“Scanning…Scanning…Confirmed! Founders have entered the bind point of the Visitor’s Center. Your souls are now bound to the Visitor’s Center. Congratulations, the Founders will now receive 25% experience boost on the first planet! Ding! Congratulations, Founders get 2 extra skill points per level on the first planet! Ding! Congratulations, Founders inspire others, therefore aura of the founders is cast: Founders benefit with 2 extra profession points per level on the first planet.”

“Sweet!” Damien said. “I like these interface wrist watches or whatever,” He held up his wrist interface device. “I wonder if it does actually tell time? He pushed a few buttons.

“Current world time is 7:807.6 hours daytime.”

“...and it does!” Damien said triumphantly.

“Great, Damien, you have discovered a wrist watch,” Amelia said.

“So, we are stuck on the newbie planet?” Cornelius lamented.

“It’s a good thing,” Ris said, “Where would you rather start?”

“It just seems a little boring,” Cornelius said. “I’ve always hated the first ten levels; you can’t do anything!”

“Yeah, we already covered that.” Damien said.

Amelia clutched her medical bag and raced off ahead of the group. The others kind of looked at each other and then followed her. Damien realized as they got close to her that Amelia had spotted a survivor lying on the ground under some debris. She worked feverishly on the woman wearing a dirty white lab coat until she stabilized her. The piece of debris was deeply embedded into the woman’s thigh.

“Mic move debris!”

“No, Mic, leave it. The chunk of debris is the only thing holding her artery. If you remove it she will bleed out before we could get her to the Visitor’s Center.”

“I can cauterize it with my power sword,” Ris said.

“No,” the woman said, “You have to get out of here. We were attacked by the Alteri Dominion. They are pawns of house Davosi, genetic engineers bent on conquering the galaxy. Her breath shortened, “My gods, you are the founders! This whole event was set up for you. It was supposed to be a tribute.”

“Relax,” Damien said. “Yes, we are the founders. We need to find out what happened. What else can you tell us?”

“They have attacked us. You must help!”

“We’re trying, but you have to tells what happened.” Damien said.

“You have to help. You are the founders.”

“Uh hmm, this is getting us no where.” Ris lamented.

“Sorry, I don’t understand how we are supposed to help you,” Damien said.

“Founders, you need to get to the archives. They are in a vault within a cavern to the south. The Alteri Dominion has a company of men trying to break in the facility as we speak. They must not be allowed to steal the archives!”

“Ah, there we go.” Ris said.

“Why are the archives so important? How will they help us?” Cornelius asked.

“They hold all the research and innovations of my people. There are some valuable papers in there and inventions that can help and benefit all races but the Alteri and House Davosi will mishandle them and turn them into dreadful weapons. If you want clues and answers into what is going on here, that is where you will find them. However, if the Alteri Dominion gets their evil hands on the archives, they will have more than enough knowledge to take over the entire galaxy.” The woman began to cough up blood and then quickly expired.

The wrist devices lit up on the group's wrists, “You have been offered a story QUEST: The Archives. Press one to accept, press two to decline. Note: this is a story quest. If you decline it, you may disrupt your questline progression in the future. Reward: choose one upgraded race/class/profession appropriate weapon.”

Amelia and the others all accepted the quest.

“I couldn’t save her. My skill is just not high enough yet.” Amelia said with a tear.

“It doesn’t really matter now,” Ris said. “Does every medical encounter like that give you experience?”

Amelia examined her wristband, “It appears to be so.”

“Then you will have the skills you need in no time the way this day has been turning out for us”

“How will we all stay the same level,” Damien asked.

“We won’t. At some point, some of us will gain more than the others and level faster. There is no way we will be able to keep all our experiences exactly the same. Progression will vary for each of us.”

“It does no good to keep debating this. As I understand it, the more we progress the more we become our characters. As we add skills and abilities there is only one way this comes out, we will progress.” Cornelius said. “This is some advanced stuff. We will always be in control but we will eventually become as powerful as we had them on paper. We might as well embrace them and get some levels!”

“Thanks, that helps, actually,” Damien said.

“Ris, you put your first skill point in tech,” Amelia said. She picked up a square box that resembled a small portable radio. “Here is her sensor device. Find the cavern.”

“Hey, that looks just like a Tri-cord –”

“Don’t say it!” Damien scolded.”

Ris grinned, “If a tricorder is ever invented on our world it will most likely be named a tricorder, regardless.

“That’s probably true.” Cornelius nodded.

“If I read this right, there is a cavern with several life signs due south,” Ris pointed out.

“let’s go then,” Amelia said.

They walked south following the device as it beeped and hummed. Finally, they reached the mouth of the cavern. Several players rode up to the cavern on speeders. They got off and pushed Damien and the others aside, “Get the hell out of the way, noobs!” one of them said.

The group collected themselves and followed the fifth level characters into the mouth of the cavern. They reached a room with a sunken metal door along the cavern wall. Several men had torches and other equipment and were trying to burrow a hole into the door. A huge alien that looked very much like Mic stood guard. The fifth level group approached the alien, who had a large question mark floating above his head.

“HALT! What is your purpose here? What do you hope to find?” The alien boomed.

“Phat ass loots!” One of the fifth level players responded.

“There are no PHAT ASS LOOTS here!” Vault guard hits VALORIAN for 4,993,488 points of damage. VALORIAN is now dead! The words floated above the now unconscious player.

“Hey, one of the dead players’ companions rushed the guard. The guard stoically swung his yellow flame power sword and leveled the rest of the fifth level players before returning to his original stance.