Asgard - Game of the Year edition

AN: Originally, I had downloaded this really cool font called Norse (just Google it, the top link is the one I used) but it doesn't show up in here and I don't know how to put it in Google Docs. So, sadly, you'll miss that bit of immersion. I hope the rest of the chapter makes up for it though!

Legal stuff: All rights to the characters that I haven't created myself belong to their respective owners, in this case, Disney (this day and age, what isn't). This was written as a gift for one of my Patrons, as thanks for their continued support, I hope I'm not infringing on any copyright laws by writing this...

////

I awoke groggily, the world around me just varying shades of dimness that were gradually becoming lighter, whereas a ringing noise in the back of my skull kept on getting louder and louder. After what seemed like an agonizing eternity, my sight returned to the point that I could make out my surroundings-

“What.” 

-only to see that they were completely different from my last location, which happened to be my comfortable bed in my meticulously decorated bedroom.

Not what appeared to be the belly of a wooden ship!

Quickly looking around, I saw that the brig was filled with nervous looking men, all of them either firmly looking down at the tips of their feet or out the windows-

Holy shit, was that a mountain top!?

Turning to look towards my left, I saw that I was indeed flying, a rolling landscape of green hills,  dense forests and farmland gliding away underneath me, at what appeared to be quite a speed.

“Hey you, you’re finally awake!”

Turning towards the voice to my right, I could feel my eyebrows rise in surprise as I noticed with a start that I recognized the speaker, though he looked decades younger than I remembered him, appearing to be in the prime of his life: Peter MacNicol.

The man was an actor, who had given his voice to some of my favorite cartoons, and had featured in the Marvel series Agents of SHIELD as an Asgardian…

… Whose homeland housed a palace that looked exactly like the one that I now saw far in the distance from high up in the air.

“Oh fuck.”

“Nervous, huh? I don’t blame you. You were trying to enter the Army, right? Walked right into that recruitment station same as us and that thief over there.” The actor says, pointing his chin in the direction of a man I don’t recognize, who’s sitting on the bench in front of us.

“Damn those Shi’ar... Asgard was fine until they came along! The Eihenjar were nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for recruits I’d have stolen that Skiff and been halfway to Vanaheim.” The man groused, before turning to look at me, his gaze becoming somewhat desperate.

“You there, you and me, we shouldn’t be here. It’s these Berserker-wannabe’s the Eihenjar wants.”

I listen with mounting horror as the classic Skyrim intro continues (though it seems edited somewhat to accommodate the different setting), before a harsh shudder runs through the ship, jostling everyone inside, and nearly throwing me to the ground.

“W-What’s happening?” the Skiff thief asked in a panicky voice, though he only received a wry reply from the actor sitting next to me.

“What do you think? End of the line.”

Footsteps thunder up ahead, and then an Asgardian warrior descends down the short ladder in the front, his eyes narrowing as he takes in the disheveled state of the brig’s occupants.

“Alright you lot! Form an orderly line, and get out the ship! Wait in ranks until your name is called, then step forwards! You will be examined, and either marked fit for duty, or send back to whatever hole you crawled out of! For the volunteers, this means going back to your homes! For the criminals amongst you who were hoping to cut a deal, it’s the dungeons for you! Get moving!” the warrior thundered, before disappearing to the upper deck, the thief across from me gulping nervously at the notion of returning to prison if he’s found not fit for service.

The back end of the flying boat we’re on suddenly splits across an almost invisible seam near the ceiling, the entire wall lowering like a ramp, much like you saw with those military troop carriers. As light harshly streamed inside, making many shield their eyes with soft curses, we slowly started to make our way outside, finding ourselves standing on a large dusty square a few miles out of the city of Asgard itself, the Royal Palace looming like a golden mountain in the distance.

To my mounting horror, I can feel my body stand up and follow the others without my input, as it’s following along in what I now recognize as a cinematic. The only think I can do is look around, but my body unerringly moves into position without my control.

As we shuffle into rough ranks, the warrior from before walks to the front of our group (there’s roughly a dozen of us), standing next to a stern looking woman in armor. It takes me a couple of moments before my shell-shocked brain recognizes her as none other than Lady Sif, and once again my mind just sort of crashes as the surrealism of my situation catches up to me.

Honestly, at this point I’m half convinced I’m either lucid dreaming, or tripping hard.

Or both.

Lucid tripping?

I’m shaken from my musings when the warrior (I don’t recognize him, and I’m vaguely thankful for it, since I don’t think I could handle yet another shock to my system so soon on the heels of the earlier ones) takes a list out of a satchel at his side, which prompts Peter (or Elliot Randolph, as he would be called in a few centuries’ time) to snort.

“The Eihenjar loves their damned lists.”

“Fridgeir Kjallaksson!”

A tall, dark-haired man steps forwards, and Sif looks him up and down with a searching gaze, before she jerks her chin in the direction of the examination post behind her, which is basically a large tent with a sturdy desk in front of it, and several robed people standing around it.

I’m oddly reminded of the scene in Shrek where Farquaad’s knights are rounding up fairytale creatures, where Donkey was nearly sold.

As Fridgeir is made to stand perfectly still, the robed people running hands covered in glowing arrays and runes over his body, the warrior from before calls out another name.

“Cnut Kodransson!”

At the commanding shout, a rail-thin man steps forwards, and judging by Sif’s cold look, his prospects of joining whatever branch of Asgard’s military we’ve apparently ‘volunteered’ for are pretty slim. Still, after a few long moments, Sif apparently decides to give him a shot anyways, and once again jerks her head towards the examination post, where Fridgeir was apparently cleared, since he’s standing to the right of the tent, appearing somewhat lost.

A few more names are called, most of which are sent on to the examination post, where about half are rejected for the Army, with the approved half standing in a rough line (they had originally been milling about until the man with the list turned around with a gimlet eye, snapping them into ranks). However, two men, both appearing quite frail, and one of them even sickly, were immediately denied by Sif, who merely shook her head when they had stepped forwards.

They joined the rejects off to the side, where they were guided one by one back into the ship.

“Thorgrim Heriolfsson!”

At that, the thief that had been sitting across from me and the man who would later become the Warrior Who Stayed looked up sharply, sweat breaking out on his brow.

“No! I’m not a fighter! You can’t do this!”

And with those memorable words, Thorgrim breaks ranks, making a run for it, his Aesir (or Vanir) biology meaning that he’s moving at speeds most Olympian-level athletes would be hard-pressed to match.

I’ve seen this play out so many times before, I’m taken off guard when arrows don’t start flying.

Instead, one of the surrounding guards takes out what almost look like bolas, which he throws towards the fleeing thief with tremendous power and incredible accuracy. His aim is true, and the wires pull taut around Thorgrim’s body, and immediately a bright electric current runs through them, throwing the deserter to the ground.

And then Sif’s suddenly there (I hadn’t even seen her move, as absorbed as I had been by the spectacle in front of me), a slim boot keeping Thorgrim firmly pressed to the ground.

“You are one of the criminals, who pledged to fight in order to escape the dungeons, are you not?” the beautiful warrior says in a chilling tone, getting a frantic nod from aforementioned criminal.

“Having seconds thoughts, are we?” Sif asks, and once again Thorgrim nods in agreement.

“Yes! By Odin, yes! Put me back in the cells! I don’t want to be a meatshield, please!”

“Normally, desertion would warrant a stay in the dungeons. However, since giving you what you want can hardly be considered a punishment, I have something else planned for you. Rise, Thorgrim Heriolfsson. You’re part of the Berserker Army now. Congratulations.”

And with that, the lithe woman bends down, grabs the thief by the back of his shirt, and physically throws him dozens of feet towards where the approved fighters are already waiting, a few laughs and whistles ringing out from the assembled Nordic warriors.

Figures that in a culture like this one, being forced to fight and face death against your will is considered to be something funny.

Eventually, all names are called (and I learn that the Warrior Who Stayed was called Engli Ingolfsson before he left Asgard and became Elliot Randolph) and I’m standing alone in front of Sif and the warrior with the list.

Which he’s studying intently as Sif narrows her eyes at me.

Eventually, the warrior looks up at me in visible confusion.

“Wait... You there. Step forward. Who are you?”

And then there’s this sickening lurch, as the entirety of reality is yanked to the side, inverted, turned inside out and then spit out again. My brain screams in confusion and sheer panic at the impossibility of the world around us as it stretches and twists in ways that just are plain impossible and then-

“Holy. Shit.”

-I’m looking at my body.

A 3rd person view of my own fucking body! It takes a bit of figuring out (and much internal screaming and panicking), but apparently I’m now stuck in my character creation process, with my body running on autopilot, and with the actual me being a disembodied observer.

It’s really fucking creepy to just see yourself stand like a statue, only the visible rise and fall of your own chest, and the blinking of your eyes (which doesn’t correspond to your own uninterrupted floating vision) showing that you aren’t dead.

The rest of the world has just kinda… paused.

Not frozen, since there’s still wind ruffling the grass and my clothing (which I can’t feel, there’s barely even any sensory data coming from my body at this point) and with other people clearly looking around and blinking, but nobody’s doing… well, anything at all really.

All of them are just standing around, looking straight ahead, and as I try to look up, the sun is still in the exact same spot in the sky.

Game mechanics are weird.

The moment I think that, a slightly transparent screen shows up in front of me, nearly filling my entire vision. The borders are stylized pillars covered in Celtic knots, whereas the font of the actual messages appear in a Nordic runic style, though the letters are still Latin.

It’s definitely a character creation screen, showcasing several sliders in a sheet to the left of my body, with a large banner above it all, which highlights a word, with arrows off to both sides.

The sliders say things like head, body, size and all those kinds of things that you expect from the RPG-games with a more detailed character creation process, like Cryptic Games or DCU Online. The sign at the top reads…

Human

Wow. Okay. So, if my guess is correct, then…

Hesitantly, I try to ‘press’ the button to the right, which I’m unsure how to do, since my actual fucking body is standing right in front of me, which has the needed appendages to press anything at all, since I’m currently disembodied (I’m still somewhat freaking out over that part if you couldn’t tell, by the way).

However, whatever weird game mechanics the universe now seems to be running on appear to have correctly interpreted my will, since the arrow briefly fills in with a soft orange glow, before the banner smoothly slides to the right, landing on…

Asgardian

Oh fuck. Fuck me. I can be an Asgardian!? What the- I can’t even- WHAT!?

Learning that apparently my humanity is optional at this point, and that apparently I can turn into a literal fucking god with nothing but the push of a button (metaphorically speaking, since I’m currently incapable of pushing anything, still not over that) sends me into a panic attack that lasts a little bit longer than the previous ones.

Don’t get me wrong, a small part of me, the geek that had always dreamed of being transported to another (fictional) universe was squealing in joy as it recognized the potential for sheer awesome my life now had.

The rest of me, however, was more occupied with why I had suddenly gone from peacefully sleeping in my bed to looking at my own body as it stood in simple clothes in a fictional universe under the beaming sun of Asgard, with me stuck as a disembodied spirit looking at a fucking gaming menu, deciding if I should become a God or not.

Eventually, I calmed down enough to start thinking (somewhat) logically again, and I realized that, until I finished creating my character (or, well, me), the world wouldn’t move on and I’d essentially be trapped.

However, since the world was put on pause until I was finished, I had all the time in the world to sit back, calm down, and start thinking things through, the small voice inside my disembodied head that had been silently insisting that this was cool as shit slowly growing louder and louder.

Alright, priorities.

One: create a kick-ass avatar for myself. I’m talking abs, on top of my abs here.

Two: finish creating my avatar, and hope to god that the Skyrim theme continues, meaning that I’ll get dropped into a Tutorial where there’ll be plenty of exposition.

Three: definitely do not think about the possibility of being thrown into a Dark Souls-style game instead, since apparently, that’s enough to send me on another hour-long freak-out.

Four: once the Tutorial is ended, and I’m presumably given my Main Quest, learn the ins and outs of the game mechanics as thoroughly as possible.

Five: once the game mechanics are understood, exploit the fuck outta them. Munchkinry and farming should be my main priorities from here on out (fuck the Main Quest, I’d played Skyrim for years and never fought Anduin even once, hopefully I could pull something similar here).

Six: once enough power and knowledge have been amassed, make the most important decision of my life.

Go home… or stay.

After my freak-out over my new surroundings, new universe, new state of being, and apparently the freedom to choose my new species and even mortality, had subsided somewhat, I recognized the fact that, in a way, this was ridiculously awesome.

Being a Gamer, in the MCU?

Other than the possibility of galactic-scale death every couple of years or so, this was pretty much everybody’s dream (alright, not everybody, but a significant portion of the internet at least).

By the time I’ve become powerful enough that returning to my old dimension might be possible, enough time might have elapsed (and enough power gained), that I might not want to return at all.

I’d miss my friends, my family, and most importantly, my dog of course, I wasn’t going to forget that, but honestly?

What did my old universe offer, other than the utterly mundane? Yes, you could build a good life for yourself there, even become happy if you worked for it and had a little luck on your side.

But here?

Here I could become a God…

Still, that’s far off though, years at least at my most optimistic estimate. First things first: creating my Avatar.

Honestly, other than becoming visibly more buff than human me (which had been pretty average looking, if I was being totally honest), the Asgardian version of me wasn’t all that different. Still, as tempting as it was to remain one of the Aesir, I made sure to view all possible options before committing to anything.

With the universe on pause as it was, I had all the time in the world.

Quickly ‘clicking’ on the right button until I landed on human again (all the while trying to ignore the very faint, and very weird sensations that registered whenever my character suddenly gained vastly differing proportions) I mentally reviewed all the races that I could now belong to.

Human

A relatively young race, Humans are not the strongest, nor the smartest beings in the universe. However, they are capable of great feats, both evil and good, and possess an unusually mutable genetic structure, as well as a talent for magic. Will you raise your people up from the dirt of their home planet, or will you advance your own might to unparalleled heights?

Asgardian

An old race, the great Aesir of Asgard are both venerated and feared throughout the cosmos. An impressive biology, combined with an unparalleled mastery of magitech, has made sure that Asgardians are considered amongst the most powerful species in existence, and they prove that reputation each and every day. How will you add to their legend?

Vanir

Cousins to the mighty Asgardians, Vanir are a nomadic warrior people, who try to live in peace amongst the wilderness of Vanaheim, something that is quite difficult as it has faced many interstellar raids during its long history, though they are secure in the knowledge that their cousins stand with them. Battle-hardened as all Vanir are, will you repay this debt, or will you show that with your coming, it has become obsolete?

Dwarf

The greatest crafters in the universe bar none, the Dwarves have created some of the mightiest weapons in the history of the universe, the most famous being Gungir and Mjolnir. Led by their King Eitri, Dwarves harness the heart of the dying star in Nidavellir to create wonders the galaxy has never seen before. What wonders shall you create?

Jotun

Children of ancient Ymir, the Jotun are old, older than most. Hailing from the frozen wastes of Jotunheim, where the cold would slay most others, the Frost Giants  have a long and violent history with Asgard, as one of the few who could stand against them, until mighty Odin defeated King Laufey in dire battle. Shall you become a  bridge between realms, bringing peace… or a terrible storm, bringing eternal winter?

Kree

Masters of warfare, the Kree are feared by many in the galaxy and rightfully so. As strong as most Asgardians, and unparalleled in the field of genetics, the Kree themselves are responsible for the rise of many other mighty species, like the Inhumans. However, none approach their makers in sheer power. Will you be the one that will bring an end to their genetic deadlock, raising the Kree higher than ever before?

Skrull

Masters of infiltration, the shapeshifting Skrulls are by their very nature a species shrouded in myth and mystery, though their long-standing hatred of the Kree is known to all. Despite the fact that much of them remains hidden in shadow, all the races of the galaxy recognize their indisputable strength. Maybe it is time for you to bring your people to the light, allowing all to bask in your greatness?

Xandarian

The Xandarians hail from beautiful Xandar, headquarters of the Nova Empire and home to the Nova Corps. As such, many Xandarians enter this austere peace-keeping branch, where almost all acquit themselves with the honor befitting their noble heritage as founders of one of the largest empires in the history of the galaxy. Do you have it in you to rise through the corps’ ranks as so many before you?

Sakaarian

You hail from Sakaar, but like many on the Grandmaster’s playground, you were not born there. Your origins are known only to yourself, your goals something those around you can only guess at, but your arrival onto Sakaar mirrors that of many others, those who were lost and forgotten. Having no past, you can decide your own future. Will you return to the glory of the arena? Or will you finally claim your place upon the galactic stage?

As I had suspected, there were racial bonuses to each different race (for example, the Frost Giants granted immunity to cold penalties, while the Skrull had a bonus to their stealth), and offered incredibly extensive modification, as well as differing base stats.

After figuring out what the stats were (just your basic Strength, Agility and Intellect which hinted at the classic trifecta of Warrior, Rogue and Wizard so common in fantasy RPG), I tried to figure out how they interacted.

There were three bars at the top-right of my field of vision, each one encased in silver stylized snake-like animals (probably Jormungandr, if the Nordic theme continued), with the top one being a ruby red, the middle one an emerald green, and the bottom one a sapphire blue. So, health, stamina and mana, if my educated guess was correct.

Selecting a race with a high Strength stat increased my health bar, which would be my Vitality, I guess. Whereas picking a race with high Agility increased my stamina, though I’m not sure how this translated to game-play. Did it mean I could just run longer, or did certain actions like rolling take a certain amount of stamina, meaning that with a higher Agility stat, I would be more nimble because I could dodge more? At least the Intellect Stat was fairly straight-forwards (which I increased by picking dwarf which offered the highest Intellect stat, a pretty decent Strength stat, but a very low Agility stat) since it would most likely just increase my mana pool and ability to learn or perform spells.

On that note, maybe some weapons had certain stat checks? A Warhammer that you need 50 Strength to lift, or a bow that required 30 Agility to use?

Something that the Tutorial would no doubt teach me (god, I hope there’s a Tutorial), so I put it out of my mind, as I looked at each race’s stats in order to figure out which would give me the most benefits, taking their racial bonuses into account.

The more humanoid races were fairly evenly matched, all things considered, with kree and Asgardian being outliers in the Strength stat, the skrull in the Agility stat, and with sakaarian giving me the freedom to distribute my stats myself, since it seemed that that option allowed me to build a race of my own. The stats of human were definitely sub-par compared to the other races, but its racial passives made up for that:

Genetic mutability: Within your DNA lies tremendous potential, it merely needs to be unleashed. By finding certain items throughout the game, you can drastically increase your stats and even gain special bonuses and skills, unique to humanity!

Mastery of magic: Humans are unusually attuned to the mystic arts, with their most powerful sorcerers being able to face the gravest threats both in and outside of their dimension. -70 to intellect checks on spellbooks.

On the genetic mutability perk, my mind immediately flashed to both Extremis as well as gamma radiation. Getting either one of those would easily put me on par with the average Asgardian, and it were also the most blatant cases of humans ‘powering up’, even when by all rights they should be killed instead. It seems a staple of the superhero franchise that humans undergo lethal events (lab accidents and radioactive spiderbites come to mind) only to emerge with powers instead.

DNA mutability indeed.

On the magic perk, not only did it hint towards the fact that Magic was pretty powerful in this setting, something that I should definitely get my hands on as soon as possible, it also confirmed my hunch that there are stat-based requirements for wielding certain items.

After deciphering the system on which my life now apparently ran as best I could, I decided to relax somewhat by focusing on lighter things. After comparing stats and bonuses for each race very carefully, I was fairly certain of my decision, but I still wanted to see what the customization options were for all the races.

I had always enjoyed character creations (in fact, there were certain games where I got bored with the game itself after half an hour, but easily spent four times that just creating dozens and dozens of characters), though this time, I wouldn’t let appearances dictate my game-play anymore (like in World of Warcraft, where I would occasionally pass on an item if it didn’t fit with the rest of my outfit).

Ironically, despite the way the universe now interacted with me, this wasn’t a game to me, this was my life. I couldn’t afford to go into this with a casual gamer outlook. I needed to min-max the shit out of this game, since this was a literal case of life and death.

And on that gloomy thought, let’s get to creating my avatar, shall we! (Escapism? Who? Me? Why, I never-)

One of the first things that I did, was look at the more basic sliders, for size and muscle mass and the like. They shifted somewhat with each race (for instance, there was very little variation in the size slider when I selected dwarf, but offered tremendous differences when I picked sakaarian, since that allowed me to completely create my own race) but the general gist of it was the same.

And one feature that I always enjoyed exploiting was incorporated as well, bringing a ‘smile’ to my disembodied face.

There was a slider for general size… and there were sliders for individual body-parts.

And if you put overall size at its maximum… it didn’t affect the other sliders.

Meaning that when I landed on Asgardian again, and raised the slider to its maximum (making me easily 7 foot tall), I could still increase the size of my arms, torso and legs. Increasing those as well just for the hell of it made me a rail thin giant of a whopping 10 feet or more, so I increased body mass and muscles to their max as well in order to even it out.

Holy. Shit.

Thanos would look like an underfed little bitch compared to me with all of the body-sliders turned to maximum.

These sizes applied for many of the other more human looking races, with Vanir, Human, and Xandarian having almost the exactly the same proportions, whereas Kree gave me a couple more inches in height, though I didn’t become quite as massive as I had with the other races. Skrull went completely nuts though, easily being two feet taller than the other humanoid races, and visibly more massive as well, which is to be expected from a shapeshifting race, I suppose.

The giant races, Jotun and (ironically) Dwarf didn’t offer such drastic differences in size, though I noted with some amusement that I could make dwarf-me ridiculously overweight. Not that they really needed the added size though, since most races, even at their absolute max, were just about as large as the Dwarf at default settings, and the default Jotun easily stood head and shoulders above the more humanoid races, and could grow about three feet taller still, though not much bulkier.

After playing around a bit with the body sliders, just trying to get a feel for what’s possible, I take a quick peek into customizations…

Oh…

Hot damn, that’s a lot…

Sliders for each individual part of the face, hundreds of hairstyles, dozens of skin tones, eye colors, hair dyes, and then there are at least six different options for scars, and another eight for tattoos and the like.

It’s even worse when I check Sakaarian.

Since it lets me build my own race, there are options for skin texture, number of eyes, number of mouths… absolutely everything, and I do mean, everything is customizable, and I’m not ashamed at all to admit I played around for several hours just creating to my heart’s content, adding limbs and wings and tails as I please.

Eventually though, I return to my chosen race:

Asgardian

It offers the best base stats, with one of the highest Strength ratings amongst all races, and with Agility and Intellect not that far behind, though those two are outshined by skrull and dwarf respectively.

Then there are the racial passives:

Warrior’s body: Your body is suited for the rage of war, as are all Asgardians, giving you enhanced Strength and Agility, and with the Intellect to use the advanced magitech of your people. -30 to strength checks, -20 to Agility checks, -10 to Intellect checks.

A god’s domain: The incredible power of the Aesir, combined with their close connection to the world around them, can give certain individuals powers connected to an aspect of life, which can vastly increase their strength, depending on the domain. This can be elemental, such as lightning, or conceptual, such as lying. Advancing enough in a single path will eventually grant you a domain. Multiple domains can be held simultaneously.

Yeah, that last sentence? If I actually had a body, I’d be salivating. No wonder that Hela had become so ridiculously strong that she could crush Uru with her bare hands. Death was an aspect to all life, getting that as a domain would be a massive powerup. And if I could just keep on stacking domains over different aspects of life, I have a real shot at equaling that tremendous power. I’m not sure what the game means with Path, but I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of the skill trees in Skyrim, where lighting up different nodes grants special bonuses.

I’m hoping that at the end of these skill trees lies a node with ‘Domain’.

Because if that’s the case, I’m going to master all the skills.

Omnipotence, here I come!

So, having settled on my race (Asgardian) and my body-type (as massive as it will go, since a: it looks cool as fuck, and b: hopefully it’ll give me a slight increase in stats, though I’m not counting on it) I start customizing.

I’ll just give you the general details, since I spent hours and hours on it, and that would just be boring to relate if I’m being honest. Suffice to say, I went for the classic ‘Barbarian’ look. So, heavy mane of reddish hair, a thick full beard, a long scar over the bridge of my nose and another over my left eye. Celtic knots and tribal swirls covered my upper arms and shoulders, as well as one of my (now massive) pecs, with more scars criss-crossing my torso (though none on my back, something that I learned from one of the most badass pirate in fiction, or just badass person in fiction, honestly). Several beads hang in my shaggy mane and a fang of some animal hangs from a small loop in my ear.

‘Standing’ back a bit to admire my handiwork, I look up at the looming from that is now my body, studying the basketball-sized biceps with pride.

I. Look. Awesome.

Studying the floating menu, I spot an arrow with next on it, so I push it, watching as the character creation screen is replaced by a small floating square, with just a single line of text and an open box beneath it.

What is your name? Please choose carefully, as it cannot be changed later.

Resisting the urge to either fill in Carefully, or Cannot Be Changed Later (while funny for a game, it’d be pretty annoying to have as my actual name), I decide on what I’ll call my avatar, before I glance in its direction, where it’s still standing motionless, staring blankly ahead of itself with soulless eyes.

It looks awesome sure.

It just doesn’t look like me.

Nothing here looks like me, like something that I belong in. Not the body, not the people, not the clothes, not the country surrounding us.

For fuck’s sakes, this isn’t even my universe!

Turning back towards the empty box, I decide that I don’t care if it’s not an awesome fantasy name, or that it doesn’t sound properly Asgardian. I’m sticking with the only thing that I have left.

My name.

“Michael McCole.” I call out clearly and calmly, and I watch with interest as the name Michael McCole fills in the box, as if typed by invisible hands.

‘Pressing’ the yes button at the bottom of the screen, I press yes again when it asks me if I’m sure, and then-

‘Oh god, oh my fucking god, what the hell-‘

-the universe lurches and twists once again, and them I’m back inside my body, looking out at the world around me from actual eyeballs, instead of some disembodied field of vision.

And holy shit, I’m tall now.

Glancing down at the now tiny Asgardian warrior and Lady Sif, I can hear myself rumble an answer that the pair have been waiting for hours for, despite the fact that no time has passed.

“Michael McCole.”

“You picked a bad time to come home to Asgard, kinsman.” The warrior stated, as if it had been mere moments since he had asked me my name, instead of the literal hours and hours it had actually been, before turning towards Lady Sif.

“Captain. What should we do? He’s not on the list.”

For a moment, Sif stares my hulking 10 feet tall form, and then narrows her eyes at me.

“Forget the list. He joins the ranks.”

“By your orders, Captain.” Said the warrior, giving a nod, before he turned back towards me.

“I’m sorry. At least you’re fighting here, in your homeland. Follow the Captain, Beserker.”

And once again, control is stolen from my body as Sif turns around, my avatar obediently following in her footsteps, though I can still crane my head around as I observe what’s going on around us. The rejected applicants are almost all loaded back onto the ship, whereas the people of the examination post are picking up their things as well.

As the approved recruits form neat, professional ranks under the forbidding eye of Lady Sif, the warrior motions over towards the side, where two of the surrounding guards hurriedly approach with the classic wooden training dummy.

They quickly place it on the ground next to Sif, who comes to a halt after we’ve been set up to her satisfaction.

“Before you go out in the field, it’s important to know how Combat works. There are three types of Damage you can inflict upon your enemies: Melee, Ranged and Magic. Melee damage is increased by your Strength, Ranged damage is increased by your Agility, Magic damage is increased by your Intellect. As you gain Experience using a branch, you will gain Proficiency in that kind of Attack, and eventually gain a Bonus, such as increased Chance for Critical Strikes, or a higher Attack Speed. Since you will primarily be fighting with Staves, let’s try that first.” Comes the traditional Tutorial speech (thank god there actually is a tutorial, instead of a more Dark Souls-approach).

Right as Sif finishes speaking, however, a training dummy simply… fades into view right in front of me. Looking to my sides, I can already see my fellow recruits making repetitive motions as they strike at their own personal dummies, which had definitely not been there before.

Looking down at my own enormous hands, I spot a Stave that had definitely not been there before.

As I’m fighting down the panic of suddenly finding something in my hands without any warning, a screen pops up in the upper left of my vision, thankfully distracting me.

Sticks and… Staves?

Strike the dummy five times! 

0/5

Rewards:

10 xp

10 G

Training Staff

So, my first Quest huh? Seems pretty straight forwards. Looking around, I see that nobody really seems to pay any attention to me just standing there, my fellow warriors still repeating their attacking motions.

Alrighty then.

Lifting the Staff up, I’m surprised to find that my other hand automatically comes up to grasp the smooth wood as well, holding it with a feeling of familiarity.

Of course.

Every game character ever at least knows how to auto-attack.

As I suspected, swinging the weapon comes completely natural as well, the attack ‘animation’ smoothly transitioning from one strike to the next.

12 Damage!

15 Damage!

11 Damage!

18 damage!

I’m taken off guard when I try to attack for the fifth time, however.

It seems my Combat System has some sort of Combo mechanism, since instead of merely striking the torso of the dummy with the top part of the Staff, I suddenly find my body grasping the Staff firmly in both hands, lifting it high above my head, and bringing it down with an almighty crash, raising dust from the ground.

24 damage!

The Training Dummy, being a Training Dummy, is completely fine of course.

There’s a soft ‘ping!’ sound, indicating that the Quest has been completed, and Sif starts talking again.

“Merely Attacking is not enough to defeat your enemies, of course. As your Proficiency with a type of Attack grows, you’ll accumulate Skills that you can use to deal increased Damage, or apply Status Effects. You should know two Skills already, let’s try those now.” Sif spoke up in a wooden tone, the scripted dialogue sounding just artificial enough to invoke the Uncanny Valley.

Quickly looking away from the glaring woman, I return my gaze to my Training Dummy, and as I raise my Training Staff once more, I now spot a banner in the bottom of my vision, with twelve sunken squares inside. The left three are filled in, one showing crossed swords, the one to its right showing an icon of a glowing sword, and the third one showing a stylized foot, with a crack at its heel.

Alright, so these are my Combat skills. Can I call up a description or something? I have actual hands now, so maybe I can actually interact with my menu? Raising one massive hand, I extend a finger the size of billy club towards the left icon, taking care not to press it. As my digit hovers over the skill, a screen shows up above it, with a short description on it.

Melee Auto-Attack – LVL MAX. – Range: 3 feet

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers. Gains bonuses through increased proficiency in the Melee path. Combo’s can be unlocked throughout the game.

10-20 melee damage

Known combo’s:

Headcrack: chain 5 basic attacks

20-30 melee damage

Alright, so if I understood this correctly, advancing my Melee Skill Tree would make my Auto-attacks more powerful. Knowing that I could add Combo’s to my fighting was useful, but it was somewhat annoying that it didn’t say how I could unlock more Combo’s.

Oh well, let’s check out my actual skills then, shall we?

Heavy Strike - LVL 1 – Range: 5 feet

A heavy handed strike, use this to deal extra damage to your opponent. Damage is increased based on your strength. Always hits, but cannot Crit.

50-80 Melee Damage

Always hits, but cannot crit, huh? Well, at least the damage bonus from my high Strength Stat (thanks to picking Asgardian) means that it’s still fairly powerful compared to my Auto-Attacks. And now, for my last skill…

Ankle Biter – LVL 1 – Range: 3 feet

A mean, but useful strike, use this to cripple your opponent. Duration of cripple is increased by the skill level, severity of cripple is increased by your strength.

20-30 melee Damage

-15% movement speed for 1.5 seconds

Hmm, not too much damage, but the debuff is pretty useful. The best thing about it, is that the Slow is increased based on my Strength. So, theoretically, if my Strength is maxed out, I could use this skill to completely freeze someone in place.

Like I said, useful.

As I look up from my examination of my first skills, I once again spot a smaller window in the upper left of my vision, giving me another Quest.

More than merely waving your stick…

Use your skills to defeat your opponent!

Heavy Strike: 0/3

Ankle biter: 0/2

Rewards:

10 xp

10 G

Training armor

Armor as a reward huh? Alright, let’s do this! I raise my weapon into the familiar attacking-position, before I glance at my displayed skills again. Taking my hands off my weapon mid-fight in order to use my skills sounded both incredibly cumbersome, as well as incredibly stupid.

Maybe…?

Mentally selecting Heavy Strike, I ‘pressed’ it with my mind, like how I had operated my menu when I had been disembodied. Thankfully, it seems to work perfectly, the skill icon lighting up with that now familiar orange glow, and then-

“Whoa!”

-My body jerks forwards, both of my hands wrapped around the handle of my Training Staff, the whole thing lighting up with a white-golden glow, which leaves a bright streak in the air as I smash my weapon into the training dummy, the air itself wavering from the impact.

The Training Dummy is completely fine of course.

Looking around a bit frantically as I’m still trying to calm down a bit from that expression of sheer power, I’m a bit confused to see absolutely nobody even glancing in my direction.

Oh. Right. Game Tutorial.

People should be acting more realistic when I leave the strict script of the Tutorial.

Probably.

Hopefully.

Looking down at my skill bar, I can see a timer with a 1 on it fade away, bringing back the skill icon. Of course, how could I have forgotten about Cooldowns? Alright then, let’s test this, shall we?

Bringing the Training Staff up again, I once again use Heavy Strike, somewhat more prepared this time as my body immediately leaps into action, delivering a crushing blow on the indestructible training dummy.

This time I’m keeping an eye on the skill, seeing that it’s surrounded by a thin golden glow during the duration of the Attack. However, the moment I come to a halt, the icon grays out, a yellow 5 overlaid on top of it.

So, Heavy Strike has a CD of 5 seconds. It’s a bit long for one of my most basic skills, but I’ll just have to deal with it, I suppose.

By the time I’m done contemplating my first skill, the timer has almost finished, so I wait the final two seconds, and then use Heavy Strike once more, fulfilling the last requirement. After that, I look towards my second skill, and use that one as well.

The moment I ‘press’ the skill with my mind, I’m once again taken off guard as I suddenly whirl around, my Training Staff aimed low, which this time impacts the heavy wooden base of the Training Dummy.

As I straighten (and try to overcome my dizziness) I can see a floating icon above the Dummy’s head, of a stylized foot which is outlined in an angry red glow, a tiny 1.2 in the corner of the image, which is ticking down. When it reaches zero, the entire icon disappears.

So, I can see how long (de)buffs last just by looking at them. Very useful in combat, though the Cooldown once again disappoints me a bit, as I see a 4 ticking down again. My first two skills both have a CD of 5 seconds? That’s gonna be rough.

Well, at least I now know what I need to focus on first: raising the level of my Melee Skill Tree. Not only because of the fact that I’m reliant on my Auto Attacks for now, but also because hopefully somewhere in that tree there’s a Bonus that’ll grant me Cooldown Reduction.

Once more I hear the ‘ping!’ signifying that I’ve completed the Quest, and I turn towards Sif, ready for the next part of the Tutorial.

We’re next guided through Ranged Attacks (which suddenly places the Training Dummy around twenty feet away from me, and places a Training Bow in my hands, with a rectangle made of Celtic knots appearing in my vision) and the Ranged Skills.

Ranged Auto-Attack – LVL Max. – Range: 25 feet

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers. Gains bonuses through increased proficiency in the ranged path. Combo’s can be unlocked throughout the game.

8-18 ranged damage

Known Combo’s:

2 for 1: Chain 5 basic attacks

18-28 ranged Damage

Piercing Arrow – LVL 1 – range: 30 Feet

A Heavy Attack, use this to damage your opponents. partially Ignores Defenses. Damage increased by your agility, piercing ability increased by skill level

30-60 ranged Damage

Ignores 10% of opponent’s defense

Trip wire – LVL 1 – Range: 20 feet

A sneaky Attack, use this to Cripple your opponent. Duration of cripple is increased by the skill level, severity of cripple is increased by your agility.

16-26 ranged Damage

-15% movement speed for 1.5 seconds

Clearly, my lower Agility Stat translated to a lesser amount of damage in all of my Ranged Attacks, meaning that this Path was less of a priority to focus on, since I would probably rely mainly on my Melee Path, especially early game (eventually, of course, I’m going to max out all three Paths).

Completing the Ranged Tutorial Quests netted me 20 XP, 20 G, and the Training Bow as well as Training Bracers, which suddenly appeared on my forearms. They seemed to be made of some kind of supple dark-brown leather, matching the rest of my Training Armor, embossed with the tribal imagery of Asgard that I saw in the movies.

Then it was on to the Magic part of the Tutorial, which placed the Training Dummy closer to me, somewhere at a distance of roughly ten feet or so, while placing a heavy tome in my hand. Auto-Attacking with this Path was somewhat different from the others.

Whenever I auto-attacked, I opened my spell-book (which seemed to be filled with nonsensical scribbles) in one hand, letting it fall open roughly halfway, while raising my other hand. Just like with the Ranged mode of attacking, a targeting rectangle appeared, though this one seemed more… mystical, than the one used in the Ranged attack mode.

That one had been definitely Nordic themed, whereas this one leaned more towards the arrays that you saw Dr. Strange use.

Attacking meant throwing bolts of burning orange light at the Training Dummy from my raised hand, leaping from my flat palm, leaving an electric tingle after every attack.

Once again, I was taught three Skills.

Magic Auto-Attack – LVL Max. – Range: 15 feet

A basic attack, taught to all adventurers. Gains bonuses through increased proficiency in the magic path. Combo’s can be unlocked throughout the game.

6-16 ranged damage

Known Combo’s:

Spellslinger: Chain 5 basic attacks

16-26 ranged Damage

Bolts of Balthakk – LVL 1 – range: 15 Feet

An elemental Attack, use this to damage your opponents. Has a chance to apply burning. Damage increased by your intellect, burning damage and duration increased by skill level.

20-50 magic Damage

10% chance to apply burning status effect

Deals 8 elemental damage every second, lasts 5 seconds

Crimson Bands of Cyttorak – LVL 1 – Range: 10 feet

A binding Attack, use this to Cripple your opponent. Duration of cripple is increased by the skill level, severity of cripple is increased by your intellect.

12-22 magic Damage

-15% movement speed for 1.5 seconds

Even though slinging around magic was literally the coolest thing I have ever done, the reduced damage due to a (relatively) lower Intellect stat was extremely annoying, though the idea of using Elemental attacks nearly made me salivate.

It sucked that the skill description didn’t mention how I raised the chance of applying the Burning status effect (I only managed to get it once) but I had a feeling that it would be in the Magic Skill Tree.

It had better be, 90% of the time that skill would only do 20-50 Magic damage! These early game stats suck! I wanna speak to the Devs!

Anyways, completing the Magic Quests granted me another 20 XP (pushing me up to a total of 60, so depending on how much XP is needed to level up with this system, I might actually be close to Level 2 already), 20 G, as well as Training Spellbook and Training Hood, which placed a Hood on my head that seemed to be made out of a thinner kind of leather, though it’s brown coloring again fit with the rest of the theme of my Training Armor and Training Bracers.

After I had completed the Magic Quest, Sif spoke up once more, her speech obviously scripted.

“As you are a Beserker, you will have to deal with your Rage. Attacking, and being Attacked, will build Rage, which can unlock certain, powerful, Abilities that cost Rage to activate. Once you let your Rage built up to its fullest, however, you will be Overwhelmed, meaning that you’ll attack everything in sight uncontrollably, dealing and receiving increased damage, until all of your Rage has been depleted. Beware! If you don’t have a Healer on hand, this is likely to kill you! Let’s try it now. You there! Step forwards!” Sif called out, and knowing that’s she’s talking to me (I’m the protagonist standing in a field of NPC’s, of course she’s talking to me), I break ranks, walking forwards until I’m looming over the beautiful warrior woman.

“Let’s see you handle combat in a spar against one of the Einherjar.”

At her words, one of the guards steps out of the neat ranks that they have been standing in all this time, walking over so he’s standing about 20 feet across from me, meaning he’s in range of both my Magic and Ranged Attacks.

As I expected, once again a Quest Screen pops up in my vision.

Dance of the two Vikings

Defeat your opponent using the skills you have learned!

Rewards:

20 XP

20 G

Training Boots

+15 Asgard Rep

Reputation huh? That’s new. However, since I’m currently facing a Nordic-themed warrior from a race of god-like beings, it’s probably better to focus on the fight now, and to concentrate on the loot later. As I look over towards the Einherjar that I’m about to face in combat, I don’t move a muscle trying to see whether or not there’s something like aggro in this game.

When he doesn’t move from his guarded stance, I try to figure out what to do next. 

First things first. Let’s look at the Crystal Ball-looking think that has popped up at the far right of my Skill Bar. If my guess is correct, then that is my Rage meter. There's a smaller bar on top of my larger Skill Bar, with five empty squares in it, with only one Icon displayed. Hovering my finger over it gives me a description of the Rage Ability.

Rage of the Berserkers – cost 30 Rage

Turn your pain… into gain! Increases all of your damage by 15% for 5 seconds. Damage and Duration are increased by proficiency in the Berserker Path

That’s a pretty decent buff, especially combined with its low cost and long duration. By the time the buff ends, I should’ve attacked (and been attacked) enough times to fill back up to 30 Rage again, theoretically keeping the skill up indefinitely.

The mention of the Berserker Path is interesting (probably something similar to a Class), but since I have a skilled Asgardian warrior to fight, I just don’t have the time to try and figure out what that’s all about.

I need to plan the coming battle.

Ideally, I use Tripwire from the Ranged Skills, pelting the warrior with Piercing Arrows as much as possible, until he’s within range of my Magic Skills. Again try to hinder his mobility with Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, and unleashing as many Bolts of Balthakk as I can. Then, once he’s closed in, switch to Melee, cripple him with Ankle Biter and then rain down Heavy Strikes on his Asgardian ass. Use Rage of the Berserkers whenever I can and presto!

One defeated Asgardian, coming right up!

If, that is, I can actually switch between paths during combat.

Or even switch at all for that matter.

Spotting small up and down arrows in the left pillar of my Skill bar, I press the ‘up’ one with my mind (I barely even notice that I’m doing it that way at this point to be honest), a smile coming to my face when the bar smoothly rolls around, now displaying my Ranged Skills.

The smile quickly dies though, when all of the Icons are grayed out, even the Auto-Attack one.

Scowling as I look at the Training Spellbook in my hand, I realize that, in order to use a certain Attack Path, I need to actually wield a weapon dealing that specific type of Attack.

Right, how do I equip Items?

The moment I think that, a larger screen pops up, filling the right of my vision. Ignoring the screen for now, I look at the Einherjar, relief flooding me when he’s still standing there, doing that little swaying animation that video game characters do, especially in Mortal Kombat or the like.

Focusing on what appears to be my Inventory, I can spot my Training Bow and Training Staff. Focusing on the Training Bow flawlessly and seamlessly summons it to my hands, the Training Spellbook now occupying its slot in my inventory.

Repeating the process with the Training Staff, before switching back towards my Training Bow, I look over towards my opponent with a grim smile.

Time for my first fight then.

Leaving my Inventory open, I take aim with my Training Bow, unleashing a Wire Trap without warning. The moment the attack (appearing as an arrow trailing a piece of sturdy looking wire behind it) leaves my bow, I’ve already unleashed a Piercing Arrow as well (that one appearing like an arrow covered in a glowing field of energy).

18 damage!

Slowed!

54 damage! (Ignored 10% armor)

Then I’m just spamming Auto-Attacks, unleashing two arrows on every fifth attack.

10 damage!

12 damage!

11 Damage!

13 damage!

21 damage!

The Wire Trap and Piercing Arrow impact shortly after each other, the first Skill transforming in wire wrapped around the guard’s legs, the Piercing Arrow leaving a burning scorch mark on his breastplate.

The Asgardian Warrior doesn’t show any signs of feeling the hits, other than walking slightly slower towards me, even when he starts resembling a pin-cushion with all the arrows I’m putting into him.

Then the slow-debuff fades, and his speed is back to normal, bringing him into range of my Magic Skills. Mentally swapping weapons as well as my Skill bar in the span of half a second, I immediately use Crimson Bands of Cyttorak as well as Bolts of Balthakk. 

20 damage!

Slowed!

48 damage!

The glowing bands wrap themselves around his form, slowing him down again, but the Bolts of Balthakk don’t deliver on the Burning Status Effect.

Shit.

Pushing through my disappointment, I start hurling eldritch energy at the warrior, who is still moving in my direction, managing to get off my Combo, before he’s within Melee range.

13 damage!

16 damage!

12 Damage!

14 damage!

25 damage!

I’ve done about 230 to 240 damage to the warrior, and other than being covered in arrows and scorch-marks, the warrior doesn’t seem to be any worse for wear. If it wasn’t for the health-bar that had appeared above his head the moment I had damaged him, I’d have thought that he was an indestructible object, like the Training Dummy.

Glancing quickly to his remaining health as I switch to the Melee Path and Weapon, I see that he’s a little under half of his total amount of health. So, he had 500HP to start with, huh?

That would’ve been nice to know before I fought the guy, Game…

Putting it quickly out of my mind, I perform an Ankle Biter, following it up with a Heavy Strike, before I use my now greater freedom of movement to dash to the side of the warrior.

23 damage!

Slowed!

76 damage!

Only about 200HP to go now. I quickly start chaining my Auto-Attacks, finishing it off with my Melee Combo.

13 damage!

16 damage!

15 damage!

16 damage!

28 damage!

Less than 100HP remaining, but both my Skills are on Cooldown, so I have no choice but to go for another Combo, which might actually be capable of finishing him off if I’m lucky. However, right as I’m about to strike, the Einherjar shows the difference between a Training Dummy and an Asgardian warrior.

As I bring my Staff down, the golden clad Einherjar lifts his own Magitech spear in defense, blocking my strike. The Block throws me widely out of balance, my arms nearly windmilling at my side, leaving my guard wide open.

And my opponent immediately capitalizes on it.

Three heavy strikes impact my torso, shoving me back a couple of feet with each crushing blow. Pain lances through every part of my being, even as red numbers flash in front of my eyes.

-30HP!

-34HP!

-32HP!

96HP gone in a single counterattack… fuck. I manage to get my feet under me, placing my Training Staff in a Block position, but even though the warrior’s strikes don’t push me back anymore, they still do quite a bit of damage.

-26HP!

-25HP!

-26HP!

I need to do something, or else my Health is just going to get chipped away into nothingness. I’m not sure what though, as the far more skilled Einherjar just keeps on landing blows on me. However, right before panic can set in (give me a break here. Have you ever fought a Norse warrior god? Nerve-wracking, let me tell you that) my eyes fall on the Rage Meter that I had completely forgotten about until now.

Let’s see what this baby can do then.

Mentally selecting Rage of the Berserkers, I see a flaming aura spring into being around my body, and I feel absolutely fucking amazing, I’m completely energized again.

It’s like a put Red Bull through my coffee, and powdered my donut with cocaine.

Grasping the Training Staff firmly in both hands I wait right until I’ve blocked my opponent’s latest attack, before selecting Heavy Strike, slamming my weapon into the warrior’s side with all of my might, completely disregarding any notion of defense or safety.

72+(0,15x72)= 83 damage!

The glowing weapon crumples the golden armor of the Einherjar around it, and the Asgardian warrior is lifted clear off his feet and thrown dozens of feet away from me, ragdolling over the dust ground of the training field, before coming to a grinding stop on the edge of the field.

Giving that nothing else I’ve thrown so far seemed to do much other than take slivers off his healthbar (which, except for a tiny amount, appears completely empty now), I expect him to get up immediately and to begin attacking me once more.

However, while he does rise again, he simply turns to me, bows, and then goes back to stand in line with the other guards, all the marks of our battle quickly fading from view.

Right.

No killing friendly NPC’s then.

As I’m still coming down from my adrenaline high (or technically Rage high, I suppose), I hear the telltale ‘ping!’ of a completed quest, which fills me with an odd sort of pride.

I just finished my first ever fight in this strange universe I now belong to.

And I have to admit, it feels pretty great.