Vance got himself together and walked out of the room. The windows were wide open, letting the bugs in so flies could be seen roaming the house. Nothing had changed. The game was just as realistic as it was when he first started. But still, he couldn't help but wonder. Why was he in a game that would not open up for another six days? "Are they doing final checks?"
He really had no idea what was going on, but since it seemed like he was stuck here, he had to go with the flow for the time being. He walked out of the house and saw the man named Ricky, who should be his father carrying heavy stacks of hay on his shoulders. Vance watched as he brought it over to a pasture where a moogoon was pinned in. A moogoon was Alantina's version of a cow, but it had six legs and massive udders.
As if noticing his presence, Ricky looked over at him and pointed toward the side of the house. "Go cut the wood! Your mother can't cook with rocks!"
Vance, who had never cut wood a day in his life, real life that is, walked over to the side of the house. He did not plan to stay here much longer than he needed since he would not be able to level up hanging around here. But he was also still trying to grasp everything.
When he arrived in front of a pile of logs, Vance picked one up and placed it on the stump that was only a few steps away. He had done this a few times in game, but now things seemed much more real. He could feel his own breath which was different from when he used his character. "Things are too real…" he frowned as he walked over to the ax leaning against the woodpile. He picked it up and looked at his reflection on the shiny surface. It was blurry, but from what he could tell, he had blonde hair and red eyes. He looked over at Ricky and wondered. "Am I really this man's son?"
If he remembered correctly, the woman named Maybel had brown hair and brown eyes just like her husband, so this made no sense…. "Am I albino? Did they have albinos in Alantina Online?"
Vance cocked his head to the side before shaking it. He decided not to think about it. He lifted the ax and slammed it down, chopping the log in two. He did this a few times before he had sweat building up on his brow and his energy being sapped. "What the hell is with this weak body!?"
He felt exhausted from just a few swings. But he did not stop there. He continued working until he chopped half the pile. By then, the sun was already starting to go down. Ricky came over and looked at all the chopped wood, and smiled. "Not bad. Since your accident, you have been out of it. It looks like you are slowly getting back into the pace of things."
"Accident?" Vance was confused. He had no idea what was going on, but it seemed the previous owner of this body had some kind of accident.
"Huh? Vance, you don't remember?" Ricky scratched his head before continuing: "I guess it makes sense. You've been out of it for the past few days. You fell from the cliff in the mountain out back. The Everling brothers brought you back in a panic. They said you slipped and fell because you were standing too close to the edge. The town doc said you were fine and in just a deep sleep, but I guess you lost some memories…. Anyway, since you are awake now, you should pull your weight around here. You know, I can't count on that damn woman! I should have never married her after your mother passed. Damn woman drinks all damn day!"
Vance stood there and listened to Ricky's grumbling and suddenly realized that he might have taken his looks from his birth mother. He could also sense that Ricky cared a lot about him. As someone who grew up without a father, this kind of feeling was not bad. It was not that his father skipped out on them, but he was a military man and passed away during a war when he was young. Thinking about this, Vance wondered how his mother was doing….
He began to wonder if he would be able to return to the real world or not. He had somehow taken over this body, and he had no idea how but for now, he wanted to look more into the reason as to why he had fallen. "Father…." Vance choked out as he continued: "Have I gone up the mountains a lot?"
"Yeah, you would always go up there to look for herbs and wild vegetables to help out at home. Sometimes you brought back some low-level monsters." Ricky replied. Hearing this, Vance felt something was funny. If he was bringing back monsters, how were his stats so bad now? Was it because this was not his body or something else? As he pondered, a notification popped up in front of him.
[ Life Quest]
[Find out what really happened to you when you were in the mountains.]
[Reward: ???]
Vance looked at the question notification and raised an eyebrow. He was an NPC, yet he still received a life quest. A life quest was a special quest that could be done at any time, but if you did not do the very first one, you would not get another one until it was complete. Because they popped up out of nowhere and were not something you just gained by talking to someone, you could miss out on many special rewards for not completing them when you got them. The reward was always a mystery as well since it all depended on how you handled the situation.
Vance had completed so many of these quests he would never pass them up, as sometimes you got rare ingredients that you could not find anywhere else. He looked at what he had to do and decided he might spend a few days in this town after all. He just so happened to need to go up to the mountain anyway since the mountains were a prime location for a low-level power boost to stats. If he was able to get a herb called the maglio flower, he could gain five stat points in three of his attributes.
A maglio flower, like all permanent stats upgrading items, could only be used once. It would upgrade intelligence, vitality, and mind. They were very beneficial to those trying to become mages. And Vance was dead set on becoming a sword mage once more. After all, he knew every aspect of how a sword mage worked.
Sword mages were not just your simple mage with a sword but warriors who could wield grand magic that even mages were unable to use. They could even heal to a certain extent which made them one of the best solo classes out there, but the prerequisites to become one were hard. One had to be able to have strength and intelligence as well as the health and mana to keep yourself going. Even agility was needed in order to evade attacks, as sword mages were front-line attackers.
They were so hard to play, which caused most people to not want to play them because the items needed to raise stats you were unable to raise all the time were hard to find. These stat boosters were essential in leveling yourself up to become a sword mage.
"I will make it back to the top…. Even faster than before…." Vance mumbled to himself.
"Vance, you say something?" Ricky looked at his son in confusion. "Anyway, you still need to rest up, so no going out for the time being. Just stay home and help out."
"Ah…." Vance needed to go up the mountain for his quest and the herb, so he could not listen to this. Of course, he could not say no. Not when the man in front of him was now giving him a worried look. Vance sighed. "I will do as you say."
That night, when the sun went down, and everyone went to bed, Vance hopped out his window and headed towards the mountain. He stuck his potions in his hot bar and quickly made his way out of the village towards the field. Everything on his menu worked the same, so he was not worried about not being able to use things as needed. He walked into the field that had tall grass up to his knee with his knife in his hand. He had to be careful. He was very weak, but this did not mean he would not be able to react to a low-level monster. After all, these areas were only filled with level 1 to 5 monsters at most.
Normally just outside of town, monsters would only be level one, so he could use this chance to gain a few levels. He figured after killing three trigoons, a small fluffy creature that liked to hang around in the tall grass at night, he could easily reach level two and raise his health and strength some. Spotting a trigoon on a night like this when the moon was full was easy enough. The tails would stick out over the grass and light up under the moonlight. During the day, their tails were black, but at night, during a full moon, they had a light glow to them.
It did not take long for him to find his first target.