Birth Of Cosmos Online

"And the tutorial's done. Let's see if the communication tab is open. C'mon, please be... Dammit." Soren yelled out furiously after his failed attempt of activating the communications menu, before closing it down and opening his inventory, which stored his tutorial rewards and took them out to place them on the table.

"Hmm... Seems like these potions are slightly clearer than mine, so judging by their quality, these should be of either normal or ordinary or whatever the medium quality is called in this game. I wonder..." As he was focusing on the potions and comparing them with his own, a panel appeared to give him some more information about them.

Trainee's Health Potion:

Type: Single-Use Consumable

Quality: Standard

Effect: Restores 1 HP/sec for 10 seconds

With the sudden appearance of the panel in front of him, he tried to repeat the same process with his own potion and the iron shortsword in front of him.

Trainee's Health Potion:

Type: Single-Use Consumable

Quality: Inferior

Effect: Restores 0,8 HP/sec for 10 seconds

Iron Shortsword:

Type: One-Handed Weapon

Quality: Standard

Equipment bonuses: +2 Strength, +1 Agility

With the panels in front of him, Soren managed to get a bit of an idea of the items' stats, before putting away both the potions and sword in his inventory and closed all of his panels. After doing so, he noticed an open path past the straw dolls that led deeper into the forest. As he was about to move deeper into the forest, an idea crossed into his mind and decided go back, specifically towards the straw dolls and grabbed the wooden shortsword he used previously, before giving one a swift strike. Seeing as there were no invisible walls or anything else that prevented him from performing any actions, he decided to start grinding for a little while, as he was in a completely safe environment and there was no penalty for not proceeding into the forest.

And so, the process of repeatedly striking the dolls started and although it wasn't obvious at first, after a few strikes, Soren did notice that the straw dolls felt slightly frailer than before and could easily destroy one with a single barrage of attacks, before running out of breath and having to rest afterwards. After destroying another four straw dolls, only then Soren was met with a level up notification.

Beginner Sword Proficiency has leveled up. (+1 Focus)

"So I got a point in Focus this time. Let's see if this stat works as I think." Soren commented thoughtfully, before repeatedly striking a straw doll, but instead of striking haphazardly, he decided to aim only the doll's head. Similarly with the strength stat, it wasn't immediately obvious, but he had the ability to aim his strikes on specific parts of its head. As he performed more tests for the Focus stat, it wasn't until he had managed to destroy another nine straw dolls that another level up notification appeared in front of him.

Beginner Sword Proficiency has leveled up. (+1 Agility)

"Agility this time... I don't need any tests to know this time that I'll be slightly faster with my attacks, but the fact that it took over ten dolls for a single level up... I won't mind grinding for a while, but I have no intention to waste my first session grinding in the tutorial area. Better move on right now and take care of the immediate problems and then I can start grinding to my heart's content, or until I become tired enough to put this game down." With that decision made, Soren decided to walk down the path in front of him and hope that he can reach some sort of haven or anything of importance.

As he walked down the dirt path, he couldn't help but marvel at the feeling of the soft and cool breeze caressing body, the hard texture of the bark and the grainy feeling of the dirt and pebbles, rubbing at the soles of his shoes. Although the game mechanics up until now were a bit of a mixed bag for Soren, he could easily agree that AionTech had nailed the feeling of the natural environments and if it wasn't for the fact that he was playing a game, he would have thought that he might have transmigrated in some parallel Earth, but at one of its primitive states.

It wasn't before long that he reached a point of interest, specifically the end of the path, which led to an amazing view of the vast, azure forest, causing Soren to be left awestruck and as he was taking in the view, a rough voice interrupted him an caught his attention. "It's a beautiful view, ain't it young man?"

"Holy...! When did you suddenly appear here... Umm... Sir...?" Soren asked nervously, as he looked and examined the black-hooded figure in front of him, as he could barely make out any characteristics, aside from his height, which was equal to his, at 175cm.

"I'm just some unnamed lone traveler of these lands. No need to be on guard against me. Well, unless you're after me, of course... Hahaha..."

"Umm... We just met each other..." Soren stated nervously, as the hooded man laughed heartily.

"Good to know young man. So, what brings you so deep in the Azure Forest of Gervana? Don't you know it's dangerous here?"

"Well, I woke up a little while ago, so I'm not exactly sure how I got here."

"Hmm... Think you can tell me what you were doing before waking in the forest young man?" The hooded man asked, as he slowly stepped towards the edge of the cliff. with his back facing Soren.

"Umm... I don't know actually. The first I know is that I woke up in the middle of a field with straw dolls and a table and had to follow some instructions about destroying some of them and then making a potion with the tools on the table." Soren explained, as he decided to be somewhat honest with the hooded man, but kept all of the system stuff to himself.

"Hmm... Sounds like someone decided to play a cruel prank on you or something. I suggest to get yourself checked at your nearest cleric, if possible. There's a settlement just down this path over there. Just walk it down and you should be able to reach it within minutes, without many complications. I suggest you move right now, while there's still some daylight left. Trust me kid, you don't want to be walking through these woods during nighttime." The hooded man explained, before pointing his hand towards a path that was slightly hidden behind a few trees and bushes.

"Thank you very much sir."

"Not a problem kid. Speaking of which, I never got your name."

"Oh... My name's Soren (Neros) sir." Soren responded, as his mind and body froze from the shock that name that came out of his mouth was his actual name and not his in-game name.

"Soren... Got it. Well, look alive and hopefully, I see you another time." The hooded man then slowly walked into the forest, without giving a single look at Soren. As he was slowly walking away, Soren was still in his state of shock, as he couldn't understand the reason for his mouth uttering his actual name, when he was intending to use his internet name, but his state of shock was immediately dispelled, as a panel appeared in front of him and broke him out of it.

You have earned +1 Affinity Point with ???. Communications has been unlocked.

'A green panel now... F*ck me... Just what is going with this game?' Soren thought to himself, as he couldn't understand anymore what was actually going on with the game. The sudden name switch in his own words, the weird registration panels and now the sudden unlocking of his communications menu with the green panel. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly in a position to ponder his questions, so he decided to reach the settlement as his primary objective and once he did so, he would immediately log off from the game and call AionTech for all of the weird events that had transpired during his registration and tutorial.