In his new avatar, Plat suddenly felt his body fall through the invisible floor.  As anyone could imagine, he had a very typical response to suddenly falling through space.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  He cried out as he twisted his body in a vain attempt to slow his descent.  His arms waved through the air while his feet moved up to move his body into a body-flop type posture.  His hair was still whistling through the air when Plat, rather Steel now, suddenly found himself landing in a field of grass.  He landed with a loud 'poof' and groaned.

"I apologize if the transition was uncomfortable."  The voice reappeared next to his ear, "I was also unaware that the pain inhibitors were offline so it is, as you human youth say, "'my bad'."

"I'm not in pain."  Steel muttered as he pushed himself off the ground, "The pain inhibitors are working perfectly; it's just the sensation of falling is very uncomfortable to most people."

"This has been noted and logged for tomorrow, thank you for your tutorial review."  If Steel didn't know any better, he'd have though the voice had a hint of humor in it.

Steel looked around, examining the new location.  Unlike the previous blue space, this area was covered in a layer of short, soft grass that moved with an invisible wind he could not feel.  The grass extended farther than he could he without a hint of ending.

"Is this the tutorial space?  What do I do here?"  He asked the voice.

"The tutorial level is currently the only level available to your VR hardware without the server connection."  The voice explained, "As such, there is a limit to what can be loaded on screen for you to interact with as the majority of the data resides in the servers.  The tutorial is still fully active, however, but will lack the pleasant aesthetics normally present."

"What's up first then?"  Steel rubbed his hands together, excited to get started.

With a rumble, the ground in front him trembled and moved aside, allowing stone and earth to rise up into miniature hills.  Small bushes sprung up from the dirt piles while the stone began to glitter in soft colors.

"First, this tutorial will teach you how to interact with the world of Everlife.  Try walking to the bushes in front of you."

Slightly confused, Steel began walking toward the bushes.  However, after his second step his foot caught himself and he tumbled to the ground.  Embarrassed, he tried again, but tripped a second time.

"Currently, the avatar program is communicating with your physical brain." The voice lectured as Steel slowly made his way forward, "Your brain is telling your body to move, but the avatar body is different from your normal body and is not entirely in sync.  Once the process is complete, you will have the same control over your body as everyone else in the game."

"Is this going to be a common problem." Steel asked from the ground.

"The problem will exist for all human and A.I. players, but the degree will differ greatly for humans depending on the amount of physical augmentation present in each avatar.  Your avatar is very different from your real body, so you are having a longer sync period.  Almost there now."

Thankful for the lack of sweat and huffing in the game world. Steel dragged himself up the hill to a standing posture.

"For your next step, remove the fruit from the bush without crushing it."  Now that he was closer, Steel could clearly see the heart-shaped fruit on the bushes.  The fruit was a yellow and pink color and had a pleasant aroma.

"This is an easy test!"  He exclaimed as he successfully removed the fruit, "What was the point of all that?"

"Some races have smaller arms and hands, so the calibrations must also be set.  Imagine carrying a small, fragile package and breaking it just by trying to hold it.  Also, in the case of males . . . "

"I understand, next test please."  Steel interrupted the voice with a blush, than realized, "Hey, does that mean you are a girl."

The voice paused for a moment, "I did explain earlier about A.I.'s did I not?"

Steel waved his hand, "Yes, but your words clearly stated a bias toward males as if you were not one."

He heard chuckling as the voice gained a slightly more feminine tone, "I'll praise you for your observational skills young human and reward you with my real voice.  You will likely be the only human to ever here it through your audio processors."

"You mean ear?"

"No, you are clearly in a game and don't have 'ears'.  The next test is to swing this pick-ax while changing your posture with each throw."

Steel obliged her, taking the time to switch hands every swing.  While initially off balance with each throw, he gradually found himself adjusting and swinging faster.

"That is enough; your synchronization is nearly complete now."  She informed him, "Only one last test remains."

A table appeared in front of Steel, one that held all manner of weaponry and armor on it.

Steel's eyes glittered in amazement, "What is this all for?"

"Simulated combat is the last step, combining the use of your arms and legs while keeping your balance.  Whether you live or die is irrelevant and this test must be done until your sync is complete.  On a side note, and I really shouldn't tell you this, all players who complete the tutorial will automatically be given a skill to specialize in the type of weapon and armor.  In other words, when you start the game your character will have the sword skill and medium armor skill if you use the two during this test.  Think of it as a small reward for providing valuable sync data for the development team.  You will not keep the items, though, and will start the game like all other players."

Steel was confused, "Won't all players have to take this tutorial to sync properly?"

"As long as they had a sync test with their equipment, no matter the program source, it will be automatically used when starting the game.  Only first time virtual divers have to worry about the sync issue.  Also, the tutorial is not required and players can manually sync within the game in the safety of Beginner Towns."

"Choose your armor and weapon."

Steel walked over and examined all the available items.  "Can I use a shield as well?"  He asked her.

"Shields are available for use on the armor table."

Steel turned and stared hopefully, "Can I just use a shield to fight with?"

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The voice did not answer for a moment, "Why would you desire to fight with just a shield."

"Because it sounds so cool!"  Steel began raving, "Imagine, a mighty general leading his army into battle at the helm, driving himself through enemy lines with nothing but two shields on his arms, throwing his enemies aside with every bash.  The spikes on the shields would pierce all armor and . . ."

It was official, the voice was outright laughing at him now.  She was laughing so hard the air began to shimmer and a faint human outline began to appear before she stopped herself.  She was still giggling when she began to talk, "So, you want to kill enemies with just a shield, no two shields with spikes on them.  Am I correct in seeing you imagining yourself on a horse while this happens?"

She snorted again at his nod, "First of all, those would have to be tower shields for what you are thinking.  Tower shields are the heaviest type of equipment in the game and require a small weapon in the other hand.  The game will not allow two to be wielded at the same time, no matter how high your strength is; the game physics would not allow for it.  Next, any spike mounted on a shield, especially a tower shield, would be absurdly heavy if you wanted them to pierce all armor.  You could," She granted, "Have small spikes on a leather hide that was attached tot he shield, but whatever you pierce would get stuck on the spikes, increasing the weight.  Horses do have a weight limit, high as it is, and you would be terribly unbalanced.  No, if you want a shield to take into battle do not only use it to fight."

Majorly disappointed, Steel resigned himself to a medium shield, light armor, and a spear.

"Your choice is that of a gladiator, is this alright?"

He sighed, "Sure, this should work for now.  Is there an enemy to fight?"

A second tremor answered his question, calling Steel's attention to the area behind him.  A small, ugly green creature with large teeth growled at him while waving a crude sword in the air.

"This a goblin, one of the weaker enemies found in Everlife."  The voice informed him, "As a rule of thumb, monsters tend to exist in the wild in a small range of levels except for variants.  However, a goblin near Beginner Town will be weaker than say, a goblin found in the Woods of Death.  Kill this goblin as part of the test."

Steel raised an eyebrow, "I really have to kill it? That seems sort of . . . extreme."

"Well," the voice mused, "You don't have to kill it if you don't want to, but . . ."

While Steel was distracted, the goblin ran up and slashed Steel's arm with his sword.  Gasping in pain, Steel reeled back and away from the monster.

"It will certainly try to kill you." She finished saying.

Apparently, the pain inhibitors were off for Steel.  He checked his arm, moving it experimentally, and found it worked perfectly besides the light pain that was fading fast.  He growled and took a fighting stance against the goblin, which licked it's sword in a sadistic manner as it gazed at him with malevolence.

Shrieking, it ran at him with it's sword swinging down.  Steel held his shield up and took the blow, taking a step back to avoid getting pushed over.  He swung his spear around and began to jab repeatedly at the goblin, who leaped backwards as the spear came close.

"You have some very poor form."  The voice observed.

"You're welcome to give any advice."  Steel muttered, blocking another strike from the goblin.

"This is merely a tutorial for the general game.  If you want to learn how to properly fight, than go find a trainer in the Beginner Towns and learn there.  It's not like the game cares too much on perfect movement or footwork, but you'll learn to not be a complete flop at fighting."

Steel lunged forward, thrusting his spear forward at the goblin.  The goblin nimbly dodged with a quick slash and ran backwards out of range.  Steel glared at the spot the voice was coming from.

"You're getting awfully familiar with me; is that also one of your duties?"

"No, but your three friends have already left and now most of my processing power is on you, allowing for a greater focus and more of my personality bleeding through."  She admitted, "Also, you are quite the amusing human to observe.  Careful there!"

The goblin ran around him and landed a slash behind his shield.  Steel hissed from the pain as he whirled his body to face his attacker.  This time, he shoved his shield around when the goblin slashed downward and knocked it off balance, giving himself time to stick his spear in the monster's stomach.  The goblin gurgled and vanished into sprinkles of bubbles, leaving behind a small sack on the ground.

Curious, Steel reached down and opened the sack, but found nothing inside.

"That is your beginner bag."  The voice whispered in his ear, "When you start the real game, you'll find your basic items inside as well as the two skills you used today.  This ends the tutorial."

Steel turned his head and said in distress, "How is this a tutorial?  The only things I've done here is move around and fight a single battle.  What about skills, abilities, lore, etc.?"

The voice giggled, "I can answer that for you as we leave.  You can activate skills by thinking or saying the name of the skill.  Abilities are passive or active  and either race specific or gained in through the game and rely on the same concept.  You'll learn the lore as you play, so no more free information for you.  Have a good day"

"Aren't you kicking me out a little fast?"  Steel asked, slightly hurt.

"Of course; I'm using valuable processing power to take care of you when I need to finalize my role in the game.  After all, I'll be taking part in it as well."

"As a player or an NPC?"

"That's for you to find out."  The voice laughed, "Which reminds me; any A.I. who plays will not remember being an A.I.  Those of us who play as players will believe ourselves to be human or etc. within the game only, and A.I. NPC's will not consciously remember the outside world well.  Don't talk about real life in front of NPC's because it'll cause problems and they won't understand anyway.  If we do meet, I'll only vaguely remember you in game.  Now, don't come back until tomorrow and have a wonderful day."

Plat's screen faded away and he once again found himself back in the real world.