2 The Nerdy Trio

, Champion what are you doing, hurry up, Eagle Eye is waiting for us."

Nick turned around first thinking that someone is calling him. I think I heard somewhere that he was some kind of regional champion in high school, but after that, he didn't have any success in competing. As soon as he turned around he realized that the thunderous voice was talking to me. He quickly mumbled something to me like goodbye or see you tomorrow and left like he was on a sprinting track.

No wonder he ran away, the person across the street smiled knowingly at me and said again.

, Let's go Champion, time is ticking."

The person across the street was tall as Nick, but he was burly as an oak. He had brown hair and had a constant smile on his face. Best thing of all he was wearing a police uniform. If you didn't know him, seeing big burly police officer smiling at you, the only thing you could think was that you did something bad, even if you didn't.

, Ha ha ha Superhero" I answered to him as I was crossing the street,, you didn't need to come directly at school, you could have waited at Eagle Eye's."

, Nevermind" he said as we shook hands and hugged,, I was in a neighborhood, let's go, we have a lot to discuss, but a little time."

As we were going home we were talking about jobs and families. The game talk was going to wait until we arrived at Eagle Eye house. Superhero and Eagle Eye were, of course, the rest two-thirds of The Nerdy Trio. Of course, those were not their real names. Superhero and Eagle Eye were just nicknames, like mine was Champion, but only three of us used those nicknames for each other.

Their real names are Wolf and Marco. The nicknames came from constant visiting each other's homes since we were young, our parents were friends so it was natural that three of us became friends as well.

My nickname came from my name. How, do you ask? Well funny enough my parents are great sports fanatics, so because they hoped I would be sportsman gave me champions name. Two hundred or so years ago there was one champion with that name, so after him, many parents gave their children the same name. As you can imagine after almost two centuries there were thousands of champions with the name Novak. Too bad I wasn't one of them. At least my parents didn't push me towards sport when they saw I had other interests. Well, grandpa made sure of that. But since my little sister has great athletic abilities I guess not all is lost for mom and dad.

Since half of Wolfs family is in law and order business, you could think that is how we gave him a nickname Superhero. But you would be wrong. When he was little he found a huge comic book collection that one of his ancestors left behind. Since that day he got hooked up, and two of as almost with him, and he dreamed about being a superhero. When he learned that is impossible he turned to the next best thing and became a policeman.

Marco's nickname was relatively not that dramatic in making. He has the best sight ever and his eyes can see far, far away. Hence Eagle Eye. Why did he then also became one of the Nerdy Trio? In some sense, he is the biggest nerd of all of us. When he wasn't with the two of us he had his camera and notebook and was taking pictures with one and made drawings with other. It was easy then for the rest of the class in both of our junior and middle schools to call us The Nerdy Trio.

After a quick ride in the metro, metro and trains besides airplanes are the most commonly used transport vehicles now, we made it to our neighborhood. We live in a suburban part of the city as most people, only the richest remained in city centers, and there are still some people who still live poor lives mainly because all manual jobs are now done by robots, or they don't want to try hard enough.

Our neighborhood is one of the rarer ones where there are still houses left, most of the cities are now full of high buildings and big skyscrapers. Most of the families here are old families, even our great grand grandfathers and grandmothers lived here. Since then families had an agreement not to sell land here and like that this neighborhood stayed the same as hundreds of years ago.

Slowly we made it to Marco's house. Usually, we hang out at his home because it was big and spacious and his parents were mostly out. They owned a gallery in a city, from there probably came Marco's passion for arts. My house was not as big and Wolf's house was always full of people, he has three older brothers and some of them have children already, so Marco's house was always open for us.

Marco was waiting for us in a courtyard, almost every house had one and all were pretty big, he was as usually painting something. When he heard us enter through the gates he put away his painting kit and made his way to us. He was the smallest of us, maybe 1.70 m high, with short blonde hair and was handsome and very well built for his size.

He was always popular with girls but never paid any attention to them. But when he entered art college he met a girl that he liked and they got together soon enough. She is a pretty girl and has the same love for art as he does, so it happened naturally. She is traveling the world now and they talk over the communication devices almost every day. As for me and Wolf, well, girls were always afraid of Wolf even though he is one of the nicest guys around, and I was always afraid of them. There you have it, that is the reason why two of us never had a girlfriend.

, Finally guys, you are here", said Marco as we bumped fists,, let us sit in the garden and start our conquering of the gaming world."

Wolf and I looked at each other, smiled and started laughing out loud, with Marco joining us right away. Even if he looked a little timid and uninterested in some things Marco was also very competitive.

, Haha let's go, let's go" Wolf said as we sat in a garden,, come on Champion, you are an expert tell us what are we going to do."

, Well I am an expert, as you say, but in history and mythology, so I may not be well versed in the game itself." We never played any virtual reality games, not because we didn't want to but because our parents didn't allow us. They thought that as soon we start playing a game we would neglect our studies. I think that maybe they were right. Instead, they said when you earn your own money you can play as much as you want. So after ten long years, we finally have an opportunity to play virtual reality game together.

, But let start anyways. You probably tried to find something about the game as me but as you know there is very little information about the game on official site and different forums dedicated to Age of Gods. When I say little it means almost non-existent. The only thing it says is gods will guide you and something like that. What I can affirm from this is that we need to rely on ourselves for almost everything. Even in mythology mortals had to first earn recognition from gods and only then they would have some kind of help from them, but even then it would be really small."

, What should we do then?" asked Wolf.

, We should think of this game like any else at first. Every game is similar at the beginning. First of all starting place, one of the things game officials did specify is that player starts in a region he originally resides. So for us, that is Europe or if they are more specific Balkans. What we already know is a possibility of not starting in the same village, but we can later find each other in a bigger city, and until then talk through friends chat. After that, we have character creation. Since we know that the game is based on Earth the only race is human, so that leaves us with customization of a character."

, And choosing classes" added Marco,, I am probably choosing hunter."

, Yeah, I am going for a warrior" said Wolf,, what about you Novak?"

, I am not too sure about that."

, About what?" both of them said in unison.

, Choosing classes before entering the game directly. I presume that we will choose classes in the game, otherwise, they would have said something beforehand."

, Makes sense'' said Marco,, how is it going to work?"

, Not sure, but that is also an interesting part of the game."

, I am still going to be a warrior" said Wolf as a matter of fact.

Both Marco and I laughed. Even if gods forbade him he would still become a warrior, I thought.

, So that is everything and nothing in the nutshell. Those guys from Universal Gaming didn't give us much to discuss." Universal Gaming is a company which made and released Age of Gods. They were the most known and successful company in the gaming industry.

, Well, for anything that happens to us in beginner villages we should try and help each other until we arrive in a bigger city."

, We forgot one crucial thing." said Wolf

What did we forget I asked myself, and saw that Marco also has no idea about that?

, Names" shouted Wolf,, if we want to be famous we need cool names."

, And I thought you were hungry" said Marco half-jokingly,, I will use Eagle Eye, I am used to it when you two call me like that and I think it is cool enough."

, Well for you that is okay, but what about two of us. I certainly won't name myself Champion it is too embarrassing. What about you Wolf, don't tell me you are okay with Superhero. Who knows how many superheroes will be in a game."

, Not as many as champions I am certain of that. I will be called Superwolf, I thought about this name for ten years, no one will take that from me. What about you? Champion of History?"

Just as I thought that his name is not that bad actually, he had to ruin it.

, Only in your dreams, with that name, I will be branded as an eternal nerd, no way in hell."

, What then?" both of them asked at the same time.

, I haven't given much thought about it actually."

, Both of us have animals name, why don't you made something up also?" said Marco

, Yeah, something like Wise Raven. " blurted out Wolf like he already waited for an opportunity.

, Not bad I like it, you are a smart guy and you also have black hair, it suits you. " said Marco

, You two already talked about this didn't you?" I asked but I knew the answer before they even started laughing like a madman. , Fine, fine I accept." I knew they wouldn't take no for an answer, so I gave up, the name wasn't that bad and honestly, I didn't want all their effort to go in vain, they tried to make names that go together.

As we said goodbye to each other at the gates of Marco's home and started going to our own Wolf shouted,, 24:00 hours sharp, do not be late!"

We all smiled and thought, finally it's time.