MMORPG: Surviving a Death Game with a Glitched System

Rite of Ruin was a simple complex game.

In general, it was an open-world game with a fairly standard leveling system: doing quests, exploring, and killing.

At level 1, a person got to select a basic ability. Then, at level 5, they got to select their main class. After selecting a class, they would earn the right to unlock abilities under that specialized focus. The four main classes were: mage, warrior, archer, and assassin. Each class had sub-classes that could be unlocked after reaching a certain level threshold. The next one made privy to Ash was level 15.

"It sounds basic... but who knows what those sub-classes could be."

Ash had merely learned of their existence, not their scope.

The next most important aspect was race, of which there were sixteen.

Each race had two unique racial abilities — one passive and one active.

While Ash had no idea what abilities the other races possessed, he knew his own. The Dragonkin had [Scale Armor] and [Dragon Fear].

[Scale Armor] was the passive. It was a percentage increase of his base stats and resistances. Simple, yet Ash knew damn well how insidious percent stat bonuses could be. Especially how they could scale later.

[Dragon Fear] was the active racial ability. Once engaged, it would have a chance of debuffing depending on level and stat difference.

The next thing to do with his race was the Totem of the Dragonkin...

The Totem was a physical object that represented the Dragonkin as a whole and was connected to one of the ’victory’ conditions of the game.

After completing the tutorial, the First Champion, Ash, would reserve the right to plant the Totem and assign the ’Holy Land’. Once the Totem was planted, all Dragonkin would receive buffs, quests, and rewards while in its effect radius. Then, it would become the entire race’s job to defend that Totem.

After all, the simplest way back to Earth, as Ash understood it, was for one race to collect all the Totems of the other races, thereby granting that race — and only that race — the rite of return.

There were a few more details to mull over about the totems and other ’victory’ conditions...

"But I can wait on thinking about that until I’m finished with the tutorial."

Currently, he had to select his basic skill. Something he had about four more minutes to do before it started.

"Then I’ll have to choose my starting weapon..."

Ash’s eyes drifted to the walls of the coliseum, which had various swords, lances, maces, spears, daggers, and other items strewn against the wall.

As for the basic skill, he had five to choose from: [Burst], [Strike], [Focus], [Bash], and [Mend].

But before he made that choice...

’Status...’

♱♱♱

Name: [Ashley Grave]

TITLE: [Dragonkin Champion]

LEVEL: [1] (EXP: 0/50)

STR: [10]

DEX: [10]

AGI: [10]

INT: [10]

CON: [10]

ITEM LEVEL: [10]

ACTIVES: [Dragon Fear]

PASSIVES: [Scale Armor]

♱♱♱

Ash took a few moments to look over the screen, absorbing the information.

[Dragonkin Champion] was the special title he’d been granted that gave a 10% bonus experience to him and his party members — up to four others. While that seemed like a major boon, he was disallowed from earning or exchanging it with a title that had a perhaps more useful effect.

’I don’t exactly get how that’s a worthy bonus for the "Champion" of a race, but whatever.’

As for Item Level...

Ash pulled at the brown tunic with cut-out sleeves, which loosely hung from his body.

’How quaint...’

Drawing his clawed hand away, letting the fabric mold back to its earlier form, Ash thought of the basic skills...

He had already ruled out two, [Mend] and [Bash], as they didn’t fit his playstyle at all. [Bash] added force to a blunt weapon attack with a chance of stunning, while [Mend] was a minor heal.

’Though should I really be considering playstyle...? Even if this was introduced to me as a game, this all feels pretty real.’

Though, it would probably be best to cater to familiarity. Even if that familiarity was a bit impractical, stemming from sitting behind a computer screen.

As for the other three skills...

[Strike] did the same as [Bash], but was for piercing and slashing weapons and minus the stun, while [Burst] gave a temporary agility boost. Finally...

"Why am I even deliberating anymore?"

Ash had already made his choice the moment he learned what each ability did. After reading their descriptions, he decided the most useful to him was...

"[Focus]."

[Focus], according to the description and the general knowledge that filled Ash’s mind, allowed one to increase the likelihood of landing an attack, and even more, a critical. At least, that was the surface aspect of the ability...

But something hidden within the description caught Ash’s eye.

[Focus] - [Sharpens the user’s concentration, increasing the chance of landing an attack and striking a vital. The deeper the user’s focus, the more clearly they can perceive openings in an enemy’s guard.]

"I’m not just playing the game, I’m in it."

It’s not like every second of his new life here would be embroiled in violence, right? If Ash’s assumtion was correct, then this ability possessed the capability of improving his cognitive function in general — an ability that was insanely versatile compared to one only useful in a fight. And especially more useful than one only usable after being hurt.

’It’s not like I plan to get hurt anyway.’

Besides, while he didn’t particularly want teammates or party members, they existed.

"All I have to do is find some pocket healer to fill that need."

With that settled, all he had to do was wish it to be.

[You have learned the basic skill: [Focus]!]

A weird, foreign feeling flowed through him. A sensation almost comparable to when his body was being remade. Yet, this time, it was soothing and blissful.

As the sensation faded, more knowledge of his new ability crept into his mind. Mainly, the effect’s length and cooldown. At a cost of 2% of his max mana, it could be activated for five seconds with a cooldown of one minute.

’Not terrible, but not useless.’

Curiously, Ash willed the ability to activate.

Immediately, he felt his senses literally heighten. Despite not physically being any faster, he felt his processing ability improve leaps and bounds — almost like temporarily slowing down the world around him.

"I made a good choice. After all, being fast without your mind being able to keep up sounds like an accident waiting to happen."

While [Burst] seemed outside that realm of inhuman possibility, that was definitely something Ash would keep in mind as he grew stronger.

With that settled, Ash marched over the sand arena to the nearest wall of weapons.

According to what he learned when he arrived here, all he had to do to claim a weapon was pick it up. While he was allowed to pick up to four, he could only equip one at a time. He could store the other three in his sub-space inventory.

Not that he knew exactly how to use that feature yet...

As he looked over the crude weapons, Ash muttered to himself:

"A pike, sword, bow and arrows, and a mace..."

Those were the ones he intended to grab, with the mace being the one he intended to equip to complete the tutorial.

’It might not be my playstyle...’

But Ash was no idiot. He chose the most well-rounded weapon with the least counters.

At least, that was the plan...

"Huh...?"

Ash stood with a stupefied look on his face as his fingers phased right through the hilt of the flanged mace he was trying to grip.

As his flesh and blood finished phasing through matter, he tried again, only to achieve the same result.

’Uhh...’

Turning to the side, Ash reached for a wooden bow, only for his arm to go right through the string. He didn’t stop there. He kept pushing his arm further until it had gone nearly entirely into the wall.

As much as he wouldn’t like to admit it...

"That’s not good."

Ash was slightly nervous, or dare he admit, scared shitless.

Gulping, Ash took a step into the wall intending to test this phenomenon; however, the moment the front of the wooden sandal hit the stone, it bounced off. Yet, the tips of his toes had still briefly breached the plane.

’Wait...’

Ash stepped back, then experimented again, trying to pick up a sword. After seeing his attempts to grab it fail, he picked up his foot and nudged the sword with the bottom of his sandal.

Slack-jawed, he watched the sword stop his foot.

’Fuck...’

His mind traced back to the last strange thing he heard the repeating system say before he entered the tutorial.

"Error..."

His existence was glitched.

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