by Scott Seier
Agility-agi
Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of AGI
Increases your maximum movement speed and attack speed
10
Intelligence-int
Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of INT
Increases your mana pool
Allows the learning of spells (magical Abilities)
10
Spirit
Increases the rate at which you regenerate health and mana
Certain skills and abilities scale off of Spirit
10
Constitution-con
Increases your health pool and resistance to status effects.
10
Stamina-stam
Increases your stamina pool
Increases the regeneration of STAM
Increases how much physical activity you can do before exhaustion
10
Focus
Increases your chance for a critical effect to occur
Increases the precision of attacks and actions
10
Charisma
Increases your persuasiveness and the rate in which NPCs (non player Characters) gain reputation and attitude.
10
Weird... it already named my character the name I was going to choose... it was an old nickname 'Lyst'. I was glad that I was able to claim it.
Shoving aside the strangeness of the system predicting my chosen name, I looked over the stats with interest. The big three were easily strength, agility, and intellect. They seemed to be the ones every class used without fail, but not exactly what I wanted... Spirit was more to my liking. It acted as a catalyst to your health and mana regeneration. I enjoyed the idea of gaining my resources faster, rather than simply having more of it. And the fact that it also increased health regeneration? It sounded perfect to me. I didn't want to always need to eat food or drink a health potion after each fight like I had been told was normal for your first twenty or so levels. That didn't sound fun to me, not to mention, if I was playing the least played class, I should go with a lesser used stat too, right? So spirit it is. Underdog all the way.
Not knowing if I should spread out the points slightly or just go for it, I ended up dumping all three of my available points into spirit.
instantly, I felt a sense of comfort flood my body, like relaxing after a long stressful day (or weeks in my case). I reveled in the sense of general peace and wellness. It was like all the things I ever loved rolled into one internal sensation. If these feelings were any indicator, spirit was worth every point even if it ended up being completely useless in the game.
Lyst
Human
Level 1
Summoner (Veil)
Attributes available: 0
83
Strength-STR
Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of STR.
Increases the amount of weight that you can carry before becoming encumbered.
10
Agility-AGI
Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of AGI
Increases your maximum movement speed and attack speed
10
Intelligence-INT
Increases damage done with weapons and abilities that scale off of INT
Increases your mana pool
Allows the learning of spells (magical Abilities)
10
Spirit
Increases the rate at which you regenerate health and mana
Certain skills and abilities scale off of Spirit
13
Constitution-CON
Increases your health pool and resistance to status effects.
10
Stamina-STAM
Increases your stamina pool
Increases the regeneration of STAM
Increases how much physical activity you can do before exhaustion
10
Focus
Increases your chance for a critical effect to occur
Increases the precision of attacks and actions
10
Charisma
Increases your persuasiveness and the rate in which NPCs (non player Characters) gain reputation and attitude.
10
With that done I exited all of the windows and gazed once more at the pristine blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. I breathed deeply, savoring the warm foresty air until I felt a slight pull around my abdomen, it was time...
The Grind
The change was immediate. First I'm standing on a nice hill in the middle of nowhere, smiling like an absolute fool, then I found myself standing in a town square surrounded by people running this way and that. There was no lag or load screen.
I looked around, marveling at the small town I'd just appeared in. Buildings made out of stone and wood and non player characters, NPCs, walking around and chatting with players. The latter of which were everywhere. I watched a local butcher stand in his doorway asking three players, who had all decided to stop moving and stare into space in front of his shop, to kindly move along. The poor NPC was stuck in a loop. "Excuse me heroes! The town won't feed itself!" after smiling for a few seconds the friendly statement would be repeated to the occupied players. Poor guy.
I picked a random direction and started walking. The bright little town was filled with players harassing the NPCs for any number of quests. I saw ten players lined up waiting for a grandma in a rocking chair to read a letter. Each of the players had the same letter clutched in their impatient hands.
"Jeez the cascade really messed up the player density in here..." I said to myself. Despite the loud yelling of the players and the anxious expressions on the stressed NPCs I was loving every minute. I practically skipped my way through the town, in no rush to get anything done. I honestly would have walked right past the beggar on the curb, if I hadn't tripped over him and been forced to execute a spin and roll maneuver that would make a tumbling instructor proud.
"Spare coin for the poor?" the old man asked, not registering at all that I had nearly kneed him in the ear. His eyes were so full of hope that I had trouble telling him that I didn't have anything to give. I patted my pockets, then remembered that I was in a virtual world.
Thinking for a second brought up my inventory. I saw that I had exactly zero money of any kind. In my bag was a "Simple Mace" and a "Veil Core" along with five loaves of oat bread and a flask of water that would provide five uses. Reaching into the virtual bag and pulling out two of the five loaves of bread I offered them to the old man.
"I don't have money, sorry bout that, but I can give you some food. If that helps at all?"
The beggar's eyes crinkled with a look of real happiness.
"Of course that helps young man. Thank you!" his last words boomed, evolving into an echoing and powerful voice. He stood up, straightening his hunched shoulders and pulled the tattered cloak off his shoulders.
What was underneath was a spotless white shirt and pants. The tattered cloak disappeared and was replaced with an inversely bright white one. The man threw the new covering over himself and smoothed out some imaginary wrinkles. "I was honestly beginning to think that there wasn't a single decent sole in the whole batch of new heroes." The npc said as he clapped me on the shoulder. To say I was slightly confused wasn't overstating matters. Was this normal? Random beggars transforming into priest looking guys.
The instant the white clad man had fully revealed himself, players began swarming the two of us.
"You have shown yourself to be a true friend of the temple! I wish for you to meet me at one o'clock, in two days, in the third shrine. I want to speak of the dark tidings that have reached my ears as of late." The former beggar and now...priest? I guess?...looked at me expectantly, completely ignoring the shouting group of players demanding that he extend them the same quest that was just offered to me. An alert popped up to punctuate the exchange.
Quest Alert!
>
New Quest offered
Flagging Flags
A priest of Four Flags has requested your presence at the third shrine in two days at one o'clock.
Do you Accept this quest?
Yes/No
That didn't seem that hard to complete... I selected 'yes' and the notification folded up and sent itself to my quest log.
"Well done my boy!" the priest exclaimed happily. "You may bring a group of up to five heroes, counting yourself of course. I must go and prepare for the coming darkness!" he said this ominously, but still with a giant too-white smile. Then the eccentric man walked out of the tightly knit circle of players like they didn't even exists, in some cases blindly colliding with them. As the ring of players turned their attention back to the rotten, lucky newb that had gotten that juicy quest they realized that he had slipped away without being noticed.
You see? Scenes man. They're my thing.
I found myself at the gates a few minutes later, suddenly happy to be away from the excitement of the bustling town center. I glanced at the in-game clock. 3:15. I thanked any and all the gods that existed in this world that the damn clock actually worked in here. In the Terminal the thing just read 12:00 am. And then would switch to pm after twelve hours. Thats how we determine time in there. It was good to be able to get a more accurate measure.
Happy to have the small convenience, I noted that I had a long wait before I met with the priest and no plans at all to occupy the intervening time. I was momentarily tempted to run around the town all day like the rest of the players in there, but decided to just go and get the hang of combat in this world. I was sure that it would be a skill worth investing time into.
My big dreams of being a master summoner bad-ass were crushed however, as the guard manning the main gate stopped me before I could fully exit the town.
"Hero, you are too low of a level to withstand the dangers of the surrounding area alone, find a group and perhaps you may survive." I glanced back to the guard.
"Is that an order or a suggestion?" I asked curiously. The guard looked confused at the question and stood with his mouth open for a moment. "I just mean, if I try and go out there without a group will you try and stop me? Or was that just a warning and if I go get myself killed it's my own fault?" I asked. He just kept staring. While I waited for a response, I inspected him.
Four Flags Guard
(Gred)
Level: 10
Health: 55/55
"Just a suggestion young hero, I am not allowed to try and stop you." Gred the guard finally responded confidently. It almost sounded like he had asked his boss the question and was parroting the response. I eyed the guard, weighing my basic instinct to buck off authority and the chance this guy was just in place to keep idiots like myself from getting trapped in a never ending cycle of death and respawns.
I decided to take the warning seriously. Moving back into the overcrowded town with a new goal of finding a group. Before moving too far I stopped. "Gred, do you know where the nearest inn is located? Or a bar or pub perhaps? Anywhere where a bunch of players, I.. I mean heroes, congregate." the guard looked surprised that I'd used his real name. Or maybe it was just because I was trying to be polite. I could imagine the majority of cascaders didn't bother with courtesy when dealing with npcs.
"The inn acts as a pub, eatery, and temporary housing. It's called The Blue Banner. Just down the way, over there." Gred said with a fresh smile, pointing his spear in the correct direction. I nodded my thanks and headed on my way. See? Manners did actually pay off, who knew?
The Blue Banner was full to stuffing, just like the rest of the town, if not more so, but somehow the place managed to pack everyone in and still keep a cheery atmosphere. I moved along the wall, ignoring the crowd at the bar, instead scanning the tables one at a time, looking for some people I felt like I could get along with.
It didn't take long to notice that there were about fifty people doing the same thing I was, except much more loudly and forcefully.
"Blue haired mage! Yeah you! You down for a forest run?"
"Hey rogue! can you pick locks?"
"Need an enchanter that can fool the gnoll shamans! Not you scrub, you got me killed yesterday, bastard."
Things like that, yelled back and forth, sort of like a player auction. The group leaders bidding on the most promising offerings.
I watched for a few minutes, enjoying the general sense of immersion. These people were about as far from worrying about getting rescued from the cascade as I thought possible. A tap on the shoulder brought me out of my revelry. A young guy wearing nice looking dark brown fighting leathers with daggers at his belt extended his hand towards me. I took it and shook on reflex.
"The name is Hael, that's H A E L not H A I L. I don't have that big of a god complex." he smiled good-naturedly at his own joke. I was too busy wondering what he wanted from me to really react to the comment. Hael coughed "uh, yeah maybe not the best opening line... um, yeah... weren't you the one who tripped over the priest and got that unique quest?" he asked with an air of embarrassment and awkwardness. Now those were some feelings that I could get behind.
Instantly trusting him more than half of the players I'd seen so far, I nodded. "That's perfect!" he smiled brightly again. "So I may not look it, but I'm an officer for the Eleventh Division, Which is a pretty good guild if I do say so myself, and I have a group of other low-level guild members. We don't have a conventional composition, but I think we can manage OK. I was wondering if you wanted to join up with us. We could go and level for a few days then we could be the group you bring with you to the priest?" he finished off the pitch making it sound more like a question than an offer.
Honestly this was exactly what I was looking for when I came into The Blue Banner. If I didn't need to embarrass myself trying to recruit people to my own group then all the better.
"I think that might work out pretty well, Hael." I said with a smile. I shook his hand again and after a few minutes of planning that ended with a decided upon five o'clock meet up at the gates later that day, we parted ways.
I stepped out of The Blue Banner and breathed in the clear air. Even in the middle of the packed town, the air was fresh and warm, unlike the neutral quality and neutral temperature of the Terminal. Still loving it.
Now I just need to not make a fool of myself in front of the new team and maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to tag along with them even after the priest's quest.
Looking around, suddenly very interested in contributing to the team as much as possible, I walked over to the nearest guard. "Hello, would you be able to tell me where I would be able to find a Summoner trainer? Or if there is even such a thing in this town?" The guard took a moment, measuring me before responding.
He cleared his throat and tapped the butt of his spear against the cobblestone rhythmically. "Well, to be honest with ya, Kara really doesn't enjoy taking on students much anymore. They're all just warlocks and mages who are trying to scalp some summoner spells off the poor girl." As he said this I could almost feel his attention on me increasing. "Also, Kara is a personal friend to me and my family and I wouldn't take kindly to anyone trying to hoodwink her out of her valuable time. She deserves better than that."
The guard looked defensive and was bordering on hostile. I should have maybe let it go, but I really didn't have anything better to do at the moment. "Um, sir, I don't know if it makes a difference, but I am a real Summoner, not a warlock or mage. Although I wouldn't want to take her time if she's busy at the moment, is there maybe something I can do to make it more worth her while to see me?"
I'd heard players talking like this all day by this point, fishing for quests, but I really underestimated how well it would work in this situation. Or how interestingly it would backfire so the case may be. The second the guard heard that my actual class was a Summoner he grabbed my arm and began half dragging me back to the gates of the town.
Now I had really done it. Got myself kicked out of th
e damn place in less than a day! Barely here for more than a couple hours actually, now that I thought about it. The guard paused as we passed a brightly painted barbershop. He looked around with his nostrils flared like an angry horse. He apparently didn't see what he'd been looking for because he was off again in no time.
It was the moment that he pulled me past my good old friend Gred, the gate guard, that I thought perhaps I wasn't just getting kicked out of the town. For a couple seconds I was kind of curious what death was like in Acrion. It was something that I hadn't asked many questions about during my many conversations in the Terminal. I should really be more thorough with my inquires. Not asking the right questions had bit me in the behind more than once in the past.
To be fully truthful I sort of zoned out even as the guard pulled me around the town's wall and into a stand of trees that grew against the defenses. The next thing I knew I found myself standing in the middle of a grove that the many surrounding trees naturally formed. Somehow the exact arrangement of the mini forest allowed for no direct line of sight in or out of the grove, but still allowed plenty of natural light into the space. Hmm, the almost perfect symmetry of the wood's growth was suddenly screaming it's obvious abnormality.
Something wasn't quite natural about the trees after all. Maybe they were planted purposefully for some defensive reason? But honestly the whole little tree courtyard was only about thirty feet in diameter. The entire stand of trees was probably about a sixty foot semi circle up against the walls. Who would take the time to grow this many trees in a special way. Not to mention the security risk of having any trees this close to the wall... "who's this Ed?" a distracted voice cut through my musings.
