Saga Aurin

Before me appeared different races of what people described as humanoids. I could not help but feel deep respect for the developers, and I had always been impressed by the imagination of the people from this world, considering only humans, were the dominant species.

I had been a half orc on her lost life. Curiously, people mostly pictured Orcs as a rawer civilization and elves as a more advanced civilization in some ways. The world I came from, orcs did have a lot of similarities, but they were industrious, they rivaled dwarfs in their crafts and often worked with humans, but that had been another life.

I had been offered every race available as feminine if the race had the option, but you were not limited by it. The game console commands could make you change the gender and even offered some curious things in some races.

At the front was a female human, and it had been modeled similar to my own body, the console always scanned your body proportions so that you could feel similar proportions once you started playing a game. Her human form had been stylized however, it had more defined features, a bit more accustomed to what fashion offered, but the devs had also offered a bit of an edge.

Every humanoid had been made in a similar way, taking her as a base and adapted, from there each player would further customize their characters. Next to the human were the elf, dwarf, gnome, and halfling the main group of races. The second group was made up by orc, goblin, troll, kobold and gnoll. Almost all the races expanded as you could choose a mix of many of them, humans, elves, primals, skania and werekin, were those who had the most available options to mix the race.

I had already made a lot of research about the races, I had already narrow then my choice, but was still marveled at the different "Me's" available to choose, how they captured part of her looks on the different races.

The next group was made of Dragonewt, werekin, skania, draconid, primals and verdants. This group was curious because this is where the devs had started making things they own in what most accepted in fantasy. Dragonewts were humans with dragon features, wings, tails, horns, and such. Werekin in a similar fashion enclosed humans with animalistic features, ears, tails, eyes, claws, webbed feet and the like, this race once selected extended is range to the particular animal, and they shared some base benefits but each subspecies had a thing for they own. This is what had required its own team to balance these things. Skania were your merfolk, sirens, tritons and some other things like kappa monsters. Draconid were essentially human sized dragons. Primals were in like werekin and dragonewt, the complete form, anthropomorphic animals. There was a lot of lore in between these 4 main races. Verdants on the other part were plant people, it was a really cool concept, and the customization was really extensive.

It is important to note that some races, could evolve to something if certain conditions were made. These changes were accompanied by some benefits but carried inconveniences as well, to keep the balance. Verdants were some of those.

Then came what was considered the dark group: tieflings, undead, driders, cecaelia and undead. Tieflings were descendants of demons, the race itself had many different options as you could decided on your ancestry and that gave you different results and benefits. Undead was likewise a mayor race, you could choose to start as a skeleton, mummy, ghoul, or wraith; each of these basic starts had several evolution points, making the race really varied. Driders were a form of spider humanoids and cecailia were octopi's humanoids, both had their own lore and characteristics making them unique.

The last main group was made of cyclops, satyrs, slimets, doppelgangers and faer. In these group satyrs stood apart from fame since they were part fae, part demon. Slimets, were a different race, in essence they were humanoid slimes. A legendary slime ate a ley stone, a recipient of incredible magic, resulting in a lake of incredible magic. From this lake the first slimets appeared, slimes capable of thought and who adopted a similar basic form, similar to other humanoids to interact with them. They have evolved since, and found they were as a civilization, they still have many characteristics most slimes have, but are a species on their own. Doppelgangers are natural shapeshifters, magical in nature, they are able to morph into any other species, and even mimic in a small manner their traits. Last of this group are the Fae, magical and nature attuned humanoids with an incredible amount of customization similar to tieflings.

The ones I do not check, are those that have no surprises to what most would expect. The character creator also has some special choices, you could adopt vampirism. Most races could be infected with it, and it changed its benefits and characteristics, you could even choose to become a dhampir, a vampire and other race descendant which still have some of the feature's vampires had.

As I take a look at all the choices, I am really glad, I had spent some time doing research on them and had already narrow down the choice, otherwise I would spend the whole day looking into each one. I select those who I had already thought about: Tiefling, Satyr, Slimet and Werekin.

I had thought about being a half orc again, but the benefits of it were well different than what I had have. I wanted to try something else, that was what had become so appealing about the immersive games.

Tiefling and Werekin both offered an incredible amount of specialization, and they looked good. They both had Darkvision as a given, and they could specialize in almost any class and role with how versatile their ancestry could be.

Hence, why thinking about the class to be would also matter. once I had tried everything to excel, in the end a mistake cost me my life. Games had not such a dreadful consequence, but I felt more "alive" while intending to avoid death, and min – maxing was a thing she felt made every sense, however she still liked versatility a bit more than specialization.

They both have what she wanted, but satyrs and slimets intrigued me. Satyrs had a decent magical opportunity and being part demons opened up good opportunities, they had however double the weaknesses. Slimets on the other hand, were just such an odd thing, that it puzzled me.

They were in essence a humanoid, they could lose limps, and they could be regrowth, but not as a given. It would regrow with time or had to go to a high healer to get it fixed, that was the solution to most races, but many reptilian primals, could also regrow their limps as well, trolls were the same thing.

They had some resistance to bludgeon damage and were less penalized in the before mentioned case of losing a limp. They however had a weakness to elemental magic. They had very balanced starting stats, which improved with choosing a variant of slime. They looked like a mix of fae and human, they had very colorful skin tones. Their outer membrane felt almost like a skin and they even grew something akin to hair. So all in all, it a difficult choice.

"Let's start with the things I am sure", I will be choosing a roguelike class with magic capabilities. I could not use magic in my lost life, hence I have always chosen a class who could wield some magic in every game I play. I wanted a very versatile character, most games want to make warriors choose to be melee and forget about range weapons, but, in her world it was not like that. Almost any warrior who knew what they were doing, knew how to use a bow. That was even more important if you were an adventurer like I had been.

Sure, jack of all trades classes never exceled at anything, but the sheer versatility was an edge in itself, at least for me. With all that, it would be better to not have double weaknesses like satyrs, the class already makes me lack in general. It narrows down to three then.

Versatility each one of them tieflings, werekin and slimets, could have water breathing, that was valuable. Tiefling and werekin could also have wings. They allowed flight for shorts amounts of time. In general, there was more likely to be events underwater because there were already many races whose habitat was water. Water breathing potions or items that allow it should be available. In the case flight is needed, there should be the same possibility but a bit more expensive if its less needed.

It would depend on the nature of the dungeon to have an edge with either, so, there is not a real winner there. Tieflings had resistance to some kinds of magic depending on their ancestry but have the demon's weaknesses, and extended number of spells as well.

Werekin have no weakness, but no added spells or resistances. Slimets have an affinity with magic even though they have elemental weakness, and they could increase or decrease in a sixth of their size, that is an incredible thing for explorers. Sizing potions were expensive in her old life, but I had always carried some.

Then is down to, tiefling or slimet. Looking cool or being kind of weird. The thing with slimets was that they did had some unique spells to them, natural spells. Whereas tieflings had they demon spells.

If I were to choose tiefling, the ascendancy would be succubus and fiend. That would improve Attack and give control spells. Choosing a slimet variant would give arcane affinity, and improved physical matrix. That was improved attack and could charge arcane spells.

I look at the tiefling model, choose bat wings for it. There is a loss of physical stats, a trade for flight. A pair of horns curled backwards, small fangs on the mouth, an ashen rose skin tone. My face has become more stylized, a bit feline.

The slimet model was a bit less striking. The slimets let you choose an element that would give you an affinity. I chose arcane, with that my character had a pale pink skin tone, it was a more curvaceous figure. The skin was really smooth, felt similar to silk, the face had more accentuated my freckles making it a distinct feature on the face, it had facsimile teeth, they were developed according to lore as means to look more pleasant to other humanoids, as they evolved into what slimets were today. The eyes however were one of the most curious things. They were the more distinct feature in slimets, they came in various colours and shapes. The one displayed had starlike rings, they could be customized. They were special because, they had a very high level of perception, as they had developed from the sensory glands that gave common slimes their sight,

I take another glance at the properties, they gave the same dark vision than tieflings, "As a result of their development, slimets lost their primordial sensory gland, by exchanging it for more specialize organs. As a result, they developed very keen senses, able to perceive a lot more information than most other humanoids. Slimets have dark vision, a wider spectrum of colors, and hearing range, they can even feel small traces of magic". I had not paid enough attention to the details. There was no doubt now.

I choose the slimet and went to the customization part. I spent a little more time, playing with the feature. The result is a character the same height as I am 1.68 cm, a bit shorter hair, a mix of silver and light brown. The freckles enhance the eyes, they have and outer star like ring and heart shaped pupils, in vibrant sapphire color. I keep the body proportions as they are akin to my real ones. I gave a last glance at the character I will become.

"What would be your character full name?" the dungeon central assistant voice asks me as I accept my choices. Most races used last names, and some had an additional family, clan or something like that. In case of slimets, it is chosen once you pick a variant. I had already thought about the last name, so I find no trouble with it.

"Saga Aurin" I reply quickly.

"Welcome to Dungeon Central, Saga Aurin Mercury. You will be transported to the start position" as the voice finishes, my surroundings began to glitter and like dust in the wind, everything changes.