Ch 6- Winged Unicorn
When Glacé opened his eyes he felt dizzy, he looked around and saw he was surrounded by floating clouds ands silver trees. Glacé felt something was wrong. 'Why does it seem like I'm sitting low to the ground?'. He looked down and saw a pair of short white animal legs and hoofs for feet.
As he moved his feet Glacé saw the hoofs move in accordance with his thoughts, he panicked for a moment and then heard a soft laugh by his ears.
Receiving Glacés' puzzled gaze Yuki smiled and shapeshifted. Glacé had to crane his neck to stare at Yuki's horse face. Although unicorns weren't a known animal to interstellar people horses were mentioned in many historical records and Glacé could vaguely recall the creature as he stared at Yuki.
Glacé stared at Yuki blankly "Yuki, why am I so much shorter?".
"Well that's of course because you're a new player, your animal form will grow as you level up. Also until you hit level ten you cannot transform into your human shape". Glacé felt as if he'd been struck by lightning "can you show me how I currently look?".
Yuki lifted his head and gestured for Glacé to follow behind him; after a short walk, Yuki led him to a crystal clear lake.
Yuki had a horn in the middle of his forehead and Glacé stared at it as it started to glow. Yuki then lowered his horn to lightly touch the water and stepped to the side. A water mirror soon roses from the lake and floated in front of Glacé.
'Woah so magical'. Glacé praised the game's fine details and marveled internally.
The mirror stopped and Glacé carefully scrutinized his races' true form. He looked like a young horse, he was a dazzling pure white which covered his whole body. He stood on all fours and had a small horn on his head and fluffy wings attached to his back. Glacé stared at his wings and tried to find the right muscle to move his wings. He subconsciously held his breath as he tried feeling the muscles in his body and almost collapsed to the ground.
"Ha ha". Yuki laughed again "there's no need to rush I and the other elders of our winged unicorn tribe will help train and guide you. Follow me".
Glacé obediently followed behind Yuki and listened carefully as Yuki introduced the details of their race.
"The winged unicorn race is considered a Holy mythical beast. We are symbols that stand for purity, innocence, gentleness, freedom, kindness, and magic. Our race is beloved by many creatures that love and respect nature and we have a natural affinity with those who cherish nature and life".
As Glacé listened he felt something wrong 'why does it sound so…. Girly? These attributes don't suit me at all!'. As he mulled over the meaning of Yuki's words the more dumbfounded Glacé felt. He felt he was no soft steamed bun ' The Main brain must have sorted me wrongly!'
"We unicorns also desire and seek out those who are pure instinctively and seek to protect the weak. We are a proud and kind race. The main brain should have already told you that race characteristics would affect you personally. So naturally, your desire to help, protect, and seek pure beings will be strong. This game has many unique features and unusual interactions between races and players. The unicorn races blood has special properties such as healing any and all types of wounds, eternal youth and beauty, and increasing one's overall potential in using magic. As such many races dare to covet our holy race to take our blood for themselves. You must be wary and hide your identity when wandering in the outside world. Also because we can run and fly very fast some races try to tame us as mounts. This can also happen to you as a player, so it's best if you don't allow others to know your race. Although our race is proficient in magic and very good at escaping, it's still better to be wary".
By the time Yuki finished speaking Glacés insides had turned green. 'Not only am I a weak purity-loving fruit nut, many races, and monsters covet my flesh. If those points weren't bad enough then add the fact that other players can capture me to be their mount…..'
Glacé was burning with anger internally and constantly cursing out the main brain in his mind. He glanced down at his empty wrist and remembered the bracelet he wore before entering the virtual cabin. 'Damn it!! I can't even leave the fucking game'. Glacé kept stomping his hoof on the ground and neighing in anger.
Glacés eyes suddenly widened as he remembered he was currently live streaming!
'Fuck fuck fuck! Now everyone knows what I am and look like' if it could Glaces short hair would be standing straight up right now.
He hurriedly brought the system panel and used his thoughts to navigate to the live broadcast settings and saw that the broadcast had already been disconnected at some point. Glacé then saw the 'Social' icon flashing, he opened the icon and saw the "real-world" tab blinking, he clicked to open it and saw his communicator number had received a new message from his agent.
"Kelly! You were right about the servers.. shortly after the broadcast started the servers couldn't handle the influx of traffic and the circuits fried within two minutes! The crash caused serious damage to our servers, our tech team is working hard to get everything set back up as soon as possible. But they think it'll at least get two days to get everything to the point it needs before you can open your stream again. For now, you can go ahead and enjoy the game. I'll reach out to you when you can open the stream again! Have fun!"
Glacé read the message twice and felt as if he'd been granted amnesty. 'At least no one knows my race and they've only seen my human form, I'm safe for now'.
Glacé tiredly sat his back legs and butt on the ground. Yuki perceived the movement and walked back toward Glacé and sat next to him in silence.
'Stupid game, stupid main brain. Who wants to be some else's mount, Glacé sat in place cursing internally for a good while before turning to face Yuki.
"You said once I reach level ten I can change to my human form?".
"That is correct". Glacé sighed and resigned to his fate. "Then let's get going, I need to level up fast".
The further Yuki led him the more cloudy the surrounding became; all Glacé could see was Yuki's lit-up horn. After a fifteen-minute journey the clouds spread out and a small clearing was revealed before Glacés eyes.
*Ding congratulations player Glacé for reaching the winged unicorns sanctuary and officially starting the game* EXP +5 +special Gift box
'Gift box? Maybe that's the freebies promised for wearing the bracelet'. Glacé finally felt his enthusiasm for the game return.
"This will be your new home", Yuki transformed into a human and pushed open the door to the small house, and led Glacé in.
'How humble' was Glacé's first thought. The house was bare bones with a stove, one pot, an old wooden chair, and a pile of hay in the corner of the room. "You can take some time to look at your inventory and open up the gift". There should be things in there to help you as we go through the tutorial.
Glacé gave an excited nod and pulled open his inventory and selected the gift. The next moment a large wrapped present landed on the floor of the room, Glacé barely touched it with the tip of his hoof and a blinding white light proceeded to fill the room. After it disappeared Glacé stared at the array of items that appeared on the ground.