World Seed: Game Start (12 page)

I
looked through the classes, a bit surprised. Not surprised that there
were so many options, but that there were so few. Though, each class
had an Advanced Class example listed, so they could likely evolve
over time. I glanced at the list of nine classes several times before
I decided to narrow my choices to the top three. Anything below that
I was truly not qualified for. After all, the fourth option was for
Rogue, and the only rogue-like skills I have are poison and Mana
Signature, which suggests it may eventually be a suitable stealth
skill. Anything below that I have absolutely nothing for.

So…
Druid, Hunstman, or Mage. Thinking over it for a while, I weighed the
pros and cons of each, before ultimately making my choice. For better
or worse, the class I picked was….

Chapter 10: The AI,
the Witch, and my god, that wardrobe.

Having
made my choice, I noticed that choosing the class gave a set of stat
points, which seemed to indicate wisdom being the most important stat
to a druid. As such, I poured my five points from leveling up into
the stat as well. Simply selecting a class was equivalent to gaining
three levels, so I was rather happy with it.

Looking
up, the sun had yet to go down, so my sleep effect likely hadn’t
lasted for very long. Picking myself up, I dusted off my clothes and
made my way back towards the mage’s tower. While she wasn’t
exactly a druid, the shaman instructor should be able to show me to
someone who was.

Once
I arrived there, I made my way over to see her. “Excuse me, may
I have a moment?” It looked like she had just gotten out of a
‘class’ with another group of players, so I tried my best
to be polite.

After
she looked over to me, she suddenly smiled for some reason. “Oh,
sure. You seem to have grown quite a bit since last time.”

We
walked a fair distance away from the others before I decided to ask.
“Do you know where I can find a druid?”

She
smirked knowingly at my comment. “Chose your class, did you?”
I blinked, having not expected her to know about how players choose
classes, before she continued. “Everyone gets one chance to
decide which of the nine paths in life they face once they reach a
certain level of strength. For those of this world, we go to a temple
and pray to the god or goddess of our chosen path, but we were told
that you travelers would not need to do so thanks to your connections
to the gods.”’

“
I
see. But yes, I decided to follow the path of a druid, and need to
find someone that will be able to teach me.” I tried my best to
remain calm. The NPCs in this game were a lot more realistic and
knowledgeable about players than most games allowed.

“
Well,
that won’t be too hard. He’s a bit outside of town, in
order to not be disturbed, but I can take you to him. First, though,
we need to get you your companion AI.” She raised the sleeve of
her robe to reveal a metallic wristband with a blue display screen.
Now that I think about it, don’t all of the NPCs have their
wrists covered?

I
hadn’t given much thought to it before, as it was just local
fashion, but this made me piece it together. “So, what is it?”
I could guess a bit from what she had called it, but I didn’t
know what all it was for.

“
The
companion AI is a device to help anyone that seeks to gain strength
and travel the worlds. Alliance policy is to wait to hand them out to
people until they have chosen their class with the gods, to stop them
from charging off without the ability to survive.” As she
spoke, she signalled to someone else that she was going to be leaving
for a while, and escorted me out of the building. “They are
simple devices that help display information for you, and record your
adventures. For instance, if you had chosen to be a mage, you could
download a rune database into your companion, and save a list of
customized spells. Since you learned alchemy, you can also save your
notes on that into it.”

I
nodded my head slightly at her explanation. “So that’s
what Lisara meant when she said I’d be getting a device to
replace my journal soon.”

“
Right.
But one of the most important things about the companion AI is that
it can evolve. Not in the physical sense, but it will develop a
personality over time, and certain items will be able to grant it
upgrades. Since it accompanies you everywhere in your adventure, and
automatically records any new information, you can ask it questions
about things you don’t understand or have forgotten. Since this
is your first companion, it’ll be free. But if it gets broken
you’ll need to pay to repair it or get a new one.” With
that done, we arrived in front of a building. From the sign, it
seemed to be the general store for this village, which I had for some
reason never thought to visit.

…
Seriously,
why was I still wearing level 1 clothes? And damaged ones, at that! I
let out a small sigh as I realized I probably could have been wearing
actual armor by now, or at least robes enchanted with a bit of
defense. As we entered the store, there was an elven man with long
black hair wiping down the counter. “Greetings, Her Tinyness.”
The man smirked to the loli teacher, who started to clench her fists
and gave off a rather terrifying aura. “Sorry, sorry, you know
your company is always appreciated, Rita.”

I
really need to start asking for people’s names… I shook
my head at how forgetful I was about it, and was going to remedy it
immediately when Rita spoke up. “Yeah, can it, Harlan. This guy
is just ready for his first companion.” She pointed a thumb at
me, causing him to raise a curious eyebrow.

“
Really?
He managed to get the gods’ approval wearing just that?”
He looked questioningly at me.

“
Yeah…
don’t remind me… Forgot to get new equipment.” I
sighed helplessly, making him chuckle a bit.

“
Well,
no matter. As they say, the gods work in mysterious ways.” He
then reached into a hidden compartment behind the counter and pulled
out a wristband similar to the one that Rita was wearing. “Here
you go, your first companion. Do you want to purchase any additional
software for it?”

I
tilted my head, considering it. “Is there an alchemy guide that
I could get?” To which he nodded, getting my hopes up. I should
know better by now, really.

“
The
Basic Alchemy Handbook, complete with listings of all lesser herbs
and their known effects, as well as several recipes, is available for
thirty silver.” He smiled as if that was already a discount,
shattering what little hopes I had left. My mere one silver couldn’t
afford anything…

“
I’ll…
I’ll pass, thanks…” I tried not to sound as if I
had been run over by a truck, I really did. The giggle that sounded
up next to me made me realize I failed miserably.

“
Alright
then, just strap this on, and choose the basic settings.” I
stepped forward at his invitation, accepting the wristband, and put
it on. A moment later, a message appeared on the screen of the
device.

New
user detected. Retrieving mana sample…

Mana
sample acquired. Insert user name.

A
holographic keyboard appeared above the wristband, which I used to
type out my name. Without realizing it, I had typed out my character
name, rather than my player name. That’s really going to get
annoying..

Falenel
registered as owner. Please assign companion gender designation.

I
blinked at that, looking up to Rita. She grinned wryly, nodding her
head. “After it develops a bit, it’ll have its own
electronic voice. The gender assignment helps you determine the path
the personality and voice will take. Though, most of the personality
is based on how you act and speak with it.”

I
nodded back to her, and immediately chose female. If I’m going
to have someone to talk to whenever I play the game, I’d rather
it at least sound like a beautiful woman, rather than a gruff man.

This
unit registered as female. Do you wish to assign a name to this
companion?

This
option didn’t surprise me as much as the last one. I could see
some people viewing the AI as merely a tool to use, and not bother
naming it. However, I quickly typed in a name I was rather fond of,
someone I had dated for a time in the real world.

This
unit shall now identify as Celeste.

“
So,
what is a basic AI able to do?” I asked out loud, curiously.
Before Rita had a chance to explain, my wristband displayed another
screen with text on it.

A
first level companion AI is capable of observing, recording, and
reviewing. I may notice aspects of your environment that you fail to,
or more quickly make a connection between a situation and relevant
information. As I have tapped into your mana flow, I can see whatever
you see, though I do not have the power to alter your perceptions or
change the flow of mana in any way without prior upgrades.

After
reading the message, I glanced over to Rita with a curious
expression. She smiled and explained. “I said before that they
could be upgraded. Some upgrades improve mana efficiency or increase
recovery. Some allow them to modify your field of vision to form a
sort of heads up display. I’ve even heard that there was an
upgrade that allowed you to have full 360 degree vision for a short
while.”

“
Ahh…
I would probably like the display one, since it would be more handy
than reading from a display screen.”

This
time it was the shopkeeper who explained. “Just give it a
little bit until she can form her own voice. I’ve never seen it
take more than a day for an AI to be able to start speaking verbally
to its owner. And for that time, I’d suggest against fighting
monsters. Remember, it records all of your experiences to establish
its base personality. If its first day is filled with violence, it
will in turn have a violent personality.”

Okay…
so no more mass murdering bunnies until it is able to talk, gotcha. I
nodded my head slightly at that. For the most part, I had already
gotten rid of my grudge against the horned rabbits, so that wasn’t
too much of a problem. Looking over to Rita, I figured I was done
here. “You were going to take me to see the druid instructor?”

Rita
nodded her head for a moment, and then opened her eyes as if suddenly
remembering. “Oh, right! Sorry, forgot about it. First time
helping someone with their companion. Later, Harlan!” She
turned around and quickly left the store. Following behind her, I
decided to pull out my book of plants to quickly flip through it
while we walked. If Celeste records everything I see, then I
shouldn’t need to spend more than a few seconds on each page
for her to acquire all the information on it. And this way, she
should be able to help identify plants that I overlook. It didn’t
take more than a couple minutes to finish the book and put it away
again, and by that time we were just leaving the village..

…

I
forgot to get armor again!

Our
walk through the woods was actually fairly easy, with not a single
animal attacking us. Although the rabbits we passed sent me mean
glares(which didn’t look so mean with their adorable faces),
none of them acted while I was with Rita. Even the wolves backed away
as we walked by.

“
Are
you using magic to stop them..?” I asked as we passed by a
mother wolf who was using her body to shield her pups from view.

“
Hmm?
No, I’ve just been out here a few times, so they know better.
Animals are more sensitive to energies, so they can feel your aura to
determine your strength.”

Ahh…
so it’s a matter of level, then. I nodded my head in
understanding, and my wrist vibrated slightly. Well, Celeste
vibrated, and I had to look down to her. On her holographic display
was a blue arrow, and when I followed it I saw the black mushroom I
had been looking for previously. Thank you, Celeste!

I
grinned happily, nodding my thanks, and quickly retrieved the
mushroom before continuing on. It took us about twenty minutes of
walking before we found a small lake in the forest. At the edge of
the lake was a young man, sitting there with a gnarled staff in one
hand, and petting a wolf with the other. His robes were long and
green, such that if he stood up I might have trouble figuring out
where the grass ended and he began. “Jarl, we have a student
for you.” Rita spoke up with a smile as we drew closer.