Chapter 7 - First Steps in a New World

When I stepped out of the boat’s cabin, the first thing that I noticed was the salty taste and smell of the ocean. The smell of it reminded me of a few trips I took to the beach with Grandpa back during my childhood. When I stopped reminiscing, I scanned my surroundings and noticed boat already docked at the port.

I walked over to the boarding plank to get off the boat but once I took a step onto the plank, I immediately slipped due to the lack of grip on it.

I landed on my hip and continued rolling down the plank to the dock’s walkway. “God that hurts!” I complained. ‘Wait…,’ I thought, ‘it hurts? So the VR world does include a sense of pain in it. That's going to make that game a lot more interesting.’ So while limping, I made my way down the walkway to the docking office, where I guessed my introduction to Aeon would be.

By the time I got to the door, I could walk without holding my hip. It seemed pain was a part of this game, but not for too long. I opened the door expecting to see someone like a soldier in armor waiting there to instruct me, however, that image was quite shattered when I noticed the singular old man sitting at a desk smoking a pipe. He seemed to be a seafaring man. His skin was cracked dry along with his wrinkles, his hair was a tousled grey that looked like it had never once seen a brush, and his hands were very calloused which probably meant he handled a lot of the ropes on a ship.

“Welcome Wanderer.” The old man spoke to me with a coarse and quiet voice. This was nothing at all like I was expecting to be welcomed with. “You're no doubt confused at yer entry to our country so let me explain some things to ya. This country is called Hildsa, mainly populated with humans. The town you're currently docked in is Solram. Every Wanderer is supposed to go to the Adventurer's Guild in order to get their papers and cards ordered. But it's also recommended ya take a look around our small town. After all, you're going to be stuck here fer a while.”

At that last sentence, I had to interrupt, “Wait, why will I be stuck here?”

The old man glared at me. “I was getting ta’ that ya impertinent youngin’. Now, I'm going to be using some of yer ‘Wanderers talk’ in order ta’ explain. The town chief won't let ya leave the outskirts of the town until you're, as ya’ll say, ‘Level 5’ whatever the hell that's supposed ta’ mean. At ‘Level 5’ it seems all of you Wanderers come into some weird elemental powers. People controlling fire, water, earth, and wind ain't a rare sight here. Once one of you Wanderers get ta’ ‘Level 5’, the town chief kicked them out the next day. He says it's fer their own good apparently.”

“I see. Thank you, elder.” I decided to be respectful to him since I was going to be seeing him again most likely within the time it takes me to reach level 5. Come to think of it, I still hadn't even seen my stats yet, and they're supposed to be an integral part of VR games.

I walked out of the docking office and begun my search for the Adventurer’s Guild. Obviously, the game made it fairly easy to find your way to the guild since there were signposts on every street corner. I approached the guild which turned out to be 1 of the only 2, two-storied buildings in this town. The other being the town leader’s house it seems.

I entered the Adventurer’s Guild to see many people, both male and female, crowded over the reception desk. It seemed the receptionists were slowly getting overwhelmed with the amount of level 1-4 Wanderers that were all trying to get quests in order to leave this place. Not even a single one of them looked my way as I entered the building.

Suddenly, the floor begun shaking. It seemed that a few of the Wanderers knew what that signified and immediately did an about-face with their behavior, becoming very polite and decorous. The newer people immediately sought the window that the others gave up and charged in further, unknowing of the peril they just threw themselves into. A person, who must've been the guild master judging by the sheer amount of muscles he sported, came down the stairs.

“All of you newbies shut up right now!” He yelled. He scanned the room and saw the people who had changed their attitudes when he was coming down. Suffice to say, all he could do was glare at them. As for the newer players around the desk, he held nothing back, “With my authority, I, Joseph Strongarm, ban every one of you Wanderers from the guild for a day. Go and cool your heads, then think about how the receptionists feel.”

“You can't do that!” One of the players exclaimed

“Oh, can't I?” He locked on immediately to the one who said that. Joseph had surprisingly good hearing for what I pegged as a pure musclehead before. “If you don't like it boy, then perhaps you would try to defeat me and take the authority that way? Don't worry, I'll give you a handicap. I'll be bare handed and you can use your weapon. So how about that? You feeling up to it?”

The player who yelled out could do nothing but shrink away due to the pure intimidation of the guild master. While, gritting their teeth, all of the newer players that were crowding the desk evacuated. With a humph, Joseph strolled over to the corner of the guild and sat in a chair.

The experienced players immediately went back to the receptionist desk with a polite smile and in single-file order. I had to marvel of the change just one man could bring about in this place.

About 15 minutes later, I got up to the receptionists desk. The lady behind the counter wasn't as pretty as Bea, but she was pretty enough. I told her that I was here to register and get my card. She told me to use a tack they have to puncture my thumb and have a drop of blood fall on the card she placed under my hand. Once I did, I finally found out my stats, which were pretty basic.

Name: Foris Age:22 Race:Human Titles: None Attributes: None Fame: 0 Level: 1 HP:100 MP:100 STR:10 VIT:10 AGI:10 INT:10 WIS:10 DEX:10 LCK: 5 CHA: 5 LDR: 5 Attribute Resistances Fire:0% Water:0% Earth:0% Wind:0% Light:0% Dark:0%

(Fuck that took a lot of work - Haze)(LDR is leadership.)

After thanking the woman behind the desk, I took the card and left the guild. I decided that the best course of action would be to get training in a weapon. So I looked that the street signs again for direction and headed out.

END

Thanks for reading this far with me! It took a long time to get to this part, but it's finally begun. - Haze