Chapter 1

Swords, magic, friendship, cooperation, even romance. Whether it's the clashing of swords between people or monsters, everyone trains their hardest to become the best. These are some of the things that can be found in the world of Ragnarok.

In the world of Rune-Midguard, many people have dreams of becoming someone important or famous. More than half of the citizens carry a sword or staff, and raise it against the strongest monsters in hopes of becoming a hero.

This story starts in Izlude, the satellite city of Prontera. Here, you can find the Swordman Academy where they train young novices to become swordmen. Inside, a young man has just graduated after a long test. A brand new swordman has just been born. As he walks out the doors of the swordman guild, he stretches his arms. He looks around, and watches the citizens move along with their lives. He raises his sword into the air, and makes a vow to protect them against anyone or anything who wishes to do them harm.

He then looks up into the sky with confidence, and says out loud, "Now that I've become a swordman, I've better start training right away."

As he walks outside the walls of Izlude, Artisan can already see monsters lurking around the roads back to Prontera. They are all weak monsters, mostly porings, drops, and lunatics. As he walks through, he defeats all the monsters in his way back to Prontera. He stop at the gates of Prontera to think for a mmoment about his future actions.

After thinking for a while, he says to himself, "This is the place where I was born and grew up. Now that the Yakuza Guild has taken over the castle, things are not as good as they used to be anymore. The taxes are too high, and crime is out of control. Why wont King Tristan III do anything about it? Well, that's easy. He gets paid to ignore the actions of the Yakuza Guild. Someday, I will join a powerful guild, and take them out of the castle. Then I will make my hometown a much better place to live."

Just standing in front of Prontera wont make him any stronger, so he does what any swordman in training would do. Moves on to the next area. To the west, Artisan finds himself in a field where stronger monsters lurk. Although non aggressive, they will fight back when provoked.

As he draws his blade, he announces, "I apologize for taking the lives of innocent monsters. But for Prontera, I have no choice, but to fight."

He starts off with a few rockers, medium sized grasshopper looking monsters. Not much of a challenge, but at least they will keep him on his toes. Eventually, he starts to get bored, so he finds a new monster to hunt. He found himself a poporing, a green and slightly larger version of the Poring. It was eating an apple beside a tree as Artisan approaches it for an attack. Taking the opportunity to attack while it's guard is down, he draws his sword and attacks it. The poporing is now angry that someone has disturbed it while it's eating, so it gets ready to fight back. Artisan continues to attack while defending with his small shield called a guard. It's not going down easily, so he uses a skill that was taught to him at the swordman academy.

He raises his blade up and yells, "Bash!" He then smahes the sword into the poporing almost splitting the slimy creature in half. The poporing is hurt badly, but it gets back up.

"What! It's not defeated yet?!" yelled Artisan lowering his guard out of shock.

The poporing attacks back before Artisan has a chance to defend with his guard. Artisan was hit hard enough to be knocked down. The poporing tries to score another attack, but artisan tries another skill.

Using as much power as he can muster, he rauses his blade using both hands and yells, "Magnum Break!" The fiery shock wave finished off the poporing. From it's slimy body, the items that the poporing ate scatters all over the floor. Artisan checks the loot, but finds nothing useful.

He sighs as he counts his loot, "Three jellopies, an apple, and some sticky liquid. This wont get me much at the market, but I guess every little bit counts." After he puts his loot in his bag, Artisan began to feel a little bit strange.

He checks his wound that the poporing gave him and says, "Damn, I think the poporing poisoned me when it last attacked me. . . I don't have any green potions, so I'll have to wait it out."

Artisan thought sitting down in the fields as the poison tries to wear out was a good idea. But there is trouble creeping up to him. The nearby bushes starts to shake. Artisan looks over and asks, "Is someone over there? I'm poisoned, and I need help. If you have some green potion, I would gladly pay you back later."

After he spoke out, three rockers, and their leader Vocal jumps out of the bushes. Vocals are agressive larger grasshopper like insect monsters, and they found their next victim.

"Crap! I'm in trouble!" he yelled. Artisan tries to run, but his poison still hasn't worn off yet. As he runs away, he trips on a rock that was sticking out from the ground. He tries to get up, but the poison made him feel dizzy. The vocal is getting closer, seeing that things were hopeless he feels that he is going to die on the first day on his adventure.

As he shuts his eyes and waits for the inevitable, he hears a loud voice yell, "Double strafe!"

Two arrows flew past him, and killed one of the rockers. The Vocal stops seeing that there is more than one person in the field. Three adventurers runs to Artisan's rescue, a thief with white hair, a blond merchant, and an archer with long brunette hair.

"Ryuker! Take care of the swordman! Bowen! Assist me with that monster." said the thief. The thief and the archer ran to fight the vocal, while the merchant came up to Artisan to see if he is okay.

"Are you OK?" asked the merchant

"Who are you?" asked Artisan. His face is a bit pale from the poison.

The merchant looks at his wound and says, "It looks like you're poisoned. Here's a green potion."

From his oversized sack, the merchant pulls out a small bottle filled with green liquid. After drinking the potion, Artisan began to feel better immediately. He looks at the other two, and the Vocal was already defeated. He was amazed at how fast they all defeated the rocker. Such organization, and speed he never would see in a small party.

The thief checks the loot dropped by the vocal and it's party "Ryuker! Look at what we found! A rocker doll! How much you think we can get for this?"

The merchant takes a look at the doll and says, "Wow, that's pretty rare. I'm sure I can sell it for a good price."

The thief then approaches Artisan. By the look on the thief's face, Artisan feels that he is not going to mug him for everything he has. Rumors float around that thieves work alone or in groups of other thieves. BUt this thief is in a party with other jobs, so he feels safe.

"Are you OK?" Asked the thief.

"I am now. Thanks for your help. I thought I was going to die. But, who are you guys?"

"Why, I am Juxapose, the thief. I lead this party." Juxapose then points at his party members and says, "And with me, that's Bowen, the archer, and Ryuker, the merchant."

"What were you doing in these parts without any recovery items?" asked Ryuker.

"I didn't think that I would be poisoned so soon." answered Artisan.

"Let me guess, you're a noob right?" asked Juxapose. A noob is a person who just recently graduated from an academy.

Artisan looks at juxapose awkwardly and says, "Quite a strange way to put it, but yes. I just graduated from the swordman guild only a few hours ago."

Bowen then says, "You know, you shouldn't be in these part without a party. It's dangerous for new adventurers."

Artisan laughs and replies, "I'll remember that for next time." After dusting off hus armor, he waves at the party saying, "Well, see you later. Thanks again for your help."

"Wait a second!" Juxapose called. Artisan stops to listen to what he has to say. "Want to join our party?"

Artisan was amazed to het invited so soon after his humiliating performance. So he asks, "You want me to join you guys?"

Juxapose answers, "Of course! Having a swordman in the party is just what we need. Right guys?"

Bowen and Ryuker respond "Yeah! Join us!"

It doesn't take Artisan long before deciding, "Well, why not? Count me in."

Artisan and Juxapose shakes hands. Juxapose then says, "Welcome to the Justice Union."

Artisan snickers at the name of the party and says, "That's a very. . . interesting party name."

Juxapose sighs and says, "Well, it's not the best name, but the party has already been formed, so the name stays."

"Understood."

And so, Artisan's journey to be the best swordman he can be starts now. What sort of adventures will his new friends face from here on?