The next chapter is going to be delayed for a few days. I am starting a trial and will be booked up day and night for a while.
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CHAPTER THREE
After another fun filled day at the office, I returned home and was ready for my second attempt to play Horvat’s World. The Sensodyne suit had arried. It looked like one of those unitards from Star Trek Next Generation. This was definitely not a complimentary look on my body. The suit however, linked with the VR helmet and would trigger muscle feedback to my body in conjunction with the activity that I engaged in while playing in Horvat’s World. It did allow a sliding scale of feedback to adjust your personal workout. Being cautious I placed the feedback level on 50%.
Once this was accomplished, I placed my VR helmet on and initiated the startup process. I found myself once again in my portal room. My desk and computer beckoned me but, this time I resisted and walked through the doorway marked ‘Horvat’s World”. I felt a sense of being transported and took a few steps to balance myself. I looked up from my faltering feet to see a young woman. She had blonde hair and blue eyes and was dressed in a white business suit. She spoke before I could recover from my surprise.
“Good evening Mr. Dellman. My name is Darcy, I will be your guide for the initial setup of your Horvat’s World account. While you provided preliminary information when you installed this program we will need additional information now. Are you prepared to link a bank account or credit card to this game account?
“Yes, I am please use my American Express card number XXXXX XX XX2542 for all transactions.”
“Thank you, with that out of the way let’s begin.”
A bright light filled the room for a brief second before the room returned to its normal brightness.
“Your retinal scan has been completed, and we are now ready for character creation. Have you picked a name for your character Mr. Dellman? Please remember your character must be male we do not allow gender swapping in Horvat’s World.”
“Yes Darcy, I have chosen the name Mardel.”
“Let me check, yes, that name is available. I will now refer to you at all times as Mardel. This will be your one and only permissible character in Horvat’s World unless you delete this character. You have some important decisions to make are you ready to proceed?”
“Thank you Darcy, yes, I am.”
“Very good, let’s start with character race. Have you decided on which race you would like to play?” Your choices are Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, or Gnome. Currently monster races are locked but, that may change in the upcoming expansion.
I had thought long and hard on this question during the research I had performed. Each race had plusses and minuses to them, with human being a default race with neither any plusses or minuses to their starting stats. However, I was tired of aging. As a human, problems with aging would soon affect my character’s body if I played this game long enough. With a six to one time ratio arthritis, and decaying vision were far too close for this type of choice. I tend to take the long view in my analysis. I also just wanted to have fun and try something different.
“Yes, I have decided to be an elf.”
“Are you sure? All characteristics, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma start at a base of 10 as a human. If you choose to play an elf there will be a subtraction of one from both your strength and constitution, although there will be an addition of two to dexterity and one to intelligence.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“Yes, I’m sure. I want to play an elf.”
“We now need to distribute 10 stat points between your characteristics. How would you like to place these points?
I was looking for a balanced build for this character, one that would be able to stand on its own. With this in mind I decided on the following: “ I would like two points in strength, two points in dexterity, two points in constitution, two points in intelligence and two points in wisdom.”
“ "O.K., let’s move on to designing your avatar, we start with this.”
Suddenly appearing before me was a grotesque vision. It was a naked copy of myself, a little more angular with pointed ears and almond shaped eyes. The skin color was nearly milk white and wrinkled, hanging jowls and deep circles under the eyes discolored blue and black. There was a small gut and flabby musculature on a body that looked 200 hundred years old. No wonder why my wife wanted me to get into shape. I wondered what she saw in me at all.
“Would you like to make any changes to this avatar?”
“Oh, God, yes! Where do I start? First, let’s take 40 years off the age this body. 40 human years, however many that would be in elf years to make the same changes.”
The copy of myself suddenly melted into a younger version of me. It looked like me at 25. Still lots of work still to do.
“Let’s decrease the fat by 15% and add 20% more muscle, and make my height 6’1”. “
Man, I started looking good. Talk about your vanity mirror. I was starting to look like my mind’s eye of myself not that imposter that looked at me in the mirror each morning.
“And now for the most important part, give me hair!”
I scrolled through a dozen hairstyles until I chose a swept back look that came to just above my shoulders. I then chose the color brown for the hair, and a soft bronze for my skin color. I felt like a kid in a candy store, I hadn’t felt this good in ages.
“That completes all of the changes I want to make Darcy.”
“Are you sure, maybe you want to rework the shaping of your lips?”
Did I detect that the A.I. was a little fed up with my Christmas wish list in remaking my body? I think I pushed it far enough.
“No, I think that does it Darcy. Sorry for taking so long.”
“Quite alright, let’s move on then to your starter city. Have you chosen where you wish to start?”
Once again, I had done my research and decided on an Elven starter area that contained a number of craftsmen and training facilities to begin my quest for independence.
“Yes, I would like to start in Mayfield Village.”
“Granted, prepare for placement.”