The ride back to Sarra Keep passed mostly in silence, a few of Nero's fellow trainees had fallen asleep due to the exhaustion of the day.

Kaesar, on the other hand, was too wound up to fall asleep. That was ignoring the fact that as a player he needed even less rest than the inhabitants of this world. He was lost in thought about what to do now.

It is easy to decide that you want to be strong but is difficult to actually gain that strength. Otherwise, everybody would have the power to rule the world. Not only does it take effort, but it also demands dedication and opportunity. It is hard work and a lot of pain if you want to be the best at anything, let alone combat.

In the real world, martial artist and fighters train for centuries to perfect heir craft, and even that is no guarantee of success. A game streamlines things by giving people numerical values like levels and stats, but those are not the be all end all of strength. Things like items, abilities, companions and even experience all affect the power you can bring to bear to accomplish your goals.

Nero was already slowly but surely increasing his abilities by training at Ground Sheer, but that was far from enough. If he wanted the power to command his own freedom he had to become somebody that stood out from the masses, somebody that couldn't be dismissed. That did not require becoming the strongest in the world, but it did mean having enough ability that if somebody messed with him, the results would not be worth the effort they put in.

The problem was that he had started late, Gods' Nature had been out in the real world for two years now, a decade had passed in the game. Sure it wasn't a lot of time in the grand scheme of things compared to his life expectancy, but it was enough for other players to get to a high enough level that they could kill him with a sneeze. Sophia, or Medea as she was called in the game, played casually on her downtime and without ambition but she was already in the hundreds of levels.

That was not even counting the NPC's who had lived their whole lives in the game. Where players were just barely reaching the two hundred, Nero imagined that there were plenty of monsters anywhere from level three hundred to a thousand, if levels went that high. If he wanted to reach their level, or at least close enough to not be dismissed, he needed to improve fast enough to outpace them. It wasn't like they would sit still while he did so either.

He had a few advantages though, so it wasn't like he was hopeless. He knew enough about the game now to know how hard it was to progress the higher in level you get. Naturally, that meant that earlier levels would take less time than later ones so while equaling others would be almost impossible, closing the distance was an achievable goal.

Another thing he could use to his advantage was the fact that Gods' Nature was not a structured game, but rather a game in a world. There was a subtle difference, but it was there. In a typical game, the world is structured by the creators to provide paths for growth. That means you should meet low-level enemies near the starting locations and they slowly get stronger as the player develops.

Gods' Nature was not like that, there were weak monsters interspersed with the strong without any real design. Indeed those of the same species tended to stay close to each other, and those of similar strength congregated towards each other, but that doesn't mean there was a formal structure. You had to find monsters that were weak enough for you to kill without too much risk of dying, lest you get set back months, but they also have to be strong enough to provide enough experience to progress.

That wasn't even counting lousy luck, sometimes an overwhelmingly powerful monster will just stroll through and kill everything, Nero had read more than a few rants online about how players had spent months getting to a location with the appropriate level of monsters to grind, only to be killed and sent back to a city. Luck wasn't the only factor, sometimes there were places you just shouldn't go if you want to improve.

For example, south of Selwe, the starting city, when players were trying to progress they discovered the area was a poisonous swamp with high-level monsters. Conservative estimates placed the average level of that area at around three hundred, not counting the fact that fighting in a toxic swamp wasn't something humans liked. So they progressed west, and they eventually met Sarra Keep near the east coast.

The same thing happened once more to the north of the keep. A few weeks walking, days if you ride a horse, there is a significant obstacle in the form of the Ittolan jungle. Strictly speaking, it wasn't impossible to cross it, there just wasn't a point doing so. The entire area was filled with a variety of monsters of differing levels, so the risk of running into something you couldn't handle was high. Not only that but the terrain worked against the player as well. In movies and other media, forests are portrayed as wide open, with enough room for people to walk and fight in. That is not true for forests in real life before human habitation. Often times the trees and such were packed so near each other that you had to squeeze to get by. Add in a variety of poisonous insects and snakes, and you have a place nobody wants to visit.

A bit of progress had been made to travel north from the keep through the jungle, but it had ground to a halt after a while. Now most players were focused on clearing the area between Sarra and Selwe as that was a relatively well-known area and it had monsters of varying strengths for people to level up with. Not only that but from his reading online, Nero knew that the reclamation of a lost city was an excellent opportunity to find treasures and skill for high-level players, so real exploration of the world was at an all-time low since the start of the game.

It wasn't like the NPC's could tell players where was the best place to level up, ever since the Rupture communications had been cut with all other cities. Old maps were useless because monsters had changed locations and whatever had caused the catastrophe had shifted lands enough for mountains to appear where there were none before. All this meant that people did not have an easy time finding places where they could raise their level efficiently. Nero, since he had come later had a better idea where to go than those who had started the game with no idea about the world.

Another advantage he had was less clear-cut. That was the fact that he had the free time to play the game more than the average person because he was bedridden. Theoretically, this meant that he could overtake those who spent less time playing the game because they were occupied by things like work or school. There was an offset, however, if other people were on a rest period they could play the game even more than Nero did. Not only that but rest periods generally lasted for decades whereas Nero just had about two years of real-life time before he would be going back to work.

Nero realized that once it reached that point, he would probably stop playing Gods' Nature, so the point was probably moot anyway. What he needed was to get powerful enough to enjoy his vacation without worry. Catching up to dedicated gamers would probably be impossible at that point, but he could at least break even with those casual players or those who had started a little later.

That still left the question of how to get that strength.

Nero wasn't naive enough to believe that he should just start grinding levels and keep going that way. Even if he could find the perfect locations to do so, it would not mean that he would have strength equal to his level. He needed to be challenged to improve, he required opportunities to grow beyond level and gain experiences in a variety of forms of combat. This was a world where the methods of killing and fighting were even more varied than real life.

Some people might fight with a traditional weapon system like a sword and shield or a bow and arrows, but there might be people using unconventional weapons like chakrams or tonfas. That wasn't even mentioning magic which had no limits to its applications beyond what people could think of. If Nero were ever to fight somebody that was skilled in using methods he wasn't familiar with, it would matter if they were the same level, he should just wash his neck and wait for death.

He needed to know how to use his level correctly, gain experience fighting various monsters and people, gain enough skills and then use them at the best time on top of trying to reach the same level as people who had a decade more than him to do the same.

It was a bit overwhelming, to be honest, but that only made his blood pump faster. Nero had never been really challenged in his life, and he decided he liked this pressure. Besides, once you realized what you had to do, you just had to keep taking steps towards your goal, and you would reach it eventually or die trying. But since death wasn't permanent in this game Nero felt like he had a good chance of getting stronger.

First of all, Nero had to order his priorities. He would be staying at the keep for a while yet as he wanted to finish his time at the training hall and meet up with Medea and his sisters who were still months away. Because of that, he would not be able to go far from the city to go hunting. On top of that, he wasn't decided whether he should stay for the winter training hall to learn magic or not. He initially wanted to try everything until he found something he liked and then recreate his character with a more appropriate Nature. Now he wasn't so sure.

From his investigation into Natures, Kaesar had realized that the Beast was actually a somewhat subpar Nature. Other Natures gave boosts to various stats or gave skills that were used in combat. On the other had all Beast provided was the ability to talk to animals and take on animal traits. More skills would develop later but so far this Nature seemed to be a more passive one than others, it provided miscellaneous and auxiliary skills but nothing directly related to combat. Maybe that was because it had been created in a spur of the moment.

Either way, Nero wouldn't be able to reset his character for a few months anyway so he would keep it for now and see how things developed. That still left the question of magic though, Nero wanted to at least understand its basics before he went out into the open world so he could be better prepared.

Suddenly Nero remembered a conversation he had a while ago that might provide the answer to his problem. Checking the time, he realized it was around seven in the evening in the real world, which was perfect. It did not take long for the call to connect.

"Hello, Gus?" Thankfully she was playing the game, so there was no time delay.

"Hey Sophia, Medea sorry." He still wasn't used to calling people he knew by their avatar's name.

"No problem. Did you just want to chat or did you need something?"

"I was wondering how long till you reached the keep."

"I'm still a few weeks away so not too long. Any particular reason your asking?"

"I miss you."

"And?"

"Fine, I was wondering if that offer to teach me some magic was still on the table, you said you were a Sage right?" Nero asked.

"Sure, I'll only be able to stay for a month or so before I have to continue my quest, but apart from that, I'm all yours," Medea answered.

"Thanks, I was planning on taking a training course to get the basics, but if you can teach me for a while, then I can skip it."

"You have plans? I thought you were just loafing about on vacation like a tourist." She said good-naturedly.

"I recently decided that I want to go out and explore, but I want to know the basics before I do." There was a noticeable pause as Sophia contemplated that.

"Once you do, be careful. There are a lot of dangerous things out there, I can't count the number of times I've died." Nero grimaced.

"I know, but I will do it anyway. Staying alive does not always mean living after all." He said firmly.

"Alright, as long as your sure. I'll see you in a few weeks. It'll be just like old times. Hopefully, you'll argue less." Sophia new better to try and change his mind once it was made up, so she turned to a lighter topic.

"I still say all my arguments were valid, besides those were the most fun parts of the class. Admit you would have been bored without me there to liven up your day."

"I would have, but I also got into a lot of trouble for being unprofessional."

"Worth it?"

"Fine, it was worth it. Just for that, I'm going to hit you when I see you."

"You are a hundred levels above me, if you hit me, I'll die."

"Worth it." With that, she hung up.

Nero stared where the screen had disappeared before looking around the carriage. A few of the other trainees had stirred in their sleep from his call, but they hadn't woken up. Nero leaned back in his seat and stared up at the starry sky.

"Nobody can control me, my actions are my own." He whispered to himself. This game was turning out to be much more fun than he thought it would be.

****

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."

Mahatma Gandhi