Still reeling from the so-called Facilitator of Air’s sudden appearance, all Gab could stand there with her mouth agape as questions run rampant in her mind.

 

Facilitator? As in someone who can streamline an action or process?

 

Oceania Battle Zone, not Australia Battle Zone? Does that mean the servers are categorised into geographical regions as opposed to the specific country a user plays in?

 

And why the hell does she have a Bagua (trigram) on her forehead!? Although Gab knew that there would inevitably be some popular tropes and symbols that’ll worm their way into the game by popular demand (i.e. The Seven Deadly Sins, The Four Auspicious Beasts, demon lords etc), why is there even an Eastern symbol like that present in the game!? 

Either someone from Novae Terrae’s Eastern Division simply wanted to add a concept that can be used as the basis for an IG group and call it a day or someone from a western country simply remembered these symbols from “Jackie Chan Adventures” and decided to add it for the hell of it!

 

Seeming to sense that this latest Player was going down a proverbial rabbit hole that had very little relevance to what was to be done here, the still floating Aurula elected to get Gab back onto the task at hand.

 

~I’m sorry to interrupt Gabriella, but would like to start the Character Creation process by selecting your player name?~

 

Jolted out of her inadvertent attempt at Breaking the Four Wall, Gab chuckled a little at the fact that she was making her host feel a little neglected.

 

“Sure, I’m game. What sort of parameters do I need to work with?”.

 

~Well, since your first language is United Kingdom English, you can make a 25 character or less player name that is either a new name, phrase or a word that has meaning to you personally using letters from the written alphabet your first language uses.~

 

~Keep in mind that you can’t either make your player name longer than the aforementioned character limit. Also, it can’t have significance in any discriminatory ideologies. And believe me, I will know if your chosen name was created with that sort of intent in mind.~

 

Judging by the fearsome expression the previously cheerful Facilitator was displaying at this moment, an unfortunately large amount of players have already attempted to do just that, and have earned both her ire and her judgement.

Gab, for one, was glad that the airborne beauty in front of her won’t put up with that particularly nasty kind of bullshit in this realm.

Since she was part of a minority group that still, unfortunately, receives a disproportionate amount of irrational hatred, Gab was one of many people who wouldn’t consider donning that kind of player name.

 

Regardless, Gab began to think seriously about what name she would want to be known by in the world she was about to partake in.

 

Normally, when Gab and her D&D group name the characters they’re using for any new campaign, they would either use a fantasy name generator to get a completely randomised name, or they would choose to make one from scratch based on their character’s gender, race and background.

 

But, in Arbitrium, she won’t be playing as a unique individual. She’ll be playing as herself!

 

And if she chooses a name that won’t speak to who she was, then her name wouldn’t be Gabriella Wander!

 

gasp!

 

The inspiration struck her like a lightning bolt.

 

And not a pleasant one at that…

 

Whilst Gab was mulling over her decision, Aurula had a confused expression on her face, caused by her befuddlement over Gab’s actions thus far.

 

Considering that the tens of millions of players whose Character Creations she’s already fast-tracked had their Player Names and preferred Styles already planned out long before that even came to this realm that’s betwixt and between their original world and their destination, it’s completely natural that she would be puzzled as to the why the young woman before was only now thinking of what Player Name to use when all the others would’ve been long finished by this point!

 

It was at this moment that Aurula noticed that Gab seemed to have gained an epiphany, one that seemed to give her a slightly bitter expression on her mostly obscured face.

 

~Have you decided on your name?~, she inquired, earning a slow nod from Gab, ~Then tell me the name that speaks to whom you are~.

 

Reflexively taking a deep breath of air, Gab spoke a single word;

 

“Wanderer.”.

 

Blinking at the young woman’s seemingly simple choice of name, the Facilitator momentarily froze before remembering her duties.

 

~Hmmm, I can’t find any other Player who uses that name, so your choice is accepted.~

 

As soon as Aurula accepted her IGN, the name “Wanderer” appeared above Gab’s head in glowing white text.

 

Suddenly, Aurula clapped her hands and gave a relieved smile. ~Now that the boring part is out of the way, we can finally get to the fun stuff!~

 

Hearing this statement from the Facilitator, Gab let out an amused snort, thinking that if parents ever heard the floating woman stating that naming someone is the ‘boring’ part whilst the career planning’ was the fun part, they would probably beat her bloody.

 

~…why do I get the feeling you were thinking something bad about?~

 

“…it’s just your imagination.”, Gab replied stiffly, weirded out that an NPC was suddenly acting like an empath!

 

~Hmmm…~, Aurula hummed doubtfully, ~anyways, I believe it’s time for you to pick your Style.~

 

“Pick my Style”, not Class?”, Gab questioned, remembering Elena using that same term.

 

Hearing a question on a subject that every single other Player that she’s already processed knew well before starting their Character Creation, Aurula couldn’t help but frown, and immediately sought clarification.

 

~Um, Ga…I mean Wanderer, do you not know what a Style is?~

 

Giving an embarrassed chuckle, Gab answered, “Well, for a personal reason I had with this game, I didn’t look at any other information regarding it. Sorry.”

 

For the first in her entire duration as a Facilitator, she almost fainted in disbelief.

 

You had all that time to get that information, and yet you only decided to acquire it during Character Creation?!!!

 

Taking a deep breath, Aurula managed to calm herself down before answering the question in earnest.

 

After all, what kind of Facilitator would she be if she couldn’t even answer such a simple question?

 

~Well, a Style is a type of Player category that not only determines things such as the amount of free and fixed attribute points you can freely distribute during Character Creation, how much points acquire each time you level, how you get those points, what skills you can use and acquire during your time in Arbitrium and what sort of options are available for advancing your avatar’s strength.~

 

~To put it simply, a Style represents how you want to “play” in Arbitrium~

 

So it is essentially short for “Playstyle”, Gab thought, seeming to confirm a part of her suspicions. “ So, are you saying that there are no Classes?”, Gab asked with a sinking feeling.

 

Shaking her head, Aurula answered, ~Whilst that may be true for one of the Styles, the others do possess Initial Classes that are exclusive to each Style ~

 

Seeing Gab’s still confused expression despite it being obscured, Aurula just shook her head. 

 

~ I think it’ll be best if you just see for yourself~, she said, before raising her right hand and snapped her fingers.

 

As the sound produced by her snap reverberated through the air, the still sea that served as the “ground” started to ripple for the first since Gab has been there. Whirling around to see what was going on, she notices three spots in the water around her and Aurula that start bubbling violently. Almost as if something was emerging from below.

 

Sure enough, what looked like three Roman-style plinths emerged, surrounding the two people in a sort of triangular formation.

 

Despite being stunned by this new development, Gab still had the presence of mind to notice that not only are the plinths different from one another but that they also seemed to have what looked like escutcheons (shields with coats of arms) on top of them.

 

Then, a notification came up in front of Gab:

 

<Please select your preferred Style from the following options:

 

1-The Way of the Battlefield: [Combatstyler]

 

2-The Way of the Passion: [Lifestyler]

 

3-The Way of the Unknown: [Freestyler]>