Author's note: Still unedited and perhaps a little short. Also apologies for delay. Have been having lots of trouble with my laptop, my primary writing medium.

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You may change your race. Would you like to change your race now?

Raka stared at the message for a long time. Although he felt it was a long time, he also felt like he had stepped into a world where the time seemed to have slowed down. Perhaps it was the system's way of helping him not be interrupted during this fateful decision.

At first, he was quite surprised. 'Quite a few penalties for race change? And what is this about memory affected?' Like a lot of other players, Raka was also wondering about this. He was not yet aware but within moments of uncovering the race transformation system and unlocking of the dwarf race, the forums had exploded into chaos.

If players were not discussing it, it was only because they had already decided to delete their old avatars and entered the character creation menu to choose the dwarf race.

Raka noticed the keyword 'now' and decided.

"No."

Change refused. You may access the race transformation menu to change your race at any time while on the island. Please take note of the conditions for race change according to the system.

'Well, that's what I thought.' With this new message, time had returned to the normal pace. He looked up and was surprised once more.

'He's black!' Raka mentally noted as a tallish dwarf wearing a rustic looking garb, like the kind plumbers often wear and a hat approached him. Unlike the dwarfs Raka had seen, this one was not heavily built like a tank rather he looked like a healthy person with a slight belly. Maybe because of this, he seemed a little taller than he expected. And he had black skin.

The dwarf reached him and said.

"abababababa"

Raka simply nodded his head in the negative. He did not understand. Then he looked at Nobby and asked.

"Nobby, do you understand?"

"He said, hello and for what purpose have you come.." Nobby translated.

"Ah..well say hello back and ask if he speaks Ilmentian or Khardoumian," Raka said. He guessed that they should owing to the fact that the dock workers in Khardoum understood the language of the dwarves.

But then the dwarf spoke. "Welcome to Hya'cinth. Do you understand the language of Khardoum?"

Raka gladly sighed. "Yes I do." 'Thank god, I guessed right.'

"For business or pleasure sir?" The dwarf asked.

"Mostly pleasure. Do you know a place where I can park my boat for some time?" He asked.

"Yes sir, there are coves to the south, just a little way from here. After you complete the formalities, you may move your vessel over there." The dwarf replied.

"Very well. Please lead me to the office." Raka asked.

The office meant the guild office. As he was travelling as part of a convoy, they would be the ones to check his papers. And like always it was busy. Especially since 15 ships had arrived at the same time. And then he was led to the port master's office. Here another set of papers were given to him and then stamped.

'Guess it is like an immigration office.' He got his papers and decided to go visit the town first.

As he stepped out the port he got shocked out of his skin.

"What the hell!" He could not stop himself saying out loud.

The thing that caused him to have such a reaction was blowing out steam from the top while pulling two carriages behind which seemed to be filling up with people, humans and dwarves. And there was a bell ringing.

"Is that a TRAIN?!"

Raka rubbed his eyes and looked again. But even when he looked again, he could still see the steam engine. And then other stuff started coming into his head. The steam engine was pulling two carriages while standing on rails!

'So that is a train, right?!'

And that was not all. As he looked around with his fat eyes, he found a pole with a wire running on top of it.

'Is that an electrical wire?! Or a telephone wire?! Have I entered a wormhole and skipped from the medieval age to the industrial age?!'

Raka put a hand on his head and tottered down to sit.

'Alright think calmly. There is a rational explanation for all of this. There needs to be!' Raka looked again at these amazing sights.

The steam engine was designed like an open car which had no hood. A long pipe came out of the round bonnet from which emerged the smoke. There was just the sitting space for maybe two people in the driver's position at the extreme rear end. The carriages were better as they were fully covered and had windows and doors. Raka noticed that all of it seemed to made mainly of wood. Except the tracks which were of metal.

'Hmm...that steam engine is of an older design. I think it's resembles the engines I saw in the railway museum. The ones made in the 19th century. Some bits atleast. The train carriages also look like a really old design from dunno which era.'

Then he moved his attention to the wooden poles which had wires running on top of them. Seemingly made of metal, these wires were heading towards the port master's office on one end and disappearing into the the town on the other.

'That looks like an electrical wire... a lot. But I didn't see a telephone in the port master's office? Nor a light bulb. Yes, I remember clearly, he had some sort of lamp. So what do they need electricity for?!' Raka was utterly confused as to its purpose.

'Hmmm...yes. So all of this suggests that the dwarves have indeed reached the industrial age.' Raka nodded his head.

Raka sighed. This was too much even for him. He simply chose to accept

it at face value.

He looked around and found that there were not only the black dwarves. There were few who had paler skin, like the ones he had seen before. The contrast between them was immediately noticeable as there were no other shades, as they say.

'So one of them is the Mare and the other should be the Fare dwarves.' Raka concluded. 'I better head into town.'

The town of Hya'cinth looked like a regular town from afar. Buildings, big and small, rich and poor, just the designs were a bit different.

But as he passed the town walls, he found the town to be as glamorous as they come. Many statues and works of art decorated the various streets and squares. The building walls were painted with various colors. And there were many many dwarves chattering ten to the dozen as they walked down these streets.

'Alright first stop, the library. Um...where would that be?' Just as Raka was wondering, there came a familiar sounding voice.

"Hey there.." Kilthan called out.

"Oh hey." Raka acknowledged.

"You seem a bit lost. Where you headed?" Kilthan said.

"Um..I was looking for the library. You wouldn't know where that is do you?" Raka said.

"I do know. But what would you do there? They don't allow non-dwarves to enter the library." Kilthan said.

"Eh...that would be troublesome," Raka sighed. He started thinking of what else he could do. Relying on Nobby was always an option. But it was always better to be able to understand things yourself. 'Could I buy a book?'

"Hmm...well I think I can help you there. You can accompany me inside. They will allow that. Just consider it included in the generous payment you made." Kilthan smiled.

"Oh..thank you." Raka smiled too.

As they walked, Raka spent his time looking at the various shops and the art pieces. Some were truly beautiful. Some were abstract as modern art.

"Hey, there's a shop selling spell scrolls!" Raka said.

"Yeah. It also sells for a pretty penny. Guess a human won't understand but we use the scrolls a lot." Kilthan said.

"Really? Why?" Raka was curious.

"We can't do much in other styles of magic other than earth style. Need spell scrolls for the rest." Kilthan simply explained.

Raka suddenly remembered. Dwarves originated from their ancestors using curse magic. It made them heavily inclined towards the earth element. As a result, their affinity for other kinds of magic was severely reduced.

'So much that they need to rely on spell scrolls.' Rather finding a spell scroll shop in the dwarvish lands spoke highly of the universality of the spell scrolls. Anyone who was capable of magic could use a spell scroll. More than that, they were not limited by its power. Even a beginner could use Lady Verina's Kraken magic through a spell scroll.

But there were also limitations. As one who made these spell scrolls, Raka understood the limitations very well. The limitation was in control. Not the control required by mana but the mental acuity and flexibility to use said magic. For example, anyone could use the Kraken magic. But would they be able to move nine watery tentacles like their own limbs? Spell scrolls guaranteed power but to be able to use them effectively is not that easy.

'Practice...it requires a lot of practice.' There was no other way.

That said, this limitation was only for spells which required a certain degree of mental control. For simple spells like 'Fireball', spell scrolls were extremely effective. Just imagine the kind of power a person like Lady Altia or Lady Verina would be able to bring to such a spell. Or if the dwarves made a spell scroll for any of the earth magics, what kind of power could it achieve!

Yet there was another limitation in using spell scrolls. Atleast for the dwarves. They would need to ask for assistance from humans or import them from human lands, if not the elvish lands. Which would make them dependent on other races for a lot of things.

'Perhaps this is why they needed to develop technology,' Raka guessed. And technology was all around.

There were pipes rising off the ground and entering the houses. 'Plumbing?' There were also lamps built on metal posts on the sides of the street. 'Street lighting but it can't be using electricity... don't see any wires.' If that were not enough, some of the art and statues were made of metal. Especially a really weird statue which seemed to be made of metal pipes.

"What is that?" He asked as he stared.

"No clue." Kilthan shook his head.

But the biggest surprise or shock was waiting in front of the library. Just in front of a huge multi-storey stone building was a huge statue made of metal.

'Is that a mecha?' Raka stared.

This amazing statue could easily have been one of the mecha from some franchise! Shiny metal armor interconnected throughout and covering the whole body. The helmet covered the entire face and had two spikes like horns coming out of it and the eyes were made of some sort of red gem. The face plate seemed like the mask of the ninjas he saw in the movie. The metal gloves were also red, with five fingers making a fist. Overall the metal sculpture was making a martial art kinda pose.

"This is our God Metalman!" Kilthan spoke from the side as he put his hands together and offered a prayer.

Raka turned to look at Kilthan with his mouth open. He couldn't get a word out. He went back to staring at the God Metalman.

Wise men say there is a time to speak up. And there is a time to hold your tongue.

Raka sighed.

Raka waited while Kilthan talked to the librarians. Somehow for what Kilthan had made sound simple, actually took a while to sort out.

"Alright. I was able to get you in. But it looks like I will have to accompany you everywhere. How long do you think you will take?" Kilthan gave a wry smile.

"I don't know. But perhaps a couple of hours should be good. Oh could you ask them if I can come back by myself again or will I have to trouble you again?" Raka smiled.

Kilthan nodded and asked.

"You will have to accompanied by me as you are my responsibility..." Kilthan sighed.

"Ah...then I will have to trouble you further. Don't worry, a suitable compensation could be given..." Raka said.

"Haha...no. Unless you are handing out a gold coin everyday..." Kilthan said.

"Absolutely not!" Raka shook his head vigorously.

"Hahaha....just a joke. You have already paid me enough. Consider this as my way of showing around a guest." Kilthan said.

The method to learning the dwarvish language was no different. Starting from the kids section and moving up.

'Hmm what would happen in places where they don't have a library?' Raka wondered. A couple of hours later, he had learned enough language to leave.

"Done for today. But I may need to come back again...how would I find you?" Raka asked.

"Ah, I got a house...just two squares further up, seventh house to the left." Kilthan said.

"Thank you." Raka and Kilthan went their own way.

Just as they left a thought came in Raka's mind. 'In which language were we talking in?'

The system translated all languages to English for Raka. Usually, he and the other person shared just one language so he could easily tell. But he and Kilthan shared two languages now. Were they communicating in Khardoumian or Dwarvinian?

'Interesting and weird...' Raka could imagine the language system in the game causing some trouble in the future. 'Like if I wanted to talk something with Kilthan, I could use Khardoumian if I didn't want anyone around to hear it. But how do I choose that?' Kinda like speaking Hindi in Canada or Polish in the Caribbean.

'Oh well, let's just finish learning the language for now.' Raka spent just enough time to learn the language. And then he decided to call it a day.

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"Knock! Knock!"

"Come in," said Sophie who was lying on the bed reading a book.

"Hey.." John said.

"What's up bro?" Sophie asked.

"Hmm...well.." John took a seat next to her. "Mom asked me to talk to you. You have been too irritated recently. Wanna talk about it?"

"It's nothing to worry about. Mom just worries a lot." Sophie said.

"Hmm...I guess you had a fight with Adam?" John asked.

"No...we are fine. It's just something that happened in the game." Sophie shook her head.

"Oh...and why didn't you come to me before. I believe I am the game expert in the house." John lifted his chin up high.

"Haha...yeah no contest there. So why is it that you do not play Long Island?" she asked.

"Hey...I can't keep playing games now that I am grown up. I got a job and shit you know." John countered.

Unlike Sophie, John wasn't interested in the family business. He worked as a helicopter pilot mostly ferrying tourists around. He would actually say that any job which required him to stay on the ground will never become his job. Not that it stopped him working part time at a restaurant during off season. Yet, the poverty was only for now as he would say laughingly. Tourist business cannot always remain in a depression.

But behind his casual exterior, he was also the biggest nerd Sophie knew. It was enough proof when his school and college friends would gather in the house to discuss a game feature or two. The intensity of those discussions could rival parliamentary budget debates. Often Sophie would be trapped in the middle of such gatherings, which was quite often. Not to mention he was also the one who first introduced Sophie to virtual reality games.

Perhaps the biggest proof would be his near breakup with his girlfriend over the owning rights to a bracelet. Not a real one, ofcourse. "That was my rebellious phase. Hahaha.." He would say.

"So what is it? If it's something I can help with lemme know." He said.

"Um...well there's this thing that happened....like..." And Sophie explained all that had happened with Raka.

John listened intently nodding now and again. After Sophie finished, he made a thoughtful expression.

"Hmm...from what you say, it's not like you are angry that this guy was a jerk, rather you are angry that he was able to fool you.." John smiled.

"That's not...." But Sophie thought for a bit. "Yeah, I guess that's it." She finally realized the source of her irritation.

"Sophie, let me just say this. Usually virtual reality games would not allow behavior which could be explicitly considered as sexual harassment. Ofcourse, there is not a steadfast rule regarding what is considered normal and harassing behaviour. It's just that any forcible actions like the one you described are common enough and should not be allowed by the game system. But if you say that's whats happened then I will guess that either this a bug in the game and should be reported. Or that it may be due to other reasons." John explained.

Sophie looked up. "What other reasons could be there?"

"Sophie you know there are physics of actions. Like, if you push a person and if there is someone behind them, they would be hit too. It's the same in the games as well." John said.

"Ah..." Sophie started thinking back to that scene.

"Hmm... how did the guy act after doing this thing?" John asked.

"He started stammering...." Sophie said. "As if he had not done it on purpose..." She kept thinking back to what happened before.

"Not like the rude guy who wanted to harass you?" John smiled.

"Eh...I don't know. I was just too pissed off then. But but, now I think about it..." Sophie said.

"Hmm...well if it is a bug, I guess it could be easily tested. Hmm..now even I want to play..." John said.

"Haha...why don't you?" Sophie said.

"Hm..will think about it. What races does it have? I don't like playing human." John asked.

"Ah then you are in luck. The game only has two races at present. The second race, the dwarf race, unlocked just yesterday." Sophie said laughing.

"What! Just two races! How is it even a good game? Or why would you even play it?!" John was shocked.

"Hahaha...well you will just have to see the charm of the game yourself." Sophie said.

A little while later, she entered her game capsule and logged on.

Sphinx appeared in the village square of the Hebenu village. She had finally made up her mind to head across the desert. Today would be the start of her journey.

Just then, she got a ping from Thadian.

'Hmm..shouldn't he be in the capital Fayyum? Wonder what he wants...' She thought as she responded.

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Suzaku was quietly bidding his time in Maccaba. Acting according to Lord Despira's instructions, he was supposed to head to the capital Fayyum soon. However, new instructions had asked him to hold in Maccaba.

Suzaku didn't complain though. There was much to learn on this island. Especially since the 'flytraps' were so good in raising his Sensitivity stat. Not to mention, it was good hunting.

There were three kinds of poisonous snakes in the desert. And he never could count the numerous types of lizards. The most deadly of all though, were the scorpions. These looked like the ones in the real world. But then there was the Giant Scorpion. Kinda like the mini boss, it roamed the desert alone. And it was fabulous at hiding.

A Giant Scorpion was several metres big, big enough that one could ride upon it. It was just that the deadly stinger it had, was even more deadlier. And over sand, it was amazingly fast. The first time Suzaku saw this thing, he almost lost his life before being able to run away.

'I think it let me run away. With its speed if it really wanted, how could I escape.'

Since then Suzaku also realized his shortcomings. He was good at close combat. The problem was that the animals/beasts he hunted were far better at it. He had lucked out with the Stag hunt. He didn't have such luck with the Giant Scorpions though.

'I need better weapons, better equipment, better techniques....' He complained often. Ofcourse, there was still a limit to how much he could improve in strength. The more he increased the Strength Stat, the slower it improved. About now, he had 42 points in strength. And still he was unable to deal with a Giant Scorpion.

There was another thing he did in Maccaba. Meet players. He had met nearly all the top players of the island, including Thadian, the first to leave the starter village. The ones who had moved to the capital had come down to Maccaba especially to meet him. He was kinda feeling honored by all that. Also he realized that connections helped in the long run.

And then he saw Raka's video. Especially the one scene where he faced the flytrap and won!

'How did he?!'

As other players had taught him, he also avoided these flytraps by running when they activated. And like a lot of others he had also tried facing atleast one flytrap with a team. Not that it helped. They all died. Suzaku really cursed that time.

And then came this video. Considering he was the one who was supposed to stop him, he needed all the information about him as he could find.

'He is strong.' He had to grudgingly accept that. 'Hmm...I need to become strong enough to face a flytrap on my own. Also he has that damn monkey and that green bird as well.'

This was a problem. If it were only Raka, he could somehow manage. But he had those two accursed beasts with him as well. The last time he had faced them, he was severely outclassed. 'Can't let it happen again. Should I ask if I could share this quest with others too?' Well, he couldn't just share it with someone without being able to trust them. 'After all, this does not involve killing monsters but a player. Who knows if Raka has friends.' Which is also why he was working on improving his relations as much as possible.

Then the day came when the dwarf race was unlocked by Raka.

Today, he finally received Lord Despira's instructions.

'Raka reported as having reached Hya'cinth. Head towards Hya'cinth.'

A simple message. The captain of the ship explained where Hya'cinth was. Though he had guessed already.

And then Suzaku had an idea. He contacted Thadian.

"Hey Thadian."

"Hey Suzaku, what's up?"

"Listen, I will be heading towards the dwarvish lands. I think I have space for about 10 more people. Do you or your friends want to join in? I will charge 5 gold though." Suzaku said.

"5 gold...really? Count me in. I will ask my friends. When do you want to leave?" Thadian said.

"ASAP! Ask anyone who's coming to get to Maccaba." Suzaku said.

"Gotta hurry then...will contact you later." Thadian said.

Thadian couldn't believe his luck. The dwarf race had just opened. And just now, he found himself a ship going there. '5 gold is cheap. The other ships were charging 20 gold and even after that I was required to work.' Much to his chagrin, Thadian found that simply taking a cruise to another island was neither cheap nor easy. And living on the island, he hadn't been able to make much money. In fact, none of the players did.

The jobs paid humane wages, which would still only be a couple of silvers a day at most. But then you could not keep working a job and find time to hunt, without which you could not raise your stats. Finding jobs was also difficult, after all, there were like a hundred thousand players on the island. Not to mention, you needed all sorts of connections everywhere. In fact, players had difficulty finding jobs out of the village. Without some sort of connection, it was nigh impossible to get the jobs.

In fact this situation was common in all islands, except Ilmentia which was a lot better. Thadian realized the lack of contribution points and fame was perhaps responsible. Because Raka had succeeded in that 'C' level quest, the other players had got the chance to earn contribution points and fame. The other islands didn't and were the worse for it.

Hunting did not help much atleast not in monetary terms. Most things, the islanders could hunt themselves. The ones they didn't hunt, namely, the Giant Scorpions, were not much in demand. Unlike the Stag, the Giant Scorpion did not have much meat, and what it had was tasteless and hard. The poison could easily be obtained by killing several smaller scorpions. And the stinger was not really something you could make a weapon with.

'So when you got a chance to leave for cheap, you jump at it.'

Thadian opened his friends menu and found the people he wanted to invite. Being the top player, he had maintained good relations with most of the top players. He started messaging them.

Just then another light blinked in the menu as someone came online.

'Ah! Sphinx is online now.' Sphinx was also one of the top players. Not to mention her strength and skills, but she was also very lovely. Though for some reason she insisted on staying in the village and not coming to the capital like the others.

Thadian couldn't help having a soft spot for her, like many others.

'Should I invite her? But I suppose she is in Hebenu still...would she come?'

Thadian pinged her.

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Lord Despira hurried back to his mansion. He had just been to the capital to flag the Queen's departure. And now he needed to send a message.

He got off his horse as soon as he reached the gate and headed inside. Waving off all his attendants, he made his way to the one forbidden room of the mansion. No one was even allowed to stray near the room, not even accidentally. If done so, would result in immediate execution.

Lord Despira had given the strictest instructions to all his attendants regarding this. It did arouse some idle curiosity. But one death had got rid of all such idleness.

He walked down the corridor and stood in front of the door to this room. Lord Despira carefully looked around and then moved to tap a panel. It swung open and revealed a golden key. He opened the door and walked in. He then shut the door from the inside.

Inside there was another door. This one was far more complex. There were various knobs and odd shapes all over it. Lord Despira moved some knobs and pressed some of those shapes which strangely emitted a 'click' sound.

Only after many moves did that door finally open.

One would expect such a room to contain rare treasures or impossible novelties. What it did contain though sat perched on a table. It was a bird made of metal. Lord Despira did not know which bird it resembled though he was pretty sure it wouldn't be metallic like this.

Colored bronze, it had red eyes which shined eerily. It just stood there like a statue. If one did not know they would think it was an artwork of some kind. In fact, the first time he had seen this metal bird move, Lord Despira had been shocked out of his wits. Even now he felt scared approaching it.

Nevertheless, he approached the metal bird and touched its side. A panel slid outwards gently, revealing a cavity. Lord Despira put in a piece of paper and then closed it.

As he did, the metal bird shivered and awoke. It immediately moved its metal wings and took flight, flying out the open skylight, which had only opened when the complex door did.

Lord Despira sighed loudly and then sat down on the lone chair in the room. This scene was always frightening. It was unnatural and eerie.

But what terrified him the most was that the bird flew west.