A swirl of light spun into existence beside her.

"Hello, I'm Veria. I'm the virtual help system for Gates of Eternity and I'm here to help guide you through the setup process. Before we begin, would you prefer to be rendered as a wireframe or based on camera data during the calibration process?"

Claire cringed, she wasn't really fond of her current outfit, she was only wearing it because it was supposed to help get the best results during calibration. She hadn't quite noticed that she couldn't see herself before it was mentioned now that it was pointed out it was a weird feeling. "Wireframe please." With her words a kind of ghostly image appeared. She could see rough proportions but it was pretty undetailed just giving her a sense of the positions of her torso and limbs.

"Of course. If you're ready we can now start the calibration process. If you have questions feel free to interrupt at any time."

"Let's do it."

"To start please raise your arms above your head as far as you can...."

Claire followed that instruction and then continued through the sequence. There were something like forty stretches in all. From what she could tell it seemed to be about getting rough body proportions and testing her range of motion.

"Calibration is complete. Please lay down and verbally confirm when you're ready for full immersion."

Claire took the needed couple steps to her bed and did her best to get into a comfortable position before she said "I'm ready."

She felt something like a chill or maybe a brief sense of numbness run down her body. The wireframe of the room disappeared and was replaced by some new room rendered in photorealistic detail. She was lying on something that bore a striking resemblance to an exam table. She craned her head to look at her body and saw the wireframe had been replaced by a transparent bubble of skin containing a glowing green skeleton. She flexed her fingers in front of her face and marveled at the way all the small little bones floated around each other to make the motions work. She sat up and looked around. There were mirrors around the edge of the room and racks of clothing.

Slightly distractingly there was also a pink diamond floating at one corner of her vision no matter which way she was facing. According to the marketing material, the pink diamond was supposed to be a reminder that you were in a game world. Looking at her glowing bones that felt unnecessary but the game was supposed to be a lot more immersive once you'd finished setup.

"I see you've uploaded inspiration images to your Gates of Eternity account. These images all appear to be consistent. Would you like me to use them as a set to craft a first draft of your avatar?"

"Yes please."

There was a rippling sensation as tendons and muscles appeared to wrap around her bones before her skin took on the color and opacity of real skin. Simultaneously, her chosen clothing appeared. The changes were mostly subtle. She had more padding in a few places, a bit less definition in a couple others. The biggest differences were to her face and her boobs. She had more than the little bumps of early hormone treatment now. Nothing absurd, she'd heard enough girls complain, but enough to really feel like a woman. Enough that nobody would make the mistake. And she was wearing the sort of dress she had never felt confident enough to wear for real. It was bright red with a bit of lace around her chest and the hem. Everything important was still decorously covered but it clung to her curves and it showed off her bare knees. She had curves now. She pushed herself off the table and onto her feet. Then she spun around to flare the skirt. Well she tried to. Her balance was a bit off so she actually started to fall before something invisible caught her and helped her back to her feet.

"While you're adjusting to changes in weight distribution I recommend keeping your movements slower." There was a smooth quality to Veria's voice that took any possible sting out of the words.

"Thanks. I kinda figured that out." She laughed a little nervously. With a bit more deliberation she took a few more steps and then did a couple slower turns before speeding up bit by bit.

After she reached the needed speed her skirt twirled up revealing the built in shorts and the silvery material of her skirt's inner layer. Her smile stretched out as wide as it ever had. With the twirl test complete, she gently patted herself down. Everything felt right. She twitched her face from side to side for a moment. "Veria can you give me a bit of privacy?"

"Certainly." A green button appeared on the mirror in front of her. "When you're ready for me to come back you can press that green button." With a rainbow swirl Veria vanished.

With Veria gone, Claire felt for the hidden zipper at the front of her dress and pulled it down. The split in the front revealed a bit of her plain white bra and she smiled a little before pulling the straps off her shoulders and letting the whole top of the dress fall onto the skirt. She turned back and forth a couple times, watching herself in the mirror. Then she cupped her left breast through the bra; it was nice. There was a tiny discordant note at the sudden growth, her skin wasn't quite expecting the pressure as soon as it came. She'd get used to it though. She was looking forward to getting used to it. And already dreading having to take off the Nervegear a little.

She repeated the caress with her right breast and just took her time. She had a couple hours before the special speech from the creators was scheduled; there was no need to rush.

After getting used to the sensations of touching herself through her bra she undid the clasp between her breasts and pulled it off. She dropped it onto a small side table. Tentatively she touched her skin to the bare skin of one breast, then cupped the handful of flesh and felt the weight. Then she repeated that on the other side, carefully teaching her mind what to expect from this new body. She made small circles with her fingers (first on the edges and then gradually moving to circle her nipples directly), grasped more firmly with her hands, pinched herself gently and more. She caught her breath a number of times and let herself give more than one soft moan.

From there she expanded her ministrations outwards. Feeling her sides, her stomach, her neck, her face, her arms, her hands, what she could reach of her back. She was definitely feeling that slight mismatch in expectations but it wasn't too hard to ignore. Nothing had changed too radically.

Having finished her examinations of her upper body she took a deep bracing breath and shimmied the dress built-in shorts and all down her legs and onto the floor, leaving her standing naked except for some white panties. She took another breath and fiddled with the waistband before deciding to wait. Instead, she sat back on the exam table and examined her legs with the same thoroughness she had applied elsewhere. Starting from the tips of her toes and moving upwards and inwards steadily closer to the area covered by her panties. She ended with caresses of her inner thighs and stood back up to get a couple squeezes of her butt. 

She considered trying to do the same thing she had done with her breasts, touching herself through the garment first, but no she had to see, she had to know, to make it real. She took another deep breath and yanked her panties down. Blessedly they fell on their own after that first yank. And she looked at herself in the mirror. Looked at her vulva in the mirror. She had a vulva. It was almost too much. She sat back down on the table and just cried for a bit. She didn't need to touch yet, just looking was enough.

She did want to touch though. After collecting herself a bit, though still feeling very emotional, she reached down and touched her vulva for the first time. Then pulled back as if she had been touching a hot stove. The mismatch was a lot worse here than it had been elsewhere. She paused for a moment to think. She had actually heard about this before. The girls she had talked to said that mirrors could help so she stood up and gathered the sheet off the table and moved it to cover the carpet just in front of the mirror.

She sat down and spread her legs making sure she had a good view. She maneuvered her hand to block her view as little as possible even if that did make the positioning a little awkward and slowly, as if it was a soap bubble she was afraid of popping, touched her vulva again. The disconnect was still there but she was fully expecting it now and the mirror really did help. Maybe she was just imagining it but it felt like the disconnect was a little less even from just that small touch.

She could do this, she would get used to this. And she could see the light at the end of the tunnel she would get there. She firmed her mind and nodded with determination. Then she reached down to touch herself some more.

A while later, having cleaned up a little and with her clothes back on she pushed the button to resummon Veria.

"Hello again, are you ready to continue? Do you want to make any changes to your avatar?"

She laughed a little. "I think I'm happy with it as is. If there's something small I decide I'm unhappy with I can always change it later."

"Indeed you can. Still it's important that everyone be comfortable with their avatar. It's one of the key elements of Gates of Eternity and it will influence your experience in many ways especially at the beginning. That said if you're happy we can move on."

"Let's do that."

"Alright, based on your avatar's shape and size we have derived starting values for your stats. You may assign a starting points budget to gradually apply over your first week in game. You have ten points to start and you can assign a maximum of 4 points to each stat." A screen pops up on the surface of the mirror.

Strength: 8 + / -

Endurance: 10 + / -

Range of motion: 9 + / -

Proprioception: 10 + / -

Quickness: 10 + / -

Acuity: 10 + / -

Retention: 10 + / -

Focus: 10 + / -

Available points: 10 [Reset]

"Advanced mode and fractional points become available at later levels. Mental stats begin at 10 for all players. Stats may not reflect all discrepancies between players and should not be relied on for precise comparisons."

"Alright. Thanks for letting me know." She fussed around a little but she'd already seen advice from someone in the beta which strongly suggested keeping her stats balanced at the beginning. She made her selections reasonably quickly then clicked the finalize button that appeared.

Strength: 10 + / -

Endurance: 12 + / -

Range of motion: 10 + / -

Proprioception: 11 + / -

Quickness: 11 + / -

Acuity: 11 + / -

Retention: 11 + / -

Focus: 11 + / -

Available points: 0 [Reset] [Finalize]

"Once again, welcome to the Gates of Eternity. You can summon me at any time by saying 'Veria help please' or by accessing the menu." The mirror ripples, the metal surface transmuting into something that looks a bit like the surface of a rippling pool only vertical instead of horizontal. "You can step through the gate whenever you're ready." 

Claire trailed her fingers through the surface of the gate. There was a small amount of resistance like dragging her fingers through lukewarm bathwater. "Thanks for your help." She took a deep breath to steal herself and then stepped as confidently as she could through the surface.

There was a whirl, of colors a sound a bit like wind rushing by and a feeling she's moving really fast. By the time she came to grips with it the sensation ended and she stumbled a bit as she stepped out the portal at the other end. "Well that was something."

"I know right?" A guy standing nears by turned to look at her. "I know the beta players said it was a rush but I don't think words quite capture it. I'm Andrew by the way."

"Claire."

"I'll let you catch your breath. I'm gonna go try that jungle gym over there." He pointed at an oversized jungle gym, it was like something out of a kid's fantasy playground but sized for adults.

"Thanks. I hope you enjoy!"

He waved then stepped away.

She glanced around at the rest of the area. There were a few more jungle gyms, connected to each other and to a variety of tree houses by various ropes course obstacles. There was also what could either be a pond or a particularly landscaped pool. And that was just what she could see at a glance. There were walls and trees getting in the way in enough directions that she assumed there was a lot more. There had to be if this place was really supposed to support a hundred thousand players.

She looked around a bit more as she caught her breath. It was a lot, but she could definitely get used to this.