Congratulations on choosing your first class! You are now a warrior, would you like to choose Light, Medium, or Heavy Warrior?

Hmm, “Scarlett, what’s the difference here?

If you chose Light Warrior, you will begin with a longsword and a mix of studded leather and chain mail. You will begin with offensive based skills. Medium Warrior will begin with half plate and will include a mix of offensive and defensive skills. You can choose either a longsword or a broadsword and a shield. As a Heavy Warrior you will begin with a full set of simple iron plate mail and a broadsword with a kite shield. You will begin with defensive skills.

“If I chose light or medium can I gain any stealth skills?”

Yes, with both light and medium.

Well, I think that settles it then. I’m going to go with a Medium Warrior, so I get a good cuirass and then I’ll go with lighter armor for the rest of my gear if that works.

I mentally choose Medium Warrior with a longsword and a stand of armor, as well as a scabbarded sword appear on the interface with prompts to equip. I did so and the gear just appears on me already properly fitted and secured. The sword even appears in my hand! Holy shit, this is weird! The armor feels good on me, not too heavy at all. I realize I am now also wearing clothes and padding in the appropriate places to fit my armor! My chest plate is iron but my boots and leggings seem to just be heavy leather. The boots feel good on my feet. I have a pair of heavy leather gloves that honestly kind of remind me of welding gloves I wore in shop class in high school, but with a nice tight fit. When I hold my sword in my hand it also fits like I know what I’m doing. I take a few experimental swings and while it certainly doesn’t feel natural, I don’t feel like I’m about to drop it or like I will just accidentally cut myself.

“Scarlett, is the armor just fitted to me automatically because it’s the tutorial?”

The system automatically fits all armor to you once you claim it in any generated dungeon. If you have an Armorsmith create it for you, then you will need to be measured, and have it fitted to you.

Well, that sounds pretty sweet. I also remember now that it said that due to how long it has been since this dungeon was entered, all the gear will be a tier higher than it otherwise would have. I’ll have to ask about that again after I’m done here.

Once I’ve chosen the class and see the armor on myself my screen changes and it is now like I’m looking at a User Interface like in a video game or something. I can see all around me, but in the upper left hand in my vision I can see what looks like a level up prompt when I focus on it. At the bottom, I see what appear to be five empty hot-button prompts. To the bottom right there’s an inventory button and on the bottom left I can also vaguely sense that all of my gear is in good condition. I decide I better ask Scarlett about all of this before I do anything else.

“Scarlett, what is the deal with this UI?”

Each person’s display is unique to them in order to help them best see the System, but everyone will have the same information somewhere on their display. You will see your level up prompts and an active quest and achievement prompts somewhere on the screen. You will also see the condition of your gear and have “hot buttons”. At level 1, you will have five slots where you can put items you can just look at and activate. Most people will put potions since potions on hot buttons don’t require you to actually pull them from your inventory and physically drink them. Everyone who achieves level one gains a small temporal inventory space that is roughly 6’ wide by 6’ long and 6’ tall. It is possible to find items that contain more storage space. You cannot level up or check on quests and achievements while you are in combat. Remember, while you can access your inventory, you'll need to physically open your storage to grab items not on your hot buttons. You can put weapons in your hot buttons and automatically switch from your current weapon.

I’m not gonna lie. That’s pretty fucking badass. Definitely very video game-like and pretty sweet!

Alright time to level up!

I click on the level up prompt and see a prompt saying, Congratulations! Brandon Rawlings,you are now a level 7 warrior. You may choose 4 warrior skills and 3 general skills. You also have 14 free points to allocate.

Looking at my stats, it says that in levels 1-9 I get 12 points per level. I get 3 Strength and Constitution points and 2 in Dexterity and Endurance. I get 1 each in Wisdom and Intelligence. With my base points, I now have 28 Strength, 27 Constitution, 22 Dexterity, 15 Intelligence, and 10 Wisdom. I decide to split my 14 free points with 4 in Strength and Constitution and 6 in Dexterity, bringing me to 32 Strength, 31 Constitution, 28 Dexterity and still 15 and 10 in Intelligence and Wisdom. I now have 310 HP, 303 Stamina and 150 Mana. It feels like a lot of mana for my level, but that can only be a positive. If I can survive long enough to hit level 10 then I’ll be able to cast 3 self heals. It looks like each point of Constitution and Intelligence gives me .1 regen per minute. Currently, that means I get 3.1 HP and 1 Mana regen per minute. Stamina regen seems to be the total of my Strength, Constitution and Dexterity divided by 3. That means my stamina regen is also right around 3 stamina per minute.

It looks like I got 3 warrior skills and 3 general skills to begin with and get a new skill point at Level 5. Holy fuck there are quite a few choices here… I seem to be able to split them with a mental prompt into Warrior specific skills and even break that down into Active and Passive skills. I can also choose to see skills I can’t access for various reasons. I decide to go through my general skills first and see if there’s something there that I might want before I go into warrior skills.

Just like Warrior specific skills, there are just a ton. I decide to ask Scarlett if there is anything she can recommend. She has a list of the three most commonly chosen skills.

Identify Item Basic - this enables you to see the item stats of any item within 50 levels of your own highest level class. It also shows you a suggested value of the item.

Universal Translation - this skill is chosen by every person and monster capable of speech within the System. It allows you to understand anything that is capable of speech.

Basic Pathfinding - This skill lets you see a mini map on your UI that fills in as you explore a location.

All three seem like pretty obvious choices, so I’m not even going to bother going through the rest of the list and trying to be clever here. None of them require any stamina or mana to use, so they’re win-win all around.

Now on to my Warrior skills. There are all the skills that I’d assume I would have as someone who has done some gaming. Shield Bash is a skill I will probably use at some point, but certainly won’t be choosing right now. There’s also Taunt, which I assume would be great in a group situation but doesn’t have any uses for me right now since I’m alone and everything will obviously come for me.

It looks like just for choosing the warrior class I got basic weapon proficiency: 1H & 2H Swords, 1h & 2h Maces, 1H & 2H Axes, Spears, Polearms, Shields and Daggers. These stats are all pretty low, but it looks like I can choose to increase my level from basic to proficient using a skill point. I think I’ll save one of my 4 skill points until I see what I find in the loot box. I can see that I don’t have to use all of my skill points right now.

I decide I’ll ask Scarlett if she has any suggestions for me and right away she has one that seems risky but might just be worth it both now and in the long run. It will cost 2 skill points since it comes from a different class. Scarlett already mentioned to me that this is possible to do more than once, but costs a 3rd point if I choose a second skill from that same class. Apparently, this is a common tactic before someone hits level 50 and hits their second evolution for those hoping for some type of hybrid class. It certainly isn't used immediately very often, but Scarlett is pretty certain that I will get one of the best possible level 10 evolutions because I killed the Dungeon Boss at level 1.

A dungeon boss that I still haven’t identified because I’m in menu time, but I’ve absentmindedly noticed that he looks an awful lot like what I’d imagine a goblin would look like. There’s a soft glow in the room and even though it’s pretty dark, I can still see a bit. The Consort I killed would be a female goblin in that case.

Alright, I can’t actually choose Invisibility with a warrior class. That is a Rogue specific class skill but I can choose a skill called Unnoticed, that when I activate will make me hard to pay attention to unless someone is actively looking for an enemy. Scarlett tells me that if I am hiding or staying in the shadows, it will make it so an enemies’ brain won’t immediately register me as being out of place. It isn’t true invisibility, but it might give me an important edge and let me attack first most of the time. This is 2 points, but it seems like between it and my Lucky Bastard trait I picked up because of the way I entered the dungeon, I will have a real leg up in many circumstances.

Scarlett tells me you need to do something truly extraordinary to acquire these traits; therefore, I cannot rely on them to make up for things like taking two or three skill points and only gaining one skill instead of two.

So with Unnoticed I now have 2 free skill points. I’ll definitely be choosing attacking skills with these points. Unerring Strike/Blow seems like a good choice right away. It is a skill I have to activate to use and costs 100 stamina. It has a 1 minute cooldown but hopefully it will allow me to strike a blow that won’t miss and will come before anyone notices. I decide I will hold on to my final skill point until I figure out for sure what I’ll be fighting in here.

Next I open up my achievement tab, already knowing that Lucky Bastard is a Trait I received from one of my achievements.

Congratulations on your first Achievements! You have several achievements that will provide an assortment of benefits.

Your first achievement is: Dumb Luck. Thanks to sheer luck, you immediately killed a Dungeon boss upon your entry into the Dungeon. According to my, admittedly out of date, System records, you are only the 3rd person in Talan’s history to achieve such a feat. As a result, the System has rewarded you with the "Lucky Bastard" skill. This skill tips the chance of fate ever so slightly in your favor. It is not a free get out of jail card but when it comes to games of chance such as dicing, you will win more often than you lose.

Your second achievement is: Soloing the Dungeon Boss! Congratulations, you have killed a Dungeon Boss. Your reward for this Achievement is a Tier 4 weapon of your choice. As previously mentioned, this dungeon has not been activated for many seeding rounds, so the gear you receive from loot boxes and achievements will automatically be a tier higher than normal. In an Intro Dungeon, gear will be tier 1-3 with no level restrictions. In a normal dungeon instance, Tier 1 gear will not have a level restriction and is good for levels 1-10. Tier 2 gear requires level 10 and is used by players from levels 10-25. Tier 3 will require level 25 and go through level 50. Tier 4 requires level 50 and the gear can be up to level 100. Tier 5 requires level 100 and goes up to level 175. Tier 6 Requires Level 175 and goes up to level 250.

Holy shit. I’m about to get a Tier 4 weapon that I can use right now!

My options are:

Longsword of Eternal Sharpness - This sword will remain sharp no matter how many times you strike something with it. It is unbreakable by any item below Tier 5. Besides remaining sharp, it also gives the following stats; +20 Strength, +30 Dexterity,+20 Endurance, +20 Constitution. It is a 2H weapon.

Unbreakable Flanged Mace - This flanged mace will not break nor will the flanges dull when striking any item below Tier 5. It has a 10% chance of stunning anything Level 100 or below. 20% if they are below level 25. It causes crushing damage to armored opponents and it is capable of cutting anything that is unarmored. It also gives the following stats; 15 Strength, 15 Endurance, 10 Constitution,10 Dexterity. It is a 1H weapon and must be in your primary hand.

Axe of Eternal Sharpness - This Axe will remain sharp no matter how many times you strike something with it. It is unbreakable by any item below Tier 5. In addition to remaining sharp, it also gives the following stats; +30 Strength, +20 Dexterity, +20 Constitution, +20 Endurance. It is a 2H weapon.

Well, the names aren’t exactly unique, but holy fuck. Each weapon currently goes above my stat cap and will for several more levels since I can only gain 50% above my current stats. My 3 important stats for these weapons are all right around 30, so I’m only getting 15 or 16 points right now with the 2 handers.

The sword seems like it would be the best just with a quick thought, but my gut is telling me to take the mace. It’s a 1 hand weapon and ‌it kind of reminds me of a bat. Admittedly, I’ll use all the stats but I’m sure other gear I’ll receive will have stats too. I decide on the flanged mace and move on to my second Achievement.

Congratulations! You’ve killed your first monster 20 or more levels higher than you and as a bonus you managed to 1 shot them! As a reward, you have received a tier 2 ring. You may wear up to 4 pieces of jewelry in total. This can include rings, necklaces or bracelets. Your ring options are as follows.

Ring of Dexterity +25 Dexterity

Ring of Strength +25 Strength

Ring of Constitution +25 Constitution

Ring of Endurance +25 Endurance

I decided on the Ring of Dexterity since it’ll help my Unnoticed skill. I also notice something that seems to correlate to the item tier that Scarlett described to me. “Scarlett, you mentioned levels needed and max levels for items based on tiers. Does that mean that a level 1 item will have a max possible stat of 10 and a tier 2 of 25?

Yes, that is correct. Each item will have max stats based on its level. Those stats are lowered if there are abilities or skills added to it.

Alright, that’s good info.

I close out all of my active tabs and, as I look around, the User Interface doesn’t seem to interfere with things at all. I can mentally sort of make it feel like it has faded away while still being aware it is there.

I’ve chosen a class, leveled up, and gone through my Achievements. I add the mace to my inventory and put it on the hot button list just to experiment and as I mentally click on that icon, it appears in my right hand! Goddamnit, even in a fucking System being right-handed is the default! I ask Scarlett how to change this and she informs me that now that the System is aware that I am left-handed, that’ll now become my primary hand. I click on the icon again, which sends the mace to my inventory, and then hit it again and the mace suddenly appears in the “correct” hand, aka my left hand. Being left-handed and a baseball player it definitely means that being left-handed is a part of my identity‌. I throw left-handed and bat left-handed, so everyone knows I’m left-handed.