The screen in front of me filled most of my field of view. When I moved my head, the screen followed me, staying firmly fixed in the center of my vision. I read the screen again.

Welcome to Hazelsong. Please select your desired spawn location.

Below the text was four words in what appeared to be clickable buttons. The only one that wasn’t greyed out was labeled Epos. I spent a few seconds confused about what I should do. When I normally used virtual reality, I had haptic gloves that I could use to either manipulate a cursor or manually select buttons with my hands. But when I tried to raise my hands here, nothing happened. I could feel my arms, I could feel myself moving, but couldn’t see anything but the screen in front of me. Suddenly, a tooltip popped up in my vision.

To navigate menus, think of the action you wish to complete. To close out of this tooltip, think “close tooltip”.

True to its word, simply thinking of closing the tooltip closed the window. I focused back on the text box on my screen and mentally clicked on Epos. The screen quickly dissolved and was replaced with another.

Continent of Epos

The northernmost continent on the planet Hazelsong. Known as “The Gateway to the North” due to its land bridge to the planet's northern ice cap. Surrounded by oceans on both its east and west coast and divided by the Lofour Mountain Range, Epos is an ancient land rich in resources and forgotten magic.

Select Spawn Location:

Jadestone - Kingdom of Vitis

I mentally selected Jadestone, which popped up another menu.

Jadestone - Kingdom of Vitis

Located on the eastern board of the human Kingdom of Vitis inside a large forested valley on the western edge of the Lofour Mountain Range. This mining town and trade hub is the beginning of the Iron Road, one of the few passes that leads into the Kognbohr Empire, and through to the eastern half of the continent.

Spawn: Yes/No

Without having any other options before me, I selected “yes”. The menu faded away and a new one took its place.

Welcome to Character Creation

Any choices made during character creation become permanent upon completion. You may go back to previous menus and make any necessary changes to your class, race, racial traits, skills, or stats prior to finalizing your character.

Class Selection

Please select a starting class from the list below to view it in more detail. Once you have chosen a starting class, please continue to race selection.

Starting Classes

Power Martial

Finesse Martial

Ranged Martial

Scholarly Caster

Natural Caster

Instinctual Caster

The names for the martial classes seemed to be pretty self-explanatory. I assumed Power Martials were strength-based fighters that either focused on tanking or melee DPS, while Finesse Martials likely focused more on dodging and critical-based melee strikes. A Ranged Martial would obviously be the choice if you wanted to focus on fighting from a distance with a bow or crossbow.

While the martial classes were obvious just based on their names, the caster options didn’t seem so straightforward. I focused on Scholarly Caster and a new text box appeared.

Scholarly Caster - Starting Class, LVL 1:

A novice of arcane casting, a Scholarly Caster relies on their knowledge in the field of arcana to manipulate their stored mana to cast a wide range of spells.

Class Features

Stats: +5 INT

Armor: Untrained to Trained in (Robes)

Weapons: Untrained to Trained in (Staffs, Wands)

Skills: Untrained to Trained in, (Basic - Arcana, Advanced Arcana: Scroll/Spell Recording, Common)

Caster Type - Prepared

Active Spells: LVL 1 - Two

Caster Type - Prepared/Scholar

A prepared caster selects a number of active spells from their known spell list. The number of active spells per spell level is based on a character's level and class. A level 1 Scholarly Caster can have two level 1 spells active at a time. Active spells can only be swapped out while in a designated safe area, or at the end of a rest cycle. Spell power is based on your Intelligence stat.

Casting Focus - Spellbook

Spellbooks are a casting focus that is unique to Scholarly Casters. Spellbooks must be on your person in order to cast spells or select active spells. Spells from spell scrolls and other spellbooks can be recorded in your spellbook. See the skill Scroll/Spell Recording for more information. You may also learn spells when you level up based on your chosen class and sub-class.

Reading through the class description gave me a good idea of what the class archetype was all about. This was the obvious choice for someone who wanted to become your classic wizard or any kind of class that focused on arcana. After looking through the other casting options, I quickly realized where each class would lead me when it came time to select my base class at level 3.

Natural Spell casters focused on using their understanding of natural magic forces to cast spells and their spell power was based on wisdom. These spellcasters prepared spells in the same way Scholarly Casters did, but they gained access to a whole list of spells based on their level and current class, and their spell focuses were simple items like medallions or crests that they could wear. This seemed to be the class to pick if I wanted to eventually become a cleric or druid.

When looking at the Instinctual Caster, I could instantly tell this was the option to pick if I wanted to take a Bard class. Instinctual Caster’s spell power was based on their charisma stat, but the big difference was that they didn’t have to prepare spells like Scholarly or Natural Casters.

Caster Type - Instinctual

Instinctual spell casters can cast any spell that is available on their spell list and off cooldown. While an instinctual caster is more versatile compared to other casting types, these spellcasters are much more limited in how they gain access to spells. Instinctual spell casters only gain access to specific spells when leveling up based on their class or sub-class.

All three casting classes seemed strong in their own ways, even though I didn’t know what effect intelligence, wisdom, and charism had outside of spell power. Scholars seemed like natural utility casters, with the ability to gain access to a wide range of spells. Natural casters seemed powerful in that they had immediate access to a wider range of spells, but their spell list was most likely limited in some way. Instinctual casters were the most versatile of all the casters since all their spells were always active, but they were limited by how many spells they could learn.

While all this was interesting, I wasn’t really looking to get into spell casting, at least not right away. When I played RPG’s, I tended to focus on playing martial characters, specifically damage dealers. If I ever got into spell casting when playing a game, it was as a martial focused character who had access to partial spell casting. Ever since I had accepted the job from Brian, I knew exactly what kind of character I wanted to play. I clicked on Power Martial.

Power Martial - Starting Class, LVL 1

A novice of frontline combat, Power Martials are strength based melee characters who specialize in absorbing and delivering physical damage.

Class Features

Stats: +5 STR

Armor: Untrained to Trained in (Medium Armor, Light Armor, Shields)

Weapons: Untrained to Trained in (Simple/Martial Melee Weapons, Simple/Martial Thrown Weapons.)

Skills: Untrained to Trained in, (Basic - Athletics, Advanced Athletics: Stand Fast, Common)

Fighting Styles: Untrained to Trained in (Shield Fighting, 2-Handed Weapons, Brawling)

The information for Power Martial seemed much more bare-bones compared to the spell casters, but I had been expecting that. Martials tended to be pretty straightforward while spell casters always ended up being a bit more complicated to play. Even the listed fighting styles for the Power Martial seemed clear cut. Shield fighting allowed me to fight with a weapon in one hand and a shield in another, while the 2-handed weapon style allowed me to fight with more powerful two-handed weapons, and brawler was a strength based form of unarmed combat.

Happy with my selection, I mentally confirmed my choice and moved on to the next section.

Race Selection

In Hazelsong, you have a wide selection of playable races to choose from. Your starting location has an effect on what races will be available for you. If you would like to select from the full list of races, you may de-select your spawn point, and then re-select once you have chosen your race.

Below the text was a scrollable list of all the available playable races. The list included well over 50 options, and I knew that each one likely included a healthy amount of hybrids and sub-races. Even though many of the races were familiar to me, I was left stumped more often than not when reading through the race selections, which left me feeling a bit overwhelmed.

“It's going to take me forever to sift through all these to find something I like.”

“Would you like my assistance, Erik?” Said a familiar voice. Brian had told me before logging in that I’d have access to Pat while in-game and I completely forgot.

“Pat, are you able to curate the list of available races?” I asked.

“Yes Erik, if you give me a list of desirable traits and criteria, I can narrow down the choices on screen for you.”

“Ok, please narrow it down to any races or subraces that give boosts to strength and constitution. That seems like a good place to start.”

The list of races suddenly shifted. Several options in the list vanished from the screen, while others were replaced with specific subrace options that were originally hidden inside the main race’s menu. The new list that Pat had provided now had just over fifteen options, not including any hybrids. Even though the list was in alphabetical order, I went ahead and scrolled down until I found Human, knowing this would be the race that offered the most variety.

Race - Human

Sub Race - None

Description: A versatile race capable of adapting and excelling in most forms of combat.

Stats: +5 to two stats of your choice

Sight: Normal

Speed: Normal

Languages: Standard, +1 Race Language, Common

Skills: Basic - Knowledge, Advanced - Knowledge: Human, Common

Race Reputation: Goblinoids - All (Hated), Gnolls (Hated), Orcs (Unfriendly), Gnomes (Unfriendly).

Core Racial Trait: Versatile

Every 5th level, starting at level 5, when you receive your racial boost to stats, instead of getting +5 to your initially chosen stats, you can instead choose to receive a pool of +12 stat points that you can distribute among any of your 6 core stats, as long as no stat receives more than 4 stat points. +5% to ALL* skill experience gain. *Includes weapon, armor, and spell skills.

The choice of human was more interesting than I had anticipated. As I expected, it was designed to be a catchall race that could succeed in any kind of playstyle. Its specific racial trait was also really powerful. Based on the description, starting at level 5 and every 5 levels afterward we would re-receive our race's stat bonus, which really helped drive home the importance of picking a race that aligned with your future class choice.

However, humans were encouraged to spread out their stats in exchange for a couple of extra stat points every 5 levels. Even without looking at any of the class options yet, I was sure that classes likely required a heavy investment into at least three or four of the core states, and this trait made it slightly easier to focus on your stat spread outside of your main two. They also got a 5% boost to skill experience in all skills, even combat-related skills. Without even spending time playing the game yet, I could understand how powerful a general exp boost skill would be.

Even though I was pleasantly surprised with how powerful the human was, it still wasn’t for me. Looking for something more tailored to melee combat, I backed out into the race selection menu without looking at any of the potential half-breed races that were available. I figured I would go back and check hybrid races if nothing else stuck out to me. Scrolling through the list, I found another race that I was interested in checking out.

Race - Dwarf

Sub Race - Mountain

Description: Dwarves are hardy and hardworking people. Dwarves make equally good warriors and smiths. Mountain Dwarves are considered to produce the strongest soldiers of any other dwarven clan.

Stats: +5 to CON, +5 to STR (From Sub Race)

Sight: Darkvision

Speed: Walking reduced %20, Climbing increased 20%

Languages: Standard, Dwarvish

Skills: Basic - Knowledge, Advanced - Knowledge: Dwarf, Common

Race Reputation: Kobolds (Hated), Orcs (Despised), Goblinoids - All (Despised), Elves - (Unfriendly)

Core Racial Trait: Dwarven Constitution

Dwarves receive +10% hit points and +10% stamina regeneration. Mountain Dwarves receive a 5% stamina reduction from climbing and attacking. +5% experience in all smithing and stone masonry skills that branch off of the Basic Skill Crafting.

This was interesting. It appeared that selecting a race by itself gave a player a little bit of flexibility in what they wanted to select for their second stat boost while selecting a sub-race locked in the secondary stat in exchange for an additional benefit in their core racial trait. In the Mountain Dwarf’s case, it locked the second stat in as strength and it reduced stamina costs for attacking and climbing a small amount. That on top of the dwarf’s other buffs in its Dwarven Constitution racial trait was huge for a martial character.

As great as their racial trait was, the loss of movement speed bothered me. The climbing speed sounded nice, especially since Jadestone was located in the mountains, but it still seemed situational at best. It was a trade-off I didn’t know if I was willing to make.

“Pat, can you go through and remove any races that have a reduction to their walking speed.”

“Yes, Erik.”

A handful of other races, including the dwarf, disappeared from the list. I spent some time looking through a few races that I didn’t recognize right away. Some of them were interesting, but none of the racial traits really caught my eye. I began to think that I would have to start looking at the human hybrid races before I came across the Mountain Orc.

Race - Orc

Sub Race - Mountain

Description: A race with a culture built around strength and loyalty. Orcs are viewed as aggressive and hostile by most major cultures. Mountain Orcs are the hardiest example of their race.

Stats: +5 STR, +5 to CON (From Sub Race)

Sight: Darkvision

Speed: Normal, Climbing increased 10%

Languages: Standard, Orcish

Skills: Basic - Knowledge, Advanced - Knowledge: Orc, Common

Race Reputation: Elves (Hated), Dwarves (Despised), Halflings (Despised), Gnomes (Unfriendly), Humans (Unfriendly).

Core Racial Trait: Orcish Ferocity

When below 25% health, deal 20% more damage. When reduced to 0 HP, you immediately regain 1% of your total health and gain immunity to all damage for 10 seconds, during which time all debuffs on you are suspended. This effect will not trigger and immunity will end if the player is decapitated. This effect can only trigger once per day. Mountain Orcs receive 5% less damage from any physical damage sources. Orcs receive 5% additional experience for all skills in the athletics skill tree.

It was nearly perfect for the type of character I wanted to build. Orcish Ferocity, while not as consistent as Dwarven Constitution, was extremely powerful in the right situation. While damage buff would only trigger once I was below 25% health, once it did I would become a powerhouse. In close battles, this could be the kind of ability that turns the tide in my favor.

The real prize came from the Mountain Orc sub-race. A flat 5% reduction to damage was small, but since it applied to all physical damage, it would go a long way. It could even help extend the time I could sit below 25% health so that I could use my damage buff to greater effect.

All the other aspects of the trait were nice, but they were really just bonuses. 5% more experience towards my Athletic Skills would come in handy considering I was a strength-based class, but without knowing what skills were available, it was hard to say how useful it actually was. Darkvision is always a good bonus, but not something I would go out of my way to get on a character in most cases. The damage immunity portion of Orcish Furocity was interesting, but it was hard to tell how useful it would really be. If our party ends up with a healer, it could help save my life every once in a while. Otherwise, its only use would be to give me a few more hits in before the immunity ends and I get killed by a follow-up attack.

The biggest issue with the Orc was that they had a negative racial reputation with all the races present in Jadestone. While the reputation with humans was only unfriendly, two levels away from neutral, the reputations of elves and dwarves were only one and two levels away from hostile according to the wiki.

Still, based on what Brian told me it shouldn’t matter all that much, at least not in Jadestone. I should be able to knock out some early tutorial quests to get my reputation up above board before too long. Feeling confident in my final decision, I mentally selected Mountain Orc as my race.

Racial Trait Selection

At level 1 and every 4 levels after, you can select a racial trait. While all members of a race will all receive the same Core Racial Trait when selecting their race, normal Racial Traits gained via leveling up are chosen by the player. Some racial traits are available for multiple races while others are unique for your specific race.

This was interesting. I hadn’t anticipated that I would get to choose a race-specific trait. Taking a quick moment to look over the offerings, I could see how these traits were different from the core racial trait that I gained access to by picking the race itself. While some of these traits were strong, none of them came close to everything I gained from the core trait. I looked through the traits for several minutes until two caught my eye.

Orcish Traditions - Orcs LVL 1

Orcish culture is richer than most realize. While our hordes and holds may be remote from one another, our shared culture and traditions are what keep us linked and united.

Untrained to Trained in Advanced Skill Knowledge: Orcish Traditions/Culture, Uncommon*

*This advanced skill and the (Advanced Skill Crafting: Unknown, Uncommon) are required to unlock the (Advanced Skill Crafting: Unknown, Rare).

The trait itself wasn’t what caught my eye, it was the unknown skill that it potentially led to. The big issue was, I still didn’t have a firm understanding of how the skill system worked. It seems like there were both basic skills, like Athletics and Crafting, and advanced skills, which seemed to be locked behind the basic skills. The fact that the knowledge skill was uncommon and could be used to create a rare crafting skill led me to believe this trait was fairly powerful. The issue was, I just didn’t see how the skill would help me in the short term. There was one trait however that stood out from all the rest.

Physically Intimidating - Above Average Sized Races LVL 1

Wordplay will always play a major role when trying to strike fear in the heart of a foe. Sometimes though, it just helps to be big and scary.

Untrained to Trained in Basic Skill - Intimidation. Untrained to Trained in Advanced Skill - Intimidation: Frighten, Common.

All intimidation skills in the intimidation skill tree now rely on Strength to a HIGH degree, instead of a MODERATE degree.

When reviewing the intimidation skill in the wiki, I learned two important pieces of information. The first was that the frighten skill could be used to apply a fear debuff on enemies in combat, which lowered their attack speed and dodge chance. The second was that intimidation, and I assume all skills, relied on three separate stats when making in-game calculations.

What made this trait strong was that it raised Strength from being the secondary stat in the intimidation skill tree to being a co-primary stat with Charisma, meaning that any intimidation skills I used would be more powerful on average than another character with a similar stat spread without the feat. Once I had decided on Physically Intimidating as my level 1 racial trait, I moved on to the next section of player creation, which was skill selection.

Skill Selection

Skills in Hazelsong are separated into two separate categories. Basic and Advanced Skills. All basic skills include several unranked skills and act as the entry point to specific skill trees and their Advanced Skills.

At level 1, players will be allowed to train in 3 Basic skills in addition to any Basic Skills they gained training in due to their class, race, or racial traits. Starting at 2nd level and every 2 levels until character level 20, players will be able to train in another basic skill or increase their training level if their current level allows. After level 20, characters will only train in a basic skill or increase their training level in a basic skill every 5 levels, and they may only train a skill in this manner up to Expert.

Players can only gain initial training in a skill through a trait, or by leveling up. Plays can upgrade skills through traits, leveling up (see restrictions above), or by completing quests.

Current Trained Skills

Basic:

Athletics (Power Martial): STR - HIGH, CON - MOD, DEX - LOW Intimidation (Physically Intimidating): CHA - HIGH, STR - HIGH*, CON - LOW Knowledge (All Races): None

Advanced:

Intimidation: Frighten, Common (Physically Intimidating) Athletics: Stand Fast, Common (Power Martial) Knowledge: Orc, Common (Orc Race)

Skills Available to Select: 3

The description in the Skill Selection menu helped confirm some of the suspicions I had about the skill system. I had suspected that basic skills operated as an entry point to the advanced skills when I unlocked both the basic skills for athletics and intimidation along with advanced skills in their skill trees. What I hadn’t thought about was that the training level of the basic skill worked as a level cap for all the skills in its skill tree.

Looking at the Skills page on the wiki, I could see that while each level of training capped the level of its skill tree, it also capped the level of the unranked skills all players knew by default. While a basic skill was untrained, that tree's basic unranked skills would become capped at level 5. Based on the importance of some skill trees unranked and common skills, players would likely see themselves become at least trained in most core skill areas.

After spending time on the wiki to get a better idea of some of the unranked and common skills, I spent a few minutes looking through the list of available basic skill trees. I knew right off the bat that I was going to take the crafting skill. The Orcish Traditions trait had already piqued my interest and I wanted to explore the possibility of crafting some of my own gear.

While crafting was an easy pick, the other options weren’t so simple. I had considered taking Persuasion for the simple fact that I might need all the help I could get when spawning into a town full of less than friendly NPC’s, especially since I was planning on investing at least a little bit into charisma. However, I ended up selecting Mobility after looking through some of its unranked and common skills and understanding how they would help me with my maneuverability and balance while in combat.

The final skill I decided to select was Perception. Based on the other RPGs that I had played in the past, I understood how important the perception skill was to noticing and avoiding danger. The only hangup that I had was that I wouldn’t have the best stat focuses to support the skill, but the same could also be said for crafting. Regardless, I was certain that the skill would be useful in the early levels, and if worse came to worse I could invest in other skills moving forward.

Skills Selected:

Crafting: INT - HIGH, CON - MOD, CHA - LOW

Mobility: DEX - HIGH, STR - MOD, CON - LOW

Perception: WIS - HIGH, DEX - MOD, CON - LOW

Basic Skills

Animals

Arcana

Deception

Intuition

Investigate

Medicine

Mobility

Nature

Occult

Performance

Persuasion

Religion

Stealth

Survival

Thievery

Trade

Vessels

Leaving skills like trade and stealth off my final list wasn't easy to do, but knowing that I would have a couple of chances to train them through leveling up before I could take any of my other skills up to Adept at level 5 made the decision almost bearable. I went ahead and mentally confirmed my changes before I could second guess my decision any further. As a new window replaced the skill selection screen, a large 3D orc appeared.

Avatar

Your avatar has been preloaded with your real-life physical profile and melded with your chosen race. Please take a moment to customize your avatar as much, or as little, as you want. Once you are ready to advance, input your character's name and advance to the final section.

The 3D model of my character didn’t look much like me at all. Its jawline, while similar in shape, was much wider than my own compared to the rest of its head, and its nose sat on its face as if it was made of clay and someone had smooshed it in with their thumb. The one feature that did resemble me was the eyes. Its eyes were pale blue and just like my own, they sat under a similar protruding brow.

Not seeing anything wrong with the orcs face, I made a few minor adjustments to the rest of its body. I changed the hair to a raven black, straightened it out, and trimmed it down to be only a few inches long. Then I put a few extra inches on my height, which left the avatar standing at just over 7 feet tall. Giving the model one final glance, I mentally confirmed my choices, which popped up a text box for my character name. I didn’t see much of a reason to not use my first name, but I wanted something more appropriate for my race as a surname. After looking through a few options in the game's wiki I selected one that seemed to fit. In the space for my character's name, I wrote ‘Erik Uloth’.

Finalize Your Character

You are ready to complete the character creation process. The following items will be added to your inventory once you have confirmed your character.

You Receive: Rough Simple Tunic, Rough Simple Pants, Rough Simple Boots, Knapsack (Small), tinderbox, Rope (50ft), waterskin, rations x 5, Simple Iron Knife (Tool)

All weapons, armors, and spells will be granted as you work through your initial tutorial quests. You have 20 stat points to distribute. You may only place up to 5 stat points into a stat. During each level up, players will be given another +10 stat points to distribute. You may only place up to 5 stat points into a stat during each level up. Once you have distributed your stats, you may review your character sheet before continuing.

While I knew which stats were going to be important for me to invest in based on the character archetype I was aiming for, I decided that it would still be a good idea to take a moment to review the effect each stat actually had on the game.

Strength: Accuracy for STR Based Weapons. Melee Weapon Damage. Critical Damage Multiplier, Carrying Capacity. Stamina Pool.

Dexterity: Accuracy for Finesse Weapons and Ranged Weapons. Ranged Weapon Damage. Critical Hit Chance. Dodge Chance. Stamina Regeneration.

Constitution: Health Pool and Regeneration, Poison and Disease Resistance

Intelligence: Spell Power (Select Classes), Mana Pool.

Wisdom: Spell Power (Select Classes), Mana Regeneration

Charisma: Spell Power (Select Classes), Mana Pool/Regeneration*

Each stat worked just about as I expected it to, at least for the most part. The one surprise was that charisma seemed to increase a character's mana pool and mana regeneration, though looking at it further showed each point of charisma would only give me half as much mana and mana regeneration that a point in intelligence or wisdom respectively. So while charisma casters would get an even distribution of both their mana pool and regeneration, they would likely still have to invest fairly heavily in both wisdom and intelligence if they wanted to be a full caster.

It didn’t take too much time to distribute my stat points since I knew exactly where I wanted to put them after having already built my character. I divided the points evenly among strength, dexterity, constitution, and charisma. Once my points were distributed, I reviewed my character sheet.

Erik Uloth - Level 1 Mountain Orc

Class: Power Martial

Stats: Strength (25), Dexterity (15), Constitution (20), Intelligence (10), Wisdom (10), Charisma (15).

Health Points: 200 (20-HP per minute)

Stamina Points: 250 (15-SP per minute)

Mana: 175 (17.5-MP per minute)

Languages: Standard, Orc

Movement Speeds: Climbing +10%

Vision: Darkvision

Martial Skills:

Armor: Medium Armor (Trained), Shields (Trained) Weapons: STR Melee (Trained), STR Throwing (Trained) Fighting Styles: Shield Fighting (Trained), 2-Handed Weapons (Trained)

Casting Skills:

Caster Type: None Spell Focus: None Active Spells: None

Racial Traits:

Core - Orcish Ferocity

The more damage an Orc takes, the more dangerous it is. When an Orc is below 25% healthy, they deal 20% more damage. When an Orc is dealt a death blow, they stay standing with 1 HP and receive damage immunity for 7 seconds. During this time any debuffs on the Orc are suspended. The trait will not trigger and immunity will end if the player is decapitated. Mountain Orcs receive 5% less damage from any physical damage sources. Orcs receive 5% additional experience for all skills in the athletics skill tree. *Will not trigger if death blow is from decapitation and effect will end if decapitated.

Racial Trait LVL 1 - Physically Intimidating

Wordplay will always play a major role when trying to strike fear in the heart of a foe. Sometimes though, it just helps to be big and scary. Untrained to Trained in Basic Skill - Intimidation. Untrained to Trained in Advanced Skill - Intimidation: Frighten, Common. All intimidation skills in the intimidation skill tree now rely on Strength to a HIGH degree, instead of a MODERATE degree.

Basic Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, Crafting, Intimidation, Knowledge, Perception

Advanced Skills: Intimidation - Frighten, Knowledge - Orc, Athletics: Stand Fast

All in all, I was satisfied with the choices I made. I mentally confirmed my choices as a surge of excitement rushed through me. As the window in front of me blinked out of existence, the space around me began to grow dark, until my surroundings were pitch black. A feminine voice full of divine authority rang out from all directions.

“Outworlder, welcome to Hazelsong.”