"New player detected," a female voice sounded out.

I was standing inside a star field after activating my game pod for the first time. Trinity Online was a galactic sensation, one I'd never have dreamed I'd one day get the chance to play. 

Of course, if I had a choice in the matter, I'd choose never getting this chance over losing my mother, but at this time I had no choice in the matter. Thraxc had taken good care of me, but I'd give up the manor and everything in it in a heartbeat if it meant I wouldn't be alone anymore. Sure, there were the others surrounding me, but it just wasn't the same. The loss of the only family I had ever known was a heavy blow, one I would never wish on anyone. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the people now surrounding me for the world, but for my mother. . . Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, the area I was now standing in was extremely realistic, and beautiful. Well, I guess it wasn't "extremely" realistic as I could still breathe, but it certainly had a sense of realism.

So this is what the character creation room looks like? I had heard it was different from the white room of those old VR game novels I read as a young kid, but this is more incredible than I thought.

"Why thank you," as I was thinking, a female voice spoke in my ear. 

I was startled and jumped, before turning around to find three girls who looked to be my age standing there. A beautiful older girl, probably around 18 years old, black hair, with black dog's ears shaped like the doberman's that area still around to this day. A both cute, and beautiful girl 15-16 year old girl with a bountiful chest, and silvery grey hair, with dog's ears and tails reminiscent of the Huskies I had once seen in the northern wilderness of my home planet, she had the most beautiful brown eyes. Finally, a cute 10-11 year old blond haired younger girl with a smiling childish face. I was sure what dog breed the third girl's ears and tail belonged to, but that didn't matter much, as I recognized this trio, the "Trinity Goddesses," as they were called.

"H-h-h-hello."

I stuttered out a greeting, which caused the older girl to frown. 

"Hold on a second," the girl who went by the name of Rino told me, "Let me see if I could find out the problem." Rino brought up a menu screen and began to fiddle around with it for a while, before letting out a sigh, "There's nothing we can do about it," she told me with an apologetic tone. "It seems your neural pathways involving speech have some damage we cannot fix, even with the medical technology present within the platinum pods. I am truly sorry."

{It's fine, I'm used to it. Can you understand galactic sign language," I asked.

"Yep, we can under stand you!" The cute younger girl, Luna called out happily.

"Yes, we certainly understand you, Master Andaros," the third girl, Elga stated.

{Why are you calling me master," I asked, truly not understanding why she would do such a thing toward someone like me.

"Elga doesn't usually address players like this, but it's different for her son," Rino replied.

Eh? {Her son? You knew my mother,} I asked, a little dazed.

"We certainly knew both your father and mother," Rino replied, "but don't think that entitles you to any special privileges. You will be treated like any other player, whether or not you are her son." Her tone was rather flat as she spoke, but sounded a bit mad for some reason.

"Can't we give him one concession, Onee-chan," Luna asked, seemingly about to break into tears, "After all, he is her son."

"Oh very well, but only one, and it can't go against the rules father has set," Rino replied after looking at her sister. "What should we give him then Elga?"

"First, let's get basic character creation started," Elga answered. "We can choose a more appropriate concession that way."

{Um, what's going on,} I asked in confusion.

"We can talk about that once you choose your starter planet," Rino replied, seemingly annoyed, but somehow I got the feeling she wasn't truly mad, and was just trying to avoid uncomfortable questions. Rino blushed as the thought crossed my mind. "Anyway, just choose a starter planet from the list."

{F-a-r-s-i-d-e,} I indicated.

"Are you certain," Elga asked in a bit of a worried tone.

{Yes, I do not have a choice, it is the only remaining special tutorial, and I was instructed to take it,} I answered.

"But. . ."

"Elga, we have to honor his decision," Rino told her sternly.

"But, but, we can't give him our blessings there," Elga said, with worry evident in her tone.

"He's a platinum lifetime account holder. He'll already have a number of bonuses as a result of that," Rino explained, "You shouldn't forget that starting on Farside as a platinum account will give him immediate access to the celestial realm by default."

"But. . . but, that place is dangerous," Elga stated, her face showing more worry.

"He may not be able to fight anything there as a starter player, but nothing there will be able to attack him either," Rino explained. "The most they can do is give him some bad gifts, or snub him. We can watch over him, and make sure it's nothing too disadvantageous."

"We can't do that, you know father won't allow us to do as we please on Farside," Elga whined at her.

"Why don't we just give him an item as a gift for the concession," Luna asked with a tilt of her head, it looked insanely cute.

While I watched the three discuss things, I couldn't help but wonder what I had ever done to earn such consideration from these three A.I. I had just met. It didn't make sense to me, so I interrupted them.

"E-e-e-excuse m-m-m-me."

"""Yes?"""

"What is it, we're discussing something important here," Rino asked in a tone that allowed no argument.

{I don't need a special gift,} I told them. {Also, what is your relation to my mother?}

"Well too bad, you're getting a gift, and you have no choice in the matter," Rino answered me unhappily.

"Your mother was the one who initially raised us," Elga explained to me, "so we owe her a gift of gratitude."

{I thought you were all very old? How could my mother have raised you,} I asked, being confused. Even from my knowledge they were at least 2,000 years old.

"Your mother was put into cryo-stasis shortly after we matured," Rino explained in an impatient manner. "Around 25 years ago a problem occurred with her cryo-stasis pod and the staff had to perform and emergency awakening on her." 

"During the awakening her brain received some trauma, and a large portion of her memory was lost, including her memories of us," Elga explained in melancholy. "So father had to help her learn a lot of things all over again. Shortly after, she met your father, and they moved away to a small, relatively peaceful planet."

"Before the memory loss, your mother was a brilliant scientist who was not only responsible for raising us, but was the reason for our very existence, so we owe her a great debt," Rino explained to me, "not only as our creator, but also as our mother."

"So that makes us brother and sisters," Luna told me happily.

"That's why we want to do something for you," Elga finished. "We can't do much, but we can give you something special, as long as it won't give you too much of an advantage."

{Won't you get in trouble for this,} I couldn't help but ask.

"Platinum Lifetime accounts originally have a great number of bonuses anyway, so a single extra bonus likely won't be noticed by the player population," Rino explained. "Basically, if you don't let anyone know, they likely won't realize, and if they do you can explain that you're a platinum lifetime account holder. There are no other such users at this time, so they won't know the extent of the benefits such an account will give. The information only says certain things, and the last part says, "and various other bonuses," so they'll be none the wiser."

"Luna, can you put together three items for him to choose from? They need to be able to be hidden in the reservoirs of a Farside player, and they can't be too powerful in and of themselves."

"Nee-chan, why don't we just give him some spirits!"

"No, players have to earn those," Rino answered. "We can, at best, give him some items that have to potential to develop a device spirit in the future. At that time they could become his spirits."

"Aren't such items always powerful," Elga asked.

"Not all," Luna cried out excitedly, " have a few that would work! Playing on Farside is fun!"

*Bam!* "Luna, don't go causing trouble for the players and citizens of Farside," Rino scolded her after her fist descended onto the top of her head.

"OOOO, my head," Luna whined as I stood there watching on while completely stunned by their behavior. "I haven't been Rino-nee! I made a normal character, and have been playing on Farside with it. I haven't used any cheats at all!"

Rino sighed heavily upon hearing this. "If the spirits hear that you've been playing there, they'll report to father and you'll get punished."

"They already know! I got their permission first," Luna explained. "They set an overseer to make sure I don't cheat, but that's all it took. I earned the items I'm going to give him myself."

"Wait a second," Elga tried to stop her, "we were only going to give him one item!"

"Too bad, I already set them as artifact spirits," Luna cried out.

"Eh?! You did what?!" 

I could swear I saw Rino's eyes flash with fire as her hand came crashing down on her head, then a terrific explosion blasted outward. I was blasted away, and then everything turned black for a long while before I could suddenly see. At this point, the girls all tackled me, crying.

"I'm sorry Andaros Onii-chan! It's all Luna's fault," Luna cried.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Rino cried while tears rolled down her face. I think it was kind like when a tsun goes dere, but not a lovey-dovey boyfriend type, though I'm not too sure if that's the right description.

Elga, on the other hand, kept crying, "You're okay, you're okay, thank God you're okay."

It was a very surreal scene as I sat there with three beautiful girls crying over me. I couldn't move my hands, so I could only helplessly say, "Wh-wh-wh-what h-h-h-happened," which only served to put the girls into another crying fit.

After a while, Elga explained, "When Rino hit Luna, she accidentally activated her power, and it killed your not fully made avatar. Under such circumstances, it can actually kill the player in the real world. That's, that's why *hick* we were crying. We almost killed you!" 

After Elga said this, the three girls broke down once again, and I could only helplessly sit there and pat their backs while trying to calm them down. Seriously,why did God stick me with this stupid stuttering issue? It's such an inconvenience. I wanted to comfort them by saying something, but I gave up when the words just wouldn't come out. I could only comfort them by patting their backs and heads.

I had to wait until they calmed down before I could tell them, {I am fine, so it's alright, but this area should have protections so that such a thing does not happen should it not?}

"We, we disabled them so that we could come speak with you," Elga said with more than a hint of guilt, "otherwise we may have been caught." 

{You should not worry about it, but please, do not do something like that without properly putting in safeguards so that it does not happen again,} I told them. It was tedious saying all this in sign language, but I had gotten a bit used to it by now.

"We will keep that in mind," Rino replied, sighing heavily. "Once more, I am sorry for what occurred."

I smiled and patted her head. It was somewhat surreal patting the head of a girl who looked to be a few years older than me, but I didn't say anything as she seemed to like the attention.

*Ding*

For surviving death before your character had been fully created, you have been awarded an achievement title: Miracle Child.

Achievement Title: Miracle Child. You are a living miracle who has survived an almost impossible situation. You will be able to face any situation that comes your way, knowing that you can bring about miracles. 

Bonuses: 

15% chance to instantly recover from all ailments and diseases. 

1% chance of a miracle occurring, increasing the effects of any attack, defense, or support abilities by up to 500%, in addition to activating hidden effects.

.000001% chance of gaining abilities not normally available at your level, to your character, or only available to characters with certain class titles. This effect requires performing the proper actions to receive the intended ability or abilities.

10% chance on level up to give 10 points to each of the four base stats in addition to regular stat boosts.

10% chance of instantly resurrecting with full status upon death. If this effect triggers, conditions where death immediately fails a event or quest will not trigger failure.

50% reduction in resurrection time.

Earning stat points from actions is easier.

I was a bit shocked by the bonus I had just received, and it must have shown on my face.

"What happened Master Andaros," Elga asked me with a face that screamed, "What is going on?"

{I just got a t-i-t-l-e,} I replied, spelling out title since I didn't know the shorthand for it.

"It's {title}," Rino showed me the correct word. "So, what is this title? Luna, did you do something?"

"No, Onee-chan, I didn't give any titles," Luna responded, and turned to look at me, "What's the title Onii-chan?"

{M-i-r-a-c-l-e C-h-i-l-d,} I answered, again coming across words I wasn't knowledgable in how to sign.

"It's  {Miracle} and {Child}," Rino once again explained to me in a somewhat angry sounding tone, understanding that I didn't know how to sign them, and showing me. Some might have considered it rude, but I was used to such a gruff manner of speaking, and could see her kindness. Besides that, after seeing her cry over almost killing me earlier, I would have realized she was quite a caring girl even if I didn't have such a gruff mother.

"So, what does this title do," Elga asked, seeming to know what I meant by title.

{Is there a way to show you?}

"Yep! Just sign {show new title to the goddesses}," Luna explained. "The system will recognize it on it's own, and do it's thingy."

I did as instructed, and the three were quite surprised.

"That's quite the title," Rino finally said after a few moments of staring. The other two nodded as they continued staring blankly at the window. "I never knew father put such a title into the system. It's quite surprising."

"Yeah, you might say that title is worth almost dying for," Elga said mechanically, it seemed she hadn't recovered from the initial shock yet.

{That is way too much,} I told her, looking at the achievement title again.

"I'd have to agree, not to mention whatever items Luna set as spirits for you," Rino stated wryly. "She shouldn't have set them as actual spirits."

"It's okay, because I got permission from the spirits first," Luna told us with a big grin. "In the first place, they all start out weak and grow with the player by taking some of his experience and cultivation as he levels up, so they'll slow his leveling, but they'll provide him with power in exchange. The spirits said they won't be usable until spirit awakening when his character reaches 10 years old anyway."

Rino sighed heavily, then looked at me as if she were judging something about me. It actually made me pretty nervous, so I almost backed away but manage to keep myself from doing so. She then nodded for some reason.

"Fine, I'll gift him with something myself," Rino said, looking at me appraisingly. 

The next moment, Rino started to glow, and then I felt a power that was domineering enter into me, it almost made me pass out. Thankfully that didn't happen, but I almost did so before the power withdrew.

"It's done, you'll be able to use twice the ability slots for celestial-born or daemon-born bonuses," Rino said. "Be careful, because this also means you can gain twice the negative status bonuses as well, so be cautious of any "blessings of the spirits" you accept."

I would later come to regret not following this advice properly, though something good did eventually come out of it.

"I also wish to give you a gift," Elga told me, "but I don't know what I can give you that is within the bounds of what I could safely gift. Do you have any requests?"

{Um, as you can tell, my stuttering is an issue, so I would actually prefer if you could make me mute, so I do not have to deal with it anymore,} I answered her. This decision wasn't difficult for me to make, but would also come to trouble me quite a bit during the tutorial.

"It's possible to make you mute, but are you unable to sing normally?"

{I can sing normally,} I told her, then began to sing a song. The three seemed moved by the performance, as they listened attentively and were smiling.

"It would be a shame to take away your singing," Elga finally said after I finished singing.

{I can't really sing-song though, for some reason any time I try I end up stuttering anyway.}

"It's probably the way in which your brain processes the sing-song voice," Rino explained, "It seems like it tries to process it using both the regular vocal pathways, and the singing pathways, so it doesn't work correctly. If we block off the vocal pathways, it will likely block that style of vocals as well as regular vocals, so only true singing will likely work. Elga, can you give him a magical effect any time he sings, so that it won't be suspicious?"

"I think so, and maybe he can learn to use his singing to unleash magic, though I'm not to sure about that," Elga answered, she then fiddled with some settings. "Okay, try singing now."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

As I sung, it generated a strange atmosphere that I can't describe, it was certainly intriguing.

"What was that? Isn't that too much of an effect Elga," Rino asked harshly.

"Well, you both gave him such great gifts, and he only asked me to make him mute," Elga explained, "So I gave Master Andaros an extra bonus."

"It's okay Onee-chan, Onii-chan was really cool, and it matches his personality," Luna happily said.

Oi, don't go deciding things yourself.  

"Well, that's true, I guess, it was just such a strong effect it surprised me," Rino explained.

"Well, now that we're done with the gifts, why don't we proceed with Master's character making," Elga suggested. 

"True, giving him gifts is all well and good, but it won't do him any good if we don't finish setting up his character." Rino agreed. "So, let's roll to see if he gets any special race unlocks. Here we go."

". . . Eh, Angaellis, and Daemonis both showed up? I've never seen these two appear together," Elga was completely surprised at this.

In front of me appeared a number of different versions of myself, representing the different races. It was quite awe inspiring to see that many versions of myself standing in the star filled background.

"So which will you choose Onii-chan?!"

{Is it possible to make a character that is a half-breed?}

"Hmmm, it shouldn't be too troublesome," Rino answered, "Luna, can you get permission from the spirits of Farside?"

"Just a moment. . . Yes, they say it's alright, but there may be some side effects depending on the race combination," Luna explained after a moment. "They seemed to think the Angaellis/Daemonis hybrid would be an amusing combination."

{Is it alright for me to do that combination?}

"Hybrid races are subjected to a roll, in which the racial bonuses are randomized," Rino told me. "The problem is that you may get some or all of the bonuses, or you may get all the deficiencies of the two races. Do you still wish to choose this hybrid combination?"

{. . . Yes.}

Seriously, that warning made the hairs on my neck raise up, but if I did get a good set of bonuses it wouldn't be bad at all. In fact, it would be just the opposite, even if I got half bonuses and half negatives I wouldn't have a problem with that. I often played old games that my mother and I refurbished when I was younger, and often the most enjoyable games were the ones where you had a few negatives to go with the positive statuses your character had. It wasn't challenging to always get the best things, and that took away the enjoyment from the game for me. On the contrary, difficult games were fun, and the sense of fulfillment was much greater than beating an easy game.

"Alright, your stats will undergo a random roll as well, and will normally fall in between the two races' set stat ranges, but sometimes may end up with stats that are far higher than normal, or far lower. This also applies to basic resistances, is this okay?"

Rino's tone was stern as she spoke to me, and she watched me carefully. I couldn't care less, and just nodded my head to answer her in the affirmative. Seeing this, she let out a huge sigh.

"Well, sometimes hybrids turn out to be special, or a completely new race with their own traits, so it's not all bad," Elga said to her.

"I suppose so, you better not regret it," Rino replied, eyeing me. "We won't help you change it if it ends up bad you know"

{A man sticks by his decisions, and even if I do regret, it is my own decision. I have to deal with it if that time comes,} I told her resolutely. {Of course, if my decision is wrong and troubles my friends and family too much, it is upon me to admit that mistake and apologize as well.}

"That's so old fashioned."

{Well, it is what my mother taught me,} I answered  as firmly as i could considering I was using my hands to do so, and fumbled a lot. {She also taught me to make important decisions only if I could afford to regret them.}

"What if you can't afford to regret not making a decision?"

{I'll cross that bridge when I get there.}

"Alright, alright, let's not question his decision anymore Rino-nee," Luna interrupted us. "We should try the combination and see what happens!"

"Fine, initiating hybrid race combination," Rino stated, looking none too thrilled. ". . . Eh?"

"What is it Rino-nee?"

"I don't believe it, he got maximum stats and all the good bonus traits, plus the skills from each of the two races." She continued to look over it, and finally added, "It seems the skills will need to be unlocked, while the traits are active immediately upon racial transfer. Initiating racial transfer."

Racial transfer, a process in which one changes races. The transfer process only occurs from the original race of the player to a character race, and after that can only be gained from completing racial quests to unlock a currently unavailable race for new players. If I remember correctly, those were the only two times the process could be initiated, and the first is activated by the helper A.I. during character creation.

"Alright, race change started, no special race. There should be a menu appearing in front of you that will allow you to  set your character's looks," Rino informed me, and I did indeed see such a screen.

"If you need, you can just sign to us the changes you would like, and we can make the adjustments," Elga added. "Normally you would be able to do this yourself, but the system for this hasn't had an overhaul for sign language recognition, so it can only be used by touching the buttons under normal circumstances. If you need, however, we can make the adjustments for you."

An avatar floated in front of me, and I had to admit it was pretty terrifying. I can understand why people are always afraid of me after seeing this once again. My mother never hated my looks, and even praised them, but I can't really do so when looking at them objectively.

{Can you maybe soften up my features so that I do not look so terrifying,} I asked.

"Like this," Elga asked, making some quick adjustments.

My face went from devilish to only debonair, and my eyes went from harsh and glaring to somewhat sharp, by not angry looking. They became less slanted, as well as my eyebrows. My smaller pupils were then enlarged, and my light sensitivity was adjusted by making my eyes look much like dragons. It was just like the Daemonis eyes, but it didn't seem normal. My confusion must have shown.

"In the options that appeared, this double-pupil eyes appeared," Elga explained. "I thought it looked cool, so I thought I'd let you see it and decide whether you'd like it or not."

Looking at it carefully, it did look like there were two sets of pupils, a regular and slightly darker one within the slit-like daemonis pupil. To be honest, it really did look pretty cool, and the inner pupils somewhat matched my original pupils, though they were a bit larger even so.

"Is it not okay," Elga asked with a worried look.

{No, it should be fine,} I told her, {but will it always be like that? It could be difficult to explain if it is.}

"Unfortunately," Elga replied with downcast eyes. "We can't make anymore arbitrary changes, or we'll anger the spirits, and father."

{What do you two think about these eyes?}

"I like it!"

"They're not that bad, even if they look a little strange," Rino replied. "I don't think most people will even realize that you have double-pupiled eyes. Plus, they're likely to come with hidden bonuses, since they were a rather difficult to find option in the list. According to the description here, they can only be gained by those who gain all the positive traits of their parent races."

{So, unusual. . .}

"Yeah, but they look really cool!"

{Alright, alright, since Luna really likes them, and you both suggest them, I'll take this look.}

I knew when I was beat, and Rino was probably right about this, as one of the goddesses.

"Alright, permanently setting character looks."

As soon as the changes were made, the character avatars in front of me disappeared, and a mirror appeared in front of me, letting me look at my new looks, but first I had to deal with the side effects of these new eyes. I could see light outside the normal light range for humans, which really caught me off guard for a few moments. It gave me a bit of a headache at first. After I could get used to it, I saw that I looked just like the avatar, Like myself, but silvery-white hair and steely grey eyes. 

"Hmmm, your eyes look a bit different, and that hair too. I wonder what's up with that," Rino said, looking genuinely confused.

"It changed," Elga stated. "I wonder if system-chan made some changes. I'm sorry, Master Andaros."

{It's fine, I think it looks pretty cool,} I replied, I really did too. {By the way, is it alright for you three to be here together? Isn't there some kind of rivalry between factions, or something?}

"That's not something we participate in," Rino began explaining. "Strictly speaking, we're just the representatives of the creator of the universe. We pretty much just oversee everything, and make sure no huge problems occur. Each planet has their own deities, and they fight over followers and such, but as goddesses we have nothing to do with that. We are responsible for the random blessings characters get that are not linked to some kind of deity, but otherwise we mainly oversee the main system and ensure it doesn't do anything too drastic, or that no one can hack the system. We're still doing that even while we talk with you and help you setup your character."

{There's no problem?}

"No, but stopping with your character creation could cause one. So, we'll see it through to the end," Elga answered.

"We had to see our little bro!" 

Luna is too cute, but she seriously didn't seem to realize that she looks younger than me. Oh well, she's cute, so it's fine. . . I feel like some kind of idiot character who would suddenly shout, "CUTENESS IS JUSTICE," after saying that line, damn it. I'm not a loli-con, so I'm not gonna go there, but. . . Anyway, she certainly is cute. Strictly speaking, so are both of the older two, but their beauty outweighs their cuteness.

"Anyway, on to the next step," Rino stated. "There's only one location for Angaellis or Daemonis to start on Farside, The Queendom of Avelynn on The Veiled Isle, so you'll be starting there after you visit the celestial realm and finalize your bestial features. That means your character name is next. You'll receive a random family name based on the family you are born into within the game, but your personal name is yours to choose."

{Then. . . Z-e-f,} I responded after a bit of thought. It was simple, and would be easy to remember when the others eventually joined me.

"Alright, it's set!"

"Just so you know, the special tutorial is a bit different from normal character growth," Rino informed me. "Normally when a character starts, they watch their character grow from the outside, and only see important parts of their system-generated backstory. The special tutorial, on the other hand, plays through the entire period of growing up, and you make the decisions that lead to your backstory." 

"In other words, you'll have to grow up once again," Elga added.

"Yes. You'll have to be careful however, as the special tutorial has important events that you must pass in order to complete it, and if you fail it will mean starting all over again from the beginning with a new backstory to face," Rino explained. "Not even once will you face the same set of circumstances, and if you fail too miserably the system may even take you completely out of the tutorial and just randomly drop you somewhere on Farside."

"Your character will be fully set once you finish deciding your bestial features in the celestial realm, so you won't have to worry about redoing that part, but once those features are set you also can't reset them. A point used is a point that can't be regained, so be careful about the beasts you let give you features," Rino warned once again. 

"You have two remaining checkpoints in finalizing your character, the Celestial Realm, and the Special Tutorial. The stats and levels you gain in the special tutorial will be reset upon completion of the tutorial. It is possible that your decisions within the special tutorial may lead to a new class title being created, unique traits and skills being created or unlocked, as well as possible unique weapons you wouldn't normally gain being either created of obtained there. Regardless of these things, your performance within the special tutorial will absolutely affect bonuses to stat growth during level up once you enter the main game."

"It can even affect experience or stat gain, so be careful," Elga advised seriously.

"Oh yeah, Onii-chan, since you'll be mute, I'll give you some advice! Normally vocal recitation is required for spells on Farside, but there are other ways to activate spells, and even ways to make yourself heard! Even if you don't have the singing, you can find other ways to communicate besides sign language!"

Luna advised me cutely, and the other two seemed a bit surprised, but after a moment of thought nodded their heads.

{Okay, I'll remember,} I replied. {Was there anything else I needed to do here?}

"Other than giving us hugs before we say goodbye, no," Elga answered, smiling.

I gave the three hugs, and then took my first steps toward a brave new world. A world that would tax me to the limit, but I would eventually call home.

------

After Andaros disappeared from the character creation room, three girls stood staring at the spot for a few moments.

"Well, he's gone," Rino stated. "By the way Luna, what was with that cutesy act, it was totally not like you."

"Koraaa! What are you saying," Luna answered like some kind of two-bit hoodlum from a Japanese anime. "I am cute! Besides, I wanted to make a good impression on Andaros Onii-san."

"That attitude totally doesn't match you. And why didn't I get more time to talk to him," Elga said in a whiney tone. "I had a lot less lines than you two!"

"Hey! It totally matches me, and you didn't have to act all gentle and older-sister like! You could have just been your usual complainer self!"

"Alright you two, don't start fighting," Rino tried to break in between the two of them with a gentle tone and look that was unlike the ice-queen look she had while they met with Andaros.

"Shut up! Don't try to butt into our argument! What was with that whole ice-queen act around him anyway!"

"I, I just wanted to look cool for him," Rino stammered out.

The three goddesses of Trinity Online broke into an argument once the boy they had come to meet had disappeared. The three didn't even act like the characters they were designed after. Elga started whining, and complaining, Rino became rather demure and had a hard time asserting herself, and Luna was acting like an outright thug. In a word, it was chaos, complete and utter chaos. That is, until someone stepped into the open, seemingly from out of nowhere.

"What are you girls doing?"

A chill ran down each of the three girls spines as they mechanically turned their faces toward the woman, and looks of intense fear flashed across their faces.

"Seriously, making a mess of things, and almost killing my precious Andaros, do you three want me to beat you within an inch of your lives," the beauty asked them. "Also, while you three were off here playing with Andaros there were 6 attempts to hack the system, which, I might add, I had to deal with in your absence. So, GET BACK TO WORK! And return this character creation room to it's proper place."

"Yes Mother," the three Goddesses that were the proud representatives of Trinity Online answered meekly and disappeared, along with the character creation room.

"Seriously, they're such a handful," the woman stated while standing amongst the stars with an amused grin after they had left. She then stared off at the distant star system where Andaros would eventually grow up once again. "He's changed so much in this short time. He became stronger, yet more fragile. I'm glad father arrived in time to upload my consciousness, but it's hard to not be able to do anything for my precious son. Well, I suppose I'll be watching over his progress in his life within Trinity at the least, it's just too bad the spirits won't let me do anything for him over there."

That's right, the woman was Andaros's beloved mother, whom he thought lost forever. The real creator of Trinity Online. 

Saying only so much, she looked through a window while shaking her head.

"Seriously though, those three couldn't even hold back one tiny bit from pampering him. I mean, what's with Luna? Giving him three mythical tier artifacts as spirits is a bit too much, even if they're rather lower gear for their tier. That belt in particular. . . Well, it's not that bad in itself, but if I hadn't made certain he'd have high summoning proficiency it would have gone to waste. As for Rino, she almost killed him, but in the end he received two ridiculous gifts from her. But. . . The most ridiculous gift actually came from that lazy, whiney girl. . . I don't know what to think about that. Well, I can't say too much though with those gifts I snuck in, though. Oh well, I hope he likes the gifts I gave him, and the gift in store in the tutorial. he'd better not miss that girl, or I'ma beat him. Too bad I can't do it in person. . ."

Having said that, she stood there watching a far off star while memories flooded through her.

"Well, I suppose I can do one last thing for him," she said, and then disappeared to that distant star.

--------

"Where am I? . . ."