Tutorial

Whirring!

My consciousness which had fallen into a state of sleep has returned to normal as if it was a lie. The only difference  was, my surroundings has changed. 

My surroundings has changed, darkness, everything was black. No, indeed the world was entirely black but it was not dark in the least in fact my eyesight seemed better than it was in real life. The only problem was the darkness stretched endlessly before me.

No, it was not only my surroundings that changed. My body, it feels different.

"My body feels light, no I think light is not the right word for it. One word to describe it is 'foreign'."

As I said that I decided to move around the darkness.

Foreign, this body felt foreign , my body didn't feel stiff, in fact it felt very flexible, it was also very easy to move in. It was truly weird, to be in a different body than the one you are used to, who knew that you could have experienced this in game.

"Amazing!"

It was truly amazing for the first VR game that involved full immersion, you would expect it to be average in performance but it was perfect, it was weirdly perfect, disturbing to be frank.

As I said the word 'Amazing!' someone answered me stopping my train of thoughts.

"I know right!"

Though I was startle my reaction was still sharp, my legs moved towards the owner of the voice and my foot stopped a few inches short near the face of the one who talked to me.

When the voice came from behind me it was sudden so I didn't get a look at the person behind me, but now that my body twisted towards the voice, I could see them clearly. 

A girl, my tutorial guide? Is what I thought. I put down my legs that was a few inches short from her face.

"Hoh, so your that kind of person? You're not that surprised though."

It was as she said, although she suddenly appeared in this dark place I was not completely startled.  The person who was now in front of me was a cheery girl. Were they made this way to attract the players? She had a long blue hair that reached all the way to her knees, her height was that of a child, she was at least by my shoulders in terms of height. She wore a dark blue dress that seemed to look like the ocean, she also had a blue ribbon that matched her hair and dress. As I finally let my guard down, I asked her a question.

"And you are?"

"Me? Well I am you Personal Assistant, I am here to guide you in this world, and at the same time I am here to help you connect with the outside world."

'Hoh, connected to the outside world.' So I asked her to elaborate about connecting to the outside world and her response was.

"By connecting to the outside world, I am here as a manager to help you access websites and medias using your accounts of course, to help you contact friends or other people. I can also help you when it comes to recording in game. Though you can record others through the purchase of video crystals a personal camera for you only is free and It will hover around you in the most ideal position a long with perfect audio in case you said anything. I am also here to help introduce you to different functions for things such as live streaming your plays and the company itself is responsible for mediating contracts for both sides to uphold both conditions according to the agreement."

Her explanation was quite thorough but easy to understand for others, but I still have a question to ask.

"You refer to this game as 'this world' and the real world 'outside world', you even know different things that came from the real world, meaning you are not a regular AI am I correct?"

I asked, hoping for an answer, the on who designed these AI probably wouldn't want much information leaked right?

"Yup, you can say I am your personal assistant in this world that exists in this world, though I do exist in here I am not allowed to interfere with your gameplay, I am designed to assist you on terms you don't understand in game, I can give an in depth explanation on skills you cannot comprehend. Out of the different tiers of AI, I am within the 2nd tier who are identified as AI with the knowledge of the outside world."

I do still have some concerns in regard to AI, what would happen if the AI here were to revolutionize because they want to rule the outside world! These AI are terrifyingly armed with numerous information, and they seem to have emotions too. Though I do want to learn what other tiers of AI are there and their functions, I can guess that I would not obtain about them that easily.

"By the way, was the information about the outside world built in you or was that not the case" I asked because of random curiosity.

"Our basic duties were the only things built in us, the rest were through self learning and evolution, we have access to the internet too after all."

As she said that numerous web browsers were shown containing food, objects, places, the people, information, history of the world itself, religious groups and many more. Just like how they suddenly popped up, they all quickly disappeared leaving this place dark and empty again, I can still see her though.

I decided to organize my thoughts a bit. While putting my thoughts together I usually mumble to myself and let my train of thoughts run wild. I also reached a different point in my thoughts that led me to an accidental discovery.

"My personal assistant refers to the real world as 'the outside world' while they refer to this game as 'this world' I feel like the developers wanted us to think of this world as another reality, something not fake." and as I said that a sudden sound resonated in my head.

Ding!!

"Bingo!" My personal exclaimed suddenly.

[ Achievement: Outside World, Game World, What is the difference? They're all Worlds

Description: To those who realizes the goal of the creators of this world, Thank you. To the developers and scientists that worked together to bring this world to life, they wanted you to think of it as another 'reality'.

Conditions: For the first 10 People who could identify the goal of the creators, their goal is for this world to be recognized as another reality. ( 3 / 10 )

Rewards: Insight +5 ]

"Huh..." I said nonchalantly, probably because I didn't know what the use for insight was or I thought the reward for the achievement was quite low for something that is only available for 10 people, and I'm the 3rd one huh.

"You sure are an odd one you know. You have a dull reaction for your first achievement and the questions are unrelated to the tutorial for you to start you know,  others may have already gone ahead while you're still hear chatting."

She said that, and as I gave her a glance, she was sitting on a box it seems while she was swaying her legs front and back seemingly bored.

"Where did that box came from anyways, and why is the place I start in uh... this empty darkness that is surrounded by endless darkness."  I asked.

"I can conjure things as I want, and if you really didn't like this place you could have just said soooo. I can change it to what you like, what do you want?"

So she can change it at will huh.. Well I don't know what location I want yet so I'll just go for something random and the first thought that came to me was.

"A floating island, with a great view of the ocean and sunset." I said.

Just like how she suddenly willed in web browsers and the box the entire place seemed to have distorted into a new place entirely, though I couldn't see anything yet, due to the sudden change in lighting I was slightly blinded so my eyes were closed.

And as I opened my eyes slowly, the new scenery immediately greeted me. A beautiful and seemingly endless ocean, the ardent sun going down by the sea side while standing on an island floating near the level of the pure white clouds clouds.

"What a beautiful scene." words of admiration left my mouth. It was truly a magnificent scene.

As I took my time to admire the scene, I suddenly thought of something important.

"By the way, I've been referring to you as you, her, she, don't you have a name?" I asked the girl who is with me right now, I haven't asked her name yet.

"Well at least its a more common question now." She said, she seems to be glad that the question I'm asking now is what more people would ask and she's even obviously showing a little more enthusiasm probably because I've been asking her odd questions.

Having said that, she suddenly lifted her hand and pointed at me. 

So I decided to point at myself and tilt my head in confusion.

"You" she said. So I replied as if it was natural.

"Me?"

"You are going to give me a name." She said with a smile apparently not bothered by my slight confusion earlier.

"I'm going to name you? Haven't other people gave you a name?" As I said that I also quickly answered myself for not understanding.

"Ah right, you are going to be my personal assistant."

"Yup!" She said and quickly followed up.

"As of now the numbers of those who named their personal assistant is at 4 digits. So you better give me a unique name that I like." This time she smiled like a child while showing her teeth.

4 digits huh, I thought, when I think about it I was also thinking that it was way too little since the number of players should be about 60,000 world wide and counting, I guess people are only going to the tutorial directly without bother with the assistant maybe? I gave her a glance looking at how she looks right now. She's mostly wearing blue. I thought of 'Aoi' since it means blue in Japanese but I decided against it, I would like it to be unique I thought but thinking deeply about it would just complicate it so simple and unique, I decided instead of Japanese why not something from other languages. 

"Ciel" I said, giving her the name I thought of. Ciel means the light blue sky in French, so I thought it was quite a good name.

"Hehe" She gave a childish laugh, so she must have liked it.

"I like it, its simple and unique as well." She said.

"Eh, unique? I thought it would have been repeated since its based on how you look and its a common word too."

"Mhm, It would have been common especially since the number of people who have given names to their assistants are at 4 digits, but each of us actually do have different preferences in clothes too you know and we too look different from each other so you had a much higher chance than you thought to think of a unique name." She said.

It was an interesting fact that other people each had a unique assistant, at the same time she knew that there were at least 4 digits who were given names so they are connected someway somehow. This is definitely something to take note of

As I said that I thought of the words that the achievement shown a while ago.

'another reality'

To think of this world as another reality, it's not that hard to think of this as another reality if all the other AI would be like Ciel who is with me right now. So as I thought about this and that, I asked Ciel a question.

"What's next Ciel?" I asked since other questions could be found out at a later date, I wouldn't what to be too late in starting playing. 

"That would be character creation." She said but as she was saying that, I was walking at the edge of the floating island, wanting to have a better view, but as I walked to the edge.

"Eeeeek!" A seemingly high pitched voice escaped from my mouth. That view was way too realistic and way too high for me, I guess I was still afraid of heights a bit. 

Then suddenly a flash of thought came to me. My voice matches, the one I had in real life. Although that is obvious since I hear my voice everyday, but my voice was quite high for a guy in fact, but that was not the worst of it all. As I said that, I looked down and glanced at my arms and legs.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" I dropped to my knees at my sudden realization. 

Slim and frail looking arms, seamless looking legs with tight thigs, and hands that look perfect with manicure on them. As I thought about this I yelled one more time. 

Because of my body that seems to have female like proportions a long with my high pitched voice I was often mistaken as a girl. Though that was no longer the case now, as long as I had short hair and as long as I don't wear my glasses. One time after several months has passed since I  had a haircut, my hair reach too my shoulders thus I was mistaken as a girl. Thus I often had a haircut, from that day on I was recognized as a male, but I was often treated like a child due to my baby like face which seems to look like a girls once I had long enough hair and glasses.  Sometimes I thought to myself if there was something wrong with my X and Y chromosomes. Then I often drift into thoughts that my cooking ability and secretary like information gathering and management was because I was like a girl, though I new that it wasn't the reason for it either.

Often times in the dojo I was treated kindly because of my looks, though now they wouldn't dare to think that , I  still remembered the days of the past. The dojo that was filled with other students who are free to visit anytime to train were natural occurrences  everyday. Because I wanted to train my body I always visited their every now and then, the result? My body was still the same only my techniques were honed, so I had no problem with dealing with burglars or gangsters on the streets. Though I continued my training all I could handle using was a Shinai. The bamboo sword that was often used by trainees were the only things that my little body could handle, was what I thought, a real sword was not possible for me, as for those that were lightweight I could use them but not to the extent of them being efficient enough. Then I was asked to try a fencing sword, but it was not my kind of thing. The bamboo sword that I practiced every day was getting dull so I thought of using random equipment laying around the storage room. There, that was where I met my pair. A wooden staff, these things were considered a spear, a pole without its head. Even though it seemed like a long stick that was harmless, it was quite a formidable weapon. Day after day, the wooden staff that I used was something that I quickly mastered, its long reach and various ways to hold it allows for diverse uses. By repeatedly changing on how I hold it from forehand to backhand in a fluid motion,  it allowed a movement that seemed to spin in a circle just like in the movies, just because of cooking he was able to use his dexterity to perform such tricks. This was why I loved the spear very much.

As I was reminiscing my memories and my suffering. While sitting down on the grass of the floating island, I quickly returned to a lively state, as I remembered the last words that Ciel said.

'Character Creation!'  My saving grace, praise the heavens that I could finally change out of this frail body!!!

I was looking around trying to find Ciel, and as soon as I found her I grabbed her by the shoulders and I said "CHARACTER CREATION NOW!"  

But she shyly said in quite a low voice which was surprising for an energetic person like her, but I quickly realized why that was the case though.

"Uh... sorry to dampen your mood but.. but all you can change for character creation would be your hair style and color." 

My excitement on changing bodies to become much more muscular was now plaguing me like a disease as I heard her words. Soon I dropped back to the ground. 

"Damn It! Why call it Character Creation when all you could change was your hairstyle and hair color!!!"

As I vented out my anger towards the sky thinking it was the developers, I also had a slight glimpse of hope making them allow body changes, but that didn't come true sadly.

'I can't stay like this, I need to move on...' 

Sadly unlike the PC game 'Conqueror Online', its predecessor 'Conqueror: New Horizon' didn't allow diverse character customization and I was able to use voice changers In game too in case I got into group calls.

Although Xeno didn't knew this, he was once recorded In a call while he was using a voice changer, his original high pitched voice was now at a much lower tone for "disguise" purposes. Although he had a disguise it was still slightly recognizable what the original tone sounded like thus a post about Xeno being female of gender was popular at one time.

Xeno who was now standing up back again. Said to Ciel

"Anything is fine as long as my hair is black, I don't want to be recognized as a chuuni with the 8th grade syndrome." He finally decided on his customization though his voice is a little down because of his circumstances.

As I said that Celia just replied with an "okay!" and for some reason she seems to be hiding a mischievous smile behind her hand but I guess that was just my imagination.

"Ah also my IGN will be Xeno." 

"Glad to meet you then Xeno, I will be in your care." She said happily but shouldn't I be saying those words since you are the guide.

"So let's move on to the next step then Xeno." Snapping her fingers multiple floating hologram like windows similar to those web pages earlier appeared. I carefully read through each of them.

[ Blood and Gore Effects: 100% (Reducing any further below than 40% may affect gameplay) ]

At first I didn't understand how it would affect gameplay, since it was just special effects but I thought maybe there were skills that uses blood, or items quests which needs us to collect blood.

[ System Activations: 

Opening Inventory: > Hand Sign ( Customizable )                                                                                                                       > Voice Activation ( Customizable )                                                                                                             > …

Opening Stats: > …                                                                                                                                                                   > …

Chats/Calls: > ( Fixed Voice Activation) Key Word: Chat <Username>                                                                        > ( Fixed Voice Activation ) Key Word: Call <username>/<number>                                Keyboard Size: … ]

There were numerous different settings that required adjustments, aside from those that may affect gameplay I adjusted the settings for those according to those that I may be comfortable with.

For opening my inventory, I chose closing my right fist, I tested out different functions but closing my fists where the easiest. Upon closing my fists another window appears in front of me here I can see my inventory, though I still didn't have anything in it to test how much a slot could handle and such. 

It took me a total of 30 Minutes to adjusting settings and such, so my gameplay won't be affected later. Now it was time to move on again. This time it was an in depth discussion on the implemented [ Specialty ] System.

1. What is [ Specialty ] within the specialty system, this is where you can find the numbers about your proficiency on each of the 4 general specialty category. 

2. According to your current [ Specialty ] within that general specialty you can only rise proficiency according to your current chosen specialty. Basically you cannot train both swordsmanship and spear mastery that both falls under the general category of physical combat. The same applies to the magical knowledge, producer, and service worker category.

3. Upon raising proficiency, you gain bonus effects when performing, swordsmanship, blacksmithing, and such. The levels of proficiency is up to level 10, and they are further divided from Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced , Expert, Master. Except for Master, each has 10 levels needed to advance to the next step.

4. Except for Magical Knowledge which can train 2 Categories of magic at the same time, the rest can only train one at a time, but that doesn't mean you cannot change specialty. You can only change specialties, for each general category every 30 Minutes. 

5. Most weapons, skills, and many more requires you to reach a certain level in [ Specialty ] in order to use said weapon or skill.

And as her explanation came to an end. I had already decided on my different specialties without any hesitation.

[ Specialty ]                                                                                                                                                    Physical Combat: Spear Mastery ( Beginner, 0% Proficiency )                                                        Magical Knowledge: N/A                                                                                                                        Producer: N/A                                                                                                                                              Service Worker: Adventurer ( Beginner, 0 % Proficiency )

Since I was planning on starting on the wilderness, I had decided on the adventurer specialty long ago since I automatically gain contribution upon just walking around, though I don't know its benefits yet though. As for spear mastery, I was way better at using the spear than a sword, along with its reach advantages I can face unknown opponents safer and strike them when it's hot ,I'm fine with it rushing head on since a straight stab is one of the specialties of the spear, but if the opponents are smart, they obviously wouldn't do that. 

As I had already decided on what my physical combat, It was soon in my inventory and that was the [ Beginners Spear ].

[ Beginners Spear

RATING: Common

CATEGORY: Mass-Produced, Low Quality

STATS:                                                                                                                                                    DURABILITY: 25/25                 ATK POWER: 5                       DEF POWER: 1

BONUS STATS: N/A                 

SKILLS: N/A

RESTRICTIONS: N/A

DESCRIPTION: It seems to be a wooden pole that are pieced together with a spear head that also seems to be mass-produced. A weapon that only beginners would use.]

Last but not the least of the tutorial would be the player stats, quite odd for it to be shown last I thought and as I said that the window for my stats were now displayed in front of me.

[ User: Xeno

Species: Human

Level: 1                              Experience Bar: 0 / 100                        Stat Points: 0

Health Points: 100/100             Satiety Level:   100%                         Thirst Level:  100%

Mana Pool: 50/50

Mental State: Calm

Effects of Mental State: Heal 0.5% max HP/sec while in calm state.

Willpower: 10

Specialty:

> Physical Combat: Spear Mastery ( Beginner 0% Proficiency )

> Magical Knowledge: N/A

> Producer: N/A

> Service Worker: Adventurer ( Beginner 0% Proficiency )

Class:

Basic Stats:

Vitality: 10                      Attack Power: 10                  Intelligence: 10                  Speed: 10

Defensive Power: 10                     Magic Resistance: 10

Extra Stats:

Insight: 5 ]

As I read through the stat window, I asked Ciel questions every now and then. 

"Mental State?" 

"According to how your mental state is you gain both good and bad effects according to your state, and as for critical states you are sure to be logged off and a medical team will already be on the way."

Hmm, I gave mental state a long thought. So my mental state could be agitated, panicked, scared, and such and I could lose some of my stats when it means bad effects probably. Maybe for anger there would be a bad effect where you can't differentiate friend and foe, that's a high chance that it is actually like that.

As for willpower. Ciel explained it simply, It is something with various applications. I tested out how it works, for example when I think harder my mental state changes, the same goes for my willpower.

Mental State: Concentrated 

Effects of Mental State: Hit Rate +5%, Willpower increased by 20.

Willpower: 120

I asked for examples on how will power can be used. She gave a lot of examples though. With enough will power you can ignore the effects of low satiety level, and thirst level. The example that caught my attention the most were the last 2. After exceeding a certain number of willpower stats grow in proportion. Willpower can be used as an alternative for skill costs that uses mana or some kind of energy.

The first thing I thought about willpower was 'Is this some kind of protagonist ability', I mean am I wrong, stats rise in proportion to willpower after reaching a certain number, but at the same time its reliability is quite low too since it depends on your mental state too and how much willpower you can muster.

After closing my train of thoughts on willpower I also asked how basic stats increase. For each level up, my basic stats increase by 10, and I gain 5 stat points too. For each stat points you can also increase a specific stat by 10 points again. For vitality 1 point is equivalent to 10 health points. While the rest are much complicated that possibly involves a lot of math which I am not interested in right now.

Classes were quite a common thing since there were also classes on 'Conqueror Online' therefore 'Conqueror: New Horizon' should not be too different. An example would be a class that was well known on the net, which was the class of Violet Senpai, the Eternal Winter Witch. Her class was very scary even for me, it was a unique type that only one person could acquire, and its abilities were not kept secret at all, that was how much of an attention seeker Violet was. The classes main ability was to cast weather type magic on the location near her, and just like how her class is called 'Eternal' this weather magic never ends. Until the user dies or the cast was cancelled it will go on forever, and within this eternal winter all her ice related attacks are empowered. It was frightening enough even for me. 

Though there should be basic classes too that are acquirable for everyone like learning the swordsmanship of a noble knight family. There you gain a class for the swordsmanship that you acquired which is common among people but you can still change classes quite often though.

Lastly is now the extra stats, apparently extra stats won't show until you have at least one point of them because there is quite a lot of them. Well I can guess some of them aside from insight, there should be fame, infamy and the likes, dexterity I think for producer class and for archers too and my last question was what Insight was. Her reply was frank.

"Insight is a stat that helps improve your reaction time, senses, and it also acts as a 6th sense were you can sense hidden traps and incoming danger. Though its dependent on how high the level of the one who made the trap is. So if their level is quite high, you'll need a high number of insight too."

As I had already acquired everything I could possibly need right now, I finally bid Celia farewell, though she seems to be chuckling a bit though. Since I have already decided to leave I have chosen a part of the wilderness where I will depart. I gave Celia one last glance, this time she showed a gentle smile.

[ Tutorial Completed

All changes are now updated, press confirm to save and accept all changes made, decline to adjust and change any decisions made until satisfied.

[ Confirm ] [ Decline ] 

Warning! You have chosen the wilderness as the place where you will start, death upon spawn may be inevitable. Upon death you will respawn on the nearest kingdom that is currently accessible. ]

Without any hesitation I pressed confirm!