Golden Wang

Artemis was different than other RPG's that had class systems, in Artemis the players choose of gene and alter placement could change a tank into a paladin simply by moving the alter from their hip to there abdomen. This gave players the sense that their decisions and character were unique to them and the choices they make.

In general, there were animal, vegetable, and mineral creatures to hunt and placing a gene alter on your arms or legs will allow that part of you to change into the creature you made it from. While placing the alter on your chest or back will let you manifest creature as a weapon or tool that you can use to fight. Some players would later discover that placing a alter on the head waist or spine would give you a unique skill that combined multiple classes.

Tang had chosen the base of the skill as the place for his first gene alter because it combined the mage class, thief, and warrior class to create a summoner. The summoner class forced players to focus on speed to stay alive while there summoned creature would fight in front of them as there main damage source. However, they need just as much energy as a mage or healer class to keep there summoned creature around, if they ran out the creature would just leave.

While Tang didn't know what kind of summoned creature he would get he had decided to play as a summoner from the beginning because he was not sure how good he would in the game but was very confident in his ability to manage others.

"Haha, things are looking great. All I have to do now is meet up with Wang as I'm sure he has a plan on where to go. Then I just have to stay behind and use my alter to back him up."

He turned off the Gene Suit and left, following the direction the three players had gone, soon he found himself at a large market right in the middle of the city connected to the Terminal.

The streets were full of other players running around exploring and meeting up with friends, some of the more ambitious players were already buying and selling different kinds of items with the shops and each other.

"Yo, Tang is that you?"

Tang spun around to see a tall buff looking man waiving to him as he walked closer, above his head, the player ID read "Golden Wang".

Tang didn't know if he should laugh or cry.

"Bro Wang is that you?"

"Yep, I look great right?"

"Well you sure are.... big."

"HAHA, that's because I'm going for a tank class and I have to look the part. I see you just stuck you your usual style and picked pre-sets that look nice."

Tang had played games with Wang in college and while Wang always spent time on his looks and trying to reach the top Tang was better at managing there funds and materials so he never cared what he looked like.

"Well, it is my style after all. Besides that did you manage to get the thing I mentioned? What alter did you end up with?"

After Tang brought up the gene alter Wang became very serious, he looked around for a few seconds and then pointed to an ally nearby.

"Let's talk over there."

They walked into the ally and when Wang was sure no one was around he spun around and stared at Tang intensely.

"Bro, what's up? I've never seen you be so careful."

"How can I not be careful after getting that gene. After I found it I followed the rest of the intro and used it as my gene alter and it made me way overpowered."

"So you did find it."

"Yes I found it, we have to keep this a secret between us. After I turned the gene into a alter I had no idea where to bind it because it was a mystery gene, so I just put it on my forehead."

Tang thought about what kind of combination came from the forehead and remembered that it combined warrior and warlock class into a monk class. Monks were close combat melee fighters that could use different spirits to boost their strength, depending on what spirit they had there combat style would change.

The thought of a monk with the mystery gene alter to start made Tang very curious.

"So what kind of alter did you get?"

"Take a look."

Wang Fen sent Tang an image of his profile.

"Name: Golden Wang"

"Level: 1 Exp: 0/ 10"

"Stamina: 15 | Strength: 13| Agility: 8"

"Intelligence: 8 | Wisdom: 5 | Dexterity: 10"

"Gene Alter:"

"Star Bear Form: Empowered by the star bear spirit covers you in crystal starlight that reflects damage and provides energy resistance."

Looking over the stats Tang was slightly surprised at how different Wang Fen was compared to his own. Some areas were much better but others were weaker, after thinking about it for a moment he decided it had to be because the genes are random and everyone who found the mystery gene would be different.

"Wow bro, that's some crazy strong skill there. Take a look at my profile so we can talk about our next step."

Tang sent over an image of his profile to Wang and as soon as he saw it he completely forgot about what they were talking about before.

"I thought I was OP, look at your stats. Well, it looks like I can still beat you in close combat but your skill makes it seem like I might not get that chance."

"That's because I'm going for the summoner class and I can cover both ranged and close combat depending on my summon creature."

"Oh, so you already had a plan? That's good, and with me in the front, we should be able to handle everything on our own for now, good job."

"Thanks, but if it's just going to be us I think you should go for the monk class, not a tank."

"Don't we need someone to soak damage in the front of we want to grind efficiently?"

"Right but monks can do that too, it might not be as strong as a tank upfront but after a few levels you'll be able to shift to different spirits and be more flexible than a normal tank."

Artemis did have gear, but in the early game the world had yet to develop to the point where it was useful and it was up to the player to develop the field themselves. So Tanks and other gear dependent classes would fall behind quickly if you played with the same logic of other games, because of that Tang was really happy to have Wang as a monk who could copy all the other classes as long as he had the corresponding spirit.

After Tang explained what a monk could do and how lucky Wang was to have picked the correct spot for his alter they discussed how they were going to level and start there business.

The plan was that they would head straight to the beginner hunting grounds and grind as much as they could. Wang would tank to start and Tang would harass the enemy when he could, after Wang was wounded and he needed time to recover Tang would use his skill and have the dragon tank to buy time.

They both ran through the market as fast as they could ignoring the messages from other players trying to sell them something or get them to join their party, they knew that time was important right now and they couldn't do anything unnecessary.

When they got to the other side of the market they saw three NPC's standing at a steel door in different colored uniforms, one was red the other green and the last was blue. These were representatives of the three factions you could interact with.

Red was for the military, green for the economic and blue for the scientific factions, depending on what quest you did for them you could make money and fame but their main purpose was to allow players to affect the world.

The military expanded the human territory and allowed players to control different parts of the map, while the economic and scientific factions gave you the ability to find uses for the materials you would find in the world. The economic faction would help you build gear, forts, and improve your business buildings if you had the right materials and a good reputation. While the Scientific faction allowed you to study and learn about the world you were in so you could use that information to improve your skills and better hunt for both creatures and materials.

"Do you think we should do a quest or just grind creatures?"

"Why not both? If Artemis is like other RPG's their quest should ask us to hunt creatures or find materials because we are beginners. Don't worry Tang just follow my lead and we will be fine."

They talked with each representative and Wang was right, the quest just asked them to hunt X amount of creatures or bring back Y amount of materials.

They both ran into the outside world and followed their mini-map to where they would hunt, the first thing on the list was to kill 4 sand wolfs and bring back their pelts.