Transparent whitish energy exuded out of his body after stating the general transformation code, his body transforming from his human figure to the proposed game character.
This was a tranquil process, the players experienced their first transformation. It was a kind of sensation, like gentle feathers dancing across their skin.
It was a molecular transformation, working like pixels that transformed their skin and physical features into a different variation of living creatures.
This process usually takes slightly less than a minute on your first try but decreases with an increase in level.
Paxton waited patiently until the process was completed and walked over to a mirror at the far edge of his bed.
'Interesting..' he muttered as he inspected his new look.
He was very human-like, well, up to his face where the real transformation occurred.
Like his race stated, he was a Vocaloid. Humanoid creatures with the ability to transform and create sounds of different frequencies, and that had made itself evident by the shape of his mouth.
His lips had shrunk, and its mouth took a zig-zag shape, stretching all the way to the side of his neck.
He attempted to say a word, and low-frequency sounds emerged instead.
'Oh?'
Sometimes players get characters with different vocals. Something they would have to master with time with their growing strength and the aid of the server.
He attempted again, rubbing his mouth slightly, but instead, different frequencies emerged.
One after the other, starting from mid-pitch frequencies to slightly low, then slightly high.
'This is difficult….I don't think I can talk'.
He thought with a sigh, but even that escaped his mouth by a mid-pitch.
'What if I increase it a little?' He thought as he attempted to speak again, but this time, instead of his mouth slightly open as it did before. It opened wildly till the end, revealing a mouth with sharp rows of teeth and a dark-blue tongue.
His eyes stretched in startelement when a high-pitched sound suddenly emerged out of his mouth, causing the room to vibrate from the frequency.
The mirror suddenly cracked, broke and shattered, falling to the ground in shards of glass as the high-pitched sound turned into an echo that reverberated with the room.
'Shit!' he thought as he quickly clasped his mouth shut, his shock palpable as the room quietened down with a slight echo of his voice.
'....Interesting'.
He thought, but it was something else he found interesting and not the sudden high-pitched sound.
He stared at the remnant of the mirror, vivid enough to see the rest of his facial features, only slightly though.
His ears were human-size, but their tips were pointed, and most especially, his hearing was perfectly normal.
'I did hear that your characters don't carry any predicament of your human form'.
That simply meant that if a person perhaps had cancer or any form of disease, and even handicap in their human form, it wouldn't affect or carry to your game character when you transformed into it.
'It's a perk…definitely'. Well, in return you couldn't use any of the abilities, props or status of your character outside the transformation.
However, transformations sadly had a limit for Novice Players.
Players were ranked by status, beginning from Novice, Amateur, Interm, Pro and World.
Novice had time limits to their transformations, which differed by grade but it's alleviated after the game character's first upgrade.
After the character's upgrade, one could say the human form and character form are united as one.
Diseases and handicaps are replaced by the character's strong body constitution, and the Players can use their character's abilities, status and even props.
Other than his mouth and ears, his nose and eyes were the same, but his pupils had been replaced by slits, similar to beasts and feline animals.
His hair too, was a different colour and texture. When he rubbed his hair, he could feel a smooth, nearly silky nature. The kind of smoothness human hair could never achieve.
Other than the texture, the colour was different; his yellow hair was replaced by a snowy white.
'I don't look bad at all…in fact, I'm sort of handsome regardless of how my mouth looks'.
Though, he had complications with his manner of speech. He presumed the server would grant him something to help him with that.
His clothes had changed as well.
Novice players usually receive the same manner and pattern of clothes materialized with their characters.
A black T-shirt and trousers for boys and skirts for females.
They get their costumes and armour through the shop, using their credit points to purchase them or receiving prop cards after defeating Glitches.
With a satisfied nod, Paxton walked over to his bed and sat down, his gaze wandering about the room.
His vision was similar to humans, though he noticed significant changes to his peripheral vision. The colour of his surroundings was constantly changing, feeding his brain different information. Though, he couldn't understand completely.
'Status'.
The blue screen appeared in his front once again, revealing his information.
He read through it and glanced at the skills.
'Let's inspect these first'. He thought as he tapped one of his skills on screen with his intent.
-LINGUISTICS(passive)
Skill Mastery level; Mid-Novice
Skill description: You can decipher, comprehend and replicate unique and complex languages of any kind with perfect accuracy and fluency.
Number of Sounds Stored(0/30)
Skill Pixel Consumption; Nil
Skill Mastery Points; (0/10)
Paxton raised a brow in curiosity as he read over the description once again.
'This…this is a unique skill'.
There were basically thousands of languages created by living things, including humans and beasts alike. If he could decipher the sounds of any kind as it said, then there was a possibility of him learning the language of the Glitches.
'I mean…it may seem unimportant at first but understanding the attack patterns of glitches by listening to their conversations alone is a great boost'.
Well yes, every living creature communicates, whether by words or sounds, and he would be able to decipher all that and use it for himself as well.
It would be a great help when facing a horde of them or anything familiar because it is something they would never expect.
'Other than that…it's at Mid-Novice already'.
The path of mastery was similar to the path of a Player status, from Novice to World, but there was a slight difference. Each mastery was divided into low, mid and high, but they usually began at low.
'obtaining skill mastery points must be related to levelling up…like how physical stats are related to it'.
'either that or there's something else related to it'.
He had all the time to figure that out for now. After all, he was in the WPA building with all the important and necessary equipment to foster Players' growth. So with a satisfied smile, he looked over the next skill.
-ACOUSTIC(active)
Skill Mastery; Low-Novice
Skill Description: You have absolute control over the production, transmission and effects, including the analysis, enhancement and manipulation of sounds on physical and psychic planes.
Skill Pixel Consumption; 250
Skill Mastery Points; (0/10)
'This is different….is it because it's an active skill?' he wondered. 'Though, this skill itself…it should have been easier to understand from the description…but how do I use it?'
It was relatively easy to understand linguistics since it involved speech, but this seemed different.
'Like the physical manipulation of sound?'
He sat for a while, his brain spinning in overdrive as he contemplated ways to use it, but alas, it wasn't as straightforward as it seemed.
'It should be a powerful skill….but I'll have to leave it for now till I understand it better'.
After that were his three bronze skills, which he took great delight in reading them all together.
-AMPLIFIER(active)
Skill Mastery; Low-Novice
Skill Description: You can amplify the effect of a skill or physical status.
Skill Pixel Consumption; 150
Skill Effect; (×2) increase in skill or status.
Skill Mastery Points; (0/10)
-ECHO(active)
Skill Mastery; Low-Novice
Skill Description: Your kind as a Vocaloid is special. You can create echos with low and high frequencies.
Skill Pixel Consumption; 300
Skill Effect; (50 Hz- 500 Hz)
Skill Mastery Points; (0/10)
-SPEEDSTER(passive)
Skill Mastery; Mid-Novice
Skill Description: You are a son of sound, but you are not sound. You run at the speed of sound but will you be limited by it?
Skill Pixel Consumption; 5/sec
Skill Effect; 500 km/hr
Skill Mastery Points; (0/10)
After reading through, a contemplated expression crossed his face.
'From my skills….I can tell I'll be able to achieve a few things on the battlefield…for example, my speed'.
Though the description pointed out that he was as fast as sound, the figure of the skill effect said otherwise.
'...it means I'll have to work my way to the actual speed of sound'.
Other than that, the others were pretty straightforward, to the point he was excited to use it.
'I'll have to train to learn to use it better, for now…let's see those props and additional skill cards in my inventory'.