Apho's POV
"Wake up, thy Fire Wielder. Your adventure shall begin"
Huh, ad--n-ur--? This... just.. a game? ri--t?
Ughhh... A dream..
"He's the last player here... He surely sleeps a lot! What a pain." A girly voice ranted nearby.
I slowly open my eyes. The light from the leaves is shining to my eyes. I have sense that I am lying down somewhere so I sit up and squint my eyes. I am just playing a game earlier.. but it really feels like this is real life.
"Ahh finally!! you're awake now!" A small girl human talked in front of my face.
I'm quite surprised on how realistic she is. My whole body is still waking up and my mind is quite cloudy. slowly, the last thing i remember is my childhood friend Yulia and I falling and... I don't know what happened after that.
"Oi oi, are you listening to me?!" She shouted to me.
My vision is clearer now so I can identify that she is not a human but rather... A fairy. I stare at her and access her small body from top to bottom. She has long lime hair, reaching till her waist. Her eyes have the color of the sea. She looks irritated towards me yet I continue to look at her with a poker face.
Her body isn't very revealing, just a yellow-greenish vest and a blue shoulder-less shirt. I can tell she has neither small nor big chest. Her legs are opposite compare to her top. A long blue skirt but the middle part of her skirt is the revealing part. It's translucent in a shade of blue. Beyond her skirt is, unfortunately not a panty, but a grayish short.
She keeps moving around because of her 4 greenish translucent wings. I look around and... I'm in a park?
"OI!! Notice me!" She shouted so loud.
Even with such small fairy she is, she has a loud voice.
"Where am I and who are you?" I asked to her.
I don't have options to say or something, but I guess I can interact anything in this game.
"So that's the first thing you will say, uhh... Apho?" She looked above my head and said my name.
"Fine, I shall introduce myself to you." She paused a little and flew away a bit.
"I am Pixi! Your personal tutorial fairy! I will help you about our world, hehe<3" She introduced herself happily then posed a peace sign on her right eye.
I stare at her and processing my mind on what she just did. She blushes a little and become furious.
"Hey! Say something about it! I just acted cute in front of you!" She ranted while flying around my head.
What an annoying tutorial fairy she is. In this new game or 'world' that she's saying, I might need her someday even though she's so loud and annoying. Well, nothing will go wrong anyway if I accept her as my 'personal' tutorial fairy.
"Sure okay. When will we start?" I casually asked her.
"H-huh? what do you mean?" She stopped in front of my face then stared at me.
"the tutorials" I said to her.
I will try to talk normally even tho they're NPCs. It seems that their AI design works on the key words of dialogue so simple interactions is much probable of adventuring this VR game.
She smiles and flies around. It took a while for her to stop again. I stand up and stretches a little. Compare from before I got here, my body becomes lighter and easier to move, completely feels like this is my body. I am just playing so nothing much to overthink about.
She flew above my shoulder and said, "Let's start, hehe"
Pixi's POV
"Finally... Second player to.. " I whispered to myself and smile then I flew above his shoulder.
"Let's go!" I exclaimed to him.
He examines his whole body. He begins to walk awkwardly around the park. After that, he begins to walk normally but he is still walking all around this park like he's searching for something. I don't even know what to do except follow this man. What is he plotting anyway? After a few minutes, he sits down on the bench, the same place where I first saw him.
"Are you done already?! I want to start so badly!" I ranted at him while flying around his head.
"What's your name again?" He suddenly asked.
Huh?? It was just a few minutes and he already forgot my name?! I stare at him with an irritated face and just let out a sigh. This guy might be hopeless after all.
"Pixi! P-I-X-I!!" I spelled out my name but he looked at me like he didn't care at all.
"Nevermind. When will you start the tutorial?" He coldly responded.
Seriously?! What's with the 'nevermind'? sigh.. now I can confirm that he is quite a hopeless player.
"Fine fine" I said to him while thinking about what to teach to this helpless man.
Maybe let's start with his character. I fly to his right shoulder and there is an icon there.
"Look here, Apho! Click this icon" I said to him.
He looks towards me and I can feel his direct stare closer now. I stare at him trying to stare down his stupid face and when he clicked it, the menu screen pops out in front of him. I fly towards it.
"This is how you access the MENU. There are 2 options you can do. You can access the first one on the right side by sliding your hand from right to left" I explained to him as he followed the instructions I said to him and he accessed his CHARACTER.
I took a long deep breath since I have a lot to explain.
"At the top-left are your character level and Experience Points. It shows your current level, current ExP, and the required ExP for you to level up." I explained to him.
He, of course, is still level 1 because he just started playing. He needs 10 ExP to level up. I fly lower down to his character level and point his character stats.
"There are 6 common stats for every player. All of these stats depend on your own character like if your body is weak, your stats are low. But in some cases, when your stats are too low, you will get a stat buff after some few days of fitness assessment" I flew around him and looked around his body while explaining it to him.
I can tell he has a fit body, not too strong yet not too weak.
"First is 'Durability'. It's your Health Points or HP in short. Your HP varies on how tough your body is" I said while pointing at his HP stat which is 110.
The average HP for a normal player is 100 but looks like his body is tougher than I expected.
"Second is 'Power'. It is how much you can damage or hurt your enemy. It varies on how much power you exerted plus the power of your weapon." I pointed at his Power stat, below the HP stat.
The average stat is 20 but his power is only 18. Well, he has weak arms but it looks like he still has some muscles and a tougher body.
"Third is 'Stamina'. This is your Magic Points or MP in short. You can use skills that require MP to do it. Your Stamina serves as your energy. The lower your MP, the more exhausted you are" I pointed to his Stamina stat that is beneath the Power stat.
His MP is also lower than the average. What's with this guy's stats? The average MP is 75 but his stat is only 50. Big difference compares to the average. Also, he doesn't even speak or react every time I explain his stats.
"Fourth is 'Speed'. This is your foot power, how fast you can be." I just continued explaining and pointed to his Speed stat, beside his HP stat.
Finally, some average stat, a speed stat which is 20
"Fifth is 'Accuracy and Knowledge'. These are 2 different stat but have great harmony with each other. That's why they are very close to each other and they need balance to use its full potential. I will explain them both someday in my tutorial" I told him as I pointed his Ac/Kn stat, below his Speed stat.
His Accuracy is on average but his Knowledge is somehow so higher compared to average, it's 1.5 times bigger. It's complicated to explain those stats immediately and experiencing it is better than explaining.
"Lastly, 'Luck'. Basically, it's just how lucky you can be in this game." And lastly, I explained his Luck stat which is just below the Ac/Kn stat.
His luck is also abnormal. Same as his Knowledge, it's 1.5 higher compare to average.
While I'm talking about his stats, I am casually looking at his face. He keeps nodding while rubbing his chin. I feel awkward explaining things to him since he's not talking, not a single word coming out of his mouth. I just continue explaining for the tutorials.
Below the stats is his Armory, the last part of this first option of the menu.
"After your stats is Armory. The Armory is customizable depending on how you wear them. As long as it is equipped to your body, it will show on your Armory. Beware though, armors can be heavy too. It has the potential to reduce your Speed." I explained to him.
Elaborating on every piece of armor will be hard since it has a lot of variation. Helmets, chests, leggings, boots, rings, capes, etc, there is a lot so it really depends on the player.
While I am explaining the armory, I noticed his necklace. The necklace I know about the players is just a normal sword. But his... the sword was enveloped inside a beautiful red crystal. And normally, the necklace is not shown at the Armory but his necklace is shown as unknown, a question mark. I'm having a deja vu just from seeing his peculiar necklace.
I shook my head to remove the thoughts about his necklace. I fly above the screen.
"Slide your hand from left to right to go back to the menu," I commanded him.
The Menu screen shows up after that.
"Now Slide left to right again to access the other option" I continued commanding him.
He just silently did what I said and accesses the second part: The Inventory.
"This is your Inventory Menu. All the items you collected will be transferred here neatly. Your inventory is limited so be aware if it's already full but you can upgrade it to have larger space." I explained to him then I flew to the top left of the screen.
"Silver coin is the universal currency of this world. Use it to buy some things like a weapon, armor, etc. However, Gold is also a universal currency. The difference is Gold worth a hundred times larger than Silver." I explained to him.
He's back at his nodding-rubbing-his-chin look which is kind of irritating. There is only one last part to explain to him so I felt relieved. I fly slightly lower and point to the inventory box, which is if you think about it, its self explanatory.
"This is your inventory. It can be sorted into 4 factions: Weaponry, Armor, Potions, and Raw Materials" I told him with a sprinkle of laziness.
I stretch a little because finally, I am done with the character menu.
"With this, you should start your journey now. I will just guide you wherever you want to go" I said to him then flew to his left shoulder.
After he takes a step, the menu automatically closes.
"What's my goal here?" He suddenly asked.
I giggled a little and said, "That's the essence of adventure, you have to find out for yourself"
-To Be Continued