Looking around the plaza I was in, was kind of nostalgic. The plaza looked familiar and yet foreign. It took me a moment to place what felt off about it. There were too few people, all I saw was a couple dozen uniformed and armed men, a few civilians peering from windows or side streets. The armed men’s black cloaks indicated that they were part of the town’s guard. I had not started playing until after the Challenges was announced. By the time I logged in, even a backwater town like Blackport had thousands of players.

The fountain, or the Soul Well as it was called, was a respawn point. The plaza was pretty large with some well crafted houses flanking them. Half of them looked a bit dilapidated though. Only the stores, the temple and the largest of the houses looked well maintained.

The large house was the Lord of Blackport’s resident. I think his family name was Blacksprout or Blacktree. Something black cobbled with a plant thing. It was not really important as such. Observe could inform me of his name if we ever were to interact, which was definitely my hope.

The temple was not dedicated to any specific god, but to the whole pantheon. At current Blackport was a large town, not a city, and did not have enough population to support multiple temples. The stores meant nothing to me, I could not remember anything specific about them. Not even the names jogged my memory; Fillard’s Sundries, Needle and Thread, and a handful of other stores.

The stores that I did remember were not at the main square. The most important one was just called the Butcher. While he was not the only butcher in the city, he was one of the few NPCs, or Natives as the developers liked us to call them, who were willing to teach you without payment.

Of course, I did not need him to teach me the Butchery skill, I could just use a knife and try to skin any creature and I would unlock it. However, if you undertook his quest that gave no obvious reward, your experience was doubled. It was the effect of one of his skills that was called Mentor.

My reminiscence was interrupted by a guard, who had approached without me noticing, “Good morning Traveller, on behalf of Lord Blackoak and Blackport we welcome you to our city. And we thank you for answering the Gods’ Call.

“Ah, yes, good morning, Guardsman,” I offered and looked at the sky. It was indeed morning, dawn had barely broken. I ran a finger over my brow and whispered, “Observe.”

Tirsho Redscale - Blackport Guard, Sergeant - Level 37

A string of words appeared above his head. Since the spell was at level zero, I could only see his name, affiliation, rank and level, and it vanished after two seconds. If it had been at a higher level I might be able to get some more information. Like his class. It would also had lasted a lot longer.

“It’s actually Sergeant, Sergeant Redscale at your service,” he chuckled.

“My apologies, Sergeant. I’m called Damian,” I stuck out my hand, “Pleasure to meet you.”

He awkwardly shifted his spear to his left hand, seemingly caught off-guard, “Pleasure’s mine, and that was not a bad activation of the Observe spell. Are you one of the Pioneers? I did not see that achievement when I checked you out.”

‘Pioneer?’ I was stumped, I could not remember what it meant. Then it hit me, it was a special achievement for the beta-testers. Laughing, I answered, “No, but I know one.”

I did not really know one, but I would get to know some of them; if I did not alter the future. Which of course was my intention. He released my hand, and immediately moved the spear back to his dominant hand, “Ah, I see. Anyway, as I was saying. Welcome. If you head south, which is that direction, you’ll find the Guardhouse and our training ground. There we got trainers to show you how to understand the Gods’ Gift and how to figh— Do you not have a weapon?”

“No, I’m not much of a fighter. However, an army fights on its stomach, right?” I laughed. The Gift he mentioned was what the Native called the system, character sheet and so on.

“I guess,” his friendliness seemed to cool down a bit. I knew that would be the reaction of some of the Natives. For them this time was Ragnarok or the Apocalypse. They wanted strong fighters to fight the enemy where they popped up. Nevertheless, he remained a professional, “The Adventurers’ Association is the building right over there. Most of the quests available to Travellers will be posted there. Once again, the Lord and the town bids you welcome.”

“Than—” I started, but was interrupted by a flash indicating a player spawning for the first time. Respawns would be less flashy, lucky enough.

“FIRST!” the player roared, and then looked around confused for a few seconds, before starting to scream, “What the fuck? Why ain’t I first? Devs I want to report a bug!”

A guard had started to approach him. However, when the player started screaming, he backed away again. I cast Observe on the moron, just to see who I was dealing with.

Iron Bear - Blood Bears - Level 0

‘Blood Bears?’ I thought, and then it struck me as he kept screaming for the devs, ‘Fuck, how could I forget about those assholes?’

Assholes, were a kind way to describe the players from that guild. They were a bunch of trolls and griefers. Even when I started they harassed and ruled Blackport’s player population through extortion and repeated ganking. It had lasted until the new guilds that joined after three months had levelled up and banded together. Then the Bears had become an extinct species except far outside of town.

It was another thing I would have to change. It was hopefully possible with just my five guildmates. I could not remember if the Bears had any players using manual mode, but I did not think so. Especially not this early.

I saw Tirsho head towards the screaming moron, as a few more flashes indicated more people arriving. One of them was Liam, who only gave a short confused look at Iron Bear, before spotting me and immediately started running over to me.

“Boss, what’s wrong?” one of the other people who had spawned ran over to Iron Bear. Two of the others ran over to him as well. The only other player just looked around with a look of astonishment. Checking his name it did not ring a bell, but it was not wasted, since it meant another five XP for my Observe spell.

“Hey Mi— I mean Damian. What nick did you pick by the way?” Liam asked as he stopped next to me.

“Why don’t you use Observe?” I asked and did the same on him.

Blaze the Magnificent - Blue Lotus - Level 0

“What the fuck?” I muttered, sighing at his nick. I noticed a guard heading our direction, but I indicated we did not need help. He just nodded and went back to his post.

“Why you use your own name?” he asked at the same time, “Well, you got a different last name, but still a bit lame.”

“Because I don’t need a heroic name, like yours. I’m just a crafter, not a great hero,” I tried to say with a straight face.

“Thanks, it’s pretty awesome, right?” he gushed, totally not getting the diss. I could only nod in response. He started jumping up and down, “Oh man, this is mindblowing, it feels so real, man this is awesome.”

He was dressed in a black wizard robe with red orange trimming. Probably set him back a gold or more clothing. At least he had bought the leather chest piece I had suggested, as well as a solid staff. He carried a backpack on his back as well, but other than that I could not see what he had bought.

A new round of flashes appeared, and amongst them were the rest of the crew, except for Kira. Ainsley was dressed in green clothes, with a leather armour just like Liam. Her quiver hung beneath her backpack, and she carried her bow in her hand. Even her nick screamed the inspiration for her outfit; Robin Windrunner. She had always loved the classics from what I remembered about her.

Edward carried a staff and was dressed in the newbie clothes, just like I was. He did carry a bandolier with four pouches hanging on it. He had gone for a slightly more subdued name, Ed the Summoner. Short and straight to the point.

Masuro had a sheathed sword and a wooden club in his belt. He was also carrying a big round shield, in the viking style. On his head he had a steel helmet, which left his face free and did not hinder his vision too much. He also had metal pauldrons and greaves on. However, he did not have bracers, gauntlets or a chestpiece. Metal armour and weapons was just too expensive, which was why Liam bought the gauntlets, Ainsley the bracers and Kira the chestpiece. Hopefully.

“Hey, what do we call you in here, Teach?” Masuro asked as they came up to us.

“Use Observe,” I winked at him, and did the same on him. He had picked the name One-Eyed Dragon.

“He’s totally boring, just like Eddie. I mean, why use your real names, when you can be Blaze or the One-Eyed Dragon. Which is totally cool, but I think a two-eyed dragon would be a little scarier, no blind side,” Liam complained.

“The One-Eyed Dragon was a historical figure,” Masuro muttered. The last few days had brought a few more memories about each of them to the forefront. And one of the things that I remembered about Masuro was that while he was a subpar student, as soon as it had anything to do with japanese history, he became a regular scholar.

“Sorry I took so long,” Kira shouted as she arrived in a flash. She happily ran to us. She did a flip as she came to a stop. The smile on her face was big and infectious, “This is so great. I can walk, run and jump again. This is the best. They put me in a special dimension or something, and allowed me an hour to get used to having legs again.”

That meant she had been placed in a zone that ran twenty times faster than real time. Which was a pretty nice gesture from the company, but also dangerous. That high time compression could have adverse effects if experienced for a long time.

She had opted to dress in a white gi uniform, probably to be more like what she was used too. At least she had bought a leather armour as well as some leather bracers. In her belt she carried two wooden tonfas. Her name was simple, and to the point; Sensei Kira.

“Damian, how do we access our inventory?” Ed asked.

“I’ll come to that in a moment. First you need to know the limits of inventory. You’re only able to equip one backpack, or in my case a satchel. So maximum of one bag, unless you take a few specific skills and classes. The standard belt we were provided with can hold two pouches, while higher grade belts can contain more.

“To open your inventory, just think about opening your inventory. You’ll then see several grids. One for your personal inventory, and one for each of your additional inventories. Such as your backpacks, or pouches,” I explained and then did the same. I had one grid named Personal Inventory, one named Satchel and two named Leather Pouch.

“What does the numbers next to the names mean?” Masuro asked.

“It means how much weight you can place in each inventory. The number of grids doesn’t matter, only the weight. Your personal inventory is the only that will grow. For each point in strength you can carry two kilos in your inventory.”

“Cool, how do we take stuff out?” Kira was still giddy.

“Just focus on the item you want to take out or put into your inventory. It’ll take a few seconds depending on which inventory. For example the bandolier Ed has, allows him to remove items in just a second if they’re in the pouches,” I explained how they could open just one inventory by being more specific in their intent and so on. In total we spent two extra minutes going over the inventory system.

Meanwhile, more people had arrived. A total of seventeen people besides us had picked Blackport as their starting spot. The Bears numbered thirteen of those. So they could become, no, would definitely be a problem. I knew that the number of players would rise during the next few days. However, shortly after midnight on New Years Eve, there would be few hardcore gamers logging in. And no big guild had set its eye on Blackport before the destruction of the old continent.

“Here’s your platinum,” Ainsley said, holding out a platinum coin for me. Immediately the four others found theirs as well. I did not like taking some of their starting money, but I had need of them if we wanted any chance of earning enough money to keep playing. I saw that Masuro, was finally fully armoured. While most of his armour was of metal, the chestpiece was still leather. Just with a few extra pieces of metal covering the most vital parts.

“Okay, let's agree on the names. We got Damian, Ed, Kira, Robin, One-Eye and Blaze. Any objections?” Ed asked with quite the authority in his voice. I was relieved that he kept his gamer persona in here, and had not reverted to the shy introvert that he was.

“It’s Blaze the Magnificent!”

“It’s Blaze or Shitface, you decide,” Ed brokered no objection.

“Fine,” Liam, no, Blaze pouted.

“Okay, I’m going to invite the four of you. Damian, are you sure I should take the Leadership skill? From what I read it doesn’t bring a lot of benefits,” Ed asked.

“I’m sure. It might not have any benefits by itself, but it allows the Party to level up. For random groups it sucks, because the Party loses XP for each member leaving. But for a permanent group it’s an extra edge. At the same time when you advance to another tier, it’ll allow you to make bigger groups,” I explained it as basically as I could. The party system and Leadership skill was complex, but it was important to all guilds.

“Okay, it just unlocked when I invited the One-Eye.”

“Good. And all of you remember, don’t take skills just because you unlock them, we’ve already agreed on which skills you should take,” I reminded them, “You can always take unlocked skills later, but you can’t unlearn a skill. Now follow me, we’re going training.”

I headed north instead of south. Which Blaze immediately pointed out, “Eh, boss. The others are heading in the other direction.”

“I know. This is a better training area that my friend told me about. Sure you won’t get any instructions from the Natives, bu—”

“Natives?” Ainsley asked.

“The Non-Player Characters, NPCs. They call them Natives in this game, while players are Travellers, Otherworlders or Outworlders,” Ed quickly explained.

“Anyway, the instructions you get there are very basic. I’ll give you the information about the system on the way there, and Kira will be a much better teacher than the Natives at the starter training area. They’ll only teach you how to fight with the skill Combat Instincts. None of you took that, right?” I asked. Combat Instincts was the skill you needed to fight with assistance from the system. I had done that in my past life, but it was not as effective as a semi-decent trained fighter with manual mode.

I got a chorus of “No”, which was good. I then explained how they could set up their interface. At the same time I set up mine. In the upper left corner I placed a compass, and immediately beneath it I put a red bar for health, a green bar for stamina and a blue bar for mana. In the upper right corner I placed a digital clock showing the time both in game and in the real world. Lastly I placed the event log in the bottom right corner. It showed that I had earned five XP in the Observe spell every time I cast it. No minimap, you needed a spell for that.

“Okay, the next important part is the character sheet, just like with the inventory, just think about opening it,” I said and then called my own up.

Name

Damian Heosphoros

Race

Human

Class

Locked

Level

0

Skill Points

0/1

Upgrade Points

0

Skill Cap

10

Skills Learned

5

XP Penalty

0%

Health

100/100

Stamina

200/200

Mana

10/50

Unassigned Attribute Points: 0

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 10

Vitality: 10

Spirit: 10

Resonance: 10

Before I could say anything, Blaze had a slew of questions, “Why is there no XP, but an XP penalty? Why does it say race Human, when we couldn’t choose a different race? What is upgrade points? When can I pick my class? Why isn’t the guild part of the sheet?”

Sighing, I took it from the top and ignored his questions, “We’ll get to that. Let us start from the top. The name part should be self evident. Race comes into play later. I’ll just touch on it briefly. By completing specific actions and quests you can earn Essence Shards, from one of the Nine Ancient Races. When you got ten of them, you can turn them into an Essence Crystal. With them you can start to unlock features of the race, and start taking on their appearance.”

“Ho—” Blaze started to ask, but I quickly interrupted him.

“You can’t gain a class until you become level ten, but it’s important to gain one before you become level fifteen, or you’ll miss out on a skill slot and an upgrade point. It’s not important right now, so I’ll explain it and races later.

“Level determines how many attributes points you’ve earned. Right now we’re level zero, so we’ve earned zero attribute points. So we only got the ten points in each. To level up we need to level up a skill, spell or ability. Uniformly called skills. Each time you level up a Beginner Tier skill you earn one Skill Point. For level one you need one point, for level two you need another two points and so on. With me so far?”

When I got a round of nods, “Upgrade points are used to upgrade a skill’s tier, when you’ve maxed out the levels. There are seven. Beginner, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grand Master, Legendary and Mythical. From Beginner to Apprentice it’s one point, and from Apprentice to Journeyman it’s three points. And the others we can talk about later. Any questions?”

I got a few headshakes, but Blaze raised his hand. I ignored him, “The Skill Cap is a soft cap, meaning that you can learn more skills than that number. However, you just start to incur an XP penalty. Which means it’ll be harder to level up your skills. The Skill Cap increases by one every tenth level, and when you pick a class you'll start earning class specific slots. You also earn an upgrade point every tenth level. Skills Learned just show you how many skills you’ve learned.”

“How much is the penalty? And races can you become?” Blaze could apparently not hold his questions.

“Not really important right now, we can talk about that later,” I admonished, and quickly moved on, “Health is how many hits you can take. Stamina how often you can use your abilities, and Mana how often you can cast your spells. Remember that some Abilities or Spells might require Mana or Stamina as well; it's what's called a Spell-like Ability.”

“Hey, my mana hasn’t regenerated,” Blaze suddenly complained, a bit of panic in his voice.

“Mine neither,” Ed commented. The others voiced that it was the same for them.

“Let me explain. Health can only be regenerated by sleeping, logging off, healing spells or health potions. Or someone with the First Aid skill. Stamina regenerates by one percent per minute if you’re just walking casually. If you sit down and relax, it’ll regenerate by ten percent instead. Now to regenerate mana you either need to sleep, log off or use a skill called Meditation. I’ll teach it to you in a moment.”

“Oh okay, I thought it was a bug,” Blaze sounded relieved.

“I see. That’s why you’ve had everyone else take a mix of abilities and spells, to maximize our combat potential, by utilizing all of our resource pools,” Ed contemplated.

“Exactly. Now for the last part. The attributes. You get five attribute points to distribute everytime you level up. Strength determines the size of your personal inventory and how much damage you can do with melee weapons, and some ranged weapons, like the bow. Also the range that you can use them on. Agility dictates the speed with which you can move, how easy it’s to perform acrobatic stunts like Kira did earlier.

“Dexterity is hand to eye coordination. It helps a lot in aiming spells, ranged weapons and a lot of crafting. It also help you melee folks hit stuff. Vitality, Endurance and Spirit each governs one of the pools. Vitality gives ten points of health per point, while Endurance gives twenty points of stamina. Spirit gives five points of mana. Lastly we got Resonance. It’s for enhancing the damage of certain spells and magical abilities. Any questions?”

There were a few questions from the others. Blaze of course had a ton about advanced features that were not really relevant. So I stopped him, and explained how they could open their skill menu, while opening my own to ensure I did not misremember anything.

Name Tier Level XP Observe Beginner 0 40/1000 Lesser Transmutation Beginner 0 0/1000 Greater Transmutation Beginner 0 0/1000 Imbue Beginner 0 0/1000 Message Beginner 0 0/1000 Unassigned XP 0 Upgrade Points 0

“As you can see each skill, spell or ability need to be levelled up individually. It’ll earn its own separate XP. For example each time you cast Observe you’ll get five XP in that spell. Different skills requires different ways of earning XP. Mostly it’s self-explanatory. Want to level up Icedart? Hit your target with it. Ed, you need know that Summon Elemental is different though. You gain no XP for summoning them. You only gain a portion of the XP they earn when fighting.

“Some of you might have noticed the Unassigned XP at the bottom? From the way Blaze is waving his hand aroud, I know he did. Simply put, when you kill monsters or complete quests you’ll be rewarded XP that you can assign to whichever skill you want, in the amount you want. Any questions?” I asked and then looked back at them. I could see on Blaze's face that he had some, but he had learned his lesson for now, and held his tongue, “Good, because we are at our destination.”