“Back so soon are we?” Annie asked. She was sat on a stool next to the fire at the Inn with a great big book open in her lap.

“Yes ma’am” Jake responded, not quite sure what the expected answer was. Obviously he’d made it back.

“Very well, you’ve demonstrated that you can follow instructions, and started on your class path to boot. There’s only one thing left for you to do. Just sign your name in our register of adventurers.” She hoisted the large tome off her knees, and deposited it on the table between her and Jake. She put down a quill next to it, and waited patiently for Jake to make his move.

Jake took the feather, dipping it in it’s ink pot. The book had the same appearance as his spell book, though it was much larger. Just like his spell book, it was a “real” prop representing a game prompt.

Enter your character’s first and last names.

Your name will be visible to all other players.

In the interest of security, we advise you not to use your real name. For further information about securing your identity in game, please read our security guidelines.

This prompt stumped Jake for a moment. He ran the last few hours back through his mind, realising that no one had referred to him by name; nor had anyone asked him for it. Perhaps that was part of the game tutorial - an easy way for more experienced players to identify those who hadn’t yet finished the introductory quest line.

Beyond the curious design decision of the game however, Jake was stuck with a very real problem - he hated naming things. Even worse, it was clear that the game expected him to pick two names, doubling hist troubles.

He’d always liked Irish names. He wasn’t Irish himself, but who could resist that accent? Jake had also been drawn towards names that confused people, names that strangers would have trouble pronouncing. His own name bored him in that regard, it was about as plain as they came. As all of this flashed through his mind, a mostly transparent prompt appeared next to the pages of the book, listing out a bunch of Irish-looking names. Apparently the developers of the game had realised people struggled to name themselves, and had included a little helper to keep the ball rolling.

For his first name, he wanted something with some sort of meaning. The naming helper prompt added definitions next to each suggestion. It didn’t take long to find a name that jumped out at him. Felan, meaning little wolf. Jake thought it suited his personality well enough - he considered himself independent, a bit of a loner. Besides, the image of a wolf howling to the moon was a classic emblem of badassary.

He wasn’t too worried about his last name, in the games he’d played previously people had only ever used their first names - just like in real life.

One jumped out from the list - Oisin - pronounced “oh-sheen”. Jake hadn’t thought he’d had any criteria, but this was exactly the kind of name he’d been looking for. It was near impossible to pronounce if you didn’t already know how to say it, making it the kind of name that chat-spammers would give up on, rather than shouting out in a crowded market. As far as Jake was concerned, Oisin was perfect.

Felan Oisin, the druid, signed his name.

“Felan Oisin? A fine name” She pronounced it perfectly. Jake - no, Felan now - wondered if she had access to the same prompts he’d seen while picking the name. For all he knew, the NPCs of the game were connected to his brain, able to pronounce everything exactly as he expected. Once he logged out, he’d have to do some research.

“Well, that about does it then. You’re now a registered member of the Adventurers Guild, we just need to sort out your dues and -”

“Sorry, what dues?” Felan interjected

“The guild dues of course. 50 gold per month, payable at the end of each month.” Annie seemed to be struggling not to laugh at the look on his face.

“You didn’t think it’d be free did you? We offer a lot of services to adventurers like yourself, and we’re not running a charity here. Your dues give you authority to take jobs from the hunting board” She pointed at a noticeboard to the right of the door that led outside. A few yellowed pages of parchment were tacked to it, but Felan was too far away to make out the writing scrawled across them.

“Being a member of the Adventurers Guild also gives you some standing with the other guilds. Many of them will only hire official adventurers when they need help with a task.

Don’t worry too much about the dues. Like I said you’ve got until the end of the month, giving you - “ she consulted a page in her book that looked like a calender, though each little box was crammed so full of writing that Felan couldn’t see any of the dates.

“A week. Exactly a week from today. I’m afraid there’s no leniency with dues, if you can’t pay on the day you won’t be able to access any guild services until you’re caught up. But you’ve got no need to worry. I’ve got just the thing right here” she fished around in a bag beside her, and withdrew a scroll.

“50 gold pieces, 300 experience, and a piece of armour of your choosing. Sounds like a winner!” She smiled to him, and then froze

“Oh dearie me, I’m afraid this quest is only available if you’re level two or above. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble getting there though, just come on back after you’ve levelled up and it’s all yours.”

Felan glanced over at the hunting board. Sure, he just needed to finish his druid quest to level up, but if he was heading out anyway…

“So I can take the hunting quests now?”

“Absolutely. Like I said, you’re a full member of the guild until Dues day.” She smiled, letting him know he was all but dismissed. Clearly she had little to say to him until he levelled up.

Mumbling a goodbye, Felan made for the hunting board. There were four pieces of paper pinned to the wall, and as he approached a numeral faded into his view in the upper right corner of each. Two of them had a red four, one was a yellow two, and the other was an orange three. It didn’t take a genius to work out that they were the recommended level for each quest. He turned his attention to the level two quest

Wolves have been attacking the animals on Waylons farm. Cull ten wolves in the area, keeping their tails as proof.

Reward: 5gp, 300xp

Felan punched the “accept” button as soon as the prompt appeared. He needed to tame an animal companion anyway, why not tame one of the wolves near the farm?

Satisfied that he’d achieved everything he needed to do in Greenest, Felan stepped back out of the bar, straight into another player.

“Woah buddy!” The stranger exclaimed, taking a step backwards. His foot missed the step and he collapsed into a heap on the dirt.

“Sorry, are you OK?” Felan could feel a blush creeping up from the collar of his shirt.

“Ha, yeah. No biggie. Names Andross” The man laughed as he got back to his feet, brushing dust off his pants. He was dressed similarly to Felan, but instead of a wooden club he had a short sword in a scabbard at his hip. The man extended a hand toward him, and Felan shook it.

“I’m Felan, sorry to uh - meet like this.” Felan’s face was glowing warmly. The blush had spread.

“Don’t worry about it man, it happens.” Andross took a moment to run his eyes over Felan before continuing.

“Say, you’re a Druid right? Have you tamed a beast yet?”

“Uh, no. I was just going to do that now.”

“A wolf right? Man, there’s something way better that they don’t normally tell you about.” Andross glanced around, as if to check whether anyone else was within earshot.

“There’s a dire wolf. A couple friends of mine found it last week, but none of us are Druids. I could show you where it is if you want.”

Felan half expected a quest prompt to appear in front of him. It sounded too good to be true didn’t it?

“What do you want for it?”

“Ha! You caught me. Truth is, the dire wolf is guarding a quest item. Only we can’t kill the Dire Wolf - it’s a condition of the quest. None of us have any sort of magic to calm it or put it to sleep, we’re more of a charge in and kill things kind of a group.”

“So you want me to tame it, and you get the loot?”

“Yeah man, that’s a win win right? We can complete our quest, and you get a bad-ass companion”

That made a lot more sense to Felan. In his experience, very few people did anything without getting something in return. And a dire wolf sounded significantly more impressive than a plain old grey wolf.

“Alright, I’m in. When do we go?”

Andross’ eyes glazed over for a moment, and Felan realised he was checking a prompt of some sort.

“Only one of the guys is online at the moment, but to be honest we shouldn’t have much trouble just you and me - the hard part of the quest was subduing the dire wolf without killing it. I should be able to weaken it enough for you to tame. Wanna go now?”

“Absolutely!”

Together, the pair made their way to the edge of Greenest. This time, instead of turning to the east and heading into the forest towards the druid enclave, Jake was led to the west. The duo cut across a field of grass up to their knees, clearly feed being grown for the local livestock. Felan found himself wondering whether this game world had seasons, and whether this field would die away in winter.

He was about to ask when Andross turned to look at him.

“See that tree-line over there?” He pointed into the distance. Felan could make out the same trees he’d seen everywhere else so far. He nodded.

“The dire wolf is just past them. If I’ve got my bearings right - “ Andross turned in a slow circle, then continued forward “ - we should be on the right path here. It took us two full days before we found the spot. The damn woods over there are super dense. Fair warning - you’ll probably get a prompt when we enter the forest. Technically it’s not meant for low level characters, but we don’t have to go in very far.”

Felan followed in silence. Truthfully, he didn’t much care for the details of Andross’ quest. He was only doing it for the chance to tame a dire wolf. Felan pulled up the skills screen again, figuring he might as well learn how it worked while they walked. The tree line was a while away, probably a ten minute walk from here.

Animal handling

This skill increases your interaction options with wild animals.

Non-hostile animals can be tamed with a Will check.

Hostile animals can be calmed with a Will check.

Unfortunately, it gave no clues as to how Felan was meant to activate the Will check. He wasn’t even sure what a Will check really was.

“Hey Andross, you been playing long?”

“Long enough to gain a few levels, why?”

“How exactly do I use my skills…”

Andross explained that, like most things in the game, most skills were activated simply by thinking of them. Although apparently there were a tonne of physical-based skills like Climbing, that depended as much on player ability as the skill itself. Others, like Felan’s Animal Handling skill were automatically active - animals should act more friendly towards Felan, though he’d have to think about activating the skill if he wanted to tame or calm anything.

What had really stuck out with Andross’ explanation though, was his description of a Will check. If he was being entirely honest, Felan was a little worried by that. In essence a Will check was a battle of the mind. Felan and the Dire Wolf would be connected psychically, and the stronger mind would emerge victorious. Any failed Will contest always left some sort of debuff - there was no way of predicting what kind of debuff it might be, though they were often tied to the source of the failed willpower check. Presumably that meant the opposite of what you were intending, and Felan didn’t want to dwell on what the opposite of “taming a direwolf” might be. If everything went wrong, he might spend the next week on all fours howling at the moon.

“Don’t worry about that man. I’ll get that puppy so weak it’ll be begging to be your friend” Andross laughed, slapping Felan on the back hard enough to make him stumble forward an extra step.

“Here we are. Remember, as soon as we step into the forest you’ll get a prompt warning you the place is too high level. Have a look for the dire wolf before you read it, we don’t want to get jumped when we go in.”

“We won’t see it from here?”

“Na, something to do with the game zones. You can’t see mobs in there until you step in yourself. You ready?”

Felan nodded, and followed Andross into the tree line. He’d been right - Felan got a notification prompt as soon as he stepped into the cool shadows. He scanned in all directions, and couldn’t see anything except for Andross. Satisfied, he opened the prompt.

Attention player,

You have entered the wilderness.

This is a Player vs Player zone.

While in the wilderness, any players can fight one another regardless of dueling or clan settings.

What the? This wasn’t the prompt Andross had told him about!

Felan dismissed the prompt, and stood face to face with the pointy end of an ornate rapier. Andross’ old weapon had vanished, the scabbard at his waist now was even more ornate than the sword pointed at Felan - it swirled with golden roses and rubies.

“What the -”

The rapier struck with ferocious speed. It whistled through the air next to Felan’s head as he twisted aside, his body moving before his mind had fully registered the situation. Andross wasn’t here to help him tame a dire wolf, he’d been lured into a trap!

Andross cursed as he stepped closer, readying another strike. Felan lifted his shield arm into position in front of himself, ready to deflect the incoming attack. Judging by the ridiculously flashy weapon, Andross must be a lot stronger than he’d let on. Felan wouldn’t be able to fight him one on one, his only chance would be to retreat back out of the forest. It was only a dozen paces away.

He took a step backwards, and Andross lunged. Felan’s shield met the blade. Instead of blocking the thrust though it merely glanced off his shield, redirecting towards Felan’s body. The point skewered him through his right shoulder. It felt like he’d grabbed hold of a live wire, pain jolted down his arm to his hand, loosening his grip on the club he hadn’t quite unhooked from his belt yet.

His breath caught in a gasp as he stumbled backwards, away from the pain. He was only a few paces from the edge of the field now.

The rapier struck again, lunging too fast for Felan’s eyes to follow. The point buried itself in his chest and Felan suddenly felt very cold. Like ice had formed in his lungs. He gasped for air but couldn’t breath.

Andross glared at him as he fell to his knees.

The last thing Felan saw was a wispy purple gas floating away from his chest. It was being drawn to a ring on Andross’ finger like a vortex of water draining from a bath.

The world went dark.

Combat log:

Andross hit you for 15 piercing damage

Andross hit you for 10 piercing damage

You have died

Attention player,

Your character has died.

You will be able to return to the game in 7 days.

Felan was alone in darkness now, with nothing but the prompts to keep him company. He fought back the urge to scream. It wouldn’t do anything to change what had happened. He’d heard of those sorts of ass holes in games before, but didn’t think they’d ever catch him off guard!

Felan swore once. The silence that followed unnerved him, so he swore again. And again.

After venting his anger (and exhausting his vocabulary) Felan logged out.