Adachi bolted home with a speed his kendo sensei wished he would show more often in warm ups. A friend of his who worked at the nearby game shop had called him after practice, saying that the store had received a copy of Grand Quest Online, the critically acclaimed and extremely rare VRMMORPG. Adachi had immediately bolted over, and bought the copy just as they were putting it on the shelf. Adachi had been saving for months for the game, and was lucky he had brought his wallet with him to practice. He bolted for the door of his house, and ran straight to his room. His parents would still be at work for a while, and his homework was done for the day. Somehow, everything seemed to be perfect for the circumstances. Adachi wrote a note on a post-it that said "In VR. Adachi", and put it on the kitchen counter. With a speed unlike his normal routine, he hooked up his RGG, inserted his new game, and put on the headset. With an invigorated "Link start!" Adachi started up the RGG and felt his consciousness slip away.

When Adachi came to, he was in the character creation room. Adachi already knew what he wanted to make, and set right to work on it. Whenever he played a VRMMORPG, Adachi always built a knight or paladin class to tank with. He loved the feel of so much power in a single swing, and he wanted to be right up in the thick of the action. Plus, it was an interesting contrast with the constant maneuvers and agility of Kendo. Satisfied with his build, Adachi entered the name he always used in an rpg: Arryn Elik.

The next thing Adachi, no, Elik was aware of was standing in the middle of an open field. He took a deep breath, and stretched out of habit. As much of a veteran of VR Adachi was, he needed to adjust to each new game's system. He glanced around, noting the four people around him. Looks like he wasn't the only lucky one to get a copy today. As the female voice from nowhere began to speak, Elik calmly drew his weapons. He swung his sword a few times while the voice spoke to get a feel for the system's combat. He was slightly annoyed with the AGI penalty from his shield, but he would surpass that problem. Proper advancement would render the penalty moot, or remove it all together. It was the first challenge and trade off of a tank build, after all.

Elik sheathed his weapons as the menu appeared. It seemed to be a quest start menu for the quest, "trial of beginnings". Adachi selected yes without hesitation, and read over the quest text. He raised his eyebrow at the failure penalty. Death? No rpg ever really phrased failure text like that, though he assumed it was just part of the game. Likely it really meant starting the quest over. He glanced around as the others discussed starting a party to tackle the first quest. A starting quest should be easy enough to tackle solo, but that defeated the point of an mmo. Besides, it looked like he was the only tank build in the group. "You can count me in," Elik responded calmly. "I'm Arryn Elik, but you can just call me Elik."