In a large luxurious white room, with beautiful painting on the walls & on the side, there 3 large windows sticking together, it seemed like one of the walls was completely made from glass due to their size, outside of it you can see a scenery that can be described as “Beautiful”, green fields of grass, with healthy looking trees on it, white marble floor passing through it decorated with flowers on both sides of it. All in All, it’s clear that the room and the scenery was designed to make the person feel peaceful and fill him with warmth.
“huh..nothing new today..”
Leaning on one of the windows, a male in his late teens or early twenties was viewing the outside scenery, but however contrary to the what a normal person would feel, this man had a static look on his face, a face that’s devoid of any signs of emotions. However, no one can blame him for being emotionless even when seeing such scenery.
“Mr. Michaels, The Doctor wants to see you.”
The person viewing the scene was Michaels Adam, the kid from back then who lost his emotions.
“That’s weird, I’m sure I already attended this month check-up though?”
“He says that he may have found something to help you with your…. problem”
“You don’t have to beat around the bush, George. You are a like father to me, you took care of the company after my parents died & even though I’m not his son, you still took care of me greatly”
The Identity of the person standing behind him was George Nate, a man in his late 50s, he was the vice-president of the company Michael Father owned, after Adam death, he become the president, as Adam was still a minor, aging 12 at that time. George, unlike some would have taught didn’t abandon Adam, instead he took care of him greatly as if he was his own son, he was shocked when he knew that the boy had lost his emotions, he wanted him to be a normal boy but that hope was shattered when the boy turned 13, his body was fully healed, however, counter to the doctor and everyone hopes, his emotions didn’t come back.
“I wonder what the doctor is going to say, the last time, he suggested decorating the room and adding flowers and other scenery to the garden in hopes of making me feel something, not like it worked”
The Boy, no, perhaps the man, as he hit 18 a couple of weeks ago, replied with an aloof look on his face.
“Shall I tell him that you don’t want to meet with him?”
“No, I’m going”
“Very well”
.
.
.
.
“So, Doctor Morgen, what is it that you wish to meet me for? Is it perhaps related to my problem?”
A man in his late 50’s, that one would think that he had already retired was sitting on the opposite side to Michael, he sighted slightly when he Michael words, no matter what, even If he was his doctor for 6 years, he still couldn’t get used to his voice that was void of emotions, it’s as if he was talking to another-wordily being.
“Yes, indeed it does, have you heard of the new VRMMO that swept the world the past few months?”
“Indeed, Aspera was it? I heard It was life-like”
“Yes Indeed, It’s a full Immersion VRMMORPG with great life-like mechanism and npcs that can even be confused with real humans, I know that you turned 18 a few weeks ago and I thought that maybe joining that game, experimenting It’s fantasy environment & dealing with npcs with no harm or damage to them, may help you with your..problem”
“Sure.”
“….”
“Something wrong?”
“No..It’s just that you always bombarded me with questions whenever I suggest something to you, but you accepted it this time..instantly.”
“I was already going to play that game since I wanted to try it out. So even if you haven’t suggested It I would still play it”
“...Ok then, that’s a good thing I guess, I take it that you already did your research about the game?””
“Indeed, I did, I was just waiting for the capsule to arrive.”
“…So, you know that there is a recording function in the Capsule, right? I was hoping you could give us access to those videos, to monitor what you are doing”
Although D.Morgen said It bluntly , there was no apparent emotion on Michaels Face
“Sure.”
“...Ok then, that’s all I have to say.”
“I will excuse myself then”
“See you later, Michael.”
.
.
.
.
.
.
After 3 Days from the meeting with the doctor, the capsule arrived, it was 2 meters in length and 1 meter wide, with a platinum colour and a blue-tinted glass-like door, the inside of it consisted of something akin to an inner coating of pillows that looked comfy at a glance.
Standing in front of the capsule was Michaels and the president of the company, George, even though Michael had reached the legal age needed to inherit the company, he chose to leave the matters in George hand as he was far more experienced.
“George, I will probably stay up to 10 hours or more in it to explore a little, time flows 6 times faster in it so I guess 60 Hours In game will be enough to test it out, don’t worry If I took any longer”
“Fine, I will make sure to send a servant to check on your condition on an hourly base and that a hot meal will always be available”
“Appreciated, George, Now Goodbye”
“Goodbye, Michaels.”
After saying those words, Michaels stepped inside the capsule and closed the glass-like door and muttered the following words.
“Connectunt ad caelum”
After saying those words, the glass-like windows turned pitch black and Michaels felt as if his sense of vision was being stolen from him, nearly instantly he found himself floating in a white space and the following words were in front of him:
Welcome to Aspera
We are thankful for you for buying the game & we hope that you enjoy it, to experience our game let’s start by creating your character.
As he finished reading that announcement, the space around him warped, he was now in a giant room, seemingly made from crude stone, in the centre of it was a something akin to a glowing hole, floating on top of it was a projection that was like him
Having read the guild before, He knew what he had to do exactly, so he proceeded to head towards the Hologram of himself & as soon as he stood in front of him, another notification came up:
Welcome traveller, to your character creation, the following image is built upon how you look in real life, however, you can change your appearance to match your tastes or how you want your future hero to look like.
Would you like us to show you how to edit your character?
Yes/No
“No” came Michaels reply immediately
You have declined viewing the tutorial, proceeding to the customization screen
After the words faded, 6 white spheres appeared and started floating around his hologram body until they stopped on their designed positions, 2 floating near each arm, one floating in front of his hologram chest, one above his head and 2 near each leg.
Before he can proceed, another window opened before him:
Kindly chose your race:
Human
Elf
Dwarf
Nord
Note : there are other races which can be acquired from special quests
Michael proceeded to pick the race ‘Humans’
The avatar in front of him didn’t change since It was already based on a human avatar so he proceeded to edit it a bit
Michaels knew that each one of those spheres edit their respective areas, and that clicking on one would show even more optimization options, but he ignored them all and just clicked on the one floating above his hologram head, upon doing so, three smaller spheres emerged from it, labelled ‘Face’, ‘Hair’ & ‘Neck’
Picking hair, Michaels changed his hair colour to milky white then exited it, proceeding next, he picked ‘Face’, which had several smaller spheres going out of it, labelled ‘Lips’, ‘Tint’, ‘Blush’, ‘Nose’
‘Eyes’, ‘Eyebrows’, ‘Ears’ & other stuff like ‘Iris’ & ‘Forehead’, basically every section of the head was named and ready to edit.
Michael proceeded to change his eye colour from his natural grey eyes to deep red.
After only changing his eyes & hair colour, he had already finished, normal people would spend hours on the customization, making their selves more beautiful or handsome, but Michaels didn’t want to waste such useless time.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Done.”
After saying this word, a new text appeared before him.
Are you sure you are done with your customization? Changing how you look won’t be possible later.
Yes/No
“Yes”
A new Text appeared before him
Pick how you are wished to be called in the world of Aspera
“Re.”
The name, ‘Re’ , Is Available, would you like to choose it ?
“Yes”
Character creation complete
Welcome to the world of Aspera, Mr.Re
Please pick your starting point
Auphviter (South)
Ylul (North)
Kreeta (West)
Nufrarc (East)
“Ylul”
Picking Ylul as his starting point, the vision around Michaels suddenly shifted into millions of brilliants colours that seemed to be dancing around him, after a few moments, he found himself viewing a beautiful city that looks like it came out from a medical age movie, on the town square in front of him was tens of newbies such as him looking for a guide.
The way how the game work is as follow : After you finish creating your character, you will spawn in a temple related to the city you are in, after that you will find a guide who will take you to a tour around the city, telling you the main attraction points, where the shops are, guilds, Training centres e.t.c , the tour usually take about 1 hours to complete, but since Michaels already know most of the stuff he just decided to head directly to the training centre, where you will be given some tasks that will earn you stat points that can be used to increase your various stats to your liking, each character starts with 5 at all the stats aside from luck and charisma which both start at 1. You can earn a maximum of 15 stats point at the training centre and depending on how you distribute them, certain classes will be available, for example if a person wants to be a mage he will have to reach a certain amount Int & Wisd, if a person want to be a Warrior, he will have to reach a certain amount of Str & End. All in all, to reach the required stats of a certain class, you will have to at least spend 12 stat points, leaving the player with only 3 points to spare.
Re (Michaels) reached his destinations, the training centre, after 10 or so mins from walking although he received quite a few looks for him being an obvious newbie and yet not choosing a guide but they were nothing more than some glances.
The training centre consisted of a 3-story building made from redbrick, decorated with beautiful carvings and some golden coloured tinted windows with a training ground behind it with archery practice and some training dummies.
Entering the building, Re spotted some new players lining behind some instructors and leaving the building to the training yard, where they started beating up the dummies first.
“Am..Excuse me”
While Re was watching them train, one of the receptionist approached him, she was a girl with a young structure that can be easily mistaken for a teenager (If she isn’t).
“Yes ?”
“Aa…A-are you here to register for the training?”
The girl stuttered at first, seeing the cold, emotionless eyes of the-supposed newbie and his voice that’s void of emotion, ran chills on her spine.
“Yes Indeed, I would like to register”
“O-Ok..Can you follow me to the receptionist table ?..please ?”
Nodding his head, Re followed the young girl who seemed to be shaking and glancing behind her every now and then towards him, to a wooden table. When they reached the table, the receptionist gave him a paper to fill, it simply asked for his name, age, the training he wish to receive & some questions about what he would do during certain situations. Finishing writing them, he gave her the paper which she immediately took and began to read, her face seemed to lose Its colour when she began reading his answer to the situations questions.
“Mr.Re..You would rather leave the kids behind in case of an attack on the carriage ?..”
“Yes.”
“…”
“..?” Titling his head Re continued to stare at her.
“..Why is that ?”
“They will slow the survivors down, leaving the kids, women and injured seems like a logical choice while the healthy survivors make a run to the nearest place and ask for help, moving in big groups in the forest is basically inviting the monsters to kill them.”
“Still! Isn’t it cruel to just leave them there? they will probably be attack while the healthy survivors are away calling for help right?”
“Then It’s their fault for dying.”
“…”
The girl trying to contain her anger...& fear from the man in front of her, who just replied nonchalantly and saying that he would just leave the wounded & kids while in case of a carriage attack as If their lives doesn’t concern him nor will he feel guilty for running away.
Signing the papers with heavy heart she proceeded to explain how to gain stat points, which is basically hitting the dummies, for every 25 hits, he would gain 1 stat point.
After taking permission, Re went to the backyard and picked one of the wooden training swords and started hitting the dummies for the next hour or so, tell he acquired the 15 extra stat points. However instead of using it to get a class he skipped using them and just strolled out of centre.
Walking through the streets of the city, Re was viewing the scenery surrounding him
(Looks exactly like the real world, If someone told me I was transferred to another world I would believe it…. properly.)
Re spent the other 35 mins or so walking through the city, when he stumbled across the slums. According to the Wiki and forums, players are advised to stay away from it since there Items can get stolen from the shaddy people living in it so there were almost no players at all in this area.
Re entered the slums, He didn’t have anything on him except the starter pack which contained 5 loafs of hard bread and 2 silvers so he won’t regret losing them.
The buildings around him was run-down, you could smell human faeces everywhere and people who more like skeletons were sitting staring at him, He also found several corpses the deeper he went inside the slums. He then stopped when he saw a statue of something like an octopus standing on an egg laying on a stone pedestal, It was emitting a weird & creepy feeling that would make most people frightened, not like Re can feel those kinds of emotions anyway. He went closer to inspect it when several kids appeared behind him.
“Mister !”
Turning around, he saw several kids, who were dressed in rags and covered in dirt
“Please ,give me some money, I haven’t eaten in a week’
“They would hurt me If I don’t bring back money”
“Please ! my mother is sick”
“Please sir , I nee-“
“Why Should I ?”
The boys stopped their supposed acting and stared at the man in front of them. He’s eyes were void and cynical, along with his voice that held no emotions, ran a chill down their spines
“I don’t care about your circumstances, I don’t know you nor do I need to help you & To be honest, you can all just Die or whatever for all I care. Now, leave me unless you want the lump of meat above your shoulders disappear.”
The kids , upon hearing his voice, shuddered in fear and immediately ran away.
( I may not have emotions , but I can at least say that you are obviously faking it. )
Before Re turned his head around to inspect the statue, a message appeared in front of him.
The goddess of light , Erna , asks her followers to help those in need , but you refused doing so and questioned why you should help them , you didn’t slumber to their fake acting and pleas, seeing right through it & threatened them with death.
Reward: 100 EXP
Faith + 10 ( Chaos )
Level Up
Level Up
Level Up
Level Up
You have reached level five , all stats +1 , you have received 5 stat points to use
You have gained the title : He Who met God
+10 Faith
“What on earth? I reached level 5? And, why did I get awarded when I went against that goddess supposed teaching questioning it? & When Did I meet a god ?”
“Because that what my followers do, questioning other beliefs and mocking them”
Re heard a mysterious voice that he couldn’t say If it belonged to a male or a female, looking at the statue he saw a mysterious entity sitting on top of it, it’s body seemed to be made of weird purple-like light, It had no eyes but there was a darker shade of purple lining It’s mouth, And he could see It was smiling, the smile was so wide that was impossible for a human being to make.
“So, What Kind of god or goddess are you? “
“Oh my, most people would normally shit their pants from fear but you seem totally fine. Don’t you have anything like fear? Or pity? you didn’t care about those children and even told them to die.”
“Fear, Pity & Grief, I don’t need such weak emotions, now how about answering my question? Entity.”
“Heh, Interesting answer, well, My Name is Semreh , A forgotten trickster god.”
“A forgotten trickster god that appears out of nowhere for a random person?”
Hearing his answer, the self-proclaimed god started laughing manically
“Ha, unlike those other divine beings, I enjoy meddling with the mortal realm but that still doesn’t mean that I just came up for any random person. This statue here is built for me, It was originally build as a medium to transfer wishes and prayers to me, not like it has any use now since people forgot I even exist, so-”
“You talk a lot, surely you have a reason for appearing before me.”
“Yes Indeed, *giggles* It has been a lot of time since I descended to this world, properly a few centuries? Ah I’m getting out of track again, anyway I find you interesting, I haven’t seen someone like you before, Devoid of any emotions, So I would to offer a position for you.”
The Forgotten God Semreh , Has offered you a change of class to “Trickster” , there will be no consequences since that’s your first class
Class: Trickster
Rank: ????
Description: Tricksters are being that violate the principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis. All for their own enjoyment, they do not care about the consequences or the casualties involved.
+10 to all stats upon accepting class
+1 to all stats for every level up
+2 stats point to be used every level up
Skills :
Trickster eyes: In order for a trickster to mend his surroundings to his likings, he needs strong insight.
Passive skill: Seeing weak points of monsters, building or people.
Able to comprehend people better
Lvl 1/10
Aether Soul: In order for most a trickster to successfully play his tricks, some stuff needed to be done in the shadow
Active skill: Allows the trickster to become invisible for 5 secs, players or monster who are above him with over 10 levels will be able to make out his general form
Cost: 10 mana
Lvl 1/10
I Hold all: Classes have limitations on what weapons can be used, being a trickster you have the ability to wield all weapons in order to blend in or fabricate an Identity if needed
Passive skill: ability to equip al weapons
Lvl 1/1
Basic weaponry mastery: A trickster can learn weapons a lot faster than others due to the need of learning several types.
Passive skill : 120% Increase rate of learning weapons , you areable to use the basic abilities of swordsmanship & archer ship
More skills will be gained on each of the following level ups: 10 , 15 , 20 , 25 , 30 and so on
Would you like to pick “Trickster” as your first class?
Yes/no
“Well then, I know It’s a hard choice for you but-“
“Accept”
Before the entity could continue, Re accepted the class change
Congratulations , your class has changed from “Blank” to “trickster”
Name: Re
Strength: 16
Charisma: 12
Perception: 16
Class: Trickster
Wisdom: 16
Vitality: 16
Willpower: 16
Title: none
Endurance: 16
Agility: 16
Level: 5
Luck: 12
Dexterity: 16
Health points: 165
Mana: 85
Faith : 20
“…you sure are something.” the entity spoke.
"Maybe, I would like to know why exactly you gave this class to me tho?"
"Ah , It's not like It's a rare class or something, you could see thousands of tricksters in the past, although not with the same stats..that Is until the other gods removed them and made me a fallen god."
“Well, I would like to know why I suddenly received 10 faith and 100 xp as well as why my charisma and luck went up despite my knowledge that they require special action and don’t increase with class level.”
“Hah, That’s easy, when you rejected the kids in front of the statue and threatened them, you completed a ritual, now under normal circumstances that would never be considered enough but I lowered the standards since no one completed it..in centuries ? and regarding your luck and charisma, It’s because of your class. A trickster needs to be well-liked and handsome, so that people have a favourable expression towards him and luck is always needed when meddling with uncertain affairs.”
“That sounds completely broken and unfair to other players, not that I care”
“heh,I like your attitude. You didn’t whine about how it is unfair and how you are unworthy or something.”
“Only idiots would reject this class. So, Am I supposed to do something? You surely aren’t giving it out to me out of goodwill.”
“Hahaha, nothing really, I will be watching you always & as long as your actions interests me, you will be able to keep the class & maybe some awards ~”
“If there is nothing else then I would take my leave”
“Heh, such a party popper”
“Goodbye, Mr.Entity.”
“Hey! I have a name you know?! Hey! Wait!”
Ignoring the entity that kept calling for him, Re went back to the proper part of the city and searched for a weapon store to buy a sword or something.
After a short while, Re headed towards the city gates in order to hunt for some animals with the iron sword he just bought, the sword was made of good quality and was certainly worth more than the 2 silver he had, but he suspected that the shop owner lowered the price due to his charisma & maybe luck, He also received glances from several people and even sometimes stares from random people , mostly Female NPCs since Charisma had more effect on them than Players.
(around 3 hours should have passed IRL..I’m going to test it more)