Chapter 2

A simple stat screen was sprawled across the screen, only stylized by the gothic font and thin borders encircling each section of the screen.

The race section was currently occupying Kody's attention, seven options dancing in his mind, all warring for dominance.

Human, elf, dwarf, orc, beast kin, draconic or demon born.

Unlike with world selection however, this actually gave something to work with other than the name.

After a minute, Kody decided to keep it simple. This was his first character and playthrough, no need to get weird off the bat.

'Human, the first race moulded by the gods of Alvalos. A mould through which all others would be made.

Perks:

Filled with potential: +5 potential

Will of the may: +5 to willpower

Endurance hunters: +3 to endurance

Versatile peoples: +10% xp gain in manual skill trees

Demerits:

Magically deaf: -5 to magical aptitude. Magical aptitude may not pass 15

Superiority complex: More likely to develop negative traits centred around feelings of superiority.'

With the race locked, he moved onto the stats, twenty to split between ten stats with a maximum of twenty in each. Pretty easy to get, but ten was not the worlds average in every stat, twelve was.

So on an unaltered character, he would have just enough to get a perfectly average character.

Kody went over the stats again: Strength, endurance, dexterity, intellect, charisma, perception, willpower, magic affinity, luck, potential.

Without much though, Kody immediately burned fifteen stats to max out luck and potential. While it may be a stupid move, it was the first run through, no harm in making a slightly wonky character.

Besides, Kody was a sucker for late game builds, and in most other games, stats like those would be core to the build.

With the last five, he split into strength and charisma. Three and two respectively. Finishing off the sparce stat sheet.

The sheet faded slowly as three stone plaques replaced it, a small continue button underneath.

Wondering if this was one of those lore things you needed to beat the game multiple times to unlock, Kody began clicking furiously on the first plaque.

To his joy, the stone began to crack, spider web cracks sprawling across the plaque abstracted by the pixel graphics. After a few second, the stone fell away, revealing text bellow.

'Luscious locks: Hair is this characters best feature. +1 bonus to charisma while hair is long'

Kody couldn't help but let out a chuckle, the game had been so serious and dramatic, but he got a character perk like that? Maybe this wouldn't be the grim-dark edge fest Kody had assumed.

With excitement, Kody moved onto the next plaque.

'Never good enough: Nothing this character does will ever be enough. This character develops the personality trait 'Inferiority complex'. Race trait 'Superiority complex' is removed'

Now the continue button made a little more sense, since these perks could be negative, so dipping out early may be a good idea. Not that Kody cared, he would let it ride every time.

Without a moments more hesitation, he opened the next plaque.

'Concept magic affinity: The esoteric magic resonates with this character, manipulating the rules that bind the worlds. +3 magic affinity while using concept affinity magic. Character gains +10% xp for concept affinity magic skill trees'

Kody rose from his chair, pumping both fists into the air silently.

The next screen was a simple character creator, no portrait or indication of the full picture, only vague indicators of the characters appearance in the form of text.

While it didn't say on the box, because of course it didn't, Kody would put his money on the game being a text based rpg.

After locking in the character, Kody was getting a little impatient to start the game, a slight excitement building in his chest.

The screen was taken up not by pitch black this time, but a starry nights sky. A large, stylized twenty floated in the middle of the screen.

The number twisted and distorted, as though pulled through a vortex, it's form blurring into an indistinguishable spiral. It took ten seconds of warping, with intense, ethereal music blasting from the monitor constantly before it snapped back into place.

A ten in the same font took it's place, though with a pixelated sparkles radiating off, and a the symbol of a knotted rope next to it.

Plus zero flashed quickly besides the number, before the screen began panning down, showing a somewhat familiar land scape. Text began scrawling along the bottom of the screen, not gothic in font, but illuminated script.

The first letter, A, had a rabbit and a frog in knight armour duking it out in the middle of it.

'Alvalos, the birthplace of the first hero you call. A land of codes and honour, nobility and duty, sword and sorcery. Tell me, how does this story start?'

Five boxes appeared, each filled with the exaggerated, illuminated script that made up the intro text.

'Royalty'

'Nobility'

'Commoner'

'Orphan'

'Street rat'

Each box had a descending scale of opulence, the lettering for the royalty box was purple and gold with knights and trumpet blowers adorning the R. Whereas the street rat lettering was cracked and broken, coloured in dull greys and rust, rats and cobwebs decorating it.

Kody picked his option immediately. All good protagonists were orphans. 

...

In a place beyond time, a being wondered through their domain.

Asriel, god of the harvest and life tended to it's garden.

Asriel's domain was one of both consistency and infinity, his crops stretched into the vast beyond, their stems never ending and never beginning. Yet Asriel both walked on the tilled earth in which their roots rested, and floated through the vast nothing their stalks occupied.

Each of his fruit was a soul, set to fall below into the world of Alvalos where they would fulfil their calling.

Something caught the gods eye, something wrong. A fruit that should not be, and aberration that twisted and fought against the natural order of the space, a fruit without a crop to grow from.

Asriel studied the fruit with interest, it wasn't often they didn't understand something.

The considered destroying the aberration, before banishing the thought from their mind. This was rare, something new, how could they erase it so quickly.

Before the gods eyes, the forces holding the fruit gave way like a paper house in a monsoon, and the fruit tumbled down to the world bellow.

...

With a wistful violin sting, the scene zoomed in. A small wooden building of Tudor design filled the screen, a small bundle of cloth barely visible in the courtyard.

A pixilated figure opened the door and gazed out, a cartoonish exclamation appearing over their head as they spotted the bundle of cloth.

The screen obscured slightly as a much more detailed portrait of a woman in medieval nun robes appeared on the screen, visual novel style, words scrawling across the bottom of the screen.

'Oh you poor thing, how'd you end up here?

What's this, there's a note'

A small, empty text box flashed on the screen with a simple question; what is this characters name?

Suggestions began flashing across the screen before fading slowly, each name the text book definition of a name found in fantasy novels: Whyll, Malkavian, Sonya, Tyribold, just to name a few.

One suggestion eventually caught Kody's eye, and he typed it in immediately.

'Tyrian huh, what a good name you have little one'

The visual novel style foreground disappeared as the courtyard shifted back into focus, the nun picking up the bundle of cloth and marching inside.

A time lapse began focused on the outside of the house, children running in the ample courtyard as the seasons shifted. After the fourth cycle of the seasons, a new Text box popped up, another choice.

'Tyrian has reached the age where he has begun to understand the world more clearly, and relationships, along with their challenges. How does he feel at this new challenge?'

'Invigorated'

'Unmotivated'

'Afraid'

'Indifferent'

Fear was healthy in moderation, couldn't hurt with something so minor.

'Young Tyrian felt fear at the thought of the other kids, he was neither the biggest, the fastest, nor even the strongest. Despite this fear, isolation was not an option young Tyrian wished to grapple with.

What does he do because of this new found fear?'

'Ignore it and shoulder through'

'Acknowledge it and try to move past it'

'Try to find solutions to avoid the fear'

'Accept the fear, and the isolation that comes with it'

Two of those where just non answers, the kind of choices devs put into games as the objective "wrong" choice.

Looking at it from a rational perspective, the second option was the healthiest option right? That was the advise for conquering fears he had always heard.

'Will check in progress...

Will check passed'

'Despite the anxiety that clawed at his chest, young Tyrian pushed on, determined to not let that fear define his life in the orphanage'

'Charm check in progress...

Charm check critically failed'

'Young Tyrian tried his best, he really did, yet it was not enough. Friendship did not come easy to the young boy, his peers and betters shunning him for reasons he could neither understand nor accept.

Before long, he was labelled an outcast, an other excluded from social circles and friendly interactions.

To many, the politics of a child's are crude and simple, but it is in that simplicity that simple cruelty can manifest'

...

Sister Meredith searched through the rooms of Old Faith Orphanage in a panic. She had been running through the head count for evening mass and meal, yet she had come up one short.

Instructing a junior sister to oversee the children's prayers, she had torn off to find the missing child, a child she dreaded not finding. Orphanages as a general rule didn't take in children from favourable situations, so she had made it her mission to make Old Faith Orphanage as favourable a place for each child as possible.

But she had always felt as though she had failed with this child, a regret that burned deep within her.

Relief flooded her as she found Tyrian crouched at the end of his bed, weeping softly.

"Oh dearie" she cooed softly as she knelt to meet the boy, "What has you out of sorts now?"

Tyrian certainly had a striking appearance, locks of golden hair cascading down to his shoulders, grey eyes like carved stone, porcelain skin of such a delicate completion, the slightest exposure to sun sent him into a fit of rashes and burns. The poor boy no more than 5 years old

"Go away" Tyrian mumbled, shuffling away from Sister Meredith, as though trying to hide the tears streaming down his face.

A pang of sorrow shot through Sister Meredith's heart. She could never tell how to help the boy, no matter what she tried.

She had scolded his bullies, punished them for their treatment of the boy. Yet in the end, it was as though to them, Tyrian had been the one dolling out the punishments.

While the bullying had halted almost entirely while she was around, she knew they where just redoubling their efforts outside of her supervision.

She had tried encouraging the kids to get along, giving rewards when they did good and treated others with kindness. But it was as though the rewards became less than nothing when given because of Tyrian, and gods forbid Tyrian himself was rewarded.

She lamented the cruelty of kids, how could such innocent things hold such spite and malice.

For a moment, just a moment, Sister Meredith faltered in her words. It must have been a dagger to the boys heart, for the one person who had never given up on him to hesitate, as though affirming his isolation was justified.

"Why don't you head over to my study" Sister Meredith said softly, a reassuring hand resting on the boys shoulder, "I'll bring yer food, and we can do mass together, just the two of us. How's that sound dearie?"

Tyrian sniffled, rubbing furiously at his eyes before giving a feeble nod.

With a motherly smile, Sister Meredith offered her hand to the boy, leading him gently out of the room.

Once the two reached her study, she left the boy to fetch the promised food, bemoaning her aching joints as she moved. She was getting too old, she'd have to start looking for a replacement to deal with the children during the day, she just couldn't keep up anymore.

When she returned, she found Tyrian huddled in a corner, flipping through a picture about dashing heroes vanquishing great evils.

"Feeling more chipper eh?"

Tyrian bolted up like a startled rabbit, moving the cover the book as though in shame, causing Sister Meredith to release a soft chuckle.

Placing the food on the desk, she sat down next to the boy with a hearty chuckle.

"Ain't no need to hide it" She said with a knowing wink, "I keep them on the bottom shelf for a reason"

Her gaze turned sombre for a second, sadness lancing her heart.

"I know it's hard" she said, ruffling Tyrian's hair, "And I wish I could help, but I won't be there to shield you at all times, and this is one of those times.

Dearie, you have to a stand up to them, show them they can't get under that skin of yours no matter how hard they try"

"So what" Tyrian replied with a huff, "I should ignore them. They won't stop if I do"

"No dearie, no. If I told you to ignore them, that would be the worst advise I could give. I want you to defy them, defy them with every step you take. Sometimes just being who you are is enough defiance, but sometimes you have to do more.

If they strike you, strike them back if you must, but only if you have to" Sister Meredith gave a mournful look towards a mace hanging on a wall, its iron head dented and cracked, "Sometimes you have to fight, the gods know I know this better than most. But you can't just cry and hope something will change, because you have a beautiful smile and you deserve to keep it"

...

'Willpower check in progress...

Willpower check critically succeeded'