Chapter 5. Character Creation

“It wasn’t even you that gave me that fifty Silver for using my real name!” I gave Janica my best exasperated look.

She rolled her eyes.

“And I did get a bonus for using my real appearance.”

“Well, aren’t you just figuring it all out.” She seemed annoyed.

“Janica,” I said. “I think we should start over. I joined this game because I don’t really have anything else going in my life. This isn’t a vacation for me. It’s a Job. If I can’t succeed, I’m going to have to stop playing. I’m going to need your help in these first twenty-four hours… a lot, and I’m sorry for messing with you. My sister and I teased each other a lot growing up, and I didn’t think you’d be offended.”

Janica stared at me, her face tilted to the side. “Are you always like this?”

“Like what?”

“All… I don’t know. Words don’t mean much to me. If you want to get on my good side, do something.” She tapped on a series of prompts.

“Let’s choose an Attribute and a starting Job, Warren,” she said, changing the subject. “Now, tell me about what you want out of your experience, and I’ll use my extensive knowledge to help direct you.”

“My goal is to make as much money as possible,” I began. “So I won’t be going on big adventures or fighting in dungeons or anything.”

One of her eyebrows rose while the other sank. “The wealthiest players will be adventurers, Warren. Dangerous areas hold the greatest riches.”

“Right, but my family needs to pay the bills. I can’t spend weeks and weeks powering up only to take big risks. So I’m looking to fish, farm, gather, mine, stuff like that.”

She shrugged. “Okay, so our world has a Jobs system. Do you know what that means?”

I shook my head.

“There are hundreds of playable Jobs in the game. As you acquire new Jobs, you’ll be able to switch between them. But today you’ll have to make a choice, and you’ll be stuck with it until you unlock other Jobs. The three starting ones are Apprentice, Worker, and Squire. You can think of each of them as the beginning of a Job tree that will grow and grow, allowing you access to new Jobs as you unlock them.”

“How do I unlock new ones?”

“The most common way to unlock Jobs is to use specific skills. For example, if you shoot a lot of monsters with a bow, you’ll level up expertise in ranged combat. When your expertise gets high enough in level, you’ll earn access to a new Job. You can also find magic items and complete quests to gain access to special Jobs. There are other ways that I can’t discuss at the moment.” She pulled up a window. “This is your first option.”

Apprentice Job:

‎ Description: Base Job for Crafting and Professions

‎ Skills:

‎ Cooking: Combine basic ingredients into edible food

‎ Sewing: Use needle and thread with appropriate materials to create clothing

‎ Reading: Examine texts

‎ Starting Equipment: Cooking pot, Needle and Thread, Reading Glasses

‎ Stats on Level Up: +2 to Dexterity, +2 to Intelligence, +1 to Constitution

‎ “Can you tell me what future Jobs might be unlocked from leveling up the Apprentice Job?” I asked.

“I cannot,” Janica said. “Or I won’t. Or both.” A smug little smile snuck onto her face.

I ignored her response. “Why would I need reading glasses? I don’t need them in my world.”

“Reading glasses provide a 10% increase to reading speed. They also allow you to decode language from all of the playable races.”

“So if I don’t choose this Job, I’ll only be able to read texts from the human race?”

She nodded.

The reading skill seemed incredibly powerful.

“Janica,” I said. “Not to distract us, but we haven’t talked about races yet. I’m human. You’re a fairy. But are there a lot of races in your world? Can I be anything other than human?”

“You can…” she let the word trail off, “but not yet. Every visitor ports in as a human. There are ways to change your race, but I can’t talk about that. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself. And, yes, there are tons of races in my world. Orcs, Werefolk, Plantfolk, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Catfolk, which are the worst people you’ll ever meet. There are two Fae races, three Troll races, two Elf races, and dozens of combinations thereof. A Troll falls in love with a Gnome, they have children, and the world is blessed with the smallest Troll-presenting person you’ve ever seen. Adorable.”

“Do different Races get different benefits?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Janica said. “But for now all I can tell you is that humans have a 2% bonus to Expertise gains.”

“And what’s that again?”

“Expertise measures your skill with weapons and crafting. It’ll go up as you actually do things in our world and will affect your ability to do things well. Some Skills have thresholds. For example, if you get 50 Expertise in being an idiot, which I assume you’ll achieve in no time, you might discover a new way of being an idiot.”

“Uh huh,” I said. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome!” Janica said, brimming with cheeriness. “I’m sending you the other two starting jobs.”

Worker Job:

Description: Collect ingredients and raw materials from the world

Skills:

Skinning: Gather skins from animals

Mining: Mine ore from veins

Herbology: Gather usable parts from herbs and flowers

Starting equipment: Skinning Knife, Mining Pick, Scissors, Raw Materials Guidebook

Stats on Level Up: +1 to Strength, +1 to Perception, +1 to Constitution, +2 to Dexterity

Squire Job:

Description: Want to learn to fight? Then you’d better put in your time supporting the real warriors. A base for all combat specialists.

Skills:

Melee combat: Swing things without hurting yourself

Armor: Wear more than just clothes

Ranged combat: Throw, hurl, and shoot things without hurting yourself

Starting Equipment: Leather Vest, Training Sword, Training Bow, Quiver, 20 Wooden Arrows

Stats on Level Up: +2 to Strength, +2 to Constitution, +1 to Dexterity

“This Worker Job seems like what I’m after,” I said. “Honestly though it doesn’t seem as powerful as being able to read all languages. What is the Raw Materials Guidebook?”

“It’s a book that shows key information on all basic ore, herbs, and skins, allowing workers to see what can be harvested and how to harvest things without ruining them. There are thousands of kinds of ingredients and materials in the world. Without the guidebook, a person might harvest things that have no value to others.”

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“Oh, that seems pretty useful.”

Becoming a worker wasn’t the most exciting path, but Sofia and I had made a deal and we had a plan. I needed to follow through.

“I’ll take the Worker Job.”

Janica groaned. She rubbed her face with one hand in annoyance.

“I will be following you around as you pick flowers, wasting my wisdom and combat prowess. Sounds boring.”

I saw her point. Though strangely selfish for an NPC, I felt the same way. Here I was about to start playing the most immersive game I’d ever played, and I had agreed to possibly the lamest path one could take. And yet, if I failed to make enough money, I wouldn’t be playing Integration Online at all. Worse, Sofia would have to send the pod back and our struggle would continue. She had sacrificed so much for me. Becoming a Worker was the least I could do for her.

“Maybe you’ll help me become the greatest worker in the game,” I said.

She laid on her back, wings still fluttering beneath her, and began to fake sleep. She made big, dramatic snoring sounds.

I rolled my eyes. “Sorry Janica, but if I can’t make gold I won’t be able to stay here at all. I’d have to go back to my world.”

She perked up. “Is that an option? You returning? I could be reassigned to somebody who wants to do something awesome?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. But not within a day. You’re stuck with me for now.”

She said something under her breath.

“Okay, lock it in,” I said. Let’s do Attributes.”

She made a few quick gestures and I got a prompt.

Congratulations, you have chosen the Worker Job.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m sending you the list of Attributes. You only get to pick one, so don’t screw it up.”

A list appeared before me with a plethora of options. I began to scan through them.

Strong Start: Your starting equipment becomes higher in quality.

Lone Wolf: You despise being around others and find yourself much stronger when you’re not partied up. +20% to all damage and healing when not in a party.

Repulsive: Though others find you impossible to be around, you’ve never much cared. -50% to Charisma, +20% to all other stat growth.

Storyteller: You are able to read all written languages, including ancient scripts. You are able to comprehend all spoken languages, including ancient ones. In addition, when you tell stories to others, they are transported into your story so that they can experience the events firsthand.

The first set of attributes each seemed like they could transform my game experience. I felt like a Lonewolf type of player and had no real interest in partying up with others, but since I wasn’t going on any adventures, that one didn’t make sense. Storyteller would be incredibly powerful, but wouldn’t benefit my plans. Repulsive could be an interesting choice because I didn’t need charisma and the +20% stat growth would probably benefit my ability to gather ingredients. I Imagined that Dexterity and Perception—both parts of the gathering process—would need to be higher to successfully gather rarer materials.

“What can you tell me about Strong Start for the Worker Job?”

“Your Skinning Knife, Scissors, and Mining Pick all become a higher quality, allowing you to harvest higher level materials from the start. Your Raw Materials Guide will include higher level ingredients as well.”

That sounded really nice and I might be able to turn those higher quality starting items into profit in the early game as I could harvest better ingredients before other players could. But I’d be sacrificing long term growth for short term gain, and that was generally a mistake in role playing games. I searched through dozens of other Attributes looking for those that might have good potential for my plans. I found three that might be beneficial:

Ambidextrous: You’re able to use both hands and double the amount of Dexterity you gain with every level increase.

Cartographer: Your map auto populates and stores information with locations of mining nodes, herb locations, fish caught and successful bait, with detailed information about monsters, the loot they drop, as well as quest givers and locations.

As well as a third option, listed in the “Bonus Options” that I had unlocked earlier in the Character Creation process:

Integrator: You are able to discover in-game Skills, gain Stat bonuses, and unlock new Jobs when you show that you are worthy of them.

“Okay Janica. Can you share some of your endless wisdom with me? I’m thinking about Ambidextrous, Cartographer, and Integrator.”

She stroked her chin. “Well, Ambidextrous wouldn’t be bad for a Worker. Your level of Dexterity directly influences the quality of ingredients you can acquire. As an example, skinning animals is a task where the more Dexterity you have, the higher the success rate. Cartographer isn’t bad either and will certainly save you time from having to create your own lists and add things to your in-game map. Integrator is the most interesting. Frankly, this could be the most powerful of the three, but it’s really only strong in the hands of a person that’s talented in their own world. You don’t strike me as a particularly talented person.”

Rude. I could see her point that I wasn’t skilled at skinning, mining, fishing, or anything related to the Worker Job in the real world. Yet, the idea that I could gain access to new talents, new Jobs, more stats was intriguing. “If I was like a martial artist in my world, would I be given martial arts skills in your world?” I asked.

She perked up at that. “Are you?”

“No.”

“Don’t tease me like that.”

“Well?”

“I can’t speak to this in specifics,” she said. But yes, in theory this is true.”

I didn’t know how this would turn out, but I felt like I couldn’t pass up the Integrator attribute. The game was called Integration Online. The attribute must be good. “Lock it in, Janica.”

“Integrator?”

I nodded.

“You’re starting to surprise me, Warren.”

Congratulations, you have chosen the Integrator Attribute.

“It’s done,” she said. “Now we can finally get into the game.” Janica fidgeted, wringing her hands together like she was going on stage to perform for the first time. “Are you ready? Is there anything else before we complete the process?”

“I don’t know... Is there anything else?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is there something you’re hiding, Janica?”

She shrugged. “Of course not.”

This was a classic tell. People could lie with their words. It was much more difficult to lie with their body language.

“Janica, I know you’re not telling me the whole truth.”

An alert popped up.

Congratulations, by demonstrating an ability to read body language, Integration Attribute has granted you the Attribute: Perceptive. Perceptive: you will receive alerts when encountering situations where something hidden can be discovered.

Janica’s mouth fell open and her eyes narrowed. She buzzed around me, finally stopping in front of me and crossing her arms.

I was as shocked as Janica, but also pleased in the strangest way. Validated. But not fake validation like when your sister tells you that you’re really smart. The game literally told me that I was skilled at lie detection. Take that, Tony.

I looked at Janica, crossing my arms. “So, what are you hiding? Is there some other part to the transition process?”

She made a sound that was a mixture of a groan and a growl. “There’s one other thing,” she said with some reluctance. “I told you that the gods of our world reward randomness. Visitors are allowed one more roll of the dice. With the roll, you will be granted a random boon. But you will also be given a disadvantage. It’s risky because there are hundreds of things that can happen, and some of the disadvantages are really bad.”

“Is there something I get by choosing to roll the dice? Like a bonus just for rolling?”

“Look Warren, I’m your advisor and I don’t advise this. It could be really bad.”

“Janica...”

She sighed. “Yes, you will be given one-hundred Silver to your starting purse. But Warren, if you do this there’s no going back.”

One hundred Silver was. I had to make $1000 a week to keep playing. By taking the money I would, in effect, give myself a good head start. I didn’t love the idea of getting a really bad disadvantage, but I’d also get some added bonus. I couldn’t say “No” to this. The idea of going back to the factory was almost unthinkable, and I might need to spend a little Silver on equipment, bags, stuff like that.

“Okay, I’m doing it. I can’t turn down that kind of money right now.”

Janica handed me a set of dice. She paused for a moment, holding her tiny hand over mine. “Warren, there are better things out there than scraping by.”

I tossed the dice and heard a rattling in my core like something big was about to shift. Some unknown force had a hold on me. The dice bounced and bounced against each other, clanking and rattling. I felt disoriented like someone was peering into my soul. I had a flash of my childhood therapist asking me questions that I didn’t want to answer, telling me things I didn’t want to hear. And then it stopped.

Congratulations, you have been granted a 3rd tier Job: Mystic.

Congratulations, you have been given 100 Silver to your starting purse.

Condolences, you have lost the Worker Job in addition to all of your starting equipment.

“Well,” Janica said. “Are you happy with yourself? You’ve managed to lose a perfectly useful starting Job while gaining one with skills that you can’t even use.”