There was never an Aspect of Herald Stone that was updated with the latest trends in technology—very fortunate because I’d likely crash and burn if I encountered a situation that called for it—so I had no experience using full-immersion VR units. I hadn’t even used any of those old ones where you wave your arms around like a monkey while praying you don’t knock down your HTV or hit a wall.

I waited for Dunstan to charge the nearest [Horned Grubling Lvl 1] so I’d have an idea of how combat worked, and also to keep myself safe. Awesome tactics for a tank’s first battle, I thought with ironic amusement.

“Take this!” He stabbed the Grubling that was crawling out of the ground. “And this! And this!”

“So, it’s just like real life?” I said. Not that I had stabbed anyone in real life.

The monster’s health bar above its head got whittled down with each hit; I assumed I could see its health because I was in a party with Dunstan. In retaliation, the Grubling wildly whipped its upper body around as if it was an inflatable stick man outside retail stores—I saw a couple of those at a car dealership near our first rented apartment, but there was probably none of them left today.

Dunstan easily danced around the sluggish slug of a monster. He’d step back each time the Grubling swung its body forward, avoiding its mildly dangerous horn, and lunged in with his sword afterward. This proved there was no way to fail this quest with him around.

I joined in the attack, following Dunstan’s movements. Stabbing the Grubling was akin to hitting a water bed. My dagger’s damage dealt was lower than Dunstan’s short sword. I snorted in exasperation. This rusty thing should have tetanus bonus damage or cause damage-over-time from poisoning. Nonetheless, the two of us made short work of the first monster.

[ Loot: 5 Artas, 1 Small Grubling Horn ]

“I finally have money,” I said after a quick check of my inventory. And the dropped horn had a selling price of 20 Artas. I was well on my way to the first million Artas. The Art...or Arta of Business—“Hey! What happened?”

My health dropped by fifteen points and I felt a minuscule zing.

I turned around, coming face to face with a Horned Grubling that somehow snuck up on me. I didn’t hear anything. The hell?

Dunstan had his own opponent and couldn’t help me. Two-versus-two? Time for a real fight.

The monster’s incoming body slam was obvious from outer space. I shifted to the side. The Grubling hit the dirt where I had stood. When it thumped on the ground, I furiously attacked its vulnerable body, bringing its health down as much as I could as it laboriously rose back up.

“Wow, this is easy,” I said.

Lobbing off a fourth of its health filled me with a weird sense of pride. This was just a game, and this was likely the easiest enemy I’d encounter, but actually whacking monsters was magnitudes different compared to watching a character fight on a computer screen controlled by a mouse and keyboard. Herald Stone was going to master combat in a full-immersion virtual world, one whack at a time.

The Grubling did its thrashing move again. I got a few more hits in while expertly dodging its attacks—‘expertly’ being relative to fighting a five-year-old. I could’ve made a sandwich in the time it took to attack. It eventually repeated its body slam attack, allowing me to finish it off before it could get back up.

Dunstan was steadily winning his own match. The Grubling he fought only had a sliver of health left.

“I’ll help you, Dunstan, my friend forever!” I rushed at the Grubling, burying my dagger up to the hilt in its mushy flank. The squishy monster fell to the ground, slowly faded, and burst into faint sparkles of blue and violet light. Those flew to me and disappeared into my body. “Huh? What was that?”

“In death, creatures and plants, all the Mother Core created, turns into Essence and Gli,” Dunstan explained. “Essence, the life force, adds to your own and makes you stronger.”

“Oh, that must refer to gaining experience points.”

“And Gli, the building blocks of everything, returns to the Mother Core. Since you’re holding a Cidule, a gift of the Mother Core, the Gli of the monster you kill goes to you and builds your Dules.”

That was the lore explanation for leveling up myself and my Cidule? “I forgot to ask,” I said. “Since we’re in the same party, do we share experience or…?”

“Yes, we help each other grow,” he replied.

“Damn, I shouldn’t have bothered trying to steal your kill.” Furthermore, building this character wasn’t my goal because this wasn’t going to be my permanent one. Just a knee-jerk reaction to kill steal…just like real life. One had to be assertive and grab the opportunity right in front of them.

Three more Grublings on the other side of the carriages.

They were polite enough to wait for us to finish their siblings before coming in for the final wave. A veteran of a grand total of three Grubling battles, their horns as proof of my valor, I had more confidence engaging the remainder all at once and no longer used Dunstan as bait.

Herald Stone, Mini-Tank, reporting for duty!

This time around, I didn’t bother to dodge, meeting their attacks head-on. I’d be doing more of this as a tank so might as well have some experience. Taking damage did cause a slight jolting sensation that sufficiently conveyed I was hurt without actually inflicting pain—realism on that front would probably be illegal.

“And that’s it,” I said with a slash that downed the last Grubling.

A thought command sent the rusty dagger back to my inventory. Then I stared at my hands in amazement. Tiredness? I didn’t feel any of that. If this was my real body, I’d be drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. I might actually pass out from this much physical exertion. Come to think of it, I also didn’t feel fatigued after jogging through Amberkeld town up to Captain Edmund. I now understand why so many people chose to spend most of their time within this virtual world.

“You’re hurt, my friend,” said Dunstan. “Remember the buns—”

“The stale buns?”

“—that Madam Pomphrey gave you? Those can help you recover.”

“How could I forget her generosity?” I materialized one of them in my hand. The healing consumable tutorial. Would I get an upset stomach with this? I shrugged and took a bite. It was hard and dry, and realistic; I was unironically blown away by what technology had achieved. As I chewed, something popped up. “I was right? Imagine that.”

[ Status|Mild Upset Stomach: Lose 1% of current HP every 30 seconds for 10 minutes ]

“Huh? Must be horrendous medieval cooking,” I said. "Or my low-level stomach simply can't handle it. But this isn't an issue." It couldn’t kill me even if I reached dangerously low health because it subtracted a percent of the current value, not the maximum. A couple of buns refilled my health bar to full.

I now had a few horns, several pieces of Grubling skin, and more Artas from the fight. And when I examined my status screen, I found out I was almost level two. It also showed that my Human Cidule was near level two as well. Haha, two too, tutu, like a ballet skirt. Random thoughts floating around.

“You were awesome in fighting,” Dunstant said, “I’m sure you’ll have a bright future in combat. And I’ll be there with you! Let’s go back to Captain Edmund and report to him that we completed our task.”

“Hang on.” I surveyed the forest. “I want to reach level two.”

A couple of random [Wild Bumble Hares Lvl 1] did the trick, and I finally leveled up. Those black and yellow striped rabbits with butt stingers were probably stronger than the Grublings, but they didn’t fight back and focused on fleeing. I almost felt guilty hunting those cute buggers. Unfortunately, the raw hare meat they dropped was inedible unless I cooked it.

On our way to Captain Edmund, I examined my character’s status screen. The level up gave me five attribute points I could freely allocate to the main ones of my choice plus minor increases to health and other secondary attributes. I also gained a single LS point.

“Lesser Skill Point,” I read. As opposed to zero Greater Skill Points? I had zero of those so I didn’t know what they were for. “Where are my skills?” I wondered out loud after going through everything and finding nothing. My Skills list was as blank as my list of failures in life—I had many failures, but no one needs to know about those.

“Skills?” Dunstan said. “Captain Edmund might be able to help you with that.”

The captain, his thick arms folded across his chest, nodded at us when we returned. “Good job, you rapscallions. Took you a while to get back here.”

I raised my hand. “My bad this time.”

He continued, “Those were mere Horned Grublings, but you didn’t fail a simple task. Considered a good job, I say.”

[ Quest Completed: Squash the Grubs ]

The grateful satyr profusely offered his thanks before leaving, and then there was another shower of Essence and Gli. Dammit, hunting the rabbits was a waste of time. I should’ve gone straight back here instead.

I received enough experience and Gli from Captain Edmund that I and my Human Cidule leveled up to three. And besides the reward of a hundred Artas, there was also:

[ Received: Basilard {1}{Flaming Blade Lvl 1} ].

“This is much better than the scrap metal you gave me earlier,” I said, examining the basilard. It was a dagger with a pointy straight blade similar to that of a spear, and a handle with a horizontal bar at the end. I slashed the air a couple of times.

“You’ve proven yourself capable,” said Captain Edmund, “That’s why I’m giving you this weapon with an Ocadule Shard.”

“Ocadule? A Shard?”

“Think of Ocadules as lesser Cidules that can be used by every race. Similar to Cidules that pass on Humanity’s Inheritance from the Mother Core to humans blessed to Meld with it, Ocadules pass on ancient knowledge from all the races the Mother Core had deemed fit for everyone to learn.”

“More gifts from the Gracious Mother Core,” Dunstan chimed in.

“Ocadules can either be complete or Shards of the whole,” continued the captain. “Destroyed or disassembled for this or that reason. Full Ocadules can Meld with us and can grow if fed with Gli, as with Cidules.

“I have Melded with two Ocadules. One the Ocadule of Anohendi Sword Style I obtained from my perilous travels up in the North past the Great Ergs River. If ever you snot-faced brats are up to the task and become half a respectable warrior, I just might make a copy of it to give you. Of course, you have to provide me an Empty Mirror for that.”

Ocadules…were they the profession or class system of MCO? If Captain Edmund had a couple of Ocadules, then Chaplain Cobbles probably had some as well. The six smaller hexagon slots in my Akashic Configuration were probably the slots for them. However, I needed levels to unlock the Ocadule slots.

“What about the Ocadule Shards?” I asked, holding up my new dagger. “I assume this Flaming Blade in my basilard is one?”

“Exactly. Proves you got a wit and a half about you. We might make a fine guard out of you yet.”

The Basilard had only one socket slot, and Ocadule Fragments apparently went into it. The socketed Fragment in mine stated [Open-Compatibility Accessory Data Module (Ocadule) : Lvl 1 Flaming Blade]. O-C-A -dule, so that was why the NPCs of this world called it Ocadule. The skill it gave was:

Lvl 1 Flaming Blade: Coat your weapon with fire for additional damage.

+10 Fire Damage to Physical Attacks

5% Chance to Burn Enemies

Energy Cost: 20

Duration: 60 seconds

Captain Edmund said, “Since Shards are…shards, if that wasn’t clear enough, they cannot absorb Gli like a complete one. Hence, it is up to you to make them stronger.”

“Aha! The Lesser Skill Points? So that’s what those are for.”

“Skilled craftsmen can also merge Ocadule Shards with armor, weapons, all sorts of equipment. You may encounter a sword with a skill embedded in it despite the absence of a slot filled by a Shard.”

“I see. Thanks for the information, captain!” I saluted him. A quest prompt popped up followed by another notification.

[ Received: Captain Edmund’s Recommendation Letter ]

Captain Edmund patted my shoulder. “Go to the barracks and bring this with you. It’s near Lord Amberson’s Manor at the northeast part of town by the river docks. You can’t miss it. You didn’t miss the Horned Grublings, so I trust your eyesight. There is promise in you, and if you do want to be a guard, you’ll need to pass a test and our lord might just give you a warrant.”

“Yes!” Dunstan pumped his fist in the air. “I knew you were perfect to be a guard, my friend. I’ll guide you to the barracks.”