NOVEL WEB Chapter 1.1
Chapter 1: Prologue
My heart pounded with a mix of strange excitement and awkwardness.
‘How long has it been since I’ve had a break like this?’
I run a small business. As a result, I’ve lived a life where the concept of a “holiday” practically didn’t exist.
Recently, I collapsed from overwork and was prescribed a week of rest by my doctor.
Of course, knowing myself, I didn’t plan to rest for the full week. Still, I decided to take about four days off.
It made me uneasy to think about not going to my workplace for several days, but I trusted my staff to handle things well.
I also told them to call me immediately if anything happened.
‘What perfect timing. My vacation coincides with the release of that game’s sequel.’
Sitting in front of my computer, my eyes sparkled at the thought of spending my rare holiday in the most fantastic way possible.
‘The Era of Silver 1 was so much fun.’
The Era of Silver was a very niche game set in an Arcane-Punk world where magical engineering had advanced.
It was a single-player RPG that didn’t support online functions, but it offered incredible freedom.
Though it was a solo game, I enjoyed it thoroughly and played it for the longest time.
Even during busy times with my business, I’d play it whenever I could.
Now, almost ten years later, the game’s sequel, Era of Silver 2, has finally been released.
Even better, it had upgraded from the 2D graphics of its predecessor to almost lifelike 3D graphics.
Investing my golden holiday into this was absolutely worth it.
‘For my first character, I should go with a production-oriented jack-of-all-trades, right?’
In the Era of Silver 1, I mostly enjoyed the game with production-focused characters.
I had tried combat and magic-focused characters as well, but what suited me best was a character specialized in production and crafting.
One notable feature of this game was that hunting and PvP weren’t mandatory.
You could fully enjoy the game just by doing production tasks within the city.
And I found this style of play incredibly fun.
My preference for managing a business in real life was reflected in how I played the game.
‘Finally.’
While reminiscing about my memories of Era of Silver 1, the installation of the game was completed.
My entire body, exhausted from overwork, seemed to fill with energy as if by magic.
-Loading…-
I entered the game and clicked the “Create Character” button.
-Ba-dum!-
The first thing that greeted me was a special alert message.
[You have achieved legendary accomplishments in Era of Silver 1.]
[Special benefits are granted.]
[The character you played the longest in Era of Silver 1 can be brought over to Era of Silver 2.]
[However, items cannot be transferred.]
Looking at the message window, I paused to think.
‘Should I start with a max-level character and explore the game?’
Of course, playing like this could make the game less enjoyable.
But the last line mentioned that items wouldn’t be transferred, which changed everything.
‘This game is all about grinding anyway.’
I had a hunch that trying out the game with this approach could still be fun.
Most importantly, production-oriented characters in Era of Silver required an absurd amount of grinding.
Four days wouldn’t even scratch the surface.
[The Era of Silver 1 character ‘Arad’ has been imported.]
And so, I imported the max-level production-focused jack-of-all-trades character I had spent the most time playing in Era of Silver 1.
“Awesome!”
The imported character was ridiculously overpowered, even by my standards.
Stats:
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Divinity: 10
Evasion: 10
Defense: 10
Magic Power: 38
Focus: 61
Spirit: 49
Intelligence: 54
Willpower: 70
Endurance: 55
Health: 58
Dexterity: 300 (MAX)
Luck: 101
The stats were the first thing that stood out.
Being a production-focused character who only operated in towns, most of the combat stats were at their default values.
Magic Power had only the minimum points needed to create magical items.
The other stats—Focus, Intelligence, Willpower, Strength, and Health—had naturally increased through grinding.
The only stats I actively allocated points to were Dexterity, a bit of Magic Power, and Luck.
Dexterity was the core stat for production-focused characters, so it was an obvious choice.
Luck was maxed out with the remaining points to boost crafting and enhancement success rates.
‘Next, let’s check the skills.’
The skill window followed the stat screen.
Skills (All MAX): Cooking, Farming, Blacksmithing, Herbalism, Leathercrafting, Sculpting, Alchemy, Architecture, Music, Tailoring, Mechanical Engineering, Magical Engineering…
‘Wow, I really went all out, huh?’
Every life skill I had painstakingly leveled up in Era of Silver 1 was imported at max level.
‘The stats and skills seem to follow the same system as Era of Silver 1. Not much has changed. But it looks like redistribution isn’t allowed.’
After confirming the skill window, the appearance customization screen popped up.
Unlike the stat and skill screens, appearance could be modified.
‘Let’s just go with this. It kind of looks like me.’
Feeling too lazy to customize, I decided to stick with the default character: a moderately handsome young man with black hair and black eyes.
In the 2D graphics of the first game, it wasn’t noticeable, but in the realistic 3D graphics of the sequel, he oddly resembled me, which made me like him even more.
‘Starting location?’
Clicking the “Next” button brought up the starting location selection screen.
Options included deserts, jungles, forests, big cities, rural villages, plains, and more, but only one choice truly appealed to me.
‘The Northern Region, of course.’
If the game’s world hadn’t changed drastically, the Northern Region was the best for production-focused characters.
It was rich in magic stones, rare minerals, and monster by-products.
After selecting the Northern Region as my starting location, I clicked “Enter Game.”
“Huh…?”
Suddenly, a severe dizziness hit me, and I lost consciousness.
[Please save us. Save us!]
[Legendary Artisan.]
[Legendary Alchemist.]
[Legendary Magical Engineer.]
[Legendary Merchant Lord.]
[Save the Northern Region…]
A desperate plea echoed in my dreams as I lay unconscious.
—
“…?”
When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself in a snow-covered world.
A small town stood amidst the snowy fields, blanketed in a gentle snowfall.
The sight felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
“Ugh…!”
The unfamiliar yet strangely familiar memories of the body I now inhabited struck me like a hammer.
How much time had passed, I wasn’t sure, but once I had grasped the situation, I muttered a low curse under my breath.
“Damn.”