Chapter 1 - Creation

I sat at my desk having just finished watching the promotional video for StarPath, "So? What do you think?", the voice of Jeff, my best friend, asks.

I look up at the digital rendering of his face on the vidcall and let out a deep sigh, "What do I think? It looks like an only slightly better than average action adventure game. You know I'm not really all that interested in that kind of thing."

It's Jeffs turn to sigh, the blonde haired blue eyed good looking guy just shakes his head, "Sometimes I really wish you weren't like this. You know if you took half the items you made for yourself you'd end up as an unstoppable god of destruction in most of these games."

I snort in reply, though that's the first time someone has pointed that out and I had to admit it was partially true. Instead of following that line of thought I ask Jeff, "So why do you want me to play this game anyway?"

Jeff shrugs his shoulders, "Well, the games been going for over a month giving me and my other friends about four months game time to get some ships, build up some finances and get pretty well equipped. Problem is, no one is really using the crafting system so we can't get our hands on any customized gear."

"Why is no one using the system? Is it one of those really shitty ones where it costs more to make something that to just buy it from a vendor? I fucking hate those games."

Jeff laughs and shakes his head, "No, but by crafting a weapon you only save about ten percent off of the regular sales price. Some classes, perks, or other things can get vendors to give you more than a ten percent discount on their items so it becomes kind of pointless. They were a bit devious with the crafting system though. The materials are just one single material called an MCU, that stands for Micro Construction Unit. Using these MCU's you can build anything as long as you have the schematic and appropriate skill levels. The catch is MCU's cost about one credit each and it usually takes a number of MCU's that's just slightly less than the credit cost of a similar weapon."

I frown at that, that has got to be the single shittiest crafting system I've ever heard of, "Why the hell would you think I would even consider playing this game with such a shitty crafting system? Nothing rare to hunt down? Only a single kind of material and it's readily available? Where's the fun in that? Is there even any freedom to modify the schematics and make new items?"

Jeff shakes his head, "No, it's basically buying the necessary MCU's, buy the schematic, and use the skill to turn the MCU's into a finished product." However, he begins to grin as he continues, "At least, that was the case until last night when one of the developers got fed up with the complaints on crafting and pointed out that there is a piece of Ancient Tech hidden in a dungeon somewhere that will change crafting for anyone who can find it."

Jeff takes a breath before he continues, "The Dev didn't go into much detail, but from what he did say it looks like this piece of tech can only be found in dungeons and is capable of modifying schematics to make brand new custom items. After the announcement, there was a huge rush by players to get to the level cap and start exploring all the high-level dungeons for the item. The first group to find it will get a huge boost in prestige and power until the next one is discovered."

I cross my arms over my chest and lean back in my chair, "So basically you want me to join up now so I can get to the level cap and use the item to make you guys stuff when you find it?"

Jeff nods, "Pretty much. I mean you're not really doing anything until Age of Gods comes out anyways right?"

I nod, it's true, I was bored to tears from the game I had been playing previously, and Age of Gods was still a long ways out. While I ruminate on whether or not I want to join StarPath or not Jeff chimes in, “If you do sign up and join my guild I'll throw in a light freighter, a large supply of MCU's and enough gear to outfit a full crew of six people up to level five.”

That caught my attention, from what I knew light freighters were pretty decent ships, not the best or worst but had some space, decent armor, and some weapon mounts. I study Jeff for a few moments and then let out a sigh, "Alright. But, I'm only giving you one month game time to find one of these ancient devices for me, if you don't have one by then I'll find something else to do in my spare time."

Jeff nods at me through the screen, "Deal. Send me a message when you get planetside after your tutorial and let me know where you are. From there we'll figure out where to meet so I can give you your ship and gear."

I let out a sigh and nod, "Sure. Any suggestions for making my character?"

Jeff shrugs, "Do whatever you want. Since race really has no bearing on crafting skills it doesn't matter which one you pick. Though when it comes time to select the theme for your character I suggest Builder. It comes with a nice selection of skills used in crafting to start with. A class is basically the same as race, just pick whatever has skills or abilities you think you will like."

I nod and wave goodbye to Jeff, "Send me your in-game info and I'll message you when I'm on a planet."

With that said I end the call with Jeff and move to my terminal to purchase and download the files for StarPath Online. It takes about an hour for the files to download onto my local cluster, meanwhile, I get the email for Jeffs in-game data. What in the fuck kind of name is Reginald? While the game is installing I check all the connections to my Karonite Industries VX-98 Fully Immersive Headset, it's about two years old but still functions perfectly. I check to make sure the connection is secure and move over to my couch, sitting in my chair immobilized for the next half-dozen hours or so would make my entire body stiff.

I slip on the comfortable headset and fluff up one of the pillows on the couch, preparations done, I lay down and relax while finding a comfortable position. With everything set there was just one last thing to do, “Login.”

The world turns black.

----------------------------------------

Connecting to StarPath Online servers...

Connection established!

Checking headset calibration...

Calibration at 100%

Logging in!

When the messages clear I find myself sitting at a computer screen with instructions written on it. It's an old-school way to create characters, doing everything via a touchscreen instead of talking to a personified AI. Still, it's charming in its own way. The first step is for me to choose the race of my character. I want to be humanoid, but definitely not human. Given a choice I never play a human, I'm already one of those permanently, why choose to be one in a game? So I start by selecting humanoid and setting a height parameter of between five and seven feet tall. I didn't want to be too tall or too short because I'd always found that disorienting.

The last time I'd picked a short race I had chosen to be a Gnome for the racial bonuses to crafting. I'd regretted that choice the entire time until I managed to get someone to do a race change for me. Seriously, you can only stand to stare at peoples crotches for so long before it becomes annoying. Not to mention the pain in your neck having to look up at people all the time. With that past experience in mind, the list dropped from a little over a hundred races to about fifty.

There are many interesting and unique races, Alvarian, Galuvian, Moosuarian, and Rescilion just to name a few. They all seemed interesting but they all have strange alien physiologies and I didn't want to have to get used to new or strange limbs. Some of them also had appearances that I found to be a bit repulsive so they were ignored entirely. I spent the next hour scrolling through the races and checking their physical appearance before settling on an alien race called a Suverian.

Suverian (+1 to all attributes) Born on the planet Suvas in the Velor Sector, Suverians greatly resemble humans. However, that resemblance is only skin deep. Suverians come in skin colors similar to humans, though, their hair and eye colors are all over the spectrum and can be just about anything. The hair color also doesn't appear to come from parents as children rarely, if ever, share hair colors similar to their parents. Internal organs and skeletal structure are also different while maintaining a similar shape to humans. The Suverian race is extremely technologically advanced especially in the fields of nano-tech and cybernetics. All Suverians have nanites in their bodies from birth, the nanites being passed from parent to child. These nanites work to ensure that the children are born healthy with no physical or mental deformities, no child has been born with any for centuries. Suverians grow at a rate similar to humans but reach adulthood at 15 cycles. Throughout their childhood, their nanites work on their body making them inherently faster, stronger, and smarter than most other humanoid races. However, the nanites do come with a pitfall, they are only compatible with other Suverian technology making it harder for them to be replaced in areas of space outside the Suverian main sphere of influence. The nanites also make it impossible for non-Suverian biotechnology, such as implants or cybernetic limbs, to be used by Suverians. Suverians live long and healthy lives, upwards of 500 cycles, thanks to their technology. Racial Bonus: During character creation, you may choose a single implant or cybernetic augmentation for free. The chosen item will automatically be Suverian. Racial Pitfall: If you are injected with non-Suverian nanites you will be incapacitated with crippling pain for between 5-10 hours unless the foreign nanites are removed. If a non-Suvarian cybernetic implant is installed in or onto your body you will be incapacitated with crippling pain until the offending cybernetic is removed.

The racial pitfall seemed kind of harsh, but the +1 to all attributes and the racial bonus were pretty damned good. Most of the other races got a bonus of a point or two to a pair of attributes at most. The racial bonus also seemed perfect for abuse. I would just have to make certain of where any new augments or cybernetics came from before I allowed them to be installed on me. And avoid weaponized nanites like the plague.

The next step was choosing my theme. There weren't nearly as many themes as races, from what I could tell a theme was basically just a small boost to help you with your character concept. There were options like Bounty Hunter, Doctor, Hacker, Mercenary, and Pilot. Each theme offered a small boost to attributes and something special. The majority of themes offered to grant five skills at rank 5/100, though a few offered special abilities. As an example let's look at the Outlaw theme.

Outlaw (+1 Agility) – Whether accused of a crime you didn't commit or happily admitting to a myriad of crimes you did commit, you are wanted somewhere for something. Whatever the case may be your desire to keep on the move and avoid being caught is the real deal. Whether you chose to be a criminal or not you have stepped into the underworld and managed to gain some connections there. You receive the Feature "Black Market Connections"

* Black Market Connections – Whether you know a guy, or know the guy that knows the guy, you can buy and sell just about anything. When selling illegal goods you lose 10% of the sale price to your fence. When purchasing illegal goods you can opt for a clandestine drop off point for an additional 10% fee.

Outlaw didn't offer any skill ranks, but it did give a nice feature and I could definitely see how it would come in handy for someone who wanted to play a smuggler or something like that. It was worthless to me, instead, I focused on the theme that Jeff had suggested, Builder.

Builder (+1 Smarts) – You specialize in the use of MCU's (Micro Construction Units) and using them to create various items for yourself and your crew. MCU's are a readily available resource in civilized space that allow you to create weapons, armor, and even parts of your spaceship. You can craft, repair, or replace just about anything as long as you have a schematic, an appropriate supply of MCU's, and the right skill.

You gain 5/100 ranks in the following skills: Armor Creation, Engineering, Ship Modification, Ship Repair, Weapon Creation

I have to admit, Jeff was right about the Builder theme. It fit me and what I liked to do pretty well and gave me a good start to several of the skills I would be putting to good use when making things. So without really looking at the other themes for characters, I selected the Builder theme. The screen switched to another giant list, this time telling me to select my class. I heave a sigh and look at the list, Jeff had said classes didn't really have anything to do with crafting so I should just pick a class I like the sounds of.

It seemed like magic and technology were big in StarPath so I limited my selections to classes that focused on those aspects of the game. I didn't need to be wielding massive Gatling plasma cannons or anything like that so all the fighter or warrior type classes were out. A couple of classes caught my interest, like the Mechanic. The name alone made me feel like it was the perfect class for me, looking at it more closely it looked like it focused on robotic pets as its main source of combat potential. I could build various robots for various roles and have them do the fighting for me. It was pretty tempting I have to admit.

There was also the Adept, basically a mage slinging spells for damage and effects, the Mystic was a divine caster like a cleric but slightly different, and the Operative a high-tech rogue type class. You couldn't really go wrong with a mage or wizard type class, they usually started pretty weak but grew explosively in power with a few levels under their belts. But it seemed boring to just go with something so... mundane. So I kept looking randomly through the list for interesting class names, that's when I noticed one. Technomancer. Depending on what game you played a Technomancer could be any number of things. Curious I selected it to see the basic info on it.

Technomancer (+2 Smarts, +1 Reason, 10HP+Toughness Bonus At level 1, 5HP+Toughness Bonus per level after level 1) To some Magic and Technology are entirely different, you know better. Magic and Technology share more in common than most believe, as a Technomancer you bridge the gap and bring the two disparate disciplines together into a single powerful force. You use Technology to empower, harness and manipulate Magic and Magic to augment, control and manipulate Technology. You can hack the underlying laws of the universe bending science and magic to your will.

Smarts is the main key to your abilities giving you a larger mana pool, increasing the power of your spells, and the number of spells you can know. Agility and Reason are good secondary stats for you. Agility will give you better accuracy when using ranged weapons and some spells. Reason will help increase your mana regeneration. Armor Proficiency: Light Armor Weapon Proficiency: Basic Melee Weapons, Small Arms You gain 5/100 Ranks in the following Skills: Arcane Knowledge, Computers, Engineering, Hacking, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Sleight of hand. Spells Known: Rank 0: 4

Rank 1: 2 Rank 0 Spells: Floating Lights, Flash, Detect Aberrant Status, Detect Magic, Energy Beam, Minor Sound, Minor Mending, Minor Psychokinesis, Minor Telepathy, Power Transfer Rank 1 Spells: Language Comprehension, Detect Technology, Minor Disguise, Flight, Slip, Lock Door, Minor Holographic Image, Identify Object, Power Surge, Heightened Senses, Atmo Bubble, Over Heat, Overcharge Weapon, Force Servant Level 1 Ability: Mana Capacitor – You create a Mana Capacitor out of any item you possess (such as a Datapad, Ring, staff, tech implant, etc) or one permanent body modification (such as a tattoo, piercing, etc). Using this capacitor you may cast any single spell you know without it costing mana, you may select a different spell to cast each time you use this ability. If your Mana Capacitor item is destroyed you may replace it after one week, it takes eight hours of work to make a functioning Mana Capacitor item. This ability has a 12-hour cooldown.

Technomancer seemed pretty interesting, a nice combination of technology and arcane power could come in handy when crafting items, plus the bonus skill ranks seemed to be in pretty good places. The class seemed more like a classic Sorcerer for the arcane part, with a limited pool of known spells, but once I knew them I could always use them easily. I didn't mind that in the least, I would just have to be mindful of the spells I selected. Hacking and spell slinging, yeah I like that. I select Technomancer as my class.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Congratulations! You have finished selecting all of the basic information for your character! The next phase will be customizing your character. You have 30 points to spend on your attributes to raise them, no attribute may be raised above 20 at this time.

I started by pulling up the definition of every stat in the game. I had to admit, StarPath was a little more forthcoming on what their stats did and how they would affect gameplay so you could make informed decisions.

Might – Might measure muscle and physical power. A Character with a Might score of 0 cannot move and is incapacitated. Your Characters Might affects the following:

* Melee and Thrown Attacks

* Bonus damage on melee hits

* Physical skills such as Running and Climbing

* Success or failure when attempting something physical, such as breaking open a door

* How much gear your character can carry

Toughness – Toughness affects your character's health and durability. If your Toughness reaches 0 you die. Your Characters Toughness affects the following:

* Stamina – The higher your Toughness, the higher your stamina and the longer you will last.

* Maximum Health – The higher your Toughness the higher your maximum health

* Health Regeneration – For every 5 points Toughness is above 20, increase health regeneration by 0.1. Base HP regeneration is HP Max/12 per hour.

* The higher your toughness the higher your odds of shrugging off things like poison, disease, etc.

Agility – Agility affects your characters coordination, balance, and reflexes. A Character with 0 Agility cannot move and is incapacitated. Your Characters Agility effects the following:

* All attacks with ranged weapons such as guns, energy weapons, some spells, or even bows.

* Your ability to move to evade attacks

* Your reflexes to avoid dangerous situations

* Any skills that require the agile movement of your body, such as Sneaking, Piloting and Pick Pocketing

Smarts – Smarts reflects your characters ability to learn and reason and is often associated with higher learning. A Character with a Smarts score of 0 is brain dead and incapacitated. Your Characters Smarts effects the following:

* The number of languages your character knows when starting the game

* How quickly you can gain ranks in skills

* Any skills based on intelligence such as Computer Use, Engineering, Medicine, and the Sciences.

* Bonus power to spells

* Reduces the mana cost of spells by 0.1 for every 5 points above 20, to a minimum of 1.

Reason – Reason reflects your Characters common sense, intuition, and willpower. A Character with a Reason score of 0 is brain dead and incapacitated. Your Characters Reason effects the following:

* Your ability to shrug off mental attacks such as charm spells or mind reading

* Any skills that involve things like Mysticism, your perception, or your senses. Even some professional skills.

* Bonus mana regeneration of 0.1/Hour for every 5 points above 20. Base Mana Regen is Mana Max/12 per hour.

Charisma – Charisma effects your Characters personal magnetism and leadership abilities. A Character with 0 Charisma automatically fails at any interactions with sentient beings. Charisma affects the following:

* Skills based on personal influence such as bluffing, intimidation or disguises

* Any attempts to influence others

* Other individuals perception of your characters physical attractiveness (does not affect actual attractiveness)

So Smarts is my main stat, it gives me the most bang for my buck based on my class, with Reason giving me more mana regeneration and Agility to give me better accuracy with the weapons and spells I would be using. But I also couldn't neglect the other stats, they all contributed something. I pull up the listing of my stats and where they currently sit to see what I have to work with.

Remaining Points: 30 Might: 11 Toughness: 11 Agility: 11 Smarts: 14 Reason: 12 Charisma: 11

Alright, I had thirty points to spend on increasing my stats and every stat had some role to play in the game. With thirty points I could just spend five on each stat and balance my stats out, that would give me a solid nineteen in Smarts, seventeen in Reason, and sixteen in everything else. Smarts is my main stat though, I should probably get that up to at least twenty so I will need to sacrifice points elsewhere. First, I spend sixteen points to bring Might, Toughness, Agility, and Charisma up to fifteen. Then I place six points into Smarts to bring it up to twenty, lastly, I place the last eight points into Reason to bring it up to twenty as well.

Remaining Points: 0 Might: 15 Toughness: 15 Agility: 15 Smarts: 20 Reason: 20 Charisma: 15

Even I had to admit it looked a little off having the majority of my stats at fifteen while my caster stats were at twenty, but Smarts was going to be my main stat for just about everything so I needed it as high as possible. Reason also seemed pretty important for buffing my mana recovery speeds, though I still needed to get it another five points higher to see that happening. Ah, whatever, I hit finalize on my stats.

Up next is the appearance of my character, because of my race I basically had the entire color palette to play with when it came to my hair and eye color. On the screen was a rendering of the real me so I needed to just modify my base body into my in-game avatar. First I make myself look fit and healthy, some muscles but not a hulked out monster. I tone down the fat everywhere and up the muscle mass giving me a somewhat lithe look. Otherwise, I pretty much left my body shape alone. After that, I moved onto the details, like my hair. Suverians could literally have any hair color, so I did the smartest thing I could think of. I hit the 'Random' button!

The hair on my avatar flashed through dozens of randomized colors in seconds and slowly slowed down over time until it finally came to a stop. The randomly selected color was a deep violet that was just a few shades away from black. The highlights in the hair actually were black leading to it feeling like there was a depth of color there. I actually really liked it, it had a sort of cool and mysterious vibe to it. I copy that color and add it to my eyes so that they match. I don't really know how to describe the effect but it was an alluring and powerful feeling look. For the final step on personalizing my avatar, I set my hair length to about shoulder length, if it bothered me I could always get it cut in the game to a different style.

I double check everything so far and finding everything to my satisfaction I press the 'Next' button. The screen goes blank for a second before coming up with some new options. It asks me to select the spells I wish to have when I start the game and presents me with a list and brief descriptions of each spell. After reading through them I chose the ones that seemed like they would be helpful.

Known Spells Rank 0 (1MP)

* Detect Aberrant Status - Determine whether a Target has an unnatural status such as poisoned, diseased, cursed, or is suffering a similar affliction.

* Detect Magic - Detect spells, magic items, or magical effects within 60 feet.

* Minor Mending - Restore between 1-4 Health Points to an object or construct.

* Power Transfer - Transfer charges from one power source to another power source of the same type.

Rank 1 (10 MP)

* Flight - One Target per level falls slowly. Upgrades as you level up.

* Overcharge Weapon - A weapon you touch deals extra damage.

I select 'Next' again and yet another list appears, this time it's a list of starting gear and the prices for the gear. I'm given 2,000 credits to start with. I won't bore you with the details but I spent the next hour combing through the list of items I could afford and end up with a fair bit of nice gear.

Weapon(s):

* Mana Pistol (Tactical) – 300C, 1-6 Piercing, 30ft effective range, 20 charges, 1 charge per shot, 1MP refills 1 Charge

* Mana Shotgun (Snub) – 500C, 1-4 Piercing Per Mana Pellet (5 Pellets), 15ft Cone, 20 Charges, 5 Charge per shot, 1MP refills 1 Charge

* Class 1 Frag Grenade (5) – 35C, 1-6 Piercing and Bludgeoning, 15ft Explosion Radius

Armor:

* Second Skin – 250C, +1 Energy Armor, +2 Kinetic Armor, 1 Upgrade Slot (Empty)

* Street Clothes – 1C, No Armor Bonus, No Upgrade Slot

Gear:

* Tier 1 Personal Computer with Artificial Personality and Comm Unit– 60C

* Basic Medkit – 100C

* Engineering Tool Kit – 20C

* Hacking Tool Kit – 20C

* Backpack – 3C

* Hygiene Kit – 3C

* Synaptic Accelerator MK. III (+6 Smarts) – 0C

I chose the Mana weapons for a couple of reasons, first they weren't too expensive, second they didn't require me to purchase additional ammo or batteries, and third I didn't have to lug around said extra ammo and batteries. Sure they would be an additional drain on my mana but I only had one real combat spell anyways so for the time being I could afford to use my mana as ammo. The grenades, well, who doesn't like grenades? The armor I got is called 'Second Skin', it's basically a high tech body glove that matches the color of my skin exactly. It will be pretty hard for people to tell that I am wearing armor, it also had a nice upgrade slot. I just couldn't afford any of the good upgrades.

Everything else is just basic gear that I figured I would need to use my skills in the game properly. Everything except the Synaptic Accelerator MK. III, that particular item was the highest class of implant I could find on the list of starting gear. It was also an excellent price of zero credits because of my racial bonus. It was a head implant that would give me a solid plus six bonus on my Smarts, very worthwhile.

I double check over everything, I still had a spare 568 credits, but there wasn't really anything else I wanted to buy right now, I had all my bases covered and it was always a good idea to have at least a little spare money on hand. Once again I press the 'Next' button and get a final prompt.

Please enter your character name.

There was only one possible name I could use so I typed it in and hit the 'Finalize' button.

Character finalized!

Processing...

Applying Skills...

Applying Bonuses...

Finalizing...

Displaying Character data!

Name: Thomas Darkrose Race: Suverian Age: 21 Gender: Male Home World: Suvas Theme: Builder Class: Technomancer Level: 1 Experience: 0/1000 Health Points: 12/12 (+1/Hour) Mana Points: 60/60 (+5/Hour) Stamina: 20/20 (+0.33/Minute) Kinetic Armor: 15 (-2 Damage) Energy Armor: 14 (-2 Damage) Perks/Titles: None Attributes Might: 15 Smarts: 37 Toughness: 15 Reason: 20 Agility: 16 Charisma: 15

Known Spells Rank 0 (1MP)

* Detect Aberrant Status - Determine whether a Target has an unnatural status such as poisoned, diseased, cursed, or is suffering a similar affliction.

* Detect Magic - Detect spells, magic items, or magical effects within 60 feet.

* Minor Mending - Restore between 1-4 Health Points to an object or construct.

* Power Transfer - Transfer charges from one power source to another power source of the same type.

Rank 1 (9.7 MP)

* Flight - One Target per level falls slowly. Upgrades as you level up.

* Overcharge Weapon - A weapon you touch deals extra damage.

Skills Skill Name Skill Rank Arcane Knowledge 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Armor Creation 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Computers 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Engineering 10/100 (+2 Smarts) Hacking 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Life Sciences 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Physical Sciences 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Ship Modification 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Ship Repair 5/100 (+1 Smarts) Sleight of Hand 5/100 (+1 Agility) Weapon Creation 5/100 (+1 Smarts)

Equipment Mana Pistol (Tactical) 1-6 Piercing Damage, 30 Ft. Mana Shotgun (Snub) 1-4 Piercing Damage per pellet, 15 Ft. Cone Class 1 Frag Grenade (5) 1-6 Piercing and Bludgeoning Damage, 15 Ft. Radius Second Skin (Armor) +1 Energy Armor, +2 Kinetic Armor, 1 Upgrade Slot (Empty) Synaptic Accelerator MK. III +6 Smarts (Brain Implant)

Personal Computer Model: Tier 1 Upgrades: Artificial Personality

Comm Unit

I stare at the deluge of information as it pours in. If I had known that the skill ranks would provide bonus stats like that I would have spent my points on the attributes differently! It looks like I get a bonus of plus one to a relevant stat for every five ranks I have in the skill, well, it doesn't matter. My Smarts are now ridiculously high and giving me a pretty okay discount on my first level spells. After taking the time to look at everything and get a good feel for what I have at my disposal I decide it's time to begin my tutorial. I've been making my character for hours, I'm ready to try it out and see how it does. I push the 'Begin Tutorial' button and unfortunately, one final option appears.

Select Game Difficulty Easy

* Pain Threshold: 25%

* Experience Gained: -25%

* Slavery Maximum: 1 Week

Normal

* Pain Threshold: 50%

* Experience Gained: Normal

* Slavery Maximum: 1 Month

Hard

* Pain Threshold: 75%

* Experience Gained: +25%

* Slavery Maximum: 1 Year

Hardcore

* Pain Threshold: 100%

* Experience Gained: +50%

* Slavery Maximum: Unlimited

I look at the options, Easy was definitely the safest but I didn't want to lose out on any experience points. I was supposed to be trying to get to the level cap as fast as possible to help create items. Normal seemed safe enough, but also kind of boring. Hard was a bit scary but offered a nice bonus to experience. Then there was hardcore, the scariest of all, no pain reduction and you could end up a permanent slave. The bonus to experience though... Well if my goal was to level as fast as possible then Hardcore was the best option. I would also have Jeff helping me out once I was out of the tutorial so I shouldn't have to worry about slavery. Worst case scenario, I just quit playing StarPath and find something else to do until Age of Gods is out.

Nodding to myself I select Hardcore and the world immediately goes black.