Starting with a Bang

A loud explosion greeted me into the new world with smoke billowing out of a metal pot in front of me. What the heck is going on? "Alice! What did I tell you about brewing in the house?!" I hear a woman's scream coming from outside the room I was in. Trying to hold back coughs, I made my way to a place where the smoke was lighter from sunlight and opened the window; my eyes were stinging because of the smoke. Ok that was unexpected. Suddenly a door opposite to where I was standing in the room was flung open; helping to get rid of the smoke. An angry woman stomped in looking like the world has done her a great wrong. She was only 5'3" but because I was in a child's body, She still looked tall to me. In my opinion she could be a model, a very short angry model. A look of anger was replaced by distress and exasperation when she took in the mess I had made. Bottles lay on their sides, Multi-colored liquids still dripping out into the puddles they had made. A hazy smoke still lingering in the room showing that their mixing was not ideal. Well crap I guess this would be my "new" parent in the game. Judging by her age and her tone I would guess that she is my mother. I tried to look innocent which was not hard since I had no idea what was going on.

"Seriously Alice, you are going to blow yourself up with all that … that stuff." She huffed while pointing at the pot, then some bottles and then a bookshelf filled to the brim with books and notes that I had yet to notice. Looking at the books I quickly read some of the titles with bigger fonts. Titles like "101 Uses for Goblin Ears", "Enchant Your Way into a Boys Heart", "Easy to do Jewelry", "How to Treat Monster Bites" were easily read but some had burn marks obscuring some letters making others harder to make out. There should be some basic information I can pull up but with her standing there looking at me I felt I had to at least defend myself or apologize but I just stood there stupidly staring at her. I finally got out an "I'm sorry" and I must have looked pitiful because my eyes were already red from the smoke and were starting to water. "Arg… Get this and yourself cleaned up before your father gets home," and with that statement she turned and left the room as quickly as she came in.

Once I was left alone. I brought up the interface and selected "family". Under that were Crisp pictures of my close family members followed by descriptions about them. That fierce woman that just left was my mother. I figured as much but it was nice to have confirmation. Her name was Sheila Miller, she did embroidery at home to help pay the bills and was married to a standard guardsman. Steve Miller was my father. He was tall and sturdy with a scar above his right eye. Even with that he was handsome. I guess it would be common sense that when you design your character to be beautiful your family will be as well. The curious thing is neither one had the angel bloodline in their descriptions so I wondered where it came from or if it just was because the game said so.

My description said that I was an only child, I was ok with the normal studies for girls but that I also took on alchemy classes to help protect my father. At birth I showed a talent for magic and will be tested this summer for my attribute and will be sent to the appropriate school in the fall. The delay in testing was apparently due to puberty. Girls and boys had to wait until their bodies matured enough to take in the mana that this world has. There were also pictures of friends, and everyday people I would have met like teachers and blurry pictures of people I was told about but have never seen like an uncle that had moved to another city.

I then moved onto the world information. I was in a world called Istaria. It had 5 known lands (but it also said the world is flat so who knows) that four were connected to each other and looked kind of like a lizard biting its tail with water inside and outside of it. The fifth nation was an island in the middle of them. The display showed the landmasses covered by a fog of war with the exception of the little area that my thirteen year old body had gone to beforehand. Above the blacked out areas were the names Shaila, Udros, Ickrana, Ofrait and the island was Endalasia. Each land had their own style of governance, dungeons and rulers but most of it was not revealed. The information seems to be a reflection of what I would have been taught because I had a lot more information for Ofrait, the country we lived in. Ofrait looked like the upper part of the body minus the head with a clawed arm reaching into the water. Other information was that we had a royal family as rulers, slavery was banned but other races were still looked down upon because of past wars, there were 5 schools of magic inside our city and our economy was mostly based off crop exports.

I will look at the school information when I had more time but since it was getting late in the day based off the display time I needed to get moving. Closing out the display, I moved to the table and looked at the mess that happened before I arrived. As soon as I focused on the contents inside the pot information of what it was supposed to be, what was used, what went wrong and how to correct it popped into my mind. Interesting but it would not help me to clean up this mess. "Stupid realistic game" I mutter as I began cleaning up.

Cleaning up was harder than expected. The "goo" for lack of a better name adhered itself to the pot and I ended up having to chisel it off. I wiped up the soot but it smeared a bit before coming off. I really did lead a privileged life before because I could not remember ever having to clean before. Before the accident my mother did it and after … well I was in no shape to do anything. Finishing up I heard a ding followed by a notice "Cleaning Skill - Basic 1 of 100" appear off to the left corner of my vision. I wonder if I will start to learn more skills as I do them. I know from character creation that there were thousands of them. If you could perform it in the world then you could pick it up. Juggling to surgeon you name it and it was there. I can't even imagine the hours they put into making this game. The interesting part of the skills is that they had levels and the higher ones all had almost magical affects. High level cooking gave food buffs where juggling you could catch projectiles. I did not have enough points to get all of the ones I wanted so the notice was a pleasant surprise.

Half an hour later I trudged my way, following a convenient map that appeared before me, to the bathroom. The bathroom if you could call it that consisted of a washbasin, a flat piece of metal that was shined to act as a mirror, a pitcher of water and a window to allow access to a rain barrel that sat outside. Oh and a bucket; a freaking bucket! I am pretty sure what that was for and was not amused but maybe the game creators didn't add the need to go to the bathroom. I crossed my fingers on that one. That was all that was in this tiny room. I wanted to cry. I began to think about showers, baths and all the other things I was used to and knew I made a huge mistake picking the medieval genre.

As I washed up I looked into the "mirror" and took in my appearance. I was a short skinny girl that just started to develop womanly curves. My blonde hair cascaded down my back. I was cute in a girl next door type of way at the moment but I knew what my adult form would look like so I was not worried. Even if the rest of the women in this world were ugly, I would have something to look at while exploring.

I finished cleaning myself up and went to log out to inform the company about how things were going. I discovered that there was no save feature and more importantly no exit or quit button. I could not remember the exact time I was supposed to be inside the pod. I thought it was to be 4 hours but after making my character and getting everything in order after logging into this world it had been over six hours. I was reluctant to leave. The angry mother, even having to clean up was a pleasure even if I grumbled about it. It had been too long since somebody cared enough about me to get angry. Her gestures were very realistic and it touched my heart. And let's face facts anything was better than being unable to move so I shoved the issue of not being able to logout to the back of my mind and moved to the kitchen area to help make dinner. I will stay in until they do a manual override and take me out.

With that thought I decided to find my new mom and left the bathroom. Once I stepped out I heard a bell like sound followed by an image in the top left of my vision.

mini-quest

Help your mother cook dinner

Rewards : 1 XP

Failure : Weakened state due to hunger for 12 hours

Accept / Decline

I thought accept and followed a tiny mini map to the kitchen and found my mother there starting dinner. "Hi mom, can I help with dinner?"

"Ok since this is your second time cooking I will watch and try to correct you as you cook.��� She smiled happily.

It was an interesting experience. Images of hand motions appeared for adding herbs which I guessed was an effect of either my herbalism or alchemy skills. I burnt the first batch of meat since I was expecting more images showing me when to turn it and when it was done. That did not happen and the next thing I know a burnt smell accompanied a charred on the outside and raw on the inside piece of meat. My mom kept commenting things like "Why are you not stirring it?" "No, you have to wait for it to start to turn a golden color then flip it." "It's burning! Remember golden not black." We were not a rich family so meat was a luxury so I scraped the burnt sections as best I could and began again under my mother's watch. Chagrined I was more careful this time around and only burnt the tips of the meat. Cooking with real fire was new to me and keeping a consistent heat was a skill that I did not have. I just turned a nob to get the perfect temperature before.

As tiring as all this was, I was having a good time just being able to move about freely. My smile has not left my face since I began this game with the exception of the bathroom. The bucket is going to be an issue I know it. It is like a death flag just waiting to happen and my mind kept thinking about it. Shaking my head to clean that unpleasant thought, I began to put the food onto plates and carry them to the table for dinner where my dad now sat. I had heard him come home about ten minutes before and my mom left me to fend for myself (something I am sure she'll regret) and went to greet him. She had come back shortly after to see me scrambling to not let the water that the vegetables were in from boiling over while also trying to keep an eye on the meat that looked like it wanted to go up in flames. She chuckled and helped me out by taking over the vegetables but still it was stressful. It felt so real. I can even feel my stomach grumbling for food. With a bell sound a notice appeared when I removed the food from the open fire.

Mini-Quest Complete: Cook Dinner

Rewards:

Cooking Beginner (1 / 500)

1 XP

Is cooking is harder than cleaning? I thought so but is that why there is a level number difference? Closing the window that the Mini-quest opened upon completion, I (with my mom helping) moved the food onto the table and while I am not knowledgeable on local foods and how they are to actually look like when cooked I do not think it is supposed to look this way. The vegetables were mushy while the meat was charred in places. I almost feel bad for my parents if they were not computer programs because they might not make it. I wonder if taste was installed into the game. Looking at the dishes, I was unsure that I was in favor of it.

My dad looked at the food and then my mom and finally me. His lips twitched and he said, "Wow this looks delicious" with a voice that said that it was anything but. We sat down to eat. Before we started my father lead us in a prayer to a Goddess named Teresita. She was a Goddess of farming, land, and animals. I mentally added looking up information on gods and goddesses since they might actually be real. I came back from my thoughts when I heard the "amen" at the end of it and added mine to it. I waited for them to start and saw my dad take a bite. He grimaced a little and quickly took a drink. I crossed my fingers, began to wonder where the respawn point was and took a bite. I quickly found out that taste did exist. My father was apparently a brave man because I saw him take another bite. I steeled my resolve and began to eat. It was hardly edible but I lived to fight another day.

I offered to help clean up after dinner. My mom thought I was being super nice but I really just wanted to be around them. I missed my family and while I am not proud to admit it having fake parents really helped me to cope with it. I think that was why I was so quick to address them as mom and dad. It just felt so real. Speaking of real, I also found out that having to go to the bathroom was also included. I again cursed my decision for the Middle Age time period but did the deed. I am going on record right now and saying being a girl sucks. Being a girl in a dress and trying to go to the bathroom sucks even more. I really have no idea how they manage it. By the time I was done the dress was so far over my head that I could it not see anything and I was so uncomfortable. With that done I went to bed.