Chapter One: The Test_Tayra

Tayra Online was announced 6 months ago. It's set to release at midnight tonight, in just over an hour, and I’m excited as hell. I’m a lucky gal, and due to some key relations with a couple devs, I get to be one of the only one thousand people who get to join an hour early. I quickly finish up my last minute snack and rush over to the room next door where my brand new immersion rig sits, powered up and ready to play. A quick check of my watch says that I have another two minutes, so I hop into the rig and begin to load things up. The rig closes around me, and reality fades away as I am whisked into my digital waiting room. I haven't done much with the room, as it costs real money, but it in its barebones state it looks pretty good. Coming off the room is a hallway and the first, and only, door is labeled Tayra. Blocking me from entering is a timer, which now is down to but seconds. It ticks away and finally opens.

I go through the door immediately after it opens, and am greeted with a rather short lasting loading screen. Once the loading screen fades, I find myself in a room themed rather like a fantasy inn, but with a very out of place screen on the wall. The screen is placed to look like a mirror, and is most definitely a character creator. It shows a character not too unlike myself, with some basic options beside her. For example, there is an option to change most of my features, or have it change based on the race I choose. Of course, I go with that option, and I scroll through the list of races. I end up selecting a dark elf, and the character in the mirror section changes slightly to fit my choice. I slightly tweak a couple things such as hair length and colour, then hit confirm. Following my confirmation, the screen fades to black, then shows a basic character sheet.

Name

...

Race

Dark Elf

Mana

#/#

Status

N/A

Intelligence

Constitution

Wisdom

Strength

Perception

Agility

Charisma

Dexterity

It's a relatively simple screen. I quickly input ‘Fay’ as my name, as it's my real name and fairly easy to remember because of that. I poke at the spot on the screen where it shows intelligence, and a menu comes up asking whether I'd like to get my stats via test, or via manual selection. As I enjoy some realism, I bought one of the best immersion rigs I could get after all, I selected the test option.

The room fades out, and a library appears in its stead. In front of me is a table laid with quills and ink, as well as a paper with a question on it. I sat at a chair which appeared with the table, and read the first question. It's a simple addition question, and I write the answer easily. As I put the quill down, the text on the paper fades only to be replaced by another, harder, math question. This continues for another fifty or so questions, until I input what must've been a wrong answer and it begins asking a different set of questions. This time the questions are about language. Most of them are pretty simple, and I manage to get about fourty done before it switches to a new topic. This time in bolder text the paper says to find and read a specific book before continuing the test. I track down the book, and set it on the table. It is a simple tome on regional history for a group of dark elves. It isn't the most interesting stuff but I manage to memorize enough to answer another fifty-ish questions.

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The library then fades away, and now I am in what appears to be a small forest clearing. In the center of the clearing is a rock engraved with some text. ‘To start the test, sit on the boulder. The goal of the test is to point out every approaching being, before they reach you.’ it sounds fairly simple, and I sit down to start it. The first target, I spot almost immediately, as it is running towards me head on. I point at it, it disappears, and the second target appears, hidden not much better. I manage to last for fifteen rounds, with the sixteenth target sneaking up behind me making nearly no noise at all. A bell sounds, and a sign appears across the clearing. The sign asks me to lift rocks that get progressively heavier, starting with the one I was just sitting on. Picking that rock up seems fairly simple, and I am able to pick up five before it gets really difficult. I manage to pick up another two before I am no longer able to pick them up at all.

The sign from earlier reappears, and going back to it, it has new instructions, which tell me to go through the forest, dodging things. It states that I can gain extra points depending on how fast and how far I get. It also states that there is a cottage at the end. The journey starts off fairly simple, with just a simple jog. But about half a kilometer in, fallen logs and various other obstacles start to appear, causing the need for me to weave and jump as I go. At one point a river appears with the option to cross a log bridge, or use vines to cross it. After the river, swinging log traps and pitfalls begin to appear and I nearly get stopped but manage to save myself at the last second. Slowly the obstacles ramp up more and more, until eventually I am unable to continue. It seems I've made it about two kilometers in, and walking down the path now that I have forfeited, I was only half a kilometer away.

Reaching the cottage reveals a lovely garden, with an old lady sitting in it. The old lady appears to be knitting, and waves as I draw near. I reach the cottage and she calls for me to come over, gesturing to the chair and knitting equipment beside her. I go and sit, and we begin to talk.

“Hello dearie,” the lady says, passing me a set of needles and some yarn. “Care to try knitting with me?”

“I suppose it wouldn't hurt,” I say as I nod to her and take the needles. “Could you teach me how this works?”

She politely shows me how to knit, and we begin chatting as I try to make a scarf.

“My name is Fay. Who are you?” I ask trying to be polite.

“It is a very lovely day out, wouldn’t you say?” she says, dodging the question

“I suppose. I love your little garden you have here” I reply, letting it slide. One of the knitting needles slips, and I work to repair the mistake. “How do you do this so well?”

“It takes practice dearie. Years and years of practice.” she replies, and continues by asking, “Would you like to try another activity for this test?”

“You know this is a test? How? I thought you were just an NPC here to help me...” I say. She shakes her head, and I nod. “Yes, I’d like to try something else.”

She picks up her bag, and pulls out some sewing needles with string, a set of lockpicks with a lock, and some various other knick knacks. She looks me over carefully, and passes me the lockpicks and the sewing needles.

“Here dearie. Try opening these locks, or sewing together this little felt bear.” she tells me as she goes back to her knitting. I grab the sewing equipment first, and begin sewing up the bear. Being very careful, I was able to do it in roughly half an hour, leaving me with the lock to pick. That takes another half hour, with lots of prompting from the lady. All the meanwhile we had been chatting. As I finish she thanks me for the lovely talk and with a wave of her hand I’m back to the initial room, with a fully filled out character sheet.