Dean spent his first day in game wondering around the beginners town and ignoring the quest prompts. He interacted with some of the NPCs and avoided the few other players he saw.
It was simply amazing to him. Since he was a high elf, his starting zone was a forest village with a fantasy castle off in the distance. He heard other players talk about ruins in the woods and saw lots of animals and birds. The NPCs were polite and somewhat predictable.
Dean strolled over to the training field and pulled his spell book out. As he was only just now starting there were only two spells listed. Magic Detect seemed obvious so he focused on the Arcane Bolt.
Arcane bolt - 5 MP per use.
Fire a bolt of pure magic at target. Damage is set by Intel amount. (Intel × 0.25) Can be upgraded or evolved by class trainer. Touch to learn how to cast.
Dean touched the spell and the book showed a gesture. He copied the movements and felt tingling at his fingertips. A purple blob covered in static arcs came from his hand and hit the ground. A transparent gauge in his sight lowered by almost a quarter.
He watched the gauge slowly climb back up and nodded to himself. At his current level he only had 20 MP. He grasped the staff and looked at it intently. "Magic Detect." He whispered.
A box appeared in his vision with information on the starter staff.
Dean practiced using the staff and his spells for an hour before calling up his character details by looking in a hand mirror. He was pleasantly surprised to find he had 5 extra stat points to spend. He used one on Stamina and put the rest into intelligence. His health gauge rose to 25 and his MP rose to 40. His basic stats were low to start with but the system had lots of beginner quests to help players grow quick and get use to the game.
Dean logged off to eat and sleep, he had a week of vacation and he was planning on spending most of it exploring the game.
Dean woke up early and ate a light breakfast before sitting in his recliner and putting the headset on. The hardware lobby showed up when he closed his eyes and he waited the required 5 minutes for the system link to finish.
VR technology had its up and downs throughout the years. The current generation used wireless and microwave technologies to directly interact with a user's brain. There were still a few horror stories of people ending up dead due to cooked brains. Those were urban legends, it was more likely death by starvation by those that modified equipment to bypass the built in timers.
The media loved to hype about the dangers of VR addiction and there were still many cases of crime involving the cyber world.
Dean had saved for 5 years to purchase the latest gear and had a little nest egg built up to support his gaming habits. The sells rep suggested the uninspiring title as it was one of the few games that took full advantage of the immersion tech. Dean paid for a basic subscription for the first year at the store.
The link finished and the hardware lobby offered him doors to choose from or a desk with a retro computer on it. Dean checked the pc that gave him his schedule for the month and allowed him to check the status of his bills, accounts, and utilities. Finding nothing out of place, he walked to a door that was labeled "Just Another RPG" and went in.
He found himself back in that room where he created his character. The voice asked him if he wished to create a new character or continue.
Dean continued and found himself back in the village. Buckling down, he started on the quests he ignored yesterday.
Five hours of game time was like 1 hour in reality. When the technology first came out many people had problems adjusting to the time difference. It was commonly referred as the dream state and became common after a few years.
Dean had completed all the probation quests that taught players how to play and the tutorials were zipped through quickly. He was finally ready to start his class quests and actually start the game.
The status screen showed him as level 10 and his stats were mainly intelligence. He kept a few points aside just in case.
Dean traveled to the village leader's house to begin the main story. A few players were standing outside and nodded to him as he entered to claim his package. The elven elders offered him boosted gear for a trip to the capital city because of his purchase of the advance system.
The players outside looked at him with jealousy when he came out and headed to the stables with a voucher for a horse. One of the female druids standing near the stables approached him as he lead the horse to the village edge.
"Hey! Are you starting the main quest?" She called to him.
Dean looked over at her courisly. She was dressed provocatively in forest colors and her long purple hair was braided and ran between her generous bosom. He glanced at the player name floating above her head.
"Crystal is it? Yeah I'm about to leave for the capital." He responded carefully.
"That's great!" She responded with a smile, "My mount got killed by a troll ambush near the river up ahead. Could you party up with me and share your mount?"
"I don't know…" Dean pondered. " Honestly I'm usual a solo player."
"Aww please?" She begged, "I'll make it worth your time, I know a few secrets that only advance system players can access…"
"How did you know I was an advance player?" He demanded.
"Your gear," Crystal pointed, "only advanced players have access to that stuff before the main quest to the capital completes."
Dean thought it over slowly. "Okay, but only to the capitol, I'm too weak for random questing in the forest right now."
"Of course!" Crystal exclaimed as she sent a party invite.
Dean accepted the prompt and mounted the horse. He extended his hand to Crystal who quickly climbed up behind him.
"It takes 4 hours on foot to get there, with your horse we can be there in two."
Dean caught his breath in his throat when he felt her breath against his ear and her chest pressed into his back. Damn this is so realistic!
He started the horse into a trot and Crystal wrapped her arms around his waist. She was quiet until the horse passed the first set of fields beyond the village and the path opened up more.
"Here's your first lesson," she whispered into his ear. Her hand caressed his thigh and settled over his crotch. "Everything is possible here for us."
Dean breathed heavily as her hands slid under his mage's robe. He was completely distracted and missed the system notification that popped up.
"Beginner's protection has ended, PVP is now possible."