Imprisoned for a crime he barely remembers, Jake Darrow receives an offer he can’t refuse–a chance to beta test the first fully immersive online RPG, Pantheon Online.

But this is not just any beta. It involves having highly sophisticated technology embedded into his body, which allows him to be intravenously fed while his entire nervous system is “plugged in” to the Virtuality Core integration system. Pantheon Online is unlike any VR game Jake has ever experienced. Every detail is nearly as realistic as his real body and his actual life.

His character, a dusk elf named Gunnar Ashwood, can smell, taste, and touch everything he interacts with. For better or worse. Even physical pain is a feature of the game, giving even more stakes to every quest and confrontation.

And his new purpose is to earn Glory for his goddess, Nymoria, and try not to be the brunt of the AI’s deprecating humor.

What begins as an entertaining distraction from his grim life as a prisoner, soon turns more serious as his performance in the game proves to impact his livelihood back in prison. Gunnar must advance to the satisfaction of the Suits and Ties that run the prison (and the beta), or face agonizing consequences IRL.

After a painful start in the cutthroat in-game city of Thailen, Gunnar makes friends with the barkeep, Sykes, and a young thief named Kohli, who helps him train on the path of a Rogue, with the hopes of gaining the attention of a thieves’ guild. Overcoming some early pitfalls, Gunnar quickly shows promise as a Rogue. He gains the favor of Nymoria, and even begins to form a new base of his own after he frees a crypt from the rule of a demented necromancer / bard.

But Gunnar finds himself torn about fully embracing his criminal identity. When he is offered a trial quest with the Nighthawks–a different sort of guild, bent on righting the injustices of the city of Thailen–Gunnar seizes the opportunity.

His mission: infiltrate a nobleman’s party and swap an important letter from an imperial admiral.

But secretly, Sykes is in league with city officials, who do not want Gunnar to succeed. Sykes sends Kohli to try to stop Gunnar. But with the help of a young Nighthawk named Em, Gunnar manages to complete the quest.

However, the quest was more than it appeared. The swapped letter was laced with a poison, and in an instant, Gunnar becomes an unintentional assassin, barely escaping the party alive.

Gunnar is not pleased with the Nighthawks’ deception, and rather than joining their guild, he opts to go his own way, accepting a final quest to free some slaves from the city’s elite. During the quest, Gunnar encounters a dawn elf slave who looks almost identical to the woman he accidentally killed IRL–the crime which landed him in prison in the first place.

Is it just the cruel joke of a twisted developer? Or is something more going on?

Gunnar does not have time to find out until he completes the rescue mission. Gunnar dies in the attempt, but manages to complete the quest.

When he wakes back in prison, he discovers that the goddess he has been serving in-game is an actual woman in real life–a wealthy investor for Pantheon Online, who hopes to capitalize on his successes as the beta begins to stream live in preparation for the launch.

Nymoria offers him the chance to be her in-game champion. The higher he ascends, the wealthier and more powerful she becomes. She may even have the power to change his fate in prison.

Things are looking up and up.

Until Gunnar returns to Thailen. He immediately discovers that he has pissed off Sykes and a lot of other powerful people in the city. And Sykes knows where his new base is located.

Arc One ends as Gunnar accepts a new quest to defend his crypt from Sykes and his cronies.