After weeks of waiting, MO finally started.

After logging in, Jack found himself in a black void.

[Jack] "Now this is more like it."

"Welcome to Magic Online. To start your character creation please input what you want your name to be."

Jack looked around to see who was talking but couldn't see anyone. Then a keypad appeared in front of him.

Jack had spent a lot of time thinking about what name he was going to use. When he tried to bounce ideas off Jared, Jared would refute the name only to suggest a name that Jack would ridicule. In the end they settled on just choosing letters for their names. Jack would be Z and Jared would be X. They chose these letters because they thought they were the coolest letters. Of course, when Jared told Lisa, she just told them how stupid they were.

"Confirmed. Do you want to change yo-"

[Emilio] "Code lambda epsilon mu."

The disembody voice stopped talking and Emilio Graham appeared in front of Jack Z.

[Emilio] "No time for pleasantries. If you don't pick fast you won't be able to get a reward. Now choose."

ItemWeaponMagic

[Z] "Umm."

[Emilio] "Quickly boy!"

[Z] "Magic."

Keep rank, change typeKeep type, increase rankAdd one slot

[X] "Why the heck did you choose to change type?"

[Z] "He made me hurry, I felt pressured."

[X] "Every player is limited to 3 magics. The creator of the game himself appears in front of you, offers to give you another slot for magic, and you chose to say no?"

[Z] Finds the ground very interesting. "I thought it meant another slot for my inventory."

[Nicole] (Lisa in RL) Interrupts before X can say anything else. "It's okay, at least you still got a reward. We should hurry and get to the gate to meet the others."

While they waited for the release of the game, Jack and Jared searched their school for people that wanted to form a party. William University had announced that they would be the first school to use the VR time compression for all their classes (except physical), therefore guaranteeing every student had a pod. Of course, the classes weren't in MO but a side program that the school had paid for and had bought the rights to. But sense they already had the pods, nearly all of the students bought the game.

"Over here guys!"

As they approached the South gate Z, X, and Nicole were called out to by a group of 4 players standing off to the side. Unlike the group of 3 who chose to keep their looks, the whole group of 4 had chosen to change their races. The group consisted of a female vampire, a male draconian, a female beastman (fox variation), and a male demon.

[Nicole] "Ahem. Now that we're all here let's reintroduce ourselves. I'm Nicole and I'm aiming for a healing class. The magics I've chosen are healing, necromancy, and dispel. If you get hurt, let me know."

[Rose] "I'm Rose and I hope to be an archer. As you can see I used one of my magics to become a Kitsune. I-"

[Demon] "A what? I thought you were a beastman."

[Rose] "Kitsune is the Japanese term used to describe fox beastmen. For my other magics, I chose range and vision."

[Rock] "Ooh. Guess you learn something new everyday. Hi everyone, I'm Rock. I chose demon, endurance, and strength for my magics and plan on tanking. Glad to be working with you."

[Ken] "Ken. Fighter. Dragon, monstermen, flexibility."

[Rock] "Huh? Why did you pick flexibility if your going to be a fighter?"

[Ken] "Useful."

[Rock] Shrugs. "Whatever." Looks to the vampire who was next in the circle that had formed.

[Hime] "Hmph!" Puts her hands on her hips and juts her chest out more. By choosing vampire as her race, she went from being a flat board in RL to being quite busty in MO. And she doesn't mind showing it off. "You can all call me Hime. As you can all see, I changed my race to be a vampire. I also decided to take lightning and blue flame as my magics and will become a mage."

Races.

Spoiler :

Demon - The demon race can be identified by their horns, abnormal skin color, and muscular bodies. Players who choose this race become more muscular, get to choose their horns, and have their skin turned a random color. Through RNG, Rock has blue skin. RGB code with 2, 117, 215. And has 2 horns coming out of his head.

Beastmen - When a player chooses this race they're given a random animal as their other half. But because there aren't any penalties for a month, the player can keep recreating their character until they get an animal that they want. Rose ended up getting the arctic fox.

Vampire - Players receive pointed canines but don't get any vampire like powers or weaknesses. The powers and weaknesses commonly associated with vampires can only apply if someone has a high enough rank. Also all females gain enlarged chests.

Draconian - Players gain scales and a tail. The scales are located between their elbows and wrists as well as their knees and ankles and all along the tail. Through RNG, Ken has grey scales. RGB code with 127, 113, 136.

[X] "Hi everyone, I'm X. I kept my poison magic from the beta and decided to become an assassin. The other magics I chose are speed and stealth."

[Z] "I'm Z. My magics are now soul, binding, and enchant. I've never been in a real fight before so I don't know what role I'll end up taking."

[X] Turns to Nicole. "Where to now?"

[Nicole] "Now we get our weapons. The site said that starting weapons are given once a player registers their re-spawn point."

[Rock] "How do we do that?"

[Nicole] "We have to head to the town's temple. It shouldn't be too far."

The group then went to the temple, set their re-spawn points, and attained their weapons. The weapons given were randomized. The group ended up with 2 swords, a bow (+ arrows), an ax, a pair of knives (given as 1 weapon for dual wielding), a wand, and a big wooden club. X got the knives, Hime got the wand, Rock got the ax, and Rose got the bow (+ arrows). This left 2 swords and a wooden club to be split between Z, Ken, and Nicole.

[Nicole] "Alright. Now let's go look for monsters to hunt."

[Rock] "Yeah!"

[Hime] "About time."

[Rose] "Sure thing."

[Ken] Nods.

[X] "Wooh." Puts his hands above his head.

[Z] "I think I'll stay here."

Of course, his statement caused all the other party members to look at him.

[X] "Come on man, we just got our weapons. It's time to test our skills."

[Z] "That's just it, I don't like my weapon. I don't know what it is, but I don't feel comfortable using the sword."

[Rock] "Then what type of weapon would you like to use?"

[Z] "I was hoping to get the bo staff or the spear. I'll stay here to see if I can trade my sword to someone for something else."

Ken then walks up to Z and holds out his sword to him.

[Z] Not being too familiar with Ken, he just stares at him for a while. Eventually he understands. "You want me to trade your sword too?"

[Ken] Nods.

[Z] "Alright, what do you want me to try to trade it for?"

[Ken] "Sai."

[Z] "What's a sai?"

[X] "There those things Raphael uses." (AN: Referring to TMNT if that wasn't clear.)

[Z] "Hmm? Oh, okay. I'll look around for you."

Ken nods and Nicole walks up to Z.

[Nicole] "Here." Hands him the club. "You might as well take this too."

[Z] "Alright. I'll try to get you a staff."

[Nicole] "Don't bother. No one'll trade their staves or wands."

[Rock] "I don't get it. If you can use magic without a staff or wand, why do you need one?"

[X] "Wands increase damage and staves increase mana regen. So, while we don't need them, they're useful to have."

[Rock] "Ooohhh."

[Nicole] "If you run into any trouble don't be afraid to contact us through the friend chat." Turns to the others. "Alright team, let's move out."

AN: I finally feel like I'm starting the story. The hardest part of writing (for me) is starting a story. I get ideas but don't know how to start introducing the new world I created. Also if you're wondering why he doesn't have a class, it's cause classes are earned till level 10.

As always, I appreciate your input, compliments, criticism, and ability to point out my errors.

Brief summary of enchanting magic Jack learned from forms.

Spoiler :

This is one of the other magic writing systems mentioned in his ink manual.

if it's constantly active it can be seen without magic

if it requires mana to activate it can't be seen without magic

enchants are read from left to right

mixtures require one symbol on top of another

The symbols used:

fire ♌

light ♐

soul ♈

earth ♍

metal ♉

void ♑

wind ♒

dark ♎

essence ♊

water ♓

wood ♏

body ♋

To enchant an item one must first coat the entire item with their mana then condense more mana into the needed symbols on the item.

Brief overview of what the stats do.

Spoiler :

Strength - Damage + Load limit

Dexterity - Range + Crit

Speed - Attack Frequency + Dodge

Vitality - Max Health + Stamina Regen

Endurance - Max Stamina + Defense

Resistance - Health Regen + Magic Defense

Intelligence - Max mana + spell power

Wisdom - Mana regen + skill rank speed

Knowledge - Mana cost + cool down

Fame + Infamy - determine the number of titles you can equip.

Also note that the regen's listed only apply when at rest and will be reduced during battle (except for mana).

How money works.

Spoiler :

Coins have numbers on them and can't be placed in inventory due to their magical properties.

Copper -> Silver -> Gold New type takes 1,000 of the previous.

Coin values are 1, 10, and 100.

Coins can be magically combined and separated into different values. Method of combination and separation can be changed in the menu.

How the new inventory works.

Spoiler :

The inventory is no longer slots that can be filled with 99 of one item. Instead, the inventory is now 3 dimensional.

Players start with 25 cubic feet. They can rearrange, combine, and separate 25 1'x1'x1' cubes however they want without the need of extra magic. If they have the mold/alter magic then the 25 cubes can change shape and better 'hug' the items. If a player has storage magic they can increase the size of their inventory. These are just some of the effects magic can have on a players inventory and not the limit.

This new system doesn't stop the flow of time. Therefore: food can spoil, eggs can hatch, plants can grow, and wine can mature. The inventory can't hold any living being other than non-sentient plants (i.e. no ents in inventory). Also if eggs hatch in the inventory they will be promptly removed.