“What’s your name, little one?” Guin asked, pulling him into her lap. After a good bit of comforting and negotiating, the little fox had relaxed.
“M-Momma calls me Tik-Tak...” he said.
Guin smiled, “Well! It’s nice to meet you Tik-Tak! I’m Guin.”
His little ears went erect, and his trail did a little wag. Cute! she thought as he spoke, “I’m sorry I scared you earlier... Mortal Realmers c-can be a little scary. M-Momma never liked them much, but P-Papa always talked about them.”
As he fell silent again, Guin rubbed behind his ear and asked, “What happened to your parents, Tik-Tak?”
The little fox looked down. “You are a Veil Walker, aren’t you, Guin?” he asked.
“Yes,”
“I’m a Veil Walker, too,” he told her, puffing up. “My Papa is a spirit! He travels all over the Veil and the Mortal Realm! H-He talks to all the great beasts a-and even the Frost Wyrm himself!”
“He sounds like a very important man,” Guin said softly, wondering if it was true. “And your mother?”
“My Momma...M-Momma...” his head ducked.
“Is she in trouble?”
“The hunters got her...” he said. Guin felt her jaw drop. “They got her; she led them away from me, but they got her....”
“It’s not rare, or even uncommon,” the Webspinner broke in, perhaps seeing Guin’s internal conflict at the news. “The pelts of the animals in White Fox Forest are said to have magical powers due to the high concentration of spirit energy, and the pelts of foxes are the most desired among them. It is not sad for an animal in the world to lose its life; that is but a natural part of life. There are far scarier things.”
Sick to her stomach, Guin felt torn. This was an MMORPG—killing things was naturally a part of how the game was played. Yet, here was this little fox whose mother had been killed. He was alone. He was frightened.
The little fox, however, nodded at the Webspinner’s words. “Even though Momma’s body has left the Mortal Realm, she can still join Father in the Veil!” he exclaimed, but then his face fell again. “Except... Momma... She’s angry. She’s so angry! I don’t know why she’s so angry, but... There is a dark energy growing from her spirit. She’s gone home to our den, but it is so filled with malicious energy I cannot remain with her very long. I-If this continues much longer, I fear that she may become an evil spirit, and she will have to be killed in the Veil as well, and I will never see her again!”
“What happens when one is killed in the Veil?” Guin asked, dreading the answer.
“Life is a cycle, dear Candidate,” the Webspinner said. “Those spirits slain in the Veil are reborn again in the Mortal Realm—though they shall never regain the memories of their past lives.” Tilting her head, Guin considered. That answer wasn’t as bad as she thought. “However,” the Webspinner continued. “If spirits become tainted with evil, then they turn to dust—the very ground you walk upon—until it is once again purified by the cycle of nature.
“I don’t want Momma to become dirt!” Tik-Tak whined. “Yiiiii...”
“How much time do we have?” Guin asked the Webspinner.
“No more than a week, by the telling of my web,” she answered. “You should speak to Wise before you head off to the East. She might be able to help you both.”
Guin nodded and looked at the time. She wasn’t sure how much longer she would play tonight, but she wanted to help the little fox however she could.
“Will you help?” Tik-Tak asked, looking up at her with his tilted head and beady eyes.
<
“Hmm...” She furrowed her brows. Her stats were rising quickly, but many were still very low. She was shocked to have received so many during the events with the Webspinner and Tik-Tak, but there was logic in it. After all, Tik-Tak seemed to be some sort of special event, and the Webspinner did deal with spirits and fate. It made the benefits of taking advantage of any bonus objectives obvious.
Already knowing that, at this point, it wasn’t worth starting something, Guin pulled up the [Menu: Abilities] screen. She had a total of three skills: [Fox Form - Level 1], [Spirit Armor - Level 1], and [Veil Phase - Level 1].
According to internet sources, there were three known ways to gain skills.
One: Learn them according to a class advancement. This was, arguably, the easiest way to gain skills, as you got them for free from your class trainer after attaining an appropriate level. However, these skills were lost if you decided to change your class unless the class you changed to was also capable of using them.
Two: Monsters worldwide dropped tokens with which you could buy skills and equipment. These are special tokens that only teachers will take. Only one kind of token drops in the tutorial zone, but in the actual game, you can collect many unique tokens for particular teachers. Of course, these tokens can also be used to purchase special or even hidden classes.
Three: Real-life experience. While this mechanic gives a slightly unfair advantage to those who had studied combat before, it also made sense. It gives a person the ability to learn as they go; in fact, the game was even used to train others in real-life skills. If you see an ability, you have the chance to copy it, thereby earning the skill. The game does give the option to allow players to use commands to execute the skills that they might otherwise not have the know-how to do; however, on activation, they were significantly weaker than the skills of someone who bypassed the commands.
There was a potential, unofficial, Fourth way to acquire skills, but as it relied heavily on experience, there was still a heavy debate about it. This was the skill creation system.
The idea was that in applying one’s personal ability and combining it with a game ability just right, the game was set up for you to create whole new skills. One of the only examples on record as a potential case of this was a beta player called Ollia Rhye.
Ollia Rhye was a Mahar who worked as an aerospace engineer in real life. In the game, she played a basic mage class called “The Enchanter.” After becoming a Master level Blacksmith, she had meant to create a set of blades for her wings imbued with magic. Upon their completion, they were drawn into her character in a flash of light, and instead, she gained four new skills which gave her wing-type magical enchantments that proved far more powerful than the item she would have created. The Enchanter became a hugely popular class after those events, but no one since had been able to recreate the event—publicly, at least. Many people suggested that it was like anything else in the game; you needed just the right circumstance to initiate the creation of the skills. Others said that it was just a sort of ploy to get people more involved in the game and to appeal to those who like the possibility of such customization.
Regardless, players loved it and continued to try. The game was still new, and so much was left to discover.
If she was going to be dealing with hunters, she would likely get involved in some sort of combat, so she decided to give it a go. She set her alarm to go off in an hour and started sorting through things. None of the abilities that she had seemed to be attack abilities.
<<[Fox Form]>>
<
<
<< Shapeshift into a small fox. You cannot cast in this form. This ability cannot be used in the Veil. >>
<< Speed increases by 10%, Attack decreases by 90%. >>
<< Cast Time: 10 Seconds - Duration: 30 Seconds - Cooldown: 1 Minute >>
<<[Spirit Armor]>>
<
<
<< Summons a thin layer of spirit power from within to protect you. >>
<< Armor increases by 1%. >>
<< Cast Time: 10 Seconds - Duration: 10 Minutes - Cooldown: 1 Minute >>
<<[Veil Phase]>>
<< Rank -- - Level 1>>
<
<< Bend Reality and step into the Veil. >>
<< You are invisible to those in the Mortal Realm. You cannot affect things in the Mortal Realm if you are in the Veil. >>
<< Instant - Duration: -- - Cooldown: 1 Minute >>
As level-one skills, they weren’t very powerful, but at least they seemed to have their uses. Going from the description of [Fox Form], it was a movement ability more than anything else. It wasn’t a common ability, and there was very little information about it. Those who did have the ability used it as a replacement for the basic movement skill [Dash], or it was used it for scouting. Overall, it was considered a cute gimmick and mostly pointless to level. With all that said, Guin decided that she would try to level it as high as she could during the tutorial, and if it proved worthless in the end, then so be it.
[Spirit Armor] was much more of a boon in her mind. It was weak initially, but references showed that it scaled well as the skill gained levels. It was known to have at least two advanced rank forms, which players got to choose as they ranked up and found trainers.
As for [Veil Phase], it was an ability with potential, but since most of the game took place in the Mortal Realm, it ended up as just another gimmick ability. It did seem to prove useful when traveling alone; it was a great way to avoid PKers, which was one of the main attractions for Guin to choose it. Some people had attempted to use it in combat, but the 1-minute cooldown made it more of an “oh-shit” button than a practical skill. There was a suggestion on the forums that there were players with a skill that mimicked the effect on just a one-second cooldown. In particular, there was a recorded video of a flashy-looking woman dressed in red and gold feathers with an unknown class blinking in and out of combat, but no one came forward to confirm it.
This game is full of interesting puzzles things, Guin thought with a grin. Being able to play how you wanted and potentially get unique benefits from it was an MMO player’s dream. She had no desires or intentions for the game, so the world was nothing more than a toy.
After standing up and brushing her butt off, Guin activated her [Spirit Armor] ability via the menu. A hard-to-describe feeling filled her as a light haze rose off her skin. The light mist covered her only for a moment, then seemed to be absorbed by her body once again. Guin tilted her head and checked her status bar.
The status bar was always on screen in normal combat unless you turned the setting off. As a default, it floated just within eye vision, just transparent enough to keep the bar from impeding the player's vision. Going through the plethora of settings, she set her out-of-combat status screen to be like a tattoo on the inside of her left arm. This would be pointless when she got more gear that covered her arms, but for now, it worked well.
With it, she could see that [Spirit Armor] was active, even if there seemed to be no visible effect. She didn’t feel an effect, either.
Next, she cast [Veil Phase]. There seemed to be no visible effect on her body in her eyes, but she knew from videos that her body would have appeared to have phased out of sight to those who didn’t possess [Veil Sight].
That said, the world around her showed considerable changes. It seemed that the Veil was based upon the Valkyrian homeworld of Yidar combined with the chaotic planet Sofkhe, the homeworld of the Jijak, and a few other very colorful planets. In contrast, the mortal realm was based on a combination of Earth-like planets, including Earth itself and Phaestral, the homeworld of the Tivarys. The brown and green forest that had reminded her of home was no more, exchanged for trees with teal leaves and white bark. The moss was shades of red, and the grass was a deep blue-green color. The sky as dusk fell was a deep, reddish-purple, and the small lake glittered gold.
She was used to the colors to a certain degree; after all, she lived on Yidar now, but the imagery still had a certain magical feel about it.
Tik-Tak looked at her with great curiosity but said nothing. Instead, he sat on his haunches and scratched behind his ear.
Using the ability again to phase back into the Mortal Realm, Guin considered its uses.
Then she activated [Fox Form].