Chapter 1
Wade felt nothing as the system uploaded the neuro link into the server. Once his conscience and nerves were linked to the games programming he heard a slight ding along with old fashioned, fantasy type music but begins to wane as a mechanical voice begins.
“Please choose an avatar but remember due to the high technology of today’s pod, to make dramatic changes to height and appendages can have severe consequences such as loss of balance and hand eye coordination.” Wade listened to the voice as he watched three races appear before him.
Humans, elves, and dwarves. What Wade did not notice at first was a tab off in the far corner with some text saying ‘Racial’.
“Racial.” Wade speaks out where a window suddenly pops in front of him with the information on the races.
Human
Increased health and higher control effect resistance
Elf
Increased mana and use less mana for nature magic
Dwarf
Increased stamina and have a natural armor
Wade found the races to be generic but when he looked at the dwarf and saw the dwarf as the same height as himself he could not sigh with the unrealistic-ness of it all (even if it’s a fantasy game). With little choice, he had to make a coin toss for his race. Human or Elf. As Wade never played with people before, Wade did not realize that the racial is something every true gamer takes seriously and plan ahead for. However, he ignored the last part of the racial descriptions and decided for more mana.
“I choose Elf!” Wade says a tad bit more loudly then he wished.
His surroundings change. Not just change but morph into a grey mist and suddenly the mist disappears to reveal a night surrounding Wade full of stars.
“All children living within the lands are born under the stars, each star they are born under will guide their path, which star are you born under?” The voice went from mechanical to an alluring womanly voice that sent a slight tingling down Wade’s spine.
Once the voice ended three options appeared.
Mage
Scout
Fighter
Wade did not need a second more to decide. Choosing mage immediately another transparent screen with letters appeared along with the voice.
“All stars help guide one with their path, the stars they are born under details their proficiency in the area, what they are naturally suited for. What star of proficiency were you born under?”
Screens popped up like crazy but Wade was only looking for one window. Wade’s time with solo fantasy has made his love of fire far exceed most, his silent saying is also very disturbing.
It’s not that I like to see things burn, I just enjoy watching flicker flames burn, the charred remains are just a bonus!
Wade’s love of fire can be seen as slightly displeasing but no one knows of Wade’s secret infatuation. If any knew, a space at the local psych ward would open up immediately for a few grand, or even a rehab. Thankfully Wade is at least smart enough to keep it hidden.
Wade having grown tired of scrolling shouts ‘fire’ at the woman A.I.
“We are almost done, so far you have been born under the mage star, within this star system your inherent strength is fire. Correct?”
“Yes, can we get on with it, please?” Wade says with an exasperated sigh. The A.I complies.
“Since you are an Elf Mage, you naturally have more mana. Your racial nature affinity is now nonexistent, would you like to switch to a more compliant race?”
“No!” Wade shouts getting annoyed, he just wants to name his character, customize his features and play.
“Since the player does not wish to change races, secondary racial will be randomly chosen. Please select your name and features of your avatar.” The voice then leaves allowing for the fantasy styled music to begin.
Wade having already thought of a name ignores the floating keyboard and begins the customization of the elf. With random muttering Wade makes changes to the ears, the ears are now a finger width wide and end in a point even with the top of his head. The eyes he makes purple with a slight slant making the eyes look much more sinister. The nose receives a minor adjustment with the bridge being slightly raised. With the ears, eyes, and nose, Wade’s avatar looks very sinister. Wade looks at his elven hair, changing the color from blonde to an ashen grey. Shortens it to where the bangs reach below the check bones while also increasing the avatars weight, making it seem more like himself.
“Please adjust the avatar to my build, leave the weight the same.” The avatar immediately becomes the height of Wade as the slight fat remains the same.
When all said and done, Wade’s elf avatar now has grey hair that hides his forehead and eyes, slightly wide shoulders with a slight bulge in his stomach but not enough to be called fat, just a bear. The skin having a pale complexion with a golden hue. Wade’s avatar could be called a warrior’s body but with the mage robes encasing the avatar, its apparent he is a mage.
“Please prepare for immersion into Genesis Online.” Right after the A.I finishes the world around Wade goes dark, feeling slight nauseous for a minute before the world reveals green grass with random flowers placed along the large tree trunks. However, before Wade is an elf with mail armor holding a pike.
“I have not seen you before young elf, what is your name?” The NPC (non-player character) asks Wade. Wade already chose the name he wishes to use.
“My name is Nil! For where ever I go nothing will remain!” The NPC ignores Nil’s small declaration due to the NPC are not capable of sarcasm or emotions, they are very few and only in the game as merchants or to give quests, their intelligence is limited to the iPhone A.I Siri. Nil does not yet know this but the other elven players however, did. There laughs not being stifled at all as Nil’s ears go red in embarrassment.
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Not sticking around longer due to his embarrassment and the laughing players, he soon runs away from the small clearing. Burying his blunder deep in his mind as if it never happened yet continues to run away far from the clearing, his pride cannot so easily forget, especially when he was the direction of such humiliation. Nil’s pride further aggravating his anger finally stops running as he watches a tiny orange boar come into his sights.
“Time to release some steam.” Nil says quietly. Nil raises his hand toward the boar.
“Burn!” Nothing happened. “Incinerate!” Nothing happened once more. Nil growing more frustrated as he can’t seem to attack continues shouting synonyms of fire, and synonyms of the verb burn as the young boar continued to roam around in a circle non-the wiser. Little did Nil know that the starting NPC was supposed to give the first skill book to the new players depending under which star they chose, similar to how Nil chose fire out of the elements, warriors and scouts have something similar. Nil ran away before he got a spell and so now, Nil is a mage without a spell which is making Nil feeling further frustrated as he now repeats the same words over and over trying to set the boar flicking its tail as if taunting him on fire.
Finally getting past his boiling point, Nil takes out his dagger sheathed at his waist, being held by the robe sash, Nil charges the boar with a war cry.
“RRRaaaHHH” Nil screams as he lunges for the boar. Stabbing the boar flanks a red stab like mark remains where his dagger pierced the boars flank. With a squeal, the boar tries to bash Nil with its tusks, Nil dodges and stabs once more, only seeing the rectangular red health bar above the boar’s head falling, very slowly. Nil goes for the stab and the boar counters with his tusks. Feeling the impact even with only forty percent pain Nil grunts and plunges his dagger deeper and twisting the blade for revenge. The boar squeals even louder and begins strike once more.
Nil realizing the boar’s plan jumps on his back and stabs madly, twisting the blade at every chance having noticed the health bar went further down with the added movement. Not even a minute later the boar falls and its corpse shatters into glowing dust leaving a small brown leather bag. Nil picks up the bag for it to immediately disappear and apply itself onto Nil’s robes, on the opposite side Nil’s dagger. Nil touches the bag to find out what it is when six blank squares appear before his eyes with the seventh holding a jar with an eye, Nil pokes the fill square for a description to pop up.
Boar Eye
Useless trophy
Nil shocked at first by the find then smiles having gotten himself a bag. ‘Wonder what goodies more beasts will give!’ Nil thought greedily and he ran in the direction the boar came from with his dagger unsheathed before something blinks in Nil’s peripheral vision. Taking a closer look, the blinking icon enlarges and enters Nil’s normal point of view.
A food and drink logo followed by a green bar, the bar is down to less than a quarter of the full bar. Taking the hint, Nil looks around his waist for another bag, most games gave some items to the character upon creation. Not finding anything Nil grow’s disappointed. Nil would not return to the guard ever again, even if it would keep his avatar alive, the people would surely laugh at him again once they saw him. Nil shakes the thought away, looks around the nearby rocky wall before deciding to follow the rock wall, perhaps he can find some humanoid creatures to take some food from.
Being able to just walk by the boars would have made Nil’s trip a lot shorter and he would not be in the dire state he is currently in. But the fun of killing the boars still brings a smile to his face. His energy bar is now down to a quarter or the quarter that was left. Enough for maybe one more fight. Nil had killed two boars along his travel searching for some humanoid creature that will hopefully drop him some food for his satiety levels. His movements feeling slightly sluggish, like as if he is wading through waist deep water. Yet his anger of the embarrassing incident with his name carries him on to kill every boar he passes which surprisingly was only a few in number.
Currently Nil is walking along the rocky wall of the mountain side, few trees in sight but yet the ground remains covered in the dark, captivating green. The mountain face that Nil is following remains a light brown. Nil walks, and walks. Till finally he see’s something new. It’s not an orange boar but some sort of cat that only reaches his waist. Unlike the boars however it begins to growl once Nil steps closer. Lips parting to reveal large fangs seen on saber tooth tigers, their skeletons at least. Nil suppressing a shudder draws his dagger and makes the first move.
Swinging the dagger in a slashing movement, the cat also swung its paw a second later. The dagger slices the paw, a shriek emits from the cat and Nil lunges with a piercing strike, aimed to stab rather then slice. The cat dodges and counters, using its jaws it tries to bite. Nil dodges but loses his balance and falls flat on his buttocks. Dagger still in hand Nil tries to climb back onto his feet when the cat lunges and lands on top of Nil. Nil’s health rapidly falling as the cat claws and bites at Nil’s body. Nil feeling the slight pain ignores it and keeps plunging and twisting his dagger into the beast’s body.
The battle of attrition begins. The battle ends less than half a minute later. The cat with a last mew shatters into the glowing particles leaving behind a tooth and claw as loot. Nil about 15 health points away from death and taking bleed out damage waits for his death as he shuts his eyes with a smile on his face. Suddenly a yellow glow extends from Nil, encompassing his body, healing him to full as well as refilling Nil’s satiety bar to full as well.
Surprised, Nil opens his eyes to see a floating screen. A transparent screen with glowing black lines appears before his eye.
Nil
Level: 1
Fire Mage
Health: 100
Mana: 110
Satiety: 100%
Titles: None
0 skills/spells
Talent Points Remaining: 0
Please Choose One to Increase.
Mana or Health
Nil not having any spells at the moment decides for health. His health now at 105 instead of 100, his view of the land becomes shrouded as if in a mist. Stars and constellations surrounded him as something akin to a large tree with no leaves grows in the middle of the starry landscape. Each branch holds two to five non-glowing dots except for the trunk. The trunk holds three dots starting just above where the roots would sprout. However, the dim light glowing from the starting dot attracts Nil’s attention most. The slightly dim dot reminds Nil of the stars surrounding him as he walks up to the tree. Peering closely to the dot a screen pops up, the same as the ones before it.
The Ways of Fire
Select one
Explosive or Long Lasting
Nil not sure what to choose goes with what he strongly loves of fire. Explosive takes the beauty of the burn. When an explosion happens fire just…destroys. No, Nil loves watching the flames burn. For flames to burn they need to last so his choice becomes much easier.
Suddenly the world around him flips. Now he is in a long tunnel, as if made by hand except for the tunnel leads to a small half sphere clearing where a floating fire rests. Nil walks up to the burning fire, reaching out his right hand a screen once more pops up.
The life of a Pyro is not easy, Fire mages uses the more direct damage of explosion while Pyro Mages uses the true strength of fire!
Fire burns in its natural state, Pyro Mages take advantage of the long-lasting damage of fire to strike down their enemies in the most painful way possible, Fire.
Take your first spell and learn the ways of fire, it’s true nature.
Spell: Burn
This spell deals 2 damage every three seconds for twelve seconds.
To use this spell bind it to your spell book or to the gesture slot.
Note: Only one slot every ten levels can be used.
Nil taken from the underground sphere appears where he was before entering. Shouting out Spell Book a new screen appears showing only his newly acquired spell. Looking at the note of his last spell having completely ignored the first screen (Nil believes he loves fire more than any developers ever could) already knows the gesture limit on magic, the amount of gesture slots you have is based on your own creativity and the level of your character. Genesis does not keep most things players will find within a month in the dark, except the new black screen. Nil does not remember any of the uploaded videos of beta players receiving such a screen but yet Nil does not care, Nil finally has the ability to do what he wants with fire. All that is left is to gain enough levels so he can actually use his spells as he wishes and on who he wishes.
Tapping on the floating screen where a tiny tab with a hand and air lines drawn behind the hand as the picture representing the gesture tab, Nil only sees one gesture slot. Tapping on the slot he uses his left hand to point, as if pointing at someone.
“Burn.” Nil says in a low voice and suddenly the empty slot has a picture of a flame with the words, Spell: Burn next to it along with above the picture of the flame it now says ‘Slotted’ as before it had ‘Unslotted.
Nil happy with his first spell takes the dagger in his right hand having seen his satiety at full along with his health quickly searches for a monster. A monster to watch burn.