RoR Chapter 3

Guys, chapter 4 is out, and I made some changes and added more content at the end of the chapter 3, so I've deleted the previous ch 3 and I'm reposting it now Check it out and then read chapter 4.

For those who don't know what RoR is, it's my new book. An original. You can find all the chapters in collections. or just go this link: https://www.patreon.com/snollygoster/collections

It's a really awesome book, even better than Arcane Thief, so I urge you to check it out. You can also directly read it from chapter 3 since the first two chapters cover his escape from the experimental facility.

.....

Zach was in a dark room, He was only wearing a basic tunic over his body. This was the customization room.

[You have used the RoR ticket]

[You are the 21030th participant of this Season. Welcome to the Realm of Reckoning!]

[Choose your attire. You have one minute.]

While a short film introducing the RoR was being shown to the viewers, Zach and the other participants were given time to prepare.

 Within a minute, he would be transported to the RoR, watched by an uncountable number of people universe-wide. His physical appearance will play a huge role in his viewership rankings. That’s why, the participants are first sent to this place in order to customize their appearance.

 Zach looked at the screen that showed hundreds of options.
 ‘Hm… what to do?’

In the virtual mirror in front of him, Zach looked at his image for the first time in a while. And he had to accept, it hadn’t gotten better. His wiry 6’2 frame appeared quite thin and his face sickly and gaunt. 

Overall, he looked like a patient suffering from a chronic disease, which he was. The constant withdrawal of blood by the researchers hadn’t helped either.

Furthermore, faint red lines were also visible, running through his face and body. These were his mana circuits, inflamed red due to his special condition.

If there was one thing noteworthy about his appearance, it was his eyes. From afar, they looked black, but if looked close enough they would appear a deep purple. 

Zach had to be really careful about making eye-contact during his escape in order to not be recognized. That’s why, the first thing Zach did was to select a pair of black contact lenses and put them over his eyes.

Then, he put on a practical combat attire which covered his entire body, similar to what soldiers wear in the military. It had the most number of pockets and it covered his whole body, also hiding the evidence of mana cancer.

If possible, he really wanted to avoid getting recognized for now.

That’s why, the next thing he did was to cut his dark hair short. Then he covered his face with a white oval-shaped facemask with no features.

The last thing left was a weapon. The weapon a leveler wields depends on their class. The basic combat classes offered to humans are:

Caster: If you want to use mana as your primary weapon.

Bladewielder: If you want to peruse to the path of sharp or bladed weapons

Blunt Warrior: If you are into using blunt weapons or your own body

Shooter: If you want to shoot things from a distance, like using a bow or a gun.

These are the basic combat classes you can choose at the start. The attributes and skills you get also depend on your class.

Caster can go in anywhere from fire mage to healer. Blade Wielders can go anywhere from sword warrior to thief to berserker. Hitter from Martial artist to Hammer wielder. Shooters can be Archer, Gunslinger etc.

The first class advancement comes after level 10.

The starting class Zach had wanted to choose? Caster, which could only be a dream with his Mana Cancer. What did he end up choosing? Bladewielder.

That’s why, the weapons shown to him were all those with sharp edges. These were all grade 1 weapons, meaning the lowest level. But there are many ways to obtain better equipment.

Zach chose a simple bastard sword that was well balanced for his size. It can be used one-handed as well as two-handed, and it's damage is a bit higher than light swords, but it's not as heavy as long swords.

 [Set a name]

With everything done, only choosing a name was left, which was an important point. Names have power. The name can influence your popularity. If you're an impressive fighter but your name is something lame, like, maybe Bertha. Then of course, you will be less highlighted. Having an appropriate name can be considered important.

What name is Zach going to choose?

"Zaklarick." Muttered Zach, a bitter smile on his face. "Abbreviation, Zak."

Zaklarick was the name of a rare monster. Zack only learnt about it by chance and found its characteristics surprisingly relatable.

All this might seem a time taking procedure, but Zach was done within ten seconds. Ready to go, Zach began warming up while looking at the RoR intro.

An Animation appeared on the screen in front of Zach. It’s played in the opening of every season of RoR. It was a short film explaining the origins of the RoR.

“Order and Chaos. Two forces that rule the universe. These factions have clashed for resources since time immemorial.” narrated a robotic voice as scenes of large scale wars were shown.

“But these clashes inevitably left planets, stars and even galaxies completely destroyed,” the voice continued as the screen showed various destroyed galaxies.

"What use is a fight if it destroys what you are fighting for? The resources."

“That’s how, the Realm of Reckoning was created.”

“A place where races under both the factions clash for dominance. A place where the fate of planets and their resource distribution is determined. A place where the strong rise higher and the weak are devoured.”

 “Welcome.”

 “To the REALM OF RECKONING!!!”

The screen showed the letters ROR coming together, with fighting scenes being shown in the background. Zach had seen it hundred times on the tv screens of the internet, but seeing it while actually participating in the RoR just hits different.

He was going to be fighting on the biggest and most dangerous stage in the universe. And that too with a low level handicap. He could die right in the beginning if he encountered a strong opponent.

But, it had to be done. 

‘Brother, I’m coming.’

The intro ended and Zach was teleported again, this time directly into the tutorial of the RoR.

Zach found himself in a forest. Activating his traits, he immediately got into stance with his sword drawn, ready to fight—no—ready to run at the first sign of danger.

Nothing in the immediate surroundings.

Sighed, Zach looked at the words that had appeared in front of him.
Zaklarik. Ranking: 13424

There were too many participants right now. Zach checked the rest of his status screen.

[Name: Zaklarik

Class: Bladewielder

Race: Human

Affiliation: Human

Level: 9

Progression Factor: 1.243

Stats:

Strength: 10.4 (+10)

Agility: 12.2 (+10)

Mana: 9 (+10)

Constitution: 13.1 (+12)

Dexterity: 11.9 (+8)

Intelligence: 20.0 (+5)

Perception: 12 (+9)

Skills:
Mana Control lv1, Swordsmanship lv5, Combat Sense lv3, Dynamic Vision lv2, Accelerated thought process Lv1, Sense Lv2

Traits:
Obsessive Control (U)
Inhuman Adaptability (U)
Uncanny Insight (U)

Authority: 30/40]

In the status screen, the Progression factor determines the rate of your progression from one level to another.

As for the stats, average stats of a level 1 human range from anywhere between 1 to 5. Since his class is Bladewielder, every level up gives him 0.5 to strength, agility, and dexterity, and 0.5 free attribute point. So, his stats at level 9 should be average of around 6.  

But due to various factors, his stats are actually quite high for someone at level 9.

In addition to these, there also exists another stat called Authority. The information about this stat is quite restricted and no one reveals their authority stat. So, Zach has no basis to judge. But this stat is generally used when fueling his traits. It’s difficult to recover, so Zach uses his traits sparingly. 

What are traits? They allow you to use unusual abilities while also giving a permanent or temporary stat boost to a person. Traits are extremely rare.

Traits usually have grades from E to SSS. Though, there’s another category as well. The U in front of his traits stands for Unique. It means that no one other than him has these traits in the world.

The stat bonus of the traits can be stacked, meaning his measly stats can be temporarily amplified by a considerable amount to fight stronger opponents. That is the reason why he was able to take out those researchers. That, and a whole lot of luck, planning, and skills.

As for skills? The ones he had were mostly learned through his traits. Otherwise it is difficult to get skills out of your class. 

'The Potions were worth it.’ Thought Zach, admiring his stats. He had gotten a few permanent stats and the plus points in the brackets were the stats that he had temporarily increased through potions. With this, his survival chances will increase greatly. 

Zach surveyed his surroundings. ‘Forest theme, huh?’

Tall and thick surrounded him from all sides, blocking the view of the sky. No one was attacking him yet. It could be considered a good sign. A fight might cause commotion. Ignoring whether he’d survive the encounter or not, he might have to fight other opponents who had come after sensing the fight.

Zach looked at the new window he had gotten beside his status screen.

[Tutorial ParticipantName: Zachlarik
Viewership Ranking: 22564
Points: 0
Point Ranking: - -
Tutorial clearing criterea:
—Survive till the End
—Make it to the top 100 in the Point ranking
—Make it to the top 100 in the Viewership ranking]

Below was a space where he could see his views, which were changing real-time and comments, which were coming non-stop.

 [What? Human?

—@Earthians, found another one!

—There’s another human here?

—I AM HEREEEE

—WTF? Only level 9

—RIP

—RIP +1

—+2

—+3

—+4

—Zaklarik? What kind of name is that? lol

—And what kind of get up is that? I can’t even tell if he’d white, black , brown or yellow!

—At least we know he’s male.

—You can’t assume his gender!

—Someone kick this American out!

—Universe has 2 genders, Earth has hundreds.

—I like the mask!

—Masks are lame

—Just Boobled it. Zaklarik is the name of a monster on Zartrax.

 —Zachlarik: Nocturnal low leveled creatures. The more power they become, the faster they die.

 —Lol, why use a name like that?

—Does sound cool tbh…

—Why isn’t he moving tho?

—Hey @Zaklarik! Do something man!”

—It’s boring asf

—What can he even do? He’s only level 9

—What? Lv 9?

—I’m leaving. Don’t wanna see him die.]

Even though the comments were made in the common Universal Language taught on every planet, including Earth, Zach could tell that the viewers he had right now were mostly humans, who had come upon learning his race. In his status, only his username, race, affiliation, and level are public. That’s how they found out. The rest can also be made public but Zach doesn’t intend to do that.

The other part of the Status screen is given to those people who participate in the RoR. It shows his rankings, viewership stats, comments, etc. It showed that in just a few seconds, his rank had dropped by a huge number, which wasn’t a surprise. In order to get more views, the participants around him are currently doing crazy things to attract viewers while he’s just looking around doing nothing.

But, Zach wasn’t doing nothing.

[Inhuman Insight]

‘Got it.’

 The thing about RoR’s tutorials is, they always start with a bang.

“AAARRRGGGHHHH!”

As if on clue, Zach began hearing screams from all around him. There was also a buzzing noise that was annoying to ears. His eyes went to the large trees in his surroundings.

[Skitterleaf lv 3]

[Skitterleaf lv 2]

[Skitterleaf lv 1]

[Skitterleaf lv 4]

[Skitter….

[Skitter….

At first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the tree, But upon better observation, you would notice small, insect-like creatures on the trees. There were hundreds of them, with bodies made of leaves and twig-like limbs, seamlessly blended in with trees.

‘So, that’s what it is.’

Skitterleaf.

Zach recalled what he knew about the creatures from the vast information he had crammed while in captivity. Weak and low leveled, but found large groups and colonies. Attacks anyone who approaches their trees. They have a strong bite force, their wings and claws are sharp, and most importantly, their wings can generate wind blades.

Doesn’t sound much, does it? It’s really not. But if you’re attacked by a thousand of them at once… then the leafy greens would be having red meat for dinner.

As the screams sounded, the creatures on the trees near Zach also flapped their wings to fly in the direction of the screams.

Only when a few of them were left, Zach drew his sword and approached the creatures.

Slash—

[You have killed a Lv 3 Skitterlerleaf ]

No matter if it was a bit dangerous, Zach had to also kill as many creatures as possible in order to gain points. The level of the monsters will keep increasing  as one goes deepers, and it will get progressively more difficult and dangerous to gain points.

[You have killed a Lv 3 Skitterlerleaf ]

[You have killed a Lv. 2 Skitterleaf]

[You have… 

[You have… 

After killing a few, the remaining insects also began swarming him. Sharp blades of winds were produced through their wing, which upon combining with each other, had an dangerous attack power. 

Zach activated some of his Skills. 

[Accelerated Thought Process: Active]

His Thinking and reaction speed increased as quickly formulated his action plan. 

[Combat Sense: Passive]

[Body Control: Passive->Active]

His body moved according to his combat sense. When the first wind-blade arrived, he had already moved his shoulder to avoid it. Right after, he sidestepped and slashed to kill three monsters at once. But almost at the same time, there was another slash a meter away, as his previous after-image vanished after being bombarded with hundreds of wind blades. 

After that, it was a storm of green blood. Continuous slashes caused rain of insectoid bodies on the ground. 

Zach did not use his traits. That’s because skills use mana and physical energy, but traits use authority. Mana and Physical energy are much easier to recover compared to Authority. That’s why, he only uses traits when necessary.

Right now, he had a nice temporary buff due to the generous amount of various potions he had scammed from researchers of the lab. He has to take advantage of this period to kill as many monsters as possible. 

As his kill count increased, his viewer count also rapidly soared. Kill ten Skitterleafs will get you 1 point, and he had killed around a 100 by now, his ranking was rising very fast.

[—What? He’s still alive?

—Level 9! He’s only level 9!

—How?

—Not possible. No one can move that fast or have that strength at Lv 9.

—His combat skills are also weird. I thought I just saw him turn his neck 180 degrees.

—@Earthians check this out! This guy is interesting]

Viewers from Earth quickly flocked to Zach’s channel after repeated prompts. Most of them had the same question: Why the hell is this guy still alive at level 9?

Zach smirked, continuing to cut the insects. 

‘Let them guess.’

Even though his level is low, he hasn’t been idle for the past three years. Comparing him to a normal level 9 awakener is like comparing an adult with a toddler. 

[Congratulations. You have leveled up!]

Soon enough, he heard the much needed Level up notification. Level up doesn’t heal injuries, but it refills stamina and mana and increases the stats. The mana refill and extra stat points were important if he was going to continue hunting.  

But, the expected refill didn't arrive. 

[You have reached level 10. Choose your advancement class]

‘Oh, right.’ 

He had reached Level 10, meaning in order to get the stats and recovery, he’ll first have to choose his advancement class. 

But, before he had even had the chance to choose his class, he saw a glint from the corner of his eye. 

Without even thinking, Zach activated all three of his traits. 

In the next moment, an arrow was launched, aimed straight for his heart.