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Today I died… well at least I no longer existed on earth. I’m not sure exactly what happened…. but one minute I was finishing up cleaning the Blast furnace, obvious emphasis on Blast, and the next… well I’ll have to explain.
I was covered in sweat and grime from an honest day's hard work, and was beat. Working with my respirator on and other PPE made this especially miserable. I wanted to shower and drink a cold beer. While dreamily thinking of the peace of being clean and relaxing I heard my name faintly being called. “Dave?”
“Inside” I shouted, the noise muffled by the respirator, the genius item that saved me from the horrible particles in the air. He couldn’t have heard me anyways, with all the noise I shouldn’t have heard him. The hair on my neck and back shot straight up, something was wrong.
“Dave, are you still here?” My foreman shouted, I picked up my walkie talkie.
“I’m inside the furnace Tom, Tom?” I yelled into the handset. I did not hear the sound from his end. I checked the device and found that the battery had died.
Quickly, I tried to climb the ladder to get out, but in my exhaustion I didn’t remember the air and power cords at the bottom of the ladder. My left foot got tangled and I tripped. On my way to the floor I made sure to hit my face on at least two rungs on the ladder, it could have been more but the second impact was on my nose and thus knocked me out cold.
I awoke an undetermined amount of time later, my face resting in a small pool of my blood not really remembering what had been happening. “I checked, he's not here” I heard from the voice of Josh, my least favorite co-worker (I don't like calling him that as it implies that he actually works.)
“You’re sure he isn’t in the Furnace?” Tom asked, there is no way I should have been able to hear them that clearly. There was about a couple hundred feet and a wall in the way, not to mention the forge walls. I peered around and all of the equipment was gone.
“Yup, checked myself, '' replied the incompetent ass hat, although I had to ask myself; who removed the tools?
“Ok then, let's fire it up.” Tom said, nailing shut my proverbial coffin. Many things began happening around me almost at once. Gas began escaping the torch nozzles, I could hear the lid mechanism slowly start to engage and lower on the furnace. I was already exhausted, but with the gas and my head injuries this pushed me too far, I couldn’t move as hard as I tried. Water started trickling down the giant carbon rods and sprinkling lightly on my back. After a torrential downpour, enough to soak my coveralls thoroughly, the water stopped and for a brief moment I had hope! The death beat of the igniters clicking gave me enough time and the clarity of mind to look at the torches. I could see the flames as if in slow motion, expanding from the nozzles filling the furnace with fire. The flash of flames was enough for all of my exposed hair to burn off, and leave me with the complexion of a boiled lobster. The fires now were billowing flames escaping the torch nozzles like a fox's tail, if that fox had epilepsy and decided to attend a rave. After this point describing my skin is a thing from horror films and non-existence. I would rather not think of it anymore…. The flames slowly shrank, but the sound and heat increased as oxygen was added to the party. My clothes began to burn and soon I couldn’t see, my eyes no longer functioned. The lid boomed shut and water began to pour down though the hole in the lid. I was extinguished briefly as the light above was banished by three large carbon rods with water continuously running down the sides. I could feel the electricity in the air as the rods were powered on. I tried to scream. I don't know if i did or not, I'm not sure that any part of my body even functioned properly at this point.
It hurt, for a long time. Really longer than dying should have, I couldn't tell you how long, it could have been a couple seconds to weeks... possibly longer. Pain was my existence and my existence was pain. Suddenly the sound, my pain and all that light through my eyelids stopped. I felt nothing, I couldn't even feel or hear my heart beating.
WELCOME, YOU HAVE BEEN SPARED FROM DEATH. The words appeared, even though I was pretty sure I had my eyes clenched shut.
What the actual fuck was that? I thought to myself.
INQUIRIE ERROR ‘the actual fuck’ IS NOT RECOGNIZED AS A COMAND. WOULD YOU LIKE TO EDIT COMMANDS? YES / NO. It appeared that I could select either yes or no, since I had no idea what was going on at all. Editing things seemed like a bad idea, so I selected no. I opened my eyes and had to blink to check if there was any noticeable difference, there was not. I decided that keeping my eyes open would eventually get me more information. The text continued, YOU HAVE BEEN RECEIVING PHYSICAL, MAGICAL, AND SPIRITUAL HEALING FOR YOUR INJURIES. As the text continued I noticed that the black sky was slowly filling with stars, well not filling, they seemed to be creating symbols in the vast emptiness around me. It didn't take long for me to be able to discern their meaning, they were words and numbers.
Ok, maybe I'm hallucinating while burning to death? I pondered to myself. The stars spelt out
Name: (blank)
Race: Human
Class: Classless
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Endurance 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 10
Charisma 10
Luck 10
Then beneath it all it said
Unassigned Points - 6.
Again text began entering my vision PLEASE ENTER A NAME AND MAKE FINAL CHARACTER CREATION CHOICES BEFORE BEGINNING YOUR JOURNEY TO CLENS THE WORLD OF EVIL. I looked around to see if there was any possibility of leaving or waking up or possibly just going straight to hell, alas all there was, was text and void. “Why me?” I asked no one in particular.
“You were selected because of the proximity of Granthel and Earth, along with the extreme energies in your immediate proximity. Another reason is your unique individual trait of Classless.” I jumped out of my skin, and I of course I let out a manly battle cry… I did not scream like a small child.
“Who was that?” I asked after I checked to see if I had either urinated or dedicated myself, I had not.
“I am Garth, your guide to Granthel.” The voice came from nowhere.
“Ok Garth, is it possible for me to see you? Or are you just invisible?” Suddenly, a cloud the size and rough shape of a man appeared about three inches from my nose. “Aggh!” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Can you please back up a bit?” The cloud moved less than a fraction of an inch.
“Is this acceptable?” He replied, I thought I caught a hint of smarm in his tone.
“I guess I walked into that one” I muttered under my breath. “Can you move back three feet?” I asked again hoping that Garth was just supper literal and not a smart ass. Garth drifted back what I presume was exactly three feet. Now that Garth wasn't directly in my face I noticed he looked almost exactly like cloud that followed pig pen around in Charlie Brown. “Much better, thank you. Now, what is all of this?” I said as I gestured to the stars.
“This is your Character sheet, your character sheet informs you of…”
“I know what a character sheet is, why am I seeing one?” I asked, pinching the brim of my nose while counting to ten in my head.
“This realm is similar to your own, however it does differ in some major areas. The main being the physical representation of your personal status, skills, traits, experience…”
“So basically this place is like a living video game?” I cut off the eloquent speaking fog of annoyance.
“... from what I can glean from the recorded knowledge of the others from your realm and your personal internal knowledge, yes.”
“How… how is that even possible?” I wondered if maybe I was, in fact, in hell.
“The Architects of the realms deemed it so, and therefore they altered the magical, spiritual and physical aspects of this realm. They likewise altered those same aspects of Earth's realm to deny you these options there. It is very complex and difficult to explain, I can go into more detail if you would like but I doubt that your mind could fathom the entirety of it.” I was starting to think that maybe he was both extremely literal and a smart ass.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Architects? You mean gods?” I asked, rubbing my temples. There is no way that I am unconscious, never would I ever make myself go through this.
“Some may call them gods, however they are not the gods that are worshiped here or elsewhere.”
“I don’t know what to think of that at the moment,” I replied, sitting on the nothing all around me, my head between my knees.
“It is best for you to not think of it, your small mortal mind would crack and fracture if we were to continue this conversation at any length.” Garth replied confirming all of my suspicions regarding his smart assness.
“Fine, fine then. What do I need to do here so that I can ‘go defeat evil’…. Seriously, that's all the information I get?”
“More information regarding saving this realm will be available once you begin to gain experience and grow to your full potential. I would recommend completing character creation so that you may enter Granthel proper. You will need to choose a name, assign your attribute points and make some choices for your natural affinities.” The spirit replied.
“Ok.. Okay, what does Classless mean?” I had an idea but I wanted to make sure.
“The rare trait classless has multiple advantages, and some disadvantages. The main advantage is that all skills, perks and all other class abilities are open to you; this alone is a great advantage. On top of that, level restrictions do not apply to you, this is because you will not gain any levels as you lack a class to level in. All other restrictions for skills, perks and abilities apply.”
“Great, so am I missing out on much for not gaining levels?” I asked knowing that this was not a small issue.
“You will not acquire HP, Mana and Stamina in the same way as a classed adventurer. Nor will you acquire stat bumps in the same manner.” There it is, son of a bitch.
“So how will I do those things?” I asked now laying flat on my back, the star field of text slowly started drifting to once again dominate my vision.
“You will acquire XP, as all do on Granthel, and will spend it on these different attributes along with perk points and abilities. The cost for these purchases will increase as you advance your total experience.”
“So I basically have to build a custom class, and everyone else gets a gift bag of preselected crap?”
“Eloquently put, now I suggest you finish your character creation so that you may enter the realm.”
1.
Name: (blank)
Race: Human
Class: Classless
Strength 10
Dexterity 10
Endurance 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 10
Charisma 10
Luck 10
Unassigned Points 6
Now all I need to do is pick my name. I could go down the easy road and use my earth name, Dave Robertson, but this was a new life, a new experience. I needed a name that would say Hero. I could go with Harry, but that felt like I was cornering myself into wizardry. There were a couple that popped to mind, but they all felt like cheating. I had children on earth, but you generally have quite a bit of time to make that choice. In games I had always gone with made up fantasy or sci-fi names depending on the game. I guess asking couldn't hurt. “Garth? What are some name examples?”
“You could always use your given name.” replied the unimaginative globe.
“Thats it? Useless.” I muttered. I selected the blank space next to ‘Name’ and a flashing text cursor appeared, I dearly hoped that I was right. I mentally typed D, and an uppercase D appeared… nothing else happened. Well auto suggest was a bust. I decided that my mother knew best and finished with Dave.
“Hmmm” pondered my only companion.
“What? Is there some issue with Dave?” I asked, I was starting to feel grumpy. My day had utterly sucked and I wanted to slip into unconsciousness, just to escape this insanity for a while.
“It is nothing, Dave is fine but after all that internal debate I had hypothesized that you would have made a different choice, even though I had suggested your given name.”
“Wait, you can hear my thoughts?”
“No, no.” Well that is a relief at least I have some privacy. “I can read them”
“Of course, that makes total sense.” This place was really starting to grind my gears.
“Now may I suggest that you apply your unassigned attribute points and…”
“Yeah, yeah. Hurry up, he says. I get it. I want to leave too. Now, what attributes affect my HP and such?”
“Excellent question, six of your attributes affect the three pools and the speed at which they replenish. Your strength determines your health pool, and constitution the amount of health regeneration. Endurance your Stamina pool paired with dexterity. Then lastly your Intelligence will affect your mana pool which is paired with wisdom.”
“Thank you,” the fact that Garth continuously gave me more information that I asked for was nice, at the moment. I had no doubt that at some point it would begin to irritate me. “Garth, what do charisma and luck do for me?” I had some ideas.
“Charisma directly affects your interactions with other beings on Granthel, this can be quite an advantage as you may imagine. Higher quantities of luck increases your chance at critical success and also increases your chances of monetary gains and better items, thus lower levels increase the chance for critical failure and finding…”
“Got it, thank you.” Yep, I love feeling as though I am perceived as an idiot. Going with my normal gaming strong suits I would avoid magic for now, as the rules for these things generally require first hand experience. I avoided… my wisdom and intelligence, yeah I guess that's why Garth assumed that I am in fact an idiot.
“Exactly, it is plain as day right here” he said, floating over my wisdom and intelligence.
I sighed and ignored him. With that knowledge I put one point into each of strength, dexterity, constitution, endurance, charisma and luck. “Now what are these ‘natural affinities’?” I asked as all the stars flashed into solid text, that was kinda neat.
“The list should propagate soon Dave.” As he spoke, rectangular boxes filled the void. There were thousands of them, some I could barely see and others almost popped out and I could read the information inside without even trying to focus on them. There was no way I could go through them all…. Well I could but was not willing to take the time or put forth that amount of effort. “The affinities that are clearer are those that you already possess, knowledge from your life on Earth.”
“Wow, how can I possibly choose one?” I asked without thinking.
“One would presume that you could at random, or read through…”
“Garth?”
“Yes Dave?” I wondered if I could somehow kill the spirit.
“That was rhetorical.” I began to look through the clearest blocks. There was mechanics, metallurgy, wood working, green thumb, agriculture (which was obviously different from green thumb, one focused on quality the other quantity, both increased speed of growth), lore, animal affinity. It went on and on.
At some point I realized that I did not know how many of these I was able to choose from, I really did not feel like being talked down to again so I started looking around and noticed that there were three spheres on the edge of my perception, trying to actually look at these was impossible and nauseating. I guessed that that's how many choices I got to pick from. Deciding that guessing was better than talking to Garth, I picked metallurgy, and one sphere gained a metallic sheen, three it is then. Metallurgy increased any result for crafting, repair or any other action for metal objects, attacks with swords or any metal weapon included. It essentially imbued me with the knowledge of how metal affected the world around it, it seems overpowered.
“An excellent choice, many melee builds choose this affinity.” Garth chimed in.
“Wait, you mean others in Granthel are like me? They’re from Earth too?” I asked not knowing what to think of that.
“Yes, but not only from Earth. There is Elf Hymn, Ghorham, Gok’ek’hech. Many really. Shall I list all 8 PC realms? You seem to find my ‘bombardment’ of information annoying.” He wasn't wrong.
“Maybe later, and player character realms really?” I thought that seemed more than a little bizarre.
“PC is an abbreviation of planar character, and those local to Granthel are non-planar characters or NPCs.”
“Wow, really? No, don't answer that, so how many of these PCs are there?” I asked not knowing what to expect.
“Currently, including yourself, there are sixteen with a maximum of twenty.” Garth replied matter-of-factly.
“And I’m the newb? Great, do we all have the same goal? You know ‘DESTROY EVIL’?” I asked, quoting the greats.
“Yes, and no. There is a good chance that one or more have selected to fight for evil due to any number of motivations, or possibly forced to do so.”
“Forced? Against their will?” I asked hoping that my choice to not invest in wisdom was not a huge error.
“Yes, and your thoughts are correct wisdom, would have been an excellent choice to keep control of your own mind. Do not fret, as you may purchase wisdom in the future. Also, it may be some time before you need worry of such attacks.” Check, worry about that later.
For now, I had two more affinities to pick from and I already had decided the second with my new knowledge, language. The language affinity claimed that I would learn languages at an accelerated rate, this also seemed to include animal languages. I really hoped that I wouldn't start hearing insects speaking everywhere. The second sphere now had words from all sorts of languages on it, it looked bizarre as they all were the word language.
“They do not ‘speak’ that loudly, nor do they ‘say’ much, they’re language is mostly pheromone based and therefore you…” Garth cut off as he noticed me thinking of ways to possibly end him. “It would be more difficult than anything you have considered thus…” I cut him off before I had an aneurysm.
“Garth, I see Draconic affinity here.” It was silent for several minutes, and I realized my mistake. “Are dragons common? Do they actually exist here? Can I just go buy one?” I asked.
“I will begin with your second question, yes dragons do indeed exist on Granthel. However, as you may have guessed they are indeed quite rare and can be purchased for large sums from a slaver. Slavery is illegal on a large portion of Granthel and controlling a dragon, even with a collar is quite difficult.”
“I’m opposed to forcibly keeping an intelligent being against their will anyways.” I selected Draconic affinity, in hopes of finding and befriending one anyways, and the last sphere was covered in scales of different metallic shades and a fiery aura engulfing it.
YOU HAVE COMPLETED CHARACTER CREATION, YOU WILL NOW BE TRANSPORTED TO THE BEGINNER VILLAGE FOR CLASSLESS.