"Hi and welcome to tonight's show. Tonight we feature Mr. Samuel Collins and Mr. Varun Mehta, cofounders of the company Archesoft and makers of the increasingly popular game Long Island. I am Noah Finney. First of all, welcome to our show."

*clapping sounds, the view expands and two middle aged men wearing suits appear next to the interviewer.

"Thank you." both of them replied.

"I am sure you and the audience must have seen this amazing Long Island game video, now making its rounds over the internet. It originated in the game forums and was uploaded by someone having the handle Raka. The video has quickly gone viral. Copies have been uploaded to youtube and other popular video hosting sites.

The main thing of the video, I would say, is this amazing naval battle between npcs but where players did not play a significant part. We have seen loads of player battles where npc soldiers are being used or where players are playing important parts as soldiers or generals. We have even seen large scale battles fought over the sea between players or between players fighting npcs. But this would be first time where strong npcs of three races fought a battle on their own displaying their own charm, strength and power. This video also shows for the first time, three races available in the game....humans, dwarves and beastmen."

"Alright so lets get started. First question what motivated you to start this company and make this awesome game Long Island?"

"Ah well I think the game came first and then the company," Mr. Collins said to which Mr. Mehta nodded.

"Could you elaborate on that?" asked Noah.

"Well we, that is me, Varun, Nancy and Jiang, were all students at the Stanford University. We started this game, in fact it was not a game then, just a virtual world. We started this virtual world as a project. At that time we had started it for fun, no idea how far we could go with this but then Varun and Jiang did some amazing things with it and somehow we decided to make it into a game."

"Oh so there were only four of you who worked to make this game then?"

"I wouldn't say only. We had more passionate people join after we started the company, without whom this game would not have become a reality. But yes, the four of us did come up with the main idea for this game. Like Varun came up with the idea of how it should look like and behave, Jiang programmed the basic AI, Nancy introduced the rules of magic." Mr. Collins said.

"And Samuel's contribution would be the concept of memories." Mr. Mehta added.

"Too many things I hear. Could you explain them for our interested viewers?"

"Hahaha" both of them chuckled.

"Long Island was started as a simple virtual world creation. You know an earth like environment which could be explored, studied, etc. We had this, then a crazy idea, that it is possible to create species and let them develop themselves. You know how earth developed over millions of years? So we were trying to simulate earth conditions and then looking at the origin of life itself as they say." Mr. Collins started.

"But then, after a night of drunken revelry (*more laughing) Varun here had this even crazier idea to develop an altogether new world and see what kind of species developed there. You know kinda like an alien planet but where the environment is similar to earth."

"Yeah....well the idea was to see if there could be alien planets out there and what would the aliens look like." Mr. Mehta said.

"This was how our project started. After we presented it in class, Jiang and Nancy approached us with some ideas of their own. Nancy was deeply interested in adding magic to this world. See what kind of evolution will happen if you introduced magic. She already had all the rules of magic in her head even then. And then Jiang wanted to make a game out of it. He also made a basic AI which included all of these rules and then we created a new virtual world based on the same concept."

"Ah so your imagination became the starting point for everything? Especially Nancy's? Did something inspire you all or were you always this creative?" Noah asked.

"You could say that we were creative, like I play the guitar and Varun likes the drums. Nancy likes to paint, Jiang is basically the gamer. We were also inspired by creative media, you know manga, anime and stuff like that. Most of them feature unique worlds and it did inspire us in our new world design."

"So that is how the game started. You said something about memories? What is that?" Noah asked.

"Well this is an idea I had after playing a couple of the virtual reality games. The AI in those games used to make history. New history was constantly being uncovered as the players kept developing and moving ahead. If I have to say it simply, its like new stories were made so as to keep the gameplay going. I am sure a lot of you might have found yourself in a situation where you uncovered a quest containing previously unknown history. Before that no npc would know about it but suddenly they would all start talking about it. Now I am not saying that is a bad thing and it is designed in such a way that the information which was basically lost over time was discovered." Mr. Collins said and Mr. Mehta nodded.

"Now that you mention it, something like this did happen." Noah said.

"In our case that was not really needed. We had designed it to study evolution in the first place, so all we had to do was let things develop naturally over the years. The actual passage of time became history in this world. I had this idea where intelligent beings could store information about their life experiences and interactions in the form of memories. The more intelligent the life form, the more memory it could store, like humans."

"Hmm, the game AI does not make history because the characters in it have already lived through it right?" Noah asked.

"Yes, exactly. Every npc lives their own life and have their own memories of it."

"But didn't you have to build the various races? We can see atleast 3 races in the video including humans?" Noah asked.

"Actually we did nothing except make the world, put in the basics of life and add magic. Natural evolution did the rest. I think the main difference between the evolution in Long Island and the planet Earth is the introduction of magic. It remarkably influenced evolution of creatures and races, but that is what we wanted. If Earth would have had magic this might be happening in our world too, probably!" Mr. Mehta replied.

"In that case I would like to be an elf. (*more laughing) Ah but then evolution happens over millions of years. How did you achieve it in the game?"

"Its not that difficult really." Mr Collins started speaking. "Its like watching a video. You watch the video at a particular speed but the actual decoding of the video data by the computer takes place much much faster. The world and its inhabitants in the game are basically computer programs. If we are not interested in actually watching evolution take place or being part of it, the process can be sped up a lot. Millions of years of evolution can happen within human time. It still took us around 10 years of keeping the world running, including the time we were in college, to achieve this state of evolution where we can introduce players." Mr. Collins replied.

"And that is how folks this amazing game was made by the passionate people of Archesoft. Next I would like to ask about the features. People can only select the human race? Why is that?"

"That is something we decided to do to explain the world to the players. It is a bit different than the other games, having no classes. Being human would make it easier to adjust till more information about the game comes out, atleast that's what we thought. Funny thing is we might not have ended up with humans in the evolution in the first place. In that case, we would have needed to pick out some other race which could have looked like an alien." Mr. Collins replied.

"Hahahaha! And when are you releasing that information?"

"Ahhaha....never actually. You see all the information of the game system is locked and stored within the game itself. The players will have to unlock it. Once someone does, it becomes known to everyone through a system announcement otherwise.... It was Jiang's idea to implement it this way. I am guessing it was more fun like this." Mr Mehta said. "Non game system related information can be released though. For example, we are going to be launching the item auction system and the hall of fame portal soon. We believe that the players have reached a point where they will want such things."

"Do you mean to say that these were not there before? Or was it one of the locked systems?"

"No. We had planned to launch it with the game itself, but some issues had come up which needed to be resolved. Also game money to real world money conversion is not easy to decide. We were not sure how the game would be received and how many players would be interested in playing even after like 4 months. As I said previously, the game is different from other standard games in a lot of things. Whether that helped the game to keep interest of the players or adversely affected it, was a major question. After all the amount of money flowing in would be related to the worth of the game currency. But now we can safely roll it out."

"That's nice. So is the 'age' system in the game also one of the locked systems?" Noah asked.

"No, we can talk about that. You see, in older games people had this concept of gaining experience through doing something, like fighting monsters, doing quests, etc. But that left an element where interactions with npcs are not considered. Also learning about the game itself, you know its history, geography, its system, etc was not part of it. We decided to include this and created 'Age'. So unlike levels, having a higher age may not mean that the person is simply stronger than the other but it will mean that he/she knows more about the game, its world and its inhabitants. There are other things involved as well but that's the main thing."

"Hmm...food for thought indeed. So how do you see the first naval battle of the game? Considering your game advertises itself as being primarily sea based? Some of our experts have commented that this is magic intensive, like if you are not good at magic you probably do not want to get involved in such battles?" Noah asked.

"I am not sure how to explain this without revealing a lot of information. Lets just say that over the years people have developed as many ways of fighting as there are instruments of war. Even in Earth's history, there are samurais on one end and the viking longships on the other. But we don't claim to know everything either. Like the players, we are also not sure of the extent of everything in the world we have created. It will be a process of discovery for both them and us." Mr Collins replied.

"Oh..so we can expect other such awesome videos soon?"

Both gentlemen smile but say nothing.

"Well that's all the time we have today. Thank you Mr. Collins and Mr. Mehta for coming to our show tonight."

"TV, switch off."

Swamy laid back on his couch and stretched. He had been intently waiting for this show, ever since it was scheduled. 'That explains a lot.' Especially important was the thing about 'age' and game system information. Real world skills, with subtle differences, could be used in the virtual reality games was common knowledge. The development of the world in this manner also opened up a lot of other possibilities.

'Though the thing about no significant part was unnecessary, even if true.' Swamy sighed.

His inner musings were interrupted by a phone call.

"Hello.."

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It had been a few days since the battle with the pirates. The fleet was making its way back to Thelmova. Considering it took more than a couple of weeks to catch up to the pirates, Raka expected around the same time to get back. He was back with his duties, namely mopping, cooking...massaging. In addition, he was trying to learn the mapping skill.

While at open sea, where you could not see any land, Raka could not make any maps. But now that the island was back in sight he could start working on his mapping skill again. His drawing sucked though, especially free style. He would try making a cove but it would look like a mountain which would confuse the Captain and he would fail to learn. 'No choice but to keep trying though.'

Raka did want to learn more skills. But once he started learning from someone, he could only learn from them. The game would not allow him to change his teacher later. Starting to learn more skills on the remaining voyage may not be a good idea. Especially when any potential skill might take a long time to learn. Sailors and ships had this habit of going away for long periods of time. Waiting for them to return would not be too practical. It was much better to discover skills than learn them, atleast when you couldn't guarantee that your teacher would stick around.

So even though he eagerly wanted to learn how to sail and navigate a ship, he persevered and did not ask. He was sure sailing and navigation couldn't be an easy to learn skill owing to the fact that he even lacked the skill in real life. 'Maybe I will get a chance to go on another voyage someday. Learning the skill at that time would be more convenient.'

Raka focused on his other duties. Finally his shipwright skills were being put to use. There was some damage caused to the ship by the ramming pirate ship. Not much, just the railings and a bit on the hull by the side which got hit. Salmon had been tasked to repair it which obviously meant Raka had to bear the burden.

He worked the planks into the right shape and then hung from the upper deck using ropes. Hanging above the sea besides a lurching ship, he hammered the pieces at the right places to repair the hull. And then he went on to build new railings. All according to precise instructions being given by Salmon, who still criticized him.

"Hmph. Looks like amateur work. Look at that shape!"

Raka sighed.

He knocked on the door and entered the room.

"Ah you are awake. How are you feeling now?" Raka asked.

"I am fine now thank you." Lady Verina replied. Lady Verina had fainted during the battle with the pirates. Raka had suspected that it had something to do with overuse of magic or mana but he couldn't be sure. 'Why would consuming mana make you faint?' He had often asked himself. He was pretty sure running out of mana was a pretty common occurrence. He himself had run out of it so many times without any physical effects like fainting.

"So any side-effects of fainting still?" Raka asked. Well you couldn't be right as rain after fainting. Lady Verina had gained consciousness after a few hours but she had felt slight weakness after that. A few days of rest was prescribed by the Captain and Lady Altia which she had gracefully accepted.

"Um...maybe a little." She said moving her head side to side. Her luscious blond tresses swayed along.

Raka took a seat on the opposite bunk.

"Maybe you could give me a neck massage..." she looked at him and smiled expectantly. Raka smiled involuntarily. He knew of Lady Verina's playful nature but he still couldn't help blushing everytime.

"Um ok. But only if you answer my questions first." Raka added. "You doze off everytime during the massage."

"I can't help it. It always relaxes me so much that I fall asleep. Ok ask away." She replied giving a bright smile.

"First of all why did you faint? I don't think it had anything to do with running out of mana."

"Ah! No it doesn't. Its got more to do with how much energy you transform. I did say when you transform more energy you need more focus, right. To keep transforming large amounts of energy, you constantly need high focus which causes stress. Not stress on the body but stress on your mind. If you keep using large amounts of energy for long periods of time, the stress may cause effects like fainting." Lady Verina replied.

"So the Kraken magic requires a lot of energy. No wonder only you can use it. So I will have to make sure not to use a lot of energy." Raka commented.

"The magic does require a lot of energy but that does not mean only I can use it. If you talk only about the amount, a lot of people including Altia often use that much energy. Its just that the level of fine control required is sometimes beyond them. Didn't I tell you about aptitude for magic? It is just that the amount of energy a person can control without causing stress is directly related to their aptitude, that is, how they think about it. You can take Altia as an example. She can use a lot of energy quite effortlessly in magics which she likes. She sliced through the oars in an instant using air magic. Even if they were not protected, the air magic required to slice through several thick pieces of wood will need a lot of energy but she did it effortlessly. Similarly she sliced the pitch with water magic." Lady Verina explained.

Raka nodded listening.

"So Lady Altia has an aptitude in air and water magic?" Raka asked.

"No. She finds it difficult, relatively, to control the launching stones even though its air magic and uses less energy."

"Um...then I don't get it. What is aptitude then?"

"I just told you. Aptitude is how you think of magic. Altia likes using weapons, specially a sword. So any magic which is similar to the effects of using a sword or imitates a sword, she can do quite easily even if it will need a lot of energy. This is what doing magic intuitively means. Magics which do not act similar to a weapon becomes a little difficult for her, like controlling flying stones. I, on the other hand am not quite so fond of weapons and try to approach magic as a series of controlled steps. It allows more control but also adds more stress. In summary, any magic which you can do intuitively will be less stressful."

Raka nodded understanding.

"Well I also wanted to ask if you could teach me the recovery magic, or healing magic, or whatever it is called. After the fight all I did was serve food and a little bandaging. If I could learn that magic I could be of more use, atleast that's what I thought." Raka finally asked his million dollar question.

It was not like he had been hesitant in asking about this magic but he had found out early that not everyone knew this magic. Initially he had assumed that only people knowing advanced magic could know this and hence did not ask about it, planning to learn when he reached a higher level. But then after the fight with the pirates, he had found a few sailors who could also do recovery magic. 'If you had a high level in magic, would you be a low rung sailor?' Raka didn't think so. On the other hand, actually he had just noticed it, Lady Altia never used recovery magic.

"Healing magic or recovery magic as you aptly called it is only taught to students who either have very low magic power or have a very high level of control. Since your magic is still growing and your control is weak I can't teach you yet. Now just so you do not stupidly go and learn somewhere else, I will warn you. The reason we insist that you have low magic power or a very high level of control is because if applied wrong, recovery magic will result in curses. Do you know about curses?"

"Yes I heard about it. Though isn't it the same as curse magic?"

"It seems you have heard far more than is suitable. Curses are different than curse magic though in a sense quite similar. See, to fully explain healing we have to go into history a bit. Lets say you suddenly learn magic and are experimenting with magic on your own or others bodies. What would you first do?"

"Probably learn how to manipulate my body....or heal." Raka replied.

"Exactly. But transforming stable energies is not easy. The reason it is so difficult is because stable energies have this property of returning back to their stable state. So even if you manage to disturb the form it will try to get to a state that is stable. This is why changes made using curse magic are not reversible. Because the changed body has reached a new stable state. Recovery magic very lightly disturbs the stable energy form, that is your body, and then the form tries to get back to its stable state immediately. Which is basically what causes recovery to take place in your body."

"Hmmm."

"The light disturbance should be caused by very low magic power. If the magic power is just a bit higher, it takes much longer to return back to the stable state. This adversely affects your body causing all kinds of effects like vomiting, dizziness, fainting, etc. It can even cause old wounds to open up. This is what is called a curse."

"Oh so when this magic power becomes too strong, will it result in curse magic?"

"Yes. You could say that recovery magic is the first step to curse magic. Which is why we insist that only those who either have very low magic power or very high control learn it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I do. But that probably means that most Goddess's children won't be able to learn this magic, won't they? Atleast not until they learn high control?"

"Maybe. From what I know of Goddess's children, they usually don't have low magic power."

'Hmm. Thinking of it, only those with a very high mana, probably also a high magic skill, will be able to learn.' Which will take months if not years of game time. Raka will have to find a way to fight without such a convenient skill once he heads out on his own.

"Any more questions?" Lady Verina smiled.

"Um...lots actually."

"Well keep them for later...." as she dropped back on the bed with her face down, clearly indicating.

Raka smiled and moved his hands on to the warm skin of her soft neck.

"Aaah!"

"......"

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Raka could have gone back to his old routine, that is going to college, but he decided to stay on leave. The main reason was his other D+ quest. Namely taking care of Lady Altia. Lady Altia was not completely well. In her case, that simply meant she could not fight in her super speed mode. Normally she displayed no signs of stress or discomfort. There was no pain like earlier either. Perhaps his massages had helped with that a little or it was her natural recovery, Raka wasn't sure. Atleast her normal mode seemed well enough.

That meant, ideally, there would have been no point in continuing to take care of Lady Altia and the quest should have ended. But it hadn't. In anticipation that something will happen, Raka had stayed on. But so far there were no signs of that.

One beastman, two dwarves and one human pirate were imprisoned on board Raka's ship. As they were always kept on the upper deck, Raka got loads of time to observe them. And he made most of it. Dwarves were well, short in height about 3 or 4 feet but were built like a tank with thick muscles. They had surrendered their armor and even without it, they looked burly. No other word came to Raka's mind to describe them. They kept their hair long and tied in a warriors braid. Even their beards were long and tied up in one or more braids. Quite unlike character their moustache was neatly trimmed and short and not bushy and long.

The wolfman....well was a wolfman. Looking closely, what attracted the most were the eyes. He hadn't noticed before but beastmen may have cat like eyes. Atleast the wolfman did. Animal like eyes, perhaps to see better in the dark. Although Raka surmised there could be different types of beastmen, just like there are different animals.

The human did not catch his interest much. His accessories did. The guy was wearing many bracelets, a nose ring, earrings, rings on all his ten fingers and many thin arm bands which looked more like bangles. Even his feet were covered in all sorts of bracelets and rings. Considering the sailors had not removed it when he surrendered meant that it had no combat value, probably. Even if it had, it was not like he could break through the chains designed for beastmen originally. And any magic would be easily detected by the many people on guard. But still it was well, different. Raka hadn't seen anyone, not even the supposedly 'rich' people of the capital, who adorned so many accessories.

All in all the pirates made for an interesting sight. Raka tried to find out or deduce as many things about the dwarves and beastmen in particular. If someday someone discovered a way to change races or if these races opened up to players, it would be beneficial to know their characteristics.

And it had lead to the realization of a new problem. The problem of language! Raka simply did not understand dwarvish or beastman language.

The pirates probably understood the language of Ilmentia. Atleast a little bit or it would have made surrendering impossible. But so far they had kept quiet as they sat tied up in chains. The few times they did talk to each other was in a different language. As they were prisoners, Raka did not think it would be prudent to simply approach and talk to them considering even the other sailors were avoiding talking to them. The Captain and the Ladies also had not initiated any dialogue. And the few times the pirates had said anything was during meal times and even then only the human spoke a word of thanks. The dwarves and the wolfman simply bowed and ate.

The extent to which the pirates understood Ilmentia language was suspect. Just because only the human was speaking did not mean that the others did not know. It could all be a plot to feign ignorance. Though to what end, Raka was not sure. But he was sure of one fact. They could converse in a different language and he could not understand it.

Since the beginning, when he had to spend so much time learning the language of Ilmentia, Raka had suspected that the game had many languages. Even magic language was considered a language after all. The parrot information had confirmed it. In the interview also, when the game creators had mentioned that they had let natural evolution take place, Raka thought it was further proof that there would be as many languages as there were races. If it were like real life, every country could have its own language, let alone different races.

'So I will have to spend a better part of my time learning these languages as well.' His main worry though was whether he would find information about these languages in the library. If not, he would have to visit the library of any new race he visited, only if they had it. 'That's a real problem for the future.'

All in all it was an uneventful day. Any further naval training had been suspended owing to the presence of the prisoners and what remained was too boring to mention. The Captain had even stopped all crew massages. There was a time for work and a time for play and this was the time to stay alert. Only the few who had been injured were exempt. Lady Altia and Lady Verina had insisted though. Well, considering they were not at their peak health, it had made sense. Though it did seem that Raka would die of a heart attack one of these days.

On the other hand, Raka wanted to continue training. Well ok, you cannot drive a boat without a boat or learn how to move a stone without a stone, but you can pretend. Raka placed his magical staff on the railings he had newly built and imagined himself like on a boat. Lady Verina had said that the drive paddle on those battle dinghies was the same as his magic staff, so it should work the same even if it is less effective. In fact a less effective version was better right now so that his magic practice did not cause accidents.

'So now lets face the other way and hold it like this. Hmm..ok now to release the air magic...slowly and carefully.' Raka kept track of his actions in his thoughts. And it worked better than he hoped. He could feel the air magic being released from the other end of the staff. He tried keeping the output low, far lower than he had to keep the boat moving. Almost like a gentle puff from a fan.

'The trick is to keep it as long as I can and to try swirling the air.' Raka focused on keeping on the fan effect for as long as he could, draining all his mana. The feel was a little different than the drive paddle as nothing happened. Atleast on a boat he could feel it moving but like this he could only feel his magic being drained, nothing else.

'Hmm. Do I have to keep the end out to sea?' Raka decided that was not required. He moved his staff to face him and tried releasing air magic this way. Just in case he kept the staff end pointing up so that after hitting him, the air blows up.

Immediately a strong gush shot out giving him a wind blown look. Raka focused on reducing the output and slowly the strength trickled down to a light breeze. It almost felt like a fan in summer. Raka smiled and then grimaced as laughter started around him as others saw his wind-blown look.

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Swamy hurried to get dressed. He had just logged out from the game and it was afternoon in the real world. And he had an appointment to keep, for which he was going to run late.

"Oh...just 5 mins left!" He quickly glanced at the clock. He was pleasantly surprised when he had received that call yesterday. It was someone from Archesoft and they had invited him to their local office in the city. He was deemed as one of the front runners of the game and henceforth invited to join their soon to be launched Hall of Fame portal.

Further details would be given at their office and he was supposed to get there in half an hour. Considering the 20 minutes by Ekishaw, he had to leave house in the next 5 minutes to even have a chance of getting there on time. Ofcourse his calculations had conveniently discarded the time spent on getting to an Ekishaw and the time spent on traffic. It was afternoon after all, not like late night where the streets would be empty.

Conveniently he reached the local office of Archesoft 20 minutes late. He hurried in.

"Hi I have an appointment with Mr. Patil. My name is Swamy." He said to the receptionist who promptly said,

"You are late Mr. Swamy. They have already started. Please follow me."

Swamy followed the pretty receptionist lady who did not seem much older than him, to a conference like room where a couple more people were sitting. One of them seemed to be in a suit wearing a tie while the other happened to be a much more casually dressed and far more good looking.

'What is he, like a model or something?' Swamy could help thinking.

Both of them looked towards him as he entered.

"Yes?" the suited person asked.

"Ah I have another for you." the receptionist said.

"Ah yes ofcourse. I am Jay Patil. Nice to meet you." As he offered his hand.

"Nice to meet you too." And Swamy reciprocated.

"Well I am sorry but could you wait for a bit. Thank you. Please take a chair outside."

Swamy sat down on the few chairs outside the conference room and waited. About half an hour later, both gentlemen walked out and shook hands and then the handsome one took off.

"Please come in. Sorry for making you wait, but as you were late we had to start the interview. I did not catch your name?"

"I am Swamy. What is this about an interview?"

"Ah yes Mr. Swamy. Actually we are considering you and other people who have been deemed front runners in the game to be part of the Hall of Fame portal. Before inviting though, we want to know whether or not you have any interest in it and such. For that we are conducting a small interview."

"Oh ok."

"So the first obvious question, are you interested in being part of the Hall of Fame portal? Please understand that if you are, we will expect you to upload videos of your adventures. Not all of them but the ones you want to. To keep the Hall of Fame active we would also want you to post videos atleast once every two months. The videos need not be of current adventures and you can post older adventures. Also please understand that being a part of Hall of Fame is not without benefit. According to the popularity of the videos or number of views, we will be providing nominal compensation, which is yet to be decided. If you have any questions please let me know."

"Um what kind of compensation?"

"Monetary compensation. We will pay you according to the interest and number of views your videos generate. The money will automatically be deposited to your account."

'Sounds nice so far. Is there a catch?'

"Is the membership to the Hall of Fame permanent?"

"Ah no. We will review the members every six months. If the situation in game changes we would like to remove members and introduce new members, so that we always have the leading people in there. After all it can happen that you do not play for a long time. You can also opt out of this portal or fail to submit new videos during the timespan. In that case we can remove you and add new members."

'Hmm makes sense.'

"I had a question unrelated to the Hall of Fame. In the interview they said that game money - real money conversion can take place now?"

"Yes. We are implementing this system now along with the item auction system. We had to wait a few months so that we could have a steady inflow of money as they said in the interview."

"When would the system be implemented and what would be the conversion rate?"

"I don't know but I expect the details will be announced soon."

"So you are only starting the Hall of Portal now?"

"No. I am only here to complete the formalities for joining and such. The Hall of Fame portal will be launched, I think, along with the rest. Which should be soon."

"Ah..ok. Well I have no other questions. Please let me join."

"Very well. Here are the forms. Please fill in your game account id, email and other details. Also your bank information. Your password will be sent to you by email. This here is a how-to guide to use the portal....."

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It was early morning in the game when Thelmova came into sight. The crew had been sailing for almost a month in game time. The night crew was getting almost drowsy and Raka was sure the morning crew would be just as cranky.

For the past many days Raka had been living a routine life. Except going to college. His parents had called him once to ask what had happened and Raka had explained his quest requirement. Ofcourse he had to spend the next hour reassuring them that he was not going to turn out like those neets who do nothing but play games. That this was a temporary, emphasis on temporary, measure to complete the quest. That his course credits won't be affected and he had talked with his professors. And that he will go back to attending college regularly after this. Well that was more of an understated fact.

Other than that it was pretty routine. He would log in after eating and finishing other requirements of the real world. Then he would go on about his jobs on the ship. Mopping deck after deck, helping with the meals, practicing his map drawings and his magic control and having slightly embarrassing moments here and there.

Raka had found another way of learning magic control. Potatoes were no stones but no point not using a little embedding to send them from the aft to the fore of the kitchen. If he failed and hit someone, well a good apology usually sufficed. In return the kitchen crew did get to laugh at his expense when he failed. And after a few splattered ones, he had gotten the hang of it. Oh it was far from using potatoes to actually aim at someone, but he could move it in a straight line for a fixed distance, with some amount of control. The Cook at the other end did have to catch it once a while. But he was improving.

Raka realized that his magic power was a bit on the high side. What he considered using less energy could still blow him off his feet if he failed. See, this energy bar which had formed in his colorful world, the one that showed how much energy he was transforming, moved only a trickle but the effect showed itself full force. It was like a balloon explosion even using the least energy he could transform. Well, Lady Verina did explain that Goddess's children did not have low magic power.

So what happened when you could not control that magic power properly. Well most of it got wasted, reverted back as they say. The energy Raka used to move that one potato in the kitchen, that too feebly, in better hands could move four. Or atleast that's how he estimated his energy use. There was a lot of scope of reducing his energy use in all aspects of his magic which will then help in increasing his Focus stat.

But that was something he just had to work hard at. For now,

"Well done. You can make a decent map now." The Captain said.

You have learned the skill Mapping.

'Finally!' Raka could not help sighing in relief.

"Ah well it is only decent. You should keep trying to make it better. I think I only understood it because I have started recognizing your idiosyncracies. Someone else might still have trouble understanding so keep practicing."

"Yes, I will keep trying." Raka said. 'So things like this can happen as well,' he thought.

Well atleast he had got the skill. And just in time as well.

Everyone was looking towards the city as the ship approached at a slow pace. It would still take an hour and then some to reach there and to dock but the sailors were probably glad to come out of this alive and well. After all, it was a fight with pirates. Who knew how many would have made it back. 'Their families might have been waiting in as much anxiety.'

And then it went south.

As the only one on the ship with possibly no attachment to the island, Raka was more interested in other things which will eventually help him become stronger. His head was swimming with plans of the things he will do and learn. He had even made a list of things to do on a sheet of paper. Possibly because of this, he was more curious when he heard a strange sound. Or it just may have been that he was still scared of all the things that could go wrong on the ship.

A very soft 'clink'. Raka looked around but everything seemed normal. He walked towards where Lady Altia and Verina were standing near the middle of the ship still looking around. 'Did something fall off somewhere?' But everyone else seemed oblivious to it so it might not have been anything affecting the ship. Seasoned sailors will notice things like that in a jiffy. And he expected the Captain would be able to tell if the behaviour of the ship changed.

And then he looked at the pirates. Correction to the now 'free of chains' pirates. Correction only the wolfman was completely free of it but the others seemed to be heading in that general direction at various speeds, trying to themselves free from the overlapping chains binding them.

The wolfman, kindly, was not interested in helping them and promptly moved to attack.

"Watch Out!" Raka yelled. 'What to do what to do....' and his body moved before his brain. He moved his staff in a boat driving form. Thanking whatever foresight or luck was responsible that he had his staff out and embedded with air magic. In hindsight, it was because he was about to go practice his boat driving magic as per his schedule. He had embedded his staff in the Captain's cabin, well because there were less people there to disturb his colorful world, so it was easier there.

At the time it was just lucky, or maybe not. The wolfman moved straight at him. 'Shit Lady Altia and Verina are behind me.' So he did the logical thing. Raka decided to shoot out a powerful puff of air from one end of the staff towards the beastman. It will likely cause no damage but it should push the wolfman enough to buy time. As he finished his thinking, which happened in a brainflash, his body had already moved into a low stance and he held onto his staff firmly so that it doesn't fly out the other way.

But,

"Raka! Noooo...."

"Eh...Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!" and Raka was shot towards the wolfman instead.

Beastman body slam sounds like Baff! Raka's flying body smashed into the wolfman head on and pushed him back a couple of feet before they fell down, Raka still buried in the wolfman.

'Shit! it smells bad!' was almost all he could manage before one beastly arm lifted him up like a bag of potatoes as the wolfman quickly got to his feet and then the other arm came smashing, claw and all. Blood gushed out of his wounds like a water spray out of a broken tap.

You have taken damage! 120 Life lost.

You are bleeding. Life will reduce by 5 every second.

Blood loss! You have taken extreme damage and are losing blood. If not stopped, you will experience fainting.

'Ugh! Gruesome!' thought Raka looking at his own blood and the messages. In the background he could hear shouting but before he could think much about it, he fainted.

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Raka awoke. He opened his eyes and looked around to find himself in the room. He tried to move but prickling pain shot up in his body. 'Must not have been long.' Raka quickly checked his status. Bleeding was gone, and though Life was recovering, it had not recovered completely. The bleed effect of the wolfman must have lasted quite some time. He guessed Lady Verina may have done some recovery magic to keep him from dying.

It was just the prickling pain which was a bit uncomfortable. But that should subside soon. First time he had this kind of effect. 'Noted.' He looked down at his body. 'Wow I am covered in bandages.'

A little while later, he felt comfortable enough to sit up and found his staff nearby on the floor. He heard a sounds and soon enough the door opened to reveal Lady Verina and Lady Altia.

"So how are you feeling now?" Lady Verina asked with a smile. Oddly Lady Altia looked pissed.

"I am fine. A bit of pain but I will live."

"For all the Piss Ants Asses On FIRE! What the hell were you thinking! You could have died!" Lady Altia stormed.

"Um...he is immortal remember," Lady Verina lightly said.

"I know! But that still doesn't mean he should get injured like that for us. We are his teachers for God's sake!" Lady Altia replied back.

"And that means letting him get stronger! You know he did the right thing!"

"Um may I get a word in?"

""What!"" both of them shouted.

"Thank you for your care. And my body moved before my mind could register. After all you are both precious to me. And unlike me neither one of you will simply revive when you die, would you? I only meant to buy time. By the way how long was I out for? And what happened to the pirates?"

"Ah you were out about half an hour. And we captured the pirates again, thanks to you." Lady Altia replied.

"Really how? Wasn't the wolfman strong?"

"Hah! and what do you think of us?" This time both of them looked at him. "Truthfully though if he had managed to get in close it would have been difficult, both Altia and I were unprepared. But thanks to you we got time to prepare. After that we just blew him off the ship. I assume you were trying to do the same thing?"

"Yes. But somehow I blew out of the back end instead of the front." Raka grimaced.

""Hahaha"" both of them laughed.

"Remember this. In times like these, what you have trained works better than what you want to do. This is why we train in the first place. So that in times like these the subconscious, which will always react faster than the conscious, knows exactly what to do." Lady Altia explained. "But anyways good job noticing the pirates. We captured the others before they got the chains off. I am assuming they wanted to create a diversion and then escape."

"So did the wolfman die?"

"Actually no. He surrendered again. Well this time we lent him a rope tied to the ship and told him that if he tries to escape or come on board, we will kill him. This particular one is quite the intelligent one. Knows when to take a chance. And knows when he has been defeated," Lady Verina replied. "As long as he is in the water, killing him will not be difficult."

"And how did they break the chain?"

"They used a rust stone. It is a dwarvish speciality so not many people recognize it. One of the accessories on the human was actually a shaped rust stone. Because they only react magically when activated by a dwarf, we could not have guessed it. Also they are extremely rare even among the dwarves. Wonder how these pirates got their hands on one." Lady Verina said.

"Hmmm." 'I better note down the new information.'

"Alright I think I will disappear for a while. I should be back in about half an hour. Will we be docked by then?" Raka asked.

"Probably not but soon enough after that." Lady Verina replied.

"Ok." And Raka stood up and went to a corner to log out.

"Raka..." Lady Altia remarked.

"Um what?"

"You are still bleeding!"

"Eh..." and Raka quickly looked down to find the bandages red. Pretty sure they were not that before. 'What's going on here? Did Lady Verina screw up in her healing?' But the answer soon appeared like this.

You have contracted a disease. Stage 1: 33%

Raka has unlocked the Permanent Death System.

[p=center]System Announcement[/p]

Permanent Death System has been unlocked. Your character can die a permanent death (deletion of the character) in these conditions:

1) Death by old age - When Age reaches 150.

2) Death by disease - When your character contracts a disease and it advances to Stage 4: 100%.

Please understand that if your character dies in the permanent death system, a new character cannot be created with the same race or any locked race. If no other races are available or they are locked for you, you cannot create a character till another race is discovered.

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Authors Note: This is the kinda like the end of Volume 2.

This one is a bit late. Also I haven’t proofread it. Will do soon. Hope you enjoy the chapter.