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  Matthew had run into some trouble in the summer before starting college. One: He had no money. Two: He didn't have a job. Three: He didn't have a car. These three problems upset Matthew greatly, however, the third problem wasn't necessarily bad. He liked hoofing it. However, he, at some points had wished he hadn't purchased a capsule, and a 2-year subscription to Royal Road, which he hasn't even started playing yet. Matthew decided that before he went off to college, he would play to his heart's content. He just wished he had someone to play with, since none of his friends was interested in playing Royal Road.

  He started up the capsule on the first of the new month, and hopped in, after the diagnosis test came through with pleasing green lights. As soon as he closed it, the lights flickered, and he heard a small, electric sound, like a shortage. However, this only lasted a second, and the whirring hum of the capsule came on, with the message:

  Of course he chose "Yes", and then he felt his body became weightless, as his conscious mind entered the game.

  “Yes."

  With this, he went with his favorite gaming name, knowing for sure no one else had this name.

  "Mathgar."

  "Male, of course."

  Every MMO has been like this with this expository jargon. It was time-consuming, but he guessed it was important.

  Wait, Matthew thought, he was positive there were only 49 races in Royal Road. There must be a bug in his capsule, he concluded to himself. Nevertheless, he still searched through the available races.

  "View Selection."

  He was unimpressed by most of the races, which were typical vanilla races, like the elf, dwarf, gnome, human, etc. But, he saw in the list a race which he had NEVER SEEN before, even on the RR forums.

  "View Initial Stats."

  Then, the window appeared.

  Matthew liked the sound of this race, even though the starting stats were frighteningly low. He could be killed very quickly at any time. He also hadn't seen a Flow stat anywhere before, either.

  "Humanus Prime."

  Matthew viewed his character's base features. His character looked exactly like him, except, something seemed different, but he couldn't place it. He just decided to keep the looks the same.

  He hadn't thought of a place to start, but he didn't feel like leaving the pod just to look for a easy place to start. A name popped into his head.

  "Khurt, in the Kallamore Kingdom."

  The light that came from nowhere blinded him, and in response, he shielded his eyes with his hands. When his vision returned, he was standing in a field of scorched earth, surrounded by stone statues.

  "Well, this is a new way to start a game." Mathgar said to himself, but his voice seemed to resonate slightly, which reminded him of some sort of great, powerful being. He went over to one of the statues and punched it, to test the pain mechanics of RR.

  He felt a hard thud. "Yep, it is running fine," Mathgar told himself, while rubbing his knuckles in pain. A man in a dark cloak walked up to him, and said, "I see that you are new to this world. Would you like some help finding your path of destiny?"

  Mathgar was unsure of this stranger, but he was the only other person in this garden of solemn stone. "Yes, I would like guidance."

  "Wonderful. Let's get started. Hit that statue, any way that feels comfortable, but hit it as hard as you can, for as long as you can."

  How odd. This menial task was going to help his quest? Well, it was better than nothing. He punched the nearest statue as hard as he could, half expecting to break his hand. But, a blue aura surrounded his arm mid-swing, and he destroyed the statue......or so he thought.

  A stat point, for punching a statue? That was truly strange. After the stone shell fell apart, a man, who looked like an innkeeper, fell to his knees in a thud. He raised he head, and spoke. "You have saved me from the Curse of Ghal. I thank you!" He seemed like he was truly grateful, Mathgar thought to himself, and he had an idea. He knelt down next to the man, and asked, "Do all these other statues hold people inside?"

  "Yes, they are all the residents of this village. We didn't even have time to escape from Ghal's horde of death....." he receded into a sobbing ball. This looked bad. But, he didn't want to stand by and watch these people suffer for an eternity.

  "I will free these people, for you. I wish you to be reunited with your people." Mathgar echoed. He went off the free the others, before he could hear the quiet "thank-you" from the innkeeper.

  Breaking the statues took at least 6 hours in game time. He was so glad he didn't use too much time. He wanted to keep looking at the world that was Royal Road. After he had freed the town, he looked back at his messages.

  Cool, he didn't know that he got so many skills and bonuses from freeing the townspeople. He still didn't quite know what some of his skills and stats did.

  "Status and Skill Window."

  Mathgar chuckled. He is going to have a wonderful time playing this game.

  The Next Chapter: