“Hello, friend.”

A strange entity greets me, a young man dressed as Robin Hood, perhaps, complete with tights, a cape and a pointed feather cap, all in sunset hues. His hair is chin length and golden, his eyes are sparkling violet. Immediately he strikes me as corporeal yet incorporeal, man and myth rolled into one. Like Peter Pan, playful, grinning harmlessly and yet certainly mocking me with that grin.

“Thinking of taking up a ranged weapon? I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he says, and flies suddenly upwards, leaving me staring after him, open mouthed.

I watch him warily as he circles overhead with a very casual air, not daring to move from my spot.

“You can read my thoughts?”

He laughs, a sound at once musical and grating, endearing and off-putting.

“Where do you think this game is taking place, my friend?”

“Well it’s…where is it taking place?” I wonder aloud. The world around me is nothing but code, and I connect to it via brainwaves. I suppose in a way it really is all in my head. But then…

“Who are you? Or what are you, rather? What is your name?”

“Ari is my name. Short for Artificially Reasoning Intelligence. You may think of me as a friendly spirit guide, not unique to you or bound to you in any way. I simply help travelers as I see fit.”

“And why help me?”

He laughs again. “You seemed like you were about to do something stupid, so I thought I’d weigh in.”

“You mean getting a bow? You think it’s a bad idea?”

“Oh, I think it’s a fantastic idea. If you want to smash your potential and destroy everything you’ve worked so hard to build.”

I’m insulted. But also cautious. Listening. I’m not going to take this weirdo’s advice just because he calls himself a spirit guide. But if he can make a decent case—

“You are already perfect,” he says, lowering himself so he hovers just in front of me in a cross-legged position. “I couldn’t improve upon your stat distribution if I tried. And your skills—” he breaks his serious expression to laugh once more. That laugh. I can’t decide if he’s making fun of me or amused by some thought of his own entirely unrelated.

Sensing my mistrust, Ari sobers and wipes a tear from his eye. Suddenly, all his playfulness is gone, and I sense he is keen, sincere.

“There’s no one like you, my friend. Not in all this world. And it would be a shame, don’t you think? To cut your character in two. To be neither defender nor archer.”

“But my Agility is high enough, surely—”

“For now. But in just a few levels the requirement for wielding a bow will out-pace your current stat distribution pattern. You’ll have to sacrifice more and more Constitution to keep up. And that will throw your whole character out of balance. You’ll have to start adjusting your skills to supplement your lack of foresight while piecing together this archer character you’re imagining. You’ll be ineffectual. A Frankenstein creation, patched together last minute, lumbering and awkward and ultimately useless. You won’t make it past the third area.”

I swallow. “Then…what do I do?”

“What you’ve been doing,” he says, flicking the front of his hat so it tips back a little, and he tips his head at the same time, so he’s looking down at me though a half lidded gaze.

“But what will I do about ranged opponents?”

“Chase them. If they won’t come into your aura, bring your aura to them.”

“And if they’re flying? What if I can’t reach them?”

“Then you skip that monster. Skip that quest, skip that whole area if you have to.”

“But—”

“You can afford to miss handfuls of experience here and there. But I cannot afford for you not to make this character.”

I blink at him uncomprehendingly, and Ari’s face splits with a wide grin. Not his mocking smile, but dazzling, truly, and it occurs to me then rather than a spirit guide, someone this beautiful must surely be some kind of god.

“Who are you?” I ask him again. “Who are you really?”

Ari laughs, tipping backwards, legs still crossed. He does a full somersault mid-air, then zips suddenly around me in a circle before vanishing completely, leaving nothing of himself behind but the faint echoing ring of his laughter.

Bursting with curiosity, I go at once to the forums and search Ari.

                 <Vivianna> posted: Has anyone else met Ari? He just showed up and told me how to level up my character then left.

                                 <gg525> replied: i met that guy was annoying as hell told him to get lost

                                 <ProfuselyObtuse> replied: I don’t know what his deal was. He just showed up out of nowhere and told me not to learn a new skill. I ignored him and I’m glad I did.

                                 <404Bob> replied: After my own personal encounter with him I did some research into the Alpha and Beta testers experiences with Ari. They say he’s the dev’s ai experiment that got turned loose and now he shows up all over the world. Comes and goes as he pleases, does what he wants for his own reasons. No idea if he’s truly helpful or malicious. For my part I’d say he gave me sound advice.

                                 <BlackMagic619> replied: Met him twice. Both times gave good advice.

                                 <Vivianna> replied: I just met him again. I’m going to do what he says. I think he really wants to make my character better.

                                 <gg525> replied: ur an idiot

                                 <ProfuselyObtuse> replied: That guy doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He gives ‘advice’ as a joke and laughs at you when you take it. Asshole NPC.

As always the internet is divided. And in this case, so am I. I do think Ari gave me sound advice. But I have to wonder why.

Pondering my strange encounter with the ‘friendly spirit guide,’ I make my way back to Dustry, looking for my next quest. On the way I notice a few characters smoking, and I have to laugh to myself. I still can’t believe they made it a game mechanic when the real world is so puritanical about smoking. It’s alien and strangely refreshing in a way, to see tough guys swaggering around, huffing cigars. I even see a wizard with a tall hat and a long pipe sitting on the edge of a fountain, doing Gandalf cosplay.

For my part I sell the tobacco quest reward and pocket the coin. On the way to the blacksmith I stop at the fletcher’s stall to check his wares. Shortbows, longbows, compound bows, arrows of all kinds. Shield in hand, I pick up a longbow on display. It feels awkward, not to mention impossible to pull. Not without setting down my shield first.

Ari was right, I decide, replacing the bow. Revelator isn’t a ranged character. And me, Austen McBride, I’m not suited to play an archer. Didn’t I determine as much while I was with Dooker the other day? And what did he say? It takes all types of people to make a world…

Yes. I am Revelator, the Defender. I have no use for a weapon; my character is built to take hits, and kill with aura alone. I will face opponents on my terms, and I will beat this game using the skills I’ve worked so hard to build. No matter what, I will beat it.

“Hello, there,” I’m startled by a voice behind me, though I assume they’re addressing someone else. “You’re about to level out of this area, aren’t you? Your gear’s decent, too. You have Baba’s full Chieftain set.”

I spin, heart racing, looking around. “You’re talking to me?”

“Who else?”

The speaker is a gnome named JimmyTheThird with dark blue hair. He wears heavy armor and carries an axe bigger than his own body on his back. Over his armor he sports a navy colored tabard edged with gold bearing the emblem of a rearing white horse. Beneath his moniker I notice a secondary name, White Striders.

“I’m a recruitment officer for the White Striders guild. We’re getting ready to start a dungeon, you up for joining? If you do well I’ll recommend you for the guild. I don’t have the final say, of course, but you can’t apply without an officer’s recommendation.”

“G-guild?”

“That’s right. We’re the White Striders. Our leader is MustangSal—don’t be surprised when I tell you he’s actually Sonny Salvador, the CEO of the famed SonB conglomerate. You know it?”

I do, actually. Being who I am, with both of my parents heavily invested in the business world, there’s no way I wouldn’t have heard of Sonny Salvador. The man’s a self-made billionaire, a legend with diversified holdings across multiple sectors, including insurance companies, energy, retail and even the fast food giant that emerged in the 40’s, Hammie’s Hambies.

“We’re already the biggest guild in TC with over five thousand members. MustangSal runs the Striders like a business. There’s incentive to join of course, access to guild storage, guild bank loans…there’s incentive to rise in the ranks as well. You can become a recruitment officer like me and receive a salary. Of course my aim is to rise even higher, and become one of the Raid Managers…”

JimmyTheThird goes on for some time, listing all the perks of joining the guild. I can’t deny the thought is appealing. Never mind how useful it would be to have access to the items found in raids reserved in guild storage—a place to belong, that’s what a guild really represents.

A sense of community. The feeling of being in a team, I’ve never experienced it. Where everyone wears the same colors, and works together towards a shared goal. I can already see it. Revelator the Defender in blue, gold and white. An invaluable tank for the biggest guild in Tetra Chronicles. Maybe even the best tank.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

“You’re saying you want me,” I interrupt Jimmy’s monolog. “You’re saying I could wear the White Striders’ tabard?”

“That’s right,” the little guy says. “But only if you pass my inspection. So what do you say? Will you join us on the dungeon raid?”

“Yeah,” I say, grinning. “Count me in.”

[Character name: Revelator

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Defender

Subclass: None

HP: 700

Constitution: 36

Strength: 7

Agility: 18

Intelligence: 2

Luck: 1 

Skills: Armor Crafting (4), Baba's Vanishing Haze Aura (1), Cooking (5), Greater Shield Proficiency (6), Improved Block (6), Interceptor, Jewel Crafting (4), Noxious Spores (6), Shieldsmith (7)

(total armor 345)]