CHAPTER 1 “Awake”
I woke. Or at least I thought I was awake. All I could see was black. There was a muffled sound. It was a conversation but I could not focus on the words. I focused and tried to listen…”minimal brain activity…little hope…spinal injury…eighty percent body covered in burns…” My eyelids were forced open but I could not focus. Three blurry figures in doctor’s coats stood in my vision. One shined a light in my eyes. “No pupillary response.” The doctor with the light muttered. The light went away and so did my vision.
Another doctor, this one with a female voice added, “It’s been seven days. The brain is still showing almost no activity. He is effectively braindead.” I heard someone outside of my vision add to the conversation. “The family wants to turn off life support and the DNR has been signed. He is an organ donor but not much can be salvaged.” The female doctor chimed in, “Does the family want to be here?” The doctor out of view answered, “No, they said their goodbyes yesterday. They signed off for the body’s organs to be donated as well.”
My mind was in a panic. But it felt like I was thinking in slow motion. I wanted to scream a response but it was taking all my focus to just process the conversation going on around me. I tried to remember how I came to be here.
My memories were fractured. I tried to sort and fast forward. It was Wednesday and I was walking home from my summer job. I was working for a friend of my father building homes. It was the same job I had done for the last three summers. It was hard work but I really enjoyed it and it paid well, allowing me to pay for a good portion of my college tuition. I was going into my senior year and would graduate with my degree in architecture. Yes, focus, I was walking and I saw smoke at Grant’s house. I heard a young child scream and ran down the side street. One of the Grant’s children, a young girl, was outside crying and people were rushing to the property. The three-story house had black smoke pushing out the open windows and flames were starting to lick outside the window as well. About a dozen people were milling around then the young girl sobbed, “Perry is inside.” All the adults looked at each other, none willing to enter the death’s oven. I listened, hoping to hear a fire siren but heard nothing.
The fire station was on the other side of town, a good 9 miles. I steeled my courage, pulled my tee shirt up to cover my mouth, and rushed into the house. I remember searching the house's first floor as smoke started to obscure my vision. Finding nothing a rushed up the stairs and got on my knees and continued to search. The memory of difficulty breathing and heat was painful. A memory of finding a puppy with the name tag ‘Perry’ came to me. The puppy was whimpering under a bed. I remember wrapping the pup up and trying to get out of the house but the heat and smoke had me confused. The last thing I remember was seeing an open window and running towards it but just as I was about to leap the entire floor gave way and fell. I think I threw the puppy through the window but I couldn't quite recall.
I was brought back to the present. I pain of someone pulling out my throat made me want to scream but I was inept to act. Suddenly my breathing was pained. I couldn’t find the energy to inhale. I fought and finally inflated my lungs getting relief. The pain was immense. I was trying to inflate my lungs against massive resistance. Each breath took all my focus. I could hear the doctors talking but all my effort was on breathing. Then relief, I was floating…the pain was gone. I started to forget to breathe. I had to bring constantly bring my concentration back to breathing. It was getting harder. Then another wave of lightness and I could not maintain my consciousness. I drifted away from this world.
I woke in the dark. I assumed this was the afterlife. Nothing, just a void. I turned in a circle and it certainly felt like I was standing. I noticed a light in the distance. It appeared yellow and was getting larger. My thought was, well this should be good. As the light approached I noticed it was definitely a sphere, not a doorway. The sphere got close to me and it illuminated my body, which I now noticed was naked. The sphere looked to be the size of a soccer ball. It was a pulsing golden orb with emerald lightning flashing along its surface. I was mesmerized and a little shocked when it spoke.
“Welcome to Open World player. I will be you’re A.I. to help in character creation and initiate you into the game.” The ball pursed with each word. Wild was my thought, the afterlife is a video game!
The ball continued unhindered, a drop fell from the ball and it quickly grew into a person. That person was me. The A.I. continued, “You can now choose a race to play, currently there are 19 playable races in Open World. Each race has five sub-races and can be played as either male or female. The game designers encourage you to play as your own sex and as such grant you a bonus of 5 attribute points if you do so. The races are Angelkin, Beastman, Centaur, Demonkin, Dwarf, Elf, Elementalkin, Fairy, Human, Kobold, Dragonkin, Gnome, Goblin, Giantkin, Lizardman, Orc, Shade, Shifter, and Undead.” As the orb had named off each race my doppelganger had shifted into an example of each race.
I was overwhelmed. “A.I. why am I here?” My clone stopped changing and settled on a pixie. The light then flashed for a few seconds before speaking.
“Tester 272, you have the privilege of being part of the Beta test of Open World. A fully functioning virtual reality set in the genre of fantasy. According to your records, your mind was purchased and slated to develop and map NPC personas. However, the developer discovered your minimal brain activity and instead hard-wired you as a player character in the Beta test phase. You are one of 478 players who have been hard-wired. This is most fortunate for you because you will not have to reset and start at level one on the game's release!” This was the first time the voice seemed excited. Since it seemed talkative I tried to get more information.
“How many players are part of the Beta testing?” and my question was quickly answered, “Two-thousand nine hundred fifty-seven but only hard-wired players can roll over their characters. It is also expected that this number will be doubled by the end of the Beta Phase.” Wow. That was a lot of people.
“How long is the Beta testing phase?” The ball returned with an answer, “Ninety days real-world time but that is 360 game days. Time in Open World passes four times as quickly.” I noticed my clone had shifted to an orc. Was the A.I. getting impatient?
“Am I alive?” This seemed to stump the ball of light. Time passed and then it finally answered. “Yes.” I was too worried to delve deeper into this question right now. My character was now a blue skin male with watery skin.
“Do I have to play this game?” Now, this question definitely threw the machine for a loop. It seemed to freeze in place and then fade out. Then another voice, a feminine voice came through the sphere. “Good morning player. You’re A.I. has deferred your last question to me. I am one of the lead programmers for Open World. The answer to your question is no you do not have to play. However, the more you stimulate your mind by participating the stronger your mind can grow. You can also exchange in-game currency for real world money if you wish. You may wish to take care of your body out here in the real world.” She paused. “It has been 18 years since your accident and medical science has progressed quite far. They can regrow arms, skin, muscles, organs, and just about anything. Your body is in a semi-stasis while you are wired in and will age slowly in the real world. So if you want a reason to play that should be good enough.” The orb A.I. returned as the programmer left. The programmer was a bit snippety. Was she telling the truth? I had a lot of doubts but decided to return and focus on the game for now. I had played a few games in my time and I could master this one, earn money and free my body.
My twin was now some type of bear-man. I started to narrow down my choices for race. I went with what I found pleasing to my eye. That dropped out everything except Angelkin, Beastman, Elementalkin, and Human for me. I then dropped Angelkin because the five sub-races, Aegis, Astral, Disgraced, Seraphim, and Solar didn’t really appeal even though they all looked really cool. The beastmen had some interesting sub-races, catmen, wolfmen, bearmen, bullmen, and birdmen. I played a long time with each of these, changing appearances but eventually dropped the race. The elementals all looked human but had different tweaks to their appearance. Earth was bald and had darker skin, water was blue with flowing hair and watery skin, the air was pale with minimal hair, the fire had tan skin but fiery red hair, and spirit looked like a normal human.
So finally I got to the human. Humans came in five varieties as well, common, dragoon, high, nomad, and waterborne. The common man had no bonuses but had five skill points at level 1 and got two more every level. Most races I had viewed received five skill points at level one and then just got one more at each level. The dragoons were a warrior caste it appeared with a bonus to strength at every level. The high men were basically nobles with a bonus of charisma. Nomads were either barbarians or traders, a huge range but they received bonuses for survival skills. The waterborne basically lived on ships their whole life and received agility bonuses at every level.
If you wanted the most flexibility in skill growth then the common man was your best choice. I finally choose the common man. So vanilla of me but I wanted the flexibility. I knew nothing about the game and playing someone who looked like me made me feel comfortable and hopefully normal. I think I was still grasping at my past life.
I was prompted to make any cosmetic changes I would like before proceeding. I choose to lengthen my hair and darken it from brown to black. I was even able to change the texture of the hair from coarse to silky. I went with the silky feel. I changed my eyes to a brilliant green from dark blue. I couldn’t change my muscle tone, the A.I. informed me it was a reflection of my strength stat. Happy with the look I told the A.I. to proceed. The clone walked into me, it was a little unnerving. The orb created a mirror and I checked myself out. Not bad, even my genitalia looked good but I wished I had some clothes. The mirror vanished and a holo screen appeared before me.
Strength 1 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks
Constitution 1 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen
Stamina 1 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen
Agility 1 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus
Speed 1 Movement Speed
Intellect 1 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus
Magic 0 Mana Pool Bonus
Channeling 0 Mana Pool Regen
Charisma 0 Interaction Bonus with NPCs
Luck 0 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests
Unassigned Points 16 (5 from level 1, 6 from choice of human race, 5 for choosing male sex)
Ten stats. This game was intense. It was not your simple RPG. The five bonus stat points for choosing male were for playing the same sex as I was in the real world. Free points in my mind as I was not interested in being a woman right now. I tapped the word strength on the screen in front of me and it increased by one. I had played a few RPG games in my youth but I was not certain if I wanted to focus on physical skills or magic. I increased all the stats by one point and then increased constitution by 3, strength by 2, and stamina by 1. As I leveled I would focus my stat development based on my play style. Since I was going in blind I had no planned style yet but figured not dying was a high priority, therefore the high constitution.
Strength 4 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks
Constitution 5 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen
Stamina 3 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen
Agility 2 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus
Speed 2 Movement Speed
Intellect 2 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus
Magic 1 Mana Pool Bonus
Channeling 1 Mana Pool Regen
Charisma 1 Interaction Bonus with NPCs
Luck 1 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests
I clicked accept.
You have 7 skill points (2 from level 1, 5 from choice of common human sub-race)
Current Skills: Reading: Common 1 NA Tier, +1 Intelligence, +2% reading speed
I flipped back to my stats and noticed my intelligence was now 3. I returned to the skills. A massive list of skills and sub-skills was displayed. It was dizzying. You could use various filters for crafting, magic, combat, harvesting, recreation, thievery, social and miscellaneous. Each list had skills in green and others grayed out.
“A.I. can you explain skills to me?”
“Certainly. I am here to answer all your questions at any time. Open World has a unique system called the Prime Advancement Skill System. Called PASS by developers. A skill can be leveled infinitely but you only unlock access to the skill abilities when your skill reaches a prime level. Tier 1 is unlocked at level one in the skill, tier 2 at level two, tier 3 at level three, tier 4 unlocks at level five, tier 5 at level seven, and so on. When you unlock a new tier a skill will give you a bonus to its assigned stat. Most skills also give a small related bonus per level. Here is a visual aide for you.” My holo screen showed a chart.
| Prime Advancement Skill System (PASS) | |||||||||||||||
| Skill Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19 | 23 | 29 | 31 | 37 | 41 | 43 |
| Tier | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
My first thought was damn nerd programmers. The A.I. continued. “At tier five you gain the access to the title of ‘novice’ in the skill, at tier 10 access to the title of ‘expert’ in the skill, at tier 15 access to the title of ‘master’ in the skill, at tier 20 access to the title of ‘grand master’. It is possible to achieve higher levels as well but skill advancement makes it difficult. Also, your stat bonus at these tiers is doubled.
There are four ways to advance a skill. The first is practical use. It takes four hours to learn a skill at level 1 and a 50% increase in this investment in time per level. Depending on your real world experience in this skill, however, you could learn the skill up to 10 times faster until the game determines your knowledge is equivalent to your real world skill and you advance normally. The second way is through skill books. A skill book takes one hour to digest and adds a single skill point. A novice skill book can raise a skill up to 7, an expert skill book up to level 23 and a master skill book up to level 43. The third way to learn a skill is as a student. A teacher can teach a skill up to 5 tiers lower at four times the normal rate. This means a teacher with skill level 43 who has tier 13 unlocked can teach students up to tier level 8 or skill level 17. Also, it is good to note that teachers with the ‘teaching’ skill can further accelerate the learning speed. The fourth way is to apply skill points earned through leveling or completing quests.”
It seemed to make sense but I had to take a few moments to think it through. It was an exponential increase in practical time required to level a skill. So after a while, you really needed to gain points through skill books, quests, and leveling. It also made sense to hold those items and level them practically first. The A.I. seemed to read my mind. “Practical leveling through practice and teachers is independent of points gained through books, quests, and leveling.” Huh, I thought. I could then purchase seven novice skill books get the skill to level 7 and then just practice for four hours to get to level 8. Works for me, although I did not yet know the cost of skill books in the world.
It also seemed that my choice of the common man race was a good call. Maybe not in the early game but getting a bonus skill point at every level was going to be amazing when everyone else was struggling to raise their skills.
“There are also two types of skills, primary and secondary. A secondary skill can never exceed a primary skill level by more than two levels. All progress will be lost in the secondary skill at this point and any other means used to raise the skill will fail. You will lose bonus quest points, you will not be able to utilize skill points and you will not be able to allocate level skill points. So it is advised to keep track of your skills, as you’re A.I. I will remind you not to turn in any quests which would result in losing bonus skill points. Here is an example of a primary and secondary skill tree.” My holo displayed swimming skill and its associated secondary skills.
Swimming, Each Tier Adds +1 to Strength, each level adds +2% to swim speed
Swimming: Diving, Each Tier Adds +1 to Speed
Swimming: Hold Breath, Each Tier Adds +1 to Stamina, each level increases time under water +2%
Swimming: Endurance, Each Tier Adds +1 to Constitution, each level slows fatigue while swimming
I was piecing this together. So if I spent an entire day swimming I could gain a few easy strength stat points. Interesting, I was thinking of perhaps reaching level one in a bunch of skills just to get a few free stat points here and there. Once again the A.I. seemed to read my mind, “The more skills you acquire the slower your learning speed will be. This effect takes place after you acquire 23 skills and is very small, just +1% time per additional skill beyond 23 but it affects all skills in terms of advancement. However, you cannot unlearn skills once they are acquired so the penalty can grow quickly. So choose skills wisely.”
“Can you read my mind?” I thought it was a pertinent question.
The orb pulsed twice and then spoke, “I am linked to you and can read your current stream of thought.”
I was quiet. The ball hovered. Neither of us spoke. I was uncomfortable having this machine in my head. It spoke first, “If it will help you, you can give me a name and personify my form for adventuring. I will not be able to fight or cast spells but can accompany you. Only you will be able to hear me but others can see me but will be able to harm my avatar.”
“Ok what name and form would you prefer?” The orb began to pulse and beat faster. The light grew bright and I was blinded. When the light faded a miniature tiger hovered in the air. It looked like a Bengal tiger kitten. I was not really a cat person but I didn’t want to hurt the A.I.s feeling on my first day. “Great choice!” Wait did it already know I didn’t like cats from reading my thoughts? Too late now. “And your name?”
“Simba.” Well so much for the A.I.s originality. Ok, I needed to choose skills. I started paging through the vast amount of skills. There were nine primary magic skills. I should probably take one of them. I was torn between Nature and Earth but eventually choose Nature and the secondary skill Nature: Plant skill.
Nature Magic 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Magic, +2% damage Earth Spells
Nature Magic: Plant 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, Tier 1 plant spells can now be learned
Next, I filtered by crafting. There were many options, metalsmith, enchanting, and tailoring to name a few but when I came across woodcraft I knew it was the choice for me. I choose two of the secondary skills as well.
Woodcraft 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, +2% health for constructed items
Woodcraft: Carpentry 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Luck, +2% building quality
Woodcraft: Furniture 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Charisma, +2% furniture quality
Excellent I had a marketable skill that I could level up quickly due to my real world knowledge. I had two skill points remaining and I knew I needed a melee or ranged weapon skill. With my strength, it made sense to select a melee weapon skill.
Axe 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Agility, +2% damage with axes
Axe: Two Handed 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Strength
I selected the complete button. “Excellent. You can now select a talent.” A new list scrolled on my screen before me. Without having to ask Simba informed me, “You can select a talent at the first level and then another at every level that is a multiple of ten. Talents are used to enhance your character and support your playing style. Talents can enhance leveling of specific skills, increase damage with a particular weapon, reduce casting cost of spells, and many other things.” The list was overwhelming and many were grayed out.
“What do you suggest Simba?” The list was shortened to four possible selections.
“Based on your initial skill selections one of these would make sense.” I read through Simba’s choices.
Human’s Development Advantage – restricted to human: common race, gain one additional stat point per level
Great choice. Especially at level one. The only thing is the game did not seem to make it too hard to gain stat points with the skill system so was it worth it?
Axe Mastery I – the axe is an extension of your body, +10% damage with axes, +5% defense when wielding an axe
Another good option but I was not sure how much combat I was planning on having in the game to start. I was thinking of establishing myself in a small village first. I had selected a melee weapon to just defend myself. And what if I ended up focusing on magic development after playing? What else…
Nature’s Gift I – you are linked to nature, 10% reduction in magic cost when casting nature spells, 5% faster skill growth in nature skill, and nature secondary skills
This was a real possibility.
Woodcraft I – the wood speaks to you, +20% faster skill growth in the woodcraft skill and woodcraft secondary skills
I didn’t think this option was going to help. The game noted my real-world knowledge would already give me a huge boost in advancing my woodcraft skill. Simba probably was not aware I had spent hundreds of hours building houses and building furniture as a hobby. I selected Human’s Development Advantage. Immediately the game notified me I had an unassigned stat point and I went to the screen to assign it. I selected Intellect.
With that completed, Simba brought me to another screen. “Your last step in character creation is to purchase your starting gear. The monetary system is based on copper, silver, gold, and platinum. One hundred copper equals one silver, one hundred silver equals one gold, and one hundred gold equals one platinum. Normally a starting character begins with one gold coin but being part of the beta test all characters are starting with two. Wow, lucky me I thought sarcastically. The only item you will begin with is your bag of holding, which can be worn as a backpack if you prefer. It has ten slots. Any item that can fit through the opening can be contained within. The bag will always weigh just five pounds no matter how heavy the items inside are. Also, identical items can be stacked inside up to a 100 count. The bag is also special in that it is bound to your person so when you die it will resurrect with you as well as any items you stored in the bag. You can purchase larger holding bags in the game but can only SOUL BIND one such item.” This would make my life easier. I remember the old games from my youth grinding monsters for loot and this bag would make carrying said loot that much easier. I started to spend my coin as I was tired of being naked.
Basic Beige Cotton Shirt Sleeve Shirt, Weight 0.5 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper
Basic Beige Cotton Long Pants, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper
Basic White Loin Cloth, Weight 0.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 5 copper
White Stockings, Weight 0.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 4 copper
Basic Leather Boots, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 1, Durability 20/20, 1 silver
Basic Leather Vest, Weight 8.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 7, Durability 20/20, 20 silver
Common Steel Two Handed Axe, Weight 6.4 lbs, Durability 30/30, Damage 20-30, 40 silver
Common Carpenter’s Tools, Weight 19.3 lbs, Durability 30/30, 8 silver
Spell Book: Meld Wood (Nature: Plant Tier 1), 10 silver
Combat Book: Heavy Swing (Axe: Two Handed), 10 silver
Novice Skill Book: Masonry, 1 gold
I could have purchased any novice skill book for 1 gold but choose masonry. It had 2 secondary skills, foundations, and structures. My thought was I would be able to build some nice buildings with this assortment. The meld wood spell would allow me to build without nails as well! I was actually getting excited to play the game.
After completing my spending spree the game prompted me, to ask if I would like to utilize my new books. Hell yes, that would save me an hour for each book according to Simba.
Masonry 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Strength, +2% health to structures
Meld Wood Nature: Plant Tier 1, Magic Cost: 25, Effect: Integrate two pieces of wood that are in contact with each other, Casting Time: 10 seconds
Heavy Swing Axe: Two-Handed Tier 1, Stamina Cost 20, Effect: +25% damage on hit
Ok, I was ready to rumble! I hit enter and nothing happened. Simba, chimed in with what sounded to me like a mocking tone, “Your avatar does not yet have a name. Once this step is completed we can choose a starting location.” The cat was weaving in between my feet and purring. Name, should I use the one my parents gave me? No that was not a good idea, this was a new start for me. I sat down in the blackness and began thinking and absently scratched Simba behind the ears.
Simba fell asleep, could an A.I. sleep? Watching the tiny tiger’s chest rise and fall I decided on Tallis. I think from one year of French it meant woods and that was going to be the focus of my character. I wanted to build and construct buildings and furniture because that is what I enjoyed doing when I was living in the real world. I entered the name and Simba yawned and stretched.
CHAPTER 1 “Awake”
I woke. Or at least I thought I was awake. All I could see was black. There was a muffled sound. It was a conversation but I could not focus on the words. I focused and tried to listen…”minimal brain activity…little hope…spinal injury…eighty percent body covered in burns…” My eyelids were forced open but I could not focus. Three blurry figures in doctor’s coats stood in my vision. One shined a light in my eyes. “No pupillary response.” The doctor with the light muttered. The light went away and so did my vision.
Another doctor, this one with a female voice added, “It’s been seven days. The brain is still showing almost no activity. He is effectively braindead.” I heard someone outside of my vision add to the conversation. “The family wants to turn off life support and the DNR has been signed. He is an organ donor but not much can be salvaged.” The female doctor chimed in, “Does the family want to be here?” The doctor out of view answered, “No, they said their goodbyes yesterday. They signed off for the body’s organs to be donated as well.”
My mind was in a panic. But it felt like I was thinking in slow motion. I wanted to scream a response but it was taking all my focus to just process the conversation going on around me. I tried to remember how I came to be here.
My memories were fractured. I tried to sort and fast forward. It was Wednesday and I was walking home from my summer job. I was working for a friend of my father building homes. It was the same job I had done for the last three summers. It was hard work but I really enjoyed it and it paid well, allowing me to pay for a good portion of my college tuition. I was going into my senior year and would graduate with my degree in architecture. Yes, focus, I was walking and I saw smoke at Grant’s house. I heard a young child scream and ran down the side street. One of the Grant’s children, a young girl, was outside crying and people were rushing to the property. The three-story house had black smoke pushing out the open windows and flames were starting to lick outside the window as well. About a dozen people were milling around then the young girl sobbed, “Perry is inside.” All the adults looked at each other, none willing to enter the death’s oven. I listened, hoping to hear a fire siren but heard nothing.
The fire station was on the other side of town, a good 9 miles. I steeled my courage, pulled my tee shirt up to cover my mouth, and rushed into the house. I remember searching the house's first floor as smoke started to obscure my vision. Finding nothing a rushed up the stairs and got on my knees and continued to search. The memory of difficulty breathing and heat was painful. A memory of finding a puppy with the name tag ‘Perry’ came to me. The puppy was whimpering under a bed. I remember wrapping the pup up and trying to get out of the house but the heat and smoke had me confused. The last thing I remember was seeing an open window and running towards it but just as I was about to leap the entire floor gave way and fell. I think I threw the puppy through the window but I couldn't quite recall.
I was brought back to the present. I pain of someone pulling out my throat made me want to scream but I was inept to act. Suddenly my breathing was pained. I couldn’t find the energy to inhale. I fought and finally inflated my lungs getting relief. The pain was immense. I was trying to inflate my lungs against massive resistance. Each breath took all my focus. I could hear the doctors talking but all my effort was on breathing. Then relief, I was floating…the pain was gone. I started to forget to breathe. I had to bring constantly bring my concentration back to breathing. It was getting harder. Then another wave of lightness and I could not maintain my consciousness. I drifted away from this world.
I woke in the dark. I assumed this was the afterlife. Nothing, just a void. I turned in a circle and it certainly felt like I was standing. I noticed a light in the distance. It appeared yellow and was getting larger. My thought was, well this should be good. As the light approached I noticed it was definitely a sphere, not a doorway. The sphere got close to me and it illuminated my body, which I now noticed was naked. The sphere looked to be the size of a soccer ball. It was a pulsing golden orb with emerald lightning flashing along its surface. I was mesmerized and a little shocked when it spoke.
“Welcome to Open World player. I will be you’re A.I. to help in character creation and initiate you into the game.” The ball pursed with each word. Wild was my thought, the afterlife is a video game!
The ball continued unhindered, a drop fell from the ball and it quickly grew into a person. That person was me. The A.I. continued, “You can now choose a race to play, currently there are 19 playable races in Open World. Each race has five sub-races and can be played as either male or female. The game designers encourage you to play as your own sex and as such grant you a bonus of 5 attribute points if you do so. The races are Angelkin, Beastman, Centaur, Demonkin, Dwarf, Elf, Elementalkin, Fairy, Human, Kobold, Dragonkin, Gnome, Goblin, Giantkin, Lizardman, Orc, Shade, Shifter, and Undead.” As the orb had named off each race my doppelganger had shifted into an example of each race.
I was overwhelmed. “A.I. why am I here?” My clone stopped changing and settled on a pixie. The light then flashed for a few seconds before speaking.
“Tester 272, you have the privilege of being part of the Beta test of Open World. A fully functioning virtual reality set in the genre of fantasy. According to your records, your mind was purchased and slated to develop and map NPC personas. However, the developer discovered your minimal brain activity and instead hard-wired you as a player character in the Beta test phase. You are one of 478 players who have been hard-wired. This is most fortunate for you because you will not have to reset and start at level one on the game's release!” This was the first time the voice seemed excited. Since it seemed talkative I tried to get more information.
“How many players are part of the Beta testing?” and my question was quickly answered, “Two-thousand nine hundred fifty-seven but only hard-wired players can roll over their characters. It is also expected that this number will be doubled by the end of the Beta Phase.” Wow. That was a lot of people.
“How long is the Beta testing phase?” The ball returned with an answer, “Ninety days real-world time but that is 360 game days. Time in Open World passes four times as quickly.” I noticed my clone had shifted to an orc. Was the A.I. getting impatient?
“Am I alive?” This seemed to stump the ball of light. Time passed and then it finally answered. “Yes.” I was too worried to delve deeper into this question right now. My character was now a blue skin male with watery skin.
“Do I have to play this game?” Now, this question definitely threw the machine for a loop. It seemed to freeze in place and then fade out. Then another voice, a feminine voice came through the sphere. “Good morning player. You’re A.I. has deferred your last question to me. I am one of the lead programmers for Open World. The answer to your question is no you do not have to play. However, the more you stimulate your mind by participating the stronger your mind can grow. You can also exchange in-game currency for real world money if you wish. You may wish to take care of your body out here in the real world.” She paused. “It has been 18 years since your accident and medical science has progressed quite far. They can regrow arms, skin, muscles, organs, and just about anything. Your body is in a semi-stasis while you are wired in and will age slowly in the real world. So if you want a reason to play that should be good enough.” The orb A.I. returned as the programmer left. The programmer was a bit snippety. Was she telling the truth? I had a lot of doubts but decided to return and focus on the game for now. I had played a few games in my time and I could master this one, earn money and free my body.
My twin was now some type of bear-man. I started to narrow down my choices for race. I went with what I found pleasing to my eye. That dropped out everything except Angelkin, Beastman, Elementalkin, and Human for me. I then dropped Angelkin because the five sub-races, Aegis, Astral, Disgraced, Seraphim, and Solar didn’t really appeal even though they all looked really cool. The beastmen had some interesting sub-races, catmen, wolfmen, bearmen, bullmen, and birdmen. I played a long time with each of these, changing appearances but eventually dropped the race. The elementals all looked human but had different tweaks to their appearance. Earth was bald and had darker skin, water was blue with flowing hair and watery skin, the air was pale with minimal hair, the fire had tan skin but fiery red hair, and spirit looked like a normal human.
So finally I got to the human. Humans came in five varieties as well, common, dragoon, high, nomad, and waterborne. The common man had no bonuses but had five skill points at level 1 and got two more every level. Most races I had viewed received five skill points at level one and then just got one more at each level. The dragoons were a warrior caste it appeared with a bonus to strength at every level. The high men were basically nobles with a bonus of charisma. Nomads were either barbarians or traders, a huge range but they received bonuses for survival skills. The waterborne basically lived on ships their whole life and received agility bonuses at every level.
If you wanted the most flexibility in skill growth then the common man was your best choice. I finally choose the common man. So vanilla of me but I wanted the flexibility. I knew nothing about the game and playing someone who looked like me made me feel comfortable and hopefully normal. I think I was still grasping at my past life.
I was prompted to make any cosmetic changes I would like before proceeding. I choose to lengthen my hair and darken it from brown to black. I was even able to change the texture of the hair from coarse to silky. I went with the silky feel. I changed my eyes to a brilliant green from dark blue. I couldn’t change my muscle tone, the A.I. informed me it was a reflection of my strength stat. Happy with the look I told the A.I. to proceed. The clone walked into me, it was a little unnerving. The orb created a mirror and I checked myself out. Not bad, even my genitalia looked good but I wished I had some clothes. The mirror vanished and a holo screen appeared before me.
Strength 1 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks
Constitution 1 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen
Stamina 1 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen
Agility 1 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus
Speed 1 Movement Speed
Intellect 1 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus
Magic 0 Mana Pool Bonus
Channeling 0 Mana Pool Regen
Charisma 0 Interaction Bonus with NPCs
Luck 0 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests
Unassigned Points 16 (5 from level 1, 6 from choice of human race, 5 for choosing male sex)
Ten stats. This game was intense. It was not your simple RPG. The five bonus stat points for choosing male were for playing the same sex as I was in the real world. Free points in my mind as I was not interested in being a woman right now. I tapped the word strength on the screen in front of me and it increased by one. I had played a few RPG games in my youth but I was not certain if I wanted to focus on physical skills or magic. I increased all the stats by one point and then increased constitution by 3, strength by 2, and stamina by 1. As I leveled I would focus my stat development based on my play style. Since I was going in blind I had no planned style yet but figured not dying was a high priority, therefore the high constitution.
Strength 4 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks
Constitution 5 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen
Stamina 3 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen
Agility 2 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus
Speed 2 Movement Speed
Intellect 2 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus
Magic 1 Mana Pool Bonus
Channeling 1 Mana Pool Regen
Charisma 1 Interaction Bonus with NPCs
Luck 1 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests
I clicked accept.
You have 7 skill points (2 from level 1, 5 from choice of common human sub-race)
Current Skills: Reading: Common 1 NA Tier, +1 Intelligence, +2% reading speed
I flipped back to my stats and noticed my intelligence was now 3. I returned to the skills. A massive list of skills and sub-skills was displayed. It was dizzying. You could use various filters for crafting, magic, combat, harvesting, recreation, thievery, social and miscellaneous. Each list had skills in green and others grayed out.
“A.I. can you explain skills to me?”
“Certainly. I am here to answer all your questions at any time. Open World has a unique system called the Prime Advancement Skill System. Called PASS by developers. A skill can be leveled infinitely but you only unlock access to the skill abilities when your skill reaches a prime level. Tier 1 is unlocked at level one in the skill, tier 2 at level two, tier 3 at level three, tier 4 unlocks at level five, tier 5 at level seven, and so on. When you unlock a new tier a skill will give you a bonus to its assigned stat. Most skills also give a small related bonus per level. Here is a visual aide for you.” My holo screen showed a chart.
| Prime Advancement Skill System (PASS) | |||||||||||||||
| Skill Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 13 | 17 | 19 | 23 | 29 | 31 | 37 | 41 | 43 |
| Tier | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
My first thought was damn nerd programmers. The A.I. continued. “At tier five you gain the access to the title of ‘novice’ in the skill, at tier 10 access to the title of ‘expert’ in the skill, at tier 15 access to the title of ‘master’ in the skill, at tier 20 access to the title of ‘grand master’. It is possible to achieve higher levels as well but skill advancement makes it difficult. Also, your stat bonus at these tiers is doubled.
There are four ways to advance a skill. The first is practical use. It takes four hours to learn a skill at level 1 and a 50% increase in this investment in time per level. Depending on your real world experience in this skill, however, you could learn the skill up to 10 times faster until the game determines your knowledge is equivalent to your real world skill and you advance normally. The second way is through skill books. A skill book takes one hour to digest and adds a single skill point. A novice skill book can raise a skill up to 7, an expert skill book up to level 23 and a master skill book up to level 43. The third way to learn a skill is as a student. A teacher can teach a skill up to 5 tiers lower at four times the normal rate. This means a teacher with skill level 43 who has tier 13 unlocked can teach students up to tier level 8 or skill level 17. Also, it is good to note that teachers with the ‘teaching’ skill can further accelerate the learning speed. The fourth way is to apply skill points earned through leveling or completing quests.”
It seemed to make sense but I had to take a few moments to think it through. It was an exponential increase in practical time required to level a skill. So after a while, you really needed to gain points through skill books, quests, and leveling. It also made sense to hold those items and level them practically first. The A.I. seemed to read my mind. “Practical leveling through practice and teachers is independent of points gained through books, quests, and leveling.” Huh, I thought. I could then purchase seven novice skill books get the skill to level 7 and then just practice for four hours to get to level 8. Works for me, although I did not yet know the cost of skill books in the world.
It also seemed that my choice of the common man race was a good call. Maybe not in the early game but getting a bonus skill point at every level was going to be amazing when everyone else was struggling to raise their skills.
“There are also two types of skills, primary and secondary. A secondary skill can never exceed a primary skill level by more than two levels. All progress will be lost in the secondary skill at this point and any other means used to raise the skill will fail. You will lose bonus quest points, you will not be able to utilize skill points and you will not be able to allocate level skill points. So it is advised to keep track of your skills, as you’re A.I. I will remind you not to turn in any quests which would result in losing bonus skill points. Here is an example of a primary and secondary skill tree.” My holo displayed swimming skill and its associated secondary skills.
Swimming, Each Tier Adds +1 to Strength, each level adds +2% to swim speed
Swimming: Diving, Each Tier Adds +1 to Speed
Swimming: Hold Breath, Each Tier Adds +1 to Stamina, each level increases time under water +2%
Swimming: Endurance, Each Tier Adds +1 to Constitution, each level slows fatigue while swimming
I was piecing this together. So if I spent an entire day swimming I could gain a few easy strength stat points. Interesting, I was thinking of perhaps reaching level one in a bunch of skills just to get a few free stat points here and there. Once again the A.I. seemed to read my mind, “The more skills you acquire the slower your learning speed will be. This effect takes place after you acquire 23 skills and is very small, just +1% time per additional skill beyond 23 but it affects all skills in terms of advancement. However, you cannot unlearn skills once they are acquired so the penalty can grow quickly. So choose skills wisely.”
“Can you read my mind?” I thought it was a pertinent question.
The orb pulsed twice and then spoke, “I am linked to you and can read your current stream of thought.”
I was quiet. The ball hovered. Neither of us spoke. I was uncomfortable having this machine in my head. It spoke first, “If it will help you, you can give me a name and personify my form for adventuring. I will not be able to fight or cast spells but can accompany you. Only you will be able to hear me but others can see me but will be able to harm my avatar.”
“Ok what name and form would you prefer?” The orb began to pulse and beat faster. The light grew bright and I was blinded. When the light faded a miniature tiger hovered in the air. It looked like a Bengal tiger kitten. I was not really a cat person but I didn’t want to hurt the A.I.s feeling on my first day. “Great choice!” Wait did it already know I didn’t like cats from reading my thoughts? Too late now. “And your name?”
“Simba.” Well so much for the A.I.s originality. Ok, I needed to choose skills. I started paging through the vast amount of skills. There were nine primary magic skills. I should probably take one of them. I was torn between Nature and Earth but eventually choose Nature and the secondary skill Nature: Plant skill.
Nature Magic 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Magic, +2% damage Earth Spells
Nature Magic: Plant 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, Tier 1 plant spells can now be learned
Next, I filtered by crafting. There were many options, metalsmith, enchanting, and tailoring to name a few but when I came across woodcraft I knew it was the choice for me. I choose two of the secondary skills as well.
Woodcraft 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, +2% health for constructed items
Woodcraft: Carpentry 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Luck, +2% building quality
Woodcraft: Furniture 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Charisma, +2% furniture quality
Excellent I had a marketable skill that I could level up quickly due to my real world knowledge. I had two skill points remaining and I knew I needed a melee or ranged weapon skill. With my strength, it made sense to select a melee weapon skill.
Axe 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Agility, +2% damage with axes
Axe: Two Handed 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Strength
I selected the complete button. “Excellent. You can now select a talent.” A new list scrolled on my screen before me. Without having to ask Simba informed me, “You can select a talent at the first level and then another at every level that is a multiple of ten. Talents are used to enhance your character and support your playing style. Talents can enhance leveling of specific skills, increase damage with a particular weapon, reduce casting cost of spells, and many other things.” The list was overwhelming and many were grayed out.
“What do you suggest Simba?” The list was shortened to four possible selections.
“Based on your initial skill selections one of these would make sense.” I read through Simba’s choices.
Human’s Development Advantage – restricted to human: common race, gain one additional stat point per level
Great choice. Especially at level one. The only thing is the game did not seem to make it too hard to gain stat points with the skill system so was it worth it?
Axe Mastery I – the axe is an extension of your body, +10% damage with axes, +5% defense when wielding an axe
Another good option but I was not sure how much combat I was planning on having in the game to start. I was thinking of establishing myself in a small village first. I had selected a melee weapon to just defend myself. And what if I ended up focusing on magic development after playing? What else…
Nature’s Gift I – you are linked to nature, 10% reduction in magic cost when casting nature spells, 5% faster skill growth in nature skill, and nature secondary skills
This was a real possibility.
Woodcraft I – the wood speaks to you, +20% faster skill growth in the woodcraft skill and woodcraft secondary skills
I didn’t think this option was going to help. The game noted my real-world knowledge would already give me a huge boost in advancing my woodcraft skill. Simba probably was not aware I had spent hundreds of hours building houses and building furniture as a hobby. I selected Human’s Development Advantage. Immediately the game notified me I had an unassigned stat point and I went to the screen to assign it. I selected Intellect.
With that completed, Simba brought me to another screen. “Your last step in character creation is to purchase your starting gear. The monetary system is based on copper, silver, gold, and platinum. One hundred copper equals one silver, one hundred silver equals one gold, and one hundred gold equals one platinum. Normally a starting character begins with one gold coin but being part of the beta test all characters are starting with two. Wow, lucky me I thought sarcastically. The only item you will begin with is your bag of holding, which can be worn as a backpack if you prefer. It has ten slots. Any item that can fit through the opening can be contained within. The bag will always weigh just five pounds no matter how heavy the items inside are. Also, identical items can be stacked inside up to a 100 count. The bag is also special in that it is bound to your person so when you die it will resurrect with you as well as any items you stored in the bag. You can purchase larger holding bags in the game but can only SOUL BIND one such item.” This would make my life easier. I remember the old games from my youth grinding monsters for loot and this bag would make carrying said loot that much easier. I started to spend my coin as I was tired of being naked.
Basic Beige Cotton Shirt Sleeve Shirt, Weight 0.5 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper
Basic Beige Cotton Long Pants, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper
Basic White Loin Cloth, Weight 0.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 5 copper
White Stockings, Weight 0.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 4 copper
Basic Leather Boots, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 1, Durability 20/20, 1 silver
Basic Leather Vest, Weight 8.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 7, Durability 20/20, 20 silver
Common Steel Two Handed Axe, Weight 6.4 lbs, Durability 30/30, Damage 20-30, 40 silver
Common Carpenter’s Tools, Weight 19.3 lbs, Durability 30/30, 8 silver
Spell Book: Meld Wood (Nature: Plant Tier 1), 10 silver
Combat Book: Heavy Swing (Axe: Two Handed), 10 silver
Novice Skill Book: Masonry, 1 gold
I could have purchased any novice skill book for 1 gold but choose masonry. It had 2 secondary skills, foundations, and structures. My thought was I would be able to build some nice buildings with this assortment. The meld wood spell would allow me to build without nails as well! I was actually getting excited to play the game.
After completing my spending spree the game prompted me, to ask if I would like to utilize my new books. Hell yes, that would save me an hour for each book according to Simba.
Masonry 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Strength, +2% health to structures
Meld Wood Nature: Plant Tier 1, Magic Cost: 25, Effect: Integrate two pieces of wood that are in contact with each other, Casting Time: 10 seconds
Heavy Swing Axe: Two-Handed Tier 1, Stamina Cost 20, Effect: +25% damage on hit
Ok, I was ready to rumble! I hit enter and nothing happened. Simba, chimed in with what sounded to me like a mocking tone, “Your avatar does not yet have a name. Once this step is completed we can choose a starting location.” The cat was weaving in between my feet and purring. Name, should I use the one my parents gave me? No that was not a good idea, this was a new start for me. I sat down in the blackness and began thinking and absently scratched Simba behind the ears.
Simba fell asleep, could an A.I. sleep? Watching the tiny tiger’s chest rise and fall I decided on Tallis. I think from one year of French it meant woods and that was going to be the focus of my character. I wanted to build and construct buildings and furniture because that is what I enjoyed doing when I was living in the real world. I entered the name and Simba yawned and stretched.
