Due to limitations placed on your race selection your starting area has been pre-selected. You will begin at the capital city Hammerdown.

As this is your first login there will be a lengthy load time. This will not occur in subsequent logins. Would you like to read the lore logs of World Walkers while you wait? y/n

My vision was still black when those windows appeared. I guess this is what passes for a loading screen in World Walkers. Given the estimated size of the world and the rich detail shown in the promotional material this load time is probably going to be a long one and I've got nothing better to do since I took the week off to play during launch (don't tell my boss) I selected yes. The first bit of the lore logs was a basic run down of the world as it exists now: Countries, political systems, race distributions, etc. Despite this it was a massive wall of text. Instead of getting a headache trying to take it all in at once I decided to skip around and just read about the stuff related to my starting area and race.

Hammerdown, as it turns out, is the capital of the Mountaindeep Empire. Which itself is an alliance of the 4 Dwarven kingdoms, one for each subrace of dwarves. Apparently despite begin technically run by a council it does have an emperor who is chosen from one of the four kings of it's allied kingdoms. A new Emperor is only chosen upon the death of the previous one and it is not chosen via heredity, but by merit. A new emperor must have proven himself as a master smith, skill tactician, and displayed strong leadership skills to be selected. Whoops, kind of got carried away there. It's way too easy to get lost in these logs as they are super detailed. Anyway, back to Hammerdown. The Emperor takes up residence there and the city itself is located underneath Mount Inneoin. The layout is made of 5 large caverns. One for each of the 4 kingdoms and 1 in the center that acts as neutral territory for them to interact with each other without fear of falling victim to the turbulent politics of the empire.

I got lost in the stories of the Mountaindeep Empire and its history before a thought occurred to me. Why is this the only place my race could spawn? I began to read through the race specific lore regarding dwarves. It wasn't until I had finished reading through each of them did I put the pieces together. It turns out that the empire itself only exists because the god that created the dwarves, Bainen, grew tired of the kingdoms constantly being at war made a divine decree to the 4 royal families that as long as the 4 kingdoms united there would be prosperity for all. Given the choice between constant war or a divine blessing the ancestors of the modern royal families made the obvious choice. Despite that, however, tensions and old hatreds never truly vanished and the only place where the four subraces truly interact peacefully is Hammerdown. In an attempt to keep the peace several laws were put into place to appease the masses. One of those laws was that inter-marrying between the subraces was deemed unlawful in a misguided attempt to prevent the purist fanatics from becoming violent. It didn't work, but all attempts to rectify the situation were prevent by the threat of making it worse. Now the whole thing is caught up in so much legal red tape that almost all hope of the law being removed is gone. As a result all hybrid dwarves are deemed 'Born Criminals' and have very few rights within the Empire. That explains the debuff and hints at how hard it's going to be for me there.

I'm not sure exactly how much time passed while I was reading, but as I was finally starting to move on the lore outside the empire a blue screen popped up saying that the load was complete and that I had 10 seconds to prepare for entry into World Walkers. I quickly asked if I would be able to read the lore logs in-game to which I was told I would as the information in them is considered common knowledge by the natives of the world. as the countdown hit 1 I took a deep breath and a bright white light flashed in my "eyes"

When my vision recovered I was standing on a cliff side over looking a valley filled with lush green vegetation that slowly petered out as it grew up to the treeline before disappearing all together. The mountains themselves had snow covered  peaks and seemed to tower over the world. After taking in the sights for moment I couldn't help but let out a loud whistle over the shear size and detail of it all. In fact, I almost forgot that this was video game for a moment.

"Damn" I said to myself out loud, "This TruVR shit is unbelievable"

TruVR is the Technology developed specifically for World Walkers. It took a decade to develop and as for how it works I have no idea. They did release some information about it, but it was way to technical for me. The laymen explanation is that it temporarily overrides your senses and uses your brainwaves for control to simulated actually living in the game. There was a huge controversy over the safety of the system, but the company, Isotope Studios, went to great lengths to demonstrate and prove it's safety. On one occasion they even went on live TV and showed an employee being removed from the system without logging out and he described it as being like woken up from a vivid dream. Despite all of it, however, they almost didn't get it approved due to false information and fear mongering tactics used by the old guard of the gaming industry. It was pretty sad to watch it all go down honestly.

After that depressing moment of contemplation I realized there was a well worn path leading up the mountain a bit from my location. Before that though, I looked around to confirm I was alone then begin to move around in a silly fashion. I waved my arms around in the air and gyrated my hips and did a full body shake. Why am I embarrassing myself in this way? Simple, to get used to movement. Stretches are too boring. When I finished that humiliating displayed I checked my equipment; plain clothes, 10 copper coins, and a bronze dagger. Standard affair from that front. I took out the dagger to try and see my reflection, but it was too corroded and roughed up to make anything out on it. With a sigh I put it away. I really wanted to see what I looked like. I'm positive I look like I did in the creation area, but I still wanted to confirm it.

I turned and walked up the path I saw before. After a rather short walk I came around a boulder and saw a massive door carved into the side of the mountain. It was currently open with two armored dwarves at the gate and a short line of people looking to get inside. The guards were inspecting and questioning everyone before they could go in. I took my place at the back of the line, this might be a game, but I'd be willing to bet that if I tried to treat it like any other game I'd be in for a world of hurt (I did mention the sense override thing right? That includes pain even if it is lowered to only 30%). World Walkers was designed to be an immersive world that is almost alive. As such it would be wise to follow the crowd a bit until I figure out just how far I can push things as a player.

While I waited in line I started eavesdropping on the conversations of everyone else. Most of them were merchants heading into the city to ply their trade, some were people looking to learn the smithing trade, and a couple of them were fellow players who also chose the hybrid option for dwarves. From the sound of it the two players arrived at almost the same time and were discussing how awesome their first impressions were. As it came time for them to get in I listened very closely to see how the lack of Dwarven Bond was going to affect them gaining entrance.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Names" said the taller of the two guards who was the one blocking the entrance. The shorter one was seated at a wooden table with a thick book in front of him holding a feather quill. 

"Morden Rockbreath" said the player with a thick black beard and bald head/

"Rodrick Bronzebottom" Said the player with red hair and and a braided beard of matching color.

The shorter guard starting writing in the book which is obviously a visitor log at this point.

"Kingdom of Origin?" The Tall guard asked. The two players gave each other a grim knowing look. They, like me, had come to the conclusion that just getting into the city was going to be a pain in the ass.

"None," Said Morden giving the guard a serious expression. 

The guard snorted at that, and his expression went from one of apathy to one of disgust. He looked over to Rodrick.

"And you?" he said roughly.

Rodrick crossed his arms and raised his chin, "Same" he replied proudly.

Throughout this tense exchange the shorter guard never raised his head and just wrote in the logbook. He clearly did not care about anything other than doing his job. The Taller guard, on the other hand, looked like he was insulted just being around Rodrick and Morden. After hearing Rodrick's response he pulled what looked like and old time branding iron, only smaller and the tip had a faint blue glow.

"All half-breeds are required to be marked for easy identification in order to enter the city" He said with a nasty grin. At this point the shorter guard ceased writing and spoke.

"Put that away Drake, you know that policy was removed last week" his eyes never lifted from the logbook, but his words seemed to carry a heavy weight as the taller guard flinched then put the brand away frowning. 

"You know as well as I do that no cares about that Boros." he said sneering at the guard at the table.

"The Law doesn't care if you like it or not, it still applies" Said Boros with finality in voice. 

Drake grumbled a bit before stepping aside to let Morden and Rodrick through. Neither of them looked happy as they both realized what Drake had just tried to do. If they were branded openly then it would have been impossible for them to hide their origins and would likely have not been able to stay in the city for long. Drake glared at them as they walked passed before returning to his position for the next person in line. It didn't take long before my turn came up and I'll be honest I was a bit furious at him for what he tried to pull with Morden and Rodrick.

"Duran Blackiron, Half-breed" I said while looking him straight in the eye. He hadn't even had a chance to ask the questions yet. As the anger began to show on his face my smile grew. He pointed at my aggressively and open his mouth to start yelling when Boros spoke up, "You may pass" and motioned for Drake to move. Drake looked absolutely insulted as he gaped at Boros before stepping aside. I broke eye contact and walked passed him without even acknowledging he was there and entered the city. I could hear drake start yelling at Boros as soon as I was out of sight. When I came out of the entrance tunnel I was in the center of the Neutral Zone of Hammerdown which is politely referred to as the "Market District" to played down the internal problems of the empire. At the center of the plaza I saw a stature of a Dwarf in full plate armor without a helmet. I went over to inspect it and the saw the plaque at it's base read

Draugen Goldhammer, First Emperor of Mountaindeep

Interesting, the lore logs never stated who the first emperor was. I guess it's not common knowledge, which is odd since there is a statue of the guy in the middle of the Market District. There's probably a story behind that. I'll be looking into that later. While I was looking at the statue I heard a couple of familiar voices behind me and I turned to see Morden and Rodrick conversing and they looked pissed. I walked over, and they stopped talking and soon as they saw me approaching and gave me suspicious looks.

"Easy guys," I said raising up my hands "Player here and fellow outcast" I specifically avoided using the word hybrid or half-breed in case people around us were listening in. You could see the tension fade away from them.

"Sorry," said Morden, "but it's not possible to tell who's a player and who isn't so we're a bit on edge"

"No problem man," I said with a grin, "I was behind you guys at the entrance so I kinda heard what went down."

"Fucking bastard" Rodrick said spitting on the ground towards the entrance.

"So what's the problem guys, I doubt the asshole is the reason you two weren't too happy a second ago" I asked, genuinely curious.

They frowned and looked at each other before Morden responded, "It turns out the only quest available for us right now is a mob hunt, everything else is too high level and even the Mob hunt requires killing a lvl 5 mob. I'm a healer without any real offensive abilities and Rodrick here is pure offense with no defense. So we're not sure if we'll be able to do it."

"how many need to be killed?" I asked.

"30," Rodrick said, " and they a creature called a rock eater. Apparently they're and armadillo like monster that's 3 foot tall and 6 foot long. It's apatite for rocks can lead to tunnel instability so they're a bit of a pest here."

"I could lend a hand," I said, "I'm pretty much in the same situation as you so everyone benefits."

"Sure" said Morden, " but to be sure what skills do you have for combat?" As he was talking he seemed to be distracted by something and a blue window popped up as he finished.

Morden has invited you his party. Joining his party will cause experience to be shared, but all members gain credit for the party leader's quests. Do you want to join? y/n

I pressed yes before replying "Right now just Unarmed. I also got a skilled called Mana Cultivation, but I haven't experimented with it yet so I'm not sure how it works."

Morden nodded "Alright, cool. According to the guy we got the quest from the rock eaters are in the small connector tunnels between the districts so that's where we gotta go."

I motioned for Morden to lead the way and the three of us headed off into the tunnels for our first taste of combat in World Walkers.

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A/N: After a long wait it's here! Things should be coming in weekly now that I've got the story direction solidified.