Game’s Dogma

Drako Yau still knitted his brows. Unlike last time when he had cleared the encounter quest in the starter village, the option to hide the announcement was not available. It seemed like the announcement of a new record was inevitable, so his only choice was to hide his name.

It still stirred up a worldwide fuss regardless.

‘Player ??? has set a new record for solo clearing Blazing Cave (Easy).’

The words displayed in yellow flashed across the global channel and left everyone stunned.

The solo clear record for Blazing Cave in Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulty had all been held by the same person—Handsome Scholar. 

Handsome Scholar had the backing of one of the largest guilds in Real World, Age of Scholars. Right now, he was an elite player who had already reached Level 16, meaning he was only four levels away from his class progression. Yet now, his record had been broken!

Handsome Scholar held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. He was fighting monsters with his guildmates to level up when the announcement showed up, to which he squinted his eyes.

The girl who was standing behind him and holding a staff made a charming chuckle and said, ‘Oh Scholly, someone broke your record.’

Handsome Scholar shot a cold glance at the girl, Idyllic Poet, who was a Level 16 mage. She was by no means innocent like her cute looks. ‘So what. I set the record back when I was Level 12. Let’s see if the guy has the balls to break my record for the Hard difficulty.’

Idyllic Poet giggled and even pretended to hide. ‘How scary, oh my, so much killing intent. I’ll be looking forward to it then.’

After 15 minutes…

‘Player ??? has set a new record for solo clearing Blazing Cave (Normal).’

Handsome Scholar sent another scornful look at Idyllic Poet who was running short on breath from laughing, irritation growing in his mind. It was then the nearby warrior came over and asked, ‘Scholar, who do you think it is?’

Shaking his head, Handsome Scholar replied, ‘I have no idea, but I guess he’s also a cleric going down the paladin route. Only paladins can tank the monsters while setting new records. Warriors have slightly insufficient defence for that to happen.’

 ‘Cleric, is it… On the rankings, you’re the only cleric who’s levelling up so quickly.’ The warrior scratched the stubble beard on his chin.

The name floating above his head was Booksy Swordsman. He was Level 15, ranked 12th on the level rankings, and most importantly, the guild master of Age of Scholars.

‘Guild master, what’s your take?’ When talking to Booksy Swordsman, even the recalcitrant Handsome Scholar showed the appropriate manners.

The guild master simply laughed, then said, ‘It’s fine, they’re just solo records anyways. It’s alright as long as our team record for clearing Hell difficulty isn’t broken. Only elites pay attention to the Hell difficulty record, and this record will be proof of how strong our guild is. We can attract them to join our guild that way. Don’t think too much about it, let’s continue with levelling up.’

Booksy Swordsman slapped his massive palm on Handsome Scholar’s shoulder. A moment later though, an announcement broke his calm composure.

‘A team from guild Empyreal Spire has set a new team record for clearing Blazing Cave (Hell). The new record is 32 minutes, 40 seconds.’

Booksy Swordsman immediately had a cramped look. ‘Damn! It’s Empyreal Spire again! Notify Thousand Scrolls and Bookstore Clerk that we’ll go fight the Blazing Cave, Hell difficulty, tonight!’

Meanwhile, Drako Yau was already clearing Blazing Cave in Hard difficulty. He originally had not planned on snatching those records, but he noticed by accident that setting a new record gave him additional rewards.

By setting a new record for Easy, he obtained extra experience and gold coins, as well as an uncommon item. Even though the item was weaker than the one he currently equipped, he could still sell it for money at the trade centre. Having tasted the rewards for setting new records, Drako Yau merrily went on to set a new record for Normal. He once again received the rewards which included a rare item.

‘Fire Crystal Warrior Leggings, Level 10 equipment. An equipment worn by fire crystal giant warriors, it greatly increases their defence.

Set effects: ???’

He hadn’t expected a rare set item to show up. Shaking his head, he suddenly had an idea. Now that he had sold his company and was jobless, selling items was one way to earn a living.

It didn’t take long before he laughed at himself. He was trapped here anyways, what could he do with it even if he had unlimited money?

He had received the gauntlet from Zephyrwolf before attempting the Hard difficulty. It wasn’t too shabby, but it certainly wasn’t great either. Anyways, he sent the Bear Hide Gauntlet back to Zephyrwolf, then plunged into the dungeon.

‘Roar!’

The fire crystal giant elder in Hard difficulty was of a different calibre. It punched both fists simultaneously and shot out a wave of flames, greatly reducing the area which he could evade into. However, Drako Yau was no ordinary person either. Having been forced to train on piles by the old geezer, his footwork was as swift as the wind. The old geezer said that the footwork was called something like ‘Empyreal Dragon Step’, which sounded pretty cool, but he had never actually used it after returning from the hills until now.

His spear was showering attacks on the elder like raindrops, creating red ripples as he did. This was the reason why he was able to set new records even when he didn’t have a single skill—Weakness Exploit.

Every time he thrusted his spear, he wasn’t just looking to deal basic attack damage, but also the additional damage from the Weakness Exploit system. Every one of his basic attacks were dealing comparable damage to skills of other classes. His precision with the spear allowed him to land almost every single attack on the monster’s weak points. The training which had forged his skill in thrusting though, it was a nightmare which had lasted for three months.

‘Gahhh!’ The final bellow from the fire crystal giant elder brought his mind back to reality. 

A wonderful voice resounded in his mind.

‘Level 7 reached.’

‘New record for solo clearing Blazing Cave (Hard). Do you wish to make your name public?’

Ignoring the voices as he quickly clicked ‘No’, he went over to check his spoils of war with expectant eyes.

Gold coins, and… a piece of rock.

To be exact, a fiery crystal was lying among the pile of gold coins.

‘Fire Crystal Giant Elder’s Heirloom. A heirloom passed down the generations among the fire crystal giant tribe, it is the proof of an elder. Usage unknown.’

‘What the hell.’ Drako Yau knitted his brows as he inspected the damned piece of stone.

He knew that this version of Real World was very much alike to the one he had created, but it also seemed like the game adopted his world as its basis and branched out to include various things which he had no knowledge of.

Taking his class as an example, at least he was sure that he had never created a class called Wanderer. The same went for the Weakness Exploit system .If he looked at the current world as if it was the one he had created, he would probably have died without even knowing what happened.

Sweeping the thoughts out of his mind, Drako Yau left the dungeon.

The outside of the dungeon was still flooded with people as always. Drako Yau checked the time on his phone. The actual world was currently eight o’clock, meaning the online player count was only going to increase because office workers would be off work by now. Indeed, the advertisement was right; it wasn’t just a game, but a whole new world.

Pain, hunger, trading… everything was just like the actual world.

Drako Yau shook his head and focused his mind onto his skill tree. Now that he was Level 7, he could finally unlock another skill on his skill tree. He had been very much looking forward to it.

Cleric

Description: They worship the goddess of light in exchange for the power to communicate with deities. Despite having slow movement speed, they are quite all-rounded. They can equip either heavy armour or cloth armour, which also affects the path they tread on in the future.

Skill type: Clerics play a crucial and indispensable role in teams because team members rely heavily on their healing skills. By also having plenty of skills which can protect and shield their team members from harm, it can be said that clerics provide a powerful backing to their teams.

Class progression: Paladin, Priest.