Harbinger of Chaos, Servant of the old Gods, Beast Master, Monster, Betrayer. Wilhelm Shadowsong has held many titles befitting of his role in the history of Re:O, but none believed the stories of the greatest player in the massive VRMMO. But as the simulcast stream of his latest exploits took over screens around the world all were forced to bear witness to his madness.

Standing between the armies of the Roman-based guild The High Legion. And the Anglo-Saxon based guild The Grand Crusade he stood alone among the countless corpses of wolves, bears, lions, foxes, and ravens.

A beast of a man standing at nearly seven foot tall with a head of long wild brown hair that reached the middle of his back, His beard came down to the top of his pectorals, His body a mass of solid muscle. Clad in nothing but a black kilt with a pitch black Halberd that was large enough that it could easily cleave through a horse.

His tanned flesh marked with both Nordic and Celtic tattoos, scars marred his otherwise smooth flesh, But despite being surrounded the man seemed to be grieving the loss of the animals around him.

Upon closer inspection, they had all been struck down by a cloud of arrows. Alone he stood unharmed, yet coated in blood. The beasts closest to him had covered his body with their own to protect their master.

If someone had not been keeping up on the current events in the world's greatest video game turned international television sensation they would not understand why two armies of one million players and npcs each would band together to kill just one man.

But as the sun dipped beneath the horizon and the amber glow of Twilight engulfed the world a blood-curdling howl was heard as the lone man threw back his head, It was a sound that all could relate to sadness and rage. And it was at this very moment that all hell broke loose.

The tattoos all over the man's body began to glow a deep crimson as the beast blood all around him began to glow and flood towards him, At the same time the two armies began their charge, their mages starting the incantations for their spells as priests cast their blessings upon the soldiers.

Before the eyes of all the blood was absorbed into the man's body and his howl turned to a cruel laughter as the man swung the halberd across both of his shoulders and began to shout in a deep voice that carried out across the plains, drowning out the warcries of the two armies.

"I, The Forsaken Wolf of Odin, The Beloved Champion of Freyja. Surrender my Honor!"

"I, The Blood of the Tuatha, Beloved of the Morrigan. Toss aside my Pride!"

"I, The Old Friend of the Forest, The Body of the Beast, Savior of Yggdrasil Discard my Kindness!"

"I, The Leader of the Damned, Chosen Warrior of Hades. Embrace my Insanity as I Lose my Humanity!"

"I Sing the Song of Shadows! The song of Vengence! I welcome The Fury and Hatred!"

With every line he spoke an aura of dread began to emanate from his body, a light of black and crimson shone down upon him, Around his neck, On both of his ankles, and both of his wrists a black iron band appeared, each etched with different languages. Gaelic, Nordic, Greek, And an unintelligible script never before seen.

The Halberd shattered as he slammed the spiked butt to the ground, the very earth shook and cracked open, Pale green flames shot forth from the cracks and engulfed the bodies of the beasts as they rose to their masters call once again.

At the same time, the man's body shook and began to grow larger, His jaw, Metatarsals, Phalanges, And Metacarpals becoming elongated, As his body grew his skin grew dark as hair began to cover his body rapidly. Soon Standing at eight feet tall and weighing five hundred pounds of solid muscle, Was the Lupus Rex.

The King of all werewolves both Player and NPC, His fur was the same dark brown as his hair but what stood out was the brilliant grey-silver fur that was in place of his tattoos, the intricate designs still shown upon his body.

With a bone-rattling howl, the reanimated beasts scattered, charging their killers ranks, And once they were close enough to enough enemies they would explode in a blast of fire and bone. The blood of the Ravens and Crows had become acid which now rained down from the sky killing all those unfortunate enough to be out of range of the healers.

In mere moments both armies had sustained heavy losses, But their horror was far from over. The Beast crouched over one beast that had not moved when the others had been reanimated, A large black female wolf with a silver patch of fur on her lower back that looked like a perfect Triple Goddess.

A Wiccan Symbol that represented the stages of life, The Maiden, The Mother, And The Crone. As the Beasts claw ran tenderly across her fur the wolf's body changed to that of a beautiful young woman, A Druid. Her flesh was pale as snow; her hair was long and straight, and as black as night.

She was a larger woman, standing at six feet tall but with a toned yet voluptuous figure, The woman had been his partner, the only one who would not fear him despite his immense rage, Yet now she was dead all because of some rumors that he was building an army to conquer the world. Rumors that he was an NPC that held immense wealth.

The Beast stood and grasped the band around his neck and shattered it, causing the moon to rise more swiftly in the sky until it stood at its zenith, the light shining down upon the beast as three brilliant albino crows descended and perched upon his body.

But the beast shook and pointed to the woman as he growled, While the crows showed concern they fluttered down to the woman, and as they did her body began to ascend into the sky.

This act would shock everyone as he had used one of only a handful of resurrection items in the game. The only one that had been attained by a player. The Torc of The Morrigan. You see the reason why the game was called Rebirth Online was thanks to its intricate system of Rebirth.

When a character died, they could be reborn, but with a bonus for every level over twenty, they had grown in the game. However, the feature was only active for Players and what he had just used it on was a lowly NPC.

As the woman vanished into the sky with the crows and the pillar of light dispersed the Beast threw back his head and howled out once more before he kicked the ground hard, creating a crater as he launched into the nearest battalion of soldiers and began ripping them apart in a terrible and painful manner.

Horror was apparent in the eyes of the soldiers around him as their blades could not even cut his pelt, His level and defenses were simply too high for those who served as infantry, those who were promised that this would be an unlosable fight.

With every kill the Beast grew faster and stronger, biting into the throats of men and ripping out large chunks of meat, flesh, and bone. Gulping it all down as fireballs began to bombard him. Killing dozens of soldiers around him while he stood unharmed.

Seeing even high-level spells have seemingly no effect on him some attempted to run, But as they did a brilliant golden light shown down upon the battle. Countless winged figures plummeted from the sky and slammed down in a crouch around the battleground.

At the same time, hundreds of ghostly Draken Harald Hårfagre class ships sailed down from the heavens, each packed to the brim with the eternal warriors of Odin, The Einherjar. And as the ships came to a halt the Warriors leaped from the vessel and joined the Valkyries in blocking all from running.

And as massive shield wall was completed a deep voice rumbled down from the heavens.

"Those who dare to challenge a Demi-god have no right to flee, Die a glorious and honorable death and perhaps you may still have a chance to be reborn again!"

Horror was felt by all as a message was displayed on their screens. Warning! attempting to flee this battle will result in instant death at the hands of Odin's warriors and your character will no longer be eligible for rebirth and instead, you will be forced to make a new character.

For the next six hours what was displayed was a brutal slaughter as a lone beast, The most dominant player of Re:O let all know his wrath and power. It was not until the half-way point in the battle that the strongest players in the armies even stepped forward.

While their attacks managed to wound the beast the wounds healed within seconds of taking another life, Even when his arms and legs were separated from his body they would reattach as soon as he shoved the parts to their stumps.

None below a certain level of perception could even see the beast's fur anymore, all that they saw was a gruesome blood-soaked whirl of malice. And as the sun began to peak over the horizon the beast stood alone upon a mountain of corpses.

His body returned to its human form as he let out a savage war cry, and as he did the sound of axes, spears, and sword slamming against shields rang out as the Einherjar and the Valkyries began their accent back to Valhalla.

What all would see was the sight of a monster wearing the suit of a man, his body even now impaled with spears, arrows, and daggers. But still, he stood tall and proud, His heart pounding so violently that the Cradle was forced to alert local EMTs to his home as he went into full Tachycardia.

Twelve Months Earlier.

Virtual Reality, It all started as a simple head mounted display, a headset with two small screens that would allow the wearer to feel as though they were the character that they were playing by overlapping the image into both eyes to create depth of field.

However this could only take one's immersion so far, Next came the inclusion of haptic feedback clothes. Designed in such a way that the wearer felt exactly where attacks landed, adding another level to their immersion.

But again it was not enough, No matter what addon was developed for the experience there was one thing that was lacking, Emotion. Even if one could feel vibrations where they were hit, interact with the world through touch and gestures thanks to special controllers it was not enough.

If one's character died, it served no purpose other than to tell them that they had done something wrong and must try again. There was a desire for a truly immersive game, one where the player could truly feel the pain, smell the smoke and fire, feel the blood running over their hands.

And so it came around in the year 2116 that one had succeeded in creating actual virtual reality. The ability to leave one's body behind and enter the game itself, Where they could become the hero. At first, there was not much variety in the games Most were military shooters which made the player take on the role of a soldier in boot camp.

But it was in August of 2117 that a new game swept the world, Rebirth Online. It was a game that promised its players a chance to start life from scratch, starting in a fantasy world as a teenage orphan who was just about to go through their rites of passage to enter adulthood.

Based on real history the user's ancestry was traced back and allowing them to choose an area based on their heritage, be it in ancient Greece, Rome, England, Scottland, Norway or nearly anywhere else in the world. From there once the rites of passage were complete the user would be free to do as they pleased.

But that is where things diverged from the usual, Re:O would also add Magic to the game, the ability to learn spells from all of the mythos around the world, be it the blessings of a Christian monk or the hexes of an African witch doctor.

Re:O was the first VRMMO to feature such an ability, especially in such depth and detail. As such the entire world heard about the game and struggled to buy the required hardware to run it, However, the real problem came down to how many copies of the game would be available.

Due to concerns for how much strain would be placed on the servers by the popularity the developers of Re:O, Apex Industries announced that the would limit the game to ten thousand copies per three months.

While this was primarily to stop the servers from being bogged down by millions of players attempting to log in all at once; This would also allow the games AI system Freyja, to process things more organically.

As an MMO there was the standard trope that every player was the Hero, The chosen one, But in Re:O this was not the case. Upon character creation, Freyja would observe the players every action, from their names to their interactions with the NPCs.

From there Freyja would create complete stories for every player on an individual basis, Making it so that no two players would have the same experience.

Adam sighed as he tossed the magazine he had been reading down onto the coffee table, Sitting up from his slumped position he took a look around the room. He was currently in the stuffy and sterile waiting room of a hospital.

Today was the day he was finally released after his accident, Nearly a year ago now Adam had been in a car crash involving one of the new self-driving cars. A failure in the system caused the vehicle to run a red light where it slammed into Adams motorcycle.

When he woke up three months ago, Adam had been told everything from there in; The paramedics had declared him dead upon arrival, and even once they arrived at the hospital the doctors said that nothing they could do for him.

He had been declared dead just hours before his twenty-second birthday; It was three hours after this when his body was being prepared for the autopsy that he sprang back to life, thrashing and struggling.

While he had no memory of this, the nurses told him that they rushed him through a series of tests after having to sedate him, after which he was placed in a medically induced coma to keep the strain on his body to a minimum.

The full report of his injuries was staggering, So much so that it spanned two full sheets. The To Long Didn't Read of it, however, was that he had his right arm amputated due to severe damage to the circulatory system and risk of blood clots.

His body had numerous scars from where his bones had broken through the skin or had been grated away by the asphalt. His right eye had been lost due to a shard of glass from the windshield of the self-driving car gouging it out. His helmet protected him from any brain damage, however, and he had been told that it was a miracle that his spine was undamaged.

In the end, he was in the coma for nine months, Even then, however, his body was still racked with severe pain. For one month he had been left to rest and readjust, and for the last two months, he had been undergoing physical therapy to get his muscles to a point where there was no risk of him collapsing from fatigue while walking to the bathroom.

But in addition to his therapy, a lawyer had been in and out of his room during this time; Sent to Adam as a representative on behalf of both the driver and the manufacturer of the car he was there to offer a settlement.

The driver had been one of the founders and lead programmers for Apex Industries, as such he was offered a premium Cradle package, The highest grade luxury model available with full support for any maintenance. A Deluxe internet package and a lifetime subscription to Re:O in addition to being one of the first players allowed to log into Re:O at launch. As well as a penthouse suite at the condominium owned by Apex and used as a home for their employees.

The manufacturer of the car had agreed to give him one of their self-driving cars which he was assured had had all the bugs worked out of the systems since the accident. In addition to this, they had agreed to pay him ten thousand dollars per month for the rest of his life.

While Wilhelm acknowledged that this was a substantial settlement he still knew that his life would never be the same, As his name was announced, he filled out the final papers to be released as well as to pick up his first prescription of painkillers.

He was lead by a nurse to his new car; It was an all black recreation of the classic 1960s chevy impala, one of his favorite models due to a popular television show his grandfather made him watch every time he came over to visit from Ireland.

He decided to go to the mall to buy himself some new clothes so he could get out of the scrubs the hospital had given him however while walking through the mall the stares of pity and disgust he got from people was almost as bad as a physical blow.

He stood at six foot eight inches tall, and now only one hundred and ninety pounds which made him look frail and gaunt. His hair and beard were both long and unkempt dark brown curls with small streaks of premature gray.

His right eye hidden by a medical eyepatch, His left eye was a dark brown but had a cold look to it as though he were a shark. His left arm remained covered with scars, His shoes nothing more than crocs.

He walked into a small punk rock shop and moved quietly through the store grabbing things out of habit, only to have to go back and look for clothes three sizes smaller than what he usually got.

He grabbed a few pairs of jeans and some band tees along with a few bandanas; he, unfortunately, was stuck with his sandals due to how large his feet were.

After his shopping had been finished, he hurried to get out of the mall and back to his car. Adam had never been uncomfortable in a crowd before, but now he could feel their eyes burning holes into his flesh, Staring so intently as though he were some exotic creature on display.

Adam panted a little as he slammed the car door shut and leaned back in the seat as he buckled himself up. "Take me home please..." His voice was coarse and weak; He was both physically and mentally drained despite only being inside for an hour at the most.

As the car took the calculated route to his new home, Adam took out his phone and began scrolling through it to see the messages he had missed over the past year. So many things had happened in such a short period.

His girlfriend had ended up moving on just weeks after the accident, His eldest sister had finally broken out of her shell and begun dating, His other sister had been knocked up twice by some deadbeat of a baby daddy. His younger brother had died of a drug overdose.

His baby sister was now entering high school three years early due to a natural gift; He had been terminated from his job though this was not much of a surprise since he was a year late and an arm short. After all, it was hard to take a one armed bouncer seriously.

His best friend since childhood had gotten married to his high school sweetheart, and they were now pregnant with their first child, A story that seemingly applied to all of his friends as of late.

As he sat lost in his memories the car came to a halt and shut itself off; It had arrived at his new home where the car had parked itself in his assigned space. Adam gathered up the three bags he had with him and went to the elevator.

He crouched on the ground and began fumbling in one of the bags for the keycard he had been given so that he could call the elevator down. But as he found the card and went to stand up the doors opened to reveal a beautiful young woman who at a glance was around his age.

She was a woman of nearly flawless appearance; She stood at six feet tall with waist length raven black hair, She had a very hedonistic body that filled out her tight dress suit flawlessly. Her skin was a soft tan like honey.

Her eyes were a startling cobalt blue that reminded him of ice which matched the look she gave him as she looked him over. However without a word she walked right past him, as though he were not even worth the time of a greeting.

Adam sighed as he stood up and moved into the elevator, tapping his keycard to the sensor and letting the system do the rest. After a short wait, the doors opened once more to reveal a grand hallway with dark cherry hardwood floors.

The walls were finished using a dark red, nearly the color of blood, The hall was relatively empty, only having a small table meant for him to toss his keys. For now, he continued inside, as he left the hallway, he came out into a large living area.

His new home was, for the most part, a studio, high ceilings with an open floor plan. However, he did notice a few doors here and there. The apartment had already been furnished thankfully.

He went first to the kitchen area, separated from the rest by a wrap around bar. All of the appliances were made of stainless steel. The cabinets were made of a pitch black hardwood he could not identify, so he assumed it was man made.

When he opened the fridge he was surprised to see that it was filled with a few of his favorite things, The fridge itself was loaded with nothing, but hard cider, much like his fridge would have been before. And the freezer held something that put a bit of a smile on his face.

In place of the cheap frozen meals he would usually live off of he noticed that the meals inside were made by his mother, All put on a cafeteria style tray and placed inside of a vacuum seal pouch. All he would have to do was pull the strip along the side of the bag and put it all in the microwave, and it would steam it up as though it were made fresh.

He took out one of the meals that had pulled pork, corn, green beans, and a dinner roll out and tossed it into the microwave, starting the cycle before he grabbed one of the ciders, happy to see that there was a bottle opener mounted on the wall over the trash can.

As he, sipped from the bottle he began roaming the apartment once more. The living room area had a large leather wrap around couch with an equally large coffee table of the ever present cherry wood. On the table were a handful of game controllers and remote controls to operate the large projector mounted on the wall at the opposite end of the room.

While he liked all of this, he was more interested in the Cradle. Part of his settlement that allowed him to keep the apartment required him to play Re:O for at least five days a week and let his feed be recorded and used by Apex for promotional purposes, In effect, he had been hired on as a professional player.

Adam decided to check one of the doors, opening it wide and causing an automatic light to kick on and illuminate a large bedroom, it held a king sized bed and a small writing desk; the room held two more doors which he assumed were to a closet and bathroom.

He closed that door and checked the next, only to find a small guest bedroom, the next held a guest bath, But behind the fourth door at the far end of the apartment, he found it, a large study lined with bookshelves, a large desk with a computer, large leather futon. But it also held the Cradle.

It was a sleek black pod nearly as long as the futon, On it was a note from his manager at Apex

" Hello Mr. Sterling, Before you may begin using the Cradle you must go through the setup process on the computer nearby, Your physical information has, for the most part, been entered already using your medical records. All that is left to do is to approve the information, confirm your consent.

Once completed your company access code which will allow you to use the cradle will be issued. And you will be ready to enter the cradle and wait for the server unlocks at 9 pm.

We suggest you bathe and eat before going into the cradle as you will be unable to log out until after the tutorial segment which will last, at a minimum. Four real world hours.

-Sierra Wescot."

Looking at the clock on the wall he saw that it was still only 4 pm, Adam shrugged as he went and grabbed his meal before returning to input the last few details for his setup process which doubled as his employment data.

It didn't take much effort or thought; It was a standard deal what with entering his personal information, filling out a silly survey type test as you would expect. By the time he had finished eating his set up was complete and his numbers were issued, though he could only laugh as he was lucky employee number 00666.

Rolling his neck, a little Adam went ahead and took a shower, having gotten used to using only one hand to wash his hair. He had thought about cutting it off, but it oddly felt natural to have it so long.

Looking down over his body he grimaced, His skin was pale and gaunt; he looked so frail compared to how he once was what with his ribs showing through his flesh. And to make things worse, he had not only lost a full sleeve along with his arm, but three of his other tattoos had been destroyed.

Sighing Adam looked back on how things had been, He once looked like a biker, broad chested and well muscled. He weighed three hundred and twenty pounds and had one full sleeve on his right arm, an intricate design of Celtic knotwork.

The others damaged were his family crest that was on his right pectoral, a Wiccan pentagram on his left shoulder that his grandfather had gotten him. And the last was a small Mjolnir that was on his left forearm, a piece for his father's side of the family.

Now the three tattoos were scarred over, marked by the asphalt. It would be a few more years at the least before he could have them redone.

But that was enough feeling bad for himself; Adam rinsed the suds from his body before grabbing the towel and drying himself off, He had to use a robe that was hanging on the rack next to the shower to dry his back properly.

After he was dried off, he went back to the living room and grabbed his bags before going to the bedroom. Laid out on the bed was a pair of black swim trunks with a white tribal sun, The logo for Re:O.

He shrugged and pulled them on after tossing his bags on the bed; He was thankful that the trunks were made to size, with a cloth cinch belt to take up all of the slack.

Still, only a quarter after six Adam returned to the study, browsing the shelves and smiling as he saw his books lining a few of the shelves. The rest were older books that seemed to be related to mythology, history, crafting, cooking.

He knew that Re:O had an extensive crafting system that allowed players to take any job they pleased as long as they knew what they were doing, allowing real-world skills and information to be translated into the game with no effort once you perform the tasks in the game.

It seems his employers wanted to make sure he had a full list of options to choose from, While thankful. Adam already knew what he would be doing. From the start when he heard he would be playing the game his starting race, country, profession. All of it set in stone.

For as long as he could remember his father, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers had told him stories of their lineage. On his father's side, they had been smiths, metal workers, hunters. On his mother's side, they had been warriors, soldiers, outlaws.

To pass the time Adam had sat down in the chair and started research into one of the newest prosthetics to replace his arm. Over the past ten years, prosthetics had hit a turning point, becoming fully robotic and tying into the user's nervous system, behaving just as their arm would.

The only issue with these new limbs was that they were not readily available, As such, he had to place an order for one, and it would be nearly a year until it would be made. While he would not need to pay just yet, he had to schedule for a technician to come to him and take his measurements, and once his body began to return to what it once was, he would need to get adjustments every few months.

But as a benefit of the extensive process, he managed to burn through his remaining time. His alarm went off telling him it was five minutes until launch. Closing out of everything on the computer he opened the cradle program, a simple step by step tutorial showing him how to start the recording software, so all he had to do once inside was make a gesture.

Adam stood up and went to the cradle, hand trembling with excitement as he entered in his employee number and the pin he had set. The sound of pressure being released made him jump a bit, the hatch opening on its own to show a form-fitting bed made of the same type of material as say a hot tub.

He slipped inside and was almost disturbed at how perfect the fit was, though it would be too tight in time at the moment he fit in perfectly like a glove.

But before he could do anything else the lid began to close once more, his breathing picked up at the feeling of paranoia hearing the pod locking once more. But what made it worse was when the fluid began flooding the chamber.

He panicked and started struggling only to be held in place by the form fitting chamber. But soon a small buzz caught his attention before a stern yet sultry voice came through what must be a radio built into the pod.

"Calm down Mister Sterling, the fluid now filling the chamber is a completely safe and breathable Perfluorochemical solution. It will provide you with vitamins and nutrients should you stay inside for extended periods. As well as keeping your body at the perfect temperature no matter the season, It is also a requirement for the system to create a real VR experience."

As he was about to speak the fluid had already filled the chamber, while he understood what the woman was saying he didn't believe her, holding his breath for as long as he could before he was forced to take a deep breath.

The taste of honey flooded his mouth as the fluid filled his lungs, and after a few panicked moments, he found he was still alive, and oddly breathing. But before he could relax there was a sharp pinch at the back of his neck and the world went black, and the female voice from earlier sounded out.

"Link Started, User Vitals Stabilizi... "

When his eyes opened again, Adam was floating in the middle of space, Despite being in space in nothing more than the trunks he was comfortable. But his attention was soon drawn to a beautiful woman in a long flowing white sundress, her hair a bright blonde and her eyes a piercing blue.

She had a soft and caring expression as she looked over to him. "Welcome, Mr. Sterling, After analyzing your Ancestry I have found that your bloodline has extremely high concentrations of Norse and Celtic descent is this correct?"

Adam nodded in agreement as he continued examining the woman, she was flawless, not a single imperfection could be seen with her face or body to the extent that she could be considered a goddess. And as he noticed this he realized that she said 'I.' "That's correct, both my parents are first generation immigrants to the country, Are you Freyja by chance?"

The young woman nodded as she gave a formal curtsey."Yes, I am Mr.Sterling, I oversee the entrance of new players to help them through the initial start-up phase before placing them in their tutorial."

Hearing this made Adam tilt his head a bit in curiosity. "Their tutorial? We all get our tutorials apart from one another?" Freyja smiled softly as she shook her head.

"Unfortunately not Sir, however, every village will undergo the Tutorial phase, letting players experience some of the traditional rites of passage as well as a few we have created to teach you about the world and its combat, crafting, and magic systems."

She paused for a moment to make sure what she was saying was acknowledged before continuing. "This will allow the players to all interact with one another through the start and build lasting friendships, childhood friends if you would as you will be locked to the age of thirteen at first. In addition to the NPCs having a reason to know who you are, your actions will leave a lasting impression on them which will effect you later down the line."

Adam nodded softly but stopped after a sudden thought. "But how would this work if there will be more players streaming in over the following months won't that be strange that players would be hearing about people they had not met yet or perhaps would never meet?"

This caused a smile to spread across Freyja's lips. "No Sir! I will be watching everyone as they go through the trials, recording their every choice and action, analyzing them to create new NPCs for the tutorial phases. Think of it as a less powerful AI clone of yourself, thinking and reacting as you would."

As Adam went to speak again, Freyja raised a finger. "And to prevent any confusion players will be able to watch highlights of their NPC every time a new batch of players are introduced, allowing you to see the bonds made by the NPC and letting you choose to continue them or break them off at your leisure."

Laughing softly Adam smiled."So a miniseries of sorts that changes a little more every month, That's fascinating Freyja."

With a light bow, the AI smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Sir, Now if you don't mind, would you like to choose your starting village, from your ancestry I have narrowed your options down to the Celtic village of Morgana, And the Nordic village of Thorson..."

As she spoke the scene shifted, their bodies were descending towards the earth until he could see the two villages, Interestingly enough they were not that far from one another all things considered, perhaps a week by ship if the weather was not the best.

Adam turned to look to the AI Goddess with a broad smile on his face. "Is it ok if I ask the focus of each village? The state of its affairs? What their current focus is on?"

Nodding Freyja snapped her fingers, causing the scene to change again to show the two villages close up, letting him see that they were both very new settlements. "But of course Sir! Both have the same level of technology, and the same number of villagers, however, the village of Morgana is a community of devout followers of The Morrigan of the Tuatha Dé Danann."

The scene changed to focus on Morgana, an idyllic village built on the top of a seaside cliff, allowing them to be well defended while still allowing for hunting, fishing, and gathering of herbs. A small freshwater spring and river could be seen creating a waterfall down to the beach far bellow.

"A militant type village formed by those who were supposedly dead, only to have risen from the grave after a battle between two clans. The risen had abandoned their clans to create a new one in thanks to the goddess who spared their lives."

The scene shifted once more to show Thorson, A village formed in a Fjord, surrounded on three sides by a vast forest and the bay, Much as Morgana had a spring. Thorson had a small river of fresh water flowing through its center, coming down from the great mountains that formed a nearly impassable wall around the back of the village after almost thirty miles of forest.

Though something stood out the most to Adam, In the center of the woods was an enormous tree that towered above all others, standing three times as high and at least twenty times thicker than any other tree.

"Now for Thorson, A well-rounded village not focusing on any one field in particular. It was founded recently by a by an enigmatic warrior and his war band after returning home from a bountiful raid only to find he and his band had been labeled outcasts in their home village and chased off when they attempted to make port."

Nothing Freyja had said had truly registered to Adam as his gaze remained fixed upon the tree, it called to him in a way he couldn't explain, he had never been an outdoors type of person. Sure he went camping, but that was just because it meant a few days of getting hammered and fucking off in the springs.

"I want to go to Thorson if that is ok....." His voice was distracted, something that caused a faint smile on Freyja's face as she nodded, pleased with his choice as she could see what had him so transfixed.

"Very well Sir, Now I am required to let you know how the Trials will work, Over the course of the four real hours you will experience around five months in the village. Every month will be only one for every year of your characters life; this time is accelerated significantly from the usual time scale to allow a more immersive experience in as little time as possible."

"During each month the trials will be explained to you, and you will be walked through the basics before a final exam so to say, Now full completion using the usual system will take you four hours. This is the streamlined version where you will be granted a set number of levels and skills before you are given the ability to roam the world as you please."

"However if you can invest the time your experience will be a total of five years in the span of twenty-four hours, For choosing this option you will be able to have the best experience, your characters stats and skills will be tailored specifically to your playstyle rather than just a Generic all purpose skillset. Which would your prefer Sir?"

Adam shook his head firmly as he pulled himself away from the tree to take in everything he had been told, It was a gamble of sorts as a player who chooses to take the general route would have a head start over those who took the specialized path.

But everyone knew that by taking the longer road there was some special reward to be given to those who took the hard road. The question was whether or not the reward would be worth being twenty hours behind the other players.

However, Adam smiled softly as he remembered that he had nothing better to do for the next week, so there were no consequences for him taking the longer route and then binging to make up time. " I wish to receive the full experience Freyja, The full five years in this world. Something tells me I won't regret the sacrifice of twenty hours."

"Indeed you won't Sir, But first we must decide your background, You may choose one of five and then give a first and last name. The backgrounds are, Slave. A child captured during the last raid and taken in by one of the young shieldmaidens who had yet to take a husband. Wild One. A child found out in the forest all alone by the scouts who went out on the first hunt for food since settling, one of the villagers will take you in and teach you their ways. Warbound. A child who was from the original village, Stowing away to take part in the raid and as such earning respect enough to be allowed to take your trials in the new village. Strangers Blood. A child born to a family during a time when the husband was away, a doppelganger having taken his place though neither has noticed the discrepancy in the timing. Or Outcast. A relative of the war and who was forced to leave with them to the new village."

Adam smiled a bit as he heard all of the options, each seemed to be interesting especially from a roleplaying standpoint."Before I chose, I must ask is there any benefit to picking one over the other? Also how long before the trials will I have to adapt and adjust?"

Freyja smiled once more as she shook her head."There is no statistic based bonuses simply for choosing, however, living the lifestyle of each background will affect your relationships and stats over time, As for the trials you will live six months before your first trial is announced, I am not allowed to say anything more than this, however."

With one last nod, his choice was made."Then I will become Wilhelm Shadowsong, a Wild One." Freyja nodded and snapped her fingers, his body suddenly regressing to that of a thirteen-year-old version of himself. No Tattoos, Scars, Or missing limbs!

This, however, meant he was now five foot five inches tall and a hundred and ninety pounds as he had been so long ago. As a result, he was quite husky, not quite obese but still heavily set; His beard was replaced with the scratchy stubble of the first growth of puberty, His hair stayed long and curly just as he had it then. His eyes were now bright and full of life once again.

Freyja then waved her hands, and his trunks vanished, Leaving him completely naked before her which caused an involuntary yelp as he went to cover himself up, causing the AI to laugh softly.

"With this, you are prepared to live the life of a Wild One for the next four months before the scouts will find you, you will be living a time before the others get settled in the village. You will not meet any other Wild Ones until you enter the village even if you look for them, But keep in mind that you must fend for yourself for the next four months, food, water, shelter, you must gather it all and survive until you are located. And as a result of your age being reduced to that of a thirteen-year-old, you will experience all of the hormonal mood swings, growing pains, and hunger of one. Good luck Wilhelm."

Adam went to speak but what came out was only a guttural growl, his throat hurt as he tried to form words. But before he could try again the Goddess smiled and gave him a hard push towards the scenery of Thorson. His body was plummeting down from space as he fell into the forest where he blacked out.

When he opened his eyes next he could not move, nothing hurt really but Wil noticed that the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon, and at the same time he could see a timer, slowly counting down the final thirty seconds before the servers would launch.

"Well that was rude, She didn't even wait for me to say goodbye..." Though this was all in his head as he could not move a single muscle, Not even his eyes could move from the fixed gaze to the brilliant Northstar, only seeing out of his peripherals that it was dawn. But he could hear the sound of water running off in the distance, A promising sign.

But as he watched the timer ticking down he could only feel his pulse quicken, his excitement building. He was scared at the prospect of potentially starving to death, but at the same time, it would be a great challenge he had never known. Something that called to him in a way he had never expected

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Welcome to Rebirth Online! Time until rescue 2919 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds.