-Chapter 3

After finishing my character creation I promptly left through a door and arrived in a room with a giant window and a staircase leading downwards. I approached the window and saw

an amazing sight.

A large city lay before me, with many different sized stone buildings and wooden houses. The city also displayed crisscrossing channels of water. People also littered the cobblestone streets, standing at stalls or walking from place to place.

Above the window lay a golden plack with the words -VENSYE THE CITY OF RIVERS - embedded in the gold.

The city reminded me of other cities belonging to fantasy games and books. It was not an original idea but was breathtaking all the same.

The contrast of the rivers, the stone structures, the wooden houses and the trees / grassy-areas within the city all formed together to make a beautiful scene.

I noticed that I was within a tower. Eager to begin, I hurried down the staircase to arrive at the bottom of the tower. A large open door beckoned me to the outside world.

I left the tower, and sounds of people talking filled the air.

“Selling Leather armor! Cheap leather armor here!”

“Anyone got any Wolf fangs? Willing to buy wolf fangs!”

“Need two more for leveling, doing marsh outskirts route! Level 26 or over please!”

“Selling hard-leather wrist guards! Really rare and cheap! Only taking offers over 50 silver!”

Enamored by the atmosphere of the city, I walked around taking the sights in. Small children could be seen playing tag within a park. Archways and bridges could be seen everywhere.

After a few minutes of walking around enchanted by the city, I decided to sit down on a bench and start exploring the interface.

Unlike other games that had things like health bars and names over people within your vision, Darkstory was unique in the way it tackled the need for interface information like status effects, inventory and health.

I looked at my hands, on both the back of my hands and my palms, glowing text and information was shown.

The back of my left hand had a glowing red 100% placed in the center, from what I read in the information booklet that came with the game, this was something called blood-health.

The inside of my left hand had a small table with numbers and short words.

Level – 1

Agi – 11

Stam – 7

Str – 3

Int – 0

It looks like I had a lot of agility, that’s perfect. I was planning on playing like I did in other games and focusing on agility and speed.

It was a little disappointing that my strength was so low but it made sense since I was a sickly homeless person for so long, and even now I didn’t eat much.

I wasn’t completely clear on how all the stats work. How much does 11 agility affect my speed in combat? Where would I find out how it works?

Oh that reminds me!

I need to set my goals to find a weapon and then begin killing monsters for enough money to buy an information bracelet!

Information bracelets are super necessary from what I remembered.

Unlike other online games, Darkstory had almost all information available to you in the game directory. Some information would be blocked off by fee’s but the game developers wanted to make sure that the difficulty in the game was not in how there was a lack of understanding in how everything worked, but rather how hard the combat is.

Now, looking at the inside of my right hand I could see three icons. The icons reminded me of other games, the bag shaped icon probably meant inventory, the other two meant friends-list and log-out.

The back of my right hand had no glowing text or icons on it, but from what the guide told me, this is where status effects and target information would be displayed.

Looking back at the inventory icon I pressed it with my finger.

A female voice sounded out inside my head

*Inventory empty*

A little unsettled by the voice, I realized that of course Darkstory would have a notification system of some sort.

Well if my inventory was empty then didn’t that mean that……I had no weapon?

That’s horse-shit.

Well I guess that means this is the first game where I start without a weapon, and what I was wearing wasn’t to amazing either.

I had brown trousers and leather shoes that both looked new.

Additionally I was wearing a full-sleeves white cloth-shirt with cuffs.

On my cuffs I noticed a small circle with an (I) icon.

I put my finger on it and then glowing text appeared on the back of my right hand.

{--New condition – Cloth shirt – Defense rating (2)--}

Well that’s cool, again it seems like all interface options were built to be in-world interactive. What I could see was identical to the real world. No floating health bars. No floating menu screens.

I guess that made it so the game didn’t interfere with your immersion, even the glowing information on your hands could be role-played to be some sort of ancient magic.

The only thing that felt out of place was the voice that went off in my head. I think it could be disabled though, I remember reading about how a lot of customization options existed for people who wanted Darkstory to feel just like real life.

Done with sitting around and figuring things out, I decided it was time to find a weapon.

I went up to a tall bearded guy sitting at a stall selling armor and asked him

“Ummm sorry to bother you but could I have a moment of your time to ask you some questions? I just started playing Darkstory and was wondering if you could help me find a weapon so I could go out and level”

"Level?" he scoffed

The bearded man looked at me with a bored expression before sighing dramatically.

“Listen here kid, I used to be an aspiring adventurer like you before I took a claw to the knee.

Now I sit around making shit and then selling my shit because it makes more money than doing something stupid like fighting those beast fuckers.

You should just do the smart thing and apply as a merchant or crafter at the guild-centers.

They give you a bit of cash to start out and then just do errand quests till you make enough money to buy materials or set-up a trade.

If the words that are coming out of my mouth mean jack-shit to you and you're just gonna do whatever the fuck you want, then go to the adventurers guild and sign up.

You’re going to get a weapon or some shit for free and then you can go out and get yourself killed like all the other idiots who want to kill monsters.

Now fuck off, I’m trying to sell shit here.”

“Thank you so much” I replied.

Well then, that kind guy sure did help me out! Time to go find the adventurers guild!

As I was walking away I heard a yell behind me

“HEY YOU STUPID FUCK-WIT, THAT’S THE WRONG WAY. THE GUILD CENTER’S EAST, NOT WEST.”

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- 1 hour later

Well this is embarrassing.

It took me an hour to find the guild center. This city is easy to get lost in, lots of alleys and roads going everywhere.

The guild center was this massive plaza with three separate sections.

The merchants guild section had an intricate and well-designed water-fountain featured in front of the main building, which was a tall sky reaching structure. Easily the tallest building in the city, the merchants guild also had many people coming and going.

On the other side was the crafters guild, which consisted of many different work-shops and establishments.

Having one main building in the center, the crafters guild was open to all sorts of different professions. Alchemists, tailors, blacksmiths, leather-workers and many more.

Then in the center of the plaza was the adventurers guild.

Easily the guild with the least amount of traffic, few people could be seen sitting outside on the benches near the guild. One medium sized building was all that consisted of the adventurer’s guild. Feeling courageous I strode past the entrance gate labeled - ADVENTURERS GUILD - and went inside.

Inside an environment belonging to a bar greeted me. Over to the left were couches and chairs positioned around tables. Up ahead of them was a bar, stools were positioned in front of a counter. From the bar, a lady dressed in a blouse and corset was bar-tending. A large amount of bottles and bar-tools lay on another counter behind her.

The guild only had a few heavily-built men seated inside. They had large swords, shields and chain-mail armor lying by their sides, drinking somberly.

On the right side of the guild however, were two booths both attended by women similarly dressed as the one at the bar.

I went up to the booth and said to the worker, “excuse me, I would like apply to be an adventurer”

“Please sign this form of consent. This form states that you are officially endorsed by the adventurers guild and will be added to our world-wide ranking system, although your name will be hidden you will be given a rank based on your level.

The higher your rank, the more accommodations the adventurers guild will make for you!

Top 5000 players will receive a monthly salary of 5 gold.

The top 1000 players will be awarded with VIP privileges!

Also all adventurers will have their own magical storage. Arrive at any of the three adventurer guild centers and you can access a storage box that contain all items placed inside. Please be warned that the storage does have a limit.”

“Additionally all new adventurers are allowed to pick second-hand weapons from our selection. Do you wish to pick a weapon?”

“umm, yes”

I quickly read through and signed the form.

“Exit out of the building from the main entrance and circle around the back, there you will find a man named Randy sitting in-front of a tool-shed. Please give him this ticket and you will be allowed to get your weapons.”

I got up and took a good look at the NPC, she seemed so lifelike…..She even had human-like facial expressions and mannerisms.

Then I left the building and followed the attendant’s directions, shortly arriving at the back.

An old man with a weathered face sat on a chair looking at the wall.

I went up to him gave him the ticket.

Without a word he took the ticket and opened a shed behind him with a key, then he said

“You can take two things outta there. No more than two.”

I walked into the shed and saw a variety of weapons.

Swords, shields, axes, maces, daggers.

I went up to a sword and lifted it. Heavy.

Disappointingly I set it down, yeah, I wouldn’t be able to fight with swords. I wasn’t strong enough.

Looks like daggers it is, I could go for short swords but I wouldn’t gain much from using them. My attacking speed would just be slowed down from the extra weight. A bad trade just for a little more reach.

I picked up two daggers, Oh, There was a small (I) icon on the hilt of the daggers, similar to the icon on my shirt and other clothes.

After pressing it the following information was shown.

{-- Battle Scared – Iron Dagger –Attack rating (1)--}

The other dagger showed the same information. It seems like there is some sort of item condition system, my shirt is in new condition and these daggers are battle scared. Maybe the condition effected the performance of the weapon? Also it was evident that the weapons were worse for wear, chipped and rusted the daggers were far from their prime.

Despite the bad condition of my weapons I felt eager. Nothing could affect the great mood I was in. I was in another world! It was like I was playing a game in real life! This….this could be it. What I was searching for all along. It could even be the answer to my money problem!

For the first time since my parents died I felt hopeful

The future could be…..

It could be fun again.

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Skyler approached the grassy outskirts of Vensye.

The outskirts were home to two types of beasts. The deer and the dogs. Seeming to be simple cannon fodder and practice for new players, in truth they were actually known as the first trial.

Also dubbed as the dream crushers, the deer and the dogs had caused countless adventurers to return to the city.

Bloody and broken.