Dream Fantasy Online, a new up and coming virtual reality game developed by Gaia Industries is coming out today. Although it is not the 1st of its kind, it boasts a stunning 100% realism in comparison to most other games. When asked for details of the game, the CEO merely stated that “all will be revealed as our world discovers it.”
Neva Winters, a 17-year old young girl, is going to start playing today. She, like many others, were enticed by the promises that DFO had to offer. A world not strictly bound to classes where anyone can be anything they want to be. A world of fantasy where you can traverse to other worlds with different settings and life-styles. A world where characters can be customized beyond just their skills into completely unique characters even at the same level. A world where even a slime can kill a player at level 1.
Of course, there are other benefits outside of the entertainment value. The rise of virtual reality also led to an increase in espers across the world. Those with abilities can increase their control in the game and those without can potentially unlock an ability from playing. Although criminal activity has also become harder to handle, it has also allowed impossible cases to be easily solved through the use of an esper’s power.
There are also the debates of religion and reality vs virtual reality. Some religious groups have banded together to protest the propagation of fake gods in virtual reality. They are worried that the real god will be replaced by the virtual gods in games. The realists, however, are concerned about the time everyone has been spending shut-in their virtual lives instead of actually living in the outside world.
None of these debates really mattered to Neva. All it reminded her of was the discussions on how cartoons would make children more violent. Like really? Even a child that doesn’t understand death or the laws of gravity knows not to jump off a cliff and think they can just walk in the air (they might tire themselves out with jumping up and down though, but the law of “what goes up, must come down” is not going to let them win). Not to mention the ridiculousness of being turned to ash and somehow healing yourself later. What children did comprehend was that funny is still funny.
But let us move on to our protagonist and her own issues. She comes from a long-standing family known for raising espers gifted in the manipulation of water and ice. As such, all children are taught how to control their abilities from a very young age and often through the usage of games. Neva too, has played several virtual realities to hone her abilities and is now a revered ice esper.
Unfortunately, as enjoyable as it was to play games, she has had little time to enjoy herself since she was always monitored to make sure she practiced her ability. Now, however, she is finally living on her own and is free from the expectations of her family. To commemorate such an occasion, she bought DFO in order to finally have some peace and relaxation. Thus she begins the process of creating her virtual identity for her new fantasy life. After donning her Yggdrassil Gate visor along with the bracelets/anklets, a feminine voice speaks in her mind.
[New user detected]
[Body scan complete]
[Mind scan complete]
[No abnormalities]
[Connecting to Dream Fantasy Online]
Everything goes black and Neva is now falling through an empty abyss just to suddenly stop. There, she finds herself floating above a giant landmass. The sight was simply breathtaking. Be it the birds flying through the skies, the ocean sparkling from the sun’s rays, and a gentle breeze pushing along the clouds.
???: “Mesmerizing isn’t it?” ‘A melodious voice rings out’
Neva: “Yeah, never been able to see a world like this before. Birds sure are lucky.” ‘This is true as even with the advent of technology, only a small percentage of espers have the ability to fly through the sky.’
???: “I’m not too sure about that. They seem prone to getting caught by their feline adversaries.” ‘Neva chuckled upon remembering how her friends tell her stories of their pet cats bringing home presents.’
???: “Now allow me to introduce myself. I am Estelle, goddess of the stars, and I shall be your guide while you create your vessel. What shall I call you young lady?”
Neva: “Celsius.”
Estelle: “Then Celsius, what race do you want to live as? All races will start off the same so the only difference will be aesthetic. There are, however, a few racial abilities that can be obtained but those require effort to obtain.”
Dozens of miniature images of Celsius shows what she would look like as various races. Scrolling through the selection, she stops on a particular type of elf labeled as snow elf. It’s a race known for their high ice affinity or would be if this game differentiated every race from each other but that would also limit creativity so just giving a few racial abilities was a wise choice.
After picking snow elf, the image grows to full-body size so she can customize her appearance. Her long, black hair is smooth and shiny. Long, pointy elf ears extend from the sides of her head. She changed her brown eyes to sapphire blue in order to match her ice theme. Normally, snow elves would have light blue skin but she decided to keep her light brown skin to feel more comfortable. Role-playing is one thing but blue skin is just weird!
Moving on to the next step in the process, she now had to pick her starting location. All elves start in a forest, but each race of elves prefers different types of forests and they always have a great tree to live inside. Normal elves like healthy green forests. Dark elves enjoy living in dark, twisted forests. For snow elves, its snow forests that are covered in snow all-year long. This means that she can only start in the cold north. Out of the choices, she decides on the Forest of Everlasting Snow.
Estelle: “All that’s left is to decide on your growth rate.”
Celsius: “Growth rate?”
Estelle: “Yes! All characters will start off with a base of 10 in all of the basic stats. As you level up, your stats will automatically increase depending on the amount of growth points you put into every stat. Of course, for flexibilities sake, you also get 5 free stat points per level to invest wherever you desire. Hp/mp will always go up every level even if you don’t invest in the basic stat for them. You can also increase your stats through titles, but there is no guarantee you can get one.”
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Once the goddess had finished her explanation, a window popped up showing the 8 basic stats of strength, vitality, endurance, intelligence, wisdom, mind, agility, and dexterity. An allowance of 20 points gives a lot of leeway for customization, but there are so many ways to build a character with this many points.
Strength being the indicator of physical damage and how much weight one can carry. Intelligence is the indicator for magical damage and mp capacity. Vitality is how much hp you can have. Endurance is the representative for defense while mind is for magic defense. Wisdom grants mana recovery and faster cast speed. Agility shows how quick you can run and dexterity is for how well you can use your hands.
Overall, every stat can have uses for every character regardless of build. As an ice mage strength can be nice if you decide to go with the combat mage route, agility if you don’t want to be a sitting duck, vitality to not die in a single blow, endurance if going the tanky mage route, mind to not die to enemy magicians, intelligence to actually have mana to cast the stronger spells, wisdom to not chant at a turtle’s pace, and dexterity to have greater control over magic. Most mages would probably go for a mix of int/wis which is efficient at being a glass cannon but not much more than that.
Celsius knew 10 points in wisdom was a must for speed casting as being incapable of doing anything while casting a big spell is a mage’s Achilles heel. She put another 5 points in intelligence to have enough mana to cast any of the important spells. 3 points went into agility to at least be able to dodge an attack when necessary. The last 2 points went into mind so she can take a few of her spells and not die easily. Why her own magic and not others? Self-torture is ironically the quickest way to obtain skills and improve them.
Estelle: “Oh? Very few people invest in the defensive stats.”
Celsius: “I bet.”
Estelle: “Why do you think people hate being defensive?” ‘She tilts her head while pondering over this question like it’s the equivalent of the purpose of life.’
Celsius: “Well, nobody wants to be hit in the first place as 10% pain is well…painful. Tanks are simply unfortunate bastards having to protect a bunch of selfish, squishy cowards.”
Estelle: “Then does that make you a masochist?” ‘Are all goddesses this curious about mortals? They sure don’t hold back on their ammo.’
Celsius: “No pain, no gain. Or so they say.” ‘This elicited a chuckle from the intrigued goddess.’
Estelle: “Well, let me send you on your way before we talk the whole day away. Maybe we can keep in touch since few humans or I guess elves in this case like to humor the curiosity of a goddess such as myself.” ‘Oh? She likes me! Take that all you perverted men sucking up to the goddesses.’
Celsius: “Sure! I never had a goddess for a friend before. Now if I ever listen in to a guy’s random conversation of wishing perverted things with a goddess, then I can rub it in their faces that I have a close friendship with a goddess.”
Estelle: “Go right ahead!”
I might have broken the goddess of this world. She is now clutching her stomach while rolling across an invisible floor that somehow exists in mid-air. Even tears are dripping from her eyes while she is bursting from laughter.
Once her digital insides had recovered from her laughter attack, the goddess then decided to approach me. I was curious if there was another procedure until she had embraced me and gave me a very passionate kiss. Even our tongues were entangled for a bit as she explored every nook and cranny of my mouth. A strange heat starts to build up in my body near my nether regions and it’s driving me crazy. If I wasn’t already naked while creating a character, I might have started stripping immediately.
This goddess knows I am suffering from her teasing, but she just slowly glides her tongue down my chest and finally getting to my female bits. Oh goddess, you must be cheating the pleasure sensors since not even the most skilled touch can make me feel like this so quickly. Not that I am going to complain since this is just sooooo nice! My moans echo throughout the area and I feel like there are even other beings watching us but obviously nothing visible can be seen. Even so, Estelle would never let me focus on anything but her for an entire hour long. That grin she had on her face the entire time shows how much fun she had with toying with me and making me leak bodily fluids from even the slightest of physical contact.
After we got that out of our systems, we finally moved on to our farewells before I begin my career as an otherworlder. One last kiss and a hug to tide over our feelings from the best sex ever! Although, I really did not want to let go of Estelle but I can’t just hover in the sky without clothing for an eternity right? She then says some final words to me before sending me on my way. We must have held up the line for the character creation process….
Estelle: “Good luck my ‘close’ friend and keep in touch!”
Celsius: “I will!”
Waving each other goodbye, my body then breaks into particles of light. I wonder how many other people have such a weird start when playing this game? It’s not every day you get to sleep with a goddess you know and especially one that can send a succubus packing! And thus marks the beginning of a weird mages new life. Yet, the divine beings still lurk in the shadows or the light in this case?
Luna: “So you two finally finished flirting?”
Estelle: “She’s an interesting one so I couldn’t help but mark her as mine.”
Luna: “Poor girl. She is never going to get a wink of sleep now.”
Nyx: “She looked like she enjoyed it to me.”
Estelle: “I haven’t lost my touch yet!”
Luna: “I would congratulate you on finally ending your single status after all these centuries, but I feel like the girl is the one who won the lottery here.”
Estelle: “Isn’t it obvious? It’s both of us who are the winners here!” ‘She says while puffing out her chest.’
Luna: “Are you rubbing it in that your chest is bigger than mine?” ‘The moon goddess starts to get teary-eyed.’
Nyx: “There there, Luna. She didn’t mean it. Those things just naturally come to the ‘well endowed.’” ‘The night goddess states in a sullen tone.’
Luna: *muuuu* “I’m leaving. I want to watch something funny.”
Nyx: “I better cheer up the princess. Have fun with your new lover Estelle!”
Estelle: “Yeah, see ya later! Oh and I heard that Loki is going to prank a few cities soon. Perhaps you should grab a front-row seat before it begins.”
Luna: “Yay!”
Only a fading echo remains of the moon goddess as she is followed by the night goddess for some entertainment. You might be wondering why they both got upset at Estelle, but the matter is simple really. Their chest rankings go Luna ---> Nyx ---> Estelle with Nyx being a moderately sized woman like our protagonist. Estelle, however, is not rank 1 in this list when you get all the goddesses together but is still pretty high up the rankings. Poor Luna is unfortunately at the very bottom. Poor Luna….