There was a weird sensation as the lobby started to fade away and a room of some kind started to fade in, both of them superimposed for a moment before the lobby finally faded to nothing. The room itself seemed to be a semi-ruined basement, full of wood and stone detritus. There was also a smell that made horseradish seem like lilac.

Great… spawn into the garbage heap! Way to go game!

Looking down at himself, he could see that he had a worn linen shirt, obviously sized for a human adult, that hung down almost to his knees, and a pair of stained, brown knee breeches. His feet had on a pair of hemp sandals. He didn’t have a pack or anything, not even a belt or coin purse. Looking down at his right hand he could see a simple black metal band on his ring finger. Focusing on it, he could feel the interface respond.

Spatial Ring Shard of the Void (Crystal) [PLOT] {0.1lbs} Weight: 0.01lbs

Well, they said this game wasn’t going to hold your hand. Not even a crust of bread to start with. I better start finding myself a set of gear to just survive. Digging through trash is not an auspicious way to start the game, but it can only go up from here. But, I don’t think I can stop myself from checking that Plot item out first.

Focusing his attention on the Shard, he felt the interface responding again. With no real UI or HUD that seemed to be the way to access the game elements of K.O.R.A.L.

SHARD OF THE VOID (CRYSTAL) This crystal shard seems to be of a substance completely foreign to this plane of existence. Holding it, or even looking at it is a completely draining experience, as if every morsel of heat in your body is being drained away. That said, you have a curious compulsion to see what would happen if you put some blood on this crystal shard. [PLOT] When blood is place on the crystal a World Event will occur, bringing a new player to Koral and providing you with unspecified benefits. This action should only take place in a concealed area, for your own protection. Note that actions which result in a World Event will bring the notice of the Gods, and many powerful Mortals, upon you. Weight: 0.01lbs

Hmm, certainly sounds like I got my money’s worth with that backer pledge. I am sure they would have introduced whatever this is without my aid, but it was a way to get them more seed money. In any case, I can reap some rewards from it now. Although, Shard of the Void sounds like it’s not going to produce puppies and kittens. Good thing I had already decided to not be bound by morality in this game. To spend one’s retirement pursuing a powerful existence, at any cost, is kind of exhilarating. Definitely more fun than watching game shows all day.

Letting the item information fade away, he started searching around the room for anything that might help him out. Trying to be a little systematic about it, he picked a corner and started digging a little until he found a broken handle from something, a shovel or rake. At that point he started using the handle to push aside layers of rotting trash and household detritus.

After a few minutes of searching he made his first find, a leather vest with a large burned spot in the back. Not really suitable to wear but he could use the leather for a few different things and so he set it aside. After looking a little while more it was obvious that the people that lived in this town – Far Westburg the Lobby had named it – followed the old maxim, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” as pretty much everything in the heap was the absolute worst trash.

Eventually though he did find a nice piece of broken glass, a thick shank tapering up to an impossibly sharp point, and some tangled up twine. He carefully used a rock from the heaper to tap the edges of the shank as straight and clean as he could and then proceeded to wrap multiple layers of twine around the glass, forming a handle for his improvised shiv.

Then he took the burned vest, which happened to be made from some nicely tanned leather and started to cut off long, thin pieces. The first one he used immediately to pull his long silver hair back and grabbed a handful and bind the leather thong around the base a few times, letting the rest of his hair then hang down.

I must look like one of those guys from a Xianxia novel, but really I just forgot how annoying having hair can be! Haven’t had this much hair…ever, really. Oh well, I think having long hair is like a cultural touchstone for elves, so I don’t want to seem like an outlier if I ever meet up with any of them.

One of the strips he cut off wider and used it to belt his hideous shirt, pulling it up and pouching it over the belt so that it didn’t hamper his leg movement as much. He cut as many leather thongs from the vest as he could, not knowing when he would need to bind something.

He had just stashed the leather and shiv in his ring when he heard a rustling. Figuring it was most like vermin, he wasn’t filled with too much fear, but deciding that discretion was the better part of valor he tried to hunker down in a shadow cast by a larger heap of trash. The rustling got louder, and nearer. With a thought the shiv came back out of the ring into his right hand, and he felt him gripping it too tightly and forced himself to ease his grasp slightly.

With a rush, whatever was rustling burst into the basement from under a pile of trash in the corner and into the center of the room, sniffing the air furiously. Kalamedra looked over at it from the corner of his eye and had to bite down on his lip from exclaiming. It was the biggest fucking rat he had ever seen in his life. The size of a full-grown Rottweiler. And it was pointing it’s oh-so-sensitive nose right at where he was crouched.

Sod this for a game of soldiers! Just got here, arrived with jack shit and in a trash heap and now I have a giant-ass rat about to make me it’s meat snack. Well, I wanted the exhilarating life…here it is. I don’t think surprise is an option anymore so I might as well seize the initiative.

Picking up a solid piece of trash beside him as stealthily as he could with his left hand he lobbed it to the far side of the rat. The vermin spun around to follow the refuse’s flight in a manner reminiscent of the wild boars of Earth. Kalamedra launched himself at the rat’s back and tried to stab it in the back of the neck, where the spine meets the skull.

The glass shattered on the rat’s incredibly tough hide and rock-like muscles. The sense of shock and fear was almost overwhelming, and only increased as the rat spun and flung Kalamedra’s body into a pile of trash. The rat rushed over and tried to follow up the throw with a bite to the face. Not even thinking, Kalamedra threw a punch to it’s nose which stopped it cold.

Seizing this small opening he grabbed the heaviest thing he could find near him and started bashing in the rat’s face. The rat shook off the shock and started biting wildly at Kalamedra, pushing him down with it’s greater weight. He grabbed a broken plate and used it as a tiny shield to deflect the rat’s teeth while also hitting the rat with a piece of broken masonry. The rat kept pushing it’s body farther and farther over Kalamedra, until he was standing over him.

Kalamedra kicked him as hard in the balls as he could. The sound that escaped the rat’s maw was incredibly high pitched and painful. Looking around quickly, he found an extremely long sliver of wood, and grabbed it up. With a strength born of desperation he rolled to the side out from under the rat and stood up, stabbing downwards as hard as he could. The sliver entered the rat’s eye with a *pop* of released pressure, and a *squish* not unlike the sound of someone stomping on grapes.

He pulled the wood out, intact but slightly snapped off at the end, and quickly put the other eye out as well. The rat was screaming in rage and pain, and Kalamedra leaped past it to run to the other side of the room. Catching his breath he watched the rat spin around trying to sense where he was with hearing and smell. Clearly the creature was seeking vengeance. With a sigh, and a sense of resignation, he picked two pieces of broken brick. The small one he used to redo his trick from before and tossed it past the rat, who spun at the sound.

He then ran as fast as he could up to the rat and started beating it in the skull over and over and over. After a while, he almost developed a rhythm and it actually became cathartic and meditative. Never in his whole life had he faced anything as dangerous. And he had certainly never felt this alive before.

Once the rat’s skull was pulverized and it stopped twitching, he just lay back against the rapidly-cooling slab of meat and failed to keep his eyes from closing in exhaustion. Sleeping in VR was completely different than in real life. No dreams, no nightmares. Just darkness. It was surprisingly refreshing and when he woke later he felt like he had had some of the best sleep of his life.

He noticed a notification in the corner of his vision and focused on it and suddenly a summary of sorts appeared.

System Notification Log Here is a summary of you System Notifications since you last acknowledged your notifications. You are currently set to digest mode. If you would like to receive notifications real time you may do so, otherwise they will simply accrue here until you acknowledge them. Skill Increase: Search is now Beginner 2 (+1) New Skill: Leatherworking Discovered Skill Increase: Leatherworking is now Beginner 1 (+1) New Skill: Perception Discovered Skill Increase: Perception is now Beginner 1 (+1) Skill Increase: Hide is now Beginner 2 (+1) New Skill: Tactics Discovered Skill Increase: Tactics is now Beginner 1 (+1) New Skill: Strategic Anatomy Discovered Skill Increase: Strategic Anatomy is now Beginner 1 (+1) New Skill: Brawling Discovered Skill Increase: Brawling is now Beginner 1 (+1) New Skill: Dirty Fighting Discovered Skill Increase: Dirty Fighting is now Beginner 1 (+1) New Skill: Dodge Discovered Skill Increase: Dodge is now Beginner 1 (+1) Skill Increase: Brawling is now Beginner 2 (+1) Skill Increase: Dagger is now Beginner 2 (+1) Skill Increase: Brawling is now Beginner 3 (+1) XP Increase: You have gained 100xp

The sheer scroll of skill upgrades was insane, making his mind numb for a minute. It’s true that every time you use an action you have chance to learn the actual skill but it is supposed to be a very small chance. From everything he had read the primary way to learn skills in the game was training through skill books, npc trainers, or later in the game being taught by other players. Generally people on the forums had conceded that doing an action over and over was the last option, really only useful if you had no other way.

What the actual fuck? How the hell did I gain all these new skills? Wait… the chance of gaining the skill is a random roll of the dice. I wonder if having all those luck points, that’s what they are for? Holy shit! I would rather have this than winning the lottery any day! Oh my god, this may be better than even that plot item!

He examined his Skill screen for a moment before getting ready to move on.

Skills BRAWLING: BEGINNER 3 CLIMBING: BEGINNER 1 DAGGER: BEGINNER 2 DARKVISION: BEGINNER 1 DRTY FIGHT: BEGINNER 1 DODGE: BEGINNER 1 HIDE: BEGINNER 2 INTIMIDATE: BEGINNER 1 LTHRWK: BEGINNER 1 PERCEPTION: BEGINNER 1 PICKPOCKET: BEGINNER 1 SEARCH: BEGINNER 2 SNEAK: BEGINNER 1 STR ANAT: BEGINNER 1 SURVIVAL: BEGINNER 1 TACTICS: BEGINNER 1 TRAPSPR: BEGINNER 1

Picking himself up, and cleaning himself as well as was possible, he walked up some stone stairs into the ground floor of a rundown hut, literally falling apart. It seemed like it was on the outer outskirts of the town, but he could see that people were moving around the village in an excited manner. They were all moving food and decorations, a few of the strongest hauling big barrels towards the town center.

Must be a holiday…let’s go check this out.