Pear tugged at the zipper on the front of the Pod's suit, cursing quietly under his breath and wishing that it was looser around his thighs.

"You gonna get it, son, or do you need some help?" his father asked in his natural drawl from the doorway.

"I can get it, Dad," Pear assured him just before a sharp tug got the zipper moving again. "It's just really easy to get it stuck partway through."

"Alright then," his father chuckled before continuing. "Your mom and I are going to see Dr. Jonson, he said that he's had some news about your idea. Do you want to come with us?"

"I do," Pear nodded as he approached the corner of his room the Pod had been placed in. "But I don't want to miss playing Astrana. I think it'll help me stay calmer than if I went with you guys. Let me know how it goes when you get back."

"Of course we will," Mr. Pearson smiled as he watched his son tap on the pad that worked the Pod from the outside. "You're gonna have to teach me how to do all that fancy stuff in your game if this works out."

"I'll see you guys later then," Pear said with a smile to his dad as he entered the Pod and laid on the bed. "Maybe sooner if you can join Astrana."

"Have fun, kiddo," he father waved him off with a chuckle. "And keep those friends of yours in trouble in the game, maybe it'll make them better behaved out here with the rest of us."

Pear gave a wave to his father before the cover of the Pod slid shut over him and he put on his mask. The tech that helped him through his calibration had told him that some people needed bigger masks, but he didn't see why. The smaller mask wasn't that bad and after they made one specifically for the person in question it would fit like a glove. All a bigger mask would do would be to make things more expensive.

His mask secured, Pear tapped the inside button that would fill the Pod with the slurry mixture that would keep his body from hurting itself if it attempted to thrash around while he was in the game. As the cool slurry filled the Pod around him, Pear sank into a sleep between one blink and the next and found himself in the same decorated log cabin with a table and two chairs in the center and one of the walls missing to give a better view of the rolling grassland outside with mountains in the far distance.

"Hello, Pear," the AI helper greeted him with a smile. "It's been some time since I saw you."

"Hi, Lilith-023," Pear returned the blonde woman's greeting with a small smile.

"I've told you, call me Lilith and drop the 23," she said with a small pout. "When you use my full name I feel like you're trying to make more distance between us. I'm supposed to help you while you're in Astrana and it'll be much easier if you let me be your friend."

"Right, sorry Lilith," Pear said, looking away from the helper's radiant smile. "So we're going to create my avatar for the game now?"

"Or we could just talk," Lilith suggested with a teasing tone to her voice before breaking into laughter when Pear turned to her with a panicked expression on his face. "Don't worry. If you want to make your avatar then we'll make your avatar. Look behind you."

Pear turned around and saw a door on the wall behind him.

"That door will lead you to the area that we'll use to make your avatar," Lilith's voice came from directly beside his ear and made him jump away from her in surprise.

"I've asked you not to do that," Pear said as he clutched his chest and tried to catch his breath, that scream hadn't come from him. Nope. Absolutely not.

"But, Pear, you make it so much fun." Lilith told him as her smile grew bigger.

Choosing not to respond to his helper's antics, Pear approached the door and opened it. The room inside was a small one with a mirror covering one wall and another filled with weapons while the third was filled with books.

"We're starting in front of the mirror," Lilith told him as she guided him to stand in front of it. "First is your reflection."

With a wave of her hand, Pear's reflection appeared in the mirror; though he noticed that Lilith had no reflection.

"This is you," she told him, gesturing to the reflection. "Not a bad specimen if you ask me."

Pear tried not to turn red as he studied himself in the mirror. Same light brown hair, same blue eyes, same nose and ears from his mother. The height could always be better, he decided, especially when he was shorter than most women, as Lilith loved to remind him as she rested her hands on the top of his head and looked at his reflection.

"We can't change too much about your build," she told him. "All the testing pointed to significant build changes being difficult to adapt to. Of course, for smaller races such as Gnomes and Gremlins, you'll have to sign that you understand this before we allow you to choose them."

His dreams of being tall for the first time in his life shot down before they even took off, Pear studied the reflection before speaking.

"Let's see what I look like with the other races," he said.

"I thought you'd never ask," Lilith said with a smile that Pear more felt than saw as the woman waved her hand and Pear's human avatar was joined by eight more with darker shadow figures behind them. "The nine at the front are the big races, full-blooded and what everyone tends to think of, the ones at the back are half-races with parents from two different races. They're also the different types of full-blood races, for example High Elves versus Wood Elves. Do you see one or two that you like?"

"I think I want to be an Elf," Pear said. "I want to be a mage class and Elves tend to have better bonuses to casting and magic. Can you show me all the full-blooded Elves?"

With a wave of her hand, Lilith removed all the other races and left only the Pear avatar that looked like an Elf before it blurred and the other subraces of Elves appeared to either side.

Pear studied each of them closely before speaking again.

"What kind of bonuses do I get from each one?"

"Look toward the feet," Lilith told him. "The nameplate can be expanded to allow you a better idea of what each of them is allowed. For the most part though, they will all have Darkvision perks and a small, not unuseful racial perk that won't offer too much utility difference from the others."

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Pear studied the nameplates of each of the avatars before settling on the High Elf avatar.

"This one," he said. "I like that I can choose the extra perk for it."

"Now all that's left is appearance changes," Lilith said with another wave of her hand. "After that we can look toward equipment and skills."

"I think I want longer hair," Pear said after studying the Elf-Pear for a moment. As the avatar's hair lengthened Pear nodded to himself and finally called a stop once the hair was at the middle of his back. "Can you also put it into a simple braid for me so it's out of my eyes?"

"Of course," Lilith said as the avatar's hair changed from straight and unbraided to simple braid that pulled it all back and uncovered the pointed ears. "Anything else?"

"My glasses," Pear said. "Can you get rid of them without compromising my vision?"

"What kind of game would we be playing if we couldn't allow our players to control something like that?" Lilith asked as Pear's glasses disappeared without affecting his vision.

"I also want to change the eyes a little," Pear said. "Something a little different, but not unheard of in the Elf race."

"Go on," Lilith encouraged him.

"I want my pupil to be gold instead of black," Pear told her.

"Done," Lilith said as the avatar's eyes became just a bit brighter from the warm golden color that rested at the center. "Now onto the equipment. Anything in mind?"

"Caster robes," Pear said, turning to the wall of equipment. "Maybe just regular clothes?"

"There are no regular clothes," Lilith told him. "Everyone starts with armor of some sort, usually leather or chain, but we can do a caster's robe. You won't have as much protection, but it will make it easier for you to move in without having to adapt to a new weight and eventually you will receive a robe with a bonus to magic casting and damage reduction."

"Then let's see the robes," Pear said.

"There's just one kind," Lilith told him as the rest of the armor disappeared from the wall and left a folded pile of clothes resting on a table in front of him. "Let's just put that on your avatar."

As Lilith spoke, she waved her hand again and Pear's avatar was dressed in the caster's robes which allowed him to study them better. Black without any decoration or embellishment, the robes reminded Pear of what a certain order of space-faring knights with laser swords used to wear.

"Would you like a hat or a hood?" Lilith asked as either option appeared before Pear.

"Hood," Pear decided. He wouldn't be caught dead in the massive pointed hat if he could help it.

"Now your weapon of choice," Lilith said as she turned Pear back to the now much emptier equipment wall. "Magic users are not limited to any one type of weapon or casting focus. Choose one that speaks to you."

"If I'm going to be a wizard I'll need a staff and wand," Pear said. "Anything else is just an insult to what I'm aiming for."

"Alright," Lilith said as the other weapons faded away and left behind a tall staff with a large knobbed top and a narrow flat foot and a gnarled wand that looked as though someone had grabbed a stick that had fallen from a tree. "With that done, we're moving onto perks and base skills."

At her words, Lilith guided Pear to turn so that he was facing with his back to the mirrored wall and looking at the large wall of books.

"Darkvision perk, Examine skill, and one more of your choice," Lilith said as two books removed themselves from the wall and several others disappeared.

"What were those books that disappeared?" Pear asked as another appeared in front of him and opened itself to the first page.

"Those were other vision perks," Lilith explained. "You can find them in game, but if you're already getting Darkvision then you don't need to worry about getting another of them now. It would cause some issues as you learned to function with both of them. Please choose a perk from the remaining list."

Pear looked at the wall that was still nearly completely full of books and then toward the book in front of him before sighing and asking a question.

"Do you have a perk you recommend?" he asked.

"You don't want a weapon mastery perk," Lilith immediately said. "Armor perks are also out. There are some here that can aid in crafting but you've said repeatedly that you want to be a caster and while there are several benefits to having a crafting perk from the start, none of them justify to me foregoing a perk that can aid in casting from the start. That leaves a much shorter list than we started with."

As his helper spoke, Pear watched as the books began to fade away until there were only a few left. The massive tome in front of him also shrunk until it was barely a page thick. Looking toward it he began to read what perks Lilith had left for him to choose from.

Perk Choices

Arcane Usage: Allows the ability to use Arcane aids to cast magics and spells.

Mana Vacuum: Doubles Mana regeneration; halves Mana capacity.

Mana Bottle: Doubles Mana capacity; halves Mana regeneration.

Blood Magic: Allows Hit Points to be burned in place of Mana.

Ritual Caster: Allows the ability to cast any spell as a ritual without requiring the 'ritual' tag.

Spell Maestro: Allows the ability to finely control cast spells.

Spell Overpower: Allows the ability to charge spells for extra damage.

Shifting Familiar: Allows a familiar to shift its form as the master desires.

Elemental Cannon: Doubles the effectiveness of Elemental Magics; halves the effectiveness of all other magics.

Divine Caster: Allows the ability to cast Divine Magics.

Runic Writer: Doubles the effectiveness of Runic Magics; halves the effectiveness of all other magics.

Scroll Writer: Allows the ability to write Magic Scrolls.

Grimoire User: Allows a Grimoire to be bound without detrimental effects.

"These are pretty good," Pear said as he read through the much reduced list. "I kind of want all of them for different reasons. Except maybe the Divine Caster one."

"Any of them jump out at you?" Lilith asked as the Divine Caster perk faded from the list and a lovely white book with gold embellishments faded from the wall.

"I'm kind of looking at either the Elemental Cannon, Grimoire User, Runic Writer, or Arcane Usage," Pear told her.

"Any of them over the others?" Lilith asked as she waved her hand and the other perks faded from view, leaving a much smaller list.

"Not really," Pear admitted. "The others were all really easy to decide against even if I wanted them because they seemed a bit too niche for me. That or they seemed difficult to use without killing myself like the Blood Magic perk."

"Arcane Usage," Pear finally said after a long moment of thinking. "I think I'll be needing that the most out of all of them."

"Excellent choice," Lilith smiled at him. "Without Arcane Usage you won't be able to cast your spells through mediums such as your wand and staff."

As the final book removed itself from the wall and joined the other two, the remaining books on the wall faded from view and Pear found himself looking at his avatar before blinking and it disappeared from view. He barely noticed that he was now wearing the robes and had the staff upon his back.

"Now it's time for a commemorative photo!" Lilith said happily as a camera appeared in her hands before a flash and shutter click sounded out blinding Pear. When he had blinked the flash from his eyes, he found himself on a cloud looking down on the central continent for Astrana.

"Just select a city and you'll begin to make your way there," Lilith encouraged him. "I'll see you again soon enough, I'm sure."

"Hero's Crypt," Pear said before the cloud faded away and he found himself falling toward the ground, screaming.

"Gets them everytime," Lilith said gleefully as she listened to her charge's screams of terror. "Oh, I forgot to have him pick a name!"