[System Message: The Beta Servers will be going offline and closing in 5 minuets]

[System Message: Thank you for participating in the Paragon Beta we hope to see you on the live servers at launch]

‘Well I guess that’s it then’

Tyr thought to himself as he finished reading the notifications that popped up at the top of his vision as he pushed himself off the partially collapsed ruin wall he was leaning against overgrown with moss and crawling vines, Tyr’s silvery chain mail caught the light as he moved the fine armour rested on top of a black leathered tunic the features of his Avatars face and its shaved stubbly head was partially covered by the green hooded cape he had equipped that helped conceal his identity and role as a support character this suited his play style best to keep the attention off of him whilst he worked,  Tyr turned to face the two other players with him in the party and let out a small sigh as he moved towards them he put the sword he was inspecting back into the scabbard strapped to his waist.

“So are we all clear on the plan? Do you have doubts Tyr? After all the risk is mostly yours”

The young females voice came from the leader of the party the name floating above her head in blue letters read as ‘Feyed’ the usually greyed our microphone symbol next to her name flashed green to indicate her Avatar was talking, Feyed was the leader of the party and had dark grey coloured plate mail armour equipped partially covered by the same style hooded cloak Tyr had, wielding a kite style shield supporting the image of a pair of angel wings and a holding half-spear as her primary weapon it rested on her shoulder with the tip of the spear pointing towards the sky.

“No it’s not that, if everything goes as planned I should be able to get the Paragon seed early” he hesitated for a second as he thought about what he had to do, “I’ve just always played as certain characters in these style of games and if I fail I’ll be so far behind I won’t be competitive”

“That’s not all” the other companion finally spoke as he stood up from his crouched position the blue name above his characters head read as “Lurr” the microphone icon flashed green as he continued his statement, “We have to contribute our hard earnings to you to get the Paragon Seed, if you fail we will fall behind as well and all that grinding will be for nothing”

Lurr was the teams spell caster and had specialised in the Warlock class and the Elementalist secondary class covering most of the teams Magic needs, he wore a thick Black hooded robe and wielded what seemed to be a simple wooden staff with gold caps on either end. Lurr’s class was expensive to maintain and he would definitely be set back greatly by the loss of funds early on in the game at launch.

Feyed stepped closer to Lurr and a smile emoji icon appeared above her head in a small chat bubble, “Don’t worry we’ve planned this so that our support gets a good start and the biggest gamble is the amount of return we get from helping Tyr, we’re just lucky that the support class Paragon seed is the easiest to get too”

“Let’s just hope the seed is a good one, it annoys me that the seed is a random class from the support tree” Lurr sent a smile emoji back at Feyed in the chat bubble over his head, “What was the class you got from your seed in this Beta anyway it’s not the best one is it?”

“No although the spell sword class I started with meshed quite well with the Arch Druid seed class being as they were both combat focused” he sighed again “Its still just a mid tier seed class it’s 50/50 if I get a better or worse class”

The group all had their hopes on this, if Tyr could get a seed class at level 1 then the 100 level reduction would be cancelled out giving him freedom to spend his experience points and level up as a dual class character from level 1 this would give him a huge advantage as a support class and with this he could help power level his team mates to the point were they can get their respective Paragon Seed’s before the majority of the other players.

[System Message: The Beta Servers will be going offline and closing in 1 minuet]

[System Message: Thank you for participating in the Paragon Beta we hope to see you on the live servers at launch]

“Well that’s in then guys, I’ll see you when the live servers go up next week” Lurr’s character did a bow.

“Catch you later mate, see you next week” Tyr bowed back and looked towards Feyed she was bowing with them.

“It’s been a fun Beta, see you both next week” Feyed’s character waved before disappearing in a pillar of white light.

[The Team Leader has left the group]

[Group has been disbanded]

“See ya Tyr” Lurr’s character also disappears in a pillar of white light.

Tyr opened up the main menu and selected the logout box, Tyr’s vision went to black as he exited the game.

**********

[You have Logged out of Paragon]

[Turn off console?]

[Yes] [No]

Malcom selected the Yes option with the analog stick on his controller the headset unlocked and loosened from his head, placing the controller back into the charging socket on his VI console he then removed the headset and placed it onto its stand next to the console.

Scratching his eyes and let out a long yawn Malcom looked over to the mirror on his bedroom wall, ‘Wow I look rough’ he thought as he noticed his unkept brown hair was all squashed and misshapen from the headset, his designer stubble had grown into a prickly scruffy beard and his hazel eyes looked tired his gaze flicked to the top right corner a digital clock was displayed the time was 02:08 he had played all through the night.

Most people would have taken this time to go to bed and catch some sleep but not Malcom he had an early shift and started work in just under two hours he had just enough time to shower shave and have breakfast before driving to work, He didn’t live very far from the petrol station were he worked a quick 10 minuet drive to the roundabout on the outskirts of town.

Work at the station during the busy 4am to 10am portion of the day usually passed buy quite quickly, there was always someone topping up on the way to and from work, The job was demanding having to maintain the forecourt, keep the shelves stocked and take payment at the till whilst trying to fleece the customers into buying a little something extra.

“W-Would you also be interested in one of our hot sausage rolls sir? Freshly made this morning and at half price”

The answer was almost always the same, but what could he do the customers were sometimes mystery shoppers who reported on the staffs service, he had to ask every customer the same thing every time it was annoying but the company wanted the extra pennies from these sales to bump up their profits.

At least it was Thursday he only had to work today and tomorrow and his shifts were over for this week, and best of all he booked of the next two weeks as holiday so that he could focus on Paragon, his work colleges called him a nerd or geek for wasting his holidays on such things but Malcom was a dedicated gamer and always aimed to be in the top 100, his goal wasn’t totally unreasonable he thought to himself when he imagined reaching his target it’s not like he said he wanted to be in the top 10 or anything? Well at east he thought it was reasonable.

“You day dreaming again Mal?”

Mal a nickname that he preferred over his actual given name, ‘Why did my parents call me Malcom? Anything but Malcom he thought as he recognised the familiar voice that came from behind him, the Manager of this little Station took over from Him and they had an hours overlap so he knew his shift was almost over.

“Wouldn’t dream of it boss” Malcom smiled as he straightened up his uniform and turned to face her, “Its not been a bad morning fancy a cup of tea before you take over?”

She laughed and brushed back her long dark hair from the side of her face, she was younger than him and in her early twenties, Malcom fancied the pants off of her she had the body type that he preferred an hourglass figure that was to die for, however his luck was rotten and she was already engaged to her sweetheart from school and had a three year old toddler with him, ‘She’s out of my league anyway’ he thought as she answered him.

“I’d love one thanks” she smiled again and took over at the cashier as Malcom went out back and made some tea for her.

The rest of the shift went as usual and Malcom drove back home, the countryside breezed past as he drove towards home, he felt fortunate to live in the rural part of Britain the country was quiet and fresh compared to a busy suburb.

When he got home Malcom yawned again before having a quick sandwich before heading off to bed, this would be his routine now to Work, Eat, Sleep, and then finally Play all night.

However he only wanted to play one game now and that was Paragon, he sold all his other old consoles and video games as well as take out a small loan from the bank to pay for the expensive Virtual Interface Console, VI for short so he had nothing else to play now anyway, He pulled out his Mobile Phone and Opened the Paragon App.

[Thursday - 10:24]

[Servers are offline]

[2 days, 13 hours, 36 minuets till Servers go Live]

[You have no Characters saved to the database for inspection]

Malcom turned his mobile phone off and headed for bed, two and a half days left he had to last for that long all he could do was think over the plan he and his friends had made to help him get a Paragon Seed early it was a great trust his friends put it him and an advantage that primarily benefited him, he had to bus them up through the levels after but it was a small price to pay to get a power boost so early on in the game.

The days went buy quickly as he set into his little routine surviving on tea, pot noodles, fizzy drinks, and ready meals, watching television catching up on his favourite tv series and scouring the Paragon forums for news and discussions about the game.

Soon it was Sunday and Midnight was fast approaching the servers would be up soon and Malcom logged into the VI consoles interface placing the visor onto his head and locking it into position.

[Welcome back! Please select an option]

[System Settings]

[Internet Browser]

[Paragon]

[Log out]

Malcom checked the time in the top left corner of his vision ‘23:59’ he waited until the clock ticked forward to midnight and selected the Paragon button.

[Welcome to Paragon]

[Play]

[Main Menu]

[Log out]

Malcom took a deep breath before selecting the Play button however an unexpected notification message popped up in front of him.

[Due to heavy Server Traffic our Servers are currently Offline]

[Please try again later]

“Son of a Bitch!” Malcom roared as he jumped up from his seat in frustration.

I’d like to thank you for taking an interest in this light novel project, this novel idea has been rattling around my head for quite some time and I’m happy to finally put it down into words, Paragon is a Virtual Massive Multiplayer Online (VMMO) style novel that is quite a popular theme in light novels but I’d like to take it into a western style that’s focused on Virtual Reality (VR) technology of the present instead of the near future that other novels tend to follow.

The VR world that we explore in this light novel is that of Paragon a sandbox style fantasy world that has strong roots in pen and paper style swords and sorcery mechanics that are experienced through the avatar of the player.

The Main Character (MC) is originally portrayed as shy and insecure individual that hides in the world of Video Games, whilst in these video game worlds the character changes into a strong and independent type who has great ambitions and drives in this new game Paragon.

The premise of the novel is that the MC was luckily able to get into the Beta of this game and use the knowledge gained to get an advantage over the majority of the other players when the game is launched, this helps the MC achieve a great and powerful feat that gives them a early power boost at the cost of a large level penalty unfortunately this 100 level reduction is earned whilst still at level 1 and although the MC planned that getting this power at level 1 would cancel the level reduction effect they were unaware of the minus level system and was lowered to level -99 this reduced everything to the minimum and locked all the MC powers, however this initial harsh penalty soon turned into a strength as the MC realised this was a blessing in disguise.

I hope this brief introduction helps convey my initial ideas on this project, I don’t plan to follow any specific schedule for Episode releases and will most likely edit and re-do previous Episodes as I progress and find a pace and style that suits me and hopefully you guys the readers enjoy this journey with me as I create this world and story that has been in my head for a long time and gone through multiple changes to finally finding its way into actual words on a page.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy Paragon...