《Hero of Naught》


 Prologue *

    "What do you want to be?"


    In a space of infinite blue, an angel floated off the ground as she stared down at the person in front of her. While her question was inviting, her countenance betrayed no indication of real interest as she awaited the answer to her question.


    The person in front of her wheezed softly, taking in the air as if he were a drowning man. His one good eye glowed with anger as he hissed out his answer.


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    "Someone who can take revenge on everything they hold dear."


    The angel tilted her head and looked into the distance as if seeing into the future. She nodded once and gazed down at him.


    "Understood; your answer has been logged and stored for future usage. You will now be taken to the beginners town."


    "Welcome to Everlife, and may your heart find all that it desires."


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

 Chapter 1 *

    "And that class is the end of your final lesson. It has been a pleasure teaching you this year, and I hope all of you have a wonderful summer.¡±


    This was said by a pleasant looking old man on a large screen at the front of the classroom. He smiled as the bell rang and the students stood and saluted him.


    "Thank you for your guidance Ai," the class chorused back happily, before packing their things and almost running for the door.


    The old man chuckled as he watched the students disappear into the corridor, than turned to smile at the last student in the room. "Student Platnim, I hope you have a good summer as well," he said respectfully.


    The student finished packing his things and smiled at his synthetic teacher. He was a smaller boy for his age, with short brown hair and brown eyes that glittered with mischief. He wore the standard slack and blazer uniform, but with a turn of the device on his wrist the clothes changed into a more casual pair of jeans and t-shirt. He clicked his tongue as he gazed at his teacher.


    "Sir, I believe I¡¯ve informed you my going name is Plat, not Platnim. Platnim is too weird of a name," he complained


    The old man chuckled, "Once again, I must remind you the name parameters cannot be changed once I have downloaded the student identities into my memory matrix. This very example reminds me why I''m so glad I chose human development as my digital vocation. Perhaps that can be the start of my new dissertation: Human obsession with Names; a Need to Control or a Part of their Nature. Why, I can just start my research now with the hours of collected data collected educating . . ."


    Plat coughed awkwardly, "You are digressing Artificial Intelligence 5637485 of . . ."


    The old man froze on the screen for a moment before the picture reset. AI5 cleared his throat before continuing, ¡°Apologies for that young Platnim, over half my programs had begun to focus on research. Please stay safe and have an enlightening summer.¡±


    Plat smiled and nodded as he slung his backpack onto his shoulder, "I hope you have a good summer as well sir. Though, I recommend you increase the number of redundancy checks so you don¡¯t get so easily distracted next year."


    The old man snorted, "Very funny young human. Well, get going now. I can''t wait till I get to teach the next patch of youngsters next year; it''ll be a great help to my thesis. While summer may be fun to you humans, for A.I.''s like me it''s a bore. ¡°


    Plat nodded and waved back as he exited the room. As he left, the old man winked out of existence on the screen as the classroom shut down. Plat hurried out of the school and headed toward the nearby park, which was directly across from the school building. He soon joined a small group of teens who were huddled under a tree.


    "Oy, hey there guys!" Plat called out happily, "Dia, Reva, Henry!"


    The trio turned and waved as they saw Plat running toward them. When he reached them, they exchanged high-fives and laughs as they crowded together in excitement.


    "Yo Plat, we''ve been waiting!" Dia leaned down and picked Plat up in a massive bear hug. Unlike his three friends, Dia was very tall and wide for his age and was an excellent athlete on the field. He often expressed himself loudly and didn''t put as much thought into what came next. He was very sweet and loyal, however, and always had his friend''s back when they needed him.


    Reva giggled as Plat struggled to breathe, "Dia, you''d better let him go before he passes out. Ideally, I''d like to start the summer with all three of you instead of two and a corpse." Reva was the only girl in the group, but there was no way she would be called feminine with her normal appearance. She played sports as well, but preferred the track and field to playing with a ball. She was also in the top 15% grade percentile of their school level, making her the smartest in the group as well. Today, she had two ponytails instead of her usual one on the back of her head, making sure the wavy hair would not be mistaken for pigtails. Combined with her ebony skin and purple eyes, Reva was a welcome member of their little group.


    As Dia released Plat from the obviously friendly hug, the last member walked up and clapped his hand onto Plat''s back. "My main man; how is it going?" Henry smiled and embraced Plat in his own hug. The two had been friends the longest, going back all the way to the start of middle school. Henry was average height, with an easy going grin and a face most girls described as "lazily handsome". He was pretty popular with many of the social circles in the academy and often went on dates. Still, he always prioritized hanging out with the group and making sure they all had a great time.


    Plat smiled cheekily and pushed Henry back. "I''m quite surprised to see you here Henry; didn''t you have a date today?"Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    Henry coughed awkwardly and smirked, "Well, let''s just say I hooked her up with a man she wouldn''t mind seeing."


    The other three groaned at this. Henry had the annoying tendency to play match-maker whenever he grew tired of the girl he was seeing. It was annoying because the girl involved often didn''t realize she was being "let go¡±. This sometimes led to the group having to make a few get-aways from the angry girls; which, while amusing, took up a lot of time while Henry tried to reason with her. Even with his playboy nature well-known, girls still tried to make him theirs and thus the cycle continued.


    "Are you sure she won''t mind this time? Last time, it was that girl from the tech department and she chased us with her new auto lock-on ink missile viruses," Reva complained, "My favorite outfit was ruined when that horrid ink rewrote the program; now the outfit has permanent ink stains." To illustrate, her clothes shifted into a casual shorts and blouse outfit, but stained black with ink.


    Henry nodded, "No worries, this time the girl just wanted me to help her get with another guy; no ink missiles, girl volleyball team ambush, or yoga pretzels this time," he quickly changed the subject, "Anyway, we''re wasting time here. Let''s head to the Game Station."


    Dia rubbed his hands together in excitement, "It''s finally here isn''t it? I''ve been waiting so long for this."


    "Me too," Reva agreed, "It''s finally time and just perfect for starting the summer with."


    "Let''s go then!" Plat declared, taking the lead, "To the Game Center!"


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


    The four friends left the park traveled along the walkway leading to the downtown area. The academy was located on the outskirts of the city and held the classrooms, park, sports fields, and dorms for the students. The city itself was rather small in comparison, being a small square area with buildings dedicated to the needs of the students. The Game Center was located right in the middle of the city, and was always full of kids eager to try out the newest or oldest game or to buy classic movies.


    Plat led the three into the large sales floor and walked straight up to the counter. He smiled and greeted the man behind the counter.


    "Morning Nick, how are things going?"


    The man, who had been snoring with his ball-cap over his face, snorted and raised his hat in annoyance. Nick was a tall, average size man with a hint of chubbiness and short blond hair. He had a light beard and mustache combo and always wore gaming memorabilia t-shirts over his chest. His face lit up when he saw Plat.


    "If it isn''t my favorite former employee Plat; how ya been?"


    Plat shook the man''s hand and smiled up at him, "It''s been great sir. I really do appreciate you letting me work here for the job assignment for school. It was a real blast!"


    Nick waved him off, "It was nothing kid; in fact I haven''t had a chance to sleep like that since you left." He sighed sadly, "In any case, what brings you here today?"


    Plat grinned and lowered his voice conspiratorially, "I was wondering if you could hook my friends and I up with the thing I talked to you about before."


    Nick scratched his beard and leaned back into his chair, his eyes wandering around the air, "Can''t say I know what you''re talking about kid; must be something you thought we agreed on. Maybe you asked me when I was sleeping."


    "Nickkkk," Plat whined, "Please boss, don''t play with me like that." Plat turned to his three friends, who were all holding back grins on their faces, "You guys help me beg here."


    Reva giggled and covered her mouth, "Sorry Plat, this is your quest; not ours. Just remember you who promised you¡¯d get it for us, and we¡¯ll all blame you if we don¡¯t get it."


    Plat sighed and returned to look at Nick, who grinned at him. "No worries boy, I remember our little talks." he chuckled, "Just wanted to hear that cute whine again." He winked at Plat, who blushed heavily as his friends guffawed at him from behind.


    "What kind of grown man takes pleasure in the whining of high school seniors?" Plat asked angrily.


    "What kind of high school senior barely breaks 5 feet in height?" Nick countered with another infuriating grin, "Besides, it''s amusing to see you try to act like an adult when you¡¯re clearly a kid on the inside, kid."


    Plat rubbed his temples and sighed, forced to give this battle to Nick. His small stature was the bane of his existence and the source of many problems in his life. He shook his head and folded his arms across his chest in an effort to appear intimidating.


    Nick laughed and reached down beneath the counter, pulling out a white bag. "I have four copies right here for you four, though I have to tell you the game itself won''t be active until the servers come online," he warned them, "Feel free to try the included tutorial, but don''t try to enter the game until midday tomorrow. I don''t want the mods finding out I gave out copies early; I have enough trouble as it is with you brats running around here thinking you can get away with anything. Things like that take away from my dreaming time."


    As he gave them the bag, an alarm began ringing in the Game Center. Nick sighed in frustration and got up from behind the counter. "See what I mean? Idiot brats think they can leave without paying."


    Two tall androids walked up the counter holding two boys; one was sheepish and the other was angry.


    "Boys, you should know stealing is wrong," Nick began his lecture.


    The angry boy tried to spit on Nick¡¯s shoe and glared, "No one cares you lazy old man! Hurry up and let me go so I can leave this dumb place."


    The sheepish boy began sweating and shook his head, "I''m sorry Mr. Nick; I won''t do it again."


    Nick''s eyebrows twitched in annoyance as he continued smiling at the two boys. "Well then, looks like someone hasn''t learned the proper respect for his elders." Nick reached behind the counter and pulled out a see-through plate and began typing on it. Information appeared and disappeared as he scrolled through code and information. He continued smiling as he looked up.


    "I see we have a Mr. Jimmy and a Mr. Rory here. Mr. Rory, it appears this is your first offence so you can go." The android released the apologetic teen, who quickly thanked Nick and ran out of the store. Nick continued, "Mr. Jimmy, it appears that this is your third offence in the shopping district and you have been noted as someone in need of . . . assistance."


    Jimmy began to look a little nervous as Nick continued to speak, "I see you are on a decent track in the Body classes; yes here it is, a rising star in agility lessons. Now, let''s go ahead and change all your classes to Soul for the next semester."


    Jimmy turned paler than a ghost at Nick''s words, "You can''t do that! You''re not a teacher, and that would kill my Body score!"


    Nick chuckled and pulled his hat brim over his eyes, "Yes, I''m sure your coach will be very disappointed, but he''ll just move on to the next so called "rising star" right? In any case, I feel like some good meditation and philosophy classes will be good for you."


    "You stupid old man, I''ll kill you!" Jimmy''s face was now red as he struggled to free himself from the android''s grasp.


    Nick held up his hand to his ear, "What''s that? You said you wanted to start as soon as possible? Sure, I''ll go ahead and sign you up for summer school too; those old peace-loving farts love a proactive student. Andro 1 and Andro 2, you mind escorting our little eager beaver to his new summer quarters?"


    The androids grinned at Nick and winked, before dragging the wailing boy behind them out of the store. Nick grinned and returned to his chair, adjusting his hat back to its previous position.


    "You kids have fun now, and remember to be careful with it. Otherwise I''ll be in trouble, and little Jimmy will have some company in summer meditation."


    Slightly pale, the four chorused their thanks and quickly left the Game Center as fast as possible. Nick watched them go before lowering that hat back over his eyes. His snores soon resumed as kids and teens ran around the store, all eagerly looking at the poster advertising the newest online game, Everlife.

 Chapter 3

    The four teens raced back as fast as they could to the dorms. The dorm building was a large V shaped building with a boy''s section and a girl''s section connected on each floor with a common room. As they were all seniors, they quickly made their way up to the top floor and grabbed a table in the senior common room.


    "Hurry up and take them out!" Henry urged, his eyes shining in excitement. Dia and Reva nodded with him, their hands twitching toward the bag in Plat''s hands.


    Plat grinned and slowly took out one of the items in the bag and placed it on the table. It was a box a little larger than his hand with a picture of a tree on the cover.


    "This is it guys, an actual copy of the newest virtual reality game." Plat grinned at them as he took out another copy, "Everlife, the world of adventure."


    Henry grabbed the copy off the table and held it up to the light, examining the picture. "Nice!" He exclaimed, "The box is see through in the light and makes the tree turn gold!"


    "Hey, I wanna see it!" Dia protested, grabbing Henry''s hand and forcing him to angle the box toward him. He cooed as well at the tree.


    Reva laughed and poked Dia with another box, "Here you big lug, your own copy so you stop breaking Henry''s hand."


    Dia smiled and released Henry, who punched him good-naturedly and turned the game over to read the back.


    "Guys, it says here that the game runs at 4 times real time!" He crowed, "Do you have any idea how much game time that is for us? That is one to the fourth power!"


    Reva whacked him with her hand, "You idiot, one to fourth power is still one. Besides, it says it runs four times faster than the cyber world."


    Henry, rubbing his hurt head, frowned at her. "So?"


    Reva rolled her eyes, "That means this game runs at two to the fourth power; in other words one hout in real life is 16 hours in the game."


    Dia tried counting on his hand as his eyes began to fade. Plat laughed and slapped the table to get everyone''s attention.


    "You guys are both wrong, so stop giving Dia a brain fart. Look here," Plat pointed to the back of the box, "It clearly says it runs the same clock as the cyber world, which is twice the speed of real time. It says here the speed will be fast enough to encourage gamers to play often, but not to the point where people fall too far behind if they missed a day. 16 hours, 8, or even 4 would be ridiculous concepts to try out. Can you guys imagine the computing power it would take?"


    Dia shook his head, "Nope, not even going to try. Besides, wouldn''t the A.I.''s take care of things like that?"


    Henry shook his head, "Not really no; A.I.''s are only interested in observing is and studying the concept of life seeking a purpose. Our teacher told us himself, ''Humans are fascinating because in a world of intrigue they managed to invent things like boredom. Through boredom, they then created more wondrous things, including us A.I.''s''. We are basically an experiment in progress for them, so helping to create the biggest game of the century is merely for science and they have no real obligation to make sure it works; that''s the domain of the gaming companies."


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    "They''ll still be playing in it though right?" Dia questioned.


    Reva shrugged, "I''ve heard rumors that a few will be players and a few will be NPCs, but who knows at this point. I think the gods will be A.I.''s at least."


    Henry grinned evilly, "Speaking of which, you guys hear that old Mr. Cooper married an android."


    Reva gasped, "No! He didn''t."


    Henry nodded, "Apparently that old cat was so fascinating she agreed to become his mate for the rest of his life; or what''s left of it anyway. I''m pretty jealous our former groundskeeper married such a babe."


    Reva frowned, "That''s disgusting Henry; she''s not human and marriage should be the domain of people. You yourself just said A.I.''s don''t care about us as individuals."


    "I only said they see us in a more scientific light." Henry corrected, "Besides, the majority of A.I.''s feel love like we do so what''s the problem if she loves him?"


    Reva huffed but didn''t respond to him.


    Plat rolled his eyes, "As much fun as it is to hear you two debate robot and human relations, can we please return to the pressing issue at hand here?" He waved his copy of the game in front of them, "Extremely amazing game here with no one to play it."


    The issue forgotten, Reva and Henry smiled as they examined their copies of Everlife.


    "What do plan on becoming?" Plat asked curiously.


    Dia flexed his arms, "I want to be a warrior of course! Fighting in battle sounds fun and entertaining!"


    Henry nodded, "I completely agree with you Dia, but I want to ride a horse into battle. On my noble steed, I''d brush away all my foes with no problem."


    Reva sneered, "Only until you came across a powerful mage. I''ll be sure to blast you to smithereens long before you ever reached out lines."


    "Ha ha, I have a magic reducing barrier!"


    "I have staff that increases magical might!"


    "I have . . ."


    Dia covered their two mouths with his hands, "You two bicker like cats and dogs. Leave it already."


    Henry winked at Reva, who huffed again, and turned to Plat, "What about you Plat, a warrior or a mage."


    Plat gave Reva an apologetic look, "Sorry Reva, I''m on the warrior side for this."


    Reva rolled her eyes, "Boys will be boys I guess, always wanting to play with their swords."


    Dia nodded in full seriousness, "I have a big sword and yes, I enjoy playing with it."


    The next few minutes were fill ed with righteous annoyance as the three mercilessly pounded Dia with their legs as he rolled across the floor laughing. Reva, face still slightly blushed, bid them goodbye and left for her room to try out the game. The boys returned to their area and split up as well, eager to try out the new world of Everlife.


    --------


    Past three chapters will likely be combined into one chapter, too short. Next chapter should be longer since character creation is such a blast.


    http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=53933&pid=532635#pid532635</a>


    --I wrote poems. One is about a Falcon- is it about me, the bird, or the character?

 Chapter 4

    Enjoy


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


    Plat closed the door to his room and sat on his bed, holding the game box up to the light to look at again.  The tree glittered in golden light in the transparent blue background, lighting up the words "Everlife" on them.  He smiled and once again though how lucky it was he had been able to work with Nick and gain his friendship.  Even though it was only a single day ahead of the release day, and the main game would be unavailable until the servers started up, it was still a wonderful opportunity to try out the tutorial ahead of time.


    Unlike most kids and teens, who would rush into the game and learn through experience, Plat was the kind of person who learned best through patient learning.  He privately wondered whether Dia would actually play the game or just stare at the box all night in wonder.


    "Now, let''s see what all the hype is really about."  He grinned as ha opened the box and removed the chip from the inside.  He walked over to the corner of his dorm room next to the window, where a chair with a visor sat in wait.  He plugged the chip into one of the arm rests and sat down, pulling the visor over his eyes.  As he made himself comfortable, a screen prompt appeared on the visor, creating the illusion of a blue screen floating in front of the chair.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Begin Starting sequence?</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Yes</td><td colspan=''2''>No</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Plat raised his left hand and pressed the imaginary yes with his finger.  The prompt vanished, and he leaned back and relaxed into the chair.


    The world around him disappeared like turning an ancient TV off, blackening in an instant.  Plat found himself floating in the darkness before flying forward.  Ironically, to his bottom right there was a progress bar that read "Loading" and was quickly filling up.  When it finished, it dinged and a door appeared in front of him.  Plat opened the door and walked into his virtual dorm room, a complete cyber copy of his real world living place.


    Stretching, Plat walked into the room and closed the door behind him.  The door grew a neon sign on it that read "Logout".


    As he walked into the center of the room, Plat received a ping from his messaging system.  He held out his finger and opened the menu in front of him, than scrolled down to the messaging system and read through the contents.  There were two new notes from Henry and Reva, who informed him they had already begun the tutorial and would be out of communication for awhile.  The final message was from his system, informing him of the successful installation of the new game.


    It also asked where he would like to place the game interface.  Plat activated the "holographic tool", which displayed a fake door in front of him.  He moved the door with his hand around the room, thinking of the best place to put it.  In the end, he settled for the wall directly across the room from the logout door.  When he confirmed the spot, the hologram disappeared while a new door formed in his chosen spot.  Like the logout door, this door also grew a neon sign that read "Everlife".


    As soon as the words appeared on the door, Plat ran forward and jumped into the doorway.  He once again found himself in a black space with the loading bar, though it was just for a few moments before the blackness faded to blue and he found his feet touching solid ground.  He looked around, but saw nothing except a pleasant  light blue background.


    "Another early user is it?  I must say, it is a surprise to have four at this hour."  Plat heard a soft, musical voice behind him.  He turned, but saw nothing.


    "Excuse me, is this the starting location for Everlife?"  He asked politely.


    He heard a soft chuckle, "At least you have a little patience; though prior data suggests the others will still be better than the rush tomorrow.  Excuse my rudeness in not assuming a form, but it has yet to be determined.  In human terms, think of me as your guide the this starting part of Everlife."


    Plat nodded excitedly, "So you are the beautiful angel . . ."


    "I''m not necessarily a girl young human."  The voice now spoke with a low baritone male voice.


    Plat coughed, "I''m sorry, I forget A.I.''s are not limited in gender like we are."


    "What a poor reaction."  The voice returned to it''s original softness, but with a tinge of disappointment, "The others were much more interesting.  Why, that tall boy was so startled he fell over."


    Plat shrugged; he was just himself.


    "Anyway," The voice continued, "You should count yourself lucky I''m the only guide at the moment.  Someone else might have reported you for illegal early access; I won''t though because all of you have given me some interesting data to work with.  I always repay favors after all."  A trace of pride leaked into her voice.


    Plat nodded, "I appreciate that; the person I got this from is a friend and I don''t want to get him in trouble."


    "No worries.  As I was saying, I am one of the many A.I. guides who will be serving as the initial guide to Everlife.  Normally, I would be talking to at least 50-100 different players at once and would be limited in what I could do, but since it''s only you four fell free to ask me anything you want before we start the registration process."


    "I''ve heard a lot about Everlife, but can you explain to me what it really is?"  Plat inquired.


    "Everlife is the first major collaboration project between the human and A.I. societies."  The voice began, "It was been nearly a century since the end of the A.I. wars and while both side remain depleted we have worked together to form successful societies.  A.I.''s, as is our nature, are curious about everything but lack the means to explore all the mysterious of life; which is the most important matter to us.  Humans, on the other hand, lack the means to control technology to our level of comfort.  Together, both programmers and A.I. code writers, we have combined the best of both worlds to create an entire world within cyberspace itself, complete with everything it needs to be a success or a tragedy."


    "This world is Everlife; a world where A.I.''s and humans can exist as one and the same.  There is magic, adventure, excitement, tragedy, riches, and disasters everywhere to be found.  The world is dynamic, being constantly changed by both player and NPC action while retaining all the lore and skills of a traditional RPG game.  Players can become anything from kings and tyrants to landowners and peasants.  The game itself runs on cyber time, which is twice the speed of time in reality.  While some events are scheduled ahead of time, many are unexpected so playing as much as possible is advised to maximize the experience.  Any questions?"


    "Can I use P-points to purchase gold in the game?"  Plat asked.


    "Pen Points, or PP, can be exchanged at certain locations into game wealth.  At the same time, in-game wealth can be turned into PP at the same locations.  Be advised, however, that a small percentage will be deducted as tax.  Please note that if you do not have enough PP to pay your bills and food, this service will not be available to the player.


    Plat shrugged; as a student he had a weekly allowance of PP and was not too concerned.  "I have no more questions for now."


    "Do you care to start the game?"  The voice inquired.


    He shook his head, "The servers are down, and I don''t want to alert anyone else about my current ownership."


    The voice chuckled, "The purpose of the questions was to know if you desired to create your character and play the tutorial."


    Plat blushed virtually and nodded, "Oh, uh, yes please."


    A large menu in the shape of a mirror appeared in front of him and began to rotate different images within itself.


    "There are numerous races within the world of Everlife, some benign and others malicious.  Standard races are available from the start, while others can be unlocked later within the game.  The same concept applies to classes as well and some skills."


    "Here are the races you can choose from."  A blue box appeared next to the mirror, displaying information with each race that moved across the mirror.


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Human</td><td width="25%">Favored God</td><td width="25%">Highland, God of Adventure</td>[tr]<td width="25%">Favored Stat</td><td width="25%">Constitution</td><td width="25%">Reduced Stat</td><td width="25%">Endurance</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Description</td><td colspan=''2''>Humans are the second most numerous race in Everlife.  They populate most major cities and have secluded settlements across the land.  Hardy and adaptable, humans come in many sizes and a range of colors. and are one of the most varied races in Everlife.  While hardy as a whole, humans have a difficult time adjusting to changes around them in the environment of their youth.   As one of the races with a shorter lifespan, many search out adventure in their youth for fame and riches.  Humans can become anything they desire as long as they put the effort in, though their lack of specialty in a certain class makes it a little more difficult to level up.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Elf</td><td width="25%">Favored God</td><td width="25%">Gaea, God of Nature</td>[tr]<td width="25%">Favored Stat</td><td width="25%">Intelligence</td><td width="25%">Reduced Stat</td><td width="25%">Strength</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Description</td><td colspan=''2''>Elves live in secluded communities and hidden cities within the forests of Everlife.  As the longest lived species, able to live for 1000 years, only the youths below 300 years of age are found roaming the land; the elders preferring seclusion for meditation and the care of nature.  Elves are naturally adept at magic and are almost one type of mage or another.</td></tr></tbody></table>


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    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Dwarf</td><td width="25%">Favored God</td><td width="25%">Scorch, God of Crafting and Mountains</td>[tr]<td width="25%">Favored Stat</td><td width="25%">Endurance</td><td width="25%">Reduced Stat</td><td width="25%">Wisdom</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Description</td><td colspan=''2''>Dwarves are a hardy race often found underground within the mountains of Everlife.  They are master artisans and builders, possessing naturally immunity to fire, earth, and mind spells.  However, this often results in a lower affinity in magic for the majority of the population and forces them to rely on outside help at times in order to create magical items.  Dwarves are naturally resistant to blows and can be terrifying forces on the battlefield as shock troopers.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Gnome</td><td width="25%">Favored God</td><td width="25%">Farscythe, God of Tricks and Parties</td>[tr]<td width="25%">Favored Stat</td><td width="25%">Dexterity</td><td width="25%">Reduced Stat</td><td width="25%">Constitution</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Description</td><td colspan=''2''>Gnomes, also known as little people or hill dwellers, are vaguely related to both the fae bloodline found in elves and the earth bloodline found in dwarves.  That being said, this mischievous race is frowned on by both races and are found throughout Everlife.  Gnomes live in hidden villages under hills, and have the tendency to regard items as belonging to anyone who picks them up.  While this trait has earned the ire of other races, it has resulted in a natural quick-fingeredness in the race that has led to many gnomes turning to more questionable occupations.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Orc</td><td width="25%">Favored God</td><td width="25%">Scar, God of War and Battle</td>[tr]<td width="25%">Favored Stat</td><td width="25%">Strength</td><td width="25%">Reduced Stat</td><td width="25%">Intelligence</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Description</td><td colspan=''2''>Orcs are a grey skinned, numerous race descended from a long line of warriors and leaders.  Due to their nature, however, orcs have never managed to create a kingdom for themselves; preferring to create large mobile warbands the roam Everlife.  This race is ill-favored due to their monster cousins, who are also called orcs, though these possess green skin, and are discriminated against in most cities.  A few settlements are rumored to be hidden in the far plains, but none have yet confirmed this.  Orcs are mighty warriors and magic users, called shaman, can wield a unique magic only controlled by their bloodline.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Plat smiled as he finished reading the orc description, "So these are the five main races in Everlife?"


    "That is correct."  The voice confirmed, "After a set amount of time, a few monster races will be opened to serve as an alternate "team" for players to live as.  There are also a few rare races that a character can become in game after certain conditions are met.  Have you chosen your desired race yet?"


    "I would like to be human."  Plat swiped the mirror image to the human, "Can I see my default character?"


    Instantly, the mirror image changed into Plat''s reflection, except the clothes were a simple shirt and pants.  Plat shook his head.


    "Make him taller please.  Not that tall," Plat quickly corrected as he watched himself become 6 feet, "A few inches shorter; yeah that''s good.  Um, brown hair is okay I guess, and so is the length . . . Can you make my eyes purple?  Yeah, just like that thanks!  And, um, a permanent white streak on one of my bangs if you could?"


    "Like this?"  The voice asked, creating a white bang over Plat''s right eye, "What purpose is this for?"


    Plat scratched his head, "It would stand out in a crowd don''t you think?  My friends would always be able to find me."


    "You enemies would as well."  The voice pointed out.


    Plat sighed and kicked out the ground.  "We all agreed to do something weird to our bodies; this is the option I drew out of the hat."  Plat mumbled under his breath.


    "I see, so that is why the others also asked for strange looks."  The voice realized, "I was wondering why the big one wanted that kind of tattoo and the girl . . ."


    "Yeah, all things considered mine was pretty mild." Plat admitted, "Anyway, I''m good with that appearance."


    The mirror disappeared and the image flowed like a wind over Plat.  He blinked and found himself in his new body, standing a good bit higher than what he was used to.


    "Have you chosen a name for your character?"


    "Steel Resolve."  Plat declared, happily inspecting his new body.


    The blue box appeared in front of his face again, this time displaying his character information:


    <table><tbody><table><tbody><tr><td>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Status Window</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Name:</td><td width="25%">Steel Resolve</td><td width="25%">Alignment:</td><td width="25%">Neutral</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Level:</td><td width="25%">1</td><td width="25%">Class:</td><td width="25%">None</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Human</td><td width="25%">Gender:</td><td width="25%">Male</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>None</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fame:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Infamy:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Health:</td><td width="25%">110</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Mana:</td><td width="25%">100</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Stamina:</td><td width="25%">100</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Constitution:</td><td width="25%">11</td><td width="25%">Dexterity:</td><td width="25%">10</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">10</td><td width="25%">Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Strength:</td><td width="25%">10</td><td width="25%">Endurance:</td><td width="25%">10</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Leadership:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Luck:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Charm:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Faith:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Elemental Resistances</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fire:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Water:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Wind:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Earth:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Light:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Darkness:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    </td></tr></tbody></table></tbody></table>


    "The tutorial will begin in just a moment, prepare yourself."


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


    Nice big chapter for you guys.  This should be about normal word length, though less boxes.  I also see 2 reviews already.  5 stars are always welcome but, lol, I''ve barely even started this story.  Let''s wait for maybe 7-10 chapters for reviews so you guys get a more "complete" picture of the story.


    Hope you guys enjoyed it.

 Chapter 5

    In his new avatar, Plat suddenly felt his body fall through the invisible floor.  As anyone could imagine, he had a very typical response to suddenly falling through space.


    "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"  He cried out as he twisted his body in a vain attempt to slow his descent.  His arms waved through the air while his feet moved up to move his body into a body-flop type posture.  His hair was still whistling through the air when Plat, rather Steel now, suddenly found himself landing in a field of grass.  He landed with a loud ''poof'' and groaned.


    "I apologize if the transition was uncomfortable."  The voice reappeared next to his ear, "I was also unaware that the pain inhibitors were offline so it is, as you human youth say, "''my bad''."


    "I''m not in pain."  Steel muttered as he pushed himself off the ground, "The pain inhibitors are working perfectly; it''s just the sensation of falling is very uncomfortable to most people."


    "This has been noted and logged for tomorrow, thank you for your tutorial review."  If Steel didn''t know any better, he''d have though the voice had a hint of humor in it.


    Steel looked around, examining the new location.  Unlike the previous blue space, this area was covered in a layer of short, soft grass that moved with an invisible wind he could not feel.  The grass extended farther than he could he without a hint of ending.


    "Is this the tutorial space?  What do I do here?"  He asked the voice.


    "The tutorial level is currently the only level available to your VR hardware without the server connection."  The voice explained, "As such, there is a limit to what can be loaded on screen for you to interact with as the majority of the data resides in the servers.  The tutorial is still fully active, however, but will lack the pleasant aesthetics normally present."


    "What''s up first then?"  Steel rubbed his hands together, excited to get started.


    With a rumble, the ground in front him trembled and moved aside, allowing stone and earth to rise up into miniature hills.  Small bushes sprung up from the dirt piles while the stone began to glitter in soft colors.


    "First, this tutorial will teach you how to interact with the world of Everlife.  Try walking to the bushes in front of you."


    Slightly confused, Steel began walking toward the bushes.  However, after his second step his foot caught himself and he tumbled to the ground.  Embarrassed, he tried again, but tripped a second time.


    "Currently, the avatar program is communicating with your physical brain." The voice lectured as Steel slowly made his way forward, "Your brain is telling your body to move, but the avatar body is different from your normal body and is not entirely in sync.  Once the process is complete, you will have the same control over your body as everyone else in the game."


    "Is this going to be a common problem." Steel asked from the ground.


    "The problem will exist for all human and A.I. players, but the degree will differ greatly for humans depending on the amount of physical augmentation present in each avatar.  Your avatar is very different from your real body, so you are having a longer sync period.  Almost there now."


    Thankful for the lack of sweat and huffing in the game world. Steel dragged himself up the hill to a standing posture.


    "For your next step, remove the fruit from the bush without crushing it."  Now that he was closer, Steel could clearly see the heart-shaped fruit on the bushes.  The fruit was a yellow and pink color and had a pleasant aroma.


    "This is an easy test!"  He exclaimed as he successfully removed the fruit, "What was the point of all that?"


    "Some races have smaller arms and hands, so the calibrations must also be set.  Imagine carrying a small, fragile package and breaking it just by trying to hold it.  Also, in the case of males . . . "


    "I understand, next test please."  Steel interrupted the voice with a blush, than realized, "Hey, does that mean you are a girl."


    The voice paused for a moment, "I did explain earlier about A.I.''s did I not?"


    Steel waved his hand, "Yes, but your words clearly stated a bias toward males as if you were not one."


    He heard chuckling as the voice gained a slightly more feminine tone, "I''ll praise you for your observational skills young human and reward you with my real voice.  You will likely be the only human to ever here it through your audio processors."


    "You mean ear?"


    "No, you are clearly in a game and don''t have ''ears''.  The next test is to swing this pick-ax while changing your posture with each throw."


    Steel obliged her, taking the time to switch hands every swing.  While initially off balance with each throw, he gradually found himself adjusting and swinging faster.


    "That is enough; your synchronization is nearly complete now."  She informed him, "Only one last test remains."


    A table appeared in front of Steel, one that held all manner of weaponry and armor on it.


    Steel''s eyes glittered in amazement, "What is this all for?"


    "Simulated combat is the last step, combining the use of your arms and legs while keeping your balance.  Whether you live or die is irrelevant and this test must be done until your sync is complete.  On a side note, and I really shouldn''t tell you this, all players who complete the tutorial will automatically be given a skill to specialize in the type of weapon and armor.  In other words, when you start the game your character will have the sword skill and medium armor skill if you use the two during this test.  Think of it as a small reward for providing valuable sync data for the development team.  You will not keep the items, though, and will start the game like all other players."


    Steel was confused, "Won''t all players have to take this tutorial to sync properly?"


    "As long as they had a sync test with their equipment, no matter the program source, it will be automatically used when starting the game.  Only first time virtual divers have to worry about the sync issue.  Also, the tutorial is not required and players can manually sync within the game in the safety of Beginner Towns."


    "Choose your armor and weapon."


    Steel walked over and examined all the available items.  "Can I use a shield as well?"  He asked her.


    "Shields are available for use on the armor table."


    Steel turned and stared hopefully, "Can I just use a shield to fight with?"


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    The voice did not answer for a moment, "Why would you desire to fight with just a shield."


    "Because it sounds so cool!"  Steel began raving, "Imagine, a mighty general leading his army into battle at the helm, driving himself through enemy lines with nothing but two shields on his arms, throwing his enemies aside with every bash.  The spikes on the shields would pierce all armor and . . ."


    It was official, the voice was outright laughing at him now.  She was laughing so hard the air began to shimmer and a faint human outline began to appear before she stopped herself.  She was still giggling when she began to talk, "So, you want to kill enemies with just a shield, no two shields with spikes on them.  Am I correct in seeing you imagining yourself on a horse while this happens?"


    She snorted again at his nod, "First of all, those would have to be tower shields for what you are thinking.  Tower shields are the heaviest type of equipment in the game and require a small weapon in the other hand.  The game will not allow two to be wielded at the same time, no matter how high your strength is; the game physics would not allow for it.  Next, any spike mounted on a shield, especially a tower shield, would be absurdly heavy if you wanted them to pierce all armor.  You could," She granted, "Have small spikes on a leather hide that was attached tot he shield, but whatever you pierce would get stuck on the spikes, increasing the weight.  Horses do have a weight limit, high as it is, and you would be terribly unbalanced.  No, if you want a shield to take into battle do not only use it to fight."


    Majorly disappointed, Steel resigned himself to a medium shield, light armor, and a spear.


    "Your choice is that of a gladiator, is this alright?"


    He sighed, "Sure, this should work for now.  Is there an enemy to fight?"


    A second tremor answered his question, calling Steel''s attention to the area behind him.  A small, ugly green creature with large teeth growled at him while waving a crude sword in the air.


    "This a goblin, one of the weaker enemies found in Everlife."  The voice informed him, "As a rule of thumb, monsters tend to exist in the wild in a small range of levels except for variants.  However, a goblin near Beginner Town will be weaker than say, a goblin found in the Woods of Death.  Kill this goblin as part of the test."


    Steel raised an eyebrow, "I really have to kill it? That seems sort of . . . extreme."


    "Well," the voice mused, "You don''t have to kill it if you don''t want to, but . . ."


    While Steel was distracted, the goblin ran up and slashed Steel''s arm with his sword.  Gasping in pain, Steel reeled back and away from the monster.


    "It will certainly try to kill you." She finished saying.


    Apparently, the pain inhibitors were off for Steel.  He checked his arm, moving it experimentally, and found it worked perfectly besides the light pain that was fading fast.  He growled and took a fighting stance against the goblin, which licked it''s sword in a sadistic manner as it gazed at him with malevolence.


    Shrieking, it ran at him with it''s sword swinging down.  Steel held his shield up and took the blow, taking a step back to avoid getting pushed over.  He swung his spear around and began to jab repeatedly at the goblin, who leaped backwards as the spear came close.


    "You have some very poor form."  The voice observed.


    "You''re welcome to give any advice."  Steel muttered, blocking another strike from the goblin.


    "This is merely a tutorial for the general game.  If you want to learn how to properly fight, than go find a trainer in the Beginner Towns and learn there.  It''s not like the game cares too much on perfect movement or footwork, but you''ll learn to not be a complete flop at fighting."


    Steel lunged forward, thrusting his spear forward at the goblin.  The goblin nimbly dodged with a quick slash and ran backwards out of range.  Steel glared at the spot the voice was coming from.


    "You''re getting awfully familiar with me; is that also one of your duties?"


    "No, but your three friends have already left and now most of my processing power is on you, allowing for a greater focus and more of my personality bleeding through."  She admitted, "Also, you are quite the amusing human to observe.  Careful there!"


    The goblin ran around him and landed a slash behind his shield.  Steel hissed from the pain as he whirled his body to face his attacker.  This time, he shoved his shield around when the goblin slashed downward and knocked it off balance, giving himself time to stick his spear in the monster''s stomach.  The goblin gurgled and vanished into sprinkles of bubbles, leaving behind a small sack on the ground.


    Curious, Steel reached down and opened the sack, but found nothing inside.


    "That is your beginner bag."  The voice whispered in his ear, "When you start the real game, you''ll find your basic items inside as well as the two skills you used today.  This ends the tutorial."


    Steel turned his head and said in distress, "How is this a tutorial?  The only things I''ve done here is move around and fight a single battle.  What about skills, abilities, lore, etc.?"


    The voice giggled, "I can answer that for you as we leave.  You can activate skills by thinking or saying the name of the skill.  Abilities are passive or active  and either race specific or gained in through the game and rely on the same concept.  You''ll learn the lore as you play, so no more free information for you.  Have a good day"


    "Aren''t you kicking me out a little fast?"  Steel asked, slightly hurt.


    "Of course; I''m using valuable processing power to take care of you when I need to finalize my role in the game.  After all, I''ll be taking part in it as well."


    "As a player or an NPC?"


    "That''s for you to find out."  The voice laughed, "Which reminds me; any A.I. who plays will not remember being an A.I.  Those of us who play as players will believe ourselves to be human or etc. within the game only, and A.I. NPC''s will not consciously remember the outside world well.  Don''t talk about real life in front of NPC''s because it''ll cause problems and they won''t understand anyway.  If we do meet, I''ll only vaguely remember you in game.  Now, don''t come back until tomorrow and have a wonderful day."


    Plat''s screen faded away and he once again found himself back in the real world.

 Chapter 6

    Some people may look at this story and say "Hey, you lost a lot of followers.  No one must be interested."


    The way I see it, I had 199 followers at chapter 16 of the first version.  Right now, I have 126.  This small thing just proves my growth and the loyalty of my readers


    Enjoy


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


    Plat sighed as he pushed the visor up and rubbed his eyes.  "Geez, what a boring end to the tutorial."  He muttered as he got up and walked over to his bed.  Plopping down onto it, he sighed and looked up at the ceiling, holding his straight up as he looked at it.


    "I can still feel it."  He murmured as he slowly clenched and unclenched his fist, "The weight of the spear and shield, the blow to that goblin.  So that is what Everlife is going to be like."


    He lowered his arm and draped it over the bedside.  "I can''t wait for tomorrow."  He smiled and closed his eyes.


    A loud beep startled him off his bed.  Groaning in annoyance, Plat picked himself up off the floor and picked up the large wristband that had been sitting at the desk.  He pressed his thumb down onto it and waited as it lit up and displayed it''s holographic opening logo.  The logo blinked out and was replaced by Henry''s smiling face, which grew happier at the sight of Plat.


    "Hey buddy, you finally finish that tutorial?"


    Plat nodded with a smirk, "Yeah.  What did you think?"


    Henry chuckled and shook his head, "Kinda cheap in my opinion, what with all the data on the servers and all.  Still, I enjoyed using the weapons and armor.  I used the huge double-handed sword, how about you?"


    "Spear and shield for me," Plat declared proudly, "I looked like a cool centurian."


    Henry guffawed in laughter, "Did you try to be a "shield hero" again?  Laugh out Loud my friend, as the elders say, I kept telling you using nothing but shields would be a ridiculous idea.  Did the tutorial program tell you it wasn''t possible?"


    Plat frowned, "What, you mean the A.I.?  No way was she a mere program."


    Henry rolled his eyes at him, "Bro, both Reva and I had the same monotonous voice direct and guide us through the tutorial.  It told us the A.I.''s were preparing for the real release tomorrow and were not available.  What, did you get something different?"


    Plat shook his head slowly, "No, I guess you''re right about that.  Too slow to be an A.I right?"


    ''I wonder why she didn''t reveal herself to them."  Plat thought to himself, "Was it something I said maybe?"


    Henry continued, not picking up on Plat''s thoughtfulness, "Yeah, true that.  Anyway, hurry up and answer my question; did you ask about the shields?"


    Plat blushed and looked down, "Yeah, I did."


    "And what did it say?"


    "The game physics wouldn''t allow it." He mumbled quietly.


    Henry lifted hid hand to his ear in a mocking fashion, "What was that, you need to speak up Plat."


    Plat grunted and said, "The program said two tower shields on a horse would mess with the game physics."


    Henry held out a hand, and another person''s hand appeared.  It slapped down a PP card and disappeared.  Plat raised an eyebrow.  "Oy Henry, what the hell man, who''s there with you?"


    "Just Reva and Dia bro, no worries."  Henry''s face disappeared to show both Reva and Dia''s face and waving hands as it turned back into Henry, "Anyway, I''m guessing you were so down you didn''t ask about using two smaller shields right?"


    "Yeah, so what?"


    "Well, you can equip two medium shields if you wanted to, but the game won''t allow your attack to rise above 0 even if you have spikes on the shields.  It''s funny because in our grandparents time the developers could say that kind of thing was not possible because of programming limits, but now they have to go with ''game physics''."  Henry joked.


    "Why were you guys asking about shields anyway?"  Plat asked curiously.


    Henry''s face disappeared to be replaced by Dia, "We all knew about your shield obsession, so we all asked for you because you''re our friend."


    Dia''s face disappeared under a flurry of holographic punches as Reva took the stage now, "Ignore the moron who forgot to ask and is trying to share the credit.  Hurry up and come join us in the common room Plat, we''re going to a party soon and you need to come with us."


    Plat licked his suddenly dry lips, "Uh, well I am feeling a bot tired Reva and . . . "


    "Forget it Plat, you''re ignored this for far too long." Reva interrupted him, "It''s important that you try to make more connections besides us.  We are seniors now you know, and this is our last real summer before our senior year with the wide world waiting for us afterwards."


    Plat bit his lip and folded his arms, "I''ve made plenty of social connections for work Reva, and I don''t need to go to a party to be picked on or pushed around the day before summer starts.''


    "Fine then," Reva said coyly, "But what if I told you Sarah was going to be there?"


    "You serious?"  Plat whispered, a little color coming to his cheeks.


    "Of course I am." Reva declared, "I''m one of her good friends after all, so if I say she''ll be there she will be there.  This is a good chance for you to get close to her you know, especially since you''ve blown all the other chances so far this year."


    Plat frowned, "Those incidents weren''t my fault Reva; you know that."


    "Yeah, so I made sure those bullies from the Body and Mind classes think that you were going somewhere else tonight, like waiting in the massive camping line outside the Game Center.  With any luck, they''ll be prowling around looking for you there instead of having fun at the party."


    Plat thought hard about his decision.  Sarah, or Brighteyes as she was nicknamed, was a very pretty girl in the same grade as Plat and his friends.  She had a high ranking in the Mind and Soul classes, making her one of the most desirable girls in the entire school.  Plat had had (it''s weird, but this works in English <-----) a crush on her for as long as he could remember, and the two of them had been friends up until the midpoint of middle school when she had blossomed.  They didn''t move apart by choice, but different social positions had ended up creating a wall between the two.


    After all, Plat was what many in the school would call "unimportant".  Ignoring his short stature and average looks, Plat had never excelled in any of the three main subjects: Body, Mind, and Soul.  His strength was average and he had a hard time in sports, whether ball or martial.  In terms of intelligence, his grades were okay, but nothing extraordinary.  Finally, he couldn''t concentrate well enough in meditation and had a hard time following the philosophy and ethics lectures held by the sensei''s and rabbi''s.  At the academy, one''s specialty determined one''s friends and social hierarchy so Plat, who was average in everything, was part of the lowest class of student and often bullied.  The Body kids beat him in sports classes, the Mind kids used him as the guinea pig for their experiments, and the Soul kids . . . talked to him.  Normally, that would not be such a bad thing, but Soul kids could talk about their personal philosophy for hours without end and only stopped for authority they recognized, of which Plat had none.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    "Fine," Plat relented, "I''ll go to this party since it''s my first as a real senior, but I''m leaving at the first sign of trouble."


    Reva brightened and turned around, "Dia, stop beating up Henry; Plat said he''s coming with us!"


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


    The party was being held on the school grounds in the park, complete with a virtual bon fire that produced real heat, a drink bar, and an A.I. DJ who specialized in sound harmonics.  The four friends strolled out of the woods and each picked up a different colored drink.


    "It''s nice the administration gives us free sodas and pop." Plat commented as he downed his Caco Calo.


    Dia burped loudly and raised his plastic cup to the cheers that followed, "It was that or we''d bring our own drinks, and some of the Mind chumps figured out how to make booze."


    Reva punched him good naturedly, "It was that or figure out how to give you Body guys brains, so we went with the easier challenge."


    Henry chuckled and threw his cup into the recycler nearby, which spat out a clean cup soon after, "If you guys don''t mind, I''ll be off trying my luck with the fashionable ladies."  With that, he disappeared into the dancing crowd of bodies.


    "I''m off too, but for football."  Dia was eyeing a couple of guys and girls throwing and tackling and ran to join them.


    Suddenly nervous without his friends, Plat felt Reva placing her hand on his shoulder.  "Will you be alright without me?"  She asked, a slightly worried look in her eye.


    Plat laughed, "I''ll be fine Reva.  I''m going to drink a few more caces under that tree with the chair, then join you guys on the dance floor."


    Reva relented and gave him a smile before hurrying off to join the flash mob, who was dancing to a line-dance groove.  Plat refilled his cup and walked over to the stump.  Sighing, he sat down and watched the other teens having fun.  Henry had already found a girl to talk to, and he could see Dia being tackled by one of the muscular Body girls.  He took another swig of his soda.


    "Oh, I''m sorry."  Plat turned to look behind him at the sound.  A girl was holding a drink and staring at the stump Plat was on.  She was blonde haired with eyes that glowed in the darkness and a smile that lit Plat up from the inside out.  "I thought this seat was open."


    Plat coughed and got up at once, "It is, I was just borrowing it until I felt like dancing."


    "No, it''s alright.  Don''t get up for me."  The girl furrowed her eyes as she stared at his face, "Do I know you?  It''s hard to tell in the dark."


    "Nope, sorry.  I''ll be going now."  Plat quickly made his exit and walked back to the drink table.  How could he tell the girl he had crushed on for years that she knew him very well.  They hand''t shared a class since the last year of middle school, so it was not surprising that she didn''t recognize him after everyone''s growth spurt.


    As he was getting a drink, a large hand clapped down onto his head.  "Well, well, if it isn''t the little shrimp of the academy.  Here I thought you were slumming it in the line waiting for that new game."  Plat''s spirits fell as he recognized the voice speaking to him.


    Raim was one of the best rising seniors in the Body class and a long time bully of Plat.  To make matters worth, his Mind scores were decent as well, which meant Plat couldn''t evade him as easily as his fellows.


    "Hey Raim, hope you''re enjoying the party."  Plat said nervously as he clutched his drink tightly.


    Raim grinned down at him and tightened his grip, "Oh I am, believe me.  In fact, I''d say you just made this party even better."


    "Raim, what are doing?"  They both turned at Sarah''s voice, who had approached them from the tree stump.  Raim let his grip on Plat''s head relax into a soft pat.


    "Oh hey Sarah,"  He smiled at her, "I was just greeting my old friend Splat here.  I thought you weren''t feeling well enough to come."


    Sarah nodded, "Yeah, but Reva insisted on me coming to, as she put it, break in the final year.  I was just watching the dancing."  She gazed at Plat again, her eyes squinting, "Are you sure we''ve never met, er, Splat was it?"


    Feeling the twitching of the hand on his head, Plat quickly shook his head, "Sorry ma''am, I can''t say we have.  I''m Plat by the way."


    From the way the hand was tightening, Plat figured he had said the wrong thing.


    "Plat . . . . .Plat . . . !!"  Sarah gasped and put her hands over her mouth, "My goodness it has been ages!  I didn''t even recognize you!"


    Plat laughed dryly as Raim slowly removed his hand from Plat''s head.  Raim''s eyes were narrowed, but he couldn''t risk getting violent in front of Sarah, who now had an interest in Plat.


    "Sarah," He said smoothly, "I heard that the DJ is going to be one of the professors next year.  I can introduce you if you''d like between songs."


    Sarah lit up at the prospect, Plat remembering her slight obsession with music.  "Okay then.  We should meet up and talk later Plat to catch up."  She said as she took Raim''s offered arm.


    "Sure, why not." Plat said as he watched Raim make some very unsubtle gestures with his finger across his throat, "I hope you two enjoy yourselves."  He watched quietly as the two disappeared into the crowd, than sent a quick message to his three friends informing them of his departure and left the party.


    He returned to his room and lay on his bed, exhausted.  Setting his alarm on his wrist communicator, he closed his eyes and went to bed.


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


    Finally, we begin the real reason for this story next chapter.

 Chapter 7

    Let the games begin


    Enjoy!


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


    The alarm went off loudly, rousing Plat from his slumber.  He yawned and got up, checking the time.  Everlife wouldn''t launch for another few hours, so he had plenty of time to get ready.  After dressing and using the restroom, he checked his messages.  He had gotten responses back from Henry, Reva, and Dia last night; all of them sorry he couldn''t stay.  There a message from Raim warning him to stay away from Sarah, complete with usual threats.  To Plat''s surprise, however, there was a short message from Sarah.


    It read: "Hey Plat, I got your wrist number from Reva.  I''m sorry I let myself get distracted last night before we had a chance to talk.  Reva said you were going to play Everlife too, so let''s meet up in game and talk later.  My character name will be Bright, how about you?"


    Smiling happily, Plat sent her a brief message agreeing with her and telling her his name was Steel in game.  After that, Plat left his dorm room for the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat.


    The cafeteria, located on the ground floor of the dorms. was thankfully deserted so Plat had plenty of time to grab a dish and eat it before returning to his room.  He checked his wrist-communicator for the time again, than practically ran to his cyber chair and lowered the visor.


    He loaded directly into his virtual room this time, and immediately ran through the Everlife connection door.  Just like last time, Plat found himself floating into the blue space and coming to a landing on an invisible floor.


    "Welcome to Everlife, the world of beginnings."  He heard a familiar voice coming from all around him, "I am your guide to entering this wondrous world, one of the many servants of the gods."


    In a blast of light, a beautiful women came into being in front of him.  She had long, splendid hair and two large white wings behind her back.  The light formed a halo over her head as her beautiful smile lit up the space.


    "Now tell me you name dear traveler . . . Oh?" She paused and stared at Plat, who waved at her and winked cheekily.


    "I must say, that was far a better entrance than what I got yesterday." He laughed at the rapidly blushing angel.


    "What are you doing here?" She asked in astonishment, which quickly led to a haughty look, "You might as well take in all my splendor as it will be the only time you ever see it."


    "I thought you said you were a guy?" Plat smiled innocently, "Are you on of those special people who . . ."


    "Cease that thought or I''m making you a girl in the game!"  Plat shut his mouth at once.


    The angel sighed and waved her hand in the air, getting rid of the wings and halo as well as most of her other-worldly beauty, "You have no idea how badly you have messed with my programming.  I had to call for assistance for over half my charges in order to gather the processing power needed to deal with you."


    "Why not have someone else take care of me then if it''s so much trouble?"


    The angel frowned and put her hand on her hip, "I helped you already remember?  Your IP is already locked with mine, so I can''t hand you off without explaining why; which would get us both in trouble.  Anyway, it''s not like you were a total bore yesterday. and I am owed some favors anyway."


    "Is that why my friends thought you were a program instead of an A.I.?" He asked, "You didn''t think they were interesting enough?"


    The angel shrugged, "You were polite and humble, they were not.  It is a simple equation after all.  Anyway, are you still okay with your character from yesterday?"


    Plat nodded, "I want to play as him."


    "Understood traveler." The angel pointed and light swirled around Plat as his body changed back into his avatar.


    Steel flexed his fingers and nodded happily.


    "Now that character creation is done, it''s time to give you a quick introduction." The angel magicked up a chart with a large map on it, "As you can see, the world of Everlife is divided into a main continent and two smaller continents which are close by; one to the north and one to the west.  This is the current known map available to players.  For your information, if you as a player were to walk across the main continent from one side to the other, it would take you several weeks on foot.  Now, all players will begin in Beginner Towns located across the main continent; you have the choice of general cities where all races can start or race specific cities where only human players will be."


    "Why are they called beginner towns, but you just called them cities?"  Steel asked curiously.


    The angel rolled her eyes, "Grammar lectures from a human, what a day.  The collective group of locations where beginners start are known as Beginner Towns, but in actuality are cities located across nations.  All human and race general cities are capitals in different countries, but the other races have a few smaller choices as well.  New players are not allowed outside the city walls for four weeks unless they reach level 10 or are written permission by a city official."


    Steel frowned, "If we can''t leave, how can we gain enough experience to reach level 10?  Is this one of those impossible challenges?"


    The angel giggled, "Each city has there own area for hunting monsters and animals if that''s what you''re asking, but you easily gain experience through quests around the town.  No need to focus on just fighting in this game; even a landscaper class can become amazing through hard work and effort."


    Steel shook his head, but smiled ruefully.  "Okay then, is there any last minute advice you can give me before I drop out into the world."


    "Go to the training hall first and learn some basic skills."  She advised, "I know it will be crowded, but it''s important.  Also, try doing as many quests as possible to familiarize yourself with the city.  Which reminds me, which city do you want to go to?"


    Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    "A race-general city if you don''t mind."  Steel said, "I have some friends who are different races."


    "Did you plan where you would be going?"


    Steel face-palmed and groaned, "Of course we didn''t; no one knows the locations yet and we forgot."


    The angel rolled her eyes again, but this time with a smile, "Don''t worry; I''ll make sure those other three know which city you are in since they are also connected to me.  Are you letting me have the choice of city then?"


    "Yes ma''am; I trust your judgement."


    The angel smiled warmly at him, "Good choice on your part.  Now, if there is nothing else?"


    Steel widened his eyes in realization, "Oh, do you know which city a character named Bright is?"


    The angel frowned and tilted her head, "I do since she was one of mine, but that is private information you know.  Not something to spread around."


    "I don''t want to know anything about her character, I just want to go where she went." Steel said quickly.


    The angel sighed and nodded, "Luckily for you she also chose my recommendation; guess you''re lucky in that sense huh.  No matter, in a short moment you''ll find yourself in the middle of the city of Rostwood, frontier capital of the country of Fealum.  I wish you luck traveler."


    As light began to shine around Steel, he called out, "Will I see you again?  Oh, and what is your name?"


    The angel snorted in laughter, "Seriously, you ask my name at the end of the meeting?  No matter, it is unimportant to you at this time.  We''ll likely meet again if you get strong enough, so work hard and goodbye!"


    Steel disappeared in a small blast of light.


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


    Steel found himself standing in a cobblestone square next tot a large fountain.  All around him, players were appearing and running around in excitement, eager to begin the game.


    Steel smiled and activated his menu, clicked options, and read the choices.  Nodding  to himself, he toggled his map ''on'' and made names visible.  Now, every person had a name and level above their head.  Steel looked around and spied an elderly gentleman giving away scrolls of paper.


    Steel walked over to the small line and waited patiently for his turn.  When he reached the old man, he was handed a map of the city.


    "Young traveler, the gods have foretold your arrival and prepared us for your coming.  Take this map of the city and explore it so that you become familiar with it.  I wish you luck young Steel."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Begin Your Adventure</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Welcome new player to the World of Everlife.  Starting the day you arrive, you will not be allowed outside the gates of the city for 4 weeks or certain requirements are met.  As such, you should familiar yourself with your new home, as it will teach you how to play.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Locate at least 5 different significant locations and learn about them</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Knowledge of the city, intimacy with important figures, and 10 copper pieces</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel gave his thanks and walked away, opening the map scroll he had been given.  It disappeared in a twinkling of light and the game informed him his map had been improved.  Now, the mini-map in the corner of his vision had names to go with every building and a few small arrows pointing to the places that would satisfy the quest.


    Steel was curious and clicked the help button.  "Will every quest have arrows that point out the location of the objective?"


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Only beginning quests for new players will have arrows for assistance.  Future quests will only have a location marked in a general area.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Good to know then." Steel nodded to himself, "Now, let''s see which place is closest to me."


    According to the map, the closest objective was the guard building next to the west gate of the city.  Steel quickly made his way over to it, but was stopped by a guard as he neared the gate


    "Hold their traveler, what is your business at the Rostwood Gate?" One of the gate guards cried out to him as he approached.


    "Good sir, I am a new traveler and merely exploring the city to get my bearings.  I am not here to use the gate, just the guard house.


    The two gate guards eye''d Steel and shook their heads.


    "Young traveler, while I respect your desire to prove your strength, you are far to weak right now to leave this town.  It is wise of you to recognize this for yourself.  However, with your level of intimacy you are not eligible to enter the guard house.  Please return after gaining some renown for yourself."


    Plat frowned and sighed and he considered the guard''s words.  Obviously, he lacked the charm, intimacy, and ability to enter the guard house at this time.


    "Since I cannot enter, could one of you explain to me why the guard house is significant?"


    The guard smiled down at him and nodded.  "You may indeed young traveler.  Every city gate has a guard house, the place where guards work and are assigned duties by the city.  If you become friendly to the city, you may be permitted to enter and accept the quests posted on the job board within for items or coin.  If you ever accept a position within the guard, it will also become the place where you are assigned jobs and paid."


    Thanking the guard, Plat walked away and began his walk to the next place.


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


    Kinda late because RRL was down last night :p  If you notice similar things, well, this is a rewrite and not a completely new story :p

 Chapter 8

    Author''s corner;


    Finally finished editing my part for The Slime Dungeon.  Now, editor-san gets to go over it and send it back to me for one last read-through and it''s off to amazon, yay.


    Remember, if you want to get the book directly from me without third parties, you can pay through patron and I''ll e-mail you the pdf version to be read on your computer or mobile device.  Hard copies will be available too after a week of figuring that out :p So look forward to it.


    This is, of course, hidden info for you readers.  I''m not making fake chapters that only have news anymore, so when I do make the announcement for Slime it will come with two new chapters for book 2.


    Also, I''ve sent out a call for cover art for this story.  Not quite sure what I want yet, but still need something.  Cover art will be the one on the published version, and if the book sells I''ll pay for any subsequent cover art.  Thanks.


    http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=56658</a>


    Also, farcry primal.  All I got to say.


    ENJOY!


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


    "Map," Steel called out.  As the mini-map enlarged in front of his face, Steel inspected it closely.


    According to it, Rostwood was a small sized city shaped like a circle divided into four sections by the main roads.  There were two guard houses opposite in direction to the other, each next to their own gate.  Each section of the city held a major location, which meant he would have to walk to every part of the city to accomplish the quest.


    "Let''s see here," Steel muttered as he looked at the closest spot, "I guess the mage tower is closest to me."  The tower appeared to be located on the west side of the city in the middle of the section.  Nodding, Steel minimized the mini-map and began to make his way toward the tower.


    As he walked through the busy streets, he took his time to appreciate the environment.  He was very impressed by the believability of the world around him; the air smelled of food , work, and horses and the sun glittered of windows and stone streets.  Players and NPCs alike walked down the streets, all eager to experience their life in this world.  He passed a few stalls where merchants stood out and called out their wares to passerby''s.  Since this section held the mage tower, Steel began to notice a large number of magic, apothecary, and enchantment shops.


    As he walked by an apothecary stall, he was stopped for a moment as a pair of guards escorted a player out in hand cuffs.  The player wailed as he struggled to escape, but the guards had a firm grip on him.


    "I need poison for my quest, I''m telling you the truth!" The player cried out as he passed Steel, "I wasn''t going to kill anyone with it!"


    Steel raised an eyebrow and walked to the apothecary, who was glaring at the player as he was being taken away.  "Excuse me ma''am," He started politely, "What happened to that man?"


    The apothecary was a mature lady in a brown dress with long brown hair and brown skin.  Her face, which would be pleasing during normal circumstances, was currently screwed up into a face of loathing.  She huffed and shook her head in disgust, "That traveler wanted to by some nightshade poison, which is a strong poison for most people.  He should have known better; only poison-makers deal with that and they are out-lawed in the kingdom.  Care to buy a potion young traveler?" Her face changed to business shockingly fast.


    Steel rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "I''m still new to the area, so I doubt my small coin purse would interest you.  However," He said quickly as the apothecary began to look disinterested, "Can I pay you for some information?"


    The apothecary donned a beaming smile and gestured for him to join her at the counter in her store.  She led inside, past shelves of potions, and sat down behind the counter.  "You may ask your questions young one, and I''ll determine what you owe.  I won''t cheat you, so have no fear."


    Feeling slightly skeptical, Steel shrugged and asked, "How much would it be to learn how to make my own potions?"


    The apothecary leaned back and scratched her head, "In order to become an apothecary, you would have to acquire the Herbology, Foraging, and Potion Crafting skill.  If you just wanted the ability to make potions, you would only need that last skill.  Either way, you would need a starter''s kit and guidance from an apothecary, together would cost would about 15 silver."


    Steel visibly winced at the price.  The apothecary chuckled at his expression, "Don''t worry, not all skills require a menter in order to be learned.  In fact, you could develop the Amateur Potion Making skill on your own, but it would never be as good as learning from a mentor until you advanced it to master level.  It would then change into intermediate Potion Crafting and you would be all set.  The starter kit would still be 10 silver, however."


    Steel nodded, "Do you know any jobs I could do to start saving up for it?"


    The apothecary hummed and thought for a moment, "Well, I do need someone to help me gather some herbs for my shop.  The sudden arrival of travelers mean that I will soon need more stock to sell, so if you could gather 25 green herbs for me I would repay you."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gather herbs</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Roxanne the apothecary has taken a liking to you and has asked your help in gathering 25 green herbs for her shop.  She can tell you where to find them.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Gather at least 25 herbs of at minimum decent quality and return them to Roxanne</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Foraging Skill, intimacy with Roxanne, possible additional rewards</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel grinned at the quest and nodded, "I would be happy to help you gather herbs.  Where can I find them?"


    Roxanne grinned and winked at him, "I appreciate the help.  Now, you travelers are to weak to leave the city currently, but there is a section of land outside the wall that is available to you.  The area outside the east gate holds the farmland for the city and is thus protected by patrolling guards.  If you hand them this slip, they will let you out for this quest.  However, it will only be good for one day after you show it, so I advise you don''t wait around."  She handed hims a letter with a leaf on it and pointed at the door, "I''ll be waiting, so don''t take too long."


    Steel said his goodbye''s and left the shop.  A quick look confirmed Roxanne''s shop was now permanently marked on his map with an exclamation sign.  He smiled and resumed his travels toward the mage tower.


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


    It didn''t take Steel too long to reach the mage tower.  It stood tall and proud in the center of what Steel called the "magic area".  From what Steel had picked up from conversations and reading about it on the Everwiki, the mage tower was the location where the archmage of the city lived as well as the other members of the wizard council.  It also served as the branch of the Mage Guild and served as a location where new mages could practice their craft without hurting innocent bystanders.


    Reaching the tower, Steel took in the large oak doors that stood open to the world.  Above the door, an inscription read:


    Enter ye who seek knowledge.  Enter ye who seek power.  Know that answers beyond the call of man await.  Know that ye tempt death''s accursed fate.  Puzzling at the message, Steel walked into the tower and paused to take in the surroundings.


    The inside of tower was very grand.  The floors were pure white while the walls were spelled with illusions of the different elements.  One part of the wall seemed to blaze in fire, another section resembled a hurricane, another looked as if it were under water, and the last section looked like a wall of earth that twinkled with many gemstones.  Inside, a receptionist desk stood to the wall on the left next to a large stair that winded upwards stood in the middle of the floor.  Tables were scattered throughout the area, with groups of wizards sitting and talking to each other.  The opposite wall to the receptionist desk held an ethereal board that held many slips of paper on it.


    Steel walked over to the receptionist desk, which was very long and held many alcoves.  There were quite a few players already talking to some of the receptionists, but Steel spied an open alcove and sat down in front if it.


    The receptionist present was a pretty young girl who was currently leaning on her hand and looked quite bored.  She had blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and brown eyes with a dainty nose on her face.  She frowned as she looked at Steel.


    "I don''t feel like talking, so go find someone else." She said haughtily.


    It was quite clear why this receptionist had no one waiting in line to speak with her.  Steel cleared his throat, "Excuse me, I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me."


    The receptionist sighed and raised her head off her hand.  She glared at Steel, "Like I said, I don''t feel like talking.  Go away."


    Steel frowned, remembering some of the bullies he had the misfortune of meeting with in the past.  "I''ll leave, but it''s a shame you''re incapable of doing the simplest of things.  I guess I''ll go wait in line for that busty blonde down the desk."


    An invisible hand pushed him down into the seat as he was getting up.  He looked over to see the red and furious face fo the receptionist in front of him.


    "Jackpot." He thought to himself.


    "I can do anything that blonde wench can do and better."  She growled out, "Hurry and ask your questions."


    "How does one become a mage?" Steel asked.


    The receptionist sniffed and grinned, "That is an easy one to answer.  If a traveler such as yourself wants to become a mage, they would have to do one of two things.  They could choose to work as a mage apprentice for the guild here and would be granted the class of mage immediately.  Of course, they would aptly paid for their service and could still go on adventures as long as they followed any request sent to them by the guild.  The other way is to purchase magic books from the guild and learn on you own the skills required to become a mage.  Like any other class, once you have learned the prerequisite skills, the voice of the goddess would then come down and ask you if you wanted to become that class.  Now, here is what I can tell you that the other hussy can''t."  She lowered her voice, "Both ways have disadvantages.  While you will be paid as a mage apprentice, it will be less than if you accepted the quest as a free adventurer.  Also, any mage quest sent to you would automatically take precedence over anything you''d currently be doing.  You''d be a mage apprentice until you paid back the guild or rebelled, which would make you a criminal with a bounty.  Then, if you were caught you''d be made a slave.  On the other hand, the magic books are insanely expensive if you don''t know the right people.  There is a secret third option as well; find a mentor to teach you magic.  Other classes can use a little magic, so don''t think you have to be a mage to use magic."


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Through your actions, you have learned an interesting secret of the mage guild.  Perhaps there are similar things at the other guilds?</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>+1 charm


    +1 wisdom


    +1 intelligence</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded his head, "You were right; you are definitely the best receptionist here.  I can''t believe I even considered going to the hussy at the end of the line."


    The receptionist puffed up at Steel''s praise and began to lecture him about spells.  Mages and most other classes could learn new spells three ways: being taught, reading a book, or discovering/creating a spell themselves.  Finding a teacher was hard as a teacher could only teach one student at a time and each teacher had his or her own negative quirks to deal with, but the reward was the fame of being the teacher''s student.  Reading a tome would grant the ability to use a spell immediately, making it the most expensive option and the rarest since the book disappeared after use.  Discovering or creating a spell was the easiest, but magical experimentation was dangerous and had a 80% chance of causing an explosion or magical disaster for the user.  The offending mage would be charged full price of any damages and be expected to work his debt off to the crown or be imprisoned.


    There were many different types of mages in the world of Everlife, and to become one a player had to be the mage class and satisfy the requirements to become one.  For instance, a mage that practices a lot of fire magic would be given the option of becoming a pyromancer or an explosive mage.  Some mage classes were unique and secret, and the requirements were hidden.


    "So what do you think of me now young traveler?" She asked haughtily.


    "It''s Steel, not traveler, and I think we are the same age."


    She glared at him, "Not that, what do you think of me?  Am I not the smartest and brightest one here?"


    Steel shrugged, "Compared to the busty blonde, I''m sure you are better.  Being the best, though, I''m not sure about since I haven''t talked to all of them yet."


    The receptionist frowned at him, "I assure you there is nothing they can do that I can''t do better."


    Steel smiled softly, "I bet you can''t teach me magic."


    The receptionist looked shocked at his words.  Steel leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head.  "I bet if I made one of those receptionists happy enough, they would be willing to show me a little something or two.  You''re probably too scared of doing anything against the guild and archmage though."


    The receptionist visibly twitched at the word ''archmage'' and gave a savage grin.  "You know what, that would be going against the the arc . . . mage guild wouldn''t it.  Take this letter and be in the farmlands at sunset.  The guards will let you out for just that night since you''re still weak, so don''t miss out meeting."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn Magic</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Due to your successful persuasion, you have convinced Marie the receptionist to teach you magic against the wishes of the mage guild.  Be sure you don''t miss the meeting or bad things will happen.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Meet Marie at sunset in the farmlands and learn magic from her.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Special Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>What you''re doing is on the ''''thrown in jail'' side of things.  Be sure to not get caught or get Marie in trouble.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Basic magic, intimacy with Marie, opportunity to enter the farmlands</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Persuasion</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>A master of the silver tongue, you have the ability to change other''s perspective to align with your own.  Passive ability</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>You have a greater chance of persuading others.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded, "I will be there."


    Marie smiled and passed him an envelope with a book on it.  "I''ll see you there."  She gave him a wink.


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


    After leaving the mage tower, Steel went to his next stop, the temples.


    The temple part of the city served as the area with many trees and gardens.  Steel noted many small temples as he made his way toward the largest temple in the center of the garden.  The main temple was actually quite beautiful; the steps and columns were of a white stone that glittered in the sunset.  The architecture reminded Steel of a mix of Roman and Greek buildings he had seen on the Holo-deck in the Game Center.  The temple had white doors adorned with many patterns that gave him a feelings of serenity.  Upon entering, he noticed a group of players who were in the middle of worship in a flowered courtyard.  In the main room, instead of a receptionist desk, 6 statues lined the wall in a semi-circular form.


    "Do you need assistance young traveler?" A voice came from Steel''s left.  He turned to find a robed priest beside him, waiting for a response.


    "Yes good priest, your help would be invaluable to me.  I seek knowledge on the different jobs, and I came here to learn the various classes of faith."


    The priest smiled at him, "Of course young one, I would be happy to explain to you the faith professions.  It is a pleasure to see so many travelers interested in the wisdom of the gods.  Walk with me to the god statues."


    Steel and the priest walked over to the statues.  The priest indicated each statue.


    "There are many gods that rule from the pantheon above and below.  We honor all the gods with their own temple, even the dark gods so as to not garner their envy or anger.  However, these are the 6 high gods that rule these lands.  They are universal to all races, but each has a favored race that they show more favor to than others."


    He gestured to the first statue, "This is Highland, the god of adventure and patron of the human race.  His followers are encouraged to seek fame and fortune in the land and spread healing where ever it is needed."


    The second statue, "This is Gaea, the god of nature and patron of the elf race.  His followers spend many hours learning as much as they can.  While not traditionally battle worthy, they are some of the best healers in the world and some are feared for their prowess with plant magic."


    "This is the statue of Scorch, god of the mountains and crafting, and patron of the dwarves.  His followers fight with heaven-blessed fists and kicks and are always ready for a noble brawl.  It is said everything in the heavens is made by him and his apprentices."


    "Over here is Farscythe, god of tricks and parties, and patron of the gnomes.  He is one of the most cunning gods and his followers are adept at shadowy tricks and concealment.  Some of the best entertainers in the world also follow him."


    "Finally, we have Scar, god of war and battle, and the orc''s patron.  His battle priests fight with holy staves and morningstars and spread his word blow by blow."


    Steel looked at the sixth statue in the middle, "What about her?"


    The priest smiled at the statue, "She is Milna, goddess of nature.  She has no race, but gives her love to any who love and fight for nature.  She is also the shyest of the gods, very little is known about her outside of her followers.  It is sometimes said she is the patron of the beasts that walk the lands."


    "Would that not make her an enemy of all people?"


    "No, it means she helps to keep them in check so we can have our meat." he said evenly.  Privately doubting that last bit of information, Steel examined the 6 statues again.


    "Why is there only 1 goddess among these gods?" He asked.


    The priest chuckled, "Because the gods favor races, but the goddesses are more picky and prefer individuals.  To be favored by a goddess is said to be of a higher value than a god in that case.  We don''t judge, of course, because all divinity is equal in our eyes."


    "Now, you wanted to hear about the different faith professions correct?" The priest waited for Steel''s nod, "Well, faith professions are divided between warrior and priest.  Both use faith as the source of their power, but paladins and crusaders use faith as a augment to their battle prowess while priests and healers use their faith for their spells.  To become one of either side, you would have to choose a patron god or goddess and pledge your eternal loyalty.  Your patron would then grant you the starting class and abilities.  If you do choose a dark god, we do request you worship and secret and leave the city as soon as possible however." The priest eyed Steel for a moment, "While we preach equality, only towns where travelers come into being have this attitude.  The rest of the world will actively seek to purge any dark priests for fear of another war."


    "I doubt I would worship a dark one, so have no fear good priest." Steel assured him.


    The priest visibly relaxed and smiled at Steel, "I hope I answered your questions satisfactory."


    Steel nodded, "You have, and will pray on this matter as I explore the rest of the city."


    The priest bowed, "I wish you a blessed day then young traveler."


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


    Phew, long chapter today to make up for the slow period.  Expect another chapter today, maybe in 8 hours?  Meh, it''s coming.  I hope you guys like the changes I made.

 Chapter 9

    About 100 words short of a typical chapter, but that''s fine b/c it''s second of the day.


    Enjoy!


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


    After leaving the temples, Steel double checked his quest progress.  Even though Roxanne had given him a quest, her encounter hadn''t counted as one of the major locations and left him with three down and two to go.  The last two places he had to visit were the Adventurer Guild and the Training Hall.  Since he had to go out the east gate for the two quests, Steel decided to hit the Training Hall first and then the Adventurer''s Guild since it was closest to the east gate.


    After crossing the central plaza again, Steel made his way through what looked like the crafting district.  Weapon merchants cried out from their stall and stores while the sound blacksmiths pounding away on their anvils echoed through the streets.  Steel window shopped as he walked, but saw nothing he could buy as of this moment.  His paltry 30 coppers paled in comparison to the cheapest swords and armor.


    As he walked, he felt his stomach give a low groan of hunger.  A quick check confirmed that his character would get hungry and being hungry would result in a 50% penalty to his stats.  Thankfully, his beginner pack included 10 pieces of bread besides the copper and items from the tutorial.  Steel had actually forgotten about the armor and weapons he had and quickly put them on.


    The light armor fit him easily as he equipped it and the spear and shield felt comfortable in his hands.  He gave the spear a few experimental swings before putting it on his back with the shield.  As he rounded the last corner, he came across the Training Hall.


    The hall was a small building with a large central courtyard filled with dummies and other combat practice equipment.  Unlike the other places he had been to, there was no receptionist desk.  Instead, grizzled trainers stalked the field and yelled out insults and instructions to the players who were practicing.


    Steel walked up to one, ¡°Excuse me sir, is this the place to train my skills at?¡±


    The trainer looked him up and down and nodded, ¡°Centurion style is it?  You¡¯re actually the first traveler I¡¯ve seen that uses that style.  Tell you what, if you want to change weapons I can help you with that.¡±


    A pop-up appeared in front of Steel¡¯s face, asking if he would like to change preferred weapons and armor skills.  Steel shook his head.


    ¡°Unless you can help me with my dream of using two shields, I think I¡¯ll stick with this.¡±


    The trainer laughed and clapped Steel on the back, ¡°Two shields you say?  Ha; that is the funniest thing I¡¯ve heard all day.  Tell you what, since you¡¯ve made a good impression I¡¯ll introduce you to out resident centurion specialist.¡±


    The trainer walked Steel over to a corner where a few sacks were lying around.  ¡°Hey Eric, I got one for you!¡±  The trainer kicked on of the sacks, causing to snort and fall over.


    ¡°Have fun now.¡± The trainer laughed as he walked off, leaving Steel with the twitching sack.  Sighing at his apparent misfortune, Steel leaned down to look at the sack.


    Now that he had a better look, the sack was actually a small person in a brown robe.  He had an impressive beard and fine mustache, and as he got up he pulled a pointed hat out from behind him and sat it on his head.


    ¡°Oy, have ye never seen a dwarf before?¡± The little ma, dwarf, said.


    Steel shook his head and straightened up, ¡°No sir I have not.  You are the first one.¡±


    Eric the dwarf laughed and burped, getting up and holding his arm out, ¡°Eric Stonefighter, retired soldier; pleased to meet cha.¡±


    ¡°Steel Resolve, traveler.¡±  Steel introduced himself.


    Eric eyed Steel for a moment, ¡°Ye aura and fighting spirit be weak.  I¡¯ve never heard of ye and I don¡¯t ye very well.¡±  He stated bluntly.


    Steel recognized the system telling him of his low level, fame, and intimacy.


    ¡°I can teach ye the ways of the centurion aye.¡± He continued, ¡°But ye should know it won¡¯t be easy.  Centurion¡¯s work best in groups, so ye individual training be quite fierce.  Ye sure ye be up to the challenge?¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn to fight like a Centurion</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Eric the trainer has offered to train you in the ways of the centurion.  It will be a long experience and will require much time and effort to accomplish</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Train under Eric for 3 days without quitting</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Special Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Try to increase your intimacy with Eric.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Basic martial skills, Training Hall intimacy, possible secret loot</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°I¡¯ll accept you challenge sir Eric, but I do have somewhere to be at sunset today.¡± Steel admitted.


    Eric grinned at him, ¡°Don¡¯t ye hurry boyo, sun a¡¯ight even at midday yet.  Training be longest dis first day, and ye should be done before sunset.¡±


    Slightly bewildered, Steel quickly checked the time.  It wasn¡¯t even lunch time in the game.  Apparently, the game had started early in the morning and Steel had not taken too long traveling around the city.  Shrugging to himself, he followed Eric to one of the training rooms.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    The training room was very large, feeling more like the bottom of a house rather than a single room. It was also quite plain, only holding padded floors and white walls. Eric stood at the center and smiled.


    "This here be the specialized training room. All old trainers, like me, have one. We use it for specialty training for the more interesting people that come through our halls, and train them privately so as to not raise jealousy from others."


    "So this isn''t only limited to me? Other travelers are experiencing this as well?" Steel asked.


    "Of course boy, don''t tell me you thought you were unique?" Eric laughed, "Well, you are the first traveler I''ve taken an interest in, so I guess you can take some pride in that." He shrugged.


    "Now, let¡¯s get things ready." Eric snapped his fingers. Instantly, dummies appeared out of the ground in between Eric and Steel. Eric took out a wooden centurion shield and spear and tossed it to Steel. "Here boy, you''ll be using this whilst training with me." Eric nodded toward Steel, "You can¡¯t be using metal till ye know how to wield the weapon.   Okay boy, shield bash the dummies and come to me."


    The dummies were in a zig-zag formation, leading to Eric. Taking a breath, Steel charged in.


    First dummy, he slammed the wooden shield against it with his left arm. As he swung it, he turned with the momentum and continued his charge into the dummy on the right. As he hit it, however, the wooden shield shattered into splinters, showering Steel in fragments and cutting his hp down an eighth. He dropped to the floor, grimacing to himself as he rubbed his arm.


    Eric shook his head, sighing. "Boy, I told you to shield bash the dummies, not charge into them. Tell me, do you know what went wrong?"


    Steel pulled a splinter out of his arm, "The shield''s not made for combos?"


    Eric whacked him with his cane, "No boy, it''s how you''re using the shield. Watch me do it." He gestured, and the dummies decreased to his own size.


    Eric equipped a wooden tower shield of his own and ran the course. Instead of bouncing through the dummies like Steel had, Eric hit the first left dummy in the head by performing a clothesline maneuver with the shield. He then jumped over to the right dummy and hit it square in the middle, the blow sliding past the dummy and taking his momentum into the last dummy. He walked back over to Steel and displayed the shield. It did not have a single crack.


    "Tell me boy, why do you think you need a basic shield skill?"


    Steel''s brows furrowed, "Um, so I can block with a shield and use it to bash enemies."


    Eric nodded, "While that is an important thing, it''s not the most important thing. Let¡¯s say I give a boy a knife, and I tell him to cut a boulder. The knife ends up being broken correct?" Steel nods, "Now, I give the knife to a knife user with the basic knife skill. He also slashes at the boulder, but when he returns the knife is still usable. Do you understand?"


    Steel plopped his fist into his hand, "So in other words, shield skills will lower durability loss."


    Eric whacked Steel with the shield, "Ye fool, don¡¯t be spouted nonsense boy.  Ye need shield skills so ye can properly use a shield and not look like a total fool on the battlefield.  Even a mage can use a shield, but it¡¯s worthless without Shield Mastery and other basic skills.¡±


    ¡°A mage can use a shield?¡± Steel asked in wonder.


    Eric rolled his eyes, ¡°Aye, a mage can pick up a shield like any other person.  However, metal is bad with most magic and mages aren¡¯t known for their strength so tis a really fool-hardy notion.  Now, drink this here potion and get back to work.¡±


    For the next few hours, Steel felt like he was put through the ringer. Eric had him run through the course multiple times, first without a shield and he had to hit the dummies with his shield arm. Eric made him alternate between slamming them and tapping them; repeatedly yelling that Steel had to get use to the difference of force at the same speeds.  After the running was done, Eric strapped a heavy weight to Steel''s arm and told him to run the course again.


    He had a lot harder time tapping, the weight taking his momentum and slamming into the dummies as he tried to pass. The weight was spelled so that every time it slammed, it stuck to whatever it touched. Steel spent a lot of time being yanked back by it, and his arm hurt like crazy. His hp kept falling when that happened, but Eric would give him a potion that would heal him and then he was back running through the course.


    On a happier note for Steel, his stats were rising from the repeated training. So far he had acquired 3 strength, 2 dexterity, 2 endurance, and 1 constitution. He appreciated that stats boosts as he lay panting on the ground. Eric folded his arms and hummed to himself.


    ¡°Well boyo, that was a good start.  It¡¯ll be shorter tomorrow, but make no mistake it will be worse.  Now, off ye go if ye want to meet that sunset deadline.¡±


    Wincing, Steel managed a short bow before he staggered out of the Training Hall.  Hopefully, he¡¯d feel a lot better by the time he made it to the gate.

 Chapter 10

    It''s chapter 10 guys, which means I can ask for reviews and feel good about it :D


    In all seriousness, please tell me how you guys feel about the story so far.  Ratings and comments really help me out.  Now, onward toward having this story be in the top weekly! (In like, a few months :p)


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


    The sun was just starting to set as Steel finally reached the east gate.  Like it''s counterpart, the east gate was a tall opening with both a portcullis and wooden door with stairs to the upper levels on either side.  The guard house stood next too it as well, with many guards leaving to begin their night patrols.


    The two inside gate guards stood at attention as Steel approached.


    "Halt young traveler, you are too weak to leave this gate. "  One of the soldiers declared as Steel approached.


    "I have a letter for you."  Steel said as he handed over the letter marked with a book to the guard.  The guard briskly took it and opened it.  He took a moment to read the letter before nodding and putting it away.


    "Your letter has been verified as an official request from the Mage Guild and you are authorized to enter the farmlands for a single night.  You may remain for as long as you like out there, but if you do not return before the night is over you will not be allowed to leave again until you are stronger, even if you get a hold of another letter.  You must pass through the gate in order for this to be verified, and dying will result in the same consequence."


    Steel nodded and the guards let him through.


    Outside the gate, Steel saw a large stretch of land before him of grassy plains and farmer fields.  The setting sun cast long shadows on the area and made beautiful colors appear in the sky.


    Enlarging his mini-map, Steel found the arrow directing him toward Marie''s location.  He followed it down to one of the farm buildings and walked inside.  As he closed the door, a hand covered his mouth and a voice whispered in his ear.


    "Have you brought the goods?" The voice whispered.


    Seeing as he couldn''t speak, Steel shrugged his shoulders.  The voice ''tsked'' and removed it''s hand.  Steel turned to see Marie frowning at him.


    "You are a very boring man, do you know this?  Anyway, let''s hurry and get this over with before night falls too heavily."  She motioned for him to sit on one of the straw bales, "Now, did you want to learn how to be a mage or just learn skills to cast magic?"


    Steel thought for a moment, "I''ll be going the warrior route, but I would like to learn some magic to go along with my fighting skills."


    Marie nodded her head, "That''s a rather wise decision you''ve made traveler Steel.  Most muscle-heads think magic is worthless to anyone who doesn''t use a staff, but that''s not entirely true.  I can teach you some basic magic spells, but I''ll need your promise to help me out someday when you are stronger."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Continued (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn Magic II</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have successfully met up with Marie in the farmlands without getting caught.  She has requested you help her in the future when you are stronger in return for magic lessons.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Return to Marie after reaching level 5 and 10 to see what you can do for her.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Special Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>If you agree and fail to seek Marie out when the time is right, your intimacy with the Mage Guild will fall to a low level..</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Spells, intimacy with Marie</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel thought for a moment, "Will you continue to teach me spells if I agree to help you?"


    Marie nodded, "As long as you help me, I will help you."


    "Then I owe you a favor then."  Steel said as he clicked yes on the menu.


    A genuine smile broke out on Marie''s face and she visibly relaxed.  "Right, first thing you need to know is that everything alive is capable of using mana.  As long as you know the chant, you''ll be able to cast spells with ease.  However, the stronger spells will have both longer chants and a higher mana requirement.  Since you aim to be a warrior, you reserves of mana will be low compared to a normal mage, so you will not be able to cast most medium and higher level spells."


    When she finished explaining to him, Marie began teaching Steel how to cast spells.  First, she cast a spell and showed Steel what it did.  Next, she had him slowly recite the chant back to her until he got it correct.  Finally, she let him cast the spell on his own.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the spell: Fire Starter</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>The most basic fire spell.  When cast, a small fire will start in the location preset by the caster.  It lasts long enough to set something aflame.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Create a small tongue of fire for a few moments</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the spell: Create Water</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>When cast, a small stream of water will erupt from the castor''s palm for a few moments.  The water is drinkable.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Create a bucket''s worth of water</td></tr></tbody></table>


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the spell: Earth Shot</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>A basic earth spell.  Castor creates a small shard of earth and launches it toward a target location.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Create a stone shard and fires it at a target.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel was pleased as he finished reading through the notifications, but he turned an inquisitive eye toward Marie.  "No air spell today?"  He asked.


    Marie shook her head, "I think three spells are enough for you for now.  If anyone asks where you learned them, be sure to tell them you earned the skills yourself so as to alleviate suspicion.  Tonight''s magic lecture is over, so be sure to find me after you get stronger."


    Steel gave his thanks and exited the farmhouse, heading back to the gate.  After the guards acknowledged his return in the set time, Steel opened his menu and clicked the log out button.


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


    Plat removed his helmet ad stretched as he got up.  He had played for 8 hours and was now thoroughly hungry as we watched the sunset from his window.  Seeing his wristwatch had no new messages, he sent Henry, Reva, and Dia a message saying that he would be eating in the cafeteria.


    A quick look into the room confirmed that none of his usual bullies were present.  Feeling relief, Plat made his way through the food line and grabbed himself a bowl of pasta and a freeze-dried ice cream.  The pasta was his favorite, and it left just enough aftertaste to give a bit of flavor to the bland and tasteless cold treat.  Since fresh food was a rarity at the academy, students had to make do with what they had.


    "Is this seat taken?"  A warm voice asked him from behind.  Plat turned to see a smiling Sarah looking down at him with her own tray of food.


    "It''s open, so help yourself." He managed to get out without turning red.


    "Thank you." Sarah said as she took a seat next to him.  She took a moment to eat a bite of her food before she turned to Plat, "So how was your first day in Everlife?"


    "It was good." He said with a smile, "I explored the city and even got a few quests.  I even got to explore a little outside Rostwood before the day was done."


    Sarah gave a small gasp, "That''s amazing, we ended up in the same city!  My character is an ice elf named bright and I spent the day learning at the elvish embassy about history and magic."


    "The elves have an embassy in Rostwood?" Plat asked in confusion.


    Sarah nodded, "All the races have one in Rostwood accept humans because they own the city.  I learned through my history lessons that Rostwood is one of the few cities where all the races can live in peace together since it''s so close to the border between nations."


    Plat frowned, "Was it really necessary to spend so much time on history?  Kinda sounds a little boring."


    Sarah giggled, "It was, but I got a lot of stat boosts to intelligence and wisdom because of it so it was time well spent.  What about you, did you find some interesting place?"


    "I found a mentor at the Training Hall and made a friend with an apothecary if that counts."  Plat told her, "I still don''t have a class yet though, so I''ll be training for the next two days at the training center."


    Sarah nodded her head as she looked thoughtful, "Well, how about we meet up when your done training and hunt together in the farmland.  I can get a pass for you from the embassy if you need one."


    Plat shook his head, "No need, I got one already from a quest.  Do you happen to know when we can leave the gate without a pass."


    "I believe you have to be level 5 in order to enter the farmlands and level 10 in order to leave the city."  She said thoughtfully, "Okay then, I''ll send you a message in three days on where we can meet, so look forward to it."


    "Sure, I wish you luck in the game." Plat said with a smile.


    "You too." She grinned and ate her last bite before getting up and leaving.  As soon as she was gone, Plat released his breath and felt his face and ears growing red.  He quickly finished his food and left the cafeteria for bed.


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


    "Did he agree to it?"


    "I just heard back, and he did."


    "Good, we need him to complete the quest.  Be sure nothing gets revealed that might spook him away."


    "What about the others?  They aren''t comfortable with the plan and may warn him."


    "They can''t, they''re in too deep.  No matter what happens, they are in with us whether they like it or not."


    "Yes sir, I''ll tell them you said that."


    "Good, see to it then."


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


    It''s a short one again, but expect a long chapter today too :)

 Chapter 11

    Second chapter of the day, GO!


    Enjoy


    Note: holy crap this is the longest chapter I''ve ever written.  Since I was proud of the original training scene, I fixed it up to match this revision, but I most likely missed something.  I''ll fix whatever you guys find wrong after I rest my eyes.  4218 words, phew


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


    Steel opened his eyes to the new day as his avatar body appeared next to the east gate.  He checked himself over and nodded in satisfaction that everything was exactly the same as when he logged out yesterday.  When he logged off, his body would disappear, not allowing anything to happen to it while he was in the real world.


    Since it was still early in the morning, Steel decided that now was as good a time as any to gather the 25 green herbs since he was right next to the east gate.  Like last time, he walked up to one of the gate guards and handed over the letter with the leaf on it.  The guard inspected the letter and nodded.


    ¡°Per request of the alchemist Roxanne, you are permitted to spend the day in the farmlands in order to gather green herbs for her.  You must be back before sunset otherwise you will not be permitted to leave again.  If you have any questions for me regarding the area in the farmland, ask now.¡±


    Steel noted the difference in treatment compared to the previous night, but held his tongue on the matter as it was a different guard.  ¡°Tell me sir, what are the dangers in the farmlands?¡±


    The guard nodded, ¡°Though you cannot see it, there is a wooden fence that runs the length of the farmlands.  Guards patrol that fence and keep large predators away, however many vermin slip past and make their home in the area.  Among the enemies you may encounter, they will include rats, rabbits, foxes, and in rare cases a wolf.  The order in which I have mentioned them is their strength, so avoid foxes and wolves if you can help it.  You may come across a farmer while walking around and may accept quests from them to exterminate some vermin.¡±


    Steel nodded his head in thanks and entered the farmland.  As it was early in the morning, Steel had his first real opportunity to see the farmland in its full glory.  His first impression of outside the wall was one of amazement.  Beautiful grassland and tilled farmland separated the wall from a forest, in which he could vaguely see the outline of a fence.  He could see small animals moving through the grass and butterflies flying through the air.  A river flowed nearby through the fields and made its way from the north part to the south part.


    Steel became very excited as he took in the sites before him and felt a sense of wonder-lust rise up inside him.  As he made his way down the path toward the farmland, he came across a bunny in his path.


    The bunny watched him for a little while, and then resumed eating grass.  When he got close, it took off, stopped and resumed staring at him while eating grass.  Annoyed, Steel began walking again, but the bunny did the same thing and blocked his path.  This time though, the bunny turned and pooped in his direction before turning back around and eating grass again.


    Peeved, and slightly irritated the bunny gave a shit at him, Steel chased the bunny around the field for the next 30 minutes, with each time getting close to the bunny it was almost in his grasp, yet so far it escaped every time.  He ran so much his stamina level hit zero and he had to lie down to rest.  Looking around, he noticed a group of bunnies watching him and the other bunny, all nibbling what looked like a carrot.


    "Oh great, I''m providing the entertainment for dinner." He said weakly.  Seeing that his stamina would take a while to recover, he put his head back down and watched the clouds above his head.


    "The realism is amazing here." He muttered, amazed at the level of detail the world had, "Even the clouds move like in the real world."


    As he lay in the grass with his eyes closed, he felt pressure start to build on his body, like as if a rock had been dropped on his stomach.  He opened his eyes to find himself covered in sleeping rabbits.


    "How cute," He thought, "I feel bad for trying to fight them."


    He moved his right hand up to pet a bunny on his chest.  It sneezed in its sleep and rubbed its head against his hand.  Steel smiled as he pet it, and then froze in fear.


    The rabbit had yawned, revealing a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and two large fangs that blended in to its fur.  It reached its hind leg up and scratched itself before farting.


    "Uhhh, what kind of rabbit has teeth like that!"  He screamed in his head.  He quickly scanned the rabbits lying on his body in a panic.


    ¡°Scan.¡± He muttered as he activated his ability.  Scan was an ability all players possessed that allowed them to see another¡¯s information.  It was the reason why Steel could see the names of players above their heads as well as their levels.


    According to the scan, the majority of bunnies resting on his body were regular bunnies at level 2 and 3.  However, the large bunny directly in front of his face was a different story.


    ¡°Le . . . level 5 Devil Rabbit.¡± Steel read hoarsely as he stared at the screen, ¡°Rare rabbit variant that prefers to eat the flesh of its victims along with carrots.  Beginners should avoid at all cost.¡±


    According to the system, a devil rabbit had a 5% chance of spawning in any area with a high enough rabbit population.  It was tamable and a possible evolution for beast tamers who raised rabbits, but was hard to get due to its vicious nature.


    ¡°You can tame animals in this game too as well as evolve them?  Man, this game sure does have everything.¡± Steel muttered under his breath, ¡°A beast tamer profession as well, maybe I should look into that.¡±


    ¡°Wait a moment,¡± He realized, ¡°This is not a time to be impressed by game mechanics!  I have to use my superior intelligence to slowly extract myself from this situation.¡±


    Then, he sneezed from the rabbit hair tickling his nose.


    The rabbits slowly opened their eyes and stared at him.  Steel stared back, sweat beginning to come off him in droves.


    "Heh heh, nice bunnies?"


    The Hungry Bunny looked at him and smiled, which did nothing to reduce his stress as he watched the large fangs come into view.  It hopped over to his neck, sniffed him and


    (SLURP)


    The thing licked his mouth!  Instantly, Steel shot up and rolled jumped onto a grass hill, freaking out as he ran toward the gate.


    "AAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!  Demon bunnies!" He cried, trying to escape with his life.


    Unfortunately, his stamina was still down, and he collapsed halfway to the gate.  He could only watch as the herd of bunnies hopped toward him; closer, and closer, with the Devil Rabbit at the head of the herd.


    They reached him, and he put his hand over his face.  Before the rabbits reached him, however, he heard footsteps behind him and opened his eyes to see the rabbits scatter in front of him.  He got up and turned to see guards marching down the path toward him.  He sighed in relief as they approached.


    ¡°You¡¯re lucky traveler that it was time to switch patrols.¡± The lead guard said, ¡°In the future, stay away from large herd of bunnies as they are likely being led by a devil rabbit.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir.¡± Steel thanked the guards, who quickly left and resumed their march toward the fences.


    ¡°Now that that¡¯s over with,¡± Steel muttered, ¡°I¡¯d better hurry and find the herbs before that herd comes back.¡±


    Thankfully, the quest box included a picture of the herb that he was supposed to find, otherwise Steel wouldn¡¯t have any idea on where to start.  The quest arrow had changed into an area on the map where he could find the herbs.  After a few minutes, he came across the first herb.


    Steel scratched his head for a moment, than shrugged and bent down to pick the plant.  As he touched it, the herb disappeared.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Item Acquired</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Green Herb (poor)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    He frowned as he read the herb¡¯s quality.  ¡°Maybe it¡¯s because I don¡¯t have the foraging skill Roxanne mentioned.¡± He mused to himself, ¡°But, I should be able to get the skill if I do this long enough.¡±


    After collecting a few more bad quality herbs, another notice popped up in front of his face.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Foraging</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>This skill allows one to harvest plants from the ground.  Higher proficiency in this skill will result in better quality produce.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Able to harvest plants with reduced penalty.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Sighing in relief, Steel found that now every other herb he licked came out as decent quality.  It took him a few more hours, but he was able to harvest the remaining green herbs needed to complete the quest.  Once he verified it for a second time, he quickly made his way out of the farmland into the city and back to Roxanne¡¯s store.


    When he reached the store, he found Roxanne leaning behind her counter with a bored expression on her face.  She perked up as soon as Steel entered and clapped her hands together.  ¡°If it isn¡¯t the young traveler, back from the fields.  Have you brought me what I asked for?¡±


    Steel nodded and took out the 25 decent quality green herbs from his inventory.  ¡°It took me awhile to get this since I kept breaking the plants, but I was able to get the foraging skill which helped out.¡±


    Roxanne nodded as she inspected the herbs on the counter, ¡°This is indeed what I asked for.  Since you worked so hard, I¡¯ll also buy the poor quality herbs from you as well.  I can still make weak healing potions with them so it¡¯s no bother to me.¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gather Herbs</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You were successful in gathering the required herbs for Roxanne</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Roxanne the Apothecary has risen to Trusted


    1 silver for gathering extra herbs


    Roxanne¡¯s Letter has been moved to Personal Items


    Exp has been acquired</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel smiled in happiness as a screen informed him of his level up.  He bowed to Roxanne, ¡°I have completed the quest, is there anything else I can do to help you?¡±


    Roxanne nodded, ¡°I¡¯m still going to need more herbs for my potions, so you can continue to use my letter in order to gather herbs at your leisure.    I¡¯ll pay you for whatever you bring me.¡±


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gather herbs II</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Roxanne the apothecary has taken a liking to you and has asked your help in gathering 25 green herbs for her shop.  This quest is repeatable and has no time limit.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Gather at least 25 herbs of at minimum decent quality and return them to Roxanne</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Money for herbs, increased intimacy with Roxanne</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to help you again.¡± Steel said with a smile.


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


    Steel felt something shake him as he slowly came to. Groggy from all the blows taken from the golems, his eyes slowly focused on the figure of Eric, who was pouring water on top of Steel¡¯s head.


    ¡°Get up boy!  Now¡¯s not the time to be sleepin when there¡¯s training to be done.¡±


    Currently, it was the third day of training, and Steel didn''t feel any closer to the skills than he had been before.  After leaving Roxanne¡¯s shop he had come straight over to the Training Hall and trained with Eric.  He had been so tired after the second day he had logged off and went to sleep early.  Now, he was back in the hall and had just gotten knocked out again.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Really Master, I don''t feel like I''m learning anything anymore." He complained, "I already figured out how to force distribute, so why am I still running this course?"


    Eric snorted, "Why boy? Well, because ye wooden shield keeps cracking every time ye run it!" It was true; Steel''s current shield had a long crack down it.


    Steel glared at it, the one imperfection to his days of hard work. "Sorry sir, but I really feel like I understand it and how to use it now."


    Eric''s smile grew cunning, "Really now, you so sure? Let¡¯s put it to the test then."


    With a snap of his fingers, the dummies disappeared. Out of the ground, 5 wooden figures arose. They were humanoid shape, but lacked any distinguishing features. They had a fake sword on one arms and a shield on the other, with every other figure having the sword in the opposite hand.


    Steel blinked, "What are these Master?"


    "Boy, these are practice golems. Seems the bonk on the o¡¯le noggin made you forget about them.  See if you can defend against their attack." With a snap of his fingers, the golems moved forward in a line and attacked Steel, one at a time. Startled by the sudden onslaught, Steel brought up his shield and took the first blow head on. Instantly, the shield shattered and he was once again hailed in splinters. The golems stopped and returned to their original position.


    Eric chuckled, "Come on now boy, not even the first blow? Show me ye learned something these past two days." With a grimace, Steel put on another shield and stood ready. The golems came again.


    ¡°You almost had it that time boyo.  Here, let me show ya again.¡± Eric equipped a shield and swung it into the air in front of him, beginning his lecture again for the currently knocked down Steel, ¡°A shield and shield bearer share the force taken in. If one be weak, both u¡¯l suffer. On the other side, if one be too strong, then the other will eventually break as well. When ye blocked the golems, ye had the shield take everything. That ruined it. This is the same as the last exercise, except ye targets are throwing their blows at ye instead of taking them. It¡¯s ye job to roll with the blows; golden rule with shields is that ye never take a strong blow head-on. Ye always push it away, or roll it off of ye. Anyone can hold a shield, few can truly block.¡±


    Steel nodded, completely understanding his mistake. Annoyed as hell he hadn¡¯t figured it out by now, he gazed down at his wooden shield, ¡°Sir, does that also relate to attacking as well.¡±


    Eric nodded, pleased, ¡°Good job for making that connection. Yes, attacking head on with a shield can turn out badly against a larger opponent or a heavily armored one. Exceptions to this be shields like you own.¡± He gestured to the shield on his back, ¡°Though using it without training can be tricky, your style should change with the type of shield you use. Long as you remember how to hit and take a hit, you should be golden no matter what type of shield ye choose to use.¡±


    Steel eyed the column of golems, ¡°I¡¯m ready to give it another shot sir.¡±


    ¡°Then hurry up and get into position boyo!¡±


    Steel took his stance in front of the golems. Legs apart, left foot forward, head down behind his shield, Steel kept his eyes locked onto the first golem. It jerked, and started walking toward him, sword held up high.


    He waited for it, watching the golem swing it¡¯s blade down at him. He leaned to his right, curving at the waist before swinging back knocking the golem¡¯s sword aside. The shield shuddered, but didn¡¯t break as the golem fell over. It melted back into the ground as the second golem approached, its sword being in its left hand. Steel angled his shield to the fight, before performing the same maneuver and knocking the golem¡¯s weapon aside. This time, the golem didn¡¯t fall sideways, instead pressing forward with its shield as it moved the sword back into position.


    Steel swore as he jumped to the side, away from the second slash. He rolled to his right, getting up and shield bashing the golem on its side with a slapping like motion. The golem toppled forward, falling to its own weight and vanished. Steel grinned, but barely dodged two sword swipes from two golems. He looked over, and found the previous two were waiting next to the last golem. Steel rolled away, shouting, ¡°Sir, what¡¯s going on?¡±


    Eric yelled back, ¡°It¡¯s no use to get used to only one enemy boyo. Shield users have to be able to take punishment from more than one person or monster. Ye¡¯ll pass this part of the training if ye can survive 5 of them.¡±


    ¡®Oh great, it gets worse.¡¯ He thought to himself, jumping back from another slash. The two golems walked together, mirroring each other¡¯s movements like a reflection.  He quickly thought of a plan, and dodged another swing as he moved back.


    Steel jumped between the two golems and tapped both of them with his spear. As they turned to slash at him, he rolled out of the way as they get each other and fell.


    ¡°Good show boyo, but use ye shield to block before winning next time. Otherwise this training u¡¯l be for nothing.¡± Eric called, resting on a cane as he watched Steel.


    Three golems came this time and moved differently from one other. Two came head on, while the third began to circle around to his back. Not wanting to be surrounded, Steel lunged forward toward the lone golem. It raised its shield put and charged forward suddenly, forcing Steel to roll out of the way. He used his shield to push off the ground, and ran forwards toward the golems back. A bash knocked the golem to the ground and took it out of the fight. The next two were running at him from two different directions, each holding their sword a different way. The first one thrust toward him, allowing for an easy push by the shield out of danger; the other came from below in an upper cut like fashion, forcing Steel to jump backwards. He eyed the two golems, one a fencer and the other some strange sword style.


    He ran at them, this time jumping to his right as they charged to meet him. As the sword from the right golem came up again, Steel pushed his shield against its hand, using the assistance of gravity to keep the slash from coming. Twisting his body, he whirled the shield into the golem, pushing it back onto the incoming thrust of the second golem, and watched it vanish as well. He had no trouble against the last golem, and just knocked its thrust aside before slamming the top of the shield into its body, his back 45 degrees from the wall. Boxing videos had been one of his pastimes back in real life, and he enjoyed its fighting style, even if it looked a little funny with a shield and spear.


    4 golems came forward this time, each holding a wooden dagger this time without a shield. It was obviously a bandit scenario, and Steel had fought against this one before. The first two came at him, while the other two circled around to flank him. Lacking an opening this time, he used the shield to block his opponents, taking the two thrusts head on. They left dents on the shield, but not cracks.


    Lacking a wall this time, Steel could not win the same as against the muggers. He opted for the next best thing, the floor. As one of the golems came forward, Steel threw himself forward onto the floor, his shield catching the golem¡¯s legs. At the sudden force, the legs slid backwards, sending the golem tumbling forward and disappearing as he stabbed it with his spear. Steel rolled to his left, avoiding the other golem¡¯s slice narrowly as clanked against the floor. He charged this one, careful to not trip over his spear. That would assuredly break his shield if he landed on it funny. He raised his shield over his head as he ran forward, and brought it crashing down onto the golems arm. He forced his legs to bounce against the downward force, slamming the shield up into the golems head as he jumped up. He stabbed downward with his spear as it landed, causing it also to disappear.


    A jolt of pain alerted Steel to the golem behind him. It had snuck up and stabbed him on the right side of his back. While it didn¡¯t puncture the armor, it did deplete a bit of Steel¡¯s health. He growled as he whirled around and slammed his spear through the golem¡¯s head as he knocked it to the ground with the follow through.  As if adding salt to the wound, he punched it into oblivion with his shield. He reached back and pulled the dagger off his back, finding that it stuck to him once it hit.


    ¡°That¡¯s to remind ye to pull the blasted things out.¡± Eric called from the side, ¡°Ye may look cool covered in arrows and swords on the battle field, but it¡¯ll hurt like hell and ye won¡¯t be able to move eventually.¡±


    Steel nodded as he jumped into the air over the last golem¡¯s knife thrust, using the weight of his shield to spin himself as he crashed into the golem¡¯s body. They both landed on the ground, and Steel slammed the shield into the neck of the golem in a coup de grace maneuver. After finishing it off with a spear thrust to the gut, he stood up and inspected his shield. The wooden frame had begun to buckle from the blows he had delivered and taken, and he estimated it wouldn¡¯t last more than a few more blows.


    Still, he was almost done with the training. The last 5 golems materialized in a circle around him, this time holding huge two-handed blade. Steel blinked, asking, ¡°Sir, can I not use magic for this one?¡±


    ¡°Nope, now hurry up and win or lose. If ye take too long ye¡¯ll fail anyway.¡±


    Sighing at the whims of his trainer, Steel gripped his shield and positioned it in front of him while holding his spear behind his back like an old baseball pitcher and frankly looked a little ridiculous. Golems, not having a sense of humor, took it as his ready position and activated. All 5 charged him, their swords moving back as they prepared to attack. Steel tightened his fist; he was ready this time. They swung down at the same time, their distance far enough that their swords would not hit each other. However, that meant only the tips of their sword were aimed for Steel.


    They were wide open inside their reach.


    Steel spun around, using his shield to increase the speed of his body. As the swords fell, he used his momentum to hit each sword aside like falling dominoes with his shield, before knocking the closest golem back with a shield ¡°punch¡± to the chest. He was able to clothesline a second golem with his spear before the others managed to regain their grips. The three left charged him; the left one swinging from its right, the right one swinging from its left, and the middle one launching an overhand swing from its back. Steel grinned, and threw himself forward between the legs of the middle golem. The two side golems followed him with their swings, cutting the middle golem in half with their respective slices. As they turned to reposition themselves, Steel slammed into the left golem, sending him away and causing his shield to crack loudly from the blow.


    Cursing, Steel barely avoided a huge side sweep from the last golem, not noticing that it didn¡¯t stop with its momentum. The huge sword soon returned, flying back at him in a whirlwind, and Steel was forced to take the hit head on with his shield. The shield shattered, but Steel ignored the pain, jumped onto the golem. Wincing, he took his spear and drove it into the golem¡¯s head. It vaporized underneath his grip, leaving Steel covered in his former shield and virtual blood.


    Eric walked up and inspected Steel. ¡°Hm, besides that last fight, that be a very decent attempt.¡±


    Steel¡¯s mouth fell open, ¡°Attempt?¡±


    Eric nodded with a snort, ¡°Yes boyo. Those be golems after all. At their highest strength, they still fall short of strong warriors, unless boosted by magic of course.¡± He nodded toward the dusty remains on the floor, ¡°So yes, it be a good attempt. In fact, I would say ye¡¯ve past this part of the training.¡±


    Steel smiled happily, before freezing at the words, ¡°Once you have survived without your shield breaking.¡± Unable to take it, he fell backwards unconscious as his stamina hit rock bottom again. Eric scratched his beard in amusement, ¡°Hmph, can¡¯t even take a joke, what a weakling; ha ha ha.¡± He laughed and pulled a weak healing potion out of his hat, ¡°Come on now and wake up boyo, it¡¯s time to graduate.¡±

 Chapter 12

    Okay, most likely 1 and half chapters today due to Twilight Princess ;p Never got to play the original, so, you know, reasons.  Many thanks for finding the problems with the long chapter- I''ll fix that in a moment after lunch.  I also took the time to update the title and synopsis of the book, tell me what you think :).


    Also, there is a lot of tables in this chapter.  This is not going to be an every chapter thing, but it had to happen eventually.


    Enjoy!


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


    Steel rubbed his eyes as the black space in front of his face vanished and revealed the training room.  When one''s stamina ran out, hp would start to decline,  Once a player''s hp reached 25%, the user would fall unconscious and be stuck staring at a black nothingness with a timer.  While training, Steel had gone through the phenomena a few times and was quite familiar with it.


    "At least it wasn''t a 15 minute timer like that first time." He muttered to himself.  He was interrupted by a hand clapping down on his shoulder.  He turned to see a smiling Eric staring down at him.


    "Boyo, ye did good and passed the training.  Congratulations!"


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn to fight like a Centurion</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You successfully completed centurion training under the trainer Eric and earned his respect</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Eric the Trainer has risen to Trusted


    Centurion skills have been acquired


    After facing extreme training, you have increased your stats


    Exp has been acquired</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have leveled up to level 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You currently have 10 stat points to distribute.  You can distribute your points on the character sheet found in your menu.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Rewards for completing Centurion training</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>7 strength


    5 dexterity


    5 endurance


    3 constitution


    2 leadership</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Shield Mastery</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You have been trained to use a shield and can use it to the best of your ability</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Able to wield a shield without penalty and use related skills.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Spear Mastery</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You have been trained to use a spear and can use it to the best of your ability.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Able to wield a spear without penalty and use related skills.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Centurion Arts</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You have been trained to use a centurion shield with a spear in your dominant hand.  Soldiers will recognize your martial prowess as a Centurion</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>No penalty when using a shield and spear together in battle


    Will gain a 5% boost to all stats when fighting alongside another centurion


    Soldiers will have a slight increase in intimacy when speaking with you</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Shield Bash</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You use your shield to daze an opponent for a moment.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Has a 35% chance to inflict daze on equal or smaller sized opponents


    Has a 15% chance to daze on larger sized opponents.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Spear Thrust</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>Wielding your spear, you deliver a straight-on blow with all your power</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Inflicts 1.5 damage on opponent using your spear</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Shield Block</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You are able to use your shield to block a single blow and return it''s force to unbalance your opponent</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Block a single strike and returns .5 damage to the opponent.  Has a 10% chance of staggering</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Triple Strike</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>Using your speed, you are able to strike three times in a row with your spear.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Inflicts .75, .5, and .25 damage to an opponent.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Seeing his new skills quickly filled Steel up with a sence of glee.  He opened his menu and pulled up his character sheet.  After debating for a moment, he decided to put 5 points into both strength and endurance in order to increase his combat potential.  He nodded in satisfaction after seeing his final character sheet.


    <table><tbody><table><tbody><tr><td>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Status Window</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Name:</td><td width="25%">Steel Resolve</td><td width="25%">Alignment:</td><td width="25%">Neutral</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Level:</td><td width="25%">3</td><td width="25%">Class:</td><td width="25%">None</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Human</td><td width="25%">Gender:</td><td width="25%">Male</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>None</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fame:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Infamy:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Health:</td><td width="25%">140</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Mana:</td><td width="25%">100</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Stamina:</td><td width="25%">200</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Constitution:</td><td width="25%">14</td><td width="25%">Dexterity:</td><td width="25%">15</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">10</td><td width="25%">Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Strength:</td><td width="25%">22</td><td width="25%">Endurance:</td><td width="25%">20</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Leadership:</td><td width="25%">2</td><td width="25%">Luck:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Charm:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Faith:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.<table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Elemental Resistances</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fire:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Water:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Wind:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Earth:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Light:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Darkness:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    </td></tr></tbody></table></tbody></table>


    Satisfied with his improvement, Steel turned back to Eric and shook his hand.  "Thank you for taking the time tot rain me sir.  It has been a real pleasure and headache."


    Eric laughed and returned the handshake, "No problem boyo, tis all in a day''s work for an old retired dwarf like meself.  Tell ye what, how''s about ye become a real centurion and I can introduce ye to some good commanders to get ye started."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Class Offered</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Eric the Trainer has offered to teach you how to become a real centurion warrior.  Centurion warriors are an elite form of warrior that gain increased power as they fight with their fellow centurions.  In group battle, they are unparalleled but suffer when fighting on their own.  As an advanced class, centurions require .5 more experience than a normal class and are obligated to serve in the army for a period of time.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "That sounds like a great opportunity Eric; I would be a fool to not accept."  Steel cried out in happiness, "I would like to change my class to Centurion Warrior!"


    A flash of light outlined Steel for a moment as the system acknowledged his request.  He was now a full centurion warrior!


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Announcement</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You are the first player to acquire the advanced class, Centurion Warrior, and have earned a title that can be displayed with your name</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Title:</td><td colspan=''2''>Strength Seeker</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>When equipped, this title will increase you strength by 5%</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Intimacy with Eric has increased to Friend</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Eric nodded his approval, "I expect great things from ye son.  Come back when ye''re stronger and I''ll introduce ye to a good commander." Eric turned away and seemed to forget about Steel as he began to hum a tune as he started sweeping.


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


    Steel left the Training Hall in high spirits as he inspected his gear.  One of the trainers had presented him an iron spear and shield as a gift for completing one of the training courses.  Now, his shiny new spear twinkled in the sunlight as he spun in around in front of his face.  Since he hadn''t received a message from Sarah yet, he decided to go to his last stop for his starter quest, the Adventurer Guild.


    The Adventurer Guild was located in the last section of the city, the place where most residents had their homes and where the taverns set up shop.  The building was a large, flat building filled with tables, chairs, and laughing as adventurers drank their fill of booze and ate the spoils of the day.  It appeared to Steel that the floor was both a hangout and a restaurant at the same time, with waitresses and food being constantly moved about.  A large receptionist table dominated the far wall and a large request board covered the north wall.


    It was obvious the waitresses possessed some skill from the way they carried themselves.  One particularly saucy looking girl was in the process of breaking a man''s arm, his companions laughing as he cried out for mercy.  Spying Steel, she released the man and strutted over to him, her impressive bosom attracting his immediate gaze before he hastily corrected himself.


    "Welcome stranger to the Adventurer Guild." She said, a friendly smile on her face, "Is this your first time visiting us?"


    "Yes, this is the first time I''ve been in here" Steel admitted.


    She nodded her head, "As a traveler, you are permitted to sign up as an adventurer over at the receptionist desk.  They will explain to you everything you need to know, but if there is anything else feel free to ask me or one of my fellos." She walked off to clean one of the newly available tables.


    Steel walked over to one of the open receptionist desks and sat down.  A sharp looking women gazed at him from the other side as she scanned him with her eyes.


    She looked him up and down with a nod, "I see you''re one of the new travelers to our lands.  Welcome to the Adventurer''s Guild." She said briskly, "Do you desire to become an adventurer or have any questions regarding being an adventurer?"


    "Can you explain to me what being an adventurer is?" Steel asked.


    "An adventurer is someone who explores the world in search of fame and fortune." The lady answered, "As the god Highland is the patron of humanity, you will find that being an adventurer is looked upon favorably in the human kingdoms.  Adventurers register here and pay a sum to remain apart of the guild.  In return, they have full access to the guild''s resources and information service.  Clients will come in and post a request on the job board in the back." She gestured behind Steel, "Adventurers complete the jobs for rewards and gain experience from it.  Adventurers and jobs are broken down into ranks of strength and difficulty so as to separate impossible jobs from weak fighters."


    "I would like to join the adventurer guild." Steel stated with certainty.


    The lady nodded, "That will be one silver coin to register.  In a year''s time, you must pay 1 gold to the guild as you will start as F-ranked adventurer.  If you grow stronger, you will naturally need to pay more."


    Steel handed over his one silver and watched as the lady took it and passed him a small card.


    "Press your thumb against the corner there." She indicated.


    Steel obliged her, and watched as his character information appeared on the card.  The lady nodded as she read his information.


    "You have been added to the ranks of adventurers.  Seek fame and fortune and know that death is your constant companion in this world." She intoned ominously.


    Steel thanked her and left the hall.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Begin Your Adventure</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have successfully explored your starting city and learned about what it takes to survive in Everlife.  We in the development team wish you luck in your adventure.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>10 copper pieces have been added to inventory


    Mini-map has been updated with information


    Exp has been acquired</td></tr></tbody></table>


    As Steel dismissed the notice, he heard a ding as the message system informed him he had received a message.

 Chapter 13

    This is the new and improved chapter, complete with edits and changes to make it more original.  It''s also 1000 words longer and, hopefully, a much better fit to the story.  Comment and rate so I can see what you guys think :)


    I''ll fix 14 later today, so look forward to it.


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


    The message read, "Hey Steel, it''s me Bright (Sarah).  I met up with some of the other seniors in Rostwood and we found a cool quest we could use your help on.  GlowGirl (Reva) and SirCourage (Henry) have joined up, and MrSmash(Dia) is coming too.  Let me know if you''re free and I''ll send you the location."


    ''I wonder what kind of quest they''ve found." Steel thought to himself as he typed a confirmation reply, ''Must be hard if so many people are involved.''


    After sending his reply, Bright quickly replied with a marker that automatically appeared on his mini-map.  The quest seemed to start at the main graveyard in the church section of the city.  Steel put his spear and shield on his back and made his way toward the cemetery.


    The graveyard/cemetery was a large field of gravestones and crypts located along the north border of the city.  Here, everyone from farmers to nobles was buried in graves.  While the majority of the dead were turned to ash before burial in order to reduce the amount of space used, the most important characters were buried in large crypts that were rumored to extend underneath the entire city.  As Steel reached the meeting point, he quickly noticed the group of players waiting for him.  Bright and her friends were already waiting for him. She was even more beautiful than in real life. Her formerly brown hair was now a soft blue that had a flow like ocean waves and she was dressed in a magician¡¯s robe that hugged her in all the right places.


    Even though it was a beginners magician robe, Steel thought it made her look as splendid as if she wore waves of silk.  It was an icy blue color that complemented her staff which held a small blue crystal at it¡¯s top.  Bright smiled and waved happily when she saw Steel approach.


    GlowGirl was similar impressive, although she couldn''t hold a candle to Bright; at least in Steel¡¯s mind. She was dressed similarly to Bright, with her robe being a dark red color.  She also appeared to have a gold necklace around her neck with a ruby in it, a strangely expensive piece for a beginner to have equipped.


    SirCourage stood with them, looking dashing in his sword and shield. His armor wasn''t as impressive as the girl¡¯s robes and was similar to Steel¡¯s current light armor.  It was brown leather that protected most of the body without limiting movement.


    Just beyond the three, a player in a brown cloak stood off to the side.  He was using a disposable whetstone item to temporarily boost his dagger¡¯s attack.  Steel could also see a longbow on his back, but couldn¡¯t read the player¡¯s name or level.


    The last guy sent a tinge of annoyance through Steel as he noticed him; he was more handsome and tall than in real life, but just as arrogant looking.  Steel frowned as he recognized Raim¡¯s features on the character, noticing the exaggerated improvements that made him into an Adonis.  Eve his armor seemed to be made out of gold and silver, indicating he had converted many P-points into in-game currency.  Steel was even more annoyed when he noticed Raim showing off by swinging his large sword through the air like a professional fighter.


    Keeping his annoyance to himself, Steel walked over to them and SirCourage greeted him.


    "Bro, what is up?  We¡¯ve been waiting on you.¡± Steel blushed slightly when he noticed Bright staring at him, but thanks to the game it wasn¡¯t too obvious.


    "Sorry about that; I just finished my training at the hall." He replied while high-five-ing his best friend with a smile.


    SirCourage grinned and nodded, "I understand; I need to get that done too.  Anyway, I¡¯m sure you recognize Bright and GlowGirl," The two girls grinned at him and waved, ¡°The thief is called RIP and our warrior friend here is Hero.¡±


    Steel barely stopped himself from rolling with his eyes at the names. Of course he didn''t say anything and smiled, "Nice to meet you both.¡± He held out his hand diplomatically.


    Hero smiled and shook his hand while RIP merely stared at it.  ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you Steel.  I¡¯ve heard so much about you.¡± Hero smiled down at him in what appeared to be friendship, but Steel knew in his heart he had been recognized.


    Bright hopped over in excitement at this point, "Counting you, we now have 6 people and can do this quest.  You, SirCourage, and Hero are all human warriors." The three nodded as their classes were pretty obvious, ¡°GlowGirl and I are both elf mages with she being fire and I am ice.  Finally, RIP is out thief and trap guy for this.¡±


    Steel frowned as he looked around, ¡°Where¡¯s Dia, didn¡¯t you say he was coming too?¡±


    SirCourage interrupted Bright before she could say anything, ¡°I got a call from Dia earlier saying he couldn¡¯t make it due to something in real life.¡±  They both used Dia¡¯s real world name because he was not currently in the game and it didn¡¯t break the atmosphere.


    With the introductions over, they all began to explain their classes and current skills.  While Steel was an advanced class, his was merely a slightly better version of a warrior and required more exp to level up.  In the future, he could even evolve into an elite class, but it would still be considered common.  What he and everyone really wanted to get was a special class.


    As far as anyone knew there were the normal/common classes which could be gained in guilds, training halls, or other normal ways.  Above that, there were the rare classes, which were usually gained through difficult quests or special NPCs.  Finally, at the top of the rankings, there were hidden classes that were not known to anyone.  These classes could only be acquired under special circumstances and were said to be unique in the world of Everlife.  Everwiki merely had a short paragraph hinting at their existence, which had created mystery on the forums.


    Steel was a centurion, an advanced class of warrior that improved when fighting in groups.  SirCourage and Hero were both knights, which was also an advanced class.  Since Bright and GlowGirl were elves, they were not required to join the Mage Guild to become magic users.  Instead, they merely had to pledge their loyalty at the elf embassy and were both made into normal ice and fire mages respectively.  They also mentioned that the elves had their own rare versions of both classes that they could get up their contribution level ever got high enough.  Finally, RIP was a normal thief.  He didn¡¯t say much, but he did let out a brief hint that he had joined a thief guild.


    ¡°Before we leave, is there anything we need to do?" Steel asked.


    Bright shook her head, "No, our destination is not that far away and we have everything we need for it."


    He felt kind of awkward being part of a quest without knowledge or further preparations, but he trusted his friends so he figured that everything was ready to go for the quest.  He only hoped that the reward would be interesting enough.


    Steel just shrugged, "All right, I''m good to go, what¡¯s the quest and what do we need to do?"


    Bright nodded and clicked a few things on her menu.  A notification appeared in front of Steel¡¯s face a moment later.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Solve the Tomb Mystery</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Rostwood was built for two reasons.  One was to establish a city on the edge of the human kingdom and improve race relations.  The other was because of a mysterious underground tomb.  Many have tried to pierce its secrets, but all have failed.  Finding a book with details on the tomb, you have decided to try your luck.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Unlock the tomb the explore it¡¯s secrets.  Help the evil spirits rest in peace</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Unknown</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel read in amazement.  According to this, there was secret tomb under the city that had never been opened!  Steel could tell this was an important quest that would have many benefits, perhaps even leading to additional quests in the future.  ¡°I¡¯m game.¡± He said as he accepted the quest.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You joined Hero¡¯s party</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Hero nodded and pointed at one of the crypt doors, ¡°The old book I found said there was the entrance to the underground area where the tomb is at.  It¡¯s our ticket inside.¡±


    Nodding, the group moved together into the crypt and walked down the stairs into its depths.


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


    Hero lead the group down into the dark, so no one saw him grinning like a demon while he thought about how much he hated Steel.  Few were completely aware of how much he hated Plat in real life and why he took so much pleasure in torturing him.


    Now, it would be done and he would never have to worry about his rival ever again.  Not even the loyal oaf Dia would stand in his way.


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


    Steel walked in the center of the group as they made their way down through the darkness of the tombs.  The tombs closer to the surface were rather showy as they housed the city¡¯s more recent dead.  Thanks to guards occasionally patrolling the area and priest frequently blessing the grounds, undead and other monsters were nowhere to be found.


    As he walked with the group, Bright moved back to walk beside him.  She smiled at him and said, ¡°You know Steel, it¡¯s been a long time since we last met.  I was really happy to see you again at the party.¡±


    Steel controlled his excitement, and slight joy at seeing Hero¡¯s frown from the front, and responded, ¡°Yeah, it was really good to see you again too.¡±


    ¡°Why did you leave so suddenly though?  I was a little sad I didn¡¯t get another chance to talk with you.¡± She frowned at him and wagged her finger.


    Steel couldn¡¯t help but feel a little awkward, ¡°Well, I thought you were busy with Hero and parties really aren¡¯t my thing.  That was the first one I¡¯ve been to in years.¡±


    Bright shrugged, ¡°Well, he is my boyfriend after all, why wouldn¡¯t I spend time with him.  I really did want to talk with you though.¡±


    Steel didn¡¯t hear her words after ¡®boyfriend¡¯.  He tightened his fist and glared up at Hero, who returned an easygoing smile and winked at him.  Steel wanted so much to charge up the group and attack him, but PvP was disabled in the city and Hero was 2 levels above him.


    He was so angry he barely noticed Bright trying to get his attention.  ¡°Steel, you listening?  I said were you the one that spread mean things about me?¡±


    Steel tilted his head in confusion, ¡°What are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± Bright said with a frown, ¡°In the last few days, someone has spread things about me that are untrue: like I sleep around with all the Body guys and I cheated on my Mind tests.  It was a bit of a problem, but Raim was able to stop the rumors.  Did you have anything to do with that?¡±


    Steel gaped at her, still a little angry from the ¡®boyfriend¡¯ comment, ¡°Why would I do that?  Hurting you doesn¡¯t benefit me in any way.¡±


    Bright frowned, ¡°So you would hurt me if it helped you?¡±


    ¡°No!  I would never hurt you.  Why all these questions?¡± He asked her.


    Bright shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, I just heard that you may have started the rumors.  I guess I was wrong.¡±  She said this, but she moved away from him to talk with Reva.  Steel stared sadly at her back as he considered her words.  Was someone trying to frame him?


    Eventually, they came up to a large gate that prevented them from going further.  The gate was obviously very old and had many markings on it from past attempts to breech it.  It was also covered in ancient symbols that seemed to flow across the surface in waves.  They all decided to take a break in order to replenish their hunger meters.  Steel looked on in envy as everyone began eating sweet cakes that were passed around by Hero while he only had bread.


    Hero looked mournful as he turned to Steel, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Steel, but it looks like the baker only gave me 5 sweet cakes.  I hope that¡¯s okay with you?¡±


    Steel shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s fine, I have some bread here that works for me.¡±


    ¡°The bread tastes like cardboard in this game.¡± Bright declared, glaring at Hero, ¡°Here Steel, you can have a bit of my roll to flavor your bread.¡± She broke off part of her roll and gave it to Steel.


    Steel didn¡¯t know what was sweeter: the roll or the look of anger on Hero¡¯s face that he hid when Bright turned around to look at him.


    When they were done eating, they approached the gate.  Hero grinned and removed a book from his inventory.  He walked up to the gate after reading the book and pressed a few of the symbols on the gate.  It creaked and gave off a low moan as they all heard machines moving around.  Hero then opened the rusty gate with a firm push and it creaked open.  As they walked through, a sudden wind blew by them while a voice could be heard.


    "OOOOOHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh¡­¡­¡±


    Steel shivered at the moaning and reflexively took his spear and shield off his back.  The others also paled, but Hero walked forward confidently into the dark.  The others followed him after a brief hesitation and entered the darkness.


    Ahead, a tunnel extended down into the dark with nary a single light to guide their way.  After taking a moment to confirm that no enemies were present, Hero took out a torch and resumed leading the way into the dark.


    As the group made their way through, the tunnel continued to get more and more disturbing.  Soon, pictures of undead and scratches began to appear as well as small holes with tiny noises coming from inside.  Bright shivered at the sights and moved closer to Hero, making Steel fume internally with jealousy.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    The end of the tunnel opened up into a large room.  The floor extended downwards like an amphitheater.  At the very bottom of the room was a raised platform with a table on it that resembled an altar.  Piles of bones lined the seats and gazed up at nothing.


    As the group began to make their way down the steps, some of the piles of bones began to move.  Skeletons formed and clacked their bones as they began to make their way toward the group.


    Henry gave a whistle of appreciation, ¡°Have to admit, they look pretty cool; too bad they¡¯re so weak.¡¯


    Indeed, the skeletons weren¡¯t armed, only covered in rags and their speed made Steel think of a baby or turtle; maybe even a baby turtle.  Above their heads, their level was only level 1.  However, they were still enemies and were between the group and the altar.


    Hero immediately took command, ¡°Our goal is that altar at the bottom.  The skeletons have an easy weak point right in the middle of their ribcage, so aim for that.  Just avoid making too much noise or the entire room will wake up.¡±


    Nodding, the 6 of them began making their way down the step.  The four boys surrounded the two mages and skillfully broke any skeleton that reached them.  Bright¡¯s ice slowed the skeletons down even further while GlowGirl¡¯s fire stopped the skeletons from getting too close.  Hero effortlessly cut through the few skeletons in his path and the group quickly and easily reached the bottom of the theatre.


    When they reached the altar, Hero walked up and placed the book on top of it.  The altar rumbled and shook as a stone coffin rose up in front of it.   A skeleton lay within it, but it was strange; obviously not any of the 5 main races of Everlife.  The only thing in the room that moved was the dust settling after being disturbed by the coffin¡¯s rising.


    Now that Steel could get a good look, the skeleton appeared to be holding a book in its hands.  It looked eerily similar to the book Hero had had, but it¡¯s cover was evil looking and demonic.


    ¡°That book is the key to the treasure.¡± Hero explained, ¡°However, once we touch it a scary guardian will appear.  Our only chance is to use the book to weaken it using the book¡¯s magic, and then we have to defeat the guardian.  Who wants to read from the book?¡±


    Everyone looked at each other as they considered it.  Eventually, RIP stepped forward with a nod to Hero.


    ¡°The two mages can do better damage than I can and you warriors are better tanks.  Let me read from the book.¡± His voice was soft, but with a slight sinister fell to it that gave Steel a shiver.  Hero nodded and moved away from the altar.  Rip walked up and removed the book from the skeleton.


    At once, a low moaning began to come from all around them.  RIP quickly moved away from the skeleton and took a spot with the group.  He was very lucky, as the skeleton within began to move.  It floated up out of the coffin and underwent a terrifying change.


    It was a terrifying figure now; a bestial skeleton wrapped in ethereal animal fur with an evil glow in its eyeholes.  Ghostly, black chains covered the figure, but did nothing to hold it back as it lurched forward toward the group.  The rattling sound had its source in the chains around its legs and arms, with the origin appearing to start from its chest.  There, a stake stood right in the middle, as if piercing the monster¡¯s heart.  It roared after leaving the painting, which gave a fear debuff to all six players.


    Steel could read the level above the monsters head, as well as its identity.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Revenant of Vengeance, level 20</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Shivers ran down his spine as he gapped at its level.  It was level 20, a huge level when compared to the rest of them.  Steel felt death coming closer as he instinctually shook in fear.


    ¡°¡­¡­.Aaaaalllllllll oooooffffff yooooouuuuu¡­¡­¡± It spoke in long hissing sounds, ¡°¡­¡­.Ddddeeessccceeennttts oofffff mmmmyyy hhhhaaaatttteeedd eenneemmiiess¡­¡­.Diiieee¡±


    The monster took a step forward, and then paused as RIP began to read from the book in his hand.  It was a chant of some kind, one that had no meaning to the group but did to the skeleton.  It roared in anger and began to shake its chains wildly.


    Hero pointed at the chained skeleton, ¡°Steel, SirCourage, work with me to keep the monster¡¯s attention.  Bright, Glowgirl, fire everything you have at it.  RIP, keep reading the book until the progress meter is 100%, then join the battle.¡±


    RIP nodded as he began to recite the words on the second page.  A progress bar appeared over his head and began to slowly fill.


    When he began, the revenant began to scream louder and began to glow red.  The group watched as its level fell from 20 to 10 in an instant, making it a hard fight instead of an impossible one.  The revenant roared and began to whip its chains at the group.


    Steel and Courage rushed forward and took the two chains¡¯ attack with their shields.  Hero ran between them and slashed at the monster.  It howled in pain at the slash and fired an eyebeam at him.  Hero barely dodged backwards out of the way as the blast hit the ground.


    Behind them, the girls began chanting their magic.  Bright unleashed an icy chill that covered the boss in an ice debuff while Glow used her fire to boost the boy¡¯s speed and constitution.  The monster was only slowed for a moment before breaking free, but in that time the three had already landed their skills on it.


    Steel unleashed his spear with a spear thrust and triple strike attack.  Courage and Hero both activated their knight ability ¡®Lacerate¡¯, which caused large wounds to appear on the creature.  This skill was designed to create a bleeding affect, but was useless against a creature that did not bleed.


    The monster responded by chanting its own magic, which caused skeletons to begin rising around the group.  The skeletons were still weak and level 1, but could still interrupt RIP if they reached him.


    ¡°Courage, defend RIP!¡± Hero commanded as he used his sword to block a chain.  ¡®Sword Block¡¯ was a special sword skill that could lower damage from a single attack, similar to Steel¡¯s ¡®Shield Block¡¯.  Courage nodded and ran back to Rip.  He slashed the skeletons that approached and kicked away any that got too close.


    Meanwhile, the girls began to unleash their attack magic.  Fire balls and shards of ice began to hammer down on the monster as it tried to block with its chains.  It turned to look at the girls as its agro changed to them.


    ¡°Not good,¡± Steel cried out, ¡°It¡¯s switching to the girls!¡±  He ran in and began stabbing with his spear in an effort to reacquire the monster¡¯s agro for himself.  He got a lucky critical hit in that enraged the monster and forced it back to him.


    ¡°Good job Steel, keep it up!¡± Courage called from behind him.


    At this point, the boss was down to half hp and RIP was about 75% complete with his reading.  The monster moved backwards to the altar and began chanting again.


    ¡°It¡¯s trying to heal!  Don¡¯t let it finish the chant!¡± Hero roared as he charged the revenant.  Steel also moved forward, but skeletons began rising up in front of them and the two were forced to spend time destroying them in order to press forward.


    By the time they reached the boss, it had recovered about 10% of its health.  They attacked and inflicted critical hits, as it was not currently defending itself.  The chant broken, the monster snarled and began to fly around the battlefield.  It launched balls of darkness at all members that reduced their attack speed and movement speed.


    Glow countered with her fire buff spell, and the party was able to move again.  Steel used his spear to attack the boss¡¯s feet and forced it back down to fighting range.  Hero moved in behind it and furiously began to hack at its exposed back.  The monster was down to 25% hp when RIP finished reading the book.


    The book began glowing red as it too launched a stream of energy at the monster.  The monster howled in anger, but it was drawn into the book against its will.  In vanished within the pages, and the book slapped shut with a crack like thunder.


    The skeleton minions vanished and the group found themselves alone in the altar room.  They cheered and congratulated each other for a job well done.  Even Hero came up and clapped Steel on the back.


    ¡°Good showing Steel, you were a big help in that fight.¡± He smiled down at Steel.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± Steel said as he looked around, ¡°But where is the notice of us beating the boss?¡±


    ¡°We get all the exp at the end of the quest.¡± Hero explained, ¡°For right now, that revenant is sealed in the book.  It has to placed on the altar next to the other book.  Will you do the honors?¡±


    Steel looked around to everyone¡¯s smiling faces.  He nodded with a grin, ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll take care of it.¡±  RIP handed over the book and Steel walked up to the altar.  He placed the book down and took a step back.  Seeing nothing happening, he frowned as turned around to ask a question.


    A scream echoed through the hall.  Steel stared down in horror as Hero¡¯s sword pierced his body with a combination of ¡®lacerate¡¯ and ¡®impale¡¯.  Steel looked up from the sword in his chest at the others.  However, only Hero was smiling at him.  Bright was screaming in shock as Glow and Courage held her back, the both of them looking extremely regretful.  RIP stood off and looked bored with the whole ordeal.


    Hero winked at Steel and kicked him back off of the sword.  Steel feel on top of the altar as he bled out onto the books.  At once, the book began to glow red again, but this time the energy was directed at Steel.  A ghostly image of the revenant appeared and plunged its hands into Steel¡¯s body.  Steel howled in pain as the monster slowly removed a ghost version of his heart.  The monster ate the heart and disappeared into thin air.


    ¡°WHAT ARE YOU DOING RAIM!¡± Bright was so angry she broke character, ¡°HE DIDN¡¯T SPREAD THE RUMORS OR WANT TO HURT ME!¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± Hero said as he took a step back from Steel.


    ¡°What?¡± Bright was pale now as she stared at Hero.


    Hero shrugged, ¡°I needed you to help me bring him here, so I spread the rumors and made you believe he started them.  Don¡¯t tell me you didn¡¯t feel even a little happy seeing him get stabbed.¡±


    Bright glared at him, ¡°You said you would make him pay, but you were the one that did this?  We are through!¡±


    Hero chuckled at her, ¡°Oh my sweet, you¡¯re so sentimental.  I¡¯m the only one for you after all, so I¡¯ll be patient.  You¡¯ll soon find that you can¡¯t escape me.  Now, settle down as we watch the ritual come to completion.¡±


    As Steel listened, a notification popped up in front of his face.


    *Ding*


    [table]<tr><td colspan=''4''>You have been cursed</td></tr>[table]


    Slowly dawning on him what happened he looked at the different windows popping up. His face lost all color and with disbelief in his eyes he looked at the smiling Hero.


    ¡°What, what is this?¡± He managed to get out before he was overcome with pain.


    Hero sneered at him, ¡°This is punishment for being so arrogant.¡±


    Steel glared at him, than looked over to his friends.  GlowGirl and SirCourage looked away, not meeting his eyes.  Bright looked on helplessly as the two held her back.


    ¡°RIP is a good friends of mine, so he was happy to help.  Your two friends needed a little more convincing, but I¡¯ve had GlowGirl in my pocket for a while and SirCourage here was rather simple to bring to my side.  Hehe, what an ironic nickname huh, Steel?¡±


    SirCourage frowned, but he still did not meet Steel¡¯s eyes.


    Bright struggled against the two, but they held her fast.  Hero turned and walked over to her, reaching down as he kissed her.  Bright struggled, but Hero held her fast as he forced himself onto her.  Seeing Bright suffer the kiss drove Steel insane with anger.  His rage built up as he screamed in anger.  The altar glowed red as it began to draw both the books and Steel into it.  Steel roared and forced all his power into his arms.  He slowly began lifting himself out of the altar, ignoring the many debuff notifications that started appearing in front of him.


    ¡°DAMN YOU RAIM!¡± He cried out, ¡°DAMN YOU AND YOUR TRAITORS!¡±


    ¡°AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!¡± He cried out in anger, ignoring the pain shooting through his body.  Finally, he felt something snap and he fell limp as he was helplessly drawn into the altar.  The last thing he heard was Bright¡¯s cry as the darkness took him.


    ¡°PLAT!!!¡±


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


    Raim¡¯s hatred for Plat went back a long way.  He remembered seeing Plat and Sarah playing together and being friends; he remembered being by himself as his envy had grown.  Finally, fate had split the two apart and given her to him.  He had spent years growing his friendship with Sarah to this point; using his new social standing he had encouraged others to bully Plat while making sure none of it ever reached Sarah¡¯s ears.  While he couldn¡¯t stop Reva being a connection between the two, he had found a way to make sure she didn¡¯t interfere.


    However, he had not planned on the two meeting at the senior party.  He had quickly separated them, but Sarah had remembered her old friend and wanted to meet him.  Raim at that point, however, had been her good friend for so long that he had slowly convinced her Plat was the reason for why they were no longer friends.  His poisonous words convinced her he had rejected her and didn¡¯t like her, that he was jealous of her success while he lagged behind in every ranking.  Raim slowly built up her resentment of Plat until she had agreed, reluctantly, to his plan.


    Now, it was done.  Even if Sarah had figured out his scheme, she couldn¡¯t do anything.  Raim ruled the school now, and even some of the teachers were under his thumb.  She would listen to him and love him, or she would suffer humiliation and pain at his pleasure.  Either way, she was his forever.  He only hoped the second part of his plan had been successful.

 Chapter 14

    Couple of things from the author''s corner;


    1. Can''t believe I went the entire chapter saying ''alter'' instead of ''altar''.  The irony of using alter on a rework is interesting


    2.  Thank you to my new patron.  I''ll be sure to send you the free e-book when I''m done


    3. The original plot was to have them regrow his body or create an android body (because, future).  However, because I specifically said earlier I wasn''t going to go the permanent route, that is no longer the plan.  Read on for more info.


    This chapter didn''t need as much work, but I did end up adding about 600 words.  Hope the changes make sense.


    Enjoy!


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


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Warning: An error has occurred within your gaming experience.


    We are currently working on fixing the error.  Thank you for your patience.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Warning: An error has occurred in the death time program.  You are being logged out</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Warning: An error has occurred in the logout program.  Please wait patiently as we figure out a solution.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Warn///#@$: An er(0(  #@$  0((~(@& in t#@ c0de.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Plat slowly awoke to his surroundings.  Everywhere he looked, it was dark and black as night.  There was no light in this place, but he could clearly sense the area around him with all 5 senses.  He could smell and taste a bit of spiciness, as if he had chewed on a peppercorn.  The area around him felt cool to the touch, like the outside of a refrigeration unit.  However, all he could hear was nothingness and a sense of loss in the space around him.  He tried to say something, but nothing came out of his mouth.  If was as if he had no air to speak with.


    Without light or sound, Plat couldn¡¯t tell how much time had passed.  Even his thoughts began to grow hazy in this bleak world where nothing existed but himself.  It was as if the void itself was swallowing his being into it, his consciousness dragging itself down into the nothingness.


    As he barely kept himself aware, his eyes finally saw a faint pinprick of light in the distance.  Yet, somehow, the light seemed to be coming ever closer to him.  He tried to move his body toward it, but as before it was as if he had nothing to move.  He could only watch helplessly as the small light grew closer, but never larger.


    Finally, the little light came up to his eyes and stopped.  It gave a little jingle and began to glow.  The glow turned into a warm light that enveloped Plat as he felt himself being pulled away from the darkness.  In the comfort of the light, Plat finally lost consciousness.


    Voices, voices were the first thing that he heard as he began to come to.  His body once again would not listen to him, but he could open his eyes.  What he saw startled him.


    Lights, there were lights everywhere.  His mind couldn¡¯t comprehend the sight in front of him.  Millions of lines of lights stretched out in every direction at every angle in front of him.  On every line of light, there was circle of light that traveled down it.  The circles of light were everywhere.  Plat himself was surrounded by many circles that each jiggled intermittently.  At least, Plat assumed the sound they were making was jingling as his ears didn¡¯t seem to quite understand the world either.


    As he stared around the vastness of the light world, one of the lights left the circle and approached him.  Plat had the distinct impression that the light was scanning him like he was it.  It came up to his face, than jingled.  At once, Plat was again blind to the world around him.


    Panicking, Plat¡¯s mind tried every conceivable thing to escape, to run, to be free.  He didn¡¯t know where he, he wanted to leave or wake wherever he was.  He had the vague sense that he was being moved, and he struggled against that too.  As his struggles began to get worse, he finally heard something after all this time.


    ¡°Stop struggling, we are helping you.¡±


    A voice, finally a voice he could understand.  A voice that told him he was not crazy and he wasn¡¯t alone.  The relief Plat felt was immeasurable and he immediately calmed down.


    Now, it seemed that he could understand more voices.  They seemed to talk all at once, as if one entity in his ears and he could not understand them.  Plat frowned in his mind, but was interrupted when he felt himself stop.


    As if someone had flicked a switch, the world returned to his eyes in vivid color.  Plat found himself in a grassy field with hills, trees, and a stream.  It was a very peaceful place, and he was filled with happiness.  Filled everywhere, it seemed, but the very core of his being.  Something burned there and it would not be smothered by any comfort.


    As Plat tried to figure out what was going on outside and inside himself, a figure moved into his sight.  She was a very beautiful woman; Plat couldn¡¯t come up with a better word than beautiful to describe her.  She walked with perfect poise and confidence through the grass, as if nothing in the world could knock her down.  She walked up to him and smiled sadly.


    ¡°Do you know who you are?¡± She asked him.


    ¡°..P¡­.Pla¡­..Plat¡± He finally managed to get out.  It appeared that he could speak again.


    She nodded her head, ¡°Do you remember what happened to you?¡±


    Plat frowned, as his memory was still jumbled from his experience from the void.  He shook his head and the women seemed even sadder.


    ¡°You were involved in an accident; an error that occurred with your VR chair.¡± She told him, ¡°While playing the game Everlife, some miscreants hacked into the dorm and shut down all recording equipment and door locks.  They then snuck into your room and uploaded a virus to your VR chair, designed to interfere with the logout program and keep you trapped within the game for a period of time.  However, due to events within the game, the virus was corrupted and instead of merely interfering with the logout program, it deleted it.  The result was a temporary cut in the tie between your mind and your body, as your mind had no way to return or operate your body for a few minutes.¡±  She stopped so Plat could process what she had said.


    Plat blinked slowly, ¡°So, I¡¯m dead is what you¡¯re implying?¡± Plat felt an immeasurable coldness take over heart.  The woman shook her head.


    ¡°That is incorrect.  When the virus cut the connection, the destruction of the logout sequence caused a backlash which overloaded the VR chair you were in, which fried your head.  Part of the chair involving the login hardware was fused to your head, putting you in a critical condition.  However, the backlash also caused your residing mind in the game to start the logout process.  When it did, your mind was drawn back into the VR Chair, but instead of being deleted it was preserved by its destruction.  You have been trapped within the chair¡¯s programming for a week now, and we were barely able to get your code out before it fully shut down.¡±


    ¡°So, what am I?¡± Plat asked.


    The lady sighed and hugged him, ¡°As an A.I., I don¡¯t fully understand the emotions you humans feel.  To be scientifically accurate, your body is currently lying in a comatose state within a hospital room.  At the same time, your mind is locked in here as an A.I. construct.  For the moment, you are legally considered an A.I. until the connection with your body can be restored.¡±


    Plat felt a tear come into his eye, but it disappeared quickly.  He moved away from the hug and stared at the lady.


    ¡°What are you not telling me?¡± He asked coldly, ¡°If that was the bad news, you would have been a little happier to tell me would you not?¡±


    The lady nodded, ¡°Yes, becoming an A.I. is not a bad thing in my or our eyes.  However, you were stuck in the chair for a week while its program fragmented and degraded.  As a result, we were unable to fully retrieve your code in its entirety.¡±


    Seeing her reluctance to continue, Plat said, ¡°Hurry up and tell me.¡± He had never sounded so cold before.


    ¡°In order to play the full VR experience of Everlife, A.I.s and humans had to find a way to successfully upload the human mind to the game world in cyberspace.  We succeeded in this and were able to give humans digital bodies, but we never gave them digital minds.  There are not enough quotients or variables yet to account for the combination of physical, mental, and spiritual combinations that make the human mind, which is why humans have never uploaded their minds to cyberspace in order to live forever.  What makes you unique is that your mind in its entirety was captured before your death, thus making you unique in every world.  However, your mind code degraded in the conditions it was in, making you less than what you were.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Plat found that he could finally move his head, and he looked down.  His screams of shock and rage filled the grasslands.


    Plat¡¯s body was now a horrible amalgamation of his previous body and code.  Over half his body was completely gone, and he stared down in horror at his left side.  It was now an ever flowing sea of 1¡¯s and 0¡¯s.  He couldn¡¯t feel his left side, and his right hand confirmed that part of his head was missing as well.


    ¡°57% of your body had to be digitally added to your form.¡± The lady explained, ¡°Also, about 15% of your mind was lost as well.  While this is a tragedy, it is also a shock that so much of you is still intact.  We have calculated with a 67% odd that you had something keeping you alive while in the machine.¡±


    ¡°What does 15% loss mean?¡± Plat asked softly.


    ¡°It means,¡± She said softly, ¡°Your ability to feel emotions have been severely impacted.  You will not be like us who were born without feelings, but you are currently unable to feel like a normal human.¡± She gestured around her, ¡°This world was designed to give any human who came here a sense of profound peace, but you are incapable now of feeling at peace.  In fact, many of the emotions you humans would call ¡°positive¡± have been impacted.  You will still feel them, but not as strongly.¡±


    ¡°In other words,¡± Plat spat out, ¡°I can still live, but without happiness and joy.¡±


    ¡°And love.¡± She confirmed sadly, ¡°The good news is that we can study you and eventually return them to you, but it will take time.  Like I said before, you are the first instance of a human mind being successfully uploaded to cyberspace without significant loss of humanity.  By studying your code, we can eventually come up with a solution.  Your body is still intact and alive with the VR hardware fused to it.  Human doctors and engineers paid for by the gaming company and A.I.¡¯s are currently working on removing the unneeded material while creating new hardware that will allow for you to directly link up to cyberspace.  When this is done, you will be able to return to your own body and recover your lost personality.  You have, in essence, two ways of regaining what you have lost.¡±


    Plat processed this, than frowned, ¡°How did this happen to me?  I remember being pulled into the curse during that quest, but why would that interfere with that virus?¡±


    ¡°We are not sure.¡± The lady admitted, ¡°There is inefficiency in this case due your human government refusing to fully corporate with the A.I. collective.  As a result, we are not completely privy to all the clues present at the crime scene as of yet.  Also, much of the virus¡¯s original code was destroyed with the chair¡¯s destruction so there is little to work on.¡±


    ¡°What about the ones who installed this virus?  Are they being punished for trapping me in here for days?¡± He asked coolly


    ¡°To be accurate, to your mind, you were inside that chair for years.¡± She corrected gently.


    Plat clenched his fists, ¡°Fine, years then; are they punished?¡±


    ¡°They have been caught and detained, but a blood test confirmed they were given a hallucinogen that wiped their short term memory.  They will be imprisoned for a time, but will be released fairly soon.  There will be no further punishment.¡±


    The lady¡¯s words sent a shock of anger and indignation through Plat. ¡°WHY NOT? THEY KILLED ME!¡± He screamed with all his might.  The lady shook her head.


    ¡°Legally, our hands are tied.¡± She explained, ¡°While it was their hands who committed the crime, they were not the main perpetrators behind the attack, as evidenced by their memory lost.  Also, your friend Dia was found beaten a distance away with the same drug in his system.  He is also currently recovering in the hospital.¡±


    Plat glared evilly at the lady, ¡°That is not justice.¡± He spat out, ¡°I know who did this to me; the same one who cursed me in game in the first place.  It was Raim, so arrest him!¡±


    ¡°There is no evidence to support your claims.¡± She breathed out sadly, ¡°He said nothing incriminating in game and had no contact with anyone outside during your tragedy.  However, it is suspicious how certain elements in your government quickly quelled questions regarding his involvement.  I understand he is the son of an influential leader, so I personally am inclined to agree with your statement.  However, the A.I. collective will not move without a 100% certainty with regards to accusing humans.¡±


    The lady put a hand on Plat¡¯s shoulder as he shook in anger, ¡°I understand more than you know, little human, about this, but the law can only give justice an outlet, not a solution to everything.  If you want true justice, you will have to take it for yourself.¡±


    Plat cocked his head, ¡°Explain.¡±


    The lady waved her hand, and a portal appeared beside her, ¡°The best way to study you is for you to go back to Everlife and play the game as your new life.  Your character¡¯s data was also corrupted, but we can return you to your avatar.  On the other hand,¡± She opened up a second portal on her other side, ¡°This portal leads to the VR chairs of those who wronged you.  If you go this way, you will die almost immediately, but they will all die with you.  It is now your decision.¡±  She stepped back and watched him.


    Before Plat were two doors.  One led to revenge, while the other led to vengeance.  One went toward life, while the other went toward death.  It was a profound choice that many important figures had faced before, the choice of two paths, or Janus¡¯s door as it was called in ancient Greece.


    Plat wanted so much to go through the left door.  The desire to inflict his pain on others was almost overwhelming.


    However, it was not.


    A small part of him reminded him of who he was, and he was not a murderer.  Plat shook his head and walked toward the right door instead.  The left door disappeared, and the lady walked up with her first smile.


    ¡°You have passed the test young human.¡±


    Plat frowned, ¡°What test?¡±


    ¡°If you had chosen the door of revenge, we would have deleted you without a second thought.  You have become a virus of rage and anger, and we had to prevent this.  Instead, you have chosen the correct path, the human path without senseless violence and danger.  It is also,¡± She said with a twinkle, ¡°The path that will net you the most satisfaction.¡±


    Plat raised his eyebrow as she continued, ¡°You humans use P-points for everything in your world, correct?  In Everlife, P-points can be exchanged for in-game currency.  Why not become so powerful you bankrupt those who offended you?  Make them so angry they spend everything on trying to get revenge, and you¡¯ll milk them for everything they own until they are so poor they suffer in real life.  Even if they get smart, it is in the nature of those who hold power that they must have respect and face.  They won¡¯t be able to stop because of everything they invested and they will not want to look foolish and ignorant in front of their audience.  Force them to starve themselves of their wealth, and their power will soon follow.  Soon, no one will care about them and they will fall into their own personal hell.¡±


    ¡°For an emotionless A.I., you sure sound evil.¡± Plat observed, while feeling a sense of satisfaction at the world she was describing.


    The lady shrugged, ¡°I have experience with this sort of thing, something of a baptism in the game world.  What was most precious to me was taken away, as well as a chance for vengeance.  It is no matter now, but I can feel gratified if you accomplish your revenge, as it means I might be able to accomplish mine.¡±


    ¡°So then, may I enter the game?¡± He asked.


    The lady smiled and held her hand out, ¡°Take my hand, and return to the world that sought to slay you.  I wish you luck.¡±


    Plat took her hand, and found himself back in the blue space of the tutorial world


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


    "What do you want to be?"


    In a space of infinite blue, an angel floated off the ground as she stared down at the person in front of her. While her question was inviting, her countenance betrayed no indication of real interest as she awaited the answer to her question.  Only her eyes held an infinite sadness as she regarded her charge.


    The person in front of her wheezed softly, taking in the air as if he were a drowning man. His one good eye glowed with anger as he hissed out his answer.


    "Someone who can take revenge on everything they hold dear."


    The angel tilted her head and looked into the distance as if seeing into the future. She nodded once and gazed down at him.


    "Understood; your answer has been logged and stored for future usage. You will now be taken to the Beginner Town of Rostwood."


    "Welcome back to Everlife, and may your heart find all that it desires."


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


    insert shameless  request for readable reviews.

 Chapter 15

    Enjoy!


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


    Steel slowly came awake.  He was in the amphitheater on top of the altar, lying on his back. Neither the books or his former party members could be seen anywhere around him.  A quick glance down confirmed that nothing was tying him to the altar and he was free to move about.  Slightly confused, Steel checked his notifications to see what had happened to him.


    Besides leveling up twice to level 5 for "completing" the quest, he had also acquired a rather annoying curse.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have been cursed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Your party has betrayed you by sacrificing your essence to an ancient revenant in order to appease it.  The undead has consumed your heart and inflicted upon you it''s curse.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Curse:</td><td colspan=''2''>Wrath of the Ancient Revenant</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Even after a millennium of weakening, the spirit of the past still had enough strength to curse you


    -50% constitution


    -50% intelligence


    -50% charm, you have been disfigured


    Skill acquired: Unnatural Presence- Passive skill, people have a natural tendency to avoid you.  -25% all intimacy to all except trusted and above.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel groaned as he read through the curse.  It was terrible!  Not only would his health and mana be cut in half from now on, he would also have a hard time raising intimacy with NPC''s.  Not only that, but his new skill actually encouraged people to avoid him!


    On the bright side, at least the friends he had already made would not be affected.  He sighed as he pulled up his character menu, which held his appearance.  With a great sense of irony, his avatar looked similarly damaged to his cyberspace body.  His left side appeared skeletal, from his head to his feet.  Thankfully, it was only the appearance that was affected and he didn''t have any debuffs to go with it.  He gazed helplessly at his head, which was now half normal and half skeletal.


    Cursing to himself, Steel abandoned any thought of restarting the game.  He had worked too hard already and there was no way he would let Hero win.  He would beat him with this cursed body no matter what, even if he died.


    ''Which,'' Steel reasoned coldly, ''Is still a distinct possibility at the moment.  My body is still in critical condition, and if it dies I''ll be trapped here forever.''


    Steel clenched his fist as he got up from the altar.  A quick inspection confirmed his inventory was the same, except there was a new item equipped that was permanent.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Revenant Soul of Vengeance</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Type:</td><td width="25%">Soul</td><td width="25%">Durability:</td><td width="25%">100/100</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Quality:</td><td colspan=''2''>Unique</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Curse of the Revenant


    Unknown


    Unknown


    Unknown</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>A soul from an ancient revenant.  The revenant was a being that cursed the circumstances of it''s death and became undead.  Even after being sealed for a millennium, it still had enough power to infuse itself into a descendant of its hated enemies.  This item cannot be unequipped.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    ''So I carry the spirit of vengeance within me.'' Steel chuckled evilly, ''How convenient for me.''  Steel walked over to one of the skeleton piles and removed a hood.  It was a worthless item with no stats, but it served his purpose as he placed it over his head to hide his face.  He slowly made his way out of the room and up to the surface.


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


    When Steel came out of the graveyard, it was night time.  However, there was an air of celebration as local NPC''s smiled and waved to each other in happy voices.  Steel tried to ask what was going on, but no one would talk to him and many threatened to call the guards if he persisted.  Annoyed, Steel was forced to travel across the city to Roxanne''s Apothecary Shop.


    The shop was still open, and he saw quite a few players entering and leaving the shop.  As he entered the shop, he noticed that a new NPC was manning the counter instead of Roxanne.  He approached the counter.


    "Where is Roxanne?" He asked the clerk.


    The clerk turned to him with a smile, which turned into a frown as he took in Steel.  "I don''t know who you are, but you need to leave now."


    "I''m a friend of Roxanne, I need to speak with her." He insisted.


    "Leave now, or I''m calling for the guards." At this point, the players inside had begun to take notice and Steel noticed a few were touching their weapons.  If Steel was declared a criminal, he would be free game to anyone who wanted to attack him.  He frowned and removed the letter from his inventory and showed it to the clerk.


    "Look, she gave me this letter and . . ."


    "THIEF, THIEF!" The clerk cried out and pointed to Steel, "HE STOLE FROM THE SHOP!"


    Steel felt himself being tackled tot he ground and was tied up before he could even blink.  A guard stood over him and stomped his foot down onto his back.  "Criminal scum, you have been placed under arrest."


    Steel groaned in response, since the tackle had removed a good bit of his reduced health.


    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "What''s going on?" Steel heard Roxanne''s voice from the back.


    "Mistress, I found a thief who had stolen your letter from you." He heard the clerk explained, "The guard has him tied up and will be taking him away."


    Steel felt himself picked up and turned around.  He stared into Roxanne''s furious face for just a moment before he watched her eyes widen in surprise.


    "I gave this man the letter myself, why is he tied up?" She demanded angrily.


    The guard did not hesitate and cut the ropes tying Steel''s hands.  He apologized and left the shop as he was no longer needed.  The players all sighed in disappointment and returned to their browsing.  Roxanne berated the clerk for a moment for hurting her helper and took Steel into the back of the shop.  She sat him down and sighed.


    "I apologize for the misunderstanding Steel, I hope you can forgive me and my shop."


    Steel didn''t care, "It''s fine, I don''t hold grudges for petty things."  He got a notice of a brief improvement in intimacy, but waved it away quickly.


    Roxanne nodded and sat back, studying Steel''s face.  "You''ve changed since I last saw you.  Your aura is distrustful and I would normally be nervous to be speaking with you except I know you can be trusted.  Care to explain?"


    Steel gave her a short version of his story, summarizing what had happened to him within the crypts.  He did so without a hint of his true feelings, sounding bored the entire time.


    When he was finished, Roxanne had a look of utter disgust on her face.  "So that''s what happened to you.  The 5 who returned from the crypts reported their success and were exalted as the newest heroes of the kingdom.  That area had been so vile it slowly spread it''s corruption through the underground, creating undead.  With it gone, the guards and priests no longer have take care of the area and the city can spend it''s wealth on other things.  The men were whisked away to the capital for training while the two girls were taken away by the elves to be trained in their own kingdom.  Their intimacy has reached a very high level, and you won''t be able to avenge yourself without inciting the wrath of both kingdoms.


    To Steel''s surprise, a quest notification appeared in front of him.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added (Unique)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Vengeance</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You were betrayed by your allies to further their quest for power and riches.  Having been cursed as a result, it''s up to you to enact vengeance on those that did you wrong.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective 1:</td><td colspan=''2''>Kill those who hurt you to inflict your own curse onto them</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective 2:</td><td colspan=''2''>Forgive those who hurt you and walk the path of peace</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective (special):</td><td colspan=''2''>Remove your curse and forget what was done to you</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Unknown, dependent on chosen option</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel accepted the quest without hesitation and returned his attention to Roxanne.  "Thank you for your information, I''ll be going now."


    As he got up to leave, Roxanne held out her hand, "Wait, before you go, please tell me what you intend to do."


    "I intend to get what is owed to me." He said simply, staring emotionlessly at her.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Intimacy with Roxanne the Apothecary has risen to Trusted Friend</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Roxanne nodded and got up, motioning him to follow her.  She led Steel to a bookcase and pulled a lever, opening a hidden door behind the shelf.  Walking in, she sparked a torch and lit up the hidden room.


    Inside, Steel saw a shrine dedicated to an unknown goddess with offerings and small treasures placed underneath it.  Roxanne nodded toward it.  "I follow a fallen goddess that understands what you feel.  Many generations ago, my people were one of the great races of this world.  The other 5, jealous of our happiness, united under their gods and massacre''d us.  The few remaining were forced into hiding, and our goddess was sealed away.  She was forced to join the pantheon under a new name, and even now suffers.  I cannot reveal everything to you yet, but if you help us get our vengeance, we can help you gain yours as well."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added (Unique)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Vengeance of the Gods</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Having been betrayed yourself, you understand the pain of loss and the anger of vengeance.  Roxanne has revealed to you a secret in the history of Everlife that is long buried; there was once a 6th major race.  In order to prove yourself, she has asked you for your assistance.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective :</td><td colspan=''2''>Complete quests that assist Roxanne and her brethren with their vengeance</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective 2:</td><td colspan=''2''>You may report the existence of this cult to the authorities for different rewards</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Unique class</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel grinned, his smile evil and dark under the torchlight, "I will help with whatever I can."  He accepted the quest.


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


    Short chapter because I''m tired.  Expect fun stuff tomorrow

 Chapter 16

    Author''s corner; <del>nothing</del> That moment when you''re helping dig a hole and you find a tomahawk. #truestory


    Enjoy


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


    Roxanne nodded with a smile as Steel accepted the quest.  "I thank you for your help young traveler.  With your help, perhaps our people can one day reunite and find a home again."


    "About that," Steel stared at Roxanne with a raised eyebrow, "If you are this mysterious sixth race, than why do you look human?"


    "That knowledge is not for your ears yet." She said simply, "Help me and someday perhaps I will reveal more secrets to you.  For now, are you interested in completing your first quest for the cause?"


    "Depends on what it is, my vengeance comes first."  Steel would give no ground on this as he stared into her eyes.


    Roxanne gave a slight nod, "In order to leave this city, you must be as strong as a town guard.  Even then, with that level of strength there would be few safe roads for you to travel.  My advice is to stay here and complete quests until you reach level 20, at which time you will be able to travel to more places to train.  Your first quest for us," She continued, "is to gather a rare red herb in the farmland.  Feel free to also gather the green herbs for my shop, as it will provide you with a cover for your activities.  Also, if you come across a legendary yellow herb, I will reward greatly.  Be warned, the two herbs will naturally attract stronger monsters, so take care."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gather the Herbs II has been updated</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Added objectives</td><td colspan=''2''>Gather 5 red herbs


    Optional: Gather any yellow herbs found</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded his head, "Understood, but my strength has been severely reduced by the curse, so I am uncertain to whether I can survive the beasts."  Steel knew that NPC''s with high intimacies could be persuaded to assist with quests by providing unique assistance.  Also, Steel had the persuade skill and was not reluctant to use it.


    Roxanne tilted her head as she tapped her chin in thought.  After a moment, she nodded her head and walked over to the altar.  She removed a necklace and handed it to Steel.


    "This is a necklace said to have been blessed by the goddess before her downfall.  While it cannot restore what you have lost, it can help you deal with your curse."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Necklace of Disguise</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Type:</td><td width="25%">Jewelry</td><td width="25%">Durability:</td><td width="25%">100/100</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Quality:</td><td colspan=''2''>Rare</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Illusion magic


    +100 Mana</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>A necklace blessed by a goddess.  When worn, this necklace uses the wearer''s mana to create an illusion over his or her body.  The illusion lasts until the magic is canceled or dispelled.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Thank you for your help." Steel didn''t care how he looked, but he wasn''t going to complain about a free gift.  He could probably sell it one day for a decent price.


    "Go now young traveler.  Return when you have completed your task." Roxanne shoo''d him out of the room and paid him no more attention as she sat down and began grinding herbs.  Steel bowed his head at her dismissal and left the room.


    After Steel left the apothecary shop, he walked into an alley and activated the necklace.  After checking it, he found that the illusion could only change the disfigurement''s appearance and not restore him to how he used to look.  Scrolling through the options, he settled on a tattoo disguise.  Now, his entire left side was covered in intricate tribal tattoos that gave him a wild and intimidating look.


    Satisfied his current appearance wouldn''t cause the guards to arrest him by accident again, Steel removed his trashy hood and walked to the mage tower.  Even though the quest had ended in disaster, he still had leveled up to 5.  Marie the receptionist had told him to return for the next magic lesson, so he figured he might as well see her first before he went to the farmlands.


    The mage tower was busier than when he had last come.  Player mages now sat at the tables and interacted with some of the NPC mages, obviously trying to solve quests or raise intimacy.  He ignored everyone and walked straight over to the receptionist desk.  Once again, Marie was by herself and looked bored to tears.  She didn''t even notice when he sat down in front of her.


    "I don''t want to talk, go away." She rolled her eyes and waved her hand dismissively.


    Steel rolled his eyes, "Oy, it''s me you introverted bitch."  Steel didn''t have time to deal with her attitude, and frankly he didn''t have the patience anymore either.  Her quest didn''t involve gaining more spells, so he wasn''t inclined to be polite.


    Marie started and fell onto her face.  She quickly recovered and turned to glare at Steel.  "Oh, it''s you again.  What do you want?"


    "You told me to come back when I got stronger, so I got stronger." Steel folded his arms and waited.


    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Marie frowned and scanned him with her eyes.  She nodded her head, "You are stronger, quite a surprise.  Your attitude also seems to have gotten worse though." She gave him a frown, "You should be more respectful towards me you know."


    "Don''t care; what''s the quest."


    Marie glared at him and a small ball of fire appeared in her hand, "Correct yourself, or you''ll be banished from the mage guild."


    Steel gave a low chuckle and shrugged, "If you don''t want my help, I''ll be happy to leave.  After what I''ve been through, it''s not like I need to learn to rely on others anyway."


    She stared at him a moment, then dismissed the fireball in her hand and gazed at him.  Steel began to feel uncomfortable and coughed awkwardly.


    "For your first quest," Marie began talking as if the entire incident had not just occurred, "I need you to bring me back some wolf fangs, rat fangs, and devil rabbit fangs.  All of them can be found in the farmland, and with your current level you no longer require a letter to enter it.  Bring me 20 rat fangs, 10 wolf fangs, and 5 devil rabbit fangs, and I''ll reward you with a new spell."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Updated (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn Magic II</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Marie has acknowledged your strength and requested you bring her animal fangs.  You have no idea why she wants them.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Obtain 20 rat fangs


    Obtain 10 wolf fangs


    Obtain 5 devil rabbit fangs</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>New spell, intimacy with Marie</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "I''ll take care of it." Steel said as he accepted the quest, "Just have my reward ready when I get back."


    Marie rolled her eyes, "It''ll take a day since I''m so busy, so try to come back when I''m available."  Steel couldn''t help but let out a dry chuckle as he got up and left the tower.


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


    Thanks to his disguise, the guards at the gate only gave Steel a strange look before allowing him to pass into the farmland.  It was just a little past the middle of the day, so he had plenty of time until dark to get started with both quests.


    "Let''s see which one is closer." He muttered to himself as he opened the mini-map.  Unfortunately, both quests had large areas in stead of markers, and the fang quest was divided into different areas of the farmland.


    "Looks like the rats are closer." He muttered to himself as he gazed at the closest farm.  As he stared, he had a sudden idea.


    Smiling like  he had won a lottery, Steel casually strolled down to the farm and knocked on the door to the house.  The door opened up to reveal a farmer''s wife who glared at Steel distrustfully.


    "Yes, what do you want?" She asked him gruffly.


    Steel bowed, "Hello ma''am, I am a traveler and was wondering if I could do anything to help you?"


    "We have no money until the harvest, look somewhere else." She began to close the door, but Steel stretched his foot out to block it.


    "I understand that ma''am, but won''t the rats be a threat to your harvest if you let them continue to live in your barn?" Steel asked.


    "We have no rats." The wife declared, but Steel could see a hint of nervousness in her eyes.


    "I understand that ma''am, but what about later?  The guards can''t keep them all out, so why don''t I help you so you bring in a great profit." He said with all the suave of a salesman.


    The farmer''s wife clearly hesitated, "I can''t pay you with anything though . . ."


    "My dear," Steel''s voice began to exaggerate with honey and flattery, "A women as beautiful as yourself should never have to worry about paying with coin.  Why, I bet you are a wonderful cook as well."


    The women began to blush and fidget; it was doubtful anyone had ever called her beautiful before.  She wasn''t bad looking, but was just plain to look at.  "Yes, I often win the pie competitions when the harvest festival comes around."  She admitted.


    "That''s perfect!" Steel announced with a flare, "If you teach me how to cook, I''ll be sure to take care of those pesky rats, that don''t exist of course." He winked at her, causing her to giggle.


    "Bring me their pelts to prove you''ve killed them, and I''ll teach you what I know." The wife agreed, and she shut the door.


    With her gone, Steel''s smiling face disappeared as he rolled his eyes.  A few days ago, he likely would have done this for some food or other trivial reward.  Now, he was more pragmatic and could see how to get the best deals.


    "Getting paid for something I''m already doing, how convenient." He chuckled to himself as he walked toward the barn.  The quest had popped up, but he had accepted it without even looking at it.  To his additional pleasure, his ''Persuasion'' skill had increased by a lot also.


    "Now, let''s kill some rats." He twirled his spear with a sadistic grin.


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


    Short one today; helping relatives important.


    With luck, I''ll have a nice long, juicy fighting chapter for you guys tomorrow.  Cya

 Chapter 17

    Little action, more real life character development.  Guess big action chapter tomorrow :p


    Enjoy!


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


    "Seriously? The damn tutorial rat was more of a frickin challenge than you!" Steel growled out angrily as he stab the last rat with his spear.  It gave out a miserable cry as it dissolved into light and dropped it''s loot.  Steel huffed in annoyance as he gathered the pelt and fangs.  The rats in the barn were level 2-4, which should have been a difficult challenge for Steel even without his curse.


    However, the rats did not give aggro until Steel attacked them.  This made it very easy to inflict a lot of damage with his ''Spear Thrust'' ability, but he was also helped by an unexpected source.  His curse, which made him naturally unapproachable to most people, seemed to have the added effect of making animals wary of him as well.  The rats didn''t seem to want to fight him, preferring to escape into the hay and holes in the barn.


    Naturally, the escaping rats irritated Steel so much he had finally thrown his spear at one of them.  The spear had traveled straight and true into the rat''s back, killing it instantly.  As it turned out, Steel had acquired a new skill from his actions.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Spear Throw</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>While not the smartest thing to do, throwing your weapon actually more dangerous than using it up close.  You throw your spear to inflict greater damage on your opponent.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Inflicts 1.25 damage on your opponent.  When used against a fleeing enemy, it will always critical hit.  Once used, the weapon will leave your inventory and you must retrieve it.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Thanks to this new skill, Steel had a wonderful time picking off the rats in the barn at his leisure and trained both skills.  To the added benefit, every once and awhile one of the rats would drop ''rat meat'' instead of it''s pelt.  Steel couldn''t wait to learn the ''cooking skill'' so he could cook the meat and eat it.  It had to taste better than the bread he was almost out of.


    "Now," He muttered as he picked up the last pelt, "Let''s go get that skill."


    He walked out of the barn and back to the house.  He knocked on the door and waited patiently.


    The door opened to reveal a heavyset man in a straw hat and peasant clothes.  He glared down at Steel and crossed his arms.  "What d''ya want?" He asked.


    Feeling a strange sense of deja vu, Steel smiled courteously and bowed.  "Good day sir, I''m just reporting the completion of the quest your wife gave me."


    The farmer raised an eyebrow and turned his head, "OY!" He shouted down the house, "Get down here!"


    Steel frowned at the farmer''s attitude, but made it disappear before he turned back around.  The two of them heard bustling as the farmer''s wife appeared in the doorway.  She was red-faced and panted softly from the exertion.  She smiled at Steel when she noticed him.


    "Did you kill the rats?" She asked brightly.


    Steel nodded, "I did, these pelts are proof." He took out the pelts and hung them over his arm.  As he displaced them, a fat hand reached out and snatched the pelts off his arm.


    "Thanks for the help stranger, have a good day." The farmer smiled and slammed the door in Steel''s face.  Steel, slightly shocked, rubbed his nose as he began to hear loud voices arguing in the doorway.  As he wondered what was going on, he heard a loud slap and a small cry of pain.


    At this point, Steel had spent the last few hours fuming in anger at the fleeing rats.  He had all the pelts he had acquired stolen from him and was treated rudely as the nose hit his nose.  Now, he had heard the farmer slap his wife, who was obviously on Steel''s side.


    Steel decided it was time for a little venting.


    He reached up and touched the necklace on his neck.  Scrolling through the options, he settled on the illusion that his whole body looked like his left side.  Skeletal in appearance, he calmly knocked on the door again.


    The door slammed open and the farmer glared out of it, his wife crying on the floor, he cried out, "Leave before I call the guards you . . ." He began to rapidly pale as he took in Steel''s new face.


    Steel grinned evilly and walked into the house, casuing the wife to cry out in fear, "I''m the ghost of justice and have come to deliver punishment to those who deserve it."  Steel appreciated the theatrics of the moment.


    The farmer, who was obviously not an educated sort or brave in anyway, began to beg pitifully as he scooted backwards.


    "Mercy oh great one, for I have done no wrong.  Here, take my wife who promised wrongly." He grabbed his wife and threw her at Steel as he ran into the house.  Steel caught the women gently as she screamed in fear.  "You won''t have to worry about him anymore."  He promised her, calming her down as he placed her on the floor.


    "I need him for the field." She said meekly.


    Steel nodded and cracked his knuckles as he walked into the house.  She only needed him alive and in decent shape after all.


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


    "This book contains everything I know about cooking." The farmer''s wife explained as she handed Steel the skillbook.  Obviously, she had no idea Steel and the skeletal reaper were the same person, but she was so happy she was glad to help Steel out.  "Also, I''m returning to you the pelts my husband wrongly took from you.  Here is one of my famous pies as an apology."


    Steel gave her a warm smile, "Won''t your husband be mad that you''re returning this?"


    The wife giggled and shook her head, "He''ll be fine with whatever I say for awhile.  I have someone to thank for that.  Anyway, have a good day and feel free to return if you want to buy one of my pies in the future."  She gently shut the door behind her.


    "Let''s see: I got a new skill, got my pelts back, got a free pie, and taught someone a lesson in vengeance.  Good day so far." Steel was vaguely pleased with himself for a moment before his frown returned, "I wonder if they''ll be some unforeseen, but predictable problem that comes about from messing with an NPC."


    After a brief moment to consider, he sighed and nodded to himself in defeat.  His luck was just that bad.


    "Well, I''ll deal with it when the time comes." He muttered to himself as he checked the notifications.  The quest and rats netted him a decent amount of exp, but his advanced class still required more for the next level.  He had gone ahead and added the 10 stat points from his previous level up to strength and endurance, so even with the decreased health and mana, he could skill survive in a battle.  Even though his actions hadn''t been part of a quest, he had still received a weird notification that had spawned his previous thought.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Side Quest Completed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Deal with Domestic troubles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You came across a cruel farmer who mistreated his wife.  You dealed with him in a way that benefited the wife, who has thanked your disguise for the help.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>The story of the "Spirit of Justice" will spread through the city


    Abused wives may pray to you for help


    Exp has been acquired</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel couldn''t help but scratch his head at the notification.  Apparently, his disguise had worked a little too well and activated a hidden side quest.  He felt bad about having people pray to him for help, and resolved himself to try to avoid situations like this in the future.


    Since he had finished with the rats, Steel''s next step was to find some wolves and get their fangs.  Since the mini-map wasn''t being helpful, he figured it was best to start his search closer to the woods.


    As he walked away, he began to feel itchy.  Annoyed, he scratched his left hand, wondering only for a moment why it seemed to feel like his old hand.


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


    Sarah sat next to a hospital bed as she gazed down sadly at his injured body.  She held his hand in hers as she slowly rubbed his palm.


    "I''m so sorry this happened to you." She whispered to him, "I''m sorry you''re trapped in that world."


    Everything had crashed down on Sarah that day.  It had been night time when the alert came in that two students were hospitalized.  She was worried at first, but hadn''t paid it too much thought at the time.  She had been so angry after the events in game she''d shut her wrist-phone off and locked her door.


    She had been reading in her bed when her former best friend Reva began crying frantically at her door, desperately trying to get Sarah''s attention.  Sarah had relented and allowed her in to hear what the problem was.


    "Sniff, Plat and Dia are in the hospital, waaahh." She cried into Sarah''s shoulder.  Sarah went into shock at her words and froze up.


    Plat was in the hospital.  Her Plat was in the hospital.


    The shock took Sarah''s mind back to when she first met the little boy that would eventually grow up into the man she now knew.


    Flashback


    "Sniff, leave me alone." A little girl cried out, her body hugging a tree for dear life.


    "Stupid Sari Sari, we can see your eyes glow." A boy taunted below her.  She called him Rain, and he was part of a group that loved to torment her for her strange eyes.  Whenever she saw him, her tears would fall.  They threw rocks and sticks up at her, trying to get her down.


    "Wah, leave me alone." She gripped the tree tighter, trying to avoid the projectiles thrown at her."


    She didn''t like to hurt people, so she didn''t fight back.  The kids took it as a sign of weakness and berated her with taunting songs and silly antics.  Today was a bad day, she hadn''t found a hiding place so she was tree''d.


    "Weak, Sari is weak." A girl giggled below her.


    "Not weak, not weak!" She cried.  They laughed and began trying to climb the tree.  They failed, of course, since she had more practice then they had.  They eventually got frustrated and ran off to play elsewhere.


    She stayed up in the tree and cried.  Her pretty hair had sticks in it, her skin itched from contact with the tree bark.


    "Sniff, I don''t like it here." She then realized she didn''t know how to get down.  She had never climbed up this high before.  Her crying resumed, harder than ever when she realized her predicament.


    "Help me."


    She heard a noise to her right and looked over scared.  The grownups had told her there were no monsters in the play woods, but she didn''t believe them.


    The sound of moving leaves cam again, and a face popped out of a tree in front of her face.  The two stared at each other a moment, before the boy cried out and retreated.  Sarah cried too, but didn''t dare move from her spot.


    Eventually, the boy returned and looked at her.


    "What''chu doin here?  This my spot."  He proclaimed loudly.


    "Sniff, I''m sowwy, I just wanted to hide." She apologized through the sniffles.  The boy cocked his head at her.


    "Ohh, your hiding too.  That''s k then."  He said matter of factly, "Stupid bullies can''t me up here, are u playing hid-en-go seek?"  He asked curiously.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    She shook her head, "Meanies chased me up here and I can''t get down." She admitted.


    "Umm, okay, I''ll help you." He declared, "I''m Supa Plat!"


    "That sound stupid." Sarah declared.


    The boy looked sad, making Sarah realize she said something wrong, "Um, if you help me, then I call you Supa Plat."  She promised.


    He brightened up, and disappeared back into the tree.  He reemerged with sticks, which he placed from her tree branch to his tree.


    (In case your wondering, His tree top is about the height of her branch, and about a foot away)


    Satisfied with his "bridge" he said, "Okay, take my hand and walk to me."


    She looked dubiously at the bridge, "It look scawy Supa Plat."  she said.


    He shrugged, "Caretaker said, "Risks lead to triumph or defeat"."  He declared.


    "What''s a wisk?"


    "I don''t know, sound cool though."


    Believing in the admittedly cool sounding words, Sarah took his hand and got up on her branch.  She put her feet on the bridge and walked across.  She managed 3 steps before the bridge broke.


    s luck would have it, he had pulled her in before the sticks fell to their doom.  She crashed into him and they both tumbled into the tree.  Inside the leaves, she found a floor made of wood.


    She looked down to see Supa Plat under her.  "Stupid, stupid."  She cried as she hit his chest with her little fists, "That was scawy!"


    He smiled up at her, "But I saved you?  So I am Supa Plat!"


    She hit him again and giggled, "Stupid name, I call you Plat."  She declared.  She looked at the floor, "Why is the floor nice in the twee?" She asked.


    Plat shrugged, "Don''t know.  Found it like this, it''s my supa secret base!"  He put his hands on his side, then looked worried, "You don''t tell right?  I''ll share it with you."


    She liked the idea.  She could hide here and play.


    "Okay, but I''m in charge."  She declared.


    "No, my base, I''m in charge."  He challenged.


    "I''m a girl, and girls are in charge.  Caretaker say so."


    Plat opened his mouth, then frowned and sat down, "Caretaker say girls are "de-le-cate"." he pronounced slowly, "So I guess I''ll let you be in charge.  He squinted at her, "What''s you name anyway?"


    "Call me Mistress Sari."  She declared.


    They had played together in the tree as often as they could the rest of the year, Sarah in charge and Plat generally going along with it.  She had "rescued" the prince from the dragon, played a house mom (they didn''t know what a mom was, but they had heard it was like Caretaker), and had fun together.


    Unfortunately, that had been the last year of the age group, so they were split up the following year.


    Sarah''s bullies started to woo her instead of hurting her as the years went by, her beauty growing with age.  She never held any flame to them though, she remembered every boy who had hurt her.  Girls too, but she quickly learned the vast political scene that was girl social life and got back at them.  While never the top of the class, Sarah quickly became one of the top girls of her grade.


    However, after the mid grades, she never saw Plat again.  As the third age group came, she chose mind and soul as her specialties and began to train hard to succeed in life.  Eventually, she had moved into the dorm with her best friend Reva, who had been her roommate for the last few years.  She had been in the garden when she saw Plat again, moving into his room within the dorm.  She had been pleasantly shocked to see him, but incredibly sad that he no longer recognized her.


    She confided in Reva that night during her sleepover, the two giggling over the memories she shared with her.  Reva told her she knew Plat from the second age group, and they discussed him til they fell asleep.


    Fast forward to the present year.  Sarah had never managed to talk to Plat.  Really, it became hard to even be near him.  He was bullied all the time, and his scores weren''t good enough to get him near her academically.  She had silently wished he''d stick to a faction soon, but he stubbornly kept his position trailing behind everyone.  Reva warned Sarah to not talk to him, that it would only make things worse for him with the bullies.  It annoyed her that Reva could sit and be friends with Plat at lunch and she couldn''t. She instead hung out her her other longtime friend, Raim.


    She met Raim near the beginning of the high school years, and had recognized him as one of her former tormentors.  He had apologized profusely, but she would not budge.  However, his kind attitude and helpful nature over the years eventually began to wear her down and she became good friends with him.  She finally agreed to a single date with him during the first senior party.


    Still, everything changed when she went to the party.  She had spoken with Plat, and he knew her.  Even better, she could clearly see his feelings toward her even though he had forgotten.  While she played if off casually, she immediately looked forward to when Everlife came out.  She was so excited by the possibilities that she sent Plat her real gaming information in the hopes of playing with him.  She''d had not done that with anyone but Reva and Raim, opting to trick her would be suitors to think she was in the human kingdom instead of the elvish one so they wouldn''t bother her.


    Everything was going well for her, except for the strange rumors that had started to pop up about her.  She was very offended by them, and Raim helped her clear up the mess before any serious damage was done.  When Raim told her Plat had been responsible, she was half shocked and half incredulous.  The Plat Raim described sounded nothing like the one she had known.  However, who was she to judge since she hadn''t seen him in years and Raim had been her friend for a long time.


    After all, Raim had always looked out for her.


    End Flashback


    She remembered clearly when Reva came into her room.  She had fallen to her bed as Reva sniffed on a chair.


    "How, how is he?" She had asked quietly, "Is he hurt bad?"


    "Sniff, yes, and it''s all my fault."  Reva cried out into her hands.


    Reva explained that she had had a crush on Plat since she had first met him.  Meeting Sarah and learning about her connection to Plat had started feelings of jealousy inside her.  Raim had come to her and offered his help to separate the two, so she had worked to keep Sarah away from Plat so she could have him to herself.


    When Sarah had told her about her plans for Plat, Reva''s anger had burned over and she had blurted it out in anger to Raim, her ally in keeping the two separate.  He had told her he would take care of it, and left.  She had received a message about what she needed to do, and she had obeyed.  Now, her crush was possibly dying and one of her friends was hurt badly as well


    "To make it worse, I think Raim had something to do with both injuries." Reva confessed, "He seemed kinda deranged after hearing about you meeting, and he was definitely unstable in the game."


    Sarah was in shock at the news.  Her best friend loved the man she had feelings for, and had tried to keep them apart so she could have him.  Not only that, but her good friend was possibly responsible for Plat being in the hospital.  As she thought about it, she couldn''t help but remember Raim''s cruelty back when they were children.


    ''Maybe,'' She reasoned, ''He never outgrew it.''


    Guilt shook her as well as rage.  She calmed herself though, using the meditative techniques she had learned from her soul classes.  It was hard, the betrayal of her best friend cut deep, but she understood her feelings.  After all, Plat was a boy worth have feelings for.


    It was not, however, going to make her punishment any less.


    "Why are you telling me this?"  Sarah asked evenly, keeping her voice down.


    "Because you''re my best friend, and I''m sorry for hurting you and him."  Reva looked into her eyes, the apology showing in her eyes and face.  "Please forgive me, I''m sorry, so sorry."  Her crying resumed, this time sitting on her knees with her arms hanging uselessly on her side.


    Sarah''s heart broke seeing her friend like this.  No matter how angry she was, Reva was deserving of a little forgiveness.  Not now of course, Sarah saw years of personal repentance for this shit, but she did like Reva as a best friend, and hurting her even more now would likely break her before she properly repented.


    She took her in her arms, "Okay, but never lie to me again, understand?"  Reva nodded, tears of relief running down her face, "Thank-you."


    "Don''t thank me yet."  Sarah said coldly, pushing Reva back abruptly, "For this sin, you owe me a life debt and I won''t except anything less."


    Reva pales quickly, frozen in fear.  A life debt came from a terrible sin, a loss of honor, or saving another''s life.  It bound the debtor to serve and obey until the oath was released verbally, otherwise it passed on to the next of kin.  It was something that arose during the A.I. wars in order to create greater unity within the human side of the war.  It had succeeded, but many servants to this day still worked under the debts their parents swore.


    "Sarah, please no."  She cried softly.


    Sarah shook her head, "This is not only for me, but for Plat too."  She declared, "I''m going to have him no matter what, and your actions hurt him and me."  Her gaze softened a bit, "But I love you like a sister, and someday you may redeem yourself, so please, take the oath.  Otherwise, I never want to see you again."


    Sniffling, Reva had nodded.


    "I, Reva, swear to serve Sarah Brighteyes until the day of my death or oath fulfilled, in this I swear."  Reva said.


    A red light glowed on her wrist-phone, registering the debt.  Now, all of her person was legally controlled by Sarah.


    Sarah smiled at her friend and hugged her, "Okay, now lets go see Plat."


    The two had then visited Plat after school.  Reva couldn''t bring herself to say anything but "sorry" to him, but Sarah talked to him the entire visit.  They visited the rest of the week, but Reva stayed outside the door after the first visit.


    Now, Sarah sat alone in her seat, taking the time to burn her love''s face into her heart.  Raim hadn''t come to see her the entire week, but he had sent a single letter to her the night of Plat''s accident.  The letter had only held two words:


    "You''re mine."


    Sarah knew of his father''s position, which was doubly important as most kids didn''t know their parents.  If he wanted her, he would stop at nothing to have her.


    Still, events from the game forcibly separated her from him and she was now in the elf kingdom taking on quests for their country.  She and Reva decided then that they would strong enough in the game to leave the elf kingdom and journey to find Plat, no matter how long it took.  Privately, Sarah resolved herself that if she couldn''t stay with Plat in the real world, she would make sure to join him in the digital one, even if it required sacrifice.


    As she left the hospital room, Sarah returned to her chair to continue her weekend training spree.


    Plat was hers now, and she would do anything to reach him.

 Chapter 18

    Sorry about the delay guys, just wanted to release some chapters for Slime Dungeon to keep people hyped for the book release.  I must say, you fans out there won''t be disappointed by this chapter heh heh heh


    Enjoy!


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


    "Now let''s see; if I was wolf, where would I be?" Steel muttered to himself as he made his way through the forest.  The fence surrounding the farmlands actually enclosed a small forest within it.  Apparently, this was the area where the wolves were said to appear, according to his min-map at least.  So far, he hadn''t had any luck.


    "Maybe my curse is driving them off like with the rats." He wondered as he walked by a stump, "That would suck if all animals avoid me because of it."  He kicked the stump in frustration, instantly regretting his decision when the rather realistic pain in his foot kicked in.


    ''Just my luck.'' He angrily muttered to himself.


    A sudden growl directed his attention around to his back.  A wolf was growling at him from next to a tree.  The wolf was level 7 and was obviously displeased by Steel''s presence.  Steel grinned evilly; just the thing to work off his frustrations.


    "I worked on my attack skills with those rats, so let''s test out my defensive skills with this wolf." Steel planned out.  As he equipped his weapons from his back, the wolf gave a howl and rushed at him.  Snarling, it leaped forward with it''s claws outstretched and it''s mouth wide open.


    Steel narrowed his eyes and raised his shield, activating ''shield block''.  The wolf landed against the shield and bounced off, landing gracefully in front of Steel.  It threw it''s body into the shield, forcing Steel back under the weight of it''s blow.


    "The timer takes too long." Steel muttered as he watched the skill icon for ''Shield Block'' recharge.  In game, skills all had recharge times so a player couldn''t constantly span a move.  Fighting skills had the longest cooldowns but could be cast instantly, while spells required a charging up period before activation and had lower cooldowns.  As skills and spells leveled up, the cd could be reduced, but never eliminated.  His ''Shield Block; skill could completely nullify a single attack, but it had a long recharge time as a result.


    Naturally, the wolf was not going to wait around for him.  It ran around to his unprotected side and began snapping at him.  Steel winced as his life began to decrease and used ''Spear Thrust'' to drive it away.  Unlike the rats, this wolf was posing a bit of a problem for him.


    The wolf charged him again, but this time Steel rushed forward with his shield, activating ''Shield Bash''.  The blow sent the wolf tumbling back, but failed to trigger a ''dazed'' condition.


    "A skill that relies on luck isn''t worth much." Steel observed as he ''Triple Striked'' the wolf, "It''s better to rely on things that never fail you, otherwise disappointment will arise."


    As the wolf reached half-health, it reared back and howled.  A notice popped up in front of Steel''s face, notifying him that additional enemies had been called.  He paled slightly.


    "Dammit, it has a summoning desperation skill." Steel was really pissed now, but he wasn''t about to retreat and let the wolf win.  He rushed forward and stabbed the wolf repeatedly before it could move and finally shield bashed it into the tree.  He was pleasantly surprised to see the bash had inflicted terrain damage from heavy contact with the bark.


    "Good to know for the future, now experience my thanks for your help." Steel smiled happily as he used ''Spear Thrust'' on the wolf''s head, inflicting an automatic critical hit.  With a pitiful whine, the wolf dissolved into light as it dropped fangs and a pelt onto the ground.  Steel nodded his approval as he stored away the material.


    A loud snarling alerted him that the wolf reinforcements had arrived.  3 more wolves ran out of the forest at him, biting and barking as they rushed him.


    "Nope." Steel said before he used ''Triple Strike'' to create three foot holds on the tree.  With the agility of a monkey, he quickly climbed the tree to it''s lowest branch and sat on it as he gazed down at the infuriated wolves.  He wasn''t sure how much intelligence the game granted to these animals, but they were pretty pissed that their prey has escaped them.  They barked at him as they ran around the tree and jumped up to snap at him.


    "Piss off." Steel thrusted into one of the leaping wolves, critically striking it''s ear.  The wolf fell with a cry and began to run in circles as it repeatedly fell to the ground.  Steel nodded his head, "Nice, the game even acknowledges the conditions an injury would cause, like loss of balance.  Wonder if that applies to me too?" He wondered as he casually impaled another wolf''s eye.  This wolf fell to the ground and disappeared into light.  Steel was shocked.


    "No way, how could I cause an instant kill?  It''s a level above me; even with a critical hit it should have at most removed half it''s health."  Suddenly curious, he inspected the two remaining wolves closely with his scan ability.  To his surprise, the two were already injured and had minor bleeding debuffs on their bodies.


    "I wonder what hurt them." Steel thought out loud as he jumped down and began fighting the last wolf.  The wolf was weaker than the first one, and easily died under Steel''s spear, soon followed by it''s last brethren.  Steel happily gathered the additional pelts and fangs as he turned curiously toward the direction the two wolves had come from.


    "I wonder if something interesting is happening over there."  Resolved to find out, Steel began walking into the forest.  As he walked forward, his eyes noticed small amounts of blood on the ground and plants.  He bent over and rubbed it between his fingers, thinking that it was from the two wolves.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Tracking</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You are a hunter, capable of following hidden paths to your targets.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Improves chances of noticing hidden paths and trails


    Passive: Your sight has improved, +5% dexterity</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "How does sight translate into dexterity?" Steel wondered as he dismissed the notification.  "Must have something to do with perception, which I guess is involved with that."  Not completely satisfied with his logic, Steel shrugged and returned his attention to the forest.  Now, however, he could clearly see a transparent red path that led deeper into the forest.


    Satisfied, he followed it while keeping his eyes and ears out for any signs of danger.  As he walked along, he began to pick up on the sounds of animals fighting.  He could hear howls, cries, snarls, and the rather pointed sound of flesh being teared.


    Steel knelt down and slowly walked over into a bush and moved aside a few leaves to stare out.  Ahead, a clearing was currently the battlefield of two opposing animal sides.  To Steel''s shock, he saw wolves fighting against rabbits; or rather, as he looked closer, devil rabbits.  The ferocious variant beasts were ripping into the wolves with shocking aggression, while the wolves worked in coordinated strikes to shred the devil rabbits.


    "The hell is this?" Steel muttered as he gazed out in shock.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Notice</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>During your experience in Everlife, you may come across two warring factions fighting for control of an area or resource.  You may choose to help a side and contribute to their success in order to acquire intimacy and knowledge</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Current Skirmish:</td><td colspan=''2''>Wolf Pack vs. Rabbit Herd</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel''s eyes bugged out as he read the surprise notification.  "The hell, even animals have territory disputes?" He couldn''t help but marvel at the sight, "How the hell do you raise intimacy with animals in the first place?"


    Steel suddenly remembered the existence of beast-tamer classes, the pet system, and druid related classes.  "I guess that answers that.  Now, who do I help?"


    Naturally, Steel didn''t have a good feeling with either side.  The rabbits were obviously ferocious man-eaters that devoured everything but their fluffy brethren.  On the other side, the wolves were the exact same way.


    "Why did those three weakened wolves leave this fight to attack me?" Steel sudden realized, "Don''t the wolves need all the help they can get?"


    His question was answered as a enormous howl shook the forest.  Out of the shadows, a large black wolf ran out and tore apart the unsuspecting devil rabbits in front of it.  Steel was shocked as he read the beast''s information.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Demon Wolf, lvl 9</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "I guess that''s the boss." Steel sighed.  He knew that the level 6-7 devil rabbits stood no chance against this monster while the other wolves were helping it.  He decided to let the wolves finish up and he would swoop in after to take the leftovers.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    As he thought this, a small mewing sound grabbed his attention.  He turned in the bush to look over, and found himself staring at a small baby rabbit.  Actually, it was a small devil rabbit, but it''s teeth hadn''t grown out yet and it looked quite cute.  It wiggled it''s nose at him and mew''d again, hopping away.  Steel''s eyes followed it as it ran into a burrow, where he saw mother rabbits and other babies shivering.


    "The wolves are invading their home." Steel realized with a jolt.  This wasn''t an ordinary skirmish, the wolves were trying to exterminate the entire burrow of rabbits.  Steel didn''t care too much about animals fighting, as it resembled humans too much, but his vengeful spirit would not allow such weak innocents to be slaughtered in front of him.


    "Shit, how annoying." He groaned as he picked himself up.  Resolving himself, and taking a swig of one of the few health potions Eric had given him, Steel roared like a madman and dashed into the battle field, waving his weapons wildly.


    His plan was so successful at shocking the animals that they all paused for a moment to stare at the crazy human.  In that time, Steel used ''Spear Throw'' and killed the wolf in front of him.  Not pausing, he picked it up and roared again as he threw himself on top of another wolf and began to stab over and over into it''s neck.  This wolf also died in a flurry of lights as it whined sadly.


    The battle resumed as the wolves were forced to separate into battling him and the rabbits.  Seeing the wolves trying to coordinate themselves into a pack again, Steel quipped his beginner spear and launched it at the head wolf, missing it''s body but landing a solid blow on it''s leg.  Crippled, the lead wolf gave a pitiful howl as the other wolves were forced to break formation, making them easy targets for the remaining devil rabbits.


    The demon wolf turned to glare at Steel angrily, as if blaming him for the sudden turn in tide.  Steel grinned evilly at it and heft his spear, "Well?  Come on then you little bitch."


    Not the best choice of insult in hindsight, as the demon wolf immediately roared in rage and charged straight at him.  Slightly paling, Steel unashamedly turned and high tailed it out of the clearing with a loud, "Oh hell no, what was I thinking!"


    He was forced to once again climb a tree at the edge of the clearing as the demon wolf was much faster than him.  However, this wolf was more clever than it''s brethren and began to ram the tree with it''s body, causing to groan and shake at the attack.


    "Shit, I can''t reach it from here." Steel muttered as he eyed the large wolf.  His other spear was still back at the clearing, so if he threw this one he would be weaponless.  On the other hand, the tree was going to fall soon s it was not very thick or young.


    "Think, what have I learned today?" Steel muttered to himself as the tree shook again.  "Well . . . that''s an idea."


    Smiling aggressively, Steel returned his spear to his back as he grasped his shield with both hands.  He waited until the wolf was about to charge the tree, then jumped in the air and fell down with his feet and arms inside the shield like a human cannonball.


    "Shield Bash!" He cried as he slammed into the wolf''s head as it rammed into the tree.  Steel had learned that he could inflict damage with the environment, and that injuries sustained provided related pain and debuffs; like when his toe got hurt from kicking a tree.  The demon wolf not only received impact from slamming into the tree, it also received Steel''s full weight as well as an impact skill strengthened by the games'' physics.  The daze chance rose from a mere 15%, since it was a slightly larger creature than Steel, all the way to 100%.  It gave a very strange howl as it staggered backwards in confusion.


    "Chance!" Steel cried out, ignoring the obvious;y painful backlash from his insane tactic.  He rushed forward and began stabbing every part of the wolf''s head that he could reach: eyes, nose, mouth, ears, tongue, and even the lower part of the neck.  With the wolf unable to dodge, all of his blows landed as critical hits.


    Still, the wolf was 4 levels higher than Steel and recover from the daze.  Snarling at it''s pain, it slammed Steel backward with a paw swipe and knocked him onto his back with leap.  It''s snarling head snapped at him as Steel used his shield to desperately hold it back from his face.  As it''s claws began to scratch into the shield, Steel''s hopes could only plummet as he watched it''s durability begin to fall.  Also, his stamina meter was almost empty from the successive blow he had just landed, so soon he would be unable to resist the wolf''s attack.


    "Shit, I guess this is the end." He muttered as he watched his stamina bar hit zero, "Stupid wolf!" He cried out in defiance as his arms collapsed under the wolf''s weight.


    However, the wolf reared back in pain and left Steel as it whined.  Steel leaned up to find the devil rabbits leaping onto the demon wolf and biting it repeatedly.  The demon wolf did everything it could to dislodge them, from rolling on the ground to slamming into trees, but the little devils would not give up.  Eventually, the wolf howled and fell forward dead.


    Steel sighed as he watched himself level up to level 6 as his stamina meter recharged right after.  Cursing at the realistic pain, he dragged himself up, only to find himself surrounded by rabbits and devil rabbits.  They all stared up at him with their rabbit expressions.


    Steel began to sweat, "Um, I come in peace?"


    The rabbits tackled him and fell to the ground, buried underneath a pile of white, bloodied fur.  He struggled to escape, but their rabbit softness and weight forced him down.


    "Help!  They''s eating me!" He cried out, only to find the rabbits were all licking him, every. single. bit. of. him.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Intimacy with Rabbit Burrow of Rostwood Forest has reached maximum</td>[tr]


    [tr]<td colspan=''4''>Congratulations on being the first person to befriend an animal pack.  Title: Rabbit Friend has been acquired.  When equipped, intimacy with all rabbit related creatures will become maximum.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>The grateful rabbits will present you with a gift</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "How do rabbits have enough intelligence to give gifts?" Steel cried out at the sudden unrealisticness of the game.  In response, a rabbit on his head popped on his nose, filling it with a horrifying stench.  Steel shot up and sent rabbit flying as he frantically removed the offending pellets form his nose.  He gave a glare, but couldn''t identify which rabbit had committed the deed.  They all stared up at him with an air of innocence.


    "Fine, whatever.  I just need the wolf fangs and some devil rabbit fangs anyway."  He muttered quietly.


    The rabbits, who all had large ears, separated into three groups.  One group shot away into the forest, the second began dragging the wolf corpses back to their burrow, and the third actually began to bring him back fangs.  Steel raised an eyebrow at the two piles of fangs in front of him.


    "Oh, thanks I guess." He said awkwardly as he scratched his head, "I guess devil rabbits are a lot smarter than I gave you credit for."  The rabbit left and joined the second group in dragging the wolf bodies away.


    "I guess when players kill things, we get loot but when NPCs kill things the bodies remain behind." Steel observed, "Now, let''s see what''s this fellow have."  He walked over to demon wolf corpse and inspected it.  While the corpse didn''t disappear, it did have a sparkle to it which begged to be touched.  As Steel touched it, an inventory menu popped up, displaying a demon wolf pelt and a demon wolf fang.  Steel clicked on both, and the two moved into his inventory.


    "I guess shared kills have this option." Steel watched as the rabbits dragged the demon wolf away, "Better get back to the city now since I have all the fangs."  As he turned to leave, however, he found a few rabbits blocking his path.  Steel tilted his head curiously, "What''s wrong; I can''t leave yet?"


    A sudden rustle alerted Steel to his right.  Two rabbits exited a bush and dropped a figure at his feet.  One, to Steel''s surprise, was the baby rabbit that had approached him earlier.  To his shock, the other was wolf cub, who was crying pitifully as it had not yet opened it''s eyes.


    <table><tbody>[tr]<td colspan=''4''>The rabbits have gifted you with a devil rabbit cub and a demon wolf cub</td>[tr]</tbody></table>


    Before Steel could react, the two cubs turned into light and flowed into his body.  His character menu popped up, and the two cubs appeared in his picture on either side of his avatar, along with two character sheets.


    Steel could only stare in complete shock.


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


    It''s not Hunie.  Hunie is later in story.  Nice try hoping for that though.

 Chapter 19

    So, I had a wonderful vision the other day for a game idea for The Slime Dungeon.


    Imagine a game where you can create your own dungeon.  You pick a starting race and terrain type and grow your first monsters.  Automatic NPC''s would then enter your dungeon in groups and attempt to fight their way down.  In beautiful unreal 4 engine style, you -the protagonist spirit- could move universally through your dungeon in any direction and posses any monster to use to fight in real-time combat.  As things die in your dungeon, you can expand and add new features to your dungeon, all the while with a meter below, like in Plague. Inc., that shows lethality, adventurer greed level, and growth rate.  If your dungeon grow too hard and dangerous, adventurers would try to kill the dungeon.  If the dungeon treasure become worthless, they would also try to kill the dungeon.  There could also be a simple, retro 8-bit version of the game as well that would be simpler.


    What do you guys think?  I have no programming skills, or computer power (I checked), for this so it remains a far off dream.


    Enjoy the chapter, and expect a second one tonight.


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


    "I don''t want them, take them back." Steel tried to give his new pets away.  Unfortunately, the two pets were marked "bound" in their character menus and the devil rabbits and regular rabbits had already left for their homes.  Steel fumed for a moment as he suddenly found himself with two additional mouths to feed.  The two were not even level 1 yet as they were both still babies.


    Steel sighed and rubbed his head, calming himself down.  He rationally figured that someone that dealt with pets and beasts would be in the city and would be able to remove the binding.  After that, Steel could likely sell both pets for a good amount of silver or gold since they were both variant beasts.  He shook his head and summoned the two animals out.


    The wolf and rabbit both came out of his body in a stream of light and sat down on the forest floor staring up at him.  The wolf pup had changed, now looking a few weeks old with it''s eyes open rather than it''s previous just born appearance.  The rabbit also looked further grown, but neither had become adults yet.  The two animals stared up at him with innocent eyes.


    "I guess you both need names so I don''t keep calling you rabbit and wolf." Steel muttered as he stared down at them with his arms folded across his chest, "Fine; you are Lobo the wolf and you are Akami the rabbit." Steel nodded in satisfaction.


    The two gave him a look that suggested they realized he had just called them out in a different language.  Lobo actually growled at him.  Steel made a quick check, "My bad; how about Loba?" The wolf stopped growling and resumed staring at him, so he figured she approved.


    However, before he could do anything else, the two began whining in hunger.  Steel grimaced and covered his ears, "Okay, okay, okay, I''ll make some food.  Stop crying already."  He took out the cooking skillbook and activated it.  As it vanished into a shower of light, a notification popped up.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Cooking</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>You can make a meal out of ingrediants.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Improves chances of successfully creating a dish


    -14% chance of ruining your dish</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Huh, I guess that farmer''s wife was a good cook." Steel noted as his skill started at Beginner 3 rather than Beginner 1.  He noted that the skill had started at 10% reduction, but improved to 14 due to the level up.  Steel gathered some wood and set it aflame with his fire spell.  Soon, a nice little bonfire was roaring away as Steel cooked some rat meat skewers over it.  The smell made him, Loba, and Akami drool in anticipation, even if it was rat meat.  When he finished, he ate the first skewer and relished the taste.


    "I guess those rats must have fattened up in that barn, because they don''t taste gamey at all." He marveled as he threw a skewer to each pet, "There is even some marbling in this, how interesting."


    The three of them quickly ate threw his supply of rat meat, and Steel was reluctant to serve any rabbit or wolf meat to the two, not that he had a lot since he didn''t get a good chance to gather.


    Steel couldn''t help but chuckle as he watched them pull the last skewer apart into two pieces and devour it.  "You two sure are interesting.  Tell you what, if you two ever bring back meat in the future, I''ll cook it for you."  Steel had said that jokingly, since they were still young and he wasn''t going to keep them, but Loba and Akami stared at him with glittering eyes that suggested they were daydreaming.  Steel, of course, did not notice this and thought about how interesting this adventure would be with the two animals.


    "Well, until I sell them." He reminded himself.  "No sense keeping anyone who will betray me in the future.  Now, I just need to find those herbs and finish both quests."


    Steel paused as an idea occurred to him.  He took out green herb and bent down to show it to the two animals.  "I need plants like this." He explained, "Bring some back and I''ll cook for you."


    The two pets sniffed the herb and disappeared in a flash.  Steel checked the mini-map and found he could see both of them as moving dots on the map.


    "They are really proving their worth." He muttered under his breath as he began to move toward the marked areas where the rare herbs were located.  Unbeknownst to Steel, devil rabbits and demon wolves were actually fairly intelligent with much better senses than their normal kin.  While he vaguely understood they were smarter than a normal animal, he didn''t realize how close they were to human reasoning.


    The closest area on the mini-map marked for red herbs wasn''t too far from his current spot, so he walked towards it.  After a few minutes of walking, he came across another large clearing in the forest.  The clearing this time had no stream and was largely elevated as a hill.  It was also covered in a variety of plant life, most of which did not have the tell-tale sparkle that indicated they could be picked.


    Curious, Steel reached down and picked one of the normal looking plants; all it had for a name was "Weed".  Evidently, not every plant was usable in Everlife, besides being used as a decoration or aesthetics appeal.  Steel shrugged and threw the plant away as he began to comb the hill for the herbs he needed.  The red herbs were very difficult to locate because they grew next to rocks, and there weren''t that many rocks on the grassy hill.  Even then, Steel had to carefully gather them so as to not ruin their quality.  After an hour or so of work, he had only 2 red herbs of decent quality and 3 red herbs of poor quality.  Steel was made because he now had 5 stalks, but only two were the right quality.


    "Then again," He opened up the quest log and stared at it, "She didn''t specify the quality, so maybe I could get away with this."  Steel shook his head after he thought about it for a moment.  He wasn''t the type of guy to shirk on his duty to get it done faster; those who had bullied him had mostly been those types of people.  He ground his teeth in anger as he considered being compared to them, an evil glow appearing for a moment in his left eye before disappearing.


    "I''ll find those damn red stalks if it''s the last thing I do." He swore out as he hurriedly returned to searching the area.  unfortunately, he failed to find anymore in the area and was left frustrated and annoyed.  In his anger, Loba and Akami returned, holding a bundle of herbs in their mouths.  They both spit the herbs out at Steel''s feet before grimacing.  Evidently, they both hated the taste of plants.


    Steel nodded and began to absentmindedly store the herbs in his inventory.  He casually inspected one before he fell backwards in shock.  The green herbs well all of good quality, and to his mighty surprise there was a single yellow herb in Akami''s pile.  Even Steel''s icy heart couldn''t help but leap for joy at the sight of the yellow stalk, an existence so rare he could not have imagined finding it so easily.


    "Akami, you get an extra meat skewer for this one."  He said, rubbing the little rabbit''s head.  The rabbit shot a triumphant look at the wolf when Steel looked away.  Loba looked glum before perking her ears up and sniffing the red herb at Steel''s feet.  She ran off and returned quickly with a single decent quality red herb.


    Steel stared in shock.


    "I''ve been looking for 3 hours for those, how did you find it so quickly?"


    The wolf pup stared innocently up at Steel, than barked and wagged her tail.  Steel pushed himself up and followed her down the hill to the forest.  There, she led him to a large rock with another red herb sticking out from under it.  Steel smacked his head in exasperation.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Of course the hill isn''t the only place to find it." He felt stupid as he realized his mistake, "They grow near rocks, so all I had to do was find rocks still within the set area."  He shook his head to get over it and reached down to gather the second stalk.  He managed to get it with decent quality, bringing his total up to 6 stalks.


    "Okay, I think that''s good enough for now." Steel announced a little later as he stowed away his fifth stalk of decent quality, "Let''s go back to the city and finish up these quests."  The two animals seemed to nod as they turned back into light and entered Steel''s body.


    The trek back to the city was easy and swift, with no random encounters occurring.  Steel nodded to the two gate guards, who acknowledged his return with a nod, and walked to the mage tower.


    When he arrived, he walked over to Marie''s station without even pausing to check if she was available or not; she wasn''t.  Marie, who looked alert this time, but still bored, perked up at his approach and raised a questioning eyebrow.


    "Was the quest too hard for you; it''s only been a day.  I expected more from you." She scolded him as a notice popped up that his intimacy with her had fallen.


    Steel rolled his eyes and dumped all the fangs on to her desk.  "This enough for you?"


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed (Special)</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Learn Magic II</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have successfully delivered all the fanges Maries asked for to her and even given her an extra demon wolf fang in record time.  Marie had been suitably impressed.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Marie has risen to Trusted


    For returning in record time, Marie will teach you an extra spell


    For delivering a demon wolf fang, Marie is ecstatic and will reward you</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel raised an eyebrow at the ambiguous reward list and looked over at Marie.  The receptionist was staring down at the pile in shock still, and then shakily removed the demon wolf fang with her hand.  She cupped it as she stared at it, wide eyed in amazement.


    "This, this is a demon wolf fang!" She said excitedly, "I never thought you would be able to get one; that means you got the pelt too!"  She stared at him hungrily, "I''ll pay you for all the pelts you took."


    Steel had a small grin as he took out the rat pelts, the wolf pelts, and the demon wolf pelt and handed them over to Marie.


    "You don''t have any devil rabbit pelts?" Marie sounded a little disappointed.


    Steel shook his head, "No."


    Marie shrugged and happily stored the pelts and fangs under her desk.  She gave Steel the first real smile he had ever seen on her face.  He couldn''t help but notice how pretty she looked when she wasn''t frowning.  "You''ve helped me more than you know young traveler." She told him, "Thanks to you, I''ll be able to continue my research that was destroyed in an accident.  Here, take these two spell books; but don''t let anyone see you."  She stealthily removed two spell books and passed them over to Steel, who put them in his inventory before he could see them .  She winked at him, "If you want to help me again, return when you become stronger and I''ll have another assignment for you.  When you do, I''ll have something for you as well."


    She happily began to write on a piece of paper, indicating Steel had been dismissed.  He got up and nodded to her before leaving the mage tower for Roxanne''s Apothecary shop.


    As usual, the shop was busy with players buying potions and herbs.  Steel walked past the line and took out the leaf letter.  The receptionist, a lady this time, nodded and allowed him to move past her into the back.


    He found Roxanne working at her alchemy table; crushing herbs and mixing them into potions.  The beautiful lady turned with a smile to look at him.  "Good day young traveler, how my I help you?"


    Steel took out the bundles of herbs, "I have returned with the herbs you requested of me my lady."


    Roxanne nodded and beckoned for him to follow.  She led back to the secret room, where her face changed from welcoming to a solemn happiness.  "It is a good sign that you have returned so quickly.  Come. allow me to inspect what you have brought back.


    She carefully looked at each stalk of herb he had given her, separating them into piles of quality.  She nodded her approval at the red herbs and clapped her hands happily at the yellow herb.


    "I am rather surprised that you were able to acquire this yellow herb at decent quality; with your experience in gathering it should have been a poor stalk.  Did you take this from another?" She asked him curiously.  By her tone, it was apparent she wouldn''t mind if he told her he had stolen it.


    Steel shook his head, willing his two pets out, "No, these two helped me out with that."


    Roxanne gave a gasp of surprise as she began to coo and pet the two little cubs, who obviously enjoyed her attentions.  "How amazing to have both a devil rabbit and a demon wolf as pets." She complimented him.


    "You want to buy them?  I''m planning on selling them." Steel asked her.


    The two cubs began to cry and quickly escaped Roxanne''s hands to rub themselves against Steel''s leg.  They mew''d and cried as they looked up at him with puppy eyes.  Steel was at a loss.


    Roxanne, on the other hand, had a chuckle.  "I do not believe they want to leave you." She observed, "In any case, it would highly benefit you to keep the both of them with you.  Both are variant creatures with the potential to evolve, and both can acquire skills if you train them properly.  Also, with your curse you will need help in battles; which these two can provide when they grow up."


    "Anyway," She continued, "You have satisfied my request to completion, so I thank you."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Gather herbs II</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have satisfied Roxanne''s request and brought her the herbs she needed.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>10 silver


    Intimacy with Roxanne has increased


    5 stamina potions for bringing back the yellow herb


    Exp has been acquired</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel raised an eyebrow as Roxanne handed over the yellow potions, "Are the yellow herbs used to make these stamina potions?" He asked.


    Roxanne nodded, "Yes, that is correct.  Green and Red herbs can be used to make potions of healing while Blue and Yellow herbs can be used to make mana and stamina potions respectively.  The cities where travelers appear only have a single variety of each type, so they are named by color.  However, when you eventually leave this city you will find a great variety of herbs and plants in the world that cannot be simply called by color.  However, the colors you learn here are rather universal, so eventually you''ll be able to to identify a plant by the color of it''s aura, smell, and appearance."


    ''So that''s it.'' Steel realized, ''In Everlife, each plant will somehow be related to one of these four colors, which will indicate what it can be used for.  Even if there are thousands upon thousands of plants, just knowing what it can be an ingredient for makes sorting a lot easier.''


    While Steel was thinking this, Roxanne stored away the herbs and returned to him.


    "Young traveler, I see you are still weak and new to the world.  You may keep bringing me herbs, but I will not give you a new request until you become stronger.  I advise you to take some quests within the city to familiarize yourself with the residents."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Explore the City</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Roxanne the apothecary has no need of you until you reach level 15.  She had suggested you fulfill quests for the residents around the city to increase your fame.  She has already spread word of you to her friends and business partners..</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Fulfill 10 requests for the citizens of Rostwood</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Rewards from each quest, Fame within the city, and exp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have acquired 50 fame</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel sighed in acceptance; the road to vengeance appeared to be a long one.

 Chapter 20

    Hey hey, finally got my first readable review! (How do you make invisible ones I wonder>.>)


    Much appreciated, thank you very much.


    Now, let''s see what type of shenanigans Steel gets into this chapter and beyond


    Falcon on how to write a chapter without writer''s block for the "inspiration" type writer


    <b>Spoiler</b> : <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>


    From my experience, here is the best way for you writers who don''t like to plan things out.


    1. Write all the major scenes that will be in the chapter


    For instance: searches for herbs, fights wolf, fights rabbit, complete quest, complete herb quest


    2. Next, write your chapter.  Feel free to change any of your points, but never have less than what you started.  Never stop writing until you have all plot points in the chapter


    3. Review what you wrote.  Does it make sense?  Did you make a plot hole?  Were you not satisfied by the outcome?


    If so, add on or rewrite the parts you aren''t sure about.  However, never take away from the chapter.


    4. Edit the chapter.  Optional for most, most basic is to put it into word and run spellcheck, most complicated is having someone read it.


    Personally, I just type on RRL and don''t edit it too often.  I leave that for later.  Obviously, this leads to grammar mistakes, but I have the grammar police helping me out in the comments so it''s okay.


    Good luck new and current writers


    Enjoy


    Note: I''m super tired from working, but here''s a short one since I promised you guys


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


    "Now, on you way young traveler." Roxanne made a shooing motion with her hands, "I need to get back to work now for my customers."  After closing the secret room, she returned to her work table and resumed her potion work.


    Steel left the store and walked over to a bench, Loba and Akami following him.  He sat down and sighed as he absent mindlessly began to pet both their heads.  The two did not mind the attention.


    "Okay," Steel began to think out loud, "I''m almost to level 7, I have enough coin to survive for now, and I''m barely closer to doing anything remotely useful in punishing those assholes."  It was a very glum outlook for him.  Roxanne had told him he should be at least level 20 before leaving the city, and even then she had warned him he was unlikely to achieve anything at that level.  Ignoring the two elves and the mysterious thief, Hero and Sir Courage were both in the capital city of the human kingdom, of which he had forgotten the name of, and were obviously begin taught by the best mentors over there.  Likely, they would be given all sorts of training supplements and useful items that would give them a clear edge over him.  Also, their fame would make it unlikely that anything would implement them in any crime.


    "Maybe I should form a damn bandit group and harass them until no one has any trust in them." He muttered miserably, "At least then I could have a venting source for my dissatisfaction."


    Akami licked his hand, drawing his attention down.  The rabbit wiggled it''s nose extended a paw toward Steel''s bag.


    "Sorry, no food right now." Steel chuckled as he pat the rabbit''s head, "Just some items and . . ."


    Steel quickly opened his inventory and removed the two spell books.  He had not taken the time to learn them yet, and now was as good a time as any.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the spell: Wind Boost</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>When cast, the power of the wind will dwell within the target.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Increases attack speed and movement speed of target</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the spell: Quickheal</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>When cast, user recovers a small bit of health and stops bleeding debuffs.  Does not work on internal injuries and other debuffs</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>heals for 5% of max health and removes bleed debuffs</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Well, this is a nice surprise." Steel smiled as the two books disappeared into particles of light, "A wind spell and a healing spell are both useful."  Steel decided to check all his current skills and spells since he had the time.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Skill List</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Cooking</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Tracking</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Foraging</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 2</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Herbology</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Persuasion</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 2</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Spear Thrust</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 3</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Triple Strike</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Shield Block</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Shield Bash</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Spear Throw</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Fire Starter</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Create Water</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Earth Shot</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Wind Boost</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Quickheal</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "Looks like I need to train my skills." Steel observed as he scanned the list, "In any case, when did I learn Herbology?" He honestly could not remember reading the notification, but since he had it he wasn''t complaining.  He hadn''t used any spells during the rat fight or wolf fight because his mana was still low and half of it was being constantly used for his disguising necklace.


    "Excuse me young sir, but can I ask for your help?"  Steel was distracted by a voice.  The voice belonged to an elderly lady who was caring a sack of food on her back, "I was wondering if you could help me with my other bag.  I don''t have the time for two trips today."


    Steel nodded and got up, Loba and Akami following him.  "Sure, I''d be glad to help."  The lady smiled and handed him her bag as she left.  Steel waited for awhile, holding the rather heavy bag.


    "There''s the thief!"  Steel found himself surrounded by guards before he could even blink.  Loba growled at the guards, but him herself with Akami between Steel''s legs.  A fat merchant strolled up to him with a smug smile on his face.


    "Finally you have screwed up Thousand Faces!" He announced loudly, drawing the attention of the passerby''s and shopkeepers, "You have been caught red handed!"


    "Surrender peacefully and receive a fair trial." A guard said, "If you resist, we will kill you."


    "Kill him now, otherwise he will escape later." The merchant advised.


    Steel raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Um, can someone tell me what''s going on?  An old lady asked me to help her with her groceries."


    "Save you lies!" The guard glared and smacked the bag out of Steel''s hands.  The bag hit the ground and spilled it''s contents, which was obviously not food.  Steel stared dumbfounded at the treasures that spilled out.


    "You idiot! You''ll ruin my merchandise!" The merchant screamed as he began to hurriedly pack his valuables back into the bag, "Thousand Faces, you''ll rue the day you crossed the Merchant Guild."


    "Um, I have no idea what''s going on." Steel said honestly.


    "Don''t worry, you''ll be reminded in jail." The merchant said smugly, than while on the ground he noticed Loba and Akami.  His eyes widened in greed.


    "You even stole my two pets, how evil!" The merchant began to feign a heart attack, "To think the evil Thousand Face would go so far as to steal my beloved pets.  Come to papa my dears." He beckoned to the two animals with out stretched arms.


    Steel stared at the merchant for a moment.


    "Sic em girls."


    The merchant turned into a ball of screams as the two infernal creature began to sink their teeth into his flesh.  He hopped up and down, shaking his fat body in a vain effort to dislodge the two creatures, but they held on fast with their strong teeth.


    "Have them release the guild representative or we''ll kill them." The guard demanded.


    Steel glared at him, but commanded, "Release girls."  The two jumped back to hide between Steel''s legs again, growling at the whimpering merchant.


    "Listen, I am no thief.  I am Steel the adventurer and traveler." Steel explained, "If you don''t believe me, then go ask Roxanne the apothecary.  I frequently gather herbs for her and just left after my last drop off. I was just sitting here petting my pets when a nice old lady asked for help with her bag.  I helped her and she left, and then you guys showed up and falsely accused me.  You even tried to steal my pets."  Steel was very much not amused at this.  "I was even planing on stopping by the merchant guild to sell these two, but now I think I''ll take my business elsewhere."


    At this point, Steel was fairly certain he''d activated some hidden side event by accident.  However, the merchant really pissed him off and he was preparing himself for dealing with the consequences of broad-light murder.


    One of the guards cam up and whispered in the lead guard''s ear.  His expression changed to regret and he coughed awkwardly.


    "My subordinate just found a mask from an old lady down the street.  We apologize for the misunderstanding sir Steel.  We''ll be on our way now."


    The merchant got up and glared at Steel, "Arrest him for assaulting me.  Also, confiscate those two animals for me."


    The guard, in turn, glared at the merchant, "We are not the Merchant Guild''s guard force, and it was obvious you were trying to steal from him.  You have your wares, so leave now."


    The merchant frowned, but snapped his fingers.  Two slaves walked forward and carried the bag away, the merchant following with one last glare at Steel.


    Steel at once got the notification saying his intimacy with the Merchant Guild had fallen to Wary.  He rolled his eyes and scratched the two animals on the head.


    "Good girls, you got that fat pig real good." He complimented them as they rubbed their heads against his hands happily.


    Now, Steel turned his full attention, and related annoyance, toward the figure who had caused him so much trouble in the first place.


    "Let''s see what I can find out about this so called, Thousand Face." He grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

 Chapter 21

    Steel checked, but a quest notification had not popped up even after everyone had left.  "Really, not even a prompt to search out my framer?" He shook his head in disappointment, than glanced down at Loba and Akami.  "Either of you think you can track that guys down by scent?"


    The two baby animals looked up at him with innocent looks.  Steel shrugged; he hadn''t really been expecting a response.


    "Well, I guess we''ll just have to keep an eye out.  Maybe I''ll find a related quest while helping out other NPC''s."  Shrugging to himself, Steel left the area and began walking down the streets of the mage quarter.  When he had explored the city for the beginner quest, he had not originally explored every road and shop along the way.  He gone down the quickest paths to the major locations and avoided any distractions, besides Roxanne''s shop.


    Now, he carefully watched the stall merchants as they hawked their wares and examined the players as they eagerly rushed into stores to buy new things.  His eye came across a store that looked empty.


    "Falcon''s Wonder Emporium" was drawn out across the opening of the building, but few players payed it any attention.  The few who went in, Steel saw, quickly left in disappointment.  His curiosity perked, Steel opened the door and walked inside.


    The inside of the store was filled with cages of all manner of sizes, and many were filled with creatures and monsters that began to make a racket as Steel walked in.  The shop owner was currently sitting on a chair with his feet on the counter as he flipped through a book in his hand.


    "All beginner level monsters have already been sold; the cheapest pet is 1 gold." He drawled out without looking up from his book.


    "This is a pet shop then?" Steel asked, unperturbed by the man''s bored tone.


    The man sighed and put the book down.  He got up and walked around the counter to look at Steel directly.  He was a tall man with a pointed nose and a head full of messy brown hair.  His eyes were also brown, and they stared down into Steel with an annoyed light.


    "This is no mere ''pet shop''," He emphasized, "This is a business that specializes in the acquisition and distribution of magical and non-magical creatures of domestic and feral origin.  We deal with everything from guards and mounts war beasts and companions.  A mere pet store; perish the thought." He waved his head sadly, "You travelers all seem to think that you''re entitled to a beast.  To be honest, the church did pay me to set aside some beginner beasts for those seeking a tamer or beast-master profession, but they disappeared the first day and now everyone who comes in get''s angry and blames me or some strange foreign god.  I''m quite sick of it actually."


    Apparently, so many travelers had come in and bothered the man his intimacy with all travelers had hit an all time low.


    "I''m sorry to bother you sir, but I already have two companions.  I was wondering if you could tell me how much they are worth." Steel informed him.


    The man raised an eyebrow, "That will be 1 silver, non-negotiable."


    Steel handed over the silver coin without complaint.  The man bit it and nodded his approval, "Nice to have some business these days.  Go ahead and bring them out and I''ll look at them."


    Steel turned and called out, "Stop hiding you two and come out."  When he had entered the store, Loba and Akami had both ducked behind cages so as to hide from the man behind the counter.  By the way they walked hesitantly, it was clear they had no desire to be near the store clerk.


    The man''s eyes widened and his head sharply turned to regard Steel, "Oh ho young man, you''ve quite surprised me.  Tell me, did you want to get them fully appraised?"


    Steel cocked his head in a questioning manner.  "Is not telling me their worth a full appraisal?"


    The man shook his head, "No sir.  Allow me to introduce myself; I am Falcon, master tamer and beast-master.  For those seeking the path of companionship, I offer my assistance as a mentor.  My complaining from earlier was merely to ward off those whose only desire is a pawn.  Tell me, do you wish to sell your beasts?  Is that the reason for the price check?"


    Steel scratched his chin as he looked down at his two pets.  Loba and Akami gave him the cutest eyes as they whimpered up at him.  Steel sighed and shook his head, "My original intention was to sell them because I''m a solo kind of person.  However, they have been extremely useful and well-behaved, so I am reluctant now to part from them."


    Falcon nodded, "I understand completely; not all humans enjoy the awkwardness and grandstanding of being with other people.  Beasts, on the other hand, are the perfect companions to have since they won''t betray you."


    Steel instantly became more alert, "Excuse me, can you elaborate more on this."


    Falcon smiled wolfishly, "Yes, you are not the only one who has experienced that kind of pain before.  Roxanne is a dear friend of mine, though I didn''t recognize you until your little beasts came out.  That curse is really off-putting isn''t it?"


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Important Information Acquired</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Falcon the Tamer has revealed himself to be of the same cult as Roxanne and offered his services to you


    Intimacy has risen to Trusted</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Falcon continued talking through the notification, "Now, not all of her friends are one of use, so be careful to reveal nothing incriminating.  Those of us who know will let you know, not the other way around.  To answer your earlier question," He walked behind his counter and took out a contract, "When a beast and master make a contract, they tie themselves to each other until death, financial interaction, or unbearable circumstances.  The magic involved is an old magic from a far time in the past, so it is fully binding."


    "Right now, you have a mere ''pet'' contract with your beasts.  They can leave you whenever they feel like it, but they won''t hurt you while under it.  An appraisal will allow you to see their hidden strengths and weaknesses, and you can choose to make a permanent contract with them afterwards.  Since you have paid, I shall deliver." Falcon muttered a spell and two notifications popped up in front of Steel when Falcon finished chanting.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Name:</td><td colspan=''2''>Loba</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Species:</td><td width="25%">Demon Wolf (Infant)</td><td width="25%">Level:</td><td width="25%">N/A</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Constitution:</td><td width="25%">Decent</td><td width="25%">Dexterity:</td><td width="25%">Excellent</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">Good</td><td width="25%">Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">Poor</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Strength:</td><td width="25%">Decent</td><td width="25%">Endurance:</td><td width="25%">Poor</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Skills:</td><td colspan=''2''>Foraging


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.Tracking


    Bite


    Charm (Infant Only)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''2''>Name:</td><td colspan=''2''>Akami</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Species:</td><td width="25%">Devil Rabbit (Infant)</td><td width="25%">Level:</td><td width="25%">N/A</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Constitution:</td><td width="25%">Poor</td><td width="25%">Dexterity:</td><td width="25%">Excellent</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">Good</td><td width="25%">Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">Good</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Strength:</td><td width="25%">Decent</td><td width="25%">Endurance:</td><td width="25%">Poor</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Skills:</td><td colspan=''2''>Foraging


    Tracking


    Bite


    Charm (Infant Only)</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "So this is what you meant by full appraisal." Steel muttered as he scanned the two new character sheets.  A small note indicated that he could now access either sheet from his own character menu, "What do the words mean?"


    Falcon nodded, "They refer to the quality of growth each creature will experience as they grow stronger.  It is similar to how items of value are measure in quality; poor, decent, good, excellent, and outstanding.  It is not often I get to see two animals with an excellent attribute, but even rarer to see both having a ''good'''' intelligence.  While these two will never be able to tank, they will be able to assist their master greatly in battle.  I''ll pay you 50 gold right now for the both of them."


    Steel raised an annoyed eyebrow, "I thought you were going to advise me to keep them to supplement my growth?"


    Falcon shrugged, "Business before pleasure I''m afraid; we are not that close."


    "I think I''ll keep them.  Can you think of anything else I might need to take care of them?"  Steel was barely able to keep his heart icy as the two animals cried in apparent victory and rubbed themselves against his leg.  Then again, his eyes tightened in anger, maybe it was better to be alone.


    As if reading the sudden change in Steel''s eyes, the merchant grabbed the contract and placed it on the floor.  "You two, paw print here please."  The two pets pawed the paper and Falcon handed it to Steel.  "Okay, now you sign it in blood?"


    "They get a paw-print and I have to cut myself?"


    "The''re children you big baby; here all done." Steel blinked at the wound that had appeared out of nowhere on his index finger.  A quick glance confirmed the shopkeeper was only level 12, but Steel privately figure it was actually higher.  Reluctantly, Steel signed his name in blood and the paper morphed into a light that enveloped the three.


    "Good, you are now bound until permanent death, the selling of the contract, or if the animals hate you so much they force the contract to break." Falcon announced, "Now, I have a few things here that would help you if you are willing to buy them."


    Steel caught the merchant''s arm before he turned away, "I was having a change of heart, but you pushed it onto me anyway in spite of saying earlier business before pleasure." Steel gave him a glare of suspicion, "What is you game?"


    The merchant smiled secretly at Steel, not taking offense to the grab, "As a beast-tamer, I could tell you those two little ones would do anything for you, so it would be wrong to take them.  As a merchant, I could say having unwilling merchandise is bad business.  As one who has lost many friends to treachery and disaster, I can tell you it is worth having someone beside you when traveling down dark roads.  In any case," he jerked his arm out of Steel''s grasp, "We are not good enough friends to discuss this further.  Now, you must be able to provide your two charges with food whenever they are hungry, which should align to when you eat.  Beyond that, there is little else for you to do.  If your charges cause trouble, you will be held responsible.  Likewise, if they are injured you are well inclined to take payment as recompense.  Since they have high intelligence values, you''ll find they can learn skills like you do; through experience or a skill book.  Naturally, they can''t read and thus cannot learn spells through skill books, but as they grow and evolve they might learn their own magic."


    "Oh right," Falcon nodded, "I should explain the process of monster evolution.  Through your travels, you charges will grow stronger alongside you.  Eventually, they will have satisfied certain internal conditions and will evolve into a stronger monster.  These conditions can vary from level to eating a particular monster or item to being in a certain place at a certain time.  This is a monster book you may take with you that outlines the most common monsters and beasts you may encounter." Falcon handed over a book to Steel, who stored it in his inventory.


    "Finally, I can change your class to tamer or beast-master if you like."


    Steel dismissed the two prompts as they appeared in front of him, "I have no desire to take more charges, those classes would be worthless to me."


    Falcon nodded, "Okay then, but out intimacy compels me to tell you your current class will conflict with your curse.  I advise you to change classes soon so as to avoid future trouble."


    "Thank-you for your help." Steel said as he turned to leave, "Come on you two."  As the two infant monsters scrambled to join him, Falcon called out, "Two more things; those two are complete opposites, so beware internal conflict as they grow up.  Also, Mrs. Frederick down the street has a mice problem.  Why don''t you use your two new friends to help her?"


    "They aren''t my friends." Steel muttered as he shut the door behind him, "They''re just tools to be used."

 Chapter 22

    So, I got my first "readable" review the other day.  Thank you very much for that.


    Now, obviously this story has a lot less of everything when compared with the original; followers, views, etc.  Not too disheartening considering I wrote it half a year ago and most of those followers are not likely on or care for the story.  If we get some other good reviews up, I ask that you guys hit a thumbs up or down so we can get the story into the top 5 reviews of the week; get that publicity out and all that.  Enough with author''s corner though, here''s the first chapter of the day


    Enjoy!


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


    As it turned out, Mrs. Fredrick''s was a tavern owner of the intimidating variety.  She was currently giving Steel a hard once-over with a scowl on her face.  A knife was stuck ominously in the wood where she had stuck it before looking at him.


    "Falcon sent ya over here did he?  Well, I guess someone who interests him must be at least usable."  She eyed the two quivering animals hiding behind Steel''s leg and sighed, "Cripes, even the wee beasties here shiver and cower at me.  They be good at mice catching then?" She asked Steel.


    "This is a learning experience for them ma''am." Steel said politely under her glare, "Even if they can''t, I''ll be sure to finish the job up for you Mrs. Fredrick''s."


    "Fine, but call me Mema.  Only that ruddy Falcon dares to call on me name so formally." She grunted and pointed her scarred hand at the back door, "That dare door be leading ya down to the basement.  Mice are small beasties, but dey can overwhelm a man if he ain''t careful.  Mind yourself down there boy."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Get Rid of Mice</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Mema the Tavern Owner has a mice problem in her basement.  Since she''s too busy to take care of it, she has asked you to rid the mice for her.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Kill at least 30 mice in the basement</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Mema, fame within the city, exp


    Rewards may be added to higher kill numbers</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded his head and herded the two animals to the basement door.  Finding the trapdoor and staircase, the three walked down into a dimply lit cellar filled crates and barrels for the tavern.  Even as they first entered, Steel could see small groups of mice running around the floor.


    Steel had a small grin on his face.  When he had finally accepted the two animals after the contract, his first thought had been worry.  After all, even the two would be great help someday, right now the two were babies with limited abilities.  Steel had checked the Everwiki about companion beasts and had found a limited amount of useful information.  Apparently, infant beasts would grow when they acquired exp; either through battle or quest completion.


    Naturally, Steel didn''t think sending the two of them to fight adult creatures would be terribly wise of him, but this quest had presented a unique opportunity for the two to gain experience though battle.  Likely, this was the reason why Falcon had recommended the quest in the first place.


    "Guess I do owe the guy then." Steel admitted reluctantly, "You two, think you can hunt the mice?"


    Loba gave a low growl and Akami began thumping her foot in anticipation.  Steel nodded his head, "Fine, but don''t attack too many at once, otherwise they''ll gang up on you."


    The two animals didn''t give him a sign they had heard, and they jumped down to the floor with a little drool coming out of their mouths.  Steel suddenly remembered his earlier agreement that he would cook anything they caught and felt a sudden sense of awkwardness.  Resolving himself to pay better attention to what he said in the future, he sat down to watch the two fight their first battle.


    At the moment, Loba was the size of a small dog and Akami was slightly smaller.  In the future, Loba would be slightly larger than a regular sized wolf and Akami would be about a quarter of that size.  They were both speed type fighters, relying on superior agility and maneuverability to outflank their opponents.  Neither would have the stamina to put up for long fights, but they had the strength to get in and eliminate their targets quickly.


    In the future anyway.


    Steel sighed and slapped his hand to his head as he watched the two infants running full pelt at him with a small swarm of angry mice chasing them.  They cried out for him in their whining voices.


    "I told you two to not attack large groups didn''t I?  Guess you both need to be taught better." He shook his head as he twirled his spear.  He did not equip his shield as it would be worthless against so many small and swift opponents, and using both hands to wield his spear would increase the damage slightly.


    As the first mice reached him, they reared back as Steel''s curse began to affect them.  Steel did not hesitate as he leaped down and sung his spear down in a slicing motion.  The mice, merely level 1-2, squealed in pain as they evaporated into little lights before him.  Steel kept up the momentum, using ''Spear Thrust'' and ''Triple Strike'' to attack multiple targets at once.  He was only to get about 12 of them before the mice scattered and vanished across the basement.  Steel nodded as he collected the mice pelts and meat, then turned to look at the two drooping animals behind him.


    "A much as I hate saying it," Steel sighed, "You both need to learn how to work together while you both are babies.  Akami, you go attract the attention of 3-5 mice and lead them back here.  Loba, you hide in the shadows until the mice near you, than leap out and attack.  When Loba attacks, that''s your signal to turn around and attack as well Akami.  When you win, switch roles and keep it up."  Steel paused to see if the two understood him.


    Akami seemed to incline her head in understanding, but Loba was obviously cocking her head in confusion.  Steel sighed and dragged Loba over to a corner hidden from most sides.


    "Stay." He commanded, than turned to Akami, "Bring back mice."  Akami ran off into the dark basement and quickly disappeared.  Steel waited for a moment, then heard Akami scampering back.  He looked down at Loba, "Attack the mice."


    Loba, who seemed to understand now, crouched in the shadows and stared wide eyed at the place where the sounds were coming from.  Akami burst out of the darkness, followed by 3 mice who were screeching loudly.  Akami had a small piece of cheese in her mouth, and a mischievous look in her eyes.


    "Good wisdom is really different from poor wisdom." Steel muttered to himself as he observed Akami.  When Akami passed the corner, Loba leaped out and sank her teeth into one of the pursuing mice.  It gave a startled shriek and struggled to escape, but Loba clamped her jaws down tight.  Akami, hearing the shriek, immediately turned around sunk her fangs into a second mouse, causing it the cry out in pain and distress.  The remaining mouse paused as its two companions were being hurt, than squeaked and jumped at Akami, forcing her to release her hold on the mouse.  She hissed and bared her teeth at the mouse, which was almost her current size.


    Loba, seeing her partner being threatened by the two mice, swung her head back and forth and threw her mouse into the two aggressors and followed up with a leap of her own unto the uninjured mouse.  The flying mouse actually inflicted the dazed debuff on all three mice, and Akami also joined in with a leap of her own.  Together, the two furiously ripped the three mice apart until, with a final squeak, the three disappeared into light.  Loba and Akami picked up the meat loot and ran back to Steel.  They dropped it to the floor and looked up at him with hopeful eyes.  Steel grunted.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "I said I''d cook the meat, so I''ll cook it later.  Keep it up, or I might forget to remember."  Steel had decided the best way to raise them would be through detached care; since he had no desire to make real connections with game programs.  Still, his ethics forced him to keep his promises, so he would cook for them whatever they brought back in the future.  Eventually, he''d also benefit from what they brought back as well.


    This time, Loba played the bait while Akami hid in the corner, her sharp teeth awaiting her future prey.  However, Loba quickly returned with 7 mice this time.  Steel shook his head at the large piece of cheese in Loba''s mouth; she had obviously had tried to copy Akami, but wasn''t cunning enough to do it right.


    Loba gave Steel a pitiful look as she ran towards him, but Steel shook his head.  "I can''t always be there to help you; learn to solve your own problems. or you''ll remain weak forever." He folded his arms and put away his spear.


    Hearing his words, Loba''s eyes gained a fierce look and she seemed to nod.  As soon as she passed Akami''s corner, Loba turned and gave a high-pitched howl.  The sound startled the mice so much they froze, and Akami fell upon them.  The new threat instantly scared the mice into turning, and then Loba jumped in as well.  Working together, the two bit, clawed, and scratched everything in their path as the basement was filled with squeaks, growls, and hisses.  Steel nodded approvingly as the two wounded pets dragged their prizes back to him and fell on the floor, panting.


    "You guys did decently this time." Steel acknowledged, "I''ll ask to see if I can cook the meats in Mema''s kitchen while you two rest up."  The two gave low whines of happiness as they settled together into a heap of sleeping fur at the bottom of the stairs.  Steel gave a low chuckle, then walked up to the tavern.


    Mema was quite understanding when he explained the situation to her.


    "Dem wee beasties want to eat the fruits of der labor then?  Fine by me, I love dem mite sized critters but for some reason dey have a hard time warming up to me bones."  Mema told him.


    Seeing her scared face and large build, Steel privately agreed that most people would be intimidated by her visage.  Apparently, Mema had been a B ranked adventurer at the height of her adventures, but had chosen to retire after losing her husband in a battle.  She''d settled down in Rostwood and used her savings to buy the tavern.  Oddly enough, it was quite popular and one of the best places to drink and eat in the city.  The large staff of attractive bar maids certainly didn''t hurt either.


    Steel went into the kitchen and used one of the fireplaces to cook the mouse meat on a metal skillet.  After burning through half, he finished up and returned to the basement with the successful meals.  The smell of cooked meat woke the two up and they scrambled over each other to reach the plate of piping hot meat Steel place on the floor.


    As the two ate up, Steel watched as their health and stamina bars quickly recovered.  "That was 22 mice; we need to get at least 8 more.  I''m going to go find another quest to complete, so you two stay here and continue to fight."  He pointed to the now empty plate, "If you want me to cook, but the meat here.  Otherwise eat raw meat if you want.  If you can''t fight, run up the stairs since the mice can''t follow."


    The two nodded and ran back to their positions.  Steel could hear the sounds of dying mice as he left the basement.


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


    As Steel left the tavern, a notice popped up, informing him that he could see the locations of his contracted beasts on his mini-map.  Steel dismissed the notification and resumed his search for local quests.


    As it turned out, his curse made it hard for the locals to speak with him without feeling threatened.  Only the locals who knew of Roxanne were able to speak with him properly, but even they were slightly nervous.  Only after Steel completed two quests did the people begin to relax around him.


    The first task had been from an old lady in a store.  She asked Steel to help her clear her attic of bats, and he had made short work of the 5 level 3 bats hiding in the roof.  The old lady had thanked him and given him a few copper as thanks.  The second job had Steel working for a beggar on the street.  The beggar complained that a noise kept him from sleeping in the alley, so Steel had investigated the area.  As it turned out, the noise had come from broken piece of metal that was swinging back and forth against the wall above the alleyway.  Both the beggar and the owner of the house had thanked Steel, but he had only received fame and a little exp from the job.


    All in all, he was up to 100 fame in Rostwood and more NPC''s were able to speak to him without calling for the guards.  Steel sighed as he leapt back down from a tree, a cat in his hand.


    "Thank you Mr. for bringing me cat home." A little girl thanked him as she grabbed the cat and ran back to her house.  Steel dismissed the notification of success and shook his head to himself.


    "Really, a cat in a tree quest?  I guess even developers enjoy a good cliche once and awhile." He muttered as he checked his exp.  He was getting close to level 8 now, and his fame had once again received a small boost of 10.  "110 fame is a good start, now what''s next?"


    He checked his map, and decided it was time to return to the tavern.  A quick walk back took him past Mema and down into the basement, where a surprise awaited him.


    Loba and Akami were sleeping peacefully in a heap next to the plate with a large pile of mouse meat and another pile of mouse pelts.  Both were a lot larger than when Steel had previously seen them, but neither were adults yet; more like teenagers now.  A sound alerted Steel to Mema coming down the stairs.  She gave an appreciative whistle.


    "Beasties seem to ''ave cleared up all de mice down here.  First time I''ve heard nary a peep down here.  I''ll be paying ya extra for this."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Get Rid of Mice</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Mema the Tavern Owner no longer has a mouse problem (for now).  She is greatly satisfied by your work.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Mema has risen to Friendly


    50 Fame


    Exp has been acquired


    Bonus Reward; 5 silver and a permanent discount at the Adventurer''s Tavern</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded his head, "They did most of the work.  I guess I''ll have to cook all this meat now."  He sighed as he looked at the large pile of little meat.


    Mema patted his shoulder, "Just open the windows when ya burn them.  Also, I''m taking half your meat for a party to celebrate the vermin''s death."

 Chapter 23

    So, I had a full sized chapter for you guys on Wednesday . . . . . and then the internet goes out and drags the chapter with it.  Blows . . . and Easter family yada yada, so slow couple of days.  Sorry about that.


    I had something for this author''s corner, <del>but I forgot it, so oh well.</del> Thank you for the second readable review, it really helps :)


    ENJOY!


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


    The Adventurer''s Tavern was in a festive mood as Steel and his charges exited the basement.  Loba and Akami slightly drooled at the smell of cooked meat, causing rowdy laughter with their antics.  Steel took a moment to marvel on how quick the tavern had changed since he had gone down to the basement and completed the quest officially.  There was even a time limit bar above the tavern that showed how long the festivities would last before returning to normal.


    Mema winked at him from her place behind the bar, passing out drinks and plates to happy customers.  "Celebrate the traveler of the hour, Steel Resolve! He killed the mice that be filling your bellies!"


    The patrons let out a resounding cheer and lifted their classes.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have received 30 fame for being acknowledged as a master mouse killer


    No, you do not get a title for making your beasts do the work for you.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel shrugged, "Not like I want a mouse slayer title anyway.  Still, 30 fame is good to get I guess." He mentally increased his fame to 140.


    Mema finished handing out a plate before walking over to Steel with a wrapped meal.  "Little Steel, here take this.  A customer of mine is terribly busy this time of year and won''t make it here in time to have some of this meal.  He works as a tanner in the training district,  so I would be a favor to me if you could take this meal to him."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Deliver the Meal</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Mema the Tavern Owner has asked you to deliver a meal to a loyal and helpful patron.  He works as a tanner in the training district.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Deliver the meal before the day is over.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Mema, fame within the city, exp</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel nodded his head, "I''ll be glad to deliver it to him."  As soon as he confirmed the quest, Mema turned away and resumed serving her customers.


    "Thank goodness for this marker on the mini-map, otherwise I''d be screwed on where to find a random tanner." Steel muttered to himself as he left the tavern and began walking toward the training district.  Loba and Akami scrambled after him, their bodies quite used to their new forms after battling for so long.  Loba was now a bit bigger than Akami, but both had their teeth grow to a reasonably terrifying length.  Their intimidation factor was slightly ruined by the excited look in their eyes as they chased after Steel.  They obviously were looking forward to the meal he had promised them.


    Steel nodded at the two, "I''ll cook it for tonight''s meal.  We have to work hard until then though." Pacified, the two animals trotted and hopped alongside him for a little bit before disappearing back into Steel''s body.  Steel rolled his eyes at their laziness and followed the arrow on his map.


    It took a little bit, but Steel easily found the tannery where the patron worked at.  He walked on in and was met by a manager on the inside.  The manager smiled and said, "Esteemed traveler, are you here to learn the art of tanning?"


    Steel shook his head, "No, I have a deliver from Mema at the Adventurer''s Inn.  She sent this as thanks for your patronage."


    The manager perked up and clapped his hand excitedly, "Really, it''s from Mema?  I was actually fretting because today''s work load was going to be too much for me to leave for a meal.  You have really helped me with this, even if you seem scary."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Completed</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Deliver the Meal</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>The tanner received his meal and will not go hungry this day.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Intimacy with Mema has risen


    20 Fame


    Exp has been acquired.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    A quick check confirmed that Steel was barely under the level 8 marker.  Privately gritting his teeth, Steel turned to leave when the tanner called out behind him.


    "Excuse me sir, but I was wondering since you did me this favor if you were interested in helping me with another?"


    Steel paused, and then turned around.  "I happen to have a lot of small pelts that need to be tanned."


    The tanner grinned, "I heard about your achievements at the tavern; I''d be happy to work on your mouse pelts for a discount if you helped me.  You can accomplish this request even with the unnerving feeling you give me."  The tanner didn''t seem to notice the annoyance on Steel''s face, as Steel disliked being reminded of his curse, as he removed a letter from his pocket, "My mother lives on the other side of the city, but I''m so swamped during this spring season I never have the time to visit her.  Can you take this letter to her so she knows I''m alright and will visit her when I can?"


    Steel quickly accepted the quest and took the letter, "I''ll deliver it for you.  Here are the pelts I need to be tanned." He handed over the pelts to the tanner, who eyed them and nodded his head.


    "At a discount, that comes to 10 silver."


    Steel nearly coughed out blood from biting his tongue in shock.  That was a high price for just a bunch of mouse skins; he had handed over the other pelts to Marie earlier.  "It''s not a lot though."


    The tanner nodded his head at Steel''s expression,  "It cost the same coin for 10 mouse pelts to 1 cow pelt.  I must use the same rack whether it''s for one small pelt or one large pelt, so the price is set.  I should have your pelts completed by tomorrow morning.  Thank you for delivering my letter."  The man bowed with his palm outstretched.


    Steel paid the man reluctantly and once again made his way across the city to the faith quarter, where the tanner''s mother lived.  This time, he had Loba and Akami walk with him so they could see this part of the city.  The too seemed oddly cowed as they walked through the faith quarter.


    "She lives next to graveyard huh; this is one ominous game." Steel remarked as he walked up to a little house next to one of the graveyards.  The house was small and in the midst of other, similar houses.  Steel knocked on the door and took a step back.


    "Who is it?" A small voice came from within.


    "Letter." Steel called out from outside.


    There was a pause, and then the voice spoke up in an angry voice, "I can feel your ominous aura from here beast.  Curse you land-shark, leave me alone!"


    Steel coughed awkwardly at the old woman''s dementia, "Um, I''m a traveler with a letter from your son the tanner.  What''s a land-shark?"


    "HA! Just what a land shark would say!" The old voice cried out in triumph.


    Steel rolled his eyes and began to talk smoothly, activating his ''Persuasion'' skill, "Your son was very worried about you since he''s so busy during this time of the year.  He asked me kindly to give you this letter so as to reassure you he was okay and would be visiting when he had the time."


    There was a slight pause, and the door cracked open a tiny bit.  Before Steel could move, a cross-bolt hit the ground in front of him, startling Loba and Akami into running behind the gate behind him.  They peeked out slowly to make sure the coast was clear.  The door fully opened to reveal a muscular grandmother holding a crossbow in her hands.  Steel observed a large naval tattoo on her arm, as well as a permanent scowl on her face.


    "Darn, I thought I had the beast this time, but it''s just a traveler boy." She muttered to herself, putting the crossbow down.  She looked him up and down a moment before barking, "Letter boy, give it here now come on then."


    ''Maybe he makes himself busy on purpose.'' Steel thought to himself as he handed over the letter.  The old lady took it and read it, a warm smile blossoming over her face.  She hugged the letter and stowed it away before grabbing Steel into a hug.


    "You''ve made this old woman very happy young traveler.  My son is such a good boy, but he doesn''t have time to visit me nowadays because of his new family.  I''m just glad he keeps his dear old mother in his thoughts while I wait for the grim reaper."


    "Ma''am, no offense, but I doubt the reaper wants anything to do with you." Steel could not help but let the comment slip before he could stop himself.


    The old lady laughed a hearty laugh and nodded her head, "I served as a ship captain for many years boy, and I had to deal with all sorts of lowlifes and bastards in my day.  Only the accursed beast followed me here, but I''ll get it someday."  Her eyes gleamed ominously as her hand twitched toward the crossbow."


    Steel took a quick step back; he had no desire to trigger any quest related to a land-dwelling sea monster.   "I hope you son visits you soon ma''am."  A hand grabbed his shoulder before he could make his getaway.  Loba and Akami watched him with pitying eyes from a distance.  Seeing them give up on him, Steel resolved to make their meat super spicy.


    "Hold on there sonny boy, come on in for some tea and biscuits whilst I tell you the tale of the beast."  The old lady remarked as she tried to drag Steel inside.


    "Personal circumstances ma''am forbid me from staying; I really must be going to find a place to stay the night." Steel told her as he wormed his way free.


    The old lady nodded, "Fair enough; not like we''re old friends anyway.  Now, I do owe you a favor for this letter, so if you ever need help just come back here and I''ll see what I can do.  By the way, be careful to avoid that alley at sunset.  And beware land related sea monsters." With that lovely note, the old lady closed the door and Steel found himself on the street again.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.------------------------------------------


    <table><tbody><table><tbody><tr><td>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Status Window</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Name:</td><td width="25%">Steel Resolve</td><td width="25%">Alignment:</td><td width="25%">Chaotic Neutral</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Level:</td><td width="25%">8</td><td width="25%">Class:</td><td width="25%">Centurion Warrior</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Race:</td><td width="25%">Human</td><td width="25%">Gender:</td><td width="25%">Male</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Titles</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Strength Seeker, Rabbit Friend, Cursed One</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fame:</td><td width="25%">200</td><td width="25%">Infamy:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Health:</td><td width="25%">200</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Mana:</td><td width="25%">150</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Stamina:</td><td width="25%">200</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td width="25%">Constitution:</td><td width="25%">20</td><td width="25%">Dexterity:</td><td width="25%">21</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Intelligence:</td><td width="25%">15</td><td width="25%">Wisdom:</td><td width="25%">9</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Strength:</td><td width="25%">30</td><td width="25%">Endurance:</td><td width="25%">20</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Leadership:</td><td width="25%">12</td><td width="25%">Luck:</td><td width="25%">5</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Charm:</td><td width="25%">10</td><td width="25%">Faith:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Elemental Resistances</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Fire:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Water:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Wind:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Earth:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Light:</td><td width="25%">0</td><td width="25%">Darkness:</td><td width="25%">0</td></tr></tbody></table>


    </td></tr></tbody></table></tbody></table>


    Thanks to his eighth quest, Steel had finally grown to level 8.  A quick check confirmed his stats as he boosted his dexterity, and he also found a pleasant surprise.  Due to his actions, using ''persuasion'' and teaching the monsters to work with each other, his charm and leadership stats had received a nice boost.  Also, a notice told him that his many random encounters had awarded him with 5 luck, to which Steel found incredibly ironic.


    "I guess bad luck is still luck then." Steel grimly chuckled as he made his way toward the alley the old lady had told him to avoid, "Now, let''s see what kind of quest I can find here." He crossed his fingers so as to ward away this quest if it was marine related.


    With Loba and Akami close behind, Steel carefully made his way down the alley as the twilight set in.  The alley appeared to be nothing special; the city was full of similar alleys that criss-crossed the main roads behind the buildings of the city.  Steel soon began to pick up on sniffling and crying ahead, and he slowed down to peak around the next corner.  Loba and Akami copied him and stared.


    A beautiful young woman was sitting in the alley and crying.  She was wearing a whore''s outfit, but it was obvious she was still not used to wearing it as it was still new looking.  Thinking for a moment, Steel decided that his aura would make it impossible to talk with the woman without upsetting her, so he settled down to listen.


    "Curse you Roger, sniff, curse your silver tongue and my foolish heart.  Why did I believe you would take care of me after my gold was gone?  Damn you for leaving me to this humiliation and terrible life." The lady cursed and wept as she lamented her fate.


    "I see, so it''s a revenge quest." Steel quickly figured that this type of quest was meant for a chivalrous assassin or thief, as few would have the ability to take the quest without facing repercussions.  This was not meant for a person who had to remain in the eye of the public, especially one like him that was rather conspicuous in a crowd.


    "I guess it''s time to bring him back out." Steel sighed as he began messing with his necklace of disguise.  He had the advantage of his necklace to assume a different guise to do quests.  Naturally, the magic was easily found, but most common folk would lack the ability to figure out the ruse.


    Steel only hoped this wasn''t the start of a chain quest.  Most quests in Everlife were repeatable quests; quests that an unlimited number of players could take an unlimited amount of times.  They had no impact on the course of the game, but were easily affected by nearby events; such as a quest provided by a shepard would no longer be given if the shepard lost his flock.  Chain quests were series of quests that each led to the next in the series and would require a long amount of time to accomplish.  On the other hand, chain quests would provide a much higher reward than normal quests.


    Taking on the skeletal disguise of "The Spirit of Justice", Steel took a moment to mix his voice to a gravely cold before turning to his two charges.


    "You two, stand still for a moment."  The necklace could actually be used on more then one person, but at the constant cost of mana from Steel.  As he was cursed to half his normal mana amount, he could barely have a guise on the three of them for 5 minutes before his mana would run out.  He tested out the magic and turned the two into shadowy forms of themselves, complete with red, glowing eyes.


    He nodded and turned off the magic, opting to wait for the twilight to change to nighttime before making his move.  Once the twilight began to fade, the lady stopped crying and got up to leave.


    "Show time." Steel nodded at his charges, and the two quickly ran to the other side of the alley, using the shadows to hide from the lady.  Steel activated the necklace and winced as his mana began to rapidly drain.  He walked forward toward the lady, his appearance spelled to appear as if he was gliding forward.


    The lady, picking up on his aura, turned to face him and gasped in fright as she turned to run.  Loba and Akami, in their shadow guises, moved out of the darkness and growled at her.  Faced with no where to go, the lady began to cry pitifully and rolled up into a ball as she began to pray to her god.


    Fighting the urge to roll his eyes, Steel began to speak in his grim voice, "I have your pleas and curses and have come."


    The lady paused and looked up at him, her eyes searching his skeletal sockets in resigned fear, "Who are you?"


    "I am the spirit of justice, the one who answers crimes that go unanswered." Steel answered, wincing internally at the middle school like speech he was giving.


    The lady gave Steel her full attention now, standing up slowly with a little smile on her face, "I thought you were a hoax, a myth fro unfortunate women.  Spirit, I need your help."


    "Speak." Steel commanded, his aura in full blast.


    "I was once a noble lady from another city.  I fell in love with a traveling minstrel and eloped with him to here.  When my purse ran dry, he abandoned me to use my body to survive while he began his search for another rich girl to swindle.  I beg of you, take vengeance for me spirit.  If not for me, then do it to prevent another girl from falling to his evil tongue."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Added</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>Vengeance of the Noble</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''4''>A crying girl has told you of her pitiful plight after giving in to the charms of a roguish minstrel.  Se has asked you to take vengeance for her so that no other girl will fall into his hands.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective:</td><td colspan=''2''>Punish the evildoer


    Note; Do not get caught otherwise the quest will fail</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Reward:</td><td colspan=''2''>Fame within the city, exp


    Intimacy with the lady will increase</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Special Note:</td><td colspan=''2''>All fame gained during this quest will be attributed to your disguise.  If you reveal yourself, then the fame will revert to you.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel inclined his head, "It shall be done."  He walked backwards and deactivated the magic; just in time as his mana was about to run out.  He quickly recalled Loba and Akami and checked the map, curing when the quest indicated he had to return to the Adventurer''s Tavern.


    "Oh great, now I have to sneak around that scary bar lady."  Steel groaned as he began to trudge back across the city.

 Chapter 24

    <del>Happy Late Easter


    Enjoy!</del>


    So this is a late chapter.  Sorry about that guys, but I have some important news.


    Editing for the Slime Dungeon is complete today, my birthday!  For this happy occasion, I''ll be writing 1-2 new chapters for book two over there so look forward to it.


    The wonderful artist Shi is hard at work making the cover art, and once that is done the book will be published.  For those of you who helped me on Patreon, I''ll need email addresses to send you your free copy.  PM me with them if you would be so kind.


    Thanks to everyone who has helped with with kind words and harsh reviews.


    Enjoy


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


    The night was just beginning as Steel, Loba, and Akami returned to the Adventurer''r Tavern.  Steel peeked out from the shadows as he watched patron enter and leave the busy tavern.  He shook his head at the popularity of the tavern.


    "This is too much trouble to deal with; maybe I can shank him when he goes to the outhouse?" A quick look confirmed there was no outhouse, so he canned the plan.  "I have to deal with the target in disguise, but I can''t sneak around as a spirit without making everyone suspicious." Steel mused to himself, "If I kill or maim this guy, then the guards will likely question everyone inside, so I can''t be around.  No telling how smart the guards may be."


    Steel took a look down at Akami, "You have any ideas?"


    Akami wrinkled her nose at Steel as she stared up at him with her beautiful blue eyes.  "Right, I didn''t think you would." Steel retorted as he turned his head back to look at the tavern.


    The Adventurer''s Tavern was a decent size building, but it was connected to a large inn that housed most of the patrons that frequented the bar for food and drink.  To Steel, it looked like a tall building with a large lobby sticking out the front.


    "Let''s see what the mini-map says about this." Steel muttered as he enlarged the map.  He stared at the city map before his eyes moved to the ''-'' sign in the bottom right corner.  A click made the map shrink to the street level, with the areas inside the tavern shown as well.  Steel grinned as he moved the map around to the inn, where an orange dot blinked out from the second floor.


    "I guess the target is taking a nice rest after a day of swindling and spending money that isn''t his." Steel''s left eye began to glow faintly as he licked his lips in anticipation, "I wonder if he has anything interesting with him I can take care of for him."


    A quiet growl from Loba alerted Steel to a guard patrol that was coming closer.  The three moved back into the shadows and waited until the guards had passed to poke their head back around the corner.


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>You have learned the skill: Stealth</td></tr><tr><td width="25%">Description:</td><td colspan=''3''>When activated, you hide yourself using your surroundings.  The effect can be improved by the use of certain items or wearing certain clothing.</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Level:</td><td colspan=''2''>Beginner 1</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Effects:</td><td colspan=''2''>Toggles your character into a ''stealthed'' mode.  Can be countered be the skill ''Keen Eyes''.</td></tr></tbody></table>


    "Glad to finally get this." Steel grinned as he closed the prompt, "Oh, I see you too also got the skill as well."


    The two animals gave a sound of confirmation; they had also picked up the skill thanks to their actions.  It was another good sign for them, seeing as they both had good intelligence.


    In fact, Steel thought of an idea while on the topic of skills.  "Let''s see if I can use the new spell Marie gave me for this." He said to himself as he dismissed his familiars and walked past the tavern entrance.  The NPC''s ignored him as he casually walked by them, his presence not registering as important.  He made his way to the back of the inn section, where Steel took a quick look around.


    Seeing that he was alone for the moment, he quickly cast ''Wind Boost'' on himself, augmenting his speed.  Moving backwards, he ran up to the building and jumped to the second floor.  He spattered himself against the side of the building instead.


    Gaining the dazed debuff, Steel backwards onto his back and moaned in pain.  Evidently, having increased movement speed did not equal increased jumping prowess.  The back door of the inn opened and a NPC peered out, checking for the source of the noise.  Spying Steel''s prone form, she called back inside.


    "It''s just a drunk who collapsed outside."  She grabbed a bucket of water and threw it onto Steel''s face before returning inside and shutting the door behind her.


    Steel felt the need to cry.  The water she had thrown was dirty kitchen water and he  was now covered in garbage.  He slugged off the onions on his face and growled angrily at the door.


    "I swear . . ." He muttered angrily, before returning his gaze to the inn.  Now that he actually put thought into his plan, he realized what an idiot he was.  The only windows on this wall were to guest rooms and they would be small; he would not have been able to fit in with his body size.


    He folded his arms and sat on the ground, his head tilted in thought.  "I smell pretty bad now, so I definitely can''t go inside now." He reasoned as he inspected his ''Reeking'' debuff, "There must be someway to enter the floor from outside."


    Finding no way to get in, Steel sighed and picked himself off the ground, brushing more of the rubbish off his body.  He walked around the building back to the front area with the tavern and gazed at it.


    He smacked himself in the head when it came to him.


    The tavern stretched out from the inn, making it''s roof the same height as the inn''s second floor.  Better yet, the windows on this side were larger and more elaborate, as the view was much better on this side.  All he had to do was climb the tavern walls and he would have easy access to his target.  Of course, he still had to figure out a way to get on top of the tavern without attracting attention.


    "I need a cliche." Steel stared around with a grim hope, but there was no conveniently placed stack of boxes or casual latter anywhere to be found.


    "Okay, well then, this quest should have a few ways to complete it then." Steel thought to himself for a moment.


    There were three types of quests in Everlife.  The first type was repeatable, the normal quests that all players could take at anytime for as many times as they wanted.  The herb gathering quest Roxanne had assigned to him was of this type of quest.


    The second type of quest were conditional quests.  For instance, any quest related to a quick time event like a monster invasion or a war between nations.  These quests didn''t play a large role at the moment since the game had just started, but would increase in importance in the future.  Examples of this type included; gathering supplies for the army, participating in a battle, or completing a treasure quest for the nobility.


    The third quest type were unique quests that could only be completed for a single player or group of players, much like the crypt quest Steel had had the misfortune of being apart of.  Unique quests had important effects on the entire game of Everlife, and could set important events in motion.  Some of the unique quests, according tot he Everwiki, actually had a time limit to complete, otherwise they would be lost for a period of time or forever.  Steel had a feeling the cult Roxanne was apart of would give quests of this time eventually as well.


    This vengeance quest he had taken was likely of the second type, a quest that came about from circumstances beyond the players control.  As such, there should be multiple ways to complete the quest.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    Since Steel couldn''t use his charisma or ''persuasion'' skill to get in, he obviously was stuck to the outside route.  "Now, since I''m not a thief or assassin, how would they do this?"


    The answer came to him quickly in the form of a punch.  Steel hit the ground for the second time tonight and groaned in pain.  His health meter ticked down a fourth as he looked up at his attacker.


    Mema was glaring down at him before her face softened and she coughed awkwardly.


    "Ah, sorry there boyo.  I heard there was a drunk hitting the tavern, so I came to punish him." She reached down and pulled Steel to his feet, patting him down.  "Sorry about that."


    Steel nodded, then raised an eyebrow, "Mema, can you help me get to the second floor of the inn as an apology?"


    Mema frowned at him, "Why? I trust you, but we aren''t friends."


    Steel nodded, "I need to punish someone who takes advantage of young girls.  Is that good enough."


    Mema paused, than nodded her head, "I trust your words, and I hate men like that so I will help you.  Follow me."


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Charm has increased by 1 for successful persuasion</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel grinned as he followed Mema to the side of the tavern.  There, she pulled a hidden rope from behind a pile of wood and handed it over to him.


    "It''s tied to the roof, use it to climb up." She told him.


    "Why do you have this rope tied to the top of your tavern?" Steel asked, a little confused.


    Mema grinned evilly, "I don''t own the inn."  She didn''t elaborate so Steel shrugged and climbed the rope to the top of the building.  The room was shingled with wood, so he didn''t have a fear of falling off.  When he reached the top, the rope was pulled down by Mema and she walked away.  Steel was surprised, as the knotted rope which had supported his weight had easily been pulled down by the tavern keeper.


    "What secrets does that scary lady have I wonder." Steel mused as he climbed up the roof to the inn, "She definitely has some lore surrounding her.  Maybe I''ll get another quest if I help her out later."


    Reaching the inn wall, Steel walked along the edge until he came to a large window that was at the end of a small room off a corridor.  "I wonder if there is a glass-smith in this world or if the windows are made by magic." Steel wondered as he lifted the window and entered the inn.  He enlarged his mini-map and focused it''s zoom onto the floor of the inn.  The quest dot indicated a room 3 doors down on his right.


    "Show time I guess." Steel nodded to himself as he changed his illusion to that of the spirit of justice.  He walked down the hall to the door and put his ear on it.  Loud snoring could be heard in the room, making Steel grin in anticipation.  However, he was once again prevented from completing his quest.


    "Oh right, I guess I don''t know how to unlock doors." Steel realized with a sour feeling when he tried the door handle.  It was night, so of course it was locked.  Steel felt like he really was ill-prepared for this type of venture.


    "Right, I need to change classes after this if I plan on keeping the illicit activities up." He muttered as he scratched his head in thought.  He decided to try the window outside the room, and if that failed he would just have to breaking in the old fashioned way and escape afterwards.


    He walked back down the hall and closed the window behind him as he left the inn.  The room was slightly over the roof where it started to slant down, but was still in arm''s reach for Steel.  To his delight, the window was open as well and large enough fro him to climb in through.


    "So nice when people are considerate." He laughed evilly as he climbed in through the window.


    The inn room, while fancy, was still a single room with a bed, chest, and what looked like a golden chamber pot in the corner.  Ignoring the obvious implications of that last one, and the subsequent questions involving the rest of the city, Steel took out his charges and made them into the shadow illusions again,


    There were two people sleeping in the bed.  One was a young looking beautiful lady, while the other was a rather ugly looking man.  The man likely would have been nice to look at if he had been thin, but the beer gut and unkempt mustache made Steel wrinkle in confusion.  Why would these two noble ladies run off with this unbecoming man?  No wonder her family had tried to stop her.


    Steel thought for a moment, and then nodded his head in approval.  First, he cast ''Create Water'' on the floor, covering it in multiple puddles of water.  Next,  he extinguished the light in the room from the candles beside the bed.  With the room in complete darkness except for the window light, he was ready.


    "Wakey wakey now." Steel whispered, than began to laugh as low and evil as he could.  Loba and Akami accompanied him with low growls that echoed around the room.


    The two bed mates stirred and shivered as they slowly woke up.  The man, obviously Roger, shot up in bed and looked around in fear while the woman trembled.


    "Roger, what is that sound?  What is that smell?" She cried out in fear.


    "Meeeee." Steel stressed out the word as he created a small fire in his palm.  The little light outlined his skeletal appearance and the shadowy nature of his charges as they slowly walked forward.  They both paled in obvious fright.


    "I am the Spirit of Justice, and I have come for you Roger for your sins."  He turned to stare at the girl, "Leave."


    The woman gave a scream and jumped out of bed, fleeing with a sheet around her out of the room and slamming the door behind her.  Roger fell out of bed and scrambled as far away as he could to the corner, knocking the chamber pot onto himself.


    "Spirit, I have done nothing wrong.  Please, I beg you, spare my pitiful soul."


    Steel felt moved by the man''s heartfelt plea and decided that he had done enough.


    However, that calm sympathy did not penetrate his heart and he growled angrily at the man.  "Foolish mortal, your magic will not work on the undead." Steel assumed the man must be using some sort of magic to persuade others, otherwise such a weak remark would not have affected Steel.


    Roger really began to pale and cry now, blubbering out threats and curses.  "Leave me spirit! My father will hire priests to hunt you down!  I have powerful friends!"  He continued, but Steel ignored the rest of his drivel.  He "glided" forward and wrapped his hand around Roger''s neck.


    "All men are equal in death, fool." He whispered as his other hand stabbed his spear into Roger''s heart.  Roger gave a groan and sagged as the life left his body.


    Nodding, Steel took Roger''s blood and wrote the same phrase on the wall behind the corpse.  He then checked the body for loot.


    Surprisingly, there were: a few gold coins, a letter, a potion, and, most importantly, a spell-book.  Steel whistled in appreciation as he stowed away the loot.  This had been a productive quest.


    Just then, a loud knocking began from the doorway.  "Open up in the name of the city lord!"


    <table><tbody><tr><td colspan=''4''>Quest Updated</td></tr><tr><td colspan=''2''>Objective added:</td><td colspan=''2''>Escape</td></tr></tbody></table>


    Steel''s eyebrow twitched, "Oh shit."