- Thirty minutes after the start of Starchaser's sneak peak event -

  Theo could not stop grinning. His dwarf character, which were called Sormer in this new game, was the perfect specimen. His beard was fluffy, with four long braids framing the bronze locks, and his eyes were smoldering under thick, bushy brows. Theo had stopped in front of a massive shard of perfectly smooth ice to examine his reflection. He couldn't help himself. This was the sixth time tonight he had found himself standing in this spot, staring at... himself! He loved dwarves! They were just so cool!

  Theo had been waiting for Starchaser, a full immersion VRMMO, to come out for years. He had a shoebox full of print outs, interviews, and clippings all containing scant traces of information about the dwarf race. He had made a habit of thumbing through his collection late into the night as he dreamed about he possibilities. But, now he was in the game and what he found was beyond his expectations. He raised one short, muscular arm and flexed, then grinned stupidly at himself. This was the best night of his entire life. Not even the constant flicker of that annoying icon, a red rope that looked like it was fraying, could upset him. He quickly typed out a message to his younger brother to try and resolve it, again:

  Theo closed the instant messenger app and sighed. Brothers... Whatever, it was just a little lag. He could live with it. He grinned at himself again, then trotted over to the job board. He had just finished an extermination run of some monsters called 'spirit ravagers'. In Theo's humble opinions, this had to be the coolest starting zone in the history of video games. He and about 70 other players had started out with an expedition of Dwar- er, Sormer to reclaim a lost mountain stronghold deep in a valley of snowcapped peaks. There were expansive linen tents draped with massive furs, a range of heavy steel training dummies, and a crew of rough and ready explorers setting up defenses all around the camp. Theo had spent so much time listening to explanations of their mission from the expedition leader, Adalgeisa, that almost all of the other players had moved on by the time he was done asking her questions.

  He lived for this stuff. The Sormer people had lost this settlement thousands of years ago after a "tide" from a body of water called The Spiritsea had washed over it, killing everyone inside. He got the impression that the "tide" wasn't a wall of water, but a surge of malevolent spirits. This was like all of his favorite dwarven stories! A lonely bastion of sturdy men and women who faced down supernatural creatures from unknown depths... Awesome!

  Just as he had thought, deep within the ruined stronghold were remnants of the ancient spirits. They looked like twisted cave fish that were mostly bone and ragged ghostly flesh, and they swam through the air like it was water. They were fun to fight too! If they swam through you, your body would crust over with ice and you'd have trouble moving for a few seconds. He had spent the last half hour slaying them while venturing deeper and deeper into the ruins. His last stop was at a huge stone bridge spanning a chasm so deep that he couldn't see the bottom. Rows and rows of decrepit towers, snaking walkways, and arched entryways ringed the abyss in a grand spiral as it descended into darkness.

  The game had some sort of system for advancing the expedition he was part of, and he was working on getting the basecamp to level 2 so they could start to repopulate the old stronghold. He had interrogated some NPCs, okay... literally every NPC he met, and found out that players could order expeditions deeper into the ruins using their own resources. He wanted to see everything he could about the ancient dwarven city below! He turned in his contract quests and immediately took 3 more jobs that his AI assistant recommended. The AI orb was really useful for automating stuff like this, and every once in a while it would point him to culturally significant engravings or secret chambers.

  He set back out. This time he needed to go outside the halls and fight back some ice spirits that were threatening to overrun the camp. He had fought a few of these and they were simple enough. They flashed bright white as a warning, then froze everything within 3 yards of themselves. So, as long as you got away from them before they exploded were pretty safe to fight. They had a satisfying feeling when you hit them, like knocking huge icicles off of the lip of a roof.

  Theo was currently level 3. He hadn't chosen a class Identity Skill yet because he was worried about which one would be best for the expeditions. They all seemed so cool. He didn't think he could hold out much longer though, because they sounded like a lot of fun and he really wanted to try them out. For now he fought enemies with a long handled axe that had some mechanical elements affixed to it. He could pull a trigger on the handle to vent fire from an engine that the blade of the axe curved around, for example. Timing those flame right did outstanding damage to the ice spirits.

  The mechanical axe was the weapon of choice for his chosen class, the Sormer Heartbellows. It was a wisdom based class that created and used a variety of machines to manipulate the magic in the environment, at least according to the description Theo had read. Theo didn't always like the "Dwarves as mad engineers" trope, but he couldn't deny that Sormer technology was super rad. It was all black iron, stone, and fire. It really made him feel like a gruff industrial-era mechanic, but with magic. Even his starting armor had that kind of feel, with overalls that had oil stains and huge external pockets running along his legs. He wanted to try all the Sormer classes eventually, but this one captured his imagination the the most on first glances.

  Soon enough, the ice spirits perished, and he hit level 4.

  The three Identity Skill windows appeared and he couldn't close them. Luckily there were no more spirits around or he would have been fighting half-blind.

  Theo liked all of these skills. The first one, Fortifying, seemed like it would be fun for fighting a lot of monsters at once, since you could set the barricade down and forget about it. The skill could also be an interesting way to act like a mini-tank class, which might help out other players and NPCs. He was temped to go with it right away and forgo the others entirely. But...

  Surveying was pretty good too. It wouldn't hold the attention of enemies like Fortifying would, but it did nice damage and had great range, which he lacked. He could set one down and stay nearby, potentially kiting strong enemies around while the arrow turret finished them off. That could be really useful for fighting strong monsters.

  Maintaining, too, could be really powerful. It was clearly not meant to be a strong solo heal, since it wouldn't stack its healing effect, but if he was right about his plans, and the expedition system allowed you to bring NPC companions along, then it could be a strong, and constant, party wide heal. That might make or break the content he wanted to do!

  He stared at them for a long time, unable to decide, until the red rope icon snapped him out of his internal debate. He sighed at it, silently begging his little brother to stop hogging bandwidth, "I could always make another Heartbellows and try them all, but lets go with Fortifying for now. It has good survivability and okay damage."

  He selected Fortifying, but nothing happened. Uh, okay... He tried selecting it again. Nothing. He selected Surveying instead, but nothing happened for that choice either. He cycled through and selected Fortifying, Surveying, and Maintaining over and over again, hammering away at the selection panel. The red rope pulsed angrily in his vision. Theo grimaced, Sebastian...

  He noticed that the soft flurry of snow all around him had stopped falling. Not that it had stopped snowing, but the snow had literally stopped mid air. He had read that the game wouldn't allow disconnects because of some kind of health risks, but... what happened if the internet went out? Would he be stuck waiting for it to come back? He shook his head. I'm not going to let this ruin my game...

  A minute later the snow suddenly hammered down into the ground around him as time caught up. Or, rather, he caught up with time. The menus dropped away from his vision, and his AI assistant made a noise of surprise from his apron pocket, chattering in a worried voice "Ah, that was unusual... I am checking for any errors... please hold."

  Theo rolled his eyes, then opened his character sheet to see if Fortifying had been selected:

  What the... he blinked as he read over his skills. He had all three Identity Skills. W... what? He pulled the AI from his pocket and it was churning with a flurry of flames, clearly processing something. He thought for a moment then put the AI back gingerly. Should he tell it that he had all three skills? Isn't it... kinda... awesome to have all three? He didn't want to accidentally have his character rolled back just because of a glitch. He had built relationships here! Do these skills even all work?

  He approached an ice spirit and thought about Fortifying. He could tell the skill had a particular physical casting component to it as he tried to cast it. It was like he needed to first form the mana, and then hammer it into the shape of the barricade turret. He formed a ball of red magic in his hand and then held it out in front of himself. With an overhand swing, he struck it with his axe, and the magic warped into the shape of a spiked tower that was about two feet tall. It had a broad base with dark iron legs that lanced into the ground, and a chunky tube of a body with a couple dozen jagged slits running up and down it.

  The ice spirit drifted harmlessly by his tower as the slits lit up from inside and a wave of red hot flames washed over both Theo and the spirit. The flames were surprisingly warm, but they didn't hurt Theo at all. The spirit took 6 damage and immediately moved to shimmer angrily next to the barricade. Theo backed away and a spray of ice coated the turret, freezing it temporarily. The spirit slashed out savagely with needles of ice, but they mostly passed harmlessly over the dark iron machine. Every now and then a white "1" would float off it, but it was far from being seriously damaged. Right, it has a block ability...

  After a few seconds, the ice melted and the barricade's flames rolled over the spirit again. It was about 2/3rds of the way to death, but it froze the turret once more. Bad matchup for the turret, huh? Theo concentrated on making an arrow turret using Surveying while he waited, and a tall, sleek looking object materialized after a swing from his axe. It had a tripod-like appearance, with long, curved, razor sharp legs. It was taller than the barricade turret and it had an almost avian looking head, about a foot and a half long, that housed a magical arrow. It immediately swiveled and fired an arrow into the ice spirit's side, but the spirit was obsessively attacking the barricade turret and didn't seem to notice. A few more arrows and a wave of fire later meant the spirit was no more. I really did get multiple skills... holy moly. Is this a bug? I'm 99% sure that I was only supposed only choose one...

  Theo didn't care to find out the truth. This was freaking awesome.