Congratulations, Traveler! You have made your first choice as a citizen of Farandway. You are now a Rogue. You may now choose your starter skills. At the end of this process, your character sheet and starting equipment will be generated. You will also have your Affiliated World Attribute assigned. Good luck!

Nate read through the prompt, confused by one part. Well, he was confused by everything that was happening. But one part more than the rest.

“What is an Affiliated World?” he asked his robot caretaker, who continued to wait silent and eerily motionless. Jean’s head ticked. It took longer than it had for any of his previous questions.

“The Affiliated World Attribute is automatically designated as the end of character creation. For now, you should focus on your skill choices. Do not take too long with your considerations. The ceremony begins soon. Many of your cohort have already completed their character creation. You do not want to be late.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nate grumbled at the reminder that he needed to hurry. Some of the initial shock at his current situation was wearing off. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it had settled so deeply that it was having a numbing effect. Either way, he was feeling a little less overwhelmed, and he found himself slipping back into a more familiar mind frame. The cold was becoming more annoying, though. He was still naked. Maybe it was a good idea to get through this quickly. That starter gear was sounding more appealing by the second.

“Computer, show me skills!” He declared in an overly dramatic voice. Nothing happened. Nate sighed and focused on the table’s top. It shifted in response.

“The Tablet does not respond to verbal commands, only to…”Jean paused, her head twitching only a bit this time. “Ahh, I see. This is an attempt at humor.”

Nate ignored her, though her cool voice rankled a bit. It hadn’t been the best joke, but he wasn’t working under ideal conditions here. He took in the prompt.

The Rogue’s relative weakness in combat is compensated by their strength in skill acquisition. You have 9 skill points to spend, the most of any class. Once acquired, skills grow in efficacy through extensive use and pushing them to their limits. You will receive additional skill points as you progress in power, allowing you to gain new skills later.

As soon as he had finished reading, the prompt vanished and the table came to life and a list of skills appeared. Nate scanned the list. Then he kept scanning as the image on the table scrolled. And scrolled. His eyebrows rose in alarm. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of skills listed.

Like on the class list, many of the skills were grayed out. He glanced at some of those. Heavy armor proficiency. Improved aim-bow. Basic scroll creation. Basic runic inscription. One in particular made him squint in confusion. Simple machine proficiency. That seemed like an oddball, but it was grayed out. These all appeared to be designed for classes he had not chosen.

Others were clearly intended for the Rogue archetype. He saw improved concealment, lock-picking, and backstab, all staples he remembered from the early days of a misspent youth, when videogames and tabletop rpg’s were an occasional indulgence. He had never delved too deeply into those worlds, and that carefree youth had come to an abrupt end when his life spun in unconventional directions. But they were familiar enough that he could guess their function. He hovered over one with his mind, and was unsurprised when it expanded to provide additional information.

Backstab

A surprise attack to an opponents back that deals additional damage. For this to be effective, the opponent must be under the condition “surprised” and must possess an identifiable back.

Cost- 3 skill points

Nate relaxed his focus and continued scanning the seemingly endless list. As he did, he found another section filled with odd skills. He hovered over one of these.

Improved Running

Improves speed, balance, and stamina while running.

Cost- 1 skill point

“What’s the point of this one? I already know how to run.” Nate said, glancing back at Jean again.

“You retain all proficiencies gained through practice and education in your life up to this point. Skills, however, have a special significance in Farandway. Possessing a skill allows you to extend an ability into a range that would not have been previously possible within the limitations of your biology or the physical laws governing nominal space-time. In essence, taking a skill will allow you to become better in an ability than you would have ever been able to back on your home world.”

Nate considered that for a moment, then glanced through the list again. A grin tugged at the corner of his lips.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Nate still didn’t know where he was or what was happening. Maybe he was dead, and this was some form of afterlife. Maybe he had slipped into a coma and was experiencing a hyper-realistic dream. Maybe the simulation of reality that some of the futurists ranted about was real, and it had finally broken down. There was no way to tell. Not at the moment, at least.

What he could tell was that he was entering a game environment with some familiar elements to it. Nate was good at games. He always had been. But he was good in the way that made others refuse to play with him. He’d always been big on rules, but not because he liked to follow them. He liked to exploit them, identify the winning conditions of a scenario and then find the shortest path to achieving them. That kind of behavior usually led to a litany of accusations that he had cheated, or that he had not ‘played fair.’ Fair was a concept for chumps and marks, though. The point of the game wasn’t just to have fun. It was to win. Nate liked to win.

Nate had never been the fastest or the strongest. He wasn’t even the smartest. The source of all his greatest successes came from leaning into the things he was good at and finding ways to make that work for him. It was why he hadn’t taken one of the other two offered classes. He knew how to throw a punch if there was no way around it. But, at his core, he wasn’t a fighter. As his father had once quoted at him from somewhere, violence was the last refuge of the incompetent. Nate agreed, though he didn’t think he had taken it to heart in quite the way the old man intended.

With that in mind, Nate stopped scanning and started searching. He was looking for specific options now, taking things he was already good at and knew he could rely on, then giving them the extra boost Jean promised these skills had to offer. He made his choices quickly and confidently, taking little time to consider pros and cons. He was a man that could look at a restaurant menu and make a decision immediately, and had nothing but contempt for those who hemmed and hawed for twenty minutes before picking the sandwich they knew they wanted at the beginning.

The process was quick, though he did hesitate a moment before making his final two choices. They were slightly costlier, but given the martial leanings of all the descriptions, he figured they were necessary. Choices done, he considered his final list.

Skill List

Improved Running: Cost- 1 skill point: Level- Basic

Sleight of Hand: Cost- 1 skill point: Level- Basic

Improved Aim-Thrown Objects: Cost- 1 skill point: Level- Basic

Enhanced Concealment: Cost- 2 skill point: Level- Basic

Dagger Proficiency: Cost- 2 skill points; Level- Basic

Light Armor Proficiency: Cost- 2 skill points; Level- Basic

Nate had only a moment of contentment as he congratulated himself on his choices before the screen changed again.

Congratulations! Your skills have been selected. Your starting gear is being selected. Your starting gear has been chosen. Your starting gear will include the following:

Cloth Clothing Quality: Common

Leather Vest Quality: Common

Leather Boots Quality: Common

Wool Cloak Quality: Common

Basic Dagger Quality: Common

Coin Pouch Contents: 5 silver, 30 copper

There was a “Pop!” in the room like a sudden change in air-pressure. The, between blinks, there was a large, simple wooden chest on the table in front of him. Nate flinched at the sudden appearance, but the robot to his side did not react at all. Cautiously, Nate reached out for the chest. At his touch, the lid popped open. Disembodied, triumphant music seemed to swell around him for a moment, then faded away so quickly Nate wasn’t sure he had really heard it at all.

Inside, Nate found all the items that had been listed on the prompt. He didn’t hesitate, but instead immediately began dressing. He was tired of being naked.

In short order, Nate found himself fully dressed and feeling…well, he felt ridiculous, frankly. The clothes were a dark brown, a near match for the creaky leather vest wrapped around his chest, and the boots, while lacing up much higher than anything he had worn before, were surprisingly comfortable. The dagger, plain though sharp blade with a simple handle and unadorned sheath, sat awkwardly on the belt at his hip, poking him in the ribs as he turned to test his range of motion. The vest was going to be a problem, stiff and uncomfortable. He had removed a few of the coins from the cloth purse he had found at the bottom of the chest, considering them. The silver coins were slightly smaller than the copper ones, but their markings were identical, a stamped image of a castle with tall, thin spires on one side, and a stern looking man in profile on the other. The purse had long cords sinching it closed, and Nate assumed they were meant to be tied to his belt. Instead, he tucked it into the top of his vest, where it poked unpleasantly at his chest. He would have to find a better solution quickly.

There was no mirror handy, a fact Nate was slightly grateful for. He wanted to think he looked like a character straight out of Lord of the Rings, but had a feeling he looked more like a low-rent cosplayer at a local convention. On the bright side, at least his sensitive bits were now covered.

He turned back to the table, then blinked in surprise to see that the chest had vanished. He had no time to consider that, though, as another prompt was already on the table, blinking ominously.

Congratulations! Your choices are now complete. Your skills and stats will now be locked in as your are imprinted. When this step is done, your Affiliated World Attribute will be assigned. Brace yourself.

“Brace myself?” Nate asked, with a sudden sense of foreboding.

The music he had heard on opening the chest swelled again, louder and more intense this time. In the same instant, heat seemed to spread through his body, starting in his gut and quickly diffusing out to his limbs. His skin tingled. His muscles clenched. His head buzzed.

Then, the heat inside him exploded, like fire running through his veins. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out as his throat clenched tight, stifling his breath.

The music burst to a crescendo, and the lights around the room flared.

It ended in an instant. The music vanished, the lights dimmed, and Nate dropped without ceremony to the floor, his muscles twitching as sweat sprang from every pore.

“What the fuck was that?!” he groaned.