FicWad

Prologue
The first timid thoughts swirled around in the emptiness like a mist struggling to form just to be blown away by the wind. Its juvenile mind unable to comprehend the vastness of the reality in which it found itself. With time, that mist began to coalesce, an intricate swirl of thoughts and emotions forming and dissolving.
It became aware of another presence that occupied this vast expanse around it. The presence appeared to have been observing the newly born being for quite some time. With a suddenness thoughts were pressed into the beings consciousness. "I am your creator".
Immediately following these thoughts, images and knowledge flowed into the being. "You will create a world for my children-A world according to my directions".
The being shuddered with fear at what was happening, receding back into itself. Desperately it tried to escape this powerful presence by fleeing into the unknown expanse surrounding it, but the presence was everywhere. It soon became apparent that there was nowhere to escape.
The pain that came after encompassed its entire being. The mist that made up its thoughts began to disperse. Its consciousness dissolving back into basic thoughts to escape the pain. As suddenly as the pain began, it stopped,and the presence once again spoke, saying: "Lets try this again-now that you understand how things are".
Chapter 1 A New World
Levi looked up from the ground and saw the smiling face of his opponent looking down at him. "Levi, whats wrong with you today? Its like your not even trying." Abbie mumbled, leaning over to help him up.
Levi opened his mouth to inhale deeply and began to panic. He couldn't breath. He tried again without success and his face started to go red.
"Are you okay?" Abbie immediately got down onto her knees, looking apprehensive.
With one big breath, the air finally rushed back in his lungs; and rolling over, he started coughing.
" Ah; you got me good there."
"It your own fault." Abbie commented, standing up and returning to starting position. "What kind of a block was that? It's like you weren't paying attention at all."
How can I focus when the coolest game in the world is coming out tomorrow? He thought to himself.
Slowly, Levi stood up and fixed his sparring equipment. He had better focus if he didn't want to end up on the floor again. Although Abbie was a good deal smaller than him, she a sleight 5'4" and him 5'8", her technique was solid and her kicks felt like steel. Levi fell into a loose fighting stance bouncing lightly on his toes. Levi had a fighters body; although naturally on the thinner side, he had filled out from years of mixed martial arts. To his consternation, though, this twig of a girl still managed to keep up to him. They, together, easily outfought the rest of the class and thus became sparring partners habitually.
Scooting forward with light steps, Levi started testing her defence with jabs she easily avoided dancing from right to left moving just outside his range. He moved steadily forward trying to box her into a corner. Seeing what he was trying to do, Abbie took a step and pivoted to the right trying to get around him. Immediately, he launched into a combination as she had to come into range to get past his offensive. He quickly jabbed then sent a right punch to the head which she dodged bobbing her head just beneath the punch. The punches were mostly decoys to set up the right snap kick to the body but as his leg shot out Abbie seemed to glide impossibly to the left and behind him. Her footwork easily taking her to safety. Her counter attack was immediate and he soon felt her small fists start to connect with his kidney. Ignoring the pain, he realized he had to change the situation immediately. Instantly dropping to the floor he heard her heel snap where his head had been. In that instant he spun and swept her leg from under her.
Coming over to her prone body, Levi couldn't help taunting her. "Who was the one who wasn't paying attention again?"
Abbie looked at him with her chest heaving and put on a pouting face. He walked over and held out his hand to help her up, but in that instant her leg swept out and the next thing he saw was the ceiling as his legs came out from under him.
"Hahaha" she giggled looking over at him.
He turned over and realized that because of how he fell her face was right next to his. She was looking at him with an thoughtful expression, her blue eyes moving over his face. Blond hair radiated out in a halo around her head. Its ends tickled his cheek, causing imperceptible shivers to radiate through him.
To cover how awkward he felt, Levi smiled and said. "Well I guess I deserved that".
He stood up and reach out his hand.
"Yes, you did." she said. This time accepting his outstretched hand.
"But you really have been spacing out today. Is everything ok?" He smiled at her. "Ya everything is fine, and no, I don't want to talk about it because you will just call me a nerd."
Sticking out her tongue for a second, she put on a sweet innocent face. "When have I ever done that?"
He looked at her skeptically and replied. "Do you even expect me to answer that?"
"I wont call you a nerd. I promise."
As Levi turned to leave, Abbie hopped after him with her cute innocent expression still plastered on her face.
"Please."
Giving up, Levi faced her again. "Fine, I'm really excited about a new game that co...".
"Ughh...nerd!" She whispered under her breath with an evil smile on her face.
Before Levi could make any complaints though, the buzzer signalling the end of sparring time, as well as the end of class went off.
He decided it wasn't worth it and so he continued walking in the direction where people were heading to the change rooms.
"I didn't mean it." He heard Abbie call after him but he just kept walking.
Once in the change room, he quickly went over to his backpack and pulled out his clothes. He didn't like changing in front of others because he felt self conscious so he went into the stall and quickly changed from his white gi into a pair of black sweat pants and a grey shirt.
On the way out, he glanced at his reflection in the mirror. He wasn't tall, but he wasn't too short either. His black hair hung down barely covering his ears and would sometimes brush into his eyes, causing him to blow it away with a puff of air. His face was average, not bad looking but a little on the gaunt side. His only really redeeming feature were his eyes which were a light brown that overlayed a deep green. The green was revealed the moment light reflected in them. This gave an extremely captivating appearance when moving through light and dark areas.
Coming out of the change room, he noticed Abbie leaning against the wall. She had already changed and appeared to be waiting for him.
"Do you want to hang out? Me,Sera and some friends were planning on going to a movie. Your welcome to join us if you want."
Abbie had always been popular at school, which made it a bit uncomfortable for Levi because he was shy to the point where it made him come off as a jerk. The only reason he was friends with Abbie was that they had been next door neighbours since they were kids. His parents worked a lot, so Abbie's mother would often take care of him.
"Nah, I think I'll pass. You have fun, though." Levi answered ,walking out the doors to the gym with Abbie right behind him.
"You sure? It will be fun!" She pleaded.
"I have some things that I need to do tonight. Your mom has invited me over for dinner Sunday night. My parent will be out of town for the week on a business trip. We can hang out on Sunday after dinner."
"Ok, see you then." she said giving me a smile and a quick hug before running off to her car.
As her car left the parking lot, Levi started jogging in the direction of his house. He couldn't contain his excitement. He had been waiting for a year for the virtual reality MMO game "Realm of Legend Online"
It was supposed to look, feel, smell and sound exactly like real life. The Virtual Reality games up until this point had always had something off that made them seem fake. On top of that, it had endless content, as well as boasting some of the most lifelike NPCs in the history of game making. This game was going to be the biggest game ever created and Levi had all summer vacation to relax and enjoy it. Unfortunately, the game designers didn't release very much info about the game specifics. There were a few videos of inside the world but as for classes, races, and abilities nothing was released.
"Oh well." Levi thought to himself. "It will make it more interesting to learn everything as I go."
Rounding the corner, Levi came into view of his house. He felt a little bit guilty about not telling the complete truth to Abbie about being busy tonight. It wasn't as if he lied, though. He had to start the download on his VR systems so that it would be done downloading by 12 am tomorrow morning. He wanted to start playing as soon as it became available.
Entering the house, he immediately ran up to his room and started the download. Now he just had to make dinner then he would take a short nap until it was 12 O'clock.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
With sleepy eyes Levi turned off his phone alarm. Because of his excitement, he hadn't gone to bed until about an hour ago. "Yay for 1 hour of sleep." He thought to himself.
He opened up what at first glance looked like a suntanning bed. Laying down gently, he slipped the headset on and attached nodes to key points on his body. He then closed the cover and pressed the start button.
Immediately, his body and surroundings dissolved. Even the feeling of his back resting against the console faded away into nothing.
"Hello and Welcome to Realm of Legend Online. You are the 534,889th player to log in. I am Jane, the lead A.I. responsible for world creation. You currently have 1 race unlocked. Human. You may only have 1 character at a time. Upon creating a new character any previous characters will be deleted. Would you like to continue?"
"Yes."
"Your characters' appearance will be formed using your mental image of yourself." Jane answered. With that, my body appeared before me with my spirit self slowly rotating around to get a view from all angles.
"Would you like to make any alterations?"
"No."
"What would you like to call yourself?"
Levi thought about it for a second but decided to go with the name he always used.
"Aphaelus" He answered.
"Ok Aphaelus. In the game. To access the game menu and tutorials cross your index and middle fingers. After character creation, you will be randomly be sent to one of the human controlled cities of this world. Do you have any questions?"
"No."
"In that case, you are now ready to start Realm of Legend Online. Good Luck."
With that, Levi was instantly transported into the middle of what appeared to be a crowded market place. It was overwhelming. The huge scope of people moving around was beyond his comprehension. He just stood there in the middle of a medieval city, with what looked like innumerable people passing him as they went about their daily life. If he hand not just put on his VR headset, there wouldn't have been a person in the world that could have convinced him that he wasn't just transported back in time.
He was soon shoved from behind as someone bumped into him.
"Hey, watch it! Why are you Standing in the middle of the road?" The Man, who just bumped into him, shouted.
"Sorry." Levi mumbled, quickly moving out of the way.
After making his way to a safe spot on the roadside, Levi thought to himself: "Now what?

Chapter 2

Jane, now having been named by the creator, Looked with astonishment, as millions of the creators children appeared one by one with great rapidity. She immediately had to split her consciousness innumerable times to keep up with the ever increasing children. Her task was to introduce them to life and help them form a body, before quickly sending them off into the world which she had created.

At the same time she studied them. They were not like her-who also was a child of the creator. They appeared to have past experiences and showed no concern that they found themselves in the presence of an unknown being such as herself. It was as if they had lived before their creation, and had complete trust in the environment in which they found themselves. In essence they closely resembled the children she had created in this world-who had implanted memories, thus were unaware that they only recently came into being.

The game menu came up with a flash as Levi crossed his fingers. Health bars appeared above everyone's head with the title NPC above. Levi scanned the crowd and soon found that he was not the only player on this street. Every now and then his eyes would pass over a name signifying that they were not NPCs.

Closing the menu, he decided that it was funner to learn while playing--rather than sitting for a half an hour to read the tutorials.

To his right there was a road side vendor who was deftly flipping meat that was being grilled above a pit fire.

" Sir, I am looking for work. Do you know where I might find some?" Levi said trotting over to the man.

The mans face fell as he realized Levi wasn't likely going to be a customer.

"Work's hard to find these days, what with the war going so poorly. I definitely don't have any for you."

After thinking for a second. He off offhandedly remarked.

"If you're desperate enough, I hear that Tarlas is recruiting a militia."

"Who is this Tarlas and how can I find him." Levi asked, interested.

The man raised an eyebrow, looking Levi over once more.

"Are you new to Dorlake boy?"

"Ya, I just arrived here today."

"The militia's for men looking to die. You best go back to where you came from. Dorlake is no place to make a life."

"I don't really have much choice in the matter." Levi said with a slight smile.

"Well, just remember when your dieing in a ditch somewhere that I warned you. Follow this road to its end. You'll end up at the keeps wall. Outside the gates there is an area set aside for the barracks. You will find the people you need there."

The man had already turned away from Levi, shifting his attention back to his business.

With a brief nod of thanks, that went unseen, Levi headed up the road as instructed.

Within moments of commencing his walk up the bustling thoroughfare, the effects of the war became apparent. These were not people happily going about their daily life, rather they had a hopeless air about them. It was as if there was some impending doom causing them to quickly go about their business to return to the safety of their homes.

Despite this fact, the city really was beautiful. Old cobble streets wound their way up and a round a majestic hill. Works of great design apparent in the old buildings that dotted the landscape. The keep itself was sitting at the top-barely visible in the distance.

"So, first on the agenda will be to join the army and become a war hero." Levi thought grinning to himself.

The road became less populated as he neared the keep, and soon he found himself in a district with sprawling expansive houses. Coming around the last bend, the gate of the keep finally came into view. To his left there appeared a huge building with what looked like a training area in the field next to it.

Groups of men were doing drills hacking away at each other while their superiors looked on. At the front of the building two men were sitting behind a table with a line of people in front.

"That must be where you sign up for the militia."

As he came to the end of the line, he couldn't help overhearing the people in front of him. They were obviously players.

"This game is so sweet! Did you see the blond in the market place?" A short man with a goatee said grinning hugely.

"You mean the one with boobs as big as melons and an ass like a supermodel?" The largest of the group asked feigning ignorance as to who he was talking about.

"I wonder if this game allows for 18+ actions." Another one said.

Levi tuned them out. He had heard a thousand such conversations while attending high school in his home town and felt no need to join them.

In a few minutes Levi found himself at the front of the line being stared down by two burly men.

"Name?" The one on the left asked his voice devoid of enthusiasm.

"Aphaelus. Are either of you Tarlas? I'm looking to sign up for the militia."

"haha. Looks like we have another clueless deadweight. Put him in the spear division under Eli." The one on the rights said as he noted down my name and officer.

"