World Seed: Game Start (4 page)

With
that last window appearing, I suddenly found myself standing in a
forest, and around me were various wooden buildings, which seemed to
be naturally shaped from the trees themselves. Even the fountain
behind me was seemingly carved out of a single solid stone.
Naturally, the first thing I did when I landed in the game was what I
do in every game.

Character
Information.

No
name? Do I have to choose that later? Or is it assigned to me…
I shook my head in confusion, but my question was soon answered as an
elderly man approached me. And when I say elderly, that’s by
elven standards. He was pretty much the only person in the entire
area that showed signs of aging past twenty!

“
Greetings,
traveler. I am elder Bamu Silverleaf, and I welcome you to our
tribe.” He offers a polite bow after speaking. His robes appear
as a natural shade of green, while he carries a gnarled wood staff at
his side. “May I ask the name of this traveler?”

There
we go… I nodded in response to him. “My name is…
Falenel Swiftfoot.”

“
Then,
welcome again, Falenel, to the village of Greenbrooke. May you find
what your heart yearns for.” After giving the simple
introduction, he turns and walks off, apparently being here merely to
greet new players and ask their name. Why they couldn’t do that
in the character creation, I’ve not a clue.

And
that explains why he only responded to my first name. Now…
quests, quests, quests. Aha! Quests! Nearby, I saw what appeared to
be a large wooden wall, with various overgrown leaves stuck to its
side. On each leaf is a quest, from slaying mobs, to carting items,
or even advertising for the local guilds. Thinking it over, and
remembering my horrendous experience with the rat during the
tutorial, I decided to first visit the Hunter’s Guild, in hopes
of learning how to better use my weapons and not get eaten.

Studying
the directions given on the leaflet, I suddenly had a sense of
knowing where I was going. Yay mentally suggestive mini-maps! Now
it’d still be better if I had a visual map to go by, but
beggars can’t be choosers. So, making my way through the city,
it takes me only a few moments to come across my destination. Like
everywhere else in this city, the building is made entirely from
twisted trees. Though in this case there is also a large archery
field next to it.

Walking
up to the instructor, I took note of her appearance, because damn she
was a looker. Please don’t be a sadistic teacher, please don’t
be a sadistic teacher…. With long silver hair, wearing a light
green shirt and pants that hugged her exquisite curves, it was hard
to tell if she was trying to hunt down beasts or men.

When
she looked at me, I kept my vain hopes that she would be a nice
teacher… and train me without unnecessary pain… And
then she opened her mouth. “What are you looking at, balls for
brains?”

Seeing
her rather obvious sneer, I cleared my throat. “My apologies.
My name is Falenel, and I was hoping that you could teach me how to
make use of my bow?” I asked, holding up the bow I had kept
from the tutorial to demonstrate.

She
seemed entirely unimpressed by the weapon, giving a low ‘hmph’
and turning her nose up. “Very well, I can show you how to make
sure that you can at least hit a stationary target. Though, from the
looks of you, doubt you’ll ever manage to hit one that doesn’t
throw itself at your arrows.”

Giving
a helpless sigh, I nodded my head. “That’s probably the
best I could ask for right now.”

“
Alright
then, come on up here, let’s at least see what you can do.”
She instructed, still refusing to even give me a second look.
Standing up next to her, I looked at the target and cringed inwardly.
The target I had trained against in the tutorial was twenty meters
away, and I could barely hit that repeatedly. This one was double
that distance!

Nocking
an arrow, I tried my best to hit the target, I really did. And I at
least made the arrow travel far enough, but it overshot the target
and landed somewhere behind it. Seeing that, there was a derisive
snort from beside me. “Pathetic. Couldn’t even hit a
standing target? Try again!” She ordered, giving me small
corrections to my stance with each failed attempt, until I finally
managed to hit the outer edge of the target, only for the arrow to
bounce off because it didn’t have enough force.

Not
willing to let that stop me, I continued shooting again and again,
ignoring the skill prompts that had appeared until I was out of
arrows in my quiver. Then, I went forward and collected the ones that
I had previously shot, only to repeat the process again. By the time
I finished my quiver the second time, I had finally managed to land
two arrows in the center of the target, and through either luck or
skill they both stuck.

“
Barely
passable.” That was probably the nicest thing she’s ever
said to me… or anyone.

Chapter 3: I want
a redo!

After
I had started managing to hit the target repeatedly, I took a bit of
a break, thanking the instructor. Given my encounter with the rat in
the Trial of Strength, assuming that is how strong actual rats are,
I’m doomed if I actually get up close with anything at my
current level of skill. Sadly, though, it’s not that easy to
learn how to properly wield a dagger. As such, I first needed to
improve my magic skills, and maybe learn a few new spells.

With
what I have right now, there’s no way I’ll be useful if I
ever do get out into space, but that is a distant goal. First, I need
to make sure that I’m able to deal with the threats down here.
After all, I’d rather have time to build up and learn more
magic before leaving, then have chosen something else like stellar
magic as a planet-based race. Not sure if space magic would even work
in an atmosphere the same.

But,
I got sidetracked. Making my way back to the starting area, I saw
that a few other elves had spawned in. My guess would be that most of
them are from the online communities, since there were only a few
thousand Seeds released this week. Won’t be until another two
weeks, real time, before they are mass distributed. And most of the
people that have one are probably more concerned with being a good
old space captain.

Taking
a look at the ‘quest board’ as I like to call it, I found
the directions to the local magister, and set off. There were a few
others heading in the same direction as myself, so I decided to
introduce myself to the closest one. No point in being a loner for
all my gaming life, right? And looking at him, he was a fit elf, full
blooded by his features.

His
eyes kept flashing back and forth everywhere with a wild grin, as if
taking the world in for the first time. Like me, he was dressed in a
simple white cloth shirt and brown cloth pants, but his weapon of
choice was a staff instead of a bow. “Enjoying the game so
far?” I asked with mild curiosity.

He
seemed a bit surprised by the sudden question, but then looked over
to me and nodded. “Right, been ages since we had anything so
real. Well, it all seems real, but it’s just different, you
know?”

I
tilted my head and thought over what he had said, before nodding.
“Yeah. I’m Falenel–” Wait, what? Let’s
try that again. “My name is Falenel… Seriously?”
He seemed confused by my increasingly frustrated expression. “Looks
like we can’t introduce ourselves with real names.”

That
would have been good to know before I picked a name that sounded so
weird! I shook my head with a sigh, thinking to myself.

The
man smirked beside me before introducing himself as well. “Jacobs.
Never really got into the whole fantasy naming sense.” He then
looked at my features, “You’re a half, right? Didn’t
think there’d be that many people playing normal races like
that. Hell, my sister actually started as a golem. She’s hoping
that she’ll be able to evolve if she absorbs an asteroid or
something.”

I
stared blankly at him for a bit at that. “Seriously, they can
evolve? Redo! I want a redo!” I called out to the sky, to no
avail, which caused Jacobs to laugh loudly next to me.

“
Yeah,
not even sure if we started on the same planet, or the same star
system for that matter. I heard that some people started as drakes,
and there was one guy that said he started as a navigation AI for a
ship.”

“
Wait,
seriously? You could even play as a ship AI? Also, how the heck do
you know all of this? The game has been running for what, two hours?
And that’s not even real time!” I called him out on the
obvious fabrications. I knew I didn’t spend that long
practicing archery!

He
just chuckled again in response before answering. “You must be
one of the fleshies.” Yes, the online communities typically
call those of us that retain our bodies as fleshies… it gets
annoying sometimes. “We can link up with people on our contacts
list and chat, even from the tutorial.”

“
Well…
that’s got to be convenient. Still, really wishing there was a
reset button or something. Even if I stay as a humanoid for the loot,
I could at least pick a cool evolving race.” Though I spoke out
loud, the complaint was mostly to myself. My plan had been to make a
good foundation hunting for good loot planetside while I prepared
myself to be ready for space, and then head out among the stars!
Given that, a half-elf seemed perfect, since they gained a small
boost to learning new skills, and easily learn the Huntsman class
skills.

“
I
asked Devron, the deity that I had in my creation, and he said it’s
possible to restart your character, actually.” Hearing Jacobs
say that made my head whip towards him with a hopeful expression,
which was cast down quickly as he finished. “However, you have
to pay a fee to do so, and can’t log back in for a few days.”

“
Seriously,
man?” I groaned with my head held low. “If I had the
money, sure, I’d be all over that. But I’m here to earn
the cash, and by the time I get enough money to be able to afford
that, I’d probably be too familiar with this guy. Don’t
suppose it’s possible to roll up an alt?” There was still
that last flicker of hope in my voice, looking for a way to have a
more interesting race.

Jacobs
simply smirked and shook his head. “One character per account,
one account per customer. If I were you, I’d suggest looking
into gene therapy once you get higher level. Not sure if this game
has it or not, but with how advanced the setting is, and the number
of races I’d be surprised if they didn’t. If they go like
other sci-fi VR’s, then gene therapy should be a valid means to
evolve.”

I
nodded my head, resigning myself to this fate. Like he said, gene
therapy was a pretty common thing in most sci-fi games, especially
for humans. Was a way to get additional traits and powers from alien
races. Of course, the more you alter yourself, the less human you
become. And the less human you become, the less effect future
therapies had unless they were custom designed, and those are
expensive. “So, what magics did you learn in the tutorial?”