Chapter 6: Cold Feet

I awoke, and found myself hovering a few yards off the ground, suspended by nothing but air. Before I could panic, whatever force held me relinquished, and I dropped, feet crunching into powdery snow.

Icy wind bit into my skin, and I shivered involuntarily. A small chiming alert sounded. Currently the only thing overlaid onto my vision was a small square icon depicting a blue skinned man shuddering, located in the upper right hand corner of my vision. I focused on it, and a description popped up.

Chilled (Debuff): Action speed reduced by 5%.

There was no duration to the debuff as far as I could tell, so perhaps I needed to find warmer clothing, or a source of heat.

Speaking of clothing..

I thought about my character's inventory, and a grid filled my vision. To the left of the grid, a lifelike model of my character stood, wearing shabby looking leather armor. At my hips were two identical swords, both very worn. I inspected them.

{Rusted Iron Straight Sword}

Physical Damage: 1-3

Spellpower: 0

Rarity: Poor

Weight Category: Fast

Type: One handed sword

Damage type: Slashing, Piercing

Traits: None

Requirements: Level 0, One handed Swords Novice: 1

I grimaced, hoping the dull blades would be enough for me to brave the challenges the Tundra starting area presented.

Next, I inspected my armor. It seemed the armor I started with was broken up into four categories. A leather hood covering my head, a leather cuirass protecting my chest, leather pants for my legs, and leather boots covering my feet.

{Worn Leather hood}

Rarity: Poor

Slot: Head

Type: Leather

Armor: 1

Evasion: 5

Traits: Cold resistance +1%

Requirements: Level 0, Leather armor Novice: 1

{Worn Leather Cuirass}

Rarity: Poor

Slot: Chest

Type: Leather

Armor: 7

Evasion: 17

Traits: Cold resistance +3%

Requirements: Level 0, Leather armor Novice: 1

{Worn Leather Leggings}

Rarity: Poor

Slot: Legs

Type: Leather

Armor: 5

Evasion: 14

Traits: Cold resistance +2%

Requirements: Level 0, Leather armor Novice: 1

{Worn Leather Boots}

Rarity: Poor

Slot: feet

Type: Leather

Armor: 1

Evasion: 6

Traits: +3% Movement speed, Cold resistance +1%

Requirements: Level 0, Leather armor Novice: 1

Pretty normal stuff for starting equipment, all things considered. I’d have to figure out how damage reduction was calculated, and how the numbers for armor and evasion rating played into my defensive capabilities.

Taking a few steps further into the Tundra’s forest, I was shocked out of my analytical thinking. I had been in a rush to get in the game before launch, and so I hadn’t fully digested the world I was now in.

From the moment I entered the pod in the real world, to the white room with Sarah, to character creation alongside Nereph, and finally now, inside Daedalus Online. There had been no shift from reality to game world. This didn’t feel like a game. This was nothing like Fate online, a faux facsimile of reality. Daedalus Online world felt as real as every second I'd spent in the real world.

I was broken from my reverie by a growl so low, it could've been mistaken for the wind. My head snapped up, and I noticed a large wolf, white fur covered in flakes of snow. Its lips were curled back in a snarl, teeth bared.

“Ok, not so much like the real world..”

As the wolf circled, a hiss sounded as I drew both swords from their sheaths. They felt right in my hands, and somehow I felt as if I knew how to use them. Curious, as my training in real life with swords amounted to swinging around rubber replicas.

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I shivered as the wolf approached, my hands shaking as a strangely unnatural fear penetrated deep into my body.

You have been afflicted by - Fear of the hunted!

Unable to move, I inspected the creature.

{Lesser Tundra Wolf}

HP 22/22

MP: 19/30

Type: Animal

Level: 3

Lore: Common in the Cairos tundra, the Lesser Tundra Wolf is a dangerous opponent for the unprepared adventurer.

Of course, it's “lesser”..

As if it knew how panic-stricken I was, the wolf tensed, and then launched itself towards me.

The realization I would die if I didn’t move helped galvanize me into action. As the wolf closed, and then lunged, claws extended, I dove to the side, recovering as the wolf whirled for a follow up attack.

I slashed tentatively at the wolf with both swords, who nimbly dodged out of the way, before countering with a vicious bite. I fell backwards trying to avoid the snapping maw. As the beast leaped on top of me, I held both swords up towards its falling form, successfully impaling it.

A red bar appeared above the wolf's head as it snapped at my face from on top of my blades. The red bar was less than half full, and a red outlined square flashed beneath it. I instinctively inspected the debuff.

Severe Bleeding (Debuff): Take 5% maximum health true damage per second until bleeding is cured.

Releasing my swords, I kicked the wolf off me with both feet. Scrambling backwards, I regained my footing. The wolf tried to stand up, but fell down, making a whining noise. As the wolf's health bar ticked down, I stood, tensed to spring away if needed. The wolf made no more attempts to attack me, and fell unconscious, another debuff appearing beside Severe Bleeding. I waited for it to succumb, and when the wolf's HP zeroed out, I retrieved my swords.

Panting from the exertion and fear, I sat down near the wolf on the snow. Notifications flooded my vision.

Your skill in One handed Swords has increased to Novice: 2

Your skill in Evasion has increased to Novice: 2

You have gained 36 experience.

You have Leveled up to level 1!

You have gained 8 free skill points!

Welcome to level 1, please select one of three abilities.

{Peerless Rhythm}(Passive)

Description: You feel the rhythm of combat, the dance of your weapons as you exchange strikes with your opponent. Successfully dodging an attack, landing a blow, or blocking an attack grants 1 stack of Peerless Rhythm, up to 5. Each stack of Peerless Rhythm grants 3% action speed. While you have 5 stacks of Peerless Rhythm, grant an additional 5% action speed. Stacks last for 5 seconds, gaining stacks refreshes the duration. Lose one stack whenever you take damage (1 Second cooldown between stack loss, 1 Second cooldown between gaining stacks in the same manner).

Type: Martial.

Scaling: None

{Flicker Strike}(Active)

Description: Teleport up to 15 yards beside an enemy. Your next strike within 3 seconds deals 15% additional damage.

Type: Spell.

Scaling: Weapon damage

Cooldown: 20 Seconds.

Cast time: None.

Cost: 25 Mana.

{Thousand Cuts}(Active)

Description: For the next 12 seconds, striking an opponent with a slashing or piercing weapon causes them to take a physical damage of time effect equal to 10% of the original strikes damage over 5 seconds. DoT effects stack, and cooldown starts once the effect ends.

Type: Spell

Scaling: Weapon damage

Cooldown: 20 Seconds

Cast time: None

Cost: 30 Mana.

All three of the abilities seemed useful in their own ways, and each seemed to fit into different playstyles. From my experience in other games, I knew teleports were generally extremely powerful, and the damage amplification effect was nothing to scoff at. Thousand cuts seemed tailored towards a bleed-centric or DoT character, which fit the theme of an agile dual sword wielding character. Lastly, the passive ability did not cost mana cost at all, and increased action speed would let me do more than just attack faster, I could dodge and run at a heightened pace too.

Currently, I could only cast Flicker Strike twice, and Thousand Cuts once with my mana pool. Additionally, I could only use Flicker Strike to engage, so its utility was more limited than a restrictionless teleport.

“I think Peerless Rhythm is probably the safe route. After all, I can use it to run away like a coward after building enough stacks if I need to.” I mumbled to myself wryly.

Selecting Peerless Rhythm, I shifted my attention to stat point allocation. Realizing I didn’t even know what my stats were, I brought up my character sheet.

{Locke}

Title: None

Level: 1

Class: Swashbuckler

Strength: 10

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 10

Health: 50

Mana: 50

Armor: 14

Evasion: 142

Cold Resistance: 7%

Fire Resistance: 0%

Lightning Resistance: 0%

Corruption Resistance: 0%

Holy Resistance: 0%

With eight points, I assumed that everyone gained at least 3 free points a level in addition to what their race provided. I put 3 points into Constitution, 3 into dexterity, and 2 into Strength. My health shot up by 15 points, alongside it my Evasion increased by twice as much.

Next, I focused on my experience, which after my first level up was less than a quarter full. Beneath it was a green and red bar that upon inspection, I learned was my mutation bar. It was barely filled at all, perhaps 5%.

A notification popped up as I relinquished my hold on the experience page. Mentally opening it, I was brought to the social tab, and was surprised to see the number of online friends was not 0. Confused, I opened my friends list, and the name Sera was displayed.

Is that.. Sarah?.

The notification was from a message she had sent me.

Opening it, I read

Hi Locke! You’re already level 1? That's a great start! How are things going? Are you enjoying the game?

Noticing a button at the top that looked like a person looking at a mirror, I mentally clicked it.

I jumped as a window popped up in front of me in real space, with Call Pending on it.

After a few seconds, Sera answered.

Peering through the window was the same woman that I had spoken with about Daedalus Online, as well as had invaded my pre-launch Lobby. Her hair was now snow white, and she had long curved ears.

“Hi Sera, how's it going?” I asked, smiling.

Returning my smile, she replied “It's going well Locke! The game's launch went off without a hitch!”

“To answer your question, things are going nicely, this world is uncannily lifelike.” I said, and after a second, a thought occurred to me. “Hey, are you in-game? Shouldn’t you be doing.. ya know, project manager stuff?” I asked.

Her smile widened. “Indeed, I am doing project manager stuff, just a little bit more in the field than one might expect.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t talk long, I am actually busy, whether you believe it or not.” She said.

“It’s no problem at all, I was just curious as to how I had a friend on my social page without ever having opened it.” I said, nodding.

“I took that liberty, I figured you’d appreciate having someone to answer questions.”

We said goodbyes, and I mentally closed out of the window.

I looked around, taking in my surroundings. It appeared as if I was just plopped into a random space in this frozen, wolf infested hell. Why was there no starting village? No area to teach me the ropes?

Perhaps I forfeited that opportunity by choosing the hardest beginner zone.

Sighing, I chose a random direction and began to plod through the powdery snow, trees passing me on either side.