System Ascend

Leveling up

“So you did come back, I thought you ran away or something.” The old man tells David with a smirk on his face. David felt more safe here than the Z-corp headquarters. David doesn't like being surrounded by so many unknown people, so he has decided to enter the game through the old man's game chamber. 

“I had a grandson who looked just like you, so you should call me grandpa instead.” 

“That VR can change my life, I can finally get rid of the shitty life I have. I want to get strong, I want to make good friends. You can teach me a lot, hence why I am here. Thanks for letting me use your game chamber.” David enters the game chamber and logs into the game.

A welcoming message pops into the screen and David starts opening his eyes. He finds himself in the Kitty Kat guild base. He doesn't find others and realizes that they have not logged into the game yet. David starts wandering around and decides to get out of the hideout to explore the outside world. Then suddenly another avatar appears from behind him and it turns out to be Lisa. 

“Hello, you came before me today. Where are the others?” She asks while chewing a piece of gum.

“I don't know, I just logged in and didn't find anyone else. Maybe they have not logged in yet.” David starts unlocking the door and gets outside. But she gets a bit worried as they always log in around the same time and they wait for others to get back.

“Maybe they went outside for some reason, we should go find them.” Lisa and David get outside and start walking through the forest. They suddenly stumble across a huge wild boar. Lisa summons her shield and sword to take it out. It takes three blows from her to kill that boar.

Level Up!

She earns some reward.

“This kind of monsters will appear all the time and you should take them out to level up and earn rewards. Many players spend years in this forest to kill as many as they can, this is the fastest way to level up. However, it might get dangerous if some higher-level monster spawns. So always make sure to check their levels before engaging in battle, it's written on their forehead.” Lisa explained to David, who wasn't listening to anything she said as he was staring at the big flying beast on the clouds. It is coming straight at them. Lisa also takes notice and tells David to take cover.

[Level 25: Dragon appears]

Lisa is no match for that dragon as she has 15 levels. David is just an amateur and having him will make no difference. David also brings out his sword to fight the dragon.

Lisa tells him to not engage in battle as they have no chance of defeating the dragon. Lisa thinks of a plan to run away and they decide to run in different directions. Lisa has a higher level than David, so Lisa thinks that the dragon will chase her and not David. Then she will use her teleportation magic crystal to escape. Lisa tells David the plan and they start running in different directions. Surprisingly the dragon starts chasing David instead, which makes Lisa worried and she runs back to David to protect him. It throws a fireball at the two and Lisa manages to guard themselves with the shield. 

David feels like a complete loser as Lisa is getting hurt while protecting him.

“You don't have to protect me, I can fight by myself. I came here to get strong, not to rely on others and trouble others. If I die then all of my achievements till now will be gone, right? You have far too many achievements. It will be a big waste if you are the one to die and respawn. You should run away. I will distract it.” David tells her to run away. Lisa hesitates at first but David makes her listen to him. Before she ran away, she gave five of her magic crystals to battle the dragon. Of course, even with them, it would be impossible to defeat such a higher-level beast.

The dragon whips its tail towards David and he gets thrown into the lake. He loses half of his HP with just that attack.

David spits blood out of his mouth and smiles at the vicious animal. 

“Not gonna lie, You look kind of cute” David laughs and thinks to himself that it is over. But just when the dragon throws fire at him. He gets up and dodges it.

“Why did I dodge it? I have no chance of defeating that thing, I should just peacefully die.” David closes his eyes to accept his fate and get killed. Then he dodges another attack from the dragon instead of taking the hit.

“I keep on dodging the attacks. Why is that? Do I believe I can take it down? Maybe I should try to do it instead of just accepting defeat. Who cares if it has a higher level than me? Do I have no chance of defeating it? How can I or anyone know when I have not even tried?” David decides to fight the dragon and not give up.

David looks at the five magic crystals Lisa gave him. One of them can create illusions to distract the enemy, another one can create smoke. The other three can summon powerful energy beams.

The dragon is way faster than David and it manages to catch up to David and bite him to death. But it realizes that the one it attacked was just an illusion. David distracted the dragon and attacked one of its eyes with his sword. The dragon screams in pain and it starts bleeding. It tries to throw flames at David but he uses another crystal to cover the entire area with smoke. David uses this opportunity to attack one of the other eyes and destroy it as well. however, the dragon shields its eyes and throws David to the ground. David uses all of the other crystals and it successfully hits the dragon. It takes a huge damage and both of the eyes have gotten destroyed. However, David cannot celebrate his victory, as the dragon only lost half hp and it is getting up to attack David again. He only has one hp left, so he finally accepts his defeat and waits for the Dragon to finish him. He closes his eyes and hopes for the Dragon to finish him in one blow.

But nothing happens and he hears a loud bang.

He opens his eyes nervously and finds a masked individual standing in front of him.

“You did great, I have never seen someone fight so bravely. What is your name?” The individual asks David.

“I am David, thanks for saving me.” He thanks the individual.

“I will have my eyes on you, you have great potential to become a top-ranked player. Let us meet again.” The individual vanishes into thin air.

David is brutally damaged and caughs blood out. Lisa comes back and finds David lying on the ground. She is surprised that David survived. She also finds a dagger, which seems to be a reward for killing the dragon.

“Oh my god, you were able to defeat the dragon all by yourself. That is something even I could not do.” 

 Lisa says admiring David and smiling proudly. Lisa helps David get onto her back. She takes his staff and puts it in one of David's pockets. After that, she flies away towards the nearest safe zone. The battle seems to have drained him and he needs to get medical help ASAP. His health is almost depleted and he is starting to feel dizzy.

[Level 10:  David has leveled up!]

David is shocked at his current achievement status. This means that his level increased by a whole level! 

“It was not me who defeated the dragon, I only took half of its hp. Why did I level up? It was going to kill me and then a masked individual showed up to save me. It was him who took out the dragon.” David lets Lisa know.

“Really? Well, you did take half of its hp, which is why you got half of the reward. That individual seems to be a nice person, it even left you the dagger which was a special reward for taking out the dragon. Did you get his name? What kind of mask did he wear?” Lisa asks eagerly.

“His mask looked like some sort of bird, it was red with a black line around it. He called himself ….. Umm, I forgot to ask his name. He just left after saying that we would meet again.”