New Friend?

The priestess descended, landing on the floor gently. "Soryn, do you know about my sisters?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "The other priestesses?"

She nodded. Her robes fluttered as if there was a gust of wind but the air was still.

I shook my head. "I have never heard of you all, nor of this place."

The priestess sighed before starting to slowly pace around the room. "There are five of us; Serenity, the oldest, Joy, Anger, Confusion, and Sadness. As you already know, I am Sadness. Thousands of travelers are being welcomed by each of my sisters. However, I have received the fewest."

"Before we meet the travelers, they are categorized according to their strongest emotions. I'm sure you can put together the rest. Serenity is welcoming people who are at peace with themselves and the world around them. Joy is taking those who are always optimistic, finding the best in their circumstances."

"Anger is with those who are quick to blow a fuse, exploding at the most insignificant things. Confusion… well… let's just say that she is great with idiots."

"This leaves me, Sadness. While my sisters have welcomed thousands upon thousands of travelers, I have only met a few hundred. I can't help but be curious, why are you sad?"

I paused for a moment, having put the pieces together. Why would I be sent to the force priestess of sadness? I knew exactly why. "I think I know why. All of this… it reminds me of my mom. My dad and I struggled for a long time after she died. I don't think either of us have fully recovered."

More tears started falling from her face. "The grief in you is so strong. I can feel the suffering you felt back then. It's horrible. Thank you for opening up to me."

[+80 reputation with the Force Priestess of Sadness]

[Your reputation level with the Force Priestess of Sadness has reached Friendly]

I tried to force a smile. I couldn't lie. Every second I spent in this game reminded me of my mom. The three of us spent a lot of time watching Star Wars.

While the tears were ethereal, she still wiped them from her face. "I pray that this grief doesn't return. The force feeds off of emotion. You could very easily fall to the dark side should becoming one with the force be the path you find yourself on."

She floated back into the air, her expression turning quite serious. "Unfortunately, that is all the time we have. I don't want to keep you while the other travelers explore the galaxy."

I nodded, also wanting to get out and start playing. I had clothes now so nothing could stop me. "Will I ever be able to return here?"

The priestess sighed, looking off towards the ceiling. "If the force wills it, you may. The Wellspring of Life is hidden far inside the Deep Core. It is difficult to navigate and quite dangerous. Nonetheless, maybe we shall meet again."

She looked back down at me. "It is time for your journey to begin. I wish you luck, and may the force be with you."

She waved her hand. An ethereal glow surrounded her and spread to me. When it reached me, my vision went dark and I couldn't feel anything again. I was getting tired of this feeling.

It didn't take long, but my feeling came back. Pressing against my body was a soft cushion. I opened my eyes, the lights around me almost blinding so I immediately squinted.

Once they adjusted, I opened them fully and found myself on what appeared to be an airplane. There were rows of seats extending throughout the cabin and most of them were filled. I then noticed something in front of me.

There was a child standing on the seat in front of me. They were looking at me curiously so I presumed I must have appeared to be sleeping.

*Ding*

A raspy voice came from the walls. "This is your pilot speaking. Please take your seats as we will be exiting hyperspace soon and will be arriving at Coruscant in about 8 minutes."

Upon hearing hyperspace, my head snapped towards the window next to me. The sight left me floored. It was even more magical than the movies showed.

From my point of view, it looked as if we were in a tunnel of lights. They swirled around us and ranged from white to dark blue. "I doubt I'll ever get tired of this."

About a minute later, the swirling slowed until it came to a halt. The lights turned into streaks and then into dots as we slowed to a speed at which my eyes could see. Once again, I was amazed.

Before the starship was a massive planet. Half of it was covered in the light of day, while the other was shrouded in the darkness of night. On the dark half, lines and concentric circles of light covered the entire surface.

I shook my head in disbelief. I know that the entire planet of Coruscant was said to be one giant city. However, it still didn't click with me just how large of a thing an entire planet sized city was. Honestly, it still didn't click.

Stuck in my stupor, I barely realized that we had approached the surface. I readied myself to get up, expecting the ship to land. However, my expectations were not met.

We didn't stop. We kept descending. At the moment I thought we would crash, I watched the surface fly by as we descended into the planet.

Now I was even more blown away. I had completely forgotten that there are hundreds of layers of the city. It extended down through the planet's crust.

It was just a minute before we finally slowed to a halt. The intercom sounded again. "Welcome to Coruscant. Thank you for traveling with us."

[New location discovered: Coruscant. +100 XP]

A cacophony of shuffling noises sounded out as everyone on the ship stood up and grabbed their bags. I looked around and noticed that there were a few dozen other people that looked out of place. They didn't have bags and they had very plain looking clothing.

My eyes lit up. These were other players! I carefully approached one that was near me. When I got behind him, I tapped on his shoulder.

He turned around, looking quite startled. "Are you…"

I tilted my head, waiting for him to finish his sentence. But he never did.

He shook his head, looking concerned now. "I can't say it."

Now I was just plain confused. "Say what?"

After thinking about it for a few seconds, I realized what he was trying to say. I also remembered what the priestess had referred to us as. "Yes, I am also a traveler." I gestured towards the exit of the ship. "Shall we?"

He nodded, turning back towards the door. I followed behind him, quickly reaching the exit of the ship.

Once I exited the ship, I found myself on a port that was directly connected to a filthy street. The smell was definitely unpleasant and garbage was everywhere. I watched as the people that disembarked the ship scattered, never to be seen again.

I turned back to my acquaintance. "So what now?"

He shrugged, looking frustrated. "This game is bullshit."

I was unsure why he would say that. We had barely played thus far. "Why?"

He shook his head in anger. "Well first, I had to choose this stupid fucking name. Who the fuck names their… FUCK I CAN'T EVEN SAY THAT!"

I chuckled. "Come on, maybe there's more to this place than it seems. What other things are you having issues with?"

He clenched his fist, hitting his thigh a few times. "No classes, no tutorial, no inventory, no interface, no stats, no skills… what the fuck DOES this game have?"

Him saying this flipped a switch in my mind. I was too engrossed in the scenery to even have the brain power for any gaming related things. It had also been a few years since I played any games.

Quickly looking around, I noticed a complete lack of any heads up display. "Status."

A small box of text showed up in the center of my vision. It only displayed two things; my name and that I was level 1+10%. I presumed that the 10% was my progress towards the next level.

I turned back to him, the box fading away as soon as my focus changed. "Well, we have levels. Maybe we get stats?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I asked the priestess. Apparently levels just act as content gates. We do everything ourselves."

I nodded, understanding what he was saying. If we wanted to get stronger? Lift some weights. If we wanted to carry some things around? Get a backpack. Want to kill something? Well, you better learn how to use a weapon.

The weirdest part, however, was the lack of classes. I had completely forgotten to ask about that when speaking with the priestess. She was so real that I forgot I was in a game. I'd have to be careful of that in the future. Could we just use any weapon we want? Can anyone become a Jedi or Sith?

I scratched my chin, deep in thought. "What about quests?"

He nodded, appearing to have finally found something positive. "Well, I guess that's the only thing that is normal."

I smiled. "Well, my name is Soryn, what's yours?"

He sighed. "I'm Galen."

I reached out my hand. "Nice to meet you Galen. Wanna go find a quest?"

He nodded, returning the handshake. With that we were off.

As we walked, I finally got a good look at the man. He was a Rodian. His large beady eyes appeared to hold a galaxy within. His teal skin had splotches of cyan spread throughout. He also had two ears in addition to another two ear like appendages on his bald head. His mouth also came to a point where a human's chin would be.

While on our hunt, we got to talking about some random things. The topics covered what we wanted to do most in the game, places we wanted to see, people we wanted to meet, the list went on.

Fortunately, it didn't appear that we would be kept waiting too long. A frustrated looking Ithorian was on the side of the street, standing next to several stacks of boxes. They were holding a data pad and were grumbling about something.

Both Galen and I became hopeful as I turned towards him. "I'll handle the talking." I had already explained to him how I managed to reach a reputation level of friendly with the force priestess.

The Ithorians were quite an odd looking species.They had humanoid bodies but that's where it ended. Their necks come out perpendicular to their torso and then bent 90 degrees to reach the top of their head. Their heads were shaped ovular with the long side being horizontal to the ground. They had two eyes, one on each side of their head. Even weirder was their mouths which were long slits on the bottom of their necks. This particular Ithorian had what looked like a mask over his mouths.

Trying not to stare, I approached them slowly. "Hello, I noticed that you seem to be having some trouble here. Might you need help with anything? My friend here and I would be happy to assist you."

The Ithorian looked up from his data pad before looking back down. "Get lost. If you are trying to rob someone, the food in these crates isn't worth much."

His voice came from the mask I had noticed before. It must have been a vocalizer.

I shook my head adamantly. "You misunderstand. We are just looking for work. We just arrived on Coruscant and have nothing to our name."

The Ithorian then looked back up again, taking a closer look at me. "Well, I guess I can understand that. It wasn't too long ago that I, myself, arrived on Coruscant. Just five years ago, maybe. Well, I guess I could use the help. My last employees quit to enlist and fight in the war. Apparently it pays well. Regardless, how long are you around for?"

I smiled, gesturing towards Galen. "We want to explore so we won't be around for too long, Mr…"

He nodded. "You can call me Corsoll. There isn't much to explore down here but suit yourselves. Just help me get these boxes inside and clean the place up a bit. I need to go have a talk with my distributor. Half the damn shipment is missing."

[Quest received]

[Helping Out Corsoll]

[Common]

[Corsoll has hired you and your friend, Galen, to help him with some menial tasks for his restaurant. He has asked you to carry some boxes of food and drinks inside to the store room. He has also asked you to clean the restaurant.]

[+200 exp, +200 credits, +100 reputation with Corsoll, +5 reputation with Old Republic]

Before he left, I wanted to ask him one thing. "What war is being fought?"

Corsoll scoffed. "That damn Sith Empire is trying to destroy the Republic. I'd tell you more but I have to get there before that bastard closes for the day. I'll be back in an hour."