“I’ll take the switch please Monty.”

“Are you sure you want to make the switch?”

“Yup, no regrets”

*Audience clapping and cheering*

“Alright then here you go, this is the key to door number 2, I hope you’re lucky kid”

Once again I approach the doors, this time no fumbling the key slides in perfectly, I twist and shove the door open, revealing some sort of gunmetal pod.

“Congratulations! You’ve won the grand prize, an Eternium Studios reality gear and a lifetime subscription, how do you feel?”

How do I feel? How do I feel! I'm over the goddamn moon, as a student with no income and my parents having already refused to pay for me, this was my only chance play AOE.

“Monty I feel like a million quid.”

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And so here I was in white room sitting on a black leather recliner, of course neither the recliner or the room existed, in fact I don’t even see an end to this white room, in the sky or perhaps ceiling red numbers just like the ones on a classical alarm clock were floating “15:09” slowly ticking down by the second, fifteen minutes and it would all begin.

You see this white room was a preloader of sorts, in addition to releasing information and a few tips for the beginning before the game started, the reality gear came with this preloader room that players would go to before being able to play the game, the biggest benefits were that you could use the screens like a computer and you could control the time settings from 1:1 To 1:10, no higher for safety reasons but you could stay as long as you wanted and it had internet, so in the week leading up to the start date I had been browsing the site and theory crafting forums, it seemed that every race started with different stats and two racial skills, though the stat difference would eventually be minimal with bonus stats provided by during level ups, novice class would get no bonus stats but once they chose their first class they would gain a bonus stat point for every level and reset back to level one, at which point the base rate was 5 bonus points every level and 1-3 points to one or two main stats depending on your class, I had pretty much narrowed down my choice of race to three, I knew I would likely have to be some sort of tank class, since tanks were the heart and soul of guild and I planned to make my own guild in AOE, to be honest it was probably more my style though magic is cool.

So my choices were of the humans, they would start out with 10 in every stat, their racial passives being:

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Progress.Max~~Every 2nd level up grants a bonus point.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Versatility.Max~~20% experience increase and 30% to skill experience gains when skill is at beginner level.

Overall a solid race though versatility would fall off it would give a great base to start from and would be good in getting ahead early, my next option would be an Orc.

Orcs would start the game with +5 to strength, +2 to agility and con and -3 to intelligence and wisdom, not great if I wanted any magic on my character, but their passives were pretty interesting;

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Bloody Warpath.Max~~Every level gain +1 to a random stat, this bonus is doubled if you are still in combat during level up.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Greatwarrior.Max~~+10% to strength and constitution, +5% chance to resist non-magical afflictions, this chance cannot go below 5%

Ggreat for any tank or melee class.

Last on my list was Rockbourne dwarf, a kind of mountain dwarf that had grown to fight giants, they would start with +2 to str, con and agi, their passives were both good and somewhat amusing:

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Solid Rock.Max~~+1 to con or str every level, immunity to balance altering effects.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:(Racial Passive) Small, Drunk and Angry!Max~~3% dodge and critical hit rate against anyone taller than yourself, when drunk gain +20% to con and str.

Depending on what being drunk did in game, dwarves might be the strongest melee fighters in the game.

However, looks-wise they’re both kinda…

Considering you can’t really change your appearance that means that any female players can’t either, no chances of men playing female characters, and I’m pretty good looking too? So I guess that settles it, human all the way baby, I mean is it wrong to try pick up girls in dungeons?

I spent some time in forums and chat rooms talking about the game and soon enough fifteen minutes was up and the option to enter the game appeared.

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Similar to entering the white room I felt as though a white flash blinded my sight and I was in another white room…

This time there was just me and a tall busty blonde, and when I say tall I mean it, she was possibly 12 feet tall, her blue eyes glanced at me and without her opening her mouth, a serene voice sounded out.

“Welcome Ezekiel Jasper, today you will be reborn and your adventures in Eternium will begin”

“What name would you like to take?”

“Just Ezekiel please”

“So be it your name shall be just Ezekiel please”

“Uhhh...”

“I’m joking Ezekiel.”

“Next we’re onto character creation, as a part of winning the chance to reincarnate, the option to completely randomize your character has been made available, your race and appearance will be completely random, and this includes all races that are currently locked, you won’t receive any information about them, but I can say all will be at minimum on par with the unlocked races but some may have other advantages or be more powerful, your starter area will also be randomly chosen but appropriate. As a reminder you can only have one character, you can delete your character but the penalty for doing so is 3 days lockout and the random option will not be available again.”

Well now, this one was a doozy where to start, if I did choose I would have no idea what I’m getting into, while she didn’t say any were weaker, but I could end up with something that could only craft, I would have to build my character based on what this race could do, I could just end up as one of the unlocked races and the start area was random I could end up in the middle of a desert for all I knew, hmm, well worst case scenario I can always start again, but a unique race would make me stand out, good for recruiting and it could have an edge over others.

“Alright I’ll take it.”

Her lips curved upwards and she beamed at me, her eyes seemed to wake up and a light shined in her palm.

“Roll this to determine your initial luck value.”

With that she threw a purple 20 sided die in my direction, and I grabbed it with my left hand, or so I thought I did, as the die promptly jumped out my hand, not to worry though I would grab it with my right…

Crap I ended up whacking it into the unknown expansive white space…

The goddess giggled, but this time it came straight from her mouth, though she tried to cover it up.

For impressing the Goddess Eve you have been granted +1 to luck

Well at least she was benevolent enough to give me 1 luck point, who needs luck anyway.

“Have fun Ezekiel.”

Once again that damned light took out my eyes.

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