“The Ancients have distilled from the forces of the world, ten elements. Their descendants, their conquerers, their legacies, have waged change upon the world with this connection to that which lies between life and death.”

The Attendant, after that small speech, lifted his hand once more. “Fire. Water. Air. Floral. Faunal. Stone. Metal. Lightning. Light. Shadow. Choose, Krow, the power which would define your path in the winding weave of the world.”

Ten pedestals rose from the ground, each with a misty representative of said elements.

Eli had to step back quickly to avoid being hit under the chin with the rising stones.

He sent the Attendant a glare.

“I definitely didn’t miss you,” he muttered under his breath.

For non-magic-users and magic-users both, the selection of elements influenced what kind of enchanted weapons and items were best used. Since every player had Spell Slots and Magical Aptitudes it also impacted which Spells and magics were more efficient and effective to use.

Element selection was an important part of personal play-style and character build.

There were element interactions to take into account.

For instance lightning and water had great synergy together that they could create a powerful attack or defense, with great critical strike potential.

Lightning and metal had a little synergy which allowed for metallic lightning weapons, but a battlemage couldn’t channel powerful lightning Spells through a metal weapon without the metal being specially enchanted.

Then lightning and fire had unstable synergy so in using them together they might sputter out or explode in a massive conflagration.

There were people who had used lightning and fire together to terrifying effectiveness, but they wore a ton of accessories and items to stabilize the combination.

Most of Eli’s usable data on the subject of elements was from the bistro discussion.

But even that didn’t touch much on the synergistic potential of an element when choosing a player’s armor, weapons, and Spells.

The most concrete facts that Eli had on the subject of power synergy was vaguely remembered data from the future. In this time, the synergistic interactions between elements and a player’s equipment weren’t fully studied yet.

So Eli had to analyze the battles he saw in Zushkenar using game data if he wanted to determine what synergies would be useful to him.

Still, elemental selection gave a person an affinity for the element; it didn’t mean that the person couldn’t use other elements, only that their personal affinity was their best bet for the most efficient use of magic.

A personal element was easier to learn and control.

Eli’s personal elemental affinity though, he’d already decided long ago.

“I’ll pick the Shadow.”

“Step forward,” the Attendant intoned as the nine other pedestals lowered back into the ground. “and confirm your affinity with the Shadows.”

Eli didn’t bother asking the Attendant anything this time.

There had been a draculkar shadow mage, a native, not a former player, who had made an impression on Eli by using shadows like they were extensions of their body.

Even now, Eli didn’t know the person’s name, their gender, or even why they saved his life. He wasn’t even sure the person was a mage-build, only that they used shadows so efficiently, much more than they used spells or weapons.

They did use throwing knives.

That was why Eli knew that Shadow went very well with a mid-range fighting style making use of projectiles.

He didn’t need assurance that building a Shadow Sharpshooter was possible and effective.

He already knew it was.

Redlands only gave out 5 revival chances to gamers.

After that, the players had to pay the ridiculously extortionate fee for revival which in part included losing levels, gold, then a 24-hour ‘resurrection’ period.

When you consider that one day IRL was two days in-game, no one wanted to die uselessly.

In Zushkenar, there were no revival chances.

His chosen element the last time was Light, because swordbearers generally became knights or clerics – at least, most knights in the popular Redlands videos used swords.

But even in Zushkenar, he’d rarely used his element. It was not generally compatible with Leatherworking, and he only used it once he reached mastery level in the craft and learned some enchanting skills.

Most of his use of Light was related to battle.

This time, he’d checked his elemental interactions more carefully.

Eli was loath to waste the major advantage that was Synergy between choices in his character creation like the last time.

A player’s chosen element affected all the magic rolls. And in Zushkenar, life was so much simpler with magic.

It was just ironic that the element that fit the build he was slowly pulling together in his head was the exact opposite of his last chosen affinity.

As for Enchanting with Shadows, there were several posts on complementary projects.

Alright, they were only theories, but the poster was a craftmaster, so Eli was optimistic.

Eli placed his hand into the purply mist that represented the Shadow element. He felt a tingling that went into his bones.

If he had a chronic illness, he thought idly, he’d probably panic about this.

The mist was absorbed into his avatar body.

“Congratulations.” The Attendant offered as the pedestal lowered itself, now empty. “You have a good affinity with Shadow.”

“Thank you.” Eli looked at the Attendant suspiciously. They had never complimented him before.

But the Attendant had already moved past it. “We will now turn to the selection of soul.”

Eighteen cards appeared.

“Choose the image that most resonates with yourself.”

Eli waited, but like before, there was no explanation given. He cursed under his breath.

Disappointing.

Even Premium account users didn’t get a divine explanation, it seemed.

And the cards were only labeled with mysterious Names.

There was plenty of speculation in the forums, about these cards. The most popular was that it was related to luck, even if there was no luck stat.

He didn’t know why the developers made players choose this way. It would be more interesting to choose if there was even a short description of the god, right?

This was what Gazzy meant when he mourned that there wasn’t a lot of the lore released?

The last time, he’d chosen the second most eye-catching card: Galmentir of Creation, depicted by a moon-pale suit of armor with gold and black accents.

Zushkenari legends, particularly in the areas where there were dwarvir communities, spoke of The Paragon who walked the lands defeating enemies and monsters, who would not stand for injustice, who toppled tyranny and uplifted integrity.

At least his eye for choosing an appropriate god went with his battleclass the last time, Eli supposed.

Now that he’d spent years in Zushkenar, there was no way he was going to choose a Creation god as a personal totem spirit or whatever this divine relationship was going to be after the Quake.

Entertainment was scarce during his time in Zushkenar. The locals liked to tell divine legends, so when huddling around a tiny campfire trying not to attract monsters, he and the rest of the transmigrators caught in the lies of Findrakon always called for story after story from the locals.

What he’d learned was that Destruction and Creation were very far from synonymous to evil and good.

It was more in the realm of order and chaos, life and death, things that no single mortal could influence.

From the stories told, he could see that Creation gods were meddlers, so they were the ones with the most priests and exposure in Zushkenar.

Of course, certain Destruction gods were popular as well.

But as a whole the gods of Destruction were generally more neutral and hands-off than the gods of Creation.

But they were unpopular; Chronakem, for example, almost had no worshippers.

Eli wanted to question: since when were clocktowers so popular in ancient times that a god traditionally had one as a symbol?

Did Redlands have ‘destruction of an ancient advanced civilization’ in its lore storyline? Was that what made the clocktower to be Chronakem’s go-to symbol?

Then again, Chronakem had the domain of Time after all.

There were no known time-magics in Zushkenar, so the Timekeeper was not a god that was worshiped by many.

Eli stared at the card depicting the clocktower.

In fact, the only thing that could be called time-magic was…his situation.

He felt a chill down his back and tried not to glance at the massive watching sculpture on his right.

Why did he realize this only now?

Was it even Chronakem’s doing?

He reached out to touch the card.

Paused.

Something in him didn’t want to choose a god just because it looked like his second chance was his doing. He withdrew his hand.

No.

Chronakem was not for him.

He caught sight of the next Destruction card, with the stylized depiction of a jellyfish with large white shining eyes and a metal helm. Takrul, better known by the people of Zushkenar as the Shadowed God.

No way.

He rejected it immediately.

Eli had already chosen the Shadow element. If he chose Takrul now, he might accidentally do something in the future that would qualify him as a priest.

He was not a religious person, and wanted to pass up any chance of a smiting.

Also, the subclass of priest was limited in utility.

Next card.

Kamathor, the Opener of Doors, was too involved with Luck and Fortune for his liking.

He didn’t like surprises.

Next.

He stopped at the depiction of another tower.

It was basically a black library shelf, reaching to the sky, crevices filled with gray and golden books. There were three burning eyes in a pyramid formation at the top of the tower.

Albangaltor of Destruction, known in Zushkenar by the epithet: Father of Knowledge.

He had no temples, and the worshippers most connected to him were the temples of learning and secrets that were dedicated to his children, the Aedys, the seven spirits of knowledge.

In other words, Albangaltor was the divinely nerdy shut-in of the Zushkenar pantheon.

Perfect.

“This one. Albangaltor.”

“Are you certain?” The Attendant asked impassively. “Choose well, Krow.”

“I’m not sure. But I’ll still choose this one.”

“As you wish.”

Eli reached to touch the card, which glowed for a moment, then dimmed.

The card suddenly dissolved into a summary of his character page, and set itself beside the avatar image card.

Name: Ilas Krow

Race: Draculkar (Male)

Element: Shadow

Battleclass: Sharpshooter

Crafterclass: Enchanter

Subclass: Scout

Butcher

Tinkerer ::|Expand|::

Eli considered his avatar.

The default hairstyle for draculkar was a tail of waist-length hair.

Eli chose to braid it, rather than cut it because from what he knew of the race, it was traditional to have long hair for adults. Short hair was for children.

If he wanted to be taken seriously, then the long hair stayed.

He groaned audibly.

Maybe he could change shorter, then change it again in a year…or he should get used to it before the Quake.

It didn’t matter what hairstyle he used as long as the hair was the appropriate length, right?

He really should’ve just chosen the Vargvir race if this was the amount of thinking he had to do about hair.

In his defense, he only remembered just now.

Apart from Gazzy and Fin, who’d been players, and a few other acquaintances, his friends were mostly of Zushkenar.

One of them was the stuck-up runaway that was Gomularje Ogvaander, of the mighty race of the draculkar. He liked to grumble about the family and clan that couldn’t accept his non-traditional social interactions.

Eli learned some things about the draculkar even when he ignored the daily ranting.

He shook his head.

The avatar was wearing a plain white tunic, brown trousers, and black slip-on footwear.

He reminded himself to buy some good boots as soon as possible.

He knew someone who sold those black slip-ons for sixty silver serpens after the Quake. That was luxury level already, for footwear.

The clothing slots were: head, face, shoulders, chest, arms, hands, waist, legs, feet.

The accessory slots were: 1 brow, 6 ear, 3 neck, 4 wrist, 6 finger, 4 ankle.

For premium accounts, there were added accessory slots for 2 upper arm and 2 toe.

That may seem a lot for accessories but enchanted items improved the adaptability and customizability of a character build.

There were three pages for equipment sets that even the transmigration didn’t touch. Each ‘set’ could be swapped with what the player was wearing at any time. It meant players and former players could change battle-tactics on the fly depending on situation.

Of course, because of the cost and rarity, low-level gamers just used the spare slots for cosmetic purposes.

“You have been accepted.” The Attendant said solemnly.

Again, no explanation.

Sadly, Eli was getting used to this.

“We shall now begin the testing. Please take the testing tool from the bowl.” The Attendant gestured to the original pedestal. Two familiar objects lay in the bowl.

“They’re dice.”

It was a game of chance. What testing tool?

“Nevertheless.” The Attendant gestured again.

Eli walked forward to take the dice, overturning the conical bowl to get them.

The Attendant nodded in approval. “Let your power seep into the tool, and then return them to the bowl.”

The bowl’s bottom was shaped conically, so unfortunately, the dice would hit the bowl walls no matter what. He could probably nudge the roll a little, but not much.

Eli shook the dice in his palm, recalling Zushkenari lessons on how to channel magic using the body.

Then he dropped the dice, careful to let one fall before the other.

They tumbled over and over as they descended. The first hit the wooden bowl and bounced, the second fell directly without interference until both stopped.

Eli glared at the result flatly.

The gods were definitely laughing at him.

Like before, the dice had fallen into a parallel trajectory and had lodged in perfect position for the two to stop while not reaching the bottom, each dice caught against the narrow space by the pressure exerted by the other.

The Attendant nodded over the bowl. “You have been tested with a Magical Aptitude at eleventh-rank.”

An Aptitude of 11 was on the upper end of high for most of the races. But for a draculkar, it was only the peak of above-average.

If Eli remembered correctly, Draculkar had a racial bonus of +3 Aptitude, and choosing the Enchanter class was a +1. So technically, his roll was 7 out of 12.

Still decent, as average Aptitude in most of Redlands was 3-6.

The last time, he got a 5, which was not enough to fully draw out the potential of his primary crafting class, Armorer. That was one of the reasons he concentrated on his subclasses rather than the main one.

“Sounds like fun.” Enchanter needed at least 9 Aptitude to really advance to the grandmastery, so Eli was happy.

“Your time in the Halls of Choosing has been fruitful, Krow.”

“It has,” Eli agreed cheerfully.

“Come then, and choose the weapon you will use to battle for your life. In the lands of Zushkenar, those without conviction, without will, without commitment, lose to those who believe.”

The pedestals rose again. This time, showing a revolver, a blowpipe, and a recurve bow.

Eli chose the revolver.

Eli checked the revolver, turning it around in his hands. It was not as plain as the ones he’d shot at the range. For one, the barrel, chamber, and stock were etched and decorated in ways that would make it impractical in real life.

The Attendant watched as Eli strapped the revolver to his right leg, the ammunition pouches hanging secure from the gunbelt on his hips.

“Our time is at an end, Ilas Krow.”

Eli touched his forehead, the parody of a salute, but was how the Zushkenari bowed. “It was an honor, Attendant.”

“It was.” The Attendant touched his forehead in the same way, more graceful and elegant than Eli ever could. “Remember, the choices you made at this point only influence your time in the game as much as you let them. It is for those who live in the world to adapt to the world or make the world adapt to them.”

And then, between one blink and the next, Eli was alone.

The new player scoffed. “That guy…”

He already knew that.

The race-class-weapon-element choosing was just a guide.

By the time a player hit Lvl 30 or above, they knew how to exploit the dynamic nature of the game mechanics for themselves – you’d see people who started out as pure weapons-users cast massive spells, and initial support-builds suddenly able to briefly tank on the front-lines.

At higher levels, there’d be people taming beasts left and right without a beastmaster class.

The initial build only gave the player a way to start the game.

It remained true that it was easier to level and use the classes and skills chosen at character creation, but how the player progressed in the game depended on the creativity with which they used what they chose.

When he first entered the game, there were players on RedVisor and the forums who sold Specialization Build Patterns, which enumerated choices and quests to create particular avatar builds by Lvl 20-30.

Eli couldn’t remember if there was a Build-Pattern for monster hunter.

He tried to create his avatar with strong basics that would work together no matter the level. What uncertainty he had, he hid behind determination.

This was a game that would determine his next life.

With the disappearance of the Attendant, the giftbox wheel appeared on the pedestal.

It shone gold, rather than the silver glow he remembered.

Because he chose a premium account this time, probably.

Tsk.

Pay more to win more, he thought dryly.

Eli spun the wheel without looking at the categories. They hadn’t changed. Artifact, Book, Spell, Talent, Luck.

The colors on the wheel blurred together.

[You have won one (1) Golden Giftbox from the Artifact category!]

He opened it.

The last time, he’d gotten a mask from a Silver Giftbox. The mask, in fact, that had made him change his original avatar name to StrawmanScare.

Come to think of it, a giftbox from the Spell category would be better.

[You have acquired one (1) Darkfall Hooded Cape!]

Oh?

He let the fabric of the cape fall over his arms.

It was an enchanted cape, with +2 to Dexterity for every level up.

Yes, well, Dexterity was needed because who fought in a cape?

Dracula?

No, he mostly lurked rather than fought outright.

Count Dooku from the old Star Wars films of a century ago? There was a unit on classic films in university, and the cape was nearly the same style.

It was probably the reason Dooku got decapitated; the cape dragged him down.

There was also an Attack Blocking enchant on the item itself

The mask he got before was an ordinary one, no enchantments at all. So much difference between Silver and Golden Giftboxes? Tsk.

Eli equipped the cape. It fell softly down to his calves in the back. It tapered upward to the front, where the hem was at his shins.

Hm, not too heavy at all. It settled on his shoulders comfortably, a decorated metal chainclip holding the front together.

He flipped the soft hood up over his head, then let it fall back again.

At least it covered most of the newbie starter clothing.

He moved his arms experimentally. As expected, it would be difficult in a fight.

He flung one side of the cape over his shoulder to get it out of the way, then twirled his new revolver in one hand and holstered it like a cheesy film cowboy.

Smirking at himself, he confirmed all his selections and closed out of the character creation page.

Ilas Krow was ready to step into Redlands.

The temple of the eighteen gods dissolved around him.