The whole exchange between Myself and Lestia had taken around an hour. That was fifteen minutes real time. That meant I had two hours and 45 minutes to be back at the central tavern. I climb out of the capsule, slightly stiff. I notice myself in the mirror. My plain brown hair, my brown eyes, my average build. Perhaps I should have changed my character a little more after all. All I have going for me is my face. Perhaps I should have given myself something more iconic like glowing blue eyes or orange hair or something.

I headed over to the computer I have installed in my game room and began looking up what's going on in-game on the unofficial website. The official one doesn't have anything useful, it's pretty much just there for the basics. I head to the general information section. It’s been almost 6 real hours, and pretty much everyone who has a copy has started the game, so there should be some good stuff.

Looks like everyone is still pretty much in their home cities, but a few people have ventured out into the wild. Some guy with the Explorer class discovered the first new village, not unexpected. according to the website, the explorer class gets bonus experience whenever discovering a new location, whether it be a forest, landmark, town, or dungeon. Hmmm , also, it seems we’re all in the same country, called Gaelic.

Wait, it seems like nobody has started a guild in game yet. Nobody knows how. Of course, there are people who affiliate themselves with certain guilds, but none of it is official. people were complaining to the company, but always got the same answer ‘have patience, the feature is in the game, but is not accessible as of yet.’ I just hope they don't make us pay extra for it.

There wasn't much else I was interested in. I got up, heated up a microwave dinner(don't judge me), and took a two hour long power nap. When I got up, I had 15 minutes left. I hopped in the capsule and logged in. I was greeted by bright morning sunshine. I had an hour in-game to do whatever I want efore we all meet up. I head over to the general store. I sell all the fox fangs and lizard scales from the previous day there. I got around 70 silver for all of it. I kinda feel cheated, I mean my share for yesterday was 100 fox fang and 50 lizard scales. I wanted a gold at least. I look around, and an object catches my eye.

Woodland Armor

This armor set was fashioned by a beginner woodworker while being blessed by a beginner druid.

Material: wood

Durability:40/40

Defense: 15

Requirements: 25 STR, No class requirement

+15% spell/skill damage +15% mana/stamina/health regeneration

Now, I know that a mage is supposed to wear robes, and they would have easily given me better options and stat boosts, but they can’t give me better defense. Robes give around 2 points defense at low levels, which, really isn't that much more than the clothes I have on. This isn't as good as metal armor, but it's probably as good as I can hope to get with no class restrictions. I purchase it for 39 silver. Looks like the circlet works, cause originally, it was around 42 silver

Ah, I can't equip it yet, I don't pass the strength requirements. Oh well, I’ll just invest a little in strength. next time I lvl up. I wanna buy some more stuff, but I have the feeling I should conserve money. I head over to the tavern around 20 minutes early. I order a drink, then pull out my map. By the way, it's so cool how i can drink alcohol in this game, even though I'm only 18. Shout out to the game developers, they're the real MVPs.

Anyway, I examine the area that I want to head towards. It's around a week away by foot, through the woods. I notice that past those mountains, my mapa ends. I guess that's the country border. I think we should try and cross it, go where no ones gone before. Maybe we’ll get a reward.

While I make plans, the 20 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye, and my companions begin showing up. Moxxie came first. She was wearing the same leggings from before, but now she was wearing a vest covered in knives with a hood. She smiled as she at across from me.

“Damn, I thought I’d be first.” she says playfully.

“Hah, you're not even early.”

“Yeah whatever. So what's the plan, Bossman?”

“I’ll wait until the others get here.” ten minutes later, Dave arrives, sporting a leather jacket on top of his usual clothes.

“Ah, my companions! What sort of adventures shall we begin today?” He says, full of his usual vigor.

“i don't know, Linderman here is keeping it secret until we all are together.”

“Ah, how fair of him! Truly worthy of being our leader! Unless he just doesn't feel like repeating himself. Then he’s just lazy and I take it all back. By the way, did you see the blades they have in Fortuna’s store?”

“Yeah, they were nice, but I had my eyes on those gloves that increase your critical hit rate.” said Moxxie. The two of them continued to discuss various weaponry together. it seems they've become fast friends. By the way, Dave now has the class ‘Knave’. He wields a short sword instead of a dagger now. Originally, Moxxie was also going to get that class as well, seeing as they had a skill for throwing weapons, but decided against it. She now has the adventurer class ‘Knife Thrower’, and it seems its exactly what it sounds like. 5 minutes later, Raknar approaches, and.. there's a girl with him. She’s rather short, with shoulder length light brown hair. Im going to be so pissed if he’s got a girlfriend and I dont, I may ignore him. I've said before that I'm not above being petty.

“Hey guys, This is my sister, Thelia.” Raknar said. Sister. Ok, thats acceptable.

“Hi, I’m Thelia, umm thanks for taking care of my brother Rich- i mean Raknar the mighty.” she said, blushing slightly.

“Aww, she’s so cute! Raknar she’s coming with us right? Linderman ya gotta add her to the party, look at her, she’s gonna be the mascot! “ Moxxie said, squealing with excitement. Thelia began to hide behind her brother.

“Fine, fine, just calm down. You look like a creepy old man stalking a little girl. Raknar, you brought her here to join up right? ” I say.

“Uhh yeah. I hope you don't mind though, she’s a Diviner, and she’s kind of low leveled.” he said.

“Low-levelled? Then her STR stat is definitely weaker than mine!!!” Moxxie said with a savage smile on her face. Dave hit her in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword, causing her to receive the ‘dazed’ status. Thank God. I approach the girl. despite how young she looks, which is about 14 or so, I know she has to be at least my age because minors aren't allowed to play virtual reality games.

“would you like to party with us?” I ask.

“Umm...only if you promise to protect me from her.” I add he as friends, then add her to the party right away.

Party WindowLeaderLinderman-lvl 11MembersMoxxie-lvl.12 Dave-lvl.11

Raknar-lvl.11 Thelia-lvl.4

Wow, she is low levelled. But it's to be expected, Diviners are like magical scouts. They're the third least picked magical class. The good thing about them though, is that they can predict what kind of creatures are in a location before entering. Anyway, Its time to tell them all bout my quest.

“So guys, I want to ask a favor, I got a D ranked Quest from my tutor and I was wondering if you would like to go with me. It’ll take a while to get there, but its one of the only ways I can get stronger. Do you guys mind?”

“hell no, we don't mind, right guys?” said Moxxie.

“Its the least I can do man, count me in.” said Raknar with a smile.

“D rank you say? Haven't heard of many above F rank, It's sure to be exciting!!” Dave said rising from his chair.

“Ummm, I don't think I have a say yet, but ummm...lets go!” Telia said i a low voice.

We get out of the tavern and head to a few stores to get supplies. Raknar is now a Shieldman, so he bought an additional Oak shield. He wields two circular shields on his arms now. It seems rather unorthodox, but when I ask him about it, he tells me he chose this on purpose. He knows he doesn't really have much talent for attacking, so instead, he wants to be the best defender he can be.

We buy a few Stamina and mana potions, and some better gear for thelia. Like me, she uses an orb though, so there wasn't much we could do for that. There weren't many Orbs for sale in the magic shop we were in.and many of them had requirements and costs too high or were pretty much the same as the beginners orb.

Other than the siblings, the rest of us didn't really need new stuff, so we went ahead and prepared to leave. We were walking out the gate, when we were stopped by two people. One was a young man with a face that could be called fiercely handsome, with bronze armored pants, and leather armored top He was armed with a mid length spear. The other was a girl with red hair and green eyes sporting a whip.

“Hi, can we join your party? I’m Vy, a tamer, and he is Secundus, a rider. We’re a package deal by the way, so no thinking that you can just dump him and abscond with the beautiful me!” The young man sighed at his companion’s words.

“This is why no one says yes. No one’s looking at you that way. You look like a leprechaun with your hair like that.” he sneered

“What?! dont make me log out, walk across the street, and beat your ass again!”

“So violent~ this is why your dad is scared you’ll never get married!” The man said with a growing sadistic smile.The two began to bicker and pull on each others’ ears and hair. I suspect this is the real reason they never get picked up. With a sigh, I look back at my team members. Moxxie rolled her eyes and nodded. she knew I wanted to accept them from the beginning. Raknar nodded as well, wit a nostalgic smile on his face. Dave merely shrugged. seems he doesn't care either way.Thelia saw her brother nod and hastened to do the same, I don't know if she knows why they're nodding though...

“So you guys ready to go?” I shout to the fighting duo in front of me. They stop their fighting mid blow and look at me, surprised.

“Really?” they say simultaneously.

“Yeah, so what kind of pets do you guys have?”

“Wellll....” they said, together again. I gotta say the way they do that is kind of impressive. But less impressive is that neither of them have pets, even though their jobs require them. Well the man, Secundus, has a fairly good excuse. Very few riders had pets. the ones available for riding out the stable were far too expensive to afford at this stage of the game. One guy had somehow convinced a farmer to let him have his old donkey, and another had somehow got a deer. There was one man though, who had miraculously got a wolf.

The girl, Vy, had a different reason. She claimed that every time she successfully tamed a ‘foxxie’, all the other ‘foxxies’ would gang up and attack it. It seems she didnt assist the fox or give it commands. When I brought this to her attention, Secundus called her an idiot. They started fighting again. 20 minutes later, we were on our way.

[tr]Party WindowLeaderLinderman-lvl 11[tr]MembersMoxxie-lvl.12 Dave-lvl.11 Vy-lvl.7

Raknar-lvl.11 Thelia-lvl.4 Secundus-lvl.8