BXBX NOVEL Chapter 53: Debut (1)
[Your level cap has been removed.]
Jake arrived in one of the three vast sanctuaries of The Warmonger Empire.
Those three temples were occupied by the statues of human traitors and high-level soldiers.
Standing straight and rigid with long spears tightly clenched in their dominant hands, the latter kept an eye on the grand sculptures. The soldiers would only betray signs of life upon noticing any newbie player trying to touch or soil the statues in any way.
The said statues were so tall that anyone could, at most, touch up to their calves.
"Halt!" A soldier screamed at a player who was attempting to sneak beneath the statue's robes. It was a female statue sculpted so masterfully and beautifully that she could have been mistaken for a giant and alive woman.
Feeling the weight of the soldier's skill, the player froze on the spot and clicked his tongue before turning around and giving up on his disrespectful acts.
'This one has green hair… it feels like I'm at some cosplay event,' Jake commented as he walked toward the exit, his eyes resting on the player who had been just reprimanded with a glare and voice—he was forced to look away because people were swarming this sanctuary, so he naturally lost track of the man.
The reason he spoke in this way was because players didn't have their natural hair colors.
Upon coming to this sanctuary, Jake momentarily thought he had landed in a festival because everyone's heads were decorated in different colors.
Players could also change their skin color, and some didn't hold back with this feature. Other than that, nothing much could be altered.
Of course, women paid a lot of attention to their eyebrows, skin, hair, and more natural cosmetics so as to not wear any make-up in the game world.
It was also challenging to get proper cosmetics after the character creation process.
In this vast sanctuary where no pillar held up the ceiling and the floor was smoother than a grassland, anyone would feel like they truly had stepped into the fantasy world with magic and swords—Jake was the same.
'Many players wear the plain clothes everyone gets upon logging into the world… did they not manage to get any equipment on the tutorial island?' Jake questioned as he paced around players without hitting their shoulders. His perception skill was like a sponge, passively teaching him how to avoid bumping into others.
It also adapted well to players' presences.
Jake, however, wasn't perfect.
When something piqued his attention—for instance, the equipment crafted from the wolf boss' hide or weapon from the same wood as his bow—he would stop and examine that person to see what method and tricks he used to craft this one.
That would make him bump into someone else, but it was such a common occurrence here that players just brushed that aside and continued getting deeper into the mainland's wonders.
The wonders here meant the statues. Players could get a lot of information from those statuses and pick up their first class from the main set—tank, archer, mage, swordsman, healer.
After selecting the main class, players can also select another one for the subclass. For example, combining a swordsman class with a healer subclass produces a paladin class.
Even players with second characters would speak to those statues, so Jake was an oddball for showing no interest in them.
It was because he had already had the main class, and Richard's advice weighed a ton in his heart.
Those statues were the human traitors. He didn't know the full picture of the main storyline, but there had to be a reason for Richard to warn him about them and for the misfit statue to be perched at the top of The Unconquerable Mountain.
'I should be able to learn any subclass from other NPCs… if classes were limited only to statues, anyone owning them would have a monopoly, which would cause wars. So far, I can see a peaceful environment,' Jake thought.
That was when he left the sanctuary.
Though the peace he had just thought about remained, Jake was stunned by something else. Outside, he could see many players with different levels.
Their equipment drew so much attention that even diligent Jake couldn't have helped himself and stand still, his eyes drawn to the beautiful gender.
While male players wore full-body armor and stood tall like the protagonists of their lives, female players seemed fond of the typical stereotype armor, which exposed their midriffs, cleavages, or thigh gaps.
A few daring ladies combined the three revealing spots in question, sporting such arresting beauty that men felt handcuffed, including Jake.
That said, a lot, really a lot, women disliked that kind of equipment, and their scornful eyes passed through Jake, freeing him from the illusion that it was a norm here.
He chuckled and proceeded deeper into the empire's capital.
The sanctuary he had been in was alight on the small mountain that defended the capital from the south and overlooked it like a guardian.
Jake easily found the sightseeing spot and clenched the railing to look over it at the capital's charm.
It was considerably bright here.
Just like earthlings conquered the night with light, so did the empire. Their method was obviously connected to magic as it seemed like they had stored fireflies in floating transparent orbs that breezed through the capital's roads and even dark alleys.
Soaring lanterns with orbs perched on top, which seemed like nesting boxes for the warm and harmless magic, were perched at either side of the thoroughfare, blessing it with never-ending light.
Lucrative businesses such as blacksmiths' smithies, alchemists' stores, or magic shops were close to the lanterns in question, having no need to pay for a light.
Less famous businesses either paid for the light magic or devised unique ways to stand out during the night shifts.
"It's midnight, but the streets are bustling with life! So nice," Jake rested his head on his palm, taking in the beautiful vista of the capital built on red bricks and its enormous castle, singling out its presence with the rich and glamorous architecture that didn't lose to the night's curtain dotted with stars.
"Ah, I've stayed up for too long…" Jake checked the clock and sighed before logging out.
He wasn't fortunate enough to be able to play the game for as long as he wanted.