I soon reached the gates, monstrosities at least 12 feet tall, set in the massive walls I had seen from inside the city, and headed out, excited to see my first glimpse of this world outside the city. Stepping out, it wasn’t nearly what I had expected. I had expected some bright field area, with bunnies or slimes running around, the standard MMO fare, but instead everywhere seemed to be a constant mist, barely obstructing the vision at my height, but closer to the ground it much thicker, solid looking tendrils of it wafting around the grass.

Up ahead stretched a road, people with small wagons riding along it in both directions. Deciding that I wasn’t going to find any mobs along the road, I did what any sensible gamer would, ignore the road and head off into the mist. After a few minutes of exploration, I found my first mob, which had to be an orb. Rather than the standard slime, it seemed to be a small ball of fur, with two deep set eyes. I quickly drew up my spell, aimed, and released it. It impacted with a thud, and then it looked at me. I looked back for a second, already starting to draw up my force bolt rune again, when it leaped at me, it’s body splitting open into a mouth filled with jagged teeth. The five meters or so distance between us was closing at far too fast a pace for my liking causing my hands to twitch for in surprise, and I had just the time to think oh no before it exploded, sending both me and the monster back a meter so.

I got back up, just in time to see it leaping at me, so I grabbed my staff like a baseball bat and swung as hard as I could. It impacted with a meaty thud, sending the orb flying. I quickly drew up another rune, holding tightly to my staff with my other hand in case I needed to try and hit a homerun. I finished the pattern, and paused, looking at the orb, it didn’t seem to be moving, but I sent it flying regardless, not willing to go up and check in person. When it didn’t respond, I trepidly approached, expecting all the time it was simply going to jump at me again. When I finally got in touching range, I poked it with my staff.

Up close, it looked much the same, except I could now see two gangly limbs where the bottom of the orb had been, likely what it had used to fling itself at me so fast. I put my hand on it, and a quick loot box popped up, with a take all button and a dismiss button at the bottom. Seeing as how I had not a clue how to skin something, and I wasn’t going to go on youtube to find out, not for now at least, I looked over the loot table, seeing an orb fur: damaged and an orb stone: badly damaged. I pressed the take all button, and the orb seemed to melt into the mist, leaving a fur and a small red stone, both of which I promptly put in my backpack. I then continued my walk, starting my slaughter on the local population of not so innocent wildlife.

After a couple of orbs getting treated like a baseball,I finally got used enough to their rapid jumping to the point where I could finish two of the runes before they got to me, and found that two of them would generally kill them, though some of the smaller orbs took only one shot. Here and there I would see other players, many of those with a staff grouped up with warriors and their copper swords and wooden shields. After a while hunting my backpack started to fill up of my damaged orb stones and furs, with a handful of poor quality ones as well, so I decided that the best option would be to head back to the adventurer’s guild to see what I could get for my small collection of loot. After a around half an hour of walking, following the direction I saw players heading from, I hunted a couple more orbs, and finally got the notification that every gamer lives for - I had leveled up.

At this point I’d need to start deciding my build. I was planning to be a mage, but I’d always preferred to be a solo player, so I was probably going to have to go for a more rounded build. I decided that the first thing to do would be to increase my wisdom though, so I quickly clicked the small plus sign next to it. The first level up in a game is always so gratifying that I couldn’t help but smile. I soon arrived back at the looming walls of the city, and followed them until I was the gate and headed back into the city. Once I got to the adventurers guild, it was just as I had left it, with people bustling around in the yard outside, so I quickly got into a line and pulled out my bread and water skin, which seemed to have filled itself back up to full somehow. After finishing my snack, I finally arrived at the counter and pulled out all the loot I had acquired.

The person at the counter soon politely informed me. “That’ll be half a copper for each of the damaged furs, and a copper for each of the damaged orb stones and a copper for each of the poor quality furs. You really should learn how to properly take care of your kills though, undamaged furs and stones are worth significantly more.”

“Ah, thanks, how much for it all?”

“Well let’s see… All in all, it will come to 63 coppers, or 6 silver three coppers.”

He passed me the money, and after thanking him I decided it was time to see what I could get now that I had some money. I put them into a side bag of my backpack, panicking when they disappeared, but then noticed some silver and copper symbols lit up. Pressing one of them, a coin popped out. Interesting. I was wondering how the makers of the game were going to handle players getting large amounts of money without filling out their backpack. I took the silver out and put it into the main portion of the backpack, seeing another of the silver symbols appear. After taking it back out and putting it back into the side pocket, I headed off.

I wandered around town for a while, and on the way I grabbed a couple of cooked mystery meat skewers that had smelled heavenly and tasted almost as good, especially after that hard bread I’d started with. It may not have been the wisest way to spend my 3 copper coins, but it was definitely worth it. While wandering, I found a couple weapon shops, but everything was well out of my price range, the only things I could afford would be more beginner weapons, the copper sword and wooden shield selling for 5 silver each, with the staff I’d begun with costing a whopping 1 gold (or 10 silvers). After asking, it turns out that the staff I’d been given would increase my spells output by 10%, only the equivalent of 1 wisdom point, but it didn’t hurt to have a little bonus damage. I also learned that they would appraise any weapon for me for a small fee of 1 gold. I found an alchemist shop after a while, or at least what I assumed to be one with the potion on the sign hanging over the door and went in.

“Welcome to Alva’s potion shop, what can I get for you?”

“Oh, I was hoping you’d have some healing potions or something, but cheap please, I’m not exactly the richest person in town.”

“The old woman at the counter chuckled. “We have some healing potions suited for beginners for 5 copper. They won’t heal much except scratches, but they’re better than nothing in a pinch.”

“Ah thanks, I’ll take three I suppose. I was also wondering if you would have a book on herbs or alchemy, I’ve always been interested in making my own” Alchemy had always been my go-to side profession, and while not all games limited you to one side profession, I’d never had much interest in making my own armor or weapons, though I had dabbled in woodworking a few times.

“A book on herbs will be 5 silver, as for books on alchemy, that’ll be 10 gold.”

“Oh, well the book on alchemy is a bit out of my price range, but could I get the book on herbs and just two potions I guess? I don’t have enough for that and the three potions.”

She laughed again before replying. “You really should learn how to haggle properly, but I’ll throw in the third potion as a bonus. I hope to see you again soon, try not to get eaten before I get more money out of you.”

After leaving the store, all of my money poorer, I decided to peruse the book on herbs, sitting down as I started reading through it. For each herb, it had a description, a nice little picture, the uses of the herb, and locations of where they tend to grow. For example, the most basic healing herb, simply called healing herb, a terribly unimaginative name, tended to grow in shaded areas such as forests, and looked almost like a three leaf clover, but bigger. After having memorized the look of the healing herb, mana herb and stamina herb. I decided to figure out stamina does. Pulling up the wiki, it seemed to be of use for things such as blocking or running, so of no use to me, but I was sure I could at least get some money out of it. I then started walking to the gates, determined to make enough money so as to buy that alchemy book.

This time, before exiting the gates again, I had to wait on a massive chain of wagons, likely a trading caravan to head out first, but not long after I got back to my hunting spot, and began slaughtering more orbs. I’d been hunting for a while until I came across an oddity. While most of the orbs had been about a meter tall, this one was almost as tall as my 5’11 frame. I deliberated for a moment on attacking, but soon decided that there would be no harm in trying to hunt it. I then started making my spell pattern and let it go, sending a bolt that was now slightly more powerful with my two wisdom towards it.

It impacted with a solid sounding thwack, and the beast turned around and did the same thing every other or had done, jumped at me. I reasonably calmly finished my second spell pattern just a bit before it impacted me, but after launching it, the orb did something none of the other orbs had done. It didn’t die. It soon reached me, and its gaping maw closed around my arm, causing me to yell. The pain sensitivity may have been set as 30%, but it still hurt like a bitch. Taking my staff in my other arm, I bashed it a couple times, but it still clung on, slowly tearing up my arm, my health bar at the corner of my . Taking the staff by the end, I stabbed it into one of its sunken eyes, hurting it enough to make it let go at least. It fell down, but quickly turned to me, seeming enraged that I had the audacity to hurt it. Seeing as how I wouldn’t have time to complete another force bolt before it reached me, I got the staff in a solid grip with one good hand, slamming it into it as hard as I could. Unfortunately, it barely seemed to faze it, and it quickly jumped at me again.

I cursed, at this point wishing I’d bought one of those beginner swords so I could at least try to stab it. It jumped at me again, but this time, I wasn’t trying to create a spell pattern so dodged to the side, the orb barely missing me as it went flying by. As it passed me, I started creating another force bolt and sent it flying after it. The force bolt went flying towards it, and missed. I cursed. I should’ve waited until it had landed. Prepping another force bolt, it turned to me and jumped again. This time, I managed to hit it, and dodged again as it swept by. This time, it landed far less gracefully, rolling to a stop. It wasn’t until I had launched another force bolt at it that I realized it was dead.

Still cursing from the tears in my arm, I took out one of my potions and drank it, instantly feeling a good deal better, watching the small health bar in the corner climb back up as the holes in my arm started to close. Just when I was about to head over and see what loot I got, an alert popped up, telling me force bolt had leveled up to force bolt+. I pulled up my spell list, and soon saw that it had increased in mana cost, now taking .5 times my wisdom stat in addition to the 2 base cost. I shrugged, I assumed it would increase the damage, but as there had been no information on how much damage it did in the first place, it wasn’t particularly useful to me, I could fire six bolts in a row with the changed cost, probably seven as the last mana point needed would regenerate while firing them. Heading over to the giant orb, I touched it, and the friendly loot table popped up, informing me that I could get a large orb fur: damaged and a large orb stone: damaged. Deciding to take a break to let my mana regenerate, I took out my water skin and took a drink. Again, it was full, so I decided it must have some function to fill itself up somehow. Once my mana had regenerated, I got back to walking and hunting.

After a while of that, I started to see some trees ahead of me, and started to walk towards them. Noticing that the trees were getting thicker around me as I walked, I started looking around, and not long after, I noticed a couple of healing herbs growing on the ground. I started gathering them, slowly digging around the roots until I could pull them up with little resistance, my experience with alchemy in other games coming in handy. I’d just finished, when I heard a low growl behind me. I slowly turned around, and saw what seemed to be a wolf crossed with a snake, a canine body, with a long tail resting on the ground, and a serpentine head and neck, covered in scales except a small mane of hair at the base of its neck, probably the warg from the bounty board.

Slowly grabbing my staff where I had laid it on the ground, I turned around, gripping it in my familiar baseball fashion. We both stared at each other for a second, waiting in tense silence, and then it jumped at me. I swung as hard as I could, sending it flying to the side, instantly preparing a spell rune and sending it flying at the beast. It impacted, and knocked the beast back a small amount, likely from it having upgraded to force bolt+. I then grabbed my staff, this time in a more defensive fashion, holding it in front of me with my two hands spread apart. This time, rather than leap at me, it charged. I turned to face it, when it raked out with it’s claws at my legs, too fast for me to block or dodge. I hissed in pain as they raked me, falling to one knee as I bashed out with my staff. It caught the monster on the side of it’s head, but it barely reacted, throwing itself at the same arm the giant orb had. It latched on, so I tried the same tactic that had worked against the orb, poking it in the eye with my staff.

It let go, this time my arm not quite as badly damaged, at least not enough to lose my ability to grip my staff. It backed off, and we both stared at each other again, neither of us willing to make the first move. I glanced at my health bar, I had maybe five remaining of my ten total hp. I slowly started making a spell pattern, hoping it would let me complete it, when it charged in. I had barely enough time to finish it before it reached me, the slight knockback not doing much to dissuade it as it soon got in close again and started to rake my chest. I quickly brought my staff between us and shoved, prepping a spell as it landed. I got it off before it had time to get back in, and collapsed.

I smiled as I got a level up notification, putting the stat point into vitality, as I seemed to be getting hit a lot for a mage. I figure it would be fine even if I joined a group to raid, as a dead mage can’t get heals. I leaned back against a tree, drinking second health potion as I did, then decided to see what loot I would get. As the wonderful loot window said, I would get a warg skin: damaged and a warg tooth: damaged. Selecting the take all button, I felt my backpack get slightly heavier, and I decided to take a small rest, when I heard two growls behind me. I cursed.

I was now staring at a screen saying the worst thing possible - I had 8 hours until I could play again due to death. I sighed, then said “log out”. I wandered around my house for a bit pacing in annoyance until I decided to do the sane thing, I would go to sleep. It was summer break for college, I’d have plenty of time to play in the future.