Sucked into a Fantasy Game

At dawn the next morning, they left, hidden in a closed carriage—the only exit being at the driver’s end—before the guards gained enough sense to start watching the gates. The sky was sunny and blue. It would be a boring three days of nothing but travel. The driver wasn’t talkative either.

Sako was sitting opposite of Kiyomi, reading a book the innkeeper had given her. Something on mathematics.

Now Kiyomi had ample time to think and plan ahead. She did a wave in the air with her hand and her holographic UI popped up. There was a small, 2D, full-body picture of her holding her staff on the holoscreen. She had high base Intellect presumably because of her skills and vast knowledge of games. This meant that she would progress much faster in terms of skills.

The “Evolve” button glowed in the bottom corner of her UI. Typically, one’s first Evolution was only possible at Level 500+ (the second and final one being at Level 1 000) because at least 1 of the user’s primary stats respective to their class had to have a base number (number without extra points, bonuses from gear, buffs, etc.) of at least 500. But since Kiyomi had far surpassed that once she had reached Level 5, she met the requirement (her Intellect levelled and advanced at a much faster rate). Each Evolution gave a 500 boost to all stats.

She pressed “Evolve” twice. Fully Evolving unlocked all of her skills and spells—well over 400, including passives, and increased her base stats. All her skills were at 100% mastery, and she gained the title “Archmage”. On top of that, her mana had grown exponentially, and she gained brand new skills that didn’t belong to her class by default. She glanced at some of the info in the tables.

She read the first 4 passives then skipped to her Unique Skill.

Mastery affected cast times and cooldowns.

She looked to her inventory. Only the same beginner staff, some gold, food, and water. She needed a much better staff. That was one of the most important items to get right now. The better the staff, the better the accuracy of her spells, and she was less likely to land a Glancing Hit (which significantly reduced crit chance, damage, and effects from the staff or spell used). Fortunately, she could equip higher levels since staves could be equipped based on Intellect, not one’s overall level. But where to get a staff… No one would make it for her or give her for free. She needed a good staff for high-level content, but she could only get such a staff as a drop from high-level content. This would be hard. Of course, she could just do it the boring way and level slowly like an actual noob, but she wasn’t into that; she didn’t have the patience. Sako probably had it, but Kiyomi didn’t.

So, for their next big move, they needed to power-level, but it would be tricky. Although she wasn’t keen on joining groups with strangers, she and Sako might have to. But she highly doubted any high-level players would even sneeze at them. They might have to prove themselves somehow if given the chance. Maybe at the next Guild… But she needed a staff to match her element too, and not just anything. In her current state, she couldn’t fight at her full potential.

“Ugh,” Kiyomi grunted. The last thing she wanted to do was be a leech. That would be so uncool.

There were elemental mechanics, but because her alignment was Dark, she didn’t have to worry about those. The same went for Sako. Dark and Light were advantageous against one another and neutral to the rest: Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, and their sub-elements. The downside, of course, was that she couldn’t easily do bonus damage, except against Light, but there were ways around that.

Kiyomi tapped a button to close the UI, wiggled her staff, and cast Shroud to summon a black magic circle above and below her. Same for Sako. A black cloak appeared on each of their avatars. These cloaks would cloak most of their character details from everyone else, so no one could see their stats without special means. Only their levels and classes were open.

Sako didn’t notice.

Kiyomi began chewing on a celery stick. Not the best taste, but it was food. “Sako, catch.” She tossed one to Sako.

Sako didn’t look up. The stick bounced off her head and fell on the floor.

Is the book really that interesting to her? Kiyomi hated reading, unless it related to video games.

She looked to the driver. “Hey, coachman, you know anything about Luthyia?”

He replied with a country accent without taking his eyes off the road, a wheat straw in his mouth. “From the few times I been there, I can say there’s this peculiar lady sometimes. Wanders about town like she ain’t got nothin’ to do ’round those parts. Always with them vegetables, ’specially carrots.”

“What does she look like?”

“Got some long bunny ears. You’ll see when you get there. Can’t miss ’em.”

Kiyomi’s biggest question was whether she was an NPC or a player. “Do you know if she’s an NPC?”

“A what?”

“Never mind.” The fact that he hadn’t a clue what Kiyomi was talking about meant he was an NPC, since NPCs wouldn’t know the difference.