“Brrr... If I don’t feel pain, why do I feel cold?” Darith grumbled, stepping into the cave as he felt his toes sting from the icy chill of the frozen ground. He glanced at his cell phone to see under status ‘Cold’. “No duh.” He sighed as he pulled his arms into his thin, oversized shirt. He walked on excitedly nonetheless, the idea that he was now inside a living game dungeon gave him enough energy to make him feel like he was staying warm, and it wasn’t long into the cave that he began to hear the sound of crackling firewood, different from that of the torches lighting the cavern walls.

Darith ran forward deeper into the cave, turning around a corner to see a small opening in the cavern with a wooden campfire set in the center, and a body laying beside the fire on the ground wearing a snowsuit, shivering in the cold with pale blue skin. There was also a large blue ball floating above the person's head that got Darith’s attention.

“Hello? Are you alright?” Darith asked as he moved closer, worried but cautious.

“H-help, pl-please...” She replied, it was a female with a soft voice, struggling to speak.

“What’s wrong? Are you freezing? Should I get you out of the cave?” He asked worriedly, stepping closer now to see inside her big furred hood that this girls skin was a light shade of purple.

“N-n-not freezing, poisoned. N-need Frostberrys, th-they will c-c-cure... Please, the-three frost b-berries.” She stuttered, shaking into a ball shape as she spoke.

“I don’t even know what a frost berry is.. Are they in this cave?”

“Y-yes, just a b-b-bit further that w-way. Pl-please!” She begged, and as she finished a ding noise came from his cell phone. He lifted his phone up to see that his avatar was gone and a new interface was on the screen, showing a model of the girl before him.

Name: Poisoned Girl (Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Gather 3 Frostberries and bring them to the girl to cure her of her poison

Objective: 0/3 Frostberries

Reward: Unknown

Accept Decline

“Wow, unreal! So she’s not even a real person? Are you an NPC?” Darith asked her excitedly, but she did not reply, she remained quiet and shivering on the ground of the cave. “I’ll accept your quest!” He said excitedly, pressing the accept button.

“Th-thank you, please hu-hurry!” She replied.

Alert!: Quest log menu unlocked. Can be accessed through the main menu interface.

The cell phone read, and as it did he turned to see the blue ball above the girls head turn a dark gray color. He noted the color change and assumed it was related to accepting her quest.

“Alright! Time to do my first Broken World quest!” He said excitedly, looking deeper into the cave. It was still cold, but he was too excited to let it bother him now. He walked deeper into the cave with a skip in his step, looking around his surroundings to find anything that might resemble a frost berry.

He didn’t have to travel far before he spotted a small white plant growing against the cavern wall with a single blue berry hanging off one of its leaves.

“That was easy!” He said, walking towards it and leaned down to pick the berry, as he did the leaves jingled back and small flakes of snow fell off of them. Darith then turned to his cell phone to see a message read

Acquired: Frostberry x 1

Store in inventory?

Yes No

“Inventory? I have an inventory?” Darith said excitedly, hitting the Y button. He then watched the blue berry in his hand disintegrate into tiny balls of white light which traveled towards the phone in his opposite hand, landing in a small bag icon in the corner of his phone, just beside the new quest menu there. Before he could press it, another message appeared.

Alert!: Quest items will now be automatically sent to inventory.

“Right, automation and display menus. I should probably take a look at those, but first...” Darith said as he excitedly pressed the bag icon. The bag then opened up to show a 10 across, 3 down square menu with almost all the squares empty save for the first top four. From left to right he saw a pair of plain brown shoes, pants, shirt, then the frost berry.

“What is this?” He said as he clicked on first the shoes.

Name: Beginner Nemothyne Shoes(Common)

Slot: Feet

Type: Leather

Armor: 1

Description: Made from simple leather, given to new adventurers.

“Yes! Of course!” Darith said as he excitedly hit yes, and as if it was magic he watched white balls of light emit from his cell phone screen. The balls then began to form together in the air in front of him, slowly taking the appearance of two brown shoes. Once they finished forming, the shoes both fell to the ground at Darith’s feet.

“Are you kidding me? I had starting clothes this whole time?” He said as he took his baggy oversized and dirty socks off to slip his feet into the perfectly fitted and warm brown shoes.

Unequipped: Dirty Socks

Equipped: Beginner Nemothyne Shoes

“Alright! Pants and shirt next.” Darith said, using the same method to make the brown long-sleeved shirt and pants appear in front of him. He first slipped on the pants which had a hole in them for his tail that matched perfectly, then as fast as he could, he pulled off his baggy shirt and put on the Nemothyne Beginner Chest piece.

“Much better!” Darith said as he stretched out his arms and legs, for the first time feeling comfortable in his new body. He then looked at his shirt and socks sitting on the ground. “Now let’s see...” He went back to his cell phone and looked at his clothes.

“I wonder if I can put these in my inventory somehow...” He tried touching an empty box in the inventory and a prompt appeared telling him to touch an object with his index finger. He eyed his left index finger, but it looked completely normal. He then touched his shirt, and sure enough it disintegrated into tiny balls of light that floated into the cell phone screen, and in a box appeared an item.

Name: Basic Shirt(Common)

Slot: Outfit

Type: Cloth

Description: A basic shirt made of cotton.

“Awesome! What else can I put in here?” Darith said as he glanced around, spotting the leaves of the frostberry plant. He walked over to it and snapped off a leaf, it broke as if it were ice. He then used the same method of touching it with his left finger after picking an inventory slot, and sure enough the leaf vanished and appeared in his inventory.

Name: Frostberry Leaf

Type: Crafting Material

Quality: Low

Used In: Alchemy, Grinding/Processing

Description: A leaf from the Frostberry plant that typically grows in cold climates.

“Oh man, the game even has crafting. What else... How about dirt?” Darith wondered, as he dug his fingers into the frozen dirt beneath him, gathering as big of a pile as his tiny figures could. He then repeated the process to put it in his inventory and it worked again.

Acquired: Dirt (Junk)

“Huh, it even tells me if it's useful or not.” He said as he removed the dirt from his inventory and it fell back to the ground. “Alright let's find those last two frost berries.” He began looking around carefully again, moving deeper into the cave while leaving his old socks on the ground behind him.

It didn’t take long before he found the second Frostberry plant and picked the berry, only this time the berry immediately went to his inventory. He broke off a few of the leaves as well to put in his inventory, though he wasn’t sure what to use them for yet.

“Alright, one more to go.” He said excitedly, stepping even deeper into the frozen cave. He turned a few corners until he arrived at a large open room in the cave with a single Frostberry plant growing in the center. He excitedly took a few steps forward, but paused immediately after he heard the clittering of feet above him.

He looked up to see a small blue creature climbing around on the ceiling of the cave, causing him to take a few steps back. The creature then began floating down from the ceiling on a web coming from its rear, landing on the ground in front of the frostberry plant on it’s eight legs.

“Uh oh.” Darith stepped back, pointing his cell phone at it. The cell phone responded to it just as it did to the girl earlier, displaying its model, name, and other information.

Name: Frost Spiderling (Hostile) - Level: 1

Health: 15/15

“Hostile! That means...” Darith said to himself, but as he looked up from his phone, the tiny ice-like spider lunged forward at his legs with its fangs. Darith quickly moved his leg and jumped to the side out of the path of the spider, causing it to let out a hissing sound. “How do I fight? I don’t have any spells or anything yet!” Darith said, but his mind didn’t go into a panic, he felt himself stay calm and he was able to glance around at his surroundings to look for any sort of weapon. He saw nothing he could use though.

The spider then lunged forward once again, this time Darith reacted by trying to kick it. As the fangs of the Spiderling cut into his shin, the tip of Darith’s foot connected with the bottom of the spider, sending it backward. The pain he felt was gone in a few seconds, but he quickly looked to his phone as the spider landed quite a ways across the cavern and slowly recovered.

The Frost Spiderling’s health bar changed to show 10/15, while Darith’s health bar changed to show 82/100. A notification also appeared, and he spotted his energy bar move down one point, sitting it at 8 now.

Skill Gained: Kick (?)

“Kick only did 5 damage, that bite did 15 to me, I can’t let it get any more bites off. It’s only a level 1 monster, shouldn’t be that hard...” Darith said, turning his attention back to the Frost Spiderling as it charged at him. Using the same method of attack, it lunged at Darith and he jumped out of the way again, only once he avoided the bite this time he kicked the spider from the side, sending it backward across the cavern again. He glanced at his phone once again to see it lost another 5 health points. It then repeated the same attack pattern of charging at Darith again.

“Take this!” Darith shouted excitedly as he kicked the spider from the side a third time, this time watching it land upside down and it’s 8 long icy legs curl upward. “Hell yeah! I beat my first monster!” He cheered, comfortable with his young voice now. He looked at his phone again to see a new message stating he'd gained 2 experience points.

“Nice, it really is just like an RPG.” he smiled, then noticed something sparkly pop out of the spiders body and fall to the ground. He walked over to the sparkling object on the ground and picked it up.

Acquired: Frost Spidersilk x 1

“They even drop items!” He said as he watched the item float into his phone like the others. “I can’t wait to see what happens when I finish this quest.” He quickly ran over to the Frostberry plant and picked the last berry, making sure to pick up a few leaves off the plant as well.

Quest Complete! Return to Mayiera

“Got it, have to take it back to that poor poisoned girl.” He said, turning to start running back in the direction from which he came, but then stopped himself and looked at his energy bar, seeing it was now at 6. “I’ll need to be careful about using energy using my kick skill will take 3 energy per Spiderling, and I’m only regenerating one energy every minute. That means it’ll take 3 minutes per spiderling... I really need to raise my Endurance stat.” Darith sighed, slightly disappointed in his current abilities. He walked back as quickly as he could.

He arrived at the girl laying on the ground just as he left her, only now the ball above her head was green. He figured out now that blue meant there was a quest, gray that it was in progress, and green that it was completed.

“Here, I got you the frost berries!” Darith said excitedly, going into his inventory in his phone to take all three out. He caught them in his hands before they could fall to the ground, then held them out for the poisoned girl. She reached out with one of her hands and grabbed them, quickly putting all three in her mouth and eating them.

“Oh thank you, thank you so much!” She said as her purple skin began to turn back to normal. The berries cured her instantly and she sat upright. “You saved my life, I thought that poison would kill me for sure. Here, you should take one of these weapons, it’s dangerous to travel around unarmed!” She said, and then held out her hands, causing Darith’s phone to make a ring sound. He looked to it to see multiple weapons appear on his phone’s screen.

Quest Complete! Choose a Reward:

Name: Beginner's Axe(Common)

Slot: Weapon

Type: Axe

Damage: 1-5

Speed: Slow

Special: Teaches the skill Slash

Description: Copper metal with pine handle

Name: Beginner's Bow(Common)

Slot: Weapon

Type: Bow (Requires Arrows)

Damage: 1-3

Speed: Slow

Special: Teaches the skill Imbued Shot

Description: Pine with linen string

Name: Beginner's Staff(Common)

Slot: Weapon

Type: Staff

Damage: 1-1

Speed: Slow

Special: Teaches the skill Firebolt

Description: Made from Pine wood

Name: Beginner's Sword(Common)

Slot: Weapon

Type: Sword

Damage: 1-4

Speed: Average

Special: Teaches the skill Stab

Description: Copper metal with pine hilt

“It looks like this is where I choose my starting weapon... Seems like they each teach a skill. An axe, A bow, a staff, and a sword. I’ve already got the intelligence to be a spellcaster, might as well get started on learning how to be one. I’ll take the staff please!” Darith said to the girl.

“Good choice!” She smiled, and the menu disappeared from his phone, changing to its normal self with a notification saying quest completed, with +5 experience gained. The staff appeared from thin air in front of the quest giver, and before it could fall to the ground Darith grabbed it. It was a simple long wooden staff with a large thicker sphere of wood on the top that matched his height, it had no special markings on it whatsoever, by all accounts it was just a stick, but nevertheless Darith felt excited to hold it. He glanced at his phone to see a notification.

Equipped: Beginner's Staff

Learn Firebolt from this item?

Yes No

“Yes, of course!” Darith said excitedly, pressing the yes button. He got a message that he had learned the skill and immediately clicked it for more information.

Firebolt - Rank 1

Shoot a bolt of fire dealing FIRE DAMAGE to the first target hit.

Damage: 16 (1 + Int (15))

Cost: 10mp

Cast Time: 5s

Command: Firebolt (change)(?)

“Alright, 10 mana, and I have 80. 5 second cast is pretty long though... Cast command? What’s that?” Darith said as he clicked the question mark.

Info: Cast command is a word or action used to cast a spell

“So if I say Firebolt it will st-” As he said it, he noticed a red circle appear in the air in front of him, forming slowly. It startled him at first and he took a step backward, causing the red circle to stop forming and break apart, vanishing into nothing. “Whoa! What was that, was it casting? Because I said it? No way, this is too cool!” Darith said excitedly. “Let’s leave it like that for now. Why did it stop casting though?”

“It's hard to cast a spell while you’re moving, it breaks the incantation.” The girl replied, surprising Darith. He closed out the phone’s menu and put it in his pants pocket while turning to the girl.

“You can talk?”

“Of course I can talk.” She replied with a smile.

“I mean, you can talk freely, like normal conversations?” He asked, and she returned a confused expression to him.

“Well... Yes?” She replied while turning her head sideways.

“Are you a guide? Can you tell me anything about this game?” He asked.

“N-no... What game?” She asked.

“Hrm.” Darith thought for a moment, realizing that she was still an NPC, this wasn’t a game to her but rather it was a world she was a part of. “Nevermind... Do you know how I can make my skills stronger?” He asked.

“Practice!”

“How can I make myself stronger?”

“Training!” she said cheerfully.

“Hrmm, not very useful information. How about learning more skills and spells?”

“You could find spell books, there are many in the Avistion Magic Academy Library! Thats a bit far from here though... You could just try making your own spells! Oh that can be dangerous though, my little brother tried to make a spell once and blew up our barn.” The girl replied, trailing off into thought after her last statement.

“Where’s the Avistion Library?” Darith asked excitedly.

“Well that’s in the City of Avistion of course!” She replied.

“Where’s Avistion?” He asked.

“You don’t know where Avistion is? You’re a traveler from the other world, aren’t you?” She asked curiously.

“I... I guess so...” Darith shrugged hesitantly.

“Wow, it’s my first time meeting one! Well, Avistion is a long way from here, a lot of dangerous creatures near it too. You shouldn’t try to go there just yet. I heard from other world travellers that they had gates to Avistion open once they'd been in our world for awhile though, so maybe wait for that.” She shrugged.

“So the gates maybe have some conditions behind them opening... Alright, so where are we now? What are you doing in this cave? Better yet, do you have a name?” Darith blurted out all his questions too quickly.

“My name is Mayiera, and these are the Frost Caverns in the Coldrinn Mountains. It took me a month to find these caves, then I got bit by a Gnark and almost died before I could...” She stopped herself from finishing the sentence.

“Before what?” Darith asked curiously.

“You’ll just make fun of me...”

“I promise I won’t laugh.” Darith replied.

“Well, it’s said that somewhere in this Labyrinth of frozen tunnels is the Coldrinn ruins where the frost core is hidden, I was hoping to find it...”

“Coldrinn ruins? Frost core? Labyrinth?” Darith asked confused, causing Mayiera to let out a tiny giggle.

“Too much at once? These Caverns are a huge Labyrinth of tunnels that no one has ever been able to map, most people who travel inside never make it back out. Speaking of which, how did you find me?” She asked.

“Well, I just appeared here, from the other world I guess?” Darith shrugged.

“Wow, I am really lucky then!” She smiled. “The Coldrinn are the ancients of the northern frost realm, that’s where we are now. They’re all gone now, but their ancient city is rumored to be frozen beneath these very mountains! No one believes it's here anymore, but I have to find it! It’s the only place the Frozen Core can still be hiding.”

“Why do you need this frozen core?” Darith asked.

“That...” She turned her head to the ground. “I can’t tell you.” Darith watched her smile change to worry.

“Okay, then what’s a Gnark?” Darith asked her.

“Oh, Gnark’s are nasty creatures that live in these caves, they blend into the ice on the walls and try and poison you when you least expect it!” She said angrily. “Stupid Gnark’s, they’re the only reason I can’t find the Coldrinn ruins.” She pouted, and just then a blue ball appeared above her head.

“You got the frost berries for me though... Maybe you could help? Do you think you could search through these frost caverns for me? I know it’s dangerous, but I promise I’ll reward you!” She asked, as Darith heard his phone ring in his pocket. He pulled it out quickly to see the new quest on his cell phone.

Name: Mayiera (Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Find the entrance to the Coldrinn Ruins

Objective: 0/1 Coldrinn Ruins Found

Reward: Unkown

Accept Decline

“Accept.” Darith said without hesitation. “Now we’re talkin, it's adventure time!” Darith said, and turned to start marching back in the direction of the frost berry plants.

“Wait, that’s the wrong way! That’s the way out!” Mayiera stopped him.

“Huh? But I got into the cave from that direction...” Darith said, pointing from the path he took originally before he found her, opposite to the frost berries trail.

“Nevertheless, that’s the direction outside, and there’s a freezing blizzard out there right now, without extra warm clothing it’d be suicide!” She warned.

“But... the door I used to enter is this way, isn’t it? Come to think of it, that’s how I also get out of here...” Darith said to himself, feeling a chilling sensation down his spine as he ran down the tunnel from where he came, turning several corners until arriving at the area where the frost door back to the street was, but the door was no longer there. Instead there was a fork in the cavern, leading down two separate paths.

“What? No... The door is gone? How am I supposed to get out of the cave then? How do I get back to my world? How do I get out of this game?” Darith asked himself, feeling the walls around where the door was, though his heart did not race, he remained calm and didn’t feel any sort of panic. He then heard Mayiera running up behind him.

“I almost forgot, here, take this!” She smiled, holding out a small key made of ice.

“What’s that?” Darith asked.

“It’s a World Key to these caves, I can’t use it but I heard that you other worlders use it to travel to places right? Maybe it’s for that door you were talking about.” She shrugged.

After hearing this Darith quickly took the key from her hands, causing his phone to ding as the key vanished into thin air as particles of light and floated into his phone.

Skill Gained: Return (?)

Skill Gained: Gate (?)

Frost Gate Key Obtained: Allows travel to the Coldrinn Mountain Region

Frost Caverns: 1-9 (Dungeon)

Coldrinn Ruins: 60-100 (Dungeon)

“Question mark for information...” Darith hastily pressed it.

Gate - No Ranks

Open a gate to any area that you have obtained a Gate Key for. Taking damage will interrupt casting.

Gate Keys: 1

Current: Frost Key

Cast Time: 10s

Command: Gate (change)(?)

“Okay, so this key lets me come back here? And this return skill is supposed to allow me to get back home...” Darith quickly moved to his skills menu to see Return on the list now, and quickly selected it.

Return - No Ranks

Returns you to the last real world location you were before entering The Broken Realm. Taking damage will interrupt casting. Can only be used inside a Broken Realm area.

Cast Time: 10s

Command: Gate (change)(?)

“Let’s make sure it works before we do anything else. Return!” Darith shouted, and suddenly he felt a warm glow all around him. Instead of a red circle like his firebolt was making, he was surrounded by multiple white circles forming all around him, all varying in sizes and completing themselves slowly, glowing brighter as they grew.

“You’re returning to your world? Will you be back to help me?” Mayiera asked him with a worried expression.

“Y-yeah... I think so...” He replied, not confident about what was about to happen. After the 10 seconds went by all of the circles finished forming and there was a bright flash of light, blinding him for a moment. When the light was gone he found himself standing on the street in the middle of the night, everything quiet and warm with no people or cars in sight.

Darith glanced around, disoriented for a moment as he took in his surroundings, realizing he was back to where he had entered the door in the first place. He then let out a deep sigh of relief.

“Wow, I have to tell Ryan, and Jacob! Wait... No not Jacob, he’s not a part of, uh oh the city guard!” Darith said as his brain caught up to his excitement, realizing his tail and ears were now in plain sight. He moved away from the street into the shadow of a nearby house, holding his staff in one hand and his cell phone in the other.

“I really should have just picked human. I still have to find a way to hide this tail and ears... Gate!” Darith said hastily.

A light then suddenly shot out from his phone, emitting particles that formed into large chunks of ice. As the chunks formed the doorway similar to the one before, Darith tried to remain patient, looking around to make sure no one was watching. He wasn’t expecting the door to appear in such a flashy manner. He then recalled that those people in the car couldn’t see the door when they drove past, and wondered if they’d be able to see it now. Within 10 seconds the door had fully formed, and looking through the doorway Darith could once again see the Frozen Cavern with Mayiera standing on the other side.

Darith jumped through the doorway excitedly, surprising Mayiera.

“You’re back! Where’d you come from!?” She said surprised, but happy at the same time.

“I came through the door, you can’t see this door?” Darith said, pointing behind him.

“What door?” She replied curiously, glancing around the cavern walls.

“Nevermind...” Darith shrugged. “So which way was I supposed to be heading?” He asked her once more.

“That way!” She pointed with a smile. “Before you go, I should heal your wounds! Here.” She stepped forward and tapped Darith’s forehead with her index finger, causing a bright yellow light to surround him for an instant, then vanish. He felt a warm friendly sensation all over his body for a moment, until she removed her finger.

“Anytime you are injured you can come back to me, I’ll be at my camp fire, okay?”

“Neat...” Darith said as he glanced at his phone once more to see his health and energy bars were full. “Good to know, thanks a lot Mayiera!” Darith smiled.

“Good luck in the caverns, and watch out for Gnarks!” She cheered.

“Alright!” He turned, heading towards the fork in the cave. He looked left, then right, then left, nodded to himself, and walked into the left tunnel.

“Adventure, adventure, a real life game adventure~” He hummed as he skipped forward with staff and phone in hand.