“Initiate Virtual Immersion!”

I am laying inside my Virtuo pod when I say that. Adrenaline flows through me as my vision flashes white than the visor on my face goes black. I can feel the gel conformed to my body. Then the black in my visor changes to something more than black. It is a blackness filled with depth and I don’t feel the gel cushioning my body anymore. Instead, I start feeling like I am floating in a black void. I look down and see my hands… wait. I see my hands? How can I see anything in this darkness? There is no source of light. I look up and see a menu floating in the air. Normally there is a load of different apps and games that you could select from this menu, but as this is a new pod I haven’t installed any games on it. Except for one. With trembling fingers I select the only game I have installed: Dreamscape Online. Instead of launching the game, I get a message window.

“We’re sorry, but Dreamscape Online will not be released for 48 minutes. Would you like to go to the character creation screen to make your character instead?”

“Hell yea!!!”

The menu Disappears and the black void brighten’s up until I can see I am in a pretty large empty room. I look around and seeing nothing I look in front of me and see some hulking behemoth staring me down not 5 feet away from me. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I screamed like a girl and then fall flat on my ass, only to see the hulking behemoth scream and fall on his ass as well. I stare dumbly for a second at him. When he duplicates my expression I raise my arm and he raises his arm.

“God damn it. I literally just scared myself.” I get up and get a better look at the imposing figure. Now that I wasn’t busy shitting bricks I could see that what I was looking at was some musclebound human with a sort of barbarian-ish look to him. I waved my hand in front of him with exaggerated motions, intending to goof around with his mirror-like movements only to see the man slide to the left and fade to nothingness. As the man faded off to the left, a new figure faded in from the right. Surprised, I look at the new character. It was tall and slim with handsome features and an air of grace that seemed to cloak his very person. Then I noticed his pointed ears. “An elf! That’s so cool! So this is where I select my race?”

Waving my hand from right to left, I watched as the elf once again faded away, being replaced by the next one in line. An elf with ebon skin, Obviously a dark elf. I start looking through loads of different races. Species after species fly by, other than the obvious human, elf, orcs, and other commonly known races in RPG’s there were also plenty of races you would never have expected to be able to play. I saw harpies, mermaids, satyrs, minotaurs, trolls, and loads more! At one point I found a rock golem. I was thinking about using that one because it looked pretty cool. It had green lines of power coursing all through the cracks in its rocky body, but when I looked at its eyes I couldn’t help but shiver. It seemed to stare into my soul. Like it was a cold blooded monster that could only be satisfied after stripping the flesh from your body. Swallowing nervously I waved my hand to check out the next race in line. Beast kin! Yes! This is what I was looking for!

When I had been looking at the races during school, I was doing more than just figuring out which one had the best bonuses. I wanted to pick a race based on their starting location to avoid large towns or cities. That ruled out humans and elves right off the bat because they both started out in their own capital cities. Orcs, having tribal inclinations, tended to have a small village or something similar, but the starting location for an Orc was in the middle of the plains. I didn’t want to join the game and have the first thing I see is flat plains of grass. Harpies and minotaurs seemed promising because they lived in the mountains, but it is hard to navigate through mountains and I wanted to see something more interesting the walls of rock and massive boulders. Then I saw the beast-kin. A few oddballs like Dragon-kin tended to start in a cave or something of the sort, but the majority of them started at the edge of a massive forest!

In my entire 22 years of life, I can count the number of trees I had seen on one hand. No, scratch that, on one FINGER. That’s right! I have only seen a single crummy tree and it was in the middle of this concrete forest. There is no way I am going to pass on the chance to not just see another tree, but hundreds- no, THOUSANDS of trees! Practically jumping up and down I start cycling through the various kinds of beast-kin, checking out any abilities that might seem interesting.

Wolf kin: Vicious and determined, wolf kin make excellent fighters. They work well in a team based fight, surrounding the enemy and attacking when it turns it’s back to them.

Racial ability: Enhanced senses- Beast kin have an improved sense of hearing, eyesight, smell. This allows them to track prey and detect hidden enemies better than other races.

Subrace ability: Intimidating Howl- you call out with a fearsome howl, lowering the enemy’s moral and giving you the chance to exploit openings in their defenses. Cannot be used more than once per battle.

Dog kin: Steadfast and loyal, Dog kin improve themselves to better protect those they care for. Dog kin often stands in the frontlines during a fight. They make excellent tanks, staving off attacks from the enemy and preventing them from reaching their allies.

Racial ability: Enhanced senses- Beast kin have an improved sense of hearing, eyesight, smell. This allows them to track prey and detect hidden enemies better than other races.

Subrace ability: Last Stand- Grants a temporary adrenaline rush when all seems lost. Boosting strength and stamina for a few seconds. Stunned for 5 seconds when ability ends.

Fox kin: Fox kin are Cunning. They often resort to trickery or deceit and try to avoid open combat. They are proficient in magic and prefer to use illusions to get the enemy to drop its guard.

Racial ability: Enhanced senses- Beast kin have an improved sense of hearing, eyesight, smell. This allows them to track prey and detect hidden enemies better than other races.

Subrace ability: Fox Illusion- create an illusory clone of oneself. Lasts 30 seconds or until the image is disrupted with an attack. Illusion is less effective if the target is aware of the attempt.

Bird kin: Specializing in quick darting attacks, bird kin dart in and out of combat whittling down the enemy’s health. Bird kin can’t properly fly but their hollow bones and feathers allow them to fall from extreme heights and not have to worry about breaking anything if they can land properly.

Racial ability: Enhanced Senses: Unlike most beastkin, bird kin don’t have a very good sense of smell, but they make up for this flaw with eyesight many times more powerful than most other races.

Subrace ability: Aerodynamics- Due to your streamlined appearance, wind resistance doesn’t have as great an impact on you. Increased movement speed when sprinting.

Cat kin- Cat kin are efficient hunters, preferring to hunt alone instead of with others. They are adept in ambush tactics, moving silently and remaining unseen until the moment they strike. While they don’t normally cooperate with others, as an unwritten rule, they normally show more respect towards a fellow hunter.

Racial ability: Enhanced senses- Beast kin have an improved sense of hearing, eyesight, smell. This allows them to track prey and detect hidden enemies better than other races.

Subrace ability: Hunter’s Focus- When tracking a single target or small group, this ability makes it more difficult for the target to notice your presence. Effectiveness is reduced as the number of targets increases.

Looking through the different subraces for the beast kin, I felt that these 5 seemed to be the most promising. All races could choose to spawn in a capital city of their choice and most had another place to pick from that had an environment specific to their race. Humans could only start in cities or towns, but these 5 beast kin subraces could also spawn in a forest. I spent a while trying to narrow down the list but had a hard time because each of them had something about them that seemed really cool.

I went back to the race tab and reread the background for beastkin and a phrase at the end caught my attention. “‘Beastkin are generally liked by the animal that makes up their subrace’... Wait. does that mean that a wolf kin isn’t attacked on sight by wolves? And bird kin can get close to other birds? WAIT!” A realization struck me and I knew right away which race I wanted to be.

“Race selected: Cat kin. Please customize your physical features.”

I grinned to myself “Hell yea! Fluffy kettehs are teh best! I will not let this opportunity for snuggles pass!” Once I calmed down I started making my changes to my character. I didn’t do much. I just changed my height to be shorter and my ears and tail to a pitch black color. If I am gonna stick to the shadows, I don’t need bright flashy hair colors to make me easier to spot and smaller targets can fit in more hiding places as well. With that finished, I went to the final most sacred task for ANY character you create. The name.

How should I name my character? Should I just use my screen tag like always? Nah, I don’t think I want to do that this time… maybe a pun? Oh! How about Pawl… No. I have a feeling people might strangle me on sight. Standing there for several minutes gets me nowhere. I just can’t seem to think of something that would fit good. I look at my avatar seeking inspiration in his imposing visage. I look at the ebony fur on the ears… Wait! That’s it!

“Name: Ebon Darkclaw. Your Character has been created, now merging avatar.”

“Merging? What’s th- Oh SHI-AAAAH!” Once again I nearly shit my pants as my avatar crouched low and then lunged right at my face, only for it to pass through me. I open my eyes and, not seeing a scary ass cat kin mauling my face, I carefully look around. Nothing. Just an empty grey room. I scratch my head in confusion and feel cat like ears on the top of my head. I look at my hands and see claws, behind me? Cool ass tail! Yea! I grab it and enjoy the fluffy ecstasy that is my feline half. When I’ve had enough, I check the remaining time left until the Dreamscape launches and panic. “Shit! The game has already been launched for 30 minutes! What the fuck am I doing?!” I instantly zone in on the login button and smack it so hard when my hand passes through the window it throws me off balance and I face plant. Right, note to self: windows aren’t actually solid enough to support your weight. I flip onto my back and see that the login process had started and I am surrounded by a flash of light.

…

When light surrounding me vanishes, I am blinded by another light shielding my eyes it takes me a few seconds to realize it as sunlight. Smiling like some addled idiot I just spend a moment to enjoy the warmth of it. The radiant beauty. The calming splendor. The encha- EEEYAAAAOOWWWW!!!

While I was busy admiring the view, there was another flash of light and a player logs in… Standing on my fucking tail. When I felt the pain I screamed, except it wasn’t a scream, it was more like a yowl that you would hear from a cat in pain. Which I was. The player jumps up in fright, and I take advantage of the lapse of pressure and sweep my tail away from the clodhoppers he calls feet. I sit up and grab my tail to try and rub the pain away while glaring at the unfortunate player. “Why the hell did you step on my tail?! That fucking hurt like a bitch!”

The player, which now that I have safeguarded my precious extremities I notice is a Dog kin, glares right back at me. “Why the hell are you just laying on the ground in the login zone? Don’t you know players are constantly porting in here?!” umm no I didn’t. “Uhh. No, I don’t.”

The wolf kin scoffs and stalks off saying “damn noob.” After a moment of watching him walk away, I let out a sigh to release the pent up tension all in one go. Standing up I brush the dirt off my pants and take a quick look around. There are a few NPCs standing around minding their own business. I see other players nearby as well and it’s very clear they saw the whole damn thing. There were floating camera icons above their head that made it pretty clear that others would get a pretty good look as well. “Go on, shows over. Let me make my noob mistakes in peace.” I say waving them away.

With that said, I turn and walk towards the most promising looking NPC, a Cat man sweeping out some dirt from his front door, in hopes of finding something to do. “Excuse me sir, do you know where I could find an instructor to get some training?” the guy leans his broom against the door and gives me his full attention “what kind of training are you looking for?” I pause and think for a second. “I think I want some bow training. Maybe a bit of dagger work in case the enemy gets too close.” He nods sagely “Good thinking. You shouldn’t rely solely on one weapon to protect yourself. Every weapon has it’s strengths and weaknesses, and if you encounter someone and insist on using something when it’s weak instead of changing tactics to match the situation, you will only wind up dead.” He steps out his door and points down the road. “The training grounds are down that way. Can’t miss them. Once you get there, look for the Bowmaster to learn how to use a bow, and I suggest you ask Dali for help with daggers.” After thanking the NPC I went off on my merry way.

Finding the Training grounds was easy enough. They were packed with other players trying to pick up various forms of weapon mastery. Some of their antics were quite entertaining as well. One poor fellow had loaded himself up with half a dozen different blades sticking out of his belt and hanging from his back at different angles. He swung at a wooden dummy with a large two handed sword using awkward and clumsy swings. The hilts of all the blades were constantly entangling his arms and throwing off his aim. Half the time he was nowhere even close to hitting the dummy. Sometimes he slammed the blade into the ground or missed the dummy and winded up spinning in a circle from the weight of the sword.

I sigh, not quite pitying him, but not cheering him on either and walked to the table displaying all the weapons to see what is available. I pick up a wooden bow and test the pull of it. “Hmm, seems a little weak”. I see a thicker bow next to the one I picked up and try it out instead. “This is better. Takes a lot more effort to pull it back then that smaller one.” I grab the harness that went with the bow and feed the loop through a quiver with arrows, slinging the whole lot over my back and checking how it feels resting there. When I turn back to the table I see a duplicate bow to the one I just grabbed is now sitting on the table. “Cool. So that’s how they are able to keep up with the demand with all these new players. That also explains why that one guy had 5 different weapons strapped to his body. The idiot just got greedy with freebies.” I walk a little bit down the table until I get to the area with daggers. The daggers look so intimidating. Perhaps it’s because I know that every one of these blades are made with the intention to kill. I decide to go with a simple single edge blade about half again as long as my hand from the base of my palm to the tips of my fingers. I try strapping it to my waist, but it doesn’t feel right. I remove the harness and instead strap it to my right leg just below my hip and practice grabbing the hilt until it feels a bit more comfortable.

“Right. Now I need to find a bow master.” I turn away from the table and at the other end of the training grounds I see the archery range. “Where else would you find a bow master except in an archery range.” When I get there, I see a line of players repeatedly shooting the bow and arrow. There are a few targets at different ranges, from 50 yards, to 100, and then finally 150 yards. Behind that was a wooden barricade to protect the public from wayward shots. I glance at the other players and notice something odd. They were all using the smaller bow. I was confused for a moment as I watched them. Why practice with a bow using a lighter pull? The arrows are nowhere near as strong when shot. You couldn’t get as much distance as the larger bow and still be reliably accurate. Maybe they are lazy? They might have tried the larger bow and finding it a bit difficult to use, they decide to slack off and go with the easy way out. I look around and see the bow master is busy talking to one of the other instructors so I decide not to bother him and take my place in line.

Thinking about how I saw it done in movies I ready my bow and put an arrow to the string. Aiming at the 50 yard target, I take a breath as I pull the string back all the way to my ear and sight down the shaft of the arrow. Imagining where the arrow would travel, I align the tip of my arrow just below where I wanted to shoot. I gently release my pent up breath and as I exhale I relax my fingers. Time seemed to slow down as, like a graceful swimmer, the arrow bends around the bow. Straightening out once passed the wood. *Hssst* *THOCK* The arrow slams into the target, burrowing into the packed hay halfway to the shaft and impacting the wooden backing behind it. I missed the target by about 4 inches, but for that being my first shot ever, it was pretty damn good. I smile and put another shaft to string fully immersing myself into the the action. The tension in my fingers as I ease the string backwards sends a thrill down my spine. The thrum of the string as it cuts through the air sending the arrow towards my enemy. The sound of the impact as I send my foe to a painful death *Hssst* *THOCK* It’s closer. Quickly I string another arrow. *Hssst* *THOCK* and another. *Hssst* *THOCK* Another! *Hssst* *THOCK* Arrow after arrow, shot after shot, I lose myself to the moment the only interruption in my actions when I reach back into my quiver for my next arrow. My next shot. *Hssst* *THOCK*

I reach back to my quiver to grab my next arrow, and my hands clasp around empty air. The break in my rhythm jars me out of my trance, blinking in confusion. I look at the target and gape. The center of the target is packed with arrows. Every arrow from my quiver. I didn’t think I used so many but the evidence is right there in front of me. “Finally run outta arrows boy?”

I jump and whirl around, not expecting to hear such a gruff voice right behind me. An old man is standing there his face looks like it is made from old leather but what catches me off guard for a moment is the hideous scar on the right side of his mouth. It looks like his cheek got torn open and the way it healed left him with an ugly grimace. Belatedly I realize I am standing there still with my jaw lax and I quickly close it. “U-um excuse me?” The old man quirks an eyebrow. “Your quiver. You used up all the arrows.” “O-oh um yes. Yessir. It’s my first time shooting a bow and I guess I uh, kinda got carried away.” I flinch when the man suddenly bursts into a hearty laugh “Got carried away huh? Ha! You’re the first traveler I’ve seen so far that emptied their entire quiver in just over a minute! That’s no easy feat for a first timer. You may not have hit the target dead center every shot but you still hit the target itself every time.”

I blushed from the praise “I don’t think that is all that impressive. It’s only 50 yards away.” He crosses his arms and stares me down. “Don’t be so modest. You have the makings of a natural ranger. What’s your name boy?” I extend my hand towards him “Ebon sir. Ebon Darkclaw” The Old man smiles and grabs my hand in a strong grip and shakes it. “Donovan. A pleasure to meet you. How would you like some lessons in the bow? I think you might enjoy it.” I gave him a big grin. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. I would love some lessons!”