Tutorial

Chapter VII: Tutorial

The Primal Vale servers for the Closed Beta would come online all over the world at 12 pm, Pacific Standard Time. Here in Paris, that would be 9 pm. It was a good thing I was home alone because I didn't want to think about what my mother would say if she found out I was planning to pull an all-nighter for a video game. She would throw a fit.

If only she knew. Last night, I slept whenever I was tired and played games for twelve-hours. My sleeping habits had been destroyed. At least this time I had a good excuse. The whole thing is about fighting for the world and making sure Set doesn't reduce it to the stone age.

In a few minutes, it would be 9 and I would be able to log in for the first time. The waiting was getting me too, so to kill time I logged into my Twitter. I found Stardust Studios' Twitter page. I wasn't surprised to see that Stardust Technologies had bought three failing toy companies and fused them into Stardust Toys.

Another Stardust brand? The company was starting to get huge, like google. While the parent company Stardust Technologies was focused primarily on virtual reality research, they had even founded a software company that was strictly for the realms of technology not related to virtual reality.

Below that tweet was another one, announcing the founding of Stardust Conglomerate. I guess it was only a matter of time before they became huge juggernauts.

The clock on my desk ticked forward. 20:59.

I shut my computer down and laid down in bed. I made one last check over my Neural Sphere, making sure the cartridge and card were inserted. Everything was in order, so I put it on and tightened the neck strap. When the clock ticked again, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and lowered the visor.

The darkness behind my eyelids morphed into red and white and blue and black and grey and every other color, blending together in a vortex. It felt like I was being flung through the vortex of color, propelled at unnatural speeds.

The colorful vortex gave way to a tunnel that had a strange maniacal feel to it. From my perspective, I slowed down. I couldn't move, and I assumed this was because I had nobody.

Stardust Studios: Express Your Dreams! appeared before me, before melting away into the light. It was the logo and motto of the company.

The words Primal Vale appeared, emblazoned in gold. Below it, the words Sensory Check Imitating flashed across my vision for a moment.

Touch Sensor System: Connected!

Sight Sensor System: Connected!

Hearing Sensor System: Connected!

Taste Sensor System: Connected!

Smell Sensor System: Connected!

Suddenly I found myself in a purple void, surrounded by a small ring of light.

"Congratulations, player, you are now connected to the Closed Beta Operational Server!" a computerized voice announced. "Welcome to Primal Vale! Please select your language!"

Both the announcer and the words have been in French, but a box appeared that would let me select my language preference. I almost switched to English, but I wasn't sure if that would cause problems going forward. Things were never translated between languages literally. So I chose French as the safe option.

"Please enter your preferred user name!"

I wanted to put Phoenix Knight. I had used that on so many online accounts in my last life. I was French this time around, so I decided I'd go with a French user name and I translated it into French: Chevalier Phénix.

After that, it wanted me to create a password: @IamJacobHansenreborn1970. No one would guess that, right?

"Would you like to customize your avatar? There will be a fifty euro charge for customization. Otherwise, the appearance of your character will be generated at random."

One of the best parts about MMOs was the character creation. That was the one downside of Primal Vale was you had to pay for it. At any time, if you wanted to pay, you could change your generated avatar, but the fact was that I was broke. I mean, my family was rich, but I didn't have any personal money. It was all my mom's. I might change it in the future, but for now? I was going the generated route.

"Very well. Your avatar has been randomly generated. You will now be transported to the tutorial."

The beginning room vanished and I was flung back into the vortex of colors, even faster than before. The colors blended together so fast that they became black and for a moment...

Then I was standing in the middle of a white void. It stretched out as far as the eye could see. "Hello?" I called. Only an echo answered me.

I wondered how big this white void was. If I just started walking, when would I reach the edge of the map?

"Welcome champion!" a deep voice called from behind me. When I turned around, a massive man stood. He was twice my height and I had a feeling that he could pop my head with one hand. Was this a tutorial NPC?

"Who are you?" I asked.

"The mortal world has fallen to darkness. Where once there was a thriving planet, now there exists only darkness, death, and decay. In that darkness, the greatest mortal cities and the surrounding lands have continued to resist as a shining beacon against the encroaching darkness. Yet as we speak, the mortals falter. The continents were ripped asunder by the darkness, separating the realms of the mortals from each other.

"If we abandon them, the mortal's light will be snuffed out. We cannot allow this! We have to protect them from the darkness that seeks to destroy their world! The mortals have activated the Sacred Arrays, allowing us to be summoned to the world once more!"

So... This was the game lore. Okay, it was a little vague, but I could dig it. In a certain way, that did make sense. The servers themselves were divided by continent. The only way to log onto the European server was to log into the game in that continent with a new account. Since Chevalier Phénix was created on the European Server, it couldn't log onto any other server.

"Our power streams from the menu. It is our burden and our glory to carry. To open your menu, extend your right arm left across your body." The Non-Player Character demonstrated it and I copied him. "Now slash your hand across the air in front of you!"

I copied him and when I did, three purple screens appeared in front of me. "That is your menu, champion. Invisible to all but yourself. There are five mirrors, but only three can be seen."

By mirrors, I assumed he meant the screens.

"Grab a mirror and pull it right or left."

I touched the middle screen and dragged it right. The screen on my right disappeared and a new one materialized on the left. "Huh." I played around with it, going left and then right, trying it with each of the menu screens.

Each screen had different information. One screen was a picture of my avatar, along with my stars, which were all at zero. Below the stats was a section that listed all my equipped items, which of course was empty. On the other side of my avatar a skill section, with one Seed Skill Slot and three Skill Slots. All empty.

"Your avatar's max level is 100," the NPC said. I guess he was breaking the fourth wall now. "When you level, you will be assigned skill points that can be put to your Strength, Agility, Endurance, Constitution, Accuracy, Spirit, or Luck."

A screen popped up in front of me: Strength: STR. Agility: AGI. Endurance: END. Endurance determines your character's Hit Points. Constitution: CON. Determines your character's resistance to status effects. Accuracy: ACC. Increases the System Assist regarding projectiles and spells. SPT: Spirit. Determines character's Magic Points. Luck: LUK.

It only explained some of them. I guess the rest were simple enough to understand. This was the tutorial, so maybe they were assuming they would be dealing with novice players.

"Allow me to warn you, player, for the first nine levels, you will be allowed to redistribute your skill points as you see fit. Once you reach level 10, those skill points become fixed. They will never be altered again."

Good to know. Start thinking about the end game after level 9.

"This game has no class system. This is a skill-based game. You equip skills and level them up. Each skill will start at zero and the max level is 100. Keep in mind that all skills can be leveled to 100. However, skills fall into three categories: Seed Skills. Branch Skills. General Skills.

"General Skills are abilities that any character can learn. Provided that they meet the prerequisites. Some skills can only be learned through quests or by defeating certain monsters. Some skills have prerequisites to use them. Cooking, Hide, Search, and Acrobatics are examples of General Skills, though there are many more.

"Seed Skills can be likened to class, in a way. To wield a sword, you will need the Seed Skill Sword. If you pick up a sword without the Seed Skill, it will be too heavy to use. Even if you have maxed out your Strength stat. Sword, Spear, Dagger, Bow, Merchant, Crafting, Sorcery, and Blacksmith are examples of Seed Skills, though there are many more.

"Branch Skills are skills that can only be equipped if you have the corresponding Seed Skill. In order to equip any magic spells, you must first have the Sorcery Seed Skill. Spells can be equipped in skill slots. Each Seed Skill has a list of Branch Skills.

"Seed, Branch, or General Skills can only be leveled up by using them. Stat points you receive from leveling your avatar cannot be spent on skills.

"Be warned, player, that if you remove a skill, all your progress regarding that skill will be lost. If you reequip it, it will be at zero. This defect can be bypassed by removing the skill in a house owned by a player. Or a place that you have permitted you to reside in, such as an inn room that you have purchased. Or a guild hall where you are a member of.

"You have three skill slots and one Seed Skill Slot. Once you reach level five, you will receive a fourth skill slowly. Reach level ten, and you will receive a second skill slot. By level 100, you will have five Seed Skill Slots and at the very least, ten skill slots."

I nodded, committing the information to memory.

"Do you understand, player?" the NPC asked. A blue O and a red X appeared on the screen in front of me. I pressed the O and the NPC nodded.

"You will be transported to the starting city of Lutetia. Player, we wish you the best of luck."

According to what I read, every country in Europe had its own starting city. Lutetia was for French players. Each continent had its own server, with each server mirroring the shape and geography of the real continents. So the European server was the shape of Europe.

The European server was the size of China. All the servers had their continents scaled down to match China's size. Europe was the only server to be scaled up. The size of China was the largest a virtual reality map could be made. No other VR game for the Neural Sphere even came close to a third of the size of the Primal Vale maps.

I wonder how island countries that aren't linked to the continents can play. Were they just collected in the closest continent to their islands? Or was there a system?

Questions for later.

***

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