Chapter 3: Chapter 2: “The Weapon Slot”

According to the forum, after picking a class, Aethera would smile then say: “All luck be unto you, lost traveler. This world is dangerous yet beautiful, may you find your happiness here.”

The gentle smile and words spoken so gently and sincerely made Aethera one of the most popular NPCs in-game. The realistic expressions just appealed to the players, especially the female players. It made people forget that Aethera was just a programmed AI. Though World Symphony had no mascot, there was an unspoken agreement in the fanbase that Aethera was the game’s mascot. Merchandise relating to him was always first to be sold out, there were countless fan works that were centered around this god. 

Sadly, Aethera never shows up again in the game, much to the players' dismay. Unlike big games where they would advertise their most popular character, the company behind [World Symphony] seemed to do everything in its power to displease its players, whether it was not addressing the unbalanced status of the mediator class or not showing Aethera in other parts of the game. Their actions weren’t exactly bad or immoral, but surely fixing the mediator class and displaying Aethera more would be beneficial?

To some degree, keeping the mysteriousness of the character was something Ai could see benefiting the game. The more unseen they are, the more the players want to see. The more they dig through hours of the game content to search for a quest relating to Aethera. The more they talk about the character and the game. The more they make fanworks to fill that emptiness that the game gave. 

Back to the present reality, Ai waited for Aethera to smile and say the words. Then he would be off for his adventure. 

Strangely, Aethera did not speak for a while. His expression was still blank but he wasn’t smiling anymore. He looked almost stunned, as if he couldn’t believe someone would ever choose the class.

…

Did he just make a terrible choice?

As he was wondering if it would be worth it to switch to another class. In front of his eyes, the god that everyone revered started weeping. Big tears rolled down his cheeks. Even crying, he still looked beautiful. 

Just as Ai started to think of ways to comfort the god, which was stupid considering that he was just a programmed AI, Aethera laughed and grinned. Usually when characters did that, Ai would assume that he had walked into a trap, but the laugh was so pure and the grin was so elated that he couldn’t bring himself to think that Aethera did something malicious. 

It was the laugh of someone...happy.

Aethera suddenly stood closer, his gentle hands gripping Ai’s own hands. His eyes were sparkling and his face was decorated with the most beautiful happy expression. Even more beautiful than the screenshots Ai had seen floating around in the appreciation (thirst) section of the forum dedicated to sharing and admiring NPCs in the game.  No screenshot came close to the expression that he was looking at now. It made Ai nervous. 

“Thank you, traveler!” Aethera said, almost gasping. “Thank you, thank you. The world will be difficult for you, but you don’t need to worry. Not at all.”

Not a moment later, Aethera vanished as if he was dandelions blown away by the wind. Ai could still sense his presence, but he was no longer in front of his eyes. As the wind blew, there were words carried over, a message.

“You are now my envoy, you have my blessing, Ai.”

At first, Ai was shocked to hear his name from Aethera. Then he thought that this was another feature of the game where the game would recognize the name player’s wanted and set it as their player name. He did read that when it was time to name their characters, players simply thought of the name they wanted and the game would recognize it. 

Ai was the name he had used whilst playing online games for years now. It was close enough to his real name, but generic enough to not get attention. 

After Aethera faded completely, Ai was back into the darkness. He wasn’t there for long, a second later a giant body length mirror appeared in front of him. It was a simple wooden mirror that reflected the character model.

This must be the character creation menu. 

Ai looked at himself in the mirror. He was looking at his real self. Mousy brown hair that was too long, reaching just below his ears and light green eyes. Nothing special and nothing that said ‘fantasy’. Character creation was fun and all, but Ai was too nervous to think of anything. 

[World Symphony] used something called the [Thought System] as their main primary controls. It meant that players simply had to think of what they want during certain situations, like when they need to make a choice, and the game could detect what they want and confirm it. It was a relatively new technology that some games had implemented. Ai didn’t know how good it was in other games, but he had heard that the system in [World Symphony] was almost flawless,  even outside of just game standards. The game also gave the players system prompts and notifications through the [Thought System] as well. 

Like now, Ai could feel the system giving him a system prompt. He realized that there were a few and he had missed them when he was talking to Aethera.

[Welcome to [World Symphony]!]

[Please choose a class!]

You are reading story World Symphony Mediator at novel35.com

[You have chosen Mediator!]

[Please customize your character!]

[Please randomize to get the fullest experience being reborn in [World Symphony]!]

It seemed like the game didn’t say anything about the cutscenes that he saw. Ai thought that was odd but thinking about it could go on forever, so he decided to follow the game’s advice and randomize his appearance. He knew that the [World Symphony] character appearance randomizer was A.I based, so player characters would still look humanoid even randomized. The looks ranged from ‘okay’ to ‘ethereal’. 

Some players even found the enjoyment of these random characters look. They would try to randomize beautiful characters and sell them on the forums. They also realized that the randomly generated ‘ethereal’ looking characters were almost always better than the man made one, thanks to the A.I. That’s why these character markets were always so popular, people wanted the best looking character. 

If you could be anyone else, why not someone more beautiful than anyone in the real world, he supposed. 

[Randomize character?]

Yes.

As soon as he confirmed, the darkness was once again lighted up with lights as bright as the sun. Ai wanted to open his eyes to see how the game loaded but realized that it wouldn’t let him. Soon, his eyes were also closed and he could feel himself transporting elsewhere. It didn’t feel painful, it was very tingly and kind of itchy. 

Once the feeling subsided, he could feel the heat of the sun on his body and the breezy wind. He could also hear the sound of rustling of tree leaves and feel the dirt underneath his fingers. When he opened his eyes, he was staring at a bunch of looming trees with multicolor leaves, blue sky and even a couple of flying birds. Ai assumed that he was in a forest. 

Sitting up, he saw the sun filtering through the colorful leaves creating a myriad of rainbow-like shine to the surroundings. When he lifted his hand to block the shine from his eyes, he saw a pale slender hand, even more slender than his real life hand and looked even more dainty. 

He was wearing a traveling garb similar to the one he saw the statue wear. Long pants, a tunic, a hat, the Book of Languages and lantern hanging on his side and another pack on his back. He could also feel the coldness of the crystal pendant on his collarbone. 

Ai took off his pack and took inventory of what he had. There were three bottles of HP potion, three bottles of MP potion, and finally an emergency return scroll that only worked if he was at 10% HP or less. It was more or less an item for new players. The items were also labeled as [Beginner Special], meaning that it wouldn’t drop if some other player killed him. 

At the bottom of the bag, Ai realized that there was a glinting item. He pulled it out and saw that it was a simple dagger.

[Mediator Dagger - ATK 5].

Should he equip this? Why was it set as unequipped by default? Most games usually have the character ready with armor and weapons equipped, but this one…

Ai closed his eyes and checked his character menu to check what the game said was equipment and which was not. In his mind he saw that the armor slot was filled with the traveling garb. 

[Mediator Traveling Garb - DEF 0, MAG DEF 1] as expected it was an almost garbage item. 

The oil lantern filled one of the accessory slots. [Pathway Lantern, Unique - Boosts rewards earned from quests.]. So he guessed that this was the quest reward booster. He didn’t know the base stats of the boost exactly as it didn’t explain.

[A pathway can be seen to those who light the way.] was the simple description of the item. 

Ai then looked at the other accessory slot, expecting to see the Book of Languages sitting there. It was empty! The book wasn’t there! Then where was…his eyes landed on the weapon slot.

The Book of Language was his equipped weapon!

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