“Welcome to the World of Damakar!”

“In this world you will encounter a new life and a new…”

“Skip”. Led said in a calm voice, he had been warned that the pre-game intro video would be about 15 minutes long, and he had already seen it. It had nothing to add to the research he had already done. Fortunately, he had read somewhere that he could skip it with a voice command.

The inside of his helmet had a display that with some lenses would enhance and enlarge the screen to completely surround your field of vision. Led had read that this screen was used to enhance his image in his dream, as well as being used to pre-game info for when you just wanted to check something without entering the REM state.

“Before starting, would you like to create a character in the REMGAR state, or would you like to do it now? Beware, some visuals will change from pre-game state to REMGAR state.” The voice didn’t seem to mind the abrupt interruption and instead continued on to her next pre-recorded message.

REMGAR was simply REM-Game Able Ready. It was the name for the dream-like state you entered when entering the game. It basically asked you if it was ok to put you to sleep, just that sleep really meant sleep in this context. Since Led was ready to go to bed anyway, he accepted the REMGAR initiation. Just as he said the confirmation, he blacked out.

And then he woke up. But, not really? Led was not alarmed as he knew he now was dreaming, but still, it had happened so fast that hadn’t even felt it. And now, he was standing in a huge room that looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. It was a giant room filled with giant screens, all showing different scenes from the trailer, or just casual scenes from a town. It was a great mix of sci fi with the high tech screens, and then fantasy that was showing on the screens.

And he really couldn’t tell that he was in a dream. Everything felt so real. As cliché as it was, Led had to pinch his arm just to check. He could actually feel a little bit of pain when pinching hard, but not enough to be alarming. He didn’t wake up from it either, so Led started to test his limbs and how it felt moving around. Nothing! It really felt as if he was awake, and his movements wasn’t hindered at all. Led bent down to the floor and marvelled at the fact that he couldn’t see any pixels or bad texturing. This technology truly was amazing. Led then walked to the middle of the room where a comfortable looking chair was placed. As he sat down the chipper lady spoke once again.

“Welcome, please state your alias name. Be aware that you should not use your real name, or at least not your whole name as Beyond Illusions take no responsibility for identity theft or equal crimes committed against you. It is also encouraged that you live a second life in the World of Damakar, so feel free to come up with a name that suits your new life.” The lady was both stern and pleasant when explaining. Too bad he probably wouldn’t get to hear from her again after this. Oh well, Led thought.

“Please state your name”.

“Led”. Led said, his unusual first name was already unusual enough to think that people wouldn’t believe it was his real name. Besides, the people he would play with already knew him, and Led knew that they wouldn’t care about stealing his identity.

“In this world you can play as a huge range of different races and classes, but beware. Not all classes can play certain races, and of course vise versa. Would you like to start with picking a class or a race?”

Led was starting to like this more and more. He was pretty sure that the human race was suitable for the Trickster Priest, but since he didn’t know of all the races yet he could compare them.

“Class, please”

As if Led had said a trigger word, all the screens started to show a huge list of classes each represented by their avatar. Each avatar stood animated with some pre set movements that Led guessed was their signature move or skill. The damage dealers were slashing, dodging or charging. The tanks were either using their shield to block an imaginary incoming hit, or to push away an imaginary enemy. The mages were showing of their spells, and all the other more miscellaneous classes were doing their things. Led was almost overwhelmed by all the choices, this would’ve taken a lot more time for him if he hadn’t already a class ready.

“Please take your time and pick a class. If you want to narrow it down, please state if you want to do damage, take damage, heal damage or avoid damage. If you need more help throughout the picking process just say “Help me please” at any time and I will guide you”.

This intrigued Led. He wondered if those four choices really could narrow it down to every class there was. What would happened if Led would try to get to the Trickster Priest by narrowing it down with the help of the computer. “I’d better not”, he thought. The server should start up soon. Led didn’t take any more time to look at the other classes, he doubted that he would learn anything of value by studying the avatars. Instead he stated in a clear tone.

“Trickster Priest, please”.

For some reason Led had thought that the computer would hesitate for a second. He didn’t know why he thought that, but he was almost expecting a jerk reaction. As if even the computer couldn’t believe that he would dare to take that class.

Instead, the computer reacted immediately and all the screens went blank except the one at Led’s eye level. On this screen a new avatar was standing looking at Led. It had a floating book in front of him and the avatar itself was reading it with great concentration. Once in awhile it would make a movement with it’s hands as if casting a spell, but it never once looked away from it’s book. Led wondered why the book was so important to the avatar that it didn’t even feel the need to look up from it. “Would the book be a starting object?” Led wondered.

The avatar was dressed in a dark robe, and Led only realized now how tattered it was. He could clearly remember that all the other avatar was dressed in high-end armour or robes as to show off the end-game items it could get. But this avatar did not go with this rule it seemed. Even the book looked old and nearly destroyed when Led looked at it more closely.

“Hologram please”. Led said, he had been too consumed by the avatar's first impression to remember that he could get the avatar in hologram. As he said the word, the avatar appeared as if another human being had been conjured out of thin air to the right of where he sat. Led stood up and inspected the avatar, but couldn’t really find anything else to point out. It kind of looked like a priest had become homeless and was now roaming the street begging for scraps. Nothing screamed end-game about this outfit.

“Oh well”, Led thought. Nothing to do about that. Let’s see the races.

“Possible races for the trickster priest, please”. He wondered if he could talk more normal to the computer, but since his first commands were just statements he continued with this. Again, as he pronounced the last letter the computer sprang to action and used the screens around the one with the trickster priest avatar on it. The pleasant voice started up again.

“As of now, there are only three of all the available races for the trickster priest. These are the human, the dark elf, and the dark serpents. Please be advised that humans are not specialized races and would not be recommended for all classes, even when it is a possible race for a class.”

“Ok?” This had definitely taken Led’s attention. Even an idiot would understand that the computer had basically warned Led not to take the human race. Or had it? Led didn’t know if it was just a warning, or a message that was automatically played when the human race was possible for a class.

“Please show me blademaster”. Led quickly said, and in an instance the trickster priest was gone and the avatar representing the blademaster was displayed.

“Possible races, please”. At once all the possible races appeared, followed by the computer.

“The possible races for the blademaster is…” and then the voice started to list all of the races. It was about 20 or so, as Led knew. The beta testers had given the award for most dps dealing class to the blademaster of the sword-wielder classes, and it was available to a lot of races, except for the ones who was not suitable for muscle- and weapon arts. When the computer was finally near the end of her list, she ended it with a:

“... and human. Which class would you like to play with?”

That was the clue Led needed, humans weren’t a bad race, it was just the most rounded. It had almost no downsides, but it didn’t have any particular strengths either. It was suitable for the people who didn’t want to deal with downsides in exchange for certain race advantages

such as night vision or water breathing. In fact, some of these advantages were nullified by class skills, such as the night vision and the water breathing. It wasn’t stupid in general to take the human class, but the blademaster hadn’t gotten a warning for taking the human. The trickster priest had.

“Trickster priest races, please”. Led went back to his class and started to ask the computer more questions, but then remembered a vital information.

“What races can start in Eldegaard?” Led asked.

“As of now,” the computer started again, “the only races that can start in Eldegaard is human and serpents.”

“Oh!” Led thought. That made it a lot less to think about. He was basically forced to pick the serpents as he couldn’t start as a dark elf in Eldegaard. Eldegaard was of course the city he had agreed to start in, as Dan would meet him there.

Led didn’t know if he was relieved or frustrated that he had so little of a choice as to what to pick. And, why so few races for a class?

“Computer, what are the race treats for dark elf?”

“The dark elf race has the known race treats to be extra magic resistance,

night vision, forest knowledge and hatred. The race is also known for being sensitive to the sun, to damage in water, and to holy damage.”

Led had read that not all race treats were revealed by the game and had to be discovered, but this was enough to make a judgement.

“Computer, what are the race treats for serpents?”

“The serpent's known race treats are extra magic resistance, ectothermic, hard skinned, infra-red sensitivity, vibration sensitivity and venomous. It’s disadvantages are weak, weak spot, fire sensitive and light magic sensitive.”

Led stood in thought. Serpents were quite the tricky race. They had such amazing treats, but then had these glaring weaknesses. Since they were weak, which really meant just that they couldn’t put a lot points in their strength stat, they weren't suited for weapon using classes. Since they were fire sensitive and light sensitive they would practically be useless in the basic magic using classes. At least if you wanted a chance in a pvp fight. It even had the weak spot treat that meant that it had a known weak spot that would do 250% damage if struck.

But then again, magic resistance from all the other magic classes, ectothermic which meant cold blooded would help him from freezing and other things. He would need to read up on what treats ectothermic gave him. Infra-red sensitive wasn’t just night vision either, it could see anything that produced heat, that was an amazing treat to have from the start. Vibration sensitivity should also be useful, Led thought. He had no idea how venomous could be useful yet, but he figured that it wasn’t a bad thing to have.

“Computer I would like to pick now, please.”

“Yes Led, (It had already started to say his name now, Led was going to miss this voice). What race would you like to be.”

“Serpent race, please”. Led said in a clear voice.

“Yes Led, what class would you like to start with?”

“Trickster Priest, please”. Again, in a clear voice. And again, Led was expecting a jerk or a hesitation from the computer. It didn’t of course.

“Yes Led, we would like to warn you that since this class is considered a locked class you can not change your class without the one month penalty. If this is understood, please say yes. If you wish to change your class and or race, please say no to my next question.”

“Do you want to be the race serpent as the class trickster priest?”

“Yes!” Led said, now almost impatient. “The hoops I have to jump through just to play this class”, he thought to himself.

“Confirmed, as the owner of a beta tester helmet, would you like the beta-comp to help you through your journey through the World of Damakar?”

“Eh, what?” Led said out loud. He hadn't read anything about this. A beta-comp? To help him? Led was intrigued again, he could need all the help he could get so why not.

“Yes, please.”

“Confirmed, please wait as there is 5 minutes left before the server is opened. Would you like to set gender and name to your beta-comp while you wait?”

Again, Led was taken by surprise. This really wasn't in anything he had read about.

“Eh, sure!” Led managed to fumble out, clearly not expecting the question.

“Ok, please state gender; male, female or genderless.”

“Genderless?” Led thought to himself. “Must be a computer voice.”

“Female please?” Led was really hoping to get the voice of the intro-lady. He had been thankful for her guidance through the class select. It would be even better if she would guide him through the whole game!

“Confirmed. Please state your beta-comp’s name, only one name can be used.”

Led couldn't think of anything, but for some reason a name popped up in his head. The name of his old neighbour who he had played with when young.

“Eva”.

“Confirmed. Eva will help you with your journey through the world of Damakar, if you have any questions you can ask her. Codeword for question prompt is set to Eva, this can be changed at a later time, as the same with name and gender.”

“Server is available for entering in 2 minutes, do you want to change your avatar's appearance or just chose a base scale colour for your race? Base colours available are dark red, dark green, dark ash or black.”

“I’ll take dark ash, please. No need for further adjustments” Led was tired of all these last minute questions, dark ash had a nice ring to it so he took that.

“Confirmed. Please hold as we will now transfer you to the World of Damakar”.