《Tarsas a Sci Fi lit rpg adventure.》 Waking up Chapter one Waking up Slowly the fog lifted and my memory began to return, I had been driving back from the Imagine Dragons concert with my girl Lilly, it had been a great show and we were a little buzzed on the music. I had just turned onto the interstate and then the oncoming lights had crossed the lane divider. The lights, they were blinding and suddenly all I heard was a loud noise and then nothing. As I remembered this I suddenly felt a chill wind blow cross my neck. I tried to move and realized I had no control of my body, in fact, I could not even feel my body. Trying to not panic I attempted to call out, but again nothing. Taking a moment to calm myself and bring my center back into balance I thought everything through. Closing my eyes I took a minute and then acknowledged I was probably in a hospital, most likely a quad unable to move. I could see but that was the limit of what I could do. Except to wait. It may have only been a minute or it may have been hours, but suddenly the area in front of me brightened and I could make out the figure of a man, he was glowing as if the light was coming from within him. I swallowed and tried to speak, but I could still do nothing. As the figure came closer I saw that he was tall and well-muscled, like a bodybuilder but not as massive. He looked at me and smiled and then spoke. ¡°Hello Dale, I hope you are comfortable, now that we have stabilized you we want to discuss what will happen before we proceed, alright?¡± I nodded and listened as he continued to speak. ¡°You probably have many questions but please let me explain the basics and then if you have anything else you want to be answered we can address those issues.¡± ¡°First, I deeply regret to inform you of this but you are dead. It was a head-on collision caused by a drunk driver. There were no survivors. As to how you are here, remember when you started your summer job at Biotech labs, you decided to donate your body to science. Well, science accepted and here you are.¡± I stared at him feeling numb, as numb as I could feel without having any physical feelings. His words did not give me any clarity if I was dead how could I be here. This did not make sense and I somehow must have projected my feelings of puzzlement and confusion. The man spoke again after giving me a moment to process what he had said. ¡°Your brain was salvaged and then cryogenically frozen to be used in the future when technology had advanced sufficiently to be able to restore your cognitive abilities. Initially the idea was to make a cyborg body to host your brain, but unfortunately, those technologies are only available to the military. We could have built you a tank like body but those are only used to explore space and to terraform Mars. That is still an option to consider once everything has been explained.¡± To terraform Mars did not sound too bad but being stuck in a mechanized vehicle did not appeal to me, I wanted to walk and run to be a normal person again. ¡°The other option to consider, the man continued, is to enter into the virtual world of Tarsas, where you would have a body and be much as you were. Virtual reality is what the future has become, with an estimated 92 percent of the world''s population lives the digital lifestyle, and why not, look at me I am a man but more than just human. Who would not want to have the perfect body and perfect health, as well as adventure, goals, and dreams? In the VR you can become everything you want from a Warlord to a Miner. A Hero or a Rogue. Align yourself with the Light or the Dark or be the gray of Neutral.¡± ¡°Now you probably have some questions like why we would do this, after all, it must have a cost, right? There is a cost involved and depending on what you choose you will have to pay us back, or we may have to pay you. Let me explain. I represent Tempest the largest company in the world that produces VR games and hardware. We have contracts with the military and the government, in fact, we are the what runs the new world. A large part of the economy of this world is now Virtual and that is where you come in, if you decide to live virtually we will sign a contract with you, half of all your earnings will be deducted automatically to the company. Any gear that you don''t use will have to be sold and the proceeds split between us and you until your debt is paid.¡± The ingame currency is what you are familiar with 100 coppers make a silver 100 silvers makes a gold 100 gold make a platinum. The cost of bringing you back and implanting you within the game is 100 platinum. We estimate it will take 5 years of game time to pay it back. You can make extra payments or even pay out the full amount if you come into a large amount of money. It does happen occasionally. Once you are in the game and have paid off your debt you are a free agent, and for all practical purposes, you will be immortal. Time in the game is compressed it is basically 10 to 1. On week real time is 10 weeks game time. You cannot die within the game, you will respawn, each death cause wear and tear on your gear, eventually, it will need to be repaired or replaced. The Level cap is currently set to 350 with a handful of players who have hit 300. As you level it gets harder and you must earn more XP to get to the next level.¡± ¡°The game is a fantasy setting with some science fiction elements, there are Gods and demagogues, religions and belief systems, everything in the game impacts how you develop as a character. The rest is pretty self-explanatory and you can access the forums within the game. This game is made to challenge a person but it is fun. PVP is allowed if you flag yourself or travel to a PVP tournament. You will have multiple classes and races to choose from.¡± ¡°The other option I had mentioned is the Mars mission. Basically, you will be put into a tin can and sent to Mars, where you will perform work necessary to terraform Mars into a human habitat. For 1 week of work, you will earn 1 week of time playing Tarsas, which equals 10 weeks ingame time. Also, we will be paying you for your work on Mars with ingame currency, it works out to 50 gold a week with a starting bonus of 250 gold. The transmissions streams are instantaneous and there is no lag. Either option is a good deal, the Mars option can be lonely but you will be in communication with the other workers on Mars in real time. Now, do you have any questions?¡± With a wave of his hand I could now speak, so taking in a deep breath or at least that is what it felt like I asked, ¡°No survivors from the crash?¡± I watched his face and I could see the compassion there when he answered, ¡°I am sorry, the girl with you died instantly and the drunk driver who hit you died within minutes of the medical personnel arriving.¡± I felt numb, we had planned on a future and now it was gone. It seemed like just yesterday but I was sure a lot of time had passed. ¡°How long has it been, from when the accident happened?¡± ¡°It has been 125 years,¡± was his reply. ¡°Much has changed in the time you were, asleep shall we say.¡± Asleep, I thought, I was not asleep I was dead, how the hell did they bring me back, and that was my next question. By thawing your brain and hooking up the connections to the main computer we initiated the uplink protocol and then dumped a massive burst of timed and controlled electricity into your brain. This caused all the electrical connections to fire in a sequence which was uploaded as it happened. This allowed us to build and map a software program that is you in every detail. You will now never forget anything; your memory will stay sharp and you will have total recall. Your computing power is on par with the latest in quantification computing. You are a state of the art being. So, I was a computer program, it could be worse I could have been coded to be a garbage disposal unit. ¡°Am I a legally recognized member of society or am I property? I would rather be dead than be a slave.¡± ¡°You are not a slave, and yes you are recognized as a human being, in fact in the game no one will be able to tell the difference between what you are and what they are. You do have rights and we will honor them, I have given you a lot to think about, I am going to leave you in a room where you can acclimatize yourself and read up on the new world. Call for me when you are ready. My name is Hermes and I am one of the Gods in Tarsas as well as being an employee of Tempest. We will talk later. Then with a wave of his hands, I was in a large room, the walls were full of bookcases and the desk was full of newspapers. A large bed was in the room along with a doorway that led to the bathroom. Perhaps the most important thing was I had my body again.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I raised my hands and looked at my arms they were realistic in detail right down to the little arm hairs, pinching myself brought a smile to my face as I felt the pinch. I was wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans, with white runners on. I lifted my shirt and looked, I had the 6 pack abs that I had worked hard to develop. Seeing a mirror, I walked over to it and looked at myself, no doubt about it it was me, I was leaner and perhaps my muscles were slightly more developed but it was me. Letting out a sigh I walked over to the desk and sat down, then grabbing the first paper from the stack I began to read. I noticed that I was reading tremendously fast, about a page a second and I had total recall of what I was reading. In half an hour I was done with the papers and started on the books, first history, then geology, then science than business. The books were a cross between being a university text and being general reading, only the hard science and engineering books were what I would call technical. I read until I had finished everything in the room, the passage of time had no meaning, and the knowledge I was absorbing left me with a feeling of satisfaction. I had always loved learning new things and that part of me was still a part of who I was. About halfway through my reading, a meal had appeared on the desk, two kinds of frosted beer, a rare New York strip and a Caesar salad. With cheesecake for dessert. It was like I had ordered in from the Keg restaurant. The taste was better than I had ever had. Clearly, the digital chefs had tweaked the pleasure centers where food was concerned. After I was done with all the reading I laid down on the bed and observed a prompt, Would you like to sleep? I accepted the prompt and was sleeping before I could wonder how it all worked. I woke up to an alarm, which faded as soon as I opened my eyes, I was instantly alert, no stretching or cold shower needed. I swung my legs over the bed and made my way to the bathroom, where another prompt appeared in front of my eyes. Would you like to enable bodily functions? I thought no and watched the prompt disappear, not having to go to the bathroom ever was just bonus to me. I washed my face in the sink and noted that there was no toothbrush or mouthwash. Coughing into my hand I noted my breath was fresh and had a hint of mint. Needing to brush my teeth was another think gone and a good thing too. It was a pain in the ass and after 60 years you still had a good chance of gum disease and losing your teeth. This was much better. I made my way back to the desk and sat down and thought, I had a choice to make, I could enter the game under contract as a serf to Tempest or I could enter it as a paid employee. The basic difference was time, I could work for a week on Mars then spend ten weeks in the game with money in my pocket or just live in the game and start from scratch. I needed more information than Hermes had given me but he had said that forums were available in the game. Thinking of the forums brought up another prompt which asked me if I wanted to read the forums. I started to read the screen that had appeared before me and began to learn of the game. It became apparent that it was huge, the land mass alone had never been fully explored, there were sections of the game that no one had ever made it to. The game itself was like a combination of the popular games of my time, WOW, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls with a hint of Duke Nukem and Starcraft. New players would start in the Noob areas where they could progress from level 1 to 10. Everyone started with basic grey gear, with the unusual white or green item occasionally dropping from defeated mobs. White gear was gear with slightly better base stats, green gear and above had better base stats and bonus stats. The gear went up from grey, white, green, blue, purple and orange with hints of red gear being available. To improve your gear players could run instance sometimes called dungeons or enter into open world scenarios. Progression seemed equal either way. Players could also join guilds and align themselves with temples and Gods and the nobility. Most players were at least level 10 before they would join a guild. Then there were some players who preferred to solo the game and it could be done. After a long time of reading, I finally closed the forums having an idea of how I would like to play. I had forever to play, so to just join the game and be in debt did not appeal to me, also I had always been interested in the red planet. The idea of actually being there on the Mars was something that appealed to me at a deep level. Also having a few gold to start within the game would not hurt. I would be able to rent a place and not be under pressure to make sure I had my money for rent or food. Having made up my mind I called out to Hermes. ¡°Hello, Dale.¡± Hermes had appeared as soon as I spoke his name. ¡°Have you had time to consider your options?¡± ¡°Hi Hermes,¡±I replied. ¡°Yes, I have thought about everything and reviewed the forums as well as read everything that was here, by the way, thank you for leaving me this reading material. I have decided that I want to work on Mars and play the game in my off time. I think it suits my personality to not start a new venture while being in debt. I prefer to make my own way, such as it is.¡± Hermes nodded and smiled then said, ¡°I agree and for every week you work you will be in the game for two and a half months of play time. That is a good deal. Here is what is going to happen now, your code will be transmitted to the Mars orbital station and downloaded into a work drone, from there you and a cache of supplies will be dropped down to Mars where you will construct a simple base, think of it like a garage workshop. This will provide shelter from any of the dust storms that can occur. All the knowledge you will need to do the job will be uploaded to your memory. It is really a simple operation; the station will send you coordinates to travel to. There you will set up deep drill water collectors and plant genetically engineered plants. The collectors will deliver the moisture to the plants on a regular basis. Once that is done you move to the next site if a storm is observed you will be directed back to your base camp shop.¡± I nodded it all seemed clear, Hermes looked at me with a smile and asked if I was ready. Giving the room a last look around I nodded and said, ¡°I am.¡± With that I simply disappeared and then suddenly my consciousness came back. I was in another room this time with a female wearing a lab jacket. Looking at me she said, ¡°Another one, I hope you last longer than your predecessors. Alright, I am going to ask you a few questions and I want you to answer them truthfully.¡± The next hour was spent on the woman asking deeply personal questions, some of which seemed logical but others were confusing at best. Things like did I find anime females attractive, or did I think of myself as a survivalist. Eventually, the questions were done and the woman looked up from her tablet and said, ¡°I guess you are mentally stable enough, off you go.¡± Once again I was gone and then I was not. I was now in control of my body a 4-ton tank-like big machine. I immediately began to follow the protocol as outlined in front of me. Clearly, the info download had worked and I now knew how to operate my new body. I fired up the reactor and initialized a system check on all my systems and subsystems. A couple of things were slightly out of alignment but I had a limited self-repair subsystem and three small repair drones. I would land on Mars and then construct the shop, then start the self-repairs before I headed out on my first mission. Suddenly I received a low band message, ¡°Argyle 1 are you ready for deployment. Giving a quick affirmative I was suddenly launched from a tube on the orbital station and began to descend to Mars. I was in a casing, a metallic tube that had thrusters to change the angle of attack as I approached Mars atmosphere. After being bumped around as the atmosphere heated and then slowed the can I was in the wings deployed. They were a parasail design that allowed steerage and could be used to rapidly bleed off speed. The time passed quickly and with only the occasional radio contact from the orbital station, I was soon on the ground. Once I landed the parasails were releases and the container split down the middle. I raised my periscope which held a number of cameras and sensors and looked around. A low range of hills was off in the distance and that would be my first destination. My base camp would be set up at the bottom of those hills in a small valley. Engaging my drive, I set the GPS and then began a full sensor sweep as I trundled towards my destination. The landscape was harsh, dry and dusty. The wind blew constantly gusting up to 40 kilometers, I was traveling at half speed doing a steady 15 kilometers an hour. The beauty of the landscape was in its utter desolation and the fact that it was empty. The closet man-made object was at least two thousand kilometers from me, I was alone. Suddenly I heard over the radio, ¡°Hey noob, come in noob this is Plantman, I repeat hey noob come in noob.¡± I listened to the radio as the message repeated itself several times before I answered. ¡°Argyle 1 here, are you calling me Plantman?¡± ¡°Of course, I am calling you Noob, who else do you think I would be calling, you still a little brain-dead boy? They not fully thaw you out before they zapped you?¡± I could tell that this guy was going to be getting on my nerves metaphorically speaking and I wanted to stop this nowhere discussion before it went nowhere. ¡°Plantman what do you want? I don¡¯t feel like engaging in meaningless chat with you so say what you have to and let''s end this.¡± There was silence for a moment and then Plantman radioed me back, ¡°Alright boy lets cut to the quick. In a week you are going to log into Tarsas and when you do you will contact me and then hand over all your gold.¡± I listened in surprise as he continued to threaten me if I did not comply and when I had heard enough of his crap I said, ¡°That is not going to happen Plantman, not now, not ever. In fact, I don''t want to have to listen to you on the radio here either. So, shut it and don''t bug me.¡± I was immediately inundated with more threats and curses, really this guy was beginning to annoy me. I pulled up the entertainment option and selected the 1980¡¯s then went to the music folder. Initiating a search, I quickly found the artist I was looking for and made a constantly repeating song loop. I then programmed my radio to start sending it to Plantman. Hope the dude likes Rick Astley- Never gonna give you up. I then turned down my radio as I was not interested in listening to Plantman anymore. I continued to roll towards the base camp with my sensors bringing me images of Mars that I could never have dreamed of. It was damn cool. Chapter 2 Farming Mars and Entering Tarsas Chapter 2 Farming Mars and Entering Tarsas I had just woken up if what I did was sleep, which was another question to put away for later, I automatically checked my readings and sensors. All was well, and I was nearing the location of my home base. The supplies that were attached to my tank body were still secured and everything seemed to be happening according to plan. I noted that Plantman was no longer listening to the music I sent him. I opened up a channel to the orbital station and waited until someone could speak with me. ¡°Orbital communication desk 2 speaking how may we be of assistance to you Argyle 1?¡± It was a human voice but that did not mean it was a living person. Look at me I sounded the same when I spoke. ¡°Hi, Comm2 I have a couple of questions I am hoping you can answer.¡± ¡°Go ahead Argyle 1, I am all ears, but I may not have the answers you are looking for.¡± ¡°Not a problem I will just keep asking others then, the first question I have is what is wrong with Plantman, I radioed me and demanded that as soon as I log in to Tarsas I turn over all my gold to him. Is he a bully or mentally ill? I mean he came off as quite unbalanced.¡± There was silence for a moment before comm2 radioed me back and when she spoke I could hear the sadness in her tone of voice. ¡°Argyle 1 just so you know Plantman has been down there on the surface for over ten years. he does his job and does it will. At some point, he suffered a mental incident which has led to his refusing to leave Mars. He still logs into Tarsas and plays and the fact is he has done quite well for himself. Unfortunately, his tendency towards threatening new workers and players is just something we put up with. It is pretty darn hard to fire him as we are up here and he is down there. The hardware and software protocols do not allow us to do an involuntary memory dump and upload to the station on legal citizens. However, we have initiated a standard protocol that will give you a one time bonus of 100 gold when you log into Tarsas for having to put up with his radio communications. Now moving on what are your other questions?¡± I thought for a moment and then asked, ¡°Why do I need to have an 8 hour rest period, this sleep time?¡± Comm 2 replied, ¡°The sleep time was incorporated into all digital time frames as it was discovered that without it people would developmental and emotional issues, some of which were very severe. By incorporating it into your life it promotes mental well being. While playing Tarsas you can refuse the sleep cycle or initiate it when you prefer but there are penalties if you don¡¯t get enough sleep. Anything else I can help you with Argyle 1?¡± I responded with, ¡°Yes I have one more question, why did Tempest bring me back to life, the work I am doing on Mars can easily be done by an AI or a drone. In my time nothing was free and I can tell that is still true today. What¡¯s the score and please be honest with me?¡± Once again there was silence and then in a quiet voice comm2 said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, that is way above my pay grade so I can¡¯t tell you. I will say this, you are not the only one brought back but the others are all now permanent residents in Tarsas. Perhaps you could ask one of them. Comm 2 out.¡± The sudden disconnection gave me time to think, there were others but they were all living a VR life in the game now. It just did not make sense to me and it worried me that someone was taking an interest in me and I did not know why. My GPS soon beeped and I knew we had arrived at the site. I drove around in a 360-degree circle and mapped out the surroundings, I was in a small valley, shaped like a bowl with a back end that butted up against a cliff face on the small hill. The front of the valley was a passageway between several small hills. It was a peaceful site the temp in the valley was a balmy -5 celsius. The shelter from the wind helped. I began the construction by using my robotic arm to place the building parcel on the ground. I activated the parcel and watched as it inflated and then sprayed the walls with a hardener. Within 30 minutes the structure was stable, I went along the outer edges and drilled in the pegs to keep the structure flat on the surface. Once that was done I entered the building and removed the energy shield module. It attached next to the entrance and immediately powered up. There was a flicker and suddenly the doorway was sealed from the outside. It was the same technology that spaceships and orbitals platforms used only scaled down and running on a ten-year nuclear battery. On the opposite was went the heating unit and soon the interior of the structure was at 20 celsius. I removed the last box and activated it which caused a smaller structure to appear, It was like a cube with a power unit on one side and a feeder tray on the other. It was an industrial capable 4d printer capable of building almost anything. All I had to do was dump in some sand rocks and ore as well as more refined materials that would be literally drop shipped to me. I had several blueprints of the machines I needed to make so I could begin my seeding of plants. I radioed in that I was ready to receive my first shipment and was told that it was incoming. One hour later it arrived about a kilometer up the valley. I left the warmth of the basecamp and gathered the supplies. Several hours later I had the machine making me a set of twenty self-tapping water drills and the cage for the plants. In the meanwhile I settled down to sleep as the machine was working, I was ahead of schedule and I planned to use my time to do some research when I awoke. My sleep period began and ended with no noticeable change except I now had my first set of 20 water drills. Being instantly awake and alert had its advantages I thought as I began to research Tempest. I tracked the records back as far as I could but it all seemed up front. I could find nothing that even hinted at nefarious actions taking by the company, instead, the company seemed to be actually interested in helping people and doing good for the common man. It made cringe, no one was that good especially a corporation. I resolved to keep searching but decided to start on my second batch of water wells. By working hard I found in an incredibly short time, my first week passed, I had actually enjoyed it aside from Plantman occasionally harassing me. But now it was time to enter Tarsas. I received the message from Tempest allowing me to enter the game at my convenience. Finishing what I was doing I shut down all production on the 4d printer and parked my tank body. Hitting accept I faded from consciousness and then woke up in a small room. A small glowing sphere was waiting for me and as soon as I was able to function, which was pretty much instantly I was presented with several options. Race the type of being I would be playing. Starting Zone where I would begin my journey in Tarsas Class several options were available depending on which race I would choose. It was not a hard choice, I decided to be a human, each race had a racial and they could be helpful. The humans racial was plus 1 to any skill. Some of the other racials were night vision, underwater breathing, and various cool other things. The only problem with them is that as you leveled up there was a good chance that you could get a gear item or a skill that would do what the racial would do. And two of the same things would not stack. My next choice was the starting zone and while this, in theory, did not influence the class choice, certain classes had far more access to trainers than other classes in the central starting zones. I did not want to be around a lot of people and that ruled out the big cities, and many of the smaller ones. I had three choices I could go to the far north, the far south which was very similar to the far north or to the equator which was a hot zone. More people had traveled to the north than the south and very few had traveled to the equator. I did not do well in the heat in real life and if this game was as realistic as I had read than I did not want to start in a hot zone. H choose a small mountain village in the southern zone. The blimps would arrive once a week if a player wished to head to one of the larger cities. They were a few quests available and some handy jobs to make a few gold, along with an Inn. It seemed perfect to me and I choose the town of Morro to be my starting destination. I finally was faced with the class choice. This required some thought as I planned to do most of my questing by myself or with a pet if I could get one.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. I looked at the choice I had initially selected and reviewed then, the Warlock he was powerful but squishy and while the pets were cool if they went down then so did the lock. The Mage, useful for crowd control and capable of doing extreme amounts of DPS but once out of the magic fuel called mana he was useless. The Warrior, powerful and deadly, but an agro magnet without any self-healing abilities. If overwhelmed he would die quickly. Then there was the Rogue, fast deadly and able to stealth. But very squishy if hit and again no self-healing. The last two were the Shaman and the Paladin class. Both had access to healing spells, the Shaman was a lightly armored nature caster who used elementals. Finally the Paladin, he is a heavily armored general class that could heal, DPS and tank. It was a competent class but the other classes could do healing, DPS, and tank better. But the point that the Pally shone brighter than all other classes was his survivability while playing solo. Paladins were just damned hard to kill. Sure they did not have a high burst DPS, but they could sustain DPS for extended periods of time when other classes would have to stop for healing or to regain mana. The downfall of the Paladin class was they seemed to be light dependent and usually had to align themselves with a light God to master the higher level spells. I had no wish to align myself with anyone but the benefits of the class outweighed any faults, and I would cross any bridges as I came to them. Choosing to accept the Paladin class concluded my stay in the small room and suddenly I was falling from the sky in a kind of cutscene. I watched as Gods rose up and fell down, as kingdoms grew great and then fell apart and then finally I saw the village fast approaching as I descended. I touched down in a grove just outside of the city gates and was instantly wearing grey mail of low quality. I had a dagger on my left hip and carried a two-handed mace on my back. Before I could move I was asked to pick a name, I hated this part of every game I had ever played. Sorry, that name is taken. It seemed that no matter what name I picked someone else had already chosen it. Struggling to think of something unique yet game appropriate as this was going to be my life forever I called out Belen and was surprised when I saw that it was accepted. Suddenly I phased into full flesh and just stood there. I could smell the pine in the air from the trees surrounding the town. The weight of the armor felt good on my shoulders and back, my legs felt strong. I was alive and had a body, not a tank shell. It felt good. With a huge smile on my face, I left the grove and walked up to the gates of the town where two guardsmen were leaning against the wall. One of the guardsmen waved his hand at me and then asked, ¡°Who be you and what be you doing here at Morro?¡± I looked at both of them, they were in their thirties and impossible to tell if they were an NPC or a player, it was amazing. ¡°I am Belen, a level one Paladin just starting out on my journey and have decided that Morro will be my home while I begin to grow.¡± Holy crap did I just say that out loud. I watched as the guards exchanged looks and smiles and then I knew I would not be attempting to roleplay my character. ¡°Look, guys, I just want to get to the bank and the Inn and then find my trainer, could you help me with that?¡± The first guard smiled and nodded then help up a map. ¡°We give this to all the visitors, all the important things are marked on it. As you travel the map will continue to fill in. A welcome gift from Morro to you. Now for the important stuff, do not steal. No public drunkenness. Show respect and it will be shown back. Good luck now and say hello to Brother Philoe the Paladin trainer.¡± With that, the meeting was over and I walked into the town. What could I say about the town, none of the buildings were over two stories high. It reminded me of a Bavarian mountain town with the steep roofs and the clean streets. It was built on three small hills with the largest hill having a small castle. The map showed me that my trainer was located close to the cathedral and the Inn was closer to the middle valley. Two small creeks flowed through the town which had several footbridges and a couple of larger ones for wagons to travel on. The Bank was on top of the smallest hill, it was a large structure that was built to withstand attack. I glanced up at the recessed door as I entered the building. The door was at least 5 centimeters thick made of hardened iron. There were several guards, wondering around they all looked like warriors. Level 50 NPC that were heavily armed and tough looking. I made my way past them and came to the first available teller. Introducing myself I was informed that I had over 250 gold in my account and that I could access it from any bank. Taking 50 gold I thanked the teller and then made my way out to the Inn. I rented a room for four weeks for one gold. It came with breakfast and supper, for lunch I was on my own but was told that the street vendors were pretty good. I entered the room and opened the window then stretched out on the bed. I was tired and wanted a nap, I set the alarm for 2 hours and was asleep instantly. I awoke to feel refreshed and stood up to stroll to the window. It was overlooking a private residence where an older man was attempting to remove a large rock from his yard. If the cussing was any indication of failure he was doing not having much luck. Smiling I turned around and headed downstairs, it was time to meet the Paladin trainer. It took about 15 minutes to walk over to the small hall that was next to the cathedral. I knocked on the door and waited. After a few seconds I heard an ¡°Enter and make sure the door closes behind you.¡± opening and walking into the hall I made sure that the door swung shut. I watched in amazement as an older man swung a two-handed heavy mace with one hand as his other hand cast lightning at a target across the room. The man continued to move the mace back in forth in several patterns as he continually cast forth lightning, then a harsh and blinding white light and then shadows while still moving across the floor. Finally, the man stopped, the three targets were obliterated and the man had not even worked up a sweat. ¡°What can I do for you, young fellow.¡± The old man asked with a twinkle in his eye. ¡°I can see that you are just starting off on the path of a Paladin, what do you think. Would you like to master the arts of mana induced physical combat?¡± I nodded and then mentioned the gate guard saying hello. The old man smiled and said, ¡°He was one of my most promising students but left to become a town guard, he got himself a little girlfriend and decided the life of adventure was not for him. But you I can tell are a born adventurer, one of those that travel from the other realm I would suspect. The Gods have blessed you, you cant be killed I have heard. And you want to be a Paladin. Good, very Good, are you willing to swear to the light Gods to serve them and follow their will?¡± I looked at the old man and thought he deserves the truth so taking a deep breath I said, ¡°Not a chance, I prefer to be my own man.¡± The old man looked at me with steel in his eyes and said, ¡°Are you sure of that lad, you won''t get another chance with me to change your mind.¡± I stared at the old boy and thought of what I had seen and how I wanted that power to be a part of me. But I would not back down, I would not bow the knee to beings that I did not know, not even for the promise of power. Shaking my head I said, ¡°Listen up old man, no disrespect given here but no. If you can''t or won''t train me then I will find someone how can.¡± We stared at each other for a minute and then the old man smiled and said, ¡°Will spoken young one, I can''t stand those who are weak or who waffle if you don¡¯t want to follow one of the Gods that is no skin off my rear. Call me Philoe and what be your name?¡± Blinking I said, ¡°I am called Belen, and am a level one Paladin and what I saw you do was amazing I have never seen such a thing.¡± Phileo nodded and said, I am not surprised each trainer has his or her own way of training the acolytes, some do not offer all the spells or abilities until they decide the student is ready. I have my own way of training. But first, do you agree to be my student?¡± Nodding I said, ¡°It will be my privilege sir, but I want you to know I will occasionally be summoned back to my own realm and will be gone for about a week. I will be here for ten weeks before I have to go back. If that works for you I would gladly be your student.¡± With those words, a golden glow encompassed both of us and I received a message stating that I was a student of Paladin trainer Philoe. Philoe looked at me and grinned and said, ¡°I will make it simple, to begin with, you will have two abilities available and two spells, you can only choose one each, if you liked what you saw me doing then I suggest you choose the ability One hand is better than two, this will allow you to use a dual wield weapon with one hand, as you might guess this will free your other hand to start using spells. There are two spells available, Candlelight a minor healing spell and the spell Job 36:32 and please don¡¯t ask me why it is called that, I heard it referred to a passage about a God casting lightning at a target but who knows. You may or not be aware of the fact that as a pally you will also have buffs which are spells that you can place on people to help them. To start with you have one buff and it is only for yourself, it is called Forbearance and it is a healing spell that restores your health everytime you are in combat. I would suggest you follow my advice if you want to maximize your potential. See you tomorrow and here is your book.¡± With that, he turned away from me and went back to his training. I stood and watched him for a few moments then left making sure to close the door behind me. Making my way back to the Inn I soon arrived and grabbing a small table in the corner I waited as the server brought me a large bowl of goat stew served with two small loaves of dark bread and fresh butter. I also received a small pitcher of ale which went down nicely with the stew. After finishing the meal I opened the book Philoe had given me. On the front cover, my name was written and the first page had the heading for buffs, spells, and abilities. I tapped the spells the old man had suggested and watched as the went from black to green in the book. I also noted I now had a HUD that displayed three icons one for the buff and two for the spells although the lightning spell was greyed out which made sense as I would have to cast it for it to light up. It was still early but I decided to turn in, I suspected I would have a lot to do tomorrow and I wanted to be at my best. Chapter 3 Training Chapter 3 Training I awoke with the predawn light slowly brightening my window. Walking over to the open window I looked out at the yard where the man had worked so hard to remove the large boulder. It was still there. I could tell that this might turn into a quest. Leaving my armor and weapons I left my room and went outside. While I probably did not need to stretch I still spent a few minutes loosening up, then I began my jog. I ran through the streets at a steady pace and after 20 minutes I began to sprint then jog alternating every few minutes. After a couple of hours, I noted that my endurance had increased by plus 1. Cool. I was not the type of gamer that worried about leveling and trying to get every last point out of my character build. Plus, Tarsas was built a little differently, the AI running the show would decide when you had earned enough XP to level up or gain more points in the various attributes that comprised a character. I had the standard points put into the standard spots thinking that when my trainer Philoe suggests I beef up something I will in the meantime I planned on living a real life within the game and that included real-life training. Making my way back to the Inn I gladly accepted a cup of coffee, rich with cream and sweet with honey. After several minutes I received a plate full of hot sausage links and eggs with fried potatoes and fresh toast on the side. I love breakfast and being able to eat like this in the game was pretty special. Once I finished it off including the second cup of coffee I made my way to the water room where I stripped down and had a cold shower. Shivering but clean I gathered my gear from my room and went to the training hall. Opening the door, I entered and saw that I was early. I grabbed a broom and some rags and spent the next half hour cleaning and washing the floor. Once that was done I grabbed three target dummies and placed them on their stands, then seeing that I could do no more I sat cross-legged on the floor and began to meditate. After quite some time had passed I opened my eyes to see Philoe sitting beside me in the Lotus position. Once he observed I was alert he said, ¡°Good job on cleaning the hall, that will be your first training activity every morning. Once that is done you may wait for me like this or practice the forms I will teach you.¡± Philoe continued, ¡°Today I will be showing you five forms, two are defensive and two are offensive and one which is a ready form. Stand here with me, yes like that, now hold your weapon up and out, perfect. Have your left hand ready at a 45-degree angle like so. Good, now step forward and push your weapon forward extending it about 90 percent. Now as you do that step forward, yes good. Now step back and pull your weapon back. Excellent, now as you do that I want you to cast lightning with your left hand.¡± Standing up I stared at Philoe and then asked, ¡°How am I supposed to cast the spell, do I shout it out or make a funny hand movement?¡± I noticed he looked at me like he just saw something that perhaps should have been flushed the night before. I was expecting him to tear me a new orifice but was surprised when he softly said, ¡°Sorry lad I forgot, most of the trainers will have you do some idiotic mumble jumble hand waving while shouting out nonsensical mystical sounding words. The reality is none of that is needed. Think of walking, do you say walk with every step that you take. I hope not or you will look like an idiot and believe me most people don¡¯t need any help in that regard. You decide to walk and you walk. With the things I am teaching you, you decide to use them and you do. It may take a while but practice the forms and try to cast the lightning spell. I will be back around lunch.¡± With that, he left and I started to practice ready position, step forward thrust weapon and then cast a spell as I began to step back. It took about half an hour when suddenly lightning flickered from my hand and hit the target spinning it around and causing a small fire. I could not stop grinning, it felt pretty good to be able to spell cast while doing weapon combat damage. I continued to practice my attacks, all the while keeping my eye on the circle HUD that had appeared. It had four half circles around the core green and blue on one side which represented my health and mana and red and black which represented the physical damage I was receiving and the magical damage that I was dealing with. Across the top was a red line that would grow as I received agro from and mobs. It also displayed a percentage. On the bottom were two lines that showed the life and mana of the enemy. The whole HUD faded away unless I was in combat. It was very cool and I knew that it would be super helpful. After about ten minutes I was out of mana and by highlighting my mana bar I saw that it would take 5 minutes to recharge. I needed to find some man cookies or something that could help. Putting away my two-handed mace that I had been swinging around like a roofing hammer I walked up to the target and began to lightly punch it. I was not surprised when I received a text, Do you wish to learn unarmed combat? Accepting I continued to punch and slap at the target dummies, I had taken Karate one year and while I had only managed to receive a yellow belt I remembered enough to try to punch, hit and slap like I had been trained to do so long ago. Once my mana was recharged I decided to continue with the unarmed combat but start throwing in some lightning punches. It was effective and once I hit the target the release of the lightning caused the whole target to erupt in a shower of miniature lightning bolts flying around. I had never seen an attack like it on the videos posted to the forums. If nothing else if I decided to stream it would look wild. Soon Philoe returned with a couple of hot sausage rolls and a jug of cold cider. We ate outside as he asked me about my morning. When I mentioned the unarmed combat combined with the lightning he laughed and said, ¡°Effective and somewhat surprising, you will never really be unarmed if you level up your hand to hand combat in conjunction with using spells. Tomorrow we will work on the first defensive move, for the rest of the day I want you to go around Morro and find some things to do. Help people out, some may even give you a reward. It is part of what a real Paladin does.¡± I nodded and thanked him for the meal as I gathered my gear to go, Philoe had just basically told me to go find some quests. I was sure going to try to find them. Questing gave several bonuses to players, the XP which helped to level, the money or items which helped overall and the 4reputation gains which helped with getting discounts and greater quests. Walking back towards the Inn I spotted a patrol of Three Guardsmen, well two men and a woman. Walking up to them I asked if the town had a place where people could place help wanted adds. I was directed towards the town''s square, a colorful area with a fountain in the center and several tables and benches scattered around, one of the brooks meandered across the open space with three small footbridges joining the area together. A number of small shops were in the area along with several food vendors. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. I stopped and grabbed a hot apple cider from a vendor and made my way to the center where there were four poles situated, on each pole were flyers which listed the jobs to be done and where to go to meet the person and discuss the details. I read the flyers on the poles and quickly choose three to go after. The first one I selected just for fun and because it reminded me of a series of books I had once read. The task was to go to the stables and clear out a rat infestation. Rewards were XP and a bit of silver. The second quest was a simple run around the city to drop off some goods at a few different shops for some XP and reputation. The last quest was to head out to a nearby mine and find out what had become of the 20 miners. They had not returned from their week-long work rotation and the new crew hand not sent back word of what happened. I would guess that there were now 40 dead miners, or perhaps undead. These things happened in games. At any rate, I would investigate and find out what had occurred. Looking around I could see that I would have time to start the first quest. When I had accepted the quest, my map had been updated and I now made my way to the stables. I could see an open set of stables inside a corral with a large barn in the back. I was just in time to see a young man come running out of the barn with three rats chasing him, they were the size of a Pitbull and from what I could gather all teeth. This was going to be a little harder than I had thought. Walking over to the man leaning on a pitchfork I said, ¡°Looks like you have a bit of a problem here, those rats are the largest I have ever seen. When did they show up and how much damage do they do to a person?¡± The man looked at me and squinted than spat out something, then with a sigh, he said, ¡°People call me Bagger, and I guess those rats showed up about the same time we started storing the ore from the mine for the Blacksmith Guild. Those things are mean, and their bite while not poisonous per say, well make a person sick for days, until a healer can cure them. They do a lot of damage but once you run away from the barn they retreat. You going to have a go at clearing them out of my barn?¡± I nodded as I thought of what the man had said, they showed up when the ore from the mine arrived. Strange, something was happening at the mine. I asked Bagger, ¡°Where is this ore stored, on the ground floor or in the loft?¡± With a grunt and another spit of something Bagger said, ¡°It is all on the ground in sealed chests. They are pretty darn heavy, too heavy to lift to the loft.¡± ¡°Is there any way to get into the loft without going through the bottom of the barn,¡± I asked? ¡°I would like to have a look inside to see what is happening with those rats, and I would rather be up if they are down.¡± Bagger thought for a moment and then replied, ¡°Yep, if you go to the back of the barn there is a ladder built into the barn, it goes up to the big doorway. That is shut but the smaller side door will not be locked, just push it open and then step in. Hopefully, the rats are not up there.¡± With those words of wisdom, he spat again. Clearly, he would not win a puzzle test but I would put money on him if it were a spitting test. I made my way to the back of the barn and began to climb the ladder, just as Bagger had said the small door was unlatched and I pushed it open. Walking into the loft I was amazed at the motes of dust and the smell of hay. The sun shone in through a couple of open windows lighting up the barn well enough to see. The loft was full of stacked bales of hay against the back wall with a carpet of loose hay underfoot. I walked to the edge of the loft and looked down, there in the center of the barn was a pile of chests each one had a hook set in the lid that was how they were unloaded from the wagon. They looked heavy and I noted the block and tackle that was positioned above them. The barn was crisscrossed with several walkways that helped to support the structure, all a person would have to do was walk out till he could grab the chin for the block and tackle and then lower it, try to snag the hook of the chest and raise it then using brute strength pull the whole thing back to the loft area. The block and tackle were designed to roll over to the loft so it should not be that hard. But that did not take into consideration the ten rats that were milling around. I had a funny feeling that they would be joining me as soon as I began to lift the chest. The walkway was narrow and they would only be able to approach me one at a time. I think this might work, so carefully grabbing the chain, I lowered the hook end and began to gentle swing it around. The rats paid no attention to what I was doing until I managed to hook the chest. The began to get excited as I began to lift the chest and then the whole group jumped on the ladder and scramble up to the loft. Once there the hesitated until I manage to get the chest up to my level. At this point they attacked, they were in a long line front to back almost scrambling over each other in their eagerness to bite me. I waited until they were within five feet of me and then cast my lightning spell. I used both hands to double the power and was reminded for a moment of the evil emperor casting lightning at Darth Vader in those old movies. It was pretty intense with the rats all seizing up and then falling the twenty-five feet to the floor. I observed a steady trickle of XP numbers flash by off in the corner of my vision. Tarsas may be a game with magic but it still used real-world physics and any animal falling from that high would die or be severely injured. I pushed the trunk over to the loft and then scrambled down to the floor. Waving my hand over the pile of rats I looted everything. Here the magic of the game shone through as I received ten rat tails and a handful of silver. Climbing back up to the loft I noted the rat bodies had disappeared and it occurred to me that things were just cleaner in the game. Walking up to the chest I saw that it was unlocked, so with one hand ready to cast lightning I opened it expecting anything but seeing nothing. It was full of ore. If this one was full of the raw mineral ore than there must be something in one of the other 9 chests that had the rats here. I made my way down to the barn floor and began to open the chests. I found nothing but the ore. Taking a deep breath, I went back up to the loft and dumped the ore from the chest onto the barn floor. Still nothing. I did the same thing with all the chests and in the last chest as it spilled onto the floor I caught a glimpse of something shiny stuck within a broken-up chunk of ore. I lifted the ore and examined it but all I could tell was that a golden piece of metal was buried in the rock. Grabbing my Mace with my right hand I placed the ore on the ground and swung. The ore broke into over a dozen smaller pieces and the metal ring rolled free. I scooped up the ring and examined it, it was a metal ring, made of gold and engraved with small be detailed pictures. The ring also had three words engraved on it and I struggled to read what they said. Vade Mecum Rattus. As I read the words I felt a change come over me and suddenly a new icon became visible at the top of my vision. As I looked at it a definition of what it would do brightened into view in front of me and I read, The Ring of Willard, a soul bound item that is capable of summoning a mischief of rats to do your bidding. They can spy, steal and kill. They have absolute loyalty to the ring bearer and can be summoned any time and as frequently as needed. Wow, unbelievable I thought as I slipped the ring on my baby finger. It magically sized itself down and I knew that the ring would not be coming off, at least in this lifetime. I was now piqued about exploring the mine. I had a feeling that there might be other things of interest down in the dark depths. Walking outside I grinned at Bagger and said, ¡°The job is done I am sure that your rat infestation is gone. I took care of 10 of the rats. Sorry I made a bit of a mess in there with the ore.¡± Bagger stared at me and then spit off to the side. Then reaching into his pockets he pulled out a handful of silver and said, ¡°Thanks they were sure a nuisance to me and my stables here. I appreciate what you did. Good luck in your adventures Paladin.¡± With that, I headed back to the Inn I wanted to get a good sleep and then start training before my Paladin training began. Then do some running around town and off to the mine. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Meeting Natella I was hot sweaty and feeling tired, the morning had passed in a blur as I practiced the other three forms that Philoe had taught me. Over and over, I caught myself chanting wax on wax off as I worked. But I would not quit not with the girl standing beside me doing the same exercises without even breaking a sweat. She had perfect form and execution, plus she was hot. Red hair pale skin and green eyes. A little thick but not fat pure muscle and grace. The kind of girl I had always been attracted to. Her name was Natella and she had been accepted as an acolyte Paladin by Philoe over a year ago. I suspected that she was from a noble family from the quality of her gear and clothing. She had greeted me with a smile but was all business in the practice hall. We finally finished and I barely made it outside and collapsed on a bench. Natella looked at me and laughed as she said, ¡°You need to get into shape your form is good but your stamina sucks.¡± I smiled as my ego meter took a serious nose dive to bottom out. ¡°Yes I agree, I am in terrible shape, but every morning I try to run before coming here. Hopefully, sooner than later I will get better.¡± It was hard to not stare at her eyes they had a magnetism about them but I looked away after a second, I did not want to come across as a pervert. I listened as I looked around at the midday crowd of people out shopping, eating and visiting. I missed most of the conversation between Natella and Philoe but I did hear Philoe say, ¡°Well why don¡¯t you ask Belen he is not from here and I doubt he would care about anyone opinion.¡± ¡°Huh, what did you say?¡± I asked in surprise. Philoe responded, ¡°Listen, Natella has to attend a dance at one of the nobles halls and she needs someone to go with her. Be a man and take her to the dance. Have fun and enjoy the evening. But do not kill anyone, some of those muckrakes will try to provoke you, by all means, duel but a Paladin does not go around killing people in duels.¡± ¡°Why would I duel anyone, and I have no intentions of killing anyone, and yes Natella if you need an escort I would be glad to do my duty to a sister Paladin.¡± I stared at Natella and noted her cheeks reddened as she said, ¡°Thanks, I would like it if you could be my escort tomorrow night. I will meet you here, please wear your good clothing, Sir Chancy is particular about things like that. My Father will accompany us, to the dance so¡­¡± Her voice died off and then she stood up and said, ¡°Until then.¡± With a small smile at me, she turned and walked through the crowd disappearing from view. I turned to Philoe and said, ¡°What the heck was that, why did you invite me to Natella¡¯s dance party. I don¡¯t walk in those circles, she is clearly a noble and I am a level, 1 Paladin. I don¡¯t even have good clothing, I am going to stand out like a third testicle on a bull.¡± The old man smiled at me and then said, ¡°Enough of your complaints, I am friends with Natella¡¯s father and he was worried that she would not have an escort or even worse the wrong kind of boy would ask her. This solves several problems, as for your clothing go to Top Hats and Fox Fur Cloaks, tell them I sent you and that you need a set of clothing for the dance. They will take care of you and I will take care of them. Consider this a training exercise, Paladins are expected to deal with the lowest peasant and the High Kings on equal footing, you are not a noble or at least not yet, but you are of equal standing to any noble. Show me what you can do boy.¡± With that Philoe walked back into the training hall and closed the door. I was on my own, standing up I began to walk towards the nearest stall where I had to pick up a packet of letters to drop off all over town. Along the way, I would stop at the clothier and get fitted with my good quality clothing. The early afternoon passed quickly with the fitting only taking a few minutes and the letters all delivered. I suspected they were bills judging by the sour looks I received as I dropped off the letters. Bills, you can''t escape them even in a game. I stopped to grab some food and water and purchased a cloak, cause I was once a boy scout and one should always be prepared. Once I left the town and was out of site I began to experiment with my ring and started calling the mischief of rats. One second I was walking alone and the next I was surrounded by huge rats with huge teeth. The buggers were eager to get close to me rubbing against my legs and playing with each other. They seemed to be having fun but clearly deferred to the largest rat a monster the size of a Shepherd dog. I could communicate with all the rats mentally and felt the joy and happiness they had as the played. The largest rat was at a higher level than the rest and could communicate with simple sentences. I decided to name him Kirk and suggested that two or three rats range ahead and scout out the way to the mine. In a flash three rats broke away from the group and ran ahead, they just seemed to disappear into the ground. As I walked I would receive a mental picture of what the rats saw once in a while if they thought it was interesting. The remaining rats and I continued to make our way down the track towards the mine with Kirk walking beside me his nose and whiskers quivering here and there as he sniffed the air. He was a handsome grey color with silver highlights in the fur around his neck and head. I liked the color scheme and decided to see if I could have my clothing all that color. I had always tried to maintain a clothing color on all my game characters, it was just something I liked to do. We eventually arrived at the mine, my scouts had not offered me any warnings about anything. The mine itself was like a cave with several buildings scattered around the clearing. I had the rats check the buildings but they were all empty. I could not help but smile as I entered the dark mine. Seeing a rack of torches I grabbed 6 and threw them into my bag then lighting one I made my way into the darkness. I had sent my rat scouts ahead, they had an excellent dark vision and would see anything long before I would. We explored the top level of the mine finding it to be empty of life. Heading to the ramp that led down to the next level I sent the scouts ahead again and waited for a moment until they told me the area next to the ramp was clear. I arrived at the bottom of the ramp to find that the torches were suddenly out. WTH, only my rats'' warning allowed me to duck from the mining pick that embedded itself in the wall at the place where my head had been. I thrust out with mace and connected with something soft but hard enough to feel the breakage of bones. Scurrying back I pulled a torch and lit it then looked down into the chamber. Zombies, about 20 of them scattered and moving slow.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I walked up to the first on and managed to connect a solid blow to its skull which caused it to drop lifeless. Moving on I worked my way through the pack of undead, they were slow and easy to one shot with a blow to the head. The only time I had trouble was when three of them arrived together in front of me. Fortunately, I managed to distract two of them when I screamed brains and pointed behind them. Being freshly turned they still had limited reasoning abilities and so turned around to see what I had pointed at. This allowed me to get them both. The third zombie meanwhile had managed to grab me by the arm and bite me on the shoulder near the neck. It hurt and for a moment I thought I was going to be gaming as a ghoul but once my blood filled his mouth the Zombie screamed and tried to spit but only managed to fall down clutching his throat as he died. I suspect that my being a pally and having a healing buff was why he died. Pallys have always been strong against the undead. I moved from chamber to chamber finding smaller groups of Zombies, I looted them all with the plan to give all the personal artifacts to the miners guild to return to their families. The zombies were not a challenge for me and I had not had to use my rats against them. By my reckoning, I had dealt with all the miners but had not found the creature that had turned them. At the end of a long passage, I had discovered a hole torn into the wall, perhaps something from the inside and managed to dig its way out. The opening was large enough for me to easily walk through and I discovered that it led to a man-made passageway that sloped down. I followed the passageway for half an hour and finally arrived at a huge subterranean cavern. It was all quiet with no sign of life but I was not fooled. I knew that hunters could remain still waiting for their prey and that something that did not move was extremely hard to see. Sending in the rats brought an immediate reaction as skeletons arose from the pools and began to chase the rats. My rats were much faster and easily illuded the skeletons. I directed the rats to break into two groups and had the first group run around the buildings and then had the second groups pull up a few skeletons at a time to me. The combat was quick and brutal, my two-handed mace breaking the bones of the skeletons with ease and when they did manage to pull a sword it would often fall into small pieces of rust as soon as it hit the air. Eventually, the rats pulled the last group up to me and they also joined the growing pile of broken bones in front of me. While the rats had been running around the buildings they had observed no other creatures so I felt it was safe to proceed down, and in fact, I was curious about what might be in the ruined temples. I paused and waved my hand over the pile of bones and was pleasantly surprised to receive 50 gold and a handful of gold jewelry most of which were identified with a pirate tag. I explored the first two smaller buildings but they held nothing of interest to me. The third building was much larger and had a large altar in the middle, on top of the altar was the reclining figure of a female naga, The head, and torso of a woman and the body of a large snake. She was beautiful but deadly with a trident in one hand and a net in another. I walked around the altar and examined the back of the room only to discover that it was a dead end. I put my rats away as I expected this to be a boss fight and did not want them hurt. When I discovered the boss. Turning around I noted that the Naga was no longer on the altar, clearly what I had thought was a statue was something far more deadly. My first indication of that was when the net came sailing out of the darkness and wrapped around my feet instantly turning back to stone and trapping me. I had found the boss and I was in trouble. I managed to deflect her trident with my mace but was not prepared when the naga abruptly hit me with an uppercut that caused the stars to shine in front of my eyes. I finally had a good look at my enemy as she wrapped her snake body tight around me. I heard her say, ¡°You are a handsome one, perhaps I will keep you as my personal slave.¡± Then she bent down and kissed me. I was bleeding in my mouth from when she had popped me and my only hope was that my blood might react towards her as it had the other undead, for as beautiful as she was she was also undead. Some kind of higher form than a ghoul or a zombie but still undead. Grabbing her by the back of the neck I pulled her in and kissed her back with all my remaining strength. Just before I passed out I saw a popup display, You have mastered the art of the first kiss, you can now smooch with the best, pucker power active. Awesome I thought as I faded into unconsciousness, with my last thought wondering how Natella would like to be kissed. When I awoke, I was extremely uncomfortable with my legs still trapped in a stone net. I was on my back and looking over beside me I saw the Naga, she was reaching for me with one hand as the other grabbed her throat. I had to remember that she was trying to permanently convert me to being undead and then enslave me. It was hard because I could see the stone tears on her face that she had cried when she realized that she was dying. I managed to reach out and grasp my mace but as much as I tried to break the net it would not shatter. After an hour I decided to take a different approach and put the net into my bag which instantly freed my feet. I stared down at the Naga girl and thought what the heck and then put her into my bag as well, she made a lovely statue now that she was harmless. Standing I stretched out my leg muscles and then tried to loosen up in preparation for what was to come. Once I was ready I walked over to the altar and examined it. As I suspected it was a table tomb, with the top of the altar actually being a cover for the tomb. I carefully placed my hands and began to push, and push and push. The lid was thick and made of solid rock. I did not stop and continued to push, finally after what seemed like forever the lid began to move. I manage to move it enough to have a good look inside the tomb and reach into it. The tomb held the figure of what appeared to be a Dragon, curled up within the stone confines. I would guess that this was a young Dragon, but what did I know about Dragons. Nothing. The body was resting on a bed of solid gold coins with precious jewels and assorted jewelry. I waved my hand over the body and it all disappeared as loot, The Dragon itself turned to dust and faded away leaving a pulsing red jewel at the bottom of the tomb. I reached down and grabbed it and then held it up to the light. It was beautiful and lit from within by a fiery light. Suddenly I felt a terrible burning in my hand and tried to drop the stone. It refused to leave my hand and in fact, it began to burn hotter and hotter. The pain was overwhelming and I fell to my knees holding out my hand. I am not sure how long the pain lasted but it was suddenly gone and the relief I felt caused me to fall onto my but. I could no longer feel the jewel but as I held up my hand I could see a small red area on the palm of my hand. Closing my eyes I swallowed and then looked at my hand again, there was no doubt that the stone had somehow merged with my palm. I felt funny and knew it was time to go back to the city I was not sure if I could make it that far but at the least, I had to make it outside. Feeling both hot and cold at the same time I managed to stumble my way to the surface. My only thought was to get out of the mine. I made it out of the mine and into the bunkhouse then crawled onto the first bunk I saw. When I awoke I was hungry, thirsty and a bit irritated, everything I had read had told me that Tarsas was supposed to be fun, but the pain I had felt was not fun, it was painful. Debilitatingly painful. I pulled up my interface and quickly sent a message to game Quality and Assurance telling them the pain levels I had experienced was way over the top and not fun at all. With that done I began to make my way back to the city.