At just over 50 years old, Sergeant Benjamin Kellos (retired) stood just a hair under five foot ten, though he'd be a fuzz over five eleven if he stood straight. Then again, standing to his full height put strain on his back and hurt; nothing he couldn’t ignore if he had to, but why hurt when you don’t gotta.
The official government files said his hair was dark brown or black, depending on which form you read, but he had been shaving bald since his early twenties, when the hereditary receding hair line had kicked in. He was pretty sure that if he let it grow out, there’d be a fair amount of white. Not that he would let it grow; the itching drove him nuts if he didn’t shave at least once a week.
While he had once been a fitness buff, his injuries had forced him into inactivity, and he liked to joke that just walking past his favorite restaurant caused him to gain weight. It wasn’t just around his gut, either. Arms, chest and legs once well-muscled from carrying a machine gun, radio, or mortar, had quickly shifted to fat once his life became sedentary, and he tipped the scales at 300 pounds the last time he'd bothered to step on one. His "chonker dad bod”, as one of his nieces had put it, extended even to his face, softening the high, sharp cheek bones. His jaw and chin, once sharply angled and strong now had a decidedly soft roundness.
His nose was crooked and lumpy, having clearly been broken multiple times, and pinched at the top from having worn glasses for 40 years. His eyes shifted color often, going from hazel to various shades of green or blue, depending on the light and his mood. Not that many got to see them through the darkly shaded lenses he wore. Too many years of night operations had left his eyes almost painfully sensitive to light.
It was a typical January for the American Midwest; the polar vortex had hit again this year, as it had most years dating back into the mid1800s. Comparatively, this one was mild, with temperatures not even reaching ten degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). Seeing drops to near twenty below weren’t uncommon, even though climatologists tried to deny it. The polar vortex had brought a foot of snow with it. While the young people of today were convinced this was “catastrophic climate change” and a “once in a generation” storm, basic atmospheric science said when air that cold crossed the Great Lakes, this was the expected result. Kellos could remember at least one such storm, if not several, every decade of his life. All the various branches of environmentalism had been making the claim of “in ten more years” since Kellos was five. Ten more years…… all the endangered species would be extinct; nuclear war would kill us all; nuclear waste would kill us all; all the oil would be gone; all the iron, nickel, and tin would be mined; climate change; blah, blah blah. Pick the topic, and the world was supposedly doomed “in ten more years”. Anything and everything done was always “too little, too late”, right up until yet another “end of the world” prediction turned out wrong. Kellos had lived through more “end of the world” dates than he could count. Four and a half decades of environmental prophets getting it wrong over and over had left him decidedly cynical and jaded. At this point, he was more willing to believe the nutjobs on street corners in New York City with their “end is near” signs than anything an environmentalist ‘expert’ predicted. At least the crackpots were entertaining.
He sat in a small office with his doctor, listening to her explain the offer being made. Doctor Kilcarny, a short woman of Pakistani descent, with the typical dark hair and eyes, despite the very Irish last name, smiled as she expounded, "Mr Kellos, the VA has chosen you for one of our experimental procedures. The medical pod will place you in suspended animation as it tries to repair the damage to your body; we're hoping that we can heal you."
"Wasn’t aware that degenerative damage could be repaired," he answered, shifting to try to alleviate the chronic pain from, well, basically everything. For 20 years, whenever the army asked 'who wants to do something stupid?' his hand was up before they finished the question. At one point or another, he’d broken ribs, arms, legs, and most of his fingers and toes. He’d been stabbed, shot, and blown up; even set on fire once, though he managed to put that out before any serious injury occurred. Not that he would have changed anything; his career had been full of doing things that people said were impossible, even as they watched him do it. He’d lost count of how many countries he’d been to (both officially and unofficially) and settled with counting continents. (Five, if anyone asked) He had climbed mountains, swam in oceans, seen some of the oldest ruins on the planet, and thanks to the head injuries, couldn’t remember half the battles he’d fought in.
But the old timers had warned him he'd wind up crippled by 40, if he didn’t slow down, and they'd been right. He was supposed to get both shoulders, hips, and knees replaced, as well as some kind of fix for four vertebrae (the doctors couldn’t make up their minds as to which procedure to use). Most his internal organs were screwed up one way or another.
"We're not sure we can, to be honest. We've experimented with using the medipod for cancers and other severe issues, with the reports looking promising. Now we want to expand the testing to other conditions; push the boundaries of medicine to see what we can heal. Nanobots injected into the body are used to remove damaged tissue while encouraging rapid generation of healthy replacement. If it works as we hope, it could revolutionize surgical methods. Also, we’re seeing if it can repair degenerative damage like yours. A cure for arthritis; a way to repair vertebrae without surgery; repairing organ tissue damage; these are just some of the possibilities we’re eager to test. Lucky for us, you have most of those issues.” She tried to sound sympathetic, while hiding her eagerness. It’s not that she failed, but at the same time, she wasn’t very successful, either.
"So I’m your guinea pig." The doctor shifted uncomfortably and opened her mouth to say something before Kellos interrupted. "I don’t mind. Anything that will help others is good. But I was a field grunt most my career. I don’t need the fancy words and legal double talk to sugar coat it. You say that this might help me and will help others. Sign me up."
Dr Kilcarny looked at her file. "We expect that you'll be in the pod for a good six months, for the first test treatment. It has a bio feedback system to prevent muscle atrophy, much like what was used by NASA when we were still sending astronauts into space. Indeed, if the Endless Horizons marketing department is to be believed, you will come out stronger than you go in. To keep your mind sharp, you will be put into a virtual reality simulation, or you can be put into the game that our partner company, Endless Horizons, runs. It would be the same VR game that they're currently beta testing."
"So I get to play the latest and greatest” he made air quotes as he said that last part, “video game for free for six months? Heh, why we still talking? Sounds great." The cheerfulness and eagerness in his voice were evident.
"Endless Horizons is asking you to test some features. One of their representatives will go into specifics tomorrow as we prepare you for the pod. You'll be here for 24 hours so we can monitor your intake and vitals, then be inserted into the pod the day after. We need to put you on a liquid diet and flush out your digestive track starting today, to have you ready."
“Well, do what ya gotta. I’ll do my best to take it like a soldier. And thanks, doc, for the opportunity.”
The next day, he shuffled into the small meeting room. A cute little Chinese looking brunette, five foot one and definitely on the skinny side, with a severe ponytail, brown eyes, and a lab coat at least two sizes too big that hung to her knees, greeted him, sitting down at the table in the middle of the room, choosing a chair directly across from him.
As he sat, she started in a very young sounding voice; the kind one would expect from a young teen in an anime, not an adult woman, "Mister Kellos?” Ben nodded. “I’m Joan, the rep from Endless Horizons. I’m here to explain what we can about the game before you enter. Now, we won’t provide much detail; the point is for you to explore and learn on your own as much as possible. But you should know some basics.”
She waited for his nod, and then continued, “AnKi is a fantasy setting with numerous areas loosely based on real world areas and cultures. There are areas representing the Nordic cultures, a Greco-Roman area, as well as the more common European Middle Ages. We have made two Middle Eastern areas – one with pre-Islamic myths and legend, and the other representing the changes Islam brought that are expected to patch-in next month. There are also two east Asian areas, one based on feudal Japan, another based on Middle Ages China that are expected to patch in by the third quarter, ideally around August. There will be expansions in the future, but this is the starting game. Your starting point will depend on the character you build, but you can travel to any of them.
“This is a fully immersive virtual reality, dubbed FIVR, meaning you will experience the world with all five senses. There are multiple lesser EIs controlling the NPCs, so they will seem much more realistic. Our developers did everything they could to establish the necessary verisimilitude of a living world.
"As far as the operations of the game itself, the first thing you should be aware of is that our US operations are a partnership with the Department of Defense, as well as Veteran’s affairs Medical. As such, roughly half the test players are, or have been military personnel. It has affected AI development, leading to a tendency for sarcasm, crude jokes, snide or rude comments, and a lot of backhanded compliments.”
“So, the AIs are basically ass…. I mean jerks?” Kellos censored himself.
Joan grinned as she caught his correction. “Not entirely, but it does happen more often than we’d like. Unfortunately, it would take far too long to develop a new central AI. As for the game itself, we're trying to develop as much freedom as possible in the game world. You'll start with no class..."
He interrupted her with a snort and a smile, "yeah, I'm used to people saying I got no class." Seeing her questioning look, he apologized. "Sorry, old gaming joke. Please continue."
"Anyway, there are no class-based skill limitations. You can learn just about anything, and study as in-depth as you want to. If you want to be a mage with heavy armor and a greataxe, it is possible, though it may not be optimal. Likewise, if you want to be a primitive warrior wearing only a loincloth while carrying stone-tipped spears, you can. The goal of the developers is to allow you to play as you want.
You'll start as a level 0, with flat fives in the attributes. After the tutorial, you will get more attribute points to assign. At level two, depending on the skills you have, you'll be eligible for your first class. You can have up to three classes and three professions; I assume you know the difference?" He nodded. "Good. What classes are, and how they develop is incredibly open, so you can create your avatar exactly as you want. So far, we have the standard adventurers, killing monsters and righting wrongs..."
He smiled and quipped, "you mean wronging rights? That’s more normal of gamers."
"Fortunately, we have very few of that type in the test pool, right now. With half the testers being military and veterans, we expected more trouble, to be honest. We have been surprised to find that most the problematic players are civilians. We also have crafter and merchant players, and some that are testing social aspects of the game, involving themselves in local politics. We're trying to keep a limited number of players per starting area, though you're free to travel anywhere and team up with whomever you choose.
"We've currently developed an assisted avatar creator, and we're hoping you can help test it. Few of the earlier testers were willing, just wanting to jump right into the game with their own preferred build."
"What is involved?”
"The system will run you through a number of tests to help determine the most ideal race, make your starting attributes more closely resemble you in real life, and create a more personalize start."
"Sweetie, I’m overweight, out of shape, broken, and on the wrong side of 50. I really don’t want to play in the shape I'm in." His tone still joking, but she could see the seriousness in his eyes.
"Oh, no. It’s more like one of those personality tests, combined with an aptitude test. For instance, a strongly religious person might not want to play a cleric to an in-game god, and a dedicated vegan might be uncomfortable playing an orc, since orcs are predominantly carnivorous." She smiled. “The point is that the few who have used it so far haven’t completed the full thing, getting bored and just going to their default characters from previous games. Likewise, few have completed the full tutorial, choosing just to jump straight into the introductory area."
"Wait. You have a tutorial and an intro zone?"
"Well, the tutorial is to teach you how to play in a fully immersive VR. Since the game is the first of its kind, we felt that was important. Then there is the standard area for low level players. I think the term is 'Noob zone'?" He nodded. "That’s where you can start playing the actual game, instead of learning the system." She leaned forward conspiratorially, and whispered, "most the so-called 'problems' the players are having come entirely from skipping the tutorial." Her voiced switched back to normal as she sat back, "we would like for you to complete the tutorial as a bug check, since no one has had the patience to do so yet. We'll give you the address through the in-game messenger to notify us if you find a bug or flaw. Bear in mind, we don’t mind exploits, so long as it’s not too game breaking. We want creativity and lateral thinking; we're trying to create a game that encourages and rewards it. That being said, we don’t want anyone ruining the game for others."
"Sounds good to me. When do we start?"
The next couple hours were spent in the various indignities of a full medical exam; being poked and prodded, getting x-rays, MRIs, cat scans, and what felt like half a gallon of blood drawn for an endless number of tests. "Don’t y'all have all this already? I been in the Veteran’s system nearly forever, and the army before that. Y'all got full records of me, going all the way back to when I was a teenager," He grumbled, but still tried to be pleasant. Between the migraine, the arthritis, and his back acting up again, it was getting difficult to stay cheerful, but there was no reason to make the techs suffer his discomfort. They were just doing their job.
The guy doing most of the tests, who looked as close to ‘standard issue government medical tech’ as Benjamin had ever seen, shrugged. "Sorry, dude. Have to set a base line. We're almost done, though."
When they were finished, he was escorted through corridors too bland to bother remembering and led into a side room. It was maybe 12 feet square and dominated by the pod in the on the right side.
The pod was eight feet long, and four feet wide, its door into this box shaped disturbingly like a coffin started in the lower right corner, leaving an “L” shaped block of the top and left sides, a good 18 inches thick above his head and about foot to the left side. The door hinges were also on the right side, so it swung away from the solid block on the left. Cords lowered into the floor, and there were several computers built into the wall on the left side of the room. The tech, whose name Ben hadn’t caught, explained.
"Above your head in the pod will be most of the processing, while to the left will be the IV feeds for nutrients and meds, storage of the nanos that will be repairing you, and the filtration for the gel that supports you inside. The cords run to the monitor bank, so that at any given moment, our medical staff can review your treatment status and make necessary changes. On-staff at all times are two mechanical techs to ensure the pod functions correctly, and a medical team consisting of a doc, two nurses, and med techs, staffing the equivalent of a full emergency room. So, god forbid, you have any medical complications, you're literally down the hall from a top-of-the-line full ER.
"There will be an arm cuff that will inject the IVs providing sustenance. The helm will interface with your brain and has an air mask for you to breath, since you'll be submerged in the nano gel. Once in, simply say "link start" and the game will begin.”
Kellos chuckled, “Anime fans helped program this?”
The tech smiled back, “Who else? We had to beat them off with a stick when the project was announced. Don’t be surprised if there’s lots of nerd jokes in the game. But, back to business. We will be logging you in tomorrow at oh seven hundred local, with about a dozen other testers. You wont see any until you enter the intro zone, though.”
"Is it just one zone? The rep made it sound like there were several.”
“There are. You get assigned based on the race you choose. But there will be other players in the area. Beta tests started about three months ago but leveling has been slow.”
The next day, he wasn’t sure if he was brought back to the same room, or an identical copy. A different tech, this time a tall, skinny latino guy, had him strip down. After getting fully hooked up inside the pod, the door sealed, and he could feel the gel fill the area. "Link start" and he found himself sliding down a tube of multicolored light before appearing in what looked to be an old Victorian sitting room, wearing white running shoes, a pair of dark cargo shorts and a white t-shirt.
A guy the spitting image of Sigmund Freud, complete with German accent and grey suit, was sitting across from him, smoking a cigar. "Greetings. I am Ziggy, and I am here to administer the tests to aid your avatar creation. Zo, tell me aboutz your mudder." The last sentence was overly exaggerated in the Hollywood "German" accent.
Kellos’ jaw literally dropped, mouth open in shock. Ziggy laughed, "no, that was just a joke. I’m aware of the historical significance of my avatar and wanted to set you at ease. Are you ready to begin?"
"Yeah, sure, doc. Good joke, by the way."
Poof, he was in a “field house”, with a painted football field surrounded by at 3 lane running track and areas for pole vault, long jump, and the usual ‘track & field’ sports. A two foot diameter grey sphere appeared in front of him.
“Your first task is to lift the weight as high as you can. It gets heavier the higher you lift it. The pod will be providing feedback to your body, to help set starting strength.”
Kellos squatted down and got his arms around to get a good grip. Using the basic clean-and-jerk lifting form, he got the weight just under his chin easily. He had gotten his legs about 3/4ths straight and the weight just over his head when he hit his limit, the weight coming to a stop. He reached down deep, finding the ball of rage that he hadn’t tapped into since retiring from the army; that fire that always pumped up his adrenalin and let him push just that little extra. With a growling snarl, his knees and elbows popped into a locked position, arms and legs fully straight up. He let his shoulders swing forward just enough to be out from under the weight before releasing it, letting gravity do the work.
“Very well done! We’re going to go to the track, where another two-foot sphere will spawn. You are to pick it up and carry it as far as you can along the 100m sprint lane. As you walk, the weight will start at 100 pounds, and gradually increase.”
“Hey, doc, why do we keep switching between imperial and metric systems?”
“You are American, so we will tend to use imperial system. However, most tracks are built on the metric system. When in the game, some cultures will use metric, some imperial, and others will have their own, entirely different systems. We tried to create a realistic world that players would enjoy exploring, but still have some familiarity with. Now, are you ready?”
Rather than answer, Kellos walked to the far end of the track. Not surprisingly, it was very similar to the one just behind his high school, back in the days when he had been on the track team. Then again, he had run the distance events because, as his coach put it, even turtles could out-sprint him, so he had to be shown which specific start line out of the several painted on the ground he should use. When the ball spawned, he lifted it to his shoulder and started walking. At the 10m mark, he noticed the weight change, and with each step after it seemed to get slightly heavier. By the time he had reached the 60m mark, it was painful, but he refused to stop. At 80m, it was hard to breath, the weight pressing onto his shoulder keeping him from getting good air flow, but he pressed on. At 90m, his legs were rubbery and wouldn’t fully straighten. He reached again for his inner rage, but it wasn’t helping much this time. It had always been more useful for flashes of power than for endurance. He finally got to the end of the 100m strip, dropping the weight as he collapsed, gasping for air.
“Few make it the full distance,” Ziggy commented. “Honestly, most don’t even bother trying. And you seem to have a rare ability to push with willpower when your body hits its limit. Fascinating. Anyway, next is the obstacle course. It is 400m long, and the usual time is 10 minutes to complete. Time will start as soon as you step towards it and stop when you get back here. Follow the yellow line to do them in order.”
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Kellos suddenly found himself feeling fully refreshed. The football field was maybe 25m away, and had spawned walls, ladders, and a net to climb. There were ropes to swing on, the line of tires for ‘high stepping’, several knee-high stone barriers, a six foot wall, numerous balance beams, and a dozen of the waist-high ‘over/under’ bars, named for the fact that you alternated going over and under them. He pushed through at a slow jog, easily conquering the climbing obstacles while slipping a bit on the balance beams. He finished with a time of 14 minutes.
“Do you wish for that to stand? Or would you like to try again?” Ziggy asked politely.
“Nah. I’ll take it. Momma always said I was a bull in a china shop; strong but not graceful.”
“Really? What else did she say?”
“I was big as an ox, and depending on the situation, she’d follow that with dumb or strong as one, or claiming I was twice as stubborn.”
What followed felt like a few hours of questions about what he liked, his ideal vacation, how he would respond in hypothetical situations, discussing some philosophical points, as well as solving some puzzles and riddles.
"Ok, we are finished. Your ideal races are Taurine, mountain dwarf, and orc of the Osthian tribe. Here are their racial backgrounds." A monitor popped up in front of Kellos, with a tab labeled for each one.
The Taurine were apparently a minotaur race created by the elves as a labor force, who eventually rebelled and fled. While omnivores, they had a strong preference for meat, especially mutton, but refused to eat beef. They disliked elves, and the feeling was mutual. Standing between seven and ten feet tall, and heavily muscled, they tended to militant professions and large weapons, with the rare magic user usually being a shaman or cleric. They lived in clans, had a strong sense of honor, though disliked confining laws and bureaucracy, and were highly nomadic in their chosen ranges.
There were four distinct subraces: the Brahmids, covered in pale short hair with horns that followed their heads, curving down the side of their face before turning back up (similar to a water buffalo, Kellos thought) who lived in marshlands and usually had alliance with lizardfolk that shared the area. The Galway had long shaggy hair in orange, brown or black, and short horns going almost straight up from the top of their heads. They lived in the rolling hills that they shared with halflings. The Vacans, largest of the subraces, with short tan or brown fur and horns that stuck out even further than their ridiculously broad shoulders. Kellos figured they were based on Texas longhorns. They lived in a broad open prairie shared with humans. Finally were the Crotan, the shortest of the subraces, with long pale fur, short horns that curled on the side of their head, more like rams than cattle. They tended to share mountain ranges with dwarves.
"Ok, so is this all flavor, or does it affect anything in-game?"
Sigmund cleared his throat and began in a lecturing tone, “The main thing is that you will start with a lower reputation in regard to elves, and receive a small bump to the race you share a homeland with. But gameplay will allow you to change those standings. The rest is, as you said, flavor, though it will give you an idea of how the NPCs interact."
"Ya know, I don’t think I even want to read the rest. This was first; I assume that means it’s the most optimal?" Ziggy nodded. "Then I'll just take that. Make me a Crotan. Always loved the mountains."
"Very good. Your attributes will be adjusted from the flat 5 to start as follows. Strength gets a plus two, from your race, plus another from the results. Movement is penalized by one point, again from your test results. Your Intelligence and Wisdom are both raised to 6, due to the tests. Each Attribute has two sub-attributes it controls, that you can adjust if you want. Each point taken from one sub-attribute raises the other by the same. Normally, at the start of the game both sub-attributes are equal to each other and the primary they are attached to. Your test results have had your sub-attributes tweaked slightly, and you can adjust them more upon reaching level 1. Also, it seems you’ve gained an ability without even starting the game yet. How fascinating. It will be easier if we look at your status directly. Just think 'status'. Then think share. You can also command ‘partial share’, if you wish the other person to have only the most minimal information about you.”
Kellos opened the sheet.
Name: (choose)
Race: Crotan Taurine
Age: 20
Strength: 7
Power:8
Clan
Endurance:6
HP: 40/40
Regen: 5/sec
Movement: 4
Dexterity:4
SP: 60/60
Regen: 5/sec
Agility:4
MP: 60/60
Regen: 6/sec
Constitution: 5
Health:4
Resistance:6
Intelligence: 6
Reasoning:6
Comprehension:6
Wisdom: 6
Intuition:5
Willpower:7
Charisma: 5
Personality:5
Beauty:5
Luck: 5
XP: 00
XP to Next Level: 1
500
Skills
Abilities
Rage: Student
+1 to Str and Con when raged (+30%)
Titles/Trophies
A New You
Complete Character Creation
He clicked on the name, and decided to set it as his last name, 'Kellos" and have no surname. "So, what does each of these do? I mean the main attributes are pretty self-explanatory, but what are the subs? And why is my starting age 20?" He was surprised that his voice had changed. It had always been low, but the deep baritone, almost bass, rumble pleased him immensely.
Ziggy sat back, his voice taking on the tone of a professor preparing to lecture, "Well, we could start you at age 50, if that is your wish. But your avatar not only has less signs of abuse, but also will fit in with the other players better. You’ll still be at the high end of the average age. As for attributes, understand that a 10 is considered human average. Also, these are your stats for Level 0, meant to limit you while you learn in the tutorial. When you choose to leave the tutorial, you are raised to level 1, and receive 30 points to distribute as you see fit. Each level you get a certain number of points to distribute, based on your class and other features, and you can raise attributes through training, or receive increases as a reward for certain activities. Luck can only be raised by one point per level and has no reliable method for training, but can be raised by gear, actions, and rewards.
"Now to explain the attributes. Strength determines your bonus to hit and damage with melee weapons. Rather standard. Power is your raw lifting capability; multiply it by five to figure your comfortable carrying load. Multiply it 20 to get your max lifting capacity. Endurance affects how fast your stamina drains for a specific action. Certain actions, like running, swimming, or abilities cost stamina. Endurance gives you a 0.1% reduction in cost per point. So, yours will reduce the cost by 0.6%. There is a cap of 99%. Endurance also determines how many stamina points, or SP, you have. With a high endurance, you not only have more SP, but you also burn through it more slowly.
"Movement is how fast you move. 10 is human average and will let you run 100 meters in 30 seconds. At 20, it will take you roughly half as long, while a 5 will take you twice as long. At a 4, like you have, it will probably take almost 65 seconds. The exact formula is complex, but the simple summary gives a good idea what to expect. Its sub-attributes are Dexterity, which involves hand-eye coordination. It governs accuracy with ranged weapons. Agility is your ability to grasp three dimensional spatial relations; in other words, how well you can walk, talk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It gives a bonus to armor, mostly in the form of your ability to dodge or parry.
"Next is Constitution, which measures your health and durability, and determines how fast stamina and hit points regenerate. Indeed, the health stat is primary for determining hit points, or HP, while Resistance measures your ability to overcome such things as poisons, extremes of temperature, sickness, thirst, hunger, and exhaustion.
"Intelligence is used to determine your mana points, or MP. Reasoning is your ability to figure out new ideas, and aids in learning new skills. Comprehension is how well you understand, and gives a bonus to experience, or XP, that skills gain.
"Wisdom controls mana regeneration. Intuition is your ability to have flashes of insight, while willpower is your ability to resist outside influences. That includes pain, certain spells and skills, and the attempts of others to influence or manipulate you.
"Charisma measures how well you influence others. Beauty is rather self-explanatory, while personality determines your presence."
Kellos scratched his head. "Yeah, I don’t get that last one."
Ziggy grinned, "Beauty is the difference between George Clooney and Adam Sandler. Presence is how either is more noticeable than, say, you. No offense."
"None taken. Nice to see I’m not the only one that remembers that movie. So, how do I adjust these stats?"
Ziggy looked thoughtful. "You probably shouldn’t until level one, when you get your full unlock."
Kellos shrugged. "Ok, no point in having a guide and not listening. What else do I need to do?"
"Well of course, you need to settle your appearance, and I'll ask questions to help fill out your start. I should warn you, taurine have several mutational variants. You might want to look through all options available."
Kellos started in. The Crotan had a flat cow head and specific horns that he couldn’t change the shape of, but he could change color. He chose them to start white at his head and slowly turn to black at the ends. His Raven dark hair, black shaded with blue, was shaved on the sides, keeping the cow head look, while the top was woven in 3 braids that hung to his shoulders in back, and a narrow braid hanging on each side of his face down to his chin. His eyes were deep violet, and the short hair on the face was sandy tan. He could choose the length of his body hair, from slightly more than human norm to shaggy thick fur; he set it as short as possible. He set the height slider to max, making him seven and a half feet tall, and moved the slider to a slightly more, but not massively, chiseled physique. He saw that the Taurine hands were two tick fingers and an equally massive thumb. "Ziggy, what’s with these hands? Is that going to be a liability during the game?"
"They should function very similar to normal human hands. Some specific tasks may be more difficult, but with practice you can overcome that. Practically speaking, you can only wear two rings per hand, at least empowered rings, so it doesn’t make a difference."
Kellos saw that the Taurine legs from waist to mid-calf were just like human legs, if more muscular to support the larger frame. But around the ankles was a thick ruff of fur before ending in a thick dark hoof. Unlike the split hoof of a cow, these were one solid piece, like horses. They were roughly ten inches in diameter, like a draft horse, which made sense considering the size and mass of a taurine. He definitely wouldn’t be wearing normal boots. “Ummm, do I have to be shod like a horse?”
Ziggy looked amused as he scratched his chin. “Some do, some don’t. It is purely a matter of preference. Although the shoes can be enchanted, while your hooves cant.”
Kellos nodded his understanding as he continued to adjust his avatar. He set his tail at the shortest setting, almost 2 feet long and ending just above his knees. He chuckled at the slider for *ahem* ‘male pride’ and decided 1/2 of max was good. No sense being ridiculous. "Is there a reason I'm choosing the size of my wang, Zig?"
"Currently, the game has no 'adult interactions', but we expect that will change. One of the first unofficial modifications to most games is normally a nude patch. Since it will be exceedingly difficult for amateurs to mod the game, we decided to anticipate demand. There is an interesting split among our testers as to what adult content they want, and how to implement it. Many of the military want realistic violence but are indifferent to the other adult content. The civilians, in general, are the opposite.”
“Makes sense. The military are using this for training, where they can test if a move or tactic works in the safety of VR. Finding someone to warm your sheets is easy, while trying to find someone to spend the rest of your life with is nearly impossible while still in. For civilians, it’s the opposite; violence is seen as bad, and most gamers aren’t social enough in the real world to find companionship easily. Once they do, they tend to hold onto each other for life.”
Ziggy scratched his chin. “An interesting observation. Do you mind if I share that with our developers?”
"Go ahead. By the way, Ziggy, is there a reason I have to be male?"
"Yes, it is most imperative. We found that playing cross-gendered during full immersion caused a build-up of emotional and psychological stress. Also, your brain has great difficulty processing the signals for the opposing body structure; it has led to mental and emotional issues in every test player so far. We've seen healthy minds develop schizophrenias, various types of anxiety disorders, and of course, gender dysphoria. In this highly litigious age, the best way to avoid a lawsuit is simply not to make the offer. Admittedly, we haven’t tried testing any transgendered individuals yet. The supermajority of them self-identify as having at least one, if not multiple, mental and/or emotional issues that we AIs aren’t ready to deal with. As well, we don’t have a large enough sampling of so-called 'normal' minds to establish a base from which to measure deviation. We do hope to change that in the future. Why, do you want to play a female?"
"Nah, just asking. I’m done with the avatar. Now what?"
Ziggy cleared his throat. "Before we finish, I'd like to explain some of the background mechanics of the world. 83% of our bug tags are from players who skipped the tutorial, and so assume errors in what is the intended game play. I apologize for the lecture, but if you understand the framework, you'll know what is an actual error, and not merely your own ignorance." Kellos nodded. "First, you'll notice that each attribute has a bar under it. As you train or perform certain actions related to that attribute you will get experience to it. When the bar is full, your attribute will advance by one. The higher you go, the more xp it will take, and the greater the task to gain xp. As an example, if 100 reps of bicep curl with ten pounds raised your strength by one point, then to raise it another point will require either more weight or repetitions, more likely a combination of both. You also gain ability points each time you level up, though the specific amount and distribution depends on your class." Kellos nodded.
Ziggy continued, "Skills also raise level by use. However, there are no points per level to raise them with. You can learn a skill on your own through experimentation and repetition, in which case the skill is 'untrained', which gives half the normal bonus, and xp increases at a slower rate. Or you can pay to be trained. There are ten tiers or ranks for skills: Beginner, novice, amateur, student, apprentice, initiate, adept, journeyman, expert, master. Once you reach master, you can go on to grandmaster if you desire, which unlocks incredible usages but requires incredible amounts of work. You must raise each rank 10 levels to move to the next one. Naturally, each level takes more xp, as does each rank. At Student, untrained status automatically changes to 'trained', though benefits are not retroactively increased. To simplify the system, spells, skills, and abilities use the same ranking system. At level 0, your maximum rank is 'amateur'. At level 1, your max jumps to Student. After that, the maximum rank increases by one for each level you gain. It is theoretically possible to be level 8 and a grand master, but practically speaking, it wont happen. You simply need too many xp for the skill to reach it that fast.
"You will start the tutorial at level 0 and need 500xp to get to level 1. Wandering monsters offer very little xp. Killing other players is allowed and offers slightly better xp than monsters of the same level, but still isn’t an effective method of leveling. There are other issues as well, but the tutorial will cover that. Raising skills, attributes, abilities, etc. will not grant xp unless you move to a new rank, and even then, the reward is minimal. Quests are the main way to gain the xp needed to gain levels. Each new level will add 10 hit points, or hp, stamina points, or sp, and mana points, or mp. Depending on which attributes you raise, you can see even more gains to these three. At level 1, you will be granted an extra 30 points to distribute across your base attributes as you choose. At level 2 you will begin to be eligible for classes and professions.
"Now, do you want to pick a religion, establish a background, choose a specific clan or other details? If not, you're ready to start the tutorial."
"Well, I'll skip religion. I ain’t a good Christian, but I don’t feel comfortable pretending to be anything else. I'll look at the list of clans, though. Does backstory matter much? And does skipping any of it count against me, considering they wanted me to test this part?"
Ziggy puffed a cloud off his cigar. "No, its not required. You've already met the requirements for the creation and thank you for that. A lack of religious choice is fine. We have quite a few Muslims that feel the same way. Your backstory would allow more hooks for personalized quests and story but aren’t necessary. Clan will offer some benefits and penalties. Here is the list of clans specific to Crotan Taurine in the area you will start from. Keep in mind, this is only the area you will be starting in. In other regions, names, tasks, and the interactions can and probably will be different.”
Kellos nodded as he started reading. Each clan had an associated area of influence, which would give him a bonus to certain skills, while taking penalties in others, based on the doctrines of his clan. There was the Harloon clan, the ruling clan of the area, and heavily involved in diplomacy with the other races. But governing for generations had left them arrogant, convinced of their nobility. They took a penalty to crafting skills, as ‘it was beneath them’. The Levic Clan was the ‘religious’ clan, with most of its members being priests, druids, or shaman; it was a mess that Kellos didn’t even want to try to navigate. He didn’t even bother to look at the skills associated with the clan. Just trying to make sense of their convoluted religious structure destroyed his interest in the choice. Clan Mestoz was dedicated to crafting, from the simplest skills to robust construction. They had very limited leadership skills. Clan Velker were traders, running local stores as well as shipping to other regions. They took a large penalty to reputation from the priests and nobility.
He chose the crafting clan, Mestoz, partially for the bonuses to crafting skills, but equally because he didn’t want to be involved in politics or religion. He thought briefly about taking the merchant clan, with its discounts, but he had always been a poor salesman. As he had often joked, his brother could sell ice to Innuit, but he couldn’t sell sandwiches to Ethiopians. He could make things, and he could bust skulls; those were the talents God gave him.
"Going with a theme, are we?" Ziggy chuckled. "So, Clan Mestoz. In the Taurine tongue it means 'hammer'. This will let you learn crafting skills at a 10% bonus rate to xp." Kellos nodded again, to show he was following. "Alright," Ziggy commanded, "look over your status one last time, please."
"One last thing, my good Taurine; we're supposed to give a trophy to encourage more people to use the creator assistant. Its more of a ribbon, but, meh, details."
A screen popped up:
Trophy: A New You - You have completed avatar creation! Awarded 10xp. World First: you gain 50% more xp for this trophy! Total award 15xp.
Kellos chuckled. "Not hard to get, so not worth much. But does it seem fair to give me world first, if this is the first time it was offered?"
"You've been patient and polite, so Im willing to allow it. Besides, as you said, its pretty minor."
Kellos stood and offered ahis hand. "Thanks, Ziggy. Im ready to start the tutorial now." With that, a door appeared, and Kellos walked through it.
Name: Kellos
Race: Crotan Taurine
Age: 20
Strength: 7
Power:8
Clan Mestoz
Endurance:6
HP: 40/40
Regen: 5/sec
Movement: 4
Dexterity:4
Stamina: 60/60
Regen: 5/sec
Agility:4
MP: 60/60
Regen: 6/sec
Constitution: 5
Health:4
Resistance:6
Intelligence: 6
Reasoning:6
Comprehension:6
Wisdom: 6
Intuition:5
Will power:7
Charisma: 5
Personality:5
Beauty:5
Luck: 5
XP: 15
Next Level: 1
XP to Next Level: 500
Skills
Abilities
Rage: Student
+1% to Str and Con when raged (+30%)
Clan Mestoz
Crafting skills advance 10% faster
Titles/Trophies
A New You
Complete Character Creation