“Do you feel that you were born into the wrong world? Would you like to be reborn anew?”
That message must have been the gate to the new patch content, Callisto thought, already brimming with excitement and energy. It was midnight and she was shaking like she had an overdose of coffee (which was coincidentally entirely true.) Callisto asked her guild Gooses if anyone else had received that message; they hadn't. She checked her guild list and to her surprise almost nobody was online. Just a few self-muted newbies. Perhaps the notice was only for max level players, players who had signed up before a certain date, players who beat the final dungeon? Or maybe because the guild had dwindled down to a bare bones three players to have been online in the past months. Well, so much for the patch being a hope for guild activity. Callisto didn't think for long though and as her curiousity got the better of her and put her undivided attention to her newest pop-up. Did she want to be born anew? Yes, was the answer. Yes and bring it on!
The moment Callisto accepted, the environment around her warped into a pitch-black darkness. Weren't it for her senses being in the game, she could have sworn it was a monitor turn-off. Callisto experienced the sensation of falling, a rapidly increasing velocity spiraled around her entire body. Messages began popping up around her, too many for Callisto to read all at once.
“Welcome to the continent of Mäu Vazería.”
“Thank you for opening your free rebirth. We hope you-”
“PATCH NOTES November 21st, 20XX; new content, general bug fixes-”
The experience was overwhelming. Too much to feel. Too much to read. The devs sure had rolled their sleeves up for this one; everything was so dazzling! Menu's popped up before Callisto; prodding her to change her appearance, character race and choose a subclass. There were so many options listed, how could she choose between all of it now? Racing through all the options her mind feasted upon all the possibilities and before she knew it; the darkness evaporated and from bird's view a forest she'd never seen before dawned before Callisto's eyes.
She could only be amazed by what she thought to be a graphics update for mere seconds before Callisto was forced to discover the physics and sensation engines also top-notch. Her body smacked into branch after branch; scratching her skin and the fabric of her armour (dark cloth that at first sight made her look more like a belly dancer than a powerful warlock and spirit charmer) before Callisto's body smacked into the forest floor. Callisto groaned; this hurt far more than she remembered to experience playing End Saga before. Yet; her HP-bar remained at a full hundred.
Still dazed by the fall, Callisto took a deep breath, but was instantly startled by the sensation and let out a shriek. It was as if she had two voices! Her eyes darted over her UI; spotting her racial trait had been activated. Callisto's skin tingled, and she noticed that in her hand she held an old oil lamp. That was an odd choice of arms, nothing like the wand she had wielded before. The lamp was so finely polished Callisto could see her own reflection; but she could've sworn she hadn't chosen a mod that made her eyes glow! Bewildered, confused and excited, she let out little yelps of excitement; summoning her menu's and swiping through them to see all the toys she'd get to play with!
A few of her warlock abilities had been cut from her skill list, but in return she had gained a new subset of her new class; the charmer. Her stats had been re-allocated too, courtesy of her new sub-class, probably. Callisto looked at her reflection in the lamp again; admiring her new look (the job had gotten that part right.) Her racial trait had worn off too, and Callisto's voice became one again, the tingling subsided and her eyes lost their glow. Thrilled to try her new skills, Callisto used the new ability 'Call Spirit' and watched gleefully as small ghosts began rising from the ground one after another. She could summon twelve in total, and they circled around her character like transparent dark clouds drifting on a slow whirlwind. Their bodies were shapeless; adjusting with their direction and momentum, but each of them had two small round eyes that emitted a dim, white light. Callisto hopped from one leg onto the other and flapped her arms like a bird to see how the spirits danced around her. It was eerie and serene at the same time, and while the spirits their movement was nothing but an aesthetic effect, they had painted a big grin Callisto's face.
After having played around with her new undead friends, Callisto's attention shifted back to her menu. There were two disturbing notions; one was the the log-out button was missing and the other that she was no longer in her own guild. Callisto opened her guild window and friends list in hope it was just some kind of visual bug. Both were empty. She attempted to whisper the two newbies that had been online earlier; but the system replied both were offline.
This was... Weird, at best, Callisto thought. Probably a mistake on the devs their part. They would fix it soon enough, she shrugged. For now Callisto would do what she'd come to do in the first place; play the game.
It wasn't long until Callisto happened upon her first monster; it was a large monster; sticking it's muzzle down crack in the earth trying to reach for something. Players? Food? It didn't matter. Something devious sparkled in Callisto's eyes; as she began charging up one of her old skills that had remained in her set (rupture.) Callisto had read her second new skill lowered a target's endurance, and once Rupture had reached a full charge; she commanded all twelve of her spirits to haunt the beast with a snap of her finger, which they promptly did.
Within a split second; the beast tore it's face from the ground and turned to face Callisto, who before the beast could respond had slung her Rupture spell. A direct hit! Yet, only a fraction of the monster's health had been depleted. Even at three quarters endurance, the strongest ability in her current arsenal had done next to nothing (where had her DPS spells gone at a moment like this!) What Callisto had gotten however, was the beast's undivided attention. The two stared each other down, like a good old-fashioned western stand-off.
Up to the challenge, Callisto started to cast Hands of the Abyss, smirking the beast as she prepared to pin it down... But her spell didn't come out! That stare-down had inflicted a silence-debuff! The beast spit a projectile of acid at Callisto, who barely managed to blink out of it's trajectory. Having dodged the attack at a hair's length, Callisto felt her heart pounding. This was fun! This was End Saga like never before! She dashed forward using her teleport's momentum, preparing to strike the monster in the recovery of it's attack animation. From the old oil lamp sprung a pseudo-transparent, ghastly dark purple arm. It's fist connected with the beast's jaw; doing some, but again minimal damage. It was just like her low level challenges; a true challenge!
Yet the beast wouldn't allow itself to be a mere punching bag; before Callisto could get out of the way it rammed it's shoulder into her; sending Callisto flying! She crashed down into a tree; hurting like a word she couldn't say in front of children. Her body felt bruised and battered; a sensation that shook her off balance. An alarm went off in Callisto's head; this was no longer a game! The monster propelled itself at full force through the trees with eyes that betrayed it's merciless bloodlust, not even paying the slightest attention to the players down in the cave it had stalked before.
The raging monster that tore the forest apart to find her. It swept with it's mighty arms to both cleave the tree it had knocked Callisto into, and tossing the warlock's body around like a rag doll. Callisto could only compare the pain she experienced to her ribs breaking; pushing against her lungs making it difficult to breathe.
Callisto's second short-lived flight ended with her sliding through the mud decelerating her momentum to an eventual standstill. Struggling against all her wounds, Callisto tried to get up before the monster caught onto her again. She could clearly see the red-eyed monster ravaging it's way through the forest and closing in at high speed; her spirits were still stalking it. That must have been why it was so highly aggressive; her haunt-ability had caused the beast to ignore anything but her! And while she'd struggled to do any damage, the monster had already depleted two fifths of Callisto's health bar...
“Someone help!” She blurted out, drenched in sweat and a terror she'd never felt before, as Callisto started to run out of the one-beast stampede's way. “Looking for group! Anyone!”
As far as shining examples of exuberating enthusiasm and bursting energy went, Callisto was brimming with both. After her first, less than pleasant experience, she had gained new courage and confidence after joining up with a party. Although Callisto had had it difficult with the prospect of being locked up in the game for the first few days, she'd come to accept her situation. The game was fresh again and even though she'd not dared admit it to herself just yet, she enjoyed venturing through the new content without real life-interruption.
None of the players were quite at a first-name basis yet, but Callisto had introduced herself to all of them over the past two weeks and made sure to learn everyone's names. Most of the she'd at least heard of before, as almost all of them had made names for their selves in the game. Even so, the party was quite quiet, spare Callisto who was humming to herself. The only ones talking were their leader Raava, a warlock primary like herself who evidently was not the biggest fan of mornings, and Sikes, their scout who had ran on ahead.
Callisto, growing bored by the lack of conversation, fell back in line to walk next to Everina, the cleric of the party. “Hey Evey!” Callisto greeted Everina cheerfully, “Are you excited about our first big quest as well?” She asked and smiled at the cleric. “I heard your sub-class is tamer. Have you caught any yet? There's bound to be interesting pets available with the latest patch!”