To play a Dungeons & Dragons adventure, you first needed one player to serve as the Dungeon Master, the so-called DM. This player was the creator of the adventure world, an undisputed god. They decided everything that happened during the adventure and judged what consequences the other players' actions would cause. In other words, they were a living story generator.
Ao was, of course, the best possible DM. Everything in Realmspace was decided by him.
Skyl spent ten minutes fully understanding the rules of the game, then happily suggested, "Let's start a campaign right now."
"As you wish. We can begin with a short adventure first. That should help you become more familiar with the game."
Ao gestured for him to create a character, and suggested that Stan do the same.
Stan burped and said carelessly, "I already have a character sheet, don't I?"
"But your character sheet is too high-level. It is not suitable for a beginner campaign. Wizard Skyl needs guidance from a veteran like you."
Stan chuckled and winked at Skyl. "I'm only doing this for your sake, you know. So how about lunch being on you today?"
Skyl shook his head and laughed. Whenever Stan saw him, he wanted to mooch a meal.
The process of creating a character was the process of making an avatar.
Skyl took out a twenty-sided die. This was the Christmas gift Ao had given him. He cast divine Transfiguration on it, and the die shimmered with flowing color like a tiny lightbulb. The light it gave off gradually condensed into a human form.
When the light dispersed, the original die had been transformed into a young man identical to Skyl.
Ao watched the scene with a smile.
"Do you plan to begin the adventure using your own appearance? It seems you are quite the dedicated roleplayer. Have you thought about what background and class you want to give your character?"
Skyl considered for a moment, then said, "A traveler from another world with an unknown identity. He arrived in Realmspace through a portal that suddenly opened and discovered that he had lost all memories of himself, remembering only his name. To search for his past, he set out on a journey. As for his class... he is a mortal with nothing to his name, but in his dreams, he will sometimes sense a call from a distant realm. An entity from another world will make a pact with him at the proper moment and grant him magical knowledge."
"A warlock. Not a bad choice." Stan nodded in approval, then teased, "That entity from a distant realm you mentioned, is it you?"
"Yes, exactly." Skyl nodded without the slightest shame. "Is there anything wrong with giving myself a cheat?"
Ao and Stan burst out laughing.
"Hmm, a penniless traveler from another world. Where should he begin? How about in outer space?"
Ao lightly brushed the map on the table, and a broad, blazing white vortex opened, leading to another multiverse.
Skyl directed his avatar to jump into the portal.
Stan also created an avatar, but his was a blond, blue-eyed playboy whose class was bard.
The playboy had only just been created when he saw Stan's malicious smile.
He shouted in terror, "Stan, what are you doing?"
"Sending you on a trip to another world, of course."
"I don't want to go!"
"That's not up to you!"
The three creator-god-level fellows grabbed the avatar and shoved him into the portal.
"Stan, you bastard! Ah!"
...
Realmspace floated in the phlogiston. Its edge was wrapped in a hard, indestructible shell known as a crystal shell, like a hollow sphere with a diameter of about seventy astronomical units, roughly ten billion kilometers. It was much smaller than the solar system, but to the living beings within it, this was already an extraordinarily vast space.
The inner wall of the crystal sphere was covered in countless runes and wards. Each character was hundreds of miles across. These writings stored powerful magical energy, and once read, they would trigger a certain magical effect. More often than not, that overwhelming magical power would destroy the reader.
When people living on the surface of a planet looked up at the sky, the starlight they saw was actually punctuation marks drawn on the inner lining of the crystal sphere. They were portals to the Plane of Radiance, projecting endless brilliance from another plane.
At the center of the crystal sphere was naturally the sun. Realmspace's eight major planets revolved around this enormous ball of fire. The light and heat released by the sun warmed all the space inside the crystal sphere, so even at the edge of the world, one would not feel cold.
Space was filled with an ocean of breathable air. Magical ships of many different forms sailed through it, their crews traveling and trading between the stars. In addition, the vast stretches of interstellar space contained a complex and enormous ecosystem. This space was entirely different from the barren and terrifying lifeless void imagined by people on Earth. Perhaps it would be more accurate to view it as a vibrant ocean full of life.
Skyl was currently floating in that ocean of air at the edge of the crystal sphere. The zero-gravity environment of space left him unable to move effectively.
He had already been drifting for some time. As a naked ape evolved from surface-dwelling monkeys, Skyl had never dreamed that one day he would appear in the cosmos.
He had no clue why he had ended up in this situation. In fact, he only remembered that his name was Skyl. Everything else about his past was blank.
After getting through the initial stage of panic, Skyl had to start worrying about food.
His survival instinct told him that if he had no water within three days, he would die. His rumbling stomach was also urging him to hurry up and find something to fill it.
Skyl's mind was still immersed in fear of the vastness of space. Despairing assumptions about the future kept provoking his anger, making him want to scream and shout to vent. But doing that would only waste strength and push the situation into even greater danger.
He carefully judged his own condition. He wore black clothes, his hands and feet were intact, his body was sturdy, and he showed no symptoms of illness.
Skyl asked himself honestly whether, under the current circumstances, he could escape this predicament.
He looked around. In the vast wildspace, the closest solid object to him was the hard inner layer of the crystal sphere, roughly less than a hundred feet away. He had roughly estimated that number by observing the runes on the crystal sphere's surface. Looking in the direction of the sun, he could see the distant shadows of planets.
A heartbreaking fact lay before Skyl. If no one rescued him, his fate was almost certainly to die in this forgotten corner of the world.
The most crucial problem was that Skyl had no way to move in space, which meant he could only passively wait for death. Although there was atmosphere around him, and he could produce a tiny amount of displacement by paddling with his hands and feet, that little bit of momentum could not overcome air resistance. His movement efficiency was therefore extremely low, and all it did was waste strength.
What should he do?
He had to find a way to move.
How could someone move in a weightless environment?
Skyl thought hard. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed through his mind.
Knowledge from another world: You know the answer. A certain British guy named Isaac Newton once said that forces act upon each other. What you need to do is find a reaction force so you can gain initial momentum. Remember rockets? Oh, you forgot. In short, you can rely on a fart to get yourself moving, or you can throw your clothes hard in one direction and gain the reaction force from that. Of course, there is an even simpler method. You can turn your clothes into a cloth pouch. It will act like a paddle.
Skyl was moved by his own intelligence and immediately took off his clothes. He tied the corners together, turning them into a hollow bag, then used it to scoop the air and lightly swing it back and forth on both sides of his body, moving away from the sun.
Many people may have had a similar experience in life, such as holding an umbrella on a windy day and feeling an enormous force from the umbrella, strong enough to make it hard to take even one step. Skyl called the bag made from his clothes a wind-paddle. It could provide considerable thrust.
After spending some time paddling, Skyl finally touched a real, solid surface.
He let out a long breath, sniffed, and calmed his rapid heartbeat. For a moment, he had thought he would never reach this place.
The dark crystal shell was slightly cool. Its surface was also uneven. It had no gravity of its own, so it could not keep Skyl attached to it.
Next, he adjusted his posture and made himself "crouch" on the crystal shell. Then he used all his strength and jumped violently.
Whoosh!
Skyl launched himself out toward the sun.
Yes, this was the soft and tender newbie Skyl.
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