I reached out to the Symbol, and heard a voice.

"Character creation initiated, please select your gender."

I grinned, "Male!". Some players liked to switch it up, I was not one of them. Even if female avatars statistically got more often free gear from 'generous' players, they also had to deal with a lot of unwanted attention. I needed to focus instead of dealing with all that nonsense.

"Please select your genus."

This started well, I had no idea what a genus was. Was this a game for brainy types? I really hoped it wasn't. I had decent grades at school, but I was definitely not first in class.

"What is a genus?"

"A genus is a race type, there are four race types: Human, Faerie, Spawn, or Elder."

I doubted for a second, that damned Abby had not given even remotely enough time to prep. How bad could being a human be? "I choose human."

"Please select your blood trait."

"A blood trait?"

"Blood traits are either defined by your ancestry or events in your life. You can have either an Elven, Dwarven, Ogre, Troll, Giant, Titan, or Angelic heritage. Or you can be an afflicted human; Vampire, Werewolf, Zombie, Mummy, or Spectre. Finally, you can also play as a pure human."

That sounded all very interesting to me. "Pure human sounds boring and not very powerful, tell me more about vampires".

"Vampires have an innate resistance to dark magic, nether magic, cold, poison, and draining attacks. They are vulnerable to light magic. They have superior strength, intelligence, health, and charisma. They suffer however from a lowered wisdom and speed. Finally, they gain experience at half the human rate."

"Vampire it is."

"Please select your class."

"What is the most common class?"

"Out of the thirteen available classes, warlock is the most common class for vampires."

I figured that he might as well leverage the research that other players had put into this. He had not gotten the full three days of answers and questions, but he would make up for it with his wits.

"Tell me more about the Warlock class."

"Warlocks are people who have studied the magical arts of the demon realm with the aid of an Infernal Patron. They cast spells like a mage, they get access to all the demonic spells and the choice of one more realm. They are better at demonic magic than any other class. They receive gifts from their Patron whenever they gain a new level. They have trouble wielding any weapon that is not a Demonic weapon."

"Aren't the demonic powers causing people to become deadheads?"

The rotating Sieve circle in the center of the row started to gain flecks of red, the room felt smaller. A different, more malevolent voice quoted "With great powers, come great rewards, and risks".

I felt a presence in the room, power, like I had never felt before. Promises of greatness, but also dire consequences for failure. I wanted to become a Monarch, only winning mattered. Ever since I had heard of these star system lords with their incredible powers had wanted to become one of them.

"I choose to be a Warlock"

"What will be your second spell realm?" Sensing that I was not well informed, the voice offered the possibilities without being asked. "The choices are Miracles, Sorcery, Nature, Chaos, Death, Charms, Somatics, and Chance."

"What are Somatics?"

"The Somatic realm focuses on mind over body, offering spells that enhance and restore both the body and the mind. The ultimate spell for the Somatic realm is 'Invulnerability'".

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Invulnerability, well that sounds pretty sweet. How often is Somatic chosen as a second realm?"

"About eleven percent of the Players chose Somatic, most players choose either Sorcery or Death."

"What are the ultimate spells for those?"

"Sorcery has Globe of Invulnerability, Death has Wraithform. Wraithform reduces all damage by 75% and allows the player to walk through walls."

"Sorcery does not sound all that different, are there many ways to get Wraithform?"

"Wraithform can be achieved through a demonic corruption, artifacts or scrolls."

"Demonic corruption, interesting. Fine, I choose the Somatic realm."

"Loading training grounds, mortality: OFF."

My surroundings faded away, getting replaced by a medieval looking courtyard surrounded by high castle walls. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, not good! I felt my skin tingling, and started smelling an unpleasant odor. Gah! I dashed into the shadow of the castle walls and looked around. Wooden armor, shields, and various types of wooden weapons were strewn around. I picked up a shield and wielded a wooden sword and felt a shock in my hands. Then I heard a voice booming : "Mortal, you displease me, only Demonic weapons are worthy of my disciples!"

"You are hit by a vortex of Chaos. You die."

The pain hit me so hard that I did not recognize my own voice screaming at first. A wave of suffering kept cycling through my body, making feel being ripped apart over and over. I was not prepared for this, I felt my mind buckle under the pressure. In the haze of pain I felt suddenly a way out, an end to the suffering. I sensed I could just cut off the VR feed and retreat into myself by simply shutting myself down. Wasn't that better than this unending pain? I instinctively understood that this would turn me into a deadhead. Man, brain-dead from the get-go, what a waste.. My attention was now drawn to a voice, a voice I barely understood. As if I was underwater trying to listen to a bus announcement while getting shredded to pieces.

"You have revived. You have lost zero experience points."

All the pain was gone. The relief was incredible. I could not believe how close I had been to just give up on the Game, on the rest of my life. Only because I had wielded a wooden training sword. It pissed me off. I was close to cursing out the booming voice, but scared witless of possible further suffering. I needed to know more about this booming voice, I needed to protect and arm myself with knowledge.

"Stats".

Name: Alex

Race: Vampire

Class: Warlock

Realms: Demonic & Somatic

Patron: Kobal, the Dark Entertainer

Star Sign: Free

--

Experience: 0

Intelligence: 24, Constitution: 16, Strength: 14, Charisma: 11, Wisdom: 7, Dexterity: 7

Social class level: 15

--

Hit Points: 11/11

Mana Points: 3/3

--

You are excellent at stealth, and using magic devices

You are very good at resisting magic

You are good at disarming traps

You are fair at fighting and recognizing magic

You are bad at with bows and crossbows

You are poor at detecting traps

--

You arose from an unmarked grave. You have white hair, eyes like read coals and a deathly pale complexion.

"Tell me more about my Patron"

"Kobal has always been on the sides of Hell's rulers, a staunch support of clashes with the Heavens because of their entertainment value. Some say his last stay on planet Earth was in the form of Loki, the Trickster. Kobal is the only Patron without a favourite race or class. Level ups can be rewarded by gaining Demonic servants, Demonic Weapons, minor stat increases, greater stat increases, and mass destruction of your enemies. Leveling up too fast or too slow can result in cursed weapons, cursed armor, loss of experience, stat decreases, physical damage, minor stat decreases, major stat decreases, and the summoning of dangerous monsters."

That.. did not sound so good. I felt screwed for a moment. At least I knew what I was potentially in for. Kobal could be really bad news, I had to stay on his good side. If that was even possible.

"Does Kobal have any temples?"

I felt the snorting laughter more than I heard it.

"Temples! You might become most entertaining after all. Temples are for the celestial fools, the closest thing you will find to a temple of Kobal are theaters. Not that there are very many of those in the Sieve. A shame really. Now, go find some kobolds and giant rats to kill so that I can reward you for your next level."

The malevolence of that last sentence got me wondering whether I ever wanted to level again. It might just be better to stay level 1 than risking another Chaos vortex. Though with my luck, staying level 1 would probably also upset Kobal and get me killed for real this time.

I wasn't sure what to do next. I only saw simple wooden weapons, perhaps I would have to bash monsters to death with a shield? Or two shields?

"Can I wield two shields?"

Deafening silence followed. I would rather be beaten by a rat than face another of those chaos waves. I grabbed the largest shield I could find, the game helpfully granted me the knowledge that this was a 'Large wooden shield (4)', it was adding 4 points of defense. I also wore a wooden breast armor, adding more 1 point of defense. I really needed to get better gear. I also swung a small shield over my shoulder, in case I would want to risk that chaos wave after all.

The court yard had a number of doors, all but one seemed to lead to other painfully sunny courtyards. The one door that was different seemed to lead to the dungeon of the castle. While remaining in the shadow of the castle walls I walked towards it. I listened at the door, but no sounds come from behind this particular door. I was not sure whether that was good news or bad news, probably bad.. When I touched the handle it almost felt as if the door itself was looking me up and down, a barely passable adventurer soiling it's handle.

"Afflicted status verified; Vampire. Access granted."