Light Within

Welcome to Ludea

The white light, the sounds, the movement, everything feels so real to Katherine. She was about to enter a virtual world, and it feels so real. The space, like the times and gravity where not exist, but surely taken her to a destined place. After a long experience of floating, finally, Katherine landed on a blank, yet vivid with some grid and lines. "Oh, this must be a site to customize my looks and stuff", Katherine assumes as she waits for a guider. She tries to walk and jump to make sure that this is virtual. Her body is still on her bed, sleeping, but her brain is continuously working on this virtual reality. "Wow, the virtual world is fun. I might be here without realizing the time. Hmm, where is the NPC?", though Katherine amazed, she still did not get any windows or guidelines to help her with the customizing site. Katherine worried as she did not find the button to exit either, "Is this game broken?", she monologues to herself. She tried to access the menu but, it all results to the loading screen. "Hello, is anyone there?", said Katherine aloud, already felt worried. Suddenly, a petite girl appeared into the scene, falling for a hole, a digital-looking wormhole. The girl landed in front of the Katherine and got up while her back is facing Katherine. "I swear Void, why is he putting me into this kind of job?", the girl talks to herself, yet she was cursing to someone. Katherine slowly approaches the girl, feeling intrigued with the NPC, that has its own lines. She never encountered any of this when she played other Role-playing games, RPG for short, where NPC has it personally customize lines.

            "Hey, are you my guider?", said Katherine softly but loud enough for the girl to turn her back to acknowledge that Katherine is behind her all along. The girl looks surprised when she first notices Katherine. "You look like Elena", the girl whispers in the softest voice that anyone could hear. Katherine watches the girl in confusion while waiting for an actual response, "Um, like who?". The girl quickly changes her words and says, "You look like you were excited to begin the game. My name is Era. Welcome to...um, what this game again? Ah yes, Eternal Quest", Era starts with the introduction lines. Katherine is ready to change her appearance, as she likes to be different in the game, "Can I change my hairstyle?", asked Katherine. Era seems like she was not aware of the customizing part, but she did something with her portable keyboard in her hands. "Are you typing something?", asked Katherine since she saw Era was typing furiously on the keyboard. Era ignores the question, "What kind of hairstyles do you like?", asked Era while still looking onto the keyboard. "Maybe a long, silk black hair is enough." And click! Katherine's hair grows long enough to reach her waist. "This is amazing. Can I change my face too?", asked Katherine. "No.", Era replied shortly.

            "So, about the job, I wonder if...", Era stops Katherine from talking further. Before Katherine wants to ask more about the class-job, images of weapons flashed before her. A two-handed sword, a mace with flames, a mystical book with a crystal embedded on to it, a floating orb with a silvery aura around it and many more weapons have been shown off in front of Katherine. "In this game, you can be anything, but your weaponry is absolute. You can choose to pick a book, and you can be a holy priest or a necromancer", Era continued, "We seek for a creative, yet performed player who can achieve more in this game. For that, we decided to open the limitless kind of jobs for the players." Katherine looks unhappy with this. Era looks confused, as she thought that she looks cool when she says that line. "Are you okay? Why aren't you happy?", asked Era, perplexed. "No, it just...everything becomes more complicated. I was certain of what I want to be before this, but now I'm more confused than ever", explained Katherine to Era. Era sighed, and replied, " Girl, just pick one. You may change it later, only if you found another weaponry that worth your stats". Katherine closes her eyes, slides the weaponry choices fastly, and...she taps! "Oh, it looks like you choose staff." Era speaks out the answer. As Katherine opens her eyes, she feels her right hand is holding into a solid matter which appears out of nowhere. A short staff with an orb on top of it is glowing with a faint blue light.

            "Oh yeah, and lastly, before you embark into your journey, we need a name for you,", Era interrupted Katherine when she is looking at the staff long enough, "How about Katty?", Era suggested, "Since your name is Katherine." Katherine comes to her realization when Era says her name earlier. "How did you know my name?", asked Katherine, "I never said that."

Era looks scared, but she quickly replied, "It is already in the system when you first log in."

Katherine is sure now that Era is not an NPC, but she tries to ignore it. "Astral", Katherine said, "I want to name myself Astral." Era types that for Katherine and clicks it.

 "All set. Have fun!". Era is ready to go as she does not want to spill anything more to Katherine. "Elena's daughter is totally opposite of her."

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Changing to Astral...

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            After a few minutes, Astral arrives at the centre of Ludea, the starting point of the game. A System Prompt appeared before her: Please assign your status points. Astral looks up to the window of her stats. “Hmm, they give me 20 points. Agility, Intelligence, Vitality, Strength and Dexterity ", Astral reads up the stats option. Since she does not have any specific job, she assigns her points according to preferable stats.

Agility: 6 (0+7)

Intelligence: 8 (0+12)

Vitality: 5 (0+5)

Strength: 1 (0+1)

Dexterity: 1 (0+1)

"And, enter". The radar chart on the status window changed according to the distribution. "Wow, it was so unbalanced. Oh well, better find some monsters then.", Astral closes the window and starts to inspect the surroundings. Ludea is gorgeous. It was filled with floating islands on its skies, and many peoples were there. The town itself has many old buildings that served as stores or cafes. The place looks like an old town, most likely like a rural town filled with merchants and adventurers. Astral walks pass by a few stores and found a mirror. She looks to herself. Her long hair looks prettier in the game. She also wears default attire for the beginners in the game. "Hmm, so where can I find monsters here?", murmured Katherine as she bumped into a guy with a black cloak. "Sorry, my fault.", Katherine apologized while bowed to the person. The guy has black hair, long enough to reach his shoulder, fairer skin and height is almost as Astral. "Um, miss? Do you know where can I find some monsters?", the guy asked politely to Astral. "Are you a beginner too?"

            "Ah, I forget to introduce myself. My name is Haiz. Nice to meet you", Haiz introduces himself as they both are walking together to the forest nearby. "Mine Astral". Both of them form a party to fasten up their levelling experiences. Forest filled with low-level monsters, which can be fought even for beginners. They have walked for a while but did not find any monsters. Astral tries to inspect Haiz weaponry, but she cannot find it. So she decides to ask, "Haiz, what is your default weapon?"

Haiz, who was busy finding any monsters smiled. "My default weapon is this," answered Haiz while showing a one-handed dagger with a teeth-liked blade. "With the dagger, I can do much sneak damage, while the blade deals quite a lot of damage if it struck it deeper." They both rest for a while underneath a big tree after a long walk. "Hmm, it seems like there aren't any monsters here.", Astral sighed while Haiz is trying to locate for a monster. "Haiz what are you doing?" feeling curious with Haiz, Astral asked him. "Wait. Can you hear that? The bush.", asked Haiz. Suddenly, a group of rabbit-looking monsters with a swarm of the big bees circled around them under the tree. A little girl, wearing a light blue hood is running towards them, "Please help me, adventurers", begging the girl. Suddenly, an NPC nameplate appears above the girl's head, and a System Prompt popped out: Helping the damsel in distress with the choices

Yes       No

"Are you in, Astral?", asking Haiz, whose already in attack stance. "Yes, click it", respond Astral, wanting to experience her first quest.

"Bring it on!".