As I opened my eyes, I found myself in a small space illuminated by a dull neon light. Reaching up and pressing the release button, the capsule opened with a hiss of an airlock.
My eyes met with the low light of my private capsule room and stung. Even my head was pounding, and my gut was gripped with the feeling of nausea. It was the side effect from the time dilation of the capsule, which was the reason that most of the lighting in this café was dim, to help with the side effects. However, 'Realms' had the longest dilation of any other game. Well, there were others, but 6:1 was the longest you can safely achieve without risking brain damage.
Once the nausea had faded a little, I got out of the capsule and made use of the ensuite bathroom. After making use of the shower, I got changed into the clothes I came in and exited the room and headed for the onsite café. I knew that I could get it delivered to my room, but to get over the strange disconnect I felt between this body and me, I wanted to stretch my legs a little.
After buying myself a cheese sandwich and a cold drink of cola, I sat at a nearby table that overlooked the capsule floor. The faces of those who weren't already in a capsule looked miserable. 'If you didn't know about the dilation side effect, you would think that they had just been dumped by their partners.' I mused as I took a bite of the sandwich.
"Hey, did you hear about that new game that dropped a few hours ago?" My ears picked up a conversation of a group of people as they were lining up at the café.
"You mean 'Realms'?" Replied a man, as he was rooting around in his wallet for change.
"Yeah. Apparently, it came out of nowhere, nobody knows who developed it." Said the first man. By just listening to his voice, you could tell that he loves gossip.
"That's just a marketing stunt. I bet you that some people are going to come forward after a few days." The man triumphantly pulled out the coin he was looking for.
"Maybe. But listen, the person I watch online was talking about it after playing it for a while. I was thinking about trying it after eating." The gossip guy said.
It didn't take long for 'Realms' to be spoken about. It was like an urban legend, it spread like wildfire. That was both a good thing and bad as it meant more people to find hidden gems. Luckily for me, the other good stuff remaining around the newbie village was too high level for anyone and ultimately, not really worth the time to collect.
Finishing my sandwich, I got up and headed back to my room. With the time difference being 6 hours, I had a little under 40 minutes left until my character woke up. So, with the rest of the time I had, I surfed the web, reading articles about science and technology. I didn't find any articles about 'Realms' though it was too early on. So, I decided to go back in and focus on getting stronger.
[Welcome back to the world of 'Realms']
[Your character will wake up at 00:01:38]
Greeted with darkness, with only a notification window that had a countdown on. I tried to plan my power levelling route, as levelling up wasn't the only way to get attribute points. You can get them by training in a way that affects the chosen stat, like running for hours without rest can increase your vitality. But the effects were so minimal that most didn't really bother until you had a skill to help with growth.
[…00:00:12]
For now, I think I'll just focus on getting used to using magic and how to fight while using it.
[00:00:00]
On hitting zero, the window closed, and I opened my eyes. My room was lit with a faint amount of sunlight, which filtered through the closed-shuttered window. Judging by the rooster cawing and the sound of hustle and bustle, I gathered it wasn't long after sunrise. Outside of cities and towns, most villages work in line with the sun, when it rises, off to work, when it sets, off to the pub.
After a simple breakfast of porridge and water, which set me back 3 coppers, I set off, heading for the forest.
It didn't take long to reach the forest. Though, that was the easy part. Finding something to hunt, was a different story.
Even after half an hour, I still couldn't find anything, apart from a bunny rabbit and it wasn't like it would jump out and bite my throat, so I left it alone.
Pushing past some brush, I stumbled across a small clearing with a small outcropping in the centre. I decided to take a break and sat on one of the rocks.
'Oh right, I still had that herbalism manual.' Taking the book out, I flipped through it casually.
Trade manuals worked differently from skill manuals. Instead of giving you a skill instantly with an abundance of knowledge downloaded into your brain, you had to learn it yourself. This way, not all tradesmen are made equal. That, and it helped with increasing your intellect stat, the more you learn and memorise, the more likely your stat will increase.
As I passed the time reading the manual, I was suddenly disturbed by a rustling sound. I was just getting to an interesting part, it was about a root that when cut, would bleed a crimson liquid that tasted sweet like honey.
Looking up from the book, I looked at the bush that the noise was coming from and saw three sets of yellow eyes staring at me. As our eyes met the bush started to shake and a low guttural argument began. Before suddenly, with a thud, one of the – now identified – goblins, fell out of the bush.
The goblin and I shared an awkward moment before it got to its feet.
Replacing the book with my dagger and watched as two more goblins joined the other one. The three of them walked towards me without any cooperation, it was like looking at a group of 3ft thugs, just without the threatening aura.
But I wasn't complaining, they were the perfect dummies to test out my new spell. I began to channel the spell and felt the swirling energy form in my chest before it quickly shot down my arm that I held the dagger in. quickly raised my hand, as I felt the energy building up as I didn't want to accidentally shoot myself in the foot.
Releasing the energy in the form of a [Force bolt] it didn't quite work as I expected, as my dagger had flung from my hand and flew directly at the goblin that fell out of the bush. The handle hit it straight on the forehead, knocking it out cold.
Me and the other goblins stared at the scene for a moment, both parties stupefied as to what had just happened.
'I didn't mean to do that. Well, at least I found out that I can't use a weapon with [Force bolt] before things got more dangerous.' I mused as the goblins started to rage, thinking I had killed their companion.
One of them sprinted at me with its club held high. It only took a few seconds before it arrived in front of me and swung down, aiming to hit me in the face. However, with my stats being as high as they were, I didn't need to worry much about being seriously hurt by a single goblin. But that doesn't mean I'd let it hit me.
My arm moved on reflex and blocked the blow with my forearm. While my other hand reached forward towards its chest and fired another [Force bolt] and what happened sent another wave of amazement over me. A massive hole appeared all the way to its body, like some grotesque window.
*Ping*
'Holy mother of – I didn't expect a basic spell to do so much damage.' I watched as the body fell to the floor for a moment before I shook it from my mind and focused on the last standing goblin, who looked several shades whiter.
I could see in its eyes that it was planning on fleeing. But before the idea could flash through its mind, I had made my move and dashed forward. Unlike the goblin, it took only a second for me to arrive in front of it and grab it in a headlock. And with one swift motion, I snapped its neck.
*Ping*
With two of the three now dead, I looked at the last one and decided to leave the last one. Sure, I could kill it now as it was still unconscious and net myself a whopping 50xp. But then, I'll be back to square one with wondering the forest.
So, I decided to climb a nearby tree and wait for it to wake up. Goblins are cowards by nature, once they see that it's alone surrounded by their dead brethren, they'll run back to its spawning pits for safety. There, I can stock up on tasty XP.