Closed Beta

Chapter VIII: Closed Beta

The white void burst and I was slowly floating down. All around me, I could see beads of golden light slowly floating through the night sky. I assumed these would be the other players, logging on for the first time. When an account went live, this must be the opening animation.

I didn't look at them for too long. I wanted to see where I was going to end up.

The city was spread out in the middle of a giant forest. An icon identified it as the Infernal Forest. The city itself was surrounded by a huge wall that reminded me of the Great Wall of China. Said city... Looked like Paris.

Gone were the skyscrapers, modern buildings, and cars. In fact, any trappings of modern society had vanished. I was looking at a medieval Paris, one that might have been ripped straight out of history. According to the lore, that's close to what happened.

A large river flowed through the city, with barges coming in and out. That same river flowed down through the forest. Said forest was called the Infernal Forest.

The lights around me all landed in an area called Jeanne Arc Plaza. It was the biggest center in the city. The NPCs around us were dressed as if they lived in Medieval Paris. The NPCs would keep that ascetic, but players would be free to have characters with armor and weapons from across time.

By the time all the players we in the plaza, which was so full there was hardly any room to move around, an NPC dressed like a medieval European official appeared at the top of the podium. "Greetings, heroes! Marquis Beauvale, Lord Alphonse, welcomes you to Lutetia!"

After the NPC explained we were needed to defend the world. He then went on to explain the basic gameplay that hadn't been in the tutorial, which I felt should have been. During this time, it was impossible to leave the plaza.

I opened my menu. Each screen had different information on them, but I went to my right screen, and straight to the skills section. For my seed skill, I chose Sword. Once that was in place, the ten sword skills that beginners were given opened up to me. I equipped Slash and Perry. I don't think I'm going to go with a shield, so Perry was the better choice. For my last slot, I chose the General Skill Search.

Shields were classified as armor equipment, meaning you didn't need to have a class skill to use one. You only needed to meet the stat qualifications.

The first thing I took notice of was my HUD. In the upper right-hand corner of my vision, I saw my name displayed next to a small picture of my avatar. Next to that blue bar was LV: 1. I assumed that meant level one.

Below my name was a blue heath bar, indicating 100/100. Below that was a green magic point bar, with a 10/10 below it.

In the bottom right-hand corner displayed the Central European Time.

Since this was the beginning of the game and we were all level one, people were slow to leave the plaza. At first, I thought it was the players that filled the plaza up, but it was the NPCs. Most of the avatars around me were NPCs. I wondered if they were going to reduce the number of NPCs for the official launch.

As I scanned through my menu, I noticed there was a number attached to my user name. The naming convention was similar to discord. Every player was free to choose their name, but a random string of four numbers would be added at the end so the system could differentiate between users with the same name. My full user name was Chevalier Phénix #3120. I wondered if any other Chevalier Phénix avatars were running around.

NPCs approached each one of us. The one that found me was a pretty girl and she smiled at me. The system that ran Primal Vale could synthesize voices, so each NPC had its own voice without the need for a voice actor. "We welcome you, hero. I have been instructed by the Marquis to help you navigate our fine city. Do you wish to go to the bazaar? Weapons and items are available for purchase?"

Did I have any money? I scrolled through my menu and found that I had 100 lyre.

"Is lyre money?" I asked her.

The NPC nodded. "It is the currency of heroes. It can be spent anywhere. Though there are local coins, heroes can only carry lyre."

I guess she answered that question.

"Please, show me."

"Of course, hero." The NPC led me through a city that looked so similar to the Paris I was familiar with, yet so different at the same time. It felt like I had gone back and stepped back into history. I felt like Kagome from Inuyasha must have the first time she fell down that well.

When we stopped at the French version of a bazaar, the NPC asked me: "Is there anything else I can help you with now, player?"

"I don't think so."

She nodded. "When you are geared up and ready to leave the city, there are four gates, at each cardinal direction. The City Watch mans the gate and they have been instructed to allow heroes free pass through them. However, if you cause a disturbance, not only can you be arrested, the Watch will charge you the same fee to enter and exit."

So don't piss off the guards. I think I could live with that.

I searched the bazaar up and down, before settling with a Small Sword that cost me 20 lyre. A basic healing potion cost 10 lyre, so I bought three of them. One antidote potion was another 10 lyre, so I got two of them. That left me with 30 lyre, which I saved. I didn't want to start the game off broke.

There was a line at the west gate where we were going. According to an NPC that I talked to, on normal days, it would be emptier, though there would be NPC merchants coming and going. Since it was the first day of the game, there was a larger line, mostly of NPCs again. It took me three minutes to get to the front.

The Watch Captain had a gold star on the front of his armor. He grunted when he saw us. "Adventurer?"

I nodded.

"The gates close at midnight and they will not open until daybreak," the Watch Captain said. "There is an area protected by my fellows, but those gates will not open."

As soon as we stepped out of the city, the sounds of the monsters echoed out of the forest. They matched the natural sounds of the forest that the game generated.

I didn't hear the rest. The watch captain nodded and let me through. When I was out of the gate, a huge forest opened to me. It looked ancient as if this forest had never been touched by humans.

An NPC watchman came over to me and pointed at the forest. "You are too close to the city's enchantments for the Creatures of Darkness to appear. You must go further into the forest, hero."

So I did just that, and the guard followed me. It felt so strange to be walking through a game world instead of staring at it through a screen. I had been playing VR games for months, but none of them compared to Primal Vale. I could smell the city, some parts were unpleasant and some were pleasant, but it was a new experience. In the other fantasy title, there was no sense of smell.

As I walked into the forest, the scent of damp earth hit me. It reminded me of the smell of the redwood forest in California, right after it rained.

The first monster that spawned was a Boar. Thankfully there only one of them spawned, so this would be a good learning moment. I drew the Small Sword from my waist. The Boar eyed me for a moment and then turned away.

Big mistake. I charged it and slashed. When my sword cut through the monster, it left a red gash, though there was no blood. When my blade made contact, its health bar appeared above the monster's head, under its name. It had a max of 50 hit points. My strength was at zero and my sword did 5 damage. That added up to five points. It still had forty-five hit points left

It growled and turned around, its beady eyes glaring at me. My strength would be added to the damage output of the Small Sword, but I didn't have any strength yet. And if each cut was only going to deal five points of damage, I was going to be here for a little bit.

Hopefully, the Boar wouldn't deal too much damage to me, though I had twice its hit points.

"Hero, use a skill!" the NPC yelled at me. Great, now I had a peanut gallery! A backseat fighter?

"How do I do that?"

"For Branch Skills, say the name of the skill you wish to use!"

The Boar pounded at the ground with its hove, getting ready to attack. I pointed my sword at it. "Slash!"

My blade started glowing red. It kind of looked like a cross between a real sword and a lightsaber.

"Now swing at the creature!"

The Boar was charging at me. I dodged out of the way with a split second to spare. As it barreled past me, I cut it with the sword. This time, I did thirty points of damage to it.

The word Slash appeared in the upper left-hand corner of my vision. Next to it was a countdown timer for ten seconds. That must be the cooldown.

As the Boar repositioned itself, I hacked away at it three times, dealing enough damage to kill it.

The Boar exploded into red smoke, and a white screen appeared in front of me:

REWARDS

EXP: 10

ITEMS: 1

LYRE: 0

I had to press the red X at the top of the screen to close it, then I checked my menu. My EXP was now at 10/100. Just nine more Boars and I'll be level two.

I went to my inventory and found Boar Tusk. I clicked on it information about it appeared: it would sell for thirty lyre. It could also be used for crafting.

The next four Boars didn't drop any items, so I assumed the item was rare. Boars were slow, at least relatively to me, but they were strong. Their Tusk attack did forty damage, and I nearly got killed by the second Boar.

I was going to use a potion, but my NPC watchmen said we were still close enough to the wall of the city. The wall of the city counted as being within the limits of the city, so when I touched the wall, my HP bar was restored to full.

"Save your potions for when the walk back to the city is too long."

"Noted."

I killed three more Boars, though I didn't let my HP hit the halfway mark until I ran into the Wolf. The Wolf had less attack power than the Boar, but it was faster and it sank its fangs into more times than I'd like to admit before I killed it.

REWARDS

EXP: 30

ITEMS: 1

LYRE: 0

I checked my inventory to find one Wolf Pelt.

***

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