Monday, April 18th 2024
Steve opened his eyes, and found himself on his bed with the helmet on, nothing unusual seemed to have happened and he looked perfect healthy. He went through a series of psychomotor tests and safety checks to make sure he was all back in one piece and completely safe. Everything was fine. NExT''s VR technology was a thousand miles away from anything he could ever imagine. He promised himself to do a full examination of the headset as soon as possible. He left it on the bed and walked up to the kitchen for a quick sandwich. Once he was finished, he logged into his account on Transcendance’s website to learn about the lore. Finally, they updated it.
First was a 1 minute hyper realistic video shot in game. Which he skipped, to find a small paragraph on Altherea''s history. The world of Altherea, as it seems to be called, is composed of a single huge continent, with a couple archipelagos on its west coast, and a lake in its centre. This world is relatively unknown as the sailing technology, and what is referred as the ''Grand Shield'', never enabled any one of the four races to send expeditions at sea. Thethree main races that are the elves, the humans and the dwarves. They managed to live alongside each other for hundreds of years before crossing path and even thoughthey each jealously keep their history to themselves, it is known that the Elves are said to originate from beyond the Western Sea; the Dwarves are proud to be born in the eastern mountain chain, known as the Stonehold Massif; and on the other hand, the Humans, who first appeared on the continent, mostly believe themselves to be descendant from the God Odin despite their finest researchers and scholars claiming that man also comes from somewhere far away. The youngest race of this brand new world is the Beastmen race, which has emerged around five hundred years ago, during the First Great Race War, but every bit of knowledge about them has disappeared.
The world of Altherea is thought to be around 10 000 years old. The current geopolitical situation at the start of the game is described as fairly stable and peaceful. The Elves are united under one Emperor called Eladin who has reigned for over 90 years. The Humans however, are scattered around the continent in different realms and societies, perpetually quarelling between each other. No one really knowshow the Dwarves are organised as they only leave the mountains to trade with other nations and quickly go home. The Beastmen are nomads moving around the continent, grouping themselves into caravans and offering their swords to the highest bidders.
A sound came from his room.''Launch time !'' Steve shouted, before rushing back in. He put on the helmet and logged in.
<hr>
Grey Wolf woke up, lying on the grass under a huge oak tree. The grass looked like grass, smelled like grass, felt like grass. He could also feel the wind and the sun on his face. He burst into laughter, rolling in the grass. It felt amazing. It took him five good minutes to calm down and to try getting up. He rose up on his feet, and fell. After going through a series of physical exercises to get his mind used to his new body, he tried rising up again. He was standing perfectly still. A window, similar to the ones he saw during the character creation, popped in front of him.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Welcome to Transcendance ! The developer team wishes you all the very best in your coming adventures. You are the 2nd player to stand up.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"The second player to rise up, this is awesome !" Grey Wolfstarted to walk and looked around him. He was wearing a white tunic, brown pants, leather sandals.He was on a small hill, in the middle of ... what seemed to be nowhere, until hesaw something looking like huge walls, about 200 meters from where he spawned.
Before heading there, he opened his Status window, instinctively thinking about it.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Status Window</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Name</td>
<td>Grey Wolf</td>
<td>Class</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Level</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>Title</td>
<td>N/A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Character Stats</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>STR</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>INT</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>AGI</td>
<td>9</td>
<td>WIS</td>
<td>12</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>END</td>
<td>11</td>
<td>LUK</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Skills</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">N/A</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
“So she decided to wish me luck ” Grey Wolf was smiling. He hoped he would get to see the beautiful IT girl again someday.
He started walking towards the city, a walk that quickly turned into a run through which he discovered with surprise that he was quite fast. Beastmen really were made for fighting.
He arrived at the gates, which were open, with no one guarding them, and walked inside the town.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>You entered the city of Landis.
Population: 10 001
Ruler: Lord Fendridge
Average NPC level: 15</td>
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He found the training grounds right behind the doors. It was abig sand arena where some training dolls were standing. He grabbed a training sword from the weapons racks on the side.
“Open item information” he said while focusing on it.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Training Iron Sword</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>DMG</td>
<td>4-6</td>
<td>Durability</td>
<td>50/50</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">A common training one-handed sword. Can get sharpened by a blacksmith.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
“Cool, a free sword.”
He went up to a training dummy and tried hitting it. The force return of the hit was 100% real. Just like hitting something in real life. Again, it felt amazing, and insane. So Transcendance''s combat system was relying on people''s inclination to use violence and fight. He decided to stop trying to intellectualize it and go with the flow for once. He had read lots of fantasy books and played sword with his friends as a kid, but never actually wielded a real one. He started hitting the dummy again and again, trying different positions, angles, movements. He quickly realised how tough a real fight would be, but also how good it would feel. He slowly fell into something close to dancing, and despite his clumsy look, you could see the shade of a rythmic hit-back step-hit-back step-hit pattern emerging. He went on for about two hours until a new window showed up.
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>A new skill has been created</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table width="57">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center">‘Instinctive Swordsmanship’
Unlike the taught ‘Formal Swordsmanship’ or any other taught style, the ‘Instinctive Swordsmanship’ is a self-made skill which is left for the player to develop.
+5% damage with swords
+5% speed with swords</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>For spending two hours hitting the training doll and creating your first skill, you are awarded +2 STR, +2 AGI, and +5 INT.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
“That was fast, I might just keep on hitting those wooden dolls for a bit.”
Grey Wolf was ecstatic. This skill-creation system was amazing. He decided he would keep this on for as much time as he could, and so, he hit the target again.