13 Sam

Hearing that single line, everyone else was infuriated. She was just making it seem like it was all one big joke! Plus, she tricked everyone else into thinking that she was a noob! What kind of bullshit is that?!

However, they could tell that she wasn't going to give them any answers. So, all they could do is speculate.

"Guys, look at this" Unbreakable said. He was still a bit shocked about what Avery did and say, but now that he digested it, he could process the system notification in front of him.

[Congrats! Your party got a first clear! Your party will go down in history! Do you want to name your party?]

Everyone crowded around him and Unbreakable showed his screen to everyone.

"Well, that's expected. It is a first clear after all. But, it kinda looks a bit misleading" Dregon commented. Everyone else agreed. It is normal to have your names announced after getting a first clear for a dungeon or a first kill for killing a boss. But, shouldn't it say first kill instead of first clear?

Avery already knew of this misleading problem, because everyone was confused by it. The creators made a small mistake and got called out by the community. Two days later, the creators announced that they fixed it and everyone who reported it in-game got a Exp potion that increases Exp gain by 100% for an hour. That caused a stir in the community, because some people didn't report it in-game and only posted about it in the forums. They were angry that they didn't get any reward, but they couldn't only blame their bad luck. Meanwhile, the people who did report in-game were happy about their luck.

After that, everyone who found a bug, glitch or problem immediately reported it in hopes of getting the coveted Exp potion. Who could blame them? Getting 100% more Exp for an hour is really good!

"If it's a bit confusing, why don't we report it?" Avery casually suggested. Might as well have all of them get the Exp potion.

"Sure, why not" Dregon replied, and everyone proceed to file reports in-game about the issue.

"Anyways, back on the topic, what should we name our party?" Avery asked. Everyone else exchanged glances, then Dregon proceeded to talk. "Well, me and my friends are a professional hunting team in other video games, and we moved to this game. I didn't explain before because, well, I still thought you were a noob..." He said. "So, what about it?" Avery asked.

"Well, we already have a team name, so came we use that?" Dregon asked. Avery laughed and said "You were all worried about that? I'm a solo player, so I don't really care about getting fame and all of that. Use whatever name you want!". Dregon and the other sighed. They didn't know that Avery was a noob, so who knew if she was a part of a guild and wanted to spread around her guild's name?

Unbreakable typed something into the system screen, and then everyone playing the game got a notification.

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

The notification flashed thrice before it stopped. It was enough so that everyone could see it, even if they were in an intense battle.

Avery was surprised when she saw the name of the group. It answered a lot of her questions about Dregon and his friends.

Artistic Experts, in her previous life, were a group of experts that popped up out of nowhere in the beginning of 'Realm of the Elements'. In the first month of the game, they killed a wild boss with just the five of them. That's how they made a name for themselves. They didn't make a lot of achievements compared to large guilds because they had hundreds of players, but with the five of them they managed to snag quite a few achievements.

Sadly, the other guilds didn't like that, so around the time Avery first started playing in her previous world, they were hunted and all killed all the way back to level one. It was such a shame too. Many players ranging from solo players to small-scale guilds were fans of them. They thought they were heroes; clashing against the all-mighty large guilds which steal and plunder every resource in-game while being backed up by large corporations.

Avery heard about them too, but never really cared about them too much because she was starting out and still didn't know what a dungeon was.

Seeing that she made them appear earlier, Avery wondered how it will change with the system announcement.

Avery didn't really care if her name was shown. In her mind, it didn't matter if her name was or wasn't shown, because you can always hide your username from other people. She's been doing that the whole time, and same goes for other people. It's handy if you want to go incognito, or if you don't want vendors selling gear shouting out your name.

"Should we continue guys?" Avery asked. The others agreed. They wanted to leave and gear up again, but they still need to finish the hidden quest. If they leave, then another group might beat the dungeon before them. And they don't know if they'll lose the quest item.

But, with Avery on board, they feel confident that they can beat the dungeon, because in their eyes, Avery is a godly player. And, well, they're right.

"Before that, we should probably split up the loot" Unbreakable said. Everyone looked at the loot and proceeded to evenly split it up.

____________________

Outside the dungeon, there were a large amount of people selling gear, finding parties, but mainly placing bets on who will get the first clear of the dungeon.

"All righty here, place your bets here!" someone yelled out. People were constantly placing bets through him. He was a betting NPC that players can call over if there's enough players around that want to make bets.

"Okay, the bets will be sealed once a group beats the boss, or else there'll be some unfair betting going on! Double your money if the guild you bet on clears it first and get fifty times your money if you bet that another group will clear the dungeon first!" he yelled.

Lots of people are making bets because the choices are really good in their opinion. To them, they can double their money with a 1/3 chance. And even though if you bet that another group will clear the dungeon first you will get fifty times the amount you bet, it's insane and a waste of money. Any average group that goes in can't even get past the first wave of monsters, so how could any random group get the first clear?

A distance away from the betting NPC, a group of players are having a heated discussion.

"What the hell Martial! Why'd you use all of your gold to bet on the random group! That was 20 gold! All of your life savings! Just for a stupid bet!" a player was yelling at his friend. Martial Mage, the player being yelled at, was unfazed.

"I trust my gut and the community of free players" Martial replied. Everyone else was used to his attitude under normal circumstances, but this was his life savings. They were the ones who helped him get all that money, yet he was blowing it all away.

"You know what, I've had it with you! I'm leaving!" one guy said and walked away. Martial got a notification that the guy that just left unfriended him.

"Same here!" "Me too" "Let's leave". The rest of them left and unfriended him as well. Only one guy remained. He was Martial's closest friend online, but he had a conflicted face. Martial knew he was going to leave as well.

"I really don't understand you..." he said. "You refuse to join our guild, saying that you 'Want to be free' and you hardly make any sense. The only reason that you got to stay with use is because of your skills, but at this point it can't cover up your attitude. I'm sorry, but goodbye". Then, he unfriended Martial and left.

Martial was left standing by himself. He was determined that he made the right decision, but no one seems to understand him.

Martial is a martial artist in real life, hence his username Martial Mage. His real name is Sam. He's a martial prodigy, but it doesn't really matter because nowadays martial arts is a unknown topic. The closest thing to it are a few commonly known martial arts like taekwondo, karate and judo, but in the eyes of an expert those arts are basic and impractical.

Sam comes from one of the last and the oldest martial arts family. His family owns an insane amount of martial arts manuals, with the majority of them untouched. But recently, his family strayed from the martial path. It's expected though. His father taught him everything he knew. His father also tried to teach his brother and sister, but they weren't interested. His brother became a CEO of a large company and his sister became a supermodel. But, he became a martial artist and was subjected to the bullying of his siblings. Their mother died after giving birth to him, the youngest son, which was one of the main things they bullied him with. It was ok when his father was still alive, but when he died, it all changed.

His brother and sister kicked him out of the house with all of the books, saying they were useless like him. They tricked their father into giving them all of the inheritance money and only leaving him with enough funds for a small apartment. He managed to make some money from some

small tournaments, but it wasn't enough. Then, he found out about video games and joined that community. He got really good and started making some money off of it. He played magic type classes because he found interesting ways to use them to him, it felt the same way as gaining insight on fighting techniques.

In real life, he was considered a waste of a son who stays inside and rarely comes out but online he's a gaming expert. By successfully chaining together spells and skills, he managed to climb his way up in gaming communities. He made a few friends and enjoyed playing video games

When he heard that a VRMMORPG game was coming out, he was extremely excited. He could experience a video game first hand! The idea amazed him. Then, he heard that their's 100% percent immersion (Well, except for pain. That would be pretty bad and probably unethical and illegal), which made him realize he could use martial arts in-game as well. He was hyped up! He told all his friends that he would be playing the new game and found out they would too, as well as the majority of avid gamers.

After a while, it finally got released and him and his friends started grinding. But then, they realized how hard the game actually is. Sam was doing fine. He became a lightning/ice Mage class ,and made his character a mix between a Mage and a Fighter, even though there is no Fighter class. He just calls it a Fighter class, even though it could also be called a Brawler or a Pugilist.

Using his martial arts and spells, he skipped past the training grounds and went straight to Sunbeam Forest, where other players wanted to skip levels but ended up dying. He could easily do it though by timing his spells and relentlessly beating up monsters. He found out if he keeps on attacking a certain spot with his martial arts, he can break the opponents defence in that exact spot, so that whenever he attacks there, his attacks ignore the monsters defence. With that knowledge and superb control over his martial arts, spells and body he easily killed his way through monsters.

His friends on the other hand couldn't even get close to one of the level 3 monsters in Sunbeam Forest and became envious of Sam's skills. They ended up joining a guild for protection and help and asked Sam to join them, but Sam refused. He didn't want to be kept by rules in a guild, nor did he need protection. He never join a guild during ever since he started playing video games. I his opinion, they were for weak players to join and be forced to obey the leader.

In his mind, free players (a.k.a players that aren't in a guild) are an oppressed community. Every grinding spot ends up getting snatched by large guilds and free players can't do anything except obey, unless they wanted to get killed. He always believed that free players, if given the chance, can outshine guilds in talent and skill.

That led him to betting all his life savings on then, causing him to lose the friends he made after a long time. But, if given the chance, he still wouldn't have done anything different. Free players were bullied and oppressed like him, but given the chance they will flourish. That's his belief.

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

And he always knew he was right.

____________________

Meanwhile, the three senior officers of their respected guilds were looking at the system notification in their dungeon instances. They were all plowing through the monsters at a decent rate.

Suddenly, the system sent 3 notifications to everyone in their dungeon instances.

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

[Congratulations to the {Artistic Experts} party for getting the first clear for the {Drax} boss! {Unbreakable}, {Dregon}, {Sunshine}, {Moonlight}, {Avrix} and {Twilight} will go down in history!]

Backup, the guy that helps just in time, was surprised that another group managed to kill the first boss. He told the other members that they must've gotten lucky, and they believed him. But Backup kept on worrying that they might not get the first clear...

Slaughter, the slaughter, was outraged. He ordered his group members to go faster and they obey, not wanting to take on the wrath of him.

And Outplayed, the mastermind, laughed when he saw the system notification. He knew an unknown variable can into play, yet he couldn't do anything about it. His laugh reassured his group members that nothing was wrong, even though there was. Outplayed knew that the first clear might not be his, but it excited him. NO one knew this, but he's a heavy gambler and always loved gambling. That's why he trained to become the master strategist, so he knew his odds for every gamble. The thrill of luck always gave him a nice feeling, especially if their's an unknown variable he can't deal with. Anticipating what will happen, he and his group continued onwards...