Character Creation

It's been roughly a week since Kirou left the hospital and resumed working at the Sanming Gaming Studio as Wang Xu. During this time, no one was able to notice any differences between both individuals. Granted, this was mainly because Wang Xu himself never really socialized that much with the others.

Currently, Kirou was making his final round of checking for the day. It's his fifth one for the day with his partner, Shang Yin. Shang Yin was another recruit to the security detail stationed at Sanming, but unlike Wang Xu, he was quite a social person. Even the antisocial Wang Xu found himself caught up in Shang Yin's pace whenever the two were working together.

As they were returning to the guard station, Shang Yin decided to strike up a conversation with Kirou, "Hey Brother Wang, have you tried the new game that our company is currently active in yet?"

"Not yet. I've read up on it for a bit after leaving the hospital last week but I haven't had the time to get the gaming equipment yet," replied Kirou with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Hearing his words, a smile mysteriously started forming on Shang Yin's face. This smile did not escape Kirou's eyes but he just kept quiet and waited to see where Shang Yin was going with this.

As soon as they both got back to the guard station, Shang Yin brought Kirou towards the changing room entrance. He then entered the changing room alone and returned with a box no longer than a minute later. Shang Yin then gave the box to Kirou while the smile was still on his face.

"Since that is the case, this is for you Brother Wang."

Kirou received the box then opened it in front of Shang Yin. Inside the box were a game helmet and an instruction manual on how to operate it. Noticing that it was the game helmet for 'Immortal Era', Kirou couldn't help looking back at Shang Yin and asking, "Considering how popular this game is and how hard it is to get the gaming equipment for it now, why are you giving it away Brother Shang?"

"To make a long story short, I had originally ordered two, one for me and one for a friend. But my friend forgot and ordered one for himself and forgot to tell me about it so I wound up having two. Most of the guys here either already have one or isn't interested and that's when I remembered Brother Wang," Shang Yin said with a wry smile on his face.

"That's right. I was in the hospital at the time when the game was officially released so even if I had pre-ordered one at the time, I wouldn't have been able to receive it and it was probably sold last minute to some lucky person," Kirou said with a nod.

"Exactly Brother Wang. With that being the case, why not take this one off my hands and enjoy the game like everyone else? I can even help you out with leveling up when you join," said Shang Yin while rubbing his nose.

Kirou looked at the gaming helmet for a few more seconds before replying to Shang Yin, "Alright Brother Shang, I'll accept this gaming helmet but you have to let me pay you back for it."

"No can do Brother Wang. This is my gift to you. I won't take any payments for it"

"But..."

"No buts. Or is it that you do not see me as a brother?" asked Shang Yin while making a face as if he was wronged. Though it did not affect Kirou, he could see that Shang Yin truly wanted to gift him the helmet and he could only relent in the end.

"Fine, I'll take the helmet and enjoy the game..." started Kirou and Shang Yin nodded in response, "...but you must allow me to buy you a drink in response. And you can't refuse this."

"That's a deal Brother Wang." Shang Yin agreed immediately. Now that his goal was accomplished, he went over some basics of the game with Kirou including details on the races and the classes one can choose from at the start of the game. They talked while they changed and by the time their talk ended both were already walking out of the building. After going over some details, both went their separate ways.

*******

It was currently half-past eight in the night when Kirou gave the instruction manual another look through before he was convinced that the game helmet was set up properly. He's been home for a few hours but he put off starting the game due to his daily exercise routine, a cold shower, and a simple dinner he prepared for himself. Now that he was done with all of that he was ready to start the game.

Satisfied with the set, Kirou put the helmet on his head and laid down on his bed to allow the helmet's sensors to scan his body. This took another ten minutes and when it was done the helmet displayed a message on its screen that he was ready to start the game. Thinking that it was about time, Kirou allowed his body to fully relax before the helmet put his body to sleep.

*******

When Kirou regained awareness, he was standing in a white room in front of a sphere. Before he could even question what he should be doing next, a woman's projection appeared in front of the sphere.

"Hello, Player. Welcome to Immortal Era. My name is Navi," greeted the projection of the woman as she walked to the opposite side of the sphere. "How may I be of assistance today?"

"Hello, Miss Navi. Would you mind telling me about the different things one can do in Immortal Era?" Though Navi was just a projection of an NPC, Kirou still maintained basic manners as if he was speaking to another person. While staring at her, Kirou couldn't help but notice her dark skin tone and pointy ears. These were telltale signs that she was a dark elf and from the looks of it, a very beautiful one at that.

Following his question, Navi went on to describe the different things one can do in Immortal Era, which includes fighting monsters, fighting players, completing quests, crafting and the various forms of lifestyle classes. Kirou had already heard about most of this from Shang Yin before but he wanted Navi to go over it in case Shang Yin missed something. After listening to the end, Kirou spent a few minutes digesting the information while Navi waited patiently behind the sphere.

"Thank you for the information, Miss Navi. It was quite detailed. I would like to make my character now," said Kirou after he finished sorting the information in his head.

"You are welcome, Player. You can choose from any of the races available in the game but due to your late start, you won't be able to choose a few classes as some special classes have a quota for each server." Navi explained this with a smile on her face before tapping the sphere which brought up images for each race.

Finding out that he wouldn't be able to choose from all classes caused Kirou to raise an eyebrow but he then shrugged it off before looking over the many races being projected before him. As he scanned through the races, he couldn't help but notice a peculiarity for one of them. Having a rough idea but wanting verification, Kirou turned towards Navi before asking, "Miss Navi, why is it that this race has traits from all the other races and placed together?"

"That is the half-ling race. Usually, when beings from two different races reproduce, a child possessing traits of both parents is born and they are called half-lings. Oftentimes, the child will just possess minor traits for each parent and lack the main trait of the race itself. Take a look at this." Navi then tapped the sphere and the screens with the other races were replaced with images of each main race and a Half-ling. Navi then pointed at the image of the elves and enlarged it. "As you can see, elves are naturally gifted in nature magic, sensitive hearing, and forest compatibility. In this case, nature magic is the primary trait for elves while the other two are considered minor traits. In the case of the half-ling next to it, it only possesses both minor traits and they are weaker than that of the elf itself along with the traits of the other parent race."

Listening to her words, Kirou slightly narrowed his eyes as he noticed a small detail. "In that case, while the traits themselves are weakened when compared to either parent race, unlike the parents who'll only have three traits each, all half-lings should have four traits, right?"

"That is correct Player. Each half-ling normally has four traits," answered Navi.

"Since you mentioned normally, does that mean that there is a chance that the number of traits could vary?" asked Kirou again.

"While it is rare, there have been cases of half-lings possessing three or five traits respectively. In the case of five traits, this is when a gifted half-ling is born and retains the primary trait of its mother while still possessing the minor traits for both parents. Such a half-ling is considered a once in a hundred years genius. Though it's traits are still weaker than it's parents, it is still stronger than other half-lings at the same level. As for the other group..."

"It's when there's a mutation between the traits of the parents which causes two minor traits to fuse and become a major trait, right?" interrupted Kirou with a sense of clarity in his eyes.

Navi was mildly surprised at Kirou's deduction, but then she smiled sweetly and continued, "That is correct. Based on the traits fused, it could create an already existing primary trait that belongs to another race or it could create a unique trait that belongs solely to that half-ling. Both of these are considered a once every thousand years genius which stands even above a five trait half-ling as this new trait is actually stronger than the parents' primary racial trait."

Hearing her words, Kirou looked through the different races and their racial traits once more before making his choice. He then asked Navi to display the remaining class list that he can still choose from. He ran through all of them briefly before shaking his head.

'None of these classes fit my style. Magic classes are automatically out because I have no idea how to use those. As for the melee classes, it's even worse. All of these melee classes have a weapon restriction and I usually like having multiple weapons for different situations. The most fitting one seems to be the thief class since it can use knives for both melee and ranged combat but....huh?'

As he was thinking, Kirou noticed a screen displaying a class using different weapons. The reason he ignored it before was that he saw it using a bow before and a knife next making him think it was similar to the archer class but now he's seeing on the screen that the person is wielding a sword as well.

'This class....it feels off somehow.' Kirou asked Navi to display the information for the class window that he was looking at.

Class: Weapon Master

Weapon Restriction: None

Class Traits: Master At Arms, Forge Your Own Path, Fast Hands.

Looking at the details of the class, Kirou couldn't stop the smile that was forming on his lips.

'It seems I really will be able to enjoy this more than I originally thought.'

"Miss Navi, I have made my decision about my class and race." Kirou turned to Navi as he said this. In turn, Navi tapped the sphere once more and displayed a screen for Kirou to input his choices.

Name: Kirou

Race: Halfling (Lycan)

Class: Weapon Master

After Kirou pushed the confirmation button, his body instantly started to glow and change. First, it was his human appearance, then it changed into a werewolf, and finally, it settled back to human but his body was covered with tribal tattoos and his skin was tanned.

Seeing that his character was made, Navi took it upon herself to explain while Kirou was still glowing, "Those tattoos signify that you are a half-ling of the wolf tribe. You will now be sent towards a wolfman village where you will start your journey. I hope that one day we will meet again Player Kirou." She ended her speech with a smile on her face.

"When that happens, I hope you will tell me what kind of half-ling you are, Miss Navi." Kirou immediately vanished after speaking.

Kirou's parting words surprised Navi as it pointed out that he knew she was a half-ling and a special one at that. She couldn't help but mumble to herself, "How on earth did he notice?"