"I apologize if I upset you. That was not my intention."

"It's okay, I'm just not looking forward to the combat parts of the game very much. The mentions of a gore system, and especially a fully realistic one... it's an upsetting thought."

"There are many non-combat tasks and roles. Players are strongly recommended to have a certain level of combat ability before moving out of the starting area but there are ways to bypass that requirement if you're committed to the path of a pacifist. Success among the Gates of Eternity will take quite the variety of skills."

"Thanks, I don't know if I'm quite a committed pacifist but it's good to know that's an option. I think that was my main questions answered. What's the next step in the setup process?"

"The next step is finalizing your avatar. Would you like to make any changes before we proceed? You don't have to fully commit now, your avatar can be freely revised any time in the first two weeks after launch and there will be additional opportunities to make certain specific changes going forwards. Including a bonus cosmetic pack that will be unlocked during the launch kickoff event."

Sapphire turned her attention to inspecting herself. It looked like between her somewhat minimal attire and the calibration stretches the system had gotten a pretty good view of her body so even her scattering of freckles matched what she was used to. She thought about checking under her underwear and trying to get that right too but honestly she wasn't that attached to small details like that and she wasn't currently planning to have sex with anyone in the game.

"I think I'm happy with things as is. I guess I should probably grab an outfit though."

"It is by no means required. You meet the minimum modesty standards enforced in the starting area, that said I expect most individuals will be wearing more clothing than that."

The mention of minimum modesty standards did bring up a small desire to see how far she could push things but no, she was here to study the culture of this game not to try to push it's boundaries as part of her own pet agenda.

Still she wasn't ashamed of her body and the Beta testers had said the first area was one big training zone so athletic attire wouldn't be too far out of place. She walked over to the closet and perused the options before selecting a forest green crop top and some black exercise shorts. She pulled them on and inspected herself in the mirror. She nodded to herself. "Looks good."

Then she turned back to Veria. "Alright, I think that's that. What's next?"

"Next up is setting up your stats. 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: 9 + / -

Endurance: 10 + / -

Range of motion: 10 + / -

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."

Sapphire nodded, happy to be on somewhat more familiar ground. "Could you tell me more about what these stats mean and how they work in game?"

"A full explanation would get into things I'm not supposed to explain. It would be pretty immersion breaking to tell you how the game cheats. Still I can give you a basic rundown.

"Strength impacts how much force you can put behind your actions with your muscles. It impacts how much weight you can carry, how much hard you can swing your arms, how high you can jump, and whether you can manage the raw oomph required for gymnastics or climbing. It's a bit of an abstraction across all your muscles and until you unlock advanced mode strength will tend to simulate the effects of a balanced workout not favoring any one body part or muscle group.

"Endurance is a measure of how long you can keep going. It includes factors like how much food and water you need to sustain yourself, how long it takes you to recover from exertion and how much you can push yourself when you have to.

"Range of motion is about flexibility, having a high range of motion lets you reach past your toes, do full splits and at the very high end do the sorts of things you see from escape artists or contortionists.

"Proprioception deals with your sense of where your body is in the world. In practice it means you're more likely to keep your balance and more able to move your body and the things you're holding to where you intend them to be.

"Quickness especially early on is about improving your response time. When you boost your quickness your body will literally start moving sooner in response to signals from your brain and the signals from things like getting your fingers near a hot stove will in turn reach your brain sooner too.

"Acuity is about your senses, especially sight and sound, you'll see and hear things more clearly and from farther away.

"Retention is about your memory, it will help you with memorizing things and recalling them when you need them.

"Focus is about being able to filter out extraneous inputs and keep your attention where you want it to be."

"I think I understood all of that, thanks for explaining." She brought up all her points to 11, just so she can experience what increasing each stat is like and then threw the remaining point into endurance before tapping the finalize button that came up.

"You're welcome," Veria said before going silent as Sapphire allocated her points.

Then after Sapphire tapped finalize she started again. "You've now completed the setup process." 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."

"Thank you." Sapphire experimented with the surface a bit and wrote down her observations. It probably wasn't important but she was finding it very grounding to be more thorough than she needed to be. "Are most of the gates like this?"

"The mirror transmutation effect is quite rare, usually the liquid surface will appear in an empty frame instead, but the behavior of the Gate surface is consistent with the other Gates in the world. The transit time for this initial gate is also shorter than it is for any major gate, and minor gates aren't common until later parts of the game."

"Good to know." Sapphire looked at the gate for another few moments before tucking her pen into the front of her notebook and holding the both of them at her side. "I'll summon you again when I have more questions. Thanks again for all the answers."

"Answering questions is what I'm here for. I hope you enjoy your time in Gates of Eternity."

Sapphire smiled, steeled herself for another moment and then stepped forward through the surface. The bodiless rainbow rollercoaster was a bit discomfiting but honestly she liked the element of unreality. It was nice to have another sign that this was just a game not something real.

She stumbled a bit upon exiting the portal but managed to avoid falling.

The area around her was a similar element of reassurance, there might be places with four story tall adult sized jungle gyms in the real world but if there were she personally had never seen one. And she hadn't been to many ropes courses either. It was all bracingly alien. She confirmed that her notebook was still with her and added some notes about the gate trip her her initial impressions of the training area.

Whatever the downsides she had to admit, this was going to be one hell of a term project.