Chapter 003

First day in a new world

Finally it was time, the agonizing week of doing nothing but browsing forums and reading comments about a game he had waiting for him was at an end, after scoffing his breakfast down to the amusement of the watching nurse another nurse and a doctor walked in carrying a large box and set it on the bed. Even the box for the custom V.R Helmet looked fancy, carefully he opened it and pulled out the helmet, along with the cables and instructions that went with it.

Minutes passed as he browsed the small instruction manual and ran the helmet through its testing and adjustment phase, altering the padding inside the helmet to fit his head comfortably and then doing the initial body scans and mind link tests, the nurses had also hooked the helmet up to the TV so they could watch his first day, it would also help with monitoring him to make sure his body or mind rather could handle being linked into a V.R world.

Laying down Ren got himself comfortable in his bed and slipped the V.R helmet on, looking to the nurses and doctor who smiled at him and nodded he pulled the visor down and closed his eyes.

“Flow Login Start.”

For a moment it felt as though he’d passed out, but a voice called out around him “New user detected, starting orientation.”

Suddenly he was surrounded by white and for a moment he thought he was back in the hospital but there was nothing else in the room… no it wasn’t even a room just an endless field of white that went on as far as he could see. “Please follow the directions indicated.” A small yellow arrow appeared on the ground at his feet, it was a strange feeling, he knew for a fact that he was lying in bed yet he was standing here in this expanse of white, it felt so real.

Somewhat timidly he started to walk forward following the arrow, as he walked more appeared and gradually the instructions changed asking him to sprint or jump, after running his way through a small obstacle course he came to a stop “please wait here as your guide logs in.”

Ren was almost speechless “This…this is amazing! I’ve never been able to run so much ever!”

“Since you’re not yet in game the stamina system isn’t in effect, technically you could run forever and never run out of breath.”

A voice from behind made Ren jump and spin around, behind him stood a woman that looked to be in her mid twenties, she wore a business suit that hugged her body rather tight, the top two buttons were open to show off her ample cleavage. Pushing her glasses up to look at him a pink tinge seemed to start forming on her cheeks.

“You are Ren Haddon correct?” Ren simply nodded “Hmm.. strange I was sure the character creation was turned off for you, did you already pick a halfling type race?”

“Huh?” Ren looked down at himself, his body seemed to have been copied fully into the system and shook his head “no… this is how I look in real life.” He looks to the woman confused.

The light pink tinge on the woman’s cheeks only seemed to deepen “Really? How old are you if you don’t mind my asking?”

Ren was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable, as though he was suddenly being hunted by something “uh…umm.. s..seventeen… the doctors say I have some kind of growth impediment… for various reasons… and that I’ll likely never grow any older then I currently look…”

He was about to say something more but was cut off as the woman dashed at him with a squeal of delight and hugged him tight to her ample chest “Eeeeeeeee! Such a cutie!” She couldn’t hold back any longer, she just had to smother the adorable looking boy.

Ren could have sworn he heard one of the nurses shouting something and smacking the TV screen back in the hospital room as he was smothered into the chest of the business woman who turned out to be attracted to cute young looking men. Ren flailed his arms about wildly as his air supply was cut off by two soft mounds of flesh, it was a cross between heaven and hell. Though now that he thought about it he didn’t actually need to breath here did he?

His flailing finally got her attention and she quickly backed off with a deep crimson blush “ah.. Sorry!” despite her words she still eyed him like a hungry predator which made him blush as well.

With a cough the regains some of her composure and straightens her back “Ok then! First of all welcome to Flow!” She beams a smile at Ren and then turns her attention to something on her right, lifting her hand she seems to tap at something in the air “Right first up let’s get your character sorted, have you thought about what race you want to pick?” Her eyes seem to light up and before he can answer she continues “You really should take one of the Halfling races, you’d suit it perfectly, ohh an elfling!” She pressed some buttons and in front of Ren appeared a copy of himself but with a set of elf ears protruding from the side of his head.

“Look look! You’re a perfect match, you don’t even need to make any changes to your appearance apart from the ears.. oh maybe just change the hair style a little.” She pressed some more of the invisible buttons in front of her and the hairstyle of the elfling Ren changed to a soft fluffed feathered style that just cried out to be touched “Yes!, that’s it.” The woman could barely contain herself “Ahhh, to be able to embrace such a cute boy.” She hugged herself tight with her eyes closed as she seemed to image the scene in her mind.

Almost a minute seemed to pass as she was lost in her day dream, her eyes shooting open “ah!” she looked around and saw Ren staring at her bewildered “Hehe, sorry, what do you think? It's good right? It’ll be a lot easier to adapt to movements in the game to if you keep the body the same as your real body.” She really was pushing to have her way, Ren just sighed and nodded, he did have to admit an elfling version of himself really was cute.

With a few more button presses the model vanished and Ren glowed for a moment as the changes were applied to him, his clothes also changed from what he was wearing during the scan in his room to a set of basic clothes, a loose white shirt and a pair of brown pants “Hehe, the basic clothes really suit you to, but I bet you’ll look cute in any clothing.” The woman winked at him playfully causing Ren to blush.

“So then all that’s left is to give you your class and send you off, as you probably know we unfortunately had to let the other winners take their pick of the classes since you couldn’t make it and so were left with this class.” She seemed to push something towards him and in front of him a small window appeared.

New class available!

Artificer

ar-tif-i-cer

1. A skilled worker; a craftsperson

2. One that contrives, devises, or constructs something

A long forgotten craftsman class that many underestimate

The Artificer is a craftsman that uses knowledge from all known crafts to create truly unique items, weapons and armours

Will you accept this class?

Ren’s first reaction was a sigh of relief “Thank gods it doesn’t have a weird name like the others, I think I would have cried if it was called something like the ‘princely dancing painter’...” This brought a giggle from the woman.

“I’ll have to agree with you there, a couple of the class names were a bit out there, so what do you think?”

Ren read the rest of the description and smiles, being cooped up in a hospital room and being unable to run around as he pleased he took up a lot of handicraft hobbies like making model ships and planes, he had even tried his hand at sewing, the nurses were delighted at the scarfs he had knitted for them at Christmas. “It’s awesome!” He grinned up at the woman who smiled back at him.

“Mr Torren had a feeling you would, and because of that as a little bonus and as an apology from SID Tec for being unable to give you the first pick we’ve made a few changes to the class. You’ll find a lot of neat things hidden within this class that weren’t going to be in there.” Ren’s eyes practically sparkled up at her, the sheer excitement pulsing from his aura was driving her cute’o’meter to bursting point “One more thing you’ll need to know though, due to the special class you won’t be able to pick your stat increases when you level up, each level they will be allocated automatically, this is to ensure your characters rise up properly as due to their rare nature the stats they use are a little different than others and there will never be a help guide for allocating them in the right areas for you. Of course you can still raise your stats individually by doing various activities in game, I even heard night activities can boost stamina and dexterity.” She lets out a small squeal and cups her cheeks as she blushes and looks at Ren adoringly.

Ren was now scared stiff of the woman and edged back away from her ever so slightly. “Ok! That’s everything then! Good luck!” She lost control and pounced at him with that, giving him a big hug and burying his face in her cleavage once again before he vanished as he was taken into the game. “Hehe, I’ll have to get my own character ready and find him in game….”

Ren blinked as light enveloped him and for a few minutes nothing seemed to happen, but slowly sounds began to emerge, people chatting, the bustle of fast paced steps moving by, birds chirping. Gradually his vision came into focus on a tall structure before him, he recognised it from the live feed a few days ago, it was the building they held the opening ceremony at, wide eyed he looked all around him, the world felt so real, the sight the sounds and even the crisp clean air and smell of fresh baked bread from a nearby stall. A small bell like sound rang in his ears as a window popped up before him.

System Requirement!

The Flow system has detected you have your race and class set, before you begin your journey though you still need a name!

Please enter you name below

“Ah!” Ren blinked as a small Keyboard appeared in front of him, he thought for a moment before shrugging and entering his own name ‘Ren’

System Confirmation!

You have selected the name ‘Ren’

Please speak your name clearly to confirm

“Ren.” He spoke it as clearly as he could and the window displayed a ‘thank you Ren’ message before vanishing. Looking around him once again Ren really had no idea on where he should start and with a shrug he started to wander around Aurora ‘the city of beginnings’ to learn his way around.

Aurora had several districts to it he learned in his exploring of the city, the market district where the majority of shops were located ranging from arms and armor to items and accessories and food stalls, there was even empty stalls where players could set up shop for a time if they paid a small renters fee, while you could certainly just take a seat on the side of the road and try to sell your items that would leave the chance for thievery, where as the shop stalls were enchanted to prevent items on display from being stolen. “Huh, no players seem to be using the stalls though, maybe crafting isn’t that popular?” Ren shrugged and wandered off to the next district.

The leisure district was a hive of activity, it felt almost like a theme park in some regards. Stalls lined the streets with npc’s challenging players to various games with the chance to win prizes, the largest tavern in the city was also located in this district where players could logout safely and when they log back in they would receive a small ‘well rested’ xp boost for an amount of time. The leisure district also had some back alleys where more ‘adult’ leisure’s could be found though only those that had their age verified could access such areas. Ren would have to wait a year still before he could explore back there…. Not that he was interested of course.

The next area was the housing district, there wasn’t alot in this district aside from a number of empty housing plots with signs in the front yard stating prices for the plots, since the game was barely a week old no one of course had been able to afford a house yet but Ren had no doubt that within a couple month this area would become packed. The idea of having his own house in the game seemed neat to him but he didn’t want a house in the starter city when there were so many places to explore out there still.

The next district was the artesian district where all the various crafting halls were located, the npc smiths, tailors, carpenters and other various crafters were all hard at work crafting their masterpieces, Player activity in this area seemed rather low though “I guess not many are interested in crafting?” Ren wandered over to watch one of the tailors as she made a dress inside her small shop. After watching for a few minutes the tailor spotted him watching her and smiled waving him inside to which he followed.

“Hello there dear, what’s a little one like you doing running about on your own?”

The woman seemed kind but her words hit a sore spot for Ren “I’m an adventure and I’m not a little one I’m an elfling.” He pointed to his ears to show that he wasn’t a kid

“Oh my, so you are, I’m sorry.” She smiled to him, the term ‘adventurer’ was how npc’s identified players, they were an existence that was seen by them as being outsiders or abnormal beings with rare abilities, her fingers never stopped their work on her dress though as she looked to him “What brings you to this old lady’s store today?”

Ren smiled up at her “I’m interested in learning various crafts.”

The woman seemed to perk up at hearing this “Is that so? Well it just so happens that I just received an order not long ago for coin pouches, they are quite simple to make but I must finish this dress before tomorrow so I simply don’t have time, if I show you how to make them do you think you would be able to make about ten of them for me dear?”

Quest!

Sally the seamstress has to many requests to fill and would like your help

Difficulty – F

Requirements

Sew ten coin pouches of adequate quality by the end of the day

Bonuses may be received depending on the quality of the pouches turned in

Rewards

50 xp

10 copper

Affinity gain with the artesian district npc’s

Ren blinked, a quest! He nodded eagerly “I’d love to help!” This brought a soft chuckle from the woman and she set down the dress she was working on to stand and fetches some items, setting them on a small chair.

“What’s your name by the way dear?”

“Ah, I’m Ren, it’s nice to meet you.” He smiled

“What a well mannered young man, I’m Sally the seamstress. Now then, watch carefully.” Unrolling a small amount of some basic looking fabric she placed down a circular template and cut around leaving her with a circle of cloth which she then sat down and began to sew the edges over to create a string hole along the edge and finally threaded a piece of leather strap through the hole and pulled it tight to form the pouch “It’s a very quick and easy way of making a pouch, while there are other methods of course but for a young tailor this is the best method to start with.” She smiled to him and set the materials down, stepping aside to give him accesses to it as she moved back to her dress.

New Recipe!

You have learned how to make a basic coin pouch from cloth

Ren wasted no time in setting to work, he first used the template to cut out the ten circular pieces of cloth, making sure he kept each cut out as close to the next as he could to minimise waste of the bolt of cloth and then set about sewing the lace hole’s along the edges of the pouches, with his experience from sewing in real life he had no trouble at all with pouches and finished them off with threading the leather strap through the hole of the pouch to pull it closed at the top, with the aid of the system he got through the crafting in about thirty minutes real time, he guessed that he could do it quicker if he had higher skill in sewing and tailoring. With a satisfied sigh he sat back and examined his ten completed pouches.

Coin Pouch

This coin pouch was made by a novice tailor it’s of a good quality….

But it’s still just a coin pouch.

“Eh… what’s with that comment?” Ren blinked as two more windows appeared before him.

Skill Gain!

Bag Craft level 1 Beginner (10%)

For completing ten coin pouches without missing a stitch you’ve gained the sub skill Bag Craft

“Sub skill?” Ren tilted his head curiously, he’d yet to have even look at his stats. “Show status.”

Status[quart=Name,level]Ren,1[/quart][quart=Gender,Class]Male,Artificer[/quart][quart=Race,Fame/Infamy]Elfling,0 (Neutral)[/quart]TitleNone[quart=Health,Mana]100,100[/quart][quart=Strength,Dexerity]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Agility]10,10[/quart][quart=Endurance,Intelligence]10,10[/quart][quart=Luck,Wisdom]10,10[/quart]

“Mmm.. nothing of note there..” Ren gazed over his stats, all classes and races started with a base set of ten on all stats, this was to ensure people picked the race and class they actually wanted and not make their choices based on what would be the ‘strongest’

“Show skills….”

What appeared before Ren was a rather complex looking window it seems he had beginner rank in all base crafting skills but what intrigued him was the sub skill listings of which he only had ‘Bag Craft’ currently which showed itself as being linked to both tailoring and leatherwork.

“Help sub skills.”

Help Guide

Sub Skills

Sub skills are skills inside of a main skill with a more specific area of focus for example

A swords man will have his main sword skill

Swordsmanship Level 1 (Beginner 10%)

With training he may gain a sub skill inside the swordsmanship skill

Slash level 1 (Beginner 0%)

A ‘Slash’ is a basic attack movement for a sword but by raising the sub skill a single ‘Slash’ of the swordsman’s blade will be faster and more deadly than a ‘Thrust’

Some sub skills will cross link between two or more main skills

‘Slash’ would be linked to ‘Swordsmanship’ as well as the ‘Axeman’ skill

Or ‘Thrust’ would be linked to ‘Swordsmanship’ and the ‘Spearman’ skill

By levelling sub skills the skills they link to also become stronger and more effective.

In the case of crafting it’s the same concept except the sub skills hold a focus on more specific items that can be crafted

A ‘Blacksmith’ may gain the sub skill of ‘Dagger forging’ which in turn can be linked to a ‘leather workers’ ‘Grip Craft’ sub skill

By training both sub skills and main skills the item produced will be of a far greater quality with a stronger blade and firm grip

“Wow… this is really complex…” Ren's eyes sparkled at this information, such a complex and deep system opened so many opportunities “So that means my ‘Bag craft’ sub skill is linked to tailoring and leatherworking…so if I train it I’ll be able to make bags that can carry more than normal maybe?” as he pondered this he didn’t notice the tailor had stood up and was now inspecting the pouches he made, making him jump a little when she spoke out.

“My my, these are well made, you didn’t miss a single stitch, I can’t pay you anymore then I offered though since they are just pouches but I’ll be sure to let the others know we have a promising young man walking the path of a craftsman.” She smiled softly to Ren and handed over the promised coins which he slipped away into his own pouch he had started with.

“Thank you very much Sally, I hope I can learn more from you again soon.” He gave a light bow and smiled brightly up at her as she waved him off.

Quest Complete!

You completed Sally’s order in time and with near perfect results

Received

50 xp

10 coppers

+ Affinity with artesian districts npc’s

Dexterity +1 for nimbly using your fingers to sew without errors

“Awesome!” Ren yipped as he left the tailors workshop and headed off to the Inn to logout, his first day in a new world had come to an end.

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