Point of Return

As the game started, I was met with a cloudy black background and the title of the game.

[Mythos Online]

Mythos Online is a fantasy VRMMORPG released just three days ago by world-acclaimed game developer Finale Studios. While I purchased the game on the release day, I didn get any time to play just yet since I had major university projects to finish up at the end of the semester.

Following a sequence of lights and checks and a black screen, a vibrant sky of clouds opens up before my eyes. I turned my head to the side and found myself on a soft yet messy pile of leaves upon a small hill. Around me, a large tree and a gravel road stretch toward a small town.

The sensation of touch is still foreign to me but I guess Im still getting used to this. Getting up, I brushed the remaining leaves clinging to me. In the process, I inspect clothes and a prompt appeared to the side with some information.

———

[Rookie Overalls]

[Attributes]

Strength: 3 | Agility: 5 | Intelligence: 1

———

The window disappeared as I stopped focusing on my clothes. It seems that the interface is quite responsive and natural. I step off to the side of the road and underneath the large tree and lean against it. I guess this game really has the visuals down pat. The game looks about the same as the promotional art. The small town that the road led to consisted of no more than 20 buildings. The architecture was the standard medieval fantasy setting that everyone has seen time and time again in past games. Clay-colored shingles rest atop stone bricks and wooden panels. Some of the structures seemed more wealthy than others as they were made with more sturdy materials.

”The situation is the same here as in real life huh, ” I said subconsciously.

Remembering a gesture from the games manual, I put my index finger and thumb together and clench the remaining fingers into a fist, and pivoted my arm downwards.

A large semi-transparent panel quickly opened on the left side of my vision.

———

[Character Page]

[Nickname: [UNSET] | Level: 1 | Specialization: NONE | Profession: NONE]

[Attributes]

LOCKED

———

It seems like Ill have to do something else to unlock my stats and specialization. In the past, I played several MMORPG games with my friends from high school. However, those were the standard PC games and not Advanced Virtual Reality games. If its anything like the other games, Ill have to move to a ”starter town ” first before selecting a specialization and profession.

I began walking down the road towards the town.

As the town was getting closer and closer, I opened the character page panel again and set my username. Im not really the type to use a dark foreboding name or a fake name so I guess Ill just go with my real name.

———

[Shin]

[Are you sure you want your name to be: Shin? Y/N]

[Y]

———

Despite its initial impression, the town was bustling with energy and festivities as players and NPCs moved about. The distinction between the two is pretty obvious as NPCs did not communicate in the same way as players. As I walked towards the center of the town, I passed by several merchant shops with players and NPCs mingling and exchanging currency for goods. In the middle of the town plaza was the largest building. The sign above the entrance was written in what seemed like a strange language quickly and automatically translated to English.

[Levendale Guild Hall]

As I put my hands on the wooden door, I got lightly tapped on the shoulder.

”First-timer in Mythos? Hey welcome newbie. ”

A warm and inviting voice. I turned to my right and found a taller guy just a little taller than me. His crimson red hair was only barely held back by a headband. He dawned a massive greatsword on his back, iron-clad shoulder guards, a leather tunic, and brown pants. A quick glance up led me to his nickname.

[Hale]

”Yeah, its my first time in Mythos. Seems about the same as every other fantasy game so far. ” I answered back.

”Keep a lookout, you might be surprised! Anyway, it seems like you already know where to go if you
e already at the guild hall. Since you seem somewhat experienced, Ill be by the town fountain, if you
e interested in joining my party. ” Hale said as he roughly pat my shoulder.

”Seems like a good way to get started, ” I said looking back to Hale as he waved while walking away. Looking forward to going on an adventure, I turned the knob and opened the door to the Levendale Guild Hall.

The Levendale Guild Hall hit me in the face with its welcoming atmosphere the moment I stepped in. The usual pub and restaurant that all gamers expect from a fantasy setting take up the right half of the guild hall. The seats are full of adventurers and NPCs alike sharing drinks and throwing profanities.

”T-that ogre horn was mine you shi-shithead! ” a belligerently drunk barbarian exclaimed.

”No its mine. ” a bandit-looking NPC calmly replied.

The exchange from the drunk barbarian grew more violent as they argued.

Im surprised to find the NPCs dialogue to be so stiff. I guess this game really isn as revolutionary as the developers say.

I casually wave at the bar-goers that met my gaze. Unsurprisingly, they look unamused and somewhat annoyed at my gesture. Immediately regretting my first impression, I continued along.

I paced down the hall following the long ornate rug to a front desk. At the end of it was a front desk manned by a blonde elven receptionist. Her ears were immediately notable and made her stick out. I glanced up right above her head and found a name tag.

Thinking about it, this was the first time Ive actually communicated with an NPC. Their names were formatted differently to players.

”Welcome to the Levendale Guild Hall! I see this is your first time here! Are you here to check your affinity or join a guild? ”

”Yeah, uhh, Ill check my affinity I guess. ”

”Make your way to my right and youll see an obsidian-opal stone. Just place your hand on that and close your eyes and you should see a vision with your affinity! ” Noel said while pointing at the stone.

Following Noels instructions, I walked over to the stone and placed my hand upon it, and gazed into the stone. Before I closed my eyes and received my affinity, I thought about the Mythos affinity and specialization system.

I was first recommended Mythos Online by Qu. A high school friend of mine. He was way more excited about the game than me. I was going to meet him in-game on the launch day but I was far busier than I expected so I pushed it off til today. Hes probably far ahead of me at this point. He did mention that he was excited to find out what my affinity was. The Finale developers were definitely taking a gamble with Mythos Onlines specialization system.

According to the developers, Mythos Online does not allow players to set their character appearance or allow players to set their specialization. Players are assigned an affinity for a specialization based on a random seed generated from a scan of the players vitals when using the Zero VR device. There were a large number of specializations outside of the most common ones. If I remember correctly, there were six basic specializations and several hidden specializations that are unlocked by allocating stat points and assigning skill points. These six were: Warrior, Bandit, Artificer, Ranger, Fighter, and Savant. One of these was obviously different from the rest. Savant was the only base specialization that didn follow the standard archetype found in other fantasy games.

When Finale was questioned by the press about the Savant specialization, they didn say anything concrete about it.

”We want the world of Mythos Online to be as natural as possible. Just like in real life, each person has their own strengths and abilities. We want to give that kind of uniqueness to each individual player. Savant is something special that we believe will excite everyone. Players will have to find out for themselves what that means when the game releases. ” The words from lead game developer Suzuha Miyamura rang in my head.

Hoping for the best, I close my eyes and after a brief delay, a sigil appeared within the emptiness.

[Savant]

When I opened my eyes again the entire room was looking at me with glaring eyes. Looking above my head I saw what seems to be a world announcement.

[THE FIRST SAVANT HAS BEEN CHOSEN]

”What the hell is this luck!? ” I exclaimed while falling to my knees.

I regained my composure and looked around me once more to find that players and NPCs alike were still staring right at me. Ive never been this lucky. Usually, everything has been going wrong in my life. The only time that Ive had any stroke of luck was winning a raffle during a stream for an entirely different game.

I scurried my way out of the hall past the audience that I just created and made my way to a somewhat secluded corner in the town center. While walking there, I caught passing glimpses of players gossiping about my newfound specialization.

In this moment of comparative peace, I opened up my character page with the usual gesture.

———

[Character Page]

[Nickname: [Shin] | Level: 1 | Specialization: Savant | Profession: NONE]

[Attributes]

Strength: 8 | Agility: 8 | Intelligence: 8

———

It looks like it wasn just my imagination. Seems like my base attributes have gone up since my specialization but as expected, Im still level 1. However, a new panel opened up to the right of the character page with my stat points and skill tree. Like most games, it seems like I can assign points into each stat to increase it. Strangely, there seems to be a lock preventing me from assigning attributes.

[Savant players are unable to assign stat points]

”Interesting design choice ” I mutter under my breath so as to not draw any unwanted attention.

Next, I open the skill tree. As the character panel collapses, the skill tree panel opens to take up the entirety of my vision. There were various nodes that were interconnected with prerequisites and branching options. The sheer number of skills overwhelms me as I do a brief scan through skill names to find my starting three options.

[Perception]

[Basic Proficiency]

[Enhance]

[Perception] seems to increase the awareness of my surroundings and senses. [Basic Proficiency] gives me the ability to wield most tools and weapons at a basic level. These all seem pretty straightforward with the exception of [Enhance].

”Focus your mana to apply a strengthening effect to an object of your choosing within a short radius. ”

Applying a strengthening effect could really be anything. Ill have to try it out later. Since the skill trees should differ for each specialization, I would assume that my skill tree is unique given the rarity of my specialization. The inability to manually assign attributes might be troublesome later though. Even though savants are known to be geniuses and good at everything, this seems like the ”jack of all trades, master of none ” archetype.

My specialization gave me a single skill point so I guess Ill put it in [Basic Proficiency] for the time being. I let out a defeated sigh at the thought of the daunting complexity of the skill tree. Closing the panel and walking back into the main plaza, I began looking for Hale.

+++++++++++++

”Hey there! ” Hale pauses as he greets me as I follow his eyes up toward my name above my head ”Shin, right? ”

”Yeah, hey. I was thinking Ill take you up on your offer to join your party. ”

”Sure sure! ” Hale ardently replied while sending me an invite. The ragtag group of two adventurers behind him seemed to stare me down with interest.

[You received a party invitation from [Hale], do you wish to join this party? Y/N]

[You have joined [Hales] party]

”Great great. Hey man, we
e around level 5 so we could take you over to the goblin area so you could skip the slimes. Sounds pretty great, huh? ” Hale said excitedly.

I nod in agreement and we left the town through the opposite side from where I initially entered. Large gates of stone and metal greet us at the exit of the town. Two NPC guards stood at their posts and signaled for the gate to open. As the gates opened, the feeling of adventure enveloped me.

+++++++++++++

”Haah! ”

”Fireball! ”

Large swarm groups of goblins fell before me before I got a chance to do anything. That being said, I don even have a weapon aside from my bare fists. Before we encountered the goblin village, Hale introduced me to Geoff and Omen, the other two party members.

Geoff was a man of large stature, similar to Hale, he also wielded a massive greatsword. Omen on the other hand was an artificer. He carried a codex of sorts on the side of his belt that he used to conjure magical spells. Upon inspecting my allies weaponry, I could see that the stat requirements of these weapons were at most 5. Weapons in Mythos Online are mostly locked behind certain specializations. The only exception is Savant. The problem with this seems to be the minor detail right beneath the details of the weapon itself.

———

[Rookie Artificers Codex]

[Specialization: Artificer, Savant]

[Attributes]

Agility: 1 | Intelligence: 3

Magic Attack: 10

[Required Attribute

Intelligence: 5

(?) – Attributes of this weapon are reduced by 50% when equipped by a Savant

———

I guess this is the price I pay for being able to use whatever weapon I want.

After toppling over a tent full of goblins, Hale, Geoff, and Omen all level up to 6 while I reached level 3. I quickly assigned the two skill points I gained into [Perception] and [Enhance] so I could experiment with them. [Perception] and [Basic Proficiency] are both passive skills so they are automatically activated as soon as I learned them. However, [Enhance] was something I had to manually use.

While I was digging through the details of my skills, I received a notification from the Zero VR device on the top right corner of my vision. Quickly realizing that my mom was back, I thanked Hale, Geoff, and Omen before logging off and taking the headset off.

+++++++++++++

Shin took the headset off and was immediately greeted by a message notification on his PC. ”I don think Ill be able to make it home tonight. Just eat whatever leftovers we have left in the fridge. Love you. ”

Shin was stunned as he sent a message back.

”What happened? I can take care of myself but let me know what happened. ”

Another message chime sounded off.

”Well, it seems that the government doesn want to risk anyone leaving the office because of Hemoxythra so we were asked to shelter in place. I tried asking them plenty of times but they won tell us anything. ”

Taken back, Shin was unable to come up with any immediate reply. About a minute later, Shin started typing again.

”The damned CJP government always pulls this type of shit. Let me know when you hear anything back ok? Ill have dinner first. ”

Shin made his way out of his room and into the living room. The atmosphere was ominous and empty without his mother or friends there to accompany him. The last time he interacted with any of his school friends in person was before the breakout of the disease. The central couch in the living was where everyone would try and cram into to watch shows has been devoid of anyone aside from Shin for some time now. Anxious about the messages sent by his mother, he turned on the TV and stood beside the couch.

”-hats right, we
e hearing from the World Safety Organization that the has now escalated Hemoxythra to a pandemic, and governments across the globe have begun to take extreme quarantine measures to prevent its spread. Not much is known about the syndromes of the infected but initial reports claim that the infected experience rapid deterioration through fatigue, and potentially death as fast as one week. ”

”Fuck! ” Shin thought to himself as he hit the corner of the couch.

”So much for being lucky today. ” Shin continued as he continued to clench his fist.

Powerless, Shin moved to the kitchen and took out the leftover spaghetti from the fridge, heat it up, and ate alone with the TV on.

”Experts claim, the CJP government, which was already economically struggling, may begin to collapse as political power continues to move towards consolidated mega-corporation Pentrafil. ”

Pentrafil was an organization established in 2024. It was originally a biochemical and pharmaceutical company. Their profits eventually led to massive expansions into other industries with record-high buyouts of companies. Everyone in the world knows the name Pentrafil by now. As their monopoly over all things grows, the economy of every country they do business in grows as well. However, as expected, not all the wealth is fairly distributed. Seven years ago, Pentrafil acquired Finale Game Studios which went on to develop Mythos Online.

”At least all of this wealth went into at least one good thing. ” Shin thought as he ate.