A cybernetic city scape towered over me. It was filled with neon colored highlights on buildings with washes of advertisement screens everywhere. It reminded me a bit of home plus the neon, and if every square inch were sold to the highest bidder. The sky was dark as pitch without a star to be seen. I turned to see Brett looking at me, expecting.

Brett Pretty great, huh? This is Radiance. Basically, we get to fight as wizards in an urban setting.

Crits Urban wizards? Okay. Not the weirdest VR I've seen.

Brett When I first arrived, I was lost and overwhelmed. But there was this one Involute who took me under her wing and showed me the ropes. She made a huge difference. Now, I try to pay it forward by helping new people like you find their way. This game, in particular, I thought was a lot of fun. Since it's your first time I'd go with a premade character, but usually you can customize and or do a saved loadout.

I opened up my UI which was now themed like the city, neon trim and sharp edges. I scrolled through the 20 something premade characters and passively settled on?

Crits Kendra, dark arts.

Brett She's good, you'll probably like her. She does vampiric magic and summons.

Crits Who'd you pick?

Brett Mine is a custom character, but I do light magic and evocations.

Crits So? how do we??

Brett opened up his UI, which I couldn't see the content of. We were instantly teleported to a street corner with targets and practice dummies all in poses suggesting they were casting spells, all set up across the street.

Brett Give it a whirl.

Crits ? Go! ?

Nothing happened.

Brett Try to think about a golem.

I thought about a mud golem rising up out of the ground. The street began to rumble and crack. As the rubble pieces flew off the ground an arm of cement split off and clutched at the ground, lifting itself and pulling more cement chunks up behind it. The distinct shape of a humanoid formed, made entirely of what used to be the street. Pieces of rubble rolled their way up the body to form joints as the body slowly became more relaxed and formed.

Brett You're getting the hang of it! Most actions you only need to think about but doing the hand motions can help with that. Plus, it's a lot more fun too to get into it. Try punching one of the dummies with your golem.

I balled my hand into a fist and punched towards the dummy, thinking of my golem in turn. The golem, near mirroring my actions, punched with the same arm and dismembered the dummies head in one rush of concrete.

Crits Cool. Okay, I vastly underestimated how a game would be in this world.

Brett And this is just training. Open up your UI, go to spells, and you can see all the abilities you can cast.

Crits Spirit lash? Summon Golem? Summon Demon? So I just think about these and do a motion? I don't even know what a spirit lash is.

Brett There's descriptions for each one to give you more guidance if you need, but it's all pretty intuitive. Oh, and turn your pain sensor up to 5 out of 100 so you can feel when enemies hit you.

Crits Turn on my pain sensor?!

Brett Yeah, at that level it's like a pinch at worst. If you ever set it too high it automatically will drop down based on how you respond to it.

Crits Why would I ever want to set it high?

Brett ?Some people do. Like masochists for example. Sometimes I think it's just there for them and those that like to have an experience like people.

Crits Non-Involutes?

Brett We just call everyone here people. We only ever use Involute to distinguish between us and the people outside the network.

Crits People it is. I think I'm ready to get this game started. I want to try out this golem.

Brett I'm going to set it on an easy wave if that's okay with you so you can get used to it.

Crits Fine with me, like I'll know the difference at this point.

We both warped to an area of the city much like the first, only it was seemingly empty. My golem had vanished. A group of 5 cloaked figures emerged from the side street. Their faces were disfigured, mutated, and in anguish.

Brett There. New Faith Cultists, get ready.

I was struck with uncertainty, I wasn't sure what to do or why I was fighting them. Just then Brett erupted a cone of fire, whirling and setting the air ablaze towards one of the hooded figures. The figure muted the inferno with the raise of their hand effortlessly.

Brett Make your golem again!

I thought of that cement golem emerging from the ground, and it erupted from the ground in a burst of rubble, converging more quickly than the time before. My mind's eye envisioned the golem attack one of the hooded figures. The golem lumbered towards one of them. The golem without hesitation swung. Its block arm clocked the hooded figures. It was attempting to duck the punch. The cultist lay knocked out clean and cold.

Brett Nice one! Try your spirit lash next.

In a befuddle, my arm sent a whipping motion toward one of cloaked figures and a translucent purple whip followed my arm's motion, cracking the end on the cultist's face - splitting its face open in to a black glowing substance in place of blood, sending it reeling backwards and away. Another cultist reached out and a swath of tendrils rushed out from the end of its arm towards me. I fell on my back and felt the wind escape me. It stung only a bit, dazing me more from the shock of being knocked off my feet. It was then that I noticed a floating, translucent bar in my periphery slightly recede from the more solid outline.

Brett Watch out for their attacks! You can dodge if you're quick enough or counter with your dark wall.

Brett put his hands together around an orb and a luminescent glow shone outwards as Brett hurled the glowing orb towards one of the remaining cultists. The orb hit a cultist in the head, bursting that black glowing substance all over the other cultist's cloaks and the walls of the building. Brett smiled with satisfaction at me.

Every nerve screamed. It felt as if a thousand knives stabbed me simultaneously on every inch of my body. I curled into myself and cried out. The game paused and Brett rushed over to my side.

Brett What's wrong?! There's no way you should be getting hurt like this.

Crits I don't know? it hurts everywhere?

Brett Let's get you out of here, hold on.