Almost as if on cue, two black holes appeared in front of me, and like descending from the heavens, the figure of a blue nymph, dressed in actual water currents landed in between them.

“Greetings lost soul, I'm GVFerianess, Feria for short, Goddess of Life, and I'm here to guide you through your first trip to the lands of Ercen”

Her voice sounded like something in between the calming sounds of a river and singing. But her appearance was exactly like someone I really knew back in the days of my playing binge.

“Mary?”

“I don't know who that is, but if her appearance even slightly resembles this majestic me, she must be quite the beauty.” The nymph said while puffing her nonexistent chest in pride

“Ye – heh- s, sorry for that Goddess” I managed to stifle my laughter. Those damned developers even managed to have the AIs copy the mannerisms and speech patterns of the original people they copied it seemed.

“A-Anyway, here is the place where your soul will take its first form. On my right, is the forge of the body, where you choose how you'll look, and on my left is the forge of the soul, where your first abilities will be forged upon your very being. Where do you want to start?”

“So... that's race on your right and starting skills on your left?”

“HAH! That's a crude and blunt way to describe the very foundation of your genesis!”

“But...?”

“But... it's true.”

“I'm running out of time here, so let's go race first.” I said as I walked right into the right black hole.

The scenery changed, and all around me dozens of humanoid figures were laid bare for me to pick.

From the classic fantasy settings, like dwarves and elves, to some a bit more exotic like undines and elementals, to some outright grotesque like zombies, there were easily more than fifty races available.

“So... do you want your gender to be matched with your soul, or do you want to experiment with something... different?” She continued on in an almost mocking voice.

Geez... gender equality organizations are going to have a fit if that's what she says to everyone making a character... I thought as I stared at her with a dead pan gaze.

“Male is fine.” If I really wanted to experiment with a female body, there a hundred of virtual brothels that offer that option either way.

“And will you go for a boring regular race, a fantastic elemental race, a horrendous undead, or a construct?”

“Did you just blatantly discriminated against half the races and in favor of your own?”

“What?! No!...” She exclaimed as she turned her face away from me “Isimplytoldthetruth” she muttered under her breath.

“So, disregarding that, cons and pros of the races? Do they come with abilities or are they only cosmetic differences?”

“Of course they come with abilities. But they come with upkeeps too. Undead as an example, apart from the horrible drawback that you're a filthy undead, have some of the strongest racial abilities. Skeletons as an example lack internal organs, so they are completely immune to criticals. On the flipside, because there's only soulsforce keeping their bodies together, it's much easier to cripple them by breaking their limbs, so they are more vulnerable to brutal strikes. Their physiology also makes them immune to poisons and mind control, but they are more vulnerable to be taken under the control of a necromancer. Lastly, all undeads, don't have a need to eat or drink or sleep, but because a portion of their soulforce is required to keep them together, they need more soulforce to awaken more of their abilities and potential.”

“You keep saying soulforce. That's mana?”

“No. Soulforce is exactly what you hear, the power of your soul. As a lost soul, you're not born into the world, rather you manifest into it like a monster. When you die, a part of this force is being absorbed into the earth, but the rest of your soulforce allows you to rematerialize in places where the veil of the god and human world is thin, like temples. Similarly, when you kill a monster, you can steal a portion of its soulforce and make yourself stronger. As monsters naturally die, or as you kill them, a portion of their soul will also be absorbed by the earth, and other monsters will use it to spawn, becoming stronger and stronger as soulforce keeps cycling.”

“So... that's the rationale for EXP here...”

“Yes! EXP is the currency for soulforce! Did you know already and are just wasting my time?”

“...Whatever. Show me the normal races then, I never was one for too much weirdness.”

“Yes! There are humans, booooring. There are elves, pretty and nimble with a flair for the arcane and druidic arts, as well as excellent hunters. There are dwarves, stout and strong, masters of metal and stone, honorable to the point of stupidity. There are gnomes, which are.. weird, master tinkers and secretive. There are orcs, violent brutes with a short temper, ready to fly into destructive rages in a pinch. Goblins... disgusting, so I'll skip those. Halflings, nasty little buggers, can't get them to stop singing drunkenly in a tavern, but they can disappear the second you lose sight of them... which is usually used for mischief. Giants, self-explanatory, big and strong. Wildkins, short and slender with a natural camouflage. Dragonkin, which vary a lot depending on your ancestry, but all can fly, or at least hover, and all can utilize breath weapons. And lastly, celestials, either godly or devilish, half angels and half devils, both closer to the divine realms compared to other races, and like dragonkins, most can manage the ability to fly when they become strong enough. Of course, there also exist half-races, generally with humans who mate with whatever they find, there are half-orcs, half-elves, half-giants, even half-dwarves. Celestials are already halves of angelic and demonic beings, dragonkin are half breeds already as well, and wildkin are halves as well, the result of elves mating with dryads.”

“Really now, do you describe the races as such? What if I wanted to play a Goblin?”

Somehow Feria looked at me in a way that it seemed like she was looking straight through my soul. Her light smile leaving her lips, replaced with a solemn expression.

“I'm Feria, Goddess of all life, ALL life. While I may have joked around, all of my children are equal to me and are to be judged by their actions and not their birthright.”

For a second there, she truly seemed to be emitting a divine aura as light enveloped the AI. Seconds later, the light went out with a *poof* sound, like a balloon popping, and she was in her regular goofy smile as she continued.

“Despite that, I sensed an intimate connection to your soul and the lost soul that let me reach divinity, and let myself a bit freer, hehe” She giggled. “Truth is, I can read your soul and your mind, and I can speak in a manner that lost souls brain patterns find comfortable.”

So, the AI has developed so much in those thirty odd years it exists that it can now respond to our brainwaves through the VR? Are we certain we're not heading for a domination from our machines overlords like so many novels and critics heralded ages ago?

“Ok, ok... I don't want filthy goblins after all.” I winked back towards Feria. “Show me the wildkins”

“Sure!”

The various models around me vanished out of existence, and only one remained, which was promptly brought right in front of me.

It was... short. Shorter than even elves, it was about a meter and a half, and really slim. The most defining feature was that its skin color was naturally a bit darker than what a caucasian would be, but looking it a bit closer, it was also textured like bark. Furthermore, there were patches of dark green skin that fluctuated on the skin, like camouflage clothing.

“You can further develop the appearance as you like, to see a finished body. Do you want me to tell you the detailed abilities or do you want to first customize the appearance?” Feria chirped from beside me.

“Hmm, let's see if I can make it something that I'll like first, and then we'll see.”

Looking around, I didn't see any sliders and trying to touch the body, thinking that pop ups would appear failed. Seeing my confused gaze, she continued on.

“Just think what you want and I'll take care of it. Think slimmer or fatter, taller, other colors, and etc.”

I tried to make him a bit fatter since it was truly all bones with just a bit of muscle on top of them, but the fattest I could achieve barely registered as normal. With how the muscles were naturally toned, it reminded me of the body type of marathon runners or something. Next was the height, where to my dismay I realized that the 1,50 was already towards the high end, so I let it there. I couldn't play with the skin-tone at all, and Feria explained that the skin-tone of Wildkins naturally changes compared to the locale they are at, from pure white at snow, to dark brown at deserts to deep gray underground. Furthermore, when the camouflage is active, it actually covers the entire skin, like a chameleon. To my pleasant surprise though, the face was modeled after my own already, so I only had to do minor tweaks there, mainly on the hair, where I gave myself wild looking, shoulder-length, brown hair. For eyes and hair colors, only brown and black were available for this race, so I went with brown.

I gave a last look towards the body, nodding to myself in acceptance.

Feria clapped delighted as she carried on.

Well, now that you have chosen, let me tell you the detailed abilities of the race.

“As you see they are thin but have well developed muscles. That means that you're not that resistant to damage, but you're nimbler than the average. Wildkin strength, even with their thin build, is about average due to them being all muscle. You have better senses than most races, utilizing most senses like a beast, from really acute vision, to extraordinary hearing, even to the degree of your smell being almost good enough to track with. Furthermore, you can also see really good even in minimum light conditions. You can think of it like you have the natural senses of various predators found in a forest. Of course, all those abilities are directly linked to your soulstrength. The more you use and rely on them, the more they develop.

You can activate your skin to match the surrounding terrain. This also applies to soulbound equipment, since that becomes part of you. The degree of the match depends, once more, to your soulforce, and doing so depletes your internal energy, mana.

Your race has a naturally good disposition with both elves and fey, but, because they are few in number, there isn't any community comprised from mainly wildkins. Since you're regarded as a predator smaller animals may run in fear from you, and bigger animals may regard you as a threat in their territories. Similarly, when they feel threatened by an external force, they might run towards you for protection, since apart from a predator, you are also regarded as one of the nature guardian races, like dryads or nymphs.

Your inherent talents make it easier for you to grow as a hunter, or with hunter related skills like archery and leatherworking, but harder to grow with industrial based skills like blacksmithing and gunner.

Are you happy with your choices, or do you want to redo the race and appearance procedure?”

“No, that seems fine. A hunter type with natural stealth fits with what I have in mind.”

“Finally, you get to pick up a name. Do you want me to tell you suitable names for male Wildkins, do you want me to randomize a name out of that list, or do you want me to randomize a name disregarding wildkin customs?”

“No, it's fine, I already know my name. It's Alexin.”

“...The name Alexin is not available, another soul has already reserved it. Do you want to be called Alexin35?”

“What? No! Then... Alexian?”

“The name Alexian is not available, another soul has already reserved it. Do you want to be called Alexian35?”

“Alexus?”

“The name Alexus is not available, another soul has already reserved it. Do you want to be called Alexus35?”

“God fucking damn!”

“The name Godfuckingdamn is not available, another soul has already reserved it. Do you want to be called Godfuckingdamn35?”

“...Time is ticking... suggest me a wildkin name with Alex somewhere in it that is not taken!”

“Qualexys, Chalexric, Alexaris, Frale...”

“Qualex?”

“That just sounds weird! If you don't mind sounding like a duck... it's open.”

“Nevermind... let's go with Qualexys.”

“Then onwards to skills!” Feria exclaimed as she striked a pose with her left hand extended and pointing towards... nowhere in particular.

The place around me blinked for a second, and suddenly everything turned black, except a dropdown list starting exactly where her extended finger pointed.

“Do you know how skills work, or do you want a brief or a long explanation?”

Quite some time has passed already even with me rushing through the races, but I also wasn't all that certain about skills from my slight browse through the forums.

“Give me the brief version”

“Ok!” Feria gave me a thumbs up as she started.

“Skills are the very core of RealWorldIII. After the last cataclysm of RealWorldII, the greater gods pantheon, known as Developers, worked hard to give all of you a way to fully bring whatever your fantasy is to life! The building blocks of that are the base skills. Base skills can be acquired from various sources. Training in one, finding or buying a skillbook, asking for a trainer to embed their knowledge into your soul, and various other ways you get to find yourself while adventuring in the world. But the main three are those, training, skill books, and trainers.

As you use your skills, they absorb soulforce from the world, getting better and better. As you kill monsters using a skill, a portion of its soul gets absorbed by you making the skill even stronger. And as you complete deeds, the emotions of the people move the soulforce of the world in a way that you can absorb a tiny bit of it.

When you gain enough soulforce to get a higher power soul, when you level up, you can embed that soulforce to a skill to give it an artificial boost.

But more importantly, the very soul of the skill system of RealWorldIII is the combination skills. From your second level and every two levels after that, you can combine two skills into one. This will either make a brand new skill or derive one of the combined ones into a new one. The exact result depends on a myriad of things. From how you have used the skills so far, to your general stats, to the disposition of your character, to your character knowledge, to the order you combine them, and etc. Apart from very few, specific, combinations which are set by the Gods, this allows you to customize your character in a way that no one else has. The Greater gods ensure that every single skill can be combined and that even if they combine in a way that they didn't foresee, the system of the world itself will create a skill just for you. Naturally, combined skills can be further combined later on.

As an example, for a swordsman with fire magic, combining sword mastery with fire magic may result in an art that allows him to incorporate a flaming blade into his moves, while for someone that mostly uses fire magic and uses his sword when something comes near, the same exact skills may alter his fire magic skill to a ranged magical attack skill that materializes flaming blades to assault his enemies with.

As for combinations where things are set in stone, those are mostly for more mundane things, like combining light and medium armor mastery into a skill, would always result in hunter armor mastery, and then combining this with heavy armor mastery it would always result in "armor mastery".

Lastly, some, but not all, skills have derived talents. So, the aforementioned armor mastery simply makes you move better in all armor and allows all types of armor to be used better. The higher the skill level, the better the result. But, something like sword mastery may come with some specific attack talents that unlock at specific levels and grow with the derived skill. The Gods have said that there will also be cases that lost souls, like you, will actually create talents where there were none. Like a specific attack turned into a talent.

Lastly lastly, active skills use one of the three resources of your soul and body to be used. Mana, stamina, and rage. Those three resources are important because they also give passive benefits, so take care to not overspend them!

Mana starts full and replenishes slowly, but there is a lot of it. It's the power of your soul, and the more you have, the more your resistance to enemy magic is. It is mostly expended on magical skills or on skills that you imprint part of your soul on them. Stamina is, well, your stamina. It is used for vigorous activities like running or swinging your sword, it is replenished quickly, but running out of it will leave you out of breath. Rage is a combination of your body and soul. It starts empty and builds slowly while in combat, it passively grants a bonus to the strength of your attacks, but you can also spend it for burst.

Finding the right balance of all three is important for mastery of the system. Using the previous swordsman, he could use his mana for long lasting buffs before the start of the battle, then use quick attacks with his sword using his stamina while he builds up rage, and at the end finishing his opponent with heavy attacks using his build up rage, giving time for his stamina to recover in the meantime.

Lastly lastly lastly, mastering a skill gives further bonuses AND counts as a separate skill for combinations. So, two identical people, with identical everything, except one having blacksmith level 49, and the other one having blacksmith mastery (50), will derive a different skill when combined with another skill.

Lastly lastly lastly lastly, skills get mastery rank at different levels.”

“..that was the short explanation?”

“Yes!”

“How much time do I have till servers launch?”

“1 minute and 37 seconds!”

“And how many starting skills are in this dropdown menu of yours?”

“1356 starting skills! You get to pick two for starting out.”

“...fuck...”

“Are you alright? You seem a bit agitated?”

“Let's say a certain nymph managed to max my rage meter.”

“?” As Feria tilted her head with a puzzled look and blinked towards me, I felt my slowly rising anger dissipating.

“God damn cute things! I've been fatally wounded again!”

“What?”

Attention all players, 1 minute till servers launch

“Nevermind. I guess physical skills will be easier to pick up, like swinging the sword and firing a bow, so let's go to magical ones. Are there any skills that summon stuff?”

“There is summoning, bringing monsters from other places, uses mana. Necrobind, using the soulforce of dead creatures to create short lived souls, uses stamina. Necromancy, binding the soul to dead creatures, animating them, uses mana. Elementalism, creating lesser elementals, uses mana. Conjuration, creating small monsters out of thin air, uses stamina. Blood magic, using your blood to create homunculi, uses rage. Animancy, dealing with golems and such, uses mana...”

“Ok, the clock is ticking, let's stay in character, give me elementalism. And is there anything to enchant or augment stuff?”

Attention all players, 10 seconds till servers launch

“There is enchantment magic, short and medium time buffs on a living target, uses mana. There is inscribe, writing runes on equipment to give medium and long time buffs, uses mana. Enchant art, permanently alter a piece of equipment, uses mana and rage. Geomancy creates magical gems to socket into equipment, uses mana. There is...”

Attention all players, RealWorldIII is now officially open and running, we wish you all a fantastical journey!

“Give me inscribe!”

“Are you certain that you're ok with your sele..”

“YES! Accept! Log in! Start!”

The next time I blinked, I was inside a lush forest. And I was bombarded with system messages popping in blue screens in front of my eyes.

You have spawned in an environment suitable for your starting class

The nearest elf village is 2 hours NW

The nearest neutral settlement is 1 hour S

You can access your map by thinking clearly Show map You can access your inventory by thinking clearly Inventory You can access your character screen by thinking clearly Character screen

For the first hour enemies you face will be majorly disadvantaged by the system until you familiarize yourself with the combat system. They will do much less damage, take more damage, and will not initiate any attacks towards you. If the combat system detects that you're familiar enough, the difficulty will rise to normal. As long as the difficulty is on easy, rewards from killing monsters, both EXP and items, will be equally penaltized.

The developer team of RealWorldIII wishes you happy gaming!

Ok, so like that? Map

Your map only shows what you have already explored, since you lack the cartography skill it will be wildly inaccurate.

...Wildly inaccurate? It's a fucking blinking dot! That's not even a map! ...whatever...

Then... Character screen.

Name: Qualexis Race: Wildkin Gender: Male Level: 1 Experience: 0/1000 HP: 16 MP: 18 Rage: 0/100 Stamina: 100/100 HPregeneration: 0.06/sec MPregeneration: 0.1/sec - STregeneration: 10/sec Strength: 8 Dexterity: 12 Agility: 12 Constitution: 6 Intelligence: 8 Wisdom: 10 - - Physical attack: 20 Magical Attack: 18 Physical defense: 18 Magical defense: 28 Critical chance: +2% Critical damage: -2% Speed: +2% Reputations: Elves: Favorable, Fey: Favorable EXP%: 1x (0.01x – new player tutorial debuff), +0.2x bonus for hunter related skills. Skills: Talents: Natural camouflage Lv1 - Feral senses Lv1 - Elementalism Lv1 Summon minor elemental, Inscribe Lv1 Minor P.Att rune,

Ok... Thankfully there are tooltips.

It seems HP is based on level and constitution. MP is based on level and Int. Regen is based on constitution and wisdom respectively. Physical attacks are based on Str and Dex while magical attacks on Int and Wis. Physical defense is based on Agi and Con. And the only slightly weird one is Magical defense which is based on current mp and wisdom. Which basically means that this will fluctuate a lot in a battle.

For secondary stats it seems that Dex gives crit chance, Str gives crit damage, and Agi gives move and attack speed.

Skill wise, natural camo eats 1 mana/1minute min 1, but I really need to test its effect since it says nothing. Similarly, I have no clue about the stats and controls of the elementals, and how minor is the buff to the attack damage from the rune. At least the durations match, with both being five minutes.

Next, inventory.

...Ok, not much to see here. I guess that because I didn't choose a weapon skill I don't have any weapons. And because I didn't choose an armor skill, I'm wearing just my clothes, which aren't even clothes. Brown, semi-torn rags... At least I have my magic! Oh, there is a fountain pen and ink in the inventory, I guess that's there for inscribing.

E-Even with that, my master plan of having a stealther that summons stuff to fight for him, a solid solo player casual approach for someone that mostly wants to see the world, begins now!

Let's start testing. First, summon. Somehow, in my mind, there are actually four different incantations. I also know that I require a natural source of the element, so, since I lack water and fire at the moment, I could go with either wind or earth. Earth sounds sturdier, let's go with that for a tank.

Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, I can already feel something moving inside me, that must be the mana, and... done!

There is only a slight issue. My earth elemental is nowhere to be found...

Hmm? Nope, there it is. The issue shifted a bit. Why is it only as tall as my knee! Give me my skill point back!

Seriously, a vaguely humanoid shape, as tall as my knee comprised mainly of loose soil looks up to me. What is this thing supposed to do, annoy someone to death?! I can't even see its stats!

How will I know how much I'll enhance him with inscribe?

Whatever... Let's see. I start inscribing the rune that's in my head on the body of the elemental.... it's actually quite hard to write on dirt... patience... patience... there!

Inscribe failed. Target was not an item.

…

Ok. I saw that coming from miles away. I can't be pissed at that. The main reason I picked those two as my starting skills was that I could combine them immediately at level 2 to make a skill to inscribe elementals.

...why is my rage at 18/100? That's purely coincidence I say!

Second step. I still have some time with newbie protection on. Perfect time to make some weapons.

“Ok, you're hereby known as Dirt-kun!” I declared to the mass of soil that's still looking at me puzzled. Obviously, my naming sense is compromised from reading too much manga, but it's ok for now.

Heh?! Did Dirt-kun just made a guts pose?... he's cute... ugly, but cute nevertheless!

“Onwards Dirt-kun let's find some materials to make some weapons!”

I could randomly pick up a stick, or break a branch to make something vaguely resembling a staff, but I have this inkling on the back of my mind, that using that as a weapon will eventually give me a “staff combat” skill, and I don't want to somehow turn into a staff wielding, dress wearing pansy.

I would much prefer to become a stealthy coward that bypasses obstacles by throwing my expendable minions into the fray while I sneak away!

So, light armor and throwing weapons it is!

The last VRMMO I played, battle...something, boasted that it had environments that were super realistic. But even that paled towards RealWorldIII. Maybe it was my enhanced senses, but everything around me seemed alive. As I traversed the thick forest, the sounds of nature all around me were keeping me on my toes. From animal sounds in the distance, to the rustling of the leaves from above me, all combined with the tricks the light played as it pierced the thick foliage to transform a peaceful looking forest to one that I felt like I was a step away from making a misstep and getting randomly pummeled to death by a massive bear or something.

By the time I found a large enough rock to work with, I was dripping with sweat from my paranoia, and my neck was starting to hurt from all the twitch reflexes as I turned to look towards every minute noise.

Checking the clock... 5 minutes have passed... Dear god, I hope this passive doesn't turn me into a pansy...

Nonono it's because I don't have a weapon yet. And because my magic is... Dirt-kun. Yes, that is. Dirt-kun is to blame! If he was something like two meters tall I wouldn't be half-scared to death already!

So, back to business. Rock. First, we find a sturdy large piece of it, and we put a flat rock on top of it. Then, I pick a smaller piece of it, a bit bigger than my head, and slam it on the piece resting on the slab. And again, and again, and again. Making small rock flakes usually. And keep going. Put a smaller piece of rock into the slab, smash with my hammer-rock, pick up the flakes, repeat.

Managed about 30 nice sharp flakes and a single bigger one, the size of my fist, till I was strangely out of breath. I say strangely, but more accurately, it is because each time I swing it was because it ate 20 of my stamina... that's too much imho, but again, whatever.

Since I was lucky enough to already get a big single piece that somehow resembled a blade, even if it was sharp only on one side, it is easier now. Just have to chip that, using a slightly smaller anvil stone, until it more or less resembles a knife edge, or a spear one, whatever happens first, it's not that I have that much control over it with my limited knowledge.

...Turns out, that when you hit a rock to chip it, and you also happen to hold that stone with your bare hand, those razor sharp flakes have a tendency to stick, painfully, in your hand. At least it is presentable. I can surely say that at this point this thing can kill a monster made out of butter!

The second step was way easier, vines were abundant all around me, and so were sticks small enough to break to make something that no one sane would call a hilt.

For a second I thought of asking Dirt-kun to go gather the wood, but it seems his duration has long since expired. Oh well, Dirt-kun you shall be remembered!

It was funny trying to tie a sharp rock to a lousy piece of wood using vines. Needless to say, it wasn't going well.

Truth was that I expected the system to kick in in the 5 minute mark or something to help me, usually that's how VRMMO go, but now more than 20minutes have passed and I was still struggling. At this rate, I will be still in the forest even after newbie protection expires. That will be bad.

But now it was more of a vanity issue. I WILL make that dagger no matter what...

Took me a bit more, but in the end, I won! Take that system! And as if on cue...

You created Extremely crude and blunt stone dagger

You created and learned the skill Outdated Stonemanship Lv1

Lv1 Outdated Stonemanship recipes have been added to your recipe book

The system has judged that creating a unique skill shows enough system knowledge

You're no longer under newbie protection

Once more, the Developers of RealWorldIII wish you a happy gaming experience!

Wait, what? Fuck!