The massive game pod had shocked his family. It was the size of a bed and cost three thousand dollars, plus installation fees. They thought Renan was crazy, but since he'd earned the money himself, his mother, Renatta, let it slide.
Regardless, the day had come.
The day for the release of Masteria Online.
June 27th, 2021.
Renan sat down on his pod, making sure he was fully hydrated, fed, took his vitamins, and had used the bathroom properly. He lowered himself onto it and put the helmet over himself.
Soon enough, his consciousness was transferred over to a white room.
It was glowing white in every direction with no end in sight. The only interruption to the whiteness was the floating text in front of him.
[MASTERIA ONLINE: RELEASING IN 00:00:12:31]
Twelve minutes until launch. His heart pounded as a burst of nervousness struck him.
This is it. Everything I do from now on matters. The fate of Earth, Masteria, and realms beyond depends on my actions.
He realized what this responsibility meant. He couldn't have fun anymore. Every moment needed optimization. Social relationships would become burdens unless they served his mission. He'd have to rush conversations with family and speedrun basic needs.
Why me? Why was I the only one who remembered? I've seen no evidence that anyone else retained their memories.
If he failed, Masteria would consume Earth. The avatars would become the Dark One's army, wiping out everyone he loved.
I have to be perfect. No mistakes.
The countdown ticked down ruthlessly.
I'm alone. My allies don't know the truth and wouldn't believe me if I told them. How can I rival a god? Even if I strengthen the player base, create more demigods who surpass level 199, the Dark One defeated Empress Aria effortlessly. And she was far stronger than any other player.
[00:00:03:23]
Yet I can't fail, or the world will burn.
His mind had a burst of refreshment as he growled out, "Damn it!" Renan exclaimed into the void. "I can do this! I will do this! I won't fall into despair!"
He was more focused than ever. "I will do this."
[00:00:00:00]
[Welcome to Masteria Online]
An overwhelming bright light engulfed the entirety of his vision, blinding it out completely.
As it cleared, the character creator appeared, letting him view his player avatar. It was currently randomly generated, showing a generic thirty-year-old man with dark skin, dreadlocks, and a scar across his eye. He wielded a dagger and wore a bandana. It was nearly a perfect start for a Thief from Shaden City or a Warrior from Scolion.
Regardless, none of that was what Renan wanted.
Renan immediately changed everything. He set the age to sixteen, the minimum possible.
There were three main reasons.
One, the younger he was, the more talented he'd be seen as.
Two, it minimized his character's size. Although it decreased physical performance, this mattered less for a mage. Instead, this would make it easier for him to dodge.
Three, children had more leeway than adults in social scenarios. Whilst sixteen was considered an adult in most of Masteria, the point remained.
Next, he gave himself medium length, straight black hair. Black hair, because any dirt on it would be less noticeable that way. It would let him be more presentable when his hair was dirty. Despite what an ideal world might look like, it was a fact of reality that appearances mattered. Attractive people got treated better.
As for the hair length down to the start of his neck, it may go against his goal of not getting as much dirt on him, but such an appearance would make him cuter. While that had its downsides, the upsides surpassed it.
Next was the skin color, which he immediately changed to pale. The absolute palest possible. It was important that it wasn't just a light color, he would make it pale, abnormally clear.
This was because sun exposure would darken and blemish skin. Making it pale would give off a very obvious impression of having little to no sun exposure. The only people that would never have to take sun in their lives would be nobles, or people of a similarly high class.
Giving off the impression of a noble background would be beneficial in most scenarios.
Torn between hazel and blue, he eventually picked blue eyes. He knew of certain characters that preferred hazel eyes, but blue eyes were commonly associated with nobility, which was overall more important.
For the clothes, none of the options were particularly special. He picked just a black robe with black pants. For his accessory, he took a blue handkerchief.
Why?
Because blue looked expensive.
Then his starting weapon. Renan immediately scrolled over to the sword. There was a wand but it would be meaningless. It was just wood, barely holding any magic power in it. Even the magic power it held was meaningless because you were incapable of casting any meaningful spell until level ten.
A sword would give him immediate combat power, which was key since he was going to rush hunting to get to level ten.
A sword was also by far the most valuable of all the starting weapons, using the most metal by far out of all the weapons, and requiring the most skill to forge. Therefore, it would sell for the most.
Lastly, his name. He chose the same as his past life. "Lumi." Because the two worlds would one day merge, it made more sense from a certain standpoint to instead name himself "Renan" just like his name in real life. Unfortunately, he was sure that his actions would make him a target on Earth one day, so he'd act to delay retribution as long as possible with a game name.
Choosing his starter location as Elenora, taking a deep breath, Renan finally created his character and made his way into the game.
[Tutorial Initializing…]
"Skip." Renan resolutely responded.
[...]
"Skip."
[Welcome to Masteria Online.]
"Skip."
[Please try out movement.]
"Skip."
[Try manipulating objects. You'll noti-]
"Skip."
[Now th-]
"Skip"
"Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip."
His vision went black. He felt himself moving through space, an experience he is intimately familiar with. Every magician is. After all, teleportation is one of their most basic abilities.
The moment Renan's eyes opened, he was standing on the outskirts of a massive, magical forest unlike any on Earth.
It had to be understood that even these "outskirts" represented being hundreds of meters up on humongous tree branches.
Towering trees stretched endlessly outwards, and their trunks were thicker than a house. Countless branches, vines and heavy moss extended outwards from such trees, forming countless intertwining paths.
All around, faint wooden bridges looped through the treetops, vanishing into the distance. In fact, he himself was on a wooden platform. They were intermingled into the trees, the roots, the branches, providing stability. Strange lights lit the air, everything lightly shining with a blue white.
It was very much an environment where verticality was relevant. Even a thousand meters up from his current location would be a legitimate place to live, train and hunt.
Renan could already feel the magic in the air. If it weren't for this system, he'd already have access to over a dozen spells despite this body still being weak at level one, and lacking a casting aid like a wand or staff.
Yet, as much as the system was an aid, it was also a limiter.
Because it would waste too much time to have the players truly train properly and understand the skills and magic, and because it needs to be game-like to convince the players that it is all just a game, the system steps in.
The system would then facilitate learning the skills of the chosen class. When you use a skill, the system would perform most of the heavy work for you, leaving you free to strike your enemies without having to actually have the skill or knowledge needed.
However, this was the problematic part.
For various reasons, players were locked from utilizing their bodily energy or mana unless it was through the system.
This would prevent Renan from being able to cast any spell he knows, unless it's learned and casted through the system.
He immediately opened up his stat panel. There were tons, tons of various stats that other players could spend all day reading and still not understand. These ranged from abnormal status resistance to defence penetration.
Regardless, those could not have points directly put in it. Only health, mana, and the basic stats could have points directly allocated to them.
The basic stats consisted of Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence.
[HP: 50]
[MP: 5]
As for his basic stats, they were all at 5.
He resolutely dumped his 5 stat points into INT. Everything was going to go into intellect. He was a mage. That's how it went here. So now he was at 10 INT.
He then opened up his skill panel. Skill points were divided into ranks. This meant that there was no such thing as saving early skill points for more important skills. All skill points gained between now and level 10 can only be used in beginner skills. Unlike other skills which had to be unlocked by obtaining a class, all players shared the same beginner skills as soon as they created a character.
There was only one he cared about at the moment. And he put his only skill point in Nimble Feet. It was an active skill which increased speed temporarily.
Taking a step forward, he saw small clusters of mushrooms, some of which twitched or blinked, lightly startled.
Renan knew exactly where he was. This section would be known as the Shining Forest Path, since, well, it was a path in a forest that was shining. It was that simple.
Taking the route up ahead, which would also take him vertically up, would be Elenora the town. Backtracking would bring him downwards, slowly out of this magical forest, out of Elenora the forest.
Renan resolutely turned around and began running down.
This place is way too high level.
Despite what most players would instinctively believe, wherever you spawned wasn't the best area to start farming in. The monsters in this place would range between level 5 and 12. As a new player, Renan was level 1.
When he had reached the right spot, he resolutely jumped off the edge, falling.
Splash!
Renan fell into a relatively deep, yet narrow body of water. At most it was ten meters across yet it was at least three times that in depth.
"Ugh," Renan looked at his HP, 34/50.
That's right. I have this thing. And no pain, despite taking damage. This system…
"Settings!" Renan immediately brought up the options panel, scrolling over to the pain sensitivity setting, and maxed it out as much as it was allowed. Pain was useful. It let you know when you were injured, tired, and so forth. It was much easier to react through pain, than seeing a number go down that you might not even be looking at.
Tired of floating on the water, he gripped the mass of plants that made up the edge of this water body, getting up. Now, he was much closer to where the forest starts.
Here, he knew the enemy levels ranged from 3 to 12. But that wasn't quite accurate. Red snails ranged from 3 to 6, and red mushrooms ranged from 8 to 12.
What was interesting was that although the system made up countless things for the sake of making Masteria appear like a game, many of the concepts did exist in some form or another. Levels are technically a thing, though not a term that had a name, nor increased through 'EXP'. It was more of the System's special way of approximating how high in the hierarchy of life a being was.
A hint of red attracted Renan's vision, and he activated nimble feet, running over, his sword in hand. Stepping through the brushes, it was a red snail, approximately half the size of Renan.
"Die!" Renan exclaimed, instantly slashing into one of the snail's eyestalks. It began to move, but before it could even pull a move, Renan grabbed at the injured eyestalk, stretching it out with one hand, and he slashed with the other at the premade cut.
Swish!
The eyestalk fell off. The red snail immediately retreated into its shell, terrified. Renan knew the red snail was preparing a shellspin attack, but he wouldn't let it. He immediately thrust his sword inside the gap, piercing its insides.
Renan glared at the snail as he stirred the sword, turning its insides into a slurry. "Give me Experience!"
Finally…
[Red Snail Defeated!]
[EXP +8]
[Congratulations! You are the first player to have slayed a monster! A game-wide announcement will be made. Would you like to reveal your name?]
"Yes." Renan replied to the system, grinning. He had completely forgotten about this. Those who complete achievements for the first time get to have their names spread to every player. This would work out greatly in his favor of gaining fame.
[System Alert - Player "Lumi" is the first player to slay a monster. Extend our congratulations to "Lumi" for his feat!]
"How the fuck!?" A man in the respawn screen angrily yelled out. "Such nonsense luck!"
He thought back to his own experience.
He spawned in, taking in the arid landscape around him. A couple weird floating creatures were around, like ghosts. Fire floated next to them.
"Beginner enemies?" He grinned. "Time to grind!"
He raised his club and went for a hit.
The creature flashed some fire on him and…
[You died.]
"There must have been an easy example enemy in the tutorial." He comforted himself. "Yep, it must be a noob in the tutorial. Real gamers like, I, Devon, don't need the tutorial. So I skipped it."
Most players were simply confused, however.
"I'm. I'm not even half way through the tutorial. Who speedran!?"
…
Renan hovered his hand over the Red Snail, the corpse making its way to his inventory.
He scanned the field for any more enemies. Completely ignoring any Red Mushrooms, he focused on the Red Snails.
Renan let out a grin. "It's been so long…" He locked eyes with a Red Snail. "Since I've felt this way!"
[EXP +7]
[Level Up! 1 → 2]
[Congratulations! You are the first player to have leveled up! A game-wide announcement will be made. Would you like to reveal your name?]
"Yes!"
[System Alert - Player "Lumi" is the first player to level up. Extend our congratulations to "Lumi" for his feat!]
"What the HECK?!" Some idiot called Devon exclaimed. "The game guy again! Nonsense! The tutorial gives you a level too?!"
Most players were still in the tutorial, however. Seeing Lumi collect so many achievements, some players even started to do something questionable…
"Skip. Skip the tutorial!"
Regardless, it would all work out to give Renan fame. Or rather, "Lumi."
The good news regarding the enemies in his current location was their lack of aggression. While they would attack if near, or some might make their way over and start attacking, typically they would keep to themselves as long as no one was too close. This kept Lumi safe from being entangled with any Red Mushrooms, who he did not want to be fighting.
The bad news regarding the lack of aggression meant that the Red Snails were now running away from him after seeing him slaughter their kin.
"Stop!" Lumi exclaimed. "Get back here!" He grabbed a Red Snail by an eyestalk. "Die!"
"Die!" "Die!" Die!" With every stab, Lumi exclaimed. "Die!" The pressure he was under was immense. How could he ever let some snails delay saving the world?
How dare they stand in the way of my progression!
[EXP +8]
[EXP +9]
[EXP +9]
[EXP +7]
[EXP +8]
[Level Up! 2 → 3]
Lumi kept putting his stats into INT. Since you received four stat points a level, it reached 18. And his skill points into Nimble Feet. However, Nimble Feet maxed out with 3 skill points. Which meant now, given two skill points a level at this stage, he would have to put his skill points in one of these utterly useless skills.
[Rock Toss]
[Pocket Sand]
[Feather Jab]
[Kick]
[Gravel]
These skills were not it.
With nothing else to put skills into, Lumi decided he would next put points into Recovery.
It sounds useful until you realize it heals for a flat amount over a long period of time.
I will outscale this garbage so quickly. I will outscale it before I even get to the point where I will be taking enemy attacks.
Lumi shook his head.
I just have to farm these snails until level 10.