Character Creation

Darien hurried into his apartment just as the sun began to illuminate the nearby buildings.

"The night went by quickly. I wonder if the update is finished." He loaded up his computer before changing into slacks and a t-shirt. Making himself some coffee, he sat down to load up the game launcher for Rune Union. "It's finished. I'll send an email to Giel after I check out some of the updates." He smiled and logged into the game. It was then that he realized something was wrong. "Where is Devi?!" Darien stood out of his chair and stared at the screen. Before coming to a full panic, he began to breathe deeply and exhale.

'First thing's first. I'll check the patch notes to see if it's a mistake.' He thought to himself while taking a sip of his coffee. The homepage loaded up, and he began to read through the notes:

"Thank you to all players of Rune Union! We firstly want to address the many changes to the world we have all come to know and love. You will find that all character and world data has been reset. All players will now have a clean slate and the world itself will be explored anew! We apologize for the inco-"

Darien sat back in his chair and sighed. 'All of those hours. All that time invested....gone?' he thought to himself and went back to the character select screen for the game. Something inside him thought for a moment, and he couldn't help but smile painfully. 'A new world? All the player-created kingdoms are gone? The game did just get updated...' Then he sipped his coffee more and began to create a character. 'I would be one of the first people to make a mark in this!' The excitement overcame the hurt of his character loss, and he remade the would-be dark enchanter thief that was Devi. This time he made him as a moon elf and boosted more into the agility stat than he had previously. He noted the starter class system as removed and instead allowed you to gain two starter abilities to mix. Darien chose a new skill that conjured a low-level blade. The description made the ability seem like it could grow with certain conditions like skills that were previously rare to find in the game. He then decided to add the thief's type ability of dagger throw. If he could combine those two skills he probably wouldn't need to continue retrieving knives like he had to previously with that skill.

"A good combo I believe..." He said to himself before finalizing the creation of the newly reborn Devi.

The game began with an opening scene of the player being a hero summoned into the world by one of the eight deities of the world of UNION. Devi chose the dragon goddess as his patron deity. He always enjoyed the lore about her and how her powers were connected closely to the energy of the world. After making the decision, he was greeted by the image of a large and majestic emerald dragon.

"Welcome to our world. Whatever path you decide to take just remember, we will call upon you in our hour of need. Please heed our call."

That was the first time Darien had seen that kind of cutscene before. They must have added more to the game and its lore than he first believed? He did remember Giel talking about even NPC's (non-player characters) being able to make their own kingdoms, villages, bandit groups, or anything else. That the AI (artificial intelligence) in the game would be much more advanced than it had been and that the world itself should even grow along with the players.

The scenes around his character then changed to the inside of a temple. He could make out a few other characters who must have started with this deity at the same time. Devi then began taking his first steps into the new world of Rune Union.

The area around the temple resembled a vast forest. The current conditions of the forest were poor, however, as he had woken into this world at the wrong time. A heavy rainstorm forced his character back into the temple before he could take on ill conditions. He went through his inventory and found that he was wearing starter adventurer clothes, which was a long sleeve shirt and pants with leather shoes. He also had beginning supplies such as basic food, water, and a cloak.

"Wait... I have to worry about food and water now?!" he saw one of the other nearby players shout in the chat. They were his own thoughts as well; it made him wonder what else he needed to manage in this game now. Deciding to ration himself until his hunger and thirst bars were getting low so that he didn't waste what he started with.

Devi equipped the cloak which took the chill debuff off his character. He left the other griping players inside the temple and made his way along a nearby path. He noticed there were a few hidden items and chests that could be looted if one defeated the nearby monsters guarding them. However, he hadn't started with a weapon and wondered if he could take on any group of monsters with just his two skills.

'Would give me a chance to test my theory.' He thought to himself as he went closer to one of the chests. As he entered the monster's area around the chest, four boars spawned in a flash of red. He immediately cast his conjure blade and noticed it spawned as a dagger in his hand. Then used the dagger throw skill to change his damage to ranged and throw the daggers at the boar. He continued until he ran out of mana and finished off the last boar with the basic attack of his last conjured dagger. 'Perfect.' He smiled to himself as he noted the minimal damage he took during the fight. 'Gained decent exp (experience points) and got a basic long sword from the chest. After equipping it he gained the swordsman skill tree, then he conjured a dagger for the free hand and gained the dual wield ability. 'So they kept this system in.' He could learn skills quickly this way.

He kept on for an hour, just exploring the areas near the temple and gained two levels. In that time the rain in the game had stopped, and he noticed the other players doing the same thing he was. Finishing off the coffee he had, Darien took a quick break to refill his cup and grab some food. When he came back to his computer he noticed his character was near two other characters who were already fighting one another. While exchanging damage from one another it was clear the one who had started with basic magic abilities was going to be the victor. Darien decided to avoid the death penalty and ran away from the area. He made a note of the 'mage's' username in case he was a regular PKer (player killer), MindSplash.