(Here's the next chapter of what was originally named Arcadia Online. Taking kitty15's advice I changed the name to Drakonia Online so I wouldn't end up using a name that has already been used countless times in the past by other people. Since the chapter before this was so short I changed it so it would be the prologue and this one would be chapter 1. Again, honest critiques are needed.)
Chapter 1:
A few minutes later Ryan was in the game. He found himself standing in a dark room, except it wasn’t a real room. There were no walls, ceiling or floor. Numbers and letters fell from above in long strands of data. It was like standing inside of a computer.
Ryan felt different as he stood in this empty data space. He felt somewhat hollow. When he lifted his arm he found it had no skin, or anything. It was comprised of data, just like the streams in this room.
An automated voice spoke to him. “Good morning, and welcome to Drakonia Online. Epicom would like to thank you for purchasing this game and hopes you will enjoy your stay in our world.” The voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere.
“This must be part of the registration,” Ryan mused.
The voice continued, “Before you may start playing you must first create your account.” A window appeared in front of Ryan along with a virtual keyboard. “Please enter your E-mail address and the password you will use to login to Drakonia Online.” As he began filling out the designated information the voice explained, “Entering your E-mail address will ensure you will be up to date with everything that is happening in Drakonia Online, such as upcoming events and patch upgrades. Your E-mail address will not be used in any other way by Epicom, as per the licensing agreement.”
Ryan pressed the enter key once all the information was complete. The window disappeared and was replaced by a new one. “Your account registration is complete. Please create your character.”
“There’s a bunch of classes, I don’t know which one to pick.” There were six classes in all to choose from. Warrior, mage, thief, healer, shape shifter and dark mage. “I guess I’ll choose warrior since it’s one of the most easiest classes to use.” He pressed enter once his character’s profile was complete. A new window came up that said ‘Character Name’. “What should I call myself?” he wondered. After a few moments of thinking he chose his name. He typed in the name and pressed enter when the window read ‘Dynamo’.
“Character creation is now complete. Please wait a moment while your character is rendered.” Ryan’s body was suddenly engulfed in blue light. Pixels began to form all over his body as he became Dynamo. He had given his character green eyes and silver hair and had made himself shorter. His character wore leather armor that consisted of a vest, gloves and boots. The rest was just regular clothing. In his right hand he held a blade, too short to be a sword but too big to be considered a dagger.
The last thing to be rendered on his character was a device on his wrist that had a touchpad. The voice explained, “The device on your arm is called the Personal Status Device, also known as a PSD. This device will help you keep track of such things as character status, inventory and equipment, maps, quest logs, party trackers, friend lists and private messages.”
“This thing is pretty cool,” Ryan mused as he took a closer look at the device. It seemed a little too high-tech for the genre of the game. But who was he to complain? He wasn’t the one who designed it.
“You are now ready to play Drakonia Online. Please enjoy yourself and have a nice day.” The dark space Ryan was standing in suddenly faded away until he was standing in the middle of a medieval city. All sorts of people were walking through the streets, buying equipment, talking to their friends or just wandering around. It was easy to distinguish players from NPC’s because the players’ names were displayed over their heads along with their level. Ryan looked up to see his character’s name floating above his head as well. It read ‘Dynamo, Lv. 1.’ “I guess I should be calling myself Dynamo from now on,” he mused.
NPC means non-playable character, groups of code and data shaped into people that interact with players. They may look as real as a regular player but they are integrated with the game’s programming. The purpose of an NPC is to help out players by running shops, handing out quests or just giving advice. It wouldn’t be much of a game without them.
Dynamo looked around for his sister but couldn’t find her. “She must still be registering. Amelia always takes forever creating a character.” He looked around at the city again. “I wonder where I am?” He remembered what the voice had said about the PSD. He decided to see all its functions for himself while he waited for Amelia.
The first thing he chose on the main menu was a button labelled ‘Map.’ The device suddenly flashed as a hologram appeared in front of him. The hologram was a giant black sphere with a small gray spot on the surface. “I guess this is supposed to be a map of the world,” he mused. He squinted his eyes at the small gray spot. “And that must be the city I’m in. I guess the whole map is black because I haven’t gone anywhere yet…” He reached out and touched the gray spot. A window opened in front of the sphere that showed a map of the city. According to the PSD he was in a place called Horizon City, a place where every new character started in.
Dynamo looked back to the PSD on his arm and said, “This thing is pretty cool! I wonder what else I can do with it?” The next thing he chose was a button labelled ‘Status.’ The holographic map disappeared and a new window opened in its place. It showed all his character’s stats beside a picture of himself. He sighed when he looked at his stats, most of them weren’t even in the tens. His character was weak, which wasn’t much of a surprise since he just started. His two highest stats were strength and defence, respectively, although not by much.
There was one button on the window that caught his attention. “‘Skill Tree?’ I wander what this is.” He reached out again to touch the button and a new window opened over the previous one. It displayed a chart that was labelled ‘Dyanmo’s Skill Tree.’ At the top was a box that was labelled ‘Level 1.’ Inside the box were the words ‘Short Swords’ and ‘Leather Armor.’ It was the only box on the chart that was shaded yellow, all the others were gray. Dynamo noticed numbers over all the other boxes. “I wonder what those numbers are for? Are they, like, skill points? Do I have to spend them in order to get stuff on the tree?” All the boxes on the chart were connected, starting at the top with the yellow one.
Dynamo followed the chart with his eyes down to the bottom. All the paths on the chart led to a single box that was labelled ‘Knight.’ “Knight? Is that my next class or something?”
“There you are!” Dynamo jumped at the sound of a girl’s voice. He closed all the hovering windows and turned to face a tall girl with tanned skin and red eyes and hair. She wore a small shirt and tight shorts. Here boots and gloves were made of regular cloth, as opposed to Dynamo’s leather armor. A yellow tattoo snaked down her left arm and a crude looking dagger hung at her belt. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
“Uhh…” Dynamo looked up to check the person’s name, it read ‘Amber.’ Recognizing his sister’s favorite screen name he said, “Amelia, is that you?”
She made a peace sign with her fingers and said, “That’s Amber to you, brother!” She cocked an eyebrow as she looked down at her brother. “Why are you so short? Aren’t you supposed to be older than me?”
Dynamo crossed his arms. “Just because I’m thirteen and you’re a year younger than me doesn’t mean I always have to be taller than you in these games.”
“But Ryan, you’re a pipsqueak!”
“Am not! And that’s Dynamo to you!”
She giggled. “Alright, Dynamo.”
Dynamo sighed and began to look around. “So, now that we’re here what should we do first?”
“We could always find a quest to do,” Amber suggested.
“I don’t feel confident enough to do quests with a character this weak.” Dynamo suddenly realized he didn’t know what class his sister chose. “Which class did you end up choosing anyway?”
“I chose a thief.”
“A thief?” He gave her an odd look. “But thieves are always weak, no matter what game you play!”
“Yeah, but they’re also super fast. Plus they steal stuff!”
Dynamo shook his head. “Whatever. If you really want to be owned by every monster we fight be my guest.”
“Hey!” She smacked Dynamo on the head. His PSD suddenly beeped as a green bar appeared over his head just under his character’s name. A small portion of the bar was red. “Huh? What’s that?”
“I think it’s my HP bar,” Dynamo said as he rubbed his head. HP was short for health points. If a character’s HP reached zero he or she died.
Amber hit him in the head again, harder this time and causing Dynamo to yelp in pain. The HP bar was reduced a little more, replaced by red. “Cool!” Amber shouted. “Hitting you actually makes your HP go down!”
“Oh yeah? Let’s see if you like it!” Dynamo jumped at her sister but was stopped by her hand on his head. Being as short as he was he couldn’t reach Amber.
“Now, now. You’re not supposed to hit a lady.”
“You’re not a lady, you’re my sister!” Dynamo struggled to get past her arm but Amber moved with him, keeping her hand on his head.
“Oh stop it, people are looking at us.” Dynamo stopped and looked around to see several players looking at them.
He frowned. “This isn’t over.”
“Quit being such a baby,” Amber told her brother. “So, what should we do first?”
“Let’s go to the outskirts of the city and fight monsters a bit before anything else. I want to get a little stronger and get some better equipment before I start doing quests.”
“Lead the way.”
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