“At least I still have you right Justice Bunny”
…
*sigh* “it’s like talking to a wall.”
…
“Don’t worry Justice Bunny I still love you.” *pat* *pat*
*Ting*
A new state just for talking? He was about to check what it did when he noticed that the people around him were all giving him weird looks.
“Perhaps talking to a zombie rabbit in public isn’t such a good idea” he thought walking off.
When he got somewhere more private he checked the stat.
*Ting*
“That’s really good. Perhaps I should talk to you more often.”
...
“I guess the real question is what should I do now?”
After he died he spent some time thinking about what he did wrong. At first he had believe that he just needed to collect a lot of strong corpses so he could build up a powerful undead army, but the problem with that idea was that no matter how much time he spent build up his army it could all be lost in an instant. Thinking about it he decided that the problem was that his character just wasn’t strong enough. It was unreasonable to think that a level 35 character using basic spells could take on creatures whose level was in the upper hundreds range.
He need to become stronger. The problem was how. For Magic type character the normal route to becoming stronger was raising your level and learning powerful spells. The problem with that strategy was location. There were no magic guilds in the town so where was he going to find skill books?
He spent hours searching around town but came up with nothing. The few magic oriented skill books he found weren’t things he could use. Maybe Grend had something Skylar could use, but unfortunately it seems like the man had disappeared. He could still work on raising his level, but that wasn’t going as quickly as he would have liked.
Feeling frustrated he sat down to think.
“Well first thing first I should finish reading Namic’s Journal.” He thought to himself.
He was almost done with it anyway, and now that Grend was gone he was going to have to find Namic’s legacy himself somehow. The journal offered him his only clue.
At the end of the journal Namic talked about preparing to go out to fight against the evil paladin. He wasn’t sure whether he would prevail so he left his journal behind for whoever would succeed him if he failed. For that person he listed the six principles of Justice that he had learned over his life.
*Ting*
“A new skill? Alright, now I’m getting somewhere!”
*Ting*
“Ok, I need to talk about justice a lot. Thinking back that’s probably why I got the state in the first place.”
*Ting*
“Ok got it. I need to wear flashy cloth.”
That was the end of it. The rest of the pages of the journal had been torn out.
“
Still it wasn’t so bad, he’d gotten three new skills. He decided to check them out.
*Ting*
*Ting*
*Ting*
Not bad at all. The Sword of Justice was especially interesting. Now that he thought about it there was another way to get stronger. There was a way to get stat points at the training hall. He read about it on the internet, but he hadn’t been interest before. It seemed like way too much work for something that was just a game, but now…
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
He must be really addicted to this game if he was even considering it.
He went to the training hall despite his misgivings.
The instructor there gave him a disdainful look.
Right, I’m a necromancer now. Not the most popular class with NPCs.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m interested in training
“You realize that this is a place for weapons training don’t you.”
“Yes, is that a problem.”
“No, anyone is allowed to train here regardless of how distasteful they are. If you want to train come with me.”
He was lead to a small room where a strange looking wooden doll was standing. It was very crude, but life sized. In place of one of its hands it had a wooden sword. He went and picked up a wooden sword. At least he didn’t have to worry about what type of weapon to use anymore. Apparently justice uses a sword.
Unfortunately his knowledge about how to use a sword was very limited. At the library and on the internet he had read a bit about how to use various weapons, but he would have preferred to have some real instruction. Given the instructor's attitude that didn't seem likely.
"Bouts last one hour. Until then you are unable to leave the room. Are you ready?
"Yes"
The instructor left the room closing the door behind him.
"Begin!"
Suddenly the doll came alive and started attacking him. He dodged and parried its blows as best as he was able. He even managed to strike back a few time. Still he was hit a lot more then it was. The blows didn't do much damage, but they still hurt.
Eventually the hour was up. He collapsed to the floor panting.
“Am I really going to do this? I haven’t even earned a single stat point yet. This is going to take forever.” He thought to himself.
The instructor came back in the room.
"Give up yet?"
The instructor giving him a nasty look obviously mocking his poor performance.
Skylar felt a surge of anger and forcing himself to his feet.
"No, again."
The instructor scowled at him.
"Very well." He said leaving the room again.
Bruised and batter Skylar faced the doll wondering if he had gone out of his wits for trying this.
After the third bout.
*Ting*
He grinned brightly feeling a strong sense of accomplishment.
“Maybe I really can do this.” He thought to himself.
Instructor scowling at him again.
Skylar frowned.
At the very least I’m not going to let that guy see me quit.
He kept at it the whole day. Then the next day, and the day after that. Finally a week passed. He thought about quitting multiple times but whenever he caught the instructor scowling at him he decided to do just a bit more.
It was a petty thing, but that wasn't the main reason he didn't quit. The main reason he didn't quit was because the challenge began to appeal to him. The difficulty of the task made beating it that much more desirable.
Still it wouldn't hurt if there was some way make it easier. That was when he remembered the statues. He had heard players talking about a statutes that give buffs. Maybe some of the buffs could help him.
For the first time he went to see the states that made the city famous. He would have gone earlier, but since it wasn't in the city he couldn't see them until his first month expired, and after his first month expired he had been busy with his undead army.
He finally made it there. It was a giant internet troll face carved from stone. Looking at it he couldn't help but laugh.
“This game really is a marvelous thing. What other game would allow this kind of flexibility and creativity from its users. It truly deserved to be called a virtual reality.” He thought.
*Ting*
These stat boost will definitely be useful. The part about 20 percent increase in movement speed seemed especially promising. He went back to the training hall as quickly as possible. He was definitely faster now, and he had more stamina. Fight the doll she should be a breeze now.
He was so happy he didn't even notice the instructor's unpleasantness.
When it started the dolls speed was also increased.
"Darn it the must adjust its strength based of who it's facing!"
The game really liked to make people suffer. There was no short cuts. If he didn't work hard he wouldn't get rewarded. That was the kind of game this was.
After the bout he sat outside the training hall feeling discouraged.
“So what am I going to do? I’m not even half way done yet, am I really going to work this hard for a game?” He asked himself feeling discouraged.
Just spitting the instructor wasn't enough of a reason to put in that much effort.
It would probably make a lot more sense to delete the character and start over someplace else with something more normal. Even if he never got that strong he could still have fun joining a group and going on adventures.
“What do you think Justice Bunny should I start over?”
…
He started laughing to himself.
“Boring, that would be just too boring.”
He picked up the sword and started heading back to the room.
“What’s wrong with that guy? He’s started talking to himself and laughing.”
“Just ignore him. He’s crazy.”
“Is that rabbit undead. Maybe it’s some kind of special item.”
“Maybe he’s a necromancer.”
“Why would a necromancer resurrect a rabbit, or use the training hall that matter.”
“Like I said he’s obviously crazy.”
The people laughed and walked off.
Skylar frowned.
*Sign* “Did they have to talk about me so loudly?” He thought in frustration. Still he head back to the training hall and the scowling instructor.