The next 11 days passed in a blur. Ren’s time was filled with seeing a doctor, having some tests done, seeing another doctor, a lunch break, and then more tests. The doctors wanted to get most of the tests out of the way before Ren started playing Second Awakening since they have easier access to him now compared to when he’d be playing the game.

Ren’s family also visited every day during this time. Sometimes it was only for ten minutes and sometimes it was for more than an hour. All of them would have to get back to their own lives soon and so they made the most out of that 11 day period.

Finally the 12th day after Ren woke up from his coma. It was three days before the official release and Ren was excited to enter the game. He created another room just for the portal to Second Awakening.  It was 50ft long stone corridor with stone statues set in alcoves every five feet on both sides. At the end was a moderately sized stone arch carved with mysterious runes. Right now it was empty but when Ren was given the go ahead then it would hold the portal to the world of Second Awakening.

Ren impatiently waited to be told that he could enter. Every time he checked what time it was he swore an hour or more had passed but it was always only five to ten minutes. After what felt like an eternity to Ren he finally received the go ahead at 10:00am. He opened the door to the portal room and walked towards the end, which now had a swirling vortex of red, blue, and green energy. With each step he took towards the portal Ren’s excitement increased and by the time he stood in front of the portal he felt like he was practically giddy with excitement. Ren took a few deep breaths to calm himself down a little before stepping through the portal with a huge smile on his face.

When Ren stepped through the portal it was completely dark and  he felt like his mind was being pulled and stretched and, while it wasn’t that uncomfortable, it was pretty disconcerting. The strange sensations stopped after a moment and, as the darkness cleared, Ren found himself in a torch lit, circular stone room filled with about 20 alcoves only eight were filled at the moment. In seven of the filled alcoves stood two statues, a male and a female, of seven different races. The eighth alcove held two statues that keep changing, showing a mix of different races. Each alcove had the name of the race that occupied it carved into the stone above it. The names that Ren saw where Human, Wood Elf, Dwarf, Beastkin, Orc, Halfling, Draconian, and Half Breed.

As Ren was examining the races that were available a prompt appeared.

System Message Please select a race

Please note that the race picked will not influence how your character initially develops.

Ren looked at the prompt and noticed it’s rather specific wording.

Since it says that the race won’t initially affect a player’s development does that mean it will later on in the game? How late in the game will the race you pick start affecting your character and what will it effect? They really expect me to pick a race knowing that at some point in the future it’ll effect my character and not know how?

Ren sighed a shook his head. Once he agreed to Moonlight Arts’ offer he began looking up what he could about the game, which wasn’t much. The only information about the game that was out there was what the company released itself and that was just the sale pitch and some bare-bones info about the world, races, and beginner classes. Ren spent a few minutes debating what race he wanted to pick before deciding on human.

“I pick Human” He told the AI.

With his race picked, Ren watched as the other statues sank into the floor and the statue for humans moved out into the center of the room.  That wasn’t the only change though. When the human statue reached the center of the room it began to change, looking less like a statue and more like a real person.

System Message Please select a gender

“Male” Ren said. He just felt odd about being the idea of playing as opposite gender.

The female half of the statue sank into the stone base.

System Message You may now customize your avatar.

Several screens containing sliders and lists of preset options appeared before Ren. The first thing he did was set his avatar’s height to his own. He played with the different pre-set components for the face for a bit before settling on some that made the avatar’s face look similar to his own. After that he colored the hair black and gave it grey eyes and a light tan. It had been close to an hour since Ren had entered the game when he confirmed the look of his character. He was almost done and ready to start the game. The only steps left were to generate his stats and pick his starting place.

System Message Would you like to allocate stat points yourself of randomly?

“Random” Ren said. At this point he just wanted to play the games and didn’t really care how the points were distributed.

System Message Please select a name

“Krono” Ren had spent the past week and a half thinking of a name.

System Message Please pick your starting location

A map popped up with a few dozen glowing dots scattered around the continent. Ren just closed his eyes and pointed at one.

System Message Jona Village, Kingdom of Erovin selected. Transporting in 3…2…1

When the countdown finished there was a flash of light and then the world went black for a moment before Ren’s vision returned. Ren found himself in the center of a moderately sized village. All around him he could hear the sounds of people going about their live. The sounds of people talking, children playing, dogs barking, and even the sound of someone hitting metal, which Ren assumed was the village blacksmith. The sky was clear and the air was fresh and the people around him seemed content. Overall it gave Ren a feeling of peace he had never really felt before. He just stood there for a few moments taking it all in before deciding on his next course of action. Before doing anything Ren first wanted to take a look at his stats.

Status WindowNameKronoAlignmentNeutralGenderMaleRaceHumanLevel1ClassNoneSub-ClassNoneFame0TitlesNone

[tr][tr]

StatsHealth150Health Regen0.3/secMana170Mana Regen0.17/secStamina150Stamina Regen0.3/secDefense2Strength12Endurance15Agility6Dexterity18Intelligence11Wisdom17Charisma8Luck8

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Status EffectsNone

SkillsActive

None

Passive

None

Life Skills

None

AffinitiesNone

ResistancesNone

Hmm… my strength and endurance point me towards some kind of melee fighter but the intelligence and wisdom point me towards a mage but what does dexterity do? Ren thought

“Help Dexterity”

System MessageBasic Stats Help (With tomatoes)

Strength: How strong your body is. Influences melee damage and can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Your ability to crush a tomato.

Endurance: How tough your body is. Influences Health, Stamina, and Defense. Can make it harder to receive injuries. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Your ability to eat a rotten tomato without getting sick.

Agility: Your speed and dodging ability. Influences Defense. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Your ability to dodge or outrun a tomato thrown at you.

Dexterity: Your hand-eye coordination and how agile your hands and fingers are. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. How accurate you can throw a tomato

Intelligence: How smart you are. Can increase spell damage and decrease cast time. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Knowing a tomato is a fruit

Wisdom: Your ability to apply your knowledge. Knowledge. Influences mana and decreases spell cost. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Knowing not to put a tomato in fruit salad.

Charisma: Your influence over others and their perception of you. Can allow you to haggle for better prices. Can be a requirement for a piece of equipment. Your ability to sell someone a rotten tomato.

Luck: How much the world wants to help or hurt you (can be negative). Influences critical hit chance and odds of a random encounter. Whether the tomato you just bit into is rotten or not.

So an archer? I thought picking random distribution would help me decide what I wanted to do but it’s just making it harder. Ren thought, At least rouge it out of the question since my agility and luck is so low.

Ren dismissed his status window and started walking in a random direction, checking his inventory as he walked.

Let’s see…I have the standard novice clothes that offer no defense what-so-ever, a novice sword, 10 copper, and ten pieces of bread. While I knew I wasn’t getting much I was still hoping for more. Oh well.

Ren walked around the village, just see what there was. After about an hour Ren had located the General Store, Bakery, and Blacksmith and was currently standing outside the tailor’s shop. He stepped into the store and the sight of all of the sewing supplies brought back memories of his mom teaching him how to sew when he was little. They had spent countless hours together working on various projects but it had eventually come to an end when Ren was teased one day in 3rd grade because he could sew. When he went home that day and his mom asked if he wanted to continue their current project, a quilt, he just said sewing was for girls and ran off to his room. They never did finish it nor did he ever pick a needle again. Looking back now he knew his mom was heartbroken and he wished he could go back and change it.

As Ren wandered around the shop and reminisced an old man wearing a green tunic and a leather apron walked out from the back of the shop and watched. After a few minutes the old man spoke up.

“Can I help you with anything?” He asked.

When the old man spoke Ren was jolted from his memories.

“Huh?” Ren said, looking around in confusion

“I asked if I could help you with anything.” The old man said.

“Ah, no sorry. I was just remembering when me and my mom used to sew together. I haven’t picked up a needle in years.”

“Why not?”

“One day when I was a little kid I was teased because I could sew. I stopped that day and never began again. I’ve probably forgotten everything by now.”

“I could teach you again if you like.”

“Really?”

“Why not. You seem like you’re missing that connection you had with your mother and I haven’t taught anyone in years. All you have to do is fetch some things for me. My name’s Jason by the way”

System MessageYou've received the quest [Help Jason]

The tailor Jason has asked you to retrieve some items for him. He has offer to teach you the Life Skill [Tailoring] as a reward.

Difficulty - F

Reward – Learn the Life Skill [Tailoring]

Time Limit - None

Failure - None

Will you accept?

“Sounds good to me.” Ren said, “My name’s Krono by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Krono. I just need you to get twenty rabbit pelts and ten fox pelts and we can get started.” Jason told Ren.

“Where can I get the pelts?”

“Well you can either go find Eric, our top hunter, and purchase them from him or go collect them yourself from the field outside the village. I’m going to assume you’ll be doing the latter.”

“Probably.” Ren said, turning around and staring towards the door. “I’ll return in a bit.”

“Wait a minute.” Jason called out to Ren, “Do you even know how to harvest a pelt? Don’t take this the wrong way but you don’t look like you’ve ever been out of the village before. Why don’t you find Eric and ask him to teach you. Just tell him Jason sent you, he owes me a favor.”

“I will thank you.”

With that Jason left the shop and tracked down Eric.

*************************************************************************************

It took Ren half an hour to find Eric because everybody he asked seemed to send him the opposite side of the village. Eventually Ren saw a lean but well-muscled middle aged man with a long beard walk through the village gates carrying a string of rabbits.

“Could you tell me where I could find someone named Eric? I don’t have a last name but I was told he was the village’s top hunter.” Ren said to the man

“Well I don’t know him being the top hunter but I do know him.” The man said.

“Great! Could you tell me where he is?” Ren asked.

“Hahaha, you’re looking at him boy.” The man said, “So tell me, what can old Eric do for you?

“Jason said you could teach me how to harvest pelts and that you owe him a favor.”

“Really? Well I wasn’t expecting that. Why do you want to learn how harvest pelts if you don’t mind me asking.” Eric said

“Jason said he would teach me tailoring if I brought him twenty rabbit pelts and ten fox pelts.”

“Did he now? Well let’s get going, can’t keep Jason waiting now can we?