First there was silence, then came a reverberating bang followed by blinding light.
When he finally regained his senses, Cass found himself within a small, cozy wooden cabin. Outside, through beautifully carved windows, a bright, verdant forest could be seen and the wonderful sounds of birds and flowing water filled the environment with a sense of calm and peacefulness.
Looking around, he found that, on a small wooden table nearby from where he first appeared, rested a few hand-sized stone tablets, each one inscribed with a word or short phrase: 'Create Character', 'Settings', 'Start Adventure' and 'Exit Game'. Additionally, on one of the walls of the cabin, the one opposite to the entrance, the name of the game was written in large, gently glowing letters.
'Lands of Freedom'
A quite generic name, if he had to say so, but it fit the extremely free-form nature the game seemed to have, even compared to other MMORPGS. Taking all of this in, Cass' first impression with the game was quite positive, especially with its life-like graphics and sound design, practically indistinguishable from the real world, far better than anything he had ever before. He also thought that the diegetic integration of the menu options was also quite a nice touch.
Finally, after an embarrassing minute of being amazed by a small, mostly empty room, Cass realized that he should probably just get on with the game already, chuckling to himself about how Jess would certainly scold him if she knew he wasted so much time in the menu. Moving to the wooden table, he picked up the 'Create Character' tablet and was transported from the cozy cabin to yet another dark void, this time with a blank white mannequin floating alongside him. All around him, quite a few menus appeared, mostly related to customizing the character's appearance.
After looking around for a while, Cass was disappointed to find that the only option for the character's race was that of a Human, since he usually liked to play the animal-like races in these kinds of RPGs. Additionally, he was slightly confused by the complete absence of any kind of Class selection or Stat distribution systems, normally staples in any kind of fantasy game. In fact, there were only three things he could find amidst all of these menus that seemed to relate to gameplay at all, and, interestingly, all of them were marked as Pre-Order exclusive options that were only available to players who were present when the server first opened.
The first one, the 'Talent Selection', simply contained three seemingly random options, and he just had to choose one of them. Apparently, according to a vaguely worded blurb at the top of the menu, these options had been chosen after a 'careful analysis of the Player's brain activity' and were supposedly the Talents he was 'most compatible with'.
Beyond how weird and sketchy this seemed, Cass was also very confused about the fact that the ability to select his own Talent was a pre-order bonus. Would players that entered the game later just receive their Talent at random? That seemed like terrible game design to him, so maybe he was just missing something about how all of this was going to work. With that in mind, he decided to simply check out the options, make his choice and move.
His three options were as follows:
[Visionary Treasurer: Has immense talent in all things financial, can steward an economy better than any other. A favorite of any king or emperor, beloved by the people, they can change the fate of a nation with ease.]
[Divine Watcher: Can stay hidden from all things under the Heavens, can see and not be seen, feel and not be felt. A perfect fit for a wise hermit or a deadly assassin, invisible passive observers until it is their moment to act.]
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[Hidden Dragon: Has a body made for holding a spear, and a mind destined to wield it. Inside, a monster endlessly cries against the Heavens. Shake the world with one strike.]
All of these options seemed quite unique and interesting, especially the [Visionary Treasurer] one, as he had absolutely not idea how that one would affect his gameplay. However, the one that grabbed his interest the most was undoubtably the third option, [Hidden Dragon].
Besides just having a cool ass description, Cass had been craving playing a Melee character for a while in one of these RPGS, given that his last few characters had all been mostly mages and summoners, and this was his chance to do so. Playing as an assassin with the [Divine Watcher] Talent might have also been an option, but he wasn't really a fan of lurking in stealth in the search for the perfect opportunity to backstab someone, so he decided to pass on that option. With that decided, he selected [Hidden Dragon] for his Talent and moved on.
The next gameplay-related choice was on a very similar menu as the last one, this one called the 'Affinity Selection', once more with three options he had to choose between. It even had the exact same blurb at the top about choosing the Affinities that were most compatible with him. Deciding not to focus on that, he checked out what was available to him.
[Metal-Attuned Core: Resilience, Flexibility, Might. Endless variation through all forms of nature and industry, the power to build or destroy, to kill or protect. Usually gifted to those destined to be perfect soldiers or diligent craftsmen, but can be infinitely forged and reforged to fit or break any mold.]
[Lightning-Attuned Core: The majesty of the Heavens, the wrath and judgement of the Gods. The extreme of speed and power, limited only by what nature can provide. It is never granted, only stolen, by those who wish to defy their fates or desire the power to shake the world.]
[Elementally-Neutral Core: Jack of all trades, Master of none. To be one among many, lost in the faceless crowd, usually granted to those who wish to hide themselves, or who have nothing to hide. It excels at doing a little bit of everything, and rarely more than that.]
Once again, a very interesting set of choices. Cass had no idea if the exceedingly flowery descriptions meant anything at all within the game besides flavor text, but he figured that these Affinities were simply the game's way of categorizing its magic system.
Once again, knowing that the ability to choose this was an ability exclusive to him and the other players that had bought the pre-order edition of the game, he couldn't help but wonder if normal players were supposed to get completely random Talents and Affinities whenever they created a new character. What if you wanted to play as a pyromancer mage, but the game decided that you were supposed to be an axe-wielding barbarian? It just didn't make sense to him.
Regardless, he looked at the options available to him, namely [Metal-Attuned Core] and [Lightning-Attuned Core], disregarding [Elementally-Neutral Core] entirely since it seemed incredibly boring. Given his [Hidden Dragon] talent, it was almost certain that his main weapon in-game would be some kind of spear, so he figured that [Metal-Attuned Core] would be the safest choice in order to enhance his combat ability as, given his experience with similarly themed elemental magic in other games, Metal Magic would almost certainly enhance his weapon's offensive power and grant him increased defense, making it a good overall choice for any melee fighter.
However, even as he tried to convince himself that the [Metal-Attuned Core] was almost certainly the optimal choice for his character, his eyes couldn't help but wonder to the [Lightning-Attuned Core] option, for really no good reason other than the fact that being a lightning-wielding Spearman sounded cool as hell to him.
Besides, while lightning-magic would probably lack in the defense department, it would definitely be exceedingly offensively powerful, so he could just make this character a glass cannon of sorts. Those were always fun.
With that thought of, he decisively made his choice and selected [Lightning-Attuned Core] as his chosen affinity, then turning his attention to the final important decision he would have to make during the creation of this character, the 'Background Selector'.