Powering the system on for the first time, experiencing that rather alien feeling of all you senses switching, no longer feeling your body laying there motionlessly on the bed, instead being pulled into a bright other reality. There had been a multitude of safety equipment crammed into a surprisingly small form factor, monitoring things such as pulse, breathing rate and other vitals, as well as a force shut down if your body got dehydrated or overly hungry.

Getting to a login screen and creating a new character, entering the name they had been used to forever now; Totsurugi, having it accepted and moving to another screen where a bunch of people were all stood in a perfect circle, everyone's back facing inwards and towards whoever happened to be looking at them. Cycling through the settings, Male Characters, Female Characters, Genderless Characters. Stopping on Female and moving through the staggering amount of different races, all from eight foot tall and four armed to three feet tall with tails and most everything one could imagine there between. All having names and some stats below them, "Plus Dexterity, Minus Strength" "Plus Intelligence, Minus Dexterity"

This whole selection felt rather overwhelming, not really sure on what to pick, being a but put off by the fiendish looking creatures, but then again Totsu's bar for fiendish wasn't that particularly high, being repulsed by the likes of orcs and goblins. Scrolling round and round until something caught their eye, a Female Elf, tall and lithe, long, pointed ears.



Selecting it brought another wave of sensory overload as the amount of sliders and options berated their senses. Hair Length, Hair Color, Hair Style, Bangs, Hair Side (Left), Hair Side (Right). Staring at it for a few moments before steeling themselves and meticulously going through the options, leaving a surprising amount of them alone, not being one to fiddle with minor or fine detail like the shape of the point of the ears or lobes, chin structure or cheekbones but changing most of the larger options, facial type, hair color, eye color, height, build.

Getting into a state of flow as they built out, finally finishing with something they felt a remarkable sense of kinship with, almost like they could imagine this being something they would look like if they had been born in a fantasy world instead of playing an immersive video game. Long flowing golden blond hair with sideswept bangs, a single small braid going over each ear at the side with the bulk of her hair flowing just below her shoulder blades. A pair of grass green eyes and a young looking face fit for someone going on their very first adventure.

Finishing the setting before being taken into the next selection, an immense selection of classes with a tip in the top left corner saying "Recommended for Elf. Magic, Ranged, Stealth" with a display next to that reading "Show: All". Fiddling a bit with the settings, changing the filter settings to "Show: Recommended Only", their friend had not told them to worry too much about it and if they didn't like the class they started out as it wasn't the end of the world and changing it could be accomplished, although it would take a bit of doing. Scrolling through a few of the classes now, not being particularly interested in the Archers, Assassins and Druids they were coming across. Scrolling down to a class that caught their eye.


Naturalist: Harness nature's infinite bounty into your own strength.
Starting Skills:

-Adaptive Bolt: Fire a magic bolt at a target, damage type is dependent upon the last thing you absorbed.
-Absorb: Leech the life force from a living, non-sentient target you are touching, gain back 20% of the hunger/thirst value it would have provided if it would have would be cooked and consumed.

Main Stat: Intelligence
Weapon Type: Staff

After accepting a final confirmation messaged popped up, accepting that the selector faded away and everything became black for a moment. Light and color returning as they looked around and they were in the body of their creation, experiencing the world in first person. Situated in a small Elven hamlet. She took a timid first step forward, it felt rather strange, feeling a leg move and touch the ground as if you were really there. Looking back over herself she wasn't wearing much, from outside appearance it she was only wearing a royal azure blue robe that reached from neck to just above her ankles with long sleeves.

"Are you ready for your initiation?" came a voice from just ahead, a tall Elven woman had walked up to her, the name "Rania Mirana <NPC>" hovering above her head. Totsu froze, not knowing what to say or how to possibly respond, mostly stemming from the fact that she didn't know how what the AI would respond to. After a few seconds of silence words popped into her head as if they were ideas, embarrassingly, those were "Yes" and "No"

Answering in the Affirmative they were lead through the village, past the wooden huts and longhouse, going into the nearby forest where she was handed a long wooden staff, with a long wooden shaft, four feet long, the wood looking unprocessed yet still finely crafted indicated by the twisting spiral of the handle with the head of the staff being a perfect circle of the same twisted, spiraling wood. A brown, furry critter was pointed out to them, a text above their head saying "Squirrel Lvl.1". Rania stood a bit back before speaking out, "Try taking it down with your Adaptive Bolt"

Totsu held the staff up, focusing as she saw a HUD come into focus, seeing her own health, MP bar and a short skill list, currently only indicating two. She instinctively reached her staff out before speaking "Adaptive Bolt!" and seeing the top of her staff glow before a translucent projectile shoot forward bending and lensing the light around it, hitting the squirrel. A bar above it's own head going down by a third as well as a larger more defined health bar appearing at the top of the HUD indicating "Target"

Shooting out two more times and the squirrel lay dead, multi-colored orbs materializing above it. She closed the short distance between them before crouching and holding a hand above it, seeing the orbs move into her hand before a small window popped up above the corpse of the rodent

Squirrel Lvl1

Squirrel Pelt (Hunter)
Squirrel Tail
Rodent Eyes (Hunter)

Pressing "Take All" on the screen caused the squirrel to glow before seemingly exploding into particles with a screen popping up

Skinning Failed (Hunter Class Required)
Items gained:

[Ruined Pelt]
[Squirrel Tail]

Pouting a bit before simply shrugging and standing up, the taller elf walked back towards her, "Well done. Adaptive Bolt also has the special effect of inheriting the damage bonus of things you use Absorb on." and as if carefully scripted, walking to a patch of moss, "Try using Absorb on this moss here for a Water Damage bonus to Adaptive Blast"

Standing up, Totsu walked over to the moss, placing her bare hand on the moss before speaking, "Absorb" and feeling a surge of energy enter through her hand, like taking a shot of espresso she felt more awake and less fatigued, watching the moss go from green to yellow to finally a brittle gray in front of her, devoid of life. A small message window popping up, "+10 Water Damage."

"Adaptive Bolt among the weakest spells a mage can learn, but harvesting nature's bounty and using it to your gain, it can be one of the strongest." Rania explained as Totsu spotted a new element next to her skills on her HUD, a blue icon with a ocean-wave like icon and four orb-like dimples below it, "Though nature's bounty is not infinite. The larger target you absorb, the more spells it will enhance but the longer it will take to absorb. Try attacking now"

Spotting another squirrel a bit away, she raised her staff and readied another spell, "Adaptive Bolt!" Totsu called out, this time the glow turning blue and sending a cyan bolt of energy into the squirrel, bursting into fine droplets that shimmered like mist in the sun, this time dropping it's health bar by half instead of a third. "Adaptive Bolt!" she called out again, sending a second bolt into the squirrel which caused it to fall over, dead.

Approaching again, spotting that the four orbs on the HUD had dropped by half, now showing only two, she leaned over the corpse, absorbing the essence orb and seeing the HUD popping up again, this time only touching the listing for the Tail and closed the window, causing the squirrel to explode into particles again, a message popping up displaying her acquisition of second tail without a failure message.

Being told to repeat it, Totsu stood up and spotted another squirrel, firing two consecutive blue bolts at the furry critter and following her usual habit of picking up the essence and tail just as she saw a screen pop up.



Doing a double take on her level up screen as The helpful guide came came back closer, with another explanation, "With each thing you kill, you absorb their essence, that essence in turn makes you stronger. Stronger things have stronger essences, A God won't benefit from killing rodents either, it would do you good to always seek stronger and stronger pray, not only do they impart their essence to you but might also be hoarding treasures of great value which makes you stronger than killing their previous owner ten times over."

Totsu spotted quickly an icon with a ! sticking out and with her curiosity getting the best of her she decided to click it, making a popup appear.



Totsu pressed on "Race" first and saw just one option, "Elf (1)" and suddenly things started to seem more clear; if she had started the game with one class level and one race level, starting at level two would be functionally the same as the game's first level. She back out of it before looking over at it again before pressong on "Class" which made a separate screen pop up, this time with only one option, her starting class of Naturalist which she promptly selected.



"Not everything gives a base damage increase" Came the instructive voice of her teacher as if the level up had prompted her to teach her about her new skill, "Take this for example and absorb it" was followed by the taller elf handing a red mushroom with white spots on it out. Picking it up she saw a message pop up, "[Amenita] picked up"

Totsu held the mushroom and focused on it, speaking out "Absorb" and watching it glow a green hue before it started to shrivel up quickly before it crumbled to dust. Seeing another window popping up with the information "Poison effect added." and getting the gist of it now so reached her staff towards the squirrel, chanting out "Adaptive Bolt" and sending a light purplish bolt forward. Colliding with the squirrel with a impressive splash of particles. The squirrel started to run towards the pair, it's health bar now showing an icon below it of a purple drop and a timer below it. The original hit had taken just under half of it's health, solid chunks counting down every so often, the rest of the health dropping to 0 as it reached them.

When Totsu was finished collecting her spoils the teacher came back, smiling, "You did admirably, This concludes your initiation. I have something for you as a way of reward" Rania congratulated, handing out a leather bound notebook, Identified as [Naturalist's Notebook]. As she accepted it she saw another level up screen and Quest Completed. Quickly opening the menu and applying her Level Up token into her class again she saw a window pop up saying:



"It's good practice to note down what gives you what. You don't want to be in a situation where you are adding fire damage against a Fire Creature. Probe can be a good spell to use. It allows you to learn something's effects without consuming them so there are less mistakes. Now please follow me back, i have a mission for you"

Totsu stood up, hanging her staff up on her back before attaching the book to a metal loop on her robe and walked with her tutor out of the forest, walking back to her sleepy hamlet and back to one of the longhouses where Rania walked towards a table, a few things laying down including a simple hooded shawl, a leather satchel and a small wooden box that had been sealed with wax and a cord going around it. "There is a larger village here to the north" Rania started, packing the box into the satchel before handing it and the shawl over, "They have not only an active market but frequent carts and carriages going to the Great City further to the North-East. Gives this package over to Lizantha at the General Goods store." she explained before handing over the [Traveler's Shawl] and [Leather Satchel].

The young apprentice put the shawl over her head and strung the satchel over her shoulder before nodding and turning around, heading out of the village and walking northward, entering the forest again that seemed to encircle the entire settlement of elves. Walking through the forest but getting side tracked quickly, spotting carious forest critters like more squirrels, woodpeckers, living mushroom creatures that seemed marginally stronger than the small rodents, even having a run-in with a large tree creature identified as "Ent Lvl.8" which turned out to be far, far stronger than anticipated, getting hit once and... rather than pain there was a rather off sensation, there was no mistaking that they had been hit but it had a dream-like feeling towards it. The level 3 Elf quickly made a run for it after seeing her health drop by a frightening amount for only a single hit, taking more damage to her bravado.

After being confident that she lost it, she sat down and started to rest, seeing her health meter slowly starting to crawl upwards and noticing a notable dip in her Sustenance meter. Looking around herself she saw what looked not entirely unlike a head of cabbage, green in color, globular and having notable protrusions on it. She took it carefully in her hands before breathing out and focusing on it, "Absorb" she chanted, seeing the customary green hue around it, the vegetable's natural green color starting to wilt and rot, going yellow before getting shades of gray and black, taking a noticeably longer time this time around, taking a full thirty seconds before it crumbled into dust and gave her a prompt "+15 Earth Damage added. Knockback Effect added." as well as her hunger and thirst bars going up the small bit they had been missing.

Totsu grabbed her staff and pointed it at a squirrel in a tree, smiling and taking aim before chanting "Adaptive Bolt!" and firing out a brown projectile which looked like it had bits of debris and dust circling around it. It collided the the squirrel and sent it flying back about half a foot before it crashed into the tree, taking a majority of it's health bar before falling down from near the top, landing on the ground and the rest of it's health disappearing with the impact. The damage buff icon seemingly disappearing from that one shot.

She sat there stunned before a smile crept on her lips, ending with her bursting out laughing and leaning back, laying down flat in the patch of dirt and grass, "User was right about this game. It is pretty fun to play" she spoke out into the empty void to no one in particular, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes, listening to the sounds of the forests around her. She looked around some more, "Hmm... I wonder what else i could stuff into this..." she wondered, looking around for more things to absorb after collecting her essence and usual tail.

She tried absorbing anything she could get her hands on and trying out their effects on various rabbits, mushroom monsters and poor unlucky squirrels who's population remained remarkably steady considering the genocide faced by the dainty little magic discovering Elf. She discovered more water elements, poisons which weren't nearly as potent as the mushroom she had been given initially, more earth elements and a what looked like a pepper which fired a fiery bolt, setting the rabbit on fire but seemingly defying all known laws of fire previously known to the panicking Elf who thought she would upset a certain Public Service bear with her reckless magic use. She went on for a while until she saw a familiar message which pulled her out of her murderous rampage and back towards reality





Getting the level-up made her snap back to reality, putting another point in her class and reading over her ability, smiling as she realized what it could do. "Hm... I wonder if..." She trailed off to herself, walking the forest and picking up a few things, some peppers, finding another one of those weird cabbage looking things, offing many small forest critters, finding it easier and easier by every level to kill them but getting less and less experience from doing so. Using the new ability, a smaller MP bar appeared under her normal one, it only went up to a small-ish normal value by now but she imagined it would increase with her own levels, so for now she set up maxing it out, finding that it didn't get spent with every spell she cast, just the spells she chose to cast with it.

Finally, finding again her foe who had scared her off last time, she walked around and positioned herself just right, standing so the Ent was between her and a tree. She started the process of absorbing her cabbage first, gaining the Earth Damage and Knockback effect. "Adaptive Bolt!" she called out with gusto, sending a brown projectile hurling towards the Ent and hurling it backwards, slamming into a tree and seemingly getting stunned for a few seconds. While it was prone against the tree and getting up, she took a pepper and absorbed it, gaining a single use of a Fire Damage. She recoiled her staff, taking a deep breath and focusing all of her energy, feeling her Temporary MP bar start to drain, draining more and more by the second as the injured treefolk started to make her way over to her.

After the anticipation of what felt like eternity, her Temp. MP bar had finished and was fully depleted, lunging her glowing staff forward she hurled a right massive red bolt of energy forward, shouting "Enhanced Adaptive Bolt!" with gusto. The creature caught on fire as soon as the bolt made contact, taking a great chunk of it's health as well as starting to flails around as the inferno threatened to consume it's mighty crown of leaves. Absorbing another small veggie and hurling a second bolt, the fearsome creature lay dead, granting a nice rewarding chunk of XP.

Totsu jumped with joy, running over and scavenging what she could, receiving the essence normally but looking over the corpse the didn't seem to be a lot she could scavenge, seemingly having burnt away most of her bounty but at least it lay dead now.

She started to head finally towards the village, remembering she had a package to deliver and likely some goods to sell, however some squirrel tails and rabbit feet probably didn't sell for half a kingdom. The town she arrived in was bigger than the hamlet she had come from but not by overly much, there were a variety of people walking around, all with a <NPC> tag over their head. Walking through a wide street she assumed to be the mainstreet for the village, she came across a building with a hanging placard, a picture of a coin-purse embossed and painted onto it so assuming that was the intended destination she walked inside.

After handing the package off and getting a scripted thanks in return and a short exposition dump like many others, having the cart and carriage system set up, telling her about the frequent travels between the city and here if she would want to as well as a hefty bit of XP as congrats for finishing this overeasy quest, between the foraging, treefolk murder and quest it was enough to get her to receive another popup





Wanting to try out her new skill but also thinking she spent way more time that she was meant to here she quickly sold off her wares she had collected, only getting about a single copper piece for each of them, mostly as expected. She made her way out of the shop before heading down the street in the direction she had received in the info dump from the shopkeeper, heading towards the cart before boarding, seeing another message pop up.



Pressing the "Yes" that popped up on her screen, the carriage pulled off before everything faded to black. Waking up again shortly after as if waking up from a sleep, they were pulling into a large gate, the horse drawn carriage walking through the bustling thoroughfare between the gate and the drop off point. Jumping off she looked around with bewilderment before quickly shaking it off and opening a system menu, "Right... So User mentioned that you could still open the chat while logged in" she explained to herself, scrolling through a list of settings before finally seeing it and sending her friend a message.

"Hey, i just finished the tutorial area and am in the Kingdom now. You said you wanted to meet up when i get here?"

Perched up in the indoor balconies under the dark cover of the poorly lit room, the rangers, archers, snipers and hunters stretched out the string of their bows while keeping their gaze firmly set upon the tall door in spiderwebs that seemed to float just above the door's surface in places. Much like how the rest of the room seemed to have a decor of rust, broken stone and the vines that allowed on to pull themselves onto the balconies, beneath the webs the door was adorned with rusty gears seemingly tied to a mechanism of metal wires and a lever on each side of the door. Those levers allowed the door to be opened from the inside. To do the same from the outside, however, was a far trickier process, involving several levers that had to be turned in just the right order. The <Real Lit> guild members had already spread out to defend this base on several checkpoints, hoping to disrupt the timing and deal as much damage as possible. This being the guild's base, they had the edge of ambushes and spreading in just the right places and even sometimes secret escape routes! Even if they failed to stop the invaders from reaching the inner Sanctum, they could at least hurt them enough that they would be defeated once they did.

"How are they doing out there?" Inquired the dark elf Liana, for the 87th time in the past hour. In stark contrast to my own attire (a mess of twisted branches vaguely taking the shape of a suit of armor, with a dark hood for a helmet), Liana's clothes were much leaner, a light blue ending in leaf-like shapes on the tips, though one could definitely say she went overboard on those starlight cosmetics. Golias Grimwood sighed and his elaborate and refined clothes of purple and yellow shades fluttered as if blown by a wind spawned right from under him, and a holographic projection of the former dungeon turned guild base appeared among us. It displayed allies as dark blue dots and enemies as red dots, clashing with one another. While her robe's cosmetics shone so bright it made the hologram hard to see as she leaned on it, her proximity a part of it that were these four light-blue rectangles made it less than hard to guess where her sight might be going. She looked over to Golias Grimwood with her head tilted. "Hey, didn't you say they couldn't beat this trap? Why are they winning?"

"I don't know." He growled in turn. "They probably figured out the trick but even so! When the platform raises to make the people fall in love, the glitch made the lava appear above: Whether one chooses to fall on the now infinite loop hole, or jump to avoid it and right into lava, they should die instantly!"

"Maybe they got out of the way?"

"A skill would have to let them move right in between the two parts of the hole. It would take the right skill, skills and timing. From what I understood from the chat reports, they survived the lava. Still, to have such a high fire resistance as to be able to withstand LAVA is just ridiculous!"

"They seem to be playing WSBCs left and right. They sure did their homework. Tch." Wildly unkept orange hair, with a long pirate cape and scavenger armor, as well as smitar resting on his shoulder while he himself sat with legs crossed on the stairs, that was the image of <Real Lit>'s guild leader, Keysmasher6. He tilted his head backwards, grunted after another look at the holographic projection. "C'mon, everyone get in position. It's only a matter of time before they get here."

We all nodded, and Golias Grimwood dismissed his hologram. The guardians and shielders kneeled in front of the first staircase, their respective shields covering their whole body except for the heads that still popped out. Right behind them was Keysmaher6, who had to be near enough to strike given he was a melee fighter, but was also the leader, it would be just silly if he died caught in the initial crossfire. Golias Grimwood joined the healers in the back, using the ability granted an item he had to dual-cast both an illusion and a barrier to hide himself along with the healers. As for Liana, she slipped through a bugged crack in a protective shell that used to belong to the boss of the dungeon, and yet had not disappeared, courtesy of the [Sealing Blade] lodged on that spot. My final glance at the hologram before following Liana showed a number of blue dots converging upon two red dots coming in the direction of the sanctum's entrance.

Suddenly, light illuminated the cracks of the door as the gears started turning in the gate. The chains tied to the levers pulled on them, and and another avatar sprinted through the opening. His armor was like a mess of twisted branches, except for the dark hood that stood in place of his helmet. All of the archers readied their bows without a thought, causing him to stop in the middle of the sanctum hall, startled.

"Don't shoot, it's me, Kane, Tom! We've been overwhelmed!" He raised his hands. He was visibly out of breath, but his presence alone got heads turning and murmurs going. I smirked.

After all, his appearance was absolutely identical to mine.

Before anyone had time to think, three blades of light soared across the room, impaling Kane. The archers shot in the direction they came from immediately, however...

"Holy Guardian!" Waves of light appeared in the air, looking ripples a would-be-sphere of water. As the void-laced arrows hit the invisible sphere they simply dropped right off to the ground. The sound of a boot stomp reverberated across the sanctum. "Reith's retribution!"

A gold-illuminated spear stabbed into the sphere from the inside, cracking and releasing a large beam across the hall.

"Bullwark!" Shouted the guardians and shielders in unison as they clenched the handles of their shields. A green barrier formed in front of them and blocked the beam of light. As they all recovered their sight, however, the man in a full set of elaborate armor and spear raised in their direction wasn't the only newcomer to the room, but a row of previously invisible rogues stood on each side of the hall, right beneath the vines one used to climb to the balconies. Their hands had an ethereal, almost see-through dark color to them, the indicator of the temporary enchantment [Curse of Ghostly Crossing]. They tugged on the vines, which appeared to glitch, switching between their usual mellow green color and pure black. Next, the floor beneath the archers simply vanished, causing them all to fall to the ground and take massive damage as a result, so they were easily picked off by the rogues.

The others were still wide-eyed when the armored spearman addressed them with a smile.

"Invisibility and illusions skills are actually rather common. It is a common-sense precaution to double-check frequently you know? Like this. Revelation!" As he waved his arm, a cloud of golden dust flew out in all directions, making invisible rogues appear and even dispelling Golias Grimwood's illusions. Keysmasher6 was no exception, becoming visible again right behind the spearman. Giving up on subletly, he lept towards him, yet the other's hand suddenly began to glow and in the blink of an eye and without any word being spoken elbowed the guild leader and propelled him to the nearest wall.

"Damn paladin..." Keysmasher6 growled before the status set in.

"He is stunned, get him now comrades!" Ordered the spearman.

"Those rogues are going to get him, STOP THEM KANE!" Golias Grimwood barked out. "USE THE SET!"

Slowly rising with his health still very much in the red, Kane hesitated for a moment, but seeing his leader almost assassinated, he shook his head.

"Ancient root set!" The green jewels within the various tree-root shaped items in his body glowed, flowing an aura of green energy into the gauntlets, whose fingers began to rapidly expand. He shoved them into the grow, and they grew into roots that emerged from all over and grabbed hold of the various rogues and even the paladin.

"Impressive." He commented. "But I doubt you can do this for very long."

"It doesn't have to! Arcaflame Nova!" Liana raised her hand up, and what appeared to be code bars with runes in them began to gather above it, spinning rapidly into a growing sphere. This was the crux of <Real Lit>'s victories. While hidden behind the immune status usually reserved for the boss, coupled with the massive mana regeneration of that very same state, she could unleash powerful spell after powerful spell.

"Wait you idiot, you're going to get Keysmasher killed too!" Roared Grimwood. "Plus, if that really was Kane, then this one-"

Of course, I didn't let him finish before acting. I pointed a finger at the blade beneath Liana, while my body appeared to melt down, thorny wood gradually replaced by my tiny, fluffy blue hoodie.

"Expell curse!" With that command, green lines appeared across the blade, glowing brighter and brighter until they almost seemed to explode, leaving behind an empty husk of a weapon. More importantly, however, a certain blue marble figure quickly emerged from the ground, eyes red like furious rubies. As it popped right from beneath Liana, her spell broke apart when she was flung into the air. That also triggered the boss to attack her: A set of ruby meteors chased Liana, so between that and the fall, she wasn't long for this world. The healers nonetheless tried their best, yet they simply couldn't keep up. Grimwood himself pulled out a short sword and charged at me, so it' was time for the final part.

"Frightful visage!" My form once again melted, this time revealing my "true" changeling form. Thanks to my [Dominator], I could then control any afflicted with the [Fear] status, including the boss herself. I made her leave her protective barrier and put me there instead, then rampage. Friend against friend, guildmate against guildmate, boss against players (well, I suppose that one is more normal). Having given the orders, I raised my arms up in the air and closed my eyes. "Summon lesser skeleton!"

I continued to summon my forces safe from harm. Eventually, the shielders and guardians were forced to break line to attempt to defend their comrades from themselves, a fatal mistake since Bullwark's protection was minimal against attacks not coming from the front. The paladin, Shinkami, shook his head and wagged his finger.

"Now now, that was a pretty bad move you know? Don't break formation when fighting a summoner, otherwise look what happens!" He opened his arms as if to show them the room, not that the shield-users could see it as they already had skeletons and zombies and half-controlled comrades on every side.

As the halls devolved into our utter chaos, our victory was sealed.



"Cheers!" Three beer jugs went clink as they clashed together. The three muscle-covered elves wearing animal pelts began gulping them down with a smile on their face and ignoring all the foam flowing over their cheeks. One tasted like coke, another like orange juice and the last one like coffee, albeit all three were convinced they were the only ones "pussying out" of drinking beer, or Jellycream told us. She had been the one to introduce us to them, and also one of the bartenders of this place. Indeed if this game had one thing going for it, that was the variety of things one could do with it: It was so great that entire professions could actually be reproduced to a pretty realistic extent, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

"Imperia? Are you even listening to me? Do you even understand how seldom we can acquire [Apparel Potions]?" My hands were raised instinctively between myself and the leaning woman in glasses, Cathwind. She was holding a chalkboard tablet, naturally an enchanted one that functioned a lot more like a modern tablet. Fantasy was weird sometimes. Still, I had chosen to play such a fantasy game, much like I had chosen my avatar's height despite how frustrating it was to have this annoying person towering over me complaining about the potions I used in my mission. Ah, how much I would have rather been with Shinkami over there with the elves and their beer and snacks, negotiating the payment terms. It would still suck to have such a close conversation to my job there too, but at least I wouldn't be on the spot!

I backed off (internally and externally) when Cathwind growled and scoffed.

"Did your avatar choice melt your brains down too or was that a pre-existing condition? [Apparel Potions] are a rare drop from a complex maze, it takes ages to do and is a relatively low-level item, so nobody even bothers farming it. Even those who sell them rarely get to make much of a profit because so few people use it. Do you understand? And yet you used SIX of them! Couldn't you have cut it down to four at least? I'm certain you could. If you're just going to drown in potions, what do we even need you for?"

I growled back.

"Fine, fine I get it! I'll pay for them, all of them, so please jus-"

"Just paying for them isn't enough. We barely have any stock, you need to go get more!"

"Hey, I'm busy today! I have someone to meet. They are brand new to the game, so I'm sure I'll be with them for a while. I mean, even if they weren't knew it'd still be common sense to spend time with a friend of course, but even more so when they need someone to teach them the ropes!"

"Just take them with you then. Just power le-"

"The chibi and the high secretary over there, do you want to drink anything else? Maybe some food? Made plenty of [Salty Netherstark Buffet] with the ingredients you threw at me this morning. There's no way I can sell all of this, so make sure to take some damn responsibility, alright?" Jellycream was leaning over the counter with her face supported by the hands on her cheeks. She had a long and lean blue body with a longer and leaner tail, as well as long ears that twisted in a spiral. Her fingers grew larger as the farther from the palm (like a toad's) and her fingernails were painted in a darker shade of blue, matching her deep mono-color azure eyes.

"S-secretary?!" Cathwind looked shocked and appalled.

"Pffft." I covered my mouth with my oversized sleeves. Her glare shifted back to me in an instant.

"What's so funny?" I shook my head, but her glare wouldn't stop pressing me. I gave out.

"Sec- pfft- high secretary hahaha..."

"Can't you at least pretend to take this seriously?" She sighed and held her forehead. "How does someone like you even manage to hold a job?"

Ah, here it was. This is why no one liked Cathwind all that much, guild leader aside that is. She immediately managed to sour the good mood that was kind of building up again, DESPITE her lecture.

"Even I'm not like this IRL. You really shouldn't bring that kind of stuff to the conversation here."

"Can't you be a little more that other way then? Some people really try you know!"

"What's the point of that? This is a game! And besides, I DO try to make an effort!" I crossed my arms. At that moment, a guy that could be taken for an athlete walked through the door. He carried a large semi-mechanical bow-harp hybrid, with several strings that played a melody and added a slightly different effect depending on how many he pulled on as he was using the weapon. His name was Raze, and the slick curly horns somewhat noticeable on the side of his large forehead, the ridiculous goatee and those rather hairy legs ending in hooves left no doubt to any who saw him that they were dealing with a Satyr, a close cousin to what Jellybean's race was, a neo-Satyr. I practically threw myself at his leg, hugging it.

"Aaah! Save me Raze! I have a meeting today and she wants to force me to farm potions!"

He patted my back.

"No, no, I'm sure she didn't mean it like that. We're celebrating, no one's going to be forced to do anything now, are we?"

"Do you have no shame, Imperia?" I looked over my shoulder and winked, earning myself a roll of her eyes. "Urgh, and you Raze, I don't think I have to remind you again, but you DO know he is a guy right?"

"That somehow makes it better." My eyes shot open as he said that, and I slowly gulped and looked to his face. There was an almost sinister blobby grin in his expression (was he salivating?!), however, a glance back over my shoulder revealed an even more sinister grin from a ready-to-pounce Cathwind. I quickly looked back to Raze. "Oh, Jelly! Can I have one of those [Salty Netherstark Buffets] by the way?"

"Absolutely! Buy a bunch and I'll even throw in a discount!"

"Heh, you're in a pretty big hurry today I see."

"Well, I really want to catch the sale." She winked. "How about you guys? Are you going to the sale? Or the event?"

Raze raised his gaze to the ceiling.

"Master of the Banquet, huh... That's kind of hard to choose to be honest. I probably have most of the stuff I would want from either already after all. You two?"

"I think I might go to the sale. I'm meeting up with a friend today, so doing some window shopping in which I might be able to get them some better gear for cheap sounds like a great opportunity."

Raze grinned, more playfully this time.

"Is that so? Maybe I should go pay a visit then."

"Absolutely not!" I simply protested, crossing my arms.

Totsu looked down the streets, walking down the midtown markets and looking at the stalls, spotting a variety of foodstuff as well as a plethora of different variety of items, either gathered, dropped from mobs or crafted by players, nothing that fancy. While there were some things there that would fit her current level they were far away from her current budget which could afford her maybe a few days worth of room and board in the city, with the expectation that she could go do some odd jobs or sidequests for extra chance.

Getting a ping in her system messages they opened it up and chuckled a bit at the overly jovial response, reading it over slowly before looking around, the skyline was rather intimidating now that she was first really sinking her eyes into it and absorbing all of the information around her though there was no doubt which building they were talking about, amidst the various townhouses and city halls there was one which stood out as if flouncing it's significance.

"I finished the tutorial, it looks like i will have to learn a lot of things in this game. I picked a Naturalist i think it was, like i absorb plants and it makes my spells more powerful, I'm an Elf, think i did a pretty good job making them"

The path towards the objective wasn't that hard but she would have to cut her way through the markets for a stretch and even just from a cursory look it looked like players had a lot of agency over the markets, many of the houses had been converted into shops, tanneries and smithies, a variety of scents barraging her senses while she walked through, some of baked goods, another of tanned hide, yet another of the humid steam coming from the searing furnaces. There were even those who just had smaller stalls along the streets selling whatever, hide from monsters, various teeth, claws, tusks and bones and even raw material such as ores, lumber and other resources.

More curiously there were those who didn't sell tangible goods but rather they sold arguably the most valuable resource of all; Knowledge. They sold maps to dungeons, guides on how to de-activate traps in raids, floor plans of various guilds for use in raiding and general meta knowledge such as today's broken class/skill combo and whatever glitch the developers patched in or out in this cycle of content.

A few tables towards the end just before she took a turn up to the cathedral's courtyard she saw a booth, a large creature, lithe creature with a almost oval looking skull, thin yet elongated with two piercing eyes; front facing. It had four arms, two of which held a book and quill and another two were organizing radiating crystals, their booth sign saying "Scribed Class Crystals" with some of them bearing price tags utilizing currency denomination she hadn't even heard of before.

Suddenly Totsu was interrupted by a game message, opening up the menu and spotting there a small banner saying Guild Invitation with a timer counting down, 299, 298, 297. Opening it she was prompted with a banner of the guild in question. Offensively pink with white horizontal stripes with two prancing unicorns facing each other and what looked like a rudimentary sketch of the age old trollface between them, with their name up in the header





Blinking a few times, and looking around, not seeing anyone, Totsurugi opened up their system menu and started too type out another message

Hey Users, Did you just invite me to a guild? I got a message from a "Rakthor Goldtusk" who seemed to be rather fond of pastels and unicorns. Coming to the think of it, you never told me about your character, how will i find you at the cathedral?

Totsu finished climbing the set of stairs leading towards the cathedral, coming to a central plaza with a large fountain topped with a statue an important something or other. She slowly sat down on the fountain, using it's ledge as a bench and took out her book, starting to catalog from memory the various spell modifier that they had learned from their time in the tutorial, that is of course until someone approached her;

"Hey newbie, my guild and i could use a Naturalist on our team, can you pick ... ... ... ..."

Totsu knew he had said something, listed off several classes or races no doubt but it just went in one ear and out the other with only a vague recollection of syllables in between, she recoiled a bit and tried to back away from the Half-Giant in front of her. A towering man with gold trims on their armor in every fold and piece, jewels set in their armor in his pauldrons, a large one in his chest and one on his horned helmet all in various different colours, he carried a greatsword on his back which looked ornamental but she couldn't get a clear view of it from here

"I... uh... Sorry i am actually waiting for a friend" She tried to defend herself, looking around to see if she could spot them around here anywhere

"No need to be shy there, my guild is one of the top rated on the server and if you stick with us we can guarantee that you get legendary loot as fast as possible"

"I'm sorry sir, i'm really not interested... Could you please back off"

At this point some people were starting to look over their way but so far no one seemed to coming between them, at least no one that they could see past the towering man.

Hmmm... a Naturalist huh? Pulling on my chin hair, I glanced slightly up. If I wasn't mistaken, that class combined well with druids and farmers, for their ability to grow plants, and when what had both of those, doctor was the logical choice to follow, since they could apply healing using plant material. Naturalists also went well with summoner classes, since again plenty of material one could conjure up to feed the naturalist abilities.

As for elf... I guess she at least wouldn't stand out too much. Not a bad thing at all of course, I was trying to keep a low profile myself and it was hardly uncommon for newbies to cave under the pressure when questioned about more exotic playstyle options. Even though there weren't any particularly bad ones at the beginning due to the freedom of progress, and [Essence Remodeling Fruit]s, be it by malice or even in an attempt to help people could create a lot of pressure to conform.

Certainly seems like a good match! Your choices for how to grow and evolve will be truly crucial, you'll be to be able to be self-sufficient in various environments to make it as a naturalist, and information gathering will be important as well. We'll talk about all that when you get here though.

In front of me when I stopped after having sent that message was none other than the big place itself: The pure and well-cared for (at least the graphics made it look that way) steps almost seemed to emanate a soft light of their own, like a night light, but during daytime and due to their supposed reflection of the virtual Sun. Their borders were embroidered in intricate gold shapes, resembling rivers that "flowed" on the edge of the steps between the statues that intersected the stairs. While the NPC priests stayed inside the buildings, players healed outside in front of said statues, lines forming to store powerful healing spells into [Spellcore Crystals] or just to receive a cure from a debuff of some kind. One could tell the experienced healers from the inexperienced, by the time spent haggling and how flashy their spells were: The newer players wanted to impress, wasting their best spells on flashy demonstrations in hopes of attracting clients, while the more experienced players knew that the best spenders probably weren't going to heal in a city without a [Portal Master] and a priority contract already signed. It was a tough choice, but I elected to seat near the newer players. I could put up with the light better than I could put up with the talent scouts.

My efforts seemed to be for naught though. I sighed as I read her next message.

I'll come to you. How do you look like?

I ended up staring at the empty screen for a good five minutes before my mind started to wonder to the people passing by, some seeking the healers outside, others delivering quests inside the church, some simply chatting with whomever.

I had to wonder what she was up to. Maybe she was lost? Stuck in a crowd probably. That could explain why she didn't hear the message, if she turned off the priority hearing. Maybe she had been playing around with the menu....

I began tapping my foot. I checked my screen again: still no messages. I glanced around some more, began leaning over to better see from the sides. Had she somehow ended up in lowtown and head to the Cathedral from the other side? I could go look for her there, but what if she arrived while I was gone? That would just be ridiculous. plus no doubt if she got to the Cathedral and didn't see me, she would send me a message. I reluctantly sat back down on the stairs, and instinctively glanced at a non-existent watch on my wrist.

I DID tell her where she was supposed to go, right? Scratching my head, I opened my menu screen and scrolled up the chat log, moving my private conversation to a different window. Yep, it was right there, "meet me in front of the Cathedral". She had even responded to that message. I ended up standing up again, swinging my weapon a bit, careful not to hit anyone. Worst that could happen was a bit of damage, but it was still unpleasant to get hit with an axe in the face.

Ok, this was starting to worry me a little. It'd been almost 25 minutes without messages or her showing up now. Even if she had gotten that lost, sending a message should have been no problem. There was a bit of pressure in my chest from the worry, and I growled a bit. Dang it, if she was just lost she better wait for me to come back! Axe hanging on my shoulder, I looked ahead to return to the streets, finally noticing a good number of heads turning and murmuring to each other.

"What's happening in there? Is something blocking traffic?" As I approached, I saw it: Just barely visible on the side of the arm of another half-giant player was a green-colored name "Tots". "Could it be? Excuse me..."

I began gently pushing the observers to the side. My suspicions were confirmed: Trapped between a group of four players, two being dwarves, one a fat neko guy and the half giant was a frail little elf by the name of <Totsurugi>.

"Oi, Totsu! Is your alt ready to join the guild?" I waved at her with a big bright smile on my face and winked once, hoping she'd follow along the cue. With big, long steps of purposeful pressure, I 'happily' and confidently stomped my way towards her. "Geez, you really kept me waiting you know? Who are these folks? Are you convincing them to join too?"

Of course, I did know the second name under these other players was their guild's. But playing dumb might help sell Totsurugi's act even if they stumbled a bit.

A rather repulsive demi-human walked up to them, being almost pear-shaped and pudgy with short blue hair, cat ears poking up on the top of his head as well as a long narrow tail matching his haircolor extending out of his tailbone, clad in leather armor with a longbow strapped to his back and two daggers at his side. "Hmm... I don't know Chief. They should have Dryad to get the [Nature's Child] Racial feat. But i guess class selection could fix that" the fatcat spoke, appearantly of the Nekomimi race.

"Well we have a stock of [Essence Remodeling Fruits] if she joins. She can turn into a Dryad no problem to get their racial feet, as well as [Forest Spirit]'s racial feat [Nature's Bounty] once they evolve to the advanced class." The instigating hulk of bulky armor and bad manners spoke, shaking his head slowly before looking the modestly clad elf over again from top to bottom.

The rangertype stroked his double chin and nodded slowly, "Yeah, that would work. They could be useful if they specced into [Herbalist], [Druid], [Farmer] or later on advanced classes like [Doctor], [Field Medic], if we are in a dire need for healers. We'll see about the rare, mythic and legendary classes once she gets few dozen levels under her belt

The pair talked among themselves as if Totsurugi wasn't even there while the petite elf slowly leaned back, mentally and physically trying to distance herself from these people. She got a bad feeling that they guild was rather predatory, likely micromanaged to hell and having strong separation from new members to senior members, it was typical of charismatic assholes to want to consolidate power and prevent anyone but themselves from even having a voice. From behind the two large men came rather short characters, no taller than five feet at best, clad in sturdy bronze armor with large battleaxes on their backs with magnificent, immaculately kept beards that reached down to their belts, two twin dwarfs from the looks of it, both looking identical from each other in all but name.

"Guys, we don't need another healer" Rhalgr, the left dwarf spoke, leading the second dwarf; Bhalgr to chime in, "Aye brother. We've got potions and self heal and regens a plenty. What i would like to see is [Parasyte], [Arcanovore], [Manaphage], for heavy damage, crowd control and denial, then later on [Blood Occultist], [Herald of Xan'thur], for the ritual and sacrifice spells to fit with the theme."

"Oh god the herald... Do you know how bothersome their rituals are? They need special rooms, special equipment, materials, instruments, sigils and half of the time the spells don't work or it leaves the bound subject frozen, half mutated or blown out of propertions like you just turned bighead mode on and if none of that happens sometimes they don't have a collission mesh so they just fall through the floor as soon as they touch it... Though their rituals are indeed powerful, their thralls could be extremely useful for defending the base." The half-giant chief spoke up, holding the bridge of his nose between two fingers and shaking his head. "Though tests have shown that the magic works based on symmetry. If your magic circle or room isn't pixel perfectly symmetrical then the math in the code multiplies irrational numbers, causing buffer overflows that disable most other bits of code"

The Rhalgr was about to speak up before a heavily armored bearded man with an axe walked up to them, Totsu was about to stand up and try to leave before noticing that this person did not share the other's guild and did call out to her, referring to her by name, seemingly the person who had called them here to meet, their friend and savior Usernames.

He spoke up, talking about an "alt" and continuing, asking if she was trying to recruit the people in front of them. Thinking quickly, he probably meant to insinuate that she was a veteran of this game and was making a new character or "Alternatives" based on the term "alt". Cogs started to turn in her head before she just shook head head and spoke up in a soft voice, "Oh, you finally found me" and looked towards the officers from the predatory guild, "I wouldn't want to associate with these airheads. They are still going on about the [Naturalist], [Dryad] combo. It's like they have never heard that multiple advanced classes of elves are much better suited since they have much more practical skills and magics for harnessing nature magic" The elf said before standing up and walking towards the axe wielding lifesaver, "They probably are just following guides on the internet written by some teenager with too much free time instead of talking to the elite info brokers and it shows."

Seeing as their potential fresh meat seemed to already belong to a guild in all but title they just huffed and turned away, "Well let's find someone else since they clearly don't want to join" the neko said, swatting the half-giant in the back of the head as they walked back further into the cathedral towards the new players, "This time don't pick on alts who say they already have a guild Althor, learn to listen once in a while, christ."

Totsu turned her head towards the much taller, pleasant and beardier man in front of her and gave a wide smile, "Thanks for getting those people away... it's scary how people act while anonymous and disconnected from real life" she spoke before blushing a bit, a feature she didn't even know the game could mimic, S...sorry for... uh... Getting lost, i didn't know where to look for you. I am not used to these kinda games. I think i told you, right? This is the first game i've played other than some mobile timewaster... i couldn't even come up with name so i just went with what i know but... Looks like you're talent in making up names followed you in～" she winked and chuckled a bit.

As if by miracle, she picked up on my cues and followed suit with her improv. Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't clutch my axe's handle a little tighter when she started calling the people around her names and acting all haughty, who knew how petty these people might be, it was an online game after all. That sigh of relief was hard to hold in as the quartet ultimately opted for leaving, while complaining and muttering amongst themselves. Nonetheless, I insisted in leading Totsrugi a little further away from there, at least far enough that we had cover from the buildings, in case that guild did something crazy like, you know, turning around for a second.

"Ah, c'mon, this is just a throwaway alt you know! Not gonna spend hours trying to come up with a nice shiny name for him! Plus...you know... I thought it'd be funny." I rubbed the back of my head while my gaze inevitably shifted away from hers. Soon as I regained my composure, I turned back to her, straightened my back, and "coughed" into my hand. "W-well, anyway, it's true that you did mention that about you not playing this kind of game before. Sorry, I just kind of thought you'd be able to find your way to the Cathedral because of those."

I pointed upwards to the Cathedral's towers, rising well above the top line of the houses in midtown. Only the occasion player flying on the back of a dragon, giant bird, giant flying fish or magical flying carpet cast a shadow upon those imposing holy columns. We could have taken a tour of the cathedral, but with the chance those guys would come back, it was better left for another time. I scratched my chin a little, ruffling my beard until my eyes widened.

"Aha! I know a good place, alright Totsu come with me!" I swung my arm in a gesture for him to follow along and started heading through the streets again. It wasn't long until the glances of people who witnessed the earlier confrontation with the <Jazzcreamed Unicorns> guild began giving way to a fresh new old side of midtown, and the busy flow of its streets. I offered a hand to Totsurugi before we "dived in". "Grab my hand. It may be a little embarassing, but since you don't know your way around yet, its best we don't get separated."

We turned left and then right, crossing the crowd and joining a different one in the next street over. The more we moved forward in that one, the more a certain mixture of flowery scents intensified, while our feet seemed to tread upon an increasingly granular path which replaced the previous smooth and almost polished rock. Nothing we wore or stepped on would make the ground any dirtier, of course, but the city’s design had those kinds of soft gradual transitions. There were still rather wealthy-looking decorations on the upper part of the houses and shops around us, now with a more twirling and wavery gold or silver design, and the occasional symbol of a tree or leaf. At the borders of the shops there were sticks or flowers or other herbs in these things attached to the walls that seemed like bandaged quivers.

We turned right again in a particularly wide alley and around a smaller building. It was mostly cubical though the upper third had more round edges, almost like a crude dome, from which several sticks with a flower or two stuck out, all around a single cylindrical chimney pouring out colored smoke. It shifted from purple to yellow to blue to green, sometimes a combination of two or three colors in spotted patterns. Most of the shop had these large shop windows, from which one could see the yellow stone adorned with all manner of monster taxidermy mounts, and two shelf’s worth of catalogues with a potion printed in the front. At the back was a wooden counter with an old man with puffy white facial hair, like discolored patches of grass had just up and decided his face was a nice place to grow on. Behind that man, in turn, were shelves with various vials with liquids of also varying colors: Potions.

We stopped right as the rightmost shop window ended and the blank wall began. I felt the wall a bit, until one of my fingers sunk a bit into the wall, and I nodded while grinning to myself. I looked over to my shoulder to Totsumi.

“This isn’t our destination yet, but it’s important you know about these things. You know what makes this game so unique? Well, of course there’s the obvious things, like the whole fully immersive VR and the scale and freedom… but there’s one thing us players know that the public doesn’t, one of the biggest things behind this game: the glitches. We compete using those too. There’s all manner of glitches to find, and the developers are so lazy at fixing them or so focused on bringing new content instead that we just up and rolled with it. For instance, the potions in this shop are for beginners, but they are super expensive so that you can only take a couple at a time when you’re just starting out. The counter is also protected against magic, so there’s no way to “steal the potion”. Well, not unless you know about this.”

With another grin, I stepped inside the shop, rather literally going through the wall as if it was air. You needed the right angle and placement to do that, but once you knew the trick it was indeed simple. The NPC didn’t even react, and simply continued staring at the entrance as if no one was there or had just invaded his store, or his personal space. Humming happily, I began taking potions off the shelves, which replaced themselves after a few seconds.

“You can get a lot of potions like this, hehe.” I told my elf friend after leaving the store, smirking and shaking a potion in my hand. “You can also sell these back to him when you don’t need them anymore. I wouldn’t recommend trying to make money that way though, they only sell back for a few copper despite how expensive they are to begin with, and you can’t trade them with other players either. Now, onto our actual destination then!”

It wasn’t long before we arrived at our actual destination, after passing a bit further ahead from the shop, where the path returned to being the old well-maintained rock road. The left side of the sign had a winged cat chasing after a winged dog, while the right side was the reverse. The letters in “Corrida Bakery & Cafe”’s name seemed to have tiny strawberries sprouting from them as well, giving a cutesy look to the name that matched the decorations, vines sprouting strawberries. In the inside there were no chairs, only pouffes of various mild colors, accompanying short round wooden tables with a plastic-looking menu on top of a silver triangle plate. I couldn’t help myself from sniffing the air and nodding as the warm and drool-inducing scent of the fresh bread filled my nostrils.

“Let’s go seat over there!” I pointed towards a table by a window on the left, with a large light blue pouffe and a green one on the smaller side.

My body practically sank into that large comfy sack, especially with all the armor I had on me. I conjured up my menu with a thought (not the cafe kind, the game one) and placed my weapon in the inventory.

“Now, THIS is the good stuff! You should put away your weapon too. It’s this place’s policy. Other than that…” I grabbed the menu (the cafe’s this time) and offered it to Totsurugi with a huge grin. “Pick whatever you like! The food here is great, I assure you!”

Hopefully she was in the mood for desserts or pastries, or better yet, bread. Delicious bread. I shook my head. At least until the waitress arrived, I’d better get to the point. I waited a little for Totsurugi to have time to look over the menu, then began:

“So, Totsurugi… since this is your first here, I’m sure you know there’s a ton to learn about the game. Of course, you don’t have to learn about everything at once, but don’t you think it’d be nice to go at it in a bit of a more uh… organized way? You know, like, a plan or a schedule or something. Some preparation at least. W-with that in mind, I have a few options for you.” I pulled a briefcase out of my inventory, and placed it on the table, revealing a stack of papers inside as I opened it. Then, I cleared my throat. “Uh-Hm… So, I have a few options for you. For starters, I could take you to some good places to practice and level, learn the ins and outs of your abilities and such, maybe teach you a few things! For instance, do you know about [Essence Remodelling Fruits]? They are super important, especially later on. You can do the quest to get one at any time after you level 5, but the higher level you are, the harder the quest gets. So it’s a good idea to start stacking some early on. It’s another item the devs don’t let players trade among themselves, not even among their own alts!”

I shrugged and shook my head. I raised two fingers.

“Second, you kinda came during a special time. Not only is there an event going on, The Master of the Banquet, but a certain bad guild was defeated recently, and the merchants they were blocking have a ton of stuff to sell that’s out of season now, so a huge bargain is coming. It’s going to be held near the event’s location too! We could go to either the event or the bargain, or we could try going to both, though with the lines there’ll probably be... We really wouldn’t be left with much time for either that way.”

A third finger was raised. I sighed.

“Third uhm… I don’t if I shou- “ I shook my head. “No, I’m going to. If you really, REALLY want it, I could uhm… help you p-power level.”

Just saying it, I ended up reflexively looking away to the ground. But I wanted to offer her that choice either way.

She walked along with the large bearded man away from preying eyes, notably those of the monohorned equines topped with an unknown condiment. Listening to the large man speak she just nodded her head, "Yeah. Sorry i just thought that 'at the cathedral' meant somewhere outside it as opposed to 'in the cathedral'... The courtyard was big and i didn't exactly know what you looked like... i guess it's on me for not asking"

When being beckoned to walked Totsu nodded her head and slowly followed him along, looking down at his hand when it was offered, hesitating for a bit but deciding to go with it, taking his hand as they walked down the streets. There were a fair few people walking around, past them, behind them or in front. Nobody really seemed to care aside from a few stray glances before going to to their business. Totsu however was noticing a fair few things; the construction of the buildings, how the road started to deteriorate from the clean hewn rocky streets reminiscent of old roman roads that had stood the test of two thousand years to a more worn or less put together, mostly loose cobblestone with patches where the packed dirt was visible.

Following him down the streets and starting to walk behind one of the buildings she wanted to speak up but thinking that it could maybe be some sort of a hiding place or something. Looking through the window of the shop it looked like it was for potions or healing items of some sort, confirmed but a moment later when Mr.Beardo started to speaking up, hearing about it was one thing but seeing it was a whole another deal, seeing his hand go through the wall and later pull her in behind the counter, the man not even reacting.

She looked up at her guide as he started to take potions off the wall, she blushed and leaned in, "But isn't that..." and her question was answered before she had time to finish it by the potion reappearing. The more she thought about it the more it made sense, stealing or theft in general relied on the loss of value from one to benefit the other, these potions appeared to be infinite and there was no hint about the shopkeeper being alive or even existing in any capacity out of standing there and selling, most of the money just disappearing into the void she imagined. From the looks of it, it appeared like it was benefiting one party with no downsides to anyone so she ended up reaching up to the shelf and taking a few, putting them in her pouch before they left the way they came and walked back down the way.

Totsu walked into the fancy looking diner and took a seat at one of the pouffes and leaned back, looking at Beardo as his Axe disappeared, she blinked a few times before nodding and opening her menu screen. Uh.. Inventory? Ah, there it was, the [Stow Weapon] button. Seeing the menu for the place being handed over she took it, receiving it with both hands and looking it over carefully for a few moments before smiling, "So what you mean to tell me is that i can actually eat here and not just [Absorb] it?" she asked rhetorically with a bit of a chuckle. "Well in that case i guess i will go for the [Riebo&Tanzo Sandwich]" she decided without having any idea what those two things were.

Listening to his first point she nodded a bit "Yeah, i did go through the tutorial but...They only really taught me the basics of my class, i still have no idea how to get new classes or races or whatever. I'd appreciate help with that" looking on as he pulled out the large suitcase and opened it, continuing to speak, "Well... i am guessing they let you reset your race or class or something along those lines?" As he raised his second finger she nodded again and just shrugged, having no idea of the significance of the event or the merchants so she just stated that it was up to his better judgement what they should do with their time.

On the third point she just blinked a few time? Power leveling? Beardo had a weird look on his face when he mentioned it so it must have been something frowned upon on... By her best estimates it was something like gathering levels as quickly as possible. She nodded her head slowly, "Well, i'd be pretty overwhelmed with the amount of new skills i would be getting but you seem to be rather knowledgeable about this so i think i would be okay if you would guide me through it. I'm guessing there isn't much use in someone who is of a low level so if i could be useful quick i wouldn't be against it" she mentioned, nodding slowly.

"O-key pyon!~" the waitress winked and spun 180 degrees.

"There pyon!"

"Found you, pyon!"

"One more find pyon!"

One after the other, she spotted and hastily served each table. Honestly, with those lines one could confuse her for an NPC... Some of the customers seemed constantly on edge, eyes glued to either the girl or the food that miraculously wasn't splattered on the floor yet. Others, however, simply chuckled. My own hands shook a bit as I tried to hold back my own laughter, and occasionally threw a quick glance at Totsurugi just to check on their reaction. After she placed what seemed like the last order, the bunny girl tilted her head and winked at me with a smirk. She proceeded to skip over to our table while humming, then bending down below the table's height, and leaped upwards in place.

She simply cried out while throwing an arm up in the air, and holding the now empty tray close to her belly. Then she bent over, the little shell-shaped bell ringing right in front of our faces. "Have you two decided on yours orders yet pyon?"

She looked over to me, then Totsurugi. She blinked so intensely I could swear she was doing it on purpose, but then again she was always a mystery.

"Actually, we have Pyonita. I'm gonna have a large ice coffee and a triple house sweet bread, and Totsu here wanted a Riebo&Tanzo sandwhich, isn't that right? So, we're taking that." I grinned at the waitress.

The bunny girl lept into a standing position again and saluted us.

"Aye aye pyon!"

The door slammed open just as Pyonita started to walk away humming some peppy song. A leather glove with tiny bone spikes on the knuckles held the entrance open. A bit of wind passed through the threshold gaining a certain sand-like coloring, while a trace of a light brown coat became visible as it was fluttered by the short breeze. A black horseriding boot stomped into view, followed by what seemed like a light grey beak, which turned out to be part of a plague doctor's mask. Over the mask, the figure had a large dark cowboy hat, and as they made their way inside, leaving the door to just close behind them, their hand seemed to disappear inside their large loose coat. Everyone turned to the newcomer instinctively, even Pyonita, though nothing about this entrance made her smile even flinch. The would-be-cowboy seemed to scout the room with his gaze, until at last it landed near our table, and he began heading towards us.

Not a word or gesture was uttered. Some people were curious to see what would happen, others simply returned to their meals. Sand-like coloring seemed to float around the figure. I couldn't help rolling my eyes as they stopped right next to our table, remaining silent, just standing there. Then she turned again, to the bunny girl who had in the meantime returned instead of taking our orders to the kitchen.

The waitress and the mystery person simply stared each other down for a good moment, from under the cloak emerged a hand doing a peace sign. Then the second. The waitress did the same with her hands, and they both brought the peace sign gestures over their heads.

"..."

"..."

"Pyon pyon, pyon!!!" They shouted in unison, proceeding to give each other a double high five with peace signs. Their voices were completely out of sink, albeit both the high pitched cutesy rabbit and somewhat muffled and steeply deep voice of the "cowboy" were somehow equally peppy and excited. The both of them giggled, and the Pyonita gave an understanding nod with a determined look, spun around and headed to the kitchen.

I leaned over the table and attempted to whisper to Totsurugi.

"I admit, I don't know what just happened either..."

Be it because he heard me say that, or because seeing me lean in and whisper something made him suspicious that I was talking about him, the "cowboy" turned to me.

"You shouldn't be talking about people behind their backs Beardo." that deep voice pouted at me.

I smirked at them.

"I wasn't, I wasn't, I swear! I mean, if anything, I was talking from the diagonal. Hahah!"

The cowboy seemed to choke, unsure whether to laugh or be frustrated, but I definitely knew which one I was going with. My laughter bellowed out across the room, as if having a figure in that whole get up standing next to our table wasn't calling enough attention. They sighed, and crouched.

"Well, thanks for the other day I guess. Is this a new guild member? She comes across as a newbie... unless she's bai-"

"Let me stop you right there. She's nothing like that, alright? Just who do you think we are, anyway? In any case, this is Totsurugi, she is a friend of mine trying out the game for the first time. We were just talking about what we should do."

"Ah, because of the event and the sale."

"Plus it's not like she has the hang of the game yet, but she's shown interest in uh...powerleveling." I couldn't help looking away when I said that. "Might have to switch over to the other one to do that."

"And you think that would be too conspicuous." the cowboy plague doctor nodded with understanding. "This game could really do a better job at teaching the newbies. That's why my guilds holds these practice lessons...oh! Yeah, why don't you join?"

"Sorry, but we're not really interested in that group stuff and "

"Wait, wait, think of it like this..." They interrupted. "If you go give a lesson to a group, you wouldn't be singling her out nor walking around on your own. We also found some nice spots with more privacy, so you could use one of those while you get her through the early levels. AND, since the training was intended to end early, you'll have time to spare to check out at least the final part of the event. Plus, she could even try PvP against someone of her actual level!"

The "cowboy" turned to Totsurugi.

"What do you think? Seems like a win-win situation to me."

The petite elf visibly recoiled at the "battlecry" coming out of nowhere, obviously startled by the sudden and very flamboyant entrance of the maid carrying a precariously tall stack of plates, platters and food of various kinds. While the loud force of disruption scanned over the place Totsu spoke up "The other guys talked about it, do I thought that is what it did, or at least somewhere along those lines" her eyes scanned the room, coming across quite the varied selection of people, groups, loners or friends all hanging out.

There was a large human looking man, appearing to be in his early twenties and wearing all black; black, short hair, a long, long coat which reached nearly to his ankles, what looked like a military cargo vest, just in black and slacks in a color you'd never guess. He sat alone in a corner with his hands resting behind him on each wall of the corner with a massive sword on his back despite the rule, likely bigger than him and surely weighing more, as if to complete the entire ensemble he had piercing, almost glowing red eyes... The entire visage of gave Totsu the uncanny feeling of Dejavu, memories of highschool flooding back to her mind.

Her eyes followed the bunny girl for a spell as she moved towards the different groups and let out her catchphrase every sentence like she was a pokemon or a character from an anime... in which case she'd likely fall right in with her bright maid outfit and moe mannerisms, from the halfling wizards to the lycanthrope to the lizardfolk, four armed bug people and finally what looked like some kind of dragonkin, or at least draconically inspired with it's long toothy snout and red scales.

When the strutting (and sometimes jumping) moeblob made their way over to their table with an impressive display of her vocal range followed by the jump, Beardo gave their order before Totsu added, "Oh, and tea please. Any is fine." before turning back to her companion and mentor, "So is there some" she started only to be interrupted by yet another edgelord walking in, slamming the door open.

Seemingly mesmerized by the odd display of a plague-doctor-cowboy and a peppy maid in maid uniform staring each other down before doing this weird greeting ritual of jumping together with hands touching, chanting her catchphrase. She blinked a few times and could only muster a nod in response to Beardo's comment, seeing the "cowboy" turn towards the, seemingly knowing Beardo.

As they spoke up the question she was cut off from asking seemed to become pretty evident, it seemed like there was a stigma against powerlevelers, if she had to guess it was likely due to "As intended" kind of people that seemed to plague every single field one could gain proficiency in, be it music, arts or any sport, there always seemed to be a rather vocal group of people that had a right way of doing things, if you didn't do it like they wanted you were doing it wrong.

This cowboy however seemed intent on getting Beardo to come and teach, she personally couldn't even vouch for if people new his name, much less of any skill he might or might not have that would be worthy of teaching but appearantly this "cowboy" was quite eager on getting his help, not that Beardo seemed comfortable with that. As they turned back to Totsu to ask she just shook her head slowly, bowing her head politely, "Oh... uh... thanks for the offer but i think we got it. We should be fine on our own" she responded, not really feeling confident in being around a larger group this early, especially if she would have to fight them or compete with them, going alone for now seemed like the best course of action for them at the moment until she knew whatever she was doing.

The cowboy stared for a moment, with his blank black eyes from the mask simply lingering on Totsurugi, until they sighed and got up.

"Well, if that's your decision then it's your decision. But you really could have gotten a lot from this you know?" He shook his head. I responded with a brief smile and a wave of my hand.

"Hey you heard her. No hard feelings of course, maybe I'll pass by sometime, with the others and everything."

The masked cowboy turned to me and just remained in that position for an awkward moment, before letting out a hearty laugh.

"Really? That would be awesome, I'm sure everyone would be really motivated to have you all watching over. And if you actually participated, we might even get new members just from that!"

"You're exaggerating." I forced a laugh.

"Maybe a little. But I wouldn't be able to tell exactly by how much." He shrugged and pulled himself away from the table. As if on cue, the bunny girl lept out of the kitchen with a loud "PYOOOOOON!", literally spinning in our direction while the tray in her hand spun with her, and the food miraculously remained on it, shaking but never even leaving its containers. As the bunny girl approach, the cowboy turned around and taking a couple steps before raising one hand to wave with his back still turned to us. "Enjoy your meal."

"One large ice coffee and a triple house sweet bread pyon, and a Riebo&Tanzo sandwhich plus tea pyon!" Declared the bunny girl, head still bobbing side to side from the spinning, as she slammed the tray onto our table. She proceeded to remove our food and drinks from it and nodded with a large semi-sleepy smile before retiring to the kitchen.

There was no denying the two sets of food were indeed unique. On one side, there was a huge mug, with engraved metal on the outside with several heroic depictions of adventures, similar to a Greek vase, while the inside was like green glass, and was filled to the brim with brown ice. It was accompanied by a medium-sized plate with pair of brown-ish/yellow-ish round breads to which my gaze was fixated. I couldn't help leaning in a bit and smelling that crusty surface to take in the sweet warm scent, which would reveal that soft inside.

On the other end, there was a simple yet elegant teacup with a flowery pattern across a line on the upper part of the cup. It was served on a small plate, and were was a tiny jug, small enough it could fit in the teacup, labeled "seconds" by a plate attached to the handle with a string. It was, in turn, accompanied by a bread which had several points where it raised and contorted slightly, resembling crab legs. It was decorated in these red fruits with the shape of cucumbers around and some over the bread and the white seeds within. The inside of the burger had lettuce and some manner of meat, looking barely cooked at all.

Despite the appearance, there were still some envious looks from some neighboring tables. I shrugged it off, as I was preoccupied with something of far greater importance: My own meal. I took up one of my breads and ate a good fourth, nearly a third of the thing at once, despite it being far larger than my own hand. My cheeks were swollen like a squirrel's, sure, but my eyes closed as I felt the bliss rushing through me. It was just right amount of warmth, and the feeling of the soft bread in my mouth was like a dreamy cloud was being compressed in it. The sounds, the images around me felt like they were fading and blurring as I just focused myself on devouring that delicacy, with the occasional large gulp of my drink in-between.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Aaaaaaaah..." I wasn't quite sure if that sound could be described as a "said", but it still came out of my lips while I patted my belly with a content smile. I glanced over to Totsurugi. "Now THAT was a nice meal, ey? That place never disappoints."

I stopped for a moment, and sighed.

"Alright, you said you wanted to try power leveling right? I suppose Beardo will do for starters, his items are all blues are least. The best way would probably be to use a small questchain leading to a farming location. The Squarefields quests maybe?" I closed my eyes and scratched my beard for a moment, before nodding to myself and looking at Totsurugi again. "Yeah that should work. Come with me!"

I swung my arm forward in a large motion to follow. We first made our way through the streets again, houses around us gradually shifting from that well-kept white rock into being increasingly made of dirty granular rock, covered in moss and vines, and even an increasing amount of exposed wood. The road we traveled could be less and less described as a 'road' as it became just a less muddy part of the unkept ground.

We came to a stop in front of a building with three wooden walls with traces of crumbled rock on some bits, especially at the base which seemed to be entirely made of them, though the only reason why the rest of the building wasn't virtually see-through was due to a layer of leather on the inside, covering the walls. Said walls were collapsed toward the center, thus though there here only three of them, they made a sort of hut-like shape, with the front having a typical tavern door and the back having a wooden shed coming out like a tail.

"Now Totsu, I need you to open your menu and find the part that says "available quests", then go to "kingdom quests"." Following the menu that way would lead to a parchment-like miniscreen with a list of rectangles one could scroll through labeled "kingdom quest: (quest name)". "Go to the quest called 'Unusual Tourists'. Accept it."

To any who would heed the call of his majesty the king, and pledge their services for the good of the kingdom,
Rumors have been circulating of strange newcomers to our towns, found to be coming through lowtown. As they do not, by all appearances, pose a danger to the well-being or safety of the people, the law has elected to not forbid them entrance. Their origin and numbers, however, are perplexing, and an unease has reached the ears of the king. Any who have information to share on this matter are welcome to step forth at your local guard stations for review and collection. Verifiable and important information will be rewarded accordingly.

-Saryu Jeeves, royal proclaimer.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Objectives: Inquire the estranged of midtown for information on the refugees.
Rewards: 22 Silver Pieces; 20 XP

"Ordinarily, you would have accepted that quest first, and gone around asking the NPCs for info, and they would have told us to get a certain beverage. You can only find that beverage in this bar anyway though, so by starting here we can save ourselves the trouble of going back and forth. So, shall I do the honors, or would you like to brave in first?"

Regardless, we went inside. The place seemed like an ordinary bar, if unclean and lit by a something akin to a lantern behind the bar. Most of the clients looked like stereotypical bandits, including eyepatches, playing around with knives for no reason and being dressed in rags. There was also a typical old man talking to a young woman dressed in a rather risque fashion, and of course a couple of cloaked figures at the counter. The bartender himself was wearing a large vest made from a bear pelt. In typical fashion he was cleaning a mostly clean-looking mug with a dirty-looking piece of cloth, but looked up as we arrived, then nodded.

"Asking him for the [Jove's Welcoming Stew]." I whispered to Totsurugi.

"How can I help?" The bartender asked when Totsurugi approached. He nodded at the request. "Yeah, yeah, wait that many? I didn't know my beer was famous enough for some rich [ELF] [GIRL]! Right, coming right up!"

Right as the bartender turned around to get the beer, one of the man in rags, who also had a small blue pendant hanging from his neck and a couple of copper rings on both of his ring fingers slammed one of the cloaked figures, who fell to the floor while clenching their cloak rather than protecting themselves from the fall.

"YOU WHAT? Lying RAT!" screamed out the man with the pendant.

"I-I can't do what..." the cloaked figure responded meekly, with a surprisingly deep and refined voice, though a bit dry as well. However, the other man was already stomping towards him with a furious expression.

Words appeared in front of Totsurugi in their mind.

A fight has broke out! The bartender can't work under these conditions, and the beverages you came to collect might be ruined if they hit one. Maybe you should break up the fight?

Totsurugi's attention was pulled by a notification by the system, an alert from outside the virtual reality of a message being passed through. They opened up the system menu, causing a small icon to appear over their head that they were out of the app at the moment, returning a few seconds later once the conversation had finished, both Totsu's and Beardo's as it happened. She let out a short sigh and breathed in before speaking up "Sorry, real life intruding. I should still be good to go until dinnertime, a few more hours at worst." the bunny maid put down their food just as she had finished her sentence before walking away, looking half exhausted.

Picking up the sandwich and biting into it, looking visibly surprised by the flavors, having a sense of familiarity of it, almost like she could recognize parts of the flavors that mad it but couldn't pinpoint it; like if someone had split complex flavors into it's parts and recombined it in a combination that didn't exist in the real world, at least not in Totsu's albeit limited gastronomical experiences. The tea tasted just as wonderful, surprising Totsu yet again that not only could complex flavors exist in this virtual world but also did other experiences, like recreating the feeling of hots drinks, there were a few irregularities however, like she couldn't feel anything if it wasn't touching her tongue, the drink felt like nothing if against her cheeks or going down her throat, as if it only existed while on her tongue. With a few tweaks she could see how someone could live entirely within the game, given that their bodily needs would be taken care of outside of it.

---

After finishing her meal Totsu leaned back with a content smile, nodding her head in agreement with her bearded friend, "No argument there... I might become addicted to this place for the food alone" she chuckled a bit and leaned back in her seat, listening to Beardo speak up with his explanation. She nodded her head and stood up, getting her staff back out as soon as they left the establishment.

Walking down the streets into what she gathered was more the slums, the poorer or less wanted populace making their home here away from the places regularly patrolled by the city guards. Their walk ended with them stopping in front of a run down tavern that seemed rather popular nonetheless judging by the noise coming from inside it. Stopping in front of it she fumbled through her menus until she found the quest menu, going through the sections before she arrived at the 'Kingdom Quests' and found the correct one.

The quest icon looked rather fancy, like a poster that would be nailed to a notice board in medieval times with various notices, classified, official information, warning or requests. Reading through it carefully she scrolled down and hit 'Accept' seeing a "QUEST ACCEPTED" stay on her screen for a few seconds, seeing the quest name on the side of her HUD, listing it's name and first step but no indicator or guide arrow to speak of.

"Alright, got it" She responded when Beardo explained why they started here and not where the first step of her quest told her to go. "Oh, i can go first. Don't want to hide behind you too much" she smiled, walking inside the bar and taking a good look around, just as her hunch had told her, the people around here looked like they would not not to be approached by guards. A lot of hidden faces, some people with tattoos which looked like crests or symbols, some even sharing the same ones. A lot of people who looked liked 'Night Workers' who took coin for services which the morally self-righteous would oppose to. The main bar had some people sitting around it, some empty tankards and flagons sitting around with dirty plates that hadn't been cleaned yet, some having various meal scraps.

Totsu walked towards the bartender, seeing a flagon in front of her that had been left practically full with a clear liquid with no one around. She looked towards the barkeeper after looking at her companion, following his instruction and asking him for the stew. She looked down at the flagon and dipped her finger into it, "[Probe]" she spoke, a faint flash of light coming from her finger, causing Totsu to chuckle a bit, "Of course... Hey, Did you know that..." she said to Beardo before she heard someone fall down on the floor with the man bellowing out and the instruction popping into her mind. "Well, time to see if this works...." she said quietly, taking a deep breath and taking the tankard with her.

She lifted her staff up, walking towards the main and holding it about two feet in front of her, Energy started to collect at it's tip, forming a sphere of magic at it's tip, the effect of "Holding" the [Adaptive Bolt] spell without firing it. "If you have a problem with this man, I suggest you take it outside" she said, her voice sounding a tad bit deeper and as serious as she could muster. She lifted the tankard in on hand, spilling it onto her hand where it disappeared in a faint light, a red trail moving through her right hand, through her chest and towards her left where she held her staff. Suddenly the ball of energy pulsed and caught onto fire, the blaze rising above it, giving off a fair bit of heat. Not surprisingly, the drink she had absorbed was not water; Down here in the slums it was the cheapest thing one could buy, practically pure alcohol fit for use as fuel.

The man with the pendant's face contorted in contempt.

"Huh? Who do you think you are little miss?"

"Just a customer looking for a drink. One that'd hate for the bartender to be unable to do their job."

"And if he doesn't come?"

"You look like a guy with the resources to find him again. Or you could just wait outside, he can't stay here for ever"

The man bared his teeth and looked away.

"Tch. Fine. But I ain't letting ya leave either until I see 'im again there."

At this moment, a new message appeared.

Unusual Tourists
-Inquire the estranged of midtown for information on the refugees 0/1

-Help the cloaked stranger: 1/1 (complete)
-Listen to the cloaked stranger's tale: 0/1

With the appearance of the message, the face of the cloaked man also becomes visible. It is bizarre with a diagonal split in their face passing through their nose, with the lower half covering his mouth and right eye is that of a middle-aged man with a rough untrimmed beard and a skin that did not age well, whereas the upper half covering his bald head and left eye is the face of an actual mannequin with bizarre fleshy bumps here or there. Either side had tiny blue cracks shining through it, like magma shining through melting rock.

"Thank you for rescuing me. I has been...difficult finding work, much less funds." said the mannequin man. His voice was noticeably very deep and elegant. I sighed and approached Totsurugi, whispering to their ear.

"You might wanna sit down for this, it's gonna take a bit."

"I wouldn't suppose you'd have a job for an old toy maker would you? I assure you, I can do good work! I did great work back in my village, with my grandfather's shop. Maybe I should have stayed with him after all... but if I hadn't gone to the lord's town, , I wouldn't have met the love of my life! The most beautiful girl I ever met, that Jenny. I wonder where she is now... I hope she's off painting something for our daughter. She's only two years old, and we were so happy we even skipped the lord's annual fair, where everyone would gather to show off their work. The lord was always so pleased to see it all, and to us newcomers it was a chance to prove our worth to him and everyone in town. I wish things could have stayed that way. I hope the lord and his family managed to escape alongside the rest of the Shelian refugees. Why didn't anyone come to assist us? Why must we forage for food while no one will even consider allowing us to work?!... I'm sorry, my emotions got the best of me. Frankly, asking you for a job when you've already assisted me to this extent would be too much. I don't have any means to repay you, but if you ever need my assistance I'll do what I can to make it up to you!

"Oi!" called out the bartender, waving around waterskins full of the drink Totsurugi had ordered. "Stop messing around, I've got your stuff!"

Right as he spoke those words, the quest updated.

Unusual Tourists
-Inquire the estranged of midtown for information on the refugees 0/1

-Help the cloaked stranger: 1/1 (complete)
-Listen to the cloaked stranger's tale: 1/1 (complete)
-Collect [Jove's Welcoming Stew] from Jove 0/5

And after Totsurugi took the drinks, it would update again.

Unusual Tourists
-Inquire the estranged of midtown for information on the refugees 0/1

-Help the cloaked stranger: 1/1 (complete)
-Listen to the cloaked stranger's tale: 1/1 (complete)
-Collect [Jove's Welcoming Stew] from Jove 5/5 (complete)
-Bribe Gam the crooked 0/1
-Bribe Big Hool 0/1
-Bribe Wasted Joe 0/1
-Bribe the snake man 0/1
-Bribe Madam Sesella the Seer 0/1

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For the next part of the quest, we had to return to midtown. We would wander around that place, talking to each of the "estranged" as we spotted them. The anorexic card dealer and scammer Gam, the huge bald musclebrained Hool, the perpetually-in-hangover Joe always lying down at the bottom of the stairs, the refugee with blue cracks on his skin who commanded a hosted of snakes and snake replicas who somehow moved like the real deal, and the woman in the caravan looking through a glass ball she claimed was actually crystal. Each of them deflected answering our questions, except they said they might remember with some of the stew from lowtown, the one this 'Jove' made and which he always shared with newcomers to the town. After running the rounds once to complete the first objective of the quest, it autocompleted the second that said we had to go to Jove's tavern. Now was time to bribe them.

-Bribe Gam the crooked 1/1 (complete)

"Ohoho? Oh I bet this will go down real swell. You wanted to know about all those cloaked people coming into town lately right? I don't know much about them, but I'll tell you what, they are a really sorry sight. They are totally penniless, and they only have this broken junk to take. I told one of them to take it a toy shop and trade it there or something but they started shaking. That's like carpenter starting to shake at the thought of going to a workshop! If you ask me, it's real fishy, I bet they are the real scammers. Not me, as you can see I'm a man of my word. By the way, might I interest you in a quick game?"

Bribe Big Hool 1/1 (complete)

"You makin' fun o' me? Tis be nothin', so tiny! Well, I dun know much either, so we're even. All I know is they suddenly came in, they can't work o' anything. They dun work on what they are good at, and they are weak, most o'them can't work in fields and they never fought a day in their lives. Seriously, handling them is like trying not to make one of those wine glasses the boss asks me to bring him."

Bribe Wasted Joe 1/1 (complete)

"Eh? What? Oh right, right.... Sorry, I...ow my head... I feel like there's a dragon in it and someone stole a goblet of wine... probably me...ow.... Ah, yeah, this! Excellent. It's good for inducing AND treating headaches like this!" Joe took a big sip from the stew. "Ow... it's still hard to remember.... but I think I overheard them talking about some Shelin place? Wasn't that like, some upstart town or something? I think I got my daughter uh....uh.... what was it? Maybe I should ask her. Ah, no I can't. That wench went and took her... she took everything from... "

Joe took a bigger gulp of a couple bottles at once, the beverages rolling down from his chin.

Bribe the snake man 1/1 (complete)

"What a kind man, that Joe is. He is so welcoming to those who come to him in their time of need. Very much like the lord of that town. The memories are still rather fresh in my mind, so forgive me for not talking much. However, please spread this among your peers: You must not go to that town. I've personally witnessed the life being stolen from friends and family in front of my very eyes. And in turn..."

He pointed to one of his snakes. It wasn't hard to notice what was unusual about it: the entire thing was made from crockery, shaped like a snake and painted yes, and a string tying the body together alongside a few wooden sticks, however it was not the sort of thing one would expect to be alive.

Bribe Madam Sesella the Seer 1/1 (complete)

"Thank you dearie. In return, I'll do you a little service. Come on, sit down..."

She pulls out her 'crystal' ball and begins randomly moving her fingers around it, saying making "oooouuuu" sounds as if that would help the mysticism of the situation.

"I see... a town one should typically avoid. Such danger! The survivors all fled, and the few that remained fight for their very selves to push back against the oddities that tirelessly seek to escape their birthplace, while the lord cowers in his home, driven mad."

Unusual Tourists
-Inquire the estranged of midtown for information on the refugees 1/1 (complete)
-Request 5 [Jove's Welcoming Stew] from Jove in his tavern in lowtown. 5/5 (complete)
-Help the cloaked stranger: 1/1 (complete)
-Listen to the cloaked stranger's tale: 1/1 (complete)
-Collect [Jove's Welcoming Stew] from Jove 5/5 (complete)
-Bribe Gam the crooked 1/1 (complete)
-Bribe Big Hool 1/1 (complete)
-Bribe Wasted Joe 1/1 (complete)
-Bribe the snake man 1/1 (complete)
-Bribe Madam Sesella the Seer 1/1 (complete)
-Go to the local guard station to share what you have learned 0/1

We're almost done with the quest. The guard station is over there. You will get a small special reward depending on how well you report what you were told. Either way, the guard captain is going to have all the details though, it'll just be a difference between learning them from you or learning them from her 'other sources'. Lets go!"

The guard station was a relatively small building with a naturally strong security, from magical wards to of course guards of its own. The front half of it was a sort of reception, with a few spears in a corner and various kinds of clothing, and light by a single shining crystal at the top. This mostly white-painted room had a couple of guards supposed to be stationed in what appeared to be desks, one who had taken a break and left the helmet on the table, while the other laid back on his chair with his feet on that same desk. Nonetheless, it was the only one here to be talked to.

"Huh?" He protested. "Information? You? You stink. You've come from lowtown no? I bet you're just trying to scam us from for some rewar-"

"What is happening here? What is with this lack of discipline from a subordinate of mine?"



"G-guard captain!" The lazy guard quickly attempted to stand up to salute, but ended up rolling poorly because his feet were previously on the table, and fell flat on his face.

"So the report was true, there was someone willfully dismissing important information. You'll be hearing from me later. I'll take it from here. Get out of my sight!"

The guard ran to the back, opening the door to the miniature prison of the station, and heading towards the armory in a hurry. The guard captain marched to the door and closed, giving a slight smile to Totsurugi as she turned back.

"My apologies for this mess. As guard-captain, I am truly ashamed of what my subordinate put you through, I hope you can forgive us. I must also apologize, but we are dealing with an increasingly urgent situation, so for starters, would you mind taking a seat and sharing with us the information you've gathered? I'll be sure to put a bonus in for you."

The Guard Captain walked in, while being irrefutably fair and surprisingly young-looking for her station, she also appeared to be worthy of that title based on the brief interaction between her and her subordinate. Totsu took a seat and was about to close her mouth again when she realized that in a world like this, she would have to rethink her preconceived notions of danger outside of bureaucrats, bullies who had nothing but their vitriolic words and mediocre muscles to aide them, this evidently was a world of myth and magic, where the extraordinary was commonplace.

Every single glance in whatever direction had been a new experience in it's own rate, people with mild animal features were more normal than the rest, often seen on advertising where some cute girl with an obvious headband and not dressed for the weather at all tried to sell you something you really didn't need. The further divorced from humanity or even just reality it got the harder it was to keep one's concentration after seeing one for the first time, snake people with hands seen in some religious texts or talked about by that one obnoxious dude in high-school, tall, slender blue alien looking things with hands reaching nearly to their ankles. The hooded man was especially memorable, looking right out of a fairy tail too, reading about such things could feel so vivid in your imagination but seeing it in front of you as if real was a bigger shock that Totsu was willing to let on.

Totsurugi's mind was already ablaze trying to piece together the what they had been so lovingly exposited, some magic that brought inanimate things to life, seemed to merge animate and inanimate things together and... something to do with glowing blue line, 'magic' was the only reason she could muster up, as general as that sounded. She'd have to pull some bullshit out of bullshit her way through this, but hey, at least those Latin classes they was forced to take finally came in handy, most of magic names seemed to be based on it.

"Well. From what i have gathered, there is a town not too far a way from where the refugees hail. Shelia is believe is the name. A town of great artists, painters, toy makers, all sorts. Until they started to experiment with Animagic. Using magic to make magic come to life. Dolls that dance by themselves, golems to help with the fieldwork. But they didn't stop there, if they could make their doll alive... why not people too? I have no confirmation but a logical conclusion of animagic would be necromancy, i know that they started to experiment with human souls at least which is a step too far. I know not what tragedy befell them, to have such a mass exodus is unlikely to be the result of a political disagreement, i can only guess that one of their magics or even a sufficiently powerful mage had gone rogue"

Most of that was just strung out of the aether and a lot was flair for dramatic effect but she'd hope that it would have gotten across most of the information that Totsu had learned so far.

"I see... In such a delicate matter i am loathe to rally the guard and raise awareness to our actions. Thus i would ask of you to go under my command to Shelia, i will reach out more of my contacts while you scout ahead. Can i trust you with this?"

Totsu could see in her mind's eye a small text reading "Answer" a second after the guard captain had stopped speaking, prompting her to nod slowly "Yes Ma'am" and just then she could see another text, in what appeared to be gold saying






"Alright, next objective is.... 'arrive in the dead forest' it says"

"We have to move through the Trostlands to get there. She should have another quest to kill some pests in the farm fields, might as well pick it up if it is on the way" Beardo responded.

Totsu nodded, looking through the quest list by quest giver and there saw the name of the guard captain, one aptly named "Pest Control" seemed to be the one she was looking for.

Farmers of Trostland Fields have sent request of aid in dealing with Riebo plaguing the crops, eating large chunks and leaving the rest to rot. May this notice serve as bounty for dead Riebo, either whole or head only for proof of kill.

-Maryl Decroux. Captain of the Royal Litopian Guard.

---

Objective: Collect 10 Riebo Heads from slain Riebo. [0/10]
Rewards: 20 silver. 20 XP.

The party of two exited the building and walked across the street until they exited the gate, being met with rolling plains with the occasional farmhouse indicated by their stable and tilled farmland. There were several roads leading to several places, the direction Beardo pointed to however showed a less than vibrant forest in the distance, practically a black mass some walk away from them currently.

It was a few minute's hike towards the farmland, in there were small squirrel-like creatures, short and thing with large, bushy tails and rather adorable faces. Having an icon above their names similar to the quest icon, marking them as what they should be killing.

"So, what? I just... killed them one by one?" she asked, taking out her staff and looking at one of the furry critters that made a rather delicious sandwich.

Beardo sighs, mouth and skin twitching a little before he resigns himself to saying it "No, you just deal them a little bit of damage, to as many as you can. I'll do the rest."

Totsu raised her eyebrow and looked towards the Riebo, starting running and bonking one over the head with her staff, causing it to become hostile and start attacking her. The inhaled sharply and ran away, towards the next one and made another minimally damaging head-smack with her wooden staff, moving from critter to critter, gathering them all up.

As the crowd grew, Beardo suddenly leapt forward like he was a part of some anime, closing the distance between himself and the group of rodents before giving one large swing of his axe, cleaving the entire group at once, being massively over-leveled for this area, even the most basic of attacks was enough to kill them in one hit.

They continued this routine for a while, getting more than doubled the required amount and a fair chunk of experience before they looked towards the forest, nodding to each other and dusting off before making their way towards the forest.

It did take a bit of walking but they finally arrived at a grove of dead, black trees as far as the eye could see, there was nothing the first few dozen feet, not even so much as a patch of grass. Further in however one could see something shambling in the distance, white bones and leather rags hanging off of them, a forest in which skeletons called their home.

One, two, three, four... maybe just a few more... Mhmm... alright, that should be enough. I raised my axe to my side, about midway through the height of my ribs, and a blue ephemeral light swept over my armor, like blazing hot semi-transparent flames that were gone as suddenly as they appeared.

"High charge!" I yelled out, running one step and leaping the next, making a trail of light as my body suddenly accelerated towards my targeted position: Right where I guessed the mobs Totsurugi had gathered would probably be. Unlike real life, none of the dirt that was lifted into the air entered my clothes (or in this case, my armor) at all nor was it left dirty, even though there was a small crater where I'd fallen. Gritting my teeth with a rush of momentum, I spun in place alongside my axe, one single cleave wiping out every foe my friend had gathered. I grinned. "Right. Just some two or three more and your quest should be complete, right?"

I planted my axe on the floor by the staff side, and whistled a bit while I waited. My eyes drifted to the surrounding trees and traces of farmland, with occasional dropped details like some dropped insignificant object, leftovers from a campfire, or the tools of a resting farmer. Such details were always there, immutable unless players actively wanted to change them permanently. On the other hand... My attention was now focused on the crater I made, which no doubt would repair itself the moment I was out of range. Dissonant Steel Online prided itself on the fact that players had such an ability to affect the world and create permanent consequences on many story elements and the world's very content, but if every little thing players did had such a major effect, the game would be a mess that either the system couldn't handle, or would at the very least spiral out of control extremely quickly. So minor things like this, if a player did them, would always be fixed, while major effects like taking over a city were made permanent.

Some might find it strange for one reason or another, but if nothing else I was glad quests like these weren't affected. It was hard enough to help new players with them around, now imagine how it would be if no one could really know how quests would ever be?

- - - - - -

After completing that quest, we arrived at an area with a true sight of death. Skeletons of animals and people alike laid on the ground, some even seeming welded to random objects, many of which toys now rusted or broken. The trees were dead as far as the eye could see, and most likely beyond that point as well, as even without leaves and with such thin grey trunks, the woods were still too dense to see all the way through.



It was at that point that we heard a voice call out to us, coming from a man in hooded robes, waving a distorted arm with blue cracks at us.

"Hey! Heeey! Over here!" He called out as he approached us and us him. The hood was without doubt familiar, in fact it was the exact same one from the tavern they'd gone to for information! The man stopped not far, panting as he tried to catch his breath. There were clear signs of even more dirt than before on his robes, and even the hood was a little ripped from how much it was pulled to stay in place. "I'm glad I could get to you in time. I saw you going out the gates in Shelia's direction, so I just had to ask... to think you'd be sent to such a place after helping me. I, I just couldn't sit idly by, so I came here through a shortcut I found. Please, I wish to repay you the favor you did for me earlier. I want to guide you to Shelia. Nothing like someone who came from there as a guide, right? I'm sure you've seen the state of the forest... And I'm sure you'll see how it happened soon enough. To tell you the truth, I am quite terrified of the place, I absolutely don't wanna go back there, have to go through all that again. So, if I may be so greedy, might I request just one more favor in return for aiding you, and going through such a trial again myself? My daughter and my wife, I last saw them in town. I don't know where they are, whether they are even still alive. I know there may not be much hope, but even so I believe there is some, so please promise me you'll help me find them! Or, in the worst case scenario, whatever may be left of them."

Right as he finished saying that, the quest pop-up appeared offering a quest labeled "A Town Full of Life".

While you may have your guesses, the truth of the events that transpired- or are yet transpiring- in Shelia remains ultimately hidden still. A guide will no doubt be crucial in reaching the city. But can you keep the promise to find his family?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Objectives: Uncover the situation in Shelia and the location of the cloaked man's family.
Rewards: 4 Gold Pieces; 200 XP

Totsurugi accepted the quest, and the mannequin man nodded.

"Thank you, thank you so much! Ah, I don't believe I have introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Chelvric. Chelvric Edwardson. It will be my pleasure, and my horror, to guide you today through the woods once known as the fairy sea." He bowed down with a hand on his chest, holding still for a moment. He eventually opened a single eye, glancing over at the dead, dead woods, then he gulped down and stood. "I presume you came with your preparations made? Or at least the ones that you could, given what you know... The sooner we can get there, the more of a chance my family will still be alive. Yes, let's hurry! Follow me."

The group made their way into the woods, passing through trees and leaping over small obstacles, a path that would contain more trees and less corpses depending on the player's maturity settings and others of the type. Eventually, however, they were forced to halt, as a green glowing pattern gradually faded into view on the ground not far from them. Chelvric raised an arm in front of the group, and Totsurugi would be feel their whole body stopping suddenly, motionless. Then, Totsu and Chelvric would both move cautiously, leaning forward and glancing around, eventually crouching down behind a small bush. Totsurugi should be feeling absolutely no control over their own virtual body, which would be moving on its own. I remained free and couldn't witness what was about to happen, but seeing the way Totsurugi moved I could guess he was currently caught in this game's equivalent of a cutscene.

A small, lean, very clearly underfed animal, something of a cross between a tiger and a weasel, silently lurked their way through these dreadful woods, but they failed to notice the magical circle. As soon as they placed their paw on it, a geyser of green energy erupted into the air, barbed strings of magic tangled themselves against the creature's body, seeming to pull it down. The creature grew leaner and leaner, until their body began to form green cracks of energy, which created in turn a bright flash of light, and when it vanished the creature was no more than another one of the skeletons that littered those grounds.

"So many of us were caught... these, these things do not discriminate. We don't know where they come from, but we do know they were sucking out all the life they could from around here. If you're caught in one, you're dead. Please, be careful."

Zone: Deadland Woods
Trait: Life Switcher - The area periodically generates traps that drain one's lifeforce if one is caught in them. Avoid the magic circles that appear on the ground.

From there on out and until we reached the town, the magical circles would appear more and more frequently, and in greater numbers. Sometimes they would appear so many they would force us to fight a monster (which I would one-shot), or force Totsurugi to cleverly move obstacles around to clear our path. As we grew closer, the line of trees began growing more sparse, and we could see silhouettes moving from side to side seemingly running, though their shapes were frequently rather bizarre. The occasional sound of a volley of gunshots filled the air, and if one were to look up, they might even see tiny trails of smoke dissipating into the air before getting very far up.

Reaching the farthest part of the woods, the answer revealed itself: There was a massive field of colored squared, enormous, a line of eight of them and stretching out for eight rows as well. There were many kinds of people here, namely human, elf and dwarf-looking ones, but many of them had parts of some toy attached to them like Chelvric had, and they wore hats strapped under the chin like a bicycle helmet. The hat the shape of chess pieces, specifically chess pawn pieces colored white. From the other end of the board, enormous chess pieces would emerge in a cloud of black smoke, and they would start leaping in their direction, bending as though their material was elastic or even flesh-based, though their looks very much were those of regular (yet ridiculously oversized) pieces made from painted stone. The soldiers with the hats would kneel down from time to time, aim their muskets at the pieces and shoot, causing the chess piece to explode into bits which dissipated into smoke. Only two solitary pieces, around the center back of the alternate-color field, remained still and untouched.

Even Chelvric was wide-eyed and had his mouth agape.

"What... is this?" He inquired.

"Chelvric?"

The cloaked man turned faster than any of them had seen him move thus far.

"Lala?" He asked with a hopeful tone, as though he was begging fate to grant his wish. Whether it did or not was debatable: In front of him was the figure of a woman with what appeared to be a black blindfold and a bishop's hat. Her skin was incredibly pale and she wore a cloak richer than what the poor tools she was carrying would suggest, or maybe it was the other way around? Her legs were only thinner, in fact ceasing to be human-looking at all, and instead looking more like thin stripes of black metal. Chelvric found his fist clenching.



"Chelvric? You can... recognize me?" her voice echoed, slightly distored. He nodded. Seeing no response from her, but rather a worried look growing on her face, he spoke.

"I can. I could never forget you, Lala. Nor our daughter." He meant it both that he would never forget his daughter, and that the girl would never forget her mother either. "I-I have come to find you. And Chelsea. Do you know where she is? I brought these brave heroes to help as well. They came to investigate what happened to our town, and perhaps to help as well!"

Lala's head leaned down, and she shook it somberly.

"I don't know where she might be. I tried going back for her, but I was caught by...something. It was too dark. I think it was still daytime, but my memories are hazy. Maybe it was just that it covered me with something large? When I woke up, I was changed somehow. I wasn't like this yet back then." She moved her hand in front of herself as though displaying her body. "But I already woke up too late to go back. We don't know much of what happened, but we're willing to explain. We're trying to reach the town as best we can, but their attacks are relentless."

Lala pointed at the board and the titanic chess pieces that kept spawning and coming for them.

"If we want to have a chance to get to town and find our home, we need to deal with these attacks enough to push beyond them and occupy some territory that isn't just this little edge of the forest, or what used to be a forest. Speaking of, if you managed to get through it, maybe you are capable of giving us more support. My husband said you wanted to learn more about what happened to the town, correct? Well, so do we. Our best bet for that is to reach it. It seems I've gotten myself a bit of magic so even I can support our forces here on this side, but I am not in charge of our forces. Our king would know better what to do with you. You can find her in that tent over there, alongside the strategy map."

---------------------------------

The tent itself was nothing particularly impressive. It was a thin cloth tent in stripped colors, with a makeshift throne on the back. toys and gadgets were spread in heaps on the edges of the tent, alongside sepia photographs and flowers. At the very center of the tent there were a few small wooden chairs, almost benches instead, surrounding more or less a small table with a map rushedly drawn on parchment that was nailed to the table. Metal stamps with no ink laid on top of the map, seemingly representing their forces.

Leaning closer, the majority of the stamps were concentrated on a small area the edge that was attacked to a pattern of alternating black and white squares. This was clearly the board they saw. There was a large supposed river on the left, and on the right a garden of sorts labeled in crude ink "trayning groundz". Beyond the chess board, there was some manner of large dark valley, after which the town itself began. There were many streets, but to in particular stood out due to habe tiny flags stuck on them, one a large square area empty of what seemed like drawn buildings, and another which was the opposite, more a congregation of those. If Totsurugi approached any of these flags with his fingers or eyes, then a pop up would appear with additional information on his mission there.

It was a bit of a complicated matter since I had already completed the storyline, so how everything looked was completely different for me. Still, with a click here or there and I could more or less sync our quest instance, thus making me able to at least witness the environment Totsurugi was interacting with, and the map in which they could pick what quest they wanted to proceed with, if any.

1.The Board

The enemy attacks are neverending. Nomatter how many of them we defeat, they just keep reforming. Even though it isn't immediate, we barely have time to breathe, let alone get any proper rest. At this rate, it's a matter of time before we're too overwhelmed and have to cede this final piece of ground from what was once our home. If someone could deal with some of their numbers just for a short while, I believe we might be able to recover our forces somewhat and keep up the defense long enough to see things fixed.

2. The Grand Plaza

Based on the way they move, the enemy forces appear to be convinced that in some way they are playing a match of chess. As per the rules, if we defeated their king, we might be able to put a stop to them once and for all. However, that piece and the queen seemed to be protected by some sort of impregnable shield. My senior, the First Bishop, headed to the plaza in hopes of finding the source of it, or a way to "flip the board" if you will among the many inventions that would have been left at the plaza when all this started. But it worries that there hasn't been sight or word from him since. It's already been several days.

3.Practice Grounds

This is outrageous! How long must I be made to wait? You keep insisting that I fight for this town, when I was but a passerby with no attachment to it- and yet now IT is attached to ME! Provide me with a squire at once, or else my blade shall continue to not make a single prick upon your enemies.

In fact, it's best if you bring multiple people. I shall hold a test to see who would be better fitting to serve as my squire.

4. Tea Party District: Memories

I myself, and many more of us have missing family members, friends and loved ones who have yet to be found. Alive OR dead. I believe this search should be our top priority, if we ever find we have any forces to spare. In the meantime, I would like to share what information I can about it. My memories are blurry, I don't believe that is accident, but I know a spell which might be able to help. I do not yet understand this magic I have been gifted though...

5. The Rockfield Mansion

If we are to believe that indeed our foes are fighting by the rules of a chess game, then it may be that our lack of pieces is part of why we are under such disadvantage. Even excluding the bishop that went missing, we never found our rooks, queen, one of our knights and we only found six pawns. This is where the good news comes though: In a fortified home in town, we found a group fo four whose descriptions seem to match what we would think of as "rooks" and "pawns".

The bad news? Aside from them being surrounded on all sides by hordes of living toys and being distrustful of random strangers?

Totsu gazed at the menacing forest in front of her, thinking it would be better to collect odds and ends on the way, a sprout of odd looking grass here, some reeds there, seeds or roots from hither and flowers from thither, sticking them all in her bag. It wasn't a viable storage solution for the long term, they would surely wilt by the day's end but for a quest that wouldn't take more than a few hours she figured that it was better to have some supplies since by the looks of it life was sparse in the rapidly approaching miserable looking thicket of dead trees

As they walked towards the forest and spotting there a hooded figure whom had laid in wait, promptly starting to explaining away his situation and making his plea and as if it was on queue, which it likely was, a popup appeared, giving Totsu the next quest in the line which would lead them deeper into the woods which all but the darkest gods had abandoned.

Walking through the forest with their guide, Totsu couldn't help but get interested and wondering if her picked class could get some use out of these dead flora all around her. Walking up to a tree she passed she put her hand against it and spoke [Absorb] but nothing appeared to happen, maybe she was still too weak to absorb entire trees to use as ammunition, maybe it was because the tree was entirely void of life, either way she put it in the back of her mind before following with a few paces of a brisk jog to catch up on the ground she had lost with their short experiment.

Totsurugi's legs stopped by no force of it's own, rooting her to the ground as something caught Chelvric's attention, it felt quite unreal though strangely not unsettling to be a passenger in your one's own virtual body. This small animal looking like something either long extinct or from the imagination of a bored artist; more likely the latter rather than the former. It limped sluggishly through the barren ground, probably looking for something to eat. It however reached foul sorcery so as soon as it's paw touched a faint magic circle on the ground, it suddenly lit up and barbed thorns shot out, wrapping the pitiful animal around it's leg and pulling it in closer, a second thorn shooting it and doing the same, pulling it in to the center where several other thorned vines wrapped itself around it's neck, body and hind legs, forcing it to the ground before a flash of light exploded, emanating from the creature itself.

Totsu's senses lit up like the candles of a centennial's birthday cake. Not a sense they had been keenly aware of before, an inkling or a nudge before while now it was more like walking from an air conditioned house into the horridly hot and humid air outside as if the air was a wall. It was not a sense they could easily describe, similar to the way your thoracic cavity vibrates to loud music or a tingling sensation of goosebumps, maybe a bit of both. Elves had the ability to sense magic and with such a gush of it in front of herself made her keenly aware of her sense.

Totsu took a deep breath as they walked forward, avoid the traps the best they could, occasionally facing against a monster which was done in by a single large swipe of the bearded man-mountain's axe. They continued onward, ever deeper into the defiled forest until they reached the board made of eight by eight with caricatures of chess pieces on each side. The white pieces would rather uncharacteristically dispatch of the opposing force with the use of firearms. The black pieces meanwhile would charge with uncanny dexterity and flexibility not possible of stone nor material, thus they were locked in what looked an eternal stalemate. Totsu was entranced by this macabre display unraveling before her, only to be snapped out of it at the unknown voice behind them.

The person, if you could still call them that, was standing in front of the group, a rather horrifying yet still fitting the theme of this place. The large caricature of a Bishop, assumably belonging to the chessboard. She seemed to know their errant tour guide by the way they talked, by their conversation it was evident this was his long lost wife. Totsu felt rather weird to just stand there while the non-player characters talked to each other, she felt like she should be some part of the conversation considering her role within this story but their lack of humanity gave her pause, if they were just programming could they even response or just give a pre-programmed response. Deciding to stay silent, the band of less than merry wanderers were lead towards the tent where a war table sat in from of them.

Totsu started to tap her fingers on her thigh rhythmically as they stood in front of the table, looking almost like she was playing a tune. Eyes scanning over the war table, looking over the quests texts of the various quests before deciding to pick up the first one, appearing like a normal kill quest like they had gotten before, except with lurid living chest pieces instead of rodents. Taking steady, deep breathes, Totsu closed her eyes and tried to maintain some semblance of composure, sure the things in here weren't that bad and there was a degree of separation, knowing this was fiction, there was still effort on her part to categorize these never-before seen things.

"Alright, let's go. Best to take first things first no?" She reasoned right before turning heel and walking back out of the tent, making her way towards the checkered field of eight by eight, filled with the combatants. "Hey so. Quick tip. Red is dead, stay out of the red zones" advised her bearded mentor quickly.

As they approached the field the human pieces took a few steps back. "Thank'ye kindly... We need but a moments rest, you truly are life savers" one of the pieces said, stepping off the field and sitting down against nearby tree, what remained of one at least.

The assault of the pawns that had thus far charged forward stopped, the larger piece by the back center of the board, protected by a forcefield and presumably the king turned it's gaze towards the offending elf before turning towards his head towards the side. One of the knights; a centaur wielding a glaive, jumped over the line of pawns and slowly strode towards Totsurugi.






Both it's name and a what appeared to be a health bar appeared over it's head. It's eyes fixated on Totsu, a red glowing cone shaped field appearing under her feet. It took her several moments until the warning rang out in her mind again, don't stand in the red. Just as she made it out of the field the centaur leapt up and swung it's massive glaive, it's weapon covering the entirety of the lit-up area. A marker of the attack area she reckoned, it stood still for a moment after that, turning it's head towards the elf and gripping it's weapon tightly.

Reaching into her satchel and pulling the first thing her fingers touched out, some sort of ivy. When she absorbed it she gained some sort of a poison buff, launching her first projectile into it, landing square into it and dipping it's health bar but with a concerning IMMUNE also appearing with her own damage number... right, stone can't be poisoned, makes sense really. The knight lifted it's glaive up and reared on it's two hind legs, a red circle appearing around it, followed

Running away to a safe distance and grabbing something else from her pouch, this time a flower with a bell or a cup shape, trying that this time around. The bolt landed and this time did a good chunk more than she'd expect, not only from the extra damage not being blocked by what appeared to be a + alongside the damage number too, it would appear that the stone was weak to Acid damage. It took a while, at least to Totsu's focused mind while the battle itself couldn't have gone on for more than five minutes, dodging the various attacks; diagonal strikes, jumping sweeps, lunges, and others. Finally the last sliver of health it had had disappeared and the knight fell down and disappeared in a grand puff of smoke.

Breathing a sigh of relief and looking towards the axe wielding friend, which only smiled and gave a directed nod, seeming to direct her attention back to the battlefield. This time, the piece occupying the position of bishop moved. It grabbed it's staff and disappeared in a shimmer, appearing right in front of the slack-jawed, staring elf. It's name and health bar quickly appearing.






"Oh... Great" came out of Totsurugi's mouth as the creature raised it's staff as red areas lit up again, except this time targeting all of the black spaces on the chessboard excluding the one it was standing on which soon were all hit by a bolt of lightning. It's attacks seemed different, being magic based in nature so rather than a predictable weapon swinging somewhere it could create magical affects nearly anywhere. In a toroid around it so the safe zones were really close or really far, diagonal lines away from it as well as seemingly random fields.

It took a good while but when it's health reached it's half way point it teleported away from it's position and re-appeared on a black space close to the center and extended it's hands away from itself, it's staff floating in front of it. The King and Queen raised up one of their hands, on apposite sides away from each other and closer to their respective edges, both firing a projectile diagonally that moved only along the sides of their opposite colors, a sphere of white followed black spaces in a diagonal pattern, bouncing off and changing directions each time it hit an edge while the black sphere did vice versa.

The fight became just that bit harder, not only avoiding the areas of death but making sure that she wasn't standing in a collision path with the spheres that were slow moving but deceptively so, creeping up on the space you thought was safe before you knew it. Perhaps by overly focusing on never being in danger, calculating the path of the spheres and standing a space she knew was safe and only then attacking, sure it did elongate the fight by a rather significant margin but in due time and a great deal of patience the bishop lay dead.

Totsurugi slumped to the ground and groaned, "That was harder than I thought It'd be." she huffed a bit before leaning back, "That was fun though, I can already imagine doing that with way more people in a way harder fight. I'd look forward to that"

At first, I did stay and watched as Totsurugi held their own against the knight. That sort of marked ground mechanic was a pretty common thing in DSO and other VRMMORPGs like it, but then again from what I understood Totsurugi herself wasn’t familiar with those other games either. Nonetheless, she seemed to be fairing reasonably well, and thus there was no need for me to keep watching like a vulture watching a dying animal. I headed a bit deeper into the woods out of sight, but still staying as sure as I could that I wasn’t in the trapped territory before I opened my menu, pressed that “Local Info” button and began scrolling through.

There were some news on the event today, with info on location sites, some major guilds taking part in it, even some early interviews and adds for a few contests with supposedly exotic prices. Honestly I would have dismissed as a bullcrap if it was in real life, but people were actually far more generous with actually giving those prizes in games. I heard somewhere it had to do with the “etherealness” of the things here, giving up ones and zeros is simply easier than giving up something real, or so they had mentioned. Who was it again? Zhacksneil? Corincorin?

“There is it, local player info… And scan!” I hummed to myself as I waited for the system scanner to show nearby unhidden players. It didn’t tell me their locations, but it could tell how relatively populated the area was. Totsurugi probably wouldn’t reach level 40 in this area, but if there were few players around it was a good opportunity to show them my real avatar. Unfortunately, however… “Five, huh. That’s more and less than I’m comfortable with. Just a few more and they might be here for the dungeon, a few less and the risk of being spotted would be less of a concern. Maybe they’ll go away soon…”

Of course, that still left the question of what to do in the meantime while I waited for that chance. Was there anything of quality to grind around this place?

“Browser, window three, open. Display, show.” With that command, a loading browser window appeared in front of me. It floated just barely in my field of vision, with an adjustable opacity depending on my focus, and when I moved it moved with me. It was being projected directly into my perception, so I was the only one who could see it. Aside from being an extra paid feature, it was a pretty great feature.

I reached out to it and manually typed in the area name and what I wanted to look for. It seemed [Toy Parts] were the most common farming material here, especially due to the rare and epic drops one occasionally found, it really sped up the [clocksmith]’s and [gearmage]’s crafting, neither of which were classes we had. [Undecaying Organs] were also here and [Necrowool].

“I guess we could make a penny with those, but it would take too long. It ain’t worth it.” Come to think of it, I sure hoped those people I saw earlier didn’t think otherwise. I used the scan again. Dang, there was one more person now. The farming option was out of the picture too. Did I have time to go anywhere? Hmmm… probably not. In that case, there was one thing I for sure could do.

Axe resting on my shoulder, I headed off to the path of the second quest. Out the corner of my eye, I noticed Totsurugi was about halfway through that knight’s health. I gave her a thumbs up in silent encouragement, though she probably didn’t see given I was still behind the treeline and she was a tad busy at the moment, but you know, it’s the thought that counts, right?

…………………………………………

I reached the actual place after some walking around, and travelling through a few tunnels and through the ruins of a couple of houses. You could attempt to go above ground through the main street instead of taking these passages, but there were flying drones in a macabre imitation of birds, mostly made from pieced together toy airplanes and other aerial-themed playthings with bugs and actual birds. Most of them weren’t anything dangerous and at worst the AI would make them come down and peck you, so even a low level character could easily deal with them. No the real issue were the broken fences always watched by the dragon imitations. If you tried going through that open path you’d be bombarded with a barrage of flames from up above. Even though it looked empty, attempting to get past the fences was a guaranteed death for anyone that wasn’t far overleveled for this zone. Even Beardo would have taken hefty damage.

Well, the main path still kept the creep factor at least. The least disturbing were giant hunchbacked skeletons with hair, thread (from brooms and the lik) or yarn from the heads of mops, all tangled and dangling like algae on someone who just rose from the sea (or a very dirty river). Their fingers were long lines of knives or sharpened sword replicas and the number of eyes they had was truly a roll of the dice. Their extremely thin, grey, shambling, creaking forms like ungreased gates of a cemetery were only made more haunting with the addition of the heavy fog that permeated the place, and if I had it turned on the lingering horror-esque ambient music. Fighting one was no pretty sight either, since they could shift their bodies to instantly face any direction and those malformed bodies gave them a skill which damaged any that came in contact with them, directly or through melee-ranged armor or weapons or even abilities.

It was a pretty well-crafted visual, showing how the staff that made this game really went all out sometimes. At the same time, however… It wasn’t really made for my kind of situation.

“Reflector Stance.” I swung my weapon in a vertical circle in front of me. A red aura glowed around me for a second, alongside a glint in my eyes of the same color.

“Deflector Shield.” I swung my axe in front of me, creating this deep blue glittering bent barrier in front of me, shaped almost like a visor that was taller than me and floated in the air.

“Clear sight.” Sparks flew out from my eyes, and suddenly I was able to see far past the fog. I smirked, crouching down and aiming my axe towards the furthest of the abandletons.

“Ram charge!” I kicked the ground, lighting pushing me against my own barrier which rammed forward. Seemingly sensing my approach, the creatures turned around, only to themselves quickly pushed by my barrier as my charge would continue until I reached the location I was aiming for. Furthermore, my Reflector Stance and Deflector shield combined absorbed and forced back a portion of the damage from the creature’s damage on the shield, which given our relative levels was about 80%. As I reached the other end, that initial group of them was wiped out already, with exception of a couple of the later ones that weren’t hit for long enough to be destroyed by the reflected damage combined with the side damage from the ram. Naturally, I was counting on it. I raised my axe high above my head, as it sparked with lightning.

“Mountain Fall!” I dropped my weapon in front of me, causing the ground to shake and a wave of lightning-covered rubble to erupt in front of me, destroying part of the buildings ahead and creatures caught within the line of effect.

………………………………..

I waved, still partially covered in dust as I returned from my little detour. I was just in time to witness Totsurugi hop out of the enormous chess board. Given there was no angry message about dying because I wasn’t there, and the satisfied look on her face, I surmized my decision to trust her to pull it off on her own wasn’t wrong. I grinned.

“Hope I’m not late!” She told me that she did find it hard after all, but at the same she looked forward to more. I instinctively reached out for her head. “Ho, is that so? Maybe we can tackle the dungeon together once you’re a little above level hehehe.”

I just smiled in silence for a moment. I guess maybe it was a bit intense for a first-timer, but I was glad she was at least enjoying it. Hopefully it was a sustainable thing.

“So, need a rest, or would you like to move to the next one? I cleared the mobs on the way for quest 2, since you don’t really need to deal with them for the quest, you just need to get to the quest point. It’d just be a waste of time. Of course though, it’s also only a matter of time until everything respawns…”

---

@blueyellow

Totsurugi sat on the ground for a few moments, wiggling her feet back and forth, her gaze fixated at them. She leaned back and stretching out, simply just enjoying some rest. She spotted her friend coming back a few moments later, luckily the wait between her finishing the quest and him clearing the way before practically non-existent. She stood up and stowed staff away by hanging it on her back and jumped off the chess board to meet him.

"Oh, no you're right on time, I was just finishing up. The next quest is... Yeah the one in the town square, right?" she responded, looking around before looking up into the corner of her screen to check the time, "Sure, I got some time left before I need to go. Will be about... hm... maybe an hour-ish before I can return, then I can stay until dinner time, we could maybe clear this area by then" she added, smiling softly.

Just as Beardo had said, the route towards the next quest in their line was rather barren, she could spot some enemies in the distance that they would have to go out of their way to defeat but decided that it would just be a waste of time to take such a detour for little to no benefit. The path stretched on for a while but they eventually reached their destination in front of the building where their quest marker pointed to. A large house with a placard reading "Shelian Archival and Patent Office"

Walking into the front door and past the reception desk; a a long wooden piece of furniture that looked chipped and stained, a toppled chair laying on the floor behind hit. She walked into the door labeled "Archives". Past there doors where rows upon rows of cabinets, arranged by functions. Toys were in one section, tools in another, furniture or toys the size of furniture in yet another. Turning up into the Toy section in the very first isle, marked "A-F"

Heading down the row and pulling a random drawer open, taking a random envelope and rifling through it, half skimming this application and diagram on "Bone Flute that causes rice to stand on end", raising an eyebrow and just chuckling, placing it back before looking at her travel companion and figuring that at least some small talk might ease the pain of bureaucracy. "We haven't really just talked in a while have we... How've you been? I think you mentioned something last time about... some frustration with work? Or?".

She rifled through some more documents while waiting for an answer, this one listed as "Cycltronic bicycle" detailing the construction and making of a bicycle which was made from two large circles, one which was in contact with the ground and you sat inside of and the second slanted at an 90% angle, seemingly so you could ride along walls as well and seemlessily transition between the two modes of transportation.

“Right... Ah, an hour is it? I suppose we’ve been here for a few already. Sorry about keeping you this long, I just kinda, you know, get a little carried away and loose sense of time. Time flies when you’re having fun, that’s what they say, right?” I rubbed the back of my head, cheeks slightly reddened. Fortunately for me, Totsurugi didn’t seem to make much of a case of it, and we moved along to continue his quest. Ah, but man, I was shaking inside! In the back of my head, I was once more considering all the possible conspiracies and double-meanings under which he might actually not have enjoyed the game so far. All because he suddenly seemed like he’d have to leave. Silly, right?

Aaah, what was I gonna do with myself at this rate…

Well, for now at least, I suppose the right answer would be something along the lines of “don’t screw this up. If you already did, you can at least do your best to not make it any worse”. Just keeping to the same strategy wouldn’t do much for us though. I had to know where to aim before I shot.

“Say, Totsurugi, I know you just started and all, but what’s your favorite part about this game so far? To you.” I inquired as we strolled through the emptied streets occasionally interspersed by random bodies of monsters which the game had yet to make disappear. My legs occasionally kicked the air as I walked as though seeking something to do, and my gaze raised up to the partially hidden perpetual moonlight of this area. “For me it’s all these choices. You just get to choose to be and act as you like. No one has to know, and there is just so much to choose from, so why would they care? There aren’t even wrong choices. There may be better choices, but wrong ones? Nah, nothing’s going to get you stuck forever, and even the worst classes may have that one in a million chance to prove why they are there someday, when the stars align. Even if the weather controls need to glitch for that happen. I mean, it’s Dissonant Steel Online. Sooner or later, everything glitches.”

A kicked a rock into a nearby alleyway with the corpse of one of the monsters still laying next ot it, it’s hand seemingly split in two. The rock flew in an arc above it, but seemingly became stuck while entering the alley, perpetually rotating in place midair.

“See?” I turned to Totsurugi and grinned, chuckling. Then I focused back on our path, and noticed it, the sign on that building we where looking for. “Oh look, we’re here.”

The building was mostly made of rustic wood seemingly painted in a dark blue greyish color which blended well into the darkness. The bits of light from outside the windows allowed for some shine from the yet to dry spilled ink, some of which seemingly came from within the toys lying around with their backs against the walls or the floor. While Totsurugi went ahead, seemingly more focused on the objective for the moment, I stayed behind poking around with things, pulling on drawers (with varying degrees of success due to some drawers not actually existing in the code and therefore being impossible to open) and helping myself to some of the random supplies within the building. They probably weren’t worth that much, but any good gamer is a good hoarder, if they don’t have to worry about using their bag space in an economically sound manner.

Eventually, I grew a little bored of what I was doing and hummed in search of Totsurugi, whom I eventually found within the archive’s space.

“Hey, you’re still looking. What are you trying to find? Do you even know?” if she asked, or if her answer seemed too far off from the real answer, then I’d tell her what the right one was. Otherwise, it would probably be best that she get to experience this part of the game, this exploration and adventure. Totsurugi just kept going right towards things without really enjoying the in-between… I sighed, but suddenly she inquired about my life IRL. I rubbed the back of my head, facing away from her. ”That’s… I, know, I… I’ve just been working on something. A little pet project of mine, well not so little anymore, I’ve kinda just been going at it and they want results, but there is no room and the time and the…. ah my wife’s going to kill me…”

I shook my head and growled.

“Ah, damnit! Sorry, I just started kind of rambling… I guess you’re right, I have been a little stressed out. They are asking something pretty demanding of me and I’ve just been trying to figure out how in the world I’m ever going to make it into the deadline. I guess that’s another point for a game like this, eh? Helping us get our mind off those worries, staving off the nausea for a bit. Not to mention, for this particular project it probably counts as research or something like that. A little less on my mind, or maybe it’s only refreshing because it’s a little different at least. It was a hard pick, the games or the chats. I’m really happy you didn’t make me choose, Totsu!”

I attempted to pat her on the back, though maybe I used a little too much strength.

---

@Blueyellow

"Oh, no worries, were I not doing this I'd probably be sitting in bed, reading or re-reading a book or something. I'd take spending time with friend over any timewaster that I'm doing by myself" She explaining reassuringly as they walked down the streets, her eyes following the rock as it shot through the air and got stuck in something, spinning in the air-non stop likely until the game despawned it.

Beardo starting speaking up again, this time with a question, she thought for a bit before nodding along with what he was saying, "Oh, probably something similar. I only have one class now but I saw that you have... a few. I think I might get lost in trying many of them out or trying to find stuff, y'know?"

They got to the area where Totsurugi started to search, opening one cabinet drawer after another, though strangely some drawers were... a special kind of empty, at least to her mind, there seemed to be a near-flat texture in it with files, doccuments and books, almost like someone painted a picture of this drawer being full but none of them were interactable, probably to give a sense of the world being live-in rather than to have it empty. The further down they went the more it became like that, sometimes an actual envelope or folder between the blank textures.

Her attention turned back to Beardo as he asked a rather valid question, did she know she was looking for, closing her eyes for a moment she nodded hesitantly, "So... These are toys magically brought to life or something yeah? This is a patent office, so it would stand to reason that we are trying to find the... uh... either the patent manual for the toys or an instruction for it that it would list to us the conditions of victory or how the game it supposed to be played? I mean, since they are alive it probably wouldn't be One-to-One but since this is a videogame and that is our objective, stands to reason that we are trying to find a manual on how we can kill the king?" She thought for a moment before looking down at her currently open drawer, one envelope sitting in it that she'd already checked out, listing the way on how to make an Abacus used in a competitive counting game.

She ran her fingers gains the flat texture, feeling a bump where the folder was and a distinctly different feeling as her hand grazed upon the envelope. She looked, her eyes scanning the environment, "That actually gives me an idea..." she said, walking to where two cabinets met but there was a bit of a gap between them, a bit smaller than the thickness of her fingers, "You mentioned that everything glitches sooner or later? I got an idea" she pushed her hand into the crevice which at first seemed to not go anywhere, being stuck in the small space until suddenly it fell in... no... through. Her hand was inside of the cabinet now, she chuckled a bit and moved her hand back and forth.

She moved her hand through the cabinet and to the next one, checking all of the shelves by moving her hand down it's length before moving on to the next one, then next one, able to check each and every cabinet rapidly like that until her hand finally hit something, the one thing that wasn't a part of this room as the world was created but was only put there by the quest, the one thing that was different in here; the quest objective.

Totsu pulled her hand from the cabinet and flexed her fingers a bit, still not wholly used to the cognitive dissonance the videogame world afforded, she opened the drawer and pulled the folder out, titled "A re-imagining of Chess: A tactical progression game"

Totsurugi listened to her friend talk before turning to face him, "You're doing it again. Focus, one problem at a time yeah, you have a bad habit of Spiraling you know" She held the folder close to her for know before listening to the rest of what he had to say, nodding her head towards him slowly before she got patted on the back, grunting a bit and stumbling forward at the unexpected force but just chuckling it off, it most likely wasn't intentional.

She packed the folder away in her bag for the moment before walking up to him, "Hey, listen. We all go through stressful times sometimes, I could use the distraction myself after..." her voice trailed off slowly before just shaking her head, "One problem at a time. I always liked talking to you, spending time in a videogame is no different. Things will work out, we just need to get the worries out of our heads for long enough to focus on fixing the problem and we'll come out okay"

She patted him on the back in turn though likely not nearly with the same impact as he had done before, "If you like my input maybe I can hear about this project you have going on."

I took a hand to my beard and scratched it, pondering on Totsurugi’s words.

“I guess that is a good point. There’s so much to pick, but only so much time one can really explore it. In fact, when one starts there’s no way to even know all the options or to really get a grasp on what you could find. Defeat the bosses in a certain order and you might get a whole class with an entirely different set of skills, it would be pretty hard to keep up with that.” For someone like me, picking out the things that fit my strategy or theme as they came, it didn’t seem like a big deal, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of headaches those really competitive players in those high-up guilds even went through, probably, trying to keep up with all the new things that were constantly being discovered, and all those millions of different little interactions each ability could have in the game. The balance of the game was also pretty out of whack, but it wasn’t like the choices were bad, plus it was all kind of overshadowed by the focus on glitches of high-level play, cheats and counter-cheats if you will. Nonetheless… “It’s definitely a matter to take into consideration. I don’t think one should get rid of this ability to find new skills and abilities by exploring the game, but perhaps it should be less uhm...prominent? Less extensive? Something like that?”

Our little chat had to end momentarily as we entered the store. My later question seemed to prompt Totsurugi to stop and think for just a bit, before explaining his conclusion that she was looking for some manner of manual on how to defeat the other quest’s foe. I grinned and nodded.

“Yep, that’s exactly right! That was some good thinking! Much better than a certain fellow who had to look it up online…” I slowly looked away as my grin grew a little faulty from embarrassment. Even after my little cheating, I still remembered taking quite a bit of time with the whole mini-game in my attempt to track down the book, but it seemed as though Totsurugi had a different thought. I raised an eyebrow as I approached and leaned over her, while her hands fiddled with the insides of the drawers as though they were palping through mud in search of a quarter. I whistled when she “bumped into” the book she was searching for, followed by a small clap from me. “Hahaha, I’d never have thought of that! But ya kinda lucked out this time. You should be careful Totsu, you never know what kind of glitch might show up. Sometimes they only happen for very specific reasons, others are more persistent. Players take advantage of the later all the time, but if you go searching for new ones, you could get stuck on infinite dying loops, or your character could start bugging out, there’s even been players who tried to play with bugs only to find they were botched hacking attempts that connected to their devices instead as a result.”

A moment of awkward silence followed that small exchange, fortunately broken by Totsurugi’s inquiry on my personal life, and my ramble. Even she seemed to have caught on to that bad habit of mine. She chuckled too, reminding me of a certain someone.

“I really should get it under control, shouldn’t I? My daughter used to make fun of me for it all the time too. I just can’t help it though, the thoughts and the worries just flood in one after the other, like I hope she’s ok, it would be nice if she hadn’t gotten involve with any more nasty people like that one bast- Ah, uh, nevermind. Not an appropriate train of thought right now…”

I sighed.

“In any case you’re right. We need to get those thoughts behind us. So, what do you say we get a move on? What’s done is done, but we can still make a better job in whatever we do come tomorrow, whichever kind of tomorrow it may turn out to be in the end.”

“Well, I can’t really tell you everything. I trust you, I really do, but you never know, right? Like you could be hacked or someone might be listen in or you might end up trusting someone with it whom you shouldn’t. If you’d still listen I’d be happy to share some of it, but not all of it, not until I get a more solid deal underway that I can be sure won’t be lost to half-assed plagiarism, get what I mean?” I raised a finger and waved it around a bit as I talked, then I looked up and scratched my beard again. “Now, for the sample, I suppose the logical place to start would be what my project even is or something along those lines, right? So, uh, here goes nothing: I’m working on a VRMMORPG. Actually, it may be more accurate to say I’m designing it. It’s been a hassle, having to deal with those back and forths with the assigned programmer. It’s like one of those public lawyers who for whatever reason barely seem to do their job because they are just assigned as the “option you take if you can’t afford anything better”. You know what I mean? Anyways, I was thinking about this system where you pick classes and as the classes get stronger you can pick between abilities the classes could get, each letting you tap into a different playstyle of the class’s core mechanics. I’ve got some in mind already, races too. I was thinking the races could maybe level up too, or at least get some sort of evolution… But I don’t know how I could implement that yet. What is your first impression, just hearing that? I guess compared to this it probably seems like a really small thing, doesn’t it? Maybe boring or unimaginative even… Maybe my job’s routine is getting to me… all those assignments, always the same thing over and over again, and then I come home, and my wife is…”