As soon as morning came around, Leo woke up, freshened up and ate a nutrition pack for breakfast. After making sure that there was no emergency at the company, he loaded the capsule with a few more nutritional packs and linked his terminal, then he finally entered his new customised capsule.
As soon as the capsule closed, he found himself surrounded by complete darkness and the sounds all around him started to fade. Soon enough though, he was floating in an empty space while listening to the system prompts that started coming.
[Welcome to the system space. The system detected that you are a new user. Would you like to proceed to character creation page?]
"Yes"
From what Leo knew, this is the first step required to enter the game. Each user only had access to a single character at any given time, and the only way to change it was to completely restart the game. In order to help the users, the system could analyse the body structure, IQ and tendencies of the player in order to narrow down the hundreds of options available. So he didn't bother too much and waited for the system's verdict.
[Analysing user abilities and tendencies. Analysis completed. The user's highest attributes are intelligence, charisma and wisdom. The user's tendencies have been determined to be chaotic. Would you like the system to suggest some species and classes that suits the user?]
"Go ahead"
With a relaxed posture and a slight smile, Leo waited for the system's suggestions. As for being shocked or outraged about the system's analysis like so many before him? There was no such thing. After all, Leo knew himself well and recognised that this description suited him perfectly.
After getting his masters degree at the age of 20, Leo started working in a managerial position in his families corporation. While he could have done so earlier, after weighting the pros and cons, he decided that this was a decent compromise between what he and his father wanted.
It is well known that his father has always had the corporation as his number 1 priority, being a workaholic through and through. Leo, on the other hand, were it not for his high intellect, would greatly resemble one of those rich second generation bullying punks that were everywhere during his high school days.
Fortunately for him and unfortunately for them, he has long learned how to mask his actual tendencies, to the extent that only his very close friends, and maybe their spouses, knew how much of a vindictive, close minded thug he really was. After all, he made sure that his father's beloved corporation didn't even get a 1% increase in revenues for 5 years after the man missed his middle school graduation.
Having said that, it's no wander that the system decided that his alignment tended toward chaos. He had plenty of experience causing mayhem and making his business rivals and allies lose their money, time and braincells, upfront or otherwise. Over 20 years of experience actually.
And those are only his more legal ventures. When considering his other channels, Daren probably didn't really have an easy life after he died. That's really why he never bothered to think about how to get revenge against his father and brother. After all, despite how he appeared to Vincent, not only was he not resigned, but his temper was also not that good. He has never really been that much of a pushover.
Actually, if they knew the plan that he concocted and was about to implement after that night, his father and brother would go to hell and back to take revenge against him. Thankfully, it was him who got back, else that stupid duo would make him waste even more time.
[Determining suitable options for the user to chose from:
Dusk Elf Warlock
Dusk Elf Wizard
Dusk Elf Dark Priest
Vampire Wizard
Vampire Warlock
Vampire Dark Priest
Shade Warlock
Shade Wizard
Shade Dark Priest
...
]
"Vampire Wizard sounds interesting. Let's go with it."
[Generating Avatar according to the user's choices. The user may slightly modify the generated avatar. Please say continue after finalising your modifications.]
As soon as the system finished saying this, light particles started gathering, slowly forming a figure that slightly resembled him. In order to protect the players, the system takes the user's actual face and figure, adds the racial characteristics and processes the final result until it becomes difficult to recognise the user by their physical characteristics.
As soon as the process finished, Leo begun admiring this new avatar of his.
His eyes were the same vivid green and his skin almost completely lacked colour, revealing that the person has never been exposed to sun in his life. His hair was a dark blonde, slicked back in a manner which gave him a sophisticated, yet unrestrained air. He was unbelievably attractive, but just as dangerous, something made glaringly obvious by the pair of long, sharp fangs that become visible whenever he smirked.
After checking out his overall physical characteristics, he took a deep breath and started trying out different expressions and demeanours. From playboy, to serious elite, to shy college student, it took him only a second to change to an entire different persona. He was used to it after all. As soon as he finished checking out his avatar's adaptability, he showed a satisfied smile and told the system to continue.
[Generating character status window. Please wait a moment.]
[Due to the constrains of the class, all the other attributes other than Intelligence and Charm have been preset and the extra points have been redistributed to your main attributes.]
[The Status Window as well as any other system options can be accessed by the user by calling them in your mind. ]
[Which territory would you like to join?]
"Moonlight Empire"
[As a new user you have been automatically assigned to the Magic Academy in the Tohen Town of the Moonlight Empire. You can take any classes available at the Academy for a fee. Good luck user in your adventures!]
As soon as the system finished saying this, Leo was enveloped in a bright white light that forced him to close his eyes. When he opened them, he found himself in a lecture hall with hundreds others surrounding him. Human, Elf, gnomes, shades and many more races have gathered together. Some were talking to their friends, some were exclaiming in wander at the realistic medium while others were just quietly looking at the front of the room.
On a podium in front of the auditorium stood a tall, slender and very graceful elf. He had light skin, dark blue hair and eyes, with a few flex of gold and a very bright and outgoing feeling. Looking around, the elf slightly hit the ground with his staff to grab the attention of his new students and started his introduction.
"Greetings, dear future mages of the Moonlight Empire. My name is Ithil, and I'll be your guide for as long as you stay in this academy. Just as the warriors start their journey in the barracks or the clerics must learn the teachings of their god, we mages must grasp the magic theory and its application, for only when we understand the laws of nature will we be able to alter them as we please. This course is an introductory of all the academy has to offer you. When you feel prepared, you may complete the exit procedures and venture outside the academy's walls."
Ithil, one of the Great Mages of the arcane school of magic, is a highly respected individual in the Moonlight Empire, as well as the principal of the Magic Academy. He is also the instructor for the mages and warlocks in the introductory period. In fact, the entire academy can be considered as a tutorial for the players who have chosen those 2 classes.
In the academy, there are primary lessons for each of the magic schools available to players: elemental magic, conjugation magic, illusion magic and many more. Each player can pick a magic class to learn for free as benefit provided by the system. If a player wants to pick up a secondary class, he or she would have to pay a tax of 100 gold coins for every magic school they want to learn.
In addition to magic lessons, there are also secondary and auxiliary lectures to pick from.
The secondary lessons are what it is commonly known as production jobs. From all the jobs available in Mundus, the academy teaches those that it considers suitable for mages, like alchemy and scroll engraving. For the mages who wish to learn blacksmithing or ship building, they should try their luck later in the outside world.
On the other hand, auxiliary lessons are small classes divided into many categories. They can be about this world's common sense, such as traditions, geographical areas or history, or, more commonly, knowledge required for one of the primary or secondary lectures, such as botanics and monster guides.
Usually, all the classes have some of those auxiliary lessons as prerequisite requirements.
In addition to the Academy, the entire Tohen Town is a tutorial area for players of the Moonlight Kingdom and once you leave it is impossible to return. The town contains all the necessary amenities for the players to start getting used to the controls as well as get the equipment, skills and information required to determine their future path of action.
Everything for a fee, of course. In fact, there exists a trade area in the tutorial, as well as various other places within the game, that can exchange real money to gold.
From the perspective of the ordinary players, the gold is in a fixed amount, but that's not the case at all. Various individuals and corporations with ample funds have access to 'unlimited trading'.
Despite the fact that the actual exchange ratio is 10 times poorer than normal trading, it is a very popular area in the beginning of the game and one of the best hidden secrets. While it might be unfair for the poorer players, in fact, this was a method the government used to put some of the money the richest people in the world have been hoarding back in circulation.
"Well, I hope that everything has been made clear and you all enjoy the time you have here at the Academy. Upon enrolment, each of you has received a bracelet that will allow you to interact with the facilities here while you are our students. I wish you all good luck."
And with this, Ithil disappeared from the podium, marking the official start of the game.