapter 5

"Well, I think I finished with all I need to have in the apartment."

Nex smiled in satisfaction as he looked around his new home that was now fully furnished. Two days ago after he convinced Jane (the young lady) to let him help her, she agreed to let him rent the apartment, and in only two days he managed to turn it into a proper, fully-furnished, house.

*knock**knock* "big brother Nex! Open the door!"

Suddenly hearing knocks along with a young voice from outside the entrance door, Nex smiled as he knew who it was.

Opening the door he saw an adorable young boy about 10 years old holding a gift basket along with Jane smiling and standing behind him.

"Congratulation on moving here!"

"Oh? Is this for me Eddie? Thank you," Nex said while taking the basket from the kid and patting his head.

He then looked at Jane and smiled, "come on in, I just bought a few snacks."

Seeing his smile Jane blushed a little and entered along with Eddie to the house.

After starting to teach Jane how to train in order to have her body and soul balanced, Nex got to meet Eddie, her younger brother, and soon enough Eddie who found Nex cool especially with the fact that Nex is a Hunter and Nex quickly got fond of Nex and even started to call him big brother, and will always ask him question about hunters and demons, Nex who liked the boy answered him with a smile for whatever he asked.

Immediately after sitting on the couch, Eddie asked Nex, "big brother did you already bought a VR Helmet for the game? Me and big sister already bought one for each of us and waiting for today in the evening when the game will be released."

Nex smiled while a (figurative) fire burned in his eyes, "of course! That the first thing I bought after getting the apartment."

"As expected big brother! And you decided what class are you going to play? I going to be a warrior class and big sis said she will be a healer one."

"What class?" Nex smiled confidently, "of course I am going to be an Explorer!"

"Explorer?" Eddie became confused, "I heard that this class is the weakest as it doesn't start with any combat skill, its only good point that it allows an extra two profession slots."

"That right," Nex agreed but then added with a smile, "but that is what I want to do! To adventure and craft thing while I explore the game! And besides, did you forget that I'm a Hunter? If I want to have a cool fight I will go fight some devil or a large demon."

"Oh, I see," Eddie nodded, and then a big smile formed on his face.

"Big brother is so cool"

On the Jane thought with a wry smile 'when was the last time Eddie admired someone so much?'

♦♦♦

After Jane and Eddie walked back to their house, Nex checked his communication device for information about the game one last time before he starts to create his character, as the game is about to open its server in less than an hour and character creating is already available.

The game is developed for several years by several organizations amongst them was the Hunter Association and the Global Alliance, the reason for this was because the game was originally designed to develop combat experience of the Hunters and only later on it was decided to be accessible to the whole world.

But even though the game is now open to the wide audience and people all ages, its original goal to train hunter didn't change, and because of that, the game difficulty is high to a level that a high-rank NPC is more skilled than 99% of the hunters.

In order to cope with that, it was decided that the game will have three difficulty mode. First one is Beginner mode, a player on that difficulty mode will have support from the system when it comes to applying skills and fighting so that as long as the player skills are high enough, the player can fight even boss head on! Other pros that this mode has is that it allows the players to change the pain sensor as they wish (although that only for adults) and also have the system support when conversing with NPC.

The second mode is Professional, this mode is more inclined to low and mid-level hunters as it requires to have some skill and fighting experience in order to play, the reason for this is because the system in this mode will have less help for the player and will act not only based on the player skill level but also his judgment capability, another thing in this mode is that pain sensors start from 20 percent and can only be adjusted to be higher.

Lastly, there is the Master mode, players of this mode will not any assistance from the system when it comes to fighting and crafting, it will only grant them the ability to create their own skills, something that absurdly hard since the system only consider it a skill when the player is thoroughly familiar with it. Not only that the pain and even the sense of fatigue of the player will be at a whopping 100 percent! And because of that, this mode is called in forums "mode for crazy people" since almost all people who will play this mode are not well in their mind.

"Why do they say that about that mode? How else do they want to enjoy crafting and adventuring if not through blood and sweat?"

here is a good example of one of those people.

Continue reading, Nex found out that the game is developed by a combination of top-class AI and what seems to be a special type of spirits that can simulate souls so that NPC will be as life-like as real people!

'Interesting. This is the first time I heard about this type of spirit. But to think that they can even simulate soul, this is sure is something to expect for.' thought Nex in curiosity, but as he continued to read he came across information that intrigued him even more.

Apparently, the game developers managed to "clone" a digital copy of another dimension and based on it develop the game world and its inhabitants!

Without noticing a smirk rose on Nex lips.

"Well that, I gotta check it out."

♦♦♦

After making sure that everything is ready and that he could log into the game, Nex put the game helmet on and said the password he set beforehand:

"Lazy a*s returnee!"

Immediately his vision turned black and by the next moment, he found himself standing in a white room with nothing there except a beautiful lady wearing simple white clothes.

"Welcome to The Mythical Age! My name is Yuno and I am the goddess of this world."

The lady presented herself and then began to speak.

"I'm sorry for suddenly summoning you into this place but my world is in danger and you are..."

'Hmm its been a while since I heard these words' ignoring the words of the goddess, Nex started to raise memories from the past.

"And that's why I had to summon you and you're friends since you are the only ones who could help this world." Yuno finished with an apologizing face.

'It is always this sentence that brings a bad taste to my mouth the most,' thought Nex with a disgruntled smile, he then looked at Yuno and said.

"Fine! I accept your request!"

Hearing his words brought a smile to the goddess' face, and she clapped her hand, "good! Then let us start to create the avatar that you descend with to the world."

Then, a screen appeared in front of Nex.

"Please select your name"

"Nexus" Nex answered simply.

"Great! I see that this name is available. Now for the next step, adjusting your appearance"

"Pass"

"Then for the next one, stats, there are six main stats in the game: Strength(STR), Agility(AGI),

Vitality(VIT), Mana, Wisdom(WIS) and Accuracy. every player other than Explorer receives two points in each stat upon leveling up and two more points to put in any stat they wish, in addition, they will get three more points on the main Stat of their class and they can't put there their free stat points."

"You know? For such a large scale of a game, I expected that there will be fewer cliches."

Although his words Yuno still smiled, "Next: selecting your race and class. Which one do you want to hear about first?"

'Now that I think about it, I read that the character creation part will not be managed by the real AI.' "Race"

"Would you like to know the backstory of the race or just their traits?"

"Boring, traits."

"Alright then, for now, at character creation, you can only choose from four major races: first Humans: jack of all trade, all their stats are balanced(1X) and they are capable of learning an extra profession."

Second Elves strong on Agility(1.2X effectiveness) and Mana(1.1X effectiveness) get also 10% increase damage when using a bow or when being inside forest, but low on Vitality(0.8X effectiveness) and Strength(0.9X effectiveness).

Third, Beastmen: have high Strength(1.2X effectiveness) and Vitality(1.1X effectiveness) and get 10% extra damage in melee weapon and when HP is low and when fighting in plains. But, low on Mana(0.8X effectiveness) and magic based Skills(0.9X effectiveness).

And lastly, Dwarfs: have high Vitality(1.2X effectiveness) and Strength(1.1X effectiveness) and will have 10% extra damage when in a rocky or mountains area. Additionally, they will have a 10% increase in crafting success rate. But will have lower Agility(0.8X effectiveness) and Mana(0.9X effectiveness).

"That is all the races you can choose for now, would you like to hear about the Classes? And as well know only the properties?"

"Of course that... Yes, who would want to hear stupid stories instead of playing anyway."

"Very well, there are 7 main classes that every player must begin from:

Warrior: get 3 stat points in Strength, and will have a 20% increase in Physical Attack.

Shield Bearer: get 3 stat points in Vitality, and will have a 20% increase in Defense.

Archer: get 3 stat points in Accuracy, and will have a 20% increase in Accuracy and Attack Range.

Thief: get 3 stat points in Agility, and will have a 20% increase in Critical Chance and Stealth.

Priest: get 3 stat points in Wisdom, and will have a 20% increase in Support Skills.

Magician: get 3 stat points in Mana, and will have a 20% increase in Magic Attack.

And lastly, Explorer: instead of getting three fixed stat points on level up, the player will get an additional stat point in each stat and an additional free stat point to put wherever they wish(altogether 3 stat points in each stat and 3 free stat points on every level up), in addition, they will get an extra two profession slots, and lastly, instead of learning combat skills they will have to create them on their own."

"And that is the "storyless" description of classes, do you know already what to choose?"

"Finally!" Nex sighed exhaustedly, "I thought that it going to take forever, anyways my choices are human and Explorer."

"Great! Now one before last, Mode. there are three-"

"Master obviously, the other two doesn't sound as fun as this one." Without even letting her finish, Nex already told his choice.

And again while smiling without care, Yuno continued. "And so we reached the final part before you descend, where will you arrive, in the region that you are in you will reach the Cloud kingdom, in which part do you want to begin? The north, the east, the south, or the west?"

"If possible, I want random," Nex said after a short thought.

"Very well, you will begin from Spring beginners village in the southern part of the kingdom." Yuno smiled and then held her palms together as if she prays.

"I shall pray for you to succeed on your task."

"You understand the irony of what you just did right?"

And along with those words, Nex disappeared.

♦♦♦

The Mythical Age, ???, Cloud Kingdom, Spring village.

Appearing inside a small town square, Nex first looked around to perceive his surroundings, seeing a seemingly normal middle-aged style village that didn't feel any different from reality, he nodded in satisfaction.

"Quite admirable, while I did expect for high realism, this is going above and beyond what I imagined!"

He then closed his eyes to sense his body, "hmmm… seem like my body is on a level of a normal person with an average amount of mana inside him…" he suddenly furrowed his brows, "weird, that mana… it feels the same as the mana of…" he suddenly extended his hand.

"Light"(Unknown Language)

[Congrtulations! You've created a skill]

And to his despair, a shining ball of light appeared gently on his palm. While watching the orb shining softly he suddenly remembered a certain line he just read a few minutes before.

'Apparently, the game developers managed to "clone" a digital copy of another dimension and based on it develop the game world and its inhabitants!'

"No." Nex fell to his knees.

Yes, Nex found himself "back" in the place he wanted to be the least.

"Why did it have to be Perias!"