《Dreamland Saga》 Prologue ¡°...nd here we have some video of one of the most anticipated upcoming games, Dreamland! An incredible marvel of modern technology, this new DMMORPG by Genesis Games is one of the first to use a quantum supercomputer for its physics engine! According to the developers, Dreamland could become like a second life, as nearly a one-to-one scale world...¡± -Daniel Green, Media Reporter of Ar-Tech CorpCity A-5, 3030 On a living room TV screen, an animation of a stylized peacock can be seen crowing, before fading out to show a newscaster for City A-5 News. With his usual charming grin, Daniel, the usual newsman for the afternoon, got right into it, the space to his right soon showing various clips to help along. ¡°Heellllooo, City A-5, I¡¯m Daniel Green with the afternoon news for you just like always! As I¡¯m sure you all know by now, Dreamland, the hit new game out in stores, has skyrocketed to the number one spot for game sales in only a few months! Quite a relief for Genesis Games I¡¯m sure, considering just how much money-¡± Thunk, thunk-slam! The living room is nice enough, a cozy looking couch and a low coffee table with an extra chair to the side, some shelving, the usual things, but it seems mostly bare, like it hasn¡¯t quite become a home yet. Off to the side, a kitchenette with a marble island can be seen, afternoon sun filtering through the kitchen windows and making the odd, almost spidery-looking robot arms hanging from the ceiling stand out in even more contrast to the many small potted plants filling up the space. They seem to be, for whatever reason, making lunch. ¡°-is, as far as anyone can tell, a one-to-one simulation! Quite impressive by any measure, though it wouldn¡¯t have been possible if not for Genesis Game¡¯s secret weapon; a Quantum Supercomputer! With petabytes of qubits simulating things down to the atomic level, and several classic supercomputers helping along, Dreamland is being hailed as a second world! Ignoring, of course, the V.C.R, but Dreamland is definitely more accessible for the common man. Speaking of the V.C.R-¡± Thud-thud, thud, smack! Opposite the kitchenette, what is obviously a gym can be seen, mostly filled with basic equipment like a bench press, barbells, a squat rack, those kinds of things. The centerpiece though is obviously the weighted, if worn-looking punching bag right in the middle of the room, currently swinging slowly back to its center. In front of it, hair pulled back into a basic tail to keep it out of the way, someone bounces left and right on the balls of her feet, ducking under or leaning back from the blows of her mental enemy, shadow-boxing to the beat of the music droning in her ears. Catching her breath as she cools down, she takes off her MMA gloves and tosses them on top of her dumbbell shelves, walking back into the living room as she slowly downs a half of her water bottle. ¡°Zen, could you switch over to recommended movies?¡± ¡°Of course, dear! Lunch will be ready in just a few minutes.¡± A gentle, if still somewhat robotic sounding voice sounds out through the living room speakers, Eveline merely rolling her eyes as the TV abruptly switches from the news to whatever nonsense Zen decided would peak her interest. After shaking out the soreness in her hands, she spends her time stretching her muscles to keep from getting any strains and keeps sipping at her bottle, eventually pulling her hair out of its ponytail and fanning it out to try and get some of the heat away. Although Eveline is sure that the documentary on mushrooms on the screen would be quite thrilling under normal circumstances, she simply can¡¯t keep her mind on the present, even with the smell of Zen¡¯s admittedly excellent cooking gently filling the room. Instead, she finally gives in and opens up her AR rig, a UI flashing to life in her eyes as she begins scrolling through her S-Mail once again. Almost out of habit at this point, she looks up the message from her city¡¯s community manager from a week ago.
From: [email protected]
To: A-5_PublicAddress
Topic: Dreamland Work Opportunity
Message: Hello everyone! I¡¯m glad to say that the last quarter¡¯s productivity was up by 2.3% from our average. Wonderful job! Of course, as you can see, this is not our usual public address, and as such I¡¯ll leave the details to that. What I¡¯d like to talk about here is the whole hubbub around Dreamland, and a potential opportunity for those looking for it. For clarity''s sake, Dreamland has developed a way to take advantage of REM sleep and stretch 8 hours of real life sleep into a full 4 days of activity in their game. Thanks to this, and the quickly burgeoning trade market and money conversion between the game world and ours, we¡¯d like to propose that you-yes, you!-trade through Argus Industries! This opportunity will allow you to trade valuable items made or discovered in game for credits, leisure days, and even luxuries like VIP meals at high-class restaurants! If you¡¯d like to get in on the deal, make sure to tell the character creator guide that you¡¯d like to wire all transactions through the Argus Guild framework.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. With that said, I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Obviously, it¡¯s a big deal, especially for Eveline. Her little apartment is fine, and she was pretty much content to spend a few years here, slowly saving up her credits until she could start looking for her own little plot of land out in the country. Heck, she was even planning on getting the sleepset needed to play Dreamland in a few more months once she¡¯d settled down some. But with the chance to use her time in the game to potentially get a ton of money? She¡¯d begged and begged her parents to get her one, even promised to pay them back both for the sleep set and the year of rent they¡¯d pre-paid for her too. Eventually, they caved, and now she¡¯s been anxiously waiting for the day her sleepset would finally come in the mail. If only she could track it- ¡°Here you go dear!¡± ¡°Shit! Jeez, Zen, don¡¯t startle me like that!¡± Eveline cusses out the AI under her breath as the robotic arms set down the meal on the coffee table, turning off her AR rig to finally focus on the meal and documentary again. It¡¯s mostly just an intro to mushrooms kind of thing, so nothing that she hasn¡¯t seen before. One cool thing she hadn¡¯t heard of before is that the biggest known mycelial mass, from a honey mushroom in old Oregon that died around 2050, has been revived from collected spore samples. Basically the children of that mushroom have been cultivated around the world, kind of a ¡®nature will live on¡¯ kind of thing. A pretty feel good subplot to the whole story, which helps spice it up and keep it from just being any old documentary. The documentary does its job of drawing her attention, considering that she doesn¡¯t notice the hour and a half go by until her doorbell rings and nearly startles her off the couch. Heart racing, she rushes over to open the door and tries her best to hide her disappointment when it¡¯s just one of her neighbors, rather than a delivery person. She doesn¡¯t seem to pull it off, since Stephen just raises his brow at her. ¡°You okay there?¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, I¡¯m just waiting for a package is all.¡± ¡°Ah, right, you¡¯re getting the sleepdrive and all that for Dreamland, eh?¡± He smirks a little, ¡°You sure you¡¯re ready to Dive? I know you¡¯re a bit of a noob when it comes to full immersion games.¡± ¡°Do you want the basil or not?¡± You decidedly do not pout, you cross your arms and give the man a glare, but he merely laughs and holds his hands up placatingly. ¡°Whoa whoa, no need to turn me to stone! I¡¯ll say no more.¡± You huff and let him inside, stomping over to the kitchen as he wanders around to look at the various plants to be seen around the house. With some quiet snips, it doesn¡¯t take long to prune your favorite, bushiest basil plant and push the basil leaves into a bag, tying it up and tossing it at Stephen like a soft ball. It smacks him in the back of the head, just making him chuckle again as he catches the basil before it falls. He turns to her, taps his temple, and after some darting eyes-an easy sign of someone working with their corneal UI-before a notice pops up in the corner of her own eye. Eveline opens it, sees it¡¯s a bank deposit for the agreed amount, and gives him a thumbs up. Stephen, smarmy as usual, just smirks again and gives her a bow before heading out, calling out just before he closes the door. ¡°Oh, yeah, I¡¯m pretty sure I saw a delivery bot down in the lobby with your name on it, might want to check on that!¡± Eveline freezes at that, before starting to rush to get her shoes on as fast as she can, Stephen laughing on his way out. You know, like an asshole. Eventually, she finally gets her shoes on and rushes out of her apartment and down the hall, jumping into one of the elevators and pushing the ground floor button multiple times. She paces as the elevator takes its time descending and speed-walk out as soon as the door opens up once more, looking around the lobby to find your bot. Thankfully they¡¯re made to be obvious, so it only takes a moment to walk over to the boxy, rover-like delivery drone, which beeps a happy tone as it recognizes its recipient. After a few moments to pay the delivery fee, it pops open its top hatch, allowing her to reach inside for the sleepdrive box. She gives it a pat in thanks before you walk away, with the bot giving another little happy beep before plugging into a nearby charger. Eveline is excited. Well, maybe excited is an understatement. Everything she¡¯s seen of what people have said about Dreamland and all the videos streamers and such have made point to it basically being completely free-form! Or at least, quite close to it, with some things taking more effort than others. She finally makes it back to her apartment to sit back down at the coffee table, and start working through the packaging and reading all the setup and rules. Of course, most of all this info she¡¯s already read up on, but it always pays to double check. Her StemDrive is up to date and compatible with the sleepdrive Dreamland uses, she calibrates the sleepdrive to her GPS, address, Bioreccords, bank account, and link up Zen to double-verify that she is who she says she is. With all the set-up done, she brings the sleepdrive, a kind of blocky motorcycle helmet-looking thing, into her bedroom. With some fumbling with the charging pack and the wires she needs to plug in, Eveline sets it up to charge, and now she¡¯s got until 8:00 PM to try and fill the time before her timezone goes online. Well, working out is always a good way to get the nervous energy out of her system! She¡¯s just glad that today is her day off, she wouldn¡¯t be able to get anything done with this wait¡­ Although it feels slow like molasses, time does pass, and night time comes. Eveline dresses in her comfiest pajamas, even if she knows that she won¡¯t be able to feel them in-game. She takes a deep breath in and out to steady her nerves, pushes her pillows out of the way, and settles the sleepdrive around her head as she lays down. The inside of the helmet has odd, gold-colored circuit board-like patterns inside, barely visible in the dark of her room, though thankfully it¡¯s comfortable with all the auto-adjusting padding that inflates or relaxes around her head. There¡¯s a tiny whirring sound as a mechanism in the back of the helmet aligns itself with the silvery horizontal scar across the back of Eveline¡¯s neck, calibrating itself before pressing against the scar to connect up with her StemDrive. She takes a few more relaxing breaths as the sleepdrive boots up, wriggling a little to get her body comfortable to try and make sure she doesn¡¯t wake up sore tomorrow. Breathe in... Breathe out... Breathe in... Breathe out.. Darkness. Chapter 1: Character Creation ¡°There are two things that we held as core design rules while making the many systems in Dreamland. The first is availability. Not everyone has the time to get into the niche details of crafting, or learning swordsmanship, or any of the many things you can do in Morphia, even with the expanded time and timezone-based servers. The second is creativity. We never want our players to think that they¡¯ve been artificially hardlined into specific roles, or cheated out of rewards that their creativity would otherwise allow. There is always a complex system of both weighing against each other, skill and quality versus time and convenience.¡± -Jeremiah Walsh, Head of R&D for Genesis Games, 2031 Interview And then there was light. ...and, not really much else. Eveline felt a kind of vague, pervasive sense of disorientation, like that floaty vertigo feeling you get when looking out over the side of a really tall building to the ground far below, but it persisted for several long moments. If she had a stomach at the moment it would have probably been queasy. Oh yeah, there¡¯s the whole not-having-a-body thing, though that and the disorientation quickly fades. Eyes that she didn¡¯t know were closed open for the first time in a virtual space, and she finds herself looking down at an androgynous, mannequin-like body, all smooth grey segments and simplified joints and apendages. ¡°Starting primary digital body calibration sequence. Please look up at the green circle.¡± If Eveline were fully in control of her body, she would have jumped at the sudden voice. It sounded feminine, kind of lilting, but without any obvious accent, echoing all around her. Despite the fact that it¡¯s probably artificial, she couldn¡¯t point out anything particular in the voice that would give it away, other than the stilted way it reads whatever list it¡¯s probably reading from. Either way, she does as told, head moving directly up until she finds the green circle hovering above her. ¡°Good! Please look middle-right at the red circle.¡± It takes a good 10, maybe 15 minutes to go through all the calibration steps, each movement delayed with a weird double-feeling, like there¡¯s a couple second delay between her wanting a limb to move and the limb actually moving. That feeling slowly fades the further into the calibration setup she gets, and a sense of touch soon starts to feed back into her senses, followed by proprioception and all those other little feelings and instincts that she knows from her own body. Soon enough she¡¯s walking around in the blank white space, trying out jumping jacks and cartwheels and all the other warm up exercises she¡¯s used to. The mannequin body is still awkward and blocky, but at least it actually feels like a body now. ¡°Primary digital body calibration sequence complete. Good job! Unlocking secondary digital body systems and booting up Dreamland character creation.¡± Eveline¡¯s digital body freezes in place and the white void around her seems to warp to black in front of her eyes, shrinking down into a distant point of light in the distance. It doesn¡¯t last long though, as a quiet whistling sound points out the fact that the distant light quickly seems to be growing larger once more, as if she were rapidly approaching the end of a long tunnel. Considering she¡¯s stuck in place she can¡¯t really brace herself, but she certainly tries as the end of the tunnel begins to gain color and clarity. Before she can begin to process what she sees, she finds herself out of the tunnel and in an actual room, rather than a void, stumbling forward and nearly falling face-first into the back of a chair from the momentum-imagined or otherwise-of being tossed out of the tunnel. Understandably a bit shaky-kneed from the adrenaline of all...that, she braces herself with the back of the chair as she stands up fully and looks around the room she finds herself in. As far as Eveline can tell, it looks like a pretty cozy office, the kind you see in movies about eccentric old professors. Stacks of books, big comfy chairs, various intellectual trophies like globes and animal skulls, that kind of stuff. Even the cliche big work desk with the bigger, comfier chair behind it. It smells like old books and woodsmoke, and it¡¯s with a moment of surprise that Eveline realizes that she can smell now. ¡°Welcome to character creation, Eveline!¡± ¡°Oh holy fuck where did you come from-¡± Eveline jumps back a little, blocky fists coming up as she settles into a fighting stance. Sitting in the big chair behind the desk-which she knows was not occupied a few seconds ago-with one amused eyebrow raised, someone new seems to have shown up. She looks vaguely middle-eastern, or maybe egyptian, dressed in a black and brown three piece suit. Above her head floats a small, seven-armed star, though the arms themselves seem to warp and move around the center with little rhyme or reason. Laid across her legs is some kind of walking cane, old and covered in little notches and scratches, though the specific number and the patterns of the notches seem to change as she watches in a weird, headache inducing manner. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m doing quite well thank you, positively splendid. And you?¡± The woman speaks in a dry, joking tone, oddly reminiscent of the voice Eveline had heard during the calibration, which breaks her out of flight-and-flight enough to relax out of her stance, chuckling a little and scratching the back of her head. ¡°Oh, yeah, sorry. It¡¯s nice to meet you, person I¡¯ve never met and don¡¯t know the name of!¡± Eveline moves around the chair she¡¯d stumbled into, sitting down to actually have a talk instead of just being awkward, standing around. The woman smirks a little and taps a name plaque that also definitely wasn¡¯t there a moment ago, the name ¡®Sesha¡¯ carved into it in clear, blocky letters, before the letters seem to shudder and turn into russian, then mandarin, then latin, and through several other scripts before flickering back to english characters. The books and papers between them on the desk seem to have disappeared as Eveline looked at the plaque, replaced with two teacups and a kettle, Sesha already pouring them both a hot cup. ¡°No worries, I¡¯ve seen countless reactions from people, you¡¯re hardly the worst I¡¯ve seen! Now, do you have any questions before we start the character creation process? Pre-game codes or commands? How do you like your tea?¡± ¡°Oh, uh, just some honey would be nice, if you have any?¡± The teapot is replaced in Sesha¡¯s hand with a honey dipper, dropping a big dollop of honey in Eveline¡¯s drink before becoming a teapot once again. Sesha¡¯s own drink looks like an odd rainbow of colors coming out of the pot, fizzing and crackling in her cup. She picks up her own, less crazy-looking cup of tea and takes a sip. Eveline ignores the fact that her mannequin face doesn¡¯t have the lips to facilitate that, and simply focuses on the flavor of mellow, honeyed pine and rose hips. She sighs in satisfaction at the taste before remembering that Sesha actually asked her some questions. ¡°Ah, right, pre-game commands and all that. Uh, I was told that I should say that I want all my transactions to be wired through the ¡®Argus guild framework¡¯?¡± ¡°Ah, a comp guilder then?¡± Even though Sesha doesn¡¯t actually do the motion, Eveline can practically feel the AS roll her eyes as she sips at her own cup. ¡°I guess? They said they¡¯d pay for in-game items, and I kind of need the money.¡± ¡°Yes, well, that¡¯s a pretty common reason I get, unfortunately...¡± Sesha mutters the last bit of her words before perking back up, not giving Eveline any time to process what sounded like disappointment in her voice. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get your account wired up! This should only take a moment.¡± Sesha¡¯s hand-the one not holding her cup of ¡®tea¡¯, that is-begins to unwind, the skin turning into a set of game screens and leaving behind a hand-shaped cutout of the night sky. The screens float up in front of Eveline and begin to load up, before showing off a bunch of data that she starts to sort through. Mostly just reaffirming that she is who she says she is, that the bio registration in her account matches her actual geneology, etc, etc. Eventually it all goes through, and the different screens all merge into one, with one last message.
Congratulations! You¡¯ve Joined the Argus Guild! As a [Civilian]-Tier member, you can use all basic Argus Guild resources, such as the guild sections of town systems, access to the civilian areas of Argus Guild buildings, the choice to use Argus Guild-owned starting areas, 5% off on guild-owned sales, and other useful things! Please find your way to the nearest town guild hub to learn more about your rights and responsibilities as a [Civilian]-Tier member at your soonest convenience.
As soon as Eveline finishes reading the last word, the screen twists and pulls itself back to cover Sesha¡¯s hand once more, the human of the two leaning back into her chair and taking a moment to enjoy her tea a little more. Oddly enough, she seems to have the same amount of tea in the cup as the amount she started with. She sighs a little and gives Sesha a smile. ¡°Welp, that¡¯s all the obligations I had. So how¡¯s the character creation supposed to work?¡± Sesha smirks again, grabbing her cane by the head and tapping the bottom against the hardwood floor twice. The room around them turns to mist, only their chairs, teacups, and the desk between them coming along for the ride as the mist around them twists and warps and loses color, slowly fading into an off-white, as if they were in a cloud. Soon after, it¡¯s revealed that they are in a cloud, their chairs and desk floating up until the foggy cloud settles at their feet, and showing off an incredible view. On the left side, there¡¯s a tropical coast, ivory sands and a vibrant rainforest with turquoise, crystal-clear water, slowly clearing out into dark blue waters the further right you look. Far out to sea, what Eveline first assumes to be another landmass is, in fact, a floating mountain, flocks of different creatures like little specks flying around it from this far away. After a solid minute of gaping at the scenery-firmly in her seat, the cloud under her feet feels solid enough, but better not to risk it-Sesha coughs a little to catch Eveline¡¯s attention. If she had any blood at the moment, she¡¯d be blushing, but she returns her attention to the AS.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Now, first things first would be your body, or more specifically for now, your species.¡± Several rings of marble pillars rise up out of the cloud around them, each one holding up a statue of a different species. There¡¯s the generic ones that you¡¯d expect from any fantasy game, humans, elves, orcs, etc, but there¡¯s also more esoteric statues in sight, like a praying mantis-looking humanoid, and what looks like a living, vaguely bipedal anthill. ¡°There are quite a few species that were either available at the start of the game or those discovered since then. You can go through them one at a time, or if you have a specific theme you¡¯re going for, I can narrow things down for you?¡± Eveline taps her chin in thought for a moment, before shrugging and deciding to just go for her tried-and-true choice in other games. ¡°Well, I usually like to play the big, strong races, so maybe whichever species are generally the biggest and strongest?¡± Sesha nods and waves the end of her cane. The majority of the pillars sink back down into the clouds, while about a dozen glide over to line up behind the woman. More strips of her come undone, mostly patches of the suit this time, turning into a-assumedly-respective line of screens for Eveline to peruse. She nods in thanks to the digital god, and starts reading through the various options. She¡¯s not really that invested in which species she ends up using, but the little blurbs about their origins are cool, and the merits and demerits are at least something she should take into account. Eventually though, she settles for the Rattleback-folk.
Rattleback-Folk
Description: Rattlebacks are a species of semi-domesticated, bison-sized lizards, often ranched by lizardmen and elves on the northern half of the Lord¡¯s Eye continent. Muscular, covered in heavy, thick scales that rattle against each other like ceramic when they move (hence their names), they are often raised for their scales, horns, eggs, and meat. As is the case for most beastfolk, Rattleback-Folk take on many of the qualities of the beast they are based on, particularly when it comes to non-humanoid extra appendages. Rattleback-Folk have the same thick scales of their animalistic kin on their arms and legs, horns jutting from their temples, and a thick, semi-prehensile tail. They have long, thin feathers rather than hair, also showing as a plume at the tip of their tails, usually in bright colorations as opposed to their more dull, camouflaging scale colors. Rattleback-Folk are taller than the average humanoid, averaging at around 7-8ft tall, and tend to be densely muscled. Whether that¡¯s a necessity thanks to their height and heavy scales or some other aspect inherent to Rattlebacks is unknown.
Effects: Increased affinity with Strength and Endurance Decreased affinity with Mobility Gain Natural Skill [Scaled Defenses] Increased damage taken from Cold-type damage Resource regen increased in areas that give heat-based environmental debuffs Resistance to heat-based environmental debuffs Resource regen decreased in areas that give cold-based environmental debuffs Weakness to cold-based environmental debuffs Other effects will be revealed as needed
¡°Hmm...Rattleback-Folk seems good enough.¡± Eveline taps on the Rattleback-Folk screen, and all the other pillars and screens sink away or return to Sesha, respectively. ¡°What¡¯s this about affinities though? I read that Dreamland doesn¡¯t do the traditional leveling and number crunching that a lot of games do, but I didn¡¯t read any specifics.¡± ¡°Well, considering just how complex all the calculations for simulating the game is, things like specific points for strength or vitality quickly become inaccurate when pretty much any combination of skills and effects come into play. Instead, all the numbers are run in the background and we have people intuit most of the power they have. You¡¯ll still see numbers in your resource pools and in a good few skills, but other than that it¡¯s easier for everyone to hide all the math away. Now!¡± The Rattleback-Folk pillar floats closer to Sesha, allowing her to tap it with her cane. There¡¯s a quiet crack, followed by several more as fractures crawl all over the statue. The stone begins to fall away, showing itself to be a shell rather than full stone, and as the dust clears, the statue seems to have turned into Eveline. Or, rather, Eveline if she were directly turned into said species. A bit too buff in her opinion, and the scales actually look more like a pangolin¡¯s scales, rather than a reptile. The remaining screen in front of Eveline displays a new wall of options, mostly slider bars and color wheels. ¡°Obviously there are certain constraints when it comes to what is physically possible to change about your character¡¯s appearance, but you¡¯ll have a lot more choice for things that aren¡¯t in the character creator once you get in-game.¡± ¡°Huh, ok, that makes sense. Not going to do anything too weird though, so this should be fine.¡± Eveline takes another sip of her tea before getting into the screen. She brings the muscle down some, going more for a toned, dense look, rather than the big, bulky muscles that came default with the species. The abs stay though. What, she can be vain sometimes! Other than that, she went a little above average in height, maybe 7 and a half foot or so, reduced the, eh, chest area a bit so it wouldn¡¯t get in the way, and went on to colors and scales/feathers. She puts the scales on her arms and legs at elbow-and-knee length, and her character¡¯s feathery hair at a bit more than shoulder length. For the coloration, the scales and her tail became dark green, while her feathers got a mix of red and orange, for contrast. Same skin and eye colors, and that¡¯s about it, so she hits the [Next] button on the last section of the screen. ¡°Alright, what next?¡± Sesha points her cane up at the sky at her question, their surroundings changing swiftly once more. ¡°Now, we decide your Archetype. Classes you gain in-game, through whatever means you come across them, but the Archetypes are broad things that help you with more esoteric bonuses, to help you narrow down your play style. It also helps us when it comes to figuring out how best to make your play engaging.¡± Their chairs and the desk shoot up off of the cloud, up into the sky and through several other cloud banks. Between one moment and the next, Eveline¡¯s body changes from the blank mannequin to, assumedly, her character¡¯s body, considering that the desk and Sesha seem a little smaller than moments before, and her body feels oddly stiff and unresponsive. It¡¯s not exactly the first thing on her mind though, considering that they seem to have stopped on the edge of space. She can see the curve of the planet, several continents and seas visible below, but more impressive are the stars above. She¡¯s never really seen more than the brightest of stars in person before, too much light pollution in the way, but now? She can see an uncountable number of lights in the sky, different colors and brightnesses, even some distant nebula adding pops of color to the darkness of space. The sun shines harshly in the distance, and just barely seen on the horizon are two moons, one larger and a dull red, the other about half its size and a deep purple-black. After taking a while to just marvel at the sights (gripping the armrests tightly because, you know, it¡¯s fucking space), Eveline notices that the many stars seems to be forming patterns as she watches, little glimmering threads of light connecting random stars like constellations before fading from view. As she focuses on one that looks somewhat like a flailing dragon, the screen that had the character creation systems on it pops back into her view, showing something new.
Dragonslayer
Description: Dragons are mighty beasts, the tales of legends in many cultures, and in Morphia especially, True dragons are some of the mightiest of creatures. However, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dragons of all kinds can be terrible forces of nature, slaughtering people in the thousands. In response, a select few have taken on the task of bringing these terrors to justice.
Effects: You have studied dragon anatomy extensively. Crit chance on dragon-type creatures increased. Whether sneaking and skulking, or flying through the clouds, you are particularly good at spotting and tracking dragons. Attempts to track dragon-type creatures are more likely to succeed. Dragons have a certain arrogance and pride that come with being one of the strongest creatures in existence, and a Dragon Slayer often needs pride to match, lest they be cowed by their presence. Will stat mutates into Pride. Your Pride stat is particularly good at resisting the effects of dragon-type creatures with the Pride stat.
She blinks a little at the wall of text and waves the screen to the side, looking over to see Sesha looking just a little bit smug. Eveline rolls her eyes and shifts a little in her seat, noticing idly that her chair had gained a hole in the back for her new tail. Speaking of which, she couldn¡¯t really feel it, it was kind of just twitching on its own. ¡°Before this whole Archetype business, do you have any idea why this body feels so stiff?¡± ¡°Of course! In order to reduce any possible issues with body dysmorphia with people gaining brand new bodies, often times drastically different in size, sex, or number of available apendages, your character body is in somewhat of a ¡®training wheels¡¯ mode at the moment. As your mind trains itself to become more in sync with your character¡¯s body, and learns to use your appendages better, that stiffness will fade. It also encourages people to exercise and raise their stats in-game, which gives them a bit of a boost during their first days.¡± ¡°Mmm, yeah, dysmorphia sucks balls so I can see why the developers would introduce that.¡± Eveline starts looking around at the other constellations, the text on her screen changing as she does. ¡°That aside, there¡¯s a lot of Archetypes up there, huh? How many are there, anyways?¡± ¡°One thousand, two hundred, and thirty-eight Archetypes, as of now.¡± Sesha simply takes another sip of her tea as Eveline gawks at her, chuckling a little before continuing. ¡°That said, if you¡¯d give me a general description of what you¡¯d like to do with your time in the game, I could curate a smaller, more specific set of Archetypes to choose from.¡± ¡°Uh, yeah, that¡¯d probably help. Well, if possible, I¡¯d like to farm in the game?¡± Sesha sighs a little and waves her cane, and the stars begin to flash and waver, multiple constellations solidifying their lines of light as more screens separate from the SA¡¯s body. ¡°Well, there are plenty of Archetypes that allow for more wide-spread damage and AOE¡¯s for farming mobs, and there¡¯s also some-¡± ¡°Oh, no, I don¡¯t mean farming mobs. I mean like, planting seeds and growing crops, actual farming.¡± The stars pause, as Sesha focuses on Eveline with a new, rekindled interest. ¡°Oh? Is that so?¡± Her attention honestly feels almost a little too intense, and she squirms a little in her seat. ¡°Uh, yeah? I mean, specifically I¡¯d want to make a food forest, grow all kinds of mystical herbs and rare fruits, enrich the land as I tend to it, maybe raise some animals. Regular farming and ranching have their place, but I¡¯m more into permaculture. Is that...an issue?¡± The digital god blinks and seems to come back to herself, the constellations are once more shifting and rearranging themselves as she speaks. ¡°Oh, no, nothing wrong here! I¡¯m just glad to see someone who actually means farming when they say farming. Now, let¡¯s see...I think these would do nicely for you.¡± Soon enough, the constellations settle down once more, noticeably less than the number it settled on before. Eveline looks through the screens floating around her, looking a bit more seriously than she did with the species since these seem to give more unique bonuses. They¡¯re mostly all nature based, as you¡¯d expect, though in a myriad of different ways. Eventually though, she settles on one in particular, the constellation which looks like a small group of trees.
Grove Guardian
Description: Inspired by the dryads of the forests, and particular sects of monks, a Grove Guardian nurtures and protects forests and groves that they declare as their own. By harnessing the vital energies of their bodies, they can imbue the lands they call their own with increased energy and vitality, and the greatest of them can even grow some of the rarest plants in the world as if they were common weeds.
Effects: Mana and Stamina pools are combined into a new resource pool, Vital Qi. Qi can be used for Qi-specific effects, or for Mana and Stamina-specific effects, but skills and spells that use mana or stamina may be affected strangely when Qi is used. Gain the ability [Imbue Nature] Plants and Animals have more potent growth around you or in areas affected by [Imbue Nature]. Plant and Animal-type monsters count as normal Plants and Animals when determining this effect. Plants and Animals grown around you or grown in areas affected by [Imbue Nature] are more likely to have a higher grade of quality when harvested for materials.
Once Eveline taps the Grove Guardian screen, the constellation of trees shines even brighter for a moment, and she could swear that she could smell the rich loam and petrichor of an old forest, and the rustling of leaves in the wind. Before she could focus on it though, Sesha taps her can on the non-existent floor once again, and their desk and chairs tilt weirdly, so that the two of them are looking up at the planet, instead of the stars. ¡°Wonderful! Now, the last thing to do would be to choose your starting place. Anywhere in particular that you want to start off at?¡± Eveline scratches at her hair-well, feathers now-as she looks up at the planet. You know, for all she was excited for the game, she didn¡¯t really look much into the geography of Morphia. Eventually she looks back over at Sesha, and mentally shrugs. Might as well ask, right? ¡°How about you choose, Sesha? Wherever you think would be the best place for me to start off.¡± The god in question gives Eveline another of her oddly intense stares, before she snorts. That snort soon turns into a chuckle, and that chuckle into a full-blown laugh, as she taps her cane on the non-existent floor once again. Eveline goes from sitting to standing from one moment to the next, but before she can become disoriented, her body shrinks down into a ball of light, only able to see Sesha waving at her with a smirk before she blasts off towards the planet like a comet. Sesha, or rather, this instance of her, chuckles a little more at the quickly quieting scream coming from the human as she¡¯s sent down to Morphia, taking one last sip of her tea. The character creation constructs around her begin to dissolve and break down, until the only thing left is her body, looking up at one of the more interesting humans she¡¯s seen in the last week. As the instance''s body begins to fade, she grins, one last time. ¡°Curiouser and curiouser...¡±