Damon spent the next two and a half months in a routine fashion. Wake up in his new flat at the Neuro Corp Headquarters, eat a large breakfast in the dining area, before beginning his morning exercises with the in-house doctors and fitness instructors. Apparently being close to a Guinea pig meant that he needed to be in peak fitness. He didn’t mind that too much though, as they were friendly and allowed him to work at his own pace, giving him unique exercises which were quite fun to perform. They even began to work on more advanced movements like running and skipping. Trying to run at speed was a real challenge. The coordination involved really wasn't what Damon expected.
After a morning of working out and a decent sized lunch, he would be lead to, what he now called, the DIVE room. There, he would lay himself out, the helmet slotted onto his head with some other wires attached to help monitor all his vitals. Once everything was set, he’d dive into his Hub and begin practicing mental exercises with Billy. This was anything from a game of chess to solving small puzzles. He even got to read books on occasion but his eyesight was still very poor and so was very difficult to make out words in the books. The act was comforting to Damon though, so he kept at it despite reckoning he looked rather silly to anyone watching him.
Damon also had to work on his precise motion in the VR world. Before, when he couldn’t see anything, his movements were careful and controlled. But now... He could see a little, meaning that he had a point of reference from what he could see of his body. This made him slightly careless at times, as he’d sometimes get confused with all the information inputed to him. He’d developed a new way of feeling his spacial awareness that wasn’t based off sound or experience. This was highlighted when Billy suggested they play an interesting game of whack the rat. The aim of the game was simple, hit the rat when it fell from the tube as quickly as possible. Damon was given a wooden baton to do so, but the simple game turned out to be rather hard. He had no sense of physical timing and so it was only instinct and luck which allowed him to occasionally hit it. There were many more games involving co-ordination, timing, balance and control. These tended to be quite fun and despite being useless at any of the games shown to him, Damon doggedly stuck with them and could see a vast improvement as the weeks went by.
In the evenings, Damon would sit down and learn all about human gestures and ticks. He quickly learnt to recognise most of the basic movements and could even perform some of them, which helped him learn at a good rate. Doing almost nothing else but that for two and a half months, meant Damon’s learning speed shot through the roof.
It was quite a relaxed time for Damon overall, and he made clear progress. His eyesight improved in leaps and bounds allowing for him to make out vague objects at a couple of metres.
Damon had asked Billy why he could see him clearer than anything else when they had first met, and the AI had replied, “I am an image that you yourself conjure up, the image of me is coming from your frontal lobe where creativity is born. The reason I was still fuzzy was because your brain was still trying to interpret the image through light and vision which is predominantly processed in the occipital lobe near the back of head. Everything else is simply provided by the helmet.”
That… kind of made sense to Damon. It had been a long time since school biology lessons and he really wasn’t sure he’d understand if he asked for more details. All he knew was that his vision was improving, even if it was frustratingly slow.
Soon the deadline came and Damon was ready to enter King’s Wrath and so found himself once again in his Hub space, with Billy stood across from him.
“So how do we do this?” Damon asked. He could now see Billy quite clearly and the room around him was a lot less fuzzy than before, but true details still alluded him.
“Well, firstly you need to make a physical entrance into the game from your Hub. The game is already installed onto your helmet, so all you need to do is create the port. A doorway should do. Think ‘Doorway to King’s Wrath’.” Replied Billy looking around the flat.
OK thought Damon. Doorway to King’s Wrath.
Create a portal to King's Wrath?
Yes/No
Yes
Instantly, a doorway that seemed to contain a churning white portal appeared on a bare wall of Damon’s living room. The placement was exactly where Damon was looking and he was surprised at how well the Hub had interpreted his thoughts.
He turned to Billy. “If the helmet can read my thoughts and basically control the brain activity in my head, what’s to stop it from controlling me or simply killing me at some point by stopping the brain activity?” He sounded concerned, but was more interested in the answer.
Billy simply nodded at the question. “There are many protocols preventing such occurrences from happening and there are quite a few high-density firewalls and protection safeguards preventing anything such as a hack from penetrating into the helmet or a rogue AI malfunction. Simply put, that helmet is safer to use than anything ever created. Not even the government has this level of security.”
“Huh.” Was all Damon could think to say.
“Now, if you’d like to step through the portal, we can begin character creation.”
...
Stepping through the portal was a weird sensation for Damon and for a moment everything went black. He started panicking, believing he’d gone blind again in this new reality and the whole experience was a lie. Then suddenly…
Light.
Damon was floating in the middle of nowhere… Wait, he realised he could see himself floating there, or at least he thought it was him, his vision was still slightly blurry. He’d seen himself in a mirror in the past few months and was fairly certain it was the right build. He was somehow disembodied from himself and could move around with just a thought, although that backfired when the idea of looking at himself with an upwards angle towards his bum suddenly got too close for comfort. He quickly returned to looking straight on at himself and saw there were faint silhouettes either side of his current form. When he focused on the silhouette to his right the form moved to take the place of the figure before him, revealing a much taller, strangely craggy version of himself.
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His once 5’5” brawny figure had grown into a 6 foot something goliath of a rock. He could tell due to the similar rocks he’d seen on some of landscapes in his Hub. With his short black hair and he even swore he could make out his annoyingly broken nose from an accident when he was younger and on the wrong end of a hockey stick. It just looked strange to Damon, who stared at the rock form trying to make it out properly and imagine how it could even move properly.
“It’s called a Rock Golem.” Came Billy’s voice from right next to Damon, making him jump, metaphorically at least, he didn’t technically have a body at the moment. “Sturdy people. They coexist with other elemental golems in a city deep within the Eastern mountains of Histania.”
“Histania huh?” Commented Damon, recovering from his shock. “That’s the world’s name, right? And I’m guessing I get to pick what race I am now? Do I get to change any features like my face or… my nose?” That last comment almost sounded hopeful, even to Damon.
“No, it’s the name of the continent. The continent is split into seven Kingdoms and many uninhabited areas in which civilisation has yet to cast its net into. Six of these kingdoms are ruled by a king and the seventh: a queen. The golems as depicted here…” Billy gestured at the Damon golem. “…Are a fairly isolated race and have a relatively small kingdom in their mountains. The Draconians…” Again Billy gestured and, from what Damon could see, a sort of lizardman figure with what Damon thought might be wings on its back, rotated to replace the golem. “…Are a much more severe race. They inhabit the hotter areas to the south of the eastern mountains where the ground is flatter, but few things grow there and they have to rely on hunting and pillaging the neighbouring Dwarfs to the south west…” Another gesture and a slightly smaller and stouter figure appeared and Damon suddenly realised he definitely did not suit a big bushy beard, which he could clearly see, despite his poor vision. “…The dwarfs are a strong people who have learnt to defend themselves from such invaders using traps and clever technology; however, they are few as cannot reproduce as easily as the other races, but they do live very long lives.” Billy paused for a second to let Damon absorb the information so far.
“What about the humans?” Asked Damon. “And you still haven’t answered my question about the facial changes!”
Billy frowned. “No, you may not change your facial structure, or your gender for that matter. You are who you are, don’t be ashamed of it.”
Wow that sounded almost inspiring thought Damon before Billy continued.
“The humans live in the northwest side of the continent. Quite resourceful people even if they are the second smallest kingdom. They are bordered on two sides. By the Orcs to the south east in the open plains, and the elves to the south west where forests and jungles prevail. The orcs are made up of mostly small tribes but they band together every once in a while to announce a king and form a horde.” Another gesture and another figure appeared, although this time he’s grown again and has now got a strange green tint to his skin. He’s also much stouter and his head has been enlarged to a silly degree in Damon’s opinion. “The elves on the other hand stick together, they all live in huge areas around what they call mother trees. It’s more a religion than a kingdom, but the queen is strong and commands absolute loyalty from her subjects. With only three cities, they are the third smallest kingdom.” What Damon assumed was an elf, tall and elegant with the very clear pointy ears rotates in and Damon had to squint to see that feature clearer.
“And the last race?” Queries Damon.
“The Demon race.” Replies Billy. “They are a fiery race based in the far south of the continent. There’s no sea there, just a dark abyss they call the end of the world. The Demon king claims his god resides there, whispering advice and giving him great power. We’ll have to see I suppose.” Billy looks nonchalant and seems to pick at his nails.
“Um… OK.” Says Damon giving the AI a sideways glance. He examines the demon figure he sees before him. It had red skin and bright orange orbs, where Damon thinks the eyes should be, which seemed to pierce into his soul. But as cool as he thinks it would be to play as one, he keeps drifting back to the human Damon. It’s just so fascinating that he can actually see himself, sort of, and have at least a vague idea of what he looks like - instead of having to imagine through touch and other’s descriptions. The feeling pulls him back to the human which rotates back into position, and he asks Billy. “Are there any bonuses or weaknesses for picking a human?”
“Sure, read this:” Another table appears in front of Damon, this time detailing all the Races positive and negative attributes as well as the base stat gains per level.
Race Positive Attribute Negative Attribute Base Stat gains per level Human 20% Efficiency boost to building, resource gathering and learning. Due to there xenophobic nature, humans recieve a charisma loss of -25% charisma when dealing with someone of a different race.
+1 Strength
+1 Intelligence
+1 extra free stat
Elf 20% Bonus to damage and armour when within close proximity to a Mother Tree. Elf bones are brittle, -15% to the endurance stat.
+1 Stamina
+2 Dexterity
Orc 25% Bonus to health when in a horde. Orcs aren't famous for their brains, just their brawn. -20% to the intellligence stat.
+1 Endurance
+ 2 Strength
Golem 15% Bonus to all elemental spells and abilities. Varied and with clear counters, 10% increase to damage of the opposite element to the golems elemental affinity.
+1 Endurance
+2 Intelligence
Draconian Can fly, need I say more? With little ability to grow crops, Draconians are forced to only eat meat. -95% effeciveness of non meat based meals
+1 Strength
+1 Agility
+1 Endurance
Demon Can perform sacrifices to the Dark God in exchange for a bonus relative to the sacrifice. Due to the dark nature of demons, they don't respond well to light. -25% resistance to Light damage
+1 Strength
+2 Endurance
Dwarf Traps and tinkered creation are 25% more effective Dwarves live long lives, but that's just because they're shorter than most other creatures. They don't have to spend as much energy pumping blood around their body. This lack of hieght means stubby legs and so they can't travel as well as other races. -25% to movement speed.
+1 Strength
+2 Wisdom
“OK, that’s not too bad. I choose Human.” Said Damon. The choice was clear to him. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get used to playing as a different race. The versatility of the free stat point also swayed to his creative side. The fact he suffered a charisma loss didn’t matter to him, he wasn’t very sociable anyway.
With that declaration, there’s a sudden rush as Damon’s view point changes to that of the body he was just looking at and then he has the sensation of falling, before realising he is, is in actual fact, falling. Hurtling through the air with the ground getting closer and closer with every second... Or so he thinks. All he sees is an expanse of white, dotted occasionally with browns and greens. The sound of the wind rushing past his ears as the cold air bites at his eyes and cheeks all he can think is:
I really hope this will be a soft landing.