A New World, an immersive game experience

The rest of the day went like the others, with Eldrian trying, again and again, to feel and control mana. Yet his only accomplishment after three hours was doubling the size of the piece which broke from the spell module. This small achievement still made him happy. At the start when he tried to make it larger it instead broke another piece off, with practice he managed to keep it as one piece.

'Gonna take time, but I should win in a few days.' Eldrian mumbled after his last spell. He had decided to stop when his mana reached a level under 60 points. With all the time he spent in the magical abyss he had learned that each mana point seemed to give him one second in that space. This had tempted him to use his free attribute points, but after some consideration he had decided not to.

After saying goodbye to Dave, Eldrian decided to go to the barracks for a sparring match before going to the adventure guild, waiting for Erik to accept his friend request.

'Why isn't he online yet. Or did he not get my friend request?' Eldrian asked himself, having sent the request six hours ago.

On his way to the adventurers guild, after having sparred against Robert, Eldrian finally got a reply from Erik.

"Hey, sorry Eldrian. Was a hectic day today, the NPCs were all in shock and panic."

"What happened, what kingdom are you in?" Eldrian asked. Currently, they were using the messaging system, there was also a voice transmission one. But with the voice, it is similar to when you talk with someone on a phone, not having a phone though makes it seem really strange when someone just randomly starts talking.

"I am not too sure what happened either, most players seem to be clueless. I am in Vruntis."

...

Back home, right after leaving Eldrian's, Erik waited for the delivery of his headset. Just as he started getting impatient and wanted to get something to read, he got a call from his phone.

As soon as he answered it he heard a female voice, "Hi, is this Erik?"

"Ah, yes. Who is this?" Erik asked, half-knowing the answer already.

"Sorry, I am Kristen. I am at your dorm, but I didn't know if I should enter or not."

"Sorry, I forgot about that. I'll be right out." Erik made sure to grab his wallet and a pen, in case she wanted confirmation on his identity. This was completely unneeded, as he simply needed to provide his sale ticket and then sign the forms in the end.

Having learned a lot about the game and Miracle Corporation, Erik took his time to read through the contract. It was actually really decent, which made him understand why everyone signed it without bothering much. Yet knowing about what all had happened and that people could actually get trauma's from the game, Erik paused.

Just as Kristen was getting irritated, Erik finally signed it. He decided that if the combat wasn't for him then he could simply do something else. He was curious how magic worked, much like Eldrian. But he certainly wasn't going to choose the High Elf race like Eldrian. He wanted to simply play and enjoy his time, he was still worried the 5000 dollars spent on the headset were going to be a waste. It certainly wasn't a small sum to him. Luckily he had saved a lot while often doing side jobs of editing papers online.

It seemed that the price would only be so low for the beta players, from what he had gathered the next few weeks will have no new releases. The developers will use this time to configure the game and complete the last editing they felt were needed.

This helped ease Erik's worries, while he couldn't sell the headset, due to the contract only allowing one person to use the device, he was assured that it was better to get in now than it would be later. If everything went well, that is.

While this clause may sound unreasonable, it was stated that it was a safety measure for both the user and the company. Necessary to ensure the user's safety in linking with the headset. Naturally, the reason it was a safety measure for the company wasn't stated.

Having finished all these details Erik followed the instructions, both as the manual indicated and Eldrian had told him about. While waiting he simply grabbed a book to read, losing himself in the reading.

A few hours later, much more than the device had needed, Erik finally stopped reading.

"Well, I forgot it only needed an hour." He mumbled as he put his book away and got something to eat. Eldrian had told him of the importance of eating enough before logging in. Erik didn't plan to not follow such simple advice.

Finally ready, Erik place the headset on his head and logged in.

...

"Dear user, as this is your first time using the Driven Headset a few moments of your time will be required. Do not worry this process will not take long and in a few minutes, you will find yourself in an entirely new world filled with endless possibilities."

"Arg, it is just like Eldrian said!" Erik shouted as he was abruptly awakened by the voice, the headset having placed him into a deep sleep for just a few seconds. He now understood the frustration Eldrian had talked about, it was certainly going to take some time to get used to this.

Before he could continue on this train of thought the voice interrupted him again, "We will start with the basics, please look at the wisp that will appear before you."

'Seems like it is going to be just like his.' Erik thought, a red wisp appearing before him.

Erik went through the rest of the process, finding that everything was indeed as Eldrian had told him.

"Next, please create your avatar." Hearing this Erik chose to take his time resting, the last stage having taken it out of him.

'It is so realistic, it really feels like my body is here.'

After resting Erik finally opened his eyes and looked around, finding himself floating over the game world. 'Certainly a strange feeling. Now he said he thought of elves and then looked to the moon first.'

As Erik did this he quickly found the information of the moon Elves. Changing his view from the moon to the sun, then the earth and lastly the woods, Erik quickly found all the Elven races.

'What other races are there?' He asked himself, thinking of humans as the first other race he was curious on. As soon as he did many cities popped into view, too many to count.

'What the...' Erik was left speechless as he watched the entire field be taken by miniature cities. Taking his time he looked at them one at a time, each seemingly related to a special power.

[Ice Dragon Bloodline Descendant]

[A royal bloodline, weakened by spreading to nobles and peasants, the bloodline comes from the Pagos Empire, which once worked along with an Ice Dragon.<Attribute bonuses: 10 Spirit, 10 intelligence >]

[The Ice Dragons have an inherent connection to water magic, specifically the hybrid of water and darkness, giving rise to ice. This allows them to both be a master of water and darkness<Water Element magic: 20%; Darkness Element magic: 10% bonus>]

[As a player, you will not be born. Thus you will not be included in the lineage of a noble household, but you will be able to prove your lineage with time.]

[Ice Dragon Bloodline Descendants are naturally attuned to the ice elements. All ice-related items will gain increased effectiveness. -Silver type materials included- <5% up to a maximum of 40%.]

Continuing to look at the cities, Erik soon gave up. After a while he had realized that there were over a hundred cities, each with a seemingly special bloodline. From dragon bloodlines to phoenix, griffon, hydra, cerberus and more.

'That is an insane amount of choice.' Erik thought, wondering why most players hadn't been talking about this. The only thing he could think of was that most of this seemed to be, well useless, at least until later. As Eldrian had explained the item effectiveness only came forward with magical items. So far they only knew of Eldrian having a magical item. Thus most players probably already forgot about that part.

The attribute bonus seemed to be a universal thing, being around 20 points spread over the attributes according to the race choice. Magic had also only now started appearing and slowly with little oomph.

Erik was curious about what else was a viable choice, thus he thought of all the other mystical creatures he knew of. He found dwarves, them having four variants. He also found dryads, being a single species, demi-humans of most predatory animals. When trying to find a centaur or satyr he had failed, the same happened with more changed species, like gorgons, pixies and treants. All of which he felt certain would be in the game, yet seemed to be none-playable.

'How is the limit classified?' Erik asked himself, taking his time to look through everything. Soon he felt certain that it was when part of the body actually changed, dwarves for example are proportionally smaller and sturdier making it a possible choice.

He also found that there seemed to be no classical evil choices available. Having tried looking for goblins, orcs, devils, werewolves and vampires. Getting no response from any of these.

After a few hours, Erik had finally gone through every single choice he had managed to find. A little worried that he had missed a species he tried to confirm that he had looked at everything, quickly finding it to be impossible. There was no list he could keep track of and all the information had overloaded him.

Let's just go with this. I can always remake if I dislike it.' He thought, knowing full well that he would be apprehensive of remaking his character. It had taken him too long already, he didn't want to go through all this again.