The year was 2005 A.D. I had just started my fourth and last year of high school. College applications were all done and submitted so my spare time was spent tinkering around with my newly bought PC running on a fresh copy of Windows XP (still the best, I say).
With a computer of my own at long last, I was finally able to try out this game my friends kept clamoring me to try out: Ragnarok Online.
Mind you, prior to this the only video games I've ever played were of the non-Internet variety. This included games on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and simple 8-bit games meant for Windows 3.1 (ancient thing, that computer is now). The closest I've ever come to interacting with other people through the computer was AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) so the idea of being in a virtual world with complete strangers both fascinated me and scared me at the same time.
So finally, in November of 2005, I downloaded RO (on a dial-up connection, mind you). After waiting for the excruciating 56.6kbps connection force down a 1.6GB game into my harddrive, I began installing the game at long last.
Logging in, I was greeted with... nothing.
Well, not completely nothing. I was a Novice, freshly made and ready to be shaped into the heroine she could be. The name I chose? Senko Tora. Yes, I was quite the avid anime fan back then and so I came up with a Japanese name (that I now know is somewhat lame after taking a Japanese language class in college). Senko was the name I got from a Japanese name quiz which supposedly means "wizard child; hermit child." The idiotic surname Tora was the Japanese word for "tiger," my Chinese Zodiac sign. Hey, at least it's a creatively original name that's not based on an existing anime character, right? :3
Anyways, I stumbled my character through the rather informative Training Grounds, learning everything I can about the virtual world I was about to spend a lot of time in. (Well, as much time as a 15-day free trial would give me.) I don't remember if it was the personality test or my own personal decision, but I eventually decided that my Novice was going to be a Thief. I wasn't the type to be strong like a Swordswoman, but I wasn't much for magic wielders either. And I'm not much for number-crunching like a Merchant, nor did I wish to attack from a safe distance like an Archer. So Thief became my goal.
Being the inexperienced newbie I was, I did not take advantage of the Training Grounds to the fullest and ended up going into the world of RO without maxing out my Novice's job level. Many Pickys and Drops fell to my meager Knife before my Novice was adequate enough to begin the Thief job change quest.
After screaming my way through the Morroc Pyramid--avoiding Poporings and Familiars pathetically--I somehow made my way to the Thief Guild's headquarters in the midst of the pyramid. There, I was given the task to collect Orange Gooey Mushrooms and Orange Net Mushrooms for my test. Okay, jelly monsters with cute faces and orange mushrooms. This game is wierd. :|
Going into the mushroom farm, I began seeking out these orange mushrooms. I have to attack them to harvest them? Okay... Oh, a mushroom inside a mushroom... Why... I don't even want to bother, just get 20 of each to be safe.
I think the most difficult part of that test was getting out. It was quite the chore staring at the minimap, trying to determine where the pathways were to get out of this confusing maze of a farm. I think I got out by pure luck because I don't remember it taking too long.
Managed to get my way through the Morroc Pyramid again (not without dying a few times, gosh darn it) to turn in my mushroom cache. Thief NPCs had some weird math dialogue before turning my Novice into a Thief. Now the real journey can begin!
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