“Please choose a starting town and enjoy the game.”(System)

I saw four options appear before me. Small images of the town with some descriptive text to the right of the image. A map appeared in front of me and the town choices linked to spots on said map. I had a feeling this would have some significance, but I just really wanted to play the game at this point and began reading the text for each option.

[“Halifax” a small country village in the kingdom of Gewar. This village has existed since it’s founding and has recently become a hub of sorts for mercenaries and explorers who seek the fame and glory from slaying the increasing number of nearby beasts, or the treasures hidden in old ruins deep within the nearby forests.]

[“Solem” a large town in the kingdom of Ujyush. This town is one of Ujyush’s primary trade centers. A lot of craftsmen journey to Solem to make their names known, and others seek to scope out promising young people to tutor them and help them grow in their craft. The town also sees many mercenaries being brought along as guards or guides for craftsmen and merchants who visit. This gives the town many helping hands to assist in defence against the occasional beast wave.]

[“Celor” Capital city of the Celorian Empire. This city is massive, and it’s slums are filled with gangs, assassin groups, and other unsavory characters. The imperial guards can’t keep an eye on everything, so they hire mercenaries and even civilians to assist in keeping law and order. The Imperial Archives are filled with books on lore, but are also filled with books on magic and its use. Magicians will find a very easy time learning magic here. Just be wary of your competition.]

[“Towan” a small city in the nation of Ruberia. The name is derived from the word “Town” as the city's original name before it became a small city and was still an uncreatively named town. Towan sees people from all walks of life pass through due to its proximity to just about every point of interest. Beasts, ores, trade routes, old ruins, and scenic views, Towan has easy access to it all. Now if only the city wasn’t locked between a hostile nation, the corrupted lands, and the dead man’s forest it would be the ideal city to just live your life in.]

The first option seems like it’s meant to appeal to hunters as a forest area with plenty of beasts to fight and some ruins to explore, but what worries me is the bit about beasts increasing in number. Like sooner or later there will be hundreds or even thousands of them.

The second option appeals to crafters and merchant players. Not what I’m going for honestly, and I don’t want to deal with these “Beast Waves”.

The third option seems like a place where warriors and magicians go. But my build isn’t that good at dealing with assassins or mages. Still a good option though, since I can test myself against the thugs gangs in the slums and not worry about getting into too much trouble.

The fourth option seems like the best of them all, but the thing about “corrupted lands” has me slightly concerned. So long as I avoid it until I gain the levels I need to survive it, I’ll be fine. And the easy access to resources will be a great boon for my early game.

I didn’t need to think too hard about my choice. I made my selection.

“Congratulations on picking “Towan”. Remember to have fun and not be toxic to others!”(System)

I felt a tingling sensation for a moment and then the world exploded with color and I felt motion sick for the first time in my life. I closed my eyes and after a second or two I heard the sounds of human activity nearby. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a lively town center in front of me. The hustle and bustle of daily life while people walked from place to place or stood around waiting for their friends. 

I needed an open space in which to test my traits, but I had no clue where those were. I decided to look around for someone who might know something first. People with the best armor and weapons or merchants who seem more familiar with everyone would be my best bet.

It didn’t take long for me to find a better alternative. A city guardsman or some other kind of official-looking fellow, like the city’s equivalent of a cop. As I approached him he turned to look at me.

“Can I help you ma’am?”(Guard)

“Yes, I'm looking for an open field. There’s a thing I want to test but I need space and privacy.”(Roe)

He had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before pointing to the right and responding.

“If you head that way there’s a fairly open field just outside the city but, you really shouldn’t be leaving towns this close to the corrupted lands without a weapon of some kind. Or an escort.”(Guard)

“Thanks but I’ve got a few surprises for anything that tries to get me.”(Roe)

“Alrighty then, you have a great day and stay safe!”(Guard)

“You too!”(Roe)

As I walked off in the direction he pointed out, he turned and went on his way as well.

I arrived at the gate and saw the aforementioned field just beyond. A sea of swaying green grass filled my view as I left the gates, the guards not even batting an eye at me, too concerned with the people coming in than to care about those who were going out. The grass continued for as far as the eye could see, only the tops of trees sticking out from behind showed that there was even an end to this ocean of green.

I walked deeper into that sea. Choosing to walk away from the carefully constructed dirt path and instead, headed deeper into that sea of grass. When I was well away from both the city and the road, I stopped and began figuring out how this worked.

I attempted to shapeshift my hair to be longer and colored a bright, crimson red. I felt a tingle run throughout my head and felt the hair fall down my back. Bringing a few strands up to my face I saw that my hair was now crimson red, actually a little more red than I intended. I tried turning my hair back to normal and felt another tingle in my head as the strands of hair dulled brown and pulled back from my hand.

With this I’ve mostly figured out how to shapeshift. I need to try more things but first, [Gluttony]. The trait description said that I can eat anything. So naturally, I thought of a way to exploit that. I picked a blade of grass from the ground and lightly brushed it off before putting it in my mouth.

I tasted nothing. I felt nothing. I smelled nothing. The blade of grass was chewed on and swallowed but I never even noticed. Come to think of it, the headset doesn’t interrupt signals from inside the head does it. Of course that means it can’t replicate taste, or the sensation of eating. This actually made it easier to use [Gluttony] in the future. I could eat all of the most disgusting things in the world and get basically free attribute points without having to taste any of it.

…

So little…

There goes all of my plans. If one blade of grass is only worth 0.01 GP then I would need to eat 10,000 blades of grass to get 1 attribute point. That’s a lot of grass! I’ll have to check how much GP I’ll get from actual food items but, It seems that grass is not a viable option for exploitation. Maybe leaves will be slightly better but I doubt they’d be more viable than fruits or meat. Actually, do different items even give different values?

I picked up a fallen leaf that had blown here from the treeline and ate it.

So I was right, different items give different values.

When I was about to try something else I heard a rustle in the grass behind me.

“Who’s th-”(Roe)

*Whump

What the-? As I clutched my stomach and reeled in pain I heard a whooshing sound flying around me. I tried to catch sight of it but it moved faster than my head could turn. Little more than a faint brown blur in my peripheral vision. I moved to protect myself when I felt something land on my back, followed by a stinging pain in the back of my neck.

The world went black for a few moments before a familiar explosion of color and I was back where I started, in the town center.

“System, log out.”(Roe)

“Logging out.”(System)

The world faded to black and I stood on a familiar grid pattern.

“Headset, turn off.”(Rowan)

Everything went black and my body felt numb for a second, before I felt the familiar comfort of my bed on my back. I raised my arms and took off my headset, laying on my nightstand and glancing at the clock. 10:27 PM my parents will be home soon. I got up and slowly made my way to my computer setup. I went to the Champions of Asteria wiki and searched for “Murder Bunny”.

…

The Murder Bunny is widely considered to be the weakest mob in the game. It’s often called “Newbie Fodder” and is used as a tutorial mob to help new players get used to PvE combat. The wiki even has it’s stat block.

This is the weakest mob of the game… I think there’s a new contender for that title.

Capt740

Still working on finding a fix for the system announcement tables. I think I found a way but I'm gonna have to experiment a little bit with that one before implementing it. Hopefully once I do figure it out I don't have so many chapters out that I decide it isn't worth it to apply my changes retroactively.