The real world fell away as he came into a white circular room. He moved around.

“Well, this is awesome.” He touched his hands, touched his face. “Look at me, Mom—walking and talking, a regular circus act.” He laughed at his own joke as a prompt came up.

System Message

Would you like to begin your game?

Y/N

Zane thought of Yes and the prompt disappeared.

Damn, they were just talking about that feature a few months ago—nice!

The white world faded to black. He heard birds chirp in the distance and felt a faint warm breeze on his skin. It smelled like damp wood, food, fire, and hay.

He looked around. He was lying on a metal altar, looking up at a mural of six colored circles that touched one another: black, gold, white, blue, green, and red. They were formed into a connecting ring above him.

“Get off the spawn point, dude. My buddy’s trying to revive and you’re in the way!” someone said.

Zane looked around and saw an annoyed-looking Elf. He stood; he was a few feet shorter than usual. He waddled a bit, trying to get used to his new legs.

A bright light filled the room. Zane looked up. The mural of six circles flared, creating a rainbow of colors that connected with the metal altar. Seconds later, the light disappeared and a human opened his eyes.

“Hey, Phil, ’bout time you got here!” The Elf moved to the man.

“Couldn’t get the day off work, unlike some people.” Phil accepted the Elf’s hand and got off the altar.

Zane looked at the altar. A faint screen appeared in his view.

Name: Altar of Rebirth

Imbued with the powers of Dark, Light, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Once a soul is linked to an Altar or reaches its domain, they will revive at that location if they die. When a user dies, their reincarnation will revive with all their saved experiences.

Quality: A

Durability: Immortal. Some have tried to destroy an Altar of Rebirth. It is said that they are still being revived and killed millennia later.

Zane whistled. “Don’t fuck with the Altars—got it.”

The circles symbolizing different Affinities came to life. A new rainbow cascaded down to the Altar.

New Active Skill: Analyze

You actually give a crap about what’s around you! Or you’re a pervert. Whatever.

Level: Mastered

Effect: You are now able to see people’s overall level, name, and race

New Passive Skill: Perception

You take time to look at your surroundings and analyze them. You notice details that others do not. At higher levels, people will think you can smell gold.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to find hidden details.

Zane turned for the doors to the Altar. It was time to find out more about Emerilia! He got to the door before a new prompt appeared.

Name your character!

Emerilia is a dangerous place, but people need to know what to call you!

Name:

–

Random Generator:

David Grahslagg

Somehow, he knew Grahslagg meant Rock Breaker.

“Not terrible.” He shrugged and accepted the game name. He was here to mess around; he didn’t need people knowing he was Austin Zane.

A new stat screen appeared.

Character Sheet

Name:

David Grahslagg

Gender:

Male

Level:

1

Class:

-

Race:

Human/Dwarf

Alignment:

-

Unspent points: 0

Health:

1000

Regen:

0.04 /s

Mana:

100

Regen:

0.10 /s

Stamina:

120

Regen:

0.10 /s

Vitality:

11

Endurance:

9

Intelligence:

10

Willpower:

10

Strength:

11

Agility:

9

Explains why I’m short as shit. He dismissed the screen with a wave.

He stepped out into the city. To his right, there was a bustling market; a castle was beyond it. To his left was a main street that led out to the roads.

Dave looked around. A small smile formed on his face as he just walked around the people. No one was pestering him, reporters weren’t taking pictures: he was just another one of the many.

He walked around the market, taking it in. He watched a group of Players wander through the market, running around from place to place and hitting NPCs as they moved in their rush.

Dave sighed and continued to walk around, smiling and greeting others.

New Passive Skill: Blend

Others might run around like chickens with their head cut off. You blend in with your surroundings.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to increase sneak in populated areas.

He’d never heard of a skill like Blend, but he remembered the videos he’d seen on the game. There were two types of skills: The presets that came in the form of commands that a Player could use to do certain actions. Then there were the evolving skills; they weren’t made based on some linear tree like older games.

He opened up his interface discreetly as he found somewhere to lean against a wall. He went onto Emerilia’s forums. Already a skill tree was growing; there was a crazy amount of information.

People had been doing all kinds of actions and they had found new skills. Some debated whether they had actually created them as the AI had reacted to their input. Others wondered how many different skills there could be. No one had an answer for that. More turned up every few minutes.

It seemed that Jukal Enterprises hadn’t been lying when they said that everyone’s experiences would be different. Everyone was getting different skills, and skills were not just ranked by someone using their abilities. Someone who shot a bow in real life and then showed that they could do it in-game would level the skill faster than someone who was just shooting mobs with a bow with preset commands.

The game was as fluid and rigid as people wanted it to be.

Dave went past the major skill trees like two-handed melee, sneak, armor proficiency, or archery—getting to the crafting. There was little to nothing on it. Sure, people had found out about smithing and such, though otherwise they’d gone off for search of quests, baddies, and EXP.

Dave would have done that as a younger man, but now, gaming was a catharsis. He just wanted some time to make something again.

There’s plenty time to do quests and grinding later. You can’t resist all those massive raids, or the feeling of defeating a boss no one has defeated before! He grinned and waved the interface away.

He wandered the marketplace. He got to a woman who was selling farming equipment and other utensils.

“Hi. How much for the small toolkit, pickaxe, saw, axe, hammer, simple blade, and a few dozen of the nails?” Dave asked.

“Fifty coppers,” she replied.

Something made him take another look at her.

Dave had been in enough deals to know when someone was trying to pull one over on him. He sighed, taking on a pained expression.

“All I can do is thirty.” He opened his menu with a thought but did not focus on it as he looked at his starting ten gold.

A hundred coppers made one silver. Ten silver coins were worth a gold coin.

“Forty.” She crossed her arms.

“Thirty-five,” Dave said.

She looked him over before a smile cracked her face and she held out a hand. “Done.”

“Good to do business with you.” He smiled as she grabbed the various tools.

New Passive Skill: Trading

Who knew? Those meetings weren’t for nothing. Whether you’re selling asteroids or buying a trowel, it’s always better to get it cheaper. At higher levels, you could sell air to a cloud.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: Prices reduced 2%, profits increased 2%

Dave snorted at the status. “Wish it was that easy in real life. Snarky little AI commentator, I wonder how they found out about who I am.”

He dismissed his wandering thoughts, looking to his next notification.

Passive Skill: Perception

Level: Novice level 2

Effect: 7% chance to find hidden details.

Dave wiped his brow and dismissed the screens. The prompts were cocky and messing with him, but he found them entertaining. Better than the droll reports and boredom he dealt with every day.

Interesting, two skills can be associated with one another. Wonder if they could stack.

“I’ve been thinking of looking for a place to call my own, interested in building. Know anyone doing anything like that?” Dave asked.

“Sure, plenty people are trying to start new settlements. Say that there’s going to be more travelers running around.” She looked at the other Players, shaking her head at how they ran around as fast as possible and toppling people in their wake.

“Understandable,” Dave said.

“If you’re going far, might be an idea to go talk to Siven. She makes clothes and boots. Also has some of those dimensional bags if you’ve got the gold for it.” The woman trader looked apprehensive.

“Where is she?” Dave asked.

“Up the main street two blocks, take a right. Siven the Seamstress. Tell her Brenna sent you.”

Quest: Shopping Spree

In Emerilia, you need somewhere to keep all of that loot. Get a bag of holding and maybe some new kicks to get started.

Meet with Siven

Rewards: EXP

Do you accept?

Y/N

Dave accepted and took the goods wrapped in cloth around the axe. He thought of the coppers and reached into his coin pouch; he pulled them out and handed them to Brenna. He gave her an extra copper with a smile. “Thanks for the help, Brenna.”

“No worries.” The coppers disappeared as she smiled. “If you want more information on new settlements and interesting areas, talk to Darryl at the bookstore. He’s got a collection of maps from the traveling guild. He’s up the main street four blocks, seven blocks to the right, near the rich sector,” Brenna said.

“Thanks!” Dave said, resting the axe and his items on his shoulder.

Pickaxe

Good for breaking rocks

Quality: D

Damage: 3 (piercing)

Durability: 140/140

Saw

Good for cutting down felled timber into smaller sections

Quality: D

Damage: 1 (Slash)

Durability: 70/70

Dave dismissed the other side of his screen listing the new items.

Axe

Hammer

Simple Blade

Iron Nails

He took off at a light jog, making sure to not hit people as he ran. He dodged through traffic here and there, humming a tune as people went about their lives.

New Passive Skill: Dodge

Whether you’re dodging through people, or out of the way of a blade, your body reacts before you have time to think about it.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to evade objects.

He looked around Emerilia. It was beautiful. The rendition was amazing. It was another reason Dave was interested in moving to Japan: no mandatory kick-off times. Though you did have to wear a health monitor. Tons of people, who were dying or fed up with the world, went to Japan.

Three days in-game was only a day out of game. Dave didn’t know how they did it but somehow they’d compressed time inside the game.

Why have just a year left before you die, when you could have three?

Dave found Siven’s Seamstress and walked into the store. There were various clothes in racks. They seemed obscure and silly, though there were some sheaths in cabinets. Dave looked at them closely.

Sheath of Sharpness

Add +1 to overall damage when blade is pulled from sheath. Lasts for five strikes, fits short sword.

Sheath of Durability

As the sun rises, so will the durability of your blade. +1 to blade’s durability when paired. For blades quality of B or lower; will not add durability if blade is at full durability.

If he got a really high-level blade and sheath, then the sheath could repair it between fights. That could be really useful.

Dave looked over the sheaths and information about them on the forums. Similar sheaths could be made out of multiple materials, the higher quality the materials the longer it would last and the stronger the enchantments would be.

Something to think about in the future.

“Find anything you like?” A smiling, plump gnome walked over.

“Hi, Brenna sent me. Said that you might have something to carry this lot easier.” Dave shook his cloth satchel.

“That we can do. Where you headed to?” Siven went behind the counter Dave was looking at.

“Not sure yet. Looking for a new place to settle down. Get away from the beaten path, maybe help build something.” Dave shrugged.

Siven looked at Dave’s feet and winced. “Might I suggest that you get some new boots? Those won’t stay together all that well.” She stared at them.

“What have you got?” Dave asked. He’d felt the road beneath his feet as he walked. If they’ve added blisters, that is too much realism! He had a sneaking suspicion they had.

Siven pulled out four sets of shoes. None of them had any special stats but Dave tried them out, going with the most padded one that he could tie tight.

“A good choice.” Siven smiled.

Simple Boots

Comfortable shoes for long walks.

She pulled out a bag of holding. It would reduce anything in it, to forty percent of its original weight.

“I’ve been sending any of the travelers on quests all morning to do my errands. Makes life much easier!” She laughed.

Dave smiled, ready for the prompt.

“Lucky for us that we’re just normal people and not those bunch of idiots.” She smiled.

“Yeah.” Dave smiled back.

“It’ll be one silver and ninety-six coppers,” Siven said.

“All of it?” Dave asked.

“Yup,” Siven said.

That was way better than he’d been hoping for a bag of holding. He could do a jig!

“Thanks!”

A new prompt asked him if he accepted the sale.

He did, the weight of money in his pocket becoming lighter.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” she smiled, looking to another customer that had entered her shop.

Dave took the boots and put them on. They were much more comfortable than his old ones. He put his satchel into the open mouth of the bag of holding and put it on his back.

Bag of holding

Reduces materials inside to 40% of original weight. Ability to Auto-sort.

Do you want to Soul Bind with this item? (Once soul bound no one can steal this from you even if you are dead)

Y/N

Sauweeeet! Yes, yes, yes, yes!

“Could you give me directions to Darryl, who owns the bookstore?” Dave asked.

“Sure. Go up Edoa Road, to Ferick and go right. He’s on the left side of the street, with a book for a sign,” she said.

Quest: Shopping Spree

In Emerilia, it’s good to know where you’re going and where you’ve been. Go to Darryl’s Bookstore to get a map.

Reward: 1,500 XP

“Thanks.” Dave headed out the door and for Darryl’s. The weight of his pack was negligible. With it, he could get some more things for his travels.

Most people had to go do something for the creator in order to get their bags.

Maybe I’ll need food? Might as well check it out.

He jogged on for Darryl’s. He looked around as he went. He felt drawn towards some stores; he took a closer look at them and made a mental note to check them out as he saw tools he might need later.

Passive Skill: Perception

Level: Novice level 3

Effect: 9% chance to find hidden details.

His Stamina wasn’t all that impressive, but it was good enough to get him to Darryl’s without coughing up a lung.

An older-looking human, with spectacles on the end of his nose, sat behind a desk. He looked up as Dave walked in.

The place was filled with books all over the walls. Shelves bowed with their weight.

“Can I help you?” Darryl asked.

“Brenna sent me. Said that you might help me with a map?” Dave asked.

“Caves, trolls, dungeons, and loot, huh?” Darryl looked tired.

“I was looking more for settlements, looking for a place to settle down away from this all,” Dave said.

“Ah, a man after my own heart.” Darryl tapped his lips in thought. “Well, I might have two things for you then.” He moved around the store, pulling out a book and then a scroll.

“This Map of the Traveler scroll is imbued with magical currents. Once you look at it, a map will appear in your vision; you can manipulate the map with thought. When you look at other maps, they can be added to the one that you see. With a thought, they can disappear. Now this, sir dwarf, is a rare gem. The Book of Surveyor. It will allow you to look at a map and possibly see more than you hoped. Possibly a vein of material, or well of magic. This skill is more potent the higher the level you achieve, how updated the map is, or if you are looking at an area. Simply looking around an area from an unobscured vantage point might add new symbols to your map,” Darryl said.

So books can give skills as well as magical spells. Coolio! I need that friggin’ book.

“It costs three gold pieces; the map five silver,” Darryl said before Dave could open his mouth.

Well, that cuts into the reserves some!

“Together that is three gold and three silver.” Darryl’s fingers traced over the cover of the Surveyor’s book.

Dave scratched his head in thought, weighing the pros and cons.

Darryl let out a laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry, lad—should have seen your face! Don’t worry, we’ll do normal price—one gold coin. Those travelers deserve the fleecing they get for the damage they cause. Sorry about that.” Darryl was still smiling. “Couldn’t resist.”

“No worries.” Dave smiled. The NPCs charge people more if they think they’re a Player? So, what the hell do they think I am?

“Here you are.” Darryl put the items on the table. Dave dropped a gold coin into the man’s hand. It disappeared into his robes.

Darryl pushed over the two items. Dave opened the Book of Surveyor first. The first page was normal; then pages just seemed to rush by as his mind filled with knowledge. Finally, the book stopped; the rear of the book slammed shut and turned into ash that floated upward and disappeared into nothing.

New Active Skill: Surveyor

You are a creature of the land; you look upon it and its secrets become facts to you. Sometimes.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to see surrounding landmarks.

Range: 530 m

Cost: 5 Stamina/second.

“Nice.” Dave grinned, and opened the Map of the Traveler.

Map of the Traveler

Do you want to access the Map of the Traveler? Imbuing its magical circuits to your body for all of eternity?

Y/N

“Come to Daddy,” Dave said, pressing the ‘yes’ at the same time. Light glowed as the scroll opened all the way. It blinded him for a few seconds. When his sight returned, he saw a map in the top right corner of his sight.

He moved the image around with a thought and noticed that the map on the scroll moved as well.

“That’s neat,” Dave said, able to move the larger map with mental commands. He noticed something, as though something wasn’t quite wrong, yet not quite right. He zoomed in on it. The sense got stronger as he reached an area in what looked like the middle of nowhere. It looked like some kind of structure.

Quest: What Lies Below

You’ve found something of interest on your map. It might just be an odd hill or something more.

Reward: ???

Will you investigate?

Y/N

Maybe later. Might as well have it active in the quests. Dave tucked the map away into his bag, accepting the quest anyway.

“I wish you luck on your travels. I wish I was able to get away from all theseplayers, but my books keep me here,” Darryl said.

“Well, if you get bored of it sometime, come around. Though I’ll have to find some place to settle down first!” Dave said.

“I wish you luck.” Darryl grinned and shook Dave’s hand.

Dave headed out of the store.

Quest: Shopping Spree

Quest complete

Reward received: 1,500 XP

Level 2

You have reached level 2; you have 5 stat points to use.

Active Skill: Surveyor

Level: Novice level 2

Effect: 7% chance to see surrounding landmarks.

Range: 560 m

Cost: 5 Stamina/second.

Not bad, Dave, my son. He was hungry and it was about time he was off and looking for a place to settle down. That hill-looking whatever seemed interesting.

He wandered to the markets again, getting a ton of food and water. After some thought, he also got a bow and sleeping gear. He wanted to live peacefully but sometimes you had to defend that, and maybe he could sustain himself with pelts. Sleeping gear would allow him to save anywhere.

Simple Bow

It’s not elegant but it will do the job.

Quality: C

Damage: 10

Durability: 50/50

Satisfied, Dave started jogging out of the city he’d found out was called Omal. Once he was clear of the crowds, he upped his speed, running as fast as he could.

New Active Skill: Sprint

While you look like you actively fear running, it seems that when needs must, you can still run.

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% increased speed

Cost: 5 Stamina/second

Not even the snippy game could get him down as he continued to run, taking in the beauty that was Emerilia.

Here he was free from work: the constant phone calls, the late-night meetings and conferences. He might live on Earth, but his people on the Moon didn’t like having normal schedules.

He went through settings, turning off notifications when he was in combat and other necessities so he could actually fight instead of having a letter in his eye.

That done, he pulled up his map and set a way point for his destination. Even if it was just a hill, there was a nice river going past with fresh water from mountains a few kilometers past it. There was plenty of wood and the Dwarven side of him promised those mountains weren’t just for show.

Yeah, how the hell did I turn out to be a half-dwarf? I thought that there would be some ability for me to choose things. He opened up his browser, asking his question.

Many people got human, though there was a spattering of different characters. It seemed that the game picked out what it thought you were most aligned to. Even if you restarted, you usually got the same character. Some people were annoyed; most were interested what this meant.

Dave felt the need to move sideways; he did so, narrowly missing a tree.

“Interface and running, bad idea—got it.” He continued to read but looked around to make sure he wouldn’t run into any more trees. He was pretty happy that he got that Dodge skill now!

After twenty seconds, he dropped down to jogging. It was going to take him hours to reach that hill at his current pace.

“Time to do something with those points, I guess.” Dave opened up his character sheet. He dumped two points into Agility and another 2 into strength, bringing him to a Stamina recharge of 0.60/s and 120 stamina.

Character Sheet

Name:

David Grahslagg

Gender:

Male

Level:

1

Class:

-

Race:

Human/Dwarf

Alignment:

-

Unspent points: 1

Health:

1100

Regen:

0.28 /s

Mana:

100

Regen:

0.50 /s

Stamina:

130

Regen:

0.85 /s

Vitality:

11

Endurance:

9

Intelligence:

10

Willpower:

10

Strength:

13

Agility:

17

Dave moved around, he opened and closed his hand, feeling more strength in his grip but also much lighter on his feet. He couldn’t run a marathon but he felt like he could run much faster for longer with the increased agility.

“Okay, that’s strange,” Dave looked at his sheet, he had put 4 stat points into his main attributes but he’d stayed at level 1.

He put the last point into his agility, studying the sheet once again.

Character Sheet

Name:

David Grahslagg

Gender:

Male

Level:

2

Class:

-

Race:

Human/Dwarf

Alignment:

-

Unspent points: 0

Health:

1100

Regen:

0.28 /s

Mana:

100

Regen:

0.50 /s

Stamina:

130

Regen:

0.90 /s

Vitality:

11

Endurance:

9

Intelligence:

10

Willpower:

10

Strength:

13

Agility:

18

“So, I only increase my overall level if I put all five of the stat points from that level into my attributes?” Dave frowned, he would have to do some experimenting with his stats later on.

Dave expanded the map in the top right of his vision with hand gestures.

“Well, this is going to take a while.” Dave waved his hand, dismissing the map and watching his Stamina bar grow slowly. He continued to jog, heading off the beaten path and into the forest that grew on either side of the road. The road fell away as Dave started to sprint again.

Moving through the forest was slower but Dave took the time to look around. He saw a flicker of fire, he turned to face it.

“The hell is that?” Dave started to walk towards what looked like a sea of fire.

He walked into a small clearing where there were a number of flowers moving in the wind. Their blooms looked like fireballs, the wind turning them into a sea of living fire.

“These graphics are aweeesome!” Dave crouched down and looked the plant over. His notifications flashed. He opened it up.

New Active Skill: Herb Lore

Stop and look at the pretty flowers once in a while. Who knows—sometimes you can use them to make a real fire, or whiskey!

Level: Novice level 1

Effect: 5% chance to discover valuable plants in your area. Faint idea of what the plant might be useful for.

“Well, maybe I can make some Stamina potions. I hate being slow.” He picked up the plant, studying it, and moved around, grabbing others. He had a faint idea of what they did, as if he had once known and now it was just locked away in his mind. “Maybe later, I’ll figure it out,” He tucked them away, looking around the area trying to find if there was anything that might improve his stamina. He found a sort of moss that he felt might help him.

“Might as well give it a try, he pulled it off the rock and started chewing on it.

“Ugh,” Dave spat it out, rubbing his tongue as if to try and remove the wet taste of dirt and pine-sol. “Tastes like floor cleaner! Or, like I chewed one of those tree air fresheners for my car.”

Dave swilled water trying to get the taste out of his mouth. Forgetting his pursuits as an alchemist as he checked the other updates to his status; at such a low level, it was only natural his skills were racing higher. He was at Novice level 3 for sprinting, a nice 9% increased speed.

“Time waits for no man, even a half-dwarf half-man.” Dave checked his way point and continued his journey.

He started to get hungry, so he called up some dried meat from his bag. He chewed on it and continued his way. The hunger fell away as his Stamina took a nice boost.

System Message

You have been playing for eight hours. As per regulations, you have twenty minutes before mandatory log off. Please preselect actions to occur when you log off.

“I spoke too soon,” he said, chewing on the food. “The hell are preselected actions?” Dave wandered into the forums, finding out that his character could still operate as he was away, like some kind of bot. If it was making goods or something, then it’s abilities were degraded, but things like walking, or simple manual labor, it was all for.

Dave wanted to use it but reconsidered it with the forest potentially having animals in it. He didn’t want to appear back in Omal.

Dave forewent the sleeping save option and picked the manual one in his interface before hitting the logout. He didn’t want to make his character walk around in the middle of a forest he didn’t know. He wanted to take in the journey, not race through it, and there was the threat of animals and creatures that might kill him while he was offline.

Emerilia disappeared in a flash, returning him to the lobby. He exited the lobby and felt the helmet on his head.

He pulled it off, stretching.

“Well looks like I should look up how to make a house after all of this,” Zane moved to his computer and looked up the information on his computer.