Aldemoor had been out for almost a year now and more and more things were being found. Maximilian Everett had been eager to get the game, yet he hadn't had the money to get it when it first came out. It was just his bad luck really, shortly before the game had been revealed, he'd bought a Drive capsule using all of his savings. He'd bought it mainly to play a few multiplayer games with his friends. When Aldemoor was revealed and then released, he found himself entirely short on cash while his friends quickly bought the game and began having fun.
For an entire year, he'd been forced to listen to their excitement at playing the game. "This battle was awesome, I nearly wet myself that monster was scary as shit!" "You wouldn't believe the girls in Alveri, they have bodies like 'Bam!" they bragged about a variety of things that just made Max want to kick their asses. They knew he didn't have the game yet they kept shoving their success in his face. Dicks!
However, he wasn't much better. Despite the torture that it was, he couldn't stop himself from watching videos of the large scale battles that took place during raids of boss monsters. Magic being thrown around, a rain of arrows through the sky, the crushing blows from the various warrior classes. Damn it made him shiver in anticipation. Seeing it in videos were awesome, leaving him to only imagine what it was like to actually be there.
Now he could only laugh happily. He'd worked his ass off trying to save as much as he could, he'd worked overtime and even skipped some meals, it was that important to him. Some might have called it an obsession with the game, but he felt like he was being quite normal for someone who was surrounded by an amazing game that couldn't actually play it.
The installation was a simple process, all it required was an internet connection. The game was sent over the connection to the Drive capsule and a little screen on the front of the capsule told him of the installation progress.
Max paced around his room as he waited. No matter what game it was, it always took a long time to install anything and not only did it have to install the game, but the software of the Drive was being updated along with it. With the addition of fully immersive virtual reality, the Drive had to be updated to adapt to it.
Not that Max cared.
"Come on" he said softly before a soft chime came from the capsule, indicating that it was ready to be used. With the press of a button, the capsule gave a soft hiss as it popped open before sliding away to reveal the pale blue Slime within.
He'd had this thing for a year and the Slime still unnerved him. The gel like substance was slightly colder than body temperature and stuck to the skin like wax when the capsule was closed. It was designed to hold the person firm in the event that there was a failure and the person began to move inside of the capsule.
When the capsule was open, the Slime easily moved away as one climbed out.
Max sighed as he began to remove his clothing. As excited as he was to play Aldemoor, he never looked forwards to this part. Once he was in the game it was fine, but it was the few seconds of complete immobility that freaked him out.
Once he was in the buff, he stepped into the capsule, the Slime wrapping gently around his feet before he turned and sat down. Taking a few breaths, he slowly leaned back, feeling the slime move along his back and over his chest. When he was fully reclined, only his face was left free of the Slime. That was a relief but Max had begun hearing rumors of a new capsule that encompassed the entire body, using an oxygen based slime to enable the user to breathe while submersed. He shivered, causing the Slime to jiggle slightly.
"Nope, Hell to the no" he said firmly. He was happy with his current capsule. He lifted his hand from the slime and hit a button to the right of him. The capsule cover slowly moved over him before sealing him in.
For a moment, he sat there in the dark before the inside of the capsule lit up, revealing a calibration screen. The slime slowly thickened until he couldn't move as dots appeared on the screen. His eyes darted between them with ease. This wasn't anything new, with each update to the drive, they always had a calibration to make sure that the capsule was properly interpreting the signals from the brain. Quick movements of the eye fired off signals rapidly and required no movement from the rest of the body.
"Alright. Lets Start" the capsule immediately went dim at his words and he closed his eyes. After a few moments, a soft chime went off once more before the top of the capsule opened up once more.
Max actually enjoyed this part, the Drive was designed to seamlessly integrate the human mind into the virtual world. As he climbed out of the capsule, he checked that he was now wearing clothes and nodded as he began moving about his room.
Max had often read stories where the virtual reality device simply dropped its occupant into the game without warning, but the people who designed the Drive found that such a shock to the system could be damaging to the mind.
Far more effective was having the user of the Drive design a room in which to appear after entering the device. Max had picked his bedroom as it was what he was most familiar with. Though things did feel different, his room was in better focus, more like his actual room than a room made out of pixels as it had been before.
The new update had added a lot more realism to the system. The only reason Max was sure he was in the virtual world was that he was now wearing clothes and his room was much cleaner than he'd left it. He always meant to clean his room but always got distracted by something else.
Max smiled and stretched slightly, enjoying that his body felt even more real than before. He did a few simple tests to make sure the system was responding to his commands. Walking in a straight line, touching his nose, basically all the tests one would perform if they were drunk and in danger of jail time.
With that done, he opened the door to his room. Instead of the familiar hallway that should have been there in his real home, he found a large white room. He let the door shut behind him and walked through the white room.
On the walls were video game covers. They represented the games he had installed on the capsule. A tap of one of the covers caused a small screen to appear before him.
Enter the Fray
Delve into the battles of human history and fight against your fellow man. Human history is filled with constant strife, but with perseverance you can come out on top!
Enter the Fray?
Max shook his head and selected No on the next prompt. This particular game had been one of the first virtual reality games to be released with the Drive. He didn't really have a problem with it, but it was one of those games that was quite violent, emulating the actual battles from human history. Some people complained about the potential affect it would have on the youth and others complained that it was idealizing conflicts that could have been avoided.
Max rolled his eyes "Everyone has their opinions" he said in response to his own thoughts as he walked through the room, gazing at games past. Shooters, strategy games, Minecraft and other simulators.
He quickly averted his eyes from a particular adult oriented game. It had been an impulse buy, nothing more. He hadn't even played it that much. It was fortunate that no one else could enter his Game Hub, to try to explain that one would have been way too embarrassing.
Smiling, the young man stepped up before the newest addition to his game list. With a single tap, he brought up the information.
Aldemoor
The beauty of the world is defined by those who live in it. Without exploration, there can be no appreciation. Aldemoor is open to all, but only a few will truly find its secrets. There is only so much an introduction can give.
Enter Aldemoor and find its secrets?
Max couldn't have pressed the Yes button any faster.
Slowly, the games around him vanished, leaving him standing in an empty white room. Then a speck in the center of the room appeared. In an instant, the white room became black as night. In fact, it actually was the blackness of night. He could see small specks of light appearing around him. Beautiful tiny stars.
They moved slightly, or more accurately it seemed Max was moving towards something. A small, bluish green marble was quickly getting bigger as he got closer. Eventually, he found himself standing in front of a massive planet. The distance had tricked him into believing that the planet wasn't that large, but this world was at least the size of Jupiter.
From his vantage point, he could see specks of light dotting the surface of the planet, most likely cities of great size. To his surprise, a large portion of what he could see was shrouded in darkness. Unexplored lands?
Max grinned as he looked around the planet, trying to pick out locations he knew from maps posted online. But he was too far to get any good detail.
"Hello!" a chipper voice came from behind him causing Max to whirl around. He came face to face with a young woman, curly black hair and bright green eyes were the first things that caught his attention. While they were outstanding, he was under the impression that she was rather plain in appearance.
"Well, that is rude" she said before smiling, her entire face lighting up with the smile "But don't worry, my dad always said that I was only at my prettiest when I was smiling"
Max blushed when he realized that she'd picked up on his thoughts. Then he quickly realized who this woman was.
"You are Mira right?" he asked. He'd seen pictures of her as a little girl when Aldemoor was first announced. It was crazy to think that this woman who looked about his age was actually that kid.
"Kind of. I have a lot of things to do and I can't personally appear before every person who arrives in Aldemoor. I'm actually an AI Fragment, Mira 64038. The real me is running this whole thing" she waved her hands around her.
"Also, I'm not a kid, nor am I the same age as you. AI time is much faster than human time. Even the Drive can't match me with its four times acceleration" though she seemed to be scolding him, he wasn't completely sure she was actually mad. It sounded more like she was bragging.
Still, he held up his hands in surrender "Alright. So what are you doing here? Is this some kind of introduction to the game. Backstory event kind of thing?" some games did that. They gave you a bit of lore on the world and then tossed you in.
"Again, Kind of. It is a little of an introduction and more of a way for me to properly assess you. I get a feeling of how your mind works and then I can recommend specific races or classes that would best fit you. Of course, you can freely pick whatever you want, but if this wasn't an available choice, people would spend weeks picking their character" she shook her head, curls bouncing "It helps keep people from wasting their time on a character they won't enjoy playing as"
Max nodded, he understood where she was coming from. In old style rpgs, people agonized over every little thing of their character, their appearance, their body type, their abilities. The time spend enjoying the game was spent on creating the perfect character. Then they got in the game and realized that all their planning was ruined because the rest of the game wasn't nearly as put together.
"Still, some people do what they want. I still have a guy working on his character and he's had the game for a week now!" she sounded exasperated. Could an AI get annoyed with someone? Max was unsure. An AI was supposed to be an artificial being, a representation of human intelligence so maybe?
"Alright, lets pick your race first" Mira suddenly clapped her hands and a book appeared before her before she handed it to Max. When he opened the book, he found that it was much bigger on the inside. The book contained various races of Aldemoor, though he found some entries were replaced with question marks, possibly races that hadn't been unlocked yet.
Werewolves, Vampires, Fairies, Goblins, Kobolds, Arachnae, Centaurs, Beastkin, Humans, Elves, Dwarves. Max shook his head at the sheer number of races that he could play as. When he touched the entry of Werewolves, it brought up other various Werebeasts that could be chosen instead of the wolf variant.
Each selection had variants. The vampires had Dhampirs and Ghouls as well as a few other strange selections. He could even chose to play as a zombie race if he wanted too.
"Quick and calculating" Mira said smiling as she looked over his shoulder at the book. She reached and flipped a few pages "I think this race suits you best"
"The Selphas" he said eyeing the race. They were a race that resembled humans except for a few oddities. Long pointed ears and snake like eyes were the immediately noticed features. Max found that he could rotate the image of both the male and female of the species. Both were quite similar. They came in various colors and sizes, but all had scales along their spines and across their arms and legs.
What really drew his eye was the long, powerful tail that flicked out from the base of their spine. While the scales of their body could be various colors, Max found that the tail was always jet black.
"It is prehensile too" Mira said grinning "Very maneuverable"
Max grinned with her. A tail that he could move freely like a monkey tail sounded awesome. He began to look at the traits of the race.
"Intelligent and exceptionally agile, this race is known for its quick close quarters combat. While the scales on their arms and legs are strong, the rest of their body is known to be quite vulnerable. However, their tail is their greatest asset. The Selphas can freely move their tail and use it for a wide variety of situations. In combat, it becomes their strongest weapon, outside of combat it can be used as a third hand." Max chuckled as he read. He'd never been a stay back and attack from afar person.
Even in games he played as a Mage but always ran ahead. It was a pain in the ass to always keep the distance, especially when certain games wouldn't let the mage cast while moving.
"No stats like in other games?" he asked.
"A little. As you increase in levels, your racial specialties will increase over time. The Selphas are known for their Agility, so you'll naturally get quicker. Combat skills can be learned and then improved the more you use them. Your physical stats won't be accessible for manipulation"
Max nodded. It made a little sense to him. Many games that allowed a person to adjust their stats made racial benefits a moot point. Everyone could get as strong as a Giant in the end, the Giant would just have a head start. In Aldemoor, the play style was determined by the race that was picked at the start.
"Selphas it is then" he said smiling. The book vanished from his hands and his body began to glow. A projection of him appeared before him. It looked just like Max except for the scales and tail. The eyes were hard to tell because his eyes were brown so unless someone was up close, they wouldn't see the slits they'd become.
"You can alter your appearance as you wish" Mira said waving her hand to the Selphas version of him.
Max shook his head "I'm fine with the way I look. But could the eyes be turned to a red color? The scales would look good as a dark blue" he watched as the changes were made to his character's body before nodding "Oh! Could you make the hair a little longer, to just around the chin" Max had short black hair but he'd always wondered what it would look like if it was longer.
He nodded, seeing the longer hair appear on his character.
Mira smiled "Alright then, all that is left is to pick where you'll start" she waved her hand towards the planet and several points of light turned blue "These are the major cities that are accessible and are friendly towards the Selphas" she said.
"So some cities are unfriendly to my race?" he asked curiously.
"Racism is always going to be a problem among any species. Accepting differences is a large step in growth" she shrugged "Some locations don't accept other races but don't refuse them either. You'll just get lowered familiarity and increased prices"
Max sighed before nodding as he looked at the planet before pointing "So the blue ones are friendly main cities, the red ones I'm assuming are unfriendly cities" he frowned "But what are the yellow lights?"
"Oh! Those are rural locations, such as villages and monasteries" Mira said grinning "A lot of people don't pick those places because there isn't a lot of activity, but I wish more people would. Monster activity is higher in places with less people" she moved her eyes around before she pointed at a yellow dot "If you want my opinion, you should choose this location. It is within a valley between a few mountains, the monsters aren't overly strong but..." she leaned in to Max "The real me is starting some new stuff" she grinned.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked confused. It seemed like developmental stuff would be kept away from the ears of the public.
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"Aptitude. I told you before, I recommend races and classes to those I believe should have them. There is a specific class in this location that I believe you would get the most fun out of." Mira had a strange light in her eyes and Max was sure that she was doing some behind the scenes stuff. She'd recommended the Selphas race and even showed him the lights. He'd naturally get curious about the yellow ones.
He frowned slightly "I get the feeling that if I pick that location, I'm going to get pushed into some difficult stuff, am I right?" he asked.
"Maybe~" Mira smiled sweetly at him before he sighed and nodded.
"Alright, send me there" he said softly "Lets see what you have in store for me"
Mira laughed and waved her hand. His character quickly charged towards him and overlapped his body. He felt his skin itch as scales grew before a sharp pain came from his behind as the tail sprouted, a hole forming in his pants.
His eyesight grew sharper and his fingers twitched slightly as his muscles adjusted to the new acquisitions "Oh wow...that feels...weird" he said as he moved his arms and legs. The scales looked hard and immobile, but they were flexible and moved with him.
The tail was difficult "It will take you some time to adjust to a new appendage" Mira said "Just be lucky you just have a tail. Those who picked multiple limbed species found that it was difficult despite my warnings"
Max could imagine. He had to focus really hard to just move his tail slightly. It was like he was trying to move his butt without moving his hips. It was uncomfortable. He couldn't even imagine what it was like to try to move with multiple legs.
"Alright. Have fun!" she slapped him on the back and he went careening into the planet, heading for his chosen destination. Several screens popped up in front of him.
Selphas You have chosen the Selphas race. While not strictly a combat race, they are well versed in hand to hand combat. With the addition of their prehensile tail, you have no obvious openings. Your agility and reflexes are better than most but your defense is limited to the scales on your arms and legs.
The Selphas eyesight is far sharper than some races, allowing for faster reaction time than normal.
Class Change Due to your specific racial choice as well as your location choice, you have reached the requirements for a Special Class. Certain circumstances prevent the class from being revealed until after it has been chosen. Do you accept this Class? Yes No
Max frowned at this new information. He could either choose not to accept the class and find one later, or he could accept this uknown class and have his fate sealed in whatever direction Mira wanted it to go. It was a difficult choice, especially since he was just starting the game.
There were a lot of things to consider but...Mira had created this world for people to explore. Besides, she was giving him the choice. Given her true capabilities, he found it hard to believe that she couldn't force the class on him if she wanted.
"Screw it!" he laughed. There was no point in over thinking it. If he didn't like the class then he could just delete his character and start again. He pressed the Yes button and watched as the prompt exploded in a shower of light.
Congradulations!
You have been given the Local Deity Class.
Max blinked "Local Deity?" he mumbled "Like...a God?" he watched as a new window appeared explaining the class.
Local Deity This is a Special Class, one given to those who truly deserve it. A Deity is a being of extreme power, however, you have not reached that point yet.
A Local Deity is a being worshiped by the people of a small area, such as a town or village. A Deity gains strength based on how many followers they have. If you treat your followers well, it will attract more followers. If you ignore them you will lose strength.
As a Local Deity, you must insure that those who worship you are kept safe and happy.
Before he could even finish reading the first screen, another one popped up.
Congradulations!
With the first prayer comes the first follower. Make sure to always honor the purest prayers.
Max was growing more and more confused as each window popped up in front of him. He was still falling towards his starting location! What the hell! Then a soft voice entered his ears and into his mind, running under his own thoughts.
"Um...hello God? My name is Alicia and I am ten years old" A little girls voice, soft and a little scared "My mom told me not to explore the forest but the elder told me that there was an old shrine out here. I have no where else to turn"
Slowly Max settled down as he listened to this girl speak. She seemed worried about something.
"My farm is on the edge of the village and nothing grows there. When we try to grow something, it all just dies. If we can't grow anything soon...we'll starve. So please, please grant us your blessing!"
Quest! Save the Farm You have heard the prayers of an innocent child and gained your first follower. But without aid your follower will lose faith. Unfortunately, you do not have enough strength to grant a blessing. Find a way to save their farm! Success: Permanent Follower and ten points of Faith. Failure: Alicia and her family die. Loss of follower. Time Limit: One Week
"What the hell!?" this wasn't normal at all. Max hadn't had time to adjust to his body at all, nor had he had any time to explore. He was just suddenly thrust into a timed Quest from the get go.
But he arrived at his location as well. His feet settled down onto a small wooden box that didn't even move from his weight. In front of the box in a praying stance was a little blond Selphas.
Max smiled as he looked at the girl "Fear not child, I shall help you!" he said triumphantly.
...
...
The little girl sighed and stood up before turning around and walking away.
"Wait! I'm serious" Max almost deflated when she ignored him "I may not be much but I'm at least here to help" he hopped down from the box and followed her.
It didn't take long to realize a few things. She couldn't hear him and the grass beneath his feet wasn't even flattening from his footsteps.
"Uh...what?" Max said before he thought about something "Status!"
Status Window Name: Max Alignment: Light Level: 1 Class: Local Deity Race: Selphas Gender: Male Titles N/A Fame: 0 Infamy: 0 - Health: 100 / 100 Health Regen: 0.5 / Sec Faith: 0 / 10 Faith Regen: 1 / Day Stamina: 100 / 100 Stamina Regen: 0.5 / Sec - Strength: 3 Agility: 5 Vitality: 3 Intelligence: 5 Wisdom: 4 Leadership: 1 Luck: 3 - Attack: 10 Defense: 10 Status Effects Incorporeal, Weakened Skills Blessing, Aura of Divinity, Tail Whip
"Not good" Max said scratching his head. He assumed that his physical stats had been lowered by the Weakened status. But the Incorporeal status was the real problem. Max tapped Incorporeal and a new window opened up for him.
Status Effect: Incorporeal You are afflicted with the status Incorporeal. This means that you have no physical form with which to act on the physical plane of existence. Until this status is removed, you will not be able to interact with anyone or anything physical.
Incorporeal beings and beings with a sensitivity to the incorporeal world can interact with you.
"Damn...how am I supposed to help this girl if she can't see or hear me" Max said softly as he followed Alicia. He watched her tail swing back and forth as she walked and attempted to mimic it using his own tail. While he couldn't fight monsters in his current state, it didn't mean he couldn't train himself to use what he had.
The village Alicia lived in wasn't a large one, though there were multiple small farms dotting the landscape of the valley. At most there were a hundred people within the village. All were Selphas of course. Max was interested to see that their scales were various colors. He assumed that scale color would have been something special but it seemed to be a random change in their pigmentation.
Some people waved at Alicia but he could see the sadness in their eyes. It wasn't just Alicia's farm that was having problems, that much he could gather, but only a child would have the naivete to ask a god for help, especially when he had such a small shrine. Max had wondered about them almost dying in a village, but now it made sense. The others could barely feed themselves.
Shaking his head, he continued to follow the little girl to her farm. When he got there, he saw something interesting. Shadows moved across the ground of the farm. When he looked closer, he found that they were shaped a little like a crab.
When he really focused on them, a name popped up.
Evil Spirit: Crab Variant
An evil spirit? Max watched as one of the crabs found a still living sprout from the farm and knelt over it. Wisps of bright white energ flowed from inside of the sprout and into the crab's mouth. It was slight, but the sprout began to wilt.
"Oh fuck you guys" Max said. He'd imagined that it was something like poor weather or improper farming techniques. This was different, this was monsters. From Alicia's reaction, or lack thereof, Max could understand that no one could see these creatures.
Running a hand through his black hair, Max moved closer to the crab and quickly spun, striking it with his tail. It wasn't very effective because he couldn't completely control it, but it knocked the crab away from the sprout. A damage value floated over the head, showing off the number six.
A bar appeared over the crab, showing that it had fourteen of twenty health left. He was suprised that it had done so much damage, but it made sense. His attack was ten, if the crab had a defense of four then he'd do six points of damage.
"Does that mean if it's defense is higher than my attack, I won't do any damage?" while he was thinking of this, the crab had gotten close to him and slahed out with one of its claws. Max barely had time to block with his scaled forearm before he was knocked back. Checking his status, his defense of ten had gone down by four "I see. My defense is higher, but it doesn't just reset after an attack" Three attacks from the crab would damage him. Defense was like extra health if properly maintained.
He didn't have any armor at the moment, but it was safe to assume that a good armor value would add to his defense.
Shaking his head, he refocused on the battle "What I wouldn't give for a side of butter" he growled as he rushed forwards and swiped with his tail. Until he could properly control it, he was forced to move his whole body in an attempt to do damage.
However, the crab was ready for this and quickly dodged the large attack "Smart bastard, you are weak but you have a good head on you"
He and the crab watched each other for some time, wary of each others movements. Frankly speaking, Max had the strength and health to handle the creature, but this was a big farm and there were about a hundred of the little shadows moving about, not all of them crabs. Max was sure that this was the weakest of the Evil Spirits on the farm, further away from people he could see bigger spirits.
Max then slapped his forehead "Damn, I've been doing it manually but I have a skill for this" he berated himself before he rushed forwards and spun quickly "Tail Whip!" he activated the skill that he'd forgotten about. His tail glowed softly with the activation and struck the crab before it could react, dealing a whopping fifteen damage with a critical hit.
The crab was knocked back a few feet before it slowly got up and struggled towards Max before it slowly fell apart into shadowy particles.
Max checked his status but saw now exp value. What did he get from killing these things? He also saw that using his skill once depleted his stamina by ten. That meant that he could only use it ten times with his current stamina.
Sighing he walked over to where the crab fell apart and spotted a glowing marble.
As he examined it, a window popped up to explain what it was.
Source of Life A condensed form of Life energy. If consumed will provide a single point of faith. If crushed and scattered over dying or ailing creatures, will provide a small boost to vitality
Max chuckled as he looked at the glowing marble "So...this Faith stuff is really important apparently. Even my quest doesn't give me exp" he was about to swallow the marble before he paused and looked at the sprout he'd saved before sighing "Guess that explains why it only gives one faith" he said before kneeling over the plant and crushing the marble.
As the specks of life energy fell over the sprout, Max watched it begin to grow greener as it grew stronger. It even doubled in size before calming down. Standing back up, he looked over the farm "It is going to be a long day" he said as he began to head towards the next crab.
He had a week to help Alicia and her family. He didn't know what they were growing but he wasn't going to stop until he'd killed ever Evil Spirit on the farm. This might even help him. Once others saw that Alicia's farm was doing better, maybe they'd pray to him too.
By saving this one farm, he might be able to save the entire village.