The Grand Duelist

Joseph fetched some groceries on his way towards his house.

He made sure that he had at least a month's worth of groceries so that he didn't have to go out every day.

Taking out the business card from his pocket. He glanced at it for a moment before throwing it into the trash. Afterwards, he glanced around and after making sure that there was no one nearby. He took out his smartphone and opened the main website of Victory.

Finally, there was some news about the lifting of the maintenance.

P.H Works worked faster that everyone had expected and the emergency maintenance was scheduled to be lifted later this night. This gave excitement to Joseph as he hurriedly went into his room and cooked some dinner for him to eat.

He ate while scrolling through the forums of Victory.

Within the forums, there was a particular trending post that had the title.

[Unbelievable Duel! Six Digits in Damage! A three-second duel!]

A bitter smile emerged on Joseph's face "Just what kind of a title is this?"

He opened the forum post and saw that the replay of what happened back at the Grand Internet Cafe was embedded within it and the number of comments about the post had already reached ten thousand plus.

[Weak Left Arm, Strong Right Arm says: What the fuck? The duel ended in three seconds? Wait, isn't that a Meteor's Descent? That's one of the Ultimate Skills for Elementalist and he dodged it and somehow teleported behind that beauty? Wait, could it be that he's an Assassin?]

[I'm Really Not Rifle says: @Weak Left Arm, Strong Right Arm. Bro, are you stupid? He clearly doesn't even have a weapon so how can you say that he's an Assassin? I say that he's probably a main-class advanced Hunter, possibly a Jester or a Harlequin...]

[Weak Left Arm, Strong Right Arm says: @I'm Really Not Rifle. Bro, it seems like you're the retarded one here. Have you seen a Harlequin or Jester teleport like that? You tripping man... Can I get what you're smoking too, or what?]

[Dehydrated Sloth: @Weak Left Arm, Strong Right Arm. Is right, how can a Harlequin and Jester move like that? And he also used a strange weapon that looks extremely thin. I think we can ask @I Like Swords for what he thinks about that weapon.]

[I Like Swords says: Thanks for the tag @Dehydrated Sloth. Yes, I do know about what kind of a sword he's using. That sword is a Rapier. I don't want to explain the specifics since I'm obviously not knowledgeable enough about that sword so I will not dumb it down. Basically, it's a weapon made for thrusting...]

[Jail is Just a Room says: "Thrusting"... Hehe, I like that word.]

[I Like Swords says: Come on, man...]

Joseph continuously laughed as he scrolled through the comments of the forum post.

There were a lot of sensible theories as to how the battle ended in a mere three seconds and how Joseph teleported behind Solar Equinox.

But none of them were correct nor even close which made it particularly hilarious for Joseph.

Some theories said that Joseph had an unknown Epic Class, while some said that his class was definitely at the Legend Rank since it was quite mysterious.

However, that theory was debunked by the keyboard warriors saying that if Joseph was really a Legendary Ranked Player...

His name would've already popped up left and right in the Universal Rankings.

Their discussion prompted Joseph to learn more about the world of Victory.

Since there was still two hours before the lifting of the maintenance.

Joseph decided that he would not let himself procrastinate anymore.

He opened up a fan-made wiki about the world of Victory and studied there.

From the wiki, it was said that the world of Victory was a huge continent on a planet that was at sixty-percent water and forty-percent land. The entire landmass of the Planet Gaia was named as the continent of Victory and the Empire of Truedawn reigned within the continent of Victory.

There were three Kingdoms in the continent, and at the far north of the continent was the Kingdom of Absolute Frost.

At the western side of the continent was the Kingdom of Burning Heaven while at the south-eastern side of the continent was the Kingdom of Nether.

There were a lot of Kingdoms and Cities in the continent back then but after a brutal colonization expedition by the Empire of Truedawn, only three Kingdoms remained...

The territories of these three kingdoms were incomparably vast, yet they were peaceful with each other. It was as if they had no ambitions nor intentions of increasing their territories. At least, this was the impression that everyone was under.

Those who knew more about the three kingdoms understood that everything wasn't so peaceful...

This was the reason why players needed to properly choose their kingdom of affiliation since your kingdom affiliation couldn't be changed after you selected what Kingdom you'd support when creating your character.

It was recommended within the wiki that players should choose the Kingdom of Burning Heaven since its bustling economy was second only to the Empire of Truedawn. As for the second recommendation, it was surprisingly the Kingdom of Nether. 

The Kingdom of Nether had the worst economy compared to the two, but why was this Kingdom recommended more than the Kingdom of Absolute Frost or Everlasting Frost? Well, it was because due to the fact that the Kingdom of Absolute Frost was far north and extremely cold.

If not for the fact that it had more natural resources than the other Kingdoms which made it suitable for people who wanted to have a production class, then it wouldn't even be listed in this recommendation.

Joseph skimmed through all the information about the Kingdoms and he summarized them all in a single paragraph describing the three Kingdoms.

First, the Kingdom of Burning Heaven.

The Kingdom of Burning Heaven is a liberal kingdom.

This Kingdom could be considered as the sex capital of the continent of Victory. If Joseph was to make a real-life analogy. This Kingdom was like the ancient city of Pompeii. All sorts of people in all walks of life often visited this kingdom but they had something in common for their visit.

It was sex...

The players, especially males directly chose this kingdom due to the abundance of sex.

But they were disappointed when they learned that the concept of consent still existed within the Kingdom. Rape had severe consequences and once caught by the system, you could be subject to a permanent ban to all virtual games that couldn't be appealed.

As for the Kingdom of Absolute Frost...

Despite the all year round coldness and snow. The people in this place were the warmest and the most hospitable people in the entire continent of Victory. Their residents were advocates for human rights, and they also practiced equality on a daily basis.

With virtually no slave trade, the people in this Kingdom could be considered as the happiest residents in the entire world of Victory.

The Kingdom of Absolute Frost believed in a lot of gods along with the Kingdom of Burning Heaven. Quite opposite to them, the Kingdom of Nether only had faith for the Goddess, the Divine Goddess Rhinna.

Believing in such a pristine Goddess also made their views regarding love, quite innocent and pure...

A person within the Kingdom of Nether could only marry a single person for their entire life. There was no concept of polygamy in the Kingdom of Nether for every marriage was sacred and sanctified by their beloved Divine Goddess Rhinna.

As for the Kingdom of Absolute Frost, you could have as many wives as you want as long as you loved them equally and could equally support them. The Kingdom of Burning Heaven was the same as the Absolute Frost when it came to marriages, but laxer than the former.

Interesting... Interesting... So, if I wanted to have a harem for myself, I should go to the Kingdom of Absolute Frost or Burning Heaven? Wait! What the fuck am I reading? Didn't I come here to read about more information about the tiers of classes yet why am I getting distracted again? Ugh...

Joseph facepalmed when he found out that he derailed from his original train of thought.

Reclaiming his focus, Joseph struck the iron while it's still hot as he opened up the information that he required and skimmed through it.

According to the wiki...

Victory classes were divided into, Hidden, Unique, Epic, Legend, and Myth. There were millions of people having a class with the Hidden Tier, while the number of people that has a Unique-Tiered Class was at the several hundreds of thousands.

As for the number of people with the Epic-Tiered Class, they were at the tens of thousands, while the Legends could only be counted by a single finger since there was only a single known Legendary Player in the world of Victory.

As for the Myths, there were rumors about a system notification informing everyone about the appearance of the myth but it was a piece of unconfirmed news and it may probably be even an NPC instead of a player.

After all...

It was a known fact that NPCs were far powerful than players in the current state of the game.

It was not out of the ordinary for a Legendary NPC to ascend to the Myths. 

Interesting... If I reveal to the world that I'm a Mythical Ranked Player... Would I also have my name and portrait placed in this wiki? That will definitely happen. All I need is to gauge if it is worth it to reveal myself to the world or should I hide who I am?

Joseph remembered that there were several system notifications informing him that he could reveal his name to the world and enter the Universal Rankings.

He dismissed those system notifications since when they appeared since they didn't really appear at the right time...

"Let's think about it later..."

Joseph decided to set that thought aside for a moment as he clicked on another set of information.

This time, it was about the system of Item Enhancement in the world of Victory.

Item Enhancement in the world of Victory required the usage of the "Essence of the World". 

These Essences could only be farmed or discovered, but could never be made by human hands.

The enhancement of items has a hundred percent chance of success for the first six enhancements. After +6, there's a specific chance of failure and every failure, degrades, not only the number of enhancement on the item but also its durability. 

Ten percent of durability would be lost for every enhancement failure.

Once an item's durability reached zero. It would be permanently destroyed...

The max durability of an item could only be recovered by sacrificing the same item to increase the maximum durability of the higher-grade counterpart of that item. 

The punishment for failing an enhancement was quite harsh but there was an option to guarantee its success.

It was through sacrificing three times more "Essence of the World" than normal.

It was called, "Brute-Force Enhancement".

Using this method, success would be guaranteed but it was incredibly wasteful than the well-known and most used method of increasing one's chances for a successful enhancement which was known as failure stacking.

Each enhancement failure gave the user a higher chance of enhancement success in their next enhancement.

Users can stack these enhancement-failure bestowed chances so that they could upgrade a piece of higher-ranking equipment than the equipment they were using to stack their failures.

Accessory enhancement doesn't require "Essence of the World"...

To successfully enhance an Accessory, one required the same accessory that's subject for enhancement as the sacrifice for a chance to increase the grade of the Accessory.

If the user failed on this enhancement, the Accessory subject to the enhancement along with the sacrifice disappears.

These are the tiers dedicated to items.

[White] - Uncommon

[Green] - Common

[Blue] - Rare

[Purple] - Epic

[Orange] - Legendary

[Gold] - Golden

[Black] - Mythical

Armors and Weapons can be upgraded to +20.

Accessories can only be upgraded three times.

"What an incredibly harsh system of enhancement. The rarity of the items needed for enhancement alone is incredibly rare, yet the system is also like this? That's like a slap to the face of everyone who is trying their best to farm for those enhancement materials!" Joseph whispered in astonishment.

He closed the wiki and checked for the time.

Great, there's only about thirty minutes left before the maintenance ends... What else should I do before the maintenance ends? Hmmm, should I go and clean some parts of this house? Or should I go watch some dank memes on the internet? Nah, it's too unproductive...

Joseph sat there, a frown could be seen on his face as he was thinking about what he should do to pass the time.

Wait! I should pay Lily first! 

Joseph's eyes brightened and he hurriedly transferred several thousands of money towards Lily.

Dang I almost forgot about that debt, but now that my debt is paid... Wheeew, It really feels good to be debt-free...

Joseph leaned on his chair and stared at the ceiling of his mansion.

The room became silent, apart from the whistling of the fans within his laptop, there was no other noise present in the area.

Now that I think about it. I'm actually pretty lonely. It's quite sad that apart from the world of Victory. I literally have nothing else to do, nor to visit.

I don't even have a hobby apart from playing games. Sigh... How did I become like this? I was a pretty good table tennis player and even had the chance to go nationals back then, but thanks to that tragedy...

Sigh... I should probably visit that club sometime.

Joseph remembered that he was once a member of the prestigious and one and only Table Tennis club of the City of Sibu.

He was also one of their top players.

Unfortunately, after that tragedy...

He lost touch with them and the friends whom he thought that he could trust with his back had forgotten him. Even once, they had never even contacted him to ask for his well-being at the least.

This fact made Joseph incredibly bitter and sad as he whispered, "I guess they still hate me for ditching the nationals just so I could tend to the funeral of Papa and Mama..."

"But can they really blame me? Both my parents just died for fuck's sake, yet why they can't understand that I can't go nationals at that time?"

Joseph shook his head and placed these thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind.

He opened up his browser and searched for the latest dank memes to pass the time, but then a desktop notification informed him about the arrival of an email.

Joseph casually glanced on the desktop notification, but his eyes widened in shock when he realized that it was an official email from P.H Works.

Click!

Joseph never clicked as fast as he did ever in his life than what he had done right now.

Opening that email, he saw that it was a message of congratulations from the developers...

Dear, Joseph Entrada.

We have seen you struggle from the start of your quest until the end. We applaud your determination, willpower and the courage to keep on fighting. Congratulations on being the first Mythical Ranked player of Victory!

Enclosed within this email is a 3D Printable Access Keycard that will grant you access to the Headquarters of P.H Works in the Capital City of Pilipinas...

We know that we are in the same country, so if you happen to visit the Capital City then inform us!

We will surely give you a good time on your visit here.

Once again, congratulations on your success and Mabuhay!

PS: Thank you for helping Sir preserve the contents of his wallet and slapping my co-workers across their faces. 

Sincerely,

Secretary of the CEO of P.H Works, 

Elizabeth.

What...?

Joseph didn't know what to say.

He speechlessly downloaded the attachment within the email and 3D Printed the Access Keycard on the 3D Printer that he had on his desk. A few minutes later, he now had the Access Keycard for the headquarters of P.H Works.

It would be a lie to say that Joseph didn't feel any excitement.

But setting that excitement aside, Joseph felt somewhat weird.

It was the first time for him to bask on the prestige and glory of being the first Mythical Ranked player so he didn't know how to react.

But since he understood that as the first Mythical Ranked Player, he would encounter more situations like this in the future so he must know how to act in regards to those situations. 

Let's practice some acting techniques for now. I know how to act like a tough charlatan, but I don't know how to act like a dignified charlatan!

Joseph opened his browser and researched some videos about the past dictators of the world and how they acted throughout their careers. 

Time swiftly passed and when Joseph was done with his self-taught acting lessons...

The emergency maintenance was finally done and he returned to the world of Victory.

As soon as he logged-in, several system notifications popped out and quickly obstructed his view.

[Congratulations on being the first Mythical Ranked Player!]

[As a Mythical Ranked Player, you have a secured spot in the Universal Rankings! Do you want to spread your name to the world and make them know your name? Yes/No.]

[Your Player Information has been updated.]

[You are now The Grand Duelist!]

[Your skill tree has been updated.]

[As a Myth, you are also considered as a demi-god. Demi-Gods have Divinities similar to bonafide Gods and they can tap on the power of faith to increase their Divinity Stat. The more Divinity Stat you have accumulated, the more prestige you will have in the eyes of the other Demi-Gods and bonafide Gods!]

[Class Bestowal Skill has been acquired.]

[Control over the Concept of Justice, and Order has been acquired.]

[As a Demi-God who controls the Concept of Justice. You are entitled to do at least a single good deed every week! If you are unable to complete this requirement, you will lose a certain amount of your Divinity Stat so please be careful!]

[You own the strongest weapon in the world of Victory. You have a secured and guaranteed spot within the Universal Weapon Rankings! Do you want to spread your name to the world and make them know your name? Yes/No?]

[The Kingdom of Nether has lost its foundation! It is now considered as an Abandoned Kingdom! For more information about what an Abandoned Kingdom is, please proceed to the main website of Victory!] 

[As a Myth, you have the qualifications to claim an Abandoned Kingdom as your territory. Do you want to claim the Abandoned Kingdom, The Kingdom of Nether, and proclaim it as your territory? Take note that qualifications do not mean that it will be given to you immediately! You will still need to complete a series of quests and objectives!] 

[Your qualifications as a Myth only gives you the ability to skip the process of obtaining a Kingdom-Establishment Token. It does not pardon you from completing the quest and objectives required for claiming the Abandoned Kingdom! Ruling a Kingdom is extremely hard and stressful, please be careful on your choice!] 

[For your ease of choice, you can indefinitely postpone the selection of your answer. However, this selection will disappear once someone else acquired the rights for the Abandoned Kingdom, so please don't waste too much time thinking about your decision!]

"What...?"

1. Long Live! A normal salutations in Philippines. The country I modeled for this book.