After being dismissed by the AI, Darren once again found himself in a pitch black and silent environnt looking at yet another goddamn countdown clock. If he had a body he would undoubtedly be tapping his foot impatiently. Of course, given that Karonite claid to have gotten several million pre-orders for AoG it made sense that there would be a bit of a log in queue. That didn't make it any less annoying though!
Finally, after a little less than a five-minute wait, the darkness changed to bright white. When the white light faded Darren finally found himself inside of the ga! He was standing in the middle of a massive circular room. The walls, floor, ceiling and Greco-Roman columns surrounding the room were all made of white marble. Carved into the floor beneath him was a massive magic circle that was lightly glowing blue and slowly fading away.
Also in the room with him were another nine people, all wearing the exact sa clothes as him. Simple tan linen shirts and pants along with thin brown leather shoes. Darren looked around for a mont before a voice spoke from behind the group of ten, "Ahem! Welco summoned heroes."
Darren turned around to face the voice, along with the rest of the players with him, and saw a middle-aged man wearing a scruffy looking breastplate. The man was resting his left hand on the handle of the longsword hanging from his waist, "Originally we only intended to summon one hero in each of the ten countries but it seems sothing has gone wrong and the summoning circles seem to be continuously summoning group after group of you."
The man sounded almost bored as he explained sothing he'd probably had to explain multiple tis before, like one of those people working a ride in a the park. So of the other players began to whisper among themselves but Darren ignored them and focused on the man since he seed to be in charge right now. The man continued, "In a mont we'll escort you into the next room where we need you to write down your na in our records. After that, we'll give you a small package to help you get started on your journey in this world. Unfortunately, since there are so many of you we can't give as much aid as we would have if there was only one of you. Ah, well, that doesn't matter." He coughed into his fist to clear his throat, "Welco to the country of Reykhoten, you're currently in the city of Ulvstad and will be considered honorary citizens of Reykhoten from this point forward. Follow ."
With that, he turned his back on the group of players and walked through a large doorway leading into the next room. Darren and the rest followed, so of the other players still whispering among themselves. Darren grinned and made his way into the next room while marveling at the creative way the developers had decided to introduce the players to the NPC's. It seed like the AI before was right though, the lead developer did have so unique tastes. In the large room was a row of tables with other n wearing breastplates sitting in chairs behind them. The guard that spoke before spoke once again, "Pick a table and simply write your na in the book. The guard behind the table will give you your welco package. After that, I will explain a few things you should know."
Darren couldn't help but smirk a little while thinking to himself, "So this is what the AI ant about naming my character." He moved to an empty table and gave the guard a greeting nod before picking up the quill, dipping it in so ink and writing the only na he'd ever used in gas into the book. The guard watched and when Darren was done he nodded, "Welco to Reykhoten, Thomas Darkrose."
System Notice: Na registered as Thomas Darkrose. Character sheet has been updated.
Darren, now Thomas, nodded to the guard and accepted the small brown bag the guard handed over to him, "These are your starting supplies. First, a change of clothes, I dunno why all you otherworlders end up wearing the sa thing when you arrive but these will offer slightly more protection. You will also find a small purse containing ten gold coins to help you get by for at least a few days. Lastly..." he bent down to pick up a shortsword and handed it over to Thomas, "Sothing to protect yourself with. It's not the best blade in the world, but it will cut just fine."
With that done the guard gestured for Thomas to let another player through so they could sign the book and get their supplies too. Thomas moved closer to the guard that welcod them and waited, rather impatiently, for the other players to finish signing the book and get over to where he was. It only took a few brief minutes, but while he waited Thomas pulled a simple leather belt out of his starting bag and tied it to his waist to attach his cheap ass sword to. Once everyone was done the lead guard spoke up.
"So, a few things to let you know before you exit the temple. Originally the ten countries of the world agreed to summon ten heroes to help us deal with the growing unrest in the dungeons and the larger number of monsters appearing in the wild. Heroes like you always gain a special ability that we find extrely helpful in such tis as these. Now, ironically, our problem is too many of you heroes. So, sorry for dragging you into this world but from this point on you're pretty much on your own. Don't worry, there are plenty of things you can do to earn your keep and help out the world at the sa ti."
Thomas almost started to laugh. Whoever ca up with the setting was a genius. Taking the trope of a country summoning a hero and using the hero for their own ends then flipping it on its head by giving them too many heroes. Sheer genius. If he had actually been summoned to a different world like this he would be pretty pissed, but right now he was just amused. The guard continued, "For work you can head to the adventurers guild, or one of the various professional guilds, and pick up jobs or learn new skills. We've also assigned several of the guards to offer their help in training martial abilities for you, not for free of course. There's also a mages guild to help those of you with enough magic to learn so spells, also not for free. Or, you can head into the cities dungeon to defeat monsters and sell their magic cores and the monster drops you find. Most of the large cities in this world are built around dungeons. You're also free to leave the city and head out into the world to find other things you would like to do."
Thomas imdiately decided to look for one of the profession guilds. He liked to craft and was curious about putting his 'Quick Learner' innate ability to the test along with finding out how crafting would work in AoG. Hopefully, it wouldn't let him down. He wouldn't have a basis of comparison for using 'Quick Learner' and not using it unless he talked to another professional player though, but that could wait. His first plan of action was decided. Get a profession and use it to make a bit of money until he can't afford to level it up anymore without supplenting his inco. While Thomas was thinking the guard continued, "You should be aware that you are forbidden from committing any cris within the cities walls and its surrounding areas. Any attempts will be t with swift responses from the guards. Offenders will be placed in jail for a certain amount of ti depending on their offense. Within the city walls, the guards will respond imdiately, outside the city walls it may take more ti however. In the instance the guards cannot catch the criminal we will instead place a bounty on the criminals head that anyone can collect by defeating the criminal. So, do yourselves a favor and don't commit cris!"
Stolen novel; please report.
Thomas nodded along as he listened. It sounded like standard open world PvP rules to him. The city was a safe zone so no fighting unless you wanted to spend so ti in jail. However, once you left the city you were fair ga as long as the opponent wasn't worried about gaining a bounty on their head. Probably the further out into the wild you got the more 'lawless' the world would beco. Not that it mattered to him, he planned to spend most of his ti crafting and only going out to collect materials to save on money. He did like the idea of large cities having dungeons within them, it would make gaining experience to up his attributes a little easier in the future.
The guard looked over the group of new arrivals and nodded, "Well, that's pretty much it. If you have any questions you can ask any guard in the city. If there's nothing else feel free to leave this temple through the door behind ."
The guard walked off to the side leaving a wide-open path that lead out into the world. Wasting no ti Thomas was the first to step forward and open the door. Walking through it he was greeted with bright sunlight shining down on a large city. None of the buildings were more than three or four stories tall and they all looked like what anyone would expect a dieval European town to look like. Thomas imdiately made his way over to one of the guards and asked, "Is there an artisan quarter or sothing?"
The guard, a rather young looking man, turned and pointed down the main boulevard leading out of the temple's gates, "Follow that road until you co to the main intersection. If you turn left you will be heading towards the wharf and the docks, so turn right. There's a lot of shops and artisans on the main street."
Thomas turned to look in the direction the guard pointed while asking, "So this is a seaport city?"
The guard shook his head, "Nah, we're on the great lake. The ocean is about four-hundred miles east of us. Ulvstad is a city of trade on the lake, midway between the capital city nad after our country, Reykhoten, and the port city of Kjel in the Kjersia Empire. If you went to the capital it would only be a journey of about thirty miles to the ocean, which you can take by boat since there's a brackish river that leads from the capital to the ocean."
Naturally, none of these nas ant anything to Thomas, but he nodded along with the guard anyway. When the guard finished speaking Thomas thanked him and started to walk down the boulevard leading to the main street. The buildings lining the street were nothing special. So were made of stone, others of brick, a few made of wood and several that were combinations of all three materials. They all seed to be private residences since none of them had any business signs visible.
After walking a short distance Thomas turned around to take a look at so-called 'temple' he had arrived in and was surprised. It had to be the most beautiful building in the city. It was made completely of white marble with soaring columns and dod ceilings. The biggest do in the center of the temple was even topped with a soaring golden spire. The sight was rather awe-inspiring.
After basking in the magnificent sight of the temple for a bit longer, Thomas turned around and continued on his journey down the boulevard looking for the main street. After walking for a while Thomas started to leave the residential district that seed to be pretty empty at the current ti of day and entered a slightly more bustling area. He saw NPC's and maybe even players walking around and having normal day-to-day conversations with each other. And that's when he finally noticed sothing he should have seen sooner. There was nothing he could see that differentiated players and NPC's from each other!
Coming to a stop Thomas looked at the people he could see and frowned. Everyone looked the sa, well not literally the sa. They were all human n, won and even children wearing clothing appropriate for the era the ga was taking place in. Everyone looked and behaved so realistically that there was nothing to distinguish a player from an NPC. There were no naplates, tokens, pointers or anything hovering above peoples heads to differentiate them. If he were to blend in with the crowd no other players, that didn't know him personally, would be able to tell he was a player.
He had been so excited and in such a rush to get started that he had failed to look for even the most basic of things. Grumbling about his own stupidity, Thomas took a step back and started to focus on himself for a mont. In most VRMMO's there was always so kind of heads-up display showing information like hit points and mana points. But like the AI had said there wasn't any of that in his vision. In fact, there was nothing in his vision but the world around him. He thought about his character sheet and it imdiately appeared in his eyesight.
Na: Thomas DakroseExperience Gained: 0Experience Spent: 0Experience Remaining: 0Power: 3( ) 40XPEndurance: 3( ) 40XPAgility: 7( ) 80XPMagic: 1( ) 20XPInnate Abilities:Transmutation ( A ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 ExpQuick Learner ( C ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 ExpAll Seeing Eyes ( S ) // Rank 1 // 0/20 ExpSkillsNoneAbilitiesNone
Aside from his na being added and so extra information tacked onto his Innate Abilities there were no changes to his character sheet. With a thought, he dismissed it and thought of opening a nu. Nothing happened. He thought about opening a text-based chat, and again nothing happened. He continued by trying to open a friends list or a party list, but still, nothing happened. Thomas found all of this to be exceedingly strange, after all these were basic features in about every ga!
Since the only ntal command that seed to produce anything was thinking about his character sheet Thomas stopped trying to interact with the system for the mont and instead decided he needed to have a better look at the supplies he was given. He crouched down in a shaded gap between two buildings and began to dig through the small brown bag. Inside was a change of clothes that only looked to be sowhat more stylish than his current outfit. On the bright side, the cloth felt thicker and tougher than the linen he had on so it might offer so very basic protection. There was also the small pouch containing the ten gold coins the guard spoke of. They were small, not much bigger than the last section of his thumb and extrely thin. On one side was a relief of a man's head and on the other was a symbol that probably stood for the kingdom he was in or the mint that created the coin.
There was nothing else in the bag so Thomas stuffed it all back inside. He had very little to start with, but it would be enough for the ti being. He climbed back to his feet and returned to walking down the boulevard until he ca to an intersection with a large road. Looking to his left Thomas could see the road leading slightly downhill until it opened up into an expanse of crystal blue water. So, he turned to his right and started walking down the street and into the artisan district of the city.
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