Chapter Two

After a few seconds of being transported, Lionel opened his eyes to find himself in what looked like an ancient village where farmers and hunters resided.

Looking around he could spot many players who just like him had just started the game. Players could be recognized by their special appearances, while NPCs were the regular folks in the town.

Lionel noticed how a lot of players were eagerly rushing to the NPCs in search of quests to complete so they could be transported out of the beginner town and officially start the main game.

However, there was a little secret about the beginner town that no one else in the game knew about yet.

The beginner town was a box full of treasures disguised as a hindrance to the players. Most quests in the beginner town gave very little XP that hindered players from levelling up faster compared to what they would get in the main game world, however a little here and there were special gems they could find that most players never even made the effort to find.

Lionel had learned about the secrets in the beginner town two years after he'd started playing the game when a new player was announced to have found a special treasure, however, those who'd passed the beginner town could never go back, so that information had only been beneficial to new players.

"Let's start by checking the stats." Lionel voiced as he flicked the gaming band on his wrist, a transparent screen hovered in the air before him.

Player: BlackLion001

Race: Human

Health Points: 100/100

Strength: 100/1000

Stamina:100/1000

Dexterity:100/1000

Intelligence:100/1000

Coins:5000 silver coins

Having not wasted his coins on purchasing an expensive avatar, Lionel knew just what to spend his coins on.

He proceeded to walk down the market inside the beginner town.

"Hey, you there!" As Lionel walked by, he noticed an orc guy with large muscular arms address him, however, uninterested in associating with other players, Lionel continued walking.

"These dumb NPCs are quite annoying!" Lionel heard the guy mutter.

All of a sudden, with a swift move, the orc guy had swiftly jumped in front of him.

"I'm talking to you, couldn't you hear me?" The guy was a few feet taller than Lionel's avatar towering over him.

"Come carry my goods and I'll pay you a few coins, how about that?" The orc guy proposed quite haughtily.

Lionel couldn't help but sigh at the mistake of some newbie players. Instead of completing quests by themselves, they'd spend their coins employing NPCs just to reduce their own workload which was a waste of time.

To the developers, every coin spent by players was going back to them, so spending money on NPCs was a complete waste. Being in the beginner town gave players the illusion that it was an easy game, but little did they know, it was more complicated than they thought. Most people would end up squandering all their coins in the beginner town without earning anything more, in the end, they'd leave the beginner town completely broke, which would be to their disadvantage later in the game.

"I'm not interested." Lionel replied in a bland tone before he made to walk away.

"Eh? Are NPCs allowed to reject a job?" The huge orc guy muttered to himself, turning to glace at the ordinary looking NPC guy he just spoke to, he persistently went after him once more.

"Hey, you're not allowed to refuse a job, I'll pay you fifty coins." The orc guy insisted.

"I'll pay you a hundred coins to stop following me. Find someone else."

The orc guy stopped in his tracks, staring at Lionel who continued walking without paying him attention, "Wait, you're not an NPC?" He called after him.

Lionel stopped in his tracks, though he had no intentions of sparing his time to help anyone, he turned around to face the orc guy.

"I'm not, I'm a player."

"Huh? Why didn't you choose a special race then? Why did you choose a human? You're already a human in the real world, didn't you feel curious to find out what it would feel like to become another race?" The guy seemed genuinely curious.

"I prefer to remain a human." Lionel replied succinctly before adding, "Word of advice, don't squander your coins, earning more might be a lot harder than you think." Saying this he turned around and left.

"Wait, what do you mean?" The orc called after him again but Lionel had already walked away. He scratched his head in confusion, before looking at his stats, "300 coins left. What that guy said makes sense, I better just go carry my goods myself."

As he walked through the market, Lionel witnessed a few players gathered making fun of the NPCs, most of them considered this part of the game as a playground where they could have fun before going to the real game.

The criteria for leaving the beginner town was to successfully complete a quest, and one would be automatically transported out of the beginner town.

However Lionel had no plans of leaving the beginner town just yet. After a little bit of walking, Lionel stopped as he arrived at the ancient library at the corner of the market.

The building looked quite dilapidated and worn down. Just as Lionel was about to walk into the library, he heard the voices of the players he'd come across who'd been bullying an NPC for fun.

"Hey why is that guy going into the old library, is he a player?"

"Unbelievable, someone is actually using the human race to play? How stupid."

"Haha, he's actually planning to take up the library quest when his race is just human? Has he even done research before starting the game? Everyone who wants to play NexReality knows that the library quest in the beginner town is an impossible one, no one has ever passed it before. Besides, this is just the beginner town, it's worthless to spend your time completing a hard quest when one could just complete all the easy quests and leave this low level beginner town."

"Let him be, he's meant to die playing as a human anyway, it's best he dies this early, at least he'll have no regrets of losing accumulated treasures right?"

Their laughter echoed behind him as he walked into the library, he'd heard their every word, yet chose to proceed into the library anyway. Unlike them he had the knowledge they didn't. The beginner town wasn't as useless as they'd assumed.

The developers of the game were indeed cunning, on the surface the beginner town looked useless so most players would ignore it and strive to leave immediately.

The inside of the library looked dark, spider webs covered the walls on every angle. It was so silent that it didn't seem like there was anyone inside the library at all.

"Strange, I thought an old man was supposed to be here to issue the quest." Lionel frowned as he looked around at the empty library, "Hello? Anyone here?"

A faint thudding sound drew his attention to the library front desk which was empty. "Is someone there?"

As Lionel began to move closer to the front desk cautiously, his eyes narrowed as he listened intently hearing tiny muttering sounds coming from beneath the desk.

He'd already approached the desk before he realized a second too late that what he was hearing was someone muttering a magical spell in a strange language, he wasn't able to react fast enough as one of the books on the shelves came flying hitting him square on the head.

"Ow!" Lionel rubbed the back of his head before he bent down to pick the book. When his sight caught a the fabric from someone's clothes beneath the desk.

He heard some more mutterings and knew that if he didn't stop the words halfway, something even bigger might come flying out of nowhere to attack him again, but before he could even take any action another book flew over to hit him on the head.

"Why do you keep hitting me on the head with books? I'm not here to hurt you!"

"Hmph, you couldn't hurt me even if you tried."

"Huh?" Lionel frowned, the voice sounded thick like that of an aged man, however Lionel couldn't sight the owner of the voice, so he curiously peeked over the desk, that was when he saw a bald looking head.

"Disrespectful youth! How dare you look down at me?!" Lionel slightly jumped back as the short figure jumped onto the desk.

Lionel looked on with a slightly astounded look in his eyes, he felt the urge to laugh coming on but he suppressed it.

The little man had a round bald head, with a long white beard that came all the way down to his feet, he was barely three feet tall, yet his face was laden with aged wrinkles.

"A dwarf? I thought the library old man would be..." Lionel was muttering to himself when the old dwarf cut him off angrily.

"Your grandpa is a dwarf! I'm not a dwarf, I am a great sorcerer!" The old dwarf retorted with a huff.

"Right, you used magic just now, how did you do it?" Lionel was astonished.

Different races had their own abilities, most races couldn't use abilities that other races possessed unless they were either an extremely high level player that had reached the maximum level of the game, or...an insanely powerful NPC.

So this old dwarf was....

"That's right kid, I am indeed a very powerful being." The old dwarf seemed to have read the astonishment in Lionel's eyes, he affirmed with a pleased expression.

"Really? How powerful are you then?" Lionel asked as if curious.

"Hmph, so powerful I can move the skies and seas!" The old dwarf replied arrogantly.

"Oh? And yet you could only move one book at a time when you were attacking me just now."

Hearing Lionel's words, the old dwarf stiffened.

"Judging by that, you're just a low level sorcerer at most, how can you move the skies and seas then?"

"You... apologize for your impudence!" The old dwarf demanded.

"Why should I apologize? You're not that powerful after all."

"You..." The old dwarf looked infuriated, he muttered a few words again, but this time when the book came flying, Lionel already anticipated it, he was quick to catch it before it landed on his head again.

The old man glared at Lionel, "Impudent youth! Hurry and leave this library, I don't wish to keep speaking to you."

Lionel dropped the book on the table before saying, "You are as powerful as you claim to be, at least you used to be, but your powers were unfortunately sealed to this library, you cannot leave, nor can you use your full powers."

"How did...how did you know about that?"

"An accurate guess." Lionel knew about the story as it had circulated all over the game in his past life when someone had finally solved the library quest, but he wasn't going to spill his secret.

The old dwarf eyed Lionel with a contemplative frown, "You're just a human with low combat abilities, you couldn't possibly be able to..."

In order to get issued a quest, a player had to trigger the quest from the NPC, which meant that the NPC had to request their help, however with this old dwarf, he was clearly looking down on Lionel as if he was doubting if Lionel had the capability to complete the quest.

"Be able to..." Lionel urged him hoping he would issue the quest.

However the old dwarf rubbed his long beard, "Such a frail physique, skinny arms...tsk, tsk, tsk, it would rip you apart."

'Could you just issue the quest already?' Lionel muttered impatiently in his head.

The old dwarf shrugged, "Sending an impudent youth to his death isn't something I would hesitate to do. I have a mission for you, if you complete this mission, I'll give you three thousand gold coins. Are you interested?"

*Quest triggered. Accept or reject.*

"I'm interested." Lionel agreed.

*Quest accepted.*

Difficulty level: extreme.

Rewards: A sorcerer's gratitude, 150EXP, 150STR, 150DEX, 1000 gold coins.

At this moment, the intelligence in the old dwarf's eyes disappeared, his eyes clouded as if he'd become a robot reciting an automated speech.

"Good." The old man beamed, "At the edge of the city lies the tunnel of despair, it has a beginning but never an end. No one ventured into the tunnel of despair and comes back to tell the tale, but you brave warrior have gained my trust. You shall venture into the tunnel of despair and seek the magic mirror which holds the door to the higher realms, my home, only with the mirror can I achieve my freedom and finally escape from this library seal, help me gain my freedom brave warrior, and you shall receive multiple rewards."

After the old dwarf finished his words, his eyes finally cleared and the cunning and intelligent light returned to his eyes.

"Did you understand all that kid, or would you like me to repeat it?" He asked grinning.

"I got it." Lionel nodded, "I will help you gain your freedom." There was determination in Lionel's eyes. All the rewards were something that would set him for the hardship to come after he left the beginner town.

The old dwarf couldn't help the trace of hope that surfaced in his heart, but he quickly dismissed it. What could this ordinary looking human kid do? At most he would just be killed like all the others.

Without saying a word the old dwarf nodded, "Be on your way now." He shooed Lionel away.

Just as Lionel had reached the entrance of the library, the old dwarf suddenly called after him.

"Hey kid."

Lionel paused turning around,

"If you manage to come back alive,

You will receive a special reward."

Death can never get me twice, "I will come back alive."

The old dwarf had on a slightly confused look in his eyes as he watched Lionel exit the library.

"Strange, this kid is the weakest to ever come here, yet he is the first person to make me have some hope."