I starred at the status window in disbelief. Although it’s right in front of me I still couldn’t fully comprehend what I was seeing.

The game is screwing me over. I had spent $2500 so that I could be one of the first people to play Dreamscape, but it was all going to amount to nothing if I couldn’t actually play the game.

“Oh my goodness, I look so cool!” a voice squealed over to my right.

I immediately looked over at the source of the commotion. While staring at him for half a second, some words appeared above his head.

Lvl 1 Sorcerer

It was evident from his pointed ears and light complexion, that he is a [High Elf]. The [High Elf] class is one of the best races for spellcasters. The five spellcaster classes are [Sorcerer], [Elementalist], [Priest], [Druid], and [Bard].

The reason that the [High Elf] class is a favorite for spellcasters is due to their passive skill, [Brains over Brawn].

[Brains over Brawn]: The High Elves value intellect over brute force. Intelligence increases by 3% and strength decreases by 2%.

For spellcasters, intellect is the most important stat.

Stat is short for a statistic, and represents a piece of data that allows a character to do certain actions. For example, a warrior with 10 strength can lift a 30 lb. rock while a warrior with 40 strength can lift a 120 lb. rock.

The 5 main stats that a player can obtain in Dreamscape are agility (Agi), strength (Str), endurance (End), intellect (Int), and defense (Def).

Agility increases the movement speed, attack speed, and critical strike chance of a character. A critical strike is a strike that deals twice the damage of a normal strike. Medium armor wearing classes such as the [Rogue] primarily use agility.

Strength increases the power and physical damage of a character. A good example of a class that primarily uses strength is the [Berserker] that uses enormous weapons that must be wielded with two hands.

Endurance increases the health points (hp) of a character. If a character’s health reaches 0, then they die. If you die in dreamscape then you lose a level. Classes that are primarily tanks and require large amounts of health, such as the [Warrior], rely heavily on endurance.

Defense reduces the amount of physical damage that a character receives. Heavily armored classes have the most defense, while medium armored classes have more defense then the lightly armored classes.

Finally, Intelligence increases the amount of mana and magic damage of a character. My class, the [Sorcerer], is an example of a class that relies heavily on the intelligence stat. At least that’s what I thought, I am not sure anymore because I don’t actually have mana.

I glanced around the large stone room and approximated that there were 2,000 other players in the room with me.

I remembered reading on one of the forums that there were 1,100 different starting areas that all had between 1,700 and 2,300 people. Furthermore, each of the starting areas was separated based on class.

I confirmed this by glancing at various individuals in the room.

Lvl 1 Sorcerer

Lvl 1 Sorcerer

Lvl 1 Sorcerer

Lvl 1 Sorcerer

Every other player in this room was a sorcerer, but none of them seemed to be [Undead]. What the crap is going on!

Almost as if it was in response to my question, the two large oak doors in the front of the room began to creek open. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and faced the entrance as the procession of robed figures walked into the stone chamber.

I looked at the large group of robed figures and names appeared above their heads.

The withered old man that was leaving the group was titled:

Lvl ??? Master Sorcerer

I could not see what level he was, which meant he was at least more than 10 levels higher then me.

He was a human that was most likely over the age of 70. This was evident by the fact that he almost tripped over his long and wispy, pure-white beard. His flowing robes were various shades of crimson and scarlet, and they seemed to dance in the candlelight.

Behind him were approximately 10 other sorcerers, but unlike him they had blue robes and were only titled as grand sorcerers.

They all slowly walked over to a raised platform so that they could be seen by all of the players. The grand sorcerers evenly distributed themselves on each side of the Master Sorcerer.

Complete and utter silence filled the room.

Finally, Malfin the Wise began to speak, “Greetings fortunate ones. You are indeed lucky to have been chosen as disciples of the arcane arts.”

There was a long delay as Malfin the Wise began to stare off into space, as if he was lost in thought.

The grand sorcerer nearest to his right coughed loudly and brought his attention back to the present.

“Sorcerers are the practitioners of arcana and use mana to manipulate space and time. By channeling mana we can bend…” there was a long pause as his gaze swept over the room. His eyes were stern as they fell on me. “…And sometimes even break the laws of nature.”

He made sweeping gestures to the audience, indicating that he wanted everyone to move to the edge of the room. This left a large space in the middle of the room, to which he slowly walked.

Seemingly out of nowhere, he pulled out a large tome. He flipped through the pages slowly and then suddenly stopped. It was quite remarkable that the old man could hold up such a large book with just one hand.

While facing the wall he held out the palm of his right hand. In a normal tone of voice he said, “Arcane missiles.”

Small particles wrapped in a purple hue sped towards the wall at extraordinary speed. After a few seconds, the stream of missiles ended leaving the wall dented and scorched.

He turned around and gestured his hand towards one of the sorcerers.

Lvl.??? Grand Sorcerer

Sonas walked forward and similar to Malfin the Wise, she pulled a large object out of nowhere. The difference was that she had pulled out a staff that was decorated with stones of deep green imbedded within the wood.

Malfin the Wise slowly flipped a page over in his book and stood facing Sonas. He slowly placed his fist on his chest.

“Mana Shield.”

A large sphere encircled his body, almost as if he was stuck in a giant bubble.

Sonas then pointed her staff at Malfin, “Arcane missiles.”

A stream of purple particles of energy, similar to bullets, sped from the end of her staff towards Malfin. Before they hit the master sorcerer, they dissolved into nothingness as they collided with his mana shield.

“These are the first two spells that you will learn as apprentice sorcerers. In addition, each of you will be given a choice for your weapon.”

He paused as if to intensify the words he was about to speak, “The choices that you make now will be permanent.” Similarly to before, he looked over and held my gaze.

“You must choose between a staff and a tome. A staff will increase your magical damage by 5%, and a tome will reduce the mana cost of your abilities by 10%.”

Immediately a large blue text box appeared in front of me.

Would you like to choose a staff or a tome?

What is this! The game was already having us make a permanent decision right from the start! Hell, I had bigger problems to worry about than what kind of weapon I would choose.

I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to cast a single spell. Because my race is [Undead], I’m stuck with my passive [No Longer Alive], which prevents me from having any mana.

Thinking about how the game was screwing me over made me grind my teeth in anger.

I paused for a moment and looked around the room. It appeared that most of the other players had chosen the staff for obvious reasons. Because leveling up fast in the beginning of a game was the most important thing, the majority of the other players would choose a staff for the extra damage.

I was about to choose a staff myself, but then I glanced over at Malfin the Wise. He had a tome… hmm… well that’s a good enough reason for me. Besides, I have other problems I need to worry about.

“Tome” I said.

ding ding- The system notification rang in my ear.

In a beautiful display of blue and white light, a tome materialized in my hand.

Three text boxes appeared in quick succession.

You gained a new item

[Tome of Wisdom] (White Tier)

Attack Power: 1-2

Intelligence: +5

Endurance: +1

Passive: Reduces the mana cost of spells by 10%.

Level Requirement: 1

The quality and attributes of an item is based off its rarity. For Dreamscape the rarity of items goes as follows:

Gray->white->black->iron->steel->bronze->silver->gold->platinum->blue->purple->epic->ancient

I swiped the air with my hand to make the first text box disappear to reveal the text box beneath it.

You learned a new spell

[Arcane Missiles] lvl 1: Unleashes a torrent of arcane energy that can deal devastating damage. Consumes 50 MP (Mana Points), with a 10 second cooldown.

A cooldown is the length of time that a player needs to wait before using a specific ability again.

I swiped the screen away to reveal the final text box.

You learned a new spell

[Mana Shield] lvl 1: Draws upon the user’s mana to protect them from harm. Consumes 20 MP to activate and consumes 1 MP for each point of damage absorbed, up to a maximum of 25% of the user’s mana. Cooldown: 20 seconds.

Well that sounds great and all, but too bad I don’t have any mana!

I swiped the final text box away and quickly marched towards Malfin the Wise. It was about time that I got some dang answers!