"Aaaaaaah!"

A blood curdling scream rang out in a small room of a nondescript apartment at a fairly populous neighborhood. Yet, the scream did not escape the walls. The populace remained blissfully unaware and went on with their puny lives.

"I still can't see anything..." A guy said out loud as he banged his hand on his desk.

He sighed. "One more time..." And he pulled the video to the last scene, just before his death. "Time to go frame by frame..." as he rewound his death just one more time.

This was Swamy and he was watching this game video with hawkish eyes, trying to put together the last moments. Like a crash site investigator, he was looking at the wreckage to determine how the incident happened.

The game video was the black box.

The problem was that he couldn't see anything relevant. 'Still nothing. After the confusion status, I don't even see my Life bar. Is that a clue? But what does it mean?'

This death, like the status message, was utterly confusing. Swamy couldn't be sure whether he was attacked or poisoned or had faced a gravitational anomaly. Heck, if he were targeted by aliens, he couldn't know as everything after the confusion status message was totally confusing, out of whack so as to say.

There was the sky turning upside down and then there was death. 'Still nothing. No signs of any animals, in fact looking at the trees, there is not even wind. Looks like everything after the confusion status message cannot be trusted.' Swamy sighed.

The game video, or rather the recording of the game play was taken in first person perspective. So it recorded what Raka saw. Whatever he saw! If he was confused, it did not record the actual image which should have been in front of him, instead it recorded the same things he saw. Sky and earth upside down!

How could he even look for clues!

Swamy sighed. "This is useless!"

"TV, Off!" He said. He unhooked his laptop from his TV. The bigger screen hadn't helped things at all. And then he went to bed.

For the next 24 hours, he was on vacation so as to say.

The next morning began as usual. He got dressed and got to college. Everyone had kinda got used to the classes by now so there was far more chattering.

"Hey, did you see...."

"Oh...do you know..."

"Oh...that was so ridiculous..."

"................"

Swamy sighed. It was high school all over again except perhaps in a university setting. Something on the lines of those gaudy American shows which presented a glamorous scandalous college life.

"Hey Swamy..." Rajan came up.

"Hey...where's Sneha?" He asked.

Rajan simply shook his head. "We got into a fight last night....now she's avoiding me. I can't understand women dude!"

'Me neither. On that subject, I don't understand you either...' but what came out of his mouth was "Yeah, women sure are a mystery." And Swamy shook his head as well.

""Hey guys"" Both Himali and Manish came up at that time.

"Hey," Swamy greeted.

"Hey..." came Rajan's greeting which sounded a bit down.

"Now don't expect sympathy from me. You know you were at fault here, don't you?" Himali simply replied. As expected Sneha had shared her 'troubles'. "Ah there she is." And she turned around and walked over to greet Sneha, who had just entered. The two girls found some seats away from us guys.

"I feel you, dude. These things happen. The thing is let things settle down on their own. Oh and apologies work too. And don't even wonder whether you are right. You will find out that doesn't really matter...." Manish added his part.

"But did I do something that wrong? It's just that I lost track of what she was talking about for a bit. I mean we had already been on the phone for an hour...wouldn't anyone lose track?!" Rajan complained.

"I feel you dude. As I said, don't mind it too much. These things happen. It's just some girls take it as being funny and others get upset. Can't blame yourself for that...." Manish said.

"Yeah...and then...."

"Hmm....guess it will fine....."

"blah blah blah..."

"blah blah blah..."

Swamy looked at the heavens and sighed. 'Take me...just take me...or rather take them!'

Thankfully by lunchtime, the talk had turned to the game. And a sort of temporary truce had been established. Sneha sat between Swamy and Himali, instead of her usual seat next to Rajan. Not that Swamy cared.

"Hey, I heard another group of players from Khardoum are making their way to the dwarvish lands. They are joining Suzaku's ship. Heard Thadian's part of the group. He's the top player in Khardoum." Rajan said.

"Guess the people from Khardoum got lucky. It is still so far for us. Our guild's been investing money and converting it into gold. Hopefully, we will have enough soon." Himali said.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Sneha said.

"So what are you aiming for? A ship or going straight to buy a guild office?" Rajan asked.

"Hmm...initially we were trying to save enough for a guild office. But after Raka/Swamy's videos got uploaded, we have changed our mind. Now we want to aim for a ship. Oh don't worry, we didn't tell them we knew Raka in real life." Manish smiled.

"Yeah...what are you up to bro. Tell us how is the island of the dwarves? People who started there have put in some videos but there are so few of them." Rajan said.

"Yeah..I am kinda interested too." Sneha said.

"Yes, yes do tell us. How do the dwarves look like? Oh and what's different?" Himali was interested.

"Yeah, atleast you would have a much more interesting experience than those new starters." Manish said.

Swamy thought for a while and then started explaining things. For the next few minutes, his was the only voice on the table. Even in some of the surrounding tables. Eavesdropping was a source of great many gossip, after all. How could they not have mastered it!

A sudden announcement was made during the afternoon classes.

Prof. D'souza interrupted the regular class and said.

"After much deliberation, we have decided to make some changes to the course structure. Including your normal lectures, we are also starting a guest lecture series. The practice of inviting academic guests to speak has been prevalent in many departments of the university, however, it is a first for the virtual reality department." He spoke as looked around.

Swamy felt excited by it. If it was to be the same as what they did in the other courses, then the guest lecturers would be highly successful individuals from both academics and industry. 'Such as the creators of Long Island...' Swamy hoped.

"We had tried to add this into our curriculum many times in the past but we were unsuccessful. As you know, virtual reality has become mainstream now, yet just ten years previously, the people who worked and researched virtual reality were quite few in number. They were located all around the world and as such asking them to speak to us would become just a one time thing. In India, virtual reality research has only recently gained prominence.

But now, we feel that we can finally begin this guest lecture series and have a guest lecture, at least once every week. The details are still being deliberated but the first lecture has been decided and will be held tomorrow in place of the afternoon classes. This guest lecture is open for students of all years and will be conducted in the auditorium. I hope that all of you will take advantage of this unique opportunity." Prof. D'souza smiled.

"Well, I would like to keep the name of the one coming tomorrow as a surprise but I will tell you what he or she will be talking about. Skills Transference." He added.

Instantly, everyone started talking ten to the dozen.

"Hey hey...did I hear it right? It's skills transference right?" Swamy asked excitedly. Considering he was the quiet one of the group, being this excited was quite a first for him.

"Yeah...that's what he said. This is too exciting! No one can miss this." Rajan said.

"Um..what is skills transference?" Swamy instantly turned around as the voice reached his ears. And he was not the only one. Rajan and Manish on the same row also turned around to look at the guy who sat behind them. Even the guy's two neighbors started staring at him. Maybe all of them were wondering, where had this unique piece of man flesh come from. How could one not have heard of Skills Transference if he played any kind of virtual reality game!

"Dude...how did you end up in the virtual reality program?" The guy's neighbor was shaking his head.

"Come on...is it that odd not knowing?" Being stared at by so many eyes, the guy turned pitiful.

Finally, Swamy took pity on him and started explaining.

"Skills Transference is the general term used to describe the transfer of skills learned from real life to the game and vice versa." Swamy gave a to the point answer.

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24 hours passed in the blink of an eye. Time passes faster when you have something to do. Like going to school, attending class, completing assignments, hanging out with friends, etc. And yet, when you finally reach that last minute, you start looking at the clock counting seconds.

"5...4....3....2...1...Login.."

Raka appeared in the same place as when he died. Just this time, the sky and the earth were normal.

Raka sighed. 'Normal is good.'

He had screwed his head over and over but he had come up with nothing. Ofcourse, he had his suspicions. He had researched on the type of things which could interfere with a person's brain. The kinds of external stimuli which would cause similar effects.

Most prominently among them were smells.

'Maybe I smelled something by accident before...' There are many kinds of scents and fragrances designed to manipulate the senses. The natural kingdom used smell to an extraordinary degree to communicate all kinds of things, from attraction to enmity to even dominance. They even used it to hunt. In the natural world, the stronger you are, the smellier you are.

There could be effects which would be hallucinatory in nature as well.

Raka wetted his sleeve and covered his nose and mouth. But this was only a temporary measure. 'I need to get out of here.'

He stepped forward cautiously, looking all around just in case. Smell was just the top of his list. The next on the list was some kind of magical attack which somehow affects the brain and causes high damage. 'Though if there were such a creature, it definitely couldn't be classified as harmless.'

He still remembered Kilthan's words as he explained that there were no dangerous animals in the forest. 'Now either Kilthan was making a fool out of me or there is another explanation.' Which brought him back to the first item on his list. Smells.

Raka carefully covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve, taking notice of any kind of odd scents and fragrances. Only this was the forest. 'Damn..now that I notice it, there are too many smells! I can't make one out of the other...I am not a dog!' He grimaced.

And then,

Confusion! Your mental state has changed to confused. The effect will last 30 seconds.

"Shit! Not again!" Raka groaned. But this time the sky and earth did not change places. Just another unbelievable sight took their place.

"What the hell! Is this really a HUMONGOUS NINE TAILED FOX!!!! AAAAAH..!" Raka screamed as the humongous nine tailed fox opened its humongous mouth and took a humongous bite off him.

You have died. As penalty, you will not be able to log in for 24 hours.

"GODDAMIT!! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!"

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A blood curdling scream rang out once again in this small nondescript apartment, which looked exactly like the other several thousand of its kind. And once again, it was completely and utterly ignored. Perhaps a murder would happen yet people would not wake up from their slumber.

"Must be some dog or cat wailing....go back to sleep..." would have perhaps summed it up.

And yet the person doing the yelling was not actually murdering someone. Except perhaps a few hair which might have tragically lost their roots. Considering the number still remaining, he was in no danger of going bald anytime soon.

"Damn! Double damn! I hate this confusion thing. Now I don't know whether that huge fox was real or imaginary!" Raka muttered as he looked at his last moments, again. He was feeling a mix of emotions at this moment. Primarily among them were anger and sadness.

This was not the first time he had died. And yet, it was the first time, he had died in such close succession. 'And to make matters worse, I still don't know how I died! Ah...my stats!'

Swamy was extremely depressed. It was not like he had many stat points in the first place. But some stats only had 1 point. 'Dying twice, did they become 0? Or went into negative? Did the stat disappear altogether?' All kinds of increasingly annoying questions wove circles in his head making him feel even more depressed.

Who knows when he finally fell asleep or if.

The next day began as usual with the beep beeping of the alarm.

Swamy yawned loudly. 'I am sooooo sleepy. Should I miss the morning class...someone or the other would take notes..' And he closed his eyes.

Five minutes later, he opened his eyes again. "No no that will never happen...I can't sleep like this..." And he hurriedly got dressed.

And yet, he dozed off much of the morning. In his own world, he did not realize just how many eyes were looking at him strangely. No, it had nothing to do with the game.

"Hey Swamy, wake up please. If you fall asleep and I fall asleep....I will probably fail." Rajan whispered from the next seat. Having such a sleepy neighbor, which sane person could stay conscious. Not to mention, staying awake was already a chore for some.

Lunch passed in a daze. Most students were eagerly waiting for the guest lecture. Some of the social kind even started to discuss who might actually show up. There were not many people who were involved in Skills Transference research.

Every single person who had read about or knew about or played any sort of virtual reality game, had at one time thought about it. If he could learn to do something in the game, why couldn't he do it in real life. Like become Bruce Lee! Ofcourse, that was in the realm of fantasy. But some things could really be considered, like the skill to swim. If you learnt swimming in the game, couldn't you swim in real life?

The moment soon arrived. Prof. D'souza provided the opening.

"Hello people! There seems to be many excited faces today...well in that case let's not waste any time. Please welcome Dr. Srinivas Ramanujan, a leading researcher in the field of Psychoanalysis, Behaviourism and Skills Transference. He is also one of the few Indians who have pioneered research in this field. He is currently part of the Solocine Institute of Virtual Research in Stockholm. Dr. Ramanujan is also a guest lecturer at the University of California, Moscow State University, The University of Tokyo, University of Delhi and now the University of Bangalore. So without further ado, please welcome Dr. Ramanujan..."

As Prof. D'souza finished his words, a middle aged person dressed efficiently in a formal shirt and pants came out from the side of the stage. While everyone clapped, Dr Ramanujan shook hands with Prof. D'souza and got fitted with a microphone. And then he started.

"Much of the research, while developing the virtual reality has been to allow people to take their real life skills and be able to use it in the virtual reality environment. For example, athletic people in real life, often make better fighters in the game, if you only considered physical aspects. They have better balance of movement so performed better than normal people. Even then converting your real life basketball or cricket skills to fighting is not at all easy and you can probably guess why.

Yet some skills are easily transcribed. Like cooking. If you knew cooking in real life, nine out of ten times you would become a good cook in the game as well.

But this was and still is a one way street. Taking skills from the real life and adapting it to game conditions is possible. However taking skills from the game and applying it in real life was and still is not possible." Dr. Ramanujan began with a serious tone.

"Hi All, starting with such an ominous statement seems kinda like a wrong thing to do but it is the reality of the situation. What we have to consider is whether this reality can be changed and how should we go about doing it." He smiled as he said.

"Is anyone of you keeping track of the latest research on this topic?"

More than a few hands went up.

"Wow..so many of you, that's surprising. Usually, I only find like ten people who would know about the latest on this subject. Haha.. Well let me first summarize the problems.

We often think that the humans have five basic senses. Sense of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. In fact, virtual reality world designers often play with these senses in order to give you a realistic feeling. But the thing is we don't only have five senses!" Dr. Ramanujan paused.

"Think about it carefully. When you lift a hammer, which sense tells you that the object is heavy? Do we also have a sense of weight in additions to these senses? How about when you walk? Which sense tells you to walk straight and not tip over on one side? Do we use these basic senses, or do we have a sense of balance as well?

We generally don't consider such things which is also why we think that we have only five senses. The truth is we are not only limited to five. And that creates a problem.

Virtual reality worlds are computer programs in the end, which emulates this 'senses' data. It feeds the brain what the senses should have been feeling in any situation. This is what makes it feel 'real' to you. But to completely feel 'real' you need to have input data of all your senses, including the basic five. But how can we do it? The sense of weight is not something which is governed by a specific part...like hearing is related to the ears and smells are related to the nose while touch is related to the skin. Is there a part of human body which is related to weight?" Dr. Ramanujan shrugged.

"This is the main problem, for everything else derives from this. Why can't we learn skills in the virtual world and apply it in real life? Simple, because your brain does not store data like a computer in individual 1s and 0s. It stores them in complete patterns.

When you remember something, the data from all your senses gets stored at the same time which makes one unit of memory...if you can call it that. When you don't have the data from all your senses, it obviously fails to form a complete impression. And the brain deletes it. Trust me when I say this, but the brain is as good at forgetting things as it is in remembering them. Or rather, do we really remember every moment of our lives? Yes...no? We only remember the important or memorable moments, while the rest is gradually forgotten.

It is because memory is related to your senses. All your senses. When in a virtual reality world, the data being sent to your brain is actually limited and sometimes even derivative. For example, there is no gravity. Yet you get the feel of heaviness. This is because we are basically tricking your brain into believing imaginary things. So what happens when you leave the imaginary and log in into your real body with your real senses.

There is a mis-match. Your brain remembers something unrelated to your senses. Like what happened to you was an out of body experience...which it probably was...literally. It also feels like your body has changed...which it has. The brain adapts to your senses and gradually forgets the non fitting, I should say, experiences. If I could compare it with something, it would be like reading a good book. Would all the same feelings remain when you read another book? Or would it be replaced with newer feelings?" Dr. Ramanujan smiled.

"That said, it's not like you learn nothing from the experience. It is more like watching cooking shows on TV. You can learn it but unless you do it practically, remembering it would not be easy. It is like watching a movie and trying to remember every line. Even if you could remember them, could you speak the lines in the same way as the actor?

Do all of you understand the crux of the problem now? So what do you think we should do to solve it...instead of just me talking all the time, let's open the floor for discussion! What do you think can be a solution to this problem....."

Many hands instantly went up and a good discussion started on the pros and cons of each method. Even Swamy forgot about last night's sadness and eagerly participated. Ofcourse, there was no right answer for this. For if there were, it would have been implemented already. Right now, what existed were different schools of thought.

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Raka appeared in the middle of the forest. He looked around for about a second and then he quickly took off running.

'There is no point being cautious here....need to get to the road fast.'

Whatever he was attacked by, whether it be a strange scent or magic, it was fast acting and could not be easily detected. Last time he had walked cautiously and ended up dead. So now, he ran full speed ahead. Maybe he would be lucky this way.

'Ah..finally made the road...' Raka sighed as he stepped on to the wide road cutting through the forest. He waited for a moment to catch his breath.

"Character Window"

#Authors Note: Will put up the table in the near future.

'Oh no...' Looking at this his face paled. What he had feared had happened.

'Disease Resistance -1.' Raka sighed. What did the negative mean? He wasn't sure. 'But if the positive meant that I had more disease resistance then...' He sighed again.

'Let's head back. I need more information...and I need to find a doctor..'

The way back did not take long. And all along the way Raka was deep in thought. He did not even notice the few dwarvian players who had bravely stepped out to hunt and found to their chagrin things to be, not so simple. He did not even notice the guards when he entered the gate.

'What is going on? If there is something this dangerous out there, why didn't Kilthan warn me? Is it that he had malicious intentions....or maybe he just didn't know?' Raka thought.

'Hmm...the second sounds more plausible. He has no reason to lie.' He strode forward, all the while, wondering.

Just then he had a thought. 'Wait..there is one more possibility that I haven't considered. Could it be that it is something which does not affect dwarves but affect humans?' Raka stood still in the middle of the street as he considered it a bit more. It was a vague theory but still within the realm of possibility and could be confirmed easily. 'I need more information...' And he started walking, this time with purpose, towards the spell scroll shop.

"Hello and welcome to Minnie's Spell Scrolls." A feminine voice greeted once again. The cat lady looked up and recognized Raka.

"Hello again" She greeted.

"Hello. I am sorry but do you think I can bother your master for a minute. It's kinda important." Raka said.

"Um..hold on please. Let me ask her." The cat lady went inside and Raka waited.

Soon after a lovely woman followed the cat lady out, still wearing a frown. And she frowned even more when she saw Raka. But she did not say anything.

"Hello. Sorry to bother you but I needed some information. See, I have been in the forest twice and everytime I found something which causes confusion and hallucinations. Do you know what causes that? Is there something which probably affects humans and not dwarves?" Raka also preferred not beating around the bush with this lady.

Without changing expressions and in a matter of fact tone, the woman replied.

"3 silvers."

"Um what?" Raka was confused. 'How does this answer my question?!'

"3 silvers...take it or leave it." The young lady said again.

'Maybe she is selling information,' Raka suddenly realized. He took out 3 silver coins and put them on the counter. He then expectantly waited for the woman to speak.

And yet, the woman did not say anything. Instead, she pocketed the money, opened one of the drawers built into the counter, took out a spell scroll and put it on the countertop. And then she left. She just left!

"Ho..hold on...you still didn't answer my question.." Raka shouted at her receding back.

She simply ignored him and kept walking.

"What the....." Raka muttered under his breath. He took the scroll and walked out in a huff.

"I will drown her in the Ganges...bury her in the Thar..spread her ashes in the Arabian sea..." It took a couple of minutes of quiet muttering to finally let his anger out. Only then did he notice the scroll.

'Buzzing' the scroll was named. Raka wanted to bury this thing 10 feet deep in the ground. 'What the hell kind of magic is named buzzing?' He sighed. 'Well, I guess this should help otherwise I am really gonna burn her shop to the ground.'

His next destination was the doctor. In Ilmentia, there were only a handful of physickers and were very hard to get to. He hoped that this would not be the case on the island of the dwarves. He walked to a food shop nearby which was apparently run by an old dwarf lady.

"Hello mam', could I have this.. this and this...about a stone each." He asked.

"Will that be all young man?"

"Yes please. Ah by the way do you know of any healers or physickers around here?" Raka asked.

"Physickers..? ah you mean the one humans call to cure their disease. We call them apothecaries around here. There's one I visit, name of Apothecary Narsh, two streets over, take a right, then the second left. It's the third house on the left. It's got an old red sign with the name. You can't miss it." The old lady replied.

"Thank you mam'. Ah, here's the money." Raka said.

"Come again." She said.

"Ah...I also wanted to ask, do you need an assistant for your shop? I used to work in a food shop before and I am also good with keeping numbers." Raka asked.

"Hmm...well I don't know you very well. You wouldn't be trying to take advantage of an old lady now, would you?" The old lady said.

"No no...I do not dare. I am sure you could just brush me off with the broom if that happens." Raka smiled.

"Hahaha...that be true. Well I guess there is no harm having you..mind I will have to ask around about you first. What's your name?"

"I am Raka."

"Hmm..well call upon me again in a few days if your still interested and I will give you a reply then."

"Alright then. Take care." And Raka left.

This was not the first time this situation had happened. In fact, this was a little improvement. Previously, everyone politely refused to give him a job. Fame it seems is not something which magically appears in a foreign land. 'It seems that it takes time for word to get around of your achievements. If it even did..' Just like a water ripple, fame seemed to originate and propagate to a certain distance. The larger the ripple, the farther his name would spread or that's what Raka assumed.

Atleast Raka had been involved in some pretty serious events though his participation in said events was not anything mentionable. Who would then, spread the word of his achievements around?

Actually there was one source he did not consider. Players! Even the newly started dwarf players knew about Raka and sometimes talked about him. Whether it would have any effect was still unknown.

'Two streets over...right..second left. Third house..there.' He stopped when he saw an old sign having the name, Apothecary Narsh written in bold red colors. It was a small blue and orange painted, 2 storey house with a small yard. There was a white picket fence surrounding the yard. In between there was a small path made of stones. Altogether it looked like a quaint little house which was quite unexpected.

'A doctor's house should have some people over right? Unless it's a quack doctor or charges high fees.' Raka suspected. He had half a mind to turn around when suddenly the front door opened and a short and stocky dwarf lady holding a baby walked out. She opened the picket gate and started walking towards the other end of the street, opposite of where he was standing.

'I think it is the first time I saw a baby in the game...' Raka mused. From Gurrow till here, the one thing he never saw was an infant. It was interesting seeing a dwarf baby. Atleast, it proved that the apothecary/doctor was not a quack.

Raka knocked and entered. He saw a small room made into a reception area. There were some people sitting on the side, probably waiting their turn while a young female dwarf sat behind the reception desk wearing a white apron and hat. 'Nurses!'

"Do you have an appointment?" She asked.

"Um. No. Do I need one?" Raka asked.

"Yes, Apo. Narsh is a busy man and an appointment is necessary unless it's an emergency." The nurse replied.

"Ah. In that case, can I schedule an appointment?"

"When would you like to visit?" The nurse quickly opened a diary and asked.

"3 days from now.."

"Hmm...alright. What time?" She asked.

"In the afternoon if possible." Raka replied.

"Would 2 pm would be fine with you?"

"Ah yes. It is fine."

"Alright then, please write your name here...Thank you. Please do not forget to bring 50 silvers. That is the consultation fee." Hearing the nurse's reply, Raka nodded and walked out. '50 silvers for a consult? Is that expensive or cheap?' Raka didn't know.

After having taken care of business, Raka was now ready to tackle the problem of confusion once again. He first decided to ask around all the shops, he was trying to build intimacy at. Except the spell scroll shop.

A little while later he exited the last shop. 'Hmm...all of them said that there are no dangerous animals in the forest. No one knows about the symptoms I described. So there are only two possibilities which remain. Either it is something new and rare. Or I need to use this spell scroll I bought.'

Raka looked gloomily at this spell scroll. He did not want to die. And yet, without actually going there, he wouldn't know if it was any good. 'Let's just ask a few more places...' He decided to take the safer option.

But everyone he asked said the same things. Perhaps it was so rare that only a certain few knew about it. 'I can't be only one who knows about it right? or is it...' Raka shivered. 'Do I have to risk death again?' He found a quiet place and sat down, while munching on some fruits as he watched the people of the island scurrying off on their business. Occasionally, he saw a player or two, who noticed him and gave a slight nod. But did not bother talking.

'Looking at it now, the dwarves always seem to be busy.' No dwarf on the street looked without purpose. No one was lazing around like him.

Some time later, Raka stood up. 'Well, I can't think of anything else. Have to risk it.' And he started walking back to the forest.

Just before he reached the spot where he entered the woods, he took out the spell scroll and said, "Buzzing". Immediately, an annoying buzzing sound filled his ears like when a mosquito starts going around your head. "Tch..." Raka was irritated. If he did not know about the spell scroll and had not activated it himself, he would definitely have suspected that there was a mosquito flying around.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then he stepped into the forest, with this constant buzzing sound keeping him company.

He walked for quite some time, entering deeper and deeper. 'Here should be where I was last..' Raka stopped there and waited. If everything went according to how it went before, very soon should come a confusion status message. 'If I die, I am gonna curse you to oblivion.'

He waited for quite some time but the status message never came. Just then,

"woop woop...woop woop" many strange sounds filled the air. And then foxes came out from the surroundings. Loads of them! 'Damn!'

The foxes were small animals, just like the foxes in the real world. About the size of a dog. Atleast, they looked like the foxes one saw in the pictures. And all of them only had a single tail.

"""Woop woop...woop woop!""" The many foxes completely surrounded him from all sides not leaving him any path of escape, all the while calling even more louder. """Woop woop...woop woop!"""

'Guess I should kiss my butt goodbye.' Raka sighed. What a way to die!

But the death did not arrive. The surrounding foxes kept on wooping and did not approach. 'Why do they not attack?' Raka was confused. He looked carefully all around and found that all the foxes were keeping a certain distance not too near yet not too far. 'Just enough that they could get away...' Raka thought. 'Their behaviour makes no sense...'

"""Woop woop...woop woop!""" "zzzzzzzzzzzz" Raka suddenly realized the buzzing sound was still there. And then it hit him. Like a hammer striking his head.

'Holy...could it be...sound?!' What caused confusion or hallucination? Many things. One among them was sound. However it was ranked very low on Raka's list. Simply because causing confusion or hallucinations with sound was a very difficult thing. Possible but very very difficult.

Alternating very high and very low sounds, or using echoes, or using infrasonic sound can interfere with human emotions and perceptions. Raka had not gone into much detail but he understood that doing this only created a possibility. It may or may not actually affect the human brain so as to say. Yet, such sounds did not exist naturally.

Some machine or other device had to be built in order to create the sound waves which had the ability to affect the human brain. Which is also why it was near the bottom of Raka's list. Yet now, it had instantly reached the top.

'This is not the real world, after all.' Raka realized. What could not be done in the real world, could be possible using magic. And magic affected everything. 'Maybe the foxes have organs which allow them to produce such sound. Or maybe they can use magic at a very small scale..' Raka guessed.

And then he realized what the buzzing scroll did. It interfered with the sound waves, effectively disrupting confusion.

"*Smack" Raka facepalmed. 'They are called Siren foxes! Sirens! Idiot! Why didn't I notice it sooner!' Sirens, in greek legends were creatures who lured sailors using their enchanting voices making them confused so that they would crash in the rocks. So did the siren foxes. 'No wonder the beastmen race wanted to be beastmen. If they could get access to abilities like lightning and sound...except they would have heads of a fish or a fox.'

Just then the foxes bolted. No, they did not attack. The numerous foxes turned tail and ran away!

"What the..." Raka only then understood. 'The foxes are cowards! They run away if their confusion doesn't work!'

Suddenly a deep anger filled his very being. "Cowards! You think you can run away! I vow that I will only eat fox meat for a month!" He yelled loudly as his magic exploded.

This one took a longer than usual time. First of all was the break and then writing after a break when you kinda forget...your own rhythm. It takes a bit to get back into the groove...

Thanks for all you guys' patience. And enjoy the story. Not to mention but feedback is welcome :)