01/01/67

  “What the fuck?” Orion thought, he had imagined all sorts of horrifying and wonderful things for the place they had been taken to, but blue boxes appearing in front of his face? That was new, he was never much of a gamer but “System alert” was a bit of a clue. He looked at his options. It seemed he had awakened an element, metal, and had to choose between 3 “resources”,

  “I think that's how you use your element perhaps?”. This made Orion incredibly excited, the thought of being able to use magic was shocking and frankly incredible. So he slowly read through his options, Stamna, Mana and Aura, the first one based on physical feats, the second based on the creation of elements, and finally Aura, a mix between the two. Something within Orion resonated with aura, the idea of becoming one with his element fighting with a spear in hand as a storm of steel flows around him. He made up his mind quickly, he never liked being a mage, too cowardly. And going for stamina would be boring, so he chose aura!

  “Haha well that’s far easier to choose, Spear!” Orion laughed, choosing a winged spear with a leaf shaped blade for slashing and stabbing, his choice. His weapon.

  Now that he had chosen his weapon and resource he could finally have a good look at his surroundings, he noticed he was standing in a void, a blindingly white void that attacked his senses, he couldn’t even feel his fingers or toes, as if he was here in mind but not here physically. Wondering what to do, he decided to explore more of this “System”.

  “Maybe there’s a character sheet or something?” Orion thought, looking for more information about this system, maybe he could find out about his new element!

  “What? Only level 1? and why are all my stats 10!” Orion was shocked to see his low stats, slightly foolishly as he had nothing to base it against. All he could see was low numbers.

  And with a flash of darkness in the blinding void, Orion was taken to the first Arta.

  -

  John wasn’t a happy man, after going to the the first Arta he was weak, unskilled and couldn’t join any groups let alone attempt to kill any goblins, he had been here for a year and had barely levelled up, so here he was stuck on welcome duty, “welcomer John” they all called him. He hated it but there was nothing he could do, just wait for the next group to arrive, and wait he did.

  John was startled awake by a loud crash as almost 50 new people in simple white tunics crashed onto the floor, completely disoriented.

  With a sigh John begins his usual speech.

  “Welcome to the First Arta! I am John and I am here to welcome you to the first Arta and explain how it works here.” John said loudly to the whole group.

  “What is the first Arta?”

  “Where am I?”

  “What is going on”

  “Where is my baby!”

  An amalgamation of different voices as those who had arrived finally realised what was going on.

  “Woah ok there slow down, this place you have arrived at is the First Arta, it’s where people have been disappearing from earth over the last 2 years. It’s a bit like a video game but it’s real and don't ever forget that! Shouting even louder over the mess of voices, he never got a break, all these new confused people begging for help, it was really distracting.

  “Look over the last few years we have developed a pretty good government and military, and even elected our own prime minister! We also developed companies called guilds that you can work at based on what you choose, mana aura or stamina and what element you awakened. Now please follow me and representatives from each guild will help you out! John sighed out a heave of relief, finally the 219th group was done.

  -

  “ORIONNNN” Lyphiri shouted for the second time that day, she had appeared right next to Aeram and they were now walking around trying to find him again.

  “Hello again Lyphiri, what did you choose?” Orion said with a sigh

  “Hehe, I knew you’d ask, I chose stamina and my element is ice” she laughed out.

  “Ah, well I chose mana and my element is compression” he said slowly

  “Huh? How does that work?” Orion asked questioningly

  “I’m not so sure myself,” Aeram sighed in resignation.

  “Well I chose aura and my element is metal,” He said happily

  “Anyway let’s follow the others and see what guilds there are for us to choose!”