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[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Chapter 5

My favorite table in the Tutorial Village library is by the far, back end of the building, right next to the historical section. When you sit in the left side chair in the middle of the day, the light streams down perfectly while you read.

I’ve got a stack of seven books I already finished reading to my left, and only two more books that I still plan to read in a pile on my right. I'm currently going through a historical tome, detailing the rise of the Kingdom of Berkshire. The chapter I’m reading details an account of magical discrimination. In which the third King of Berkshire executed all the mages of his court who were able to use lightning magic. He believed in the old myth that the age of dragons had ended due to the lying influence of the Lightning Dragon, who tricked the others into fleeing this world; as such, to keep a wielder of the lightening element around would only invite disaster.

“You've got to be kidding me, that's it?!” I yell.

“Quiet! There must be silence in the library!”

“Well can you blame me, Janet?” I yell back. “I’m 200 pages deep into this book, all because the works of Scowl the Limericist hinted that this tome might actually have something useful for me about the mystery of the dragons. Two sentences! There were two sentences about dragons!”

“Quiet! You will not disrespect this library!”

I heave a sigh, leaning back into my chair. I can feel all the strength leave my body.

“You're right, Janet. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up in the first place. I've checked the online forums and everyone agrees: there are no dragons in Golden Age.” 

“I will not stand for this nonsense!”

“I know, right? It is ridiculous! Did you know that most players even call anytime you see a monster or something that you can't identify as, ‘spotting a dragon.’ I mean what were the devs even thinking? This is a fantasy world, there should have been dragons.”

“There will be silence this instant!”

I rest my right cheek into my hand and lean against the table. I skim through the last couple of pages of the, History of Berkshire, book in front of me before flinging it onto the ‘done’ pile. I pick up the next book I had hunted down, despite my lack of enthusiasm. This one is a series of anecdotes from the Jewel Tribes who live on the floating islands in the Mountain Continent. I’m hoping that since they’re supposed to be one of this games indigenous groups that they might have something about dragons in their history.

“You know Janet,” I say, as I kick my feet onto the table, leaning back to get comfortable, “maybe I should just start making my way through the cooking section next. At least there will actually be something useful to read there. What do you think?”

Screech!

I flinch at the sound and look over. The NPC Janet has stood up, shoving her chair back. She’s just staring at me. “… If you do not put your feet down, in the next 10 seconds, you will be banned from this library forever.” She says, her voice an icy whisper.

I look into Janet’s eyes. 

What I see there sends a shiver down my spine. I very slowly take my feet off of the table and put them on the floor; I scoot my chair forward so that I can sit up straight.

Well I guess someone’s a little grumpy today.

__________________________________

I can hear the voices of new players and the incantations for basic spells hitting training dummies against the wall behind me. All eight shooting aisles are in use right now. Arinn is on shift again this weekend, so it looks like he's going to have his hands full.

There have been a lot of beginner players coming and going already, and the main rush is only just starting. I keep seeing some of them shoot glances my way out of the corner of my eye. 

It must be my nice new leather bag they're looking at. Made it myself.

I still have the beginners tunic and pants on, but I've added some accessories the crafting instructors helped me make. Like this bag and some basic tools on a new belt. I even have a nice set of chisels that I forged myself on the belt; the current Material Crafting Instructor is a stone sculptor, and he promised to teach me how to make a statue later tonight.

Oh shoot, I don't want to look like I'm preening. I turn my attention back to the rows of bookshelves in the Magic building. I had read some books that referenced a thesis written by a hermit, who discusses how Light and Dark spells are able to have mass and substance, while their natural reflections do not. I still have trouble visualizing how to generate those elements voicelessly, and I’m hoping I might find some useful hints with that paper. 

But most of the works here don't have titles on them, and there's no Janet to ask for help. And there’s a lot of books on these bookshelves. Well, if all else fails I can just start working my way from one end to the other. 

“Hey, D0n?” says Arinn. 

Oh, Arinn usually doesn't talk to me until after the beginner groups leave the building. He's very professional with how he conducts himself, so I wonder what's so important.

“Look man, you've already been here for a couple weeks. I get wanting to make the most out of every resource available to you, but why don't you just, go start the game already?”

“But, I'm still playing the game right now.” I say, scratching my head in confusion. “It’s not like I won’t go down the exit hole later on, but it doesn't make sense to just a waste this opportunity, you know?”

“But you’ve already limited yourself by staying here. All of these books and resources are in the main game anyway. As well as so many other things you could be doing. So why are you still here?”

I feel like chuckling. As much as magic users complain about it on the forums, I thought it would have been obvious to Arinn. “Simple. If wanted to use any of these books in the main game, I’d have to pay for them.”

Arinn stares at me. It goes on long enough that I notice there is total silence in the building. I glance around and see that the other new players are looking at me as well. Three of them are nodding their heads in understanding.

Aaron lifts his hands up and slowly rubs his eyes. “What are you looking for again?”

“Oh, I’m trying to find one of the theses written by Tiffany the Hermit. The one about Light and Dark having mass.”

Aaron lets out a deep breath. With one hand he points at the bookcase by the left-hand wall. “The writings of all hermits are kept over there. Third shelf from the bottom.”

I grin and slap Arinn on the back. “Whew, thanks man. I was actually planning to start looking from the right-hand bookcases first. It would've taken me forever to find that paper.”

“… No problem.”

__________________________________

I shift the pile of tools in my arms, being very careful not to drop the box of nails. It is early morning in the Tutorial Village. The light coming through the clouds is still a pale yellow. I try to focus on the task at hand to distract me from how tired I'm feeling. I made sure to log on as early as possible today so I could get Van’s help before he logged off for his night. 

I can hear Van yawning behind me. I'm sure he's been up for the past couple hours, tinkering with his projects. At least he gets to go to bed when we're done. I still have a whole day ahead of me. 

Van walks past me while I’m readjusting the supplies I’m carrying. The strength inherent to his race as a dwarf and due to his high level means that he can carry far more than I can. He has a large stack of lumber and other raw materials on his shoulders. I wonder if it even feels heavy anymore after your strength stat rises enough. Though even if it does, it's not like we have far to go.

We turn the corner to reach the back of the Metal Crafting building. What awaits us makes me smile all over again.

In that same spot I had fallen asleep for the first time, tucked against the furnace’s chimney, is my own personal hobo hut. That's the name the other instructors jokingly gave it, but since it kind of works I decided to keep it. 

Since I could use the brick wall of the building as my main support, the rest of my hut is set up more like a large tent. I used some large, sturdy wooden beams to make the frame of the hut. Then I had draped a large piece of leather I sewed with the help of Jazz916 over the wooden frame. There were a couple of iron spikes dug into the ground at the edges to help keep the leather taut.

On the inside of my hut I had covered the ground with a bunch of pillows and blankets I had made. I made sure to use the comfiest ones to make a nice little nest, right against the chimney. With the extra cushion and the warmth from the furnace, it’s the perfect place for naps. 

There's a wooden short table right in the center. It's low enough that you can only really use it if you're sitting on the floor, but that’s fine by me; I even added some metal feet on the table legs to make sure it's really sturdy. The inside is lit up with a dozen or so magic lanterns. I had made all of the lantern frames out of metal and some opaque glass. Van helped me with that part. No idea where he learned how to blow glass, but the effect is really nice. Inside each lantern is an enchanted jewel. A Jeweler, who was acting as the material crafting instructor for a few days last week. taught me how to make them. Each one glows softly in a different color according to the type of gemstone inside.

Overall, the inside of my little hobo hut has a nice, relaxing, fantasy aesthetic. 

The inside has pretty much been done for a while. It's already littered with a bunch of half finished projects, nicknacks, and notes. There’s not a lot of space in here, so I’ll have to be careful to not let it get too cluttered.

But the one thing I didn’t like was that I only had a flap for the entrance of my hut. It's not like this is a building that officially belongs to me, so I had no way of stopping other players from looking inside or taking stuff while I was elsewhere or while I was logged off.

I talked to Van about it and he offered to help me build a nice door with a lock. Making the locking mechanism was far too hard for me to do myself, but Van seemed more than excited about the challenge. He just finished it yesterday, so all we have to do now is make the door and install everything.

We set our tools down on the ground and each begin our own tasks. I make sure my measurements are in place to install some extra supports into the hut’s frame. Van lines up and marks the wooden planks he carried over to build the new door.

“You know, D0n,” says Van, “I had always been called a little crazy by my friends for how much time I would spend here, just for the opportunity to tinker freely; while not getting any bonuses from the game for it. But I think you’ve definitively got me beat.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve had everyone from NPC’s to brand new players tell me the same thing. But if the whole point of this game is that I have the freedom to play it however I want, then I really do want to make the most of that. Sure there's more to explore or experience in the main game. But just because I'm taking my time here to learn, it doesn't mean that any of that's going to go away. I'll get my full here, and all those other things will still be waiting for me when I'm ready. “

“Hey, you don't have to explain it to me. If anything I respect you for it. In fact, you've inspired me to be even more selfish with my projects when I get back to my shop.”

“Just be sure not to name me as the cause, or all of your apprentices back home will hunt me down.”

The two of us grin at each other.

The wooden door I want to make is simple. Just a row of two-by-fours lined up parallel to each other, with two crossbars and a diagonal connecting piece to hold it all in place. As long as the hinges and the lock work well I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. If even this fails I can put a sign out front, I guess.

The support struts for the door are in place and the doorframe is ready to go. I sit down and get comfortable while I watch van use a hand drill to bore the holes where the lock and door handle will go. 

I’m enjoying the bird song coming from the forest nearby when suddenly I hear a yell. 

Off to my left, near the village’s spawn point, I see a new player standing a distance away, staring wide-eyed. As soon as I look over at him, he immediately runs away.

I look at Van. “Any idea what that was?”

“No clue.”

I get to my feet, feeling like I should look for the player to ask what was wrong. But from that same place a group of four players runs around the corner and starts making their way towards me.

“See! I told you I wasn't lying. He's real!” Says the human boy who yelled when he saw me and ran off earlier.

“You've got to be kidding me?” says an orc girl. “I thought all the rumors in the dragon spotting forums were a bunch of lies.”

“Do you think we just got extremely lucky or are they starting to up the spawn rate?” Says a short boy. I can't tell if he's young, or if he managed to roll a halfling race when choosing random during his character creation. Wait a minute, what does he mean by spawn rate?

The group stops a few feet away and just stares at me. I am so lost that all I can do is stare back. Since I don't hear any more drilling behind me, I assume Van is doing the same. 

The fourth member of the group, a tall elf girl. who looks older than the rest of them, waves at me with sleepy looking eyes. “Hello.”

“… Hi?” We just keep staring at each other.

“My name is Covin, and these are my friends. What's your name?” Says the first human boy. 

“… D0n.”

“Wow, that sounds just like a player name!” Says the orc girl. What on earth is wrong with these people?

“So… can I help you with anything?”

The human boy, Covin, jumps forward and asks, “We were wondering if you have a quest or anything special for us!”

“Why would I have a quest for you?”

“Idiot,” says the halfling boy. “Don’t you know you're not supposed to ask with game speak. You have to interact with them and raise your familiarity points until they naturally offer you a quest.”

“Whoa, hold on! Do you guys think I'm an NPC?” 

The elf girl looks surprised. “Oh wow, I wonder if he's part of a new update. Most of them never know terms like that.”

I can hear Van failing to muffle his laughter behind me, but I ignore him. “No, for real. I'm a player.”

“What kind of player would spend so much time in the Tutorial Village that they build a house? There's been rumors about the super rare hobo NPC all over the Internet.” Says the halfling boy.

Van isn't even trying to hide his laughter anymore. I drag my hand slowly down my face. 

“I just wanted a place to keep my stuff while I mess around here. I really am just a player.” All four of them look really disappointing as they stare at me. Come on! I’m a fellow human, what were you expecting?

From behind that group, all the way by the spawn again, I hear another yell. In the distance, a beginner players screams, “Oh my god, the rumors are real!”

I can only stare into the distance with my mouth hanging open. The laughter behind me is reaching a fever pitch.

“… Van, get the door hinges.”

I see a second group gathering around that player in the distance.

“I swear that lock of yours better work!” I turn around and pull the door out from under my ‘friend,’ who’s collapsed to the ground, slamming his fist into the dirt.

“Quit your laughing and help me!” I can hear the footsteps getting closer. “Hurry, before any more show up!”

__________________________________

The exit for the tutorial village is a literal hole in the ground. The devs had gone with the aesthetic that these Villages were small islands, hidden inside of clouds. They really committed to that idea. 

The hole is easily 10 meters across. It's a sheer circle with a cobblestone rim. Through it you can actually see rolling plains of green and sprawling forests on the continent below. Apparently that's just a visual effect though, since these Villages are an entirely separate instance from the rest of the game. Either way, it means that if you want to leave you've got to jump down the hole. 

I peer over the edge, appreciating the view. There are a couple of new players registering their starting kingdom and their Inclination at a stone column with a large crystal on top of it.

All new players have to start in one of the major cities, to ensure that there are enough resources available to them in the beginning. But you can choose which one of them they want, and once in the main game you’re free to travel anywhere else. Even across continents. 

Your Inclination is the major stat boost you take with you from the tutorial village. It's essentially a bundle of stat points that you can choose, depending on what Alignment route you want to go down.

I'm standing by the exit with Van and Riyu. I walk away from the exit and look back towards the two. I can see Arinn a little bit away. He has this massive grin on his face, but as he looks around he suddenly gets incredibly sad. 

“Aww,” I say, patting Riyu on the shoulder, “look. Arinn’s sad to see you leave.”

Riyu and Van look at Arinn’s forlorn face, and both snigger. “Yeah, that's absolutely why he looks like that.”

I shrug my shoulders, not getting why they’re laughing. Oh well, I’m sure there's a unique kind of connection between players who started the game together. 

I back up to stand next to Van as Riyu grabs a small bag, packed with the items he wants to take back into the main game. “Seriously Riyu, thank you for all your help.” I say. “I’m going to miss sparring with you.” 

Riyu gives a teary smile and pulls me into a tight hug, lifting me off my feet. I struggle to catch my breath once I’m plopped back on the ground; Van laughs at me.

“Same here,” says Riyu. ”I was only able to stop by once a week, but sparring with you was always the highlight of my day. Still, I didn't expect that I'd be the one leaving before you did, D0n. You ever plan on actually starting the game anytime soon?”

I shrug my shoulders. “Eventually.”

“I’ll do my best to get him to leave by the time I have to go. Though I make no hard promises on that.” Van says. “Now I hope those steel knuckles I made for you work out well. If you have any tweaks or any questions, and you find yourself in the Mountain Continent, always feel free to hit up my shop.”

Riyu nods. “You bet. And D0n, you have my friend code. If you're ever nearby you can always ask me for help. And hey, go easy on whoever takes my spot”

Riyu gives us a wink and a salute, and then dives backwards down the exit hole. 

Van and I start walking away, making our way towards the Metal Crafting building.

“So D0n, what will you be wasting your time with today?”

I roll my eyes at Van’s teasing. “I’m thinking about making some leather armor. Jazz is in again, and he doesn't mind me loitering around the Fabric Crafting building all day. Might as well take advantage of his tools and expertise.”

Van distractedly nods his head in agreement, looking around.

“What are you doing here this late? For you anyway. You normally don't log in until it’s nighttime here.”

“I decided to pull an all-nighter. I have an old friend who was supposed to start today and I wanted to greet him. Ah, speak of the devil.”

I follow Van’s line of sight and spot a shine coming from the Village’s spawn circle.

There’s only one person standing there. But instead of someone wearing the beginners tunic and pants, it's a player decked out in full plate armor. Even from here I can see that it's polished to a crisp steel blue.

Van and I make our way over, and what awaits me is a man who is even bigger than Riyu. Everything from his armor, to his sword and shield — still strapped to his waist — match. There are a couple of embellished crests across the face of his shield and on his chest plate, but everything else is brutally efficient. Everything about his appearance screams the image of a knight.

He walks closer to the two of us and takes off his helmet. Beneath it is a man who looks older than I thought, but still youthful. He has a strong jaw line, with short cropped black hair, and looks to be of Asian descent. He spots Van and gives a gentle smile.

“Good to see you, old friend. I see you're still making your little crafting pilgrimages.”

“That's right; no way I'd pass this up! And all of us knew I'd be coming here for the past three months. So what's your excuse for coming in now, when I'll be leaving soon. It's so rare we get a chance to relax and drink together normally.”

“Because unlike you, I am here on business. To help make sure the level of players in other continents stays high. You’d get far more chances at being here if you'd actually work with the game’s management.”

Van scoffs and waves it away. “If I did that, they’d make me actually work.”

The man's chuckle is slow and deep. He looks over at me and gestures with his chin. “And who are you?”

“The name’s D0n.” I reach out my hand with a smile. 

Van slaps my back a couple times saying, “Yes, this here is my new friend. I can’t tell you how lucky I am that I got assigned to this island for my time as an instructor. I would have been heartbroken to hear I had missed out on meeting a character as interesting as him.”

The man in the knights armor smiles and shakes my hand back. “Hello, D0n. My name is Zhaz Morrowolf. I'm a Paladin Alignment.” He lets go of my hand. “And if Van of all people is giving you such high praise, I’m sure you must be quite the player.”

“More like I'm the only one here who can put up with his rants.” My hand is tingling. I don't know if it's due to sparring against players like Riyu as often as I have, but everything about the way this man carries himself sets me on edge. He's strong. Even when he’s standing completely relaxed, I can't imagine how I would get a hit on him.

“Oh, don't sell yourself short D0n. You can also keep pace with me when we drink.”

Zhaz Morrowolf laughs and says, “Well that's a sight I have to see. I suppose if things aren't too busy we can have a drink or two together.” He nods at Van, and then looks at me. “I’ll be taking over the role as the Defense instructor here for the next two weeks. Most new players try to leave the Tutorial Village as quickly as they can, but feel free to stop by before you do. I promise to be of help.”

Van laughs loudly next to me. “Oh don't worry, I'm sure D0n can squeeze some time in for you, what with his busy schedule and all. Pffthahahaha.”

I side-eye Van, and make a mental note to steal the last of his homemade mead after he logs out.

I give the paladin a strong nod. “Absolutely. We can have a casual spar.”

Zhaz’s smile widens. “Yes, that sounds like fun.”

[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Chapter 4

My eyes are closed. I take a deep breath.

In, for three seconds. Out, for three seconds. 

I open my eyes and look over the little forest clearing I had found. The Tutorial Village is not that large in general, and so the forest inside of it was small as well. But there are still little hidden places, like this clearing, inside of it. It’s a circle of grass and sturdy flowers, surrounded by a ring of trees on all sides, leaving just enough of an opening for a single beam of light to fall over the space. From the center of the clearing I can sometimes see the occasional small animal scurry about, like rabbits and foxes. Though I still haven’t seen any birds from here, during midday, the forest is always covered in bird song.

I bounce on the balls of my feet to get my body as loose as possible. I stare down the four targets I had set up. Nailed to the trunk of the trees, at about chest height, are boards with crudely painted targets on them. Eventually I want to get good enough to hit targets in front of and behind me at the same time, but for now I’m just focusing on the four I am facing. I set my eyes on them and settle into my stance. 

Let's see how quickly I can do it this time.

Aiming for the target on my right I pull my mana out, through my fire point as quickly as I can, and push it towards the palm of my right hand in a clockwise spiral motion. I try to link up the image of a gas expanding and agitating to the sensation of twisting and pushing my hand out. As my arm fully extends, the fire mana pushes out of the palm of my hand and forms the rough shape of a ball, shooting off towards the target. 

I don't wait to see if it actually hits. I immediately turn to the left-most tree and— pulling mana out of my water point — I push it in a counter clockwise motion to form a mimicked Waterball. As soon as I can see the mana take the right shape and shoot off, I switch back to my right hand; pulling the mana down through the lightning point and letting it expand as it goes out as a Lightning Arrow. I’m still really slow with that spell, but I hope I can make up any lost time with the next one. 

I decide to use my physicality to perform this spell even faster; I raise my left hand to my chest and then swing it up in the air to help with the mental image of pulling my wind mana out and up to my arm. I swing my arm down while agitating the mana, and I’m able to push out a Wind Blade properly.

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. 

I let myself relax again and look at all of the targets. The aim of my Waterball was a bit off, sadly. Looks like I’m still hesitating in my movement while switching between my right and left arm. I rub my chin as I walk up to the targets, getting a better idea of how my voiceless magic went. 

Ever since I pulled it off for the first time in the Attack building, I've been pouring all of my energy into testing the limits of voiceless incantations. While the Raise Fighting Spirit and Mana Expulsion skills were what allowed me to make use of my mana like this, I’ve found the real trick to it is in the same way I was able to unlock shortened incantations. 

This is still the starting village, so there is no real character progression. Even though your stats may improve according to what you do here, it seems like there’s an upper limit of ten points gained, but even that can’t compare to the improved system assistance that real advancement in-game provides. So then how was I able to pull off shortened incantations after practicing by myself? It’s that even without the game’s assistance, what I was doing was still practice. 

From what I’ve heard from the various class instructors, class progression is like the game naturally assisting you in gaining real world experience, which it then assigns a point value to. But just like how Vandar had mentioned, there is still a difference between experience and experience.

Shortening your incantations is just a natural part of learning how to use that spell more efficiently. It's not some special unlock, it's just getting better at the spell itself. 

When I had asked Arinn about this viewpoint, and if that meant full incantations were just something you naturally get rid of as you level, he had responded that, ‘In some cases yes. But performing a long incantation is still the best way to get the most power out of a spell. While a shortened incantation will perform the spell when you're proficient enough at it, a long incantation will give you the most power possible for that level of spell. So a good mage is judged by their ability to know when to use shortened incantations and when to use long incantations.’

Walking up to my target board, I examine the damage left behind from each of the spells. Unlike the burn marks left behind by the Fireball or the Lightning Arrow, or the cut marks from the Wind Blade, the Waterball spell leaves a cracked dent in the wood where it hit. While my Waterball spell technically hit the target, it was mostly on the edge. It’s still easier for me to do a Fireball spell with my right hand and a Waterball spell with my left hand, but making the mental transitions between hands with voiceless magic is pretty hard. 

Making the shift from a full incantation to a short incantation is all about slowly becoming proficient enough in the spell. But performing voiceless incantations demands absolute proficiency from the get go. If I'm off in the way the mana moves for a specific spell, by even a little bit, the spell’s form won’t even manifest. For example, if I messed up in the counter-clockwise spiral needed for a Waterball spell, all that would happen would be a splash of water flying out of my hand. That might be useful as a distraction, but if you can’t pull the voiceless incantation off correctly every single time, it’s not worth it. It’s much easier to just say the words required and let the game handle the rest.

Still, I really believe there is a lot of potential in voiceless incantations. For one, if I'm fighting against another player they won't be able to tell what spell I'm casting until it's already flying at them. And while it might just be my imagination, it feels like there is no cool down period between spells. It's all a matter of how fast I can move the mana by myself. 

I'm still too slow with my spells to really prove if that theory is right or not though. So I can’t tell if the poor aim of my Waterball spell is a problem with the technique itself or simply my lack of experience. 

Looking back over the targets, the boards are pretty beat up at this point. I go to take them down. I’ll just have to replace them with some spare ones I had prepared; I think I only have one more set though. They’re over with the rest of the used up boards — scrap wood at this point — propped between some trees behind me. I’ve been at this practice long enough that I had to take my shirt off from sweating through it.

I go to pull out the iron nail holding the target in place, but remember that I left my hammer back with the pile of boards. Somehow the thought of having to walk even one extra lap feels like way too much work. I let out a breath and reach into the little remaining mana I have left at the moment. I pull it out through the metal mana point and pool it down into my fingers. I wrap my fingers around the head of the nail. For the sake of my laziness, I really hope this works… I expand the metal mana out, to just under my skin, leaving it in a barely agitated state. The nail pops out and I catch the board before it falls. I let out a sigh of relief. The walk of shame has been avoided.

I continue on with my task, putting the removed nails in my pocket.

For whatever reason, the only mana that will come out as a normal spell through voiceless incantations are wind mana, fire mana, water mana, and lightning mana. When I had tried it for the other four types of mana, they still released out like a mist with no form or power. 

Something tells me that this is more of a mental problem than a game problem though. It might be in part because I have a much harder time imagining earth or metal spontaneously appearing when you cast a spell. Even with the Earth bullet and metal needle spell, I remember thinking it looked really unnatural at first. 

I had originally planned on experimenting in the Magic building to see if I could get over that mental block. But while sparring with Riyu for the second time I noticed that trying to use expanded elemental mana in place of expanded neutral mana led to very different results.

The other four elements seem to give buffs or status affects when they are left in an expanded state. For light mana you get a passive healing buff. Dark mana gives poison or curses. Earth mana ups defensive qualities. And Metal mana ups attack damage and strength. 

My little experiment seems to have been a success as I pocket the last nail and slowly walk across the clearing with the used up target boards. I feel the metal mana still floating in my fingers and relax the mental grip I have on it, letting it naturally flow back into my core. It looks like the metal strength buff even work for mundane tasks like this. My mind starts to race with new ideas and possible experiments to see just how flexible these status effects are. 

Though I guess there's nothing I can do about having to wait for my mana to recharge at the moment. I wonder if —

“What are you still doing here?! “

I jump in response to the shout coming from behind me. When I turn around I see Arinn, the magic instructor, standing at the edge of the forest. His arms are held out and his mouth is gaping open. No idea why he yelled to get my attention but I still turn to smile and wave. Before I can do that though he yells again.

“Why are you in the tutorial village? It's been a week!”

“Oh wow, it has, hasn't it? I’ve just been having a lot of fun messing around with this new magic skill I figured out. I figured I might as well work it out here while I still have people I can ask for help.” 

Aaron stares at me, not moving. It goes on long enough that I start to worry, but he straightens his back and walks towards a nearby tree. He rests his head against it and just start to groan. 

“Arinn? Are you okay? Buddy?

__________________________________

Since the tutorial village is surrounded by a cloud dome, the light from the sky is diffused throughout the whole cloud. During the day, it gives everything a very diluted, light blue color. What’s interesting is that at night, the devs decided to make the cloud more see through. It's still shrouded, but you can actually make out the shape of the moon pretty clearly and even some of the brighter stars.

We had set up a small table outside of the Metal Crafting building, just to the side of the front door. I was sitting there with the rest of the crafting instructors. 

The current instructors are Vandar Forgemaster (who told me last week to just call him Van), the Metal Crafting instructor. Gistane, a teenage girl who is acting as the Material Crafting instructor; she’s a woodworker by trade. And the current Fabric Crafting instructor is a tailor by the name of Jazz916. We just call him Jazz.

We are all gathered around the table, each fiddling with our own projects. A combination of moonlight and some candles spread around the table gives us enough light to work by.

I have a mortar and pestle, some herbs used for healing potions (I had identified them in the forest using a book I checked out from the library), and some big leaves that almost tasted like basil. I had used the herbs to make a couple of basic healing potions. I then took those healing potions and transformed them in two ways. The first way was to cook it in enough sugar to make a syrup, let that syrup harden, and then crush it into a powder; the second method was just to mix the potion with some gelatin and make it thick enough that it could hold it’s shape while still being easy to swallow.

I originally wanted to find some ratio of herbs that allowed me to get the same healing effect without having to make a liquid potion as the base, but no luck. There was something inherent to the cooking process that allowed the herbs to heal.

I was currently taking both types of “potions” and wrapping them into a tight ball, with the basil like plants as the wrapper; it was still unclear if they would fall apart over time or if I would need to make some form of edible glue to hold it all together. Granted the taste might be a little odd in the end, but I figure the ease of popping the whole thing in your mouth would make up for it — there is no way opening and drinking from a glass bottle in the middle of a fight is easy.

Van is sitting to my left, with a sheet of metal in front of him that he poured a layer of wax over. He is currently waiting for it to cool, so that he can carve a design into the wax with a metal scribe. Apparently he plans to etch that design into the metal with a simple acid he had prepared. He is also the one who had provided a bottle of gin from his stash of homemade alcohol for us to share. 

Jazz has a handkerchief in an embroidery hoop. When I had asked him what his design was, he got technical enough that I couldn't really understand what he was saying, but apparently it’s some sort of abstract design that would allow the handkerchief to look like a real flower when it is folded correctly. 

Gistane, sitting on my right, has a bunch of blank wands she had carved and hollowed out. Apparently she was trying to find a way to make a magical core that could give an adequate boost to your spells even while using cheap wood, without pushing the manufacturing cost up too high. As the only one of us who was still underaged, she had pouted when the game didn’t allow her to drink the gin Van had brought.

We had all been tinkering for the past two hours. Laughing under the moonlight with a drink in hand, surrounded by like-minded friends was as soothing in the virtual world as it is in the real.

“All right, let's see if I got it this time.” Gistane says. She gives one final tap to the base of the gold core she had filed down to fit into the hollow of the wand. She picks it up and, with an added twirl, said the words, “Fireball.” 

From the tip of the wand, fire gathered, formed a tiny ball, and shot off into the night. Unfortunately the fire gathering at the tip had set the wood on fire. Gistane groaned while staring at what was now a burning stick in her hand. “Ugh! There's got to be a way to make this work.”

“You've already done an impressive job, getting that cheap piece of tinder to cast magic without exploding.” says Van.

“Why don't you just push the core all the way through and out the end? You can still have the wooden wand design as a kind of sleeve to the real core.” says Jazz.

“I’ve tried that already. But everyone complains about it, saying that it doesn't look like a real wand that way. No matter how many times I explain to them that there needs to be a magical focal point at the tip, nooooooo, everybody wants it to look like a traditional wand. Only made of wood. And if I make this gold any thinner it won't adequately carry the mana from the hand to the tip. As it is, this thing’s useless.”

“Now don't say that. Here, I have a use for it.” says Van. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pipe that is intricately carved. He stuffs tobacco in the end, and then takes the still burning wand from Gistane’s hand and uses it to light his pipe. “There you go. You could sell it as a nice handy lighter.” 

Gistane looks like she wants to complain about the joke but gets too caught up staring at the wand, like she’s seriously considering it. 

All of us laugh.

I look at the pipe that Van is smoking from, appreciating the relief carvings of tree branches and leaves all across the wood. “Who made that?” I ask. 

“I did,” he says after taking a long drag off the pipe. “Took a little bit of time whenever I had to let metal cool off, and just kept added more detail as I went.”

“The distinctions the devs made with the different types of crafting is ridiculous.” says Jazz while stitching.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Technically, making the pipe he's using should've falling under my job category.” says Gistane, her head on the table and still staring at the now charred wand. 

“Oh yes, because surely it doesn't matter how much intricate design work I've cut into metal,” Van says, picking up his scribe to draw into the wax covered plate, “because surely if I so much as look at wood I won't have the foggiest idea what I'm doing anymore.”

All of the crafters snort. 

“Why isn't it all just labeled under a ‘Crafting’ category then?” I ask.

“Who knows.” Says Jazz. “It must be some internal management thing. But the end result is infuriating. Yes, there will always be people that specialize, but it's impossible to make anything of value without some sort of crossover.” 

“It's not like there's anything to stop you.” Says Van.

“Easy for you to say, you’re naturally skilled in crafting to begin with. I would kill to be able to easily make my own sewing needles. But the work required for that is so delicate, that without the games help in leveling my smithing up I'd have to practice forever to get good enough at it. And even then, by the time I have to make another custom needle, I’ll probably forget most of what I learned without the class assist features.”

“Excuses.” Says Gistane.

Van gives a full belly laugh as Jazz throws a spool of thread at her head. I lean back and enjoy the night breeze, comforted by the sense of community here.

__________________________________

A high kick is tearing through the air right toward my head. It's all I can do to throw my upper body back to dodge. Trying to make some distance I follow through on the movement and roll into a backwards handspring. As soon as I land on my feet, Riyu’s already bearing down on me. 

He raises his right leg straight up into an axe kick. I pull earth mana out, flood it into both arms, expand it under my skin, and activate it. The side affect of earth mana when activated like this causes my forearms to lock up, and my hands to forcibly clench into fists. But in this case that will only help. I cross both my arms above my head, barely making it in time.

Riyu’s axe kick slams down onto my cross-armed block. It nearly brings me to my knees, but I keep my footing. From my already crouched position I push forward with my legs and shove Riyu back.

Thanks to the awkward angle he was in from the kick, Riyu is left off-balance. So even though I still have earth mana in my arms, I rush forward to throw a flurry of punches. 

I'm only able to get two hits in before Riyu can get his guard up, but I don't want to let my advantage slip away that easily. While not stopping my punches — doing my best to not lose concentration — I pull the earth mana back into my core. As soon as it's gone I replace it with metal mana, expand it, and activate it, granting me an attack buff. Now I can see the punches are starting to do damage, even through his guard.

I do two quick jabs with my right hand and link them into a strong left straight. 

However, instead of a distracted block, I’m met with Riyu’s parry technique. My arm flies up, completely exposing my chest and throwing me off balance. Riyu grins wickedly and shouts, “Fire fist.” 

His fist ignites into flames as he squats for a straight karate punch. I've been hit by that before and no amount of earth mana can cut the damage enough. 

I've only got one shot at this.

I feel the mental connection to my metal mana, still in my arms. With the visualization of snipping a thread, I cut that connection. The metal mana is still in my hands but it’s separate, like it's not even mine. 

As fast as possible I pull a little bit of water mana out of the water point, into my chest and simply push it out. I don’t give it a form to take, so the mana just splashes out of my chest as regular water. I was able to push it out in time to douse Riyu’s fire punch, but the regular punch behind it is still following through. 

His fist slams into my chest, launching me back. Somehow I’m able to dig my heels into the ground and not fall. The throbbing pain dulls down quickly, but that attack still did plenty of damage.

“Ohoho! Now that was a unique way to defend against my Fire Fist.” Riyu says, wiping the water off of his hand on his gi. “You're getting more and more unpredictable with your movements you know. That skill should've ended this match.”

“I may have put out the fire, but that didn't stop your punch from hurting like hell.” 

We grin at each other. We're both breathing deep from our fight, but it’s clear that I’m far worse off than he is.

I look at my health bar, in the right hand corner of my vision. There's only a fifth of it left. He's right, any hit by a skill will take me out at this point. Worse, cutting off the metal mana in my arms took out most of my mana reserves with it; my blue mana bar is only a third full. 

I can feel the metal mana still sitting there but it’s slowly starting to diffuse and escape out. It'll still be good for a few more punches but I can't manually control it anymore. Plus it's blocking the path for other spells to flow towards my hands. I'm not just in a bad way over here, I'm pretty much screwed.

Oh well, might as well go all out with what I have then.

I take this small lull in the fight to square up my stance and activate the Raise Fighting Spirit skill. But as I do, I specifically imagine the sensation of blocking up my lightning mana point. So this time, as all of my mana expands out and fills up my body, all of the elements get neutralized — except for the wind mana. The wind element spreads through the neutral mana, so that all throughout my body I can feel a breeze running just under my skin. 

I imagine the mana along the entire span of my back. I feel the mana pressed against my skin, agitate it, and push it out in a technique I call: Wind Burst.

The force of the wind mana exploding out of my back is so strong it launches me clear off my feet, rocketing me towards Riyu. I strain my arms to stop them from flying back and position my arm into a right angle. I'm in front of Riyu in a second, quick enough that he doesn't have his guard up. Aiming my fist in the rough direction of his head I burst the wind mana out of the back of my right elbow, launching my punch forward and into his face. It hit’s hard enough to shove Riyu clear out of the way.

The momentum of the two Wind Bursts leaves me tumbling towards the far wall with a row of spears on it. I give myself over to the image in my head. I twist my body in the air, flipping around until my chest is facing the ground and stick my legs into the dirt, sliding backwards in a half crouch. 

Thanks to the combined force of the Wind Bursts and the leftover metal mana in my fist, I can see that my attack did some real damage to Riyu. His knees have buckled and he's stuck in a squat, no longer able to stand up straight. This is the best chance I've had all day and I won't let it go to waste.

I imagine the wind mana at the soles of my feet, agitate and expand it out. I jump forward at the same time and use the Wind Burst from my feet to launch me right back at Riyu.

In mid-air I pull my right leg back, and — taking advantage of the sensation of the wind mana flooding back into the empty space in my leg — I yell out “Wind Blade!” I swing my foot upward into a soccer kick, casting the spell out of my foot.

It hits!

Since I used my entire leg, the wind blade was bigger than normal. It cuts a line clean through the ground and across Riyu’s chest. Blood sprays out behind him from the cut. I tense my arms for another fly by punch. I have to end this now. 

But I misread one thing. 

Riyu wasn't in a squat because he was off-balance. It was because he was readying himself. He pulls his right arm back one more time, with his left arm up in a stance I've seen before. I've never been able to block it, and I'm flying right into range.

I take all of the mana in my chest and legs and perform a Wind Burst, to try to push me back out of range. But I barely had any mana left to begin with. Worse yet, there was just enough force in the Wind Burst to stop my momentum, so I’m left floating right in front of Riyu.

“Crap — !”

“Tri-punch!”

Riyu’s thrust turns into a blur, and I am simultaneously hit in the chest, face, and stomach. The attack sends me back, crashing into the wall. The rows of spears and staffs tumble over me as I slide lifelessly onto the ground. 

I'm taking deep breaths on the ground, but I can’t move. And since I landed face first, all I can see is the ground. The holographic status bars are only my perception, so they still clearly show that both my mana and my health have hit zero. 

Since the tutorial village counts as a safe zone, you can't die here. Instead you enter a state known as “Passed Out.” For a short amount of time you are completely immobile, and only registered friends are allowed to move your character.

 At least the numb feeling means I don’t have to feel the pain from getting hit with that skill. Again.

I have no sensation in my body but I can see my vision turning over until the ceiling is above me. I assume Riyu turned me over. My head keeps flopping around, but since I can see my legs stretched out on the ground in front of me, it looks like he also sat me up against the wall. Again. 

“You okay?” I hear Riyu say, though it sounds like I'm hearing it through a bad phone connection. It means Riyu is talking to me through the friend chat function. If that's the case, I can respond. 

“Yeah, I'm just pissed I keep getting caught by that attack.”

“Hey, give yourself some credit. I've never seen a new player move like you do. There's not a single mob in the beginner area that’ll be able to touch you, D0n.”

“Still hasn’t helped me stop you from punching the shit out of me.” 

I can hear Riyu laughing. The sound of it is doubled, which means he's doing it both inside the chat and out loud. The prick.

“So, once you're back on your feet, do you want to go for another round?”

“Sadist.”

“Is that a no?”

“… I didn't say that.”

[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Chapter 3

For all the medieval fantasy elements that are in this game, the Tutorial Village’s library is pretty modern in design. In fact, it just looks like an average library. Granted, most modern libraries would not have this many leather-bound books in them; to say nothing of the contents of those books. Majority of the works on the shelves either have to do with information regarding certain classes in the game or covered some of the game’s lore. Though every now and then there were some very interesting books that seemed more like flavor text then anything. Some of those titles were, Anecdotes of a Bartender, and, The Adventures of the Windmill Knight. There was even a shockingly long play script called, The Lustful Maid of Argyle. Now that one has a crazy title.

… I mean, I’m still going to read it though.

There was nothing fancy about the furniture in the library. But all of the wooden tables and chairs looked comfortable, and it was a well lit space. It should've been a perfect place to read.

I had a stack of about eight books that I had picked from the shelves. Some were flavor text, some were lore, and others were essentially a book of game facts; I picked them up to help me fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

I was currently reading a book called, Alignments and Intrigues.

There was a somewhat unnecessary amount of flowery language in the book, but it essentially explained that the words, “Alignment,” and, “Intrigue,” were Golden Age’s terms for your class and sub-class. According to the book, most Alignments could be registered at their respective guild. These guilds could be found at every major city. They had a list of example Alignments a player could pick, that literally took up four pages; it even ended with a note that this was just a small sampling of available Alignments for a person to pursue. There were so many that I pretty much skimmed over that section; though I certainly plan to come back and research a bunch of those options later on.

A detail that was immediately useful, was that Alignments were separated into roughly 10 basic categories. 

These categories were: Attack, Defense, Magic, Support, Range, Adventure, Home, Metal Crafting, Fabric Crafting, and Material Crafting. 

As I was reading them, I realized that these categories corresponded to the instructors buildings available in the tutorial village. Which makes sense, since this place is supposed to give you an idea of what options you have later in the game. 

What I found really interesting was how the Intrigue, or sub-class, system works. While you could certainly get your Intrigues at one of the major guilds, a vast majority of them seem to be things you could discover in other facilities or places. A variety of NPC's could offer them to you depending on your actions.

There was a section in the book that said, Exploring the pathways along the field that calls to you is the truest way of living. Devoting yourself to your calling will lead to the greatest growth; and broadening your horizons with what interests you will allow you to become a greater person. I assume this is the writer’s fancy way of saying that the game will give you more experience and help with activities that line up with your Alignments and your Intrigues.

“Oh that's really cool. So your experience points are literally the things you experience doing.”

“Quiet! Quiet, in the library!”

I flinch at the sharp sound, and then smooth some of the paper I had bent in my surprise as quickly as I can.

The rebuke came from the front desk of the library, where the NPC, Janet, sat. 

Whichever dev was responsible for designing Janet must have decided to use the most stereotyped image of a librarian they could find. Janet was a raven haired, older woman. She wore sharp, almost slit-like glasses, with her hair stuck in the tightest bun. She only had two expressions, either the face she makes while lovingly caressing a book, or a death glare she used at anything that moved in her library. I do not care that she is a computer program. She terrifies me.

So like I said, this should have been the perfect place to read. So what if I happen to be a very vocal reader? Doesn't mean she has to yell at me… for the sixth time.

Granted, maybe I do get a little excited when I read something cool. It’s still mean.

I look at the stack of books that I picked. The next one I wanted to look through was the journal of a thief named, Skinrat. I don't know who Skinrat is, nor do I know how informative this book will be. But I am already positive he will get me yelled at, at least three more times if I stay here. So with that in mind I pick up the heavy stack of books and make my way over to Janet. 

“Excuse me, Ja — Miss Librarian?” I say, as her glare stopped me from using her name again. “Is it okay if I check out these books, to read them outside?”

“Yes, very well. Books are meant to be read after all,” Janet says with seeming kindness. I don't buy it. “But be warned that you best bring these books in by the end of the day. And if anything should happen to them, there will be consequences.”

I grab my stack of books and scurry out the door as fast as I can. It's totally because I'm excited to read them. Not because her threat worked. Definitely not.

I have never talked to an NPC in Full VR. It's a very unique and confusing experience. Having a conversation with one is both radically realistic and yet equally frustrating. As long as I (very bravely) talked to Janet about the library or the books available there, it was the most natural conversation in the world. But when I had asked her if she was a player, or when I started talking about things in the real world, or talked in game speak, it suddenly felt like talking to a voice recording. She either repeated her name or glared at me. I guess that as an NPC she would only talk about things regarding her purpose. I had eventually decided to leave her alone and browse the bookshelves. No sense getting glared at for no reason.

I decide to find a good place to read, and remember that the forest edge I saw looked pretty inviting. I look around and see the edge of the tree line a little distance away and make my way towards it. Though it is mostly gone, my body is still a bit sore from sparring, so I take it slow.

I try to just appreciate the warm sun and the barely-there breeze, but I get impatient. Luckily, the stack of books reaches all the way up to my chin, and Skinrat’s journal is at the top of the pile. It’s small enough that it won’t fall off even when open.

I use my chin to scoot the book closer to me and open it to the first page. 

Unlike the flowery language in the, Alignments and Intrigues, book, the language in Skinrat’s journal is straightforward and simple, while still being full of character. And it turns out this journal is just as informative as a self-help book. Though the information in this one is told through stories. 

For example, there is a tale in the beginning that goes on to describe the different kind of puzzles and types of trap discernment that Skinrat went through while exploring a dungeon. He was able to get into the boss chamber, of the sleeping Four Tusked Flame Boar, and steal a scroll of Lightening Strike from directly behind the boar, without even waking it up. Only to fail to recognize a mimic chest off to the side on his way out. He reached inside after picking the lock and got his right hand chomped off for it. He had used a scrap of leather made out of rat skin to cover his bleeding stump. He had been laughed out of the Rogue's House he was a part of so badly, that he was stuck with the nickname, Skinrat.

Apparently, with his adventuring days behind him, Skinrat went on to become a thief, and an exemplary pickpocket. There were some personal accounts of robbing the house of a minor lord. It describes the act as if he had to beat a bunch of mini games in a spy RPG. It even went so far as to describe dodging the guards’ line of sight like he had to contort through a field of trip lasers. 

The way Skinrat describes pickpocketing is definitely interesting. It requires hand flourishes, done just so, in order to take any object off of a mark’s belt. He described himself as being so good that as long as he could touch the back of a mark, at just the right angle, without them noticing, he could steal any random object off of their personage without them knowing; regardless of what the item was. 

Wait, so does that mean that stealing in Golden Age works just like a gacha—

Bam!

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t notice where I was walking until I slammed face first into a tree. My forehead cracked against the bark and I lost my balance, landing on my butt, and scattered the books I was holding. I rub at the sore spot on my forehead, glad that there’s no blood. Then I realize that all of the books just got thrown into the dirt.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Please, please do not be damaged. Please don't be any dirt stains.”

I scramble to pick up all of the books, furiously wiping off any of the dirt on them. Thank god, none of the books got damaged. I remember the piercing glare given to me through slit like glasses, and I shiver just imagining what would've happened if one of these books’ pages got torn.

I remake my stack and pick them up. When I look around I notice that I did in fact make it to the forest’s edge. The forest does look just as inviting as ever, but unfortunately, it’s all in the shadows of the tree leaves. Not exactly the best lighting to read a book by.

I chew on my lip and look around, trying to think of another place I can read. Not too far from where I'm standing I see the back of one of the instructors buildings. Even from a distance the grass around it looks to be very soft, and there is a little nook, next to what appears to be a chimney, that looks like it has the perfect lighting. I make my way over to it, making sure to look where I'm going this time.

When I get to the spot it is even better than I expected. Not just the grass, but even the dirt underneath feels like it's cushioned. And the bricks that make up the building are smooth in texture. When I nestle into that nook the light streaming over me is just right, without a hint of glare from the sun. The best part? The chimney behind me radiates just enough warmth to be incredibly cozy. I sit with my legs crossed and carefully put the stack of books down next to me.

I look at Skinrat’s journal and consider leafing through it again, but I am curious about some of the other books I grabbed.

Looking over the covers for something interesting, I spot a navy blue book with gold trim around it and an embossed design of two dragons flying in a circle, stiched with gold thread. Unlike the others, this is a super thin book — if it can even be called a book. I always loved dragons as a kid, and I’m excited at the prospect of seeing one in this game.

I open the book, my curiosity piqued.

There doesn't seem to be any mention of an author. But the almost cloth-like pages of the book have flowing script on them, written in gold ink. It appears to be a poem.

This is the creation of the world

     When Dragons flew among us

Fathers of Magic and Mana

     They were the 8 elements

Held to the world

     By the weight of their power

One day the vessel of Metal

     Brought a gift to the others

“Look at the luster

     Of Silver and Gold

For the secrets they hold

     Can grant freedom”

When Earth and Fire

     Touched this metal

Their power flowed

     From them to the ground

And lightened their burden

     Of Magic and Mana

Through Silver and Gold

     Power may go free

So the swiftest winged Dragons

     The twins WInd and Lightening

Scoured the world to gather

     All that there was to find

That each dragon might return their power

     In exchange for lightened wings

And when even this was not enough

     The Dragon of Water

Reached down to the edge of the world

     And pulled in more gold

After each Dragon bled their element

     Freed from the chains of the world

They flew together ever outward

     Never held down again

From them the silver and gold was left

     And through it mana shaped the world

I lean into the chimney behind me and close my eyes. This seems to be the creation myth of the game’s lore. Or at least one of the creation myths in the game. I'll have to look through other examples back in the library to see if this is the only one, or if there are other variations. 

Still, it's a shame. So the dragons left then. There's a bit of disappointment with that thought, but the dragons in this myth seem to be like the great dragons of old. I'll have to research more to see if there are maybe lesser dragons still around. 

I go over the words of the poem in my head, in a kind of sing song manner. But I must have underestimated how the combination of the poem's language and the sun and grass and warmth of the chimney would affect me, as I feel my consciousness slip into sleep. 

__________________________________

I'm surrounded in a blanket of warmth.

From behind me, or through me, I can hear — feel — a gentle, rhythmic beat. Like a muffled thud, ringing out in time to a song I can't hear. That alone would've lulled me back into a deeper sleep. Except there are other thuds as well. These ones somehow off. Some rushed, others too slow. Either way, it's just distracting enough that it wakes me up.

There is no direct sign of the sun in the tutorial village. Just a colored glow of light in the sky through the cloud dome above. But now the cloud’s color is much closer to orange. And it’s clearly coming from behind me, by the direction of the building’s shadow.

Wow, I must've really conked out there. I never imagined that taking a nap inside of a game could've felt that relaxing.

I lift my arms up in the air to straighten my back, and feel cracks run down it. I'm still a little disoriented, and the sound of that muffled banging I heard is still there. It's coming from behind me. I'm curious now, so I stand up and walk around to the front of the building. 

The signboard hanging out in front is that of an anvil. That would make this the Metal Crafting building. I've never seen a blacksmith in real life before. I gently open the door and look inside.

The very first thing I notice is the heat and the smell. It makes sense that a blacksmith needs a large furnace, but a palpable wave of heat hits me as soon as the door is open. As for the smell, it can only really be described as that of burning coal and hot metal. It's both something I've never smelled before and yet it’s immediately recognizable. 

There’s six people inside at the moment. They are all standing in front of individual anvils, with a large worktable in between them all. Five of them are dressed in the same beginners’ tunic that I am. Four of them just look like basic humans — two women and two men — and the fifth one looks like a brown, short-haired dog man. None of them look up at me as I walk in. They are totally intent on hammering out a piece of metal on their anvils.

The sixth one must be the instructor. His race is clearly that of a dwarf and everything about him just screams blacksmith. He's got a long, flowing red beard tied up in two ponytails, with the rest of his hair braided behind him. Despite his short stature his muscles are bulging out of his sleeves from the act of constant hammering. He is wearing a leather apron over a tunic that has the sleeves rolled up, and leather work gloves on both hands. Unlike the beginners, his hammer strikes are smooth and regular. His must've been the one I heard through the walls that sounded almost like music. 

The instructor is the only one to notice my arrival. 

It's hard to determine facial expressions in that thick of a beard but I could've sworn he frowned when he saw me. 

“Just give me a moment to finish with this group here. They're almost done with their task and there's no sense wasting their time while I bring you up to speed. You can either head out to another building or sit over there until they're done.” He says, motioning to a stool to the left of the group. 

I walk over to the stool and take a seat. The instructor's beard twitches, as though his frown deepened, but he then gets back to work. He’s finishing up a still red hot sword. One of the men with shaggy, brunnette hair gives me a smile, but the rest of the players are still entirely focused on their task.

All of them are currently shaping their own swords. The instructor is right, they do appear to be almost done. The main shape is already finished, and now it’s just a matter of hammering out the edges a bit more. I wonder how right I am? In that I keep comparing the sound of their hammering to that of music. Because the more I watch them, the more I get the impression they are supposed to be matching up with a beat. The notes ring out clearly from the blacksmith as he finishes off his edge, but the others are full of stutters and stops, like they can't quite hit the mark right every time. 

I look at the orange haired woman closest to me and try to decipher if it's a matter of how often you hit or where you hit on the steel, based on the sound.

I'm distracted by the hiss of liquid to my left. The dwarf instructor just finished dipping his finished sword into a thin barrel of now bubbling liquid. When he pulls it out, it's a beautifully forged darkened steel sword.

He looks to the players as they wrap things up.

“When you're done shaping the steel go douse your sword in the oil over there. If you examine it after it’s been quenched, the game will give you a grade for the finished product while you're here. What you’ve made will work as weapons as is, though you can also polish them on the grinding wheel over there to up their attack damage. But as a basic weapon that’s not necessary. Adding a cross bar and a leather hilt is something I can show you, but if you've worked with the Fabric Crafting instructor already, then the same rules of leather work apply. Is there anything else you would like me to go over?”

All of the players shake their head ‘no,’ and walk over to quench their swords one by one. They take an appreciative glance at the finished work, proud of what they made, and then leave them on the table after a gesture from the dwarf instructor. The group talks amongst themselves as they make their way out of the building.

The dwarf instructor looks at the group as they leave. The second the door closes he takes all of the swords that they just made, and chucks them into the furnace.

I can hear him mumbling something about ‘having to make these useful again.’ 

While stroking his beard he turns around, finally noticing that I'm still sitting here.

The dwarf instructor motions for me to come over. He points at a hook on the wall, where a leather apron and leather gloves are hanging. I guess I’m supposed to put them on. I do as he says, even though they're a little big for me.

“The rules in a smith are simple. Respect the tools. And respect the fire. Don't go doing anything crazy.”

He sighs and then straightens himself back up, “Now the basic principle of metal crafting is—“

“Um, I hope this is not rude, but would it be okay if I just experiment with it myself? The process of trial and error with crafting in games has always been my favorite part. Oh, unless there's anything I absolutely need to know.”

The dwarf blacksmith looks at me, seemingly surprised. Again, hard to tell with the beard. He nods his head and points to my right.

“There's your anvil, and there's your hammer. Go at it.”

The dwarf blacksmith then turns around and grabs a pair of tongs to pull out one of the swords he had thrown in, now red hot. He places it in front of him on his anvil and starts hammering it in half.

“I’m D0n, by the way.”

The Dwarf Blacksmith looks at me, grunts, and continues hammering.

I shrug my shoulders. 

I turn my attention to the furnace. It's huge, with a roaring fire and a sturdy grate to place things directly over the coals. I'm tempted to ask if I can use one of the swords he threw in to make an ingot, the way the dwarf instructor seems to be doing. But the inkling of the idea in my head would require a different metal. I look around and spot a bin that has been labeled ’Tin Ore.’

I go over and pick up the metal container that I can see attached to it, and start to fill it up with chunks of tin ore. When it looks mostly full I make my way back over to the furnace and — using the same tongs I saw the dwarf instructor using — delicately nestle the metal bucket over the coals. 

While I wait, I look over at the work the dwarf instructor is doing, trying to see what I can glean from it. The metal no longer looks like a sword, and is slowly taking the brick like shape of an ingot. 

While focusing on the rhythm of his hammer I get lost in the sound again. 

I shake myself out of it and check my bucket. The contents are red hot as well. I use the furnace tongs to take the bucket out and bring it over to an open anvil. I use the smaller tongs there to take the stuck together chunk of tin out and place it on the central part of the anvil. I put the bucket back over by the tin rack, letting it cool on a hook, and put the furnace tongs back. 

I use the anvils tongs to hold the lump of tin in place and start to hammer at the sides and the top, trying to create that same ingot shape.

The dwarf blacksmith is already working on his second sword. 

I try to hammer in the rhythm I could hear from the other students but it just doesn't feel right. As I strike though, it's like I can see that same hologram that makes up my menu highlighting small circles around the tin as I hit it. I assume this is the game trying to give me instructions, so I do my best to match. 

After a certain point, the circles keep appearing on the surface even though it's starting to look flatter than the basic ingot shape. I wonder if it's a matter of me having to simply hit at it from a different side or if there's something I'm not getting.

I hear the dwarf instructor grunt in a strange kind of cough. When I look at him, I can see that his sword is already more ingot-like then sword-like. As I watch, I see him hold the metal slab just off to the side of the anvil and hammer it into a right angle, and then turn it around to fold it back on top of itself.

Of course!

I have to fold the metal over and over in order to get an ingot. I remember seeing that stuff whenever I had watched videos of forging. I start to repeat the process over and over again but after a little while the tin loses its red color and becomes hard to work with. I stare at it, wondering if I'm doing the wrong thing until I hear the Dwarf blacksmith bustle over to get his fourth sword. I shake my head, remembering that I just have to reheat the metal.

As I continue to hammer away at the ingot on the spots the game is instructing me to, I start to realize that it's asking for a different tune. This one is much simpler, and more like a background beat. Getting it right is all about accurately hitting the spot the game is telling me to, and trying to adjust the force based on the sound it makes when it hits. 

I can see why people would want to make this their class. It’s a relaxing experience you can absolutely get sucked into. 

I look at the finished ingot in front of me, kind of hovering my hand over it, trying to imagine what ratios I would need.

I look around the work shop a bit more, taking in the various tools – Clamps, aprons, bits of leather, armor, swords, other metal bits. The dwarf instructor has finished the last sword, turning it back into an ingot and setting it off to the side to cool. He now pulls out a notebook and starts sketching inside of it with a wooden pencil. I'm incredibly curious as to what he's drawing, but it feels like it would be really rude to just stare over his shoulder. And it's not like he's been a chatterbox this whole time. 

I return to looking around but I don't see the one thing I need. Some sort of knife, or some kind of tool that can cut my ingot into a smaller size. The tin has now cooled down to a silver color. I place my hand over it, remembering what the dwarf instructor had said to the last group, and think the words Examine Item in my head. Another game menu opens up and read out that what I'm looking at is, An average tin ingot.

It specifically says that it is made up of fine ore, that has been handled poorly but is still able to make a moderate product. I mean I figured I would suck at first, but the game really had to just come out and say it.

I look at the tools that I have: which are just the tongs, the hammer, and the anvil. Let’s try an idea then. 

I reheat the tin ingot, getting it as red as possible, and then bring it back over to my anvil. Holding the edge of the ingot just over the edge of the anvil, at about the ratio I want to take off, I start hammering at the end until it’s bent at a right angle pointing down. I flip the bent ingot over and start hammering that fold back down again. I keep doing this, bending it up and down until the point of the angle gets so thin that I can snap the chunk right off. I reheat the remaining part of the ingot and do the same thing to break the last bit in half, leaving me with three chunks of tin.

I take the first chunk I broke off and heat it up to make it workable again. Back at the anvil, I hammer it into a mostly flat shape. I have to be very careful in my strikes, since the metal I’m working with is so small. 

I keep going until the rudimentary shape of a handle and a knife are formed. All of my attention is focused on my work, trying to piece out what the new rhythm is for this knife, letting the game instruct me on how to extend the handle into a more ergonomic size and flatten a sharp edge.

I hear a loud sigh from the Dwarf instructor that distract me for a moment. But I assume he's just not having luck with whatever design he’s sketching. 

Once the knife looks right enough, I'm satisfied. Even if I was offered better tools at this point, I now want to see what I can do with just tongs and a hammer. Not to mention I wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to adding any kind of embellishments. I do make a mental note to ask the blacksmith if he can show me how to sharpen the edge of the knife a little, like he had mentioned to the previous group. For now I set the knife off to the side, on the table, and heat up my next chunk of tin.

For this chunk, the first thing I try to do is round out the edges of the metal while I turn it in a circle, then flatten that rounded shape as flat as possible. I try to get it at about a quarter inch thickness, while making sure not to lose the consistent circle shape. 

For this next part I have to be very careful. I imagine the size of the interior circle I want to make my corner at. I use the tongs as a guide along that interior circle and slowly hammer down on the sheet, until I can make the entire side rise up into the shape of a basic tin cup. I can hear that not all of my strikes are landing correctly, but trying to make this shape work is difficult enough without having to discern the necessary rhythm for the forging minigame.

It was really hard at first, until I realized that I could use the rounded offshoot of the anvil to make the round cylinder shape I need. The lip of the finished cup is a little wonky, but it's still something you can drink out of. I'm too worried about overworking the metal at this point to go back and try to fix it. 

I take my last chunk of metal and heat it up. I flatten this one into the same kind of circle as the last. But I imagine the interior circle to be bigger, and now that I know to start the shaping process with the rounded protrusion of the anvil I feel a bit more confident. I want the edge of this template to curve slightly up, but not so much that you could describe it as a bowl. Just a slope up and out. My main focus is to keep the interior rim of the plate consistent, and I’ll forgive any wavy lines along the outer edge.

I'm actually pretty happy with how the shape turned out in the end. Since I was able to do it in one try I decide to reheat the plate and add the closest thing to embellishment I think I can do. 

I take the now red hot tin plate and gently hammer at the edge of the metal, trying to curve it in so that the rim of the plate has a nice, soft rounded lip, instead of the sharper metal edge it had. Because all of the hits need to be very light and precise, the sound and rhythm this task makes is very delicate, almost like tinkling bells in the minigame aspect. 

It's not the prettiest plate possible, but I really am proud of what I made. Looking over the set I debate whether I should try making a tin spoon, or maybe try my hand at making a wooden spoon at a different building later. I remember reading that a Carpenter falls under the Material Crafting category. 

“You decided to make cutlery?” The dwarf blacksmith says to me. I was so absorbed in my task that I almost forgot he was there.

I look at him, surprised and respond, “Yeah, it seemed like some nice basic shapes to get me started. Plus, I just like the thought of making something useful.”

The blacksmith takes another look at me, and I swear he smiled through his beard. “You said your name was D0n, right?”

“Yeah,” I say, nonplussed.

“My name's Vandar Forgemaster.” He reaches out and up to shake my hand. I shake back, with an odd sense of pride that he's actually choosing to talk to me. “Is this your first time playing Golden Age?”

“Yes. It’s my first time playing a Full VR game period.”

“Interesting.” Vandar says, stroking his beard. “Look, sorry I was so short with you earlier. There's just been so many newcomers coming through all the time, today especially, that I feel like I haven't had any time to get to my own work. Most new players just want to make swords. Must be something with the fantasy aesthetic. But I've made so many I'm already sick of them. 

“That though,” he says, pointing at my tin set, “that's nice work. You’re definitely new, but you actually tried to make something. If you have any questions just let me know. You're free to use anything you want here, D0n.”

Again I'm filled with the most sudden sense of pride. Since he seems to be in a surprisingly talkative mood, I point over at his notebook.

“Is that the personal work you were talking about?”

“This? Yes, this here's my drafting notebook.” 

He slides over the carefully stitched leather notebook to me. On the left page is a variety of schematics drawn in graphite, with a variety of measurements on them. On the right hand page are three sketches of what looks to be some sort of metal pen shaped object, with an opening in front. There's even some beautifully drawn and detailed pictures of hands holding those pen shapes. 

“I’m not a big fan of pencils you see, not in the real world either. I always use lead holders there, so I want to do the same thing in here. No one really makes them though, so I figured I could make it myself. The technique necessary is already going to be delicate enough, and I'm trying to decide just how much detail I want to add to the design. It’s just some rough sketches at the moment.”

I look over the pages again, with a whole new sense of awe. I can't even wrap my brain around just how difficult it would be to make a led holder with this technology. Heck, making the lip for a plate already felt like it tested my patience. 

“This is amazing! I personally get the appeal of swords and shields in a fantasy game. But these… they’re so real and practical that it has its own kind of charm.”

The dwarf blacksmith nods his head hard enough for his beard and ponytail to bounce up and down. “Exactly! You get it! Everybody in this game makes swords and weapons. Sure, you can get all fancy with it, but there's so much artistry and soul in these simple, every day tools. That's what makes them so beautiful. But over in the normal game you always have to complete orders or repair peoples equipment, and keep making whatever is requested so that you can get enough funds to buy more materials, and then you’re only left with so little time to experiment! That's why I take this job whenever possible. Sure I have to waste my time on brats who barely know how to hold a hammer. But unlimited supplies that never break? A smith all to myself? If I'm lucky, I’m left with all the time in the world to focus on my own projects.”

I laugh out loud, fully pulled in by Vandar’s passion. So he's the type that’s gruff to most people, but talkative and excitable around people who gain his respect.

“Do you get to keep whatever you make here when you leave?”

“Technically yes, but no more than 10 items, and nothing above a certain rarity. There’s enough benefits in the supplies available to you that they don't want to give people an unfair advantage just by spending their time here. Especially for the crafting classes. So no skill progression either. But still, your stats matter, as those can be raised. And more importantly, your experience matters.”

“But you said you couldn't earn experience points for skills while you're here?”

“No, no. Not experience points, your experience. Whether or not I choose to take this led holder with me once I make it, it doesn't change the fact that by the time I leave, I'll know how to make it. Which means that instead of wasting four ingots in four attempts in my own smithy, it will only take me one to do it just right. I don't need stats in a game to grow as a craftsman.”

“Wow. You really thought this through, huh?” 

“You bet. I’ve only done this about two previous times now. It takes so long to get from the Mountain Continent where I'm really from over to this Plains Continent. But I've set aside enough time with all my obligations that I get to have this workshop all to myself for a whole month.”

I whistle. That's commitment to his free time.

If he's from the Mountain Continent that means in the real world he's on Asian servers normally. “Wait a minute? Why did you have to come all the way over to the Plains Continent specifically to do this?”

“Because,” he says tapping at his temple, “the Plains Continent is 12 hours ahead, real time. Which means my day is your night time. And there are always less players visiting super late at night. Meaning I get as much time to myself as possible.”

My shoulders shake in amusement as I chuckle. I’ve met plenty of players in other games who would go to pretty insane lengths if it meant the opportunity to min-max their character. But Vandar Forgemaster is the first player I’ve ever met who would put in so much work to min-max his relaxation time. Video game or not, he’s a craftsman who just wants to make interesting works through and through.

I was a little intimidated when I met him for the first time, but I feel like the two of us could really get along. I pick up his leather bound journal and open my mouth to ask if I can look at some of his other designs, when I freeze. 

Vandar gives me a worried look as the blood drains from my face.

“Are you all right?”

“You said… your day is my night… right?”

“Yes? I logged on not too long ago.”

“Oh shit.” I put his journal back on the table and hurriedly take off the gloves and apron, throwing them back onto the hook. “I fell asleep while reading some books I'd loaned from the library earlier. I left them outside to come in here. Janet is going to kill me!”

I hear Vandar’s belly laugh as I quickly wipe my hands on a rag and rush to the door. When I open it, I happen to see Arinn, the magic instructor, walking outside. He stops moving when he notices me. No idea why his mouth is hanging open though.

“Hey,” I hear from behind me, “if you plan to spend anymore time here, you're welcome to stop by again. I'll be happy to talk if you want.”

I look back at Vandar and smile, giving a thumbs up.

“I’ll definitely stop by. I'm not done with the Tutorial Village just yet.”

[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Chapter 2

The straw training dummy inside of the Magic building is directly in front of me. The walls around the dummy are scored with burn marks, cracks in the wood, and other signs of damage. I have my right arm held above my head. From the center of my stomach I feel the pull of mana and start to direct it towards my raised arm, getting ready to push it out as fast as I can; as I swing my hand in a large arc, towards the dummy, I shout the words, "Wind Blade!” 

From the force of my words I feel the mana I was pushing towards my arm get pulled out much faster than I could have done myself. It rushes to my hand, and in the middle of my swing a physical blade of wind comes out and manages to hit the dummy square in the head. I fist pump, happy that my aim is getting better while use these shortened incantations now.

I pick up the plaque of spells hanging on the back wall next to my shooting aisle and review some of the notes I've made there. Arinn, the magic instructor, had loaned me a quill and ink after I pestered him for one.

As my attempts at magic finally started to hit their mark, I had started to get curious about the feeling of mana as it moved through my body. It was such an odd sensation, something that couldn’t really be replicated in real life. As I thought about that feeling, the way the mana surged whenever I performed a spell, I noticed that without my saying anything the mana inside of my body started to move. Heck, it almost made me think I was sick at first somehow. But the more I focused and really thought about the mana, I noticed that I could actually feel a well of it inside of me. 

And the more I tried, the more I was able to move that mana at will. It still feels a little sluggish to do so, but if I combine that sensation with certain physical actions it becomes easier to force the mana in the direction that I want.

Take the Fireball and the Waterball spells for example. For one, the fire mana and the water mana feel totally different – the fire mana feels hot when it flows through my body, while the water mana feels cooling. Also, and more specifically, the mana for a Fireball spell will always twist clockwise, no matter which arm I perform the spell with. The opposite is true for the Waterball spell: the mana always turns in a counterclockwise spiral. I found that if I twisted my hand in that respective direction just as I use the spell I am able to push the mana out more efficiently. 

By doing that, I was able to unlock something: shortened incantations.

The way Arinn had demonstrated the Fireball spell to us originally — only saying the word, “Fireball,” instead of the full incantation — is an example about how experience and physically moving your mana allows you to perform a spell more efficiently, requiring less words to get the same result.

I was also able to figure out why using the Waterball spell with my right arm felt like it took a little bit longer than the fireball spell. It wasn't just that I was bad at magic — though I'm sure that was part of it — but it was that water mana comes out of a different place then fire mana. I had asked Arinn about it after I noticed that with each elemental spell, the sensation of the mana moving through my body felt different. Since he had time while in-between groups at that moment, he pulled out one of the many books on the bookshelves and showed me a chart of a human body.

“Here,” he had said, “what you're feeling is the placement of your elemental points. Essentially all of your mana exists as a large ball in your core, and depending on which way it leaves that core you will get a different type of mana. This kind of 8 pointed circle is the way your mana looks like inside of your body. Though these can stretch or shift depending on your class and what kind of mana you use all the time.”

He pointed at around the right shoulder of the figure and said, “As an exclusive fire mage, my fire point is much closer to my right arm. It basically means that I can pull off almost all of my spells much faster than a beginner with that change alone. There are other things that go into it, but this is one of the internal systems that dictates how you feel mana, and how mana acts for you.”

I was totally shocked by how deep the system for magic went, and I was really impressed by how much work was put into the physicality of it all. I had originally thought it would just be like, ‘you feel mana inside of you and it empties out with spells.’ Kind of like a battery. But the whole existence of elemental points and the fact that those points could shift around seems like it ties up character growth with the character’s physical body. 

In short, the shape of the basic elemental points looks roughly like this:

The very top point is your wind point. The top right corner is your fire point, and the top left corner is your water point. The left most point is earth, the right most point is metal. The bottom left point is your light mana, and the bottom right point is your dark mana. And at the very bottom is your lightning mana point. 

At least that’s what mine looks like since I’m a brand new player. Apparently those will shift around as I level up, and even when I pick my class in the future.

Arin had said that since the way these mana points work is pretty consistent, most experienced magic users can tell at a glance what kind of magic other mages use. He holds up his wooden fire staff with his right hand as an example; had he been a water mage, he probably would've held it with his left hand.

This was why my Waterball spell took longer, because the water mana literally had to travel further in my body than the fire mana did. Even with the improvements that I've made with magic, I can still only do a shortened Waterball spell with my left hand, and a shortened Fireball spell with my right hand.

I stare at the lopsided neck of the straw dummy and pull my mana down and out. I chant the words, “Lightning Arrow,” and thrust my hand out in a stabbing motion at the same time. The feeling of lightning mana always tingles as it moves through my body, and as soon as it reaches my fingertips there’s the sensation of getting a static shock before a bolt of lightning flies out. 

Yes! I managed to actually hit where I aimed!

In terms of looks, most basic spells take on the form of a ball or a bolt. Though the basic metal spell, Metal Needle, literally shoots out a small needle, so that's pretty cool.

I put the plaque with the basic spells back onto the wall and pace along my shooting aisle. While I walk, I imagine reaching my hand into the center of my body and pulling straight up. The feeling of my mana exiting the wind point happens cleanly. The sensation is almost like having a soft breeze inside of my body; it's pretty refreshing honestly. I pull the mana towards my left shoulder, and then down my side and around my ribs, and then push it into my right leg, before bringing it all the way back up my arm and towards my fingertips. I don't know if it's a trait of wind mana in particular, but this one always feels the easiest to move. 

Doing this has been a fun way to pass the time while I wait for my mana to recharge; just getting used to the feeling of grabbing hold of my mana and moving it wherever I want inside of my body. It's a shame that there's not too much more I can do with it than that.

I point my right hand towards the dummy, not doing any sort of specific movement. I imagine pooling all of the wind mana there, and then pushing it out of my hand. From all over my hand a little bit of wind blows out.

That's it. It’s pretty lame honestly.

None of the other elements generate a strong affect from this method either, not even when I add body movements to it. In fact nothing physical even  happens when I push earth or metal mana out like this. Although the light element is kind of nice since it literally makes my hand glow softly when I do it. 

“Hey D0n, buddy,” says Arinn, making his way back towards me from his seat by the door. “Look, our cloud is off shift for new players at the moment. So I was going to go, maybe eat some food, relax a little. I don't know if you maybe wanna go into the game yet or…” 

“No I'm good,” I say, “there's a crazy amount of depth with this magic stuff. I want to play around with it a bit more first.”

“Right, right, but you see I kind of wanted to leave the building.” The two of us just stare at each other. “You know what, if we’re talking about getting used to the game, I’m sure you still aren't quite as comfortable moving around with your character as you’d want to be right? Why don't you stop by the Attack building then. The instructor there, he's a cool guy and usually just spends most of his time practicing stuff. He's got a Karate Alignment, so I'm sure he'll be a perfect partner for helping you move your character better. And you know with all those, big fancy movements you're using for these basic spells, I'm sure that'll help with your magic too, somehow?”

I’m still looking at Arinn as he speaks, but I’m already getting excited about the thought of learning martial arts. It's something I always thought of as really cool, but I realize I actually have the chance to try it myself now!

I thank Arinn and make my way out to the village square. I hope he gets a good lunch, he looked pretty drained back there.

I stretch as I make my way outside of the Magic building and take a look at the rest of the Tutorial Village. I don't really see many other players anymore, and those that I do see are making their way towards the big hole at the far end of the Village, which seems to be where you leave from. 

Walking down the cobblestone path I try to figure out which one would be the Attack instructors building. A bit further down the road I see a sign with a sword on it. This seems as likely as anything so I open the door and go in. 

The inside of this place seems huge. All of the walls are lined with a wide variety of weapons; swords, shields, axes, maces, anything you can think of. There's a couple rows of the same straw training dummies off to the side, with the center of the room dominated by a large dirt packed ring.

In the center of that ring is a player who I can only describe as a bundle of muscles in a Karate gi. He's definitely a good deal taller than me, with spiky, short black hair, a red headband, and has the sleeves of his white gi torn off. He’s slowly working through fighting forms by himself. 

Looking at him, the only thought that goes through my mind is whether or not companies have the right to copyright strike someone inside of a game. Because there is no way his character looks like that on accident.

In the middle of one of his form he turns around, spotting me at the door.

“Oh hey, didn’t expect to see any new players here at this time. I thought i had just helped out the last group. I'm the Attack instructor. The name’s Riyu.”

Yeah… his character design is definitely on purpose. Up close and personal it’s clear just how big this guy is. But that only makes it more confusing with how high pitched his voice is.

“Hi, my name’s D0n. I've actually been in the tutorial village for a bit but I just kept messing around in the Magic building longer then most. Arinn, the magic instructor, actually recommended that I come over here next.”

“Are you serious? That ever high and mighty mage actually recommended somebody to talk to a fighting class like me? Well color me surprised.”

“Well he did say that he knew you.”

“Oh we know each other all right. We ended up in the same starting city on the plains continent, and always argued about whose class was better. You know, the whole magic versus sword argument. Though I'm more of a fist user myself.”

Clearly. I clear my throat to muffle a chuckle. “I mean, this game seems like it has enough flexibility for you to just use both though?”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Where's the fun in that?! Where’s the creativity?! All magic does is automate stuff way too much! I'm playing a Full VR game so that I can be in control. Which means I don't want to just chant some words and blow up a Wolf. if that's all I wanted I'd be playing a much cheaper game than this! If I’m in Golden Age, I wanna see a wolf with my own two eyes, go right up to that wolf, and punch it in the jaw myself!”

I have no words. I just stare at Riyu.

… I like this guy. 

“Ahem,” he coughs into his hand, as if realizing he had gotten a little too impassioned in his speech. “Anyway, if you want to learn how to fight in this game you came to the right place. Is there anything that you're interested in, like in particular? You can see we have pretty much any choice of weapon you can think of and our own training dummies to try them out on. I suppose if you have anything super specific in mind, we can always ask the blacksmith to see if he can whip something up.”

“I’m definitely going to take my time trying stuff out, that's for sure,” I say as I look around, almost salivating at how many choices there are, “but at the moment I was told I could come here to get used to moving around in Full VR. I’m in a wheelchair in the real world actually, so it took me a good amount of time just to get to the point that I can walk around without tripping.”

“I see, that makes sense now why Arinn would recommend you come to me. I can definitely help with that, I'm a Karate Alignment after all. Come on in to the ring with me. And take off your shoes!”

I do as Riyu told me, placing my leather shoes off to the side by the doorway, and go back over to the dirt ring. I can feel the texture of the matted dirt on the soles of my feet. That's another new sensation I would probably get lost in if left to myself.

“Okay, so I'm going to teach you some basic Karate forms. Some punches and kicks, some blocks. And I want you to just try and replicate those movies as I do them.”

I nod my head. Riyu walks me through how to get into a horse stance, how to do a karate punch, and tries to teach me how to do a couple of kicks. But any time I try to kick I immediately fall.

“No, no, I want you to only look at me as you do it, stop looking down. If you've ever seen a kung fu movie try imagining one of those actors. Okay, on three now.

“One. Two. Three!”

I keep my eyes locked on Riyu, while imagining a martial artist that I've seen in movies like he told me, and this time I snap into a kick without losing my balance.

“See, there you go! That's the trick to moving in Full VR. At the end of the day, this is still a game. Yeah it feels like you're walking or you're moving your body or you’re throwing a punch, but all of that is only being done inside your head. Which means if you wanna move in the game you just have to think about moving in the game, and let the rest happen. The better the image in your head, the more confidently you take that step, the easier it is to make that movement. I'm sure that's why walking in this game is so hard for you, while it's something that most people in game don't even think about. 

“Because in real life you don't really think about mechanically walking somewhere. You just think, ‘I wanna go over there.’ It's that same thing in Full VR. Just think, ‘I want to go over there,’ ‘I want to do this,’ and then apply that to everything. So if you want to throw a punch don’t think, ‘I have to make a fist, I have to push my arm forward, apply the rotation of my hips.’ No! Just think, ‘I’m gonna hit him in the face, he’s a big fat jerk who can’t keep his mouth shut, so he totally deserves it,’ and then do it! Punch him in the face!”

There was a bit of an extra rant there at the end that didn't feel like it applied to me, but his overall point makes sense. This is still a game. So I just have to commit. 

I close my eyes and imagine that I'm lightly bouncing on the balls of my feet. And just let myself feel. 

I can feel the tension in my ankles as they flex to push up. I can feel my clothes rustle as I move up and down. The lightest motion of my arms as they bounce with me.

I open my eyes and imagine jogging in a circle around the ring. And then I just let myself go. I end the loop in a backflip and land square on my feet, simple. 

The less I try to focus on the individual mechanics, the easier it is to do.

“There you go, that's it! You just gotta trust it and let yourself do it.” Riyu gives me a high five. “Now then, you are in the Attack building, so we might as well run through the basic intro. You ready?” 

I nod, excited at all the possibilities of things I can learn in this building. 

“Well… honestly the overall jist is pretty much what I've told you. If you wanna attack something you attack. If you gotta dodge, dodge. Everything else is just the nitty-gritty details, depending on your class. The Attack category is pretty broad after all.” I immediately deflate. With as exciting as this game has been so far, I thought there would be more to do here. 

Riyu puts his hand to his chin and holds the elbow of that arm, thinking. “Hmm… oh! There is one thing that I do think all new players should get used to. Hitting someone, and getting hit.”

I stare at this man with muscles bigger than my head, and who looks like he would do just fine in a video game with fatalities. I take a big step back.

“Wait, wait!” Riyu holds up his hands, “It's not as bad as it sounds. Look, this is still a fantasy action game at its core. So even if it's not another player, sometimes you're going to have to fight a mob that you see. And I'm told that not everybody gets to experience what a fight is like in real life. The last thing you need is to get put into a situation where you have to fight and just freeze up. The whole point of this Tutorial Village is to let you get used to what the game is going to be like, before you get put in the real situation. That's all we're doing here. And it's not like I'm gonna just outright hit you. We’re gonna spar. Sparrings a thing.“

“Well… I guess that's true. I'd be lying if I said I knew what to do in a fight. All right then, how are we going to do this?”

Riyu smiles and lets out a little squeal while clapping his hands really fast, before taking a step back and getting into a fighting stance. 

“For now let's just start with getting used to the idea of hitting someone. I know what I'm doing, and I’m a much, much higher level than you. So just go all out and I'll take the hits.”

I get into the basic fighting stance I was taught earlier. At the same time I imagine performing a kick to his side, I commit to doing it. My foot is blocked by the instructors forearm and that, combined with the force from actually hitting something, makes me lose my balance. I have to use a hand to stabilize myself, but I manage to not fall down completely. Riyu just gives me a smile and I get back into my stance without bothering to think about it. 

This time I plant my feet and go for a roundhouse punch to the head. Again Riyu has his guard is up and blocks it. Now that I know what to expect though, I quickly pull my fist back and punch again, this time aiming at his chest. Riyu’s hand darts out so that I end up punching square in his palm. I just keep punching like this, now almost looking like mitt training for a boxer.

I’m reminded again that Riyu’s advice — that imagination is key — really works. Because as soon as the image of boxing pops into my head I notice that my punches start getting sharper and faster, as I use the videos I've seen of boxing for reference.

“Good, good. That's the kind of rhythm we want. You can be as creative as you want here, so hit me with all you have. Experiment and see what feels natural to you.”

I step back for a breath, clench my hands, and then dash forward, jumping into a flying knee. There’s enough force in the hit that Riyu has to use both hands to block it.

“That's exactly what I'm talking about! Now let’s let you see what it's like to be on the receiving end.” Riyu says, balling his hands into a fist.

“Wait what —“

Bam! 

Before I can finish speaking Riyu’s fist slams into my chest. I'm knocked off my feet and crash into the ground flat on my back. All I can focus on is the sensation in my chest — it feels like it wants to cave in from the impact. But just before the pain can settle in, it disappears, replaced by a dull ache in the same spot. Not enough to really hurt anymore, but present enough to tell me I took damage to my chest. In the right hand corner of my eye I can see that a chunk of my green health bar is missing.

“Sorry to take you by surprise like that, but no one's ever really prepared to take a hit the first time, it just happens. How are you holding up? The pain sensors can be surprisingly realistic but they're not really that bad.” Riyu says, offering me a hand to get back on my feet. While I'm catching my breath, he motions with his hands for me to start jabbing into his palms again.

“You're right, the pain wasn't that bad. Just not used to feeling it like that.”

“Yeah, the devs found a really good balance with making sure that getting hit still freaking hurts, but it's nothing that will really stop you in the middle of a fight. Just enough to let you know that you messed up.” 

“Still, if that's what getting hit by a punch felt like, I can't even imagine how freaky getting cut by a sword would feel.” I say as I look at the rows of different weapons along the walls.

“Eh, I’ve been hit by a sword before. And I mean it does suck. The whole bleeding and bruising thing afterwards can be pretty gnarly to look at, but since they don’t allow you to lose your limbs in this game it’s not that bad.” Riyu squints his eyes at me while talking, “But don’t go thinking that what I hit you with is all there is to punching. That was only a basic punch. A martial artist’s punch in this game can go toe-to-toe with any weapon.”

As soon as Riyu finishes talking, he slaps away a punch I was throwing and pushes his fist right into my chest. I completely tense up, closing my eyes and bracing myself for the feeling of getting hit again, but all I feel are his knuckles against my chest. When I open my eyes, Riyu is grinning madly at me; he shouts, and a pulse wave of energy bursts out, flinging me to the ground even further away than the first punched had. I'm trying to get my bearings and figure out what on earth just happened as I hear Riyu laughing.

“Hahahaha, that's what’s called Mana Expulsion. Though the way I used it there is a bit more unique to a martial artist. But that technique is present across all of the Attack classes. As much as I rag on Arinn about it, this is still a world of magic and monsters. Ain't no way that a man with his fist, or even a sword, could stand up to a dragon normally.” 

I get up into a half sitting position, rubbing my chest. “What exactly is Mana Expulsion?”

“That's the fancy term for it, but basically it’s what allows all of our skills to work. Just like a mage’s spells, it uses mana. But instead of just saying fancy words and letting magic happen, we force the mana out of our body and let it take shape to boost all of our attacks. Though some of those skills can get pretty crazy; like slashes flying from swords swings or having a big fiery energy surround your body while you fight. If you go down the attack class route you'll experience them.”

The dull ache in my chest is completely forgotten about as my brain makes a connection with the words that were just said. I stand up and quickly ask how he does Mana Expulsion.

“Oh, I don’t know. You just get the mana out like you would for a spell maybe? As long as you use a skill it'll happen naturally.”

“So that thing you just did to me was a skill?”

“Well, there is one like it, but that was my own technique. See I used to love playing old fighting games, so I wanted to fight just like that myself. And while there are some cool options for defending and attacking in Golden Age, it’s obviously not the same. But I figured out that if you expel mana really sharply out of your body manually, you can essentially shock someone in the middle of an attack, like a parry in a fighting game, giving you a free chance to punch them back. It's my own ‘special timing defense technique.’” 

I can feel my eyes lighting up as the connection I thought might be there looks more and more like it'll work.

“Okay, so how do you get the mana out like that?! What exactly does it feel like?”

“Um, I’m not sure. Kind of like you're yelling at the mana to get out your body really fast? Or, or like the sensation of when your blood’s pumping in the middle of a fight.”

I stare at Riyu, desperately hoping to see if he can come up with a better example.

“Wait, I know!” Riyu goes over to a corner where there's a bunch of boxes, paperwork, and what looks like trash shoved into it. He rummages around for a bit and pulls out the same kind of plaque that had the beginner spells written on it in the Magic building.

“I nearly forgot about this thing. But if you try out the Raise Fighting Spirit skill this might work to explain it.”

I take the plaque and just give Riyu a look. Sighing, I ask how it works or if there’s anything specific I need to do to use the skills.

“No. While you're in the Tutorial Village you’ll automatically learn basic skills. In the real game, you'll have to meet some criteria or experience in order to learn a skill and have the game help out, but here you can try anything immediately. Just read out what the skill says and imagine doing it, and the game will put it into your skill slots while you’re here.”

That's a pretty neat solution. It makes sense since this is the Tutorial Village. When I find the skill that Riyu was talking about it reads, ‘Charge Fighting Spirit: Push your energy to the brink! To prepare yourself to attack at a moments notice, take a stable stance and push your mana outward.’ 

I've been playing with my mana all day, so I'm not sure how this will be much different but I do what the plaque says. I get into the horse stance I was just taught and reach into my core. I try to pull the mana out while thinking of the skill name to myself. However nstead of the usual result, this time the mana exits out of all of the elemental mana points at once, and then spreads out as if to fill up my whole body. Instead of the mana residing in my core, it's like I can feel the mana pushed up against my skin. But it doesn't feel like any of the elemental mana that I've tried. It feels neutral, almost like pure energy. It’s as though all of the mana coming out at once caused them to neutralize each other and go into a more basic state.

“Looks like you've got it. I can tell just from the feel around you. I'll read out the Mana Expulsion technique; it should work now if you give it a try. The plaque reads ‘Mana Expulsion: To strengthen your attacks seek the point of contact in the mind and push the mana out.’”

I stick my fist straight out in the air the same way Riyu did and imagine the front of my knuckles, and imagine the mana going out while saying the words Mana Expulsion in my head. All of a sudden the mana underneath the skin of my knuckles feels as if it’s shaking and bubbling before ripping out in front of me. I see what looks like a colorless shockwave burst out as my hand flies back. 

“There you go, now you got it,” Riyu says, as he slaps me on the back (nearly knocking me over), “that's the basics of the technique, and you'll apply it for most of the Attack classes. When you get real good at it you can try doing it from different places on your body, if you want to replicate my parry technique. Though most skills will automatically do that part for you. And don't worry by the way, when you let yourself relax the mana will go back to its natural state.”

He's right. As soon as I release the tension around the mana I pulled out, I can feel it flow back into a tight ball at my core. But I can barely focus on what Riyu is saying. I'm staring at my hands as I try to wrap my head around the feeling of Mana Expulsion. It wasn't just about moving the mana, it was about changing the state the mana was in. Like I had to get it ready to leave the body. 

I open my hand and stretch my arm forward, palm out. Just like I was doing in the magic instruction building, I reach into my core of mana and pull it up through the wind point and then curve it through my arm into my hand. When I feel like I’ve pooled enough there, so that it's throughout my whole hand, I focus. I first imagine the mana in my hand expanding, like a gas spreads. There it is! I can feel the wind mana’s cool breeze pressed just underneath my skin. Then I imagine the mana getting agitated, the way molecules move faster when they get hot, and as soon as that buzzing tension rises in my hand I imagine pushing that tension out through my palm. My hand absolutely rockets back, nearly taking me off my feet, as what looks to be a small column of air flies out of my hand and smacks harmlessly against the wall, sending up a trail of dust in it’s wake. 

I immediately start laughing as I realize that I just did magic without saying a word.

Riyu looks at me in shock and asks, “What on earth did you just do?”

I turn to him with a crazy wide smile and say, “I mixed fighting with magic.”

I go to walk over towards the wall that I hit, to see if there was any damage other than just wind being blown. But I can't make it more than three steps without feeling absolutely winded, so much so that I start to fall forward. Riyu catches me and lets me brace against him. Heh, getting this tired this fast feels kind of nostalgic.

“Whoah there, you're still a beginner. And stamina is a stat that you have to grow. Why don't you go out and see if you can get some water by the well and rest up before moving on?”

Even though my mind is racing with all the new things that I want to try, I'm too tired to really do any of them at the moment. So I just nod my head, and hope that like the damage effects, this fatigue will go away quickly. 

As I make my way out the door, Riyu waves and says, “Keep experimenting with that weird wind push thingy you did. That seems like it could end up being really cool.”

I give a thumbs up before taking a deep breath and make my way over towards the well. 

The well has a pulley bucket attached to it and everything, even though there's no use for it. The water is all the way at the top and easy to reach. There's even a handy set of cups just resting there. 

I take a drink and look out over the village, trying to decide what to do now. All the way behind me is the portal where new players spawn. There are other class instructors’ buildings around me. All the way to my right is the hole to leave the tutorial village, and all the way to my left is that big library. My body still feels too tired to go do stuff at the other buildings, so I make my way towards the library.

I wave at Arinn on my way there. He starts to wave back. Then he looks at me, and then over at the portal, and then over at the library. He then slumps against his doorway, sighing.

I stand in front of the double doors of the library, the most ornate one in this little village, and push against it. 

I don't know how demanding the workload is for an instructor, but I hope they let them take naps. Arinn still looked real tired back there.

[goldenagewebnovel]

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[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Chapter 1

The feeling of loading into a new area is really weird. Not to say that it’s unpleasant, but for those first few seconds nothing makes sense. Then it's like everything is being drawn in three dimensions with different colored lines and vectors. Then just as you slowly start to get an outline of what’s in front of you, boom! All at once, with color and sound, the whole world explodes into life.

I remember hitting that cloud at terminal velocity but now, not only am I no longer falling but there’s even a gentle breeze blowing across this still field.

There is a quaint little village further in front of me. Rows of houses and buildings, all made up of wood and stone, and looking like they belong in medieval Europe. There’s even smoke coming out of some of the houses. There are cobblestone roads connecting everything in the village, that eventually extend into dirt paths, and those paths lead into green grass everywhere else.

Off to the right of the village is a small forest, with inviting shadows and soft rays of light glowing in-between the trees. Instead of a sky it looks like there is a softly glowing cloud dome surrounding the entire area.

Directly in front me is what looks to be a ring of flowers. They are surrounding a perfectly manicured circle of grass that I’m standing on…

Wait. 

I look down with trembling eyes and realize: I’m standing. I’m actually standing on my own two feet. That’s a sight I thought I would never be able to see.

Whatever strength was allowing me to stand leaves my legs, and I collapse to me knees. I can only hold on to my face and cry. Deep, shuddering cries. In this moment it doesn't matter what else this game promised. For this gift alone I am already grateful. 

I would be embarrassed to say how long I sat there crying, but I genuinely don't know how long it was. By the time I could stop shaking and actually wiped my eyes I noticed that there were other people in a half circle around me. There were eight people standing just in front of the flower ring and they were all looking at me. At least none of them looked too uncomfortable because of my breakdown; in fact, most of them were giving me really warm smiles.

If I hadn't just finished crying my eyes out I would have been shocked at the spread of people in front of me. Nothing quite prepares you to see creatures that are clearly not human but still entirely intelligent. That aside, all of them looked to be varied in age and ethnicity. The one in the middle, who looked to be in charge, stepped forward. 

“I’m guessing this is your first time playing a Full VR game. It’s different for everyone, but from my experience a lot of people with disabilities who play for the first time react pretty much the same as you.”

“Yeah, I’ve been in a wheelchair my whole life. I know this technology is supposed to be crazy, but it kind of overwhelmed me there. Sorry about that, my name’s D0n.”

“No worries. I’m Arinn, the Magic Instructor.  I’ve got first shift to greet the new players. We’re heading to the Magic building first, so follow me and I'll give you a basic rundown of the game.”

Arinn looked young, but aside from that he was wearing the classical magic outfit. Flowing red robes with a big gnarled wooden staff, just like you would expect to see from a sorcerer in a fantasy world.

I put my hands on my knees to stand up, but in that moment I realize that I have no idea how to really stand. I don't know how to walk.

“Um, do you think I can get a hand? I don't really know what I'm doing.”

“Oh, sure. My bad.”

Arinn and two of the guys waiting with the group come over and help pick me up. It’s wild; I know this is just a game but I can really feel their touch. The roughness of the cloth and the feeling of their body heat are clearly felt through my arms. 

They set me on my feet but the most I can do by myself is wobble in place. Arinn turns to me and tells me not to worry about it. 

“You're really not alone, D0n. A lot of first timers — no matter their situation — tend to have a hard time wrapping their head around how to move in Full VR. I'm going to go continue the tutorial with the rest of the group but why don't you stay with these two? They also need a bit of time to get adjusted, you all can help each other out.”

He points at two other players, already off to the side, who look as unsteady on their feet as I do. One of them appears to be a young boy, who can't be much older than 10. Next to him is an old woman, she’s looking around the area and appears to be a little shocked by what she is seeing. From the way they are holding on to each other it looks like they are grandson and grandmother.

The two players who helped me stand up also help the three of us walk over to a soft patch of grass near the Magic building. Both of them are nearly two feet taller then me and with their green skin they’re clearly orcs. They let us know that these are actually some alt characters they are making, so they don't need to go through the tutorial. Once they finish helping us out they are just going to go straight to the main game.

After the three of us get situated the orc pair make their way towards what looks to be a gate at the far end of the Village, in front of a large hole with a pedestal. We wave happily to them until they are completely out of sight. I hope they have a good time with their new characters.

The sensation of standing still feels really unnatural to me, so I stay sitting on the grass and try to get used to the feeling of being able to move my legs freely and without pain. The grandmother is leaning against a nearby wall, using it to support her walking; it looks like she has plenty of strength and balance to walk but is unused to having that strength available in the first place. Her grandson is still a little bit clumsy in his movements but he is already running in literal circles around the both of us. His eyes are shining as he tries to look at everything at once — getting dizzy multiple times because of it.

“What's your name again, dear? Oh, I guess I should ask what your character’s name is. I decided to call myself Nana, that way my little Ethan can continue to call me like he’s used to.”

“My name’s D0n. It’s an old username I’ve had forever. Those old games were definitely different then this though. It’s a lot to get used to, but I got the time so I figure I'll take it slow.” 

The young boy, Ethan, walks over to his grandmother and hugs her around her hips. Nana gently pats his head. 

“You’re not quite at at my age yet, but us older people can't allow ourselves to fall behind the youth. Nothing else to do but try it out and get used to it, right?”

I really respect how open minded this old lady is, but something she said doesn’t make sense. “That’s an awesome perspective to have! But, I'm still only 28.”

“Oh my, so young, I'm so sorry. Still, if you go out of your way to give yourself gray hair like that you're only going to give people ideas. Enjoy your youth, there's no need to rush into having hair like mine.” Nana says as she pats her snow white hair. 

I have no idea what she’s talking about. Then it hits me — I told the Overvoice to just make my character look exactly like I do in real life. Wait… so even in a video game, I still can't escape everyone saying I look like an old man???

I put my head in my hands and groan, realizing my mistake. Nana and Ethan laugh lightly while I grumble about how I could've picked any other hair color. It’s a fantasy game after all!

Despite what she said, Nana is able to pretty quickly get used to moving around with a game body. I wave at the two of them as they go to enter the Magic instruction building a few minutes behind our group. I’m still going to need a bit more time to wrap my head around legs that actually work.

It's not that standing or walking is all that hard to do. In fact, whenever I stop thinking about it I'm able to do them both fairly easily. It's just that since I never had to get used to that feeling in the real world, I get caught up with how unreal it is that I can do it in the game, and then it’s like all the strength leaves my legs. Still, I decide to go at it without getting discouraged, and I'm eventually able to walk a full circuit around the village — and even run a little — without falling down. 

The secret is to make sure I just don't look down.

I was able to see the whole scope of the tutorial village from the spawn point but as I walk along the cobblestone roads it hits me that this place really is quite small. Most of the buildings look identical. Wooden walls with cobblestone foundations and big oak doors. The biggest difference between them are the signs hanging above the doors. Each one has a picture on it: a sword, a shield, an anvil, a bow.

All the doors are closed and there are no windows to look inside. But I can still hear totally different sounds coming out of each of the buildings. At the far end of the road there's a building larger than the rest, that has a big sign with the word “Library” on it.

I'm tempted to walk over there right now and see what books they have but since the village is so small that there’s not much to do in the first place, I decide to finish exploring the outside first. I still have to get used to my body anyway.

I leave one of the dirt roads and start to cross the grass, towards that small forest I saw earlier. Behind me I can hear players walking about and I can see Arinn going to greet a new batch of new players.

The edge of the forest looks just as inviting as it did at first glance. There are plenty of trees and bushes and vegetation, but none of it is so dense as to feel oppressive. In fact, it looks like the perfect place for a nature walk. Deeper in, I think I can see some deers and rabbits grazing.

I reach out by the foot of a nearby tree and pick up a rock the size of a baseball. I toss it up in the air and catch it as it falls. 

It's strange how natural the action feels. Even if my strength wasn't the best my hand-eye coordination was always pretty good. But there's nothing special that I have to do to use it inside the game, it feels just like doing it in real life. I take the rock and mimic the pitching throw of the baseball players I’ve seen on TV. The rock shoots out in a straight line, flying so far between the trees that I can't see where it lands. It flew with way more force then I ever would have been able to use normally. 

So like real life, but a little cooler.

There's not much else to look at in the outskirts of the village. The clouds that make up the surrounding dome are super fluffy but totally impenetrable. I’m tempted to start poking around some of the other class instruction buildings but I want to save them as a treat for later. I spend most of my time getting used to walking and jogging and comfortably moving in my own body. 

Arinn comes to ask me if I'm ready to move on a couple of times but I’m honestly having a lot of fun just running around. At one point I'm even able to pull off a cart wheel for the first time in my life!

I have no clue how much time I spent just playing in the field. I’m so used to having a watch or my phone on me at all times that it’s hard to judge time off the top of my head. I guess it's something I'll have to get used to in a medieval fantasy game. Eventually though I see Arinn waiting by the flower ring for a new group to spawn, so I make my way over to him.

He gives me a wiry smile and says, “Had your fill?”

“For the moment.” I give a grin back. “So what are you doing in this place?”

There's no way I can imagine an NPC acting this much like a real person.

“I've been playing this game for about six months now.” Says Arinn. “I do it pretty casually, so I don't really level up that fast. But theres a really cool book of fire magic available for instructors at the moment and I gotta have it.” 

He goes on to tell me that Golden Age offers quests with rare rewards for putting in time a Tutorial Village as a class instructor; as long as you are above a certain skill level. This way, new players can get a chance to talk to people who actually know what the game is like, and experienced players get the chance to get unique rewards. If no player has taken the quest yet, an NPC will spawn in the village.

“Since I won't be able to devote a lot of time to this place in one go I'm just gonna put in a little bit of time each week, for about a month. I know it's a little odd to basically have a part-time job inside of a game, but I have to say, when I look at players who are just starting out it really lets me feel how far I've come.”

I smile at Arinn. It’s really cool that the game devs found a way to offer this kind of support to new players. But man, people really will do just about anything as long as you say the words “rare loot.”

A new batch of players spawn in a beam of light at the stone column. Arinn greets them and we all make our way to his class building.

It doesn't look like anyone broke down crying in this group.

The Magic instruction building seems to be pretty sparse on the inside. One wall has an array of bookshelves, filled with all kinds of super old-school magical looking books, and little knickknacks of strange creatures and oddities in glass bottles. On the other wall there is a row of straw dummies, lined up like a shooting range.

“All right, since you all decided to play a fantasy game, I figure you'd want to learn how to use magic first. So I'm assuming some of you have played an MMO before. Honestly, what can be done in Golden Age isn't that much different from traditional MMO’s. What makes this game special is that unlike a normal game, Full VR gives allows you to feel what it’s like to use magic for yourself.”

With that said, in one smooth motion, Arinn turns, points the end of his wooden staff at a training dummy, and says the word, “Fireball.” From the tip of his staff, streams of bright red fire gather into a ball, pause for a moment, and then shoots off. It strikes the center of the straw dummy, catching it on fire. The dummy safely extinguishes after a few seconds.

“As you can see players are able to genuinely wield magic in this world. There are three things that make magic special in Golden Age. 

“For the more experienced gamers, you can see that unlike most MMO’s there are no damage counters or enemy health displays. Those numbers still exist but the developers decided to show them through the way a mob or a player reacts to getting hit. As you get used to fighting you're going to have to get used to reading the responses of your opponents.

“Second, is that almost all magic in this game is run through Golden Age’s elemental system. There are eight elements: fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, metal, light, and dark. Now there are some outliers, like combined elements or neutral mana, but I’ll let some of the other class instructors cover that. The main point is that these elements affect what spells you can use, what skills are improved by what element, and what the effect on the target is.

“The last and most important thing for you to get used to in this building, is that you can physically feel mana as it moves through your body. There is a plate in front of each dummy that has the incantation words for each of the basic elemental spells. While you are in the Tutorial Village, you don't have any specializations; so while the game will not assist you much, you can try out anything you want while you’re here. Why don't each of you walk up to a dummy, hold out your hand, and recite one of the spells? They may not always come out right the first time, but it will give you a chance to get used to what mana feels like.”

I don't know how I was able to hear anything Arinn said. As soon as I saw that fire ball spell — real magic — I feel like I've been bouncing on my feet the whole time. Considering some of the giggles coming from the players next to me, I think I might've actually been bouncing. 

I ignore it, and make my way over to the row at the back of the building. 

I pick up the plaque and stand behind the shooting line. It looks like the basic spell for each element is some form of ball that you shoot out. Seems like a good standardized way of setting up the magic, since the most basic use is just shooting it out of your hand. I decide to re-create the fireball spell that I saw the magic instructor use. Because after all, when you think about magic, it's got to be a fireball right?

“I call upon the spirit of the flame to guide my path, Fireball!” 

As I read the words for the incantation it suddenly feels as though I am aware of every time I miss-speak or fail to put emphasis on certain words correctly. From the center of my body I feel a warmth gather and then travel up my shoulder, through my arm in a clockwise spiral, to gather in my hand. When that warmth reaches my palm I see little streams of fire come forward and gather with the mana leaving my hand, all curling together into a tight ball. I am so surprised by the alien sensation that I completely fail to aim my hand, made worse as the backlash of the spell shooting out shoves back my arm. The fireball dissolves pointlessly against the wall over the right shoulder of the dummy.

I can hear the other players doing about as well me, with Arinn repeating for us to not worry about our aim and just get used to the feeling of it. 

I look at my hand, shocked. Again, I know it's a fantasy game, and I know it's not real life. But I could feel the heat of the fire against my palm before it shot. I even feel a little bit of an emptiness from the mana that left my body.

Arinn gets all of our attention one more time.

“Even though those were basic spells, they still cost some of your mana. I want each of you to focus on your status window, and get an idea of how much mana that spell just used. You can either focus on the symbol that is in the corner of your eyesight, or some players get used to it by reaching out to try to touch it.”

Until he said something, I hadn’t noticed it, but in the corner of my eye there is a small, almost translucent square with what looks to be the symbol of a body on it. When I try to see what it looks like more clearly it expands like a hologram in front of my eyes. I can see my name, my stats. An empty section for my skills and my future classes. 

There is a section for what looks to be my inventory — the only things in there being the clothes that I am wearing. In the top corner of the screen there is a dual clock that shows the current in-game and real-world time. 

Huh, so that’s where the watch is. 

Underneath my name I can see a green bar and a blue bar. The blue bar is not quite full, but it looks like the mana has already started to regenerate. 

Arinn speaks again.

“Now there are some players who don't like doing this, saying that it messes with their immersion, but I highly recommend that you all select the option to always show your Health and Mana. That way, it'll be in the bottom right of your vision, and you won’t be shocked if they ever run out. At least do it until you get used to feeling out where you are by yourself.”

I decide to take his advice and click on the display option next to my health and mana. When I exit out of my menu I can still see the body icon in the left-hand corner of my vision, but now on the bottom right I can see green and blue bars that are just as translucent. If I try to look at them, they come into sharp focus.

By now the blue bar has pretty much refilled. I wonder what the actual rate of mana recharge is. Did it refill so fast because the spell I used was a basic one or because I only used a little bit and then took a break? In fact, I realize there are a lot of things in this game I just plain don’t know about.

Arinn begins to suggest other buildings — and other instructors — the players gathered in the room might be interested in visiting. Essentially, we’re free to do as we wish now. 

There are some people next to me that are still testing out a couple of spells, with varying degrees of accuracy. I can hear a party of three friends — two elves and a dwarf — discuss how they might check out the archery building, but they seem more excited to just get into the game and start playing. In fact, that seems to be the general idea of a lot of the players in this room. I guess it is true that if there is anything they don't understand, they can always just look it up later.

As many of the players make their way out of the building I see Arinn pull out a few books from the bookshelf and sit in a chair by the doorway. I guess he’s off duty from greeting the new players now.

I’m still a little undecided on what to do myself. I look at the emptying room, with it’s wall of bookcases and knickknacks. There are still two people here practicing spells; I’m still just as wowed by the sight of real magic in front of my eyes. So for lack of a better idea I decide to try one more spell before moving on.

“Wash away the obstacles before me great spirits, Waterball!”

I can feel the mana start to gather in my core again but it’s different this time. Not a warmth, but like a cool flush. It flows into my shoulder, taking a slightly longer path, and flows to my palm in a counter-clockwise spiral. This time, I feel little droplets of water against my palm as the spell shoots out. I’m just as distracted as the last time though, and the waterball hits the wall above the dummies left shoulder. 

Wow. These devs were able to make a game so realistic that it feels like I’m really here, standing on my own two feet. It’s like the most freeing dream imaginable. The fact that they even put that attention to detail in the magic, that the elements move and feel different from each other: it’s impressive. 

But more than that, it makes me curious.

It’s that same curiosity I had when I didn’t know exactly how mana recharged. And I think back to what Arinn had said. That even though all of the numbers and stats are really there, you can only tell by feeling.

I hold on to the spell plaque I was going to put down. I stretch my hand out, reading the incantation for a windblade in my head first.

I wonder… if I take my time and experiment… just how much control over magic can I get?

[goldenagewebnovel]

Volume 1 Prologue

Virtual Reality. 

The ever sought after paradise for everyone who loves video games. 

The first virtual reality developments came in the beginning of the century, but they were all based on external hardware. Awkward remotes and gloves, bulky goggles. The hardware became smaller, sleeker, more immersive over time. But in the end, all they were was an entertaining trick — limited by what it could show and who could even physically use it. 

They brought the player closer to the screen then ever before. But they could never bridge the gap between the real world and the game. The true holy grail of gaming would lie in fully immersive virtual reality; that would take you to the very edge of the screen, and then pull you inside. To wake up inside your favorite game, whenever you wanted. It was the dream that could never be.

And then came the Digital Mind Project.

A private think tank based in the city of Seattle. They gathered the world’s best programers, neurologists, biologists, and psychologists. After working for over a decade, they did it. They mapped and named every possible neural pathway in the human brain and explained it’s function. They created the first complete, digital model of the mind, and it could think like one.

Overnight, the processing speed of all technology in the world skyrocketed. Data could be processed faster and more efficiently then ever imagined. Brain diseases that seemed incurable now had mapped explanations and accessible cures.

The digital and physical revolution that resulted led some people to question where the limit really was. If you can put the human mind in a machine, couldn’t it work the other way around?

Countries, governments, armies, corporations — they all fought to develop and control this untouched potential. But the leaders of the Digital Mind Project had decided to join the race, and, just like before, they won. They developed a full scanning pod, that only required a user to sit in it. The pod would sync to the electric signals of the nerves pathways and, upon triggering sleep, allowed the person to fully connect to the machine.

They sold the design for the pods to every business that could afford it, all at the same time. In the middle of the 21st century the age of Virtual Reality had truly begun.

The first games to come out were… disappointing, to say the least. Barely more then tech demos. Allowing the player to get a unique experience but hardly qualifying as a true game. A rushed attempt at formatting a classic MMORPG as the VR game, Fields of Fighting, was a disaster. It was riddled with horribly coded AI, clunky, unnatural movements, invisible walls everywhere that could physically trap players by accident. It was unplayable.

All the technology you could ever need for VR was available, but game designers were struggling to catch up. They had to learn to think and create in a whole new dimension. The old techniques wouldn’t cut it.

That learning curve led to a drought in Full VR games. Most companies stuck to their tried and true dimension of game design, and if people were lucky they might see a halfway decent Full VR game release once or twice a year.

Then, without any warning, two of the biggest games to hit the market were released in the same year.

The first was a sprawling, open world RPG called, Record of the Ancients. Set in the fantasy genre, this was a single player game that offered its players absolute freedom of choice to explore the world and affect it however they wanted. The game held its own share of bugs and the occasional empty plain or lack of detail, but there was nothing else like it.

The second game was a massive multiplayer sci-fi battle called, Solar Forge. Players could freely participate in large scale, solar system spanning battles. Anything from piloting a ship, to organizing a galactic cruiser, to dropping into and storming an enemy vessel with your squad. Two teams ranging anywhere from 50 to 300 participants all fighting a space war to decide a victor. The largest scale fights could even span days, and a lot of people became addicted to acting as a space marine.

These two games sold more then anyone dared to dream, proving just how unique Full VR gaming could really be. They also set the trend for how these games would be approached. Either broad, if shallow, experiences in a large environment or the chance for rich world building but in a very narrow and strict environment. No one would even attempt to make up for the failed promises made by the flopped Fields of Fighting experience.

Things stayed this way for over a decade. New games came and fell, but Record of the Ancients and Solar Forge remained on top. 

One day, without any big press releases or industry fanfare, a new game started putting up commercials and advertisement. It promised to revolutionize Full VR and offer an experience greater then any of it’s predecessors. Deeper, more detailed worlds. No restrictions on player freedom. An MMORPG that could support millions of players across the world, all at the same time. 

These claims were so preposterously huge that no one believed it. Especially because they were being made by a brand new games company called Aurum Productions, that no one had even heard of before.  

But the ads kept coming.

And once people started looking into the game, and more specifically, Aurum Productions, they learned that this new game had some shocking secret weapons going for it. The founder of Aurum Productions was a man named Mike Wirth, one of the former lead programers of the Digital Mind Project. He had brought a gift for this new game: a new piece of technology called, Player Perception Tuning (PPT). 

In order to allow the most robust, flexible, and realistic experience possible a machine alone couldn’t cut it. Instead, PPT allows the players own brain, already synced with their pod, to process the game’s data for them on the spot. 

Instead of having to code every aspect of the game to recreate reality, they instead offer the brain a very convincing framework of reality, and allow the individual brain to fill in all the pieces. Instead of realism, the programers were going for impressionism. 

What they got was more realistic then any game ever made before it. 

Since every player was acting as their own processor, it made it much easier to have everyone play at once. Since they only had to design the framework, the game team at Aurum had that much more freedom to create a real, enriched world.

In the summer of the year 2076, the groundbreaking Full VR, fantasy MMORPG, Golden Age, released.

__________________________________

In the void of space, above an endless fog, floats an island of gold and riches. There are artifacts, weapons, and sculptures — all crafted from precious metals and rare gems. Priceless artworks and fine clothing are lazily scattered about. The ground is made up of gold bars and golden coins. They drip from the bottom of the island into the void of the fog, but the island never grows smaller.

At the center of the island, purple strands of energy gather together to construct a humanoid wireframe. 

From nowhere and everywhere at once, the Overvoice of the game speaks.

Hello, would you like to customize your character, or would you like a randomly generated one?

A voice from the wireframe responds.

“I’d like to customize.”

Very well.

From all over the island, wisps of light gather together to form a giant ball of light in front of the wireframe.

First, please select what race you would like your character to be. You can chose from Human, Dwarf, Orc, or Elf. You may also choose a ratio, of two of the previously mentioned.

“Human.”

Very well.

Some of the light gets shaved away, scattering into space. The ball of light has now roughly taken the size and shape of a human.

Please select what sex you would like your character to be.

“Um, I’ll take male for me.”

Very well.

Barely any light is shaved away but the figure of light now resembles a blank human male. 

Please select your body type.

“How about we go with svelte but athletic. Like a martial artist kind of build, maybe?”

Very well.

This time, more light is shaved away and the figure now resembles a fit, athletic human man.

Would you like to move on to face sculpting, body sculpting, or voice sculpting next?

“You know what, just have everything else look like my real body.”

Very well.

Light flew away from the human figure in spirals of light until everything burst out. In the place of the light was a tan skinned, human man. The body was still athletic, decently tall, had long sideburns, stubble on it’s chin, gray eyes, and streaks of gray hair at the temples and the front. It had on a set of cotton pants and a cotton shirt, tied down by a coarse rope, and simple leather shoes. The body stared lifelessly at the wireframe in front of it.

In front of the wireframe, a hologram of a keyboard appeared.

Please spell the name of your character.

The wireframe reached out with a hand and pressed: D, 0, n. And hit enter.

Please pronounce how to say the name of your character.

“You pronounce it like you would for an Italian mob boss. Or like the dawn of a new day.”

Very well. Please step forward into your character to initiate syncing.

The wireframe took clumsy steps towards the human body in front of it. On contact, the purple lines of energy that made up the wireframe fused into the human body.

I could suddenly feel everything. The clothes against my skin. The shifting, hard coins that made up the ground under my feet. The cool breeze that started to blow across my face.

In front of my eyes I could see that the endless sky of space, littered with stars and streaks of purple throughout. Streams of the gold coins that made up the island were flowing off the edges. They were dispersing the fog.

In front of the island was a floating circular flat world. Absolutely huge, it took up my whole vision. There were three distinct continents in the center of the wide ocean. 

The one on the left was made of sweeping mountain ranges and floating islands, that looked like they were made of gemstones. 

The one on the bottom was a giant archipelago, made up of countless, rich islands.

The one on the right had sprawling green fields and verdant forests and crystal blue lakes. 

The edge of the world had a misty, thick fog all around it, but I could see waterfalls flowing into the void of space underneath. The sun was bright and lit up everything beautifully. I could hear rising orchestral music playing from somewhere. From nowhere and everywhere at once, the Overvoice of the game spoke to me.

Welcome, to the world of Golden Age, D0n.

I felt like I could stare at that sight forever.

But I didn’t have that chance. Suddenly the ground began to rumble under my feet. The streams of gold flowing off the side rushed forward, and huge swaths of the island began to break off. 

Eventually, the whole island destabilized, falling to the planet below. I went with it. As I was falling among columns of gold and treasure, I heard the Overvoice again. 

Due to your region of origin, you will be starting in the Plains Continent. Below, you will enter the Tutorial Village. There, we have provided class instructors, resources, and all the knowledge you will need to explore the game. Have fun.

The ground was getting closer and closer. I could no longer see the edge of the world. Below me was an impossibly thick cloud. 

All of the gold around me started to dissolve into particles of light. 

I was in the middle of an uncontrollable free fall. The wind was rushing past me so fast it was whipping at my clothes and shoving my hair away. My eyes were tearing up from the force of it.

I felt a wide smile, that showed all my teeth, spread across my face.

It was time to play the game.