A World Called Memory Page 2

  I went back to the game interface.

  Login

  Login successful

  Create New Character

  Select: / Race / Class / Divine / Statistics /

  I selected Race: Wood Elf

  Select Sex: Male

  Select Tree:

  What the—?

  I looked at the options—oak, pine, redwood, etc.—and finally picked sequoia, mostly just because I liked the name, but also because it seemed a good idea to pick something that was large and lived a long time. It seemed a wood elf, male or female, was born from a tree… and was also called a dryad. I thought about that for a moment, a bit worried about appearing too effeminate, but then decided what the hell. If I survived my early days in Memory, living for a thousand years would be beyond awesome.

  Wood elves were typically bigger and more durable than their high elf cousins, more friendly too, and generally had good reputations with the other races. From what I read, they were not nearly as arrogant as high elves, and would willingly get their hands dirty—literally and figuratively. I really liked that. The social disposition was a nice bonus, I thought, as elves and humans didn’t always get along. I also guessed from now on I didn’t like fire.

  Wood Elf Passive Abilities Gained: Bonus Charisma, Bonus Movement Speed, Night Vision, Improved Dispositions, Reduced Fire Resistance, Reduced Bind Point Options

  / Active Ability /

  / Heart of Oak (Heal-over-time level 1) /

  / Automatically acquired /

  / Protect Your Tree /

  The last icon flashed onscreen for a moment. Hmm, interesting. I blinked on that and read the following:

  A wood elf is intimately connected to his or her tree—mother, father, and birthplace all rolled into one. The tree is always considered “home;” thus a wood elf, unlike other races, may not have another changeable bind point. Although perma-death is a real possibility, resurrection when it occurs will almost always result in returning to your tree, or occasionally another dryad’s tree, if friendships are made. As a counterbalance to this drawback, dryads are one of the more well-liked races, and gain bonus dispositions to most social interactions.

  I guessed wood elves would be considered peaceful (I didn’t think I was, really, at least not in the pacifist sense) and might not be taken seriously in some things. I realised this was another possible drawback, but shrugged and continued.

  Class: Hybrid

  Primary: Warrior

  Secondary: Priest

  Deity: Pick one from list

  Damn, another huge list.

  The first two I saw were the elder gods—Cha, the Sun God, and Una, the Goddess of the Moon. There were a whole bunch more (thirty-nine total, to be precise), but I skipped most of them. The gods seemed to play a direct role in this world, so this meant my choices here would be important. A bad choice now would haunt me later. Although it would be great to get divine help from the start, I saw that there was also an option to pick one later, so I skipped making a choice. I blinked yes on that option, a little relieved.

  I would be an “unaligned” priest, and would draw my spells from the untapped mana available in all places. Despite having no deity, I would begin with all the standard abilities, and depending on my choices and ability to pass certain quests, I could give my service to a god later.

  Back to looking at my class bonuses: As a warrior I would receive a significant health bonus, and with two heal-over-time, I would regenerate really well. This should compensate for the lack of health potions available. I didn’t think I was going to bother too much with other hard-to-get divine spells. I also lost bonuses to stamina for being a hybrid, and hoped any warrior abilities I used weren’t going to cause me too much fatigue. It appeared stamina could be compensated by training in the athletics skill anyway, so there was a workaround.

  I wanted to be an agility-based warrior so I could dodge and move around, rather than being the classic armoured tank. But the lack of damage mitigation for an agility type of fighter was significant. This meant I’d need to find an item or ability that added to deflection.

  There were three kinds of defence against physical damage: Damage Resistance (DR), Dodge (Do), and Deflection (Df). Damage resistance and dodge weren’t really compatible—you either had Heavy Armour and you mitigated, or you had Light Armour and you dodged. But deflection could be added to either of those. Deflection just seemed a lot harder to acquire or increase adequately.

  There were four main deflection weapons: rapier, sai, quarterstaff, and shield. Other weapons, like the longsword and the katana, could also give a deflection bonus, but they weren’t quite as good, as they had little way to progress beyond the basic minimum. Although I didn’t think of a shield as a weapon, it was classed in that option, so I guessed it could be used as a damage dealing item.

  Eventually, I settled on the quarterstaff. It was usually considered a mage weapon, and in those cases, the magic variants usually added to spell-casting abilities rather than melee-combat abilities. Initially, I was perturbed by the rather uninspiring description and pictures, but then perked up when I considered my race. Couldn’t get better than a wood elf with a wooden weapon, right? The quarterstaff also had good deflection and could be wielded as agility or strength-based. For a moment I visualised myself as a kind of classic kung-fu staff-wielding maniac, and thought that will do.

  I could gain either extra accuracy, extra damage or extra deflection when I specialised in the weapon, all of which would add to my combat ability. Not as good DPS as a Scottish claymore, perhaps, but definitely more versatile.

  / Core Class Attribute /

  Warrior Class:

  / Strength / Agility / Choose one

  OR

  Priest Class:

  / Intellect / Charisma / Choose one

  As I wanted my main focus to be warrior, I blinked on Agility.

  / Ability Increase /

  / Gain two active and two passive ability points every 5 levels, starting with level 1 /

  / Bonus Racial Active Ability (free) /

  Heart of Oak .5% Health Renewal per round, 4 minutes, 3/day, 10 minute cooldown

  My innate wood elf ability—Heart of Oak—would give me a gradual amount of healing based on my total health. I’d have to see how good that was in reality. It also seemed it would increase per level of the ability and increase based on my total health. That seemed clear.

  / Warrior Active Ability /

  / Priest Active Ability /

  / 2 points /

  I blinked on Priest. Extra healing ability was definitely going to be important.

  Pick One Divine Spell from Tier I list:

  Priest Tier I Active Abilities (Level 1)

  Breath of Life 10 Health /r for 60 sec

  Restore Health Cures 10% Health

  Remove Debuff Removes 1 Debuff

  Cure Poison 20% Chance of Success

  Holy Smite +5% (More) Damage

  Light 1/5/10m radius

  I noted that one round was but three seconds and thus twenty rounds per minute. From experience, I knew that three seconds could be both too fast and too slow. In combat, a kind of time dilation occurred—a lot could happen or pass you by in a very short time. On average, a normal person could attack once per round with a spell or weapon or special ability. But with enhanced abilities, agility, and high level, you could sustain multiple attacks—from four to eight per round—in short bursts, making any elite being a potential killing machine.

  I hovered over Restore Health a moment, debating my choice, then blinked on Breath of Life. Accept. I was uncertain because of how powerful Restore Health could become later on—healing you from almost any trauma: +40% health restored (plus bonuses) in one go at the highest level. Both of these spells could be cast on others, unlike my racial special ability; Heart of Oak would only work on me.

  Although Restore Health was powerful when it took effect, it also had a three or four second cast time—at the highest lev
el—which would be horribly easy to interrupt. But 40% health restored! It was really hard to pass that up. As I wanted to solo as much as possible, the long cast time was bad news—with no one to tank for me, I’d be a sitting duck. So, Breath of Life it was. Having two regeneration spells was going to be great, but it also probably meant I’d have to fight defensively, buying time to get the most effect from the gradual healing.

  / Holy Smite /

  Priest active ability automatically allocated

  2nd choice filled

  I had my first three active abilities allocated: Heart of Oak, Breath of Life, and Holy Smite. It was a bummer I didn’t have a choice on Holy Smite, as most priests had to take it. Not sure if I really wanted that one, but such is life.

  I flicked through all the Level 1 Passive Ability choices I had available for warrior and priest and made some quick and easy decisions:

  Quarter Staff Specialisation

  +10 skill points, +5% Deflection

  Leather Armour Specialisation

  +10 skill points, +10% Dodge

  Form Group / (Warrior)

  / Automatically acquired /

  Divine Power / (Priest)

  / Automatically acquired /

  Form Group was a unique free passive for warriors to link with other adventurers and NPCs to create a group, usually for a specific quest or purpose. Joining a group brought certain benefits, like sharing some cross-class passive abilities and skills. And warriors were the only ones who got it at the start—the other classes couldn’t initiate a group until higher level.

  Divine Power was a unique free priest class passive ability that was derived from the skill Divine Favour. It gave you heightened social and political influence, if the cause was just, and some extra bonuses against undead. I would have to look that up later.

  / Does User wish to embrace new racial Memory (1), or keep original racial Memory (2)? / Choose 1 or 2

  When I looked that up, I discovered that the system would either distribute my statistics (strength and intellect and so on) based on my current natural physique and personality, or grant me the starting stats of a native. The stat bonuses from my choice of class and race would be added to either of those. I thought about that and guessed that despite all my flaws, I’d rather be me than someone else. I blinked on option 2.

  All beings that begin with a fresh Memory start with an average of 15 in each statistic. Maximum statistics can reach 100 or more.

  STR 16

  INT 17

  AGI 15

  VIT 19

  CHA 12

  LCK 12

  It seemed I had slightly more strength and intellect than average, significantly better vitality than average, average agility, and below average charisma and luck.

  / Hidden Advanced Racial Perk /

  / Inveterate Vitality /

  [Based on a genetic abnormality, increasing your Vitality will also increase your Strength. The higher you raise your constitution through exercise and hard work, the greater your muscular power will also improve: Strength increased at 25% of base Vitality (4 Vitality = 1 Strength)]

  After reading that, I gave a hearty chuckle. Thanks Mum, thanks Dad. And maybe even thanks David Carradine. My hidden strength was revealed, there in black and white.

  Statistics

  +5 to Agility (Warrior)

  +5 to Intellect (Priest)

  +5 to Charisma (Wood Elf)

  STR 19

  INT 22

  AGI 20

  VIT 19

  CHA 17

  LCK 12

  Health: 533 (+40% Warrior)

  Mana: 506 (+10% Priest, +5% Elf)

  Stamina: 340 (no bonus)

  It seemed picking a wood elf as my race was fortunate. Bonus charisma offset my normal social deficiency, and now I had bonuses to all stats except luck. I wasn’t sure if I could improve on that one, but truly hoped so, as it didn’t pay to be unlucky. As it was, most of my stats were all a little higher than average (normal baseline being 15), which was awesome. I also didn’t know how health, mana, and stamina were calculated. I would have to check on those later.

  Avatar’s Appearance and Physique

  / Customise: Y / N /

  I blinked yes. A detailed digital dummy appeared in front of me. The system seemed to be using my human features as a baseline, and so I could only vary my appearance so far, within certain parameters. I stayed with the nut-brown wood elf skin, had to stay with the shape of my face and dark brown eyes, but was able to add some long white-grey hair for style. If I didn’t like that later, I could always cut it short. I had pointy elf ears, which might take some getting used to, but I was glad to have my usual craggy, weather-beaten look. Better to look mature rather than ever-young, plus I’d rather be taken seriously than not.

  My face was still there somehow—I still looked like me, just a little disguised now. At 178 cm, I wasn’t as tall as I was used to. I was also trim and athletic-looking without being overly muscular. It looked like I was about a middleweight, just over 80kg—a little under what I used to be, but doable. I should be able to bulk up if I got stronger over time. I wondered if my race was vegetarian. I hoped not.

  First Name: Cordaen

  Family or Clan Name: (of Sequoia) Hidden

  That was odd; it seemed to pick the name for me. I liked it, as close to my real name as it was, so I stayed with that. I wasn’t sure what the surname meant, being hidden and all, but decided to forget that for now. Information overload, anyway.

  Once again, I took a few deep breaths. This was it—goodbye to this world, and this body. It would be an absolute bummer if I died on transference—not that I’d ever heard of that happening. But who knew? There was always a first time. I felt a little bad for whoever was going to find my corpse here on my old couch, but not that much.

  Suddenly, I got a blinking notification:

  Caveat emptor! Once a race and class are chosen, they cannot be undone. Many skills and abilities can be changed throughout your progress in Memory, but once your basic avatar is established, there is no going back. Please read the following carefully:

  Perma-death and respawn:

  1. Protect and hide your current home bind point(s). As perma-death is a real possibility, and your Divine Resurrection (respawn) chance decreases after every death, tell no one of these locations, much like a vital password.

  2. Alternative bind points are sometimes available on death; consult with the list if the latter occurs.

  I knew these points vaguely already, but there it was, spelled out. I’d have to be very careful about protecting my Tree. I also knew it was a major reason there were so few Earth players in Memory—the fear of death and not being able to return home to Earth put most people off. I took a deep breath. This was it. I’m travelling to a galaxy far, far away…

  Make changes? No.

  Start? I blinked yes.

  Search…

  Checking racial viability… Accepted.

  Checking location… Found.

  Porting…

  Memory found…

  Chapter 1

  The interface went dull; everything went black. Gradually, a whirling set of stars floated up out of the darkness, and I felt motion. I seemed to be flying, twisting and looping through the wormhole, transiting from one galaxy to another. With a kind of jolt I could feel the presence of other beings—shadow figures, moving in and out of view, barely discernible—like subliminal messages as my mind jumped from one to the other, unable to catch a hold of any of them as they flew past. Gods, monsters, people morphing into each other, trying to catch my attention. Presence. Alien. Whispers, calling to me, trying to get me to change my course. It was disturbing, and not a little malevolent.

  Suddenly, instead of darkness all around me, I felt the new world approaching, zooming in with a background drum-roll.

  With a sickening lurch, I found myself sitting under a large tree. My stomach was heaving from the combined motion and presence of malevolence. It
was like they were looking through me right now. I took a few deep breaths and gradually looked up.

  The tree seemed comforting, familiar. An oak, solid and real. I could see blue sky and clouds between the leaves. The sound of rustling leaves, the wind on my skin… it was amazing. I could smell the damp earth; it must have rained recently. A small stream was nearby, burbling as it flowed over rocks and branches. The sense of peace and normality helped me to shake off the disturbing transition.

  I looked down at my hands. The skin was brown and a bit bark-like, but still skin. The fingernails were more brown than white, looking even more like hardened bark, but not unattractive. I rubbed my hands. My palms felt normal, though a bit rougher and more calloused than I was used to. I stood up and checked my clothing.

  I was wearing a rough woollen shirt and a leather breastplate over that, with thick buttons and ties down the front, woollen pants, no shoes, and a hooded elven cloak. I could see no statistics for any of that. I also had a small leather backpack. When I opened it I found a spare pair of underpants and a shirt, as well as a small wooden flask of water with a cork top. I also noticed I was physically pulling the gear out, not just clicking on an inventory. If that was standard, it was going to take longer to change clothes than a typical RPG game.