Waking up Eldrian quickly got changed, grabbed something to eat and headed to class. Where he again got more work, this time in the form of a practical. Luckily he had a few weeks for this one so he felt quite confident he could put it off for a bit.

During the day he had talked with Erik, asking him if he had managed to get in the list for the next release of the headsets. Erik had said that he was in, but he had been following along with the news around the game and started wondering if it was worth it. The only reason he still went for it at this time was due to the extra hours he would gain. This having been proven by the many players in the game already.

Currently, his plan wasn’t to really play the game when he got the headset, rather he wanted to use that time to read more books. Especially those ones he had always been putting of till later.

Eldrian assured him that the game was still amazing and that he didn’t need to actually fight in it, he explained to Erik how he was currently learning blacksmithing and magic in the game. Adding onto this that it was a bit overtuned, warning Erik to choose his race well when entering the game.

Erik found it quite interesting how much Eldrian had gone through and yet he still looked at the game favorably. But then again, most of the players still did, only around 5% of the players from the first release were complaining. These players having been in situations similar to Phallos where the players had been used as bait.

The other situations were better, with some kingdoms having used players as a vanguard. But instead of hiding it they had come straight out and asked the players to fill that role, even offerning the players more compensation for the dangerous task. Naturally, the compensation was still little but it was enough for the players. Other players had completely been ignored and left to their own devices, as a result many of them died while getting little rewards. Yet they couldn’t complain as they hadn’t made any plans themselves.

The situation in the kingdoms where bounties were being released was much better. The players having, with time, managed to get better at killing the monsters. Finding that the monsters would split from their group every few hours, either to go scouting or hunting for themselves. These players were now managing to kill at least one monster every day. Netting them around 5 silver, which was then shared in their party.

The only kingdom with bad news was Inglas, where all but a hundred players had recreated their characters. The entire starting city in that kingdom was completely isolated.

Seemingly the kingdom was gathering their army to try and relieve the city, but it was now a question about which will be first. The city falling or the army’s arrival.

Back home Eldrian jumped onto the forums while drinking some tea. He was curious about what all was going on now, with some time having gone between the event and now.

The top post on the general thread was about the players still complaining about the event, asking the developers to at least give an explanation on why it had been so. Seemingly the lawsuits had been stopped by Miracle Corp’s own law division. The contract making their task easier than the players’ lawyers’ tasks.

Looking at the announcement thread, Eldrian found that the company will actually be making an announcement on some things. Specifically why pain was still in the game and why the event had been so harsh. Yet this was postponed until Friday.

This announcement had made many players cool down, yet Eldrian easily found a few threads in which the players were discussing how they were going to get their revenge.

‘Seems like they won’t drop it…’ Eldrian sighed, finding it sad that they were still so heated after a few days had passed.

Having had enough of the bad side of the forum, Eldrian searched for some more cheerful posts. Heading to the ranking thread first, he was mildly surprised to see a bunch of players having reached Tier 1. He had expected some to manage this, but the entire leaderboard being filled gave him a fright.

He was a little sad that he was going to fall behind faster and faster now. Looking at all the people on the list he was determined to keep working hard in the game, not wanting to be too late. He hoped he would make it in time to still be part of the expedition players.

Having seen this he started searching for a thread where one of the players would be bragging about their progress. Only having to search for a few seconds before finding one.

The post detailed how this player had gone and asked some of the veteran soldiers if they would take him as a student. After being denied by most he had asked one of the older soldiers as a last-ditch effort, the player not having expected much. This soldier was willing though, saying that he couldn’t really fight anymore. Yet his entire life had been fighting.

So this player learned under this NPC. After a day and a half the player managed to reach Tier 1. The training he described didn’t seem all that intense, rather the reason it had taken so long seemed to be the amount of times the player had to cast the skills he had learned.

These skills weren’t much, simple speed or strength enhancers. With the help of the system the player’s attacks were guided with either a speed boost or strength boost. The player described it as a feeling when moving along with a current. Trying to stray was actually hard, the player even ending up a little injured when he had tried to change the attack mid-strike.

The player also explained how he had learned the skill, not just how it felt to cast it. He had received three Tier 1 skill models from the NPC. Yet he hadn’t even needed to memorize these models, having succeeded in casting the skills after saying only the skill’s name.

Reading this Eldrian felt at a loss. He needed to memorize the spell model and learn how to use mana. Yet this player could simply think a few words and use a skill. The only thing the player complained about was the cooldown of each spell, as well as how little extra damage the spell used. While being costly to use at the same time.

Yet Eldrian didn’t find these things to strange, seeing as the player had no knowledge about the skill. Thus the player will naturally need more time and energy to use the skill. At least Eldrian felt this was why the player experienced it as he did. Eldrian also felt this would connect to the skill’s damage, thinking back to how Dave had controlled the spell vs the static cast method.

Eldrian felt certain this would be a major secret in the game until players reached much higher levels and tiers.

In the end the player wanted to brag about how the NPC had called him a genius. Yet he had ended up simply stating that all players would look like geniuses to the NPCs.

‘This guy at least didn’t let that go to his head.’ Eldrian commented as he finished the post. He had learned quite a bit from it. The major thing being that Tier 1 skills seemed really weak.

From the post it seemed like the damage boost was less than 10, while the player could only cast around 5 skills before running out of either stamina or mana.

There was one other thing which had stood out for Eldrian, which was the fact that the player had gained both 5 strength and 5 constitution points. This increase was really small, the player even having complained about it.

Yet Eldrian felt that it was only small due to what Tier 1 signified. It was only the starting point. It was something everyone in the world reached before adulthood. So how could it be a major turning point?

Eldrian continued to browse the forums for a few more minutes, after which he started working on one of his assignments while waiting until he could log into the game. Almost finishing the assignment he left the last bit for the next day, getting something to eat and climbing onto his bed to log back in.

Waking up inside his little room inside the tower Eldrian took a few minutes to just stop and enjoy the peace. Looking out of his one window he looked at the horizon, which was still dark.

‘Let’s go!’ Eldrian hyped himself, first heading to the bathroom to give himself as simple cleaning. As he took off his shirt he realized he was still in one of Boran’s shirts. He also realized he couldn’t get water here without magic. Sighing he put the shirt back on and started climbing the stairs, having lost the want to take a bath.

Having gotten Dave they both headed back to the dungeon, where Eldrian managed to do two attempts. Yet the second one almost causing him to lose focus, barely having managed to keep onto the pieces of his spell model.

Luckily he had managed, Dave having healed him after each attempt. Eldrian found that this routine was becoming much nicer with each day. At this point it simply felt like he was being pulled by two forces. The two forces wanting him to go in opposite directions, the feeling of this pull was completely manageable. In fact, he wouldn’t even describe it as painful anymore, only exhausting with the tug of war going on in his head.

Naturally, Dave wasn’t doing this all for charity. His first aim had been to try and find if there are any differences between normal humans and Chosen. Yet with Eldrian he couldn’t make any conclusion, due to him not being a human. Nor a race that was actually present in the city.

Luckily for Dave other players have been coming to the tower, yet he didn’t find anything special in most of them. Naturally, he didn’t take them to the dungeon since they could all cast Tier 0 spell without any trouble. Causing Dave to quickly lose interest in them.

There were a few with strange mana flows, yet all of these cases were with none human races. One was when a dwarf Chosen had come to him. This Chosen had been able to easily cast fire and earth spells, managing with a little more effort to cast the other elements. Yet when Dave had given him a none-elemental spell the player had quickly failed to cast it.

This was in-line with what Dave knew about dwarves. They always have a hard time with the more surreal magics.

A Dryad player had also visited him, yet Dave had no knowledge of this race. They were normally a very reclusive race that seldom interacted with humans. This player had been able to easily cast elemental and nature magics, with the Tier 0 nature spells having neared the strength of his own if he were to cast the same spell.

Dave had offered both of these payers an apprenticeship, only the dryad had taken it.