2 Realms Online
"Finally, Realms starts up in just a few hours," Alden sighed.
Around now, in his past life, he was surfing forums and gaining as much knowledge as he could before the release. With that little knowledge, he strutted about, acting as an expert.
'Now? I have a whole 11 years of knowledge on this game in my head.' Alden mused.
After a relatively simple dinner with his family, Alden already organized his thoughts.
Soon, the clock hit 12. Without delay, Alden held the advanced simulation visor in his hands. a white rim edged the top of the visor, which itself was simply a black panel. Once someone put the visor on, they would enter the completely immersive Realms Online.
There are other VRMMORPGs, but Realms touts the ability to play while sleeping and a 95% synchronization rate! Meaning, it was almost indistinguishable from the real world. Normal visors only allowed up to 90%, but the difference was still monumental.
'No other games can compare, even in my past life.'
Alden put on the advanced visor and pressed the power button. Then, his world went black.
In no time at all, a blank, atmospheric scene appeared, and a robotic voice could be heard.
'How nostalgic,' Alden thought as he listened.
"Welcome to Realms Online. You will now proceed to the character creation screen. Please note, your final appearance can only differ from your actual appearance by 10%."
A new user interface faded into view, and Alden saw quite a few options to edit his appearance. Then, the camera moved from first-person view to third-person, and it proceeded to face Alden's own body.
"Please begin editing your appearance."
Alden nodded, taking in all of the options. "Fashion has never been my strong suit, I'll just make my hair silver and polish a few of my less attractive parts like last time..."
Soon, it was complete. With those few edits, Alden was instantly more attractive, but 10% could only do so much. Changing his hair color to silver already took about 7% of his changes.
"Changing your appearance from this point on will be impossible. Are you sure you want to continue?"
Alden simply nodded, and the robotic voice continued.
"Please select your class."
Suddenly, 9 models, who looked exactly like Alden, appeared in front of him. Above each model's head were different terms.
In order, these terms were:
[Warrior], [Rogue], [Ranger], [Creator], [Magician], [Cleric], [Wanderer], [Summoner], and [Guardian].
This time, Alden truly had to sit and think.
'In my last life, I chose the warrior class. It wasn't truly the path I wanted to take, but the guild I wanted to join held bias towards the class.' In fact, this decision benefited him greatly. Alden's talent in relation to the sword was considered unparalleled for a time, so he was able to climb the ranks in Relentless.
"But... rather than following my talents, I want to prove to myself that I can succeed when taking the path that I want!"
Alden would no longer follow others. Nor would he let others influence his choices.
After all, wasn't that the source of all of his past grievances?
In the blink of an eye, Alden arrived in front of the most distinct model. It held a potion in one hand, and a tool bag was wrapped around its waist. Above the model read "Creator."
Alden placed his hand on the model, "This time, I'll walk along the path of the weakest of all classes, the Creator!"
The robotic voice appeared once more.
"You have selected the 'Creator' class. This choice is irreversible. Would you like to continue?"
"Yes!"
"Character creation complete. Please type in your preferred username."
A panel and keyboard appeared in front of Alden, and he simply typed in "Faceless."
This time, the account would be his and his alone.
"Randomizing USER Faceless' location. You will soon arrive in Cedar Town."
'The same as my last life, I guess it's fate.'
-
A few people crowded around what seemed to be a town square. Blue orbs could be found floating above their heads, indicating that they were players.
Suddenly, a large flash of blue light appeared.
"Another noobie, make sure to scout him!"
If someone looked closely, they would notice that these players gathered in groups, each group somewhat separated from one another.
The blue flash of light promptly ended, and a silver-haired young man appeared. At his waist was something of a leather pouch, and like everyone else in the square, he wore a trashy set of leather armor.
When they saw that leather pouch, all of the groups were immediately disinterested.
"Just a creator..." a man with blonde hair and a large nose sighed.
"Honestly, I'm surprised anyone would choose that class," a girl chuckled.
"Well, maybe they can get by on repair fees?" someone offered.
This man was Alden.
Before he could even take in his environment, he could see the disdain in peoples' eyes. 'Even 11 years later, creators were underestimated like this.'
Only a few creators earned respect, and none of them were combatants. But Alden planned to be wildly different, using the crafting capabilities of a creator to become a force to be reckoned with.
'Of course, at the end of the day, I should be the one judging them.'
In Realms Online, time was of the essence. Yet, these adventure parties and guilds were wasting their time away at the spawn. Right now, any player with potential is looking for quests.
But before he himself could find any quests, Alden had a few procedures to run through. At the beginning of the game, every player had 3 stat points, and 300 job experience.
In order to make the most of his time, Alden had to allocate properly.
Immediately, he put his 3 stat points into strength.
'Although dexterity and intelligence are the recommended stats for my class, strength is what I need to hold my own during the first few levels.'
At the beginning of the game, most creators found it exceedingly difficult to progress. Their damage was simply too low, and their skills didn't provide any damage for at least 5 levels.
That is until a certain creator found out that by increasing their damage just a bit during the early levels, they could progress much more quickly.
"I should dedicate a second of my time to thanking that creator for this discovery."
Of course, there were many more benefits to an early allocation of strength.
'With 3 points of strength, I can even equip the rusty axe weapon.'
Then, Alden pulled up his skill tree.
At the top of the off-white interface was the word "Creator," and many skills and icons flooded the screen. These were the basic skills any creator could learn without finding skill scrolls.
With 300 job experience, Alden could learn 2 skills or upgrade 1 skill.
'But I'm forced to get the crafting proficiency skill no matter what. It's the root of the tree, and the basic skill that every creator must unlock before unlocking other skills.'
For warriors, the root skill was "weapons proficiency."
After unlocking the crafting proficiency skill, its passive buffs quickly applied themselves, giving him +1 dexterity and +1 intelligence.
'Now, which of these basic skills could make me stronger...?' Alden questioned.
There were 8 skills he could unlock after crafting proficiency, but one specifically stuck out to him.
[Cauldron]
The name was simple and straight to the point. This skill would turn him into a mobile cauldron, allowing Alden to craft potions in the field.
'Potions are important, and I can save lots of coins if I craft them myself...'
Alden promptly used his remaining 200 job experience to unlock it. The only downside to this skill was that he needed an actual potion recipe to make use of it.
'Thankfully, there is a quest that can give me just that.'
Ignoring the stares he received, Alden rushed over to the town's forge. In Cedar Town, there was only a single Apprentice Blacksmith from which players could buy their first weapon.
After buying a rusty battleaxe and equipping it, Alden's attributes experienced an evolution. Equipping the item increased his strength by an entire point!
-[Status Page]-
Name: Faceless
Class: Creator
Level: 1
Experience: 0/150
Job Experience: 0
Coins: 10 Copper
-STATS-
Strength: 4 (+1)
Vitality: 1
Intelligence: 1 (+1)
Agility: 1
Wisdom: 1
Dexterity: 1 (+1)
-[Close]-
'An extra point of strength at this stage should increase my damage significantly. Although I can't compare to warriors, I should at least have more damage than Rogues...' Alden mused.
With his weapon and stats prepared, Alden made his way toward a specific alleyway. It wasn't too far away from the square, but definitely far enough that players wouldn't venture near it.
But in his past life, one adventurous magician found an impressive quest in this alleyway, making a small fortune on its rewards.
'Because the rewards were so useful to creators that he could take advantage of them with high prices.'
At the end of the alleyway, Alden found a little girl, dressed in a brown, damaged gown. Her hair was black, and she was visibly malnourished.
Alden knelt down, as the girl's head perked up, and gave her the bread that every new player received.
'I'm giving you my bread, so give me your quest!'
