(Warnings will no longer be stated past this point as it can be annoying to Audio Book Listeners, but all previous warnings can apply to an chapter and future chapter!)
Theodore had been woken up early the following morning by his alarm. Quickly having turned it off as to not wake up Irene if she was still asleep and home. He had also quickly logged into his laptop and checked the game site.
Just as the announcement on it before, and how Irene had told him, the helmets were about to go onto pre-order. So he quickly clicked onto them and stared at the screen waiting.
Although he had woken up quite early he knew that some people would still like to try it, and since pre-orders were always cheaper then the real thing, others may buy it out either to resell the helmets or just to try it themselves and give it to family members and friends as a gift.
After a few minutes of waiting they had been put up and Theodore quickly clicked on them and the plus sign until it said two and pressed checkout. Putting in his bank card's number that he had prepared the night before and waited a moment to see if it would go through. To his luck it had, two of the first set helmets would now be his and Irene's alone.
Although they would take around a week or two to arrive it was more then worth it. Theodore knew that with this he would at least not be totally useless and a waste of space as he once was.
Letting out a sigh of relief he got out of bed and got himself dressed. Feeling the best he had in years with the newly gained dopamine rush he had just gained from the success.
Happily heading downstairs, he made his way to the kitchen to go make breakfast for both Irene and himself. This time he had decided to made something he used to made all the time for breakfast. Scrambled eggs.
-Time skipping a week of domestic life later-
Today the helmets were supposed to arrive, their future was suppose to arrive here today.
Irene was out shopping, and as usual Theodore had stayed home. He had been staying home for the entire week, just in case the helmets would arrive early, and to wait for his resignation to be completed. But it had, and now he was only waiting.
As Theodore was making himself a snack, having gotten much better at cooking now that he was actually making himself meals again, he had heard a knock on the door. Having immediately put everything down (after making sure it was safe to do so) he bolted towards the front door.
Outside a delivery man was waiting when he opened the door, quickly signing for the packages he had carefully took them and closed the door with a few words of thanks before taking them upstairs, putting one in Irene's room and the other in his own.
Then going back down the stairs to finish his snack. Eating quickly then rushing back up like a child heading back to their friends after not seeing them for weeks.
Grabbing the helmet and putting it on carefully, not wanting to damage it.
Theodore turned it on and and activated Heaven's Secret.
He was soon given a prompt to create a log in and a password. Thinking for a few seconds he had placed in 'Ghost' and set his password as 'T**_G****_78' simple enough for him to remember. Theodore had then started his character creation process. He didn't make it look like himself but not much different either. More like changing a few of his details so that if he were to get into trouble no one would know who he actually was.
After all, he had his plans. What those plans would include? Probably a few distortions, lying, and deception. He needed to take every chance he could, no one wants to end up as a dead man. Well, unless they actually did, but he didn't want to end up as a dead man just yet.
Finishing up his character creation, he was then told to pick a random card out of ten. He picked at random, after all the cards would be reshuffled twice more even after the first choice from what he had heard.
As he suspected, it did. His card choices had been a run of, seven, nine, and two. These would be turned into his starting talent, skill, and profession. Hopefully not having been unlucky enough that his skill and talent wouldn't match his actual talent.
After waiting for a few seconds they had come up in front of him, and to his surprise they actually had matched with his nickname quite well.
Having been the profession Rogue, the skill Shadows, and the talent Speedster. That actually fit together quite well just by looking at it. Theodore knew the chances of having everything fit so well was not that low, but to also have it match his name? That was luck.
Having hit confirm, not worrying too much about it he had his consciousness transferred into the game's world of Shadowhaven. Picking his spawning place to be Sub Rosa. A relatively small starting village near a capital but still far enough away to barely interact with each other. He had chosen this place purely for it being the most hidden yet being relatively close to a place he may need to go in the future.
Waking up in what looked up a hay mat, with sun shining through the window he immediately thought of the game system and willed it into appearing.
-Starting day one, you woke up in a hay bed, sun shining through the window of your grass and wood hut this early morning, but the sounds of birds were not heard closely by, but instead the sounds of screams and yelling. Day reminders only occur during events-
Almost immediately after this had been stated he could hear the screams, they were real, he knew that much from his limited knowledge, real, but not from players, but rather villagers from this world. Willing the system back to check his character while quickly getting up he had read through the limited information his was given about himself in this world, and quickly rushed outside to see what was happening.
Only to see a large Beast having rampaged into the center of the village. Having already killed a few villagers and was now chasing after a few more while others had already ran far or were hiding.
Theodore also knew this was the usual starting situation, many players would rush out to try and defeat it, but that would end up in player deaths. He didn't want to die so quickly after entering the game, so he had stayed hidden in his rather broken looking hut. Even though it was clear that it could have seen better days.
After hiding for around ten minutes the screams had died down and had been replaced with cheers and congratulations.
This was a story cannon event, in Heaven's Secret you were rewarded for doing what any normal person would have done in that situation if this wasn't a simulation. As if this world were real, but if you died that also had a penalty. Although players didn't know it until the game had become their new reality. But he was never told what that penalty was.
Peeking out of the hut once more he could see a figure covered in leather armor, holding a worn looking longsword and standing over the now dead Beast, practically preening over the attention and praise that was being gained from the single act.
Asher White Greystorm, usually just Asher or Greystorm, but also the future Great Knight of the King. Great Knight Emeritus by the end of the story and by the time the worlds would merge, but Great Knight none the less. Each of the five starting villages would have a similar scene play within each of them but this scene would only play the first time the first player would log into the village. With each day in this world being an hour in the real world.
Another thing that would carry on from each first player would be that after these 'mains' would appear that player would also be considered a relative of that 'main' and receive a special item not long after if they lived. Which most didn't. Although Theodore didn't know this.
As Theodore came out of the hut and went over, he would hear a little ding from the system.
-You survived the Beast attack by hiding like many other villagers, your older brother, having slain the Beast was hailed as a prodigy by the village. Leaving you in his shadow once more. But at least you lived. +1 agility, +10 EXP-
'Damn, that's brutal alright,' was the first thought that came to his head after receiving the notification. But at least he got a free stat point. Those were useful.
Having seen enough he had slipped back to his hut before anyone could see him, deciding to keep up the act of a scared younger brother, while also waiting for Asher to arrive he could go through his stats anyway.
Sitting down in a corner, and making himself look scared. All while going through the system.
-Name : Yet to be Chosen / -N.A- Greystorm
-Nickname : Ghost
-Age (in game) : Ten
-Level : Zero
-EXP : Ten
-Profession : Rogue
-Profession EXP :
-Rank: Zero
-Status : Healthy, (Note: but slightly under the ideal weight for current age of the Player's Character.)
-STAT
-Strength : 3
-Agility : 6 (+2 SS)
Stamina : 4
Talents: Speadster (SS is the shortened version of Speadster)
Skills: Shadows
--
Theodore had supposed he should have given his character a proper name, although having him pick after it was created was a bit... Weird, and those stats were clearly shit. Although he did make his name to be Gabriel.
~DING, update completed!~
-Name : Gabriel (Theodore Ashford) / Greystorm
--
At least he had a name now. But Theodore, currently Gabriel, could hear footsteps approaching the hut. They weren't light, but nor were they heavy, but they were deliberate.
He could then hear the door into the hut opening as he heard a sigh from that direction, followed by muttering that he could barely hear in the quite hut. "They sure do love a show. I should probably check of Gabriel. He shouldn't have heard or seen any of that..."
-Meanwhile: Irene Claire POV
As she got home, putting away the food she had just bought from the nearby store, and paying off the nearly overdue bills with the money Theo had given her, she had gone upstairs finding it quite quiet for once, but then again her Theo could be quiet when he was focused. So she headed up to her room.
Only to find a familiar headset on her desk, clearly just recently been taken out the box. It had already arrived.
She rushed over to it, carefully picking it up, turning it on, and activating the game as soon as she could. Her Theo actually went through with his promise. She didn't believe it, that morning she had logged into her own laptop after figuring out her password for a while only to find them sold out.
But it turned out her Theo actually got them...
Theodore did make a promise to also play the game. Maybe that was why he was so quiet? Before she thought further she had put in the exact name, password, and chosen the same cards she had once before.
Just as she thought, it did give her the same cards she had gotten before. There was a theory that when logging into the game for the first time the game takes your mental state and DNA and creates cards and situations just for you. This only further helped with this suspicion to her. Although, she might have only gotten lucky.
Creating her same character, picking the same location, Sub Rosa. With the Great Knight, this was the best starting spot, giving the best resources, not often chosen, and close to a city. Perfect for her.
But when she woke up in that hay bed she didn't hear any screams or yells. Just... peace.. Had someone already logged in here? Had she been too late? It wouldn't be right? But she could hear the gossip outside, the faint whispers of Asher just defeating a Beast by himself and going to check on his brother soon after...
Irene was barely not there in time. But a brother? Asher did canonically have a brother, found in lore notes in the game before the worlds merged. But he was supposed to be long dead before the events of the game began. This world really was spiraling differently from her previous life's.
Had her being here really done that? Or was something else different? Either way, she knew she wouldn't be able to log out for the first time until the helmets let you out when you reached level five. Even then you need to will yourself into leaving.
Irene wasn't going to leave for quite some time yet... Although Theo might leave straight away when he can. Especially after he dies a few times. Though, she did wonder where he chose to go. Probably a better starting village that had many more resources but was much further away from any other settlement. In other words, she probably wouldn't see him for a while.
Although she would probably see others that looked like him a few times. He did have a popular appearance that would often be used in the game. Except that his looks were real.
She should probably start looking around Sub Rosa, she had never been here before. Even if she was it was probably different as well if all these things had already changed so much.
-Back to Theodore Ashford
Theodore had found himself in a strange and rather uncomfortable position of be cuddled by his new 'brother' for not defeating the Beast sooner and having to have heard all the screaming and yelling so early in the morning.
It really was weird being treated like a child when he hadn't been for years, especially counting the fact that he was a child again in this body.
Damn did he really wish this wasn't his body, but he couldn't just delete the account, after all he may not get those cards again or this background. Everything's he's currently got is amazing, so he didn't want to change it, so he's going to have to get used to it sooner or later..
After around an hour of acting like he was scared, even adding it some fake crying after making himself think of really sad things, he finally pretended to fall asleep. Just to see what his new 'brother' would do next.
To Gabriel's mild surprise, he stayed to watch over him, for around ten minutes before finally leaving the hut.
The moment Asher had left he immediately got up, and wiped off the remains of the few tear stains on his face. Peeking out a window to see how far Asher had gone, then started exploring the hut.
It was as the system said, it wasn't in the best condition, but it was decent, made of woods, hay, and dried grass. There was a couple of woven grass mats, the hay bed, which was alright t sleep on but would have some getting used to. Lastly, the hut wasn't very big, it was just a main room having a moderately well made crude wooden table with two seats and the hay bed, then a side room, where he couldn't find his way into, probably holding some of his brother's things, or food, then finally small garden at the back of the hut. It wasn't big, but it looked like it was growing well. Inside the main room was also a small rock circle filled with ash, probably where all the cooking took place.
He went back to the main room, sitting cross legged on the bed, after all, he did need to learn about the system. Gabriel also needed to figure out how to see what his talent, skill, and profession did for him. They just sounded nice at the moment without actually knowing what they were.
-Talent : Speadster : Speedster allows the player a much higher agility score improvement as agility improves, but Speedster also allows minor stat spread changes temporarily, this feat can only be achieved after level ten, higher levels will allow for higher alterations. Higher Ranks and other Talents may boost higher.
-Skill : Shadows : Shadows allows the user a slightly higher chance at evasion at the current level
-Profession : Rogue : A skillful and fast Player that remains evasive but usually distained person that once found stealing is often thought less of. Can learn minor mana related abilities, but limited to those that are used by the body instead of mind. Must be simple and require close to no mana or energy to produce.
Well, at least they fit together well, even if they were more focused on speed and not getting hit instead of doing much else. It would at least allow him to live for longer.
As he continued looking around the system he had soon found that it was only a status panel and not much else, simply revising what he had already done, or important events of the day, or simply showing him his own information.
Eventually though, he had managed to find a chat channel, there was currently one other person in the local channel but they didn't talk so he went to regional. Still not many, but still quite a few more players then his local area. Then finally looking at the global channel he found where most players were talking about how real the world felt and how painful the deaths they felt were, as if everything were actually real. If only they knew.
Either way, after skimming through the comments he exited the chat, and decided to check his inventory to if there was anything like a newbie pack. Only to find two things, a weapon token and a book.
Clicking on the token, four choices for his first weapon came up, although none of the weapons were named, leaving him to guess what they were with his limited knowledge about weapons and what certain ones did.
Gabriel could see what seemed like a basic rapier, it wasn't a large and long one, but it wasn't exactly as short as a the smallest it could be either since it would be hard to hide and they didn't have the best ability to cut.
Next he could see what seemed to be a pair of daggers, sharp and small, easy to hide but it wouldn't be exactly simple to piece something with thick hide or armor.
Then there were probably double edged short swords, like the dagger, a pair. Practically in his vision being a mix of both the previous weapons. Similar abilities and weaknesses. A stable option but it wasn't the best.
Finally there were seemingly a pair of gauntlets. Very out of place if you thought about the previous choices, but unlike the past three it did give immediate protection, that was important. They would be relatively easy to hide. Although it would be heavy at first. But he could get used to it.
In the end he couldn't figure out which one to pick so he picked the randomization option that he found in the corner of the screen.
~End of Chapter