The commanding voice echoed out into the inky blackness that surrounded me. Slowly, one by one, small pinpoints of light began to form, like dust on a chalkboard. Colorful clouds of gas filled some of the void between the points of light, and I suddenly realized what was happening. I was floating in space.

As soon as the realization hit me, I felt my body begin to shift and change. I could feel my bones lengthening and my facial features begin to shift under my skin. While it wasn’t painful, the suddenness of it sent me into a brief panic. I started to thrash about as I floated in the zero-g environment. My hands began to grow and turn a grey-green color. Suddenly, I felt a warm hand caress my face followed by a quiet, calming voice.

“Ssshhhhhh….”

I stopped moving, feeling a sense of calm wash over me. While the voice was clearly different from the one that had greeted me just moments ago, it still carried the same spiritual weight as the first. I could still feel my bones and flesh finishing the process of taking on the shape of my avatar, it just didn’t seem to matter anymore.

When the last of my body shifted into its new form, it began to rotate. Slowly, I could see a blue and green planet come into view. While the planet was very Earth-like, it was obvious that it was an alien world, even at a glance. My body eventually oriented towards one of the northern landmasses. As I began to realize that the continent matched the description for Epos, I felt my body begin to fall from orbit.

I fell, faster and faster, as I plummeted towards the planet's surface. The wind ripped at my face as I fell through the thin air. My descent was aimed at the western edge of the snow-covered mountains that bisected most of the continent. As I got closer to the planet, I was first able to make out the valley that Jadestone was located in, then the town and the western entrance to the Iron Road, the pass that ran through the mountains.

When I was able to start making out individual buildings in town, I felt the force that was guiding my descent suddenly shift. I was thrown around through the air as a text box opened in the corner of my vision.

-Alert-

Error - Dive - 881: Conflict between STAIN 1.41 - KPA 1.38 and HS Patch 1.011. Route to spawn blocked by Unit - E817-282-002312.

Finding a new spawn location… Searching… Searching… Please Wait… Searching

As the message continued to inform me that it was searching for a new spawn location, the force that had control of my body began to spin me around as if I was a plastic bag stuck in the middle of a wind vortex. Blood began to rush to my head and my vision started to go black around the edges as I spun faster and faster.

Searching… Please Wait… Searching… Searching…

-Alert-

Error - Dive - 722: Conflict between STAIN 1.41 - SLR 1.05 and HS Patch 1.011. Route to all other possible spawn locations blocked by HS Development Team from Patch 1.011.

My body came to a screeching halt as the new error appeared in my interface. The sudden deceleration roiled my gut. I began to vomit a stream of bile and stomach acid. Instead of falling to the ground, it hung in the air about a foot from my face.

“Hey, sorry for vomiting in your… whatever this thing is,” I said while trying to hold back another round of vomit. “Can you guys, I don’t know, release the puke… please.”

I waited a few moments as the silence hung heavy in the air. I felt a brief sense of both revulsion and pity permeate from the invisible bubble around me. A few seconds after the feeling passed, I fell face-first into the floating pile of vomit.

-Alert-

Update - STAIN 1.42 - SLR 1.05 to STAIN 1.421 - SLR 1.06. Resuming player spawn.

I wiped the foul-smelling bile from my eyes as my trajectory shifted. My body was now lined up to land in the valley’s forest just over a mile southeast of the town. A clearing in the trees became visible as my speed began to rapidly decline. Several feet from the snowy ground, my body was flipped right side up, just in time for my feet to gently settle into the cold embrace of fresh snow. As soon as I landed, a long list of notifications flashed across the side of my vision.

“Erik, you have messages waiting for you in your communication tab,” Pat said.

“Hey! Where in the hell did you go! I just went through a bunch of errors and the AI was ripping me around like I was on a malfunctioning tilt-a-whirl!” I snapped. I normally never raised my voice when talking to Pat, even though he was a simple AI assistant, but my experience falling from the sky still had me shaken up.

“I’m sorry Erik, the system AI linked me to your interface when you started the spawning process, and the interface didn’t unlock until just now.” Pat said, sounding slightly irritated, or at least as irritated as Pat could sound with me.

I let out a long slow breath, regaining my composure. “Sorry, Pat. I know you don’t have any say in what you can and can’t do within the game. I was just upset about being tossed around.”

“It is quite alright Erik. Is there anything I can help you with now that I am available?”

“Ya, see if you can locate the error codes and forward them to the Bug Report tab. Just post them, I need to write up a summary of what happened before I send it.”

“I will do that Erik. Please let me know if you need anything else.”

While Pat gathered the bug report information, I took a moment to look at my surroundings. I ended up landing in a small clearing in the dense forest that made up the majority of the valley. All the trees in the area were some species of fir that I was unfamiliar with.

I pulled in a long breath of air taking in the smell of the forest, only to remember that my face was covered in my own vomit. I pulled the bottom of my shirt up and used it to wipe my face clean. While it didn’t do anything to help with the smell, the rough fabric was able to wipe the mess away. I hoped that I would be able to get a new outfit during my tutorial quest considering that my shirt was already more or less ruined. With that in mind, I began to look through my list of notifications, which I would need to go through before starting my hike towards Jadestone.

You have received a message at 2:21 pm from System Tech Monitor Team

Erik, this is Dr. Lambert. I’ve just finished your vitals monitoring. Everything is looking good, no negative reactions to the dive or from anything in the LTP system. I will see you for your check-in once you log out. Have fun.

Wait, he sent this after 2 PM? I didn’t log in until sometime after 12, maybe 12:30. Checking my interface, I could see that it was now actually just past 3 PM outside the game. I can’t believe that I spent over two hours in character creation. I could also see that the internal game clock, while it didn’t give me an exact time, said it was just past noon. So the region of Jadestone was about three hours behind eastern standard back in the real world.

You have received a message at 2:59 pm from System Tech Monitor Team

Hey this is Liam. Just a heads up, the storm came in, and it's really rough out. Roads are already covered in ice. Dr. L left before it really started coming down, but they just issued a travel advisory. Send me a chat message when you get into the game, we might have to log you out.

Log me out? But I just got into the damned game! I opened up my chat interface and mentally selected the System Tech chat tab.

Erik: Hey Liam, I just spawned in. What's this about having to log out?

ST - Liam: Weather is bad. The tech that works the next shift came in before they issued a travel advisory, but the replacement nurse didn’t make it in and we don’t know if they are on their way or staying put. We can’t leave you in the game without both a tech and nurse to monitor. With me and the tech stuck here, we could switch out every few hours, but without a second nurse we’ll have to log you out before too long.

Erik: If you have to log me out, would I be able to log back in tomorrow?

ST - Liam: No. Policy is that on your first dive you have to complete a medical examination from the head physician. Without Dr. L here, we wouldn’t be allowed to log you back in.

Erik: Well shit! How long do I have?

ST - Liam: Under 5 hours. I’m in contact with Dr. L and he is trying to figure out whether the other nurse is on their way in, they might have already been on the road when the TA went out, so they may still show up. I’m having the other tech go and figure out who all is in the building and see if there is anyone else here who has the certification to monitor your vitals.

Erik: Alright. Thanks for the heads up. Just give me a fair warning before I have to log out if you can’t find someone to cover.

Well this is less than ideal. If I only had a few hours before I might have to log out, then I need to get a move on. I switched over to the Bug Reporting tab in my messages section and wrote up a quick summary of the errors I experienced. After submitting the report, my message was labeled as “under review”. Moving on I opened up the last notification that was flashing in the side of my vision, which gave me some details on my tutorial quest.

Quest!

Welcome Outworlder! You have arrived in the world of Hazelsong, a planet full of magic and adventure. As an Outworlder, you are a being with increased power and potential that exceeds that of this world's average inhabitants. Your coming has been foretold for generations and local forces have anticipated your arrival. Present yourself to the Outworlder Counselor in the town of Jadestone to begin the tutorial.

Objectives:

Present yourself to the Outworlder Counselor in Jadestone Finish tutorial tasks

Reward:

Your choice of 2 weapons or 1 weapon and a shield. Set of armor (Boots, Legs, Chest, Helmet) 2 Special Attacks (LVL 1 - Common)

Looks like I’ll have to hoof it over to Jadestone before I can start the tutorial and receive my starting gear. The only issue was that I was standing over a mile away in the middle of a forest with at least a foot of snow on the ground. I had no clue what kind of dangers were potentially lurking all around me, and the best protection I had was a puke stained shirt and a knife that the game classified as a tool instead of a weapon.

When I tried to mentally access my inventory to retrieve my knife nothing happened. I unslung the satchel from my shoulders and I looked it over. It was the size of a small backpack and it had a simple drawstring opening at the top. I attempted to mentally pull up information about the bag, and a transparent screen popped up in my vision.

Simple Knapsack - Small (Common)

Condition: 10/10

Weight: Under Maximum

This non magical bag can hold up to 15 LBS of equipment and items that can physically fit into the space. If the bag exceeds its weight limit or if items are improperly stored, the bag will take condition damage of 1 per hour. While wearing this bag on your back, the effect of the bag's weight on your carrying capacity is reduced by 50%.

Based on the description, it was clear that the bag was, by and large, no different than any bag that someone would use in the real world. I would likely have to find a magical bag in order to gain a more traditional RPG like inventory system. I opened the top of the pack and looked inside. The knapsack was neating organized, even though it suffered through the same conditions of my violent descent towards the planet's surface. Sitting neatly on top of all the items was a sheathed knife, which I pulled out to inspect. The knife had a single sided four inch long blade and its sheath could be attached to a belt.

Simple Knife - Tool (Common)

Condition: 10/10

Weight: Light

Damage: 1-2 Slashing/Piercing

This knife is a simple tool* designed to be used in a multitude of ways. You will not receive a skill penalty when using this knife to harvest materials or craft items.

*Tools can be equipped and used as impromptu weapons. Tools used as weapons will receive increased condition degradation and have reduced combat effectiveness.

The knife's description made it clear that I should avoid using it as a weapon if possible, otherwise I would risk it breaking. Its description also led me to believe that if I had access to a weapon, like a dagger, and I attempted to use it as a tool, that I would receive a skill penalty. While I would hate to accidentally break the knife, without having any other better options I went ahead and attached it with the simple cord belt on my pants.

Slinging my pack back on my shoulders, I quickly thought about the layout of the land when I spawned in. I knew that if I walked north, I would eventually come across the trail that led from one end of the valley to the other, connecting the entrances to the mountain pass. I wasn’t able to make out the trail from the sky, but I hoped that I would be able to identify it, even if it was covered in snow. I oriented myself in the direction that I believed to be north and I took my first step in a truly virtual world, and for the first time in over six years, I did not feel any pain.