“You should go back to sleep.” Adra advised me, or maybe this Olivia-woman who was sleeping in our camp. Or maybe both of us, as her eyes were moving between us quite quickly. For a moment, I wanted to decline but a combination of the throbbing between my temples and exhaustion convinced me otherwise. Whatever the circumstances surrounding that woman, they could be investigated and dealt with in the morning.

“Good idea.” Olivia agreed, a wry smile visible on her face, “If the two of you stop chattering, I might be able to get some more sleep.”

After one more look at the woman, trying to figure out who she was, or rather, why she was here, at this time, I shook my head and carefully moved over to Sigmir, kneeling next to her. My earlier inspection had shown that she seemed to be alright, which a second, more thorough, inspection confirmed. At the same time, I was able to see and feel a foreign influence on her flesh, where an unfamiliar magic had knit it together. The effect was complex and seemed benign, but I made a mental note to keep an eye on it.

Once I was certain that I wouldn’t make things worse by snuggling up to her, I did so. Before sleeping, I decided to check the notifications I had gained during the day and in the fight with the tiger.

Attributes gained You witnessed a divine Beast and lived to tell the tale. You gain +1 Courage.

The very first notification made me frown and wonder. Why was just seeing the eagle awarding an attribute-point, especially when it had never the intent of killing us? And courage, hadn’t we been frozen in fear, before turning tail and running as fast as we could? And afterwards, for the rest of the day, we had been distracted by the experience, to the point that I had almost died from a stupid tiger. But, maybe I shouldn’t look a gift horse into the mouth, instead simply accepting that we had gained something, instead of nothing, from the place of power.

Other than the attribute-gain, the messages started with the death of the tiger, which had been a Turan Tiger and level ninety-four, quite high level, rewarding me a small chunk of EXP. The amount made me think that the Tiger had crossed the first divide, as it was a lot for a singular animal, but nothing that would have an impact in the grand scale of things. It, once more, reminded me just why there were few high-leveled natives on Mundus. For the natives, each and every fight was potentially one to the death, as Sigmir had almost experienced, and with each level, more fights and more danger was needed to advance further. It was worse when travelling the wilds, as we did, where danger could lurk behind every corner, every rock and in every crevice. Of the natives who sought power, most would die at some point, long before they ever achieved the power they wanted.

It made me wonder, what would happen in the life-game? With more and more Travellers, how would this world change? Would it be akin to the games of the past, where each Traveller was supposed to be that special snowflake, with their own grandiose title and supposedly unique artifacts? Only that everyone had them? How would Mundus look, two, maybe three years in the game, would it lose the charm it had? That feeling of being in a different world, the perfect immersion, or would there be a naked Traveller dancing at every corner, maybe trying to sell things for real-world money? Part of me was curious, another part afraid. But that was for the future.

The next notifications were what I truly was in, the skill-improvements.

Skill increased You increased your skill: Darkness Magic [55/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Death Magic [12/100] Skill increased You increased your skill: Blood Magic [67/100]

Two points in Darkness-Magic, four in my recently acquired Death-Magic and two in Blood-Magic, all in all, an impressive improvement for a single fight, followed by frantically keeping Sigmir from dying. Most likely, the second part had been the more relevant part, that I had used the Avatar-Form and pushed both, Lenore and myself, to the limit when we had been working on Sigmir. As I thought about it, I realised something else, that I wanted to check out.

“Could you come over here?” I mentally asked Lenore, getting an annoyed but affirmative response. Apparently, she had just managed to drift off, when I had woken her back up. Still, it only took her moments to land next to me.

“I think I’ll be back before morning, but just in case, I’ll sleep in my Hallow tonight.” I told her, getting an unhappy but accepting response. Using our Hallows, so short after we had used the Avatar-Form wasn’t pleasant, for either of us, there was a rawness, for lack of better word, in our connection, as if it had been overstimulated and using it for more than chatting rubbed that raw spot. Still, it was nothing that couldn’t be endured and I wanted to see what the capsule had recorded, both of the misty valley and the use of our Avatar-Form.

After logging out, I just laid there for a moment, noticing that my body was covered in cold sweat. Once again, some of the mental stimulation I had received within the capsule had managed to have an impact on my physical body, in a psychosomatic reaction. The effect was already known and documented as similar to the effects of a regular nightmare, with measures in place to prevent more severe reactions. Nonetheless, the feeling of being soaked in sweat was unpleasant, so my first stop was in the shower.

The warm spray helped soothe away the traces of discomfort that lingered after logging out, the memory of the fiery visage now a lot more distant and fading, just like a normal dream would. At the same time, there was a smile on my face, as part of me began to wonder.

If there was one etiological myth with at least some truth to it and worked into Mundus, why not more? Was there a cave, in which a giant-god was bound with his son’s guts while a snake was dripping poison on him? If so, I wanted to see, at some point. Maybe even interfere in the events, to claim my own place in the legends of Mundus, and the halls of fame of gamerdom.

The smile on my face was still there when I sat at my kitchen-table, getting a bit of food while looking in the footage recorded by the capsule. The first stop was, obviously, the misty valley. Sadly, that first stop was a major disappointment, the recording showed nothing but fog, not even the trees within the forest were visible. While I had a feeling that it was intended, to keep a bit of mystery in the game, another part wondered if it was a bug and, as a responsible tester, I sent a message to Pantheon, reporting it as a potential bug.

Once that was done, I did a spin on the forum, sharing a few thoughts with the world. It was one of those difficult questions, which I doubted could be solved any time soon. For now, I had my own stance on it, one that might be contraditionary and, quite frankly, a little hypocritical but while I could easily argue one side, when sitting at my kitchen-table or my desk, it was a whole other thing to consider it when looking at Sigmir. It was curious.

After a bit of browsing the forum, I went to the recording of the battle against the tiger. It was more interesting than the footage of dense fog, even if some of it sent a chill down my spine. The footage showed just how close the tiger had come to catching me, to the point that I had lost a bit of hair to its claws, just as I had managed to teleport away. Would I have instantly died to the claws? Maybe, at the end of the day, while my Avatar’s body was a lot more sturdy than a regular body, thanks to crossing the first two Divides, but given that even Sigmir had been severely harmed when fighting the tiger, I decided to focus on learning the Shadow Step, until I was able to reliably use it.

Afterwards, the healing of Sigmir was both interesting and boring at the same time. Interesting, because I was able to visually see the magic expelled by our combined form and I had an inkling, half remembered half inferred, that we had done so to keep the passive effects that added Death- and Ice-Magic to all spells we cast together from adding harmful effects to our healing.

Similarly, it was quite interesting to watch the effect of Death-Magic on the surroundings, as a barely visible cloud of darkish-red mist burst from the wings of our combined form, visibly draining the life from our surroundings, leaving nothing but death in its wake.

Finally, the last interesting part was the appearance of Olivia, a golden glow radiating from her, especially from her chest. It was obvious that she had cast some healing magic on Sigmir, the remaining wounds glowing with golden light before fading, and I made a mental note to try studying it ingame, adding to the ever-growing pile of things I wanted to investigate.

Finally, the whole thing was boring because other than those three instances, it was just a video of a winged, bird-monster, for lack of better words, kneeling over the fallen body of Sigmir. Nothing really happened, certainly nothing I would want to share with the world.

Shaking my head, I washed up the dishes I had used and hopped back into the capsule. Hopefully, Sigmir was still asleep, I wanted to be there when she woke up.