“Goddamnit, where the hell is this place?” Sirius cursed under his breath. All around him various players and townsfolk went about their business in a hurry. The streets of the western district were a bit narrow for his liking, and he was now finding it difficult to fight against the flow of foot traffic.

“Can I help you with anything, young man?” An aged voice called out to him upon noticing his distress.

“Uh, yeah…” Sirius’ head swiveled back and forth as he tried to locate his savior. “I’m looking for Foreman Olvar — at the food repositories.”

“Ah, well you’ve gone a bit too far then,” A bald old man who was carrying a heavy sack slung over his shoulder replied. He wiped the sweat from his silvery brow before pointing Sirius in the right direction. “It's just back that way. Once you’re past the house on the corner, take a left and walk to the end of the alley. The repositories will be right there.”

Sirius ran over and clasped the man’s free hand, “I can’t thank you enough, Sir…”

“...Biln. Everyone just calls me Old Biln,” the man filled in as he accepted the handshake. “You must be one of them, Heralds, right? If you’re having trouble finding your way around, you should head over to the village registry and pick yourself up a map.”

“Yea…” Sirius scratched his head. It wasn’t his first time this afternoon receiving directions. The streets were rather winding and a lot of the buildings blended together with similar colors and styles, so he had trouble finding the right landmarks. “I appreciate the tip; unfortunately, I arrived without a single coin to my name. But I’ll make sure to get a map there later on when I can.”

“You haven’t heard?” Biln chuckled, adjusting his grip on the canvas bag to make room for passersby. “They’re giving out free copies, a whole bunch of other benefits too.”

“Oh, really!” Sirius exclaimed. It seemed like Necrah had conveniently forgotten to mention that key point.

“Yup! Bags, maps, and even room assignments for you all to spend the night.”

“That’s great…” Sirius heaved a relieved sigh. Heading there would solve more than one of his problems. “...Where can I find the registry?”

“You’re gonna want to head back to the main thoroughfare that runs north to south. Twilight Sorrel Road, it's called. Once you’re on that, just walk towards Ol’ Blackhill and you’ll eventually find yourself in the central market. You can find the registry there.”

“Thank you… Thank you so much!” Old Biln smiled as Sirius vigorously shook his hand once more.

“It’s no skin off my back, young man. But you know what… My wife and I have an extra room at our place, and I think she may have put us down as a potential host. So while you’re getting yourself sorted, feel free to drop my name at the registry. We’d love to have a polite one like you staying with us.”

“Of course! I’d be more than happy to — if you’ll have me. Name’s Sirius, by the way.”

“Well, Sirius, I’ll be looking forward to it. Good luck today, and be prepared — my wife will surely be pestering you for some stories later.”

“Sounds good, Biln,” Sirius laughed. “I’ll see you later!”

“Yup!” Old Biln departed with a wave, quickly merging into the stream of pedestrians.

“Amazing…” Sirius murmured in a daze as he lost sight of the man. Even if that interaction had been scripted, it was still incredible. Old Biln felt so real, and Sirius had a gut feeling that it wasn’t the case, and he had merely been at the right place at the right time. It was safe to say the Vault Creative & DigiEdge collaboration was swiftly capturing his heart.

“Hey, Idiot! You’re blocking the road!”

Most of the other players still sucked though. Sirius flipped off the chubby man that had yelled at him as he backtracked towards the quest location. He was already close by, so he wanted to at least get this portion of the tasks finished before he went to the registry to retrieve his allocated supplies.

There were five jobs in total that appeared under [Invasion of Blackhill Garden] in the Quest Log; however, there was nothing that said he must complete all of the tasks — or even a time limit. Still, Sirius planned to at least check them all out. And first on the list was assisting Foreman Olvar at the food repositories.

Thankfully, Old Biln’s directions were easy enough to follow, and Sirius soon found himself in a small courtyard at the end of the alley the man had mentioned. In front of him was one of the largest buildings he’d seen yet in Blackhill Village. It wasn’t particularly tall, but it was wide enough to occupy the whole block, with two sets of massive, double-wide doors flung open.

There were quite a few players milling about the area, most of them wielding what looked like a rough wooden club spattered with blood.

Sirius moved through the closest entryway and took a quick look around. Piles of boxes and sacks of grain were stacked high to the ceiling, filling most of the space; but to his right was a relatively clear area where an imposing ashen-skinned man sat unaccompanied atop a crate, arms folded across his chest.

‘Must be the Foreman… And sounds like it’ll be an extermination quest…’ Sirius smiled wryly as he approached the man, pained yelps and battle-cries echoed continuously throughout the warehouse.

“Hello… Foreman Olvar?” he called out.

“Ahhh, another runt,” Olvar growled, turning to face him. The man’s rippling muscles threatened to burst out of his tunic as he stood up. His wild, verdant eyes drilled into Sirius.

‘Now this is what a Barbarian should look like,’ Sirius sighed in his heart as he returned Olvar’s gaze, unabashed. “High Priestess Necrah informed us that you were in need of assistance. I’m here in response to her request.”

“Yes, I’m aware,” The Foreman grumbled. “I just wish they had gotten you more prepared before sending you over… Here, take these.” Olvar reached into the crate behind him and then tossed Sirius a small pouch and a blood-stained club. “I’ll need the club back when you’re done, but you can keep the pouch… I guess.”

“T-Thanks...” Sirius replied with an awkward laugh. A series of *Dings* rang out in his head as he caught the items, “What exactly is it you need help with?”

“Vermin. See em’ - kill em’. Simple. They’re normally not an issue but after over half my crew was captured by those damn invaders, I’ve been having trouble keeping these abominations from getting into the food supply.”

“Got it. Anything else?”

“Nope. Just be sure to keep away from any open containers when you smash the rodents. And clean up after yourself; otherwise, I’ll have you back in here scrubbing the floors.”

“Great. You can count on me, Foreman.”

Olvar grunted his affirmation and sent him off with a nod. But before Sirius got to work, he decided to quickly sift through the bunch of notifications he’d gotten.

Quest Updated!

Foreman Olvar will consider the job done when you’ve killed 15 [Lesser Rodents].

Current Progress: 0/15

Note: Before entering the quest area you must watch the Combat Tutorial.

————-

Congratulations! You’ve received your first weapon, [Foul Smasher]!

You may now access the Character Sheet!

Please use the phrase ‘Register Character Sheet’ to proceed.

————-

Congratulations! You’ve received a [Worn Leather Pouch]!

You may now access the Inventory Menu!

Please use the phrase ‘Register Inventory’ to proceed.

‘Sweet! A bunch of new stuff to check out.’ Sirius moved over to an isolated corner to get everything settled. First, he wanted to register his inventory.

He secured the pouch he’d received to his belt, then said, “Register Inventory!” This time, he used the motion of tapping the pouch as his gesture, figuring it would be more rational that way. After completing that step, he accessed the menu. Similar to the Quest Log, the Inventory Menu appeared as a small opaque window hovering in front of him. The design was relatively simple: a grid of 5 boxes, with his [Worn Leather Pouch] appearing in the first slot, and a currency counter below. He tapped on his only bag and another grid slid out of it, containing four inventory slots.

To test it out, Sirius converted his Quest Log into a journal, like he’d been waiting to, and pressed on an open slot in the bag. Following a muted flash, the journal dissolved into a cloud of glowing particles and surged into the box where it re-condensed into a book-like icon. Sirius concentrated his gaze on the icon and the note [Quest Log] immediately hovered above it.

Simple and easy; just how he liked it. The Inventory Menu didn’t have as many customization options, but there was one feature he took notice of.

At least one bag must be worn on the person in order to access the Inventory Menu.

That was nice. While realistic, he didn’t have much interest in lugging around 5 different bags at all times — especially when they got bigger. With that settled, he moved on to the Character Sheet. The gesture he chose was placing his left hand over his heart and holding it there for a few seconds.

This menu turned out to be much larger than the previous two. It came into view before him as a long, vertical rectangle; solid and reflecting his image like a mirror. However, his likeness in the menu remained frozen even as Sirius himself moved.

Seven equipment slots framed the mirror on either side, making for 14 in total. They read as follows: Head, Shoulders, Chest, Back, Wrist, Hands, Waist, Legs, Feet, Neck, Fingers (2), Main-hand Weapon, Off-hand Weapon.

Currently, all of the slots were empty aside from his Main-Hand Weapon. Sirius focused on the club icon that was framed by a burnt-orange border to reveal its stats.

[Foul Smasher], Quest Item.

Equip Requirements: N/A

Rating: Unique

Base Attack: 5-9 Physical Damage

Bonus Trait: Verminfoe - User gains 30% additional weapon damage against all monsters classified as Pests.

‘A good item,’ Sirius chuckled at the description, but he unequipped it anyway and watched it appear over in his Inventory. Although the quest might take longer without it, he wanted to gain Unarmed Mastery as quickly as possible. He wasn't exactly sure how to achieve that feat, or gain any Skills really, but he assumed that fighting without any weapons was a good first step.

Now that his menus were sorted out. It was time for the Combat Tutorial. Sirius was excited to see how the Devs would deal with typical game mechanics — like Cooldowns and Critical Strikes — in a more fluid and authentic combat system. As he left the corner and moved deeper into the warehouse, a prompt appeared to stop him.

Would you like to begin the Combat Tutorial at this time?

Y/N

*Ding*

You have started the Combat Tutorial. Please watch and listen closely to the following videos.

Sirius devoted his full attention to the scene that began to play out in his Menu. Two soldiers stood a few paces apart with training swords in hand. They took turns slashing each with varying success and intensity before moving on to Skills and Spells. It played out just like any other video tutorial — with a narrator pausing the action at certain intervals to illustrate his points.

In total, it took about five minutes to complete and Sirius was able to gain a rough understanding of Vault Creative’s combat design philosophy. His initial conclusion was this: Spellcasting was safe and reliable, Melee combat was high risk, high reward, and ranged physical DPS builds had the highest skill-cap — but could also be the most lethal.

AoA’s combat was heavily skill based. No automatic ability targeting, minimal system assistance/correction, no % dodge chance or hit chance, and critical strikes were replaced by a new core feature — the ‘Blows’ System. This system only applied to physical damage and was divided into three categories: Glancing Blows, Standard Blows, and Severe Blows.

Players could utilize the ‘Glancing’ effect to mitigate the damage they received from Skills or normal attacks by partially dodging or wearing armor with better coverage, thus minimizing the surface area/depth of a wound. It seemed pretty powerful and ‘Glancing’ could reduce damage by up to 90%. Although, how exactly the system calculated the extent of the mitigation was unclear.

Standard was just as it reads. Whatever base attack the weapon or Skill listed — plus bonuses, would be received by an opponent when hit with a Standard Blow. But despite being straightforward, the tutorial had mentioned that this damage category was mostly just there to serve as a baseline for damage testing against practice dummies and such. In actual combat, hits would almost always be either Glancing or Severe.

Finally, and most importantly, Severe Blows was how players could achieve ‘critical damage’. Striking an opponent with enough force, or in a weak point, could multiply base damage by up to 500%. This damage category also had more facets to it than the others. Impact strikes had a lower multiplier (300%) but could inflict more powerful additional effects like {Stagger} or {Daze}, whereas slashing and stab damage had a higher multiplier but could only cause {Bleed} or rarely a {Cripple}.

However, the true potency of Severe Blows — as Sirius saw it — was that the additional effects they could inflict had no cooldown and couldn’t be broken by standard Crowd Control (CC) removal abilities. This meant that a skilled player could demolish a higher leveled or better-geared opponent by kiting them with {Cripples} or pummeling them to death with a continuous {Stagger} combo.

A lot of precision was required to pull these kinds of feats off, but it would make for some brutal and exciting fights. And a lot of complaints on the forums...

Sirius grinned to himself as he thought of all the Casters watching this video who could only wallow in despair because their Spells were excluded from this system. Surely, there would be a few of them — desperate to score criticals — that would manage to somehow integrate physical damage into their Spells. But on the whole, all they had to worry about was the enemy's magical resistances, managing their cooldowns, and aiming their abilities.

*Ding*

A new notification interrupted his gloating.

For completing the Combat Tutorial you have gained access to the Combat Log!

To proceed...

‘Yes… yes…’ Sirius waved the notification away and exclaimed, “Register Combat Log!” However, unlike his other menus — he actually set this one to a verbal command because it was something he didn’t think he would access as frequently.

“Previous Encounter,” he said softly, after successfully registering the phrase. The window appeared and he got to work adjusting it. It was a simple sheet, and still blank, but fortunately, there was a multitude of useful options; the foremost being that he could now display his own Health, Stamina and other Primary Resource Bars. Sirius chose to shrink them and place them in the upper left-hand corner of his vision where he could observe them with a quick glance. Through this, he also discovered that the resource his class utilized was Rage. Though it would go unused until he actually gained a few Skills.

Additionally, Sirius chose to display his enemy’s health bars and have floating text appear that indicated Glancing and Severe Blows. He didn’t care much about damage numbers right now, but it would be vital that he learned the ins and outs of the Blows System.

“Eeeeek!” The eardrum-shattering screech of a female player finally refocused Sirius on the task at hand. He dashed between the stacks, eager to seek out his first prey.

It didn’t take him long to find his first target. Hundreds of [Lesser Rodents] practically swarmed the place despite the many players chasing dutifully after them. The creatures weren’t large, barely reaching the height of his ankle as they scurried around.

Sirius sighed as he snuck up on one that was carefully sniffing at a toppled bag of grain. Once in range, he lifted his foot high, prepared to crush the bulbous rat with a stomp.

Unfortunately, the little guy’s reactions were much quicker than he anticipated. With room to spare, the rodent scrambled out of the way as Sirius brought down his full weight onto the stone floor. The miss was a little embarrassing, and one of the nearby players shot him a quizzical look before shaking his head and turning away.

The [Foul Smasher] was doubtlessly more suitable for the job, but it didn’t trivialize the task either; as evidenced by the men running around shouting obscenities as they waved the club over their head.

Chasing the vermin out in the open seemed like a hopeless venture, and neither did sneaking up work with the rat’s keen senses, so Sirius decided to adopt a trap-and-kick strategy. First, he would chase a few rodents into a corner, then — when they attempted to scramble back around him — Sirius would kick the closest one to knock it off balance. After that, it was much easier to line up his stomps or another series of kicks.

A few minutes later, the bottoms of Sirius’ frayed straw sandals were caked in blood. The feeling of it seeping between his toes was disgusting, but it was a minor inconvenience at most. He thought about using the Combat Log options to turn down the gore, though, it wasn’t overly gratuitous in the first place and he wanted to mentally adjust to it a little.

AoA was a mature game, requiring all players to be 18+ regardless of parent supervision, but that being said — they didn’t want to scar any of their customers.

At most, the rodents leaked some blood upon death. There weren’t any guts spilling out or deformities in their skulls after Sirius stomped them… Still, it was unnerving to kill something that appeared so lifelike. There were no screens or controllers to distance players from the act anymore. Ideally, people would still be able to separate reality from a game — or could even use it as an alternative method to vent their stress on some monsters, but that was a pretty optimistic perspective.

‘Well... hopefully VCE can make enough money on release to hire a legion of good lawyers.’ Sirius left his thoughts there and got back to killing.

And finally, as he squashed his ninth [Lesser Rodent] with a satisfying thud — he got the notification he’d been waiting for.

*Ding*

You have gained the Proficiency: Unarmed Combat Mastery!

Congratulations! You have gained your first Proficiency!

You will now be able to view your Proficiencies in the Character Sheet.

Sirius immediately opened up his Character Sheet to check it out.

[Unarmed Combat Mastery]

Beginner, Lvl. 1

All of your attacks are now delivered with more precision and force.

Current Bonus: +5% damage to all unarmed strikes and Skills & a negligible increase to the likelihood of inflicting the {Stagger} or {Daze} effect.

‘Very nice,’ Sirius smiled. Right now the Character Sheet listed his base unarmed attack as a mere 3-4 physical damage, so the increased status effect likelihood was much more important to him. So far, pretty much all the kicks and stomps had been popping up as Severe Blows, but he had yet to land a single {Stagger}.

Hopefully, he would see that change with this new Proficiency. With renewed enthusiasm, he returned to the slaughter.

Rat corpses were everywhere at this point, their limp bodies draped over crates and sacks all around the warehouse. Sirius wasn’t sure if they despawned at a certain point or even if there was a way to loot them; however, he had been making sure to carefully follow Foreman Olvar’s instructions and was cleaning up after himself by stuffing his kills into his inventory. The stack of rodent corpses had reached up to 10units before he was forced to use up another inventory slot.

He was also interested to see if there would be any bonus rewards for following through like this. Another few minutes later, Sirius approached his final mark — a particularly juicy-looking rat that waddled past its dead brethren without a care, even approaching one to take a nibble.

It would pay for its disloyalty to the swarm, he affirmed in his heart. Any self-respecting Khilaite would be disgusted by this creature’s callous display. Fueled by his anger, Sirius raised his foot, muscles tensed as he prepared to strike. This one wouldn’t be getting away.

After spending long enough observing these pests, he knew that their first instinct was always to dodge left, and jump it did — right into the path of his heel.

Severe Blow

{Dazed}!

A string of bold, floating text appeared in the air as the [Lesser Rodent] perished.

*Ding*

You have completed the task that Foreman Olvar assigned!

[Lesser Rodents] slain: 15/15

Return to him for your reward!

---------------------------

*Ding*

Through the repeated performance of focused, powerful attacks — you have gained the General Skill [Heavy Strike], Lvl 1.

Congratulations! You have gained your first Skill!

You will now be able to view your Skills in the Character Sheet.

Sirius took a moment to revel in the glory of the notifications. [Heavy Strike] seemed like a classic bread-and-butter skill — having a low cooldown and decent effects.

[Heavy Strike] - Empower your next attack with Rage.

Requirements: Barbarian or Marauder Class; Unarmed Combat or Blunt Weapon Mastery.

Cooldown: 5s

Effect: 5 Rage or greater = 10% bonus damage

15 Rage or greater = 25% bonus damage

25 Rage or greater = 50% bonus damage & increased likelihood to deliver a Severe Blow

The 25 Rage effect was powerful, but considering that he only had 75 Rage in total — it would use a significant portion of his resources. Additionally, he built up Rage pretty slowly during combat. Until he had another Skill that could improve his Rage generation, [Heavy Strike] wouldn’t be seeing extensive use.

But a Skill was a Skill and Sirius was happy to finally have one. He hustled back to Olvar with a little extra pep in his step.

***

“Another runt returns,” the Foreman grumbled as he approached. “I take it you’ve killed your fill of vermin?”

“Yes, Sir.” Sirius handed over the [Foul Smasher], then hesitated a moment before also retrieving one of the corpses from his inventory, “I’ve collected their bodies… Is there anywhere you would like me to dispose of them?”

“Oooooh?” Olvar mouthed, an amused glint in his eye. “Glad to see a few of you actually pay attention.”

*Ding*

Bonus reward triggered!

The hulking man sized up Sirius for a moment. “...Hmmm. You look like you didn’t get much use out of that club, so I’ll tell you what… I’ve got an old pair of gloves that haven’t seen much use in a while — I’ll let you have em’.”

Sirius struggled to contain his excitement as Olvar fumbled around in the crate behind him. “Ah, here we are… Should suit you nicely.”

A set of dark gloves and a few shiny coins arced through the air and disappeared into Sirius’ Inventory. He ignored the money and equipped the item in his Hand Slot as fast as he was able.

[Olvar’s Old Leather Gloves], Hand

Equip Requirement: N/A

Rating: Fair

Physical Defense: 4; Magical Defense: 0

Provides 2-3 additional base unarmed attack

“What’re you gawkin’ at, kid?” Olvar grumbled. “Head around back and toss those corpses into the pyre.”

“Right away! And thank you for the gift, Sir!”

“Bah! Just get out of my face…” Olvar shooed him away. “Next time you wanna come back to help out, you could do for a little less yappin’ and a little more smashin!”

“Of course, Foreman,” Sirius chuckled as he hurried out the door. Around the rear of the building, one of Olvar’s crew was tending to a large fire pit.

One by one the corpses sailed into the rancid flames. And as the last body ignited in pile, Sirius’ body was similarly suddenly engulfed in a fiery glow.

*Ding*

Quest Completed! You have leveled up!