The darkness didn’t last long.

A gust of wind roared past my ears, followed by the sound of rustling leaves and rushing water. My body jerked forward as if pulled through a tunnel. Then light. Blinding, golden light.

When the world finally came into focus, I was standing ankle-deep in soft, green grass. The first thing that hit me was how real it felt. Blades of grass bent beneath my boots, brushing against my ankles with the faintest tickle. A warm breeze swept across my face, carrying the scent of pine, wet earth, and something faintly sweet.

I tilted my head back. The sky above stretched endlessly, painted in soft hues of gold and orange, as if frozen at sunset. Enormous trees, far larger than any I’d ever seen in real life, rose around the clearing. Their leaves glimmered faintly, like starlight caught in their branches. In the distance, faint silhouettes of wooden buildings and stone towers stretched toward the tree line.

A chime echoed in my head.

{Welcome to Hollow Vale — Eldertree Haven}

{Safe Area: PvP Disabled}

I exhaled slowly, my heart hammering. “Holy crap…”

“Not bad, right?”

I spun around to see Jack walking toward me from the tree line. Her new form looked nothing like her real-world self. She was taller, with a build that could make seasoned fighters flinch. Strong shoulders, defined arms, the kind of presence that soiled men’s underwear. Her dark hair had grown out into a short, slightly wavy bob, streaked with faint bronze highlights that shimmered in the light.

She wore a short, sleeveless breastplate of polished bronze layered over a fitted black tunic, paired with leather greaves. Her veins were visibly pulsing red, similar to the design of the Jotunborn. That would explain why she was huge. Above her head, flickering out as she approached me, was her username. Sigr3n. She had actually listened to me.

“You went Hoplite,” I said, grinning.

Jack’s chin tilted up. “Damn right I did. Somebody has to make sure your sneaky ass doesn’t get wiped out in the first fight.”

I rolled my eyes. “You just like hitting things.”

“Correction,” she said, smirking. “I like hitting things with style.”

A third voice cut in. “You two done flirting?”

Alex emerged behind her. He’d gone for a clean, tactical look. Navy robes trimmed in silver layered over light armour. His hands were gloved, but I could see the pulsating tattoos of the Vanirborn glowing through them. Like Jack, his username was also fading away, but he had gone with what he always used like we had agreed. Th2th.

He’d gone for Runeseer, the mage archetype. Where Jack was the tank and front runner, and I was the sneaky, fast attacker, Alex was the one who covered our backs and focused on defence and buffs for us. More often than naught, he always used supports in other games and always had a plan to help us win.

“Wow,” I said, laughing. “You didn’t waste any time, huh?”

He shrugged. “I’ve had my build planned for months.”

“Of course you did,” Jack muttered.

Another chime sounded in the distance as a group of new players spawned in a few meters away, their avatars flickering into existence with soft golden light. Hollow Vale was coming alive, filling with the chatter of fresh voices.

“So,” I said, clapping my hands once. “Where to first?”

Alex crossed his arms. “We stick to the plan. Early quests, fast level up, then get enough gold to buy gear.”

Jack stretched her arms dramatically. “And maybe some monster hunting on the side. I’m not spending my first hour picking apples for an NPC.”

“You just want to hit stuff,” I snorted. “Anyways, how do we access our inventories?”

“Here I was thinking you had read through before we entered the game,” Alex said. “Look at your left arm.”

I lowered my gaze to my left arm, and sure enough, a row of seven faintly glowing icons ran along the inside of my forearm, hovering over the sleeve of the tunic I had on. They pulsed softly, like they’d been waiting to be noticed.

Closest to my wrist was a small leather pouch marked with subtle runes, clearly Inventory. Next to it, a human silhouette with arms stretched outward like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man: Stats.

The third was a compass, its red needle twitching slightly even though I hadn’t moved yet. Map.

Fourth, a rolled scroll, its grey seal glowing faintly. Quests.

The fifth icon gave me pause. It was a ring of blue light, hovering and spinning slowly. I recognized it after a second. Skills.

Six was two interlocked silhouettes, faint outlines of figures standing shoulder to shoulder. Party menu.

And finally, the gear icon — classic, simple, universal. Settings.

It was weirdly elegant. No bulky pop-ups or cluttered menus. Just a quiet, intuitive interface. All it would take was a thought or a light tap, and the corresponding screen would appear.

“What do you even want to check your inventory for?” Alex asked, tapping the stats icon on his arm. “There’s nothing there.”

“True,” I mumbled, clicking on the stats icon instead.

A soft chime echoed as a wide blue screen unfolded in front of me like a floating menu. Eight stats were listed in neat golden text down the left side of the panel: Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Endurance, Intelligence, Wisdom, Perception, and Luck.

I’d expected seven, but there it was, Luck, sitting at the bottom.

Each stat had a slim bar beside it, some longer than others. I scanned through their descriptions, already familiar with most of them from the dev previews.

Strength: Physical attack power. The higher the number, the harder you hit and the more you can lift.
Dexterity: Speed and reflexes. Sylphid and Nightrunner gave me an edge here, the bar stretching ahead of the rest.
Vitality: Determines HP and base resilience. Everyone started with 100 at Level 1. It would increase if we decided to spend our stat points there every ten levels.
Endurance: Stamina and sprint time. Essential for long fights and longer runs.
Intelligence: Increases magic power.
Wisdom: Mana regeneration. Like Vitality, everyone started at 100 at level one and would also increase similarly.
Perception: Affects detection and accuracy.
Luck: Critical hits, rare drops, and the kind of stupid good fortune that made or broke a fight. This was also stretching past the rest, its bar on the same level as dexterity.

The layout was simple. Perfect.

I already knew where my points would go when the time came. Dexterity first, Endurance second and Luck, third. If I was fast enough, nothing could touch me. And if something did… well, that’s what Jack was for.

With another tap, the panel blinked out of existence, leaving only the icons on my arm.

“We should probably join a party,” Jack suggested. “I think there’s an xp bonus if we do.”

“Times 0.2 multiplier or so,” Alex stated. “Will you do it, or should I?”

“Let Danny do it. He’s one.”

Alex looked over to me expectantly as I sighed, tapping the party menu. Yet again, a soft chime rang in my ears, followed by another large blue screen. This one was like your classic party menu – my avatar on a singular podium with a plus sign on top of four more podiums next to it.

Reaching forward, I tapped the plus sign on the first one.

{Enter name of ascendant.}

A golden keyboard flashed up, beckoning me forward. I brushed my fingers across it, surprised once again I could actually feel a light cool breeze up my finger with each word I punched in. I quickly entered Jack’s username – Sigr3n – before entering Th2th.

I heard a small beep from each of their arms as the invite was sent, to which they immediately responded to, their avatars flashing up in my menu as they accepted. At the bottom of the party menu, a small text flashed up, confirming Alex’s words.

{A x0.2 XP multiplier will be added to each party member.}

“Well, that’s that,” Alex said, looking up. “We should probably get started.”

I looked towards the cluster of buildings in the distance. The group of players that had spawned shortly after us had already started making their way there. I imagined that was the main city of Eldertree Haven, where we would find the npc’s we needed.

Without uttering a word, we all began walking towards the city, quiet anticipation of what was to come slowly building up in each of us.