Valerie gasped loudly as her eyes snapped open, before she had to quickly squint them shut as the piercing light of her surroundings immediately made them sting. She raised her hand, trying to use it to shield her face from the light, but quickly became enthralled by the sight of said hand.
Her hand was on fire, and not just any normal fire, as if that wasn't strange enough. It was an enchanting azure flame that consumed her entire hand and all the way up her arm. She checked over the rest of her body, finding the azure flames engulfed every inch of her just the same.
Yet there was no hint of pain from being immolated, nor was there any heat that she could feel from the fire. Usually that would mean that her nerve endings had been burned to cinders, at least it would if this was real fire.
Of course, it wasn't. It was fake, and she was in a game. It took her a few seconds to re-orientate herself, but she quickly remembered that fact. She had been so enthralled by her own appearance that she didn't notice when the light had dimmed down, nor when the wizard had appeared.
Wizard?!
Jerking her head up, Valerie looked at the wizard now standing before her with a mixture of shock and confusion.
He had the appearance one would expect of a classic fantasy wizard. Long flowing robes with droopy, tear drop sleeves. The interior lining of which was seriously trippy, constantly shifting and glittering as if an entire night's sky had been captured and woven into the linings of his robe.
An older gentleman, human from what she could tell, with some wrinkles on his irritated looking face. Hair, naturally, was white as snow, but his beard wasn't very impressive.
Normally she was used to wizards having floor length beards, but this man's beard was barely a few inches and could be called patchy at best. Alas, his struggles with hair growth weren't just limited to his beard, as the bald spot on the top of his head was reflecting the light of the strange space she occupied. He had some snowy follicles on the side and back, but not a single hair in sight on the top. You could probably fry an egg on-
"Are you quite finished?"
Valerie recoiled in surprise once more, her strange fiery body drifting backwards through the air like she was floating in water. Could he… read her thoughts?
"Yes, I can. Now have you finished insulting my appearance, so that we may decide yours?"
'You're right, I'm sorry. Please, can we get to the character creation.'
Valerie tried to speak, but her current state seemed unable to, but she was perfectly capable of thinking and simply projected her thoughts to the very youthful looking wizard with a vibrant, full head of luscious locks.
"Bah, enough. No need to patronize me. Take this and draw some blood."
The wizard grumbled, although a slight smirk tugged at his lips. With a flourish of his hand, a dagger appeared in his grasp out of thin air, which he promptly flipped and held out towards Valerie.
Tentatively, she took the dagger in her grasp, feeling the heft and weight of the weapon. Raising her fiery, azure hand she pressed the tip of the blade against her finger and pushed, only to quickly flinch and drop the knife as a sudden wave of pain coursed through her finger and up her forearm, like an electric shock.
The dagger caught itself in the air before it could clatter to the ground, and floated back to the wizard who grasped it by the hilt. Using it like a wand, he waved it in the air as a droplet of crimson blood formed at the end of Valerie's flaming finger and lifted into the air.
The droplet undulated and wobbled as it floated over to the wizard. He flicked his dagger, letting the globule of blood finally fall to the pure white floor, which rippled like the surface of the lake as the droplet was absorbed.
A magic circle of pure crimson formed where the droplet had fell, glowing with mystical power as, at the very centre of the inscription, twin pillars of blood began to rise.
They rose, like reverse waterfalls, and eventually met to form a singular, thicker pillar of blood which grew still. The singular pillar grew two more, like branches of a tree, which fell by the side of the main pillar, and a sphere formed on top of the pillar.
The blood began to retract, compressing inwards and beginning to condense itself into a figure.
Fingers grew at the end of the arms, toes at the end of the feet. The beginning of features formed on the face as it compressed further. A slim waist and formation of breasts made it clear it was a female figure, as hair erupted from the figure's head and cascaded down their back, stopping just above their perky behind.
The last change was the addition of colour being added to its skin, shifting from a bloody scarlet to the tone of a pale, Caucasian human until Finally, it finished its transformation, leaving Valerie facing a completely identical clone of herself. An identical, and completely naked version of herself. However it lacked specific 'reproductive details' and was instead completely smooth, like a doll.
Valerie wasn't entirely sure if this was something she should feel good about or not.
Regardless of her clothing situation, the wizard barely glanced at her body, as he banished the dagger from existence with another wave of his hand.
"You may begin."
And with that, he disappeared from sight. At the same time, a screen appeared in Valerie's vision.
[Please select your race…]
A list of options appeared below the request, blasting her with a multitude of names, some of which were familiar while others were not.
There were the standard options, Humans, Elf, Dwarf. There was also a beast man type race, which was referred to as Wild Blood, and a demonic style race called Hellion, among others such as Child of Light, Fell-Spawn, Sub-Terranean, Depth Dweller and World Kin.
She fiddled with the options, thoroughly inspecting them all as she did with every character creator in existence turning it into a long process, but she was confused by some aspects. Next to each race there was a percentage, as well as next to the sub race. But some subraces also had a secondary number next to them, other than the percentage. When she wondered what this was for, she didn't expect to receive an answer.
[Compatibility and Blood Purity: Each player has natural compatibility with different races. To select subraces, Players must roll for Blood Purity of their selected race. You may change selection after the roll, but may not roll again for the same race. The compatibility with the race determines your highest purity possible, and more.
Sub race selection is based on the Blood Purity Percentage. Some Sub-races are limited, and thus only a certain amount may exist.]
'Purity… So it's random sub-races, huh? That's an odd system, and doesn't seem too fair, especially since it seems to be first come first serve. It really benefits the lucky and the beginning players. Oh right! These games usually have real-currency purchases, right? They'll probably have some kind of system to buy upgrades for it when the full game releases. Sneaky sneaky.
I've heard of older games in which people bought accounts for boatloads based on stuff like this. I bet if someone got a rare, limited subrace they could change their whole life by selling it!'
Glancing over the race options again, with this new information in mind, Valerie narrowed down her possible choices, which ultimately came down to her compatibility. Human seemed to be the basic choice, with it's compatibility understandably sitting at 100%. But she left that as a final fall back option, like it was probably designed to be.
Her highest compatibilities were World Kin, at 95%, and Fell Spawn, at 93%, with the third place spot being taken by Wild Blood at a measly 61%.
World kin seemed the natural choice, to go with first, so she selected it and started her roll.
[Calculating Blood Purity, Please stand by…
Blood Purity Detected!
Blood Purity - 30%]
Valerie's heart sank when she saw the purity level. 30% was terrible! The sub-race she was eyeing needed at least 70%, and the super rare classes needed a staggering 90%! She was close to perfect with this one, so she thought for sure that it would be a sure thing, but 30%?!
She could absolutely see people pouring money into this slot machine to get the rare Sub-classes, once the devs inevitably added such a feature. Those fiends!
Letting out a long calming breath, Valerie considered her options. She could go with the race for compatibility anyways, the system did hint that it was some more to the stat. But… She might as well keep spinning the slot to see if anything good came out.
There were still two options, even if one was terrible. It was still better than her damned 30%!
Calming herself again, Valerie raised her flaming, azure hand and tapped the option for Fell Spawn and immediately crossed her fingers.
[Calculating Blood Purity, Please stand by…]