8 Back to work
Kane drowsily got off the couch, "House Master, what time is it?"
"It is. 3:16. am." His house monitor spoke in a robotic English accent.
"Well, there goes my sleep schedule." Kane groaned. Hopefully he could just play Ember sometime at night and fix it.
"How's my luck doin' House Master?" He said in a 'charming' fake accent.
"..."
Kane chuckled, "Yeah I figured, you'd think being born with no eyes and losing my mom, life would be trying to balance my luck out, but nope, it's going allllll in."
"Kane."
"Yeah, House Master?"
"I am a home monitor, I cannot calculate your luck and give you life advice." It stated matter-of-factly
Kane clicked his tongue, "Well aren't you a little ray of sunshine this morning."
"I am not a ray of sunshine, I am a hom..."
"Silence House Master!" Kane dramatically yelled, cutting it off with an exaggerated splendor.
He waddled over to the sink and splashed some water on his face, his apartment was eerily dark and quiet, long shadows being cast from every window as the light of the moon peered through.
"Good, no home invaders," Kane chuckled to himself, the silence was always unsettling, but it was only proof that there was nothing here to harm him.
Kane filled up a glass of water and chugged it down, relishing the cold liquid as it ran down his throat.
"That was some dream..." Kane stared emptily towards the wall, pondering the pain and the weird sensations running through his body the night before, the ones that still seemed to be in his body even now, albeit more subtle.
"House Master, look up, 'Weird painful dream.'"
House Master proceeded to list the names of a bunch of ridiculous spiritual blogs and medical articles that clearly didn't apply. Until it reached one that interested him.
"Check that one." Kane stated without any trace of flash or humor.
House Master began reading through a recent post in its cold English voice.
"I had a weird headache this morning, it was extremely painful and I ended up passing out, the only thing I can think of that might have caused it is trying out that new full-dive VR thing. They said the game is completely safe, and I had a blast playing it and all, but that's the only thing out of my day that was different than usual, I'm thinking of-"
He tuned out the rest of the blog as House Mater kept reading.
Kane pondered for a moment, "House Master, send them a message."
"I can't."
A confused look was growing on Kane's face, "Why not?"
"The account has just been deleted."
"Well that's not concerning in the slightest." He rolled his eyes mentally.
"Any notes from dad?"
"One note." House Master began playing a recording his dad left before he went to work.
"Hey kiddo, I don't wanna wake you, so I'll leave this here and just hope you check the notes like you promised. I ran into that girl you mentioned, she's totally hot dude, good job!"
An annoyed expression was pulling at Kane's grin as the recording of his dad kept playing.
"I was called in for an extra-long shift, I should be back tomorrow night, I left some food in the fridge to tide you over. Feel free to order a pizza or something if it isn't enough, love you."
Kane sighed and turned on the TV, it popped up on the news where his dad left it.
Kane smirked at the thought of people unironically watching the news at 3 am.
"Any word from the councilmen on this big secret they mentioned?" "Absolutely none Maria, this project is being kept on a very tight leash, all they've stated is that this will greatly benefit humanity in the distant future!"
"Define 'humanity.'" Kane laughed as he turned the TV back off, there was nothing on but the news and some bad re-runs at this hour anyway, whatever weird crap the government was pulling this time, he wanted to avoid it.
Kane made his way through the hall and up to his bedroom door, tottering in and collapsing on his bed.
He pulled the headset over his face and turned it on, immediately feeling his consciousness get sucked into it.
He couldn't see the bright menu screen he was currently floating in, but he didn't have to.
"Continue current game."
A minute passed, as the vast territory of the Elven Kingdom flew into view.
Kane could feel his body materializing at the spawn point, his senses immediately sharpening and expanding. 'Screw sight, this is addictive!'
He decided to go down to the ravine and try fighting the wolves alone, he knew this wasn't even remotely a smart idea, but he could just grab whatever he dropped and teleport out if he died.
Teleporting over to the quest board, he selected the third most dangerous beginner quest there.
"Yo! The silver demon is back dawg!" Kane heard an obnoxious voice coming from behind him, prompting him to immediately teleport away.
"Ayo anyone see where that dude went?" Said a tiny, pasty man with a massive afro.
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While jogging down into the ravine and letting his mana recover, Kane began checking his unread messages.
'Nothing from Sun, nothing from Reaper... one from Jol." Kane racked his brain thinking of things Jol would message him about that he wouldn't despise hearing.
Finally steeling himself to open the message, he felt the braille manifesting over his screen.
"I heard that you gained a cool nickname, 'silver demon.' So as your friend, I decided to spread your name, nickname, and a description of your appearance and abilities to everyone I can, you're welcome."
Kane's jaw was agape, "That bastard!"
Maybe what he told Cassy wouldn't just be a joke anymore...
While Kane kept deliberating on how he'd get back at Jol, he found himself at the entrance of the wolf spawn.
After a minute of waiting, they began coming out of the fissures on the wall.
Kane immediately activated his new skill, [Shadow Step], merging into the darkness shared by the wolves.
He could hear the wolves, and the wolves could hear him, but unlike him, the wolves would still be trying to use sight.
Dashing up to the nearest one, he slashed it twice before it fell dead. Kane grinned wildly when he realized that without their surprise element and stealth, these wolves would be hard-pressed to kill anything, despite their huge damage stat.
Teleporting up to the next wolf he heard, he slashed it, immediately hearing the third wolf jump into the air with sharp claws aimed at his back.
Kane teleported slightly off to the side, parrying the wolf's strike with his sword while using the downward momentum to bring it around into the second wolf's side.
The second wolf dropped dead, the third following shortly after as Kane teleported right onto its back by mistake, catching it completely off guard.
The fourth was even easier as it had already passed him while searching.
His 30 seconds ran out, however, and the fifth wolf (who was smart enough to stay completely still), suddenly charged.
The man was still in the shadows, now visible and trapped with a nigh undetectable predator.
The wolf's programming told it the advantage was his, but for Kane, whether the wolf was visible or not meant nothing.
Kane teleported away from the wolf's first strike, jabbing his sword into the wolf's behind as he kicked its jaw.
"Hey wolfie, I'm about to climb on your back and brutally stomp you into the void, hope you have fun in hell with your children!" Kane yelled gleefully.
Keeping true to his word, Kane climbed onto the wolf's back and began stomping, 3 was all it took, as Kane now did 20 damage without weapons, and the wolf had terrible defense.
"Hell yeah! That was almost easy, I should try the first Ravine boss next time!"
Kane checked his stats, finding himself all the way up at level 15!
"One more wolf hunt and I enter the 'common' rank, I've always dreamed of being a commoner," Kane spoke to himself wistfully.
He quickly made his way back into town, collecting the quest rewards and re-selecting his ticket into common-hood.
Wasting no time, he ran back to where he came from.
Kane sprinted through the ravine, dashing through a field of Boulder Slimes and avoiding any tripping hazards with ease.
Although he was tempted to go fight the beginner boss, he figured he should bring a healer or at least a meat shield with him to use as bait, the boss wouldn't have a pathetic defense stat like the wolves.
As the wolves spawned in, Kane immediately used shadow step and got to work, slashing through everything in his way with ease.
Teleporting left and right to confuse and eliminate everything in his path, Kane found that this time he managed to take them all out right before the veil of his skill was lifted.
He was met with a wonderful feeling of growth as he checked his stats.
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[Kane: Aporter | Affiliation-NA | level-16 | Gold-1906 | Platinum-0]
[Hp-250/250, Mp-170/170, Xp-54/147] [Skill points: 3]
[Stats: Dmg-20(15), Def-5(10), Md-10] | {Hp Regen- +20, Mp Regen- +40 | Per Minute}
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[Skills: Beginner-
Aport-2: Allows the user to teleport small-medium objects within a 100(+10)-foot radius to their hand, consumes 5 mana per use. {Reach Rank 'Intermediate' to level up skill}
Self Aport-2: Allows the user to teleport. 1 mana is consumed per two feet of teleportation. Can teleport a single person along with the user for twice the mana cost. {Reach Rank 'Intermediate' to level up skill}
Shadow Step-2: Those with mastery over space and shadows can force their very presence to become one with the dark. Costs 20 Mp per use, hides the user for 30 seconds, can only be activated in darkness. First attack while undetected deals 2x damage. {Skill Maxed out}
Common-
Black Hole-1: Drags small objects and creatures towards the center of wherever the spell has been cast. Deal 5(+2) damage per second for a 5-second duration, ignoring armor. Costs 40 mana to use. {Reach Rank 'Intermediate' to level up skill}
Anchor-1: Using all of the user's mana, an anchor point can be set up, allowing the user to teleport to that point from anywhere. Costs 50 mana to teleport to an Anchor. (0/2) Anchors placed. {Reach Rank 'Intermediate' to level up skill}]
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[Items: Beginner- *Iron Chestplate +10 Def | *Steel Sword +15 Atk | *Rabbit Ears +10% Detect, +10% Agility]
[Effects: Rank Up Bonus {Instant Stat Recovery- 5 sec}]
[Party: NA]
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Kane had taken his first major steps towards power, he now had an attack skill, and [Anchor], which would undoubtedly save him hours upon hours of time throughout the game.
He could feel the sensation of mana in his body getting denser, power surging through him.
Although this feeling meant nothing for his current power level, it was still nice.
Ranking up also gave him a few seconds of instantly regenerating stats, it's a shame there's such a short time limit.
Kane began the trek back to the village, deciding that his next steps would be to set up an anchor there, then travel to the human territories.
He started spending his 3 skill points, watching his magic damage stat rise from 10 to 25, which granted a total of 5 extra damage per second on his new attack skill.
Now that he'd reached common rank, there was a lot more he could do, and he was excited to get started.
