[DEATH]

  You have died!

  Time to respawn: 120 seconds.

  Elijah grumbled as he watched the timer slowly tick down second by second. When it finally reached zero light flashed over his eyes momentarily blinding him.

  He’d half expected to respawn back inside the goblin prison, reset to a weak Prisoner with nothing besides the clothes on his back. He was pleasantly surprised to find he was instead laying on a comfy bed inside a sparsely decorated room. With relief he could sense that he still had his class.

  ‘I guess I completed enough of the tutorial to not get sent back to the beginning,’ he thought as he looked around the room. A message appeared in his vision.

  [DEBUFF: DEATH SICKNESS]

  Description:

  You have died. All stats are reduced by 50% for 20 minutes.

  XP gains are reduced by 75% for 20 minutes.

  The message moved to the corner of his vision as it began counting down. A wave of nausea hit him, making him feel like he was about to puke. It was like the worst hangover he’d ever experienced, mixed with the flu.

  Something about the message tingled the back of his mind even through the miserable feeling.

  He reached out with his Reality Warp skill and grabbed the alert. Even without the debug menu popping up, he had some control over the contents of the message. He set the timer to ten seconds and released his hold.

  The alert shifted and shuddered for a second, faint blue sparks seeming to flare out of it before settling. When it was done he watched as the ten second timer counted down and ended.

  He felt the nausea ease and then lift completely away from him. As if someone had pulled a blanket away from his face.

  As the message faded away he opened his stats.

  [CHARACTER STATS]

  Name: Elijah

  Class: Reality Warper

  Level: 1 (6 / 10 XP)

  Health: 15 / 15

  Mana: 20 / 20

  Strength:  2 (Beginner)

  Intelligence: 4 (Beginner)

  Dexterity: 3 (Beginner)

  Constitution: 3 (Beginner)

  Skills:

  - Reality Warp - 1

  - Summon Familiar - 1

  He’d actually been granted a nominal amount of XP from ‘completing’ the tutorial, though probably not as much as he would have had he killed the Boss and completed it normally.

  He reached for his summoning skill and activated it, watching his mana drain away to half. He felt a twinge of nausea as the last few points of the necessary mana were pulled from his body. The blue light of mana emanated from his body and coalesced on the floor.

  As the light dimmed, it revealed Bitter Root, sprawling in a relaxed position still picking at his teeth with a shard of bone.

  “Some help you were.” He kicked Bitter Root’s leg. Not enough to hurt the creature, but enough to make him jump.

  “Eh? Me thought Boss did good. Big Badda Boss Babe not kill in one smash like other fresh meats.”

  Elijah stopped when he heard that. “There were others? You remember them?”

  “Sure, Boss. No fresh meats show up for long time ‘fore Boss. It why new Big Boss won against last Big Boss.”

  Elijah considered that for a moment. This NPC seemed to have an extensive memory. He wondered if it was because of his edits, or if all the NPCs in this game were that way. If so, the memory requirements for this game must be extensive.

  He checked himself once over and then headed towards the door, Bitter Root instinctively following him.

  Elijah turned to the goblin and grimaced. “I’m about to head out into what I assume is a civilized town. I don’t think it’d be smart to have you following me. Can I unsummon you?”

  Bitter Root seemed to have a look of confusion on his face, before his eyes seemed to light up with an intelligence they didn’t have before. “Of course Boss, all you need to do is cancel the summoning spell.” He spoke in nearly perfect English, a far cry from the unintelligent broken words he was speaking just a moment ago.

  It caught Elijah off guard and he looked over his familiar. “Uhm… Are you feeling okay, Bitter Root?”

  The light dimmed in his eyes and he looked up at Elijah. “Boss say something? Bitter Root not listening.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Elijah shook his head and did as he’d been instructed. Feeling for the thin strand of something, mana maybe, that connected him to his familiar and cancelled the spell. Bitter Root disappeared in a flash of blue light.

  He walked through the door and found himself in a large church, there were multiple people walking around and he finally understood how he was supposed to tell NPCs apart from other players. The NPCs looked like normal people, but the players all had their name, level, and class floating above their head.

  Looking around at the other players nearby they were all level two or three. Obviously, this was a starting area. He balked slightly when he noticed a person with ‘Level 69’ above their head. He couldn’t help but wander over to her. “Excuse me, Miss? I’m new and just spawned in and you look like the most experienced player here. Could you tell me where I am?”

  [Player]

  Name: Rose

  Class: Cleric | Level: 69

  The woman, ‘Rose’, looked him over a few times before looking above his head, obviously checking out the information above him.

  “Right~! Sure, you’re new here, definitely,” she said sarcastically before turning away from him.

  Elijah found himself grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around. Something akin to rage causing him to forget his awkwardness and react in a way he normally wouldn’t have. “Seriously? You don’t have to be an ass. You could just tell me where I can find information at the very least.”

  “Look dude, I don’t know what kind of game you are playing, but I can tell that you’re playing an alt character. Seriously? Level One with a unique class?”

  “An alt character? You seriously think I’m rich enough to be able to afford a second pod?” He growled.

  She just rolled her eyes at him. “Because I can definitely tell how rich you may or may not be based on your in-game avatar.”

  “What does my level and class have to do with anything anyway? You can see I’m low level, and I’m telling you I’m new.”

  She blinked a couple times, staring at him like he was an idiot. “Wow. Wait, are you serious? If you’re new then how did you unlock that class?”

  “I was playing the tutorial, and something happened that let me unlock it.”

  “See! That’s how I know you’re lying. If you’d played the tutorial, you’d be at least level two before getting here,” Rose shouted at him, catching the attention of other players in the temple.

  Elijah’s rage was bubbling over now at the woman’s casual dismissal of him. His first interaction with a real person and she was treating him like shit. “That’s not my fault! My XP reset when I got the class, and then the Goblin Boss killed me. I didn’t get enough XP to level up from the pittance it gave me as a consolation.”

  “Wait?” Her eyes widened. “Goblin Boss? I need to know, what was the tutorial option you chose?”

  “I selected the prisoner option, why?”

  “Dude! That’s so rare. The last option, besides letting Fate decide, on the list is always randomized, and the prisoner option has less than a one-in-a-million chance to show up. It’s one of those options that the high-end players of this game spend stupid money trying to unlock.”

  Elijah lit up at her words, his anger forgotten and replaced with curiosity. “Wow. So not only did I get super lucky with my class, but I got lucky with my start too? I had assumed that the prisoner start was designed as a hard mode.”

  Rose shook her head. “No, it’s literally one of the best starts available. That goblin boss drops a rare relic that’s necessary to reach the Celestial tier in a class. So few people get it that there’s only six people in the entire game who have unlocked the best abilities.”

  “And I died before killing him. That really could have helped me get started out if I could have sold it.”

  “Sell it? Dude, are you crazy?” Rose looked at him with bewilderment. “You’d be as famous as the other Celestials if you had that relic.”

  She shook her head at him. “None of them had unique classes before reaching level 99, so already having one would generate a lot of interest.”

  “Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Elijah felt deflated, he’d felt so lucky unlocking his unique class, and then again when she told him how rare his start was. Now he only felt upset with himself. “I got killed so I don’t have it.”

  Rose smiled at him and patted him on the shoulder. “Dude, don’t worry. It’s happened before. Kole, the most recent person to gain a Celestial skill, got killed by the boss too. It’s designed to be challenging, because it is such a massive reward.” She patted his cheek in what was meant as a conciliatory motion, but it just made him blush.

  “From what I hear, he got a special class mission from the Goddess Fate herself once he reached level 99. He had to go back in and kill the boss. It was level 99 as well, and you can’t take anyone with you.”

  She grinned at him. “A redemption quest.”

  She lifted his hand and fist bumped him. An option to add her to his friend’s list appeared in his vision. “Here, add me. I’d like to be able to say that I was the first person the next Celestial Player met when he joined the game.”

  Elijah accepted the request with a smile, his blush still shining on his face. He looked around at all the other low level players trying to distract himself. “So uh, can you answer my question from earlier now? Where am I?”

  She smiled and started walking away, motioning for him to follow her.

  She headed towards the large doors that led outside. “You, my new friend, are in the city of Nethy. Specifically in the Church of Fate. If you ever die, you’ll respawn in the church of the last city you visited.”

  She pushed open the doors and they looked out over the sprawling city. The church seemed to be at the top of a large hill, giving an uninterrupted bird’s eye view of the city beneath.

  She pointed to the distance at a large building with a spiralling roof, the architecture was so unlike the rest of the medieval style city around it. The way its walls jutted out at odd angles made it seem almost impossible. The whole building gave off the impression that it could collapse at any moment. “I assume you’re a magic based class?”

  He nodded his head, he wasn’t entirely sure, but it fit well enough. Especially considering his ‘Summon Familiar’ spell.

  “Cool, I won’t ask too many details, but you should go register at the Mage Association. They can help you to find a party that works well with your particular talents.”

  She patted his cheek again before turning around. “And hit me up sometime once you reach Legend rank. It’s a long slog through so I probably won’t be anywhere near Celestial by the time you do. I’d like to party with you sometime and see just what your unique class can do.”

  “Uhm, sure. I’ll be sure to keep you in mind.”

  “Perfect!” She responded cheerily.

  With that, she left him standing alone on the porch of the church. He looked out over the city of Nethy. The town appeared to be very similar to any town you’d see in a medieval RPG, but much larger. If this was a small starter town, Elijah couldn’t imagine the scale of the larger cities.

  A cool clean breeze wafted past him, bringing with it the scent of baking bread. He smiled as he plotted his route through the winding streets of the city from his vantage point. He couldn’t wait to explore, but he had a mission first. He was going to go find a group to party up with.