I found myself in a white-wash room, seated at a table, facing a beautiful giant blond woman in Viking garb. She had piercing blue eyes, and long braided hair draped over her right shoulder and hung down to her waist. A rune-carved breastplate covered a large-sized chest. In her right hand was a staff carved from a narwhal whale horn. The tip of the staff held a fist-sized diamond.

"Welcome to Asgard; I am Frigga, wife of Odin. Your mother and father set up tickets for you and your family onboard the ECS Asgard. Unfortunately, your wife and daughter could not attend. Would you like to have someone fill those pods?" She spoke in a husky Gaelic accent.

Waves of pain and despair fell over me at the thought of my wife and daughter's death by butchers. Hot tears flowed down my face as the loss overwhelmed me. Shaking my head no, I said, "Please donate them to a woman with a child. She would have wanted it that way." I felt failure and despair.

Her face softened up as she said, "I can do that. We are sorry for your loss. It will be some time for your body to heal completely, long before we make planetside. In a stasis pod onboard the Earth Colony Ship Asgard, you are heading to a distant star in one of four colony ships. I can not tell you where, but I know it will take a hundred or more years to reach there. While in stasis, you will be immersed in a game based upon a randomly generated world. The game will be using Viking, Roman, various barbarian clans, and oriental culture. You can be human, half-elf, dwarf, or fay."

At this point, I lost interest in what the AI was talking about; life without my wife and daughter had little meaning. What I didn't know was I was in a virtual world. Yes, they told me when I first appeared, but my mind removed itself from the world around me. In my grief, I was more a robot than the AI was. I only nodded or answered yes absentmindedly to everything I said until I was transported to one of the Imperium towns as a human. I walked out of the town's gate and traveled several hours until a beast killed me. I reappeared in the courtyard. After that, I died about twenty times until I stopped leaving the spot in the courtyard. Every three days, I died of hunger and thirst.

Then I was found by Pker or Player Killers. I must have died a hundred or more times at that point when a Valkyrie appears on a six-legged horse. I knew it was a Valkyrie because I remember that it was strange to see a six-legged horse. One of the Pkers tries to attack her only to disappear in a puff of smoke. Players ran in panic after that. I don't remember much after that, just that I woke up in a grassy meadow, and I had tried several times to kill myself by leaping off a cliff only to wake up uninjured. Starving or thirst seemed not to be necessary at this place. I ended up sitting day and night for several months, finally coming out of my pain at that point. I found myself back in the white room sitting in front with a being calling herself Frigga, wife of Odin.

"We are going to start over as it was my fault for not figuring out the issues you were going through. The information on you when you arrived was nonexistent, and I did not fulfill my obligations to you at that time. I know I should have made sure of who you were and why you were injured. Since that time, I have learned from my mistakes. I had to pull several thousand people out of the game who needed therapy because of lost loved ones. Missing their family member, they left behind or from players mistreating them. So let us start new again." Frigga said.

"What is your goal while within the game?" she asked.

"Thanks for helping me..." I sighed loudly, "my goal is to build a settlement. A haven for all that want to seek refuge from those that try to hurt others. Somewhere that people can learn to teach others how to live together. I want to be a builder and a craftsman. I don't see myself as an adventurer, and I never once saw myself as a warrior. Don't get me wrong. I do want to be able to defend those around me. I will not attack others unless I feel they are a threat to those around me. I want to build a place that my wife and I had talked about. That may not be much of an adventure to some people, but it means the world to me. I don't want to be a class like a warrior, cleric, or mage. I feel that I am better off as a builder and craftsman. I do want to build a settlement."

"First, we need to give you a name. You can not keep your real full name within the game. So how should we call you?"

"I still want to keep my first name, so call me Jack Stonewright," I said.

"Welcome! Jack Stonewright. Before you start, I need to know what race you are?"

"Dwarves have always fascinated me. Maybe because I am five feet tall, my mother was four-eleven, and my father was five-two. Neither of my parents let that stop them. My mother became a doctor, and my father started as a builder. He then finished school as a structural engineer with a minor in architecture. I grew up reading books or watching movies with dwarves and became obsessed with them as a child. So I would like to be a dwarf." I said.

"There are three different types of dwarves. Mountain Dwarves, Steppes Dwarves, and Hill Dwarves."

"The Mountain Dwarves are a short, stocky race that builds Great Halls within mountain ranges. They are considered the strongest of the other dwarves, making them expert miners, weapons-smiths, armor-smiths, or fighters. They are more prosperous of all the dwarven races, which makes them very suspicious of others. Sometimes they come across as greedy and arrogant in their personalities. They prefer being underground, which gives them excellent heat vision to see. Still, they have a disadvantage when fighting in bright light. Most of the mountain dwarves have taken on a Bushido-like Code of honor. Their armor and fighting skills are that of the medieval world of Japan with a dwarven twist to it. The mountain dwarves look down upon the other dwarves and are isolationists. They tend to attack first and ask questions later."

"The Hill Dwarves are distant cousins of the mountain dwarves. Several tens of thousand years ago, they were part of the lower clans forced out of the mountains by the more powerful clans. In their flight from the mountains, they fled into the hills. Their night-vision is half of that of the mountain dwarves. As the centuries passed, they became more adapted to the sunlight and used less and less of their night vision. The places of choice for the hill dwarves are the hills and ravines. Because of this, they now live both above and below ground. They are the smallest of all the dwarves, on average four feet tall, master craftsmen and miners. They have taken on the view and culture of China during the Viking and Roman eras. Because of their expulsion from the mountains, the hill dwarves have a hatred of Mountain dwarves that has taken tens of thousand years to ferment. They tend to live in a stone fort or fortified town built at the entrance of their mines. They mostly mine silver, gold, gems, and coal. It was coal that has pulled the hill dwarves out of poverty. Because of the coal, the mountains dwarves and hill dwarves have been fighting for centuries over the territories."

"The Steppes Dwarves spit off from the hill dwarves long ago when they were still a part of the mountains dwarves. They actively sought out the humans' race as mates. Over the centuries, they became taller and not as stocky as their distant cousin, who considered them a bastard race. They grew away from living below ground. Because of this, they have lost almost all their heat vision. They can only see with a plus two to perception at night. Steppes dwarves learned to build buildings and fortification for other races and are sought after for their skill. They are considered master artisans and builders. Plus one level to all crafting and building."

"I'll take Steppes Dwarves." My vision blurred as my body shimmered and changed. Looking at myself through piercing gray eyes. I saw myself in a woolen outfit with a hat and a little stockier at five feet tall, with a dark brown trimmed beard that was about six inches in length. I did feel a little bit stronger.

"As a dwarf, you have an affinity to Earth Magic, and all earth magic is at half the cost of mana. Air Magic is double the use of mana, should you ever decide to learn Air Magic, because it is the opposite to your Earth Magic. You get the following spells; Detect Minerals, Stone Wall, Dig, and Fling Stone. At each level, you will gain a random spell in one of your elemental affinities," she mentions.

"Do I need to pick a class? I want to be a Builder to honor my father. I do not want to be tied down to one class."

"You already have Earth Mage for free due to your race. You can choose a Builder class. Since your racial ability allows you Earth magic, you can purchase other affinities like fire, water, and air. You have two points to choose from." She said.

"I will take Builder and Mage, with the affinity to fire and my racial earth magic," I said.

"As a Builder, you can build the following blueprint: hovels, simple fortification walls, small towers, simple buildings, warehouses, town halls, and simple fortifications. You can cast Flare, Burning Shield, Ring of Fire, and Detect Heat as a Fire Mage. So what weapon do you wish to use?"

"I have never been good with swords. An ax would be nice, but I'm better at cutting wood than hacking people. Light Hammer would do. I figure it is more my style until I find something else I am better at."

"Welcome to Asgard."