Enter: Tutorials

Location: Dorm Room, Evening

After hours of cramming for her upcoming midterms, Chisato was convinced that she had successful burn her notes into retina. She set down her tablet on her desk, rubbed her eyes, and stretched. It was time for a much needed break. Time for some gaming.

She took her desktop off standby and opened her newest game, a popular fantasy VRMMO called Ardermina Online (she jokingly referred to it as ArdOn). The client patched itself, then powered up her VR headset on the desk and made a successful sync. With everything setup, she took the party to the bed and slid on the VRMMO to initiate the man-machine interface. When using a VR headset, it was always a good idea to have somewhere comfy to lay, because the device rendered the body basically in a state of paralysis as it intercepted neural signals from the brain.

As the headset rerouted her neural pathways, her vision became black, and she lost all feeling. The loss of feeling had freaked her out when she first tried VR games, always afraid she'd never leave the Black, as it was called. It had happened before in a few isolated cases (With hyperbole of internet 3.0, the events were blown out of proportion as usual). The Black only lasted a few seconds though, and her vision returned as she materialized in a grey loading room. Since it was her first time playing, she had to go through the cinematic of the game. For about a minute she passively watched a great battle unfold before her, sometimes watching it from an overhead perspective, then zooming inside another character to watch them fight from the first perspective. She usually found such presentations cliche' (what fantasy MMO didn't open with some 'epic' battle scene?) but she found the camera trick neat.

The cinematic ended with the ArdOn logo, and she was returned to the loading room. However, this time, she was greeted with white featureless body that stood at attention. Her avatar. Chisato found that she could circle the avatar as a ghostly figure. As she moved, a HUD appeared, providing her with directions on how to mold the
avatar to her liking. She could either scroll through a list of premade options and alter them, or design her character from scratch. She chose the latter, designing her avatar's appearance with just raw thoughts. A slinky tallish frame with a medium bustline, a sharp face that resembled her own, a slight tawny complexion, glittering pale green eyes with golden flecks, and long wavy hair with deceptively subdued darkness; it appeared black from afar, but with the right lighting, it glowed with a purple sheen and a mix of lighter violet and brassy highlights.  

When he avatar was complete, she found she could finally possess it as her own body. She had fun with that part, jumping around, doing cartwheels, jiggling her breasts. etc. Satisfied with her creation, she moved onto the tutorial section. Now she was to choose a faction. Having no knowledge of the game lore, she waited for the system to inform her about each faction.

A cloud of very slightly illuminated blue pixels across the room materialized in response to her query, seeming to be nothing more than a collection of square particles floating in mid-air. Extremely low-tech for a VR game, but it was intentional; the community had come up with a variety of mods to change the appearance of each player's personal guide to Ardermina, or even to transfer the method by which the AI provided the player with information to a purely text-based system. Completely up to the player, of course.

"Four nations form Ardermina; Baldwin is ruled by the savage king Dalton. King Gabriel and his lovely wife Queen Elizabeth lead Stormveil with a gentle hand. The mysterious Maiden of the Mist is seldom seen, but her influence in Uwndres is undeniable. Honourable knights four form a council for Lordren.

"Would you like to know more?"

While the descriptions were brief, Chisato already had it in her head that she didn't want to join either Baldwin or Stormveil. Baldwin sounded like Chaos HQ, while Stormveil sounded like it was on the other end of the spectrum as the Kingdom of Goody Two Shoes.

"Tell me more about Uwndres and Lordren."

Obligingly, the rough gathering of specks glittered for a moment.

"Uwndres is a world of natural order; the civilization of man has not reached the mist-swathed trees of the land, at least as much as to build more than a single town atop a hill. The rest is left to the natives and wildlife. Powerful ancients lie in wait for the strong, and endless possibilities await you should you be so bold as to walk such a lonely road.

"Lordren is for those who seek camaraderie. It is led by a council of Knights that have proven themselves worthy of the responsibility of leading the nation. Tradition and ritual are extremely important to them, and Lordren is the only nation that assigns players with a mentor to instruct them in the ways of the nation and instill nation values within the individual."

After hearing more about Lordren, she decided to pass; she gamed to escape restrictions, not embrace them. Uwndres definitely sounded right up her alley.

"I'm going with Uwndres then."

With that in place, the game pulled up a plain text field that floated just before Chisato's new avatar. It had fields for name, age, nation (which now read Uwndres), and Element. Of course, Chisato could influence the text fields with her mind, but once she confirmed her selection, it would be final (this was noted at the foot of the display in italics). The hovering cloud of pixels remained visible for any additional queries, however.

Chisato paused to consider the remaining attributes of her character. Name? She wasn't much good with making up fantasy names, so she used the system name generator to come up with one for her. After a few tries, she came upon one she liked: Tannis Krait. Age? Nineteen like in real life. And element. There were so many possible choices that she was overwhelmed. What do? From zoology class, she remembered kraits were type of venomous snake; she could go with poison as her theme, there were a lot of things she could do with that element. Poison it was.

She confirmed her choices, and waited for the next prompt from the system.

'Thank you' replaced the text fields before it slid out of sight. The system took a moment to process the element request, and perhaps the silence might be considered very slightly awkward, but it didn't last overly long.

"Please wait."

The scene around her faded and was soon replaced with a grey wash; there didn't seem to be a speck of vibrant colour in the entire town. A steady drizzle slowly began to dampen her clothing and unique hair, almost as if the land was attempting to bid her welcome by enveloping her in the same dark atmosphere. There didn't seem to be anyone about, but if she were to look about the square she'd spawned in, she would notice a good number of lit windows, and with signs like 'Armory', 'Pub', 'Inn' in plain black upon dark wood, it was rather clear that players and NPCs weren't far.

If she had any more questions, she would simply have to access an interface in the menus to bring back her guide.

Upon her spawn into the town, she was given a basic set of clothes - tunic, pants, boots - but they and her hair became damp with rainwater. Quickly, she sprinted out of the town square toward the Inn. Inside, she found small group of other players and NPCs alike. She could tell the players apart from the NPCs by a small green diamond over their heads. While focusing on one player's diamond, the system tutorial kicked in with a video that played in a window in front of her, informing her how she could expands or collapse player data. For now she decided to keep the player data in a collapsed viewing state.

Now that she was in Ardermina, Tannis decided to check if anyone she knew was online. There was her friend Melodia, who had been the one to recommend the game in the first place. She sent her a ping to get her attention.

In the middle of taking on a mid-level boss with a couple of her former guildmates, Melodia received a ping from a new player. She took a moment to wrack her brains for the potential IRL identity of 'Tannis Krait', and could come up with quite a few people. She'd told a number of her online friends her character name, proud of how Melodia had turned out, and she there were a couple people that hadd the means to try out Ardermina tonight...

Still, it took her about ten minutes more before she could write a response, having to concentrate on drawing the most attention from the monster, being the walking tank that she'd designed herself as. It felt good to be in her old armor again, the fantastic sheets of bulky but functional metal rendering this 'boss' relatively useless. Melodia had teamed up with old friends from the beta so as to advance far enough in the game to get to the new material as soon as possible; it simply wasn't enjoyable to take things slow and one-shot creeps.

-Melodia here. What is it?

Tannis had expected Melodia to respond with voice chat, but instead she received a text message. However, it made since when she saw Melodia's status as being in the middle of combat.

-Hi, just wanted to say that I finally started playing the game. Fresh out from the character creator to my starting area. Looks like you're busy, so I'll talk to you later. *wave*

-Just a 'boss' battle, haha. Make sure you grab weapons and other stuff before you head out, okay? Remember defense stats!

Anyone who ever talked to Melodia about Ardermina was instantly reminded about the importance of defensive equipment, even with 'pure offence' casters and the like. If their front line wasn't there, it never paid to be so fragile as to be unable to hold their own in battle. Ardermina was often fond of punishing the unprepared, but most people simply got annoyed with her insistence. Still she didn't have time to reflect much on that, as the 'boss' had transitioned into the high-damage 'second-chance' stage. There was a time that this had made her sweat nervously, but that seemed like forever ago now.

-Duh, I just wanted to say hi to you before I continued. Defense is for chumps. Toodles.

In action games like ArdOn, Tannis favored agility over direct defensive stats. Sure it was nice to be able to take a hit, but it was even better avoid the hit entirely.

She left the inn and sprinted for the weapon shop on her first stop to get her character fully equipped. As she entered the the shop, a new video tutorial appeared in her vision giving her the general basics of shopping in ArdOn, as well as more specific info about the varying weapon types.

"Is it okay to try before I buy?" She asked the shopkeeper, a NPC.

The man behind the counter seemed haggard, with a long face and unkept whiskers that told of long sleepless nights and a fondness for the drink. His eyes, softened with age, were framed with drooping eyelids, but for his run-down appearance, he also appeared timeless, and the way he held himself hinted toward hidden talent and a pride in his work.

"So long as you don't leave the shop," the shop-keeper grunted.

With a turn of his head, he indicated an open section of the shop that seemed clear enough to swing around a sword or two. It wouldn't be enough to try a projectile weapon, but there weren't many of those for sale in this particular shop. Only a couple crossbows hidden in a corner, really.

Tannis nodded and moved a few weapons from their stands to a table in the area the shopkeeper had approved for testing. She had chosen a pair of long daggers, cutlass, backsword, bullwhip, and crossbow.

She began with the bladed weapons, testing their weight in her hands before making various cuts and thrusts at the air. The backsword felt the best to her, with more reach than the daggers, and having greater thrusting/armor piercing potential than the cutlass (at the expense of less effectiveness at slashing).

Next, she tried her ranged options, starting with the crossbow. Without loading a bolt, she charged the bow and released, testing the timing. It was too slow for her tastes. Last but not least, the bullwhip. She unfurled it and perform several swings at the floor, making a booming crack every-time she made contact. She loved the intimidating sound and was delighted to discover that it was a special weapon attribute, able to strike fear in enemies. The whip also had some good utility with its grapple function.

She settled on the backsword and bullwhip, returning the rest of the weapons back to their place.

"I'll take these two, how much?"

"Three hundred for the sword, one hundred for the whip."

Knowing that she'd be good for the money, as most of the youngin's around these parts were running around with pocketfuls of gold, the shop keeper figured the price was reasonable enough. The craftsmanship was rather mid-grade, but they were still fantastic finds for first weapons, and both were further upgrade-able. He had been a bit displeased with the dry-firing of his crossbow, but he would have been much moreso if she had loaded a bolt, so he cut his losses and maintained a rather neutral demeanor.

"Two hundred for the sword and whip together, plus 15% of my earnings for the next three days."

She didn't know if the system could handle bartering like she wanted, but it was worth a shot to experiment.

The man simply laughed.

"How do I know you're not going to sit on your ass for the next three days? No offense, kid. I'll give you three-fifty, total."

"If I don't at least cover the remaining 150 in three days, then I'll give you 300 for your troubles. I'm good for it - I don't think it would be too good for my rep with the rest of the merchants here to scam you. I'll even write a signatory that you can give to the admins to repo what's due."

He thought about that for a moment. He'd never been one to be overly stubborn, and if the girl was going to sign a document to reinforce her word, he would definitely be able to track her down through legitimate channels. With that thought, he held out his hand.

"Then you have yourself a deal."

A window appeared in front of her detailing the transaction and requesting her to confirm. Before she did, she summon another window too write a note describing the terms of her deal with the shopkeeper, and flicked it over to him. She then confirmed the deal and absorbed the items into her inventory.

"It was a real pleasure," she said with a wave as she left for the clothes/armor shop.

Accepting the note with a nod and tucking it into his coat pocket, he watched the girl leave his shop. The rain had only grown worse during the time she'd been inside, and the water poured from the sky in sheets. He felt slightly bad for her, and eyed the ragged umbrella he always left beside the door in case a customer needed to borrow it. Shaking his head at himself for not explicitly pointing it out to her, he turned to polish his personal dagger.

More running across the square, and then she was at the next shop, her hair and clothes even more wet. What a dreary place to start her game.

She entered the shop, and the familiar tutorial window popped up outlining different types of clothes and armor. Generally heavier articles equaled more defense/less mobility, but there were some special cases.

The shop's clothes were displayed on racks in the center, while armor pieces and shields lined the walls. Because she favored high mobility, her choices were going to be limited to light armor and cloth. To protect her vital torso area, she chose a leather vest reinforced with thin steel plates. Nearby, she spied a row of bucklers; small shields good for parrying. If she could sharpen the edges, it would make a good surprise weapon too. She selected one steel buckler.

Finished with picking out armor, she moved onto the clothing section. The dreadful weather made her think that a good hat and coat was an order. She chose a matching set of a midnight blue leather wide brim hat and jacket. While they only provided a modest defense increase, they were waterproof.

For now, she had no need to to replace the rest of her outfit, especially when there were cosmetic mods available. That would be something she would have to experiment with later.

Having gathered everything she need, she approached the shopkeeper for purchase.

"I'm ready to buy."

A soot-nosed boy sat in front of the counter on a crude wooden stool, slowly piecing together what looked like a very expansive shirt of mail. Obviously its wearer wasn't all that slim around the middle. At the sound of Tannis' voice, he scowled up at her, lifting the mail.

"Kinda busy here, didn'tcha notice?"

"Weird, I thought part of your job was selling the products," she retorted as she set the gear down on the counter. "How much?"