This time I found myself standing in a long hallway, the mirror behind me, stone walls and floors making up the hall, and a large wooden door at the other end. Before I could do more than realize I was breathing fine again a floating message box appeared in front of me (it followed my eyes, something that took me a while to get used to, but I won't bore you with the details of how much that messed with my head) and a woman's voice read the words. She said "Welcome to the world of Tarinath. Please choose your race" A list of appeared next, showing Human, Elven, and half-elven, and Dwarf. I was still considering what the hell all that meant when she said "Haf-Elven has been chosen"

"What?" I yelled "I didn't choose anything you idiot"

"Please choose your Class" she said as another list appeared. Warrior, Mage, Priest, and Rogue were the choices, and this time she said "Priest has been chosen" before I could even finish reading.

"What the hell?" I muttered, realizing Bugly had said priest just before he dropped me.

"Please Choose your Sub-class" she said as Healer or Druid came up. I just waited as she said "Healer has been chosen"

Yeah, that's me alright, Mr. helpful healer guy. They nailed my personality perfectly. Christ, I was expected to be some kind of priest for the rest of my digital life?

Of course it didn't end there.

"Please allocate points for your starting attributes"

A list appeared with Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Intelligence, and Wisdom on it, all with a zero beside them. As I watched the numbers flickered and changed to:

Strength 5

Dexterity 5

Stamina 20

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 10

"You are unable to allocate all points to stamina as specified, and your class requires a minimum of ten points be placed in Intelligence and Wisdom, and no category may be lower than five"

Huh, sounds like Bugly tried to turn me into some kind of vegetable but the system wouldn't let him. Strength and Dexterity of five couldn't be good though.

"As a Priest you must choose your deity" the voice said as another list appeared and disappeared so fast I didn't even have time to see more than that there were ten names on it.

"You have chosen Telina, Goddess of farmers, beggars, and the Half-elven" she said. The farmers and beggars thing sounded about right based on Bugly's other choices.

"As a healer your starting spells are Telina's Touch and Telina's Fist"

Yeah, whatever. I didn't know much about RPGs, but I knew enough to figure they meant some kind of healing thing and some kind of damaging thing. Of course with Bugly involved it could mean I had a spell that would jack me off or something. Jerk.

"As a half-elven player you will receive a minus ten percent to charisma" she said "and plus five percent to animal affinity" I had time to decide that meant I was ugly, but dogs would like me, when she said "As a healer you will have a twenty percent increase in non-damaging spells effectiveness, and a fifteen percent decrease in damaging spell effectiveness" A lover, not a fighter, that's me. A-hole. "Strength below ten incurs a five percent penalty to damage for each point, and Dexterity below ten incurs a two percent penalty to Dodge and to Hit chance for each point" sounded like I could dance like a possum and sting like a butterfly.

"You have chosen Advanced for tutorial settings, and Mudtown as your starting location" I had to laugh as she finished talking. Mudtown? I really needed to work on impulse control since kicking a digital image probably wasn't worth what the dumbass did to me...for the rest of my life.

"If these choices are correct, please select your name" she said. I opened my mouth to yell "No!" just as she said "You have chosen Loser as your name. Have a good life Loser, priest of Telina"

Crap

---

I stood there like a moron for a few minutes expecting to disappear again, but I eventually realized nothing was happening. Turning I tried the mirror, but wasn't surprised it felt like a mirror. Turning back I sighed and walked to the end of the hall and tried the door. It had a latch type handle, and I had to lift up to open the door, but it worked fine and I found myself looking into an empty square room with a door on the other side. The room kept the stone look, and it was probably thirty feet across. Stepping in cautiously I peeked around the corners to make sure I was alone before moving all the way through the door. The door swung closed as soon as I cleared it, and a damned wolf blinked into existence in front of the door across from me. The thing looked like a regular wolf, though heavier than the ones they showed on documentaries, with a more muscular frame than the rangy look of a true wolf. It lowered its head, growled convincingly, and began slowly stalking me. I slid to my right as I patted myself down, looking for some kind of weapon, not being surprised to find nothing. I felt...sluggish as the wolf jumped at me and I dove to my right.

It latched onto my left calf and began worrying it, jerking me across the floor as I tried to both scream in pain and kick the damn thing. I was bleeding like a stuck pig as a visual overlay appeared in my sight showing a red bar vertically on my right, and a blue bar on my left, with a green bar lying horizontally at the bottom. The red bar was dropping fast, obviously tied to my health in some way. I managed to pull myself up enough to punch the thing in the head, something that didn't seem to do much other than make me realize the wolf had its own red bar floating horizontally above it. My punch might have made the bar move slightly, but I was to busy trying to hit the thing to really tell.

I've been fighting my whole life, so I can say with confidence that I throw a mean punch. Now...not so much. The pain was excruciating as the wolf tore an actual piece of my leg off and my punches seemed to manage to miss completely about half the time.

Death came pretty quickly when the wolf managed to get its jaws around my throat.

I sighed when I appeared in the hallway with the mirror. The pain of the attack had been intense and I found myself shaking a little as my brain tried to catch up with the rest of me.

+.1 % hand to hand, +.1% light armor, -10% level death penalty appeared in my vision. Could I lose a level? My thought, or my focus on the words brought up a screen that showed:

Loser

Healer Priest

Level 1 (Unavailable until completion of tutorial)

STR 5

DEX 5

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 10

Health: 200

Mana: 100

Endurance: 120

Spells:

Telina's Touch

Telina's Fist

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

-25% Hit Damage

-10% Dodge

+.1% hand to hand

+.1% light armor

I studied the screen for a while, deciding the loss of level thing probably didn't happen during this...tutorial. Christ, it didn't feel like a tutorial while the wolf was tearing pieces off of me. The health and mana thing didn't mean anything until I had something to reference them to. The hand to hand thing seemed to indicate that if the wolf killed me ten times I would get a whole 1% increase in my punching ability. Awesome.

The spell thing needed to get figured out now. I tried focusing on the spell section, which brought up the message "Spells disabled in the advanced tutorial" Good ole Bugly.

I spent the next few eternities trying to cast spells, hoping to make it work anyway, and looking like a total dork. I waved my hands magically. I pictured myself with healing hands, with magic hands, with lightning bolt hands, and I even tried bending over and shooting magic bolts out of my butt. The last one happened just before I gave up and went in to fight the wolf again.

---

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 1.2% light armor

Yeah, twelve times. I had a real hate on for that wolf by the time I worked out the right combination of punching and running away that allowed me to finally kill it. You couldn't even really call it running away since I was about as agile as a turtle, but I did it enough to realize the wolf would leap at me any time I was more than two steps away, but less than five. I also realized that if I focused on the wolf when I first came in the red bar would appear and a number with it. The wolf had a health of 60, which made him like a third of my own, but I figured his bite did at least ten points of damage to my 1 or two. Once in the air the thing couldn't dodge and I could get in a couple of quick punches. Most managed to miss since I appeared to be some kind of handicapped elf, but forty or fifty managed to get through and let me win. Yeah, and I finally looked in the mirror and realized I had somewhat pointy ears, and my face had gotten narrower. Mostly looked like I used to, but there were some changes. My eyes got changed to a weird blue color that took some getting used too.

Anyway, dead wolf. Somewhere during the whole thing I realized the green bar was tied to my hunger because it started appearing by itself if I stayed in my hallway for more than a couple of hours. By the time it was a quarter gone I started feeling weak and really, really hungry. So, dead wolf, a red bar mostly empty with a red number next to it showing 8%, and a green bar with a red number showing 9%. Yeah, I ate the wolf raw. Tasted like chicken, except of course for the fur.

My health bar started rising as soon as I started chewing the raw meat, and my green endurance bar went up even faster, though that seemed tied to both sitting down and eating. Both bars crept up on their own before I ate, but the health bar was super slow until I started on the wolf steaks.

When I had ate as much as I could stand, I moved to the next door and opened it onto another room matching the one I was in. A wooden club was lying on the floor about five steps in, which kind of hinted at things getting a little tougher. I sighed and stepped forward to pick up the club, only to be surprised when the door stayed open behind me. The club was the epitome of clubs. Wooden, crudely carved, and tapering from the heavier head to the narrower bottom. My hand actually fit fairly well, and the weight, while heavy seeming, wasn't too bad.

My opponent, when he appeared, was the classic goblin. It was scrawny, short, green, ugly, and holding a knife. I decided to call him Betty.

"Hey Betty, what's up?"

He gobbled some gibberish at me, then said in garbled English "I eat now you"

The bugger was quick, I'll give him that, because he managed to slash me twice before I even managed my first swing. He ducked, dodged, weaved, and avoided four out of every five of my swings. I on the other hand managed to dodge one out of five of his slices. His red bar showed the same 60 the wolf did, and my club appeared to do about 5 or 6 points of damage, but I still managed to die very, very painfully.

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 1.3% light armor

+0.1% Blunt Weapon

I had been expecting to have to fight the wolf all over again, but it was still lying there dead when I appeared back in his room. Both doors were closed and I couldn't open the one going back. A small box with the letter I appeared on my lower right now, and when I focused on it, it opened an inventory screen. It held one club. Below the club were the words:

Gold 0

Silver 0

Copper 0

Weight 4/70

The club was hanging from a loop on my belt, so I pulled it out and set the club on the floor and watched it for a while, and when it didn't disappear I opened the inventory screen again to see the club was gone and my weight said 0/70. The club was around five percent of my total carrying weight is what it appeared like. Stupid strength score. Picking the club up again I slid it back in the belt loop, which caused it to show up on the screen. Weird.

Betty and I got to know each other pretty good as I tried to find every way possible a knife can be stuck into you. The light armor quit going up after 1.5%, not that I could tell any difference in how the knife went through my clothes. The same with the blunt weapon thing. I killed Betty after six tries and had a whole +0.6% on the blunt weapon listing, but I figured that meant what, maybe +0.6 points of damage if the club did ten? Which it didn't, do ten I mean. I must have hit Betty twenty times the last time before he finally croaked. That whole -25% hit damage thing was killing me since it probably meant I lost one out of every four. Or not, since I didn't have a clue how it all worked.

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 1.5% light armor

+0.6% Blunt Weapon

When Betty croaked he kind of faded away and left behind a small sack and his knife. The sack had three copper coins, all of which showed up in my inventory when I hung the sack on my belt. The knife was a cheap looking thing, and when I started inspecting it, numbers appeared above it.

Poor quality knife

2/12 durability

4-7 damage

Usable: All classes

That got me to pull the club back out and do the same thing.

Poor quality club

10/15 durability

2-10 damage

Usable: All classes

2-10 Damage. I was guessing I was probably managing the bottom half of that number. Since my health and endurance were toward the bottom again, I used the knife to cut some steaks from the wolf (who seemed to keep regenerating even though he stayed dead). This time when I cut the meat, the wolf disappeared and a stack of meat, and a skin was left behind. When I picked them up they disappeared and a subsequent check showed them in my inventory. They were:

Wolf meat (2ea)

+0.5% Damage

6 Hours duration

8% Rate of health and Endurance restoration

Weight (.1) ea

Wolf Skin (1ea)

Can be used for creating armor

Weight (1) ea

Well it looked like I had two days worth of food, and I was about to eat one of them. The world was kind of weird, the fights seeming pretty darn real, but the inventory and things seeming kind of...unreal. Where did the skin go? It came back whenever I pulled up the inventory and focused on it, but It wasn't on my body when I put it back in the inventory. The whole thing felt like it was only partially done. I had read about the depth of reality the various virtual worlds boasted, but this was the first time I really understood that. It kind of made it clear I was living in a computer generated world. Of course the whole dying and coming back did that too. I was guessing there was never going to be a space program developing, even if there was a space to explore. To deep for me, time to go kill something.

The next room matched the last two in design, but this one had an altar in the middle of it. Square pedestal with round column holding a square table top. A round wooden bowl sat in the middle of the table and there was a few flowers on the floor where the club sat in the other room. Shrugging, I stepped forward and picked up the flowers and set them in the bowl. A soft white glow formed above the bowl just before the flowers disappeared and the half-elf lady from Bugly's room popped into existence on the other side of the altar.

My first thought was that she was a truly beautiful woman, the elven features less angular and harsh than they had been on the full elven woman back in the first room. She had the same deep blue eyes I had now, and she had pure white hair that complemented her slightly dusky skin tone. She gave me a sympathetic smile before saying.

"I am the goddess Telina. I am aware of what was done to alter the normal entry path into Tarinath but those are outside of my or my sister's control. The overworld sends you, and the overworld controls your entry into mine. As a son of the overworld you are granted eternal life in Tarinath, but how that life is lived will be determined by your own choices"

She raised her right hand and a light blue glow enveloped it as a feeling of well being and relaxation swept through me. I might have sighed happily as it happened, but i was to tough to do that. My health and endurance bars filled up and I saw two small icons appear on the lower left of my vision.

"My sisters and I interact with our world through our priests and those who worship us" Telina said "and the magical energy granted to priests comes from us. Mages within Tarinath draw their magic powers from the world around them, but they are limited in how quickly they can do this. As my priest, the stronger your faith, the quicker your powers will be restored"

"Um..." I started as I gave her a confused look "You're standing in front of me. I pretty much have zero doubt you exist"

She smiled and chuckled softly before saying "This is not the overworld Loser, this is the world of Tarinath" I gritted my teeth at the Loser part, but decided to ignore it for now.

"Faith in me does not mean you believe in me" she said "it means you support me and act as my will within Tarinath" she looked to her left and waved a hand, causing a square area to appear and show a farm scene. A series of fields surrounding a small, five house village and a bunch of people farming it.

"All entities struggle to survive" Telina said as the scene began changing to show various people begging, working in stores, and starving. She waved again, changing the scene to one where two groups were fighting, one made up of men, the other elves. "The struggle leads to conflict and conflict to hate" another wave caused the scene to disappear and she looked back at me to say "with comfort comes greed and with greed comes more conflict. Mine and my sister's power comes from those who worship us, and some of my sisters have chosen to support those who seek from greed and hate. By doing so they help to control the worst excesses, but they also encourage those who would otherwise seek only comfort. I wish to encourage those who seek to aid those less fortunate, or those who support others through quiet works"

She canted her head slightly as she seemed to focus more intently on me, and I could feel something kind of...look inside me. I can't explain it any better, but that's what I thought at the time. She nodded as I was considering what had happened, and she said "You are a warrior at heart and it was an abomination to force you into this mold, but it cannot be changed now. Ours is a world of conflict and will always be so, so your skills would be a true boon to me if used correctly"

"Um..." I said again "I have a choice?"

The question drew a giggle, something that made me smile back and once again consider how truly beautiful she was. She seemed to follow my thought because she gave me a mischievous look before saying "The Overmaster has set you on this path and many choices were taken from you because of it, but you still have free will. Within the bounds of the limitations placed on you as a priest, you can do as you will. If you choose not to act as my emissary on Tarinath you are not required to. You will be able to restore your mana much as a Mage does, but even slower than they do. My sisters will not accept you as one of theirs anymore than I will accept one of theirs, but I will not punish you for choosing a different path"

I shrugged and said "I'm not greedy, and I pretty much define non-conformist, so I'm not much into the whole conquer and control thing" I shrugged again and added "and I seem to get into trouble helping women in trouble, so having someone who appreciates that would be nice"

She laughed and said "Your act against the Overmaster was appreciated, though one has to wonder at the wisdom of such an act"

"Yeah" I muttered "I also define stupidity, so don't hold high expectations"

"I have very high expectations for you Loser" she said, the gentle smile back "and I suspect that while it may take some time, you will prove I am wise to have them"

I didn't want to get into a debate about my worthiness, so I just said "About that Loser thing, I don't suppose you could call me Jake?"

She shook her head and sighed before saying "It cannot be done. Only those from the Overworld will be able to do so, and that only if they choose to. Those born to my world are constrained to use the name chosen, so Loser is who you are and who you will remain"

Awesome.

"I will teach you to use your magic" she said after a moment "those from the overworld who chose to be priests arrive with the ability to access two skills, which for you are my touch and my fist. You may view them now if you wish"

I pulled up the main screen that listed them, and this time when I focused on them it opened a screen that had them listed with a lot of empty slots below. They had data associated now.

Telina's Touch

Applies 25 points (+20%) of healing to the user or any creature touched

+5 points per level 1-10

50 Mana/use

Telina's Fist

Applies 10 (-15%) points of damage when activated and a successful hit is made

+5 points per level 1-10

50 Mana/use (effective hit)

So I could heal 30 points of health each time, which with my Mana, would mean 120 points of health. Or I could do 8.5 points of damage, four times. Weee.

"So" I said after a moment "it looks like I'm going to be dying a lot"

Damn woman laughed. She kept the smile and said "You have been cursed by the Overlord, this is true Loser, but you have an eternity to repair the injury done to you" God, that loser thing would get old really quickly.

She held a hand out and said "Please use Telina's Fist to injure me"

It took me a few tries to figure out I had to actually concentrate for about four seconds on wanting it to happen before it happened. It felt like a slight static charge in my hands when it activated, and when I slapped her hand there was a noticeable blue spark. She didn't have one of the red bars, so I couldn't tell it did anything, but she nodded and said "now my touch"

Telina's touch took a second or two more to happen, and I noticed I had to be touching her the whole time I was concentrating. She moved her hand the first time as I felt the magic seem to begin...filling me, and it caused it all to flow away. It wasn't something I would be doing in the heat of combat.

"The more you use them the quicker you will become at calling them forth" Telina said, obviously guessing my thoughts "To restore your mana you must close your eyes and think of me" She waited until I did that, then said "not just the image, but the sense of what I am and wish for my people"

I opened my eyes and gave her a look before closing them again. It took long enough that I could tell she was getting a little irritated, but I eventually made the connection when I happened to think of my anger at Bugly when he was fondling her. When it happened we made a definite connection, one that while not telepathy or anything, did make me aware that she was pleased and aware of me in turn. A full body tingle followed, and when I checked my mana bar, I saw it was full again. I also found I didn't have to open my eyes to pull up the floating images. Cool.

"Well done Loser" she said, causing a sudden teeth grinding noise from me "you felt righteous anger in defense of someone you thought helpless. It would please me if my priest became a holy warrior in defense of those to weak to stand by themselves"

"I'm all over that" I said with a nod "Smiting the wicked is a job description I can get behind"

Her laugh lingered when she suddenly faded away. If I concentrated a little I could feel the connection with her, though it was like a drop of water compared to the river when I restored my mana.

Listen to me, talking about restoring my mana like a true geek.

----

When I stepped through the door I found myself in a large outdoor courtyard that had a sand floor and an open archway on the other side. A guy in leather armor and a sword at his side was leaning against the wall next to the archway, and when I showed up he said "About damn time" I was looking up at the deep blue sky, thinking that it seemed to warm for winter and what the season might be, when the jerk walked up, pulled out his sword and thrust it right in my stomach. I was staring at him in shock as he said "Sorry, but Corporal Tennant sends his regards" Then I died

Son of a bitch that hurt!

Jerk boy was leaning against the archway when I reappeared some indeterminate time later, and I pulled the dagger out and fought for a whole minute until the dagger crumbled away and he sliced my head off.

"I get five gold if I do this ten times" Jerk said the third time I appeared and I hit him with my club. I had time to focus on his stats and see his name 'Krin the Knife" and his level (1), and his health (120).

The fourth time I said screw it and tried to get the Fist to work. He stabbed me a second early, but the fifth time I made it. I started running, pulling my club, then stopped and exchanged swings until we both hit. He did fourteen points with a slice, and I did the couple from the club, + 8.5. Crappy exchange, but I started running again as I tried to draw on the Fist. A big fail, but by the seventh time I had figured out how to do it as long as he didn't hit me. When I revived I got a message.

New Skill: Concentration

Passive

The ability to perform a spell while in combat. Increase in skill is determined by disparity in damage capability while in combat.

Concentration 5%

It wasn't reliable enough to keep me alive, but I managed to get a few good hits in when it did. He was gone when I came back the eleventh time, but I knew me and ole Krin would get together again one day. If I kept a list he would be on it, but I didn't, since it meant I spent time thinking about them. I was more of a 'when the mood strikes' kind of guy. He had ten deaths coming, but I had an eternity to apply them.

Loser

Healer Priest

Level 1 (0%)

STR 5

DEX 5

STA 20

INT 10

WIS 10

Health: 200

Mana: 100

Endurance: 120

Spells:

Telina's Touch

Telina's Fist (+7% activate)

+20% Healing Spell

-15% Spell Damage

-25% Hit Damage

-10% Dodge

+ 1.2% hand to hand

+ 2.0% light armor

+1.2% Blunt Weapon

+6.0% Concentration