19 Prologue-Character Creation

Sara's vision swirled in front of her after awaking from being swallowed by the blue flames. Before her was a mirror, surrounded by darkness. The frame was gold, and the surface was scuffed up and scratched. The gold trim was decorated with leaves and little images of people that were running from a flame, some of the images appeared to be partially being consumed by the flame, while others seemed almost unaware of it. It was as if the flame was something that always came, and yet, was entirely random and full of chance.

In the mirror itself, Sara saw…nothing. She could not see her reflection; instead a foggy darkness was visible. All around her, fog rolled out from everywhere and nowhere, surrounding her.

As she turned her attention back to the mirror, the surface of the mirror changed. A menu was displayed on its surface. It was quite strange to see, as the mirror appeared quite old, but the current technology was being displayed on its glass surface.

Sara read the menu out loud to herself.

"Character creation…Race….I guess I choose my race?"

Sara selected the option with her finger and a drop down menu popped up.

There various races were listed.

Human

Elf

Dwarve

Small folk

As she explored, she found that each option had two variants to choose from.

Human had the northerners and the southerners. Each option gave different benefits.

Northerners: resistant to the cold weathers of the north, this gives them a benefit when faced against cold climates.

Southerners: resistant to the warm weathers of the south, this gives them a benefit when faced against warm climates.

Sara stared at the two options, scrunching up her face in the process.

"What the hell? It doesn't say what kind of benefit they get, just that they get a benefit…."

She went ahead and began looking at the other more exotic options.

Wood elf: feels a connection to nature and forestry, this gives a benefit when dealing with wildlife and nature.

High elf: feels a connection to magic, this gives a benefit when learning magic.

Mountain dwarve: feels connected to stone, gives a benefit when underground and crafting with metals and stone.

Hill dwarve: feels connected to earth, gives a benefit when traversing hills and crafting with metal and wood.

River small folk: feels connected to water ways, gives a benefit when crafting small items and traversing through water channels.

Hill small folk: feels connected to small villages and open plains, gives benefit when speaking with others and bartering.

Below the races there was additional information listed.

-Each race has its own advantages and drawbacks of being born into. You cannot choose your characters starting life; some will have more fortune than others. In some places, those that are not human will be treated with bigotry and disdain, and in others, being human does not boost your ability to traverse freely.-

Sara re-read the bottom information a few times before clicking her tongue.

"I guess…being human doesn't offer much benefit racially, but it offers benefits socially…but this part about not choosing where you're born…does that mean if slavery exists I could be born a slave?"

Sara wondered if it really was a possibility to be born into such a crappy situation in the game….

The developers wouldn't have been that cruel, right?

She shook her head.

"Whatever, I'll just choose the one that I like the most. Small folk…I'll be small then. I probably won't be able to fight too well. Dwarve…I don't think I'll end up too cute if I'm a dwarve…and don't their women have beards? Elf…that could be nice…"

Sara's finger hovered over the high elf option. She was still indecisive, however, and pulled her hand back, still thinking about the character she wanted to play. She couldn't bear it if she didn't choose right as many virtual reality games did not allow a secondary character to be created and there was a fee for deleting and re-creating an already existing character.

Before long, red numbers caught her attention at the top of the mirror, looking up, Sara found a countdown in the corner.

Surprised, she watched as the number changed from three to two to one before reacting.

"Crap I gotta-."

Sara watched as the mirrors surface changed again, fog appeared on it, swallowing the words from before. New information was displayed as Sara watched in horror.

-Each player is given thirty minutes to begin the character creation process; those that are unable to begin the process in thirty minutes are assigned a race instead.-

"God damn it…."

Sara stood waiting to find out what her character would be, she didn't have to wait long before her reflection answered her.

Before her stood a man with dark midnight skin and white hair. His eyes were a light blue, with barely any change between the iris and whites. His hair was short, cut into a crew cut and his clothes were common. He stood staring at Sara with his mouth opened in a dumbfounded display.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!?"

The answer came scrolled across the mirrors surface.

-Elf variant race unlocked. Due to the amount of players registering elves, Drow race is now unlocked for selection.-

"WHAT THE FUCK IS A DROW?!?"

Sara stood screaming at the mirror for answers. She wasn't one that read much fantasy and honestly didn't even know what a small folk was. She didn't actually know there were variant races of each type of creature and had been mildly surprised when the system had allowed for a player to choose between different types of humans, elves, dwarves and small folk. That had already blown her mind, let alone finding out that there were even more variant races aside from monsters in the game.

As Sara watched, the benefits of the Drow were displayed.

Elf Drow variant: Life underground has allowed the Drow's the ability to see in the dark, sunlight hurts Drow eyes, but dark magic can be learned due to their unique heritage.

Sara balked at the words. Seeing in the dark? Dark magic? They want her to become some sort of villain!

Sara stomped her foot, the reflection staring back at her copied her, causing her temper to flare even worse.

They made her a boy!

She was a girl! Clearly, a girl!

Did the system mess up? Most VR games did not allow gender to be swapped!

Sara felt like crying, but the tears wouldn't come.

As she stood lamenting her bad luck, the image on the mirror shifted again.

Slowly, a movie seemed to be displayed before her.

A baby's cry was heard and a scornful voice came.

"Another boy!"

The sound of a bang was heard, as if someone had dropped something weighty atop something hard.

The cries grew in volume.

Another voice came, a hint of laughter mixing with its playfully reproachful tone. "Don't kill it. It's still useful. Killing it would be a waste."

A scoff came.

At this, Sara's face paled.

"Is that me? What are you doing to me!? Bitch! I'll kill you; don't think you'll get away with this!"

The image shifted again.

Before her, Sara found a woman seemed to be staring down at her, gleeful disdain was flashing in her eyes.

"Pick. It. Up. NOW!"

Sara looked down to find a partially spilled cup of red liquid. Slowly, the image shifted, as if the person who's point of view was being displayed was kneeling down to clean up the mess.

As the person knelt, however, the woman from before flung out a foot, catching the other's face and throwing them backwards.

Sara felt a pain in her lip and cried out as the other in the mirror did.

Feeling, she found a scar cutting into her bottom lip.

Enraged, Sara said, "Bitch."

The person in the mirror seemed to be mildly controlled by Sara, as they too said the word under their breath.

It did not escape the tyrannical woman's notice.

"What!? What did you just call me you little bastard!?"

Suddenly, the woman pulled a whip from her waist and unraveled it. She swung it once, then lashed out at the one on the ground.

Sara felt acute pain on her back and right arm. She cried out.

"AH!"

The pain subsided quickly, and was dulled due to the game mechanics, but for a girl that had never seen or experienced such treatment, it was close to unbearable.

The lashing lasted almost a minute before finally letting up. Sara glanced down and was shocked to find that her skin was a dark, almost black color. On one arm, she found grey scars marring her skin, as if she had used the arm to cover herself during the lashing.

As the person in the mirror lay on the ground apparently bleeding, the scene shifted again.

This time, Sara found herself standing before a man who appeared similar to herself in appearance, though a lot taller. The mirror was gone, this time Sara seemed to be in the scenes herself, though she found that her body moved on its own, for the most part. She couldn't turn away from the man, for example, but she could shift from one foot to the next.

"We'll be testing your aptitude for combat, and magic."

The man before her spoke in a voice that was cold, almost unfeeling.

"Take this." He handed her a sword with its hilt facing her.

She hesitated, but reached out to grasp the sword the same way she'd seen those in movies do so. It was heavy.

"Form isn't very good, and strength is insufficient." The man commented on her as she stood. He sighed, but nodded his head as he pulled his own sword.

"Alright. Come at me."

Sara balked at his statement, unsure what he meant. The realism, despite the fact that she had little control over her body at the moment, was debilitating. It felt as if she were actually standing before someone that had actually asked her to attack them.

As he noted her hesitation, he sighed again. "This won't do, a coward won't do well in battle."

Hearing his words, Sara's face heated up with both embarrassment and anger. Trying to keep in mind that this was a game, Sara cried out as she stepped forward, swinging the sword with all her might at her opponent.

The sound of metal hitting metal rang out as the two swords clashed. The man seemed to block her blow easily.

"You're provoked easily, that's a death sentence."

Sara gritted her teeth and swung the sword again.

"Your aptitude for the sword leaves much to be desired, you're perhaps one of the worst I've seen in almost thirty years."

Sara continued to try to swing the swords over and over again, trying to teach the man just how wrong he was. The problem was…she was really, very bad. His words rang true every time he blocked her swing or stepped out of the way with little effort.

The system would help those in combat situations, but sparing and dueling were always on independent mode. Therefore, although when Sara wanted to leave she was unable to move, when she was attacking and swinging her sword, she was in complete control. This was why her ability was extremely lacking.

Finally, Sara's arms refused to rise any longer as she stood using the sword to prop herself up, breathing heavily.

The man stopped goading her and sighed.

"Go ahead, check his ability with magic, but don't expect much."

The sword was pulled from her hands, almost causing her to stumble. She watched at the man walked away as another stepped forward in a robe.

She stared after the first with tired resentment blazing in her eyes.

The one in the robe turned to see what she was staring at and scoffed.

"Forget about it, even I could tell you were terrible and I haven't wielded a sword in over two hundred years."

Sara turned back to stare at the man addressing her. He was tall, taller than the man before. His eyes were slanted, as if he were squinting all the time. They weren't very honest looking eyes, appearing to be in a perpetual state of scheming.

He looked young, younger than the man from before, and his hair was longer than the other's, slicked to the side and parted in a way that you would expect someone by the name of "Poindexter" would part it.

From his robes he pulled a small notebook. He held it out to Sara.

Sara took the book hesitantly. She opened the pages and found a strange runic language within. As she stared at it, the symbols slowly shifted to resemble something like English, but there were words still missing, still replaced with those runes.

Sara stared down at the pages in mild confusion.

The man chuckled as he watched her.

"You probably can't make any sense of those runes, but if you concentrate, you should be able to make a bit of sense, enough that you should be able to cast at least a rudimentary level spell."

Sara nodded as she read the page.

She looked up at the man, unsure of how to proceed.

The man sighed. "Just study it for a while, figure out what the spell's core element is, then focus on creating that with your magical force. Try to picture what the spell should look like in your mind, then use your magic to make it reality."

Sara nodded and began studying the words on the page. They were a jumbled mess. They didn't all correlate to each other, it seemed. It wasn't like reading sentences, these were seemingly random words that were scrolled across the page.

After a while, Sara thought she had an idea about what the spells purpose was. It seemed to be a flame spell. Not a large one, just a minor flame, probably for lighting candles or maybe starting a fire.

Sara lifted her head, looking around for something to burn.

The man standing before her noticed her movement.

"Looking for something?" He said lazily.

Sara glanced at him, and nodded. "I need a candle or something to burn." Sara was mildly surprised at the deepness of her voice before remembering that, at that moment, she was a boy.

The man's lips tugged down at the corners.

"Let me see that." He ripped the book from Sara's hands without waiting for her reply.

'Rude', Sara thought as she stood by with a scowl on her face.

She'd learned her lesson the first time to hold back before speaking.

The man frowned down at the page Sara had been reading before nodding.

"Alright, I'll get you a candle." He turned and motioned for someone to bring him a candle. Looking, Sara found that the man that had tested her ability with the sword was still present, watching from the side with a mocking lilt to his lips. A servant of some sort rushed out and came quickly back with a candle. It was placed on a table that sat a little ways away with weapons lying atop it.

The room she was in, now that she looked around, was large and didn't have much in it. It seemed to be a sparring room, or one used to train others in the sword. There were various weapons hanging on the walls and that table was the only piece of furniture in the room. There were no windows, instead the walls that surrounded her were gray and covered with weapons. There was a tapestry hung up on one wall that took up the majority of the space of the wall. It seemed to depict a giant spider woman that was in the center of a web that held captive many people. There were many races in the web, awaiting death. Sara could identify what she assumed were dwarves and humans, then various monsters as well.

Sara shivered at the terrible scenes that were also displayed on the tapestry. Drows killing humans and elves, their children being murdered in front of their families.

Yup…the system definitely wanted her to be a villain….

The man motioned for Sara to follow him to the table. She stood before it as she accepted the book back from the robed man.

"Alright, see if you can figure out how to work the spell. I don't actually expect you to do it, but I'll still be able to tell if you have any ability based on the flow of the magic in the vicinity."

Sara nodded her understanding.

She lifted her hand, and began trying to chant the words in her mind. She pictured the candle lighting, as she summoned her magic force.

Nothing happened for a moment, before the silence was broken by the robed man.

He spoke disdainfully beside her. "What are you doing? You can't actually be trying to cast a spell without speaking before ever casting it. Do you think you're some sort of arch mage?"

Sara felt her face heat up at the insults.

She stood by, silent.

The robed man seemed to be losing patience.

"Well? Speak! Say the spell, say the words on the page, say SOMETHING for Lolth's sake."

Sara bit her lip, then took a deep breath and did as he said.

The words came awkwardly at first, but they seemed to flow better as she continued. As she finished, the candle still sat unlit atop the table.

"Alright, now try to incorporate some magic force into your words this time rather than just leisurely reading."

Sara could almost hear his eyes rolling.

She pursed her lips, then did as he said, saying the words while picturing the candle lighting before her. In the middle of her visualization, she remembered the blue flames from before. Remembered their heat, the crackling sounds that they made.

Then, without Sara being ready, the candle's wick lit.

"Ah!" She cried out in alarm as the candles wick lit seemingly on its own.

The robbed man nodded in approval. "Not bad."

Sara grinned.

The man pulled the book from her hands again with a tsk.

"Don't get too worked up, it was perhaps one of the easiest spells there are to learn. Most that have studied magic for any length of time can cast this spell without speaking at all."

Sara blew out the candle as she listened to his lecture.

The man that had tested her with the sword scoffed from the other side of the room.

"Well, at least you aren't completely useless." He pushed away from the wall and headed out without another glance.

The robed man watched the other go, then turned back toward Sara.

"Looks like you'll be joining the rudimentary school of magic next week…" His gaze traveled over Sara's form, taking in her appearance.

"Name." He didn't ask so much a demand.

Sara paused, she didn't know her name. She wondered if this was the systems way of allowing her to choose it.

She already knew what she wanted her name to be….When she had thought she was going to be a girl….

Sara balked at the question. She stood for so long trying to think, she found that the NPC wasn't going to hurry her. She sighed in relief. At least she had time to think about it for a little bit and it wasn't like picking the race where her name would be chosen for her because she took so long-

As Sara was breathing in relief, trying to wrack her brain for an answer, in the corner of her eye she found a tiny timer counting down. She still had almost a minute to decide, it seemed.

Crap.

"S-Sara."

The man frowned down at her.

"That's a strange name."

Sara almost cursed out loud at the fact that she actually gave her own name as her character's name. She quickly tried to fix the situation.

"It-It's short for…for…Serendipitous...."

The robed man nodded slowly.

"Alright…then Serendipitous, I'll probably be seeing you at the Mages institute in the future." He nodded a goodbye. "Well met." He turned to leave.

Sara stood in the large room on her own. As she watched the man step through the door way, she groaned.

"Serendipitous…are you kidding me…."

As she was lamenting her bad name, the world around her went black once again.

In the darkness, words were scrolled out.

Character name- Serendipitous

Race- Drow

Class- Beginner Mage

Stats:

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 10

Charisma: 7

-More stats will be unlocked when game play is initiated. All stats are generated based on physical aptitude and performance in Prologue. Character menu will include inventory and skills when applicable. After game is officially released, tutorials will begin.-

Sara looked through her stats with lackluster.

"Well, since it goes off of physical appearance and ability, I guess that's why I have such low strength. I am a girl after all….But, what's with the super low charisma?"

Sara decided she needed to look more into what each stat meant and the reason behind receiving certain stats.