“How long will I be in the game for? This does seem a bit excessive if I’ll only be in the game for an hour or so,” I asked Wuang.
“We modified the game a little bit for our research purposes. The characters that we make here in the R&D department don’t show their log in time to the administrators due to the sensitivity of the project. But to answer your question, we’ll leave you in the game for 12 hours, that way you’ll be able to get a few levels before we need to pull you out and get your feedback.”
I nodded my agreement, since it wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. I could always wait to use the bathroom and eat afterwards. Unfortunately, I was used to having only one meal a day due to the low wages that I received from Hops.
“Alright now, go ahead and lay down, close your eyes, and prepare for the most exhilarating time of your life,” he urged me, while pointing towards the bed.
Walking over to the table and laying down on it as Wuang instructed me to do, I thought about his words as I closed my eyes, “Well, he said it was safe. Most famous words ever I guess,” as I fell asleep.
Opening my eyes, I looked around at what seemed like a graveyard. There was a broken wooden fence surrounding the area, a layer of fog over top the grass. Even though I was in a spectral form, I could feel the humidity of this place. In the center of my view, there was a character pedestal made of stone. That is where my character would stand.
“The character selection area, but why does it feel so, I don’t know, creepy?” I thought to myself.
Perhaps it was the fact that my main character, which I worked so hard on after all these years was absent, or was it something else? Thinking that it might be the VR interface messing with my emotions, I continued on with the character creation process.
“Create character,” I said after shaking my head to clear my thoughts.
As the character creation menu appeared in front of me, I was faced with a number of choices. This part of the creation phase would allow me to create my race. The races that I could pick was Human, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, High Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, or the most famous, Beastman.
I know that Wuang said to stick with the character class I knew since this rig doesn’t have the full interface working yet, but let’s try something a little bit different this time, since I need to remake my character.” I thought to myself, feeling myself grin, as I chose to play as a Dark Elf.
Still thinking as to what stats I wanted to min/max from the start, I looked through the various races and what their initial stats were. My main character, being apart of the human race, did have some minor quirks that irritated me at times. Quickly scrolling through the various races, I got through to the Dark Elf race and looked their starting stats. The Dark Elves started with 325 health, 875 Stamina, 600 Mana which wasn’t too bad as the stamina would greatly increase both my dodge rate and my overall endurance to perform skills.
“Not bad, they have both 15 dexterity and 15 agility just from their race. Resists are ok, 10 in slashing and poison, 5 in everything else but soul damage,” I thought to myself.
Looking through the other races, I decided to go back to the Dark Elf race. After selecting it, what now appeared on the Character Pedestal was an average looking woman that looked like she had a very dark tan and had long, blueish black hair with black eyes that tilted a bit upwards. She also had long, elven ears that ended at almost a point.
However, what surprised me the most, was the fact that she looked almost exactly like myself, if I was a Dark Elf. I wasn’t exactly sure if this a feature of the new interface or if the interface was missing the character customization sliders. It might have been due to the fact that it wasn’t designed for players in the Veil, but instead it was designed for deep space colonists. I decided to continue on with the character creation, figuring it must be something to help with maintaining psychological equilibrium or something.
“Ok, so I know I’m going to need high agility for crits and attack speed, and also dexterity for dodging and evading. However, this race starts out with pretty high agility and dexterity anyways, and I have 25 points to spend. Mmm. Let’s go with 10 into strength for a total of 15, another 10 into vitality, and 5 in agility. At least that should help in the beginning. I wish that I could get more into agility, but at least this is fairly balanced. As for the deity I should worship, definitely Noctis. The benefits are far better than who I selected with Shadowblood,” I thought to myself while reading the screen showing that if I worshiped Noctis, I would gain 10% higher agility and that I would move faster in stealth by 5%.
Looking at the last field that I needed to finish before I could create my new character, which I had always thought was the most important, was the name. I looked at a mirror image of myself, if I was a Dark Elf at least, for quite some time before I whispered, “Raven.”
“Character creation confirmed. Character name confirmed. Welcome to the World of the Veil. Enjoy your stay, Raven,” the system said aloud, in a semi-robotic voice which obviously could not be mistaken as human.
As the world faded into darkness, I once again felt as if I was falling asleep.
CHAPTER TWO
Awakening
Opening my eyes, I looked around and everywhere there was nothing but a gray fog, almost as if it made up the entire world. I looked down, and I could only make out the soft shadows of my own feet, however, I looked like I was dressed in what could only be considered the clothing of a poor commoner. The dark brown fabric felt as if it was made of wool, and just as itchy.
Wary of what was going on I attempted to move, but it seemed like I was stuck in place. I was only able to move my head to look around as panic started to set in. I began to think that I might be stuck in this featureless world that was filled with nothing but this gray fog and it could be that the VR pod was bugged.
In what seemed like an eternity and just a fraction of a second all rolled into one, a voice called out from the fog, deep but feminine, her voice promising both pain and comfort.
“My child, you have chosen to become one of my champions within the World of the Veil. You will need to face many challenges on your journey, but you must never forget your mission.”
Looking around, I tried to find out where this voice was coming from, when out from the corner of my eye, I spotted a being that was walking, or perhaps even floating, towards me. This being was fitted with a dark, black cloak with a golden aura, signifying that she was a deity.
As she neared, I noticed the gold trim that surrounded the edges of her cloak and the black tendrils moving through her shadow as she walked towards me. I noticed that she had two curved daggers that matched each other at her side, both giving off the same golden aura. However, that aura was laced with a poisonous, green hue. I knew exactly who this being was.
“Noctis…” I whispered.
“Yes my child. I am the deity known to your kind as Noctis, the Goddess of Shadows. And you my Dark Elf child, a rogue, but yet, such a curious being. You are one that I have never come across before,” Noctis replied to my whisper.
Just as Noctis stepped within an arms reach of me, she reached out and touched my chest, just above my right breast, over my heart.
“What shall the Fates have for you? What path will you take on your journey? Will you quit this long and arduous course that you have chosen, instead trying to find peace? Or you will you fight against all odds and become one of my champions, as unique as you are, and AWAKEN!” Noctis shouted as she violently pushed me back.
As I felt myself falling, now able to move, I tried to catch my fall. However, the world faded into blackness once again.
****
Suddenly waking up, my head was pounding from meeting Noctis within the dreamworld. Not only that, but it felt like my chest was burning with a violent fury from where Noctis had touched me before she had pushed me out of the dreamworld.
Sitting up in the hay covered bed, a woolen blanket was covering my legs. I looked around the room I woke up
in and it had the smell of oak. There was a fire burning in the fireplace which was on the far side of the room.
The room itself was fairly small, with just the basic furnishings. There was the bed that I was currently sitting in with a small standing closet next to it and the fireplace. However, there was also a window with a milky white curtain that was flapping from the wind. The window itself must have been opened, as I could feel the light breeze and hear the ambient noise coming from outside. I also saw a basic, wooden door that led outside of the room which was closed.
From just the sounds, it seemed like this must be a small village, and I could hear some children outside shouting incoherently at each other, but there was none of the other sounds that one would associate with a large city.
Suddenly, my eyes went wide, as I finally realized that my first sense in this world was the smell. Modern VR equipment was just never able to get the sense of smell right, so many developers ended up just giving up on the idea to bring that sense into their games.
The aspect of this made me feel extremely excited, since this was just one of the things that hundreds of millions of people all wanted. The sense of smell was just one of those things that was needed in order to feel like you were truly in this world of fantasy, and not just some avatar that was inside of a game.
Leaping from the bed, I ran to the wooden door that led outside of the room.
“I should probably look around for some equipment,” I mumbled to myself as I grabbed the door’s iron handle.
Smiling, I looked around as my eyes were drawn to the small closet, and I walked over to it. However, to my disappointment, there was only a brown leather vest and some tattered, brown pants in the closet. Looking at the vest, I said out loud, “Show stats.”
An orange holographic window appeared above both the vest and the pants, giving me an overview of the stats for both pieces of equipment. Both pieces were of course, level 1, and the vest would give me 3 points in armor, and the pants would give me 2 points.
“Hide stats,” I said while sighing, closing the stats window. It was a far cry from what I would have normally used on my real character.
“What should I expect for being only level 1,” I thought to myself.
“Open available skills,” I said in order to bring up the skills that I could invest in.
Looking at the three initial skills that I could access with my measly 3 skill points, I had access to Backstab, of course, was only usable from behind the enemy, and it would cause 150% weapon damage, increasing by 2% per level. The Stealth skill would allow me to stealth, which is the signature for any assassin, and increasing that skill would allow me to move 5% faster per level. Another skill, which would be beneficial if I decided on the thief class is pickpocket. Ignoring that one, I allocated one of my skill points into Stealth and another into Backstab, which left me with 1 unused skill point.
Since I was planning to become an assassin, Backstab wouldn’t do me any good in the long term, since I really only soloed and there were better skills to use down the road. However, for the beginning mobs that I would need to kill in order to drag my ass to level 5, I would need something that packed a punch. For now though, it would be my opening skill against the mobs I would soon be killing, and it was easy enough to do while stealthed. If I did join a group, it would still be a decent skill due to the damage modifier, even if I didn’t invest any points into it as long as I had weapons that were good enough.
Closing the skill list, I looked around the room to see if I could find anything else that might be of further use. To my utter disappointment I couldn’t find any weapons that I could equip before leaving, although I was able to find a coin purse that had 5 silver in it on the top shelf of the cabinet. Reaching up for the coin purse, I quickly opened my inventory by giving the system command, “Open Inventory,” and added it to my current inventory. A coin purse appeared at my side that was attached to the belt on my pants.
Finally outfitted, at least partially, I walked back to the door and opened it. Outside, I saw that the exit to my small room led to a hallway with several rooms next to mine. To the left, the hallway led to some steps that went down to the floor below this one. On the opposite side, the hallway ended with a large window that led outside.
“Seems like this is the starting inn for the Dark Elves,” I thought to myself.
Closing the door to my room and hearing the lock shut, I started walking towards the steps.
“I hear you up there miss, come on down and let me take a look at you,” an older Dark Elf lady yelled up at me as I started walking down the steps to what I presumed was the inn’s lobby. “Don’t know where you came from, but I found you outside by my door passed out. Come on now, come talk to old Isbeil.”
As I finished walking down the steps, not really feeling like talking to random NPCs, I paused as I glanced around the lobby before greeting my so called rescuer. The lobby itself was very homey and inviting, without a hint of extravagance. To my left, in the center of the lobby, was a large, fur rug, surrounded by wooden chairs arranged in a semi-circle in front of a fireplace. This was definitely a place for travelers that just needed a few nights stay while visiting the village.
There was a small counter that was offset from the wall that was in front and to the right of me. Isbeil was standing behind the counter while looking at me and smiling. The exit of the lobby went right past her, obviously so she could meet and greet anyone that decided to stay at the inn.
“Good morning innkeeper, thank you for taking me in, but I really think that I need to get going,” I said in a soft, but clearly monotone voice.
I walked past the elderly lady that was a bit on the chubby side, her hair silver with age. I didn’t really meet any Dark Elf NPCs before, since I mainly stuck to the Human continent, but I had assumed that most where lithe creatures. I suppose though, you know what they say about making assumptions. I was anxious to go outside and at least explore this village that I woke up in and wanted to see if I could get a couple of quests to kill the local pests so that I could level up.
“Oh come now. You can at least tell me your name, and what you plan on doing,” Isbeil said, clearly irritated at my dismissive tone.
Turning around, I forced a small smile that could be easily mistaken as a smirk.
“My name is Raven, and I am just a wandering Dark Elf, though, it seems that I must of misplaced my dagger, as it was not in my room,” I said as I eyed the innkeeper, letting my suspicious nature show itself.
Isbeil looked at me thoughtfully for a minute, ignoring the look that I was giving her.
“I might know where you can get a new dagger, but I would suggest you look for a few other people before wandering out of the village again. If you go to the blacksmith’s shop that is across the road, there might be a dagger there you can purchase.”
Looking at a quest window that appeared, I had a new quest called, “Meet the Townsfolk.” The reward for the quest is 25XP and all I needed to do was to meet some of the signature people in the town. Perhaps it wasn’t such a waste of time to talk to her. After accepting the quest, I begrudgingly thanked the innkeeper and walked outside, the quest objectives updating to show that I had met 1 out of 5 NPCs.
Looking around the village from just outside of the inn’s entrance, it seemed that I was now in what looked like a town square, although it seemed oval in shape. There were a few outdoor stalls with merchants selling their merchandise, and from what I could see, they had everything from food to different types of potions, and there was even a tall, skinny dark elf with gray hair and regal clothing was selling rolls of cloth of various types. It seemed like a little over the top considering that this was an out of the way starting town, however, players did come through these areas, so I guess the developers needed to account for that.
There was also four dirt roads that led further into the village, looking as if it was a crossroad of sorts. The inn was just along one of the dirt roads, and further down
this road was the stone entrance to the village. To each side of the entrance was a guard that was wearing silver plate armor, each armed with a polearm.
Next to the inn itself was a horse stall, with several horses and a stable boy that was currently grooming one of the horses. Several children were running around, with one holding something as he was being chased by the others. Those children were probably the ones that I heard earlier this morning. In the distance I saw a large manor that looked like it was made from stone and wood. The manor was probably the residence of the village’s mayor.
I tried inspecting the NPCs, however their names or health bars didn’t show up. I frowned a bit, but hopefully it wouldn’t be a huge deal, and Wuang did tell me that the interface wasn’t entirely complete yet.
I started walking towards the road that was off to my left, the dirt road not being very comfortable under my bare feet. “Ah, the problems of only being level 1 without any gear,” I thought to myself as I cringed with each step I took, the small stones from the dirt digging into my feet as I walked. Even though the pain sensors was dialed down, I still had the feeling of being uncomfortable.
Raven- The Beginning Page 2
