> Create your Character

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> Gender: F

> Class: Witch

> Race: Demi-Kayten

> Name: Katherine

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> Welcome to Earth of Mana

A lone girl appeared on top of a faintly glowing circle made of marbles. She looked down at her hands in wonder with how realistic the movement felt. The cat tail behind her twitched and she recoiled from the alien sensation. She then felt her cat ears brush against her oversized witch hat from the movement and felt the weirdness of the situation hit her all over again before she burst out laughing.

This was her first ever Full Dive virtual game. She had chosen the cat girl race because she tought it was the cutest. But having brand new appendages attached to her was definetly something she would need to get used to.

A burst of blue light suddenly roared right beside her almost making her have a heart attack in the process. When the light died down she saw another person with a gun strapped to their back. Just like her they seem to stare at themselves in amazement.

But then they turn toward her and waved. Katherine waved back nervously. The player seemed to open his mouth to say something but Katherine took that time to run away. She knew it was probably rude to not properly introduce herself. But she didn't want people to hear her voice right now, not until she found the right settings.

Once she found herself in a seclude area with no other players she finally open her mouth. ''Testing, testing.'' She cringed as her natural voice came out of her character, which was expected but unfortunate.

Fortunately she had read that could be changed in the character settings. She extended a hand expecting something to pop up...but nothing did. She tried pressing her fingers against the empty air and nothing again. ''How do I open the menu?''

As if the game heard her, which it probably did. A small textbox suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. 'To open the menu place your index finger on your forehead.'

''Like this?'' She asked placing a finger between her eyes, feeling kind of silly in the process. But just as promised a translucent menu box suddenly appeared in front of her. She quickly tap the character option and went toward the voice menu. There was many options to choose from.

She quickly moved away from the male voices and went straight to the female ones. ''Hello?'' She asked tentatively and frowned. The first voice she tried was that of a mature sounding women. It was definitely nicer than her real voice. But it really did not fit her character.

''How about this one?'' This time she sounded like a preschool girl. The voice was definetly cute enough. but she didn't want to sound like a toddler. ''Okay what about now?'' This time the voice almost sounded like an old granny. She shook her head, definetly not that one.

''Is this one better?'' This time she sounded like what a girl her age would sound like. She felt tingles down her spine at how nice it made her feel to finally have a voice she liked. She nodded her head. ''Yes this one is perfect.'' She said with a huge smile on her face.

Satisfied she confirmed her choice and closed down the menu. ''Alright, now that's done. What am I supposed to do?''

As if the game heard her once again an icon suddenyl blinked in front of her. When she pressed it another window opened before her.

> Tutorial Quest: Find and equip your first weapon.

''Alright, seem simple enough.'' She clicked on the quest box. A translucent glowing trail appeared on the floor as soon as she did. This might have been her first Full Dive game. But she had played enough regular games to know when a game was guiding her toward a quest.

And so without any hesitation she started following the glowing trail that had appeared. Not knowing how much danger the seemingly innocent quest would put her throught...

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When a grated metallic fence stood in her way. Katherine didn't think too much of it. She easily managed to climbed over it with feline-like reflexes and marveled at how much more athletic she was in this virtual body.

But as she continued to follow the quest line. She noticed that the nice city she had first appeared in made way for a much rougher looking neightborhood. She could see smashed windows of stores and wooden planks barring anyone from entering the vandalized building.

She could see cars that had rusted well beyond being of any use. And she could see splash of long dried up blood painting the sidewalks.

''Man, isn't this suppose to be a modern fantasy game? This look more like a horror game right now.'' Katherine muttered to herself.

Before she could make it any further she heard a low groan in the distance that made her stop and her track and made her feel her hairs raise on ends. Rounding up the corner of the street what was once a man appeared in her vision.

But the thing had gray decaying skin and hollow eyes that stared at her hungrily as it shambled toward her slowly.

Katherine couldn't help it. She yelled in terror and she turned around and sprinted at full speed in the opposite direction. Before she could reach the grate where she had came from, a trio of undead blocked her way.

''You've got to be kidding me! I don't even have a weapon yet and you drop me in a fucking zombie apocalypse?! What kind of sadistic developers made this game?!'' Katherine wasn't usually scare about any horror games. But there was a difference to seeing a zombie in front of a screen and seeing them in person. It was easy to forget the fact there wasn't any actual danger in a Full Dive game beyond being sent back to the spawn point with an exp penalty.

Giving up on the idea of going back where she came from Katherine ran left into an alleyway, hoping there wouldn't be more undead to greet her on the other side.

Just as she was about to reach the end of the alleyway and onto the other side of the street. She was suddenly yanked on the arm and dragged inside a building. She screamed in terror thinking a zombie had caught her and was about to feast on her. But she was just as quickly silenced by someone slapping their hand over her mouth.

When she calmed enough to take a look at her attacker she noticed it wasn't a zombie that had grabbed her. Instead standing before her was a feline standing on two legs with gray fur and black stripes.

It was a Kayten, a playable race that you could choose when creating your character. Katherine was a Demi-Kaythen half human and half feline. Which translated to her having cat ears, a tail, piercing eyes that could see in the dark and sharper teeth.

Full Kayten however were much less human-like and had their body completely covered in fur. Their only human quality being the fact they were bipedal.

She didn't know if it was also a feature of the Kayten race. But she had trouble discerning if the player before her was male or female. Their appearance was completely androgynous.

She soon also noticed that the feline player wasn't alone. Sitting at a table in the same room were two other players. One of them was a beautiful elf woman with long black hair. She looked at her and the Kayten with an almost bored expression. Strapped on her back was a sniper rifle, it was kind of weird to see an elf with that kind of weapon. But that was just the kind of game Earth of Mana was, she supposed.

On the other side of the table was a boy. Just a regular human, as far as she could tell. She could never understand the appeal of being able to play as fantasy creatures and choosing to stick as a boring run-of-the-mill humans. But she supposed it wasn't her place to judge.

The boy was wearing a cowboy hat on top of his brown hair. However despite being in a game with guns and having the fashion of the legendary gunslingers. The boy seemed to have opted to fight with daggers instead. There were knives hanging all over his body kept in the pouches on his vest and trousers. She wondered why he would need that many knives, surely two would be more than enough.

''Now I'm going to remove my hand from your mouth. You better not scream again, alright?'' The Kayten said bringing back her attention back to them. Katherine hesitantly nodded and the feline removed their paw.

''Why did you drag me here?'' Katherine asked once her mouth was free.

The Kayten shrugged and smirked seemingly amused. ''Well I heard what sounded like another newbie getting hazed by the game's tutorial and figured I could help out.''

''Hazed?'' She asked confused.

At that the Kayten chuckled. ''Yeah, let me guess you're here to get your first weapon right?'' At her nod they continued. ''Well, you can find your weapons here but you could have gotten it much more easily by buying one in the town you started in. Each players start out with enough money to buy the basic weapon this quest arleady give you.''

''You mean the tutorial is a trap?! What kind of sick creep made this game?!'' She shouted. The Kayten slaped his hand on her mouth once again but couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction.

''Yeah you'll learn that this game is pretty trollish at times. But that's one of the reason why it's so good. You never know what to expect. That being said, please stop making so much noise. You'll attrack all the zombies to our little hideout.''

The Kayten remove their paw from her mouth once again. ''Oh right I have yet to introduce myself. I'm Sock, The elf over there is Shadow_Dragon but we just call her Shadow and the wanabee cowboy is Luck_of_the_Draw, we call him Luke.'' The two other players waved at her. Their expressions not really welcoming, but not hostile either.

''Oh! I'm Katherine, nice to meet you.'' She responded with a small nod.

Sock smiled impishly. ''Katherine huh? Would you mind if I call you Katie?''

Katherine blushed at how forward this stranger was, but for some reason it didn't bother her. ''S-sure I d-don't mind.''

Their small talk was interrupted when they heard something slam against the door repeatedly. It was followed by a low moan that sent shiver down Katherine's spine.

Sock sighed his tail swishing behind him in irritation. ''I suppose we weren't quiet enough. Oh well, I suppose we could go take care of a few of these freaks, we've slacked too much in our duty to keep them away from our little base. How about I help you find your weapon and then you help me clear away those zombies, Katie? They might be scary at first but they make excellent target practice for a newbie like you.''

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Katherine felt hesitant to go out there again and face those creepy things. But at this point her only options were either face the zombies head on or log out and don't touch the game again. And she would rather not give up her first Full Dive game so soon...It's not like she had enough money to go buy a less scary one, not for a long while at least. It took all her savings to buy a Full Dive console and this game, which was the highest rated Full Dive game out in the market at the moment.

And...as scary as those zombies were. The tought of not being able to be Katherine again was much scarier.

So relunctantly she nodded. Sock smirked back before opening a menu and materializing a shotgun before them that they took with their...Hands? Paws? She didn't know what proper term she should be using.

Sock kicked the door opened sending the zombie on the other side colliding against the opposing wall in the alley. They raise their shotgun and fired at the zombie's head. The head exploded. But rather than a shower of gore it's head disolved into fragmented particles followed by the rest of it's body.

The sound of the shotgun had alerted more zombies which came shambling from both exits of the alley.

''All right I'll take the ones coming from the front you take the ones in the back, okay?'' Sock said while pumping their shotgun.

''Did you forget the part where I don't have a weapon?!'' Katherine replied incredulously.

Sock smirked back at her with an amused glint in their eyes. ''Well judging by your outfit you're a magical girl, no? So do what a magical girl does and throw some spells. As long as you have mana you don't need a weapon.''

''Don't I need a wand or something?'' She asked, but Sock was arleady running toward the zombies with their sahotgun pointed at them. Taking a breath Katherine turn around and faced the two zombies slowly shambling toward her. ''Right I'm a witch so what do I do? I point a finger and yell shazam?'' She did just that and nothing happened.

Felling more than a little bit silly she then tried to ask the game directly. ''How do I cast spell?'' A window suddenly appeared in front of her with a list of spells she could cast. Right now she only had acess to two of them. A spell that cast a ball of fire and one that replenish the ammo pouch for both herself and her allies without the need to go buy more.

They both seemed useful but seeing as she had no guns whatsoever yet. It seem only one spell was of any use to her right now. She tap on the fire ball spell. But instead of casting a spell another window appear with two words that she couldn't decipher the meaning of. She tried tapping the words to see if anything happened, but nothing did.

Maybe she needed to say those words aloud? The zombies were closing in on her so she really hoped this would work. ''Offa Ignis!''

She felt heat build inside the palm of her hand. She raised her hand toward the zombies just in time as a ball of fire hurled toward the rotting undead. They howled in pain as their body caught in a blaze of fire and their body quickly disintegrated into a mass of pixels that scattered into the winds.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand suddenly grab her shoulder. But she relaxed once she realized it was just Sock. The zombies he had gone to dealt with nowhere to be seen.

''Good job Katie! I knew those zombies would be nothing for a magical girl.''

''W-why do you call me a magical girl?! I'm a witch!'' Katherine replied with an embarassed blush on her face.

''That's not what you status window says.'' Sock replied with an amused smirk.

Katherine checked and was dismayed to find they were right. She was classified as a magical girl rather than a witch. ''B-but why? I chose to be a witch I'm sure of it!''

Sock couldn't help it anymore and started laughing. ''What you chose at the start of the game is the final class you're working toward. You're not yet powerful enough to be a proper witch. So until you reach around level fifty you're a magical girl. That's just how it work. I mean, is being a magical girl really such a bad thing?''

Katherine cat ears flattened against her head and she look away embarassed. ''I mean, I guess it's not so bad. But I'm arleady a cat girl, if I'm a magical girl on top of that I'll never beat the weeb allegations.''

Sock started laughing even more loudly at that. Then they proceeded to put their arm around her. ''Don't worry so much about appearance, you think a bunch of normies would buy something as expensive as a Full Dive console? We're just a bunch of hopeless nerds here. I mean look at my own character! I'm never beating the furry allegations myself.''

At that Katherine giggled in response. The two of them continued walking throught the devastated city until they reached an abandoned police station. The two entered inside and Socks quickly dealt with a zombie that had wandered inside.

They went into the back where she found a small chest glowing brightly. ''Go on, this is where you get your first weapon.'' Sock said gesturing to the chest.

Katherine opened the chest fully expecting to receive a magic wand, a staff, or anything else that would fit her role as a witch-er...or rather her role as a magical girl.

But as the chest opened fully she could only look in confusion at the weapon the game decided to give her. It was a gun, a glock more specifically. She took it in her hands and saw that the name of the gun was engraved on the side. It was called 'The Wand'

She facepalmed. ''This game has a really weird sense of humor.''

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Once they exited the police station a notification suddenly popped in front of Katherine's face. 'Sock want to be your friend, do you accept?'

Katherine looked at the Kayten in surprise. They just smiled at her in response. ''You're pretty fun to be around Katty. I wouldn't mind helping you out some more. Maybe you could even join my guild, if you want that is.''

''Are you sure the others would want a newbie like me along?'' She asked unsure.

Sock patted her head reassuringly. ''Don't worry, they might seem grumpy at first but they're all chill once they get to know you. They just...had bad experiences with strangers in the past.''

She wondered what they meant by that but she could guess it was a sensitive topic so she stayed silent and quietly accept the friend request.

They encountered a few more zombies on the way back. But now that she had a gun to defend herself she felt a lot less scared of them and the duo easily dispatched them. She had never fired a real gun before. And technically she still hadn't. But it felt exhilarating, the weight of the gun, the recoil and the way the zombies exploded as she shot them in the head. It made her feel so powerful.

After a few minutes they arrived at the small dingy alley they had started from and entered inside the small hideout where the other two guild members were still waiting inside, playing a game of checkers.

''We're back!'' Sock announced loudly.

The elf smirked back at the Kayten. ''So now that you had your fill of helping the newbie can we finally go on the Griffin Raid?''

''Oh right that, I had completely forgot we were doing that today, ahahahah!'' Sock said rubbing the back of their head awkwardly.

Luke rolled his eyes. ''Figure, You're so empty headed you could even forget your own gender. Oh wait you did.''

To Katherine's surprise, Sock gained an actual annoyed look at that. It was the first serious expression she had seen from the cat all day. ''I didn't forget my gender, I just chose to not have one!''

Shadow elbowed the cowboy her expression gaining a dangerous edge. ''If you want us to accept the fact you like to suck dicks you better learn to respect other gender's identities. Otherwise you have no place in this guild.''

''Yeah, yeah whatever, I just don't understand this nonbinary crap. Normal trans stuff is arleady confusing enough.'' Luke said with a grouchy scowl.

Katherine watched the conversation feeling a little lost and awkward. She felt like she was witnessing a private conversation she shouldn't have been present for. And what did Sock meant by chosing to not have a gender, was that even possible?

Sock seemed to shake off their annoyance as they quickly changed the subject. ''Speaking of the guild, I was thinking we could invite Katherine to join us!''

Shadow frowned seeming concern as she looked between Sock and Katherine. ''Are you sure this is a good idea? You know what this guild is abou-'' Before she could finish Luke slam his hands against the table.

''Fuck no! We don't need straight people to come tarnish our space! This guild was made so we wouldn't have to deal with their shitty nonsense!'' Luke screamed.

Sock seemed like they finally realized something. ''Oh right this is a LGBTQ+ guild I had completely forgotten!'' They said with an embarassed chuckle.

Luke slammed his head on the table. ''Our guildmaster can't even remember what their guild is about, we're doomed.''

But then Sock seem as if they had gained another bright idea. ''Oh! But what if Katie isn't straight? Then she could join our guild, right?''

Shadow shrugged. ''Sure that would be fine.'' Then she turned toward Katherine making the girl jumped slightly from having the attention on her. ''Well the only thing we can do is ask, are you attracted to your own gender? And please answer honestly. I know we have no real way of verifying but if we found out later you're straight and pretending to be gay to join us there will be heavy consequences.'' She said while a shadow of danger seemed to emanated from her.

Katherine gulped nervously. As much as she would have liked to join Sock's guild she couldn't lie to them. Not only because of how scary Shadow was, but also because she would just feel bad about lying. She didn't want to start a friendship based on being dishonest.

She looked at Sock sadly and shook her head. ''Sorry, but I cant join your guild. I like girls.''

She didn't noticed what she had said until everyone started looking at her in confusion. Shadow seemed to be the first to realise the implication. ''Oh, you're a boy in real life aren't you?''

Katherine flinched as if someone had hit her. Which did not go unnoticed by Sock and Shadow. ''Y-yes, I'm a guy.'' She replied barely above a whisper.

''Oh great not only is he straight but he's one of those creepy guy who pretend to be cute cat girls online too. Good thing we didn't invited him along.'' Luke said with a disgusted scoff.

For some reasons his word made her really angry and against her will she could feel tears pouring out of her eyes. ''It's not like I asked to be a guy! I would much rather be a girl!'' She screamed before running out of the hideout barely seeing where she was going from the tears obscuring her vision.

''Luke, you fucking dumbass!'' She heard Shadow yelled from inside but didn't wait to hear more as she continued running away.

As she excited the alley and ran into the street she collided with something. She heard a low moan coming from the object. As her vision cleared she realised she had run straight into a zombie that proceeded to pin her against the ground. ''N-no! Get away!''

She tried to reach for her gun but in her panick it slipped from her grip and was sent tumbling out of reach. She had only one other option left. ''Offa Ignis!'' She yelled, trying to cast the same spell from earlier. But instead of feeling the eat building up inside her hand, a window simply appear in front of her.

> The target is too close to cast the spell.

At that point Katherine simply accepted her fate and waited for the zombie to just kill her. Just when the zombie was about to tore into her with it's teeth she heard the cock of a shotgun before the zombie was blasted off of her and exploded into particles.

She could see a few more zombies approaching her downed position. But then the roar of a sniper could be heard in the distance and the head of the remaining zombies exploded from the precise shots.

Shadow appeared shortly after with her sniper in her hands. Sock sighed gaining the second serious expression she had seen from them that day. ''I'm really sorry about Luke. He's usually not a bad guy. But he tend to cross the line a bit too often. Sometime he can be just as ignorant and hurtful as the straight people he despise so much. So I told him this is his last chance. If he can't get his act together I'm going to kick him out of the guild.''

Katherine looked down at that. ''I-I'm sorry.''

Sock shook their head. ''You have no blame in this. This is entirely on him, we're the ones that are sorry about what he said to you. We of all people should be understanding of someone exploring their identity throught an online game.'' They said with a small smile.

''Exploring my identity?'' Katherine muttered confused.

Shadow approached Katherine with a gentle smile on her face that really showed off her elfic beauty. ''So this might not have started on a great note. But if you'll still have us. We would be more than happy to have you in our guild. We wouldn't be able to bring you on raids for a while yet. But I'm sure Sock will be able to catch you up in no time.''

A window appeared in front of her. 'Do you want to join the Clownfish Guild?'

''B-but I told you I'm straight, wouldn't that go against what your guild is about?'' Katherine said her hand hovering above the 'yes' button.

''This is a LGBTQ+ guild that include trans girls sweetie.'' Shadow replied softly.

Without thinking Katherine press 'yes' on the guild invite before what Shadow said caught up to her. ''W-wait I'm not trans!'' Katherine exclaimed in sudden shock.

Sock and Shadow looked at each other with confusion. ''Um, you just told us you wished you were a girl Katie.'' Sock said cocking their head questioningly.

Katherine looked down in embarassment. ''I-I mean yeah, I've always wanted to be a girl. But all the boys wish that right? I-I'm not like those trans kids you see on TV. I didn't ''know'' I was a girl, I just wish I was one.'' Sock and Shadow looked at her with expression that looked akin to pity. ''W-what?'' She asked defensively.

Sock was the first one to speak. ''Katie...Most trans people didn't 'know' they were another gender. Those kids you see on TV are not as common to the trans experience as the media would like you to think. And no, normal cisgendered boys don't normally wish to be girls, not beyond a mere curiosity. They don't wish they could live the rest of their life as the opposite gender. If...if you honestly think your life would be better if you were a girl. Then you're most likely trans, it's really as simple as that.''

Katherine was rooted to the spot. T-that couldn't be true couldn't it? S-she always hated being a guy but that's just because being a boy suck. That was normal, right? Right? She...she couldn't deal with this right now.

Before either Sock or Shadow could say anything else to the hyperventilating girl she suddenly vanished into a blue light and a notification from their guild tab suddenly appeared.

> Katherine has logged out.