2.- The Codex Online

* Welcome the control unit biometric scaners have detect a new user *

* Do you want to créate a new avatar *

Eh? Where is this? Eustaquio was disoriented, everything around him was completely white, and he didn’t recognized the place.

Then, thinking about what he had just hear, he did realize where he was. He must have connected to The Codex Online, and for one reason or another, he had ended stunned. Well, get over it, it’s time to start the fun!

“Yes!”

* Do you wish to synchronize your online account? *

* This is the only moment to do the synchronization *

Shouldn’t it be automatic? I thought the system would recognize de key-code and link it to my account, at least that’s what it says in the manual. Had I know it wouldn’t be so, I would have buy it online, sparing me to spend all the night for naught in that queue… thought Salvan, but he shrugged, he would look into it later online.

“¡Yes!”

* Please, insert your key-code in the keyboard *

Suddenly, out of thin air appeared an almost transparent blue keyboard. A bit nervious he started to input the code, he had to delete some characters, because he was not use to that keyboard, and because of his uncertainty he pressed them by mistake.

Thanks God I did memorize the code in my way home.

As soon as he pressed Enter in the keyboard, the voice spoke again.

* Wait while we connect with the server, it could take some minutes *

The keyboard vanished, and instead a big screen appeared, showing different scenaries. He knew some of them very well, after crossing them once and again in the last ten years. The rest, though, where no so familiar: Oceans, a valley full of fairies, hill, a dragon flying above a mountain… some of them had been shown on TV or online, but some others were completely new.

A bit over a minute later…

Error

* There seems to be a problem with your account configuration *

* Do you want to try to connect again? *

How so? Slightly baffled about finding a failure so soon, he tried to re insert the code, it hadn’t say it was wrong, so it had been correct, and hence, the problem had to be somewhere else.

The screen re-appeared with new images.

Error

* There seems to be a problem with your account configuration *

* In the near future our staff will contact you. *

* In the meantime, please, continue with the manual configuration *

Well, who knows what has happen, just hope they won’t make me lost the time in vain. Thankfully I remember my character configuration, it’s not that hard to input it now, I just hope they’ll give me the bonus items for the early activation. With those thoughts he paid attention once again to the character creation process assistant, it had kept talking in the meantime.

* … specie between those available at the moment. *

* Human *

* Elf *

* Dwarf *

* Minotaur *

Every time a specie was named, in front of him appeared a shadow with its generic appearance. It was not hard to know which one was each.

“Human!” as soon as he said the specie he wanted to belong to, its shadow was brought ahead and to the center, and the rest faded away.

* Now choose a race between those available at the moment for your specie *

* Hamian *

* Sheratian *

* Mersathimian *

This time it was showing him 3 copies of the same shadow. But now the word ‘shadow’, since now everythig but the face was properly defined. By height and skin color they looked like an Nordic, a Mediterranean European and Chinese.

“Hamian!”

This time the Nordic and Chinese model vanished, leaving behind only the one with a slightly bronzed skin.

* Do you want to use your real features or modify your appearance? *

Instantly the figure gain weight – too much for him to be comfortable with the change – and the face was finally visible – so far it had been too blurry to identify anything on it – and it was his own.

“I want to make some modifications, if possible!

* What do you want to modify? *

“Firstly, go back to the previous body shape.”

It went back to its original state, where it had more muscles than fat, but no too much, neither.

“Okay… that’s it. No, the head” the figure zoomed in to the head suddenly “Waw! I dindn’t expected that” Salvan said, surprised “Well, well, let’s see… trim down the beard… better yet, make it a stubble… bit more… right! Perfect! Now… the cheekbones a bit lower… go on… lower… Stop! Bit higher, yes like that, give thenm a bit of color, just a little shadow… nice. Now the ears, can you make the smaller? Yes, that’s enough, thanks. About the eyes, remove the bags under the eyes and bring the eyes a bit forward. Please, make the nose a bit, just a bit thinner… Nah, forget that, put it back.”

The system answered immediately to each and every command, so it was easy to explain what he wanted for each change.

“Let’s not forget, make the face shape a bit thinner… ehmm… no, a bit more looks better… no, go back just a little bit… there you got. Put the ears closer to the head. Rise and shape up a bit, just a bit, the browns. What else? What else? Yes, that’s it… Now the eyes, can you make the color lighter? More like topaz blue? Neat. And the hair a bit darker. Ajá. Now make the skin slighly darker…”

* Skin color is determined by races. Cannot be change by the user *

“What a pity, with that eye color it would have looked really nice, more intense, but nothing I can do. Well, I think that’s all… no, wait, please zoom out to the full body image. Yeah… doesn’t fit… take out some muscles from arms and chest… yess… that’s more like it. Then, I guess I’m done”

* Set up finished. Saving the data *

* You can change it again at specialized establishments in-game *

* To select a class, go to the class building, or go to the information centers to… *

“Skip!” He had read already everything there was about classes and any other information in the website. Actually he almost knew everything there was in the website.

* Do you want to go to the tutorial? *

“No!”

* Do you want to get used to your new body before entering Gaulax? *

“No! I want to start at once!”

* What kingdom do you want to start at? *

* Hamial *

* Sherat… *

“Hamial”

* Initial setup process finished *

* Enjoy the adventures *

Before even the voice had finish everything started to lose color, until there was only blackness around him. After there was a flash of light, and je found himself in the center of a big square.

* * *

Isabel was in the middle of a big city square. She was surprised by the realism level of everything in there, so surprised that the last two or three minutes she had just stand there paralyzed, unable to react, looking everything. She had expected some mistakes here and there, repeated textures, some pixilation, but none of that was in sight. The only proof of been out of the real world were 4 lines and some numbers to the right of her vision. The 4 bars were red, blue, yellow and green, from left to right, and the first three had some numbers below them.

Health, mana… next was… how was it called… I can’t remember… Energy? No, not that… it was… Stamina? Yes, that’s the word, Stamina, and the green one must be the Saciety level, the hunger level. She remembered the first two from many other games, and her friends had talked quite often about that Stamina, that’s why she was able to remember it, and the last one, the hunger, was easy to remember from the website. But she couldn’t see the numbers under each bar, but she had an idea…

“Whaa!” Isabel jumped back when all of sudden, the bars got closer at full speed. She close the eyes and was expecting the impact, but it never came. Actually she did realize she was still seeing the bars, and they were still closer than before. This time she saw the numbers clearly, and understood they were, indeed, the numeric value of each bar.

She also learned that closing the eyes she could see that data better. Satisfied for her discovery she finally relaxed a bit and opened the eyes to look properly around her. The bars went back quickly to the corner as to not block her vision.

The place, the square she was at, was, in some way, like the Alhambra of Granada’s Court of Lions, but much, much wider, with stands all around between column and column. There were way less people that she would expect, considering all the expectation there was with this game, but she understood she had been, simply, way too quick in the creation system.

She had already created her profile online with her friends, and her look she decided to leave as it was in reality. She wasn’t too conceited, she simply liked how she looked, and that’s the reason she had choose the Hamial race, because the skin looked like her own.

Well, this way I have a bit of time to get used before this place gets too crowded. She thought.

Then she started to look for any signal about where she would have to go next. But there was none. Great, just great, I just started to play, and I’m already lost.

Before she could decide what to do there was a sudden flash of light to her left, and saw a boy had appear there out of the blue. After look at his own body, and a quick glance to the square he started to run immediately, as if he knew where was he going. As soon as he did vanished through one of the square exits there was a new flash a bit further and a new boy appeared. And even before this new person could even react there started to be more and more new flashes all around the place, and new people started appearing, mostly young boys, with barely one out of ten being a girl, and one out of seven looking like someone above 30. All of them did exactly the same, they looked around, at themselves, sis some movements – some times they jumped, some they stretched – and started to run out of the square.

After some time in this situation, and given she still didn’t know where she was supposed to go, she tried to approach to one of the recently arrived to ask him for some directions or clues. But no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t talk with any of them. The looked disoriented at first, but once they understood they were really here, they started to run away, never giving her the time to ask anything, not even looking at her.

And she never tried to ask the people in the stands around the square, she knew they weren’t real people, so she didn’t know how she was supposed to start talking to them. Actually she was afraid of shame herself in front of anyone, and keeping in mind she was gonna have to be in there at least for a month in game time, almost a week in real time, before she could leave the beginners city and go to meet her real life friends who started in different cities, she couldn’t stand to think she would have to talk with them after been laugh at in a wrong first meeting.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

It was always the same for her. Whenever she knew someone new, since she was small, if she blundered in the first meeting, she would be ashamed to meet that person ever again. It was a natural shyness she had never been able to cope.

Anyway, she had been more than 20 minutes trying to talk with any of the new players without any success, until she found one that was more time than usual looking everything. When she got a little closer she saw he was looking everything in detail, moving the head side to side, up and down, not letting anything scape his gaze. She could understand the feeling, that’s why she wasn’t surprise when she saw a big grin in his face.

What did surprise her, and greatly, was to see, when she got close enough, some tears sliding down his cheeks. What could have make him start crying as soon as he started playing? That startled her.

Her natural instinct was to help those in need, that’s why, before she could even think about it, she realized she had put her hand in his shoulder, as to console him.

When he turned around suddenly to look at her she was surprised, not expecting that reaction, and when she saw the way he was looking at her, as if he were trying to record every detail in her face, she felt herself starting to blush, so she tried to make some space between them. But the boy, instead of letting her go, got even closer to her, putting his face barely to some centimeter of her.

Not knowing how to react, she let her body do what it wanted to do, and her hand went back to be launched quickly forward, to slap him with all her strength. The boy got stunned for a moment, but then started to look at something above her head – he was way above her 1’65 m (around 5.5 ft) – and a bit to his right, almost as if looking by the corner of the eye. And suddenly he smiled.

Curious, she looked towards the place the boy was looking to, but there was nothing in there. Just some more people appearing every few seconds. But the she suddenly understood what he had to be looking at.

To the right… He has to be looking the bars! Obviuosly, that’s it… but, why the smile? This boy is weirder by the moment.

Anyway she tried to make some space between them, and then looked him again to the face, who was looking at her once again, but this time seriously.

“Excude me but, ehat was that about?”

“What was what about?”

“You know, why did you slap me?”

“Oh, that. True is…” thinking it now, in hindsight, she thought she may have, probably, gone a bit above the top with that reaction. She could have tried to get a bit farther form him, instead of hit him like that, with no warning whatsoever. So she didn’t know how to answer.

“Well, whatever, at least, thanks to that now I know how the health bar works” said the boy, alleviating her tension and lightening the mood in a moment. “What happens, happens, and now, if you excuse me, I’m in a hurry, I want to reach to the gild as soon as possible. So, good bye.”

And with that, he started to run away.

“Wa-wait” shout Isabel seeing the boy going away.

He stopped and turned around, with a mix of curiosity and urgency in his face.

“Yes? Is there anything you need?”

“Uhm… You see… I’m new here… and…”

“Yes, I guess you are” retorted the boy jockingly.

“Eh… Yes… I guess that’s kind of obvious… I mean… The game was just started and such… but that’s not what I mean… I’m talking about this kind of games.”

“Ah… Okay, I know what you mean. And how can I help you?”

“Just two things” answered quickly Isabel, before he changed his mind “First is, what am I supposed to do now? And then, why is everyone starting to run as soon as the era transported here?”

“Ha? … Ha… Hahahahahaha” the boy was caught by surprise with her questions, but soon he recovered and started to laugh, what bothered her, and it had to be clear in her expression, because the boy tried immediately to stop laughing at her, and started to answer her questions “Ah, ah, uf… just a sec… uf… agh… yes, you see…

“Let me start answering your second question” did he say once he stopped the laughs for good “All the people that’s starting the game as soon as it’s been launched, or at least most of us” and he looked her pointedly with these words “all of us are the people who have been waiting this game for years. And we have been planning for months what we want to do with our characters’ classes. That’s why, as soon as the game started, we got connected with the intention to go to the different guilds to get information on how to acquire them immediately so that the other players doesn’t get in our way.

“Also they’re rushing to get information on the most interesting skills either for their chosen classes or the general ones.”

Isabel tried to remember. If she had it right, the classes were something like the professions in this game. They showed the way you tended to do things, like mage, warriors, merchant, crafter, adventurer… while the skills were the things you could do ingame, like use a sword, activate a spell, jump higher, an so.

Once she finished her inner monologue, she realized the boy had stood there watching her silently. He probably understood she had to be thinking about her words, and was waiting for her to finish before continuing his explanations.

She blushed again.

“If there’s anything you don’t understand just ask me, don’t worry and ask me whenever you want. Since I’m going to explain something, I prefer to do it properly at once, instead to do it poorly and lose time for nothing”

“Yes… thank you, then. But no, you see… I was just trying to remember what clases and skills were, but I got it now, but thank you anyway.”

Ups… I’m starting to mess it, so I better shut up and let him continue with the explanation. She said herself.

“Okay, the. Where was I? Ah, yes. Since we all know what we want, we all want to get the quests to change our classes before anyone else to avoid the competition later on. And for that we have to go to the guilds of each profession: the merchants’ guild, the crafters’ guild, the fighters’ association, the magic tower, the temple, etc, you know, the main buildings for each class.”

“But they told me the guilds were something the players created to play together in a group.”

“Ooookay, this may take some time to explain, so how about going over there to sit down while I tell you all I know about it? If we stay here doing nothing sooner or later someone is going to crash with us.”

“Yes, sure, but are you sure? This may take some of tour time”

“Bah… worry not” he said with a hand gesture “I already told you that I don’t like to do things poorly, so, since I already started to explain, the least you can do is to let me finish.”

“Thank you, thank you very much” answered Isabel, and both of them went toward the benches in the most isolated part of the square.

“It’s nothing. Anyway, just being here is plenty satisfactory for me, I’m happy just to be here after so long.”

“Is that why you were crying before?”

“Crying? When did I…? Ah!” this time it was his time to blush and look away ashamed “Yes, I think there may have been one or two tears, but you don’t know how long have I been waiting for this game, and being here after so long… well, I guess I couldn’t contain myself there, jeje”

He may be a bit weird, but it seems he’s a nice guy. She tough, surprised to know someone who could start crying for just a simple game. Well, not ‘simple’, but a game, nonetheless.

Then they reach one of the benches and sat down.

“Anyway, let’s ignore that, please, I was about to explain you that there are two kind of guilds: the professional ones, where people with similar professions, or classes, like crafters, magicians, or rogues, tend to get together to look for tools or information class-oriented, and then there are the ones you mentioned. This are created by a group of people that want to play together to get some advantages in the game, like a private chat channel, exclusive warehouse, guild houses, a safe bank, and many others that I can explain later If you want.

“And about your first question, what you should do now, in my opinion, is go to the building of the profession you want to get and do the change class quest. So tell me, which class did you have in mind? It can be more than one, but then they’ll be harder to level up each of them, so it’s better to start with only one.”

“Actually  I haven’t decided a class yet. I barely know each of them, so I didn’t know which one wound be better for me, I thought I could get more information once here before choosing one. The only thing I know is that I don’t want to fight with melee weapons, I don’t like the idea of attack in close combat, or getting bloodied.”

“…” This time the boy didn’t know how to react.

* * *

What a weird girl, thought Salvan, first get my attention, then she slap me before saying anything, and now she tells me she is a complete noob… Well, could be worst, at least she’s pretty and know how to listen when you are talking to her.

After a short awkward silence while he was thinking, he saw the girl was uncomfortable, so he decided he should have to start explain a bit more.

“Okay, look” he started to say with patience “then the next step will have to be to help you to select a class to your liking. You have already told me you don’t want to fight in close quarter, nor kill whenever it’s possible… which goes a bit against what everyone else is expecting from this game so far… but to each his own. I’m not one to criticize the preferences of others.

“This said, let me ask you some things, let’s see if we can figure a profession you can enjoy, okay?”

“Okay, by the way, mi name is Isabel-

“…” Salvan had a premonition, and started to feel a headache. For the first time he looked intensely to the blurry text above the girl’s head. In there had to be written her avatar’s name, and only those in her friend list could see it clearly, so he couldn’t see it. But given its length, it could never be Isabel, it was too short for that. Nor did it seem to start by ‘I’ “Ehrm… excuse me but… that’s your real name, isn’t it?”

“My real…? Ah!” she covered her mouth with both hands “that’s true, I’m supposed to use only my avatar’s name, right?”

“Well… no one will force you to do that, you can use whichever you want, but yes, that’s the usual.”

“Aja” she said with a smile of satisfaction “Then allow me to introduce myself again, My name is Ari, like a short version of Ariel.”

Once again this Isabel , Ari, or whatever, had left him speechless. Really? Ariel? Like the Little Mermaid? And the final attack came right after that.

“Yes, you know, right? Like the Little Mermaid? I love the book.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Yes? Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s nothing, don’t worry” this girl was getting weirder and weirder by the moment “okay, Ari, my name is Salvan, and yes, that’s my avatar’s name.”

“Nice to meet you, Salvan”.

“Well, introductions done I believe the best option would be to start by going to the information center, where they’ll can inform you better than me.”

He was starting to believe it wouldn’t be a good idea to start explaining the different basic classes to Ari, he would never finish with it, and he wanted to go to the rogue’s circle, where he could get his desired class, rogue.

“Okay then, where to?”

“I’ve got a general idea. I guess you didn’t saw it, but in the game’s website there was a crude map of each of the beginner towns with their main buildings signaled, so I more or less know where we have to go.”

Standing from the bench he pointed toward one of the exits of the square and after checking she was going after him, he started to move that way.

<-- Chapter 1

The Codex Chapter 2

Chapter 3 -->