Break’s attention was glued to the illuminating shield sitting in the middle of the pedestal, the sides flashing in a hue of white and yellow, mimicking the sun’s rays. Stepping closer, Break investigated the shield, noticing the attached lines of LED giving off its glowing feature. Arching his head to the side, he saw a leather strap intricately carved with a myriad of random symbols he could not decipher. Break placed his hands behind the shield, grabbing onto the leather strap before a loud echoing cough rang across the room. A man wearing a well-designed officers uniform gave a menacing shake of his head, pointing at a large sign hanging overhead reading “Do not touch.” Taking a tentative step back, Break held up his arm in a way that said, “loud and clear,” before taking a few pictures with this band.

Trent shuffled up to Break, eyeing the carved text chiseled out of the pedestal. “What is The Alabaster?” Trent asked, entranced by the light show.

“The very first legendary shield to appear in Arium. While the base stats are pretty average for a legendary, the skills it grants makes it somewhat more versatile in combat.”

“Does it negate magic?”

“Nothing that simple,” Break humph. “There are plenty of items that can negate magic, some that are even uncommon, but this shield’s passive radiates healing light, making it almost impossible for a party to die until the person holding the shield is taken out first. That’s not all, it also grants the user a skill that can be activated once a day letting the holder shoot a radiant beam of light dealing a substantial amount of damage.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, I hope we find a legendary,” Trent said, admiring the shield just a bit more.

Break let out a loud chuckle, so loud, it drew the eyes of many employees lounging around the entrance hall. “You have a better chance of finding a needle in an Olympic size swimming pool filled with hay.”

“While it might sound difficult, with a little bit of knowledge and the right tools, it could be easily accomplished,” Emmy said, wondering up the pair. “If I had an industrial-sized magnet, I bet I could find the needle in under an hour.”

“Good way to think about it,” Trent said, nodding at the idea.

A woman wearing a lab coat with an ID badge hanging off her left side pocket, denoting her position at the company, “Office Correspondence,” and her name, “Diya”, elegantly walked up to the small party and gave Emmy a slight tap on the shoulder. “My name is Diya, I’m here to get you guys registered and ready for the beta,” the lady said in a helpful tone. Emmy strode over to the couches lining the side wall of the Pendragon HQ building, giving a quick nod, she gestured toward a group of well-dressed employees, two women and a man, of the EDE company. The three got up, strode over to Diya, and patiently waiting for Trent and Break to join the group.

“We're all here,” Emmy said holding out her hand towards the group.

“Follow me,” Diya said, walking over to the metal sliding door as it did a quick scan of her badge. They hustled down a well-polished corridor as Trent noticed the amazing mural stretching along the hallway depicting a fight between a knight and a dragon. Stopping at another door, Diya pointed the party inside, waiting for the last person to step in, she placed her palm over the room letting anyone else know it was occupied. The room was filled with small round office table, almost like a company break room, ushering the group to take a seat Diya strode up to Emmy, placing her pad out with an outline to place her hand.

Emmy gently placed her palm on the pad, a whirl of data cascaded across the screen showing a waiting promptly at the top. After what seemed like forever, the pad pinged with a confirmation letting Diya know the beta key had been registered.

“Alright, looks to be a good key,” Diya noted, giving her pad a few more taps.

“What do you mean by good?” Emmy asked

“You be surprised how many people come in with fake keys. They either buy it off of some vendor for an incredibly cheap deal, then come to realize the key was just a visual copy placed over an ordinary item. My job would be so much easier if the rogue and mage department would disallow that type of item manipulation on the keys.”

“Wait, you're telling me this is allowed to happen?” Trent asked in a befuddled voice.

“In a way, yes, but I find it reprimandable the higher up have yet to patch the problem.”

“I don’t want to be an advocate for evil or anything, but it makes sense,” an unfamiliar voice said. The man in the dark suit stood up bearing his EDE logo, “In working with a large company like EDE, I have seen my share of sabotage and betrayal. Let me propose a question, how long does it take for a clan to map out the higher tier dungeons?” The man stood there for a considerable amount of time, waiting for the question to be answered by one of the three.

After a long thirty seconds, one of the women accompanying him answered, “If we’re talking about top ten, then about a month, any other clan I would estimate between three months to a year.”

“Thanks Rachel,” The man said, relieved to have someone end the long pause of awkwardness. “Now, if I were another clan looking to overtake the same dungeon, would I want to waste resources on mapping the dungeon out myself, or would I rather send a rouge to steal the layout from the other clans? As you can see, rouge are more than just your average pickpocket or trap detector, at the heart of it, they are used by the large corporation as, if given a word, hackers.” Sitting back down the man looked over at Diya, “Please continue with what you were doing, the faster we can get this finished, the happier my boss will be.“

Emmy compiled the information that was just dropped on her like a surge of electricity. The outburst of information caused her to rethink how Arium really worked, this was not a game, but a battleground between some of the largest companies. The tab pinged, knocking Emmy out of her delusion as Diya strode over to the large whiteboard flowing across the entire wall. “Before we start, I need everyone to sign this user agreement,” Diya said, placing her hands across her pad as large text box popped in front of everyone. “It’s pretty much the same one we make everyone sign when they make an account, the only difference is in this one, we're having you guys try out new tech, and before you start asking questions, I’m not allowed to answer them until you sign the agreement.”

Trent quickly clicked on the floating agreement box, marking it with an X, seeing Break and Emmy make the same motion, he placed his hands over the accept, letting the room quickly scan his palms.

“Great, looks like we're ready for the next phase. As you know, we only just released the information about the beta keys yesterday, and while not being the first, you guys have been a bit early to register, but don’t think that’s a bad thing. To get you guys started with some basic info, the beta may only be played at the designated Pendragon offices, this is so we can monitor and record data from our users while using the new tech.”

The door started to ping as a man, also dressed in a white lab coat, strode into the room pushing a metal utility cart stacked with small black boxes. Placing six boxes on the table, the man took pulled out a glowing pen-like object, with a practiced motion, he doubled tapped the QR code printed on each box. Sending a data copy to Diya, he gave a quick nod and made his way out of the room.

Diya grabbed the six boxes and handed them out to the group, motioning them to open the box. Trent rubbed the edge of his fingers across the sticker sealing the box, after a few tried, he sighed as his freshly cut fingernails were unable to grasp at the edges. Observing how Emmy was able to easily slice the sticker with her nails, he gave her a slight tap and asked if she would do the same for his box. Opening the box Trent was amazed by the smooth band that laid across the finely decorated box. Looking over, he saw Break pushing the box up to his face and sniffing it like it was a fine wine. “What are you doing?” Trent asked with an amused face.

“The smell of new tech is my Achilles’ heel.” Break strapped on the band taking a closer look at the glossy finished. Spotting the plastic, Break stopped Trent and Emmy from peeling the protective cover. “Wait, we have to do this together.”

“Why?” Emmy asked, rolling her eyes.

“The ecstasy you get of off freshly peeled protective plastic is the next best thing to finding a legendary, and if you multiply that by three, why it would almost be criminal.”

Trent let out a reserved laugh, “For all the weird stuff you make us do, I'm actually fine with this. We can chalk it up to a pre-game good luck ritual.”

“That’s what I like to hear, if we’re going to do this, let’s make it memorable.”

“Uhh… How do you make peeling plastic memorable?” Emmy sighed.

“Let rip each other plastic off,” Break said with an amused smile. “I’ll do Trent, Trent can do yours, and you will do mine.”

Emmy shook her head at the statement, as strange as it sounds, it seems all to normal coming from Break. Emmy moved her hands over to Trent, letting him grasp the peeling plastic. “Let’s hurry on with this,” she said, watching the other three stare at them like a mother watching her toddler do the most basic of tasks.

Slowly, Break peeled away at Trent’s band, the sound of unfurling tape danced across his ears as the plastic rolled across the gadget. Trent copied Break’s action, somewhat enjoying the motion of the band as is glided across Emmy’s delicate wrist. Emmy stared at her wrist, the caress of the band as Trent slowly pulled away at the tight covering plastic made her cheeks go a pale shade of red. Shaking off the awkwardness, she yanked at the plastic, pulling so hard the peel stretched into a thin wire before snapping in half. Break gasped in astonishment as he saw the stretched out plastic in Emmy’s hand. “Seriously,” Break yelled. “All you had to do was peel it slowly.”

“Don’t be a baby, look I got the rest of it off,” Emmy said, quickly yanking the remaining piece of plastic.

“That’s not the poin-”

“If you guys are done, let me give you some info about the third generation PDBand.” Diya said, breaking up the weird conversation. “These were made specifically for the expansion, and come preinstalled with a mini ARES system.”

“Wait, does that mean we can trade and interact with our characters without the need for an AR table?”

“That’s exactly what it means,” Diya nodded.

“It’s fairly intuitive, just tap your band, and any motion you would make on an ARtable applies in a one-foot radius around your wrist,” Diya explained, motioning the actions.

“Whoa, this is so cool,” Break said in an astonished voice.

“Next thing is the third generation pod, these are designed to give maximum haptic feedback, and while they are still in the testing phase, we have had remarkable feedback. While I love to get some feedback on the game, it's not ready for testing yet.”

“Uhh… Then when can we enter the beta?” Trent asked.

“As I said, you guys were one of the few early birds, and due to a few minor sets back, we won't be ready until tomorrow, but don't take it as all bad news. This gives you a whole twenty-four hours to test out the new bands, and to make a game plan. Now if you all follow me, I’ll take you to your test chambers,” Diya prompted, stepping out of the room. Walking down the corridor, the group saw the many hanging signs leading to a different division within the Pendragon HQ. Diya stopped the group as they came upon a door marked, “AW Beta.” Motioning to Emmy to step next to her, she held out her wrist waiting for Emmy to do the same. “With these bands you have been given limited permission to enter the Aether Winds Beta test room anytime, starting tomorrow at 1:00 pm,” Diya said, holding Emmy's wrist along the scanner.

“Whoa,” Break gasp, placing his hand on the freshly painted fiber carbon pods. “These looks amazing.”

“While you can’t use them to game today, I can show you some of the new game mechanics were developing for the version 3 pod.”

“Version 3, what happens to version 2,” Break asked skeptically.

“Ahh, well come to that at the end of this session,” Diya said, opening one of the pods. “Now, as you may know, our old line of pods, while being able to replicate your five senses, they were not able to one hundred percent give you that six sense type of feel when it comes to magic. With version 3, this has opened up many possibilities to our developers, but why am I telling you when I can show you,” Diya jest, pressing her fingers on the sixth pod. “Everyone strap in, I’m going to give you a live demonstration of the v3 pod.”

Trent sat snug on the trim leather sofa, noting how much better these felt compared to the economy class pods at the cafe. The interior guide light started to dim as the inner body of the pod lit up in a translucent white before slowly turning opaque. Trent stood in a room that had dull white and gray checkered floor, looking up, he saw that the ceiling was an endless horizon of pale blue.

“Uh, we’re not in our avatar,” Break said, tapping Trent’s shoulder from behind.

“Calm down everyone,” Diya said, appearing as a projection in front of them. “Since your not able to login to the game till tomorrow, I have loaded us in the test room used by the company's debugger team. To begin, I would like a show of hands, who here has used tier one magic?” All three EDE member simultaneously rose their hands. “Alright, well since you three have yet to experience magic, this will be a treat. What’s your name again?” Diya asked pointing to the male EDE member.

“Gedeon,” the young man said.

“Gedeon, can you tell me the basics of setting up and using a spell.”

“When using a tier one spell, all you have to do is either hotkey the spell or set it up with a motion command. For a higher tier spell requiring different elements, you would set up the chain spell prior to battle and have it set as a hotkey.”

“Can you please demonstrate,” Diya asked, pointing at a cutout paper dummy across the room.

Gedeon placed his thumb and index together on his left hand and pulled a burning orb of fire out of thin air. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the flaming ball lobbing across the room, landing roughly forty feet before bursting in a small explosion which ignited the paper cutout.

“Very smooth firebolt, I want you to do it again, but this time, I want you to think about throwing a firebolt instead of using your hotkeys,” Diya said, resetting the target back to pristine condition.

Following Diya’s instructions, Gedeon thought about the firebolt hitting the dummy as he made the motion to throw it. Gedeon felt a burning energy race across his body before coalescing in his palms. His hand burst into an eruption of flames mid-throw, the weight of a tennis ball like orb shot out like a rocketing missile, exploding right as it hit the dummy. The group was awestruck but also terrified at the sight of the empty black burn covering the previously occupied area.

“Very good, how did that feel?” Diya asked.

“I… I actually felt the energy moving around my body, when I shot the firebolt, the sensation of the energy traveling to my hands felt…,” Gedeon said, trailing off mid-speech, unable to find the correct word to describe the feeling.

“Exhilarating?” Break said.

“No, If anything it felt kinda exhausting,” Gedeon said, flexing his fingers.

“You're absolutely correct,” Diya informed. “The reason why your attack is so much stronger is that the game takes your stamina into account. A person could stand there and throw firebolts all day with their hotkeys until their mana ran dry, but with the new system, throwing a firebolt is about the equivalent of doing a few push-ups. Another thing about the new system is it’s not limited to just magic, we have overhauled pretty much every game mechanic we could think of to use this new system, but I’ll let you figure out the rest on your own,” Diya said, fading out of the game.

The group stepped out of the pods looking at each other in amazement. “So, 1:00 pm on the dot,” Break said, eyeing at the other five. Giving a nod to each other as the group followed the flashing green light to the exit door. Diya stood outside waiting as the group exited the dimly lit room back into the cramped corridor.

“Before you guys leave, I have a present,” Diya said, rolling out another utility cart stacked with large boxes. The boxes were about two cubic feet and shine with a white glassy finish. On the front of the box was the Pendragon logo emblazoned with the word “V2” at the bottom. Picking up each box, Diya made the same motion to tap the QR code before handing them out to the group.

Break ripped open the box the seconds it hit his hands, his body filled with the adrenaline of seeing the new tech. “Why are we getting visors?” Break asked holding the shiny white helmet.

“These are the version 2 pods,” Diya said. “While it might not seem like much from our earlier visor design, these have all the same capabilities as the version 1 pod. We planned to have these on market next week, and since you were not able to start the beta today, the PR team demanded I hand these out to you as an apology. Just to make things clear, while your ability to use them to enter the game, in no way are you able to access the beta with version 2.”

“Guys do you know what this mean?” Break asked, gripping the visor with both hands.

“We don’t don’t have to visit the Cafe anymore?” Trent said, Emmy, twinging at the statement.

“No, this means I don’t have to log out to go to the bathroom anymore.”