The countdown vanished from his view as the entire empty space slowly filled with a digitally constructed field.
The sky and ground being created pixel by pixel until they slowly became sharper before finally reaching hyper realism.
A small mote of light began to form a few feet in front of him until a little fairy creature appeared but it looked more like an ai's digital representation of a person with wings made of pixelated code.
"Welcome player, i am your companion system and i will guide you in the process of making your character. First things first let us scan you as part of your registration."
He knew from the trailers what to expect but there was actually nothing visual to see what was happening.
"Scan complete. User: Ezekiel(male) has been registered. Please select a race, do note that every race can use a majority of the classes but many races have natural aptitude for certain classes."
A pannel appeared before him with the names of the various races, he selected the first one which was human and a description appeared as well as a physical representation like a 3d model of his human self appeared before him.
"Humans:
Natural affinity- none
Racial trait- quick learning (increase skill leveling speed by 10%)
Base lifespan- ~100 years
Stat bonus on level up- none, 10 free stat points.
The most common race in the world and with such a widespread race the potential has been diluted severely but with enough effort humans can become natural prodigies."
He shook his head and seemed uninterested.
This was a fantasy game and if he was going to play a fantasy game why would he play the most mundane race?
Scrolling through the other races on the list he mainly saw what the game referred to as species, essentially default of the race.
The exact list was: human, elf, dwarf, beastfolk, giants, tauren, goblinoid, seafolk, fey, lizardfolk, fiends and celestials.
Certain races were grey though and would not respond to his selection.
"Hey uh... why cant i see some of these?"
"Query: why are some species unselectable.
Answer: your physical and psychological analysis indicates that these races would not function with the player."
"The species of: tauren, beastfolk, giant, dwarf and lizardfolk are species that if the player would select would have no compatible bloodlines."
"Oh... uh i see."
He returned to looking at the list of what he could choose from and began to notice a common theme.
The fey, elf, seafolk, fiend and celestial species were all magically inclined based on their description while the goblinoid, human, elf and fey were all agile races.
With this in mind he realized that the game was pushing him towards a few categories for playstyle by default which he was mildly annoyed by but he did seem interested since the game apparently used his actual biology and psychology to make these decisions.
Eventually after looking at it for quite some time he was down to two potential choices.
"Fey:
Natural affinity- life
Racial trait- life weaver (inherent 10% life affinity)
Base lifespan- ~1500 years
Stat bonus on level up- +1 agility, +2 wisdom, +2 intelligence, 5 free stat points."
The systems explanation of the fey was interesting but it wouldn't really give him much more information, also starting with its magical affinity seemed interesting.
As he thought about it he realized that basically every race that had any magical inclinations began with an elemental affinity as their racial trait.
He remembered how the female actress in the trailer always said that a bloodline that gave a free affinity was a low tier one so he questioned if it was better than something like increased skill leveling speed.
Eventually he just looked at the infernal race and quit overthinking everything.
"Infernal:
Natural affinity- fire
Racial trait- hellborn (inherent 10% fire affinity)
Base lifespan- ~500 years
Stat bonus on level up- +4 wisdom +1 intelligence, 5 free stat points."
"Hey ai whats the difference between wisdom and intelligence?"
"Query: clarification on statistics; wisdom and intelligence.
Answer: intelligence increases magical damage and increases skill leveling speed. Wisdom increases spell casting proficiency and spell comprehension speed."
Frowning at the response he noticed that the infernal leaned very heavily into magic.
The more he thought about it the more he started to get curious about magic since that was always the most fantastical aspect of the fantasy genre and if he were to select the infernal race he could learn magic more easily than players who did not choose it.
He could also supplement his lower intelligence boost using his free stat points.
"I choose the infernal!"
After selecting his species he heard a ding noise before he saw his body changing in that same pixelated way as the area had appeared in.
Before long he had the outline of a slender body with skin that had a slight red hue and a tail swaying around his feet.
"Detection and assignment of bloodline beginning."
After a few seconds the little ai made another noise.
"Bloodline compatibility detected, seeking authorization from central authority."
After another second or two the ai flashed green.
"Authorization of bloodline confirmed. Applying bloodline to player avatar."
What happened next was a little surprising as the previously normal body with a red hue was now taking on certain things that heavily resembled black tattoos.
"Bloodline: Child Of The Abyss. (Inherent 10% shadow affinity.)"
After seeing the result he just groaned in defeat.
"Oh come on! Elemental affinity bloodlines are low tier! God my luck is bad."
While Ezekiel was making the finishing touches of his character another person was already done with theirs.
"Alright then, im ready to get this new life going straight to the top!"
A man with golden hair and majestic white wings soon dove off the edge of a cliff into the sky below where he could see the ground far beneath these floating mountains.
Alexander had not chosen the celestial in his original life but shockingly his bloodline he had before was still possible to obtain with it.
"Regeneration- recover 1% of max health and stamina every 10 seconds."
This bloodline had made him a solo powerhouse in his past life as an orc but now he was headed on the path of the celestial.
He knew that if he wanted to evolve his cherub race to the hidden archon race he would have to get his physical stats to the level he desired before it would even show up in his evolution tab.
He just had to boost his stats to that point before level 10.
He continued flying for as long as he possibly could to gain the title he desired.
Where the others tried to practice their flight for as long as possible Alexander instead burned his stamina dry every time to make his speed as fast as he could.
In the past it was discovered that the most efficient way to level up flight was to sacrifice your stamina and fly as quickly as possible.
After a few hours of flying over and over at maximum speed his flight skill leveled up.
Celestial flight- 1 -> 2
This was going to be a long day.