“Huh?! It’s already been that long?”, Gab exclaimed in disbelief when she saw the time remaining until Arbitrium officially opens its border for Player arrive en mass.

 

When Gab first logged in, it was 21:45 pm, meaning she had to wait two hours and fifteen minutes until the Oceania Battle Zone was opened.

Originally, Gab thought that she would only spend, at most, thirty minutes creating her avatar before spending the rest of that time looking over her stats and Skills to at least form some semblance of a game plan.

 

However, thanks to her needing an exposition from Aurula on all the Styles and Classes that came with two of them, as well her violent “existential crisis” and the events that occurred because of it, she ended up taking two hours and five minutes before she completed the damn process!

 

Aurula, on the other hand, chuckled at the surprised look on Gab’s face, having correctly guessed what caused it.

 

~Tempus Fugit, am I right?~, the Facilitator asked, slightly shocking Gab with her use of that particular Latin phrase before letting out a quiet laugh.

 

“Yeah, time really does fly, that’s for sure.”, Gab replied in agreement with Aurula’s words, before shifting her focus onto her next priorities.

 

“Hey Aurula, before I forget, how do I check my status and Skills?”.

 

~Oh, that? All you need to do is say [Menu], and all of the categories related to your avatar will appear before your eyes.~

 

Nodding her head towards the floating Facilitator in thanks, Gab directed her eyes towards the empty space in front of her and intoned, “[Menu]!”.

 

The next second, a holographic menu screen was projected in midair, which showed various categories relating to aspects of Gab’s avatar, which are as follows;

 

-Status: This category shows the Player’s current base capabilities in the form of Free and Fixed attribute points, as well as the properties that a good portion of said points translates into.

 

-Skills: This goes without saying, but the category shows the Skills the Player can utilise at any given time, detailing the various Skills’ functions, types, parameters and cooldown rates.

 

-Inventory: The place where items (as well as currency) are in one’s possession, which is catalogued under Weapons, Armour, Accessories, Consumables, Special and Key.

 

-Titles: As the name would imply, this category shows the various Titles that Players can gain once fulfilling certain conditions, granting special benefits and abilities without taking up any equip slots.

 

-Quests: This is a log of a Player’s current and complete Quests.

 

-Bestiary: This category records every enemy and Boss a Player encounters during their time in Arbitrium, whether said Player defeats one of the beings record within this category, or are defeated by them instead.

 

-Settings: This allows a Player to modify certain aspects of their avatar except for appearance, which includes brightness, audio perception, Closed Captions and the level at which one would want to experience the sensation of pain.

 

Before she could tap her finger on the tab titled “Status”, Gab noticed something odd about her [Menu] that made both the corners of her mouth and her left eye twitch in annoyance.

 

The tab titled “Inventory”…was currently greyed out.

 

Meaning, she can’t access it at that moment! 

 

 

Seeing this, she swivelled her head to glare at the culprit, only to find that said culprit turned her head away as well, looking so guilty that Gab could’ve sworn she saw sweat dripping from Aurula’s forehead.

 

After a moment though, Gab simply decided to let it go. Not because she was simping for the gorgeous Facilitator of Air and didn’t want to hurt her feelings despite having a valid reason to call her out (although that’s not to say that she didn’t harbour some thoughts towards her, despite her being an NPC), but rather because; 

A-Aurula wouldn’t budge, no matter what she does.

B-She’ll eventually find out exactly “what kind of weapon” Aurula selected for her once the server opens, which will only be in a little over eight minutes.

 

After all, if Aurula permanently sealed off her Inventory; she’ll be screwed, simple as that! And Gab was certain that Aurula and her Mistress wouldn’t intentionally do that to her, especially before Gab goes starts the “steps” that said Mistress has in store for her.

 

With a great big sigh, Gab just tapped on the tab titled “Status” without any fanfare, seeing her stats in full for the first time:

 

<[Status]

Player IGN: Wanderer

 

Level:0

 

Style: [Freestyler]

 

Affiliations: None

 

Guild: None

 

Funds: TBA (Fund calculation is not completed, and coins have not been distributed yet)

 

Number of Titles: 0

 

Acclaim: 0

 

<Free Attributes>

 

STR: 6

 

VIT: 6

 

AGI: 6

 

DEX: 6

 

INT: 6

 

Points Remaining: 0

 

<Fixed Attributes>

 

Causality: 10

 

Gravitas: 10

 

Comprehension: 10

 

<Stats>

 

HP: 60 (1 point in VIT equates to 10 HP)

 

MP: 60 (1 point in INT equates to 10 MP)

 

Physical Attack: 12 (1 point in STR equates to 2 Physical Attack)

 

Physical Attack Speed: 12 (1 point in both DEX and AGI (When equal) equates to 2 Physical Attack Speed)

 

Physical Defence: 6 (1 point in VIT equates to 1 Physical Defence)

 

Magic Attack: 12 (1 point in INT equates to 2 Magic Attack)

 

Magic Attack Speed: 12 (1 point in both AGI and INT (When equal) equates to 2 Magic Attack Speed)

 

Magic Defence: 6 (1 point in INT equates to 1 Magic Defence)

 

Movement Speed: 60 (1 point in AGI equates to 10 Movement Speed)

 

Resistances: None>

 

Seeing her evenly distributed Attribute Points and subsequently even stats, Gab couldn’t help but feel conflicted over her more or less safe decision.

 

After all, whilst they aren’t too bad, they also weren’t too great either, considering that a large proportion of Players would allocate their freely distributable Free and Fixed Attribute Points to play more to either their chosen Class’s strengths or, in the case of more “willing” [Freestyler]s, to make their plans for the avatar’s intended path easier.

 

So whilst Gab is likely to have more Attributes that’re higher than other Players, she could easily fall prey to Players that have focused more on certain Attributes than simply making them equal in number. Especially if she comes Players that take a “Min-maxer” approach.

 

“Haah, forget it. It’s like that voice said, I’ve already made my choices, now I just have to live with them.”, Gab muttered under her breath, “However, I’m more curious about what the Skills I have now are capable of.”.

 

That’s right since Aurula was the one who selected the Skills that she would use in the first place, as well as the fact that Gab was more focused on finishing the Character Creation at long last, the only thing she knew about her Skills were their names! And even then, those said names seemed a little…odd.

 

With that being said, Gab closed her “Status” window and subsequently tapped on the tab titled “Skills” to see the three Skills she currently possesses.

 

Pulling up their information, the Skills and the information pertaining to each of them are as follows:

 

[Surface/Enemy]

Skill Family: [Freestyler]

Skill Type: Active

Skill Description:

A magic-based attack Skill can be utilised in the following ways;

-A short to mid-range magical blast that can inflict up to 50-70% of the user’s total Magic Attack

-A magic imbued physical attack with a weapon that can inflict up to 25% of the user’s Magic Attack in addition to their Physical Attack

In addition, the user can also add additional effects to the Skill based on the surface they’re standing on at the time.

List of additional effects:

None (User has yet to use this Skill)

Cost: 5 MP

Cooldown Time: 10 seconds 

Note: This Skill can be upgraded 

 

[PCM] (Pragmatic Combat Mastery]

Skill Family: [Freestyler]

Skill Type: Passive (Conditional)

Skill Description:

Unlike typical Mastery Skills, which both allows a user a greater level of ease in executing basic attacks and specific actions with the Weapons, Magic’s and Skills that are related to them, as well as increasing the damage a user can cause with them, this Mastery Skill focuses more on enhancing various types of attacks that can be considered “unconventional”.

Attacks that fall under this category include (but not limited to) the following:

-Using Weapons, Skills and Items in certain attacks that they aren’t intended for

-Using the environment to one’s advantage that the enemy was expecting 

-Attacking in a way that would be considered by more principled and honourable combatants as “dishonourable”, “despicable” and “cheap”

Doing any of the above will grant an additional 10% in either Physical or Magic Attack (depending on what was used to facilitate the attack)

Note: This Skill can be upgraded 

 

[Struggle Glow-Up]

Skill Family: [Freestyler]

Skill Type: Passive (Conditional)

Skill Description:

When facing an enemy whose rank and/or total number of Attributes surpasses the user’s to an almost obscene degree, there is a slight probability that one or more of the user’s Attributes will gain a small increase (the Attributes that could be increased depends on the ones opponent primarily used)

Note: This Skill can be upgraded 

 

Gab…didn’t quite know what to say about these Skills.

 

On one hand, the Mistress obviously chosen these Skills so that Gab would be able to maintain a certain amount of survivability by being able to adapt to any combat situation she comes across, whilst potentially gaining additional AP (Attribute Points) when if she defeats an enemy that’s stronger than her in one or more aspects.

 

On the other hand, and this is where Gab’s doubt comes into play, she’s unsure as to what degree she can adapt, due to how unclear certain aspects of these Skills are.

 

Take the [Surface/Enemy] Skill for example. Whilst it’s an Active Skill that gives her choices on whether to use it as a straight-up magic attack at range or a physical/magic attack in CQC for only a small amount of MP with a short cooldown time, Gab is unclear as to what the “additional effects” mentioned in the Skill’s description are, and why it specifically states that the aforementioned effects depends on what “surface” she’s standing on, rather than “terrain”. And since the Skill is currently greyed out (Gab reasoned that Skills just generally aren’t allowed to be used in Character Creation), she can’t exactly test it out for the moment.

 

Then there’s the [PCM] and [Struggle Glow-Up] Passive Skills. For one, they’re specifically cited as (Conditional) passives, meaning that their effects only activate under certain conditions instead of being constant like normal Skills of their type. Even the activation of the latter only has a small probability of activating (Though considering it relates to increasing one or more of her Attributes, Gab guessed that it’s more or less balanced).

 

~I’m sure my Mistress’s choice of Skills for you might seem unclear to a degree,~, Aurula said suddenly, causing Gab to jump a little, ~but amongst the numerous Skills a [Freestyler] can choose, I imagine that she thought that these ones in particular would suit you the best.~.

 

As soon as she finished saying that, a small grin formed on her lips.

 

~And besides, if you think these Skills are odd, then I can’t imagine how you’ll react when you earn your specifically tailored Skills for every five Levels you acquire.~, she said, causing Gab’s face to twitch as she almost completely forgotten about that particular aspect of her chosen Style.

 

<Time until Oceania Battle Zone opens: 5 minutes>

 

“Fuck!”, Gab yelped in shock, having forgotten that there were only a few minutes left before Arbitrium open as a result of her assessing both her Status and Skills.

 

~Hah, I guess it’s almost time for us to part, for the time being at least…~, Aurula stated in a wistful tone, a sad smile on her face, ~I have a feeling that I’ll miss you during before we possibly meet again, more than any other Player I’ve met thus far.~.

 

“What, you’ll miss me?!”, Gab questioned, shocked at that heartfelt admission from the Facilitator of Air, unconsciously flinging out her arms and making rapid hand gestures as she tried to make sense of what she just heard, “Why will you miss me? Sure, I’ll miss seeing you, but why will you miss me in particular? I’m only one of millions of Players you’ve helped, I scared the fuck out of you with my “near-death experience”, I caused you to call your Mistress to ensure I’m not as much of a sook going in and we’ve only known each other for less than two hours!!”.

 

Seeing that this particularly unique Player is getting so flustered over her sincere words, Aurula couldn’t help but find her antics to be quite adorable!

 

~Well Gab, you’re not wrong, I’ll give you that.~ the Facilitator admitted, gliding closer to the Player before continuing, “It’s true that we haven’t known each for that long, that your situation made me call my Mistress despite the fact that it shouldn’t have even been my last resort and that you have scared me enough that I’m seriously considering getting some sort of concoction to help me sleep easier for the next week or so!~, she said, shuddering at that last part.

 

<Time until Oceania Battle Zone opens: 4 minutes>

 

Aurula then stopped a few centimetres away from Gab, close enough that Gab could not only look at the Facilitator’s facial features in greater detail, but also breathe in her scent, which she would describe as that of a mix of floral notes travelling on a light breeze. Not overpowering, but intoxicating all the same.

 

Once she was close enough, the Facilitator took a deep breath, which had the delightful effect of causing Aurula’s bust to lift up enough to touch Gab’s own, and she certainly wasn’t complaining.

 

~That being said, even if I’ve known you for such a short time, you are actually the Player I have known for the longest, out of the tens of millions that I have helped in the this space. And whilst your time in Character Creation is the most chaotic and shocking I ever experienced in my role as a Facilitator, at the same time it’s also my most memorable.~

 

She then used one of her hands to cup Gab’s face, giving said Player some idea where this is going but can’t quite find the strength to ask.

As she was thinking about that, Aurula leaned her head closer, and huskily whispered, ~Which is why I want to return the favour, and do something you won’t be forgetting in a hurry…~.

 

Before Gab could respond, Aurula finally closed the distance between her lips and Gab’s, kissing her.

 

Although it could be said that Gab being surprised by this sudden development between the two of them was an understatement, she simply opted to go with the flow and surrendered herself to one of the most simple yet simultaneously profound moments one could count themselves as lucky to experience, and started to return the sudden kiss in kind.

 

Despite being a being of significance in Arbitrium, Gab couldn’t help but notice that the Facilitator’s own kisses seemed to be timid and unsure, only lightly touching the Player’s lips, and nothing else. It was almost as if this was the Facilitator’s first time locking lips with someone else.

Gab, on the other hand, has plenty of experience in this regard, first matching her pace to Aurula’s for a few moments, before introducing her tongue to the mix, jolting the recipient as she ran the wet organ across her flawless lips.

 

From then on, the both let themselves be consumed by the increasingly hotter and heavier moment, not paying attention to what was happening in their surroundings, not even to the countdown.

 

<Time until Oceania Battle Zone opens: 3 minutes>

 

<…>

 

<Time until Oceania Battle Zone opens: 2 minutes>

 

In fact, Gab was so into the kiss, which has now turned into one of the “French” variety, that she didn’t noticed to two things that were related to the very woman she was kissing; 

 

One of these things, which even Aurula wasn’t quite aware of, was that the predominantly black bagua on the Facilitator’s forehead glowed with a soft green light before dissipating, revealing that the aforementioned symbol was now dark green in colour.

 

The other thing, which only Gab didn’t notice in the midst of this moment, was Aurula discreetly slipping a mysterious object into the Player’s inventory as the final step of the Mistress’s plan on her end.

Of course, the Mistress didn’t specifically didn’t tell Aurula to transfer it this way. Rather, doing the task in this manner was the Facilitator’s own prerogative.

 

<Time until Oceania Battle Zone opens: 1 minute>

 

Alas, the moment the two women heard how little time was left, they both decided to disengage from each other, faces red and breathing heavily.

 

For a brief moment, Gab didn’t know how to respond in words to what just happened.

 

At least, until she heard two things that she didn’t expect to hear at the point;

 

<Congratulations! You have acquired the Title [Air Kissed]>

 

<Congratulations! You have acquired the Title [First Achiever]>

 

“…tha fuck?!”

 

As Gab stood still in shock over the fact that simply kissing Aurula netted her not just one, but two Titles, the cause of this unexpected acquisition started to titter nervously.

 

~Truth be told, I was going to ask whether you’re the kind of woman to kiss and tell. But then I remembered, as of a little over ten minutes ago, you gave up your right to have a choice in the matter…~.

 

Titling her head in both confusion and dread, Gab asked, “What do you mean by that, exactly?”.

 

The second she asked her question, she got an answer. But not from a source she was remotely expecting!!

 

<Australia-wide Announcement: At 23:56pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has taken the sacred First Kiss of “Aurula: The Facilitator of Air”. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-One random Style-based Skill Book

-100 gold coins

-EXP equal to 50% of experience bar

-6 AP

-100 Acclaim>

 

<Oceania-wide Announcement: At 23:56pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has taken the sacred First Kiss of “Aurula: The Facilitator of Air”. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-One random Advanced Style-based Skill Book

-200 gold coins

-1 Level

-12 AP

-200 Acclaim>

 

<International-wide Announcement: At 23:56pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has taken the sacred First Kiss of “Aurula: The Facilitator of Air”. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-Two random Advanced Style-based Skill Books

-400 gold coins

-2 Levels 

-18 AP

-400 Acclaim>

 

<You have Levelled Up x 3>

 

<Reward Acquired: 18 AP>

 

<Progress to next Level: 50%>

 

“…oh, that’s right, I did.”, Gab admitted in shock, remembering that she signed away her ability to choose whether or not to allow personal achievements to be broadcasted to EVERY, SINGLE, DAMN Player around the globe.

 

But then again, how in the fuck was she supposed to know that she would become the subject of such an announcement so soon after assenting to that damn agreement?! And in Character Creation at that!!!

 

However, as Gab soon found out, the announcements weren’t over by a long shot!

 

<Congratulations! You have acquired the Title [World Shaker from the In-Between>

 

<Australia-wide Announcement: At 23:59pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has become the first Player to acquire three Titles during Character Creation. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-One random Lifestyle Guide

-300 gold coins

-1+ to all Fixed Attributes

-6 AP

-300 Acclaim>

 

<Oceania-wide Announcement: At 23:59pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has become the first Player to acquire three Titles during Character Creation. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-Two random Lifestyle Guides

-600 gold coins

-2+ to all Fixed Attributes

-12 AP

-600 Acclaim>

 

<International-wide Announcement: At 23:59pm AEST, Player “Wanderer” has become the first Player to acquire three Titles during Character Creation. For this achievement that has never been done, nor can ever be done again, Player “Wanderer” will be awarded as follows:

-One random Advanced Lifestyle Guide

-900 gold coins

-3+ to all Fixed Attributes

-18 AP

-900 Acclaim>

 

“…”

 

“…FU…”

 

<The Oceania Battle Zone will open in:>

 

<3>

 

<2>

 

<1>

 

<0!>

 

<The Oceania Battle Zone is now open!>

 

<Make peace with your choices, Players. For they will be tested…NOW>

 

Before she could even finish her reflexive expletive, the moment the countdown finally reached zero, the ocean surface that was originally holding her weight on its surface, suddenly broke beneath her!

 

As she was falling in what she perceived as slow-motion, the last thing she saw was Aurula laughing hysterically, waving to Gab all the while.

 

~Good luck, Gab, and enjoy the World of Choice: Arbitrium!~

 

Time then resumed.

 

As did gravity, with a vengeance!

 

Now submerged in crystal clear water, but unable to see past the ocean’s surface, Gab didn’t have time to move, much less scream in shock, before she suddenly found herself sinking at an alarming rate. Much faster than someone with her weight and innate buoyancy should normally go.

 

In the midst of this accelerated free dive, Gab found that she could still breathe, and after a few tests, talk normally, in spite of sinking in a massive ocean.

 

After a few moments, Gab found herself approaching an increasingly bright light, which just screamed “End of the Line”.

 

Seeing this, Gab simply closed her eyes, and gave a small smirk.

 

“Yeah Aurula, I’ll do just that.”, she said, before opening her eyes and inhaling as much breathable water as she could…

 

“ARBITRIUM, HERE I COME!!!”

 

And with that, the light consumed her.