I woke up an unknown amount of time later and felt something was off with my body. I didn't feel pain, but I did feel a bit sore. I quickly got up and took off the flexible armor and stood in front of the mirror. What I saw completely shocked me.
My body completely changed! My skin that used to be slightly tanned due to the sun has changed into a pale white. My body grew from the original 172 CM to 185 CM. My body that had a lot of muscle changed to having a form fitting 6 pack with abs. My muscles on my arms and legs were tight rather than exploding like before.
And in the center of my chest was a black flower with 5 petals on it. I touched it with my hand and felt a massive amount of energy contained within the mark and felt a bit worried. My face also changed completely. I was pretty average looking before, but now I am very handsome. So handsome I could probably win an award for it.
Certain parts of my body also grew slightly... Ahem. My hair is now a mixture of brown and black, while my eyes are also a mixture of brown and black. I still felt shock when I put my flexible armor back on.
[Heya~ You are probably confused, right? I will explain to you now. Your body changed like this due to you finally obtaining the Hidden Throne. Exciting, right? You weren't able to obtain it since you were still doing the tutorial missions, but now that you are finished them, you can obtain it.]
What? I obtained the Hidden Throne and it changed my body like this? I was completely shocked when I heard what the screen said to me.
[I know you are shocked but calm down. This is very good for you~ Now that you obtained the Hidden Throne, the Throne tab on the System is available to you now. Go check it out~ You have 7 days before the first official mission begins anyways~ It will tell you what your Hidden Throne is~]
Right, that Throne tab. I completely forgot about it since I wouldn't get a Throne for a while. Now that the screen reminded me, I should check it out.
[Greetings #09182! I am the Throne Assistance A.I! You have obtained the Hidden Throne, so I will explain to you! The Hidden Throne is called the Throne of Solitude! There are a few options in the Throne tab, so I will explain it to you! First of all is your Throne! Your Throne is the Hidden Throne, also known as the Throne of Solitude! The reason the Throne of Solitude is the Hidden Throne is due to the fact nobody wanted it!]
Nobody wanted it? The heck. Is it a bad Throne or something? I mean I can somewhat guess from the name of the Throne, but it can't be that bad, right?
[The Throne is Solitude causes it's owner to not be able to interact with people! You won't be able to get companions. You won't be able to get friends. You won't be able to get subjects. You will forever be lonely. This is the reason nobody wanted the Throne!]
So it is like I thought, huh. It is a lot worse than I imagined, though. Not being able to even interact with people like friends or companions would probably cause people to go insane eventually, huh. No wonder this Throne became a Hidden Throne.
[Secondly! You will obtain a King's Name! You King's Name is Lonely King! This is due to every owner of this Throne being Lonely forever!]
Yeah, I kind of figured it would be like that. Lonely King Zhao Feng, huh. Not bad. I could care less about having friends or companions. Humans are a bunch of trash anyways. I always hated humans since that incident...
[Thirdly! There is a Throne Shop! You use Karma here! Using Karma, you buy things unique to your Throne! There is Weapons, Armor, Skills and so forth!]
Oh, so this is where you use Karma! I doubt anybody has more Karma than I do at this point, haha. I wonder what I can buy within the Throne Shop, I am quite excited!
[That is the end! To look at everything, you just need to open the Throne tab once again! Good luck, Lonely King Zhao!]
It actually called my that, huh. Oh well, let's bring up this Throne tab once again, I want to see what I can buy within this Throne Shop. I have been gathering Karma all this time without use, now I can finally use it.
[Throne: Throne of Solitude.
-King's Name: Lonely King.
-Throne Shop.]
I click the Throne Shop and it brings up a bunch of things which I take a look at, wondering what kind of interesting things will be here.
[Sword of Solitude: 5000 Karma.
-Armor of Solitude: 15000 Karma.
-Skill of Solitude: 5000 Karma.
-Spear of Solitude: 7000 Karma.
-Saber of Solitude: 6500 Karma.
-Halberd of Solitude: 7200 Karma.
-Axe of Solitude: 6200 Karma.
-Dagger of Solitude: 3750 Karma.
-Bow of Solitude: 10000 Karma.
-Medicine of Solitude: 1500 Karma.
-Potions of Solitude: 25000 Karma.
-Skill of Solitude 2: 20000 Karma.
-Skill of Solitude 3: 50000 Karma.
-Skill of Solitude 4: 100000 Karma.
-Skill of Solitude 5: 1000000 Karma.
-Information of Solitude: 35000 Karma.
-Pet of Solitude: 50000 Karma.]
Holy crap! There are so many damn things here, and a lot of them are expensive. The fifth skill even costs 1 million Karma! How long would it take me to get that much? Damn! I only have 17950 Karma right now! And that is all the Karma I gathered during the 10 tutorial missions!
The Sword of Solitude is obviously getting bought right now. I purchased it for 5000 Karma and it appeared in front of me. I pick it up and look at it. The sword itself is black. It has a red diamond located at the sword guard that separates the hilt and the blade.
The sword is about 1.5 meters long and half a meter wide. The blade is thin and slender, it also gives off a deathly presence for some reason as well. I walk over to the training dummy and casually slash out with the sword, but I cut the dummy in half cleanly.
I was quite shocked by this as every other time I train on the dummy all I can leave is a few marks on it. But with this sword I directly cut it in half without even trying. I stare a bit dumbly at the dummy that just repaired itself before I sit back down on my bed.
I look at the list again and decide to purchase the first skill for another 5000 Karma, since I can't buy anything else but the medicine, which is pretty useless to me. After I purchase the skill a bit of information enters my head causing me to grab it due to the sudden pain.
After a few minutes the pain subsides and I stand up. I lightly step forward but I appeared at the other side of the room within less than a second. The speed I had shocked me endlessly and I ended up crashing into the wall, smashing my face against it.
While I rub my aching face I sit down on my bed and bring up my status to see what changed after I got the Throne.
[Name: Zhao Feng
-Age: 16
-Gender: Male
-Race: Human
-Level: 30(0/15000)
-Strength: 75
-Agility: 75
-Dexterity: 75
-Intelligence: 50
-Wisdom: 50
-Vitality: 50
-Endurance: 75
-Charm: 10
-Luck: 10
-Stat Points: 0
-Skill Points: 0
-Points: 21645
-Karma: 7950
-Sin Value: 0
-Skills: Sword Mastery(2/10), Solitude Movement(1/10)]
Holy shit what the hell! Why did my stats increase so much? Even my level increased. The hell is this Sin thing that just appeared as well? Damn I don't understand any of this crap.
[Lonely King Zhao, allow me to explain. The reason all of your stats increased like this is due to obtaining the Throne of Solitude, which was a Hidden Throne. If it wasn't a Hidden Throne you obtained, your stats would not increase by this much. Your level increased by 2 simply due to the same reason and brought it up to 30. The Sin Value that appeared in your Status is a marker for how many people you have killed. The tutorial mission kills do not count towards it.]
So that is why. Now that I think about it, it does make sense. Would obtaining a Throne not increase your strength? Of course it would! Even the screen before said that. The screen suddenly being nice like that is pretty damn creepy though.
I want to train this Solitude Movement skill of mine, but there isn't enough space in my private room to do that... Whatever, let's just train my Sword Mastery for now, I guess. I can always train my Solitude Movement during missions.
Just as I was about to start training using my sword, my private room shook heavily. It lasted for a few seconds, but I could suddenly see a pair of stairs that appeared randomly. I was slightly curious so I went down the stairs and entered a massive room.
The room looks like a typical training room from games. There is a large plot for running, which I can use my Solitude Movement on. There are also a bunch of stronger training dummies here now, so they won't get cut in half with one slash of my sword.
I felt quite shocked that this suddenly just appeared when I thought about it. Is this why all that stuff randomly appeared in my private room without me buying it? I guess you can customize your private room however you want by imagining it, huh.
I wish I found this out earlier, haha. Well, let's go train for the next week. I need to increase the levels of my two skills so I can get stronger and not risk dying like the 9th mission.
For the next 7 days I ran using my Solitude Movement skill for 10 hours and trained my sword skills against the upgraded training dummies for another 10 hours each day. I only slept for 4 hours total for each day, but I was still properly rested somehow.
By the time there was only 3 hours left until the mission begins, both of my skills increased greatly. my Sword Mastery skill reached level 5 while my Solitude Movement reached level 4. When I focus with my sword in hand, I can cover my sword in a blue energy that can be slashed out and be used as a ranged attack.
It only lasts for 3 seconds and I can only use it once a day, but it is very useful in many situations. As for my Solitude Movement skill, I found that it basically allows me to teleport a certain distance. At level 4 of the skill, I can teleport 10 meters in any direction with a single thought. The only downside is that it can only be used once a day, similar to the blue energy.
I took a bath to wash off all of my sweat and then put the flexible armor back on while placing my Sword of Solitude into the belt to hold it. I waited for a little while and I got covered in a white light before I was teleported to a small room.
The place I was teleported to was different this time? I look around and I can see 4 other people with me. We are located within a small, dark room. I don't see any windows, but there is a metal door. None of us try to open it since we don't know what the situation is.
[Mission #1, War.
-Description: You 5 are new recruits in the Frost Squad of the Northwest Frontal Army. You will join the squad in a war against an army of monsters. The total monsters are 100000 of all kinds. There is 10 leaders, each leading 10000 monsters. Finally, there is one General, as you could say. Your task is to survive and win the war.
-Time Limit: 1 year.
-Mission Difficulty: F
-Rewards: 10000 xp. 10000 points. 50 stat points. 1000 Karma.
-Failure Penalty: Loss of 20% of stats and Karma.]
What? The missions are going to be hard like this now? Just the first mission is against 100000 monsters, and the time limit is a damn year. There is a mission difficulty thing now, and this mission is ranked f. If I assume it goes from S-F, then this is the lowest ranked mission!
At least we don't die if we fail the mission, but we can still die from the war. The small room we are in suddenly starts moving and I can hear the sound of an engine, so I realize we are within a vehicle of some kind.
"Well, let's get to know each other. We will be together for a year now, so we should know each other better."
One of the others says to us. I look at him and notice he seems about 20. He has dark skin and short hair. His body is full of muscle and he is over 6 ft tall. I look behind him and see a large axe on his back attacked by something. I stay silent and let the others talk first.
"I will start since I brought it up. My name is Chu Lin. I am 20 years old and use an axe as my weapon, as you can see. All of my stats are around 50, and I have no Throne. My skill is Axe Mastery and it is level 3."
The tall guy who talked first introduced himself. All of his stats are only around 50? No Throne, huh. That is probably true, or else I wouldn't feel he was so weak. His skill is only level 3, how sad. After a few seconds a somewhat skinny guy spoke up.
"I will go next then. My name is Hao Wen and I am 18 years old. I use the Saber as my weapon and my skill is Saber Mastery, currently at level 4. My stats are also all around 50 and I have no Throne."
The guy who introduced himself as Hao Wen has a blue and red saber at his side secured by his belt, similar to me. He is about 175 or so CM and is decently tall, but his body is very skinny. I don't feel any danger from him, so he also doesn't have a Throne. The next one to speak is a woman.
"My name is Lin Shi. I am 18 years old and I use the bow as a weapon. All of my stats are around 60. My Bow Mastery skill is level 5. I also have no Throne."
The woman who spoke was pretty good looking. She is about 155 CM or so. She has a pretty good body figure and I can see some muscle outlined by her clothes. She has a purple bow around her back with a quiver on her lower back. I can't see how many arrows there are but there is probably a few hundred. After she spoke, the final guy besides me finally spoke up.
"My name is Tang Fu. I use a Sword as my weapon and my Sword Mastery skill is level 3. I am 22 years old and all my stats are above 50. I have no Throne."
The guy, Tang Fu, is taller than everyone but the first guy who spoke. He has thick muscles as well, but not as much as Chu Lin. He has a grey sword strapped onto his side and, just like the others, I can tell he has no Throne. When everybody looks at me I speak up.
"My name is Zhao Feng. I am 16 years old. I use a Sword and my Sword Mastery skill is level 5. All of my stats are above 60 and I have no Throne as of yet."
I could see they are somewhat surprised when I said my age, skill level and stats, but they didn't mind much. I didn't say I had a Throne since there is no point in telling anybody that I do, since that is just plain stupid and dangerous.
The vehicle we are on moves for a few hours before it stopped. The other 4 talked during most of the ride while I kept to myself. When the vehicle we were on finally stopped, I stretched my stiff body slightly when a voice came from outside the door while it was being opened.
"Time to get off, newbies! We are at the base now! Follow me to your dorms and get some rest. We head to the battlefield tomorrow!"
A bulky guy even taller than Chu Lin appeared when the door opened. He has a spear strapped onto his back and has a fierce look on his face when he looks at us. I could see that he was looking down on us when he saw us, especially me. I look like a pretty boy with my pale skin and handsome face, so he probably thinks I will just be weak trash.
Not that I will explain anything. I could care less if he looks down on me. I am just gonna be here for a year anyways. I just gotta kill a bunch of monsters, get some military merits then go back to my private room after the mission ends.
We all follow him to a small building and he rushes us to enter it. We look around and I can see 5 beds inside, there is one washroom that has a shower in it as well. There is a table beside each bed, and that's all. There are no windows in the room, but there are a few candles around.
I could see Lin Shi frown a bit when she realized we were all staying together, but I shrugged slightly. She is staying alone with 4 guys after all, she would be a bit annoyed and nervous about it all. I looked up at the sky and noticed it was getting pretty dark, so I ignore everyone else and choose a bed in the corner and simply lay on it.
I place a backpack that has some food in it that was given to us by the bulky guy earlier on the table and hold my sword at my side while I lay down. The other 4 also eventually lay down on the other beds and I close my eyes after they start sleeping and head to sleep myself.