I awoke in a shining void, which in a few seconds was replaced by a velvety darkness. It made me feel strange. After a while, in space in front of me appeared words in an unfamiliar language, which I understood perfectly well. It looks like I've been implanted into someone's body with a mind that's already formed. But I didn't know where the body was, because I felt like a dot in space, not a human being or a xenomorph.

I put my thoughts aside and focused on the text.

“- Welcome to the World of the Elements.” – The text said.

I mentally agreed with this statement, and it replaced with a three-dimensional modeling interface.

“- Choose your appearance:”.

In the interface, a male figure was spinning in front of me. I looked at him from all sides, adjusted the face and length of penis, built up my muscles, and mentally clicked 'OK'.

“- Enter your character name:” – New text appeared. – “- Error. The name will be set from the system settings.” - I was pleased with another message. – “- Welcome to the World of Elements, Cheater.”

“Cheater? Cheater?!! Hey, don't screw me!” - I shouted. It took me a second to realize that I now had a physical body.

Unfortunately, no one was interested in my objections. The interface in front of me disappeared, and I was suddenly moved by some kind of portal, after which I found myself in a small room, the walls of which were lined with large stone blocks. There was no window, but there was a doorway leading to the corridor. Of the 'furniture' in the room there was only a bed made of the same stone. Actually, it was not even a bed, but a kind of ‘stepping stone’ up to my knees, rising above the floor. If there was a door or grating in the passage outside, I would definitely take this room for a prison cell.

Having examined myself, I became convinced that I have the same body that I created in the editor of appearance. I was wearing canvas pants, a shirt and simple sandals.

“Interface.” - I said quietly.

Before my eyes immediately appeared the interface, typically for computer games. Except that it was a little strange here, because I was looking at the world with my own eyes, not through a monitor. After a quick run through the functionality, I became convinced that in general it corresponds to a usual RPG. After that, I went to the technical settings, where I found the item I was interested in: Exit.

After clicking on this item and confirming my intention, I lost my orientation in space for a few seconds. Then I suddenly realized that I was lying on my back in total darkness. There were some tubes in my mouth and nose. In the area of other 'physiological holes' there was also some inconvenience. I moved my fingers, feeling how the atrophied muscles in my hand had strained. A second later, a small screen lit up in front of me, showing three menu items:

Return to the game Call for help Exit from capsule

I didn't choose anything, but focused on exploring my powers.

Half an hour later, I learned out that magic and the chakra did not work in this world. Psionics were almost useless, but it could do something little. In principle, after a while my psionic power can to adapt to this world, and then even these crumbs should be enough to use the magic of Probabilities. Chaos and Order in some form were present here, but I felt that these forces were not directly used in this world, so their use would be very noticeable. And even without magic, it will be difficult to reach them. This is not a dream world where you just have to imagine it to get a result. I didn't touch the symbiont at all. I have not yet decided how to relate to the fact that in my soul lives a projection of the most powerful creature of the universe. As they say, bypass us Lord’s anger and Lord's love. I think, using Azathoth to solve my little problems was not the most sensible thing to do.

Having sorted out my abilities, I meditated for a while, adjusting the connection between my mind and my brain. At the same time, I scanned the memory fragments of the donor body. Apparently, I was a 'newborn' clone who had barely completed a course of training in the basics of virtual existence. I did not understand, what kind of Matrix is going on here, and why all this is necessary.

In the end, I used psionics to scan my surroundings. In my mind's eye, I saw rows of capsules containing people. The only way to get out of the capsule is to remove it from a special niche in which it was connected to various types of communications. My capsule was located a little aside of the slender rows with hundreds of similar capsules. Looks like there's all sorts of communication going around. There were all sorts of pipes, wires and electronic equipment around. And my capsule was stuck here, just because there was a little free space, which they decided to use in the most rational way.

After dealing with reality, I decided to return to virtuality. Again, I lost my orientation in space, and ten seconds later I find myself in the same room in the game. But at the same time I psionically felt my real body and the processes taking place in it. A huge number of wires were implanted into my brain, which now stimulated various nerve endings, creating an image of a three-dimensional reality and a game body. However, the technical side of the game did not worry me very much. If it works, that's enough. Now I need to understand the game itself.

Once again, having inspected the room and got used to the virtual body, I sat down on the 'bed' and began a thoughtful study of the game interface. When I got to the list of active tasks, I found only one quest there.

“- Organize your guild and capture the Tower of the Dark Lord. You must keep the tower under your control at the end of the allotted period. Time left: 364 days 22 hours 48 minutes 17 seconds.”

It looks like I have a whole year to complete this task. And considering the fact that the game is supposed to be high rated, I should expect the presence of other game figures in this world.

Convinced that there was no game help in the interface, I sighed, got to my feet and left the room. Once I was in the hallway, a green arrow ran across the floor indicating the direction of movement. I followed it and walked around many empty rooms similar to the one in which I appeared. After a couple of minutes, I went out into a wide corridor where other players. Most of them were walking slowly in the direction of the green arrows, although some of them looked around in surprise.

Above each player was a semitransparent inscription that flashed brightly when I looked at it. The names of those around me were quite strange. ‘Merry wind’, ‘Long way’, ‘Big fat dumplings’. Compared to them, my name 'Cheater' was not the worst option.

I did not linger, and followed the crowd. Gradually, the number of people increased, and by the time I got to the huge hall with a high ceiling, the crowd of players resembled some carnival. Some of the players were talking to each other. I listened to a conversation, or rather even a monologue, where some guy expressed his delight about the opening of a new server of the World of Elements. Well, if the game has just started, then this influx of newcomers is not surprising. The fact that I was an hour late probably allowed me to get past the hustle.

In the hall, people were moving in different directions. The hall itself was shaped like a huge cross, in the center of which shine some abstract... shit, that looks like a statue or a fountain. I went straight to it, reading the description of the new quest in the interface. The task was quite simple: ‘- choose your element’. But there was no information about essence of this choice, so that I should first understand, that are they mind under word ‘elements’ and why are they need.

Near the 'fountain' I saw a man in rich decorated clothes, which strongly distinguished him from 'barefoot' like me.

“Welcome to the world of the Elements.” - He began his campaign speech, considering me as his electorate. – “This world is full of mysteries and wonders, powerful magic and epic adventures. Now you have to choose the element that you will use throughout your life in this world. Do you want to learn more about the elements and how this choice will affect your future?”

“I do” - I agreed.

"In that case, let me begin my story.”

“Start.” - I nodded graciously, breaking the narrator's happy mood. However, a second later a sweet smile again spread across his face.

For the next half hour, I meticulously asked the informant all the details of this game. The elements here really were the cornerstone of the world, on which literally everything depended. Let's start with the fact that there were four Elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. And it was necessary to distinguish between the Element and about manifestation of the Element. Mages in this world were not restricted in how to exercise their magic power. In other words, a Water mage could 'burn' their opponent if necessary. Just as the magician of Fire could control the water and drown the enemies, if the circumstances required.

Rather, the elements here defined the way of perceiving the outside world and interacting with it. Fire mages focused on simple and understandable actions with predictable results. Proverb 'With strong back – no need for mind' - this was about them. The more mage of Fire 'strained', the greater result he will achieve. In contrast, the element of Water was associated with the passage of time, the cycle of events, patience and perseverance. Water mages could take a long time to prepare for some action, but when the 'promised time' came, their power was irresistible. Air mages were 'windy' individuals who achieved results due to random circumstances. They could at any time leave their business and go to the other end of the world to 'catch their luck by the tail'. Earth mages, on the contrary, approached everything thoroughly, paying attention to a variety of small details, following various rules and restrictions.

The Elements are not just a psychological method. It really set a way in which the player should go to the top of their power. For a start, an important point in the game mechanics has become clear. Players could learn a huge number of spells and abilities, but they could only use eight of them in battle. To use spell, they first had to create a special talisman. In battle, the mage only fed mana into this talisman and indicated the target for the spell. Two talismans could be installed in the weapon, and six talismans in the cells on the belt.

Players had to personally create each talisman, using a kind of crafting system and spells studied by them. And just crafting at different elements happened in different ways. Fire mages had to create a blank talisman, put the necessary spells in it, and then begin a 'pilgrimage to places of power' for the purpose of charging precious stones that are elements of the talisman. At the same time, the place of the ritual was determined by the energies flowing in these shrines, the type of gem used, and the spell itself. The 'Holy shrines' of Fire mages were quite well known, and it was only necessary to compare the requirements of the talisman and the list of necessary places.

Naturally, the energy was different everywhere. There were 22 known types of energy, and the total number of their combinations was difficult to imagine. The closer combination of energy of the place similar to 'ideal', then created talisman will be stronger. And if there were significant deviations, you could get a low efficiency, but also some 'side effect' additionally.

Another important factor was the location of the Fire shrines. Some of them were located in cities, others in the wildlands, and others in dungeons that could only be passed as part of a raid. In general, the life of a Fire mage was not easy, but... predictable. At least it was easy to understand how much the player would have to 'strain' to get the desired result.

But the element of Water demanded patience from its adherents, more patience, and once again patience. The Water mages didn't have to go anywhere. They could charge their talismans in any Water temple, but... only at certain times. There were various astrological cycles that affect the power of manifestation of 22 types of energy. So, to charge the talisman, they just had to find out its requirements and make an astrological forecast for the future, then wait for the right moment, having planned the ritual in advance.

Here accuracy and 'range' of the predictions depends on the strength of the Water mage. Plus, advanced Water mages could take energy not only from the present, but also from the past, although at the cost of a certain drop in efficiency. So, they no longer had to worry about performing the ritual at the exact moment of 'highest tension'. They could wait for half an hour, and then choose the best moment and use the energy from it, losing only a tenth of a percent of the talisman's effectiveness.

Air mages were the most 'free' in their actions. They did not use world currents of ether, like Water magicians, or fixed earth flows, like Fire magicians, but random fluctuations of energy in the area. An Air mage could scan the world around them and see if this was the right place for a talisman-making ritual or not. If the answer was negative, then you could wait or... move to another place with a more suitable energy background.

Naturally, the area of the scanned territory was limited, and the space of the world was huge. Therefore, Air mages could set up special 'beacons' in arbitrary places special 'beacons' that automatically monitored the situation around themselves. And as soon as one of the beacons detected a suitable combination of energies, the Air mage will immediately receive a notification about it. After that, he could use a 'non-combat' spell to teleport to the selected beacon. This made the Air mages extremely mobile. After all, they could teleport not only themselves, but also their team. And for one thing, this type of 'craft' made Air mages extremely fickle. They could at any moment find a 'happy chance' and go to the far side of the world, leaving allies to swear loudly. However, after five minutes, they could return and continue playing as a team, as if nothing had happened.

The Earth Element was the most demanding of all the elements, because the energy to charging these talismans could be extracted by magicians of this element received from various kinds of 'alchemical preparations'. It was similar to how Chinese alchemists in the realms of the cultivators have created their own 'magic pill'. It was necessary to calculate in advance what the final result should be, then think about where to get the required energy, and how to combine the necessary components correctly, using various restrictions on their compatibility.

Sometimes it was necessary to make several semi-finished pills in order to create the final product from them. Some talismans as a result required the longest and most complex technological chains and just a ton of raw reagents. Tasks like 'collect the tails of 10,000 hares' were quite common for Earth mages. They farmed everything, collecting all sorts of leaver, claws, hides, herbs, minerals, dried toads, and powdered venomous Wyvern’s shit.

In general, no matter what nasty shit the player knocked out from next monster, he could be sure that the Earth mages would buy it, perhaps for good money. Accordingly, a good Earth mage simply had to be fabulously rich and deadly greedy. To be able to accumulate necessary amount of money, Earth mages were engaged in the production of various kinds of potions that allowed players to restore mana, health and stamina, increase the effectiveness of spells, protect against certain types of damage, and so on.

As a result, Fire and Water mages hunched over, knocking gold out from monsters, then giving all this wealth to the Earth mages in exchange for a couple of bottles of muddy swill. The Air mages had little to do with this process, because potions created with Earth magic were pure poison to them. And the idea that at least a quarter of the world's money was passing by made the earth mages mad, making them hate Air mages, to which they responded in full reciprocity. Similarly, the Fire mages had a reason to hate the Water mages, who instead of taking and doing the job, sat and waited for something incomprehensible, justifying themselves with centuries-old traditions.