Beginner's area (I)

When she opened her eyes, she suddenly sat up, as if awakened from a nightmare.

"Am I not dead? How weird, it's dark, but I can see?"

The walls were made of stone, and there was a tunnel that she didn't know where it led. It was dark, but it didn't prevent her from seeing her surroundings. Besides, the place was strangely familiar.

It wasn't until she looked at herself that she become speechless. She wore a simple robe, and neither her hands nor her skin were hers, and yet they were. She didn't feel strange with them, but, the most surprising thing was that she recognized them.

In the past, in the game, the teenager had spent hours creating her character, taking care of every little detail to make it to her liking. Specifically, she had spent a little over an hour with those hands, with the thickness and length of each finger, each nail.

"It can't be… But it is…" she murmured to herself, stunned. "Could it be that…? In the game…? These are the initiation clothes…"

She couldn't quite believe what her eyes were showing her. It was impossible. The only explanation she could think of was that it was a dream, an extremely lucid dream. She pinched herself.

"Ow!" she complained, "So… If it's not a dream… Should I…"

She wondered how she could access the game screen, but it just popped up. It showed her stats, her skills and spells, mostly in gray, her mana bar, blood bar, life bar. It didn't take her long to see that she was level 1. Then, she saw her name. Argjaki, Gjaki for friends. Her name came from argento, which means silver and was the color of her hair, and gjak, which means blood.

"Ha, ha, ha. This is incredible," she laughed excitedly, ecstatically. If she had desired anything, it was to be there.

She wasted no time and began carefully reviewing all the information. She had been an extremely meticulous player, and knew her character perfectly. Gjaki couldn't help but smile when she found all her skills, and even more so when she verified that her inventory was available. Everything that she had possessed in the game was there.

"Maybe I can't use the ones that are in gray? I better go out before trying them," she thought.

Although, before doing so, she changed the look of her tunic to a leather suit that fitted her entire body. It worked just like in the game. She then took out a mirror from the inventory, a full-length one. She had bought it as the mirror was needed for the tailoring crafting, the only craft that she had cared to learn.

"So, it's not true that vampires can't reflect in a mirror. Damn developers. Hmm. The truth is that I'm very hot, quite a beauty."

Her long silver hair fell past her shoulders. Her turquoise-red eyes glowed in the dark. Her pale red lips concealed prominent fangs that were the most obvious proof of her race. Her rather pale skin and her slightly pointed ears were other clues.

She was a vampire, one of the most difficult classes to play, but also one of the most powerful. Many players had abandoned it shortly after creating a vampire character, as it was really frustrating, especially in the early stages. It was said to be a joke from the game's creators, to laugh at the players. Besides, it was a race that hadn't been introduced until the first expansion.

However, Gjaki had stubbornly managed to overcome the drawbacks and bring her character to level 100. She had been so attracted to the idea of being a vampire, that she had left her other level 100 character to start over, and had rarely used it again.

For some reason, she had felt tremendously at ease with being a vampire, as if it were an extension of herself. She was able to use all of her abilities very naturally and fluidly, which had made her one of the best individual players in the game.

In fact, for someone like her to often play in a group of three, with two much more inexperienced players, at least initially, would have been considered a waste by many. Besides, their abilities didn't seem to blend in well.

However, she hadn't cared, she was just having a great time with her friends. In the end, they had ended up managing to complete missions that would have seemed impossible for just the three of them.

"Will they be here too? What about Diknsa?" she asked herself with a racing heart.

Nonetheless, it was too early for that. She first needed to find out more about that world, if it was really the one in the game. She fervently hoped that it was.

Gjaki walked through the tunnel with ease, for she could see in the dark. It wasn't long before she discovered a faint glow, indicating that the exit was near. When she got there, she discovered a dark and starry sky, with a half moon shining on it, as there was no sun in that place.

Suddenly, a rumble was heard behind her, thus causing her to turn. She found that the tunnel she had exited from was now sealed.

"How dramatic…" she said to herself.

Gjaki then looked ahead, to the sky, and beyond, to discover that, as expected, she was in the vampire beginner's area of The Heroes of Jorgaldur.

Everything seemed the same as in the game, just as she remembered it. The pristine columns stood as if they were guardians of the central platform. The grass cut almost at ground level seemed to welcome her like a green carpet. Training dummies were distributed throughout the area, as if waiting to serve their function. The only thing missing was the people, both players and NPCs. Luckily, she didn't need the trainers, as she had already her old profession: blood warrior.

Without hesitation, and with much more enthusiasm than fear, she stepped onto the platform, ready to test her skills.

"Maybe I should check if they're there first. I already took them once, but, who knows?"

So she went around, and located without major problems the places where those weapons should be hidden. She could enthusiastically verify that they were there for her to seize them.

Addicted to forums, guides, websites and any information in the game, she had discovered before creating her second character that there were hidden weapons in the beginner's area. It was a little help for anyone who could find them.

Therefore, she had gotten them for the vampire in the game, and now she got them again. She had stored them when they were no longer needed, as she kept everything, like Goldmi, and unlike Eldi. So, he could only shrug while his two companions had bought all the inventory extensions to keep all their old acquisitions. Because of that, she now had a pair of each of the initiation weapons, which could adapt up to level 10.

She turned and headed for the training dummies.