I walked out into the bright sunshine . In front of me was a village square , with well kept grass around the edges and vendors selling their wares and competing to see who could shout loudest . Which did not help my headache. I peered back into the glass partition of the door I'd walked through , inside the scene had changed . It was now evidentially a shrine of Solas , with several clerics bustling around inside , lighting candles, refilling the incense censers , dusting , and trying to look busy probably so they didn't get the job of trying to convert the rough looking vendors. I walked back in , being a newly minted priest I'd no spells , bar a bonus passive ability for going deep into the light element , so I'd need to skill up

“Hi I , .. “

No one paid me any attention , I coughed , but I was still seemingly invisible

I tried a different approach.

“Greetings my brothers and sister of the light , I come from afar , and seek training , is there a deacon or bishop present.?”

This did get a response , one of the acolytes came over to me .

“Greetings brother , I am Patricius ..do you seek aid? A meal or perhaps you are going to be going on a mission of converting the godsless heathens of this blighted town” This voice rose a little at that last part , these guys didn't really want to go out amongst their flock . Either they were a collection of the most agoraphobic clerics around or I was right Highshore really was a tough crowd

“Actually I need to speak to a deacon , or anyone that can train me, in the ...er ways of the church.”

I could see Patricius thinking

“Deacon Azural is very busy , but if you could help me with a task I have , I may be able to grant you an audience”

[Quest ]

[Spread the light]

[convert at least one Midgaardian to the temple of Solas]

[reward : access to starter priest of solas spell book]

Well this was a pain . From what I remembered from the original version of Gates' the starter spells didn't require a quest , except...well shit , these weren't starter spells, Originally on creating a character I'd start at the training area , get some champion abilities and spells , kill some practice dummies , go to war on the local wildlife ,bring some chef 10 'fresh boar urethras' or something , and level up . After a few levels , I'd go out in the wide world , wander a bit , find a sage , pick that class and get some starter spells , then after killing more low level creatures and carting around various disgusting animal parts to lazy cooks and artificers I'd level up a little more and find a temple of Solas to train as a priest. Except I'd skipped all that . So now I was level 1 , with no class other than priest , and no abilities bar healing myself naturally at a snails pace , and possibly prodding things with my staff . I tried an experimental parry and dropped the stick . Ok , so not even that .

Well Shit.

Patricius stood there waiting

“Look , could you help a brother out?, I'm just out of character cre...I mean the Abbey , I need to learn some skills as soon as I can!”

“Brother” he said “ you know that our sect is built on hard work and trust , by your hard work , you can earn my trust”

No help there.

Turns out I'd guessed right about the converting thing though.

A thought struck me

“Is there a Sage library , or maybe a Champion's barracks in the town ?”

“No , thankfully no Gods-less places of empty learning here ..if you travelled north , to the town of Eldersvale , there might be a barracks, but its two days travel over bandit country”

Damn.

“However , I have something that may help” he continued

He produced a small round glass bottle , filled with what looked like cranberry juice.

A health potion.

“A health potion” he said.

[added to Inventory .Minor health potion]

When a healer has to start using health potions you know things have gone pretty badly.

I turned to go .

“Wait !” he said guiltily , “ I cant let you go without these”

Aha! At least I was getting some bonus gear , or a weapon to help.

“It'd be hard to spread our world without the proper literature!”

He thrust some pamphlets into my hands

[added to inventory , “The light and your soul” leaflets]

Great.

I looked though the pamphlets as I trudged out into the street.

CRACK!

I hit my bloody head again on the door frame .

I was on my own right now , no guild to help , some of my friends would arrrive eventually , but I didnt really fancy kicking my heels around till then.

Out in the street I went to the first vendor , I possibly I could buy a wand , or a few spell scrolls , or a knife..hell even a sharp enough fork!Anything to defend myself with.

I put my best smile on ,and prepared to barter

“Hello there! have you..”

“Nope not interested, you can sod off”

I was getting pretty pissed off now

I opened my mouth.

He wasnt finished.

“ ..you pious twerps keep coming out here , saying you want a quick word then trying to bloody baptise us into your fire god's religion ..we're not interested! So you can take your holy words , roll them up and stick them where the sun don't shine...”

I got as far as “I'm not..” before he added “SIDEWAYS”

He'd picked up a blackjack , and the other vendors were starting to come over, similarly producing anti theft (and anti conversion) weapons.

“ImNotTryingToConvertYouI'mJustShopping-AlsoHe'sASunGodNotFireButIRealiseThats-

-NotImportantNowSoI'llStopTalking.” I blurted out.

“Well why didn't you say so first eh? Would have saved yourself some bother!” he said

The other vendors were going back to their stalls , weapons hidden again.

The large gentleman smiled “I'm Lars , can I interest you in some cheese?”

Because of 40 years of habit I was about to say “ I'm actually lactose intolerant”, when I remembered that I could eat as many wheels of cheese as I liked in game, something I still forgot .

I'll save you the details of my Dairy Odyssey , (OK..for the fromage curious it was two Cheddars and a sort of Brie on flatbread , washed down with what was basically a vanilla milkshake,delicious .).

I visited the vendors but it was mostly a wash out, a lot of crafting materials , a lot of food , some plate and chain items I couldn't wear , and some cloth items with less stats than I had . I did find a nice bag to add to my inventory , that allowed some extra storage, and some shoes with a little bit of extra intelligence and wisdom stats .Also a few mana potions that were low enough power that I could use them without fear of my head blowing off .I very carefully asked there were other , specifically and definitely other parts of town that weren't this square , that may be open to the idea of possibly trying a new deity, maybe?

Eventually a dark elf tea vendor pointed me towards the north part of town

“Philosophers row and the Rats Maze area “ she said “ I'm not saying they would , but they mightn't kill you for asking, ”. She marked the area on my map.

“Well I say not killed , but they do string people up and whack the hell out of them with clubs”

-

An hour later I'd visited several lane ways and pubs filled with angry locals. I'd seen a few likely targets but they turned out to be other players , a few my level but most much higher than me , and too busy on their own quests to pay attention or chat .Power levellers? Supposedly the new server had actually opened during the old servers World Raid, and between that , and my downtime getting logged in , some players were already high enough level to have come to this town naturally . On top of that I'd also hit my head on two door frames and an archway , why was this town built for people so damn small? .Now I was heading into my fourth dark alley , full of rubbish , dank corners and a definite smell of piss . At this point I'd started talking to myself, more as a way to distract me from the smell.,than from the high possibility I was going to end up as a priest pinata ...

“..and this section , ladies and gentlemen covers the Murder Alley part of our tour of Highshore's shitholes! In the corner there are several photo opportunities for anyone wanting to bring back a souvenir , other than your many stab wounds that is !ha ha ha..on your right is what looks like a large rat eating a dog ,and of course , on your left is the spot where Batman parents were shot, you can still see the bloodstains In fact ..... “ .

“No Bat People here friend” came a voice from the dark .

The way he said friend , was well ..not very friendly .

A huge man appeared dressed in rags , followed by two other massive gentlemen of the road ,

“We don't have many men of the cloth visit our symposium of the street” he said

“I'm Plato , and this is my friends Socrates and Zeno”. Zeno racked his ham hock size knuckles and grunted.

The three were huge , with bodybuilder physiques, and towered over me , even with my new height

All of them were stripped to the waist , Plato was completely bald , he looked like Mr Clean , if Mrs Clean had thrown him out for excessive drinking and was now sleeping rough. Socrates looked like he was hewn from stone. Zeno had a massive white tangled beard and was even bigger than the other two , He looked like Santa ,if Saint Nick had developed a bad meth habit , then decided to get ripped and start doing steroids.

From the dark parts of the alley a crowd of urchins and beggars and other undesirables appeared and crowded around ,for the show.

“er..Hello there , can I interest any of you in..er “ I fumbled for my leaflets, “ the ..um..word of Solas?”

“Why yes , Brother of Light “ said Plato

“We are open to all new things here “ he said spreading his arms and turning around to address his crowd “all of my fellow scholars of the street”. I sighed in relief, this was thankfully starting to go my way.

“Indeed ..as long as you can beat me in unarmed combat, I'll happily go to your temple”

Yep , there it was .Shit.

“And if you can beat me in knife-play”, said Socrates producing a sword sized dagger and flipping it across his knuckles like a magician with a coin “..If you beat me I will happily join you”

Zeno's voice was muffled by his beard but I heard something about oil wrestling.

Well fuck that .

I turned to the unwashed mass around us, and pulled out my coin bag.

“So!...Who wants to make an easy ten gold ?”

---

Brother Patricius was impressed “So many converts” he said as the tenth hobo shuffled in .

“I cant believe it...to be honest I felt bad sending you out there on your own, between me and you , some of the townspeople can be ...well....unkind.”

The other acolytes were sponge bathing some of the newcomers , and I saw one urchin parading around in a robe , while his old clothes were taken away (presumably to be exorcised , burnt , and the ground they were buried in salted for good measure).They were getting fed , washed , dressed , and a free bath (technically a baptism) out of it , plus ten gold each , which was a lot, The acolytes were happy as they didn't have to go outside ,I was happy as I was unscathed , if a little poorer,Zeno was happy as he was getting his beard trimmed and deloused.He'd actually been the fourth to sign up , I think if I'd offered a few gold more I 'd have got the other two as well.

He mumbled something happy involving the words friend, clean , and still , strangely enough, oil wrestling. I just nodded and smiled and turned back to Patricius .

“For the extra trouble you went to” , he said ,” ..we had this saved up , but you can have it” , and handed me a gold piece .So I was just down 99 gold.

I honestly didn't think that would work in the alley , in the old Gates Of Doom it definitely wouldn't have , NPC's followed some fairly set instructions , and those guys in the crowd would literally have just been barely programmed , non talking extras, watching me get pummelled by jacked up street philosophers.

Possibly the idea of someone buying their way out like this was planned for , but from what I'd heard in the promotion for the new release , it's Non Player Characters (NPCs), were actually fairly autonomous. Which made the world seem even more real. In an age of AI's and Personal Assistants , machine intelligence like that wasn't unusual , but to give it to every character in the game , even nameless hobo number #3 ?... incredible! .The ability to deal with game characters that could make decisions was new , and exciting. (..also before leaving I found out nameless hobo number #3's name was actually Tacky Joseph , you see...little details!).

I finally got to see the Deacon Azural . An elderly, smaller than average elf , he was a man (elf) of few words which I was grateful for . I was tired , I'd spent the last 30 or so hours awake , first in the end of the old game , partying with some friends , and then in my home space ,and after a wait to get a login window, into the new game. Even with my physical body being almost permanently at rest I'd have to get some shut eye soon , I'd a fairly important meeting coming up , anyway so I'd have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for that.

Azural gave me the Priestly spell book

[added to inventory :Book of Solas]

[quest complete 2000 XP added]

[Level up!]

[you have one ability point to spend.]

[Level up!]

[you have one ability point to spend.]

[Level up!]

[you have one ability point to spend.]

[Level up!]

[you have one ability point to spend.]

Yep! Further proof that this whole setup was messed up , one basic quest here had net me 5 levels worth of XP, which pretty much confirmed that I shouldn't have been in this area until maybe level 14 or 15. On the plus side , quests would net me a huge amount of XP for my level . The downside was that killing anything would be almost impossible . But since I was a healer I didn't need to kill , all I needed to do be a healer for another player or maybe a party. Since at higher level they'd have much larger health pools than players at my level , I'd need to put everything into healing. It was risk versus reward, so while the sensible thing to do would be use the scroll to 'port to Northbrook , I 'd probably have no way of getting back here until I was at level 13 or 14 , and 2000xp would just inch me closer to the next level. I decided to stay here.

Pulling it from my inventory I read the first few pages . I read the first thee spells , trying to read the others caused my eyes to water , and made me feel like my brain was in a vice. Evidentially this was for later levels.

[You have learned : “healing hands” : a channelled spell , you can heal 10 health (per second).costing 25 mana( per second)]

[You have learned Prayer word Shield : A 4 second cool down, you can cast shield on yourself or another person with the power of your faith : Costs 200 mana]

[You have learned” Burst of Light” The light renews , and heals party members for 100 health .Costs 400 mana , ]

Each of the spells was listed as 0% practised , At 100% I'd get an extra bonus of extra healing or shield strength or an added effect. I tried casting burst of light on myself , but since my mana was full it wouldn't fire. I could cast Shield , but after a few tries it was still at 0% , .Unfortunately it looked like the only was to practice was to actually get hit , or heal someone getting hit . As if reading my mind the Deacon said , “I can help you practise these techniques safely, but we'd expect a donation for the Shrine in return . A menu showed up , 1 gold per percent , so basically a hundred gold per spell. I didn't really want to spend that much , but if I wanted to take advantage of the XP boost and heal properly I had to . I forked over the cash . For the next few hours Azural guided me through some meditative steps which increased my spell effectiveness to 100%.

Between this,buying some sundries at the market(and cheese!) , and paying for half the hobos in town to get a religious themed spa day I was down to about 500 gold , which was half my savings. So I'd really need to find some other players going to a dungeon , or clearing out a cave , or a sunken temple or something to make some money back.

With all this in mind I looked at my skill tree . On top of class/subclass/ and element , there was also various skill trees you could choose from , the idea was that all this would encourage players to be (or at least feel) unique, although in practice a lot of people just took the most effective choices based on pure numbers rather than style.. There were three paths to choose from , the first mainly improved healing and mana regeneration. The second path geared towards my own health pool , weapon skills as well as shield spells , Finally the third path empowered offensive spells , including the few basic ones I'd have kept from being a champion and a sage (which I didn't have), or light based damage spells (which I couldn't get yet).I put all five points into healing , four into 'Inspired healing' (which gave me the ability to heal more , for less mana ) and one into 'Shines Brightly' , which beefed up my passive “Aura of Light “ spell, so on top of normal health regeneration (slow) my party would automatically heal a little per second in the background (still slow, but a slight improvement).

Back in the main part of the shrine , the newly converted were having a post baptismal meal , with a lot of sacramental wine being served . Hey who knows!, maybe they'd stick around here , A few years from now Zeno could be out in the world converting heathens. I felt sorry for the vendors.

At this point I was practically asleep on my feet , I asked Patricius if there was an inn or tavern I could stay in .

“Don't be silly , there's always a bed for you here “

It turns out by bed he actually meant a spartan wooden bunk in what I'm fairly sure doubled as a closet in quieter times , but I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.