Everyone remembers one thing very clearly from their digitization. Strapped to gurneys; heads stuck in adjoining whirling, blinking rings; James was overcome with a soul-shattering fear that he was being executed and his life would soon be over. Sarah thought it was a bit chilly in the room.

There was a brief moment of general wooginess, when the room suddenly felt like it was in another place and time, and then... nothing. A momentary eternity of blinding darkness that held everything and, at the same time, nothing. Then, like everything that had come before was merely a dream that they were waking from, it was over.

James and Sarah found themselves sitting beneath a broad shade tree at the top of a small rise in the center of a grassy field, leaning against the trunk with just enough room between them to not be touching. The void had been so absolute and devoid of any sensation that the gentle sounds of the breeze playing in the waving grass, of a pair of songbirds flirting in the branches above, and the gentle laughter of a far-off stream all sounded like wrecking balls tearing apart a fireworks factory.

While their newly digitized minds were struggling to make sense of all their new sensory input, a polite message appeared in the air in front of their eyes. They were each so engrossed in their new world that they were completely unaware that they sat mere inches from each other, staring off into space. The message read: “Welcome to MYTHIC REVERIE! In MYTHIC REVERIE, your new digital body is referred to as an AVATAR. Your AVATAR is fully customizable within this world and will change based on decisions that you make. If you need help, simply say the words SYSTEM COMMANDS to view a list of all commands available to you during your time in MYTHIC REVERIE. Enjoy your stay!”

Without much thought, the two new digital beings spoke 'System Commands' out loud. Hearing the voices of each other woke them from their daze. Sarah whirled around and grabbed James by the shoulder.

"James! Holy cow, that was intense!"

James simply nodded. “Are you seeing this list?” He gestured at the imaginary icons floating in the air a few feet in front of him.

Sarah gestured at her own set of icons, which hovered relative to her position. "I think so, but mine are over here."

James mulled this over for a moment. “So we can only see our own menus. That’s nice, it means nobody can spy on you and peek over your shoulder.” Sarah’s eyes opened wide as she hadn’t even considered that possibility.

The first button on their personal displays was CHARACTER, and it was accompanied by the silhouette of a person. Sarah immediately selected that first menu by touching it with her finger, while James perused the rest of the list. INVENTORY, SOCIAL, LOG, and WORLD were also available.

After analyzing the other menu choices, James joined Sarah in looking at his CHARACTER screen. A three-dimensional hologram of James as he currently appeared now floated in front of him. It looked remarkably like he had just moments before on Earth, except now clothed in a simple linen shirt and pants. He found that he could rotate the hologram by manipulating it with his finger. Besides the character model, there were a few columns of statistics. Besides for their name and gender, both character sheets were identical:

Name: James Alan Quick Race: Human Gender: Male Class: Nomad Level: 1 Experience: 0/100 Title: *None Health: 100/100 Mana: 100/100 Stamina: 100/100 Strength: 10 Dexterity: 10 Focus: 10 Constitution: 10

Sarah looked up from her chart and poked James.

"Hey, how do we pick a class? I totally want to be a wizard or something, like Harry Potter!"

James just shook his head. “I have no idea, it doesn’t seem like there’s a tutorial. Unless you count that weird welcome message. What did it say? Our avatars change based on decisions we make? Maybe we just start doing things, and we’ll get assigned a class based on how we act?”

Sarah opened her mouth to respond, but the sound that came out instead was a shouted, “Ouch!” She rubbed the back of her head while she looked around for the offending object. A rock, about the size of a golf ball, was gently rolling down the hill from where it had landed.

Both Sarah and James looked around frantically for the source of the stray rock when their eyes locked on a group of small, dirty green people. As soon as their focus locked on the motley group, floating text again appeared, this time floating over the heads of each creature.

Goblin (No class), Level 1

Goblin (No class), Level 1

Goblin (No class), Level 1

Goblin (No class), Level 1

Goblin (Scout), Level 2

After a momentary staredown, the goblins began throwing rocks all at once, while the scout pulled a bow from his back and began loosing arrows. James scrambled around, dodging rocks and arrows (thankfully the scout wasn't a great shot), while occasionally scooping up one of the rocks and throwing it back at the goblins.

Sarah stood her ground. She planted her feet and didn't waver. Most of the rocks she was able to knock from the air with her hands, but she did wind up sporting a few new bruises. Annoyingly, each attack birthed a small line of text into existence, hovering at the lower edge of the pair's vision. The lines moved down as new text appeared and disappeared before their vision became obscured.

SARAH has been struck by GOBLIN's ROCK for 4 damage!

SARAH has blocked GOBLIN's ROCK!

JAMES dodged GOBLIN's ROCK!

JAMES has been struck by GOBLIN's ARROW for 9 damage!

GOBLIN missed!

JAMES struck GOBLIN with ROCK for 5 damage!

This continued for a few more seconds before time seemed to slow. Perhaps it's more accurate to say that James and Sarah's perception of time slowed. They watched as their barely moving bodies glowed bright blue for a split second, then exploded in a shower of quickly dissipating sparks. Beneath, the two found that they now wore a few pieces of worn leather armor over their linen clothes.

The best additions were the small wooden shield buckled on Sarah's left arm, and the set of throwing knives slung across James's shoulder. Time sped up at the moment the last blue spark faded. Sarah put the shield to good use, now blocking more damage than she took. James took a position behind her and started flinging his knives, having much better luck than he ever thought he would.

SARAH has blocked GOBLIN's ROCK!

JAMES has struck GOBLIN with BASIC KNIFE for 12 damage!

GOBLIN dies!

SARAH has been struck by GOBLIN's ROCK for 4 damage!

SARAH has blocked GOBLIN's ARROW!

JAMES has struck GOBLIN with BASIC KNIFE for 14 damage!

GOBLIN dies!

After an exchange that only lasted about a minute, James finished off the goblin scout with a second knife. The class and level difference must have given the scout more health than the other goblins.

The two plopped down on the ground and pulled their character sheets back up. James was down to 83/100 health, but 57/100 stamina, which was slowly recovering. Sarah was a bit worse for wear at 57/100 health, but still had 92/100 stamina which slowly refilled as she watched.

"Hmmm, unusual. Not unheard of, mind you, but unusual nonetheless."

Sarah immediately raised her shield back up and James held his last knife at the ready. The only creature they could find was a single grey squirrel staring at them with its head cocked to the side from one of the branches of the tree. As the watched, the squirrel raised a tiny paw and waved before opening its mouth to speak.

"Hello, there. Name's Vigat, pleased to meet you."