Still going around with the game system, and presenting character/s.
The proper history will start in the next chapter, promise.
1.- 1. Eustaquio
Three months after the press conference the queues in front of every shop around the world had at the very least 20 to 30 persons, and that just in places with poor media connections. Everyone was hoping to get a copy, and many of them the capsule as well, as it was popularly baptized the game control unit. Every media and twit, every post and comment, it was almost the only thread, and the population was completely hyped, eager to experience what only a handful of people had tried so far.
Although the capsule’s high price – around 7.000 € (10.500 $) – the queues were really long. On one of these queues was a regular boy, 22 years old, blonde, a bit over 1’80 (6 ft), dark blue eyes, with a tinge of green, big complexion, but not necessarily fat. He blended perfectly with the rest of the people, just one more random person in the line, almost unworthy of any attention. Eustaquio, such was his name, was a university student, and his only hobby were the videogames, o it would be better to say, a videogame.
Since the first time AICo announced the start of a new game development had been saving all the money he could get just for this, and by now, even thought he had spent a bit here and there on the way, he still had a good amount saved. He had bought the capsule long ago, when he started college, with the excuse of use it to have more time to do homework, what he really did, so now he had quite a sum of money for the game itself and some subscription fees. His only dream since long ago has been just this one: go back to that world, and enjoy way beyond the endgame. He was in live with The Codex’s world, and couldn’t wait to login and finally go back to Hamail.
He wanted to see how had everything changed, which ending had they choose as the canon history – he really didn’t care which one was the chosen one, he knew them all to hearth, only wanted to know – and for that he needed to connect as soon as possible, before everyone started to change everything.
They had announce a big deal of changes, like the new classes, or the new tree of species and races, to give much more deep to the game experience. Unlike the original The Codex, where you could only select your sex and class, now your sex was your own, and the age was in your plus minus 10 range, but all the species from Gaulax, the world in which the game was located, would be eligible in due time, but in the beginning only the indigenous species from Areis, the continent in which Hamial was located would be available: elven, humans, centaurs and dwarves. But with time, and depending on the action of the players, new species and races would start to be eligible: were-men, elementals, fairies, halflings, minotaurs…
And even more impressive was: for each specie, there was a set of races to choose from. I.e. for humans you could select which kingdom would be your character from, where each kingdom was specialized in some kind of units or another, like the people from Hamail been more oriented to melee combat, and less to magic or range combat; or Sheraians, the people from one of the neighbor countries, the second biggest one on the continent, favoring magic over any kind of physical combat.
And it was the same with other species, like clans between elves, states for the dwarves and tribes for minotaurs.
Belonging to a certain race meant to have its racial characteristics, modifying the initial attributes and the learning speed for different skills.
Eustaquio already knew he was gonna select a Haimian human, and more specifically, a rogue, one of the more versatile classes, but melee-oriented, so he could benefit from the racial bonus to Strength and Stamina, scarifying just a bit in Intelligence. And, even though it was no the usual class at Hamial, it was no problem at all, since you could start any class in any of the countries nonetheless.
He had already created the character sheet at the official AICo website, or at least its attributes. The rest would have to wait to the initial connection, where he could set up the other elements like looks and some other factors. And honestly, it was taking forever. So far his character looked like this:
Status WindowName:SalvanAlignment:NeutralLevel:0Class:N/ARace:Human/Haimian[b]Gender:MaleTitles:N/A[b]Fame:0Infamy:0-Health:100/100Health Regen:0.5/SecMana:95/95Mana Regen:0.5/SecStamina:105/100Stamina Regen:0.6/Sec-Strength:11Agility:10Vitality:10Dexterity:10Intelligence:9Wisdom:10Willpower:10Luck:10-Attack:1Defense:0Magical Resistance0%
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
When it was finally his turn, ½ an hour after the shop opened – he had been waiting all the night in the queue, and even then he was the 40th– he did buy his copy, and after signing some paper to set up direct debit for the connection fees for the following 2 years, and get the key-code to use the setting from his web-designed character, he left and started to run to his house.
On the way he got a call in the cell phone, so he stopped running, but he didn’t stop walking, he wanted to get home as soon as possible after all, and answered after he check it was he friend Toño, one of his firsts friends, who still lived close to Eustaquio’s parents’ house, and to whom he had almost not meet in the last 4 years, since he moved out to study Computer Sciences.
Thanks to the economic support from his parents things had his way so long, and since he had been having good grades so far - at least a bit above average - he hadn’t have problems with them, except the occasional nagging for not going often enough to visit them. He couldn’t complain about his life at the moment: University student, a flat in property, shared with one of his best friends, a good and likeable group of friends and colleagues with similar hobbies – games, dramas, live action rpg… – and right now, also, plenty of free time to enjoy his main passion, a game that, thank be the gods, had been launched right before the summer holidays started, meaning he was gonna have like 3 months to enjoy it 24/7 with almost no interruptions - a couple of small trips, one to his parents’ and another with his friends - by himself.
“¡Toñito! What’s up, dude?”
“Nothing, just wondering if you already had The Codex, to see if you wanted to join us in the game.”
“Us?”
“Yeah, you know.. Luis, George, Chavo, Migue… the usual group.”
“Ah, yes… You see… it’s no to reject your offer, it sound nice and all, but… Where are you starting?”
“I’m going to start at Bharan, and like any good dwarf I’ll be doing a warrior, what i still havent decided is if I’m going to use an axe or a sword… Whatever, that’s not the point, I’m talking about meeting later on, a.s.a.p. and build a guild, o go partying from time to time.”
“Ah, I know what you mean… well, sorry, dude, but I’ve already set a meeting with my people here to do that. And anyway, you know pretty well I cannot stand those two, I’ve never known how to deal with them, and they have never liked me.”
“Pah! Nonsenses! It’s just that you don’t know them enough, they’ve change a lot these last years, and they’re pretty decent nowadays… but if you have already decided… nothing I can do about it, then. But at least, promise me we’ll meet sometime in there to go adventuring before the summer ends.”
“Sure thing, man, why not? And, who knows? Maybe you’re right…”
“You’ll see, you’ll have to acknowledge it, but anyway, I just called you to be sure to reach you before you got engrossed with the connection and all that. My character’s name will be Eldexian, just in case you want to add me to your list friend. Send me an invitation and I’ll accept in no time. You will be… let me guess… Salvan?”
He had been using the same character name since he first used it with his first The Codex’s character. That’s why it was normal his best friend back then knew it.
“Of course, send me the message as soon as you’re in”
After that they said their goodbyes and Eustaquio started running once again. He wanted to arrive home immediately to set up everything and be ready at 12 a.m. to start playing when the servers where open to everyone. Sooner if possible.
<-- Chapter 0The Codex Online Ch. 1Chapter 02 -->