“It looks like this is your first time in Elementia,” the AI said. “You will now be taken through the character creation process. To navigate the menus or make modifications, all you need to do is think about what you'd like to do. However, if it makes you more comfortable, you can speak your commands out loud. Is that okay with you?”

He could barely keep the warble from his voice. “Yes.”

The visor suddenly exploded with light, slowly resolving into six distinct colors: blue, red, green, black, violet, and white. These colors streamed into a table that spun into existence, becoming round and pearly. Garrett understood immediately what they indicated, even without the words and images that hovered over whichever color was on top of the table. These indicated the six Ways of Elementia, and the main determiner for how his character would develop.

Turning the table with a thought, images popped up above each gem as they reached the top, illustrating some of the benefits of its Way. Garrett's eyes strayed over the possibilities as he turned it. As the green gem reached the top, he imagined choosing Terra, or Earth, and becoming strong and thick with muscles as Rumblers — those of the Way of Terra — were often called. But he knew better than to be drawn in by that. Rumblers were called that for a reason. They were slow, loud, and their magic straightforward. The boredom that would inevitably take hold of him wasn’t worth the fleeting thrill of strength.

He turned the table, and the red gem of Ignis, Fire, reached the top. The Way of his sister. Everything he read online pointed to Ignis hosting the most powerful magic, at least upfront, as well as its Forgers making for deadly warriors. He liked the thought of having all that power at his fingers tips, not to mention he could share it in common with Nelly. But he’d never followed in her footsteps before. In this, his new life secret from everyone but her, he'd find his own Way.

He considered in turn Shui, Water, which was largely agreed to be the overall best Way in terms of power, versatility, and job paths. He thought about Akasha, Spirit, the subtlest of the Ways, and in general not considered powerful until you reached the upper levels. And he thought about Vyuom, Void, the strangest of the Ways, and which often attracted people who preferred garnering evil reputations.

But as he turned the table to the last one, he knew he'd always, inevitably end up here. Aer was considered underpowered at every level. Its magic wasn't outright strong, nor did it scale as well as Akasha. Its physical bonuses and available weapons didn't allow for the best fighters, despite an affinity for Drifters, as those of Aer were called, to jump much higher than those of other Ways. Their job paths were strange and scattered, with little internal coherence. And its factions were consistently on the losing side of worldwide conflicts.

The Way of Aer was considered weak. A losing path. But Garrett knew a thing or two about being underestimated.

At first, he'd thought the same as everyone else and thought Aer wasn't worth it. But the more he looked, the more he realized it was just the Way for him. It was stronger than anyone knew. And Garrett meant to be the one to show them.

“I choose the Way of Aer,” he said aloud.

The table spun, a white light emerging from the Aer gem and covering everything. “Welcome to Elementia, Drifter. Are you aware of your Way’s attributes?”

He was, but it was best to confirm from the source. “I'd like to hear them, please.”

“Thank you for being polite,” the woman's voice said pleasantly. That startled Garrett a bit. He'd just said it out of habit. He'd always tried to be polite with the hospital staff, so it just came second nature even with an AI assistant. AI was as ubiquitous as ASR now, but rarely had it seemed so… interactive.

But the AI was listing off Aer attributes now, so he focused back in. “Drifters have some distinct physical bonuses. At the beginning of the game, they receive a 50% starting bonus to their jump height. I would also remind you that in Elementia, characters by default already jump 50% higher than in real life.”

Garrett did some quick math. “So Drifters jump 225% of what the average human does.”

“Very well done, Drifter. Your statistics will clearly not be lost on you.” There was a smile in the AI’s voice. “Aer also comes with a speed bonus, the second fastest of the Ways after Ignis. You move 25% faster as your base stat. You also have Orb paths for increasing both of these stats.”

Orbs were the currency of leveling in Elementia, Garrett knew. But that would come into play later.

“But you also have some penalties. Apprentices of Aer tend to be slightly weaker than others in Elementia; you have a 25% starting penalty to physical damage and fewer paths for increasing it. You are also limited to light and medium weapons as well as light and medium armor.”

Garrett had never seen himself going the route of a tank anyway. Who wanted to just stand there and take hits? “That's it for physical characteristics, right?”

“Correct, Drifter. Would you like to hear your magical attributes.”

“Please.”

“Keep saying please, and I think we’ll get along well. As with any Way, you only have access to the magic of your Way. Aer does manifest in many forms, however. Are you interested in hearing about those?”

Garrett was very familiar with those many manifestations. And even though there were always improvements and changes happening, he didn’t need to get bogged down with that at the moment. “Not now. There's a wiki I can read up on in-game, right?”

“Correct once again, Drifter. In that case, I'll proceed to the bonuses for magic. Starting off, you have an additional 25% magic points and have many opportunities for scaling it. Apprentices of Aer have the third greatest capacity for mana, after Akasha and Shui.

“While you don't have any bonuses for magical damage, you do have many paths for scaling it. Maxed out, Drifters can achieve the third-highest magical damage, after Vyuon and Ignis.”

Garrett smiled. It was one of the little-known facts about the Way, probably because few people chose it and fewer still got good enough to make use of it.

“And lastly,” the AI continued, “as with all Ways, you receive bonuses for using your magic in certain weather conditions. During storms and windy conditions, you receive an additional 50% to your magical effectiveness.”

“Sounds good,” Garrett said.

“Then, Apprentice, do you still wish to proceed with the Way of Aer?”

He only considered for a moment. “Yes.”

“Then welcome…”

The table with six gems faded to white then burst into a vibrant image. A triumphant symphony struck up in his ears as the world of Elementia came clear below him. Garrett grinned as the video flew him high above the series of islands, which were shrouded by clouds and embraced by crystalline waters. There, jungles swallowed the ground. Rubbing up next to it were rolling hills covered with fields of golden grass. And every other kind of landscape seemed to exist there as well.

But not all was beautiful in Elementia. On the far side of the mainland, a series of strange blue crystals with barren, carved land between. And on the other side, the land was scarred with cracked, black stone amidst smoking volcanoes.

And dotting the landscape, he saw the ruined castles. The gleaming cities. All those places promising adventure. He knew he probably looked ridiculous smiling so wide in his helmet, but he couldn't help but feel the stir of excitement in his belly.

But the rush was making it a little hard to breathe. Especially with his hurt lung. He started to panic a bit.

The images faded at once to black. “It looks like you're having some trouble adjusting to Elementia. Would you like me to stop gameplay?”

Not able to catch his breath enough for words, Garrett still shook his head no. Using techniques he'd practiced his whole life, he slowly got his breath back under control.

“Understood. In that case, we’ll move to your next choice: the selection of your faction.”

The screen filled with five banners that rippled as if in a breeze. Each of them had the same white background, indicating they were all of the Way of Aer, but they had different symbols, all associated with the sky in some manner: a hawk, a bolt of lightning, a gust of wind. Before them stood examples of the people of the factions, showing how his character features would be adjusted. That didn't matter to him. He knew the main thing faction determined was the starting storyline, including starting location, though it also had some small influence on his access in different cities.

Having determined beforehand his path, Garrett didn't take long before choosing. “Hawk,” he whispered, not having breath for anything else.

“The Hawk faction it is.”

The image wiped away again.

“Now we're moving to the last step, Drifter: character customization. Due to the need to synchronize as closely as possible with your real body, you can't change your height and weight too far off what they are in reality. You can, however, adjust a variety of features like hair style, eye color, and skin hues.”

Garrett's vision filled with a light blue background. An eerily similar version of himself appeared, with small tweaks from his chosen faction in play. Hawks were tanner and had narrower eyes than him, which suited Garrett fine. His hair was similar to how he wore it, which was a bit long and shaggy, except swept to the side in such a way that it looked good rather than ratty. He grinned to think that, if only he could stay in Elementia forever, he'd never have to wrestle down his cowlick again.

He didn't change much, but a few adjustments were in order. He'd always hated how short and skinny being a wheezer made him, so he increased his weight and height to the max it could go. Not exactly tall or buff, but he actually looked… normal. That was more than he ever thought he'd get, so he'd take it. One last adjustment: he didn't mind his brown eyes, but he wanted to try something a little different. Maybe a bright green — that looked good.

“Done,” he whispered.

“Understood. Finally, the last step: what will you be called?”

Garrett stared at the face of his character, called avatars in Elementia. He’d never been good at naming. “I'll just be Garrett,” he said softly.

His avatar disappeared, replaced by a cloudy sky parting. “Then let me be the first to welcome you to Elementia, Garrett,” the AI said. “Your avatar synchronization will begin momentarily. You may lose consciousness for a moment while you switch into the game world, but don't worry, that's totally normal.”

“Thank you,” Garrett whispered. Then, just as the sky parted to reveal the island again, his vision slipped to black.

***

He awoke. For a moment, nothing seemed to have changed.

Then he took a breath and realized everything had.

Garrett took another breath, gulping air down as he lay on the ground. It was simple, easy, ridiculously so. Like taking the first real breath of his life.

Garrett smiled, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back, and let the breeze wash over him. Just then, he was content to simply breathe.

Which is why it was all the more jarring when someone yelled, “Watch out!”