The Heroic Races

Bzzzzttttt!!!

A sudden electric pulse erupts from the helmet and assaults my brain and almost immediately my eyes start to blur and I fall into a strange kind of sleep.

…

"Woah…" I cried in amazement when I saw the immense world of white spread all around me in the virtual world after I woke up from the short blackout. I stood atop a floating platform which looked like a replica of ancient Greek architecture with a giant golden statue of an elegant lady in ceremonial garb with an olive crown on her head. Her face was unusually blank for a goddess of her magnitude but she wasn't alone. Along with her, there were another 16 statues present there, each one of them completely made with gold and a type of shiny silvery metal, the fantasy mineral Mithril perhaps.

There were also 16 portals present in the floating platform, each one behind each of the 16 gilded statues.

"Welcome, Divine Son to the Heaven's Podium." An old voice said from behind me, interrupting my thoughts. I turn around to see an old man in a long white gown emerge from behind the goddess statue in the middle. The old man was incredibly old with a hunchback and a long white-beard, long enough that he needs to fold it around his arm, though I gotta say, from afar, his beard looks… shiny and soft. I wonder what it feels like.

"D-divine son? Are you joking or what?" I ask, partially confident that the old man has mistook my identity but I forgot that even though the old man looks 'old' but instead it's an advanced AI.

"Ho-ho, young man, I'm not joking nor am I fooled." The man gave a small laugh. "Every Premium Gold Account holder has an identity of Divine Son and is personally favored by the Heavens itself. The get special privileges compared to normal players or those who are known as 'reincarnates' in the New World."

"Divine son, that's a fancy name there. Does every Gold member get this treatment?" I ask curiously because the term 'Divine Son' must carry some sort of weight, right.

The old man nods his head and replies, "Yes, every Gold member has the title of 'Divine Son' and are rewarded with some form of special attribute or hidden ability but the number of heroic races available to them is completely based on the tier of their gaming pod model and its customization. The more neural customization a pod has, the more the number of heroic races the user can choose from. For gold members, they can select from 12 to 36 hero race characters."

"In your case, Divine Son, you have a total of 16 choices of hero races available to you." He said as he pointed towards the 16 gilded statues surrounding the floating platform.

I give another look at the statues before pointing at the goddess statue in the middle. "What about that one?"

"I'm afraid you won't be able to meet the prerequisites to obtain that race, Divine Son."

"Why's that?" I ask inquisitively. The old man looked a bit flustered before answering, "Umm… Divine Son, perhaps you don't know … but the race of Almighty Divine Goddess of Creation is a race only for… women."

Oh! That makes sense—wait!!

"Wait, you mean, I CAN'T change my gender?!" I ask astonished but the old man was more astonished than I was, "U-ummm… gender is… after all a term which changes with respect to culture but—"

"Tell me straightforward, can I change my gender or not?!" I ask seriously but the old man just meekly shakes his head. "Y-you can, you know, decrease the size of your … umm… wee-wee a-and give yourself feminine features, basically becoming a female—"

"Ah! Leave it!" I snap at him angrily. I mean, seriously! You are saying that I can't turn into a woman in a virtual world! Where is justice! Where are those feminists when I need them? This is blatant injustice. Are you tell me that I can't fondle my 'after-transformation' breasts in a virtual world? Well, I CAN become a trap girl, like the old man said and trap young and sex-crazy teenagers but I'm not too confident in my trapping abilities. Hey! Don't think I'm useless! I and Eric have swindled many sex-crazed teenagers and middle-aged dudes by being traps in virtual worlds during my sophomore years and if given chance, I would do it again. The only problem would be the thousands of nude pics that would spam my mail later.

Sighing dejectedly, I turn towards the 16 other statues and ask dejectedly, "I can freely choose from these 16 right?"

"Absolutely, Divine Son." The old man nods his head, clearly feeling my dejection and therefore says with enthusiasm, "Let me introduce you to the 16 hero races." He walked with brisk steps towards the gilded statues.

I sigh internally and steel myself. The old man doesn't walk towards the biggest or the mightiest statue instead, he walks towards a more small but elegant statue of lady with a crescent moon background. I was a little surprised but when I looked intently at the statue, the gender of the statue suddenly morphed into a more masculine form which was clearly signified by the dashing jawline and the big Adams' apple.

"This statue here represents the grandness and prowess of the Immortal Elven Archmage, Alinar of the Moon Elves, representing the hidden race of the Moon Elves. Reincarnates of Moon Elves enjoy the protection and blessings of the Moon Goddess and have their magic strength, magical deterrence and Mana gathering enhanced by nearly 100% during half-moon and nearly 200% during full-moon. Even during day time, their Mana gathering and Mana strength is higher than normal mages and they have the ability of creating spell runes without chanting. You might not know the significance of chantless spells but once you enter the New World, you will surely do, even if you aren't a Mage. They are immensely powerful in correct hands and even though they aren't the most powerful of the elven bloodline, they are respected everywhere in the Elven Republic."

As he was giving me the tour, I checked the base stats of the moon elf race and was pleasantly surprised.

Race name: Moon Elf

Base Stats:

Strength: 11

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 13

Vitality: 15

Charm (Charisma): 17

Intelligence: 14

Luck: 14

Special attributes: Enhanced magical strength, magical deterrence and Mana gathering during nights with the moon is visible.

Hidden attributes: Moon Goddess' Fortune—During full-moon, the luck stat of the character would be enhanced making for great exploits at relatively low effort.

(By the way, I came to know from the guidebook of The New World that the base stats of a normal human reincarnate is only 5 for all stats with slight variations with respect to different races but the highest base stat for a normal human can only be 10. In that perspective, all of these race characteristics is indeed divine-like. I mean, a human with a 15 base strength stat would be thrice as strong as a normal human right from the start of the game and this gap would only increase later on.)

He gave perfect guide, even I was impressed by his knowledge and couldn't help but nod in affirmation. Even the stats page was like hailing the existence of this OP character race but—

"I like it. Rejected! Move on."

"Yes, sire. Absolutely. Lemme just confirm your choice—wait what? Rejected?" he asked with absolute horror on his face.

I nod my head and reply, "Yea, rejected. I don't like it's long ears. It would impede me from wearing a steel helmet, so no." I reply. The old man stood petrified for a few moments before moving onto the next statue, "Let me introduce you to the Race of Solar-Forge Sun Elves—"

"Rejected!"

"Why?"

"I hate summers and these guys seems like they sleep with their forges! I don't want that." It was a lie, though. I don't hate summers.

"Fine, then let me introduce you to Mountain-born Snow El—"

"Rejected! Too cold man! People would be getting chills from miles away if I take this race!!!" this elven race is too sexy.

"Let me introduce you to Shadow-born Dark Elves—"

"Rejected. Too scary!" the red eyes of the Dark Elves are scary but FUCKING AWESOME, though!!!

"Poison Elves!"

"Rejected! Too toxic for the servers!" toxic, duh! LOL XD!

"Star elves!"

"I hate astronomy!"

"High Elves!"

"Too arrogant."

"Wood Elves!"

"I love plants but they don't give me asmr vibes."

"…"

Half of the 16 gilded statues were sub-branches of elven race and I rejected all of them. I believe the old man has some sort of bias towards them after all, all the 8 of them were elven races.

Look, I don't have an enmity with elves or anything. Heck! I too, like you, like elven waifus but that's about all. I always draw a line between me and my characters and for elves, that's the line. My line, you can like all the elven waifus you like but you cannot become/touch one. I wonder where I got that ideal from? (1)

Sighing ruefully, the old man finally moves from all the elven branches and to a non-elven statue. It was a mighty statue of a King in all his glory. The statue wore a grand and fabulous armor with dragon pauldrons and a long blood red drape. A sharp golden sword stood on the ground on whose handle the King rested his arms and a large round golden shield was strapped to his left hand. A big jeweled crown was resting on his head. His face was masked for some reason, something which all statues from now on had.

"This is the Almighty Divine Emperor, Silas Cornelius Ravenwood, the first of the Human Emperors and the progenitor of the human race. Prideful, elegant and mighty, he is the epitome of magnanimity, wisdom and skill. If you choose him, you will be reincarnated as one of his descendants and the Path of Kings shall be opened to you."

"Does that mean I will be able to lead armies and conquer territories as a noble?" I asked with gleaming interest. It had always been a dream of me to become an Emperor, like every other kid in town, but the Path of Kings and Emperors have always been reserved for the wealthy. With excitement, I looked at the base stats of the Lord profession and was… shocked to say the least.

Race name: Human (Emperor's Bloodline)

Special occupation: Royalty (Lord)

Base stat

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 7

Agility: 5

Charm (Charisma): 15

Intelligence: 11

Vitality: 5

Luck: 10(Heaven's Mandate)

Special attribute: Commander—Commanding your own armies will give them a 15% morale boost and 5% attack strength while commanding other lord's armies will give them only 5% morale boost. The user would receive 0.1% of experience for every creature his/her soldier kill. NOTE: there is a reverse scaling to this feature by which the more the number of soldiers one commands, the lesser the experience gathering will be. The user can gather experience from normal ways too but there would be a penalty of 50%.

Hidden attribute: Royalty—Common men and women would respect and adhere to each and every word of yours. NOTE: this hidden attribute will garner the user the ire of anti-royals and rebels and bandits will continuously harass you no matter where the user goes.

I gawked at the stats for a whole minute before I could shake my eyes off it. The base stats of this race, or more like profession, is no greater than a normal human and well, I can guess how that makes sense but what's with the hidden attribute! Continuously harassed by bandits?! Garner the ire of anti-royals and rebels? The Devs have nerfed this profession to the point where it looks more like a slave's profession than a Royal's. What the fuck!

I was a little disappointed but didn't quite dwell on it. There were other races too.

"Okay, lets look at the other ones too." I say and the old man give me a small nod.

The next one he takes me is a large-assed Dwarven King with a large head. The statue was short, stocky and fat but it stood with pride and arrogance among all the other statues, its large war-hammer resting on its shoulder with its mighty glory.

"This is Dwarven Lord Orzinod Lavaborn, the best Dwarven smith of all time and the current ruler of the Dwarven Empire beneath the Dwarven Mountains. This race would unlock both the Path of Forging and the Path of Emperor but it mainly focusses on the Path of Forging since you will be reincarnated as one of the hundreds of children of Emperor Orzinod."

The old man doesn't give any more information and since I wasn't too interested in it, I moved on.

The next ones were more interesting than the previous ones, though some old lunatic might argue with me about that, but the next ones were far more interesting.

…

(1) it' s from the cat meme 'I will sit in your lap but you can't touch me.'