"Eureka!"

"Gah!"

The exclamation of joy had surprised Nero so much that he had let himself slip from the branch he had been using for pull-ups. He only had time to widen his eyes before he crashed into the ground head first with a thud and a small red -21 appearing above his head. He was a bit stunned by the impact, so it took him a moment to realize that Medea and the twins were now standing above him, Claudia looking much too pleased with herself. The other two did not even try to conceal their smiles either.

"Ow," he deadpanned at them.

"It was Claudia's fault!" Octavia said defensively, even as she held out a hand to help him to his feet which he gratefully accepted.

"I'm sure it was," he said as he patted the dirt from his clothes. "And I'm sure you tried your best to stop her." Octavia and Medea both gave him innocent smiles that weren't fooling anybody. Nero turned to Jorry who was still in the tree, hanging above their heads. "How come you didn't warn me they were here?"

"I thought you knew," the serpent said as it dropped onto his shoulder. Because Jorry wasn't as small as he used to be, Nero buckled slightly under the increased weight. "You should have been able to taste them a while ago."

"No, I couldn't," the assimilation of Jorry's senses had produced results, but they were underwhelming so far. They were not as sensitive as he had expected. Initially, he had thought it was due to unfamiliarity and that time would improve them but so far that had not happened. "So how come you guys are dropping by?" Medea groaned as realized where this was going.

"We wanted to see if you wanted to hang-out," Octavia replied smiling, her eyes twinkling with mischief as she decided to play along.

"Ugh. I hate you both, so much." Medea groaned, but she couldn't help smiling. When was the last time she had heard Augustus make a pun? I had to have been years ago by now.

"Anyway!" Claudia loudly said, bringing the attention back to herself. "I did it! I have created a way for players to talk to animals. Praise me!" She held up something in front of her. It was a stylized choker, the kind wore for fashion to draw attention to the neck area. I was made from a black lacy material and woven in a complicated pattern with a single red gem in the front.

"Why you! You didn't do anything!" Octavia shouted at her sister.

"Without me, you could have never completed it."

"All you did was sit around complaining that it was taking too long! That's it! You were no help at all."

"Exactly, I provided motivation. That is the job of a leader. Thus, if there are rewards, they should go to me." Claudia looked down at her sister, incredibly smug at her reasoning.

"You bitch." Octavia looked like she was going to lunge at her sister, but she stopped when Nero spoke up.

"Why a choker?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Costs mostly," Medea shrugged in response. "The only metal that would have accepted the enchantments was too rare, so there was no point using it for this when it could be put to better purpose. The spells woven into this fabric are absurdly complicated because they allow people to speak any non-human language, so the material needs to have enough ability to withstand the magic. This silk is also pretty expensive, but there is a place where it can be farmed, so it isn't as rare as the metal. The jewel is also one of the few crystals that can hold overlapping rune formations, so it is probably the most expensive part. Unfortunately, it is essential if you don't want the item to run out of power after a few uses."

"No, I can understand using cloth rather than metal. I can also understand wanting a smaller item rather than enchanting something like a helmet. I was asking why did you guys make it a choker? Why not a necklace or something of the sort? It doesn't look like something most guys would wear."

"You don't need one, so why would a guy wear it?" Claudia asked with a tilt of the head.

"I thought you guys would have made extra to sell or something," Nero said.

"Pfft, no," Octavia chuckled at the idea. "These things are so expensive and difficult to make that there is no way we could sell them. My Creation skill went up from 45 to 46 just by creating three of them. Do you have any idea how hard it is raising a level in a skill close to fifty? That should give you an idea about the value of these things."

"Besides," Medea interjected. "Anybody who could afford these would be a dedicated player or a significant power. These people tend not to care about looks, and I have seen guys wear full dresses because they had good stat bonuses. Never underestimate a gamer's desire for items."

"I'm not even sure that Gods' Nature has something like this out there. " Octavia said. "There are probably plenty of people out there who can talk to animals, there are most likely those who can speak with all creatures like you. But I have never heard of an item that will allow anybody to do the same. Right now we have a monopoly on them, if we were to sell these translators, we would be giving away one of our advantages to our enemies."

"Enemies? You guys have enemies?" The three girls looked at him sadly, like they were looking at a disabled puppy or a person mentally handicapped. Claudia even went so far as to hug him.

"There, there," she said softly like she was talking to a child. "Let Claudia protect you. I won't let anybody take advantage of my brother so don't worry." Nero pushed himself out of his sister's embrace and gave her his best possible deadpan.

"You do know this is an MMO right?" Medea asked hesitantly, almost as if she was afraid of the answer. "That means Massive Multiplayer Online."

"I know that!" He snapped back, a bit too embarrassed to tell her that not too long ago he didn't.

"Then that means there are other people." She continued slowly as if talking to a child. He gave her the stink eye, and she continued in her normal voice. "That means players will compete over resources, like grinding spots to level up, quests, or rare items. Apart from us, you should consider all other players or even strong NPCs as enemies. A good player will use any advantage they have. That is why most high-level players in Gods' Nature never reveal their Nature's description, it would allow others to gain their same advantages, and they could discover their weaknesses."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Nero said. "This game is like twice the size of earth, isn't it? And supposedly, players haven't even explored ten percent of it. If you fight over what you already have then you might miss out on better stuff in the future. That is not even counting the sheer lack of numbers of players. I have barely seen any other players despite living in this city for months."

Apart from the recruitment square where players came to attract newbies and the spawn point which was always active, Nero had rarely seen other players while wandering the streets.

"Exactly," Octavia said. "Right now everybody is focused on exploring or raising their level to explore. At the moment players are trapped in an east-west corridor between Selwe and Sarra. The monsters to the north and south are too strong for most players, and Pioneer players have a tremendous mortality rate, forcing them to start over from the cities where they respawn. But this situation won't last forever, once these obstacles are overcome, there will be a mad dash of players trying to get any sort of advantage they can. Imagine what being able to get information and quests that nobody else can do for people."

Nero could see it in his mind's eye right now, asking animals like birds to scout the way for you was just the tip of the iceberg. You would be able to recruit beasts to your cause or negotiate with them to forge alliances. Nero had always thought that assimilation was his most useful skill, but if used correctly Beast Tongue could be even more deadly in the long run.

"How many players do you think have accounts in Gods' Nature?" Claudia suddenly asked, her eyes not on her brother but on the menu screen she had open in front of her.

"Maybe, ten million or so," Nero guessed.

"As of right now, the number is 753 609 743. Even as I said that number, it increased by another two hundred. Do you understand how popular it is now? There was no advertising for this game, you had to find a site to order them online because no stores sold it. Despite this, in only two years over three-quarters of a billion people have already started playing. No other game has ever been this successful, and it is still going strong. This time next year, we will probably have over two billion players. And they will all want a slice of the pie." Claudia looked really serious, not joking around in the least.

"Where are you getting those numbers?" Nero couldn't help but ask.

"It is a black site, you won't find it in any search engine, but almost all high-level players know it," Medea said as she too fiddled with her screen. "I've sent you a link."

Opening his own menu and accessing the network function, Nero clicked on a link, and it brought him to a home page of a website called 'The Gods' Pantheon.' It was a simple layout, with only a few tabs to click on. Nero clicked on the one that said stats and, sure enough, numerous other facts were displayed beside the supposed number of players. There was the highest player level of 246, highest difficulty quest cleared of B- and other such statistics.

"How reliable is this website? I thought that nobody knew anything about the creation of the game so who made this." He asked looking at Medea specifically.

"Rumor is that the maker of the game created this. Not everybody believes it, but so far nobody has been able to disprove any of the statistics present." Octavia answered, and Medea nodded in agreement.

"All right, I guess you are right not to sell these translators. It was a dumb idea." Nero said. "So, you've tested them, and they work?"

"We haven't tested them yet. We wanted to talk to Jorry first," Octavia explained. "But we know they work, I have a skill that tells me anything an item does so they definitely do what they are supposed to."

"Alright, go ahead." Nero put Jorry on the ground in front of him, ignoring the snake's betrayed look, as the girls put on the chokers.

"Hello Jorry," Medea said softly, crouching in front of the snake. "I'm Medea, I'm glad we can talk now."

"..."

Jorry remained silent, Nero could read his companion pretty well by now, so he understood that the snake's stiff posture meant he was paralyzed from shyness. There was a beat of awkward silence as the girls waited for the snake to response, but he didn't. Nero couldn't stop himself from taking advantage of this opportunity.

"Well? Aren't you going to answer him? It's rude to ignore people Medea." His friend looked at Nero wide-eyed.

"I didn't hear him say anything. Do these not work? Are they not turned on? Could it be spell interference." She mumbled as she looked down at her choker.

"Even if you can't understand him, he still understands you so you should answer anyway."

"What did he ask?"

"He asked what those lumps of meat on your chest were," Nero said it a calmly as he could not to give away the game. He was rewarded with a wide-eyed, red-faced Medea. Nero roared with laughter. "Oh god, hahaha, the look on your face, haha."

"Very funny," Medea said with narrow eyes, realizing she had been had. The twins behind her also laughed. "He didn't say anything did he?"

"Nope," Nero said, getting his chuckles under control. "He's a bit shy. Common Jorry, say hi." He nudged the snake slightly, and they finally got a response from the serpent.

"H-hello," he squeaked out, sounding more like a mouse than a snake.

He was unprepared for the girls descending on him. Claudia got to him first and picked him up. She snuggled the snake to her chest with a squeal.

"You're soooo cute!" She would have continued to smush him, but Octavia managed to wrest the snake from her grasp. Jorry did not have time to rest, however, as Octavia copied her twin and squeezed the snake in a tight hug.

"Can you say my name. Say, Octavia. Oc-ta-vi-a. Say it for mommy." She said in a cutesy voice.

"Nero, help!"

Nero ignored the plea. This was an excellent way for Jorry to get used to his sisters. It had nothing to do with petty revenge for not warning him of their arrival, no sirree.

*****

"Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant."

Epictetus