As both Jasper and Celeste were thrown into the game they saw themselves flying over a massive continent. It was the world that the AI had created based on the parameters given to it. It was a single landmass with very few islands around it, meaning that the factions on the continent would be pushed into conflict no matter what.
To the south of the continent, the dwarves were located. Jasper cringed as he spotted half a dozen bugs even from the flying overview. A massive mountain didn't seem to end, just continuing to climb into the skybox beyond what should have been possible. He could also spot a river seemingly made from pure fire. Not lava. fire.
To the east of the continent, large open plains could be seen, and Jasper knew that this would be the home turf for the orcs. Even so, he quickly spotted a massive Egyptian-styled pyramid, which he knew for a fact shouldn't be located on the grassy fields. It felt like a tonal disconnect.
To the north and northeast, he could see the empire of man. They had expanded far more rapidly than should have been possible, forcing the elven kingdom in the west to retreat deeper into their lands. That was probably something that they would have to address as well.
Celeste was enjoying the preview of the world. While her husband was spotting mistakes and outlining bugs, she didn't work with Deep Dive on a regular basis, and the feeling of being transported to another world hadn't lost its magic to her. She could feel the wind ruffle her hair and it made her stomach jump with joy as the world zoomed away underneath them. It was an amazing feeling for sure.
The couple finally landed in the middle of the continent, the earth rushing towards them at alarming speed before they came to an almost sudden halt just a meter above the ground. Before they were released the synthetic voice from the character creation could be heard speaking in a loud and clear tone of voice. "𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝙺𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑."
The couple were standing on a hill overlooking a small village down in the middle of a valley. The area they had landed in was an oak forest, the gnarly branches blocking some of the view, but the clearing that the village had been made in ensured that it was visible. Jasper and Celeste had found themselves in an open area as well, which was clearly intended as a starter zone.
Jasper looked around, pondering for a moment. "I like the vibrant green that the leaves give off, but starting out in a forest might not be the best idea... Though giving us a clear view of the city will make it easier for players to see where they can go." He said, though Celeste wasn't listening, she was taking deep long breaths, enjoying the fresh air and the soft soil underneath her feet. The sound of birds chirping and the warmth of the sun. Deep Dive gaming really provided the ultimate escapism. Her basking was interrupted by a pop-up message, filling her vision.
Tinkering domain unlocked [https://i.postimg.cc/tCtHwk3s/image.png]
Celeste looked at the pop-up for a solid five seconds before she realized that she was supposed to read what it said. She refocused her attention looking over the words and was incredibly surprised. "So I can create anything that someone can carry? And as long as it isn't magical I don't even have to use resources on it?" She asked, clearly a bit astounded by how powerful the domain was.
Jasper laughed a little at the comment. "Yup, our Domains should be fairly powerful, though it is making up for the fact that we can't use anything less than Divine level magic items." He explained as Celeste swiped away the notification only to find herself met with another one, this time it was showing the Time Domain.
Divine Domain unlocked: time [https://i.postimg.cc/LXfWf4vJ/image.png]
With the appearance of the pop-up, a clock appeared in the top right of Celeste's vision. However, it was displayed two sets of times. She realized pretty quickly that they were running at different speeds and surmised that one must be showing the time in the real world, while the other must be showing the ingame time. Then she saw her stat increase and grinned. "I got a bump to my wisdom... huh, kinda regret that I didn't put my 8 into wisdom now. That would have been 8 free stat points instead of 2." She said, making Jasper laugh a little.
"Oh, you are usually not the powergaming sort, though I will admit that there is a difference between powergaming and not wanting to lose stats. Look on the bright side though, a 90% success rate on all wisdom checks isn't half bad!" He said. Jasper didn't look at his pop-ups until his wife had finished up, and as Celeste dismissed the notification in front of her she got one last pop-up.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Divine Domain unlocked: Journeying [https://i.postimg.cc/C5gQ4y6m/image.png]
With that, the upper left corner of Celeste's vision was occupied with the option to view a map. She smiled and dismissed the notification before waiting just a second to see if any more appeared in front of her. When they didn't she decided to try out her powers.
Slowly she focused on her crafting ability and around her the grass seemed to disappear, only for a tight woven cloak to appear around her. While it was beige-yellow, the colour of dried grass, to begin with, it quickly became deep black and seemed to give Celeste an air of mysticism.
She grinned. "Welp, it isn't pleasant, this thing is still made from grass, but it seemed to dry it out on its own." She said, doing a little spin which made the cloak billow behind her as if she was getting ready to storm out of a room while declaring her vengeance.
Jasper grinned, enjoying seeing his wife have fun. "What did you get from your last power?" He asked, having no idea what each Domain provided since they were constructed based on the game's current mechanics.
"A map" Celeste said, focusing on the tap in her vision and she found that a massive map appeared in front of her. It took up most of her vision and there didn't seem to be any names on the map, which made sense, seeing as she could only find directions to a known location, and she didn't know any of the names of the towns or areas.
Map of Kalish [https://i.postimg.cc/Dyyh0QsL/HZVdxnrs3-Dwsjo-CUna-QQ7q.png]
Based on the information on the map they should have been standing on grass hills, though Celeste assumed it wasn't shown on the map as it would become almost unreadable otherwise. From the map, she could read that to the southeast some kind of grand gate along with barren land should be found, though when flying over the worlds they hadn't spotted anything along those lines.
"Jasper, I don't think my map is correct, things seem to be kind of off on it." She finally said, which made her husband cringe ever so slightly.
"Yea, it is probably pretty bugged. I will mark it for a fix." He said. "Next time we are in here it should probably be correct." He explained before turning his attention back onto his own pop-ups.
As he focused on the first one the entire world seemed to freeze, even Celeste who was supposedly immune to being slowed down found herself unable to move. Birds, bees and the wind seemed to have been frozen as the entire world was locked in this very moment. Then, before the panic really could set in, everything returned to normal.
"Uhm, Jasper... what was that?" Celeste asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice.
Jasper cleared his throat. "Yea, sorry. Since I picked the Magic Domain, the AI had to suddenly generate a whole magic system for me to use. Don't worry, while my magic probably isn't really that useful at the moment, we shouldn't get stuck like that again." He explained.
Celeste gave him a look. "And what if we end up getting stuck like that in the game? Trapped in here as our bodies rot away?" She asked accusingly.
Jasper laughed at the concept. "I mean, we have a completely separate system hooked up to an atomic clock. If we are stuck for more than five seconds in the real world, which should be about five minutes in here, it will pull the plug to the server and we will be booted out. It was one of the first things that the Deep Dive people ensured when they created the tech." Jasper explained, knowing that his wife probably wouldn't be satisfied with the explanation, and the best way to get her to stop worrying was to try and get her into the game. As such he looked at what his domains granted him.
Divine Domain Unlocked: Magic [https://i.postimg.cc/7YT52Frp/image.png]
Jasper couldn't help but almost cackle. He knew that the magic domain was going to be fun, but getting an almost unlimited counterspell was much better than what he had hoped for. The only problem was the fact that nobody had magic at the moment, since the mechanics for spellcasting had just been constructed. Only NPC created after this point would probably be able to have born magic, though most people could learn it from this point forward.
"I got myself a Counterspell!" Jasper explained, as his wife looked at him with interest. She grinned when she heard that, she had seen that spell used a ton of times to great effect. The Domain did remind Jasper that he would have to go through what Energy was, though they could do that after getting their Domains sorted out. He dismissed the first notification and focused on the second.
Divine Domain Unlocked: Knowledge! [https://i.postimg.cc/rF6rQVj8/image.png]
He grumbled a little when he saw the message, and when Celeste walked around to see what she laughed at him. Her voice not soothing his wounded pride, but it was nice that she enjoyed his misery.
"Who is the powergamer now?" She asked, poking him in the ribs. Jasper just grumbled a bit more, setting his intelligence to 18 and dismissing the notification, giving him the last one.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/3x8WcdvH/image.png]
Jasper groaned loudly this time as he got to upgrade his 14 constitution to 16, barely any progress. Celeste apparently thought it was the funniest thing that she had ever seen, having to use him as a crutch to stand, as the laughter echoed through the oak forest.
Jasper couldn't hold his laughter back as he hugged his wife and snuggled up to her tightly, not wanting to ever let her go as they laughed together.