Surviving the Game: The Rat Assassin

Festival of Mask: The Rat Race

Liora looked around using her enhanced perception because she had spent hours honing her own skills which had given her advantages because she was a level 23 instead of level 7. Using her stealth skills, she realized the assassins were level 15nwhich gave her an incredible amount of experience points. So she quietly slipped through the alley, killing every Rat or Assassin she encountered. She even took the time to loot the corpses, her collection of Teeth, Claws and Vials impressive as she filled her loot bag with all of it. She had even found an upgrade to her armor among the assassins, even though it was a downgrade in rarity level as only a few of them were even Epic, most of them Rare. The increased stats however made up for it especially as it also slowly increased her Hide in Shadows and Stealth abilities a few points for every piece she collected.

She was amazed when the system had assigned this day as taking a full half hour, as it had sped her through 4 years worth of experience in a few hours. So she smiled as her own kill count that day reached 20, her quest system promising an increase of the assassins set armor to Epic if she could reach 30 kills and Legendary if she could get to 50 kills in the remaining 20 minutes before the sun set on the alley.

Liora smiled as she took out two throwing knives and launched them at another Rat and an Assassin she had just spotted. Both found their marks on their necks, making it impossible for them to tell before they fell dead and she went to loot the corpses. Taking the Rats Teeth Daggers even if they didn’t have the poison left as she could apply it of she needed to recoat her weapons. Her throwing knives she recovered every time equipped with enchanted jewels that kept the poison constantly applied to those two.

As soon as she had looted both of these bodies, she looked down the alley and determined she had 300 feet to cover in 20 minutes. She had covered the first 300 in 10 minutes and managed 22 kills now. She needed another 28 in order to get the 50 for her quest. So she slowed down her advancing speed, watching carefully to find every possible kill she could get, using every blade she had at her disposal. The good thing was most of the assassins she was encountering had fresh vials of the Rat Poison she could coat weapons in before she sunk her daggers into them, or buried her throwing knives into their throats.

Just as the first shadow fell across the inside of the building at the far end 20 feet away, Liora used her shadow step ability to get inside moments before the last rays of light illuminated the doorway which was slammed shut in the face of two others who were trying to run in.

“It seems we have a Rat of some skill, to get through the doorway using a shadow step ability just before the doors closed.” The Master from that morning said with a smile as a bunch of NPC Characters looked at her with impressive titles of guild masters.

“It seems she has sense and ability as well. Unless I am mistaken she has atleast two Master level Claws in her possession and 4 Teeth minimum on her person now.” The Assassin Guild Master said. “How many kills did you achieve?” he asked as Liora began pulling her trophies out of the bag she had.

“56 kills today.” She informed them as she saw them clearing the alley just as they had done the last time.

“A true display of mastery if I do say so myself. I am Gwin Shee, Master of the Dragon Assassin Guild. I would be honored to offer you a place in our Guild.” He said bowing to her as the system showed it was only for those with 50 or more kills in the Race as those doing it were separate from each other so each player had equal chances. Of the 800 who had run the Race this far, only 20 had gotten 50 kills, her 56 putting her at the top of the list as well as the highest level so far as she accepted the guild invitation as her entire armor set morphed so that the Rat Armor was a cloth underlayment of the leather Assassin Armor, both combining to make her Hide in Shadows ability +125 and her Stealth proficiency+75.

‘Quest reward initiated, would you like to fuse weapons to increase overall rarity?’ it asked showing that the conversion would be 3 to 1. 3 Commons would become 1 uncommon, and as she had 21 of them it became 7 for her to add to the two she had already to make 3 Rare which became 1 Epic Rat Tooth Dagger that had an enchanted Emerald to apply the Rat Poison every time it was used, just like her two Epic Claws that she had enough to combine to make a legendary that split into two when she made it. Her armor also became Legendary Dragon Assassin Armor as she was informed by the system that the opening ceremony was about to begin and her character was being transported to the grounds.

“Welcome one and all, to the launch of the best simulation of our century. Some of you have already learned that there is one important thing missing from the User Interface of the System and we want to assure you it is no glitch, malfunction, but or mistake. It was intentionally removed from user control, as your playing this game was consent to the terms of the agreement that this game will be operating under. Until this moment you have all been protected from death as any immortal object would be, however as this simulation is to test the response of people to deadly threats, they must be deadly. That is why as effective as of this moment, you no longer have the protection of a safe environment. If you die again, you will die in the real world as well.

“In order for the majority of you to escape, you will be faced with many challenges in this game. For in order for the simulation to end, we must find the Ruler of the Seven Realms. There are quests, dungeons and raids that will assist each of you to claim the title. But be warned, it is a perilous journey to become King or Queen of the Seven. You must conquer each of the Kingdoms through fame, combat or other methods that are too boring to go into at the moment. Until one of you succeeds or you all die, none of you shall escape. As ensured in the terms of service, each of your bodies will be collected and brought to our research location for the medical care and ensured power that each of you will need to survive physically to do so. How long the 75,000 of you are trapped in this game will be determined by how quickly one can Rise to Rule the Seven Kingdoms!” the character in the center of the platform said so they could all easily hear what was being said. To reinforce it, each person received the overall quest as well as a welcome package.

“The contents of the welcome package you received just now will be based off of how successfully you completed the tutorial for your class. If you automated it and only performed the final assessment, your rewards will reflect the path of ease you chose. If you however played the long tutorial, your assessment will be based off of how successful you were in it as well as your performance in the final assessment.” He said as everyone was frantically trying to figure out what exactly was happening. Liora didn’t even bother looking, as she didn’t want to know if it were true yet, because if it were her entire future would depend on surviving whatever this game threw at them.

As a professional gamer at 12 years old, she had already seen it was entirely possible for these games to kill the players when the safeguards failed. Intentionally removing them and designing a game around that, would make it significantly more challenging and difficult for the players.

“Unlike other games however, each of you will have to decide for yourself how you wish to rise to the challenge. But know that until the victory conditions are met, none of you shall escape this world of Magic, Monsters and Heroes!” the cloaked figure said before disappearing. It left the central village bare, all of the players looking around as Liora looked at the map of the entire world.

Sure enough it was broken into seven distinct Kingdoms, each one separate with many locations in them where it was showing quests could be accepted and completed already. She knew well enough that the first few days would be the true challenge, as everyone adjusted to the fact that for the foreseeable future, they would be trapped playing this game until someone met the victory conditions. Knowing that she would need a team of adventurers, Liora went to the guild hall to create the first guild made specifically for beating the game.

Fortunately for herself, the registration process was simple, once she decided on the name of Shadow Ruler. She set it to accept all levels and classes, as she bought the largest Guild Hall available in the First Kingdom that allowed all Races to interact. She noticed that the Elven, Dwarf and other Kingdoms would only allow those associated with them in someway. She put in the description that only those serious about winning the game should join, her first newcomers appearing a few minutes later to her new Hall that she had just barely began equipping with the funds she had earned in her beginner area. Fortunately for her, it was enough to stock the Guild Hall with an NPC trainer for each class and profession before she was out of funds for the moment.

She however still had several quests from the beginner area that she knew were chains, especially as one of them was to go to the Rat Dragon Assassin Guild for training.

“Are you the real Liora, or are you just someone that thought her name would be cool in a world like this?” one of the other characters asked her.

“Wait, you mean the professional gamer Liora, the one that has been said can adapt to any new game within hours?” another asked making her chuckle.

“I don’t know about hours, some of them have taken a few days to learn all of the controls of. But yes, that is who I am, not that I think it will help in this world. Programming one without the safety measures in place is a far different scenario than one with them. Before you decide to join me, you should know I intend to win this game as quickly as possible. It will mean a margin of risk than most are comfortable with, without safety measures in place, death is a real possibility.” She said as the three of them nodded. The Paladin, Warrior and Priest all nodding before they formally requested to join and she accepted them. “We need to know what each class will face in the beginning stages, so I ask each of you to go and complete any quest chains you have in those regards. Don’t worry about improving the guild yet, we have a tax system that at first might seem unfair, but will benefit us all later on. Focus on improving yourselves and your own gear for now, wait for any dungeons for at least a day. At sunrise we will meet here for breakfast and reports for intelligence.” She said as they nodded and went to the area she requested as she did the Rogue one herself.