As Tetsu entered his chamber, he closed his eyes.
How many times had he done that?
He lost count after a while, it was all strange.
He decided to remember how his first playthrough went.
Not well.
At first he decided to play as an normal man in the empire. As he played, he then joined a guild, where he and his party members entered the forest.
They had to hunt something down, he wasn´t sure what, but he knows that then he was betrayed by then.
They jumped him, and using some artifact they stole all his experience and levels, making him to start from scratch.
By some reason, he was also banned from that guild.
He started again, with a new avatar.
This time, he played as an elf.
Specifically, a high elf.
It was, ok.
But really boring.
Aside from rare instances of invasion, there really was nothing else to do but to study magic, drink and party.
Tetsu wasn't earning enough money from that playthrough, so he made another one.
His third playthrough was in the desert.
Yes. He was in an fantasy Egypt.
That was hell.
Not only did he have to survive in an unforgiving society, somehow, a necromantic player appeared out of nowhere, turned everyone into undead, including Tetsu, and decided to go to war against the entire player base.
The most disturbing part was that for some reason Tetsu was no longer capable of leaving the game. That was only possible after the necromancer was defeated.
Yearg.
A week later, Tetsu started the game again, and played as a mountain Dwarf.
This was actually more to his liking.
For a while, it was actually fun.
He worked there as a smith, made artifacts for many players and non-players alike, and with that he was actually getting a lot of money.
That was until an army of green skinned gobrons, ocrons, trollons and other things attacked the mountain.
The people in there were slaughtered. Tetsu was no different.
Then he decided to play like this.
He decided to be part of the Golden kingdom.
It was similar to the empire, but more medieval.
And he played as a Halfbreed of dwarf and an ogron, which were just bigger, stronger, but dumber humans. They had some similarities to ocrons.
After making his character he decided to work as a smith.
It was good.
His dwarfen smithing and ogron strength made him capable of making artifacts that would be normally not possible.
He no longer had to go out and hunt down monsters to earn money.
In fact, just by making weapons, runes, armor and selling them gave him experience.
He didn't put everything into smithing, even if that might have been more practical. But from his last playthrough, he now knew that you should always be capable of defending yourself. So now, if he had to, he could always go out.
The players and npc's were paying money themselves.
It wasn't always easy, there were always customers who complained for some stupid reason, like for example:
"Why is this great sword so heavy? Make it lighter."
"Bro, that's the point. It's a big heavy sword."
"Don't care, make it easier. I can't cosplay as Guts if I can't use the weapon good."
"If it's to heavy for you, just put more points into strength, and you should be ok."
"But that would take me to long. I want it now."
"Buy the sword, or leave."
"… man?"
"Yes?"
"Do you know some easy way how to get experience really quickly, really fast?"
"...No. If I did, I would be in the top ten by now."
…
The player then bought the sword.
Sigh.
Was Tetsu being an asshole for lying to him?
Maybe.
But Tetsu didn't exactly want any competition.
For some months, that was his life.
Go into the pod, start the game, make some artifacts, sell those artifacts, and then wake up from the pod.
Then Tetsu had a thought of getting married.
In the game, not in Real life.
The thought process was quite simple.
If he were to marry into a rich family, he would get all the money.
That money he would then be capable of exchanging into real money, and then…
Well, I think you get the point.
Oh, just the thought made him smile.
And then, his wish came to him. Literally.
One of his most frequent buyers was a second rank noble, named Marcus Frayian.
He and Tetsu had a quite good relationship.
And he was distressed.
I closed the workshop, shortly after.
I don't know why Marcus decides to tell me his problems, but sometimes, just sometimes, our conversations would make quite useful quests to appear.
"My friend", Marcus started, "I need advice."
"What is it, my dear customer?"
"I told you many times to call me Marcus. Am I nothing more to you than just another customer?"
"You are my most liked customer, yes." Tetsu replied.
Making a small smile, Marcus continued: "My daughter"
"You have a daughter?" Tetsu asked.
"Yes, I do. Didn't you know that?"
"Sadly, I didn't. Until now. She never came to visit me, so I never had a reason to know."
"Well, that was probably because she wasn't here for the past five years. Listen. When my daughter turned ten, I send her away to the greatest magic academy to the empire."
"And?"
"From what the teacher's told me, she was an incredible talented and promising student"
"What kind of magic?"
"Metal"
'Metal-magic users. Sigh. If only one I knew how to use this form of magic. Yeah, it is considered the weakest form of magic, but here it would be truly...'
"She was kidnapped."
Tetsu had to stop his trail of thought after that sentence.
"By whom?"
"The northern barbarians."
'Damn. Those guys. Ugh. Damn demon worshipers.'
"And what are you planning to do?"
"I want you to go the north and save her."
"… what? But Marcus."
"Now you call me Marcus."
"I am a smith. Not a warrior. I am honored that you think so highly of me, but I am not the hero."
"I know you are a brave."
…
Oh.
"Since when?"
"I always knew. I can't exactly explain why, but I just know when I am taking to someone of this world or to someone not."
…
"But that is not important. Yes, you may not be the hero that our goddess brought to us, but you are a player. You a capable of doing things no other can. I have seen with my own eyes how a brave dress like a mage took down an Dragonoid in a fist fight. A mage, defeated a being known for its physical prowess in a damn fist fight. Sigh. So a brave with a smith job being a warrior at the same time us something far less strange to me. In fact, you are part ogron, right? So fighting should be something like a second nature to you."
'When did he become so smart?'
"Sigh, fine, you got me. Yes, I can fight. But even I am not foolish enough to go to the north. It is a hellish place. "
During Tetsu's first play through, one of his most changing enemies where the northers barbarians.
Every single one of them was capable of fight one on one against an adult ogron even while being mere humans. Their magic is also quite demonic.
In fact, the reason why he died the first time was because the other party members were playing as these barbarians.
"So you were there. That's even better."
"Ok, why me? If you know who is a brave is and who isn't, why don't you pick someone else?"
"Because I know you. And I know you always finish your work perfectly. You were not the only brave I got to know in this city. I have been studying them for the last five years. And you, my friend, are the best among them."
"If I were to save her, by some miracle, what is it there for me?"
"My eternal gratitude? My friendship? Is that not enough?"
"Would you do that if you were in my position?"
"Yes." He said bluntly.
Tetsu wasn't sure how to answer that. What is wrong with that noble?
"But I see this is not enough. Fine, For the last months that you have been here, I realized that you still aren't married. How about this: If you save my daughter, I will happily allow you to be her fiancée."
'wait, just like that?'
"You will be happily accepted into my family. Trust me, my sons have nothing but respect for you, and they would gladly have you as their brother-in-law."
"But you daughter is 15. She is to young."
"Why do you braves overthink everything? Well, you can get married a little later. No problem."
"I am a Halfbreed. She is a noble human. This has never happened before."
"Then you will be the first."
"… She might hate me. I don't want to be in a relationship if the other one doesn't even like me."
"Oh, she will. She absolutely will adore you."
Giving a small punch to Tetsu's shoulder, he asked: "So are you in?"
Before my very eyes, a blue screen appeared.
____________________________
New Quest!
Difficulty: Very hard.
Find and save the daughter of the Frayian Family.
Reward: A loving wife and the acceptance into the Frayian Family. You shall enjoy all its riches and excess of being a part of a noble family.
Failure: The Frayian family will no longer see you as a friend.
Accept. Decline
___________________________
… sigh.