Players

At the end of the class Paul was quite calm, the only thing he needed was to go to the library to learn more about this world, however at the exit of the amphitheater Richard and his friends appeared.

They all had their wands and baculo, they didn't seem very calm about what happened.

-Hey, are you looking for me?

-What's wrong with you? How many books did you steal to improve yourself?

Hearing that, Paul noted that it was true what the game evaluator he had seen that day had told him. The people here had intelligence of their own, so they didn't forget anything. They acted like real people. So he had to decide whether to fight them or not.

One of the students grabbed him by the shirt to challenge him to fight.

-Are you not so strong out here anymore?

-I am strong, tell me, do you want to fight?

He answered in a serious way and without any compassion.

-You are stupid. You think I would lower myself to fight in the corridors with someone like you. How undignified. I Richard Vorbote have my principles.

He and his group of friends walked out of the hallway and ignored him. Paul didn't really understand that attitude, so he left that place and headed for the library, he wanted to get ahead in the game as fast as he could.

He noticed that people were still giving him dirty looks, perhaps because of the bad reputation he had earned by stealing that money.

[...]

On the way to the library, he noticed that several places in the city were already opening, and he could go look at them, but he decided not to go look. He wanted to level up first and then continue exploring the city.

When he arrived at the library, he noticed that the people there were just like the ones at school. They gave him dirty looks and he avoided talking to them. He just went to look for several books among all the shelves.

He grabbed two that talked about the game and took them to check out. The person who was in charge of the place. She was the same as the rest, so Paul didn't even look at her. He just felt that he was deducted almost 20,000 coins.

It seemed like a lot of money to him, but it didn't matter. The knowledge he would have was necessary.

Just by touching the book, the game immediately gave him all the information.

Paul was heartbroken to get all that knowledge. He was not even 1% of the way through the story and this was a dark fantasy in which he had to be a hero. The only life he had left was not enough for the dangers he had to face. He only had to finish the school games and then he could go to several countries that were nearby and for this he would have to train more than everyone since his magic was not comparable to the nobles of this city.

[...]

The black-haired boy decided to read other books to learn to have more magic despite being a simple commoner, he knew that somewhere there had to be an instruction. Since he did not want to lose, he knew that events like these were not going to be repeated. It was the only way to get out of the city and advance in history.

He lent dozens of books of advanced magic something cheap to improve a little more, but it did not have much effect at the time. Which was very hard for Paul, as he was hoping for something more.

The boy stopped buying books and went home, since it was starting to get dark and according to the books he read at this time of the year monsters appear and take people of all social classes, but when he tried to leave he noticed that there was no one else in the street. Nor in the library. This is a bit scary for Paul, as he had read many urban stories and imagined many things. So he stayed inside the library without the person in charge noticing. He hid in a corner and hid. He didn't read any more books without permission, he wanted to avoid going down more reputation and just waited for the night to end.

The city sounded like a ghost town, but strange footsteps began to be heard in several places. This puzzled Paul. He didn't even want to look out the window. There were urban legends that were probably true and he didn't want to live them.

So he just analyzed his stats. He was currently level 18, and had learned many types of magic. The only problem was how little energy he had, so he had to wait more than a minute in battle to make four attacks again. There was no book for that. He thought that maybe if he advanced in history he could find something in another city.

[...]

The next day Paul went to school and surprisingly kings and nobles from other cities arrived. There were more guards than there usually were around this place. They looked at the young man and ignored him so he entered the school without any problems, but when he entered he noticed that there were no more people from other places, not only the nobles from other countries, so this was going to be more difficult for him.

Paul only hoped not to meet with one of the kings, to avoid a fight that would lower the reputation he was trying to regain. He went to his living room amidst the looks of contempt from everyone. He had become accustomed to this situation, but it was starting to bother him a little. It was too annoying for him.

The situation in the amphitheater did not change, he sat alone at a table again. No one even tried to talk to him. Even the professor avoided looking at him at that moment, but suddenly two students arrived who were apparently at the game event. Paul's attention was not drawn to them, but he was surprised to see them. The books he read gave him more abilities to see the power of the people in the city.

Both kids were level 20, and they were from the royal family, they looked like siblings. It was a girl and a boy. Both with red hair and green eyes.

Paul only saw them both walk up to where he was sitting. He didn't know what the professor was talking about and they sat next to him, as she was the only one available.

The situation was making Paul forget that this was a game he wanted to finish. He felt a little nervous that someone from another country would come all the way to that school and sit next to him.

The teacher continued to scribble on the board without looking at anyone. Just then out of nowhere the new boy spoke to Paul.

-Hello, commoner. I see this school is pretty basic. Do you really spend all day listening to this fool?

-Yes, sometimes he does basic magic. He doesn't want to destroy the classroom," he replied.

-Interesting, how about a fight at break time?

-Shall we fight?

-Yes, I see you're level 18, you're the highest level in this room, even though you don't have much magic.

Paul began to think that both boys were other players and when he saw that this one decided to talk to him, he didn't hesitate to accept.

-Yes, what's the difference.

-I am Marcos Werner and this is my cousin Sabrina. Although she doesn't like to talk to strangers.

The black-haired boy had no choice but to answer her.

-My name is Paul Douglas," he said a little nervously.

[...]

As they had agreed at the break, the two students went to fight in a local coliseum. Some students had heard about it in the hall, so they took it upon themselves to tell the rest of the school.

Some of the teachers decided to go and see what was going on there.

Paul had a cheap baculum and was prepared for anything. He just wanted to show his power to the boy, since it was not forbidden according to the rules of the game.

Mark stood next to his cousin, and received a wand from her. And he went to the stairs.

-Are you ready, Paul?

-Yes, I'm ready," he answered.

They both stared at each other. The nobleman was the first to cast a magic spell, a kind of sandstorm in which he was going to bury him.

Paul was surprised to see that, so he cast a quick spell, a barrier to protect himself, and counterattacked immediately.

-Mana Shield, Temple of Ice.

Freeze everything around the Mark. He even froze completely, but quickly cast a spell to get out of there, and threw the wand to the ground. He realized that the boy in front of him knew many spells that he could cast simultaneously despite his low mana.

The black-haired boy, at once realized that he had won and tried to evaporate all the ice that was near his noble companion.

-You're fast at casting spells, but that's counter productive. If you run out in the middle of a battle you'll be left out in the cold. Stupidly half the school already knows you'll use an ice spell and they'll make shields to keep you from freezing them. So you have to make another strategy.

Paul was surprised to hear his partner, not expecting him to care a bit about him. Sabrina went to her cousin and tried to help him. Ni kept quiet and spoke.

-Those attacks are too hard you're quite a strange player.

-Player? You are players too.

-Yes, the game sent us here. We have done 7% we will finish in a matter of a few years, but we can't help you. You can get out if you complete all the missions, otherwise you won't be able to.

-Yes, I already met an evaluator and he told me.

Marcos and Sabrina looked at him surprised.

-You could have asked him to raise you to level 50. With that you would pass half of all the missions. Well apparently something is going to happen in this town and they are trying to gather a few players. Unfortunately you have a very low reputation and you are a commoner in this world. How did you get that level and magic?

-I didn't follow the rules, I just stole books and money, but the game punished me. Now I only have one life left.

Marcos and his cousin were surprised to hear that. Sabrina, who hadn't spoken for a long time, decided to tell him a few things. The girl talks about what was going on.

-It's dangerous, you can die at any moment, and there are difficult missions. Unfortunately the missions they don't give to us are different from yours. We can't give you money, or anything else we have.

Marcos smiled and looked at his cousin.

-Yes we can, you just have to compromise them, the game will allow you to have some things and maybe raise your reputation. With that you will be able to have some of the things we get. You live in this world on the edge, just be careful.

Sabrina didn't care much about that and searched her menu for Paul. With that they were both linked and the reputation changed for both of them.

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Reduced Sabrina's reputation

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Increased Paul's reputation

Marcos laughed and spoke.

-The game is strict sometimes, but well Paul, we can't keep talking to you, we must go through this place and look for new weapons and elixirs. We will leave when we finish the mission the game gave us. We will participate in the magic exhibition. Goodbye.

Paul didn't dare to ask them any more questions, what they had done was enough and their only goal now was to accomplish the mission in this school so they could go to another city.

[...]

Upon returning to the classroom, the looks of contempt towards Paul were no longer so evident, apparently the positive score helped him to change a little the way people in that city looked at him.

Which motivated him a little, but he didn't see the two players, apparently they still wouldn't return to class, or maybe they wouldn't come to this place yet.

The class teacher did his doodles on the board again, but this time of an event that would be in a few days.

"Magical festival in three days" "Many guests from other cities."

Now he knew why the cousins were here. He sensed that something serious would happen. He remembered that this game was dark fantasy and at any moment very bad things would happen.

He just stood there watching the man as he wrote on the board some activities that would be done in the schools.

At that moment Paul thought about going back to the outskirts to kill monsters and level up as he was not very happy.