He kept on browsing, alternating between a bite of pizza and a sip of beer, enjoying the quietude. At some point, a soft drizzle had begun to drum against the window. Only now, sitting in the emptied house, William noticed how loud the sounds of traffic were, or rather how many cars rumbled past his front door. Rather than annoying him, the steady rumble of engines and wheels was oddly comforting and the flicker of headlights on the window almost hypnotizing.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a good foundation. Best that I’ll ever get.
“…Will. Hey Will, are you ready?”
“Huh?” He blinked out of it, realizing everyone was staring at him.
“How is your character coming along?” Daniel asked. “We’re all ready.”
Crap.
“It’s… Damn.” William dragged a palm over his face. “I’ll play… Uhh… What are you guys playing? I’ll pick whatever the party needs, preferably rogue.”
“I’m playing Shadow Queen,” Mitchelle said. “She’s a half-dragon, half-undead, half-dark-elf, Ghost Blade Ninja, so she can deal a ton of damage, sneak, but also take hits, and use Soul Magic via Soul Eater trait. It’s important for the plot so she needs it. The party doesn’t need another sneaky character.”
“Aha…” William breathed in his groan.
“I picked a Script Arcanist build that’s based around exploiting how spell memorization work in conjunction with the Soul Palace trait. It technically allows access to every single spell in the game eventually.” Abraham clutched an invisible ball of power in his hand, lowering his voice to a bear-like baritone, “And the world shall tremble before I, the god of magic.”
Daniel cackled, shaking his head. “Fantastic Abe. Well, my character is basically the face of our party. In combat I use demon pacts and that kind of stuff.”
“Me, I’m a warrior,” Thomas said, “Melee with swords.”
Abraham interject. “He’s playing a tweaked Weapon Master build, which exploits the Recall Death trait. It’s a great trait all around, but with Weapon Master it unlocks some almost disgustingly overpowered synergy. But, I think it’s fine, given Thomas’ playstyle.”
“Fuck you man.” Thomas laughed. “I’m not dumb. I had a better grade in math than you.”
Yeah, in the junior year.
“Riiiiight,” William nodded again, slower. He had no idea of the specifics of Abraham’s spreadsheet magics for creating his builds, but he understood the gist of it. “You’re saying, we need a heal slut, buff boy, or some other support. I don’t know. Priests are boring…” He punched in a search query on the forums for a ‘fun support build’.
“You don’t have to pick a support,” Mitchelle said.
William shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I’ll play one. Gotta find a fun one…” His eyes darted to a new tab with a cool picture of a plate armored hero surrounded by light, which set the monsters around him ablaze.
Radiant Paladin: A flexible support tank with the ability to channel Divine Energy to powerful blessings, aura abilities, and minor divine magic.
Scrolling down to later levels, William could see purifying auras, damaging auras, healing auras, crowd control auras, and pretty much auras for everything. The blessings available right off the gate were equally varied buffs, both temporary and permanent, which the paladin could grant to his allies. It seemed like the class somehow allowed you to swap out abilities, though only allowed a limited amount of them to be available at any given time. It sounded fun. Not quite a rogue, but certainly more entertaining than a generic priest.
“Okay, I’ll play a Radiant Paladin,” William decided.
Mitchelle scribbled it down. “What trait do you want?”
Aw damn, a bonus trait. Quick, quick, search for traits.
A page with a list as long as Mitchelle’s character’s background popped up. William stared at it for a while. Ugh, too many options. “You know what, if it’s alright I can continue browsing while we play and pick later.”
“That’s fine,” Mitchelle adjusted her voice, organizing her notes for the game session. “This will be fun. I found the original idea from this tumblr collage post my friend shared, ‘Eden’s Gate’ but it’s adapted a bit.”
William distributed his attributes evenly. Now what trait to pick? A thimble of God’s Blood, Divine Bond, Divine Boldness? Who comes up with these?
Mitchelle flicked her wrist and assumed a flamboyant game master voice, “Wherever you were, whether at home or on an adventure slaying goblins, you heard a mysterious incantation…” Reciting a chant from her notes, she dropped her tone into an ominous murmur while her eyes scanned through the four of them. ”…AND BOOM!” She slammed her palm on the table. “In an instant you find yourselves sitting face to face with a pale beautiful woman with ethereal topaz hair and eyes, both of which flickered in the light suspended over her palm. Adventurers, describe yourselves!”
“So, is this like an isekai or what? Am I supposed to be from a fantasy world?” Thomas asked. “What am I supposed to do, huh?”
She pursed her lips with smugness. “Anything’s fine. You decide, for you see, this spell has the power to summon souls across dimensions, at the cost of wounding them, but you don’t need to worry about it. Okay, I’ll start. The woman before you radiates power and her voice tingles with an ethereal beauty which fills you with admiration. She says: Welcome heroes from distant lands, I am Shadow Queen, the one who has called you across the realms.”
Her voice sent a strange shiver spidering up William’s spine. This was it. This was what he’d been missing.
Daniel coughed, steadying his voice to confident narration, “I’ll go next. In another chair sits Narasei, a tall human woman with straight white hair and azure eyes. You might not see it at a glance, but she’s Pact
