3: Noob-herd

Unlike the games of old, Rellithesh’s world didn’t consist of a small number of ‘nations’ with like two towns total. It wasn’t a massive sprawling world either, like CORA, the other big vrmmo that was popular. That game was truly gargantuan in size, scope, and realism, while Rellithesh veered more towards a classic MMO experience. It still retained the wide world and realism of a virtual reality game, though.

Instead, we had five distinct factions, each with their own shit going on, and all of them fighting in endless skirmishes with one another over land. Sometimes, a province would change hands after a lengthy campaign event, but that was done by the devs rather than any player actions. They had this big overarching narrative going on between the five major factions, which played out over the seasons and expansions of the game. It was pretty interesting if you followed it, but I hadn’t bothered keeping up with the lore for a month or so.

Still, I knew the most about the Thourian Kingdoms, so I figured I should probably pick them as my starting zone. The Kingdoms, as they were called normally, were a collection of human monarchies that had formed an alliance in order to guarantee their independence in the face of the other factions. Supposedly it was the dwarven empire who had driven them to do that, but I wasn’t totally sure.

Anyway, I was starting there because that was the region I knew the best. That way, I could power level myself and eventually get a cute little apartment in one of the big cities. I hadn’t been out of VR in a long time, after all, so having a place to call home was important.

The spawn point for the Kingdoms was an area of rugged highlands, home to an equally grisled group of people. Apparently it was based on early medieval Scotland or something.

With everything prepared, I glanced around the character creation room one last time, then signed my new name at the bottom of the page. Nothing happened for a brief moment, but then a gust of wind with no source rushed into the room. The book slammed closed with a soft thump, and I was lifted up into the air.

My vision went dark, and I temporarily lost all sense of the body I had just created. Then, just as suddenly, I was laying on my back in a field of soft, lush grass. Above me, the sky was heading towards a deep purple, while the scattered clouds shone with a ruddy orange glow. Either dawn or dusk, then. I was hoping for the former.

Pushing myself into a sitting position, I glanced around at the field I had spawned in. I recognised it, but only vaguely. It had been a long time since I created my first character.

The field was overrun with low brambles and weeds, while the grass had grown up and gone to seed. The stone fences were in the process of both falling over and being devoured by moss. There wasn’t a single animal in sight. They had all long since been eaten by the goblins that roamed the hills here. The Kingdom of Porin had been at war with the goblin tribes that inhabited the caves of the region for centuries.

Nobody was around, so I pulled my legs in and crossed them. Time to see what the game had given me in terms of gear. Opening my menu with a thought and a gesture, I scrolled absently up and down while I checked things out.

The sword I had found from my solo dungeon run was there, although it was only level one right now. My breathing caught in my throat when I saw the little tooltip next to the level.

Tobubana Katana

This is an evolving weapon. It will gain levels as you use it, and it possesses its own skill tree.

Rank 1

0 Trait Points

I let out an excited squeal and threw my arms into the air, then leapt to my feet and laughed. Holy shiiiit! I had heard of these, but they were incredibly rare drops. I’d never heard of one that required you to start a whole new class, but the devs were always adding new shit to the game without telling anyone. The whole game was like an explorer’s wet dream.

I had a freaking evolving weapon! How cool was that?! Then, I realised the sound I’d just made. Fuck, but this body was… a lot. The squeal had just been so girly.

I bopped myself lightly on the forehead and shook my head to clear my thoughts. Of course you sounded girly, you dingus. You were playing as a girl! I, Keiko, was a damned girl, so if I squealed happily, it would sound like a girl’s squeal.

Nodding to myself as though that had sorted out all the weirdness surrounding my new gender, I opened my inventory back up again to go through the rest of it. There was some food, two potions of healing, my clothing, underwear, and one hundred copper coins. Enough to last for a few days, but nothing more.

Lucky for me, we were allowed to transfer a small number of items directly from one character to another. From my account vault, I pulled forty silvers, a whole bunch of good travel food, a tent, a flint and steel, a plush bedroll, and a bunch of other small essential items. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but it’d give me a head start.

Which meant that I was ready to play!

Taking a few steps, I tried to get my bearings. Those bearings were nowhere in sight, however, because my hips swayed. I stumbled, and clamped down on all the strange emotions bouncing around in my body. My very feminine body. Oh geez, this was going to take some getting used to.

With trembling hands, I reached up to lay them on my hips. A swarm of fizzing fireflies sparked up my spine at the touch, but I didn’t shy away. Instead, I let my hands drift up to my waist, fingers digging into the softness I found there. It was warm under my hakamashita, and my head spun with the idea that this slim, cute, lovely waist was me. God damn, what a fucking trip.

I hadn’t investigated between my legs yet either, but I knew that underneath the invulnerable underwear, I’d have… well, a vag. I could sort of feel it as I squished my thighs together, or rather, I could feel the lack of a dick down there. It was a very strange experience. A sudden thought pulled me up short. Thank goodness for the code-enforced laws against sexual assault in VR spaces. I already felt strange about my new anatomy, and the thought...

“Oh my god, get a grip, Keiko,” I grumbled to myself, letting my hands fall with a whole boatload of determination. “You’ll be fine. It’s just a vagina. Nothing you haven’t seen before. It’s just yours now.” I could figure myself out once I was in a safe place and had some privacy. The middle of a spawn zone was not the place to have an existential gender crisis.

A spawn zone that periodically had— 

“Are you okay out there, young lass?” A man called, his accent conveniently thick enough to identify, but still understand.

— and there it was. One of many NPCs that were affectionately referred to as the noob shepherds.

The guy approaching me looked to be about five years older than my twenty years. He carried a war axe on his left hip and a shield was slung over his right shoulder. His face was friendly enough, with open blue eyes and a short, well trimmed beard that had me admiring. It looked good on him, even if I wasn’t interested in men. At least, I was pretty sure I wasn’t. Blinking at the thought, I filed that consideration away for later on a little shelf in my mind.

“Hello,” I said, taking a few steps forward through the overgrown grass. It was almost up to my tits, but that wasn’t saying much, since I was like four and a half feet tall.

His eyebrows shot up when I spoke, and he made a coughing, sputtering sound. “Ah, my apologies, I thought, because of your height…”

My laugh was sweet and musical as I shook my head. “No, I am just fae. Short and fae.”

“Apologies again, lady fae,” he said, looking almost reverent. “I have never met a child of the forest before. I didn’t—”

“Dude,” I said, smiling and waving his concerns away. “It’s okay. I’m a wayfarer. Newly arrived.”

Wayfarer was the keyword you had to use with NPCs to let them know you were a player. They could get a bit stupid sometimes if you spoke too meta with them, so the game had ways around it. The lore reason behind the name was that all players were essentially fully formed people placed in the world by the gods, because they were bored. That was literally the reason. The gods were bored and so they kept throwing overpowered wayfarers into the mix to see what happened.

That seemed to steady him somewhat, to give him a frame of reference for the rest of the conversation. “Ah, good, good! I was just out patrolling to find more of you. The gods like to drop you off here. We could use your help against the goblins, if you’re up for it.”

Ah yes, the ever present goblin menace. Unlike other games and whatnot, the goblins in Rellithesh were the nasty, ugly, evil, brutal, and murderous kind. The game’s devs didn’t want to give the new players any moral issues with killing the monsters, so most of them were very stereotypically evil. They also didn’t ask to talk, so that helped. In the lore, if you looked deep enough, you could find some pretty awful accounts of the shit they’d done to the NPCs.

“Sure, why not?” I said, equipping my shiny new sword.

Wait. I hadn’t even seen it yet!

Looking down, I inspected the scabbarded katana that had just appeared on my hip. The first thing I noticed was the pommel, which had a pretty, milky pink stone fixed into bronze. The guard caught my eye next. It was shaped like a single sakura petal, and made of some sort of faded pink coloured metal. It even had the little veins of the petal engraved into it.

The scabbard itself was covered in a black laquer, but with the same pink metal for highlights. That seemed to be the theme of the whole weapon, actually. Black, bronze, and pink. It was extremely pretty, and also extremely feminine.

And… despite years of ingrained masculine conditioning, I kind of loved it. It was perfect for this character, and just generally… wow. So pretty.

“That is a very fancy sword you have there,” the NPC dude said, staring down at it with a considering look. “A wee bit small for me, but perfect for a lady of your petite stature.”

“If you keep calling me short, I’m going to start chopping things off until we’re equal,” I deadpanned, looking him right in his blue eyes.

To my delighted amusement, he choked and began to cough, eyes bulging as he fought to breathe around his surprise.

“I’m joking, of course,” I said after a few moments of enjoying the panic in his expression. “I’m not that kind of fairy.”

“A-ah, yes,” he coughed again. “Yes, very good, ah… bloody hell. It’s too early in the mornin’ for that sort of humour, let me tell you.”

“Too early and too few drinks,” I giggled, my head spinning with the incredibly pretty, feminine sound of my voice.

His cheeks warmed a little as he nodded. “Aye, that’s the way of it.”

“Alright, well, maybe if we kill some goblins, we’ll have worked up a thirst?” I suggested, raising one of my perfect eyebrows.

He nodded, clearly off balance after my little joke. “Yes, yes. Ah, of course. Follow me, my lady.”

So many, “my ladys”. That was going to take some getting used to. That, and the way I could make a man blush by threatening to cut his legs off. This character was going to be one hell of a trip.