Guild Wars

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｢Welcome to Boundless! This world is governed by the unique AI hive mind of the GloryGore Studios and for all intents and purposes is not liable for any harm, suffering, or damage you receive or claim to receive while playing this game. If you agree to this, continue to register and if you disagree, please leave the game as soon as possible. Among other things, GloryGore seeks to protect the fragile AI within the game and in accordance with World Council Prerogative III, will take various measures to protect their safety. A full list of regulations is provided here: [Hyperlink].｣

Gage snorted when he read the cheap disclaimer. He held endless disdain for the company behind this game for using such a weak disclaimer that was full of holes, but since he was aware that complaining would do nothing about it, he decided to cut them some slack.

After all, he had heard how they had been put on a troublesome human rights trial and barely survived by the skin of their teeth.

｢Would you like to initiate the tutorial? Y/N｣

Gage actually did choose to undergo the tutorial. He was brought to an empty space where he was slowly made to experience the wonderful feeling of controlling his avatar in the game, as well as experience some easy fighting with scripted troops.

He was then told about Tradeskills and how they worked as well as how he could learn and progress them. A lot of information was shared through a practical means rather than dumped on him, so he quickly understood the base systems of Boundless by the time he was done.

｢Please create your Boundless account.｣

｢Username: Akawhite_Ninja

Password: ****************

Account Status: Special (Primogenitor)

Package: Master (Automatic).｣

Gage was surprised though. What did it meant by his account status was special? And what was 'Primogenitor'?

As for the package, he had only bought the normal one, so why did he get the Master one? And it was automatic?

What a strange game…

｢Select starting town: ___________｣

Gage scrolled through the list and simply selected one at random for no particular reason.

｢Town selected, transferring…｣

With a 'pop' sound, Gage's consciousness was pulled into the world of Boundless and his new journey in this land was about to begin.

.......

Meanwhile, Stagnant Moss Town was busy as usual.

｢Thank you for choosing the Master Package!

Rewards:

2 Health potion

2 Mana potion

2 Stamina potion

1 common weapons set

1 light armor set

1 medium armor set

1 heavy armor set

3 blank Tradeskills books

1 basic resources chest

1 rare resources chest

2 rare weapons chest

3 blank uncommon combat skill books｣

Ninja (Gage) took a look at the stuff in his inventory and smiled. He left the potions and took out the rare weapons chest. He opened the two while choosing to receive daggers, and got two of them.

｢Congratulations on opening: 2 rare weapons chest (Dagger)

Rewards:

Dagger of Bleeding

Dagger of Killing.｣

｢Dagger of Bleeding – Dagger

Rank: Rare

Durability: 10,000/10,000

Atk spd: 78

Dmg: 8-22

Effect: Damage Increase +30%, Bleeding Effect + 30%｣

｢Dagger of Killing – Dagger

Rank: Rare

Atk spd: 72

Dmg: 10-30

Effect: Damage Increase +30%, Execution Chance + 2%.｣

Ninja flexed the daggers in his hands and fell in love immediately. In his adult life, he had never actually wielded any weapons, but he liked the fell of these ones.

Anyway, he was here now and he could learn in time.

As for the armor, he opened the light armor set and went with leather armor. He got a set of Common Rank armor from head to toe and chose the color black.

He did look cool, but his mood was a bit dampened when Ninja looked left and right to see hundreds of others players dressed in a similar fashion. After all, it wasn't like he was the only one he intended to play rogue-like classes.

With this, he felt like the armor on his body was no longer fragrant. He immediately felt a burning desire to head out and make money then buy something custom for himself. Ironically, all those like him shared that exact mindset.

However reality would soon hit them in the face when they experienced the first monster encounter and realized that they were not a special little buttercup like in the movies, able to show quick wits and have great luck.

Only, Ninja was fundamentally different from them. He went to queue up and took a Quest to kill 10 wolves in the area and then left the town quickly.

At the entrance, there were many players shouting 'LFG' along with their specification, but Ninja ignored them. They also ignored Ninja, for they had seen far too many noobs who thought themselves to be the type of protagonist that were destined to be a loner type fighter.

After dying a few times, they would walk over with ashamed expressions and come and search for a group. One thing Boundless did really well was beat into a sense of realism and humility into its players.

Ninja left the town and finally decided to choose the three skills from the free skillbooks he was given. This stuff was in the tutorial, so he was not lost at all.

｢Advanced Stealth – Active skill

Effect: Minimize your body's movements and become invisible to sight, hearing and smell for as long as you have stamina to burn. This skill can avoid the detect of some basic skills and detection tools.

Duration: Variable.

Cooldown: 5 minutes after dispersement.｣

｢Short Blink – Active skill

Effect: Teleport 30 meters in any direction.

Cooldown: 5 minutes｣

｢Assassinate – Active skill

Effect: Stab into an enemy with less than 15% health with a 5% chance to Insta-kill them if they are within your Rank. If the Insta-kill fails, deal 200% damage.

Cooldown: 10 minutes｣

They were the best skills from the list he saw.

The area where the monsters were was not far from the town and Ninja soon found hundreds of players spread out across the grassland fighting pockets of monsters either alone or in groups.

Even those in groups were not having an easy time, much less those who were alone. Many were immediately in a sorry state, while others got outright mauled on the spot horrifically while screaming for help.

Ninja paused when he saw this and his expression couldn't help but become serious. Even though some other players occasionally tried to help, it only alleviated the situation at best. Most of the time, they were taught a bitter lesson as they were taken down as well.

This made Ninja pale and his fanciful thoughts disappeared. He looked around and found a relatively obscure corner of the grassland where no player was nearby and moved over there quietly before taking in a deep breath.

He summoned his 8 appendages and they smoothly came out just like in reality, making him pleasantly surprised. He then flexed and exercised them, shocked to see that they had their full power in reality when his stats in this game were so mediocre.

This filled Ninja with excitement. This was definitely cheating because if he could use them at will, then he would not face any obstacles whatsoever!

｢Name: Menacing Wolf – Private Rank monster

Level: 2

HP: 80/80｣

His eyes flashed as he glanced at a nearby wolf that was laying in the grass while licking it fur. Ninja entered Advanced Stealth and snuck over.

Once he was close, he noticed the wolf became alert and rose to tis feet, looking around cautiously as it sniffed the air. Unfortunately this Advanced Stealth made Ninja imperceptible to sight, hearing and smell, but did not cancel sound.

That was who this monster detected him, it could hear footsteps pressing down on the grass, but it looked left right and to all sides but could not see or smell a single person.

In tis confusion, Ninja struck. He struck his Dagger of Bleeding deep into the wolf's backside, causing it to yelp and jump around.

-17!

While the wolf turned to face him Ninja was thoroughly speechless. One should know he struck from stealth and he hit a fatal area, but all he did was a measly 17 points of damage?

No wonder players had to team up. Even if they had the Master Package with rare weapons, they would be lucky to deal 3-5 points of damage per strike.

He had wanted to test the effectiveness of normal play to gauge how hard combat was and he had gotten the message. It wasn't that those fellows were idiots nor were they necessarily untalented, but this game was simply not a cakewalk.

The wolf menacingly bayed and jumped at Ninja, but he simply struck it with one of his appendages, piercing through its throat and holding it up in the air like a sack of meat.

The wolf looked shocked and confused even in death. That thin red spider-like leg moved so fast it did not even known how it died when its end came.

Ninja saw that he got the kill easily and then began hunting the rest confidently. He used one strike to kill all the wolves he saw and looted their corpses.

Unfortunately, the Item Limitation addition saw that while he didn't get too many useful drops, he got a sufficient amount of money and materials that he could sell for more.

Ninja took his spoils and returned to the town, handing in his Quest. Some of the guild recruiters were surprised to see him back so quickly and that he had managed to achieve his quest goal solo.

A few ambitious ones approached Ninja and gave him details of their guilds. Ninja actually listened with interest and asked a simple question.

"What's the pay and is it enough to guarantee a soft life of debauchery and squalor?"

This naturally left the recruiters speechless. My Brother in Christ, this game demands the most out of a person, how could there be pay? Not to mention, they were all low tier guilds that had to stand here to recruit people.

If they were qualified guilds, people would be rushing to them, not the other way round.

Yeah, it was possible to make money playing this game, but that was only about 10% of players! With new players appearing each and every day that percentage was bound to shrink further. It wasn't just a matter of skill but wealth.

Boundless was so demanding that you had to spend all your in game money to keep up, and even some of your real money! Otherwise, there would not be a need for an Intermediary Trade Center, now would there?

Not to mention that pods had come out along with Item Projection. All these things required in game money, so the purchasing power of a single Bronze coin would spike by almost 500% and never drop, only increase further!

It was why Draco was reluctant to change his money when he first reincarnated even though he was literally living in poverty. When he knew how high the price would climb, how could he settle for selling low?

Ninja and the recruiters parted like this and he continued to farm and grind. Many people soon noticed that he had never been sent for respawn and always returned to the town victorious, so one guy approached him with an amused expression and asked him if he was a special Umbra recruit.

Ninja was naturally curious about this so he asked what Umbra was? A bit perplexed that somebody who chose to play would not research anything about the game, the guy gave him a brief explanation. When Ninja heard of such a powerful and mighty force, his heart was already dead set on joining such a power.

Even though he had a bit of pride due to his strange abilities, the legends of Umbra were just too potent. He also knew that creating a force of his own required more than just personal power, but Umbra seemed to have all he needed and wanted.

As such, Ninja thanked the fellow for the information and rushed outside to grind to level 10. Then he would head to the city and sign up for Umbra's tests, which he knew he would pass with flying colors!

From there, he would continue to explore this world and carve out a place for himself and his dreams!