It was one A.M. in your typical college suburb in the city. The streets that would usually be packed with merry college students partying at this hour were now silent, much to the liking of the local residents too poor to move away. Besides the occasional police siren and rumbling on the local public metro line, there wasn’t a soul in sight. A pandemic had swept the world and vast swaths of the educated parts of the country were now under lockdown with social distancing ordinances in full effect.

In one of the cheap apartment townhouses that lined the suburb was Keiran Shah, bored and aimlessly browsing the internet on his laptop. This was not what Keiran had in mind on how he would spend spring break. Although, initially he wasn’t looking forward to spring break with his friends he had since reconsidered. After his now ex-girlfriend, Monica, had cheated and broken up with him after rekindling her lost lust for her highschool crush, he was desperately looking forward to getting himself out there. He wasn’t particularly mad at Monica, at least she had the decency to not drag him along for the ride. Yay! Small wins.

Keiran was a sophomore at his university majoring in Computer Science and a minor in Internal Relations. He was really good at studying and had the GPA to back it up. He made the dean’s list each semester and was proud of his accomplishments. He was looking forward to adding a Masters degree under his belt and a nice prosperous career. The pandemic however had other plans. With the university closed, Keiran had avoided going back home like his other two roommates. He didn’t want his parents constantly nagging him about not having a job or girlfriend and “making himself useful.” His father promised to speak with his boss for an IT internship at the company he worked at but Keiran internally cringed at the idea of troubleshooting emails and printer issues for a bunch of old people. So Keiran continued to waste away in his apartment.

He had debated whether he should spend his time on starting up a business but the allure of a simple and lazy college life kept him stalling. He wondered if he should rewatch his favorite anime a gazillionth time or roll another character in Bala’s Gate. With only the pale blue light of the laptop keeping him company, he forged forward with his internal debate making zero progress. That was until he suddenly got a popup ad on his screen. Odd, he thought. Did the ad blocker fail, somewhat worried that companies had figured out a way to bypass the must-have browser extension. The ad was for The World of Avesta, a self acclaimed new and groundbreaking fantasy RPG full of sword and sorcery. Apparently, Keiran was one of the lucky few who had been “pre-screened” to sign up and get access to this new RPG. Kerian eye-rolled at that. However, the accompanying trailer really made a good case and got him hooked.

With nothing to lose, Keiran decided to sign up for access which simply consisted of asking him for his email address. He quickly punched in his burner spam email; he didn’t want his main email account out there in the wild, and was shown the character creation screen. After entering his usual gamer name “MisterFuzzleButt” , he received a warning.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Character Names are permanent.

Names carry power in Avesta, once set it cannot be changed. Natives of Avesta will take a name seriously and you will be judged by it.

Interesting, Keiran thought. He decided to use his own name instead. The race was locked to Human. Likely other races have not been implemented yet, Keiran though. He selected his month and day of birth. Age apparently wasn’t currently available for selection. Finally it came to the section of the character creation process that made Keiran second guess the quality of the game. It asked him to roll for a pre-screened skill purchase point bonus, which went from 1-100. He had five attempts. Being a veteran of Dungeon & Loot, he made a silent prayer to the RNG gods and goddesses, promising a suitable sacrifice for a good score.

Roll 1: 1

… typical, he thought.

Roll 2: 2

… you’re kidding right?!

Roll 3: 4

With two birds pointed at his screen Keiran mumbled a curse.

Roll 4: 1

Keiran was laughing hysterically, whether it was a panic attack or a form or mental breakdown is unknown.

Roll 5: 100

YES!!! Fuck you gods and goddess. I agreed to nothing. NOTHING!

After calming himself down, Keiran proceeded to the next section which presented him with a wide variety of skills to choose from. You had your typical Experience Boost, OP magic skills that could kill a target regardless of level with 50% chance, haggling price boosts, etc. Keiran carefully researched the full list of skills and ended up selecting three. The description of the skills were barebone but got the point across.

Multiclass

SPP: 25

Unlocks multiclassing.

Multiclassing in Keiran’s opinion was a must have in most RPGs since it added a layer of flexibility to a character.

Respec

SPP: 25

Unlocks ability to retrain character without losing levels or experience.

Memories of too many character rerolls had jaded Keiran.

Tech Transfer

SPP: 50

Transfer technology for additional skills.

The high skill purchase cost and vague description made Keiran think this skill was pretty important and a must have. He hoped his bet paid out. After selecting the skill, it was finally time to get into this game and explore Avesta. Keiran couldn’t wait.

Thank you for signing up for World of Avesta.

The current wait time is 3 years, 8 months, 14 days, 10 hours, and 21 minutes.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to welcoming you to your new world.