[Beep! Initializing Zeryann System. Checking privileges… standard clearing detected. You have 500 points to spend on character creation. Please select your race.]
"Huh? Only 500 points?" Of course, Simon knew what that meant. He, after all, created and programmed the entire game. This was an amped version of the character creation menu. 500 points were given to every player who just started the game. Those who had bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond, premium, and exclusive memberships started with a lot more points.
[The system has not detected any special authorization. Please select your race.]
"Hmm" Simon couldn't help but frown at that notice. "Where the hell is the console in this thing?" As he started frantically searching for a keyboard or something alike, he suddenly thought of something. "Open command console". As soon as he said that, a keyboard suddenly appeared in front of him, yet when he moved his head, it moved along with it. It didn't take long for him to understand it was like a HUD. He typed the command to change his membership type and typed his own personal code.
Every member of the development team had this unique key which only they knew about. It was equivalent to an exclusive membership, but this one had one more advantage to it; it could exert the same authority as a game master ID. As soon as he finished entering his unique key, the system sounded again.
[Beep! Unique key detected. Checking Privileges… Developer authorization authenticated. Upgrading authorization… Worldbuilder authority stablished. Please wait, system upgrade is starting.]
"What the hell? I didn't program this…" An ominous thought suddenly appeared in Simon's mind. What if he could not use the console with this new so-called authorization? It didn't make any sense.
[Beep! System restarted. System upgrade to the Worldbuilder system successful. Initializing Worldbuilder System. Checking Privileges… Worldbuilder authority detected. You have 30,000 points to spend on character creation. Please select your race.]
"Holly Mother of…" Simon was indeed surprised. Even with the exclusive membership, the most amount of points granted should be 15,00. Why was it doubled? "Well, when in Rome do as the romans, I guess… Race options"
[Beep! Race options displayed:
Human – 0 points.
Goblin – 5 points.
Elf – 20 points.
Variant – 30 points.
Rezz – 50 points.]
The system then displayed all of the races in the game. The strange thing was, the non-playable races were also included. You could even select a Goblin. Of course, this was an important stage of the game, since you could select the race which had more affinity with the class you wanted to play as. For example, it would be almost a suicide playing as a Barbarian Elf.
"Select Human." Simon said casually. He did not want to spend to much points, and he almost definitely needed them for the following phases.
[Beep! Human selected. Beep! Conflicting data detected. Savefile detected. Reading Savefile… Jadar, Variant, Ancient Elf Soul, Level 296. Inventory Full. Residence Full. Load savefile?]
"YES!" That was the sweetest thing Simon heard since he died. After all, who wanted years of progress to just disappear like that.
[Points insufficient. 50,000 points needed for a complete load.]
"Goddammit." Simon felt like a rollercoaster. He wanted his progress, but he didn't have enough points to exchange for them. "Wait… Complete load" As Simon thought the situation might not be so bad after all, he decided to continue.
"What do you mean by a complete load? Can I exchange for parts of it?"
[Yes. Depending on the part, you can.]
"Great! Select character personal data. Level, class, skill, race and soul."
[The selected options will cost 20,000 points. Exchange?]
"Hsssss" Simon inhaled a breath of cold air. That was way too much for the character, and it did not even include the equipment. "Damn, that's way too much. Cancel the transaction.
[Transaction cancelled.]
"Now what should I do… Time is one of the things I got, so maybe I should just select the equipment and start the progress from zero. A level one player with Divine equipment… Who would've thought about it?"
[Beep! Friendly NPC signals detected inside the save. Searching location… Determined to be the signals from the servants and guardians from the Thunder Tower. Authority required decreased. 15,000 points required for the Manifestation of the Thunder Tower. All crafted items will be converted to materials. All servants will be sealed. They require Quest points to be unsealed. You can use character creation points to unseal one npc, keep three items from being reverted to materials, and select the location of the thunder tower. Quest points can be exchanged to relocate the tower at any time, given that the conditions had been met.]
"He… HeHeHeHe" Simon could not help but laugh a little maniacally and that announcement. Apart from making his life a lot easier, it also revealed the existence of Quest points. He, given his high intelligence, could easily guess what was going on. Complete quests to obtain Quest points.
[Please continue with character creation, please.]
"Oh, right." That sound brought Simon back to reality. "Exchange for the thunder tower. Unseal the npc Ranwe. Keep the following items: Ring of the Eight Dimension, a Supreme Protection Scroll, and a Target Communication Scroll. Set the location of the tower in the cell X24Y56Z6." Simon said all these with a huge grin. His plan was taking form.
[The total for all the previous requests amounts to 17,500 points, 12,500 points remaining. Please continue with character creation.]
Simon smiled and exhaled, just with that, he was pretty much all set. He could be the lowest of classes and it would not matter. But still, he had more than 12,000 points left, so he might as well.
The end product was a very interesting build. Half human and half ancestral blader. The Ancestral Elven soul and the Shadow Constitution. If any player saw this mess of a build, they would surely call foul, specially since it is a very expensive build. It should be around 8,000 points. But, for the members of 21 Thunders, it was a synonym for nightmare.
The half human side was to have a normal appearance and blend in society, but also adaptability.
It was the core part of the build, since that was the only race that could combine all of the other attributes perfectly. The Ancestral Blader was a subrace of the Ancient Humans, the first humans in Zeryann. They abandoned magic, knowledge, stealth and everything else just to excel in the way of the blades, acting as they were their limbs. This half granted an innate talent and affinity with edged weapons, specially swords and sabers. The Ancestral Elven Soul was probably the most impressive part of all, since it could improve by leaps and bounds the affinity with magic. Last and not least, since an ancestral soul was combined with an ancestral race, the special constitution was unlocked. When the game first came out this was one of the most secretive configurations in the character creation menu, giving advantage to those who knew about it or discovered it. The special constitution chosen was the Shadow Constitution. This increases in an abnormal amount the user's stealth and affinity with shadows. It was such a cheat feature that an assassin with this kind of constitution was almost untraceable and unkillable. This was the dream of every player with a rogue class.
So, basically, it did look like a mess of a build. Three characteristics for three different classes was very difficult to master, but this was exactly what Simon wanted. It was the way he played last time and the way he was going to play this time. Of course, some other traits and features were yet to be acquired, but it would not take too long.
[Character basic configurations set. Searching database… No host available. Please change your configuration or pay 200 points to freely choose the host and adapt the body to meet with the required specifications.]
"Huh?" Simon was once again startled but calmed down almost instantly. It made sense once he thought about it. He was choosing a combination way too weird, so there were no bodies in which he could be transferred. "Right, open the list of available hosts." Said Simon while frowning.
The list, which included over a million names, was way too large even for Simon to read through any time soon. So, he decided to fix it.
"Add filters. Male, under the age of twenty, over the age of sixteen, Third or later son of a noble family, not engaged, travelling alone, in close proximity to the Blackrose Magic Academy."
[Five results that fulfil the criteria. Please evaluate data and choose one.]
"Let's see here…" Simon started to read the names of the five results. It should be said, even though Simon's IQ was off the charts, he still did not remember every single detail of every npc. So, he read them all. In the end, he decided to go with Dane Revari, sixth son of Duke Revari. He had black hair and brown eyes, a completely non-descript appearance. He was the son of a Duke, so it was a person of great status, but he was the sixth son, so it was unlikely that he would ever be bothered by family. What was more important was the fact that he was in a small town called Riveredge Town, which was only about three days from Blackrose academy.
[Host selected, 3,146 points left. Please choose to continue or finish the character creation.]
"Special options. Clean the body's impurities. Clean the soul. Clean the mind. Clean the bloodline. Purify the bloodline. Maximize potential for magic, stealth, and swordsmanship. Maximize Adaptability. " Said Simon while smiling from ear to ear. This were too premium options. Each one of them was 200points at the very least, but it was worth it.
[Options completed, 1,346 points remaining. Please choose to continue or finish the character creation.]
"Finish." Said Simon very satisfied with himself. He actually looked so happy that no one would think he was choosing a body after he died.
[Host can choose to convert the character creation points to quest points in a ratio of 5:1. Host can choose to convert the character creation points to inventory points in a ratio of 1:5. Host can use quest points to upgrade himself or his abilities, host can also use quest points for unlocking special features. Host can use inventory points to buy materials, items and other things directly from the system, host can also use inventory points to convert them for gold once in Zeryann.]
"Whoa… That, I didn't expect." Simon was pleasantly surprised, so he decided to exchange 1,000 points for 200 quest points and keep the rest as inventory points.
[Character creation completed, please relax and wait for transfer. It might hurt a little bit.]
"What the…" As soon as the system stopped speaking, Simon felt a strong headache followed by a complete loss of conscience.