Published: November 10th 2024, 8:59:19 am
A red haired girl lets out a quiet yawn as she wipes her eyes.
She blearily looks around her room only to freeze as she sees a large egg-like device sat in the corner.
A near feral grin crosses her lips.
The Eden...
Her head snaps to the side looking to a digital clock sat at her bedside.
THE BETA FOR DOMAIN OF MAGIC STARTS IN AN HOUR!
She hops to her feet, stretching her arms above her head.
Her system arrived yesterday evening and she might have spent all night playing games on it.
Wreck it is sort of boring- to her. As an extremely wealthy supernatural race that could do all that stuff in real life if she wanted, so it holds less interest to her- She will admit, though. She doesn't really get to just decimate buildings often. Normally she only does it if a stray devil gets out of hand and threatens her precious servants.
But. This game doesn't have her power of destruction, merely mundane methods of destruction, thus, sort of dull.
Spy and the Liar on the other hand?
Ohohohoho.
That is what she spent eight hours yesterday playing.
But it felt like more than a day!
Spy and the Liar is utterly difficult.
No supernatural strength, speed, or abilities.
Just a weak human body and some BADASS spy gadgets!
She completed the first mission- a tutorial, really- but it took her twelve of her thirty-two in-game hours.
Most of that was due to her sheer lack of any talent in doing anything sneakily.
Mission one was to find a secret black market informant in a small pawnshop and either convince him to sell you a certain piece of information, or you could bug him, or sneak into his office, or like... a bunch of other things.
Regardless, In that first mission, Rias had to resort to doing many things.
She ABSOLUTELY beat him up! Yes-siree. She totally used her unmatched boxing talent and martial skill up close and beat the snot out of that informant and... who is she kidding. She got obliterated by the guy.
Most of the time she just uses her higher than average strength to fight if she has to do anything in melee. She's more of a caster, anyways.
But... perhaps she should change that? She started getting pretty decent at unarmed fighting after her thirty-first attempt at getting past the bouncers.
Good enough to hide her intentions and knock them flat with sucker punches, at least.
And to think... that was just the tutorial mission.
But, with just one mission completed, she's unlocked hundreds of guns- mainly because she chose a 'loud' method of doing things. That pre-order bonus tool was really useful as well.
Obra Dinn was interesting, but she got a bit sea-sick. Besides, mysteries aren't really her thing anyways. That's more of a Sona thing.
But now, in just one short hour, she can find her REAL calling!
Domain. Of. Magic.
They've upped the beta-testing time from a mere eight hours to sixteen. So that means sixty-four hours of pure FUN.
The only downside is that when those sixteen hours are used up, she won't be able to play anymore until the twenty-fourth when the game officially launches.
It's a shame, but whatever.
Nearly three entire days will be enough time for her to at least experience a little bit of the game.
After that, she can go back to Spy and the Liar for a few weeks.
She lets out a quiet yawn as she checks her phone- THERE HAS BEEN A NEW PROMOTIONAL VIDEO ON THE DOMAIN OF MAGIC YOUTUBE CHANNEL?!
YOOOOOOOOO!
She swiftly unlocks her phone, flopping back down on her bed, kicking her feet like an excited child.
She quickly opens her search browser and types in the channel which has become incredibly familiar to her.
Teaser 8: Explaining Magic.
She double taps on the video, a bright grin appearing on her face.
Numbers appear on the screen.
"12:00:00"
Tick
"11:59:59"
Toc
The timer to the launch of the beta server continues to tick downwards slowly for a few seconds before the screen fades to white. This promotional video was posted hours ago, so clock is a little inaccurate.
Suddenly, much like the announcement trailer, the camera is soaring through the air.
It seems to dart towards the 'starter' town, Magnolia. It weaves between buildings before eventually coming to a stone back-alley door with a little wizard hat on a sign out front.
The camera presses against the door, causing it to slide open with a jingle.
"I'll be right there!" An elderly sounding voice calls out from the back.
An old man steps forwards, appearing behind the countertop.
"Ah! You have the look of a wizard!" The old man hums as he leans forwards slightly. "Let me get a good look at you."
The old man is exactly what you would picture if you just simply said the word 'wizard'. Big silly floppy hat, old, grey beard, he even has little spectacles.
"I see. I've not seen you around here before, child." The old man observes as he strokes his beard in intrigue. "You must be new here. Ah well. What are you looking for? Spell books? Rings? Maybe even a magic broom?"
He stares at the screen for a long moment before speaking again. "You... look quite confused, Child. Tell me, you have magical power, don't you? I can feel it..."
The screen moves up and down as if nodding.
"But you have never actually cast a spell, have you?"
The screen shakes its head 'no'.
"Ah. So you are quite out of your depth! Worry not! I shall expand your knowledge of magic!" The old man smiles brightly. "First and foremost, there are two key parts of magic that all of magic can be categorized into. Holder Magic and Caster Magic."
Rias lets out a low hum as she thinks upon the two magics. Just from their names It's pretty obvious what they do. Now, she is left idly wondering what she should try and build towards in-game.
"The first I should mention is Holder Magic. This magic is by far the most common out of all magics for one reason and one reason only... it's lack of versatility. In the more mundane side of life, we use lacrima, magical crystals which bolster their own effects. Long range communication, producing of water, heating of food, even lighting our homes! Lacrima have a special trait that they slowly draw in the Ambiant magical energies in the air itself... Ethernano. As a result, even a non-wizard is capable of using some of these magical artifacts."
"A never-ending flint and steel, a little magic box that changes the color of your clothes, these magics have been woven into daily life across all of Fiore and even far beyond! Though, being a wizard is a dangerous job, So I assume that you'll want more... combative... examples."
"Hm." The old man hums as his eyes stray the shop. "Holder magics typically revolve around one singular object. A sword, a gun, a bow, a ring, even keys! For example, a sword that can shoot lightning and a sword that conjures fire would both be considered 'sword magic' regardless of their differing elements. But. To be considered 'true' Holder magic, the item in question must draw on the magical energy of the wielder. This is why magically strengthened swords and armor are not considered 'true' Holder magic as they do not take the wielder's magic into account while in use."
"Now, that might be confusing, as I had just said that normal nonmagical people make use of lacrima all the time, but the thing is, most, if not all of those items have a use limit. Perhaps a fire-starting lacrima could only be used thrice per day, a colors magic box only once per day. But each and every one of these limitations may be bypassed by using the magical power of a wizard. That is what makes them Holder magics."
"The upsides of Holder magics are quite numerous. They are easy to cast, typically require less magical power to function than other forms of magic, and more often than not give you an item that has use beyond its effect, like a sword or shield. Another benefit is that they are quite numerous. There are perhaps millions of magical items in Fiore. The same cannot be said about other magics."
"Allow me to list some examples!" The old man smiles brightly as he lifts a broom into frame. "This magical flying broom for instance. Or this large fire spewing lamp."
A lamp that look like it just crawled right out of Alladin now rests in his hand.
A flintlock is lifted into frame next. "This pistol here is another example of Holder magic, transforming the user's magic into elementally charged pellets with quite the potent little punch!"
"But. Holder magic does have its fair share of weaknesses, I will admit that." The old man sighs. "Ignoring the fact that your power could be stolen from you should you be disarmed, there are other things to consider. While taking less magic to cast, the effects of Holder magic are typically weaker than Caster Magic, then you need to consider its lack of versatility. A ring that creates a wall of ice... cannot be used to create an ice sword, or to create a blizzard. Most magic items typically only have one single thing they can accomplish. Only the most powerful artifacts and weapons grant you a little more freedom in what they are capable of. But even still, a wizard using Holder magics may eventually attune to the kind they use the most."
"What this attuning does is quite special. It allows you to begin bending the parameters of the items you use. Making the spell stronger, giving an attack a slight bend." A small smirk tugs at his old wrinkled lips. "I once knew a Ring mage in my youth that could combine the effects of his rings into unique spells at will sort of like a miniature unison raid!"
"Ah. If you don't know the basics of magic, you definitely won't know what a Unison Raid is... I'll speak on that soon enough." The old man shakes his head. "I've begun to go wildly off topic. I apologize."
"Another thing I should mention about Holder magic, is the scale of the item typically defines its power. It's possible for a ring to outshine a sword or lantern, but there is far more surface area for enchantment specialists to inscribe their spells on larger items. Overall, I would say that Holder magic is the perfect choice for a novice like yourself. It is both easy to use and has a fairly high skill-ceiling. There are always new items being made or ancient relics being found, so despite its lack of versatility, its likely that it will continue to be a key aspect of your fighting style even decades into the future!"
The old man slowly pulls out a book. "Now. Caster magics. Where should I begin. Hm."
"Firstly, there are two general categories of Caster magic. The first? It is just simply called Caster Magic. This is your run of the mill flame magic, or wind magic. Things that are still commonly used to this day. After that, you have your lost magics. Caster magics that were created quite possibly centuries ago... but their methods have more or less been lost to time. These older magics are typically a lot more powerful than what we have created today, they don't make it like they used to, it appears. But that's not to say typical caster magics can't rival or even surpass the powers of ancient Lost Magics."
The old man lifts his hand, a crackling ball of fire appearing atop his hand. "Yes. Caster Magics are quite numerous as well. But their key aspect is that they typically require no item or focus. However, a focus could be used. Say for instance you have a water wizard atop a ship in the ocean. Nothing is stopping them from creating pressurized blasts of water from their hands, but it would take them less energy if they just simply took water that already existed in the sea around them!"
"Caster magic is definitely more powerful than Holder magics. More versatile, and more secure. The fact that it takes more magical energy to use isn't even really a factor. Then, you might ask, why do most wizards rely solely on Holder magics?" The old man smiles.
"You see, it is quite simple. Learning Caster magic takes considerable time and effort. It takes near continuous research and understanding of your own magical power in order to transform it into these wild and wondrous effects." The old man sighs wistfully. "There's also the issue of getting a spell tome to study. You won't just randomly find anything beyond a little magical theory at your public libraries. Most magical shops have spell books, but they are typically only for the most basic magics such as fire, ice, or requip, which grants you a miniaturized pocket dimension to store your valuables. Very useful."
"There is... frankly not a lot to say about Caster magic as it really does just cover everything in this world. Do you conjure and shoot needles? Needle magic. Can you create physical objects out of fire that you can wield like weapons and armor? Static Fire Maker magic. Do you create temporary physical creatures made of poison? Dynamic Poison Maker magic. There are numerous caster magic groups, and frankly, if you can think of an effect, Caster Magic probably has something for you. The real challenge is creating something unique. Something special. But, not everything needs to be special. Even the most basic of ice magic could be brought to a point where... maybe you could even freeze time itself."
A small fatherly smile appears on the older man's face.
"These two archetypes of magic are the core of what you need to worry about as a wizard. However, there are a few magic types that do not so uniformly fit within these two groups of magic. The one that immediately comes to mind being Celestial Spirit magic. A type of magic that allows you to summon 'celestial spirits', embodiments of the constellations above. On the surface, such a magic appears to be a Holder magic, correct? But... when you delve deeper, you will find that a celestial spirit wizard is capable of taking on the traits of the summoned spirits, such as water or earth manipulation. Then you need to consider some potent attack spells that do not rely on the keys at all!"
"Now." The old man continues, stoking his beard again. "I suppose I should speak upon the Unison Raid... A unison raid is, to put it bluntly, fusion magic. It happens when two- or more- wizards are completely in sync. Combining their magics to unleash forces that none could reach on their own. A fire wizard and an air wizard might create a tornado of fire, or a metal maker wizard and an electricity wizard might be able to create a zone of incredibly potent magnetism."
"Sooooo. That is roughly all you need to know about the magical landscape in Fiore~ now... can I get you anything? Perhaps the newest issue of Sorcerer Weekly? I hear the new Interview with Fairy Tail's S-Class wizard is quite a read!"
The camera slowly backs away.
"Hey... Where are you going?" The man questions as the camera backs out the door and begins floating up into the sky.
The old man comes to the door and opens it, looking up at the camera which is now rapidly leaving the city.
You can faintly hear his voice in the background above the whistling wind. "Don't you want to spend your jewel?!"
The screen fades back to the clock as it continues ticking downwards.
Then the video ends.
"Huh." Rias mutters.
That has given her a few questions.
Mainly about the true limitations of the magic in that game.
Surely the possibilities can't be endless, right?
She's still not even one step closer to figuring out who this mysterious guy who made Eden Interactive and Domain of Magic.
Nor has Milim, thankfully.
But regardless. She wants whoever made it in her peerage sososososo bad. Like, she doesn't even care if it's an old man or someone like that. He made Vr gaming a reality, thus he deserves all of the red haired Gremory's love and affection.
Her fiancé Riser can go FUCK himself. Did he make a Vr system?! No!
She just doesn't want to lose to Milim. She'd rub it in her face for decades.
She still sometimes brings up the fact that she beat the younger redhead in connect four like a decade ago.
DUH! Of course she did! Rias was like five years old! She was eighteen! There would have to be something SERIOUSLY wrong with her if she consistently LOST to a five year old!
"Hmph." The girl harumphs as she crosses her arms over her bust.
Maybe in an equalized environment, Rias will finally be able to one-up the older Gremory.
Trying to one-up her in fighting is borderline impossible in the real world... that girl is a total monster.
She's only twice her age, but dozens of times stronger than Rias herself.
She notably doesn't have a peerage, however.
Nobody met her ridiculous standards up until she discovered there was a person who revolutionized not only the mundane, but the supernatural as well.
She can't lose here! She has to figure out a way to get that person on her peerage!
But that requires figuring out who they are first and foremost... and that is tricky.
Perhaps she can use her newly gained spy capabilities!
But.
First. Breakfast. Next, Domain of Magic. She can figure out who the creator of Eden is later.
[Split]
I stand there in the middle of the street, arms crossed, a small smirk on my lips as I quietly wait.
Any minute now...
I can see a dull flash in the train station before me, the first player to touch my glorious game in the beta test has arrived.
A red haired girl steps out of the station.
It appears... that she didn't change her appearance at all.
Ruin Princess {Lv 1}
One guess as to who this is.
"Not customizing your appearance at all, are we?" I question, with a knowing smile.
Rias Gremory pauses, frozen in place, eyes wide. Her eyes flick to my name
Guide {Level 10}
Then the little flashy emblem above my name.
<Great Creator>
"Wh- wait... you... you are the creator of Domain of Magic?!" She gasps, stars in her eyes.
"I am one of two creators for the eden system, the one who arguably contributed the most-" I pause and look up. "Sorry if you're listening in, but it's true. If I didn't figure out dream drift, this project would have never gotten off the ground."
My eyes flick back down to Rias. "But, to answer your question, yes, I am one of the two main programmers for Domain of Magic."
"What's your name! Please tell me!"
"I took special care to hide myself away. Do you really think I would just spout my name to just anyone who simply asked for it? There's a reason as to why I prefer my secrecy, after all. All it takes is one stupid government official to track me down and then look to my family and be all 'oh yes, the Eden System is impressive stuff. But we will kill your family if you don't build us a fully functioning gundam'."
"C-Could you?"
"Duh. Of course. The Eden system is like five hundred years more advanced than current day technology. I could build an entire self-sustained colony on the moon if I really wanted."
There are a few more flashes of light as more and more people seem to appear. There's a black haired teen, two fox girls, fucking Milim Nava- another person who just seemed to not change her appearance- then there's... isn't that A genshin character?
Kirito {Lv 1}
Helpful Fox {Lv 1}
Unhelpful Fox {Lv 1}
Lady Destruction Murder {Lv 1}
Furina De Fontaine {Lv 1}
Huh.
More and more people steadily appear, seemingly pausing for a moment to get their Barings inside this new world.
"Welcome everyone... to Domain of Magic!" I smile brightly, gesturing out around me.
"I am one of the two creators of Domain of Magic, and I am pleased to see you all here on this glorious winter day. You may call me 'Creator' or 'Guide' as I will be guiding you here today."
"Since there's roughly enough people now, Allow me to list a few things that will be relevant to you all."
With a snap of my finger, a large screen appears behind me. Wood creeps along its edges from trees that sprout from the ground, clinging to the holographic screen like a frame.
The screen changes to a map of Fiore that minimizes slightly.
A large section changes color and flashes. "This... Is the land of Fiore. This entire region will be explorable during the true release of the game. But, as it is right now, merely this small sectioned off spot is accessible. Now. You might thing that is pretty lame, but let me be clear. This little circle, barely even reaching half way to the closest town, the port city Hargeon... this little circle would take you an entire day to run across."
There's a few excited whispers.
"Next, during this beta period. Skill and level experience is multiplied by two. This should allow you to make some progress during your limited time." As I speak, the words are inscribed on the screen behind me.
"Thirdly, all progress you have made will be reset upon the end of the beta. You will be starting with a clean slate come the official release of the game. Keeping only the appearance of the character you have designed."
"Now. I suppose I should speak of the system of the game, as this is an RPG MMO. Stats are a vital part of the game. To view your stats, raise your left hand and swipe down like this while lightly pushing your fingertips forwards.
A little menu appears in front of me as I watch the people- who are steadily becoming more and more numerous swipe their hand downwards."
There are only four real tabs unlocked. 'Status', 'Skills', 'Settings' and 'Logout'.
"You will notice the fact that you are missing an inventory screen. This is by design. You many only carry what you yourself are capable of taking. Or, you could learn Requip magic to add an inventory screen to your menu. You will have limited magic slots in this game. You will start at two, and unlock a third at level forty. However, you may swap out your magical skills at will provided you are not within combat. The experience is not lost when you replace your spells so at a later date you may pick things up where you left off."
"I should note here and now. The settings page is perhaps one of the most valuable of these four options. It allows you to set up recording and livestreaming. In addition, you may swap which hand opens the menu, switch to vocal commands, or even add in subtitles."
"There is also a setting to manipulate how much pain you feel in-game, with the maximum amount being ten percent of the real pain of an action. This setting is there purely because there is a level of skill you just simply cannot reach without a tactile sensation such as pain."
"Now, if I could direct your attention to the status page." I continue opening my own.
Username: Guide
{Level: 10} (0.0%)
Title: {Great Creator}
Health: 100%/100%
Mana: 100%/100%
Stamina: 100%/100%
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Durability: 5
Vitality: 5
Magical Potency: 7
Magical Regeneration: 5
Luck: 5
Unused Points: 18
"First, levels. You have seen these in other games. Get experience from crafting, killing things, or quests to level up, at which point you will gain two free stat points to add to any of your stats. Then, there are Titles, such as my 'Great Creator' Title. These are special boons you sometimes get from quests or through impressive deeds such as single handedly defeating a boss monster. My own title gives me nothing more than a fancy little box above my head to make me more noticeable. But other titles might improve skill experience with certain types of magic, grant you a flat increase to stats, or even allow you to deal more damage to a certain type of enemy."
"Next, Health, Mana, and Stamina is fairly obvious. Health lowers when you take damage, Mana lowers when you cast spells, and Stamina lowers when you use skills that are not magical in nature, such as running or leaping." I explain.
"Now, for stats." I list, gesturing through my status page. "Strength more or less dictates physical melee damage, but it also applies to physical lifting capacity. A person with one strength would struggle to lift a sledgehammer, but someone with one hundred could relatively easily flip a cart over if they wanted to."
"Next, is Agility. This dictates your movement speed, attack speed, dodging, basically anything that has to do with personal speed. I personally recommend this one as it is really fun to snag arrows out of the air like you're the flash."
"Next, Durability, which is tied to your health stat. Your health improves with each level up, as do stamina and mana, but with Durability you can truly maximize your health."
"After Durability is Vitality, which is certainly an important stat. While it is tied to stamina, it also is relevant for health regeneration and stamina regeneration."
"After those four physical stats, you get the magical stats. Magical Potency, which dictates the, well, power of your spells. How much damage a fireball deals, how much a healing spells heals, etcetera. After that is Magical Regeneration, which, as you could guess, determines how fast your mana returns."
"After that, is the most esoteric of the stats. Luck. This stat is tied to two core things. Lucky break chance, which is similar to critical hits, and item drops. The more luck, the higher chance to get a lucky break and get good items from bosses."
"Now." I breathe. "All of that will be covered in the actual game via tutorial, where you select your own difficulties instead of merely appearing in the train station. Of course, that will also be an option, the easiest, of course, but the higher difficulties may have greater rewards hidden within them. So keep an eye out for them."
"Well. Now that I'm done yapping. You are all free to go out and explore. Run wild to your heart's content. Juuuust keep in mind that your actions have consequences. Nobody's stopping you from setting all these buildings on fire, do what you want. But. Nothing will save you from prison! And let me just say. I made them pretty realistic. As in your character will be locked away for possibly months at a time depending on the crime. The time will pass faster if you actually sit as your character and think about what you've done, buuuut you have limited time. So it might just be better to make an entirely new character using one of the other character slots."
I notice some people turn and begin moving away.
"Would anyone care for a tour of Magnolia?" I question. "You can ask me questions as we walk."
Some falter at that, but others decide to just wander off to experience this new world. To those that stay? Well, let's show them around!