Evan opened his eyes to find himself in a large empty room. Standing in front of him is a large barbarian figure that bore a slight resemblance to him. “Hmm… so this must be the barbarian subrace of the humans. He seems rather imposing.” Evan looked down at his right hand and clenched it into a fist. He marveled at the lack of pain from his broken fingers. “Well, this IS a virtual world after all. Stands to reason I would be using a virtual body instead of my broken one.” Looking back up at the barbarian he noticed an instructional window above the avatar’s body. “Wave your hand horizontally to change races? Seems simple enough.” He swept his arm in front of him in a broad gesture and the barbarian slid to the side and revealed the next race in line. It was a more normal looking human. He waved his hand in the opposite direction and brought the barbarian back. Doing it again revealed the next race to be a scrawny elf. Evan grimaced at it. “I’m not in the mood to prance around my enemy right now. I want something strong and imposing.” The next moment the elf was replaced with a message.

Applying filters with your specifications. Interpreted as: Above average strength, intimidation skill available.

Evan grinned at the message. He was pretty happy to see that character creation had such a robust system to help players to pick their character. He felt bad for the people that didn’t manage to figure out this feature though. He imagined anyone trying to pick something from this huge selection without any help could easily spend over an hour here without even realizing it. He didn’t have the time for that though, so any trick to help narrow down his search would help. Seeing his first choice of character was a grossly hideous troll he already had another filter he felt needed to be applied. “Please remove any races that have the potential to make people vomit on sight.”

Removing races with the filter ‘Ugly as fuck’

Evan burst out laughing at the new line of text as the troll disappeared and was instead replaced with another race. What now stood there was an imposing monster of muscle and a thick hide. It looked much like an anthropomorphic Rhinoceros, but instead of thick hooves, it has 4 meaty sausages for fingers. He analyzed the Racial information and wasn’t disappointed.

Juhnka-Tash: A close relative of the beast races, the Juhnka-Tash take pride in warrior-like qualities and value strength above all other qualities in their culture.

Racial ability: Momentum- While slow to start, once you get started you are difficult to stop. After 10 seconds of combat movement impairing effects are reduced by 20% Abilities that freeze movement instead slow you by 50% Effects increase by 50% after an additional 15 seconds have elapsed.

Evan thought that this was already a promising start but decided to keep looking to see if other races piqued his interest anymore.

Wolfos: Wolfos tend to be bloodthirsty and violent. Because of this, few people are willing to work closely with this race. They closely resemble werewolves and could almost be mistaken for one if not for the fact that wolfos possess plantigrade limbs and opposable thumbs and are fully capable of conversation. Whether or not they are willing to converse is a different matter altogether.

Racial ability: Frenzy- The longer combat progresses, the more easily you can ignore injury. The lack of concern for your own well-being has a chance to inflict fear status on enemies.

“Hmmm. That seems like some kind of berserker and while it seems interesting, I don’t think I feel like killing myself while I fight my enemies is a good way to do it. That kind of fighting style could be disastrous during prolonged combat.” Evan continued to browse through the list of races that were filtered out for him. After a couple minutes, he finally came across one that really snagged his attention. Evan smiled as he made his decision.

You have selected: Earthen Draconian

Earthen Draconian: The Draconian race is a distant relative of dragons and dragonkin. They resemble a bipedal dragon without any wings. Instead of learning the magics of their ancestor Draconian decided to focus their magic inwards, choosing to enhance their own body with their spells. This reduces the influence a Draconian has over its element of choice to a very small radius around them. Earthen Draconians take this process even further. They take the Earthen energies into themselves and use the strength of the earth to increase their own strength. As a penalty of this method, Earthen draconian can only influence the element of earth through direct contact of body or weaponry.

Racial Ability: Stable footing- Natural affinity with earth and increased body density from elemental enhancements allow you to maintain your footing as long as both feet are firmly planted on the ground, even in unusual circumstances

Racial Ability: Minor Earth manipulation- Allows the user to manipulate the earth to a small extent. Warning race permanently reduces the range of influence to direct contact.

Caution: This race starts in hostile territory.

Evan couldn’t be happier. The sooner he got to smash some faces the sooner he forget about the day’s drama. After he had made his decision, an overlay appeared for him to customize his appearance. He couldn’t really do much about the skin tone. His avatar was entirely covered in dark brown scales and a short tail about half his body length stuck out behind it. He changed the horns to be more curved. Like a ram’s horns at the side of his head, but further behind his eyes so as not to restrict vision. He figured if this game was going to be realistic that this might help with protecting the sides of his head. He also added a small horn at the tip of his snout because he thought it looked pretty cool. The last thing he did was increase the height up to a full 7 feet. Evan could have made himself taller since Draconians were abnormally large compared to the average size most humanoids shared, some even made it up to an imposing 8-foot stature. However, he didn’t want to make it to inconvenient just to walk through a door. Ducking a little bit should be the most of his problems for indoor exploration instead of having to perform awkward maneuvers just to navigate an inn or something like that.

Now that he finished with changing his appearance, he confirmed his changes and the customization window disappeared from view. A final window took its place and he now had to decide on something he forgot was going to be a problem in the game.

Please choose a name for your character.

Shit. Evan frowned at the question. There was a secondary box for the last name but apparently, it was optional. Evan was having enough trouble trying to figure out the first name. He didn’t want to have to go through all the effort of thinking of the last name as well. After about a minute of deliberation, he decided to try one and see if anything stuck. “Let’s try Baldor.”

We’re sorry, but the name Baldor has already be taken. Please add a unique last name or pick a different first name.

“Ahh, so that’s what the last name is for. Well, I guess I could just try changing a few letters? Umm… Balruk?”

The name Balruk is currently available. Would you like to choose this name?

“Yes.”

Name confirmed: Balruk

Finalizing Character Creation. Beginning character merge.

Before Evan could react, his avatar slid across the floor towards him. He jumped a little bit but before he could really do anything the avatar had already phased through him. Suddenly his point of view seemed to be growing higher. He looked down and saw that he had taken on the appearance of his avatar. “Whoa, this is cool.” A deep baritone voice resounded through the empty room. It made him think of a boulder crashing down a mountainside. Very intimidating when directed towards you. “Damn, it even changes my voice? Hello. Helloooooo. Raaaaagghhh. Hehehe!” Evan, now Balruk, tested out how his body moved now. Everything seemed to occur naturally to him, although maneuvering his tail took a little bit to get used to. It wasn’t how he imagined a tail would feel like when it moved. It felt more like he was moving with his back, but his back extended an additional 4 feet. The sensation, although hard to describe, didn’t seem awkward after playing with his tail for a while.

A few minutes of jogging, jumping and contorting his new body in various poses and he was ready to venture into a new world. A new world filled with things to fight. After pressing his hand to the login window, there was a bright flash of light and when he could finally see his surroundings had completely changed. Instead of the empty room he had been standing in before, he was surrounded by a barren wasteland. All around him the ground was hard and cracked from the lack of moisture. Small withered shrubs lay scattered across the landscape. Large crevasses and rocky outcroppings broke the monotony of the flat terrain, providing cover for small and large creatures alike. Balruk checked his immediate surroundings and seeing nothing to signal he was in immediate danger took stock of what he had on hand. He managed to work out how to open his inventory and noticed he had 5 loaves of bread, 2 water skins, a slightly rusted dagger, and a piece of flint. His only clothing was a leather piece of cloth good enough to cover his modesty, but not much else. “So, enough food to last a few days if I ration, no suitable weapon to defend myself, and no clothing to protect myself from the environment. Sounds fun.” Balruk took a more thorough look around for anything useful. “If there was a sturdy branch or something I could use it as a shoddy club or something, but I don’t even see a rock to bash someone over the head with.” Balruk facepalmed at a sudden realization. “Agh! Stupid! I have earth manipulation! I can just make my weapon!” Balruk focused inwards and after a few minutes of meditation stomped the ground right in front of him. Forcing it to change to his will. Instead of that, the ground all around him in a 5-foot radius shattered and his foot sank about 4 inches into the hard packed soil. “Shit. Not what I had in mind.” He moved out of the ground he just broke and tried again. Instead of stomping this time he kept his feet planted firmly on the ground and once again, released the power he gathered. The effort was a lot more strain on his concentration, but he persevered. Slowly, Balruk could feel the ground directly under his feet moving and forming to his intentions. Slowly, a spear of rock grew from the ground almost between his toes. As it grew, it quickly thickened until a stalagmite about 4 feet tall and 1 foot wide at the base stood in front of him. He grabbed the top and yanked it, breaking it cleaning at the base. By the time he had finished Balruk was exhausted and panting heavily. “I guess something like growing a rock might be a little too difficult for me right now, but now I at least solved one of my immediate problems! I now have a proper weapon to defend myself with.” Balruk hefted the rocky club he had just made onto his shoulders with a wide grin on his face. He was tired but satisfied with his ingenuity.

Balruk decided his next plan of action should be to get his bearings and figure out which way to go. He wanted to kill something but, now that he was here in the game, figuring out which direction to walk instead of wandering aimlessly might be pretty important. Balruk climbs up a nearby outcropping. He is remarkably surprised when he makes quick progress ascending the vertical wall of rock. The spire of rock he had chosen was over 70 or 80 feet and once he was on top he was hardly even winded from the experience. Hell, he had even managed to catch his breath a bit from his earlier exertion making his club. The only downside about his climb was that he couldn’t bring his club up with him, but he wasn’t too worried. He doubted anyone would just pop up out of nowhere just to steal a massive chunk of rock, and people that could make a climb like that without making any noise were few and far between. The view around him was breathtaking even when you account for the devastated landscape. After a few minutes of searching in every direction, Balruk noticed a vague shape on the horizon. “Is that… a mountain range?” The longer Balruk looked, the more he was sure that there was a mountain range in that direction. Since everywhere else was the same barren landscape, and he had no better direction to go, he decided that he would head south towards the mountains.

Having made up his mind he quickly jumped off the edge of the outcropping. “What? Wait! SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT!” Balruk was completely caught off guard with his unthinking action. Why would he jump off an 80-foot high platform?! By the time he was halfway to the ground he gritted his teeth. I’m already gonna die, might as well give it my all to survive! Balruk tensed his muscles and gathered all the concentration he could muster in the remaining few seconds he had, hoping to utilize his earth manipulation to his advantage. BOOooOOOoOOM!!! The seismic reverberations of his impact created huge cracks that spread out from the point of origin for over 50 feet. The unfortunate tower of rock that had served him so well for the 15 minutes he used it collapsed. Eventually, the earth stopped rumbling and Balruk opened his eyes to realize that he hadn’t died. Sadly he didn’t come out of it unscathed. He had lost over half his health and now had a new problem to solve. When he crashed into the ground the impact had driven him so deeply that he was now buried up to his chest in solid rock. He was feeling sore and stupid. Thankfully though one of his arms weren’t pinned to his side like the other was and, after another few minutes of struggling, he was able to pull himself free. “Damnit! Why the hell did I just jump off like that? I didn’t even think about the possibility of me dying before I was already free falling!” Balruk looked around for a few moments before shouting in exasperation. “And where the fuck is my damn club?! Don’t tell me it’s buried under tons of rock?! SHIT!”

After much searching and cursing Balruk soon came to the conclusion that it would be pretty hard to find a rock buried under a pile of other rocks, eventually giving up and going through the effort of creating a new club for himself. This time he added a bulb of rock to the end of the ‘handle’ to help keep the rough club from slipping from his grip whenever he swung it too hard. “I’ve wasted enough time here. I think it’s about time I started moving before I run out of food and water.” Balruk than immediately started walking south, towards the distant mountains.

It wasn’t long before Balruk ran into trouble. In fact, he got attacked almost immediately. He had just left the immediate vicinity of the area he ruined with his suicidal jump just a few minutes earlier. He supposed that they must have been brought in by the noise he had made and merely bided his time until an opportunity to strike revealed itself. The only warning he got was a slight scraping sound before something rammed him in the back. He certainly would've been screwed with that first strike if it wasn’t for his racial ability. Instead, he stumbled forward a step and he quickly spun around with his main hand extended, bringing his club around to deal a devastating blow to whoever was ambushing him only to hit nothing. When his club passed through the empty air the momentum of the swing brought him slightly off balance. A sharp pain in his neck made him realize that the weight that had impacted him hadn’t left his shoulders. Something had jumped onto his back.

Realizing the danger Balruk quickly reached with his off-hand over his shoulder and grabbed at something that felt like a thick wad of hair. He tightened his grip and brought his arm swinging forward, slamming the enemy to the ground in front of him. Balruk had no idea what this thing was, but he didn’t wait to find out. He immediately brought his club down onto the damn thing. Despite the fact that it should have been stunned after being thrown to the ground, the creature still manages to roll to the side and try to scramble out of the way. It was fast, but not fast enough. Balruk adjusted his swing as the thing moved still missing the hit to the head he was hoping for but managing to land a solid blow to its back and rendering its rearmost legs inert. As he raised his club for another swing, he was able to get a better look. It was some sort of massive insect about as tall as a normal human’s knees that bore some resemblance to a praying mantis. It had a flat triangular head and the ends of its front limbs were replaced with bladed scythes. That’s where the resemblance stops though. It had a dark brown coloration that seemed to help it blend with the rock in more shadowed recesses of its environment. The main body was also a lot thicker the normal praying mantises he had seen on websites in the real world. That was the most detail he was able to get as he brought his club down on it as it used its arm blades in a desperate attempt to escape to safety. Its efforts proved useless as the next second, nothing but a pulpy paste and shattered limbs were left of it as Balruk pulled his club out of the disgusting mess.

Balruk was just straightening up from the final attack when he heard the scraping sound again. This time he reacted immediately, spinning around and bringing his club up to intercept an attack he felt was aimed for his neck like the last one. Luckily he wasn’t wrong as another of those weird mantis things was caught midair on the side of his club. Before he could try to grab it and break its scrawny little neck though, it jumped back, using the club as a platform to gain extra height. Balruk smiled and brought his club back, prepared for a heavy swing. The dumb thing made the mistake of jumping straight up. Unless it had wings, he doubted the thing had a chance at dodging his next hit. As the bug descended Balruk brought his club forward to meet it. Time slowed down for Balruk and he watched as the mantis thing’s body practically disintegrated before the powerful blow of his stone club, killing it instantly and splashing a wad of gore into a nearby stone outcropping. Balruk was smiling now. This was what he wanted! Puting your life on the line! Defending your right to exist! This adrenaline rush was intoxicating! He wanted more! As if to answer his demand, he heard some more scraping and scuttling around the corner. Balruk smiled even wider, readying his stance for the incoming fight. Then he heard more scraping and scuttling, and more… and even more. Balruk’s smile started to disappear as the sound that signaled a single insect grew to signal several. Instead of wasting time, he turned and bolted. The next second he heard a shrieking sound as whatever those things were rounded the corner and spotted him. “Shit, shit, shit, shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!!! FUUUUUUCK!” Almost panicking, Balruk looked around him trying to find an advantage in the terrain around him. Those things moved fast, and he doubted he could stay ahead of them for long. He risked a glance behind him. Sure enough, the things were fast gaining ground. Now that he could see them, he was at least able to get a good count of them. 7. He only had to kill 7 of the things. Tough? Sure, but doable. If he could find an advantageous place to fight where he wouldn’t get instantly swarmed. His eyes locked on something that might just work. Two pillars of stone rose from the ground next to each other. At some point, one had collapsed from time’s influence. It hadn’t completely broken apart, instead leaning against the second pillar forming a makeshift archway and limiting the direction of approach. “Not great, but it’ll have to do!” The archway was just big enough to fit his tall frame, but not big enough to allow for him to easily use his club. Instead of worrying about how to make it work, Balruk dropped his club as he neared the archway and spun around with fists ready.

Seeing Balruk had stopped the hideous creatures let out some sort of victorious screech thinking their prey had surrendered to the inevitable. They charged straight at him, none thinking anything about the possibility of death and each vying for their own pound of flesh. Predictably the two in front leaped into the air, going for their targets throat as instinct drove them too. Balruk Swung his right fist into the first one while bringing his other arm up to intercept the flight of the second bug. Balruk was happy to see that they were as squishy as he hoped they were as his fist crashed through the skull of the leading monster, killing it. The second one showed neither remorse nor hesitation at the death of its rival and continued with its strike. It latched onto the arm that blocked its attack and attempted to cut into the flesh it had in front of it. Balruk swung his arm into the rock wall next to him smashing the poor creature into a paste. While he was distracted with the first two of the things though, The next 3 in line took advantage of the opening to launch attacks of their own. One jumped for Balruk’s face while the other two tried scrambling up his legs. Balruk reached out and grabbed the first one from the air and in the same motion through it to the ground. At the same time, he kicked out awkwardly trying to dislodge one of the things from his leg one didn’t have a good enough grip and was sent flying back but the other had made it to his chest. Balruk stomped on the one he had just thrown down at his feet finishing it off and desperately swiped at the one working its way upwards in an effort to attack something vital. He managed to hit it but it had just managed to stab a bladed claw into his chest as it climbed up and the blow while throwing it off, had broken the end of the claw off and left it embedded in his chest. The sudden jolt of pain made him lose focus for an instant. At that moment, the last two finally reached him and decided to go with the age old classic of lunging at his face. Instead of blocking them and having to deal with even more of the fuckers crawling all over him, Balruk chose to duck and the things went sailing over his head. This also conveniently brought his face level with the one he had brushed off him and it took the opportunity to latch on immediately. “Aaggh!” Balruk shouted as the mantis bug slashed at his face and on pure reflex brought his hand up to swat the thing like a fly that made the mistake of landing on his nose. While the blow DID kill it, this also brought up two unfortunate consequences. The first being that he forgot he had a snout and had hit it rather hard, but that paled in comparison to the second problem… These bugs were really, really, juicy.

Now that he was blind, he was going to have a lot more trouble with the last of these things, and there were still three left. Going on a hunch, he figured that the one he had kicked off his leg just a moment ago had most likely recovered and was probably just about to lunge at his face. He kept his position and held both his arms up to protect his head and neck and waited the next instant he felt the weight of the insect impact his arms and wasted no time in smashing it between his hands. While he was occupied with the frontal smashing, the last two of these monsters jumped onto his back. On a stroke of inspiration, he came up with a plan so outrageous that it HAD to work! He fell backward and felt gore explode beneath him as both of the hideous insects had been pulverized between the ground and his back. There was a moment of silence as he lay there. Balruk survived. He was exhausted from being chased, he had cuts and stab wounds all over his body, and he was blinded by the gore he had smeared over his own face during the fight… but he was alive! “Heh… heheh… hahaha. Hahahahahahaha! Take that you dumb pieces of shit!” Balruk raised his arms above his head in victory. He was so tired he couldn’t even get out of the puddle of gore he was laying in, yet he still managed to survive! “I win, you lose! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Needless to say, Balruk might have been a little drunk on his victory. Seconds later, Balruk passed out, too tired to care about his current situation to bother doing anything about it.