Vance found himself standing on a hard packed dirt road in between several poorly built wooden houses. In the distance he could see a grand castle built in the style of an eastern island nation that once existed in the distant past.
Seeing no one else around, Vance quickly got out of the middle of the street and opened his status screen, every second feeling like an eternity as he waited to see what class the game had given him.
Status Name: VanceRace: Demon Title(s): None HP: 100MP: 100 Main Class: Chemist(1)Subclass: None STR7DEX15 END5INT15 WIS10PER10
“This is it.
It's over.”
Vance thought as he slumped onto the dirt by the roadside. Then, hope dawned on Vance as he realized that he had not yet checked his inventory. Quickly pulling it up revealed it's sum contents to be the clothes he was wearing (a beginner’s set of potion maker’s robes), a beginners potion making set, a small knife meant for chopping ingredients, and 5 gold coins.
To Vance, without a doubt the most promising thing in his inventory were the 5 shiny golden coins.
Picking himself up and dusting himself off he took another look at his surroundings. In the opposite direction of the castle was a large wall, circling the city made of stones with guard posts dotting its length. The area that he was in was obviously the poorer district in a rather large Demon city, maybe even the capital.
Vance needed to get out of there fast, for one thing his only means of defense was essentially a kitchen knife, and for another, he was laid down with 5 golden coins.
Vance sped off towards the castle in the distance, the area where he hoped there was more people around and actual businesses, instead of a shanty town. Dodging through side streets and narrow paths, Vance ignored anyone he saw, instead focusing on getting to the main streets of the city.
Finally after about 5 minutes of speedy walking Vance squeezed through a tight alleyway, and emerged onto one of the larger and more populated streets.
There were Demons everywhere of varying size, shape, and color. Some had horns, some didn't, some had strangely pigmented skin tones, or just see-through skin in general. Some had more than 2 eyes and some didn't have any, the only thing they had in common were their humanoid shape and the style of clothing they wore.
Kimonos and yukatas decorated the street’s residents and passers by. Only players were spared from this style of dress, primarily equipping themselves in varying types of armor or robes which still had various designs that marked them as Demon made products.
Various vendors crowded the street’s wayside, trying to sell their wares in loud encouraging voices.
Vance walked up to the closest one of them to ask for directions.
(Street Vendor) “You wana buy some jewelry young sir?”
(Vance) “No, I was hop-”
(Street Vendor) “Well fuck off then, don't need some snot nosed kid loitering around my stall. Beat it!”
Vance was taken back by the sudden change in attitude and was about to talk back but noticed the rather large and imposing shirtless demon with tusks sticking out of his mouth standing directly behind the Vendor.
Sighing, Vance turned away and asked at several more stalls, being handled in much the same way until someone finally decided to do their good deed for the day and asked him where he was trying to go to.
(Vance) “Ah, well I was hoping someone could point me to the nearest Adventurers guild.”
(Passer by) “Well you see it's actually on this street right down that road, just keep walking in that direction and you should get there in 5-6 minutes. You can't miss it, it has a large sign on it of a sword and shield.”
(Vance) “Thank you very much, bye!”
As he shouted that, Vance ran off in the direction that the stranger had been pointing in. After jogging through the crowded street, dodging various people and avoiding street vendors after what happened last time; Vance finally saw the large sign of 2 swords crossed behind a shield over the door of one of the buildings.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Making his way through the crowd, he walked into the building and looked around.
At one side of the room there was a rowdy bar selling drinks and food. Mess hall tables were filled with merrymaking Demons seated who were either returning from or about to go out on a commission. Meanwhile the other half of the guild hall was occupied by a series of reception desks with people waiting in line to talk to the receptionists not to unlike a DMV.
Seeing this, Vance went to go stand in one of the shorter lines and patiently waited for several minutes until he was at the front of the line and went to talk to the female receptionist.
(Vance) “Hello, I would like to register myself as an adventurer.”
(Receptionist) “Oh, a newby. Well just put your hand on top of this crystal and a guild card will be made for you.”
She said while taking out a crystal ball and putting it on top of the reception desk.
When Vance placed his hand over the crystal the receptionist frowned and gave him a sad look.
(Receptionist) “I'm sorry sir, but you can’t register at the adventurer's guild with only a crafting class.”
(Vance) “W-w-What!?! Well is there any way to change my class?!”
(Receptionist) “There is, the guild will provide you with one of the starting classes for a fee of 5 gold, however you must have your current class at level 100. Alternatively you could pay the guild a fee of 10 gold to remove your current class, but you would need to have at least two classes to do that.”
At these words Vance fell to the ground in an orz position on the guild hall floor.
As the Receptionist tried to snap him out of his stupor and various other players shouted at him to move the line along he heard another similar ‘thunk’ to the one he had just made.
Turning his head revealed a pretty Demon girl in the exact same position as him, tears streaming out of her eyes.
Her hair was a light pink color and extended down to her shoulders and had the fluffy kind of look that made you instinctively know it was incredibly soft. At her temples two small sheep’s horns wrapped around her small head. She was a small thing, not possibly more than 5’4 and could be easily mistaken for a child.The only thing that differentiated her was the clothing she wore and her equipment, a workman uniform and a woodcutting axe nearly as tall as she was. Her face was soft and doughy, still holding some of her baby fat, with a button nose and pale white skin like Vance’s.
Looking over to the girl Vance only muttered one thing;
(Vance) “Stuck as a crafter?”
The girl turned to him, slightly shocked but still crying and noded. Suddenly she leaped onto him and started violently crying, making more than a few irritated eyes turn their way.
Sensing the mood, Vance quickly brought the girl to the bar side of the adventurer’s guild and bought them both food for 35 copper coins, the change was a hassle.
(Vance) “So what happened to you?”
He asked nervously as she tore into a steak while her tears began to run dry.
(???) “I had stayed up all night planning out my character in my VR pod while I downloaded the game. I was looking at guides and forums, but at some point I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up I was already in game with a system message telling me about how the time limit on my Character Creation had expired so my character had been randomized for me.
I had wanted to make a human manly man, the embodiment of a true hero! I didn't want to have to be stuck as a little Demon girl!”
Vance nearly choked on his food with the last line.
(Vance) “You’re a guy IRL?!”
(Unfortunate Soul) “Thats right! Who would ever want to look like this! I don't even look threatening at all! Though it may be true it's closer to what I look IRL.”
(Vance) “Wait you actually look similar to that IRL?!?”
Vance didn't know what was worse for the poor guy, being forced to be a cute little girl or being an unintentional trap.
(Godly Trap) “Yeah, that’s why I wanted to be a manly man! People would finally look up to me instead of treating me like a little girl!!”
(Vance) “Dude I feel sorry for you. You have it way worse than me…”
(Perpetual Loli) “What happened to you?”
(Vance) “I spent too much time deciding my race and designing my character to actually pick a class. Then I found out I have to max out the crafting class that the randomization gave me to actually get a new combat class.”
(King of Crossplay) “Yeah you have it way better than me. At least you’re not a little girl, but we are in the same class selection situation. What crafting class did you get?”
(Vance) “Chemist. The only thing remotely close to a weapon I have is basically a kitchen knife.”
(Doomed Trap) “Ha! I at least won in that regard. I got Carpenter, it comes with this big ass woodcutting axe!”
(Vance) “Ah! I never caught your name.”
(Ripperino in Gender Benderoni) “*cough* Well the name the randomization gave me is ‘Kou’ so you can just call me that.”
She said while blushing slightly.
(Vance) “Well, it's nice to meet you Kou, my name’s Vance.”
After that, Vance and Kou hit it off, ordering drinks late into the night until only the time of night when only shady and disreputable people were hanging out at the guild. Yet there they stayed complaining about life, both in game and outside of VR, to each other and getting hammered all night.
However their merrymaking and wallowing in self pity was interrupted as one of those said disreputable groups sat themselves down around the two, their metal armor and blood stained weapons glowing slightly in the dim guild hall lights.
(Unreputable Leader) “Well, well, welllll…. What do we have here? A couple a’ crafters out of a late night drinking session, though I suppose it's early morning at this point.
You two look awfully under equipped to be workin’ in an adventurer’s guild.”
(Vance) “hOw bOUT yOU FUCK OfF!”
(Kou) “hehehehehe, you tell mmmmmm Vase! Lez get outta heeeree befre theze bitches get in the way of our drinks...”
(Vance) “Suuure thing buud….”
Vance said as he attempted to give the wobbling Kou a hand in getting out of her chair.
The duo stood up shakily and stumbled out of the guild hall into the crisp night air. The moon was sitting low in the sky as a testament to nights end drawing near. Very few businesses besides the adventurer’s guild were actually open at this time of night for Vance and Kou to get drinks, but their alcohol addled minds simply ignored that fact.
Unseen to the two as the wandered off the main street and into the back alleys, the pseudo bandits were hot on their trail. As soon as they had gone far enough into the alleyway, the leader hit them both over the head with a wooden club, effectively knocking them out.
In ELO, if you killed players you could take some items that dropped from their inventory, but if you knocked them out you could gain access to their entire inventory via their coin pouch or bag.
Thus the pseudo bandits took the only thing of value Vance and Kou had on them, the 8 gold coins they had left after buying drinks, and fled into the night with their booty as Vance and Kou slept soundly, their heads each bearing a noticeable lump.