Prywmen, the renowned capital city of Dectum, and the first major Player hub in Vansia. Every player starts their journey in this grand castle town, and many choose to return here quite regularly due to its familiarity and countless high quality shops and events for any point in a Player's journey.
Close to its centre, a large open air temple stood atop a raised platform, stairs leading directly to the town square. A statue of the Goddess Evuna stands atop it, and all around this statue are beams of light shining down on the grounds surrounding it.
As these lights dissipate, new Players stand in their wake. Upon release, this area was filled with blinding lights constantly, so much so that many thought the first area of the game was a bright white void. Now, it is much more tame, but still rather active as new Players join the game daily still.
One such player stands on this platform, looking around the city they stand in. Short, with violet hair covering golden golden eyes, they are the only Player standing there wearing nothing but drab cotton. Some Players walking by who missed the light show wonder if they were scammed, or got robbed by PK-ers, but continue on in their business.
Slate was looking around at the city from the platform. It was expansive, so much so that the edges of it could only be seen because the borders of this place are marked by magnificent gigantic walls that stretch higher than the castle itself, which was equally impressively grand even from a distance. They weren't just admiring the city though - they were looking for something.
Slate had done their best to avoid any information about the game, wanting a completely blind experience, but still learned a few things they couldn't help but hear. One of the few things they learned was a common guide from veteran players, parroted from any and every journalist around: 'New Players should attune to the monument in Prymwen, then head straight to the Library nearby. It unlocks basically all basic mechanics for QoL (Quality of Life, for those who touch grass) and the basics for any class build you want.'
Following this advice, they moved towards the centre first to attune to the Monument, a large dark stone obelisk surrounded by flowers. The stone hummed slightly and glows with a soft light. Slate walked close to it, and a menu box popped up i front of them.
"Please touch the Monument to attune to it."
They touched the stone. It was surprisingly warm, and incredibly smooth despite looking like ordinary stone. The soft light become more intense for a moment, before subsiding and gaining a light blue hue to it.
"You have attuned to the
"You have attuned to your first Monument! New features unlocked!"
"'Map' has been unlocked. 'Fast Travel' has been unlocked. 'Discovery Log' has been unlocked."
This is the main emergent system in Vansia Online, which Players hotly debate on whether or not it improves or impedes the game. Most every feature, outside of 'Inventory', the basics of 'Status', and some general 'Settings' needs to be discovered in the game world.
Slate opens up the new 'Map' section of their menu, and it displays a simple top-down view of where they have been so far. It currently only shows where Slate is, and the name of the city they're in. 'Fast Travel', while unlocked, can't be used since it travels to key locations such as Monoliths, and Slate is stood right next to the only monolith they have unlocked. The 'Discovery Log' contains information of what was unlocked by the Player and when, and any other significant tidbits of information of happenings, such as rare item drops or events they player participated in. This, too, is empty for Slate. In time, all of these things would be much more full.
"This looks like a library, right?" Slate looked up at the large gothic building. Many Players and Non-Players alike moved in and out of the tall building, making it one of the busier places in the town centre. Inside, the true splendour shines. Walls lines with thousands of books raising up over three floors all visible straight from the entrance.
"Excuse me…"
"Hm? Oh, a newbie right? Ask at the counter for advice for new Players, they'll direct ya from there. Have fun, kid."
"Ah, thank you."
The tall burly Player patted Slate's shoulder and walked through into the library. He had broad shoulders and wore a set of simple half-plate armour, with metal covering the chest and shoulders and a leather set underneath. Every player wore armour of varying types, most wore lighter armour and full sets of plate were rare. Mages wore light armours, and as it was the most popular class by far in the game they were very common. In fact, it was quite strange seeing a warrior who's not a beginner Player inside the library, though Slate didn't know this.
Slate walked to the librarian, a short brunette girl in a neat green dress, and was directed toward a book on the centre of the first floor. It lay open on a small pedestal on the first page: It read 'Ethan's guide to Prymwen - A travel guidebook by Ethan the Explorer'. The pages were slightly yellowing and looked worn. Slate carefully touched the page to turn it, and was met with another cluster of messages from the system.
"You have found a map of the area! Your 'Map' has now been updated."
"New Named Locations have been discovered! Your 'Map' has been updated."
"You have learned about materials! 'Materia Log' has been unlocked and updated."
"You have learned about monsters! 'Monster Log' has been unlocked and updated."
"Woah." Slate was taken aback by all the sudden alerts.
"Incredible, isn't it? Players can gain such information so quickly that they don't even need to read the books they seem to instantly understand. Though I would recommend you read it still, it's a fun book." Slate turned to the woman speaking to them. She had her dark black hair in a thin ponytail, and slim spectacles sat on her face. Her eyes were shadowed by dark circles as she scanned to book in her arms.
"Ah, sorry, I'm Ris. I work on the lower floors here. If you come across any interesting books, we'll see each other again. And, if you do want to read that, there are about 12 of them on that shelf over there." Ris pointed up to a nearby bookshelf. She spoke with a clear but quiet voice.
"Um, thank you. I'm Slate." Slate grabbed a copy of the book, and Ris nodded before walking away.
"Enjoy, Slate."
Slate sat on one of the many tables and looked at the book they just picked up again. A green hardcover with a gold pattern, with simple text on the front the same as the first page. The spine simply read 'Prymwen - Ethan' in fine golden text, and the back was blank.
'Sure, I've got nothing better to do. Plus the library is nice.' They thought.
First, they checked out the new features they unlocked. Their Map had expanded to cover the entire city, and a small area outside the walls. Not only was the city now named, but many stores and buildings were now named. The library was found to be called, rather creatively, 'Prymwen Public Library'. The new Materia and Monster Logs only contained a few pieces of information each. The Materia Log opened to a large grid, a few squares having icons of materials. Simple things, like bones and slime drops from monsters, cloth, stones, and herbs were logged in. Each had basic info on the item listing where they came from and how they are obtained.
The Monster Log looked the same, only it had fewer entries and listed creatures instead. Immediately surrounding Prymwen were skeletons called Grey Bones, found in graveyards, Foul Dogs, small dog creatures with tusks jutting sideways from their mouths around forest edges, Slimelets, tiny gelatinous blobs found all around, and Skrats, tiny bipedal rat-like gremlins who use tools and roam wooded areas.
After flicking through the new features, Slate leaned back in their chair. The library was surprisingly comfortable and quiet, despite the high traffic of people. Rays of sun shone through windows along the back wall, and the whole place was further lit by rows of crystals in scones which radiated soft light.
Unlike most, Slate wasn't particularly excited about Vansia Online, so they didn't quite know what to do. Since everyone sang it's praises, and talked about how free the game was to play how you want, they figured they'd give it a try and challenge both themselves and the game at the same time. If it was as free as they say, they wondered how much they could play if they never levelled up their character? Initially they didn't care much for it, but grew attached to the prospect of playing such a challenge, so they bit the bullet and bought a capsule. So while most players were making a mad dash towards the wilderness areas to fight monsters, Slate was relaxing in a library reading a book.
-
"Oi Cid, you done passing off that book yet? We got dungeons to run, man!" A fiery haired girl wearing large aggressive gauntlets and layers of leathers and cloth stood outside the Prymwen Library yelled out to her companion.
"Calm yerself down, Juni, I only took a second. And it's 'Elcid'! How many times I gotta say it?" The tall burly Player responded, ducking out from the library doors.
"Yeah yeah, whatever." Juni punched Elcid on the arm. "Who were you talking to in there? Another fan of those ginormous shoulders?" An impish grin spread on Juni's face.
"Shut it, you. Nah, looked like a lost newbie so I pointed 'em in the right direction. Reckon they read Fire's guide since they had nothin' on 'em."
"Ugh, that NERD. He likes numbers too much."
"You're jus' mad he don't like yer plans of 'punch 'em' when we fight bosses."
"Yeah, because we shouldn't NEED a plan that's all 'do this, then do that, then you go there, yadda yadda yadda'. It's so BORING! We should just go in fists BLAZING!"
"When ya go in fists blazin' I'm the first ta die, so no on that one. C'mon, the others should almost be done."
The duo walked off into the town. Surrounding Players noticed their names: