Chapter 18: New ID
Novis was currently in his room setting up the VR headset. He had plugged it into a socket near his bed so that way he could lie down and play, unlike his brother who had a gaming chair that was able to recline back.
Before putting on his headset Novis was struggling to come up with a new ID name. Currently, he had the ID name Pendragon but wanted to leave that for whenever Arthur wanted to play. But today novice wanted to give it a go at a few games.
Bill suggested to him that he should first play his placement games. The placement games were the first ten matches of the game you ever played online. Based on how well you did in these ten games it would then give you rank from Bronze to gold.
This was designed for players who had never played the game before, the system would be able to access your skills based on these matches and put you in the appropriate rank.
Bill suggested Novis do this as soon as possible that way when he played in the future he would be playing with people of the same skill.
Novis wanted to keep his battles and Arthur battles separate, now that he knew how strong Arthur was it would only mess up his actual ranking if he let him play on his account. Luckily players were allowed to create as many accounts as they wanted, but that account was linked to their fingerprint meaning only Novis could use them.
The system was set up so people wouldn't be able to do something called boosting. In the past, people would pay others to rank up their characters in a game. Meaning if their true skill level was bronze they could pay someone to rank them up to gold. This way they could show off to their friends and seem like a better player than they actually were.
All though this may seem harmless to most. VSW was a team game, meaning if you were to play a game and you had five gold players vs 4 and 1 bronze, it would upset the balance.
Novis had finally decided a name for himself, this was his journey to become a pro player, he didn't know if it was possible for him but he was going to try. His name given to him by his parents "Novis" was similar to the word novice, which suited him at this point and time. Since he wanted to become a pro he put the two together.
<ID Name ProNovis created>
Novis was about to start his first-team game, he didn't know why but his hands were clammy and he could hear the sound of his heartbeat. Before he could start a match there were some details he needed to fill.
<Please select a Lane>
Novis had never seen this come up before but he knew a little about it thanks to his lessons at the VR training centre.
<Middle lane selected>
He had only seen Arthur fight in the middle lane, so he decided to select the one he had most experience with. Also in the lessons, it stated that a normal format at the beginning of a game went two people on top, one down the middle and two people on the bottom.
Novis didn't want to have the pressure of a new teammate relying on him either, he wanted to see what he could do on his own.
<Please select your charecter>
This was the hard part for Novis, he wanted to be different from Arthur. when he played with the Warrior Dragonslayer against his teacher paul before, it felt awkward to him. He wanted to use these games to find the right character for him.
Virtual sword warriors was a melee VRMOBA game, they only had characters that used melee weapons. There was no magic involved.
Novis had made notes of all the characters he had seen play so far.
(Arthur) Dragonslayer uses a long sword <balanced>
(Paul) Quick Sync uses a rapier <quick attacks>
(Justin bell and Lucas) Mu Samu Katana <strong attacks weak defence>
He had seen a few other characters play but hadn't watched them long enough to know what they wanted to do. Looking at these three Novis didn't think any of these suited his style. You didn't always have to play the same character in VSW but Paul made it a point that it would be good to main one first.
Novis decided to just select randomly to see what he was dealt with, maybe fate would find his character for him.
<Serching for game>
<Match found>
As soon as the match was found Novis was transported into the game world. He was currently stood in front of a castle but this time there were four other players with him.
There were two girls and two boys, one of the boys was playing as Mu Samu same as Lucas, the other by seemed to be playing a character that used a spear. One of the girls held a sword and shield, the shield was the same length as her body and just as wide. While the other girl was an archer. It was the first time Novis had seen an Archer so he couldn't help but stare.
"What are you looking at perv!" The girl shouted.
Novis quickly tuned away realising he was staring at her, the character's armour didn't cover much skin either so it was normal to assume.
"He's probably a dirty old man." She said just loud enough so he could hear.
The Mu Samu warrior came towards me and said
"Hey, are you a smurf?"
"A smurf? whats a smurf?"
The man's slapped his forehead.
"Oh no, we got a noob guy's, Just try not to die."
A smurf was a high ranking character that played in low ranking games, they would create an alternate account and lose their first ten matches to get a low ranking. The reason why the man had though Novis was one was due to his name. A lot of pro players when using an Alt account would put the word pro in front of their ID. While in the game all players were able to see each other's ID tags float above their head.
After that, the man left to go top with the spear wielder and the two girls went bottom. That left me with the middle lane. Novis was nervous and couldn't stop shaking. That's when he suddenly realised that he felt a lot taller than usual and in his hands, he held a giant hammer that was bigger than himself.
"How the heck am I meant to use this thing to fight!"
<Knight's have spawned, let the game begin!>