Penalty

Paul spent more than a month in the game fighting monsters and despite all his efforts he was stuck at level 18. There were no more strong creatures to fight and level up. He was stuck at that level. So he had to go back to town to buy books, but seeing that he had already spent more than half of it on elixirs and antidotes. He decided to go back to read more books without permission and buy more elixirs.

Again he went to read books without paying the entrance fee to the place to save the money, which was the worst thing. Suddenly the game stopped. The books went blank and the game gave him a warning.

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Paul was a little surprised and just waited to see what punishment the game would give him, he didn't think they would be so hard on him, but when he saw the place where they took him he regretted it all.

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There were centipedes, scorpions, cockroaches level fifty, in total there were ten of them. They all went towards the boy.

Paul tried to do magic to stop them.

-Total fire, ice temple.

But it was insufficient, because from one moment to the next the ice was destroyed and only took 7 percent of health from each monster. Unfortunately, at that moment all the monsters came to him and crushed him to death. He didn't even have time to take an elixir and recover.

Paul revived and now he had 4 lives left. He tried to search in the game menu for a way to get out of that place, but the whole menu was locked. He couldn't get out of there, until he finished with all the monsters. So the boy used all the magic he learned from the books and started to cast them every second. He cast ice spells and then fire spells to lower their health.

-Total fire, ice temple," he shouted.

He managed to lower the health of each of the monsters, but unfortunately using magic drained his energy. So he was unprotected and again the creatures killed him.

Paul had to pass die three more times. Until he only had one left, and he only had a little bit of health left. He didn't know what to do at that point. He didn't want to die in real life, and the monsters he faced were not easy to defeat. Despite all his efforts he could not kill them.

He just kept fighting against those monsters, as he had been doing recently, but with more caution, he knew that this would be the end of him if he died in the battle. So he ran faster from the place where he was to avoid being crushed by one of those creatures, but no matter how hard he tried it was not enough. There were almost ten monsters that were still not going to be defeated. In a stampede he was almost crushed, but his health went down.

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He had to wait a few minutes before he could recharge his energy again. So he ran deep into the dungeon to buy time and deliver the final blow to each of the monsters. While trying to protect his life, he saw that he was approaching a rather strange place, it seemed to be a shrine. There were dozens of strange objects there. He got a little curious and took one of them to see if he could defend himself with it. It was some kind of bow, so he took an arrow and shot it to see what would happen. He saw that from one moment to another fire came out of the arrow and he was a bit surprised, however he felt that this was not enough to finish with those creatures. He would only give them a few wounds, but he tried to carry them with him in case he needed them when he left the dungeon.

However before I could put the bow away, the creatures had arrived and we were just meters away from him. His energy had gone up by more than half, so he could do a fire attack and then an ice attack to buy more time.

He walked to where more of the creatures were. He said a few words at once and threw a flame of fire towards those creatures.

-Total fire. Ice Temple," he shouted for the last time.

Again the flames of fire appeared and the creatures began to lose health considerably.

Paul was very restless. He was nervous he wanted to get out of the dungeon now. The creatures lost quite a bit more health. The boy decided to take advantage of the opportunity and once again launched an attack with the arrows he found in that place.

All the creatures turned to ash and the ice evaporated.

[...]

Paul woke up in the house where he lived. Which was almost in ruins. The guards were in front of him.

The boy woke up and tried to stand up, but the game immediately showed him several announcements.

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Paul was quite tired, he saw that he health bar. At that time it was at 9, so he took an elixir to restore his health, but as he leveled up he could no longer afford one elixir.

Now he needed two.

With this punishment he decided to comply with the rules and end the game, since he was at his limit, but before he could get up. Two guards came to where he was.

-He was fined one million coins for stealing from the kingdom and the library.

Paul tried to follow the conversation as if it were real.

-It's okay, I'll pay it in a few months.

-It's not necessary.

The black-haired boy got a notification right away.

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Everything had been taken from him. Paul could only calm down and assume that these were the rules. The game gave him a warning immediately.

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Slowly his stats were resuming to normal values, and it was a chance to make things right.

The guards left and he stayed with his family. His parents were simple people, so he didn't give them much importance, but he noticed that he had weapons lying around and the place smelled of fire. Everything indicated that the man was a blacksmith and that's why the house was like that.

He was curious and wanted to talk to him.

-Are you a blacksmith?

-Yes, I make swords for heroes and royal soldiers. I don't earn much, but at least we manage to live in this place.

He wanted to know more about him, so he asked about the place.

-How is this country?

-Horrible, there are almost no men because they all went to war, so when you grow up you will have to go, we are only commoners, our magic is very little, so we have to fight like soldiers.

Paul didn't understand much about this world, but he remembered there was a book about the game. The only problem was that he had no money to go there.

He watched as his father stopped talking and went to a place to finish making some swords. He wanted to try to see what stats he could get.

However, the man was very focused on his work.

So without being seen he took a sword that was deformed. It looked like he would throw them away. He decided to grab them to sell them. His father ignored him, since he didn't need them, the ones he was going to sell were in a sheath.

[...]

Paul came out with a lot of swords to sell, at any price, he just needed money to read the books of this country and the game. He could go to the library and read it, but he didn't want to expose himself to another punishment.

He just walked through the streets and saw another blacksmith. The young man walked up to him and spoke to him.

-Do you need metal?

-Yes.

-How much will you sell this for?

-Mmm, three thousand coins, player.

-Player? You're not a programmer?

-No, I'm just an evaluator of the game. I'm here to see how this character works.

-You could take me out of this game.

He laughed a little and spoke to her.

-You can't leave without finishing the game. If you die here you won't be able to leave, and your personality will be used for a character here.

The man looked quite serious.

Paul was very annoyed to hear that.

-Can't you help me with something? I skipped the rules and I only have one life left.

-I see, I could only give you some money and the family you were assigned to, but you have to play the game from now on. Even if it takes you fifty years. You will return to the same age you entered here, but if I help you your social level will not go up. Just follow the rules are not difficult to follow, the game gives you many freedoms. This is an open world, each person will answer you as if they were in the real world.

-I have no problem, I understand.

Paul noted that he had a hundred thousand coins and he could advance with that amount of money. When he was about to say something else to the man, he was gone.

The boy was surprised, so he decided to continue with the missions of the game, but first he went to a store to buy the uniform should be blue to go back to school, but he noticed that it was starting to get dark. Something that the time he had been here had not happened. So he thought it was new system updates, but for fear of encountering something dangerous he decided to return home and wait for daybreak.

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When dawn broke Paul was already in front of the clothing store. They hadn't opened yet, so he waited for a while and when he saw movement he entered the store.

There was a woman there. She seemed to be someone from a noble family, as she was dressed differently from the rest of the people he saw around the place.

-What do I need, young man?

-I want to buy a uniform. I need to go to school.

She doubted I was a student, but agreed to show him.

-There's plenty over there, just pick it out.

Paul went to where there were uniforms and just by touching it he had it on.

-It's fifteen thousand coins.

Paul was amazed at the speed of things. From one moment to the next he saw the figure being taken from him appear on his screen.

He understood that this was the way of this world, just by taking something and talking to someone, the game assumed he was paying for it.

So he left for the magic school immediately. He wanted to level up and get out of this town. He noticed that there were more people on the streets at that hour, so he left quickly.

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Paul arrived at the amphitheater in high spirits. He thought about going to the library, but he thought it was a waste of time to go there at that hour.

He saw how someone sat down next to him, it was a boy with glasses, blond hair and a blue uniform.

-Hello, commoner, you're quite peculiar, I'm surprised you're back. You've been away from here for over three weeks.

-Hey, I was busy.

-They say you're a thief.

-Hey, I'm not. There are no more posters of me around.

He stared at it and then looked straight ahead. Apparently the professor had arrived.

-Welcome, today everyone must recite magic spells and create something that impresses me. I need to write them to magic duels between classrooms. Come down if you want to participate.

Paul looked around and saw that no one was able to go. Only Richard Vorbote came down and stood in front of the professor. Everyone seemed to have accepted that this student should represent all the students in that classroom.

However, that black-haired boy, who lived in that place by force, did not consider it so. He got up from his chair and walked down to the teacher and his classmate.

-I want to participate.

Richard showed his anger, but said nothing, he just waited to see what the teacher would say.

-All right, just do three basic spells. I need water in that glass.

On the table there was a glass and Richard took his wand and said a few words.

-Water container.

The glass was full, but some water was coming out.

Paul didn't know what to do, he only did combat magic, and decided to copy his partner. He took his old staff and said a few words.

-Water in vessel.

The other glass filled, this time without spilling out of the container.

The professor was surprised to see it, but it was still not enough for him.

-I want these letters to burn, so please. Do it with my care, don't start a fire.

Richard began to think and spoke.

-Object burned.

Suddenly the sheets of paper the man had there began to burn.

Paul was a little worried, he didn't know what to do at that moment, he didn't want to copy Richard's name, so he tried to rephrase it. He concentrated on the object and said a different phrase.

-Burnt paper.

The paper burned quickly to ash that the wind blew away in a second.

The professor was surprised, he did not expect the commoner in front of him to have that power. So he spoke to him.

-Impressive, I think you both deserve to go to the magic tournament that the school will make. So get back to your posts.

That man felt pressured, he loved to see that boy do something in such a precise way, but he could not leave Richard Vorbote out, since he was from a noble family and because of his social position he should never be left out.

Paul was calm, but he knew that this was a simple demonstration. The boy in front of him was just as strong, if not stronger than him. Both students sat in their seats and waited for the professor to continue with his class.

In a moment, simple explanations were already written. That man did magic without saying a word or having a wand or staff.

"Magic comes from five hundred years ago. Those who discovered it were the elves and taught it to humans, but seeing that humans did not have much mana, the races were crossed and only a few families are the only ones who can make perfect magic. The rest are only good for war."

Paul noticed that this country was quite classist, but he didn't say anything at that moment.