Eli stepped off the bus in front of his school the following morning, heading up the stone steps in front of the large 4 story building. It was built with more windows than walls, and crowded with other students driving up in their Autocars, stepping out, and letting their car automatically find a parking spot on its own.

Just before Eli could enter the school building he found himself cut off by a group of individuals. He recognized a few of their faces, not by name though.

“Hey Winters, sorry about last night man.” A tall brown haired boy spoke, looking to be the leader of the group.

“Last night?” Eli looked confused. He glanced between them for a second until he recognized Jeremy as one of the group and started to piece it together.

“Yeah, we killed you outside of Orm, remember? Your Dad’s one of the top players, so we got tons of views for it. No hard feelings right?”

“Yeah no worries Kelman.” Eli shrugged him off and started walking around them.

“Keldan. His name’s Keldan. You know? He’s kind of famous.” One of the girls in the group corrected Eli.

“Right, my bad, Keldan.” Eli responded.

“Jeez, this guy. Acting like that just ‘cause he’s Makarath’s son.” Jeremy mumbled to the others, but Eli could still hear him. They misunderstood, he just genuinely didn’t care, but unfortunately he also didn’t care enough to correct them.

He noticed a lot more stares than usual as he walked through the halls making it to his first period class on the third floor. Instead of desks, the classroom was filled with smaller Sim Boxes, clearly an older model than the one Eli had at home. He took a seat in his Sim Box, leaving the top open and off to the side as other students entered.

He saw one of Keldan’s posse enter the room, and noticed everyone who walked by had something to say while looking in his direction. He was starting to get an idea of what Derrick was trying to warn him about, but at the same time he couldn’t believe people really thought something like a level 50 player killing a level 1 player was worth mentioning. Eventually his teacher stepped into the room and the whispering stopped.

“It’s the last week before your exams. We’ll be continuing with review and self study. If you have any questions about anything we’ve gone over during this semester, let me know and we’ll go over it together. Just because you’re almost done with school doesn’t mean you can mess around, so if I catch any of you in any game simulations you’ll have Sim Box privileges revoked.” The teacher addressed the class as he sat down. “Now get to it.”

Immediately after he finished talking, several Sim Boxes in the classroom closed. Eli pulled out of his bag the large user manual and encyclopedia books on The Shattered World Online, then opened the scanning tray for his Sim Box. He did his best to cover up what he was scanning in, and once it was done he slipped the books back into his bags and got comfortable, loading up the office simulation.

He spent the entire day studying all of the details about the game he could at simulation speed 4. He finished learning the basics in the user manual fairly quickly before moving on to user created content. By picking through hearsay, some obviously bad advice, and various methods and guides players had put together, he was able to grasp the basics, though it was clear the game was still in its infantile state and it looked as though every day that new guides were popping up. The games economy revolved around rare materials and crafters, or rare items that dropped off of monsters. Bounties and hunting was profitable at high levels, but selling high quality, high demand items seemed to be the easiest, most lucrative option - both items related to fighting enemies as well as casual, decorative items for in-game houses or fashion. It unfortunately would require Eli to reach high levels in crafting to be able to make highly sought after items at low material costs, so the latter half of his study session was redirected towards the fastest ways to raise his crafting skill’s levels.

Most of the advice pointed to either ‘hard work and grinding’ or a few expensive, hard to obtain equipment pieces found in dungeons that’d boost efficiency and experience gained for certain crafting skills, but when he dug deeper and looked at more obscure references, he stumbled upon a particular skill that seemed unbelievably good, but hardly mentioned.

On a forum for one of the many Shattered World News sites, a mage class player with an identifying spell made a post, claiming to have used identify on a Crusader class player and found him with an amazing passive skill no one had seen before. The skill was granting the Crusader 100% experience to all defensive and life skills, but -100% experience to all offensive skills.

Most replies to the forum post thought the mage was making it up, but some of the reporters and admins on the site investigated it further, interviewing the Crusader a week later. He denied having such a skill, and another identify was used only to see that the Crusader had indeed no such skill.

Eli was ready to move on, it wasn’t the first dead-end post he’d read already today, but the mage player continued to argue that he knew what he saw, and persisted in the investigation himself, even long beyond the point that others were reading or replying to the post.

The mage revealed the level of the Crusader (31), his 3 deities he was worshipping for his divine power at the time (Certain divine based classes required you to worship at least 1 of the Shattered World fictional deities), and was able to find out the last few quests he had completed - noting one high level quest that required the Crusader to travel across the Unath Mountains, an uncleared, extremely high level region, of which the Crusader took almost a month to complete due to him suicide running through the zone, seeking out the safest path until finally finishing the quest.

Eli thought on this information for awhile, doing his own research on the Unath Mountains, the deities, and possibly the quests, trying to see if such a skill did exist - if Eli could obtain it he’d be able to make a lot of money really quickly, then wouldn’t have to play the game so long or worry about a scholarship any longer. He slowly began to piece together a theory on the nature of the skill and how he might be able to obtain it - it seemed far fetched but he was eager to try it out.

When the school day finished he headed out of the building, getting more awkward stares from strangers. Loitering in the front foyer he spotted the group of PKers huddled together. As he passed them he looked to see them staring back at him with stinkeyes, still not really sure what was going on, but in that moment he accidentally walked into another student carrying a stack of SimBox discs, knocking them out of her hand.

“Ah, sorry, sorry about that.” He apologized, looking to see the young lady who’d fallen on her bottom, the discs scattered about. He heard a few chuckles from onlookers, the girl looked up at him in shock. He recognized her from some of his classes, she was short and on the heavy size, braces on her teeth with long black hair. He politely reached down to help her stand back up, she quickly took his hand while her face turned red.

Without asking, he quickly gathered the SimDiscs he had knocked out of her hands, they looked like miniature CD’s locked in clear plastic flat boxes. As he picked them up, Derrick arrived in the foyer and joined in.

“Sup Eli.” He said as he gathered a few discs, the girl watching in silence.

“Hey.” He gave a nod to Derrick, handing the stack of SimDiscs to the girl. “Sorry about that,” he apologized again. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She took them and nodded, making a weird mmph sound.

“You ready to continue the adventure in Orm?” Derrick grinned.

“Yeah. I have an idea of what I want to do now.” Eli replied as the two walked off, the girl remaining stationary for a moment. She looked as though she wanted to speak, but nothing came out by the time they walked out of the building.

“Oh really? What’s the plan?”

“You might not like it much.” Eli warned him.

“No chance. Anything we do is gonna be fun in that game. Oh man!” Derrick squealed with excitement. “I’m gonna run to the Sim Center, see you in game!” He ran off from Eli down the street.

“It’s faster to take the bus!” Eli shouted out to him.

“Not when you run as fast as I do!” Derrick replied from a few meters away as he ran along the sidewalk. Eli just shook his head at him.

He got home, took his shoes off and headed straight upstairs just as his mother was stepping out of the capsule.

“I timed it just right!” She smiled as she saw him. “How was your day?”

“Great. You were playing? Do you want to play more?” Eli asked.

“No no, I’ve been there all day. I’ve got some errands to run. You go ahead and have fun.” She replied while walking past him. “Don’t forget to wipe it down when you’re done. Don’t want it to get all smelly.”

“Got it.” Eli replied. As he recalibrated the SimBox he thought about what it’d be like to play with his mom, and started making plans to spend the first batch of money on her, if he was able to make any. Once the simulation loaded, his eyes went blank for a moment, and afterwards he was standing at the front of Orm village.

It was a lot busier than he’d remembered, and the moment he logged in he noticed a lot of players around looking for him. They all started pointing at him and whispering. He’d anticipated a reaction like this to some extent, but ignored it for now - he had a plan. He checked his friends list to see that Ruffily was online but Davoth was not.

His first stop was inside the village of Orm. He travelled towards the graveyard he’d revived at the night before where a small nearby wooden church was built with a bright white star carved out of white stone sat on the top of the bell tower. Many players watched as he entered inside, some followed him in to see what he was doing. They tried to be stealthy about it, but it was way too obvious.

He didn’t waste any time idling about, he walked straight to the back of the church where the head priest, a human female with long black curly hair was standing. She wore dark robes adorned with a white star symbol stitched on the front, standing behind a podium on an elevated platform at the back of the church, the white text above her head reading [Priestess Clara - Level 41].

“Excuse me, Priestess Clara, could I bother you for a moment of your time?” Winter asked politely, other players that followed him in began taking seats randomly on the pews that lined the small building.

“How may I help you, young one?” She replied with a heavenly smile, looking him in the eyes.

“I would like to walk in your footsteps and follow the path of the light.”

“I see, that is wonderful news. There are many gods and goddesses that can guide you on the path of light. Are you sure the Goddess Eirene is the right choice for you?”

“Yes, I have studied her peaceful nature and wish to help spread her ways throughout the Shattered Islands. I believe that her teachings will be what will lead us into a brighter future.” Winter replied - he’d read that lines like these were the best way to impress the Goddess Eirene NPC’s. Clara looked impressed by his words, she stepped down from the elevated platform to stand right in front of him.

“I see.” She spoke while taking his hands in her own. “I can sense in your heart that you have not done any evil deeds. You must know that Goddess Eirene does not condone actions that would bring harm to the good creatures of the Shattered Islands. If you were to take such actions, you will find yourself abandoned by her light and guidance.” Clara spoke softly.

“I understand, I would never do something to disappoint her.” Winters bowed politely.

“Very well.” Clara smiled after a short pause. “If you wish to gain her favor, you must prove your kindness first. The Rostan family that lives on the outskirts of Orm have a daughter who has recently fallen ill. The medicine needed to cure her illness is made from the Poporon flower, but it only grows deep in the Greybone Forest to the south. If you were to retrieve it and cure this young girl, I can guarantee that Goddess Eirene will smile upon you.” Priestess Clara replied, and a notification popped up.

Quest: Gather 5 Poporon flowers from within the Greybone Forest, south of Orm village, for Priestess Clara of the Church of Eirene.

Objective: 0/5 Poporon Flowers Gathered

Quest Giver: Priestess Clara

Reward: [Class: Priest][Deity: Eirene]

Difficulty: Average

Restriction: Must not have chosen a class yet.

Additional Info: Once you have chosen a class, you can not change it. Deity-related classes are able to change Deities if certain conditions are met, or in some cases worship multiple deities.

Once he accepted the quest he could hear a few murmurs from the nearby players watching him.

“Makarath’s son is going for the priest beginner class?”

“You think he’s going to go cleric or paladin at intermediate? Or maybe crusader?”

“Why’d he go with Eirene? Zeus and Odin have churches in Orm, they’re way stronger aren’t they?” The whispering went on as he walked through the rows of pews out of the church. Once outside he saw more odd onlookers of varying levels as he made his way towards the southern forest.

“Yo, Winter, you ready to go?” Davoth messaged him through the in-game communicator.

“Yeah, I’ll meet you at the south side of the village, I got a quest.”

“I know, Goddess Eirene right? One of the people following you is streaming for a major gaming outlet. Apparently people want to see what Makarath’s son is going to do.” Davoth groaned back. “So you’re going to play a priest? What intermediate class are you going for?”

“Secret.” Winter replied.

“Fine, be like that.”

“I have a weird request though. I want you to stay out of my party and kill all the monsters for me. I’ll only block damage for you, alright?” Winter asked as he spotted Davoth in the village square and moved to walk beside him, so they could stop using the friend chat system.

“You realize you’re not going to get any experience unless you do damage or you’re in my party, right?” Davoth replied.

“Yep. If I stay level 1 long enough, these guys are sure to buzz off eventually. And I don’t need to level up my character to level up skills until they reach level 30.” Winter replied.

“I gotcha. Still sounds kinda boring, but whatever. That’s almost like you’re power leveling me.” Davoth grinned. The two arrived at the south end of the village and continued through the farm fields until they reached the forest to the south. A few players continued to pursue them from a distance, but Winter was anticipating as much.