Michelle was sitting at home, in her apartment. Eighteen and jobless thus far, leeching off her mother's head-start money until she found one.

She had no cable, no books, no nothing - just a laptop with an internet connection, and a World of Warcraft account that needed a subscription renewal. She sighed deeply, burying her face in the couch, when the doorbell rang.

Curious, she walked to the door, and looked out the peephole. She saw a truck driving away, squeezed and distorted by the perspective of the glass. She furrowed her brows, and carefully opened the door, looking down.

A package, with FIRESTORM stamped across the top of that. She chewed on her lip. Wasn't that a game company? She grabbed the box and brought it inside, locking the door behind her.

She grabbed a knife from her kitchen and slit the tape, opening the box and pulling out the box. "Aralon?" she muttered quietly, flipping the box over, and reading the summary. It looked interesting. But why the hell did she have it? She dug in the box for something else, and found a note.

She read over it, and cocked an eyebrow. " 'Soon to be top of the line virtual reality game', huh? Cocky sons of bitches." Michelle, unlike Dante, had read through the instructions, and found the warning. She pursed her lips, honestly thinking about NOT doing this. Those were some damn serious side-effects.

But... virtual reality. Come on.

She want over to her couch and lay down on her back, sliding the goggles on her eyes and hitting the power button, and laying her hands on her stomach. What was a good name? What did she want to be known as? Since she was beta testing, she knew it wouldn't have to be overly complicated since there were virtually no chances it would be taken. Leona... she though.

"Start."

Her body went limp, and she was sucked into the world of Aralon.




She held her eyes closed for a moment. She could still feel something soft on her back, and she was in the same position as before, so she assumed this had all been a damn prank and she'd fallen head-first for it. She scoffed, and reached up to grab the goggles from her face, getting a hand-full of eye.

"OUCH!" she yelled, sitting up quickly. The first thing she saw was her now-cloven feet.

Her eyes went very wide. Cloven... feet. Alright. The goggles were gone, and she had the feet of a quadroped. She assumed the game had worked.

She looked around. She was in a room with a dirt floor, apparently in a tent. There was a dirty mirror propped up in the corner, and she careful stood and walked to it, having a bit of difficulty with her new hooves.

She gasped softly when she saw her reflection. She was essentially... a cow person, with tribal markings on her arm, little horns, and... a tail. She felt her horns, a little disbelieving, and got close to the mirror, inspecting herself further.

And then she grinned. Grinned wide. This. Was. AWESOME.

Unfortunate that she couldn't pick her race or appearance, but honestly, compared to the experience, that was last thing on her list. This was .hack//SIGN, WoW style. She was cute, anyway.

She looked around what she assumed would be her character, Leona's room. It wasn't decorated in the least, with just a bed in a corner and a mirror, and a table with what looked like equipment. She walked over and ran her hands over it. It felt so... real.

If I keep marvelling like a lunatic, I'll LOOK like one to the NPC's, she thought. She pulled on shoulder pauldrons, a waist pack, bracers and some things that strapped to her lower legs (she couldn't exactly wear shoes), admired herself and the realism of the room once more, then walked out.

She got it. This was a village. An all-cow-people village, it seemed. "YOUNG SEPP!" she heard, and she turned quickly, looking at a lumbering (seemingly older) cow-man coming right towards her, a bit angry looking.

She pointed at herself. "Wh-Who, me?"

"Yes, YOU. Where have you been?! Gorisons do not kill and skin themselves!" He grabbed her arm roughly, and started dragging her towards a field full of pig-looking-things.

She quickly learned how to use a knife, and that Sepps were an incredibly fast race by nature. She became tired and fatigued after her work, but she had a handful of bloody skins to show for it. It was actually quite disgusting, but she thought this would probably be a skill she'd need later. The angry Sepp man payed her for her skins, and she stared at the money for a moment, then slipped it into her pack, and explored the village.

She came to a shop that sold weapons. Very perfect. She started browsing through.

They all looked so plain. Sword, dagger, staff, bow and arrow set... And then she saw them.

Elbow blades, the tag said, along with a price. She fumbled in her bag and brought out her money and counted it. It'd be ALL her money, but she decided, it was so worth it. She purchased them and found a way to fasten them to her hips on her belt, then jogged out.

She bought some rations, like food, water, and a book on shamanism. She decided that would be her class. She asked directions, and started to head in the direction of the town she was told was called 'Blanka'.

John Hoo was busy chatting with his friends over the mike when he heard two knocks in quick succession come from outside the door. Intrigued, John casually walked to the peep-hole and looked out-but saw nothing. "I hate this neighborhood," he thought to himself as he returned to his mike. He was hosting a party over the internet with some of his pro-gamer buddies. Working as a team, they had managed to win several tournaments and gained themselves notoriety in the gaming community. Well, except for the fact that the winnings weren't very much. The most he had one in a single tournament was about two and half grand, which was almost dead even with the price of the airline tickets he had bought to travel to the tournament.

Suddenly, John heard two more knocks. With an angry moan, he went to the door once more, this time ready to pummel the troublemakers who continued to harass him. Opening the door fully this time, he found not trouble-making kids but a peculiar brown package. It had the firestorm logo on it-a very prestigious game developer. He gave a mental shout of glee when he unraveled the package. Firestorm's next big hit was on his front-doorstep!

Of course, he could of seen this coming, being a professional gamer and all. Such a prestigious developer would only want the best to test their precious beta. He quickly read the instructions that came with the packages, scoffing at the "Warning: It is wise to start the game when you are lying down. Side effects include nausea and lack of body control." Ha! Probably just there to avoid lawsuits from players who've never played a virtual reality game.

He placed the goggles on his face and sized himself up in a mirror. He found it funny how the goggles messed with his usually average countenance. Now he looked like a dorkasaurus, whatever that was. "They best downsize the goggles in their final release." John thought, making a mental note about the problem.

He read instruction 2 and began searching his brain for a name. His quest was quickly over as he decided to go with his already famous clan name-XxTrenchexX. He held his breath for a moment, his mind going through all of the possibilities and entertainment this game could bring to him. Plus, he would have a head start against the competition, as he could easily predict how the meta-game would unfold after playing it first. He breathed once again as he started to descend the stairs. He wanted to get a quick drink from downstairs, but couldn't hold in his excitement. Loudly, he yelled "Start!"

He logged into a map filled with hills....very, very realistic hills. He grasped his legs and arms, both made of bones and rotted muscles (which he found infinitely cool), and grunted as pain resonated from them. It felt like he had fallen down stairs or something close to that matter.

The air on this map was very cold, too cold, despite the fact that he was undead. "What's the point of playing a game that's this realistic?" Pondering upon this, he spotted a scythe made from gnarled steel. He had always like playing a hybrid of a warrior and a mage, perhaps this trait transfered into the game.

He then spotted two NPCs, who ran away in sheer terror of XxTrenchexX's appearance. He first remarked at how responsive the AI was, and then imagined the joys of chasing them for a little while, but he decided it was time to learn how to master this game.

Nathan woke up to the sound of rapid knocking on his door. The knocking sounded like bombshells going off in his eardrum due to a head-splitting hangover from the concert last night. Groaning he practically fell from the bed as he grabbed out blindly until he felt jeans in his hands. "Commando works today." Pulling the pants on he walked up to the door finally not being nude. Cracking open the entrance door to finally silence the knocking he found your average delivery man awaiting his signature. "Who's the package from?" Practically ripping the pad from the delivery boy's grip he quickly signed it scowling at the shrug he got for an answer. "Whatever piss off and make more deliveries."

Slamming the door in the poor man's face he went back examining the package. It had a letter inside along with another box. The note read- "I got my hands on this. You know what to do to it. Just don't forget you owe me. - Zin" Smirking he opened the second box to find a package of unquestionable value, the Aralon Beta. Firestorm had been very hush hush about this project but word was this would be a revolution to the entire gaming culture, a pretty bold statement for one game.

Pulling out the goggles he read through the manual scoffing at it. "Yeah yeah this'll all be relevant... until I get to it." Going back into his room he looked at his bed an obvious look of disappointment on his face. There passed out in his bed was yet another one of the girls who got thrashed with him and then jumped in his pants just because he was a singer. Did the know a thing about him? Of course not all they knew was he was one of their favorite local singers and that was enough for these whores.

Kicking the bed he threw the girl her clothes pointing at the door. "I think you know how to use one get out." Ignoring the girl's existance now he sat down examining the goggles once more. Were they really going for this? Virtual reality was a stretch for gamers since the graphics were never as sharp and it could usually lead to migranes and eye damage after prolonged use. "Well at least I can give it a college try." Placing the goggles on in his chair he quickly thought of a name and spoke the word, "Start." That's when everything went blank.

He awoke once more as sore in the head as always as his vision slowly came into focus. All he could see around him were trees, trees and more trees. Then something else came into vision, a Pixie? Were they really going to have Pixies in a revolutionary game? But the Pixie came right up to him like it was nothing strange. "Come brother Lune we must go to the training fields our day of parting has come!" The Pixie didn't give him a chance to respond as he was wrenched forward.

He found his self in an open field surrounded by Pixie's of all shapes and sizes he was silenced in awe at the detail of the game. Everything seemed so... real. He could even feel something foreign on his back. These were his wings he knew and altough he knew it was foreign it felt familiar, somehow, to have them. After the speech he found more Pixies approaching all carrying equipment one found him and tossed him a gathering of leather items and a strange crossbow. "You know how to use this Lune now go make a living!" Nathan was once again awe-struck as he stared at the items. Leaving without a word to the npc he strapped on all of his new gear cradling the crossbow. It was just like the wings foreign, but familiar. Opening up his wings he smiled in glee as they lifted him from the ground and took him to the sky. Maybe all the hype was actually under-hype this was truly a revolution of immense proportions. Off in the distance he could see a village so he flew towards that landing quickly looking around.

Of course it was full of NPC's since it was a beta so he just walked up. "Excuse me where exactly am I?" The villager looked at Lune like he was insane, "You're in Blanka you daft bug." The man walked off and that when Nathan noticed the numerous races in this town. The game seemed to have limitless options and that was just making him even more excited for the future.

Laine had been working under the hood of the junker car behind the trailer she lived in, and as a result the surprise of a loud knocking on the door made her jump, slamming her head up on the hood, effectively releasing it from the rickety support system and down onto her head again.

Removing herself with some difficulty, she gave a groan, holding her head and expecting to feel blood or at least a bump as she felt her dark brown locks; but no, externally she was fine. With a few growled oaths, she dropped the tools she'd been using and wiped her grease-covered hands on her old raggedy jeans as she started towards the front door. Other girls probably would have wanted to change out of the junky clothes, or at least wash their hands, maybe straighten their hair? But no, Feminine was definately not the word to describe Laine Jackson.

When she got to the door however, there was nobody there, just a cardboard box with a big 'Firestorm' stamp on it. She frowned, a gaming company. Up-and-coming, virtual reality if she remembered right. Those were hard to get and they usually weren't that great, but it was her favourite kind of game anyway. Picking it up and thus getting greasy fingerprints all over it, she carried it into the house and dropped it on a semi-clear part of the kitchen counter. Rinsed her hands off before tearing off the packing tape and bringing out the game. It was smaller than most VR's that she'd played, picking up the letter that came with it, she frowned. If it weren't for the game, and that it wasn't asking her to send any cash, credit card numbers or to go anywhere, she'd say it was a hoax. It certainly wasn't worded professionally, and who sent a game to randomp eople for testing?

Taking the game with her, she grabbed a couple cookies off a plate and brought it to her room, where she stared at the letter again. Maybe they had a watch list, kind of like spyware on computers. They knew she had bought products from them before, and maybe they knew most of her spending money went towards games like this; that would make selection less random. And it'd be a business booster, woudln't it, make you popular if there's a chance people who buy your things can get free games. She glanced at the clock, she was home alone for now, it'd be a few hours before her father got off work, and her little sister was spending the night at a friend's house. Cramming the rest of the remaining cookie into her mouth, she got up and headed to the back, got her tools, brought them inside and locked the door behind her, then she locked the front door and checked the windows. Turned the TV on and went back to her room.

Some lame comedy show's laugh track drifted fuzzily through the closed door as she lay down on the bed and set up the game, slipping the goggles over her brown eyes, she stashed the letter in her dresser drawer - didn't want dad to panic if he thought she was trying something dangerous - and folded her hands behind her head.

A name, huh? she frowned. She didn't want to sound dorky or look egotistical or something. She sat up, pushed the goggles back up on her head, and wrote a word. Then she rearranged the letters. Erased a few, added more in. Eventually she was left with Raia Miriv.

"Start"

~-_*_-~

When she opened her eyes again, she was in some kind of hotel - Inn, she corrected herself, room. Lying on a rumpled bed with a straw mattress that prickled, the furniture was shabby and the window covered with ragged curtains was cloudy. There was a cracked mirror hanging from a wire and nail on one wall. Sitting up, she blinked. and slowly stood, stretching her limbs and turning her hands. No stiffness, and the graphics were unbelievable. There was even dust on the floor which stirred up in clouds when she moved. Turning, she went to have a look in the mirror. She hadn't gotten to design a character, so she assumed it was randomized. Well hopefully she didn't end up as a zombie or something...

"Wow"

Staring back from the mirror was a young woman about her height, dressed in clothing suitable for adventures, including high boots, a tunic, belt, baldric, trousers and a longer shirt under the tunic, all mostly in greens and browns. Her hair also was brown, except a much darker shade than in real life, she had to study it a second to make sure it wasn't black. And it was held back in three - yes, three - long braids which reached her waist. She thought of undoing one to see how long it was unfastened, but decided against it, she wanted to explore and she'd look dumb walkking around with two braids and one undone. She peered at her face one last time and turned a slow circle before exiting the room. The game had given her green eyes, too. Sweet.

She made it halfway down the stairs before she thought to search the deep pockets of her tunic, and realised she didn't get any starter cash. Oh dear, she might have landed herself in debt from the start. Turning around, she made her way back to her room and over to the window. No fire escape of course. Well, only one way to test pain levels in the game, it was only the first floor anyway. Sliding open the creaky window, she swung her legs out, looking into the empty alleyway behind before taking a breath and jumping.

Ouch. Yep, definately realistic pain levels, just a good thing she knew how to jump down from places properly or she'd probably have turned an ankle or something. Emitting a rather high-pitched whine sound from between her clenched teeth, she started off down the alley and soon joined a mainstreet full of people. She frowned, they all seemed to know what they were doing, but judging by /what/ they were doing and how they were behaving...NPCs. Cool.

Well, what did she want to do first? Getting some weapons would probably be a good idea, she thought, then she could go on some quests, get a few rewards, and she'd be off to good start.

It didn't take her long to find a blacksmith and grab herself a job mining in an underground room below the smithy, she got a pitiful amount of gold for every billion or so bars she brought up, but what with that and selling to some sort of caveman NPC she'd found among the tunnels, she'd soon got enough to buy herself a first-level longbow, and a few fragile arrows. Eh, maybe she could shoot a few rabbits, sell the skins.

Settling her new equipment comfortably on her back, she started down the street, debating on what to get next. Everybody around here seemed to be NPC, but she wondered how one would tell the difference between them and an actual player. Maybe a name floating above their head? Nah, that'd be cliche.

Apparently, the road to Blanka was a long one. Leona was starting to get tired of walking, finding that her hooves could indeed hurt, and she went to the side of the road and leaned on a nearby tree. She was passing through forest country now, as opposed to the plains areas of the Sepp. She thought this a good time to flip open her Shamanism book and read through.

She stared at it for a long while. It was in Sepp, she recognized that - and she was also amazed to find that she could actually read it. She just realized that there were probably language barriers. She hoped it didn't fuck her over in the long run.

Leona took her time, sipping sparsely from her water skin. This game was a little too realistic, she realized, for most player's liking. Most nerds didn't want to walk around and actually get tired, read through things that otherwise would have been a click-and-learn in other games, or have realistic constraints on storage and abilities. Personally? She liked it. Made the game worth working in.

She reached a part in her shamanism book about tools. Alright. This is what she needed. She trailed her fingers down the page, reading. The first, and apparently most important, was the summoning stick.

She'd have to make that herself.

She looked around, and back behind her. She needed a thick stick, one she could barely wrap her hand around, according to the text. She folded her page corner and snapped the book closed, bagging it and her water, and set off, looking for her stick.

She found it after a while, sawing it off a tree with her elbow blades (which proved to be difficult), bagged it, then looked up...

Realizing she was completely lost.

Shit. She didn't consider this. Normally she'd have a map with some direction. All she had was the sun - she didn't know the time, and besides, she didn't know how to read the sun. She sighed deeply, and pulled her book out, heading back in the direction she thought she'd came. There proved to be nothing helpful in the book, which was just a desperate effort anyway, and it took what she thought was an hour before she found the road again. Of course, she didn't know if she'd gone backwards or forwards. Luckily the forest was on one side of the road only, and she knew which way to go.

Good God, she was tired. The sun seemed to be heading toward it's resting place. She hoped she reached town before sunset.

... And she didn't. It was dark by the time she reached Blanka, and she was ready to collapse. She hadn't seen anything she could kill and skin along the way, so of course, she couldn't stay in an inn. She groaned, looking around. She'd have to find somewhere to stow away, and catch some Z's. She looked down wearily at the stick that had fucked her over, and groaned again, putting it in her bad.

She'd screw with that tomorrow.

She was, in fact, wondering how time had passed in the real world. She thought for a moment. If "Start" had begun the game, then...

"Stop." No response. She furrowed her brows, and tried something else. "Log out." Nothing.

She began panicking. What if she couldn't get out of the game? What if she was stuck here? She was tired and on the verge of tears now, and she went to an alley, falling over and using her pack as a bad pillow. She sniffled some. "Bad idea... Bad idea."

Late night for Mr. Hawkthorn.

He had spent the majority of the night over at one of his friend’s house, playing Rock Band. It was a little hobby of theirs, continually trying to reach the top of the scoreboards as a band. It had taken quite a long period of time, but they were really making progress. It was enough progress to cause Andrew to stay out until, oh, 3:30 A.M.

In retrospect, yeah, it was a bad idea - something very unlike him, typically. But once he set his mind to something... it was hard to pry him away. He’d super focus, until he realized that “Oh, shit. I guess I better get going.” Or something of the sort.

Anyways, Andrew woke up with a loud yawn - it was already two in the afternoon, so he didn’t waste much time in jumping out of his bed. He had to at least make him self look presentable in case his father was home. But as soon as he opened his bedroom door?

Wham!

A box right to the head. Andrew grunted, and looked at where the box’s location was.

“Hey, punk. You got a box. From one of your little girlfriends?” Matthew, Andrew’s older brother, asked. Andrew chuckled in response, shook his head, and shut the door.

Eating would wait.

He grabbed a hold of it and inspected it carefully, before opening it in an oddly calculated fashion. Inside the box was another, wrapped box. A little differently packed, but the same content as everyone else got.

Goggles, note.

He read the note three times, then placed it and the goggles on his bed. Time to do some research. It was a habit of his. Now that he was awake enough, he grabbed his white hat and shoved it on, his hair curling up slightly as he did so. It would take him several hours, and one order of take out before he was ready to play the damn game. He was determined that if he was going to beta test this thing, he was going to do it right. And that meant knowing as much about the world and game play as he possibly could. Research was the key to not doing something stupid. It was a quirk of his, but often times it paid off.

Upon finally being ready, he set everything up and laid down on his bed like the note said. He thought of his character’s name - something simple. D. Then he slid the goggles completely over his head, and he was GONE.

His dad would probably think he was lazy as shit, but uh... it wasn’t much that he could help.

Andrew - no, D - suddenly found him self being shaken. D grunted softly, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and index finger. It was another one of his kind - Apparently, he had been chosen as a Drow. It worked; He believed that they were an interesting race, and very versatile. He stood up slowly once he realized what all was going on, feeling kind of dizzy at first but recovering.

“Comrade, we must move quickly if we are to escape into the outside world!” A shorter drow said to him, as D looked for something he could use to tie up his hair. It was bothering him, no matter how pretty it was. He eventually just took part of the blanket he was found sleeping in, tore a piece off, and used it as a tie.

D shook his head.

“What are you talking about?”

“No time! We must move quickly! Here, take this and go! I’ll hold off the Priestesses as long as I can! Go!” The other Drow said, shoving a very rusty hand-and-a-half sword at him. D grabbed the hilt, he sighed. It was better than nothing - but he doubted that it’d cause any major damage. Namely because it was so jagged and broken looking. The Drow shoved D right as shouting was heard, and he ran, apparently from Priestesses.

From what he could remember about Drows... it was a female dominated society, the heads being Priestesses. They were brutally powerful, and he definitely wasn’t in a position to fight them yet. So, yes, running was the most logical answer. He quickly found his way to the tunnel leading out, light shining in just bright enough to...

Hurt like HELL. Good GOD, he had never felt such burning pain in his eyes. IT was better than getting mauled by angry women with maces and whips, though. He stumbled out of the cave that the hole had led from, falling on the ground and breaking the sword even more. He crawled his way forward, making out a figure - a girl, with.. Horns and a tail? Hm. This would certainly prove to be an interesting encounter.

He closed his eyes again, them being so sensitive to the light. He’d have to adjust.

Leona practically jumped out of her skin, getting up on her hooves once had enough sense. She fumbled and pulled her elbow blades from her waist...

Realizing she had abso-fucking-lutely NO idea how to use them.

She just stared for the moment, very wary. It was a city, and generally, conflict in cities was minimal, unless it was a duel. Of course, this game was a little wacky, so she wasn't going to take the chance. At least she hoped she looked menacing.

She studied it. She thought it was a woman at first, but after taking a look at it's arm, it must have been a man. He had... pretty hair, at least. She didn't know what they called them in this game - but she'd classify him as a Drow.

Where the hell had he even come from? He was face-flat and crawling around like a snake. Let's hope he didn't prove to be one.

Sitting at his desk, blasting through level after level of the new 50%-Life 4 Julias watched as he finally managed to overload the game. Clicking the ok for shut down button he scribbled the location and settings for the bug before starting the program up again. So far, at maximum settings he’d managed to find 21 overload glitches and 4 auto-kill glitches. They must have been trying to pump this one out too fast. He’d E-mail the designers in the morning. It was always fun to see their reaction as he ripped apart their feeble attempts at a gaming masterpiece.

A loud tone rings through the houses brightly lit hallways. Getting up from his easy chair and oversized speakers, designed specifically to break windows, he headed to the door, prosthetic leg dragging along. Not even bothering to look through the peephole he swings open the door. Watching as ExFed truck drives off he looks down at the package at his feet.

Awkwardly bending down and grabbing the plain brown package he looked for a label. Hmmmm it was from FireStorm Entertainment. He’d heard of it, sister company of HailStorm Entertainment, producer of such excellent games as SpaceCraft, BattleCraft, and Planet of BattleCraft. They were well known for their quality. It’d taken him hours to crack any of their games, but they’d paid pretty well for the ones he had found.
Ripping through the thin packaging he took a quick look at the small note that came with it before tossing it across the room. He’d never had a thing for instructions. All he needed to know was how to turn it on and he was ready to go. Figuring out things the hard way always made him learn faster.

A name…. What would be a good name…. Well who cared if other people knew his name? Julias Hyde had done him just fine so far so why change? “Start.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As his eyes suddenly snapped Julias was confronted by a rich and high quality view of a ceiling….. Wonderful….. Sitting up and reaching to chuck the goggles off he found himself confronted by not only a lack of goggles, but rough and worn hands that while the right age were definitely not his.

Jerking up he looked down. No fake leg! Suddenly remembering where he was took in his surroundings. This was amazing! It was the best graphics he’d ever seen! And he could walk, he could still feel his age, but he could actually walk like a normal person, no shuffling, hell he could probably run if he wanted to.

“Hey Julias, we got customers.”

Slightly taken aback Julias noticed the oak door to his left and swung it open on rusty hinges. As the door swept open he found himself in a well lit shop with jars full or assorted powders and salves stacking the walls. Coming around a counter between the inside of the shop and the bustling street outside a boy with brown hair and plain clothes walked up to him.


“Got some guys coming in, think I could take some of the first few? I’ve been practicing a lot lately and well…. I’ve been getting better.”

Julias barely stopped himself from staring at the boy, who looked perfectly real.

“O yeah sure… go ahead.”

Following the boy to the front counter as he took a few small containers of powder and crystal from a nearby case Julias watched as he began spreading the powder and other assorted substances on pair of thick leather boots. After it seemed to have been arranged to the boys satisfaction he closed his eyes and laid his hands a set of symbols he had created on the boots.

Whispering a few incantations the powder seemed to light up and dissolve, leaving the boots with a light glow and a feeling of hyperactivity. Smiling and handing them back to their owner in exchange for a few pieces of silver the boy looked to Julias as he placed them in a small chest.

“Very good, I think you can handle the next few as well.”

Turning and heading back into his room Julias closed the door behind him. This was so real, too real, it was incredible. Maybe a users manual wouldn’t be so bad. Noticing a small stack of books near the small bed in the corner he began digging through them, looking for some clue as to what to do next.

If one of the developers were to spy on their testers, they would notice the peculiar movements and actions of the participant, 'XxtrenchexX'. While others sought the cities, this undead warlocke roamed the lonely hillside, inspecting every detail of his environment. "The hills could deflect direct spells," he was probably thinking, or perhaps he was pondering where to set up base, or perhaps he was merely confused. Regardless, XxTrenchexX spent his first game hour twiddling with the game mechanics.

"So," he spoke out loud, in a voice discernibly deeper than his own, "Wonder if there are spells in this game?" He checked the rags he spawned with; he could not find any currency. Perhaps this game did not use currency? Or might everything be free in the beta version?

Setthing these thoughts aside, he lifted his scythe to his bony shoulder, where he then protracted his arm to make the scythe stand vertically, a few feet away from his body. It seemed like a pretty powerful casting pose, at least. Before he made an entire fool out of himself, he decided to check himself once again to see if he started with some kind of command prompt, or at least some freakin' instructions. As he glanced his body over, even checking underneath loose muscles and flesh, he found no sort of command prompt. Grunting, he held his scythe with both hands and declared, "MENU!" When nothing happened, he continued; "PAUSE, COMMAND, ENTER, HELP, PAPERCLIP GUY!" Still, he got no results. Perhaps hand gestures were the key. He made various configurations out of his hands and body, but to no avail. "This is not an effective strategy," he concluded.

Giving up on his solitary training, he decided to seek some NPCs, preferably of his own rotting kin. But alas, after searching for what seemed like an hour, he could only find some village named "Blanka." By looks of it, the village contained no undead aspects; in others words, it was well kept. Close to the town's gates, he spotted some discarded, dirty cloth, which he immediately wrapped himself in. This would keep his visage a secret, and his face still had a little flesh left, from what he could tell by feeling it. He'll just tell them that he lost a fight with a troll or something, it didn't really matter to him.

Language barriers were bad, D soon found out. He was fluent in English, Spanish, and German and yet...

The Drow language, which was very similar to any other elf’s language, wasn’t what she spoke apparently. He said a few things, his eyes still sending an awful pain sensation throughout his body whenever he uncovered them. He clumsily stood up, grabbing onto a small tree and leaning on it heavily. How could he explain this?

He quickly came up with what he say as an effective idea.

He pointed to him self, then to his eyes, then to the sun with his free hand, followed by a thumbs down. He was hoping that he was talking to an actual person, because she didn’t really make any NOISE other than moving around. He could be talking to a tree.

Suddenly, Drow wasn’t looking like such a good race. He needed to keep moving. He didn’t know if those Priestesses would be willing to chase him out and go out into the sun. He’d be back at square one, and... well... why the hell would he want to get beaten? It didn’t make sense. He stumbled forward some, feeling his way around blindly.

How the hell could he say “Help me”?

Leona stayed in her weak little fighting stance while D played charades. She stared at him, confused at first, and then...

"The sun hurts, doesn't it?" she said, dropping her weapons and hooking them to her belt. Is this a quest? Could she get gold out of this? In truth, this was her only motivation to help the Drow. Maybe then, she could sleep in an inn, instead of outside.

She stepped forward and hooked her arm around his waist. She didn't know about the language barrier. She thought it was just gibberish. And while she was small and he was obviously large, she found Sepp had some strength behind them, as well. "Come on. We'll find some shade for you to sit in." She began to pull him into the town. Luckily for him, it was already getting dark. The sun was just starting to touch the horizon. Shade should be easy to find.

It proved to be so, and she pulled him back between two buildings. A bit of a narrow alleyway, but it was quickly getting darker. "There. Can you see now?"

God, she was tired. She didn't know if she should be doing this. She was on the verge of collapse herself. This seemed to be worth venturing through, though.

He had no idea what she had just said, but she seemed friendly enough. D wasn’t in a position to pass up help. He heard yelling with his sensitive ears, so he sped up unconsciously. He had no idea if the man who had given him the sword, which was now strapped on his back, He still walked with almost a limp because he was unable to see. And he was quickly getting tired of this. But he felt the sun going down slowly, and before he knew it they were in great amounts of shade.

He opened his eyes, which were bright red in appearance. Typical Drow eyes, really. He was feeling better as he felt the shade, suddenly more energetic. He had heard of this “Sun-Sickness”. It was common for Drows to have. Of course, it was something minor compared to the fact that the sun hurt him. He rubbed his slightly irritated eyes, and sighed softly.

“Bel'la dos, Sepp. Dos inbal tlus bwael ulu uns'aa.” D said, then quickly had a puzzled look. Shit, he really DID speak another language. He knew what he was saying. “Thank you, Sepp. You have been going to me.” But it came out in this... odd language. Must be Drow. He didn’t know what to do there, but there must be some kind of book near by. He began to search him self for any items, finding a few pieces of Drow currency (which was the same as everyone else’s, just with a slightly different design). He blinked some, and looked at her and then the gold. This was all he had. Could he really just give it away?

Raia noticed the strange, raggedly cloaked person walking through the gates and into the city. They looked decidedly different from the other NPCs, which all seemed to be stereotypical shopowners, bankers, smithys, carpenters and other people of trade, if not equally stereotypical familys leading bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked children through the streets. Okay, things to fix number one; ease up on the stereotypes.

But in any event, the point was that this stranger looked different, which suggested he was significant. Probably should talk to him.

Brushing one of her long braids of hair over her shoulder, she strode forward through the crowds, thankful for once that she was at least that bit taller than was ordinary for a girl. "Excuse me" she said, when she'd come up behind and a little to the right of him, tapping his cloak shoulder with one tanned hand. Ready to reach for her flimsy weapons, just in case. Though fighting with her hands and feet would probably be more powerful, she didn't know if you had to level up that kind of power in this game, and she wasn't that great in hand to hand combat in the real world. The game hadn't let her keep the pocketknife she usually carried, either. Hmph.

Leona groaned. "God. Language barrier. Fantastic." She guessed she was speaking Sepp, and had little hope of communicating within the city. If she could find a book on Shamanism, maybe she could find a book on common, or Drow...

The Drow would probably be useless later, so she decided to buy the book on common, if she found it.

She rubbed her face. "Stupid, stupid game."

She stared at his money for a long time. Good. This quest was showing some cash. Her turn for charades.

She pointed to his money. Then to herself. Then behind her to the market, and covered her eyes. 'I'll buy you some eye covering', it meant.

XxTrenchexX made an about-face when he felt a finger poke his shoulder. He was glad that the finger didn't poke through the gaps in the bones, giving away his race. A girl, about two inches taller than he, said to him, "Excuse me."
She appeared to be human, but looked far too flambouyant to be an NPC. What XxTrenchexX needed was another player to share information with, but he didn't want provoke a misunderstanding if she was an NPC. He should say something that only a player would recognize. Covering up his mandable with his cloth, he didin't want it fall off during his speech, he muttered, "Can I help you? I was just off to play this new game the apothacary created called Aralon, so I'm afraid I don't have much time to chat."

After that, he waited for her response. If she was indeed a beta tester, she would probably speak up about it. If not, then he would be disregarded as some fool on an errand.

D looked at the woman, then back as his money several times.

It would NOT serve him well to give into her this easily. He shook his head slowly, then pointed at the moon. He didn't need it right now. He needed that gold, also. Besides, there had to be a better thing he could use it for... He knew he wouldn't get anything for that rusty weapon of his, other wise he'd sell it. It wouldn't last very long in a battle - maybe if he refined it some... that would take time he didn't have though. He nudged her, and started walking around.

There was SOMEONE who could teach languages, there was. He couldn't remember who it was - or what their occupation was. He DID remember reading it. That was it though. He didn't know what that person looked like, or what that person sounded like... it was just...

He groaned for a moment, tightening the tie on his hair. His vision was still kind of funny from when the sun light was up, but he was assuming that it would go away without much problem. He pocketed his gold. Maybe he'd help her later or something, because there was no way for him to tell her "Hey! I'm a tester too!" without them not being able to understand each other.

So the search continued! He would find that damn NPC if it was the last thing he did. If he didn’t, then chances were they wouldn’t be able to get a room at the local inns. He didn’t know what language they spoke here - he doubted everyone could apply. Most people were racist in real life, why would that change in a simulation game? It didn’t make SENSE.

Mia Ismett jumped as the buzzer for her apartment echoed through the silent hall and into her bedroom. She looked up from the book she had been occupying her time with and stared out into the living room. The buzzer sounded again, and she got up to make her way out to the door. She unlocked the door and swung the chain from it's bracket, then opened the door to stare into the dimly lit, but empty, corridor. She looked up and down the narrow, silent stretch of tiles and peeling walls, then down at her doormat. On it lay a curious package, it's golden brown paper slightly wrinkled by manhandling. She picked it up and turned it in her hands, then retreated back into the haven of her apartment.

Mia tore the paper away from the parcel as she passed through her living room, carelessly discarding it onto the coffee table. She opened the top of the box as she walked into the hallway and headed for her bedroom door. She set the box down on her desk and took out the note sealed within. She briefly and quickly read down through it, and, discarding it onto the desk alongside the box, reached in for the game within. "Aralon, huh?" she murmured. She took the gear and crawled onto the bed, lying down on her back. She took the goggles and placed them on her head, and thought of a good name. 'Something simple, but unique,' she thought to herself. 'Lyca.'

"Start."

Lyca blinked her eyes open and raised her head from where it was laying. She got up and looked around, amazed by what surrounded her. Great tall trees on every side rose above her, their foliage blocking out most sunlight, and making the floor of the forest she was in dark and gloomy. She felt the cool of the shadows on her back and stretched, delighting in the feel of leaves and moss underfoot. She realized that if she could feel the leaves and moss, that meant she was barefoot, and so she looked down at her feet curious. The sight that greeted her had her stumbling back in shock. 'Paws!! I have paws!' she thought frantically. She raised them up to get a closer look and couldn't help but admire the realistic fur. She wondered what race she was, exactly.

Lyca decided that she might as well get started with the game. She loped off, easily darting between the trees. She had no idea which direction she should go, but figured that sooner or later she would find her way. Soon enough she came upon the tree line and a grassy plain beyond. She slowed, her muscles aching, and walked along. 'Amazing, you even get tired!' she thought to herself. She heard the sound of water nearby, and made her way towards it. A small pond greeted her vision, and she walked up to it's edge, grateful for something to quench her thirst. She waded out a little ways and dipped her head to the water. As she began to lap up the water, she noticed her reflection in the ponds surface. She stumbled for a moment in shock. 'A chimera?!'

After Lyca had her fill of refreshing water, she moved on. It wasn't long till she had found the road and was on her way. She wondered where exactly the path might lead, but didn't worry too much. As she headed down the road, noises in the distance got louder. She could hear what sounded like the hustle and bustle of a town of some sort. She picked up her pace, and soon she was near the gates. She wondered if she would be welcomed inside, but decided to venture in anyways. The people fell silent and wary as the saw her, and bustled out of her way. They glanced at her, but when she looked at one of them, they avoided her eyes and kept from her path. She looked about, and realized that the town had a abundance of different races. She doubted that any of her own kind where here, and as she moved around the town, looking at the various shops, she could sense a lingering fear. She kept walking, her eyesight acclimating to the sunlight, or lack of, as the sun made it's trip towards the horizon, hardly realizing that night was almost upon the town.

Leona shook her head slightly, and followed him around.

How annoying. She wanted to get gold now, and sleep in a bed, in an inn. And the Drow-quest was proving to be a bust.

An annoying bust.

She looked as they went. She didn't know what HE was looking for, but SHE was looking for a Sepp to talk to.

She finally found one, and tugged on D's sleeve, taking him over.

The Sepp was an elderly one, seemingly kind-natured, and vending fruits. "Hi," Leona said, smiling a little. The Sepp man nodded to her. "Hello there. Would you like some nice papaya?" he said, motioning over some.

Leona shook her head politely. "No, thank you. I was wondering if you could give me directions?"

The Sepp grinned widely. "Of course! What is it you need?" Leona grinned. Good. "I'm trying to find someone that sells language books. Can you help me?" The Sepp looked up at D, and nodded deeply. "I see. Language barrier?" Leona laughed a little, and nodded. "Alright. Lucky for you, the translator is a Drow." The Sepp pointed down the street. "Go this way until you see a sign with a stack of books on it. You won't be able to read it, but it's the only sign with stacked books, so don't worry. Off with you now, and good luck." Leona nodded, thanked him again, and looked up at D, pointing down the street. "This way."

Julias sat cross legged on his bed, digging through odd scrolls and tomes he’d found in his room. After a while he’d managed to find a logbook of sorts. It had a lot of info on the shop, and enchanting, but very little of the life of the man he’d replaced. The boy didn’t question him at all, acted as if his oblivious behaviour was normal, clearly labelling him as a classic NPC.

He’d watched the boy perform some more enchantments, and with the aid of the logbook was fairly sure he could perform all of them and some of the more advanced versions. He’d found whenever he looked at any writing too hard he suddenly couldn’t read it, as it was in some strange dialect, but if he let his mind wander, and stopped questioning his surroundings it became as easy to read as a child’s book, very interesting.

He’d taken a look at the small chest at the back of the front desk. It had a couple different compartments, each with its own designation and purpose. The largest was marked “Supplies and Upkeep” and contained a healthy sum of gold. Slightly smaller the adjacent compartment was marker “Emergency fund” and the only other two marked compartments said “Julias” and “Ben”. Each contained a small collection of silver and bronze coins.

Digging around through some of random tomes he’d found a price listing and payment sheet. It seemed he got 40% of the profit whenever the boy did something and 80% whenever he did. That with the difficulty of some of the enchantments he was expected to do left him with as far as he could tell a pretty decent income.

Closing one of the last books he’d found in his room he headed back out to the main part of the store and almost ran into Ben.

“Hey, a guy would like to turn in some of his things for money, I haven’t seen one of them before, think you could take a look at it?”

“Um... Sure...”

Walking up to the counter where some sort of troll creature stood he took a look at the small collection of trinkets he’d brought. Most of them didn’t really strike him as magic. So far anything with magic seemed to have an aura about it. Only a couple of this trolls items showed it, though one, some strange design of sword seemed to almost be shining to him.

“How much you want for them?”

Eyes narrowing the tall troll looked down from its massive nose.

“What you pay?”

He considered trying to just get the ones that interested him, but then the troll would know he wanted them.

“Ehhhh, five silver.”

The troll guacked at him.

“Silly human, these old old artifacts, much much rare, worth lotsa gold.”

Sighing in fake exasperation looks dismissively for something else to do.

“Twelve, last offer, go to the auction house if you want, try your luck with the goblins.”

The brutish troll snarled, obviously distrustful of the Goblins, despite their neutrality, Julias was glad he’d found a general history book in his room, never really got into detail but named all the major races and their attitude towards each other.

“Fourteen.”

Leaning back against a counter pretending to debate with himself Julias hesitated a bit long before finally agreeing. Opening up the small chest in the back he reached for the shop pile, then reconsidered and grabbed from his. It left him almost broke, but he was anxious to get some experience with enchanting.

Carefully counting out Fourteen so the Troll could watch him he handed it over and scooped up the small pile. He was pretty sure he’d made a good deal, if only because of the sword. Bringing them into his room and laying them down on his bed he grabbed one of his low-level enchanter’s books and started inspecting the items.