I instantly sit up. When was I laying down? “What The Fu—” were my words as I woke up until my lips refused to move. “None of that” I heard a melodic and soft voice say.
Whipping my head around in a speed surprising me I didn’t get whiplash. I see a woman with light brown straight hair, hazelnut eyes, and gorgeous tan skin wearing tight jeans and a comfortable tank top that gives a good view of her lean stomach.
She continues, “I’m Veronica, the one who will be introducing you to this new world. I will give you a basic knowledge of the area in which you will spawn, some starting gear, the chance to adjust your anatomy, and an explanation of your affinities and ability options within them. Any questions?”
I stare daggers into the woman as she stares back undisturbed. This goes on for a long while until she starts shifting her balance from foot to foot. Another few minutes later and I’m still at it while she starts looking away and bringing her eyes to glance at me every once in a while. “What do you want?! Don’t you know it’s impolite to stare?! I know I’m not like the other tutorial guide women that are perfect with flawless light skin and beautiful hair wearing a generic Greek robe! What do you want from me?!”
I slowly bring up my hand and then point to my lips, THAT ARE STILL STUCK TOGETHER!! Veronica promptly slams her palm into her face twirls her finger in the air and gives a quick and quite “sorry.” I finally open my mouth and start stretching my jaw and moving my lips.
“Don’t worry about it, everyone makes mistakes,” I say with a smile. A tad red the woman replied,“I would’ve expected you to be much more angry or confused or scared like everyone else I’ve dealt with, how can you smile right now? You were just plucked from your home world.”
“Haha. Well I thought the situation was funny, especially with your small outburst. After that I’m pretty confident you aren’t meant to harm me and after all the shit that just went down, I’m pretty sure any control in all this is definitely out of my hands considering how I FLEW INTO THE FUCKING SKY!” I add with a smile again. I swear… I’m going insane. I’m gonna wake up from my nap in the locker room and everything will be fi—.
“Ah hah there’s at least a little bit of anger there, and sorry but everything that’s happening is definitely real, sorry to burst your bubble.” Veronica says in a matter of fact tone.
Did she ju—. “Yes I just read you mind, it’s one of my abilities as a tutorial guide” she answers before I even ask myself.
You know what? Screw it, if you can’t beat them, join them. Let’s go into loony town boys and girls. “Alright assuming everything you said is true… you really wanna say one of things you do is ‘adjust your anatomy’ haha...priceless” I go into hysterics and wipe tears from my eyes.
Given Veronica’s non amused expression I quickly sober and change the subject “what is this new ‘world’ you’re talking about that I’m entering?”
With a little bit of excitement and what looks like pride Veronica goes on to say “Oh your coming into a new world called Estrias, created by God. He plans to move more of your kind here including the rest of your family, you are just the first to prepare for everyone else. You’re old world is dying so he decided this would be the next best place for some of your people.”
That is a bit of a relief, but she said the rest of my family, I guess James and Tyler were brought here with me when we flew into the sky. “He understands how hard this transition must be and so in this new world, those coming from the old one will have the ability to come back to life when they die and the only way for your people to truly die is of old age, but even that can be disabled if you’d like it to be. There are also other creatures and forms of intelligent life including but not limited to Humans, elves, dwarves, beast-people, orcs, goblins, gnomes, and many more. There are already a large sum of these life forms within the world that have been born and raised here however they won’t have a lot of the power your people will.”
All the books and video games are quickly coming into mind as I think I have to be dreaming because this is too crazy to be true. “It’s like a real life MMORPG! I’ll live forever?! Where will I spawn? You said level, are you telling me there’s a stat point allocation level up system in this world? Is there a race change option? What are the racial bonuses if there are? Will there be a noob spawn area all the people from my world will spawn in? What do—-” my lips refused to move. Honestly I can’t blame her, I got a little excited there.
“How about we go in order?” With a quick nod of my head Veronica continues, “Forever is a strong word, it’s more like you’ll live until you are ready to move on to the next life. However you’re kind can still kill each other permanently if you go through a dual in which both parties accept the terms.”
Nodding that I understand she continues “You will spawn in a random currently low-level secluded area near some sort of community of a random race that may or may not be your own however they will be passive with those of your race...at least to the extent that they won’t kill you on sight. The major kingdoms are ruled by humans, elves, and orcs with the other races either living within their kingdoms as well or within smaller settlements not currently considered a major force in the world.”
She quickly brings up a map that appears like a floating hologram with amazing graphics and details depicting a large land mass with many different terrains. “Such as the beastmen tribes to the south who have a large portion of land between them however they are separated into major tribes and since not united as one are weaker than the other kingdoms however they are left alone for the most part by others except for races who love the violence of war; such as the orc kingdom named Grazdra, which lies to the west and share a border with multiple beastmen tribes and have constant skirmishes.”
Got it, don’t be an Orc, who would be stupid enough to want to be on everyone's shit list? “The Humans are to the East in the kingdom of Highsol, and the Elves are to the north in Seraste, also sharing a long border with the orcs. Even though the orc kingdom is at war with almost every race on the continent it is still possible to see them among other races kingdom, often as refugees, simply because there are so many of them. They are often treated terribly if not killed on sight however. This information only covers this continent and will be all the information I give you about the area, you must dive deeper yourself or explore to other continents or ask others if you wish to know more about the world.”
Taking in the large sum of information I understood how it was only about the continent I will spawn on and can understand wanting to push others to seek out information themselves but there’s still something I want to confirm. I raise my hand and Veronica let’s my lips free. “So other people from my world may be on different continent I don’t know about?”
I asked, worrying about the location of my brothers.
“Correct. But don’t worry about your brothers. You three are going to spawn in the same area together for multiple reasons.” Veronica said like it was a small detail.
Thank God I won’t have to wander the world looking for them like a generic questline. “Wait...why?” What could they gain by having us start together? Will other groups start together?
“Oh, well we put people in groups from the other world to spawn together that knew each other in the past world and would make the base of a good team because we want you to succeed, but also want to give you a challenge, there are also others from your past world you know who will be spawning in an area near you. It also has to do with you three linking arms on your travel here, since you three are in direct contact with each other even if we wanted to separate you we wouldn’t be able to make it a very far distance. However, you guys cannot communicate before you finish the tutorial.”
Well that makes sense… I guess. Alright might as well go into the rest of this introduction. “So you said I could change my body?”
Almost too quickly Veronica says, “Yes you will be allowed to change your race if you wish and alter your physical appearance. Each race has a racial bonus of 5 attribute points in two attributes from level one and gain two points in those same attributes per level onward in addition to three attribute points you can freely distribute yourself per level”
“Wait what is this about attribution points, I mean I think I know where you’re going with this. A leveling attribution distribution system, but what attributes are there?” I ask knowing all the MMORPG’s I played all had a different take on the attribution system.
Victoria calmed her excitement a bit and explained,“Well the attributes include Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Strength defines how powerful your attacks are and how much you can carry. Constitution determines how much health you have, every point in the attribute adds 10 to your total health, and affects stamina regeneration. Agility affects how quickly you can move your body, your ability to maneuver without being detected, and dodge attacks made against you. Dexterity determines speed and precision of attacks, and in some cases takes the place of strength and determines damage of attacks you make, depending on the weapon used such as ranged weapons or some shorter bladed weapons, however in terms of the bladed weapons, Strength, still holds significant merit in the damage done as well. Endurance defines your stamina, every point in the attribute adds 10 to your total stamina, and also determines your ability to ignore ill effects. Intelligence determines your maximum amount of mana, every point in the attribute adds 10 to you total man capacity, increases base intellect, and also determines potency of spells. Wisdom affects your mana regeneration rate, mental fortitude, magical resistance, and perception . Lastly Charisma determines your ability to understand and take part in social acts and how people view you. Some say it also influences your luck.” She says like she’s had to say it over a hundred time. Which for some reason wouldn’t surprise me.
“For level one, ten points in an attribute is the average. You can view your current attribute levels which have been determined by your life in the other world by willing for your status screen to appear.”
I HAVE A STATUS SCREEN! I close my eyes and think of a status screen I’ve seen in my games to appear before me. The next time I open them I see a black screen with white wording appear a comfortable distance from my face that is oddly transparent. IT WORKED!
Level 1, Osiris Jaxton
Undecided race
Affinity: Death
Age: 18
Titles: None
Exp to next level: 0%
Health: 90
Mana: 110
Stamina: 100
Armor: 0
Strength: 9
Constitution: 9
Agility: 11
Dexterity: 12
Endurance:10
Intelligence:11
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 9
Abilities: None
Skills: None
Spells: None
I want to argue, but I know that the level of my Constitution and Strength are probably true. At least I have high dexterity, gotta love the hand eye coordination from my video games.
“What does Affinity mean?” I’ve never seen something like that in a game.
“We’ll get to that after you choose your race. Any other questions?” Veronica answered.
“Alright” my interest is now piqued “and here about skills and abilities, I’m guessing skills are things you can learn on your own or are taught to you but you’re either born with abilities or are given them?” I ask, my mind thinking of the games I’ve played in the past.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Correct” was the only response. “Now time to move on to choosing a race.” As a screen appears listing off names of what I can only assume are all the races of the world. How can I choose?! There must be hundreds! Why would someone decide to just be human if they can be an entirely different fantasy race?!
Veronica being her nosy self answers the question to myself “Oh many become human because they get to assign which attributes get their five bonus attribute points. They also have a passive ability exp gain of 5 percent.”
Well that answers that. When I thought about it, if this is gonna be my new world I’m gonna need to specialize to be a cut above the rest, so human is probably the best option because of the multiple options it offers. I think I’ll gaze through the other options until I make my choice though.
After spending who knows how long looking through the other races I can’t find anything that brings as much possibility and long run gain then human. Sure there are races who gain innate spells, or a interesting ability, but nothing that gives as much options.
Eventually after hating myself for using my head in terms of the long game I begrudgingly selected human. Then something interesting and unexpected happened.
Human
Racial Abilities:
Ambitious: 5% experience bonus when gaining exp.
—Passive
Diplomacy: Relationship gains have a +5% bonus.
—Passive
Attribute points:
+5 to two attributes of your choosing. +2 to previously chosen attributes per level.
—SELECTED—
Do you wish to select a sub-race?
Yes or No
A subrace?! This could change everything. Maybe I can keep the passive ability and my freedom of allocation while getting more benefits.
“What happens if I choose a subrace as a human?”
“Your appearance would look physically different but for the most part still be human. You would only get one free choice of the bonus attribution points while the other choice is dependent on your subrace. You will also keep your ambitious ability but it may decrease in power, but you will lose your diplomacy ability and you may not get all the abilities of your subrace. Others in the world may treat you differently as well.” Veronica replied while cleaning her nails with a bored expression.
I’m not really worried about losing the Diplomacy ability, but it kinda sucks I would lose part of the Ambitious ability as well, I still think I could get a better deal than plain human though if I play my cards right. Alright time to figure out what attribute fits me best then and see if the race that has it also has cool racial abilities I could get. Well actually apparently I already figured that out...or...erm…God did. Agility and Dexterity do both kind of resonate with me, but Agility even more so because like I said, I hate getting hit.
“What race would make my bonus attribute points go into agility?” Maybe this could work.
“The catfolk of the beast people would, there are also quite a lot of half beast people as well so you would be treated less discriminately. They also have some useful abilities.” Veronica replies, knowing my thought process, as she brings up a screen that shows a picture of a anthropomorphic black cat the size of an adult human clad in leather armor and holding a long spear.
Huh pretty cool, not gonna lie. I wonder what I’d look like and what abilities I’d gain. Let’s select it and find out. After selecting the option I felt a tingling on my head and lower back, but my thoughts are interrupted by a prompt appearing.
Half-Catfolk
Racial Abilities:
Human: Ambitious - 4% experience bonus when gaining exp.
Catfolk: Cats Grace - Like a cat you are much more flexible and have greater maneuverability and control of your whole body. You can even manipulate yourself while in the air to a greater extent.
Catfolk: Cats Senses - You have the sight and hearing of a cat. You can see in dark as if it’s in dim light and you can see in dim light as if it’s in bright light.
Attribute points:
+5 to one attribute of your choosing. +2 to previously chosen attribute per level.
+5 to Agility. +2 to Agility per level.
Now that is pretty cool. The 1% decrease in my bonus for experience gain kinda sucks but I can just imagine myself flipping over people or falling from crazy heights only to land gracefully. It seems so awesome. What would I look like though?
As soon as I thought that, a large mirror appeared in front of me. “You can use this to adjust how you look as well by willing it.” I hear with a yawn from behind it.
Looking into the mirror I notice some major things; I now have cat ears pointing out of my head, a long cat-like tail sticking out my back, my nails come to a sharp point, and my light blue eyes seemed to slightly glow as my pupils elongated vertically, just barely enough to notice. Dropping my jaw at the interesting change I notice my canines are now visibly larger than before. Trying to flex and move my tail I realize it’s not that hard, it feels like another leg or arm, I also find out I can partially shift my ears, changing my hearing range and direction. Then I realize I’m now standing there naked.
“Oh calm down, I’m behind the mirror. I can read minds, I don’t have x-ray vision” said Veronica in an tone that seemed almost disappointed. “Figure out what you want to change, and let me tell you, bigger is not always better.”
That’s right, I can change my body. What would I want to change? Sure I’m skinny but in all honesty it’s not like I disliked my body, and changing it seems kinda wrong to me if I didn’t put effort into it. Hmm, when I thought about it I remembered I did always want to dye my hair silver.
With that thought, the hair on the top of my head, my new cat ears, and tail all turned silver. With a quick check I found the rest of the hair on my body did as well, and it looks pretty damn cool.
“I think I’m done. Should I decide my other bonus attribute now?” I called out to Veronica.
“You may want to wait until I explain your affinity for that. Yours is quite interesting.” She said while biting her lip and peeking out the side of the mirror, her eyes lingering. “Wow, you’re packing and you didn’t even change it.” She says, as her eyebrows shoot up her forehead.
Quickly using my hands to cover my twig and berries, coughing and feeling heat rush to my cheeks, “you were saying about my affinity.”
“Ughh, fine, but I want a prize after this.” She said, her eyes still lingering. “Your affinity has to do with the color you glowed when you came into the world. Some signify a warrior, others a mage, druids, monks, rogues, the list goes on. There are also non fighting affinities like merchant, farmer, or scholar. Think of it as a class, basically. Sure anyone can learn any skill or go into any profession but your affinity is just what you’re predominately good at doing. Like a recommendation guide.”
“Alright and what does death mean? And why do you say it’s interesting?” I ask still confused about what could be special about it. It sounds like it would be some sort of rogue or assassin class in a game. I really hope I don’t become some sort of edgelord.
“Well you aren’t far off from thinking it’s similar to a rogue or assassin affinity. However, those classes have limits. They are capable of dealing out high damage but only against single targets and they are limited to stealth and surprise tactics to do high damage. The Death affinity however is described as, well let me show you.” Quickly bringing up another screen and moving it towards me.
Death: You are a harbinger of death. A rare sight to see and live to tell about. Fighting is an art to you, as you do a deadly dance across any battlefield. Like death you are inescapable, and are nearly impossible to stop or directly attack. Because of your desire to be above the rest, you crave combat, confrontation, and conflict of any kind. You were breed to bring destruction.
Yep, I’m an edgelord.
“The description flowers it up, but your affinity is basically a high maneuverability killing machine, it’s quite rare. You don’t need stealth to do your high damage, however your affinity does work incredibly well along with it as well. Now and every ten levels you’ll have the chance to learn an ability from your affinity, when you reach the level to gain a new ability, you may choose one you left from your previous choice or a one of two new ones that appear. These are your current choices.” Veronica says bringing up another screen
Harbinger: For every kill you make while in combat your agility and dexterity increase temporarily and remain until combat has ceased. The amount of the bonus is dependent on the agility and dexterity levels of the combatant you’ve slain.
—Passive
Death's step: You gain the ability to teleport up to 30ft in any direction. However you cannot go through walls or any surface completely blocking your path.
—Cost: 50 mana. No cooldown.
Wow, those seem overpowered. I have to think though, that if I already get these powerful abilities at level one, there must be others who do as well. I should play this smart.
Death step immediately screams out to me, I see it as a ‘get out of any mess’ free card. It also seems like it would be really useful in combat, even if the mana cost is kinda high.
Harbinger definitely seems powerful but it seems kinda vague. What determines whether combat is over exactly, and the bonus being dependent on the attribute scores of those I kill is vague as well. I will probably come back and choose harbinger after making level ten simply because it’s a passive ability.
I select Death’s Step and continue, “alright should I choose my attribute bonus now?”
“Yes and after that I’ll give you your starter gear”
Alright, well now that I have Death Step it might be a good ideas to put my bonus into Intelligence for the mana. Putting all my eggs into one basket seems like a bad idea though. I should probably put my bonus into dexterity and then put in most of my three attribute points I get per level into intelligence and wisdom. That would definitely make me hard to hit but as soon as I do my health will take a serious hit. I’m wasting too much time thinking about all this.
Allocating my bonus points to go into Dexterity I move on before I overthink anymore. “Alright starter gear. How is that decided?”
“Oh it’s already been decided for you once you finished everything else.” She says waving her hand in the air. Then a table appears between us and on it I can see one sword that looks too short to be an actual sword but too long to be a dagger, along with its sheath that looks like it’s supposed to go over my back like a bandolier and has two daggers sitting in sheaths where it looks like would lie comfortably on my chest. There also appears to be some plain cloth clothing and worn leather apparel consisting of a chest piece, leggings, gloves, and boots. Then there’s what looks like a raggedy black cloak.
“You can focus on the items to see their description.” At those words I focus on each item individually, and am happy to see a couple screens pop up.
Worn Leather Armor
Consisting of a chest piece, greaves, gloves and boots; It definitely doesn’t look like much, but it should do for a quick scruffle.
+10 armor
Durability:20/20
Cloth Clothing
Consisting of pants, a shirt, briefs, and socks it may not be the softest of clothing, but it’s better than being nude.
+1 armor
Durability:10/10
Crude Iron Shortsword
Sure it’s got more rust than iron on it but hey, maybe the monster who takes it after killing you can pick their teeth with it.
Base Damage: 6-8
Durability: 15/15
Crude Iron Dagger
If the person you stab doesn’t die from the attack, maybe they’ll die from tetanus.
Base Damage: 4-6
Durability: 15/15
Leather Bandolier
Capable of sheathing a sword to the back and a pair of daggers to one's chest, this also offers some defense.
+2 armor
Durability: 15/15
-Takes the place of the belt slot in equipment.
Ragged Cloak
Did you make this from your mother's tablecloth? Offering little protection it can cover your body, head, and keep your face shielded.
+1 armor
Durability: 10/10
Small Pack
Small duffle bag barely capable of holding any contents.
Available space: 5 slots
Apart from the smart remarks in the descriptions, I couldn’t help but smile at getting some items.
“Once you are wearing the item they are considered equipped and you can see them in your equipment screen. Any other items in your possession but not equipped will appear in your inventory screen” Veronica snaps me into focus.
Once I’m completely clothed in all the gear it feels like it fits perfectly, there’s even a hole for my tail to fit through. I also think of both of my equipment and inventory screens and see that my inventory is completely blank with five slots. but my current equipment is appearing over a diagram of a generic humanoid shape filling certain slots where I’m wearing them. There are still blank slots over the fingers except for the thumbs and the neck.
Veronica now appearing a little disappointed now that I have clothes on gives a mock pout and continues, “how about you look at your status screen now?”
I figured that would probably be a good Idea, and with a thought it appears in front of me.
Level 1, Osiris Jaxton
Half-Catfolk
Affinity: Death
Age: 18
Titles: None
Exp to next level: 0%
Health: 90
Mana: 110
Stamina: 100
Armor: 14
Strength: 9
Constitution: 9
Agility: 16
Dexterity: 17
Endurance:10
Intelligence:11
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 9
Abilities:
Affinity:
Death's Step: You gain the ability to teleport up to 20ft in any direction. However you cannot go through walls or any surface completely blocking your path.
—Cost: 50 mana. No cooldown
Racial:
Human:
Ambitious: 4% experience bonus when gaining exp.
—Passive
Catfolk:
Cat's Grace: Like a cat you are much more flexible and have greater maneuverability and control of your whole body. You can even manipulate yourself while in the air to a greater extent compared to your human relatives.
—Passive
Cats Senses: You have the sight and hearing of a cat. You can see in dark as if it’s in dim light and you can see in dim light as if it’s in bright light.
—Passive
Skills: None
Spells: None
This seems like a pretty cool character layout, even if I am only level 1, and it can only get better. “Alright where do we go from here?”
“Well now you are free to go into the world.” She says as a wooden door appears out of the floor. “Just head on through. Oh and by the way be careful showing off your affinity, you might make yourself a target with a rare one like yours.”
The warning throws me off a bit but thinking of the adventures awaiting and the fact that my brothers are probably there make me head towards the door, only stopping a step away. “Hey Veronica, thank you. I’m sure your job isn’t easy but I’m glad you were here to help me out. You were the first person I met in this new world I guess, I hope I get to see you again.” I look back at her, and I completely meant it. I was glad somebody at least tried to explain something to me, and honestly she was pretty fun to be around for a little bit.
Her eyes wide and cheeks red she closes her eyes and turns to a serious expression on her face. Opening them a second later with a devilish grin she walks towards me and grabs me by the collar. Next thing I know her lips are on mine and I’m in bliss. She tastes exactly like cinnamon.
She breaks away after a while and takes a breath, her face an inch from mine. “I told you I’d get a prize.” She said with a glimmer in her eyes, “You’ll be seeing me every ten levels to choose your next affinity ability, and I’m gonna get more than a kiss next time.”
Next thing I know the door is flung open, I’m pushed through the doorway and I land in a heap with my cloak covering my face as I hear a loud thud when the door closes.