Good Morning! A screen, which materialized directly in front of Sebastian's face as soon as his eyes opened displayed the annoying message and stung his eyes with its glow as he awoke, it was like this every morning. The HUD glowed with various stats, tabs and current events which scrolled across on a banner at the top. His eyes scanned across before they directed the HUD about, allowing him to open his inventory which caused a much larger screen to appear a bit further out from his waist. Scrolling through he unselected his current outfit titled 'Sleepwear', which was little more than a pair of shorts he managed to find at some stall in Cloudhaven and an overly large undershirt one typically wore underneath armor, before selecting his 'Blade Warden' outfit. As he stood, a shimmering effect encased everything below his neck and a metal band shape around his head glowing all kinds of colors before finally dispersing and giving a full view of what he wore, his ankle-high brown leather boots laced up the front with a pair of cream colored pants tucked into them. His leather cuirass with its high collar was placed over a dark red short sleeved shirt along with a pair of hard leather vambraces on each wrist.
As he turned, he caught his reflection in a mirror placed above a dresser within the room. He sighed slightly and realized simply how pathetic he looked. He probably appeared to be one of those amateurs who joined the game only days before, but in reality Sebastian was one of the first people online aside from those who played in the Beta. Within his first week of playing, the only thing he managed to do was raise enough gold to begin a guild, which still held no members and acquire a second blade, along with his metal head gear which looked foolish quite honestly but gave him a strong defense bonus he needed since he was soloing, for now. Once he got his guild up and running, he was going to buy much better gear.
Sebastian took one last look around the room that he was fortunate enough to claim last night, which held little decoration aside from a small table accompanied by two chairs, a double bed and a single dresser but it was better than sleeping on the street like some people had to. Striding out of the room which let out to a railing overlooking the large dining room below where players of all shapes and sizes sat discussing, laughing and crying all the same. Some were still weeping for the life they were now bestowed with while others were becoming more and more numb, or much like Sebastian understood this was something they would never have a chance to experience again and quite frankly he couldn't be happier than escaping the real world and entering one full of adventure. Smiling a bit he held held onto the hilt of the rapier which sat attached at his waist and walked towards the staircase thinking up what he might do for the day, he needed to first reset his hunger and have something to eat, then he would need to check the armor shop for anything better than this silly leather top before heading back out into the Cave, a small and rather unknown dungeon which existed outside of the city's borders right on the edge of the sky island, as far as Sebastian knew no one else had even been in there but it wasn't shocking as the strongest thing that existed there was cave rats, slightly stronger than a sewer rat and thankfully without the disease debuff. For the last five days, Sebastian stayed alone in that cave and farmed them non-stop.
The thought being on the island still filled Sebastian with curiosity he was familiar to, he couldn't believe with such a powerful virtual reality the game was restricted to only this island. Within the week of playing he had as far as he knew no one had left the Island though, some suspected you had to pay for travel across the air and the ground was nothing, no way to get there. There was airships and other forms of transportation open but they were far too expensive for anyone to afford yet and he imagined even if they had managed to take one it would take them a while to go there and come back, which made him begin to think on how the the trip would go about. Would it be fast travel or in an actual time format where you had to wait? How would it work within this world? What lies beyond the clouds that cover the surface and the horizon that stretches forever. When he began the game, Sebastian never thought there was more out there and from other players he spoken to neither did they. Then a voice shattered his focus, bringing him back into reality where somehow he was now sitting at a table with a menu in front of him. "Sir? Yes? Sir?" a beautiful female player, obviously working as a waitress, stood in front of him smiling realizing she now had his attention "Yes, hello. Would you like to order?". Sebastian stared for a second before stuttering out "O-oh Y-yeah I'll have the uhh, some water and.." he fumbled for the menu he neglected to look at before allowing his eyes scanned it, everything was well over at least four hundred gold, how could anyone afford these prices when low level mobs drop no more than 30 gold? "I guess some grilled chicken with rice would be alright." She nodded and smiled before taking the menu and walking off.
As he waited Sebastian began to get caught up in yet another train of thought, something typical of him even in the real world, but not long enough to form much before something caught his attention. "Yeah I heard it too. There's something under the clouds. The guy really did it." His eyes glanced over to three overweight players who sat side by side clad in slightly heavy armor, they must've been here for a while to get gear that advanced. He couldn't tell what they had been talking about and began straining his ears to hear more, "This guy back in the beta, before death was a permanent thing. He leapt off Cloudhaven and fell straight into the clouds. When he respawned back at the cathedral he said there was these huge walls that were really dirty and old, like they had been there a while. He could see it stretched for miles in all directions but didn't have enough time falling to really see before you know, splat." The guy shoved more food in his mouth, spitting it across the table as he continued to talk "I hear he tried it three or four more times but still can't understand just what exactly is down there. And since no one has found a better way down, guess we'll never know." What did this mean, Sebastian rubbed his chin a bit as it wracked his brain before he saw the woman approaching. At the prospect of food all thoughts of what the men had said were wiped away at the prospect of food. She smiled before placing a large plate dominated by a thick piece of golden brown chicken placed atop a generous pile of rice. The meal smelled so good, without hesitation he began to attack the dish placed in front of him which horrified the waitress slightly, causing her to scrunch her face a bit and slip away. Whoever the chef they had must've had an advanced cooking skill to make something this he thought to himself as he devoured the succulent meat cheerfully.
