Chapter 2
Gathering in Alfao
No
Yes
Silver E6E6FF
Red CC0000
0
No
Pristine Void
Yes
Yes
Randomize
No
* * *
A cool gentle breeze.
The sound of rustling leaves.
A soft electronic hum.
Slowly, Pristine opened her eyes. A translucent blue panel appeared before her with a message.
She placed her right hand on the panel and swiped it to the right outside her field of view. Noticing a blinking icon on the top left part of her view, she clicked it. Another translucent blue panel appeared containing her character info.
"So these are my stats. As expected, everything is beginner ranked. According to the guide, the stats will increase the more I use them."
Pristine swiped the panel out of her view and looked around her. She was surrounded by so much green that she felt shocked.
"This is how forests look like..." A small smile appeared on her face. She could feel joy welling inside her. "Grandpa... is this it? Is this what you told me?"
The dirt was soft and covered with patches of grass and some fallen leaves. Rays of light seeped between leaves and branches of tall trees. Behind her, was a three-meter tall black obelisk engraved with silver inscriptions.
"This is the Travel Portal?"
As she approached the obelisk, an icon blinked in her view beside the portal. She clicked it and another panel appeared.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
"That's convenient," Pristine said as she clicked the Codex icon beside her Character Information Icon on the top left corner of her view. There were already a list of new informations regarding Tataria in the Codex. Most of them were available through the game guide. She clicked 'War Chanter'.
She then checked her skills.
"So how small is this small amount?" Pristine remembered that the guide mentioned that most of the stats and skill values in the game only give vague descriptions instead of actual numeric values. This was meant to further increase the realism of the game, making it less game-like. "But the blue panels appearing out of nowhere makes it less realistic, you know?" she derided the system.
After checking her skills and her surroundings, Pristine focused her attention to her self. She was wearing a simple light gray tunic and brown trousers tucked into black leather boots. A pouch hung on the belt around her waist. Looking inside the pouch, a blue panel containing a list of items in her inventory. The items on the top of the list were visible through the pouch. Herbs, bottles of potion, and some gold coins.
"I have 10 gold coins. How much can I buy with this?" Pristine pondered as she closed the pouch. "There's a town north of here called Alfao. If I remember right, the seniors said we'd meet there tonight at midnight in front of the inn." She looked up through the trees. "But it's daytime... right?" She inspected her view and found two time displays on the bottom left. The top display showed that it was 11:32 pm. The bottom one showed 11:04 am.
"The time here is twice of reality, so it would be exactly noon here at midnight in real." Thinking about it, she realized that whenever it's twelve o'clock in real, it would always be noon in the game.
"It's interesting," Pristine said with a smile. "This game is interesting. I guess I'll join the Adventure Club."
She stretched and warmed her body up, noticing that her actions felt strangely real. Even the warming up of her body was so realistic it doesn't feel like she's in a game.
With the help of the compass icon on the bottom right corner of her view, she headed north towards the town of Alfao.
* * *
The walk to Alfao took roughly 20 minutes. The distance from the Travel Portal was not that far, but Pristine kept on getting sidetracked. She would stop whenever she saw something interesting. There were many small creatures in the forest between Alfao and the Travel Portal, like the three-horned rabbit, the red-beaked sparrow, and the blind hunter toads. All those creatures avoided Pristine whenever she went to observe them, but luckily she was able to obtain some of their information through the Codex.
There was a small plaza in the middle of the town where people gathered to trade. Judging by their clothes, most of them were the NPC townsfolk. A stall selling some skewered meat caught Pristine's attention. The smell from the grilled meat was enticing. She went to the stall and bought two sticks for a copper coin. She was in a dilemma after finding out that a gold coin was equivalent to 100 silvers, and a silver was equal to 100 coppers. She only had gold coins in her pouch. The problem was easily resolved when the system automatically converted the gold coin to 99 silver and 100 copper coins.
"Realism with a hint of fantasy, or fantasy with a hint of realism..." Pristine murmured as she took a bite off the meat on the skewer. It was tasty. "Thinking about it, I already had dinner not too long ago, but I don't feel full." She felt like she could have another full course meal. Suddenly, an icon flashed right beside the skewer.
'But I'm already asleep,' Pristine wanted to retort. There were moments when she actually forgot that it was a game, but there were also moments like this when the system ruins the mood. After finishing the second skewer, she checked her hunger level again to find that it had decreased from 'low' to 'none'.
The appointed time to meet at the inn was almost there when Pristine suddenly remembered that the senior Catherine told her to send an email when she's done creating a character. It was too late to send one, so she just proceeded to the inn. It was located at the east side of the village.
There was a bar in the first floor of the inn. On one of the wooden tables, three female figures were seated around it. One of them wore a heavy-looking white armor that covered almost every inch of her skin except her head. The armor had gray inscriptions on it. A helmet of the same design was on the table in front of her, and a huge sword was leaning on the table to her left. The figure to her right wore red robes that exuded a fiery aura and held an intricate wooden staff with a glowing stone on its top. In front of the two, a short girl with pink twin tails wearing plain leather armor was fidgeting on her seat. She had a short bow on her back and a quiver hung on her waist.
'Undoubtedly, the pink head must be Rayhlee. Then based on personal character, the armor wearing one must be the senior Catherine, and the one in robes should be senior Anna,' Pristine concluded. She walked towards them and raised her hand to greet them. Hearing her approach, the twin tails danced as Rayhlee turned her around. With a bright smile, she jumped out of her seat to greet her.
"I'm so glad you're here!" Rayhlee said as she took Pristine's hand and did small jumps. Out of nowhere, Pristine noticed something different about Rayhlee aside from her pink hair.
'Her bust size increased way too much,' she thought as she watched the twin orbs jiggle with every movement. She then looked up at the two seniors and saw them smile wryly. It seems like this short girl had a complex about her size, but increasing it way too much caused a sense of disproportion with her body. 'This was a game, though, so she's free to do what she wants,' Pristine thought.
"You didn't send me an email. I thought you wouldn't come," the armor-clad lady said.
"I'm sorry. I got too overwhelmed as soon as I got in and completely forgot."
"It's okay, don't worry." She stood up, and the robed figure followed suit. "With this, everyone's here. Let's introduce ourselves first. My IGN is Rhinestone Cutter. My skills and stats are centered around melee physical damage and defense. My class archetype is Warrior."
"I'm Firequeen Anna, and as my appearance and name suggests, my build is focused on fire magic. My class archetype is Mage."
"Raylight Swift! I'm a leather crafter and a bow user! My stats are mainly on agility and dexterity! My class is Scout!"
"I'm Pristine Void..." Pristine paused. She felt somewhat reluctant to describe herself as she only started. "I just started so all my stats and skills are still beginner-ranked."
"So what's your archetype? Or did you make a custom skill set?" Rhinestone Cutter asked.
"Ah, no. I randomized and got War Chanter," she answered curtly.
"War Chanter!?!" The three other girls exclaimed and widened their eyes in surprise.
