1-3 // Simplicity

  Sebastian feels light-headed. He was now transformed into the avatar he had just created... or would it be more accurate to say that he was now inhabiting its body? He was unsure of the logistics—just thinking about it made his head feel even worse. The worst part is that there was a distinct absence of something, the absence of any sort of strange feeling or discomfort. Sebastian didn't know how to feel about it, the fact that the body felt just like his... as if it had always been his.

  The seer grins, a glint of old teeth just barely visible. "Strange, isn't it...? Being... hhh... haah..." The seer seems to lose their focus, breaking into a fit of coughing... before stopping. "Aah, I always hate doing this, I'm just gonna-" They say as they snap, a small poof of flame transforming them back into their professional suit and pillar of flames for a head. "Sorrrrryyy, usually I'll do the whole seer thing until you're done with character creation but the coughing and wheezing is too much for me right now, ehehe." The seer—or rather the receptionist chuckles.

  "It's fine, I don't mind..." Sebastian responds, putting a hand to their head. He still was struggling with the strange feelings of the scarily immersive feelings of inhabiting a new body.

  "Good to hear! I figure since you seem like a guy who doesn't care too much about immersion and story that I can just be myself for this, ehehe! Wanna carry on with the character creator, or do you need a moment to get used to the body...?" The receptionist says, walking over to Sebastian.

  "No, no... it's fine. I can continue..." He grumbles. He felt exhausted already, and he hadn't even started playing the actual game yet.

  "Gotcha!" The receptionist flames perk up as they give Sebastian a few pats on the back, getting another grumble out of him. "Since you're all done with the appearance, we can move onto some real fun stuff now, hehe!" They chuckle, waving their hand in front of Sebastian to summon another array of menus.

  However, these new menus didn't feature the same options and lists to change the avatar's appearance. Instead, they seemed to list abilities and stats. Aah, this must be class selection.

  Sebastian looks down at the biggest menu in front of him, the simplest one. This one featured a list of every single class featured in the game, as well as displaying the attributes and skills and a small description of said selected class on the right. Looking at the list, Sebastian can't help but feel rather... disappointed. After how detailed and expansive the character creator was, he'd expected the playable classes to be a rather large list as well but... it seemed to only feature around twelve or so classes. They weren't anything special either—it was all simplistic things like fighters, wizards, clerics and the such.

  "Aah... there's a lot less than I figured there'd be." He states to the receptionist, turning to look at them.

  "Oh?" The receptionist peeks over at the list, looking confused. "Ooh... OOH! I see what you mean!" They giggle. "OOH has a very, er... 'unique' class system in place, ehehe."

  "OOH?" Sebastian cocks his brow in confusion.

  "Origin of Hero! Bit of a mouthful to say during conversation, so most players abbreviate it to OOH! I do it too... makes me sound cool and in-the-know, ya know?"

  "Uh-huh." He nods in response. "OOH, got it. Tell me about the class system you mentioned."

  "Mhmhmhm! So, let's say you're a rogue, easiest one to make an example for. When you start out, you'll be doing the typical things like stealing, sneaking, backstabbing! The usual roguish things." The receptionist waves their hand, summoning a dagger from thin air. They poke it through the air, as if to demonstrate their words. "But, as you play the game more... your playstyle and character will begin to shine through! You'll pick abilities and skills that you enjoy, tailor your character to a specific type of build you enjoy playing... and that's when the fun starts!"

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  The receptionist walks out from behind Sebastian... twice. One on each side of him walking around to stand in front of him. Both of them hold a dagger in opposite hands, twirling them around.

  "Think of me as a more assassin-y rogue." The left one says, flipping their dagger around to hold it in reverse. "And think of me as the kind of rogue to stick their fingers in everybody's pockets!" The right one giggles, twirling their dagger on a singular finger skillfully. "The game takes note of this and will begin to modify skills, redesign abilities, or even create entirely new ones that slot perfectly into your character's identity, In both a gameplay and roleplay sense!" The left receptionist explains.

  "Don't get too disappointed if you don't notice it immediately, though!" The right one speaks up, throwing their dagger into the air. "It could be as small as a few number changes on an ability's damage or buffs, something more noticeable like the aesthetics of a skill beginning to slowly fit your character's appearance... and of course, the more obvious things like having entirely unique abilities all for yourself!" The right one sticks their hip out, the dagger thrown up into the air landing snugly onto their belt. "Basically, try to treat your class selection here as an archetype to what you'll eventually become! Of course, you still have a bunch of freedom with the class selection itself too, ehehe."

  "Uh-huh." Sebastian nods.

  "...don't got any questions?" The receptionist seems a bit perturbed by Sebastian's neutral response to the explanation. Usually new players get either excited or confused by all these freedom... it's a technical marvel that the game can do this!

  "Not really." He shrugs, then taps the button to select fighter. "I can't imagine the game giving me anything unique. Maybe something like being able to fast travel from anywhere... that'd be nice." He says, eyeing the options to customize his fighter classification now presented to him in another menu. He had a few choices for subclasses on top of being a fighter, although it seemed like a few of them wouldn't do anything until he reached certain level requirements.

  A particular subclass catches his eye. One with the title arcane fighter. Sebastian taps the subclass and looks over the changes it makes to his normal fighter class. There isn't many changes—the subclass seems to give him the ability to manipulate equipped weapons with magic as well as use magic in general. Sebastian eyes the list of magic schools that are provided to him now that he's selected arcane fighter. The list—like almost every other list he's seen today is expansive. He has no time to get overwhelmed though, as he immediately finds a school of magic that catches his interest. Divination magic.

  "This is fortune telling magic?" Sebastian asks, pointing to divination on his menu. The receptionist walks over to peek at the menu.

  "Yesyes, it is! It's a lot more than that too but the divining school does cover things like fortune telling if you're looking for that."

  Sebastian nods, then selects divination. He moves all the selection menus aside so he can access the main class selection menu again, then hits confirm to lock in his selections. All of the menus flick out of existence.

  Another menu appears before Sebastian. This time, it is a singular menu box, with only one line of text and two buttons on it.

  Sebastian stares at the options for a moment, hesitating. He closes his eyes and lets out a low, drawn out sigh as his finger presses against the confirmation option. The menu lets out a soft happy chime as it slowly disappears. White light begins to gather around Sebastian, orbs of light appearing and coalescing around his form. The receptionist gives him a little wave.

  "Have fun now!" They say, just as the light forms around him in a massive pillar... blinding him once again. Sebastian squeezes his eyes shut as he feels himself whisked away to the game's world...!