Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Brenton got a call from Kelsey, the head of DI. After the call he got his DIVE pod. When they hooked it up he created his character with help from Bit-Bee. He then entered DIVE.

Brenton was astounded by what he saw. The first thing that caught his eye was a gigantic, beautiful yellow sun. It had slightly more subdued rays then the sun on Earth, but Brenton thought it was somehow dangerous looking. Then he noticed the buildings and cobbled stone roads. The houses looked like they were from the midlevel era, with triangular roofs, and many windows. The roads looked very Roman. Large pieces of stone were placed near each other to mainly just give a pathway to walk. In the middle of where he was, the town center was a large fountain.

The castle was three stories, and huge. It could be seen from the town square, the place where Brenton currently found himself. It was the second tallest building in the city, the first being the chapel. The reason Brenton knew this was a chapel was because of the large statue of some divine figure lightly hidden behind stone clouds at the top.

Strangely though, he couldn’t see any NPCs in the area.

He noticed the other players. They were all having the same problems he had several minutes ago.

I guess they didn’t get the chance to try walking around first. Brenton thought to himself.

One of the stumbling people was a dwarf. Brenton guessed he was short even by dwarven standards. He couldn’t seem to stand up so was sitting on the ground like a child. Brenton silently laughed to himself.

Next was a beautiful looking High Elf. She was trying to look graceful but the fact that she couldn’t even stand subtracted from her overall ambiance. Most likely this was LastingBeauty. To her merit she did look like she would hold an aura of beauty and command… that is once she learned to walk properly.

The player named DefiledHealer was just sitting on the fountain. He didn’t have any noticeable special qualities, but had to be DefiledHealer, because the last person was a human woman wearing the same starter outfit as the rest of the group. It had brown pants that didn’t quite cover the ankles, and it showed the arms up to a little past the elbow. He knew this was EDI because she had the name EDI tattooed on her left arm.

Suddenly the sun seemed to de-rez, and a woman named Kelsey Gray appeared where it had been several seconds ago. All the players stopped to look at her in amazement. She smiled from the sun and said, “Welcome to Solun, The world where everything is possible. I hope you enjoy your game. Good luck.” The picture de-rezed and the sun came back.

Everyone waited a few seconds in utter disbelief; she just used her power as owner of this game to say good luck? No hints or advice?

“EH?” LastingBeauty seemed to have the same train of thoughts as Brenton. “What the hell? Why didn’t we get any info? Stupid old hag.”

Brenton noticed that after the sun came back many of the NPCs started to come out from the buildings.

They must have been waiting for their cue lol.

Brenton decided to walk around town a little. The other four winners, had mouths agape watching him walk perfectly less than a minute after they had been transported.

Well I did have some practice before hand. He thought to himself. But I don’t need to tell THEM that.

He decided to walk to what he assumed was a blacksmith.

After all I need some kind of weapon since I got a skill instead of an item.

He suddenly stopped, he realized that he hadn’t checked his skill, or for that matter any of his stats.

“Show Stats” he said, hoping it would work. It did, most of it looked normal, but something caught his eye. He had two skills instead of the promised one.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassN/AHealth100Mana100Level1Health Regen/Sec1.0Mana Regen/Sec1.0Strength10Agility10Wisdom10Intelligence10Endurance10Dexterity10Luck10SkillsIdentifySkill Fusion

He decided to check his skills out. “Open Skills.”

Skill WindowName[/tds][td2]DescriptionIdentifyAllows the user to identify an item.[td2]Skill Fusion[/tds][td2]Allows the user to fuse two skills together to make a more powerful version.[/tds]

Hmm, he thought to himself, it doesn’t show any information about the skills, other than the description?’

“Show Skill: Identify.”

Identify:

Allows the user to identify an item.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

You can currently identify: Low quality items.

To activate say Identify while thinking of the item you wish to identify.

As your level in identify grows so too will the range of things you can identify.

“Show Skill: Skill Fusion”

Skill Fusion: Allows the user to fuse two skills together to make a more powerful version.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

Skills you can currently obtain from fusion: Novice Level 1.

As your level in Skill Fusion grows so too will the level of skills you obtain from fusions.

To activate say Skill Fusion.

*Note you will not lose the skills you fuse together, merely gain a new one.

Well since I have two skills I might as try fusing them and see what happens.

“Skill Fusion!” he shouted, gaining him several stares from the NPCs. He was at least lucky enough that the other players were not close enough to hear him.

Please indicate the two skills you wish to fuse.

“Skill Fusion and Identify.” He said, more quietly than last time.

You have created the skill: Identify Skill. Novice Level 1.

“Show Skill: Identify Skill.”

Identify Skill:

Allows the user to identify a skill.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

You can currently identify: Your own Novice Level 1 Skills.

To activate say Identify Skill while thinking of the Skill you wish to identify.

As your level in identify skill grows so too will the range of skills you can identify.

He decided he might as well try his new skill out.

“Identify Skill: Identify.”

Identify:

Allows the user to identify an item.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

You can currently identify: Low quality items.

To activate say Identify while thinking of the item you wish to identify.

As your level in identify grows so too will the range of things you can identify, and the amount of information you get from each identify.

The qualities of items are categorized as follows: Low, Mundane, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Unique, Legendary, Artifact, and Ichor.

It really did give me more information! Brenton was overjoyed at this new discovery. He was trying to figure out a way to overpowered with it, but couldn’t think of one.

“Identify Skill: Skill Fusion.”

Skill Fusion: Allows the user to fuse two skills together to make a more powerful version.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 50.00%

Skills you can currently obtain from fusion: Novice Level 1.

As your level in Skill Fusion grows so too will the level of skills you obtain from fusions.

The created skills level and exp is found by adding the levels and exp of the two skills used to create it and dividing by four. For every four levels of this skill the level of the newly created skill will increase by an additional level.

It’s possible to fuse skills created by Skill Fusion.

To activate say Skill Fusion.

*Note you will not lose the skills you fuse together, merely gain a new one.

“Identify Skill: Identify Skill.”

Identify Skill:

Allows the user to identify a skill.

Current level: Novice Level 1 Exp 66.66%

You can currently identify: Your own Novice Level 1 Skills.

To activate say Identify Skill while thinking of the Skill you wish to identify.

This skill should be used instead of the show skill window, as it will give more information when you obtain higher levels. When it gives more information from identified skills it gives a small amount of exp. The more information you obtain about a skill the more exp this skill gets.

This skill will eventually allow you to see all parts of a skill, and read other peoples skills that are currently being used.

As your level in identify skill grows so too will the range of skills you can identify.

He decided to fuse his Identify Skill, and Skill Fusion to see what happened.

“Skill Fusion.”

Please indicate the two skills you wish to fuse.

“Skill Fusion and Identify Skill.”

Incompatible skills, please try again.

Oh so there are some skills you can’t fuse.

“Skill Fusion.”

Please indicate the two skills you wish to fuse.

“Identify Skill and Identify.”

Incompatible skills, please try again.

Well darn I really thought one of those would work.

Brenton, no Voice0fReason, decided to continue on to the blacksmith. He saw an alley and decided to go down it. As he came closer to the only building in the area with an anvil he heard a loud banging sound, like metal hitting metal. He turned the corner and saw the smithy.

The blacksmith was an imposing man, with bulging arms, and hands that seemed they could tear off someone’s arm just by griping it. He had a slight tan from working out in the forge for several years. Voice waited patiently for a lull in the blacksmith’s hammer before saying, “Hello sir, I have need of a weapon but have no coin to buy it, is there any way I could do something of value to you in order to get one?”

The blacksmith looked at him and shook his head. “Sorry boy, there’s not much I can give ya in means of work right now. I need practiced hands for this job.”

Voice felt slightly disheartened when his first attempt to get a quest failed.

Mistaking the reason for his sadness the blacksmith quickly added, “Well if ya really need money, and don’t have a weapon, I suggest trying the alchemist. She’s the best at er trade I that I know of, and usually pays well for people that help her gather herbs.”

Voice decided that helping this alchemist was his best option for getting a little bit of money.

“So where is here shop?”

The blacksmith pointed to a small building three houses to the left. Voice started to head that way, when the blacksmith called out “Tell her I sent ya, muh names Evan. Might get ya a discount or som’thin!”

Voice decided to keep that in mind as he entered the potions shop. The shop was about what you’d expect. It was small, and the left and right walls were lined with four shelves each. On each shelf was about 10-20 potions. The alchemist sat, back facing the door, hunched over some sort of clay cup and was crushing something in it. He concentrated on the object in her hands.

“Identify.”

Mortar and pestle.

Used for the creation of basic potions, or to make ingredients usable for more advanced potion making.

Next he concentrated on the green goop that was forming in the mortar.

“Identify.”

Green Healing Goop.

A combination of green healing herb and common weed. Add this to water to make a health potion. Better ingredients would make a better potion.

“Hello miss,” he said. “I was told by Evan the blacksmith that if I were looking for work I should come see you. Is there anything I could help with? Perhaps gathering ingredients?”

The alchemist shushed him and continued to concentrate on her work. He waited silently, angry that she would shush him like a child. The alchemist looked a bit young to be working in such a profession, early twenties at the latest. Eventually he started thinking about potion making. It was a necessity for any competent healer to have.

I wonder if I can get her to teach me?

Just then he was startled to see the alchemist staring intently at him. She was only a few inches in front of his face.

Gah! When did she get so close? He berated himself for not noticing her sooner.

“You said you wanted to look for herbs? ” she asked in a much deeper voice than what Voice had expected her to have. “My names is Susan, and if you find me ten green healing and twenty common weed I can give you five copper.”

Voice didn’t know how much that was, but since he needed money he said, “Then I will be right back with those plants.”

You have accepted this quest.

Success: Gathering 10 green healing herbs and 20 common weed before nightfall.

Failure: Not managing to gather the requested materials.

Failure leads to decrease intimacy with Susan the Potions Master, as well as Evan the blacksmith.

“Thank you very much. Come back when you have all the things I’ve asked for.”

“Um,” started Voice,”Could you show me what the plants look like before you grind them up?”

“Oh sorry about that. Here take these.” She handed him a green flower that he remembered seeing around the fountain and something that looked suspiciously like a dandelion that had dried out and was ready for pollinating. “The flower is the green healing herb. The white puff is the common weed.”

He said thank you and took them outside. When he was far enough away that he didn’t think the alchemist would here he identified both of the plants.

Green Healing Herb.

Found near bodies of water. It is a basic ingredient in making health potions.

If combined with common weed it will make the lowest know potency of healing potion.

Ps. It tastes horrible.

Common Weed

A common every day weed. It is so common in fact that many potions use it as an ingredient to bulk up the effects.

It has no real value of its own, but holds some possible mysterious value.

Ps. It tastes worse than the green healing herb.

Learned Skill Herbology

For studying various effects of plants you have learned the Herbology skill.

“Identify Skill: Herbology.”

Herbology.

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

By using Identify to identify various plants you may garner improved information on the plants. This skill also helps to craft better potions.

Levels in Herbology provide 1% per level increase to identify skill when used on herbs. It also helps to make 2% per level better potions.

Alright time to start my first ever quest in DIVE!

*Note all the other four players just learned to walk at this time.