Beginner Village

Darkness filled Kaito's vision as the countdown reached 0. But then there was a faint light that grew stronger, he was blinded as the light took over his entire breadth of view.

Suddenly Kaito found himself in a mystical place, a darkness filled with galaxies and stars.

In front of him he noticed a woman with beautiful attire, goddess was the only way to describe her. Her voice had an angelic sound when she spoke~

◁Welcome to PARACOSM!▷

◁Please choose a name▷

Kaito thought for a while, 'a name?, for my in game character i guess'. "Kaito works for me"

◁Name invalid, already taken, choose another.▷

'What?, already taken by someone else?' he frowned "Kaito1 i guess".

◁Name invalid, already taken, choose another.▷

"something generic and cool then, maybe wolf?, or black?"

◁Name invalid, already taken, choose another.▷

◁Name invalid, already taken, choose another.▷

"I might be going insane at this rate"

◁Name available, do you wish to be named "Insane" ?▷

Kaito smiled wryly "yeah, that's perfect."

◁Welcome to PARACOSM: Online 〖Insane〗▷

A flashing light forced Kaito to blink, and when he opened his eyes he was met by a lush green forest.

When he looked around he saw that he was standing on the outskirts of a village, a very medieval looking village, most of the buildings were made out of wood and straw.

〖Welcome to Greenwood Spring〗 〈starting village〉

Kaito looked around him, he was dressed in simple clothing, some brown trousers and a white shirt, this must've been the starting gear for all new players.

As he started walking into the village he was greeted by the view of hundreds of players running around, wearing the same clothes that he was.

Kaito walked past a store window and looked at the reflection, his own face stared back at him. 'does the game copy the players physical form into the game?'. He shrugged and continued walking.

The village was medium sized, it had a church in the middle, with a stone bell tower standing tall, in front of the church there were no buildings, instead there was a big area called the town square, and surrounding the square there were lots of shops, the smithy, the armorer, weapon merchant, and general merchant, and a few others.

There was also pathways leading to the gates that exit the village, and in between a few dark alleys.

As Kaito was standing the middle of square he heard loud shouts around him.

"There's something wrong with these NPC's! they don't give out quests?!" one player shouted

"Didn't you read the news about the game?!, you have to talk to them more!, they aren't normal NPC's like in other games" another player answered, shaking their head.

Kaito noticed a player being dragged away by the town guards "she looked so real, i just wanted to touch, let me go!"

Shaking his head Kaito suddenly heard a sound

*Ding!*

〈New Quest : acquire a class〉

Kaito looked around him, all players were staring at the empty air in front of them, it seems like all of them got the same quest.

"But how? it doesn't tell us how?" one player looked confused

"Maybe we just need to ask around" another suggested

"I saw a man swinging his sword out by the fields on the outskirts of town, he might be a trainer!" one player shouted.

"follow me!" he walked proudly as players followed him, Kaito was one of these players, he had nothing better to do, better follow the players that had more experience in games.

Just outside of town, close to the east gate, there was a green field filled with straw dummies, in the middle of the field there was a hut and on the steps they saw a large man, resting his head on the hilt of his sword.

As a mass of players reached the hut, the man woke up from his midday nap and saw the players and stood up, he had a large figure, bulging with muscles.

One player ran up the NPC, pointed at the man and exclaimed "You there, give me a class!"

A slight motion, barely visible to the eye and a *whoosh* sound could be heard. A sword had cleaved the player in 2 pieces straight down the middle. "Wha...!" was all he the player could utter before shattering into pixels of light.

The crowd had gone completely silent, they all stared at the NPC standing before them that had killed without hesitation.

"Discipline..." he uttered as his gaze traveled across the faces of all players. "Only those who understand this word are allowed to train under me".

There was one player that was almost as tall as the NPC, he had short blond hair and a chiseled jaw. He stood out from the rest of the group as he made his way towards the NPC, the other players that were still frozen in fear moved out of their way as they saw the blond player move forward.

They all saw the name hovering above his character 〖WarriorDude〗

〖WarriorDude〗 sat down on his knees in front of the NPC and said "I wish to become a mighty warrior under your teaching." A small drop of sweat was visible on WarriorDude's face, 'was this enough to not get killed by the trainer?'

A few seconds passed, but to all the players it felt like an eternity.

A loud laughter was heard from the Trainer "Yes!, i'll teach you the best i can, THIS is the kind of discipline i like to see" The deep voice thundered across the grassy plains.

In front of WarriorDude he saw a text appear:

〈Do you wish to become Class:Warrior?〉

WarriorDude quickly accepted, he had played warrior in all other games that he had tried, and he wouldn't stop here.

〈Congratulations! Warrior Class unlocked! New abilities are added!〉

All the players understood that they needed to follow WarriorDude's example if they wanted to train under this NPC, the fear the felt from before washed away as a long queue was created.

Kaito stood at the back of the queue, thinking about if he wanted to play as a melee class or not.

All of a sudden he felt a chill run down his spine, a man walked past him, emanating an aura of darkness, a foul stench penetrated his nose.

Kaito looked around, 'was he the only player noticing this man?' the rest of the queue didn't react to the smell. That's when Kaito heard the man speak "only a fool would swing a sword".

The man walked into the town and Kaito felt that he wanted to follow, there was something about the man that intrigued him. A feeling of missing something important if he didn't follow, a feeling he couldn't shake off.

They reached a dark alley and continued walking. Kaito looked around, this had to be the darkest part of the village. All of a sudden the air became heavy, almost crushing as the dark figure turned around.

Two green eyes stared and a huge smile formed on the mans face, yellow stained teeth became visible.

"so you followed?, good, good" The man's eyes darted around wildly before landing on Kaito.

The stare that Kaito received was intense, almost as if the man in front of him tried to pierce his soul with his stare.

The man spoke with a mischievous voice-

"You have to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded bows, and the third is full of wolfs that haven't eaten in 3 years. which room would you choose?"

'A riddle?' Kaito answered almost instantly- "The third room, wolfs that hasn't eaten in 3 years are likely dead."

A large grin was forming on the shadowy figure, "HA HA HA, YES! and.... no."

Suddenly Kaito saw a pair of new eyes appear behind the man, he focused his vision on the newcomer and saw a skeleton version of a wolf appear beside the man standing before him.

"Death is such pesky predicament, i'd rather all creatures live for an eternity." The man in front of him smiled, "don't you agree?"

〈Do you wish to become Class:Necromancer?〉