Haven Online

Chapter 6: Character Creation

Xinya looked at the eight different races that surrounded him, seeing himself in each one of them. The races were: Human, Siren, Dwarf, Elf, Giant, Beastman, Dragonkin and Dryad. Every race had its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Xinya knew exactly which race he wanted but figured it couldn't hurt to check out all the races' characteristics before actually deciding.

First was the Human race, the avatar looked exactly like him, with no changes at all. This race was common throughout every VRMMO, it would be odd to find one without it. The Human race had great potential and skills are learned quicker than other races. They have a mass amount of creativity which gives them extra experience and bonus skill points when leveling up a crafting skill. Their only drawback is that they are weaker than the other races.

The Siren race was a bit different, his avatar had short blue hair and glittering scales that covered most of his body. They are musically inclined, be it with songs or instruments. This race is coveted by idol singers and the like. Sirens gain extra experience and damage when using music skills and they also get a skill called Siren's song with the ability to hypnotize any monsters to do their bidding. Their only drawback is that they're weak to fire type monsters. 

The Dwarves are another stereotypical race in games, the avatar looked very stout with medium length hair and a long beard that was braided. They are expert miners and workers of stone and metal, they are capable of crafting with great strength and at the same time make things of unimaginable beauty and intricacy. This race is great if you want to go into blacksmithing or jewelry making.

The Elf or the fair folk, as many call them, are human-looking but have pointy ears and their beauty is magnified to 200%, which is why many girls play them. They have high intelligence and dexterity which gives them an advantage in magic and archery. Their only drawback is that they have a weak defense.  

The Giants are of human appearance, but of remarkable size and strength, which Xinya could see reflected in his avatar. The Giants have a very high defense which makes them the ideal tank. They also are experts in melee attacks which is why they have extra combat damage. They also have their unique skill called stomp, which allows them to stomp the ground with force, temporarily immobilizing an enemy and causing damage. Their only drawback is that they have very slow movement speed.

The Beastmen have the ears and tail of a random animal, the avatar Xinya sees of himself is that of a silver fox. They are one with nature, which makes them great hunters and trackers, they can also call upon an animal friend to help them. They tend to have a lot of energy which makes them have to eat more than other people. Before the new update, that only Xinya knew was coming, there was a great number of people who chose this class. They started huge fuss on the forums afterward.

The Dragonkin, on the other hand, doesn't have any human characteristics and the avatar looks like a dragon with two legs. It had dragon wings, scales covering the entire body, and sharp dagger-like claws. Dragonkin are humans descended from dragons. These beings are very intelligent and will get extra experience and damage while doing fire-type magic, but they are defenseless against water.

Lastly, it was the class that Xinya wanted to pick, the Dryad. The avatar had dark green hair, bark-like skin, and vine-like tattoos that were wrapped around his neck and other places on his body. Dryads are attuned to nature. They can find and grow rare plants or items with ease, be it on land or sea. If they craft with items from nature it will always have a better effect than anything made by another race. The only drawback to this race is that their defense is very low and they must soak their feet in a water source every twelve hours for their energy source.

Dryads are thought of as the "trash race" because their skills are seemingly not needed, but Xinya knew that after the update in a few months the Dryad will be one of the best money making races in all of Haven. 

Haven Online creator's wanted the virtual reality world to be truly immersive. So they tried to make every skill and item as useful as they are in reality, but they realized that two skills in-game were not useful to players, the skills in question are cooking and potion making, because one didn't need to eat in-game and all potions could be bought from NPC's, so it was a waste of skill points to level up these skills. 

To resolve this, the creators decided to update the game, making it so your avatar would get hungry three times a day or more, depending on how much you feed it, also the NPC's will only sell the most basic of potions, which consisted of health and magic potions, they would only recover 50 points of your health or magic.

Also, like every crafting skill, recipes will only be found from monsters or treasure chests hidden in the world and Xinya knew exactly where all these gold mines were located at.