Darwin:
Darwin rubbed his eyes as the light around him faded and found himself in the middle of a rather picturesque grass field. The front lines? What front lines is he talking about? This is just a plain, empty field. Although, it’s probably for the best. I’m not sure I’d even be able to get myself a proper death with just this spoon. If only it didn’t have such a pretty emblem on it, I would have grabbed the knife first, Darwin thought, looking at the weird dragon crest that was engraved into the handle of the tiny piece of cutlery. God, this field is beautiful. It’s just like the field in one of the video games, except . . . it looks real. Is it always this beautiful outside?
As Darwin stood gawking at the scenery in the middle of the seemingly-empty meadow, he heard what sounded like a faint scream in the distance.
“Aaaaahhh!” the sound continued.
What in the heck is that? Darwin wondered, curiously peering around.
“Aaaaaaaaahhh!” The noise kept coming closer and closer to Darwin.
Is that a man coming at me? What is he doing? Is he holding an axe? Holy crap! He’s holding an axe! What the hell, man? He’s holding an axe, and all I have is . . . is a spoon? What the heck do I do? Is he still screaming? How does he keep screaming for so long? I’d have run out of air a while ago. It’s been at least a solid minute. Darwin was not wrong: it had been at least a minute since the gray-skinned, axe-wielding, bald man had shown up in the distance. As the man grew closer, all the while continuing to scream and wave his axe like an idiot, Darwin started to get increasingly annoyed with the noise. First the robber, then that short, pushy Burger King guy who thought a spoon was a weapon, and now this irritating jerk who is ruining a perfectly peaceful field with his loud, obnoxious howling as he tries to rush me from a mile away. Darwin’s face reddened in frustration as he looked first at his spoon and then at the man, who was now quickly closing the remaining distance between them. He decided to use the only tactic he knew: he threw the Golden Gilded Dragon Spoon of +10 SHUT THE HELL UP right at the hairless, yelling weirdo.
- Critical Hit! +100% Damage!
Criti . . . It worked! The spoon had done exactly like the butter knife and hit the psycho right in the eye, leaving the man, who was much sturdier than the thief, awkwardly stumbling backwards and trying to rub his eye with the same hand that was holding the axe. Darwin ran up and punched him as hard as he could in the face, causing the man to finally fall on his back where Darwin finished him off with his Blood-Soaked Slippers of +10 Face Smashing. Darwin couldn’t help but notice that each blow to the enemy’s face produced a red number above his head. 32, 32, 32. Is that how much Damage I’m doing? If that’s how much Damage I’m doing, does that mean the spoon didn’t do any damage at all?
- You have gained 1117 EXP.
- You have reached Level 4!
- You have reached Level 5!
This again? Darwin thought as the dinging sound cued the annoying pop-up windows. He wanted to know more about what the heck was going on, but he couldn’t take his eyes off his feet. So nothing else? That’s it, annoying white circle? You’re not going to send me off to meet another lunatic looking to split my head open or another fast food mascot wannabe?
He waited a few minutes and then, finally deciding the white lights weren’t going to interrupt him again, sat down and did what any good gamer with years of experience playing MMOs would do in his situation: he tried to figure out how to hit the C button and bring up his character screen. “Stats! Character Screen! Abilities! Information!” He kept chanting the words out loud, expecting another ding and status window. At last, in a final act of desperation, shame and humiliation he caved. “Help Menu.”
Welcome to the wonderful world of Tiqpa! Would you like to take the beginner’s tutorial?
Every bone in his body wanted to scream ‘No!’ and ‘Go die!’ and a thousand other obscenities at even the thought of a tutorial, but he just couldn’t think of another way around it. “Yes . . . I want to take the tutorial,” Darwin said resignedly. Deep down, a part of Darwin died as soon as the words left his mouth.
Great! In the world of Tiqpa, controls are accessed through thought rather than action. It may take some getting used to, but if you look directly in front of you and think “Tiqpa Character Screen,” a character screen will appear.
It was the world’s name that he had been missing. He decided to try it out:Tiqpa Character Screen. No sooner had he thought the words than a blue gamer box appeared, much like the ones he had seen before, and the tutorial began.
Think ‘Pause’ to pause at any time or ‘Rewind’ to rewind the tutorial at any time. Now, if you will notice at the top of your character screen, your Name, Race, Job Class, Level, Current EXP and how much EXP you will need to reach the next level are listed in the main status bar.
- Name: Darwin
- Job Class: Novice
- Level: 5
- Race: Unknown
- EXP until next Level: 373
- Rank: N/A
- Total EXP: 1402
- Energy Source: N/A
Race unknown? This stupid screen, I’m human. How do I enter human? Or is it Caucasian? Do they handle races like video games or election booths? Darwin was about to try to edit in the missing information when the tutorial continued, interrupting him.
Below the Character Information Readout (CIR), you will find a list of each one of your primary attributes.
POWER
The first attribute is Power. Power adjusts the player’s muscles and density to increase strength and collision Damage when in combat. Each point in power roughly increases one’s mass versus the player’s standard frame.
Your Current Power is 45.
Power increases Melee Physical Damage. Current Level adds an 18% increase to melee physical Damage and increases base physical Damage by 9.
Power reduces Physical Damage Taken. Current Level reduces physical Damage taken by 8.26%.
Does that mean if I get a ton of points sunk into Power, I’ll do a lot of Damage, but I’ll also be super heavy? I wonder how high this stat goes.
SPEED
The second attribute is Speed. Speed directly increases the speed at which a player may move, making it an important attribute for both offensive and defensive players in physical combat, allowing the player to do more Damage and evade attacks.
Your Current Speed is 45.
Speed increases Melee Physical Damage. Current Level adds a 9% increase to the Damage of all melee attacks.
Speed increases Evasion. Current Level adds 8.09% chance to evade targets with 1 Speed. [Note: in NPC vs NPC combat calculations, this attribute is based on the difference in speed between two opponents. For players, the Speed stat will only augment their movement or reaction speed as they use their own quick-thinking to choose how and when they dodge attacks.]
Speed increases Melee and Ranged Attack Speed: Current Level adds a 9% increase to the attack speed of all melee and ranged attacks.
Ha! So Speed is basically agility except instead of boosting ranged Damage it only boosts melee Damage? Well, at least there aren’t any new concepts to understand so far.
VITALITY
The third attribute is Vitality. Vitality determines the amount of Health that a player will have as well as how much Damage a player will take from all Damage types. Vitality also reduces the effectiveness of diseases and poisons.
Your Current Vitality is 35.
Vitality increases Health. Current Level adds 350 Health.
Vitality decreases Damage from all sources. Current Level reduces Damage by 6.54%.
Vitality reduces the effectiveness of diseases and poisons. Current Level reduces the effectiveness by 6.54%.
Yeah, yeah, vitality. Of course. I wonder if I have a lot of health for my level or barely any.
SPIRIT
The fourth attribute is Spirit. Spirit increases the player’s Magic Effectiveness and Magic Defense.
Your Current Spirit is 25.
Spirit increases Magic Effectiveness. Current Level increases Magic Effectiveness by 10%.
Spirit increases Magic Defense. Current Level reduces Damage by 4.76%.
What? There is magic in this game? I wonder if I have any spells. Does that mean I could get a spell to throw fireballs or call down lightning?
CONCENTRATION
The fifth attribute is Concentration. Concentration increases the player’s speed when casting spells and increases their magic defense.
Your Current Concentration is 30.
Concentration increases casting speed. Current Level adds a 12% increase to casting speed.
Concentration reduces Magical Damage. Current Level reduces magical Damage taken by 5.66 %.
If this stat and Spirit were high enough, I could chain cast lightning spells. This game is going to be amazing. It’s too bad I’m a super noob at the moment.
When a player levels up, he or she is given 5 to 6 stat points depending on Race that the player may then allocate towards any available status of his or her choosing. Due to racial restrictions, this function is currently locked.
What? I don’t get to decide where my points go?
While Darwin stood at a loss as to why he didn’t get to customize his character, a short brunette in a white dress that didn’t properly flow past her ankles tore out of the woods to his left, running from three giant, seven-foot-tall, white-horned Minotaurs. At first glance, each one appeared to be carrying a nicer axe than the one the madman had tried to kill him with just moments ago. Pause the tutorial! Darwin thought frantically over and over again until the ding finally sounded.
You have paused the tutorial. If you would like to end the tutorial temporarily you may do so now by thinking “End.”
End! Darwin quickly looked around for the corpse of the man he had just killed moments ago hoping to find the axe he had been using, but only found his spoon instead. The body had disappeared. No! Where’s the . . . Oh, yeah! Hope this works: ‘Equip the dull iron axe!’ No sooner had he finished thinking it than the axe appeared in his right hand. He also grabbed the spoon with his left hand for safe measure; after all, utensils had been working well so far.
“Over here! Run towards me!” Darwin yelled to the girl as he took off in her direction. She obviously heard him because, as soon as he said it, she scrunched up her face as best a person could while running and made a beeline in his direction with the Minotaurs hot on her trail.
The Minotaurs were staggered out a bit, with at least a car length between them, as they chased after the girl. Darwin took his trusty spoon and threw it again at the Minotaur closest to her left, but it only hit one of his horns and bounced off harmlessly. Darwin’s heart began to pound at this turn of events. He was fully counting on the spoon hitting the Minotaur directly in eye, but it just made a feeble ping instead as it struck the horn and then fell pathetically to the ground. Not knowing what to do next, he tightened his grip on the axe and held it up like he was holding a flag. Brandishing the hefty weapon helped calm his nerves for a moment as the white-dressed girl raced past him at full speed and didn’t even bother to turn her head to acknowledge him.
As soon as the girl passed him, he cocked his arm back, poising the axe for battle, and then ran at the closest Minotaur, using his forward momentum to power a wild downward swing right at the beast’s forehead. He didn’t really know what to expect next, but after 20 years of playing medieval video games and wishing he was the main character cleaving enemies asunder, he figured he might as well die trying.
There was a sickeningly juicy crunch as the axe met flesh and bone. The Minotaur hadn’t even bothered to dodge or change his course as the axe came cleaving down and split the creature’s skull in half. As soon as the axe hit the enemy, red numbers popped up right above its head.
- Critical Hit! You have done 242 Damage!
Then Darwin heard the familiar ding, but no window popped up. I’m still in combat. It figures it wouldn’t tell me anything until the fight is over. One down, two to go. Darwin kicked the dead white-horned Minotaur for good measure and pulled his axe free from its forehead. That went way better than planned, Darwin thought, looking at what he hoped would be his next victim. Oh well, here goes nothing!
As the second Minotaur entered the range of Darwin’s axe, it immediately swung its much better double-bladed axe in a long horizontal sweep. Darwin was barely able to block the incoming blade in time, and the blow sent him stumbling back a step.
- You have taken 72 Damage!
This time, when the red Damage numbers popped up, Darwin knew it wasn’t the Minotaur that had taken damage. When the Minotaur swung the axe a second time, in the same horizontal fashion, Darwin decided to try something different: he dodged. Then, as fast as he could, he swung his axe out so that it caught the Minotaur’s leg with the middle of the axe’s shaft, and he pulled it with all his strength. It worked. The blade dug into the back of the Minotaur’s knee and pulled the Minotaur right onto his back.
- You have done 124 Damage!
Having finally gotten the hang of the combat mechanics, Darwin took his axe and cleaved the second Minotaur’s head in two just like he had the first one.
- Critical Hit! You have done 248 Damage!
The ding sounded again, so Darwin turned his attention to the last Minotaur on the field. Even though he had killed two of the giant Minotaurs, his nerves started to give way as the third one came closer. The first one had almost been too easy, but the second one had come close to killing him. That fact was starting to sink in: he could really die here if he wasn’t careful. He got back into his awkward stance, where he was holding the axe handle inches from his chest with the blade almost touching his face, and readied himself. Just one more. You’ve killed two already; you can kill one more. Don’t wimp out now.
He was preparing to dodge the final Minotaur’s impending attack when a giant ball of ice zoomed over his head and hit the Minotaur square in the center of its hairy chest. The ball of ice didn’t shatter and disappear like he would have expected. Instead, tendrils of cold slowly expanded outward from the spot it hit, spreading ice all over the Minotaur’s body. The monster dropped its axe and began using both hands to try to get it off him. Now is as good a time as any.
- Critical Hit! You have done 248 Damage!
This time, when Darwin’s axe dug into the Minotaur, the sound wasn’t the same bloody, bone-breaking crunch as the first two times, but it was close enough. It was still the sound of victory, and quickly followed by the now-annoying ding.
- You have gained 550 EXP!
- You have reached Level 6!
- You have gained 550 EXP!
- You have gained 550 EXP!
- You have reached Level 7!
- 2 sharp double-bladed iron axes have been added to your Inventory!
All the messages that had been stored during combat flooded his field of view as one giant update. I’m alive! And … Level 7, eh? Unequip dull iron axe. The axe vanished, confirming Darwin’s theory on how the Inventory system worked, and he turned around to see if the girl he had saved was okay.
“Thanks for the save. I thought those White-Horns had me. You know, they had been chasing me for almost 10 minutes before you showed up.” The girl was fine. In fact, she was more than fine. She was beautiful.
“You don’t say . . .” he said, trying to keep his words to a minimum. He always made mistakes when talking to attractive girls.
“I do. Most of the Human NPCs from the 8th Legion were wiped out during the first wave of fighting. I think I’m one of the few players to have made it out alive.”
I guess that makes it official. It’s a game, and there are both playable characters and non-playable characters. NPCs were something that he could kill to help himself level without feeling bad. He wasn’t a murderer: he was a farmer. The grinding side of his gamer personality suddenly pulled a smile across his face.
“Are you going back?” If it’s a game, that ball of ice was probably a spell she cast. With her, I would be able to kill the White-Horns. We should be able to level. I don’t know where I am, but I’m definitely not going to die out here because my name was an inviting shade of noob white to some PK.
“Yes. I have a quest there. Did you want to join? I can share it with you.”
You have been invited to Kass’s Party. Would you like to Accept or Reject?
“Yes.” Accept.
You have been invited to join Kass’s “Subdue the White-Horn Horde” quest. Would you like to Accept or Reject?
Accept. Darwin smiled. He had never really known his own mother, but he was sure that she would have told him it was incredibly creepy watching him smile that way if he had. Equip double-bladed iron axe. Equip double-bladed iron axe. “Lead the way.”
“Umm . . . before that. It’s just . . . Do you have any other clothes? Your bathrobe may have opened up once or twice during the fight.” Darwin had forgotten entirely about his wardrobe since the break in at his apartment had first taken place. No wonder he looked strange to the girl: he was standing there wearing only his blood-soaked bathrobe and slippers while holding two giant, double-bladed axes. They may have looked normal when carried by seven-foot-tall Minotaurs, but they definitely created an awkward sight with Darwin holding them.
“Oh, uh . . . No. I just started playing. Maybe you have some spare pants or shoes?”
“No. Sorry. Let’s just go.” She pulled a staff out of thin air and started walking back towards the woods she had just run out of moments ago.
“Sure thing, boss.” Darwin smiled. Not only was he not a murderer, but he was in a video game. He was in a video game with EXP and items! Most people would probably be terrified at the idea of needlessly rushing into life threatening scenarios, but Darwin’s gamer instinct to grind had fully taken over. He wasn’t Darwin. He was Arch Lance Ser NightVale off to conquer another world.
___
It had been over nine hours since they entered the forest together in search of victims, and Darwin had almost forgotten that Kass was actually a person and not a magic ice ball dispenser. In all his games as Arch Lance Ser NightVale, he had never really been great at playing in groups. Even when he went on raids, he only gave necessary orders or stayed quiet. It was probably one of the reasons many people liked him leading instead of the over-talkative chatty Kathies. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a lot of things he wanted to say. It was just that, when he started grinding or killing in games, he would get so focused on the task at hand that he would forget the people around him weren’t just tools–much like he had already forgotten about Kass not being merely a portable snow cone machine.
It would have probably been another two or three hours before either of them said anything if it weren’t for Kass’s curiosity finally getting the better of her. “So why the bathrobe?”
“Huh? Oh, the bathrobe. It’s just what I was wearing when I got here.”
“Really? You started with a bathrobe? I thought warrior classes started with studded leather armor. Did you buy a special edition game copy and dive platform?”
“No, I don’t think so. Maybe a glitch.”
“The AI system that does the codes is peerless. There aren’t any glitches. If you have a physical combat Job Class, then you should have studded leather armor,” Kass pressed the issue further.
“My Job Class is Novice. Is that a physical combat-based class?”
“Novice?” Kass asked, pausing for a few minutes as she stared at him. “Wow! Your class really is Novice, and your race isn’t even listed. What weapon did you start off with? Maybe that is a good place to begin.”
“A spoon . . .”
“The spoon you threw at the Minotaur when we met?”
“Yes. It helped me kill the man that had the axe I used to kill the Minotaur to get these axes.”
“You killed an armored man with an axe using a spoon?”
“Yes.” Darwin smiled as he answered, glad he had managed to find and pick up the souvenir. He probably would have died without that little spoon, and he couldn’t just let it disappear now.
Kass’s only response was half-skeptical, half-bewildered silence.
“What Job Class did you start as?”
“Me? I picked a Wizard for my Job Class. I switched to the subclass Frost Mage as soon as I hit Level 5 though. That’s why my dress is so pretty and white,” she said, doing a twirl to show off.
“Ah. . . Then maybe I’ll get a bonus when I pick my Job Class. How do you do that?”
“Just find a trainer who teaches the class you want, and if you have the right stats and level, it will let you switch. Also, sometimes a hidden requirement is met, and the system will prompt you as to whether or not you want to change your class. You’re Level 26 now, so you should easily be able to find a trainer.”
“Do you know where a good melee trainer is?”
“Yeah. There are plenty in the town I’m bound to. We have at least ten White-Horn subjugation quest completions to turn in, so maybe we can kill a few more and go there for the reward. I never thought we’d level this fast, so I’m actually a bit hesitant to leave just yet.”
“Maybe I can buy some clothes too.”
“Are you tired of being the Bathrobe Knight?” she poked.
Darwin didn’t know how to respond. He knew she was trying to be funny, and that he should probably laugh at her joke, but it embarrassed him a bit to think about how ridiculous he probably looked. The blood from the fights had turned his bathrobe into something of a Christmas-colored collage. It was decorated with several different shades of red in some spots and brown in others, all painted over the robe’s original forest green.
“Don’t blush, Bathrobe Knight,” she giggled. His face must have turned red from embarrassment. “You’ll be the first person to hit Level 30 without even a decent Job Class.” She kept laughing, but he only frowned. He somehow knew, probably from years of being picked on at school, that the nickname ‘Bathrobe Knight’ was going to stick.
Darwin tried not to think about it as they dove back into combat. When they had started off, the two of them were picking off groups of Minotaurs one at a time and kiting them in order to prevent full engagements. At first, it had made sense to fight them that way because each Minotaur was around Level 25. Now, however, after having turned on name, health and level bars, Darwin could see that both he and Kass were almost the same level they were. Moreover, the longer they spent fighting together, the more accustomed to each other’s styles they became.They didn’t bother with fighting them one at a time anymore: they just charged right into full groups of five to ten at a time.
One group dead. Two groups dead. Three groups dead. Not even half an hour later, after Darwin had hit Level 27, he began to notice that the amount of EXP he was getting per kill was drastically less than it had been before. Each level past 12 required roughly 5,000 more EXP than the one before; but, at 550 EXP per kill, their growth had been really fast. Ever since they had reached Level 20, the amount awarded for each kill had started dropping. Darwin suspected that either the game designers had intended the early Levels to fly by or that he and Kass weren’t supposed to be in the area. After all, when Kass first showed up on the scene she was running for her life, and she was Level 11.
It left a lot of questions for Darwin. What was she doing out here alone to begin with if she couldn’t hack it without help? How had he managed to kill the Minotaurs at Level 5? Who was the random screaming guy who tried to kill him? Was he another player? Had he already killed another person? There were a lot of unanswered questions, but none of them were as important to Darwin at the moment as the one that the slow-growing EXP bar forced him to ask: “Is there anything we can kill that is a higher Level? I’m not really progressing that quickly anymore.”
“Yeah, but the White-Horn’s legion is probably close to being dead. Wanna finish them off before we leave?”
“Sure.” Darwin said it in as positive a manner as he could, but he was secretly grumbling. He wanted to tell her that it would be way more time efficient to move on right away, but he didn’t want to argue. The little snow cone factory was the only source of information he had in this new world, and he knew from plenty of experience that when two party members differed in opinion on how to level, the party dissolved.
“Good. Now back to it, Bathrobe Knight. I want to be the first Frost Mage to hit 30!”
It’s definitely going to stick. Wait, what? The first? So that’s why she stayed out here after the troops died: she wanted to farm the high-level mobs and out-level her competition. That means the game must have just been released. “How long has the game been out again?”
“It’s been out just since Monday this week. I’m surprised you didn’t have the date memorized with how expensive the VR dive kits are. I wouldn’t even have one if my dad didn’t get it for me. Did you pull an all nighter and forget what day it was again?”
“Something like that. You could say it’s been a long week.”
“Don’t act so serious, Bathrobe Knight. It’s a game. Have some fun. If you keep making that face I’m going to throw a spoon at you.”
He was about to try his hand at a witty remark when he noticed something great. “Is that the only group of Minotaurs left?”
“What? Oh, that sucks. I thought we’d have plenty of killing ahead of us.”
I knew it! She really did want us to keep killing these low-experience mobs.
“Well, let’s do it! I bet the king’s bounty on this one will be crazy. I’ll be able to buy like 15 new dresses and accessories with just the turn-ins alone! “
“15 dresses? Can you equip more than one dress at a time?”
“What? You are totally a man. You need different dresses for different occasions. Don’t you know anything?”
“Probably not.”
“Well, now you do. If you had known it a bit sooner, you might have had more outfits than just one bathrobe. You should buy a few others as well after you get your armor.”
“Maybe I will. Where do we turn these things in again?”
“Oh, it’s in the town I’m bound to, Valcrest. The turn-in guy is Captain Elmont. You can find him near the tavern on the north side of the town. It’s not hard to find. If I have to log off before we get back, you shouldn’t have a problem finding it. Actually, after we kill this group, I’m probably going to call it quits for a bit. Here, add me so we can find each other easily.”
You have received a friend request from Kass. Would you like to Accept or Reject?
Accept. “Sounds great. Let’s make this count then.” Darwin charged right at the final group of Minotaurs. He had hundreds of axes somehow magically stored in his inventory, so he didn’t hesitate to throw them as he ran towards the group. He enjoyed the sight of them cleaving into the Minotaur’s bodies. He could always just pull the axes out of their corpses when the fight was over, but if he didn’t throw them, there was a chance he might not get as much action in the fight. While she might have only been worth one or two ice balls at most here or there at the start of their adventure, Kass had actually started doing cool stuff by the time she hit Level 20. During the last fight, for instance, she had slammed her staff into the ground and shot out giant cones of frigid air at the enemy. It hadn’t frozen them like her ice ball, but it had clearly done a lot of damage and didn’t take as absurdly long to cast in combat.
By the time Darwin reached the group, his axes had already found five homes. He had no problem eviscerating, decapitating and lopping limbs off the closest three Minotaurs left in the group. It definitely didn’t hurt that the mobs had already been frozen by the time he reached them. After pulling his axe free from the third one, he charged at the final Minotaur. He had to kill it, and he had to kill it quickly, before Kass got it. After all, a man has his pride. The Minotaur swung in the same way they all did: a good long, clean horizontal arc in front of him. Darwin used the axe in his left hand like a shield, taking the hit along the haft, and swung his other into the neck of the Minotaur, neatly clipping off its head.
- Critical Hit! You have done 256 Damage!
- Critical Hit! You have done 256 Damage!
The first number was for him, the second for the Minotaur. The fight was over, and they had wiped out every Minotaur in the area. Darwin was glad that the monsters didn’t respawn. If they had, he was sure Kass would have kept him there for months on end doing the 1-EXP-per-kill grind. Some players just couldn’t be bothered to switch farming spots.
“Welp! That’s it! I gotta run before my dad gets home and finds out I didn’t go to bed last night. Who could have though, right? I spent all week only getting 10 Levels, and we are about to hit 30 after turn-ins!”
“Yeah. It’s been good for me too. Thanks for teaching me the ropes. I’ll see you around, Kass.” He waved goodbye at her, but he wasn’t entirely sure what would happen when she logged out.
“Bye-bye, Bathroom Knight!” she said, doing one final twirl, and then her smiling face just disappeared. She didn’t instantly disappear like the image on a TV when the power button was pressed; instead, it was like her body had just been a cloud of smoke all along, and it dispersed into its surroundings leaving nothing but a hint that a person might have been there before.
Your friend Kass has logged offline.
‘Your friend’–those are two words I don’t remember hearing together in forever. Oh well. Where is this town I have to go to? Tiqpa Map! During the walking time between fights over the last few hours, Darwin had gotten very familiar with the controls of the game. He was sure there were things he didn’t know yet, but for now, he was confident enough in his knowledge to avoid another tutorial.
Judging by the map’s scale, Valcrest is at least an hour from here on foot. Looks like I’m going to have a long walk ahead of me. Darwin finished re-looting the axes he had thrown and started towards Valcrest. Time to get my Job Class! I wonder how many classes there actually are . . .
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