After a second of loading delay, the neural relays secured the connection, and the world snapped into shape around Kana. He was in a circular room tiled in marble, paneled with bas reliefs, and topped in an arching ribbed dome. There were eight statues spaced out around the room, each one set into an alcove. Next to him, sitting cross legged on the floor, was a man with the word Spiral floating over his head and a green health bar below that.

“Kana, huh? Random name generator special?”

Kana shrugged. “A name’s a name.”

Spiral stood up and stretched. “I guess. You figure out what class you’re going to pick yet?”

“Something easy to learn. Just give me some starter advice and I’ll get out of your hair.”

“Summer vacation is just getting started,” Spiral said. “I’ve got plenty of time to run two different characters right now.”

“Your mom won’t get upset with you spending all day hooked up to a neural net?” Kana asked.

“Nah. She’s not home anyway.” He turned to scan the statues. “So... easy to learn. Melee is probably best for low levels. The caster classes are pretty squishy. Check out those four over there.”

The first one was of a bare-chested man who looked like he’d come straight out of a power lifting competition holding a sword with a blade the size of a small snow plow. The plaque at the statue’s base read, “Berserker. Primary Attribute: Strength. Uses fierce rages in combat to increase damage and mitigate injuries.”

Kana grimaced and moved to the next statue, which featured a tall woman holding a spear and wearing a steel chest plate. That one read “Dragoon. Strength and Agility Hybrid. Mid-range combat using powerful combo attacks with polearms.”

“This one looks good,” Kana said.

The statue’s face came to life and its eyes focused on him. “You wish to follow the path of the dragoon?” it asked.

“Uh... I guess so.”

“Your way is set then,” the statue intoned. It held its spear out for Kana to take. As soon as he did, the statue returned to lifeless stone and a sack appeared at his feet. He jumped in surprise and looked at Spiral for an explanation.

“Standard starter inventory. It’ll have some food, some money, and a health potion in it.”

Kana reached down to touch the sack. As soon as his fingers brushed the surface, a loot window popped up in front of it detailing its contents, which were exactly what Spiral had said they’d be.

He fiddled with the radial menu for a bit until he figured out how to take everything. When he was done, he looked up to find Spiral waiting for him at the exit. He’d gotten a sword and shield from the statue of the knight farther down the hall.

“Alright, let’s get going. This room is boring,” Spiral said.

An invitation to join Spiral’s party popped up in front of Kana. As soon as he accepted it, the knight’s name and health appeared in his peripheral vision and a new marker on his map popped up representing Spiral’s position. “That’ll make it easy to keep track of you. I need one of these for real life.”

Spiral rolled his eyes. “Come on, combat basics are the next room. I want to get out of the starter academy so we can play.”

“I told you that you don’t have to stick around,” Kana said.

“I’ve got all day to do whatever. Let’s get going so we can get to the good stuff.”

They walked into the next room, which was dominated by a huge floor tile mosaic featuring a woman in a flowing white dress that was torn and stained with smoke. She looked down on a battlefield full of unmoving bodies while two armies clashed in the background.

“Well that’s cheery,” Kana said as he studied it.

“Kasio, the Lady of War,” Spiral explained. “She’s one of the Seven Creators in Istrius’s mythology.”

An illusion of the woman appeared in front of them, her dress floating around her while she drifted in the air, her toes a few inches off the floor. “Travelers in this realm must learn to defend themselves,” she said in a low, smug tone.

“Is that...?” He shot a look at Spiral, who nodded and grinned.

“Maria Donovich did the voice work for her.”

Kana’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s a pretty big name. I didn’t realize Istrius was such a high budget game.”

Before Spiral could reply, the tiled mosaic started twisting around like it was being stirred by an invisible hand. The individual tiles rose up to form a blob of shifting pieces that settled into a vaguely human-shaped creature. A red bar appeared over its head with the label of war elemental.

“Dragoons fight by stringing together combo attacks that focus on restricting their target’s movements to keep them at the edge of their range. You’ll only have one special attack right now,” Spiral said. “When you attack, the option to use it should come up. Just let the system handle that part of the combo for now.”

The war elemental, now fully formed, lumbered toward the pair. Spiral stepped between them and met it with his shield. The crash of metal being struck by the elemental’s arms rang out through the chamber as he shoved it back and reached out with his sword to hack at the it.

Kana circled to the side and lunged at the creature with his spear. It recoiled from the first hit and a chunk of its red health bar faded away. Before it could respond, a prompt appeared titled clipping sweep. Kana selected it, and the spear spun in his hands of its own accord to lash out at the elemental’s legs. The creature toppled over to the ground, losing a smaller chunk of health in the process, and started clawing its way back upright.

The attack almost made Kana fumble his spear in surprise, but as soon as it was over with, he was back in control of the weapon. Spiral grinned at him over his shield. “You get used to that,” he said. “You can go into the settings and turn it to advanced mode later so that it uses the special whenever you attack that way instead of you telling it to.”

Kana blinked and tried to sort through Spiral’s explanation, but before he could finish, the elemental charged at him. He struck it again, then Spiral was between them. His shield slammed into the elemental’s face and it bounced back. “Stunned it!” Spiral crowed in triumph. “Enemies take extra damage when they’re stunned, so go in for another attack now.”

Between the two of them, they carved up the war elemental in a matter of seconds. A notice popped up informing him that he’d gained three XP. The illusion nodded, a cold smile on her face. “But how will you handle two?” she asked.

More tiles rose up into man shaped blobs in front of them. “Try to keep it at the edge of your attack radius. I’ll hold the other one off to the side for now,” Spiral said. He attacked the elemental farthest away from Kana and started backpedaling to edge of the room.

The other elemental surged forward in a churning mass of mosaic tiles that picked up speed as it went. Kana lashed out with his spear when it got closer and triggered his clipping sweep attack to knock it prone. Before it could climb back to its feet, he struck it two more times, but when he went to hit it with another clipping sweep, the option didn’t pop up.

The elemental hit him, and his vision flashed red around the edges. His own life bar went down a small fraction. Kana snapped his spear up defensively in front of him to block the next swing, but the elementals hand split into two pieces and flowed around the haft of the weapon to strike him again.

“Get some distance from it,” Spiral called from across the room. “You need to keep it at the edge of your range while you wait for your special attack to recharge so you can combo it again.”

Once Spiral had pointed it out, Kana could see a little icon on his peripheral menus that was counting down to zero. He broke away from the elemental and retreated until it finished, then came back in with a straight jab into its chest. The clipping sweep option popped up, and he tripped the elemental with it. He jabbed it once while it was still down and backed away from it before it could get back to its feet.

Each repetition of the pattern took another chunk of its health bar until it broke apart twenty seconds later. Across the room, Spiral’s elemental was at half health. He was chipping away at it while using his shield to block its attacks, and only countering when he could stun it.

Kana came up from the back side and unleashed a series of slashes into it. Each hit took about ten percent of its health until it broke apart. The XP notification came up again, this time reading six, as well as a loot box informing him that he’d acquired a red clay tile.

“What is this item?” he asked.

“Quest token you’ll need later,” Spiral said. “Everyone gets their own loot, so don’t worry about splitting anything with me.”

The illusion scowled at the two of them as it faded away. In its place, a red chest appeared, its edges trimmed in gold and a fat unlocked clasp in the front. Spiral gestured Kana forward. “Open it,” he said.

The lid sprang open with a click at his touch to reveal a set of leather boots, which appeared on his inventory screen when he touched them. The stat box claimed that equipping them would decrease the cooldown of clipping sweep by two seconds. He dragged them across the radial menu to his gear selector and swapped them out for the shoes he’d been wearing. At the same time, a breast plate appeared on Spiral’s chest, one that matched his shield.

The far wall broke apart into a pile of rocks and sand that flowed away to reveal a hall supported by stone ribs every few feet. “Come on,” Spiral said. “A few more rooms and we’ll hit the starter boss.”

-----

Ten minutes later, Kana had assembled tiles of various colors into a circle on the wall. They spun in place until they were nothing but a blur of color and light. He backed away from it as the whole floor, itself covered in an even larger mosaic than the first one, was pulled into the ring of light.

“Here comes the big one,” Spiral warned. A construct made of tiles flowed up over their heads, easily twice their height. It settled into a solid shape and the words war golem appeared over its head, along with a health bar three times longer than anything Kana had seen before.

Spiral rushed out to meet it, but it swatted him aside with one hand. With a growl, he charged back in and slammed his shield with his whole body behind it. The huge elemental staggered back a step, but it wasn’t stunned like the smaller ones had been. It did turn his attention to him, freeing Kana up to jab at its flanks with his spear.

His attacks didn’t even seem to touch the war golem’s life bar. Meanwhile, each swing knocked Spiral back and forth and tore chunks out of his own health. When he hit half health, his life bar turned from green to yellow. “I’m going to break off to use a healing potion,” he called out. “Knock it down to give me time.”

Kana had been trying to use clipping sweep, but for some reason it wasn’t working. “I can’t!” he yelled back. “I don’t know why.”

“Because the target is too big of a size category for that move to work,” a voice said from the door. “Try aiming for the head instead.”

A slim man stood at the entrance to the room, arms crossed and leaning up against the door frame. He wore a dark red half cloak with the hood pulled up and had two daggers belted to his waist. Curling black hair poked out from under the hood, obscuring his face. The name Exodus floated over his head.

Kana struck the war golem on the back of the head, and it tumbled forward to one knee. While it was down, he got another strike in, and Spiral backed out of its each to drink a potion. His health bar shot back up to full, just in time for him to ready his shield for the war golem’s next attack.

“Do you two noobs think you could hurry this up so the event can reset and I can do it?” Exodus asked. “Or at least invite me into your group so I can get credit for this one?”

“I’m a little busy here,” Spiral said.

“Shield bash its knee.”

Spiral glared at the man, but he did it. The golem’s knee snapped backward in a shower of loose mosaic tiles and it staggered back with a stun debuff. A moment later, Exodus’s profile popped up just under Spiral’s and a new marker appeared on Kana’s map.

Exodus came up beside Kana, both daggers in his hands. “Clip its head again,” he ordered.

Kana and Spiral exchanged glances. The new player seemed to know what he was doing though, so Kana did what he wanted. As soon as the war golem tumbled forward, Exodus darted in and swept both daggers through its flank. Before it could recover, he’d actually climbed on top of it and slammed the weapons into the back of its head.

Huge chunks of its life bar fell away, fully half of it just from those few attacks. “Another shield bash to the knee,” Exodus said, “And I’ll finish it off.”

Twenty seconds later, the golem was nothing more than a pile of shattered tiles that rose up to Kana’s waist. The XP gain from the boss was enough that it pushed him up to level 2 and a notification popped up informing him he’d learned a new skill.

“Arc lance,” he read out loud. “A special attack that chains with consecutive regular strikes to deal extra damage.”

Exodus rolled his eyes and walked to the treasure chest that had appeared near the exit door. He opened it, and as he did, a loot window popped up in front of Kana to inform him that he’d acquired a chain hauberk. Before he could even equip it, Exodus was out the door. A new notification popped up to tell him that the other player had left the group.

“Kind of a jerk, isn’t he?” Spiral remarked.

“Maybe, but he knew his stuff. It would have taken us five times as long to defeat this boss without him.”

Spiral shrugged. “I’d have done it in a second on my other character. I just don’t know how to play this class yet.”

“So this is it for the starter area?” Kana asked.

“Yup. That exit takes us to a shrine of Numa and the NPCs that will give us the first set of quests.”

Kana selected the hauberk for his chest slot and rolled his shoulders as the weight of the armor settled on him. “Great. Let’s get going then."