Connecting…
Scanning…
New User detected.
A blue window opened before his eyes.
The console was probably scanning my eye, like a fingerprint.
It had a female voice that was expressionless with just a bit of calming tone.
It was a surprisingly standard voice, as a welcoming voice can be for a console.
Would you like to create a new account?
| Yes | No |
-Yes please!
It was a basic account setting, asking his username, a way to contact him and a password that goes with his eye scan.
It also had a way to make a complete account, so it would get much more information as well as card info for payment, etc.
Despite wanting to start already, he decided to finish the complete one.
Game Loaded…
World Online
Start?
| Yes | No |
-Yes! Yes! Yes!
Finally it's happening!
A cutscene started.
It was like one of those drone captures, showing the lives of many different people. Fishermen fishing, farmers taking care of their crops, nobles arguing, kings ruling over and adventurers killing monsters.
It was easy to understand what it wanted to say. Here is the world, it’s yours, do what you want.
In the end it finished with a shot of the whole world. It was a flat one and the edges seemed to absorb nearby meteorites of smaller sizes and the like, increasing the world slowly.
An ever growing world, huh.
Login with your Account?
| Yes | No |
-Yes please!
Then it happened.
A bright light and suddenly I'm in an empty tavern.
Select your gender:
.
.
.
-Male.
World Online starts with 36 races open to select.
Please select one of them.
Additional races can be unlocked during gameplay.
.
.
.
Inside the tavern suddenly appeared many Olivers. They changed in height and size and muscle mass, but the face always had constant characteristics, like the eyes, or the nose, or simply the face shape, making him know it was him, but in the guise of the different races.
-Dammit.
I was so focused on gameplay that I forgot to think of the races.
No matter. I just need to think a bit.
How do I want to play this game? Using only passive skills. Ok, yes. What is the downside of it?
…
No active skills.
But what does that mean?
…
Magic! I can't have a gameplay like a mage or cleric without active spells. Even when I was thinking of the attributes I dumped Intelligence and Wisdom, that means my magic defense will be abysmal. I need something that can counteract that.
-Filter races with magic resistance.
The tavern starts to slowly get less crowded, until there are only four. A small Oliver, with dark skin and big head, one that had goat horns and legs, one who was made of some kind of crystal and lastly a clearly serpent-like Oliver, with scale, tail and everything.
-So, the Gnome, the Satyr, the Crystal Golem and the Serpentfolk.
The Gnome gets a bonus to Dexterity when tinkering, the satyr gets a bonus to Charisma while performing, the Crystal Golem gets weakness to bludgeoning and the Serpentfolk get Poison Production.
It's hard to choose this way.
-Let me see Human.
Once again that tavern changed the amount of people in it, until only one remained.
Human gets a bonus to Experience for all skills.
Hmmm what to do, what to do?
10 minutes passed with him thinking of the ups and downs of each race.
Ah! Forget it, when in doubt go to human!
It won’t be anything fancy, but it will work, I’m sure of it.
-Human!
You may now alter your appearance.
-It's okay the way I am… Wait! Make me a little more… More.
Oliver sees his avatar gain a few pounds, getting more substance to himself.
I kinda look nice…
-Anyway! Next.
Choose a name.
The bane of Oliver's existence, he was always bad at choosing names.
I can't spend 10 minutes again thinking about this, I'll just write my name backwards.
-Revil!
Welcome Revil.
Would you like to do the Tutorial?
| Yes | No |
Why not?
-Yes!
Revil is then teleported to a big grass training field. There were dummies, some weapons and some bookcases, just like the arena in the demo.
In this tutorial you can try as many different weapons and skills as you'd like.
After finishing it say “End Tutorial”.
As a bonus for doing the tutorial, you can take any one of the basic skills you tried.
Oliver quickly did a run through of the skills in the bookcase, finding out that they were the same as in the demo.
This is it! I should choose a basic skill for my gameplay, one that will help me as much as and as long as possible.
So he started trying the weapon skills. All of them. Until he filtered to two types of gameplay he enjoyed.
I'm between sword and shield, so I have an offensive and defensive option and throwing weapons because I like it. One I’d put the extra attribute in Constitution, the other I’d put on Dexterity. The way I would play would be completely different.
But is it really one of them?
Think about the gameplay.
I'll be a long run character, I won't have special attacks that end the fight quickly. I need to survive as long as possible during the fights. I'll also be a passive build and what does that mean? That means I'm buffing my body.
This looks… Unarmed combat? But I'm not a monk, could I use some kind of weapon with it? Maybe…
A gauntlet?
Oliver looked for a while in the area of the Tutorial.
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There.
There were armors, and some of them had gauntlets, mostly the medium and heavy ones. He also got some leg armor to go with it.
Let me try this.
He spent some time punching and kicking the dummies.
It was after a while that a notification came.
Unarmed Combat Mastery Skill Acquired
This is it! I can get passives for armors and still be able to fight unarmed.
Maybe there will be a limit to being unarmed if I put claws on the gauntlets for example, it would become a weapon, but if I put small bumps or spikes? Maybe that could increase my damage and be unarmed.
Now for the skill. When I was thinking of getting sword and shield, I was going to get Blade Mastery, and then acquire during gameplay Sword Mastery. There should be something like that for bludgeoning.
Oliver then started acquiring various Masteries for bludgeoning weapons.
During the beta I couldn't save my progress, so I couldn't see all of these group masteries, but now that I'm in the game, I can try more things.
Realizing this. He decided to try everything once again.
…
-End tutorial.
Ending Tutorial…
Please choose one of the skills tried.
-Blunt Mastery.
Blunt Mastery chosen.
Please, now choose your starter point:
.
.
.
Hmmm there are some kingdom capital cities, villages and even some academies. But for what I want… Hmmm…Yeah it should be a capital.
Rosarian Kingdom, Glaiveton Empire, Scarot Kingdom, these are my choices.
I don't have info on them yet. That's the bad part of starting on launch day.
-System can you roll a dice for me? A 6 sided dice, please.
Rolling 6 sided Dice
.
.
.
6
-Scarot Kingdom, Grafted City.
Starting game…
A city with more than a few dilapidated buildings. That's the first impression you get from it.
And a lot of adventurers, clearly not all of them players.
Looking at his equipment, Revil started with just simple clothing and a dagger, just like every other player.
-Wow…
Truly, the scope of this game is out of this world. I can feel the clothes in a way I've never felt in other games.
Looking around he also saw a few flashes and people gawking at their surroundings.
What should I do first?
Status
Name
Revil
Class
Novice
Level
1
Profession
None
Title
-
Fame
0
HP
HPs
110
1/s
MP
MPs
110
1/s
Strength
5
Dexterity
5
Constitution
5
Intelligence
5
Wisdom
5
Charisma
5
Offense
6
Defense
0
Inventory.
Hmm, so just 10 loaves of bread and 100 gold. I'll need money for sure.
Now…
Find the guilds and discover how to get skills.
Going around in circles would be folly, so he looked for a guard and asked directions.
-Just go to the main plaza over there, you'll see all the main guilds.
Following the directions he quickly found it.
-What in th-
What is wrong with this city, it feels like every building is patched up.
The city and its buildings were made like monstrosities, like growing limbs and bulbous patches were made to fix them. Even the castle looked like it had its own reworks.
The main building of the plaza was the adventurers guild, but luckily, it looked very lively. There were tables and chairs outside of it and from the looks of it, the guild was also a tavern of some sorts by the drinks and foods the people were having.
Besides the adventurers guild, as if they were siblings, smaller guilds could be seen. Fighter, Archer, Mage, Acolyte, Ranger, Merchant and Rogue.
There's definitely other classes, both basic and advanced, I don't see Bard or Druid, for example. But it doesn't matter, I'll find them, I'll find them all.
Going in first to the fighters guild.
-Ha! Ha! Another one for the Fighters!
A giant man basically screamed.
-Come now Traveller, discover the beauty of close combat with us.
He got close to Revil and brought him to a woman behind a counter.
-I'm so sorry, he's like this since his gamble with the mages guildmaster.
-That pompous prick, he'll see, we'll have more travellers than him.
Oliver was a bit taken aback at first, but it was a common trope for these two types of guilds to have beef.
-That's ok, I actually wanted to know how to get skills.
-Well, you're underleveled to be a fighter right now, but you can get a few basic skills for fighter and other classes to try them out before choosing. The first skill is for free, so choose wisely. Then it's 50 gold per skill.
50 gold doesn't seem like much.
-Also, this price raises for higher level skills, so do note that.
-Thank you! May I see which skills I can choose now?
-Of course, I'll send you the list.
Bash Skill
Sword Mastery Skill
Spear Mastery Skill
Axe Mastery Skill
.
.
.
-I'd like the Increase STR skill and Increase CON skill, please.
-Are you sure? They are passive skills, I highly recommend the Bash skill.
-Yup thank you so much.
This repeated in all other Class Guilds. It seems like it was very unorthodox to get passive skills as their first skill.
Increase STR Skill acquired
Increase CON Skill acquired
Eagle’s Eyes Skill acquired
Increase INT Skill acquired
Increase WIS Skill acquired
Skinning Skill acquired
Increase CHA Skill acquired
Increase DEX Skill acquired
Most skills were obvious, except the Archer’s Eagle’'s Eyes that increases vision range and Ranger's Skinning that gave him the skill without him having to fumble through until he got it. He would like the Butcher skill too, but then he would have no gold left, and he doesn’t know if he will need it.
He did learn how to skin and butcher in his wilderness classes, but having the skill makes him more sure of himself.
All Increase skills are at Trained level 1, so it's a 1% increase, but they automatically get XP and soon will be cornerstones of my character's strength.
Now I need to get Unarmed Combat skill, the Fighter's Guild surprisingly didn't have it. So I'll have to learn it.
I should go to the Adventurer's Guild, maybe I can get some more info of the surroundings and get some quests. Also there could be some training grounds like in the Tutorial.
…
The Adventurer's Guild was a sight to behold inside. It had 3 floors and you could see all 3 from the first floor, like an open gallery.
The first had the tavern, the second had job boards and people behind counters to assist the adventurers. The third floor was like a library. The walls were thick with books all around them.
Like an excited little boy he went straight to the third floor, not even noticing one of the attendants on the second floor called him. It was when he got the first book he finally heard her.
-My, my, you Travellers.
-Sorry?
-Sorry you are!
The person was an elf woman, with blonde hair and green eyes.
-You didn’t even hear me right?
-Oh, yeah, sorry I didn’t.
-Anyway, the third floor is our library of studies, you can only use after enrolling as an adventurer.
-Really? Ok, what should I do?
I hope it’s an easy process.
-It’s very simple, but I do need to tell you a few things. As you may know the Scarot Kingdom is special because it gives a lot of leeways for the Adventurer's Guild.
I didn't know that.
-This is because of the poor environment of the kingdom, where it can't raise enough food for it and the consequences of the last wars. So the adventurers help a lot with finding food on dungeons and material for construction as well as any necessity really.
Is this why the place is like this, if they get things from the different dungeons around here it would make sense why it feels so patched up.
-I know you Travellers aren't from around here but here in the Scarot Kingdom the Adventurer's Guild has a stipend each adventurer needs to complete. Most focus in a type of product, but anything that can help the civilians is appreciated, we will pay you well.
-Is that all?
-We also have job boards, where you can find specific jobs sent by civilians, organizations and even the crown.
-I actually want mostly the books.
-That's alright, a lot of people become adventurers because of our library. Now, put the book back and come down to the second floor to do your guild insignia.
The two of them went downstairs and did a simple form that simulated his character sheet.
Revil got a insignia with a sword and staff crossed in front of a shield and dagger.
He puts it on his shirt to be viewed by everyone.
-This insignia also gives you a discount on the entry fee to all cities in all kingdoms. Here.
She also gave him a plaque.
-This one is for Grafted city, that shows you're one of us. So you don't need to pay the entry fee here.
-Thank you.