3 The starting village

I quickly arrived at my house, it was only five minutes walking from Marco's. My family was waiting for me in the living room. Father was watching, as always, sports on TV and mother was cooking. As I said, they are great sports fans, my father especially. In his youth he used to compete in the decathlon, he had some success until he got injured, when he met our mother who was a physical therapist, and there was me, and little later my little sister, you know how it goes. Now my father is a coach, and mother retired a few years ago and now mainly stays home taking care of the house and helping Hope with her studies, not that she needed it.

, Father, mother good day to you."

, Hi son, go freshen up, we are going to have lunch soon." said my mother.

, Son are you ready for new victories?" asked my father.

, You know about the game?" I asked him a little surprised.

, Of course, I know, it is everywhere in the city and on TV. I remember that three of you numbskulls almost brought chaos every time one of those games came out during your time in high school and college. Did you exercise as I told you? You should keep your body in shape if you want to play the game every night."

, I did dad, don't worry." I started exercising ten years ago when dad told me about the need for a healthy body for people who play games daily.

, As long as you are aware." he said.

I freshened up and came to the table for lunch. At the same time, my little sister Hope came downstairs from her room. She hugged me and said:

, Big brother you are finally home, I am starving."

, Haha you little glutton, is it that hard to wait for me to have lunch." I said glutton but Hope was under no circumstances fat or chubby, she had a big appetite because of her regular training at the track every day. Dad was the guilty party, he found her talent and she also enjoyed doing track and field every day.

, Usually not, but you were late today."

She was right I was usually on time or I called beforehand to tell them not to wait for me. I guess that when you are part of The Nerdy Trio time is ticking differently.

, He is here now so let's start eating." Mom said and we sat down and started eating.

Lunch was delicious as usual, and we talked about how we spent our day. When dessert came, Hope asked me.

, Bro, are you going to play Age of Gods, everyone is talking about it at school."

, Of course, I waited ten years for the game. Me, Marco and Wolf made an agreement that as soon we had our own money we would play virtual reality games. We could have already started one, but all of them were already in later stages, so we waited for this one."

, Can I also play, many of my friends will play too. " she asked with her beautiful smile. I couldn't say no to her but I knew that mom and dad wouldn't allow her.

, You can "said mom with dad nodding his head in approval,, if your brother can buy one helmet for you."

, Yes, yes, big brother you will buy it for me, right?"

, But how can she play and I couldn't?" I asked my parents.

, She is more responsible than you when you were her age, we don't need to worry about her neglecting her studies and training." said my father.

I facepalmed myself and could only say,, Don't worry brother will buy you a helmet, but you know that you need to wait until your 18 birthday to start playing virtual reality games." That was a law, only persons at the age of 18 and above can play virtual reality games. There were some exceptions, but not that many and only with parents approval and in rehabilitation medicine.

, Thank you brother, she hugged me and kissed me,, remember, my birthday is not even a month away. Ugh, I can't wait, why isn't it sooner, I will fall behind this way."

, Don't worry, I will help you and you will make up the difference in no time."

, You are the best brother thank you" she hugged me again and ran to her room.

, You must take care of your sister even if it is only a game." reminded me, my mother.

, I know mom don't worry", I assured her that I will look out for her and then went to my room to take care some of the school stuff and to prepare to enter Age of Gods.

Finally, I thought as I laid down in my bed and put on a helmet. A good thing about virtual games in this age is that technology is very safe, you can even sleep with helmets on and they are not taxing on the body and mental health. Still sleep is important to recover and it is not recommended to play often without sleep. Well since sleeping is one of my favorite things to do I won't have problems with that. In the past you could even sleep in some games I wonder if that will be possible in Age of Gods.

As I was wondering about sleeping, the game was slowly starting. It was already 24:00 h. First thing I saw was that incredible trailer. It was even better than on TV, it was like you were in the center of everything. Then a female soft voice said:

, Welcome to the Age of Gods, we hope you will enjoy and try not to anger any of the many Gods or else..."

Wow I thought, they don't kid around with the Gods. Well, it was natural, Gods are not easy to trifle with, there are a lot of examples in mythology where mortals insulted and defied Gods that didn't end well.

, Please choose your region" the voice continued.

Then the Earth showed up. It was turning around and stopped on Europa. I could see a lot of regions to choose from. Well, the choice was obvious but it was good to know what are other regions up front. Far north there were Nordic lands, in the center were Germanic lands west were Celtic lands, east were Slavic lands and south was also Slavic region(Balkans), my region, and of course Hellas the land of mythology and Roman Empire. Wow, there was directly Roman Empire, maybe it was easier to name it like that or it may have a different meaning we will see in the game.

With no further ado, I choose the Slavic region(Balkans). After that there was character customization, The only thing I did was to remove my glasses and add a little facial hair, that was enough. After that voice said to choose a name. I was curious so I asked:

, System how many players choose a name with the word Champion in them?"

It took a moment before voice answered,, So far there are 5327 names"

, How about a Superhero?" I asked again.

,, 689."

That was even faster, I bet that Wolf will mention this sometime later. Enough of that I thought, let's go.

, Wise Raven." I said.

, Wise Raven, is that correct?" asked the voice.

, Yes." I responded.

, Welcome Wise Raven to the Age of Gods."

White light was all around me all of a sudden, and when I opened my eyes I found myself in a little village. I looked around trying to make sense where I was. There were little houses here and there mostly made of earth and straw, with some made of wood. New players started appearing one after another. Some were already leaving the village and some were trying to find quests. I guess that this wasn't first for them, they all looked like they knew what to do.

First thing I did was to open my status and see my stats. I was shocked to say at least. I was not the only one judging from all the yelling around me, and people returning to the village from the outside. I looked around and found one quiet spot behind one of the houses so that I can think more carefully about this.

This is the gist of it. Nothing, there was nothing. Those guys from the Universal Gaming weren't kidding when they said that to survive in the Age of Gods you need to rely on yourself. They did also say that this game would be much harder than all the games until now. Not that I played any games before. While I was thinking a notification rang in my ears.

, Player Superwolf wishes to be your friend, do you accept?" Then another,

, Player Eagle Eye wishes to be your friend, do you accept?"

, Accept, accept." I responded to the system. They added me to the group chat and I could hear that they were discussing the pressing matter of every player that started to play Age of Gods, what now?

, What is your opinion?" they asked me in one voice.

, We just have to try hard and enjoy the game. Isn't that why are we here? And at least we have a chat system, so if one of us has some problems we can try to solve it together. At least until we find each other in the game. Who knows when can we leave the villages in the first place."

, Well then let's get started, no use in talking about this all day." said Marco, with Wolf following him. , Yeah, even bare hands are weapons." We could only nod our heads after that statement. Before he left Wolf only said,, Five thousand and counting." I could only smile bitterly at that, there are more Champions it seems.

As I started saying system gave nothing. No weapons, no potions, not even a single copper coin. There wasn't an inventory bag, so I guessed you could only carry everything with yourself. I only wore thin linen clothes and leather booths. In the stats page, there were only bars for health and mana points which were 100, there was even hunger bar, for now, it showed maximum value which means that for now I am fine without food but who knows what happens when it starts dropping. All the other stats showed number 10. They were the usual ones, strength, endurance, intelligence, agility, dexterity. There was also fame, which was momentarily at zero, and the only skills were Universal Language, which was at max level and Appraisal which was at level 0.

I opened the map, the system wasn't that ruthless, we could at least see general space in which we stayed. I could see buildings in the village, but not their function, and wooden wall around it with the gates at north and south sides. The name of the village was Little Rock village. Very generic I thought. I should try to find an NPC, and find about the situation I am in.

Some of the players started forming groups, to go outside to level, some were going around the village, some were talking to each other, and some were going through the game forum, probably to find out what to do.

As I was walking around the village I could see that not many NPC were present in it. There was a group of little children playing hide and seek and tag. Sometimes they even mixed two games. The only adult was a middle-aged man in one of the wooden constructions, which would be smithy from all the metal tools in it. Many players wanted to talk to this blacksmith and try to find some quest, but the only response was cold stares and short responses like can't you see I am busy and don't bother me to the female players. There were few more wooden buildings, one that looked like a temple, one big I assume for keeping some kind of an animal, sheep maybe, and one which I think is for storing food for the whole village.

All of the buildings were closed except the temple, players would go in and out with unwilling looks on their faces which could only mean that there was nothing in there.

I decided to try to ask one of the children something because I saw that they responded to other players, but still, most of them went away with unhappy expressions on their faces. I found one boy hiding behind the temple and asked him

, Excuse me, boy, can you tell me where are adults?"

, Go away, you are going to reveal me!"

I was somewhat surprised, as I didn't expect that kind of an answer. It seems that NPCs are much more intelligent than I thought. In here they are also human, so I should treat them like that.

, Sorry" I said,, let me help you hide."

I sat with my back turned to him so that other children couldn't see him.

, What do you think?"

, Haha'' laughed the boy, you are a good guy, now they will never find me." smiled the boy cheekily.

, So, where are grown-ups?" I asked him again

, Some are in the fields, some are tending the sheep, and several uncles are hunting in the forest."

Of course, in this age food is the most important resource, no wonder there are no adults in the village at this time.

, You are a Traveler, right? You can wait in the village or go out to find them, it will be a long time until they come back." said the boy and run out with his hands high in the sky, evidently he won.

Well let's go out then, I decided, not knowing that I created a quest where players are asked by children to help them hide, which later players crowned as the first quest every player should do.