“Okay, first I’ve got to see this.” Darith said as he held out his staff in front of himself. “Firebolt!” He shouted excitedly, then watched as once again the red glowing circle began to form in front of him, different glyphs and symbols forming in and around the circle, until after 5 seconds it fully formed and from its front shot forward a small ball of fire, Instantly after the ball shot forward the circle disappeared, and the ball traveled in a straight line, crashing into the ice wall of the cave, but not leaving any marks in the ice as it dissipated. He then quickly looked to his phone to see his mana had gone down by 10. Moving his finger to his mana bar revealed he was regenerating 1.50 mana a minute.

“One Firebolt every 5 minutes, that’s not that efficient. I guess I can’t expect much though, I’m still level 1.” He shrugged. “First I need to be able to aim this spell though, if it only travels in a straight line then I probably won't even hit a Frost Spiderling. Let’s try it again... Firebolt!” He said again, and the process repeated, But as the fireball finished forming he tried waving his staff downward to tell the fireball to shoot downward instead of straight.

It worked, but barely. The fireball only slightly arched downward, not in the direction of his staff though, it followed something else. He looked at the path the fireball took as it hit to the right, but he swung his staff downward to the left as it was in his left hand. He turned to his right hand holding the phone.

“Firebolt!” He said, and began casting a third time. This time as it finished, he waved his right hand downward to the ground with his index finger sticking out, causing the fireball to shoot downward in the exact direction of his hand. Simultaneously, he heard a ding on his phone. “Hah, got it! My right hand helps me control the path of the Firebolt.

Skill Gained: Spell Mastery (?)

“That sounds awesome.” He said as he excitedly clicked the ? to find out about it.

Spell Mastery - Rank 1

Allows manipulation and control over your spells. Higher ranks increase your control and capabilities with different spells and allows you to learn more powerful spells. Passive does not increase with ranks.

Effect: Increases Int and Spr by 5%

“Cool, so this skill is allowing me to control what direction my spells move. That passive seems nice too, I’ll need more mana or spirit if I want to cast Firebolt more often... Or somehow get it to cost less mana... Training, like Mayiera said.” Darith shrugged, noting that his mana was now at 52.

“Let’s find another monster first.” Darith said excitedly, hopping and skipping deeper into the cave, It didn’t take long for him to arrive in an open room with a Frozen Spiderling crawling across the wall on the far side. It hadn’t noticed him yet though.

“Firebolt.” He whispered, and it didn’t react to his voice, it continued to skitter aimlessly across the far wall, and as the five seconds ended and the fireball shot forth, Darith motioned his tiny Nemothyne hand for the fireball to move towards the Spiderling. It landed a direct hit right on its back, exploding around the Spiderling and causing it to fall to the ground, its legs curled up as the first one had.

“Yes!” Darith said excitedly, looking to see he had gained another 2 experience and was now 9/10 experience from level 2. He also spotted something sparkling at the feet of the vanishing spider corpse.

“More silk?” He asked himself, stepping forward into the open area of the cave, only to hear clittering behind him, and before he could react he felt a bite on his back. “Argh! he shouted in pain as he stumbled forward, though the pain subsided quickly. He regained his balance and turned to see another Frozen Spiderling had dropped from the ceiling above him.

“Firebolt!” He started casting, but as the spider lunged at him he reactively moved out of the way, causing the Firebolt spell cast to cancel.

“Ugh, no use, he’s just going to bite me if I stand still to cast.” Darith muttered. “Then let’s try this!” He shouted as he swung the staff at the spiderling with all his might, knocking it back and causing a ding on his phone. He quickly glanced to see he had learned a new skill called staff mastery, his Energy was at 45, and the spider’s health was at 5/15. Before reading any more information he charged forward at the Spiderling and hit it with his staff again, killing it and gaining more experience. From this he felt a sudden burst of energy as light swirled all around him for a moment, before fading.

Looking at his phone once more he saw a big

Level up!: You've reached Level 2!

+1 Unspent Attribute Point

“Awesome!” Darith said excitedly.. “First, what’s staff mastery?”

Staff Mastery - Rank 1

Increases your mana regeneration as well as weapon damage when wielding a staff. Higher ranks improve damage and mana regeneration Bonus

Damage: 10 (5 + Weapon(1-1) + Str (4))

Effect: Grants 1mp per minute

“Looks like it’s dealing 10 damage a swing and my mana regen is up to 2.5 a minute now, not bad. I can improve my mana regeneration if I train myself with using the staff. The swing was taking 5 Energy though, so its faster but not as efficient as just using kick. Nonetheless I should probably use this instead of kicking so I can raise my staff Mastery.” He said, then moved to his attributes page and saw he had one bonus to spend.

“Now the tough choice... Picking attributes. I want to be a spell caster, so I’d normally go for Intelligence or spirit, but Strength would help me with basic attacks, Endurance as well for everyday activities... And what about Luck and Charisma.” He said, looking over all of the stats carefully for a bit. “I’ll save this point for now I think.” He decided, closing the menu. He then walked to where the two Spiderlings had died and picked up a silk from each.

“Now where do I go.” He pondered, looking around the open room. The cavern had 4 exits. One was the path from which he came, there was a ramp leading up into another tunnel on one side, a straight path through on another wall, and then a ramp leading downward on the last side. “Mayiera wasn’t kidding when she said this place was a Labyrinth... I should probably find a way to start mapping this place if I ever want to find the ruins. For now though I want to try training a bit!” Darith said excitedly. He decided to take the upward tunnel out of the opening and found himself walking through another torch lit ice tunnel.

This tunnel had an upward slant to it and as he traveled it he could hear the skittering of spiders in the distance. He slowed his step and opened his eyes wide, looking for any signs of a Spiderling leg sneaking around the walls or ceiling. Finally he spotted one far into the cave ahead.

“Firebolt.” He whispered, starting the spell while being sure to stand still. It seemed fine for a few seconds, but the Spiderling eventually spotted him before the cast finished and began running forward. Darith carefully aimed the Firebolt with his hand to collide with the Spiderling as it charged at him, almost missing.

“Phew.” He said in relief as the spider died and he heard a ding on his phone.

Rank Up!: Firebolt reached Rank 2!

Darith clicked to see that its damage went up by 1, its manacost and cast time went down by 0.1.

“Nice, so Mayiera was right, just train hard and it’ll improve.” Darith grinned, looking forward down the tunnel, still hearing a lot of skittering spiderlings, but not able to see them at first. He took a few more steps forward and then suddenly saw three Frozen Spiderlings skittering down the tunnel toward him.

“Firebolt!” Darith said nervously, knowing he wouldn’t be able to cast it enough times before the spiders got to him. “Firebolt, Firebolt!” He said two more times, not sure what would happen. Sure enough though, three red circles appeared in front of him instead of two, though they were all smaller than before and he heard his phone ding as they formed.

“Uhh, how am I going to Aim all three?” Darith said, watching as they finished forming. The time delay between when he said Firebolt separated how fast each Fire circle finished forming. The first was a second before the other two, and he waved his right hand upward towards a Spiderling coming at him from the ceiling, It hit directly, and he quickly flicked his hand right and then left milliseconds later to try and direct his other two firebolts, his motions were successful and he sent a firebolt at each Frozen Spiderling, but not one of the three died, they simply flinched and then continued running.

Now too close for Darith to cast again, he prepared his staff and started swinging at them while backing away to avoid their stings. One staff hit to each of them was enough to take out all three.

“Man... This game is complicated. Will it let me do anything I can think of? Are the limits only my mana and energy bars?” He asked himself as he watched the three spiderlings legs curl up. He then turned to his phone to see his mana now at 9 and energy at 31.

Rank Up!: Spell Mastery reached Rank 2!

Skill Gained: Multicast (?)

Darith clicked Multicast without hesitation.

Multicast - Rank 1

Allows the casting of multiple simple spells at the same time. Higher ranks reduce the damage reduction and mana cost penalties.

Effect 1: -50% Spell dmg when Multicasting

Effect 2: -5mp Per spell when Multicasting

“That explains the mana loss and why it didn’t kill it in one hit like it did the other spiders. I’ll need to rank this up before I try doing too much multicasting, 15 mana firebolts that are only dealing half damage aren’t very helpful.” He said, and as he did he could still hear legs skittering down the tunnel in front of him. “I should head back to Mayiera and have her restore my mana and energy.” Darith then turned and headed back in the direction he came.

It wasn’t difficult to find his way back as he hadn’t traveled very far yet, and sure enough Mayiera was still sitting at her camp fire, wiggling her toes to the flame, but she had a blue ball above her head again.

“Hey! You’re back so soon, did you find the ruins?” She asked hopeful.

“Nope, no ruins yet, is there something else you need?” He asked, his eyes on the blue ball that she seemed oblivious to.

“Well... Now that you ask...” she said, looking down to her stomach as it made a loud rumbling sound.

“You’re hungry? What do you want to eat?” He asked her.

“Anything, I’ll eat anything really! Do you have any food?” She asked desperately.

“I don’t have anything on me, I think...”

“Do you think you could bring me something? I have not eaten since I got into this cave.” She asked, and a notification appeared on his phone.

Name: Mayiera (Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Bring something to eat to Mayiera in the Frost Caverns

Objective: 0/1 Food for Mayiera

Reward: Unknown

Accept Decline

“Sure, I can find something.” Darith shrugged, hitting accept. “Can you eat Frost Spiderling meat? Or maybe Gnark meat?” Darith asked.

“No... You wont find anything to eat in this cave. I was hoping you could bring it from the other world, since you are a world traveler.” She smiled hesitantly, showing guilt of her request. Her emotions started to make Darith think of how complex an AI she must be.

“Okay... Speaking of which, what time is it? My mom is going to start panicking if I don’t let her know where I am...” Darith said, looking at his phone to see the time but it had nothing resembling his old phones display and didn’t include a clock.

“I’m not sure what time it is.” She shrugged.

“I should head back, maybe Ryan has figured out something about this appearance. Oh, can you restore my mana before I leave?” Darith asked her, and she nodded with a smile, gently pressing her index finger to his forehead. He felt the familiar warmth, then glanced at his phone to see his mana and energy full again.

“Thanks! That’s really helpful.” Darith smiled, and she nodded back. “Return!” He called out, and the white circles formed around him again, lighting the space around him over 10 seconds until it flashed bright and disappeared, returning him to the yard of this strangers house, back into his world. He was once again in a warmer environment, quiet without anyone in sight.

“So...” Darith opened his inventory and took out his baggy shirt. He first did his best attempt to shove his tail back through the rear hole in his pants and down his back right pant leg. It was extremely uncomfortable, barely fit, and made his left leg look very odd, but it hid his tail somewhat. Then he took his baggy shirt and made it into a makeshift hat, tying it around his ears in an odd fashion to hide them and prevent it from falling off easily.

Rank Up!: Conceal reached Rank 2!

His phone dinged, causing Darith to simply roll his eyes.

“I can at least not be as obvious, but I can’t go home like this.” Darith said, now betting on the fact that Ryan also wanted to try this game. He began walking quickly across the city under the moonlight towards his friends house. As he walked he crossed the path of a few cars, but no one seemed too suspicious of the little boy with a shirt on his head walking around at night.

When he arrived at Ryan’s front door and lifted his hand to the doorbell, he hesitated. He saw lights on inside so he knew there were people awake, and he was confident they wouldn’t spot his ears, but he couldn’t imagine whoever answered to door would not be curious about who he was.

“Here goes nothing.” He mumbled, but hearing his own little boyish voice worried him even more. He paused again, then pressed the doorbell and could hear it ring on the other side of the door. He waited anxiously as he heard footsteps approach, then the door swung open to reveal Ryan’s mom, wearing an apron with a kitchen towel tossed over her shoulder as though she was interrupted while cooking.

“Oh hello there, it’s a little late to be selling cookies isn’t it?” She asked as she looked down to Darith, towering over his tiny body.

“Uhm... I’m not selling anything.” Darith replied nervously. “Is Ryan home?” he asked.

“Oh, you’re a friend of Ryan’s? One second sweetie.” She replied. She then turned her head towards a staircase to the right of the front door. “Ryan! Door!” She shouted up.

“I’m busy!” Ryan shouted back through his upstairs bedroom door.

“Well a young boy is here to see you!” She said, then walked from the door, and within seconds the door to his bedroom swung open and he ran out of the room, quickly running down the stairs and looking at Darith.

“H-hey...” He said nervously. “What’s up? Do I know you?” Ryan asked, and Darith was both relieved and worried to see that he looked completely normal.

“Did you start it?” Darith asked cautiously.

“Start what?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“You know...” He then took out his cellphone and pointed at it with over exaggeration.

“Who are you, how do you know about the game?” Ryan asked, looking panicked and defensive now, until he seemed to glance at something above Darith’s head.

“It’s me!” He whispered in his boyish voice.

“Wait a second, Darith?” Ryan replied.

“Darith!” He whispered. He watched as Ryan’s expression went through several changes. First panicked to confused, then his eyebrows raised to surprised, then his face curled up with a smile, putting his hand over his mouth to hold back a loud laugh, but failing horribly. Anyone on the street or in his house would have heard him cackling.

“Are you kidding me? Really?” He said between laughing as Darith just crossed his arms and turned away, tapping his right foot as he waited for his friend to stop laughing at him.

“Come, c’mon to my room.” He motioned Darith in. “My friends coming up to my room for a bit okay mom?”

“Sure thing, does he want to stay for dinner? I can make extra.”

“N-no, that’s okay.” Darith replied, then followed Ryan up the stairs into his messy bedroom, clothes scattered all over the floor. Ryan quickly shut the door as Darith sat in Ryan’s wheeled computer chair.

“So you picked a Nemothyne?” Ryan asked, trying to hold back more laughter.

“I didn’t know it’d take over my body! If I did I would have kept my appearance the same like you.” He sighed.

“Oh, I didn’t keep it normal, want to see?” Ryan asked.

“Well, yeah, what’d you pick?” Darith asked. Ryan lifted his hand up and started poking his index finger in the air as if he was pressing invisible buttons, then suddenly a light flashed around him and his body and clothing transformed into a taller male human wearing gray boots, pants and a chest piece not unlike Darith’s. His new body was handsome, muscular and perfectly symmetrical with black hair and dark eyes.. Awesome was the first word that came to Darith’s mind, but it was replaced with excitement and curiosity.

“You can turn back to normal? How!? How’d you do that?” Darith asked as he stood up from the chair.

“You’re a pro-gamer who beats everyone at every game he plays, and you don’t even look at all the options when you get pulled into something like this? Did you open up your Display and Automation menus yet?” Ryan replied, his voice deep and more manly now. Darith quickly pulled out his phone to open the display menu.

Display Options

Game Interface: Phone (Default)

Appearance: Game Character Always (Default)

Style: Dark Blue (Default)

Display Tips: Yes (Default)

“Are you kidding me? I could change back to my normal appearance this whole time?” Darith said as he clicked on appearance and the menu dropped down to display multiple options. The options were to Always use his Game Character, Use it only in Broken Realm Areas, Change it with Commands, or Never use it.

“I’ve been switching it between Never and Always, I haven’t figured out this command stuff yet.” Ryan replied as he moved to look at his phone.

“You switched it just now in a menu? How? You weren’t using your phone...” Darith asked curiously.

“Oh man, you’re about to have your mind blown. Change the Game interface from phone to Peripheral Vision.” Ryan said, pointing excitedly at Darith’s phone. Watching this tall handsome guy act as childish as his friend felt strange in that moment, but he imagined it was a lot more strange to see the little boy that Ryan saw.

Darith moved through the menu and changed the Game Interface to Peripheral Vision as Ryan said, the only other display option that was available. His phone screen suddenly went black, and Darith felt a jolt of electricity go through the phone into his hand, then up to his eyes. His eyes stung for a moment as his vision went white, causing him to step back from Ryan and blink.

“I-I can’t see!” Darith panicked.

“Just give it a second!” Ryan said excitedly. Sure enough, moments later Darith’s vision slowly came back, only he could see different things in the air that he couldn’t see before. The first thing he noticed was Ryan’s name floating above his head in white letters outlined with black, next to his name displayed Level 1, and under it was a health bar that showed 80/80.

“Wow! What the heck? I can see your name above your head!” Darith said in amazement.

“Awesome, huh? It’s above everyone’s head, even my mom and dad. They’re level 4 and 5 and have health bars of their own!” Ryan said as Darith swatted his hands out at the health bar and letters above Ryan, but his fingers just passed through them. “The game does something to your eyes to show it, but it isn’t really there, I already tested all that stuff.

“Then... What about the phone? How do I get into the menu?” Darith asked, looking to his phone to see it had returned to normal. This worried him and relieved him at the same time.

“That took me awhile to figure out, you should see a white circle somewhere right? Floating above you, maybe a bit silver.” Ryan asked, “I couldn’t notice it at first but I was also freaking out a bit.”

“Ah, I see it!” Darith said excitedly, spotting a floating white circle in his left eye. He reached forward and pressed it with his index finger, causing the normal cell phone menu to appear in front of him displaying his character portrait and all the other usual icons, as if his cell phone screen was floating in front of him. “Wow, this is incredible! How does this game do it? I mean how is this stuff even possible?” Darith asked in disbelief.

“I don’t know man, I think it’s messing with the electrical signals in our brain, but that doesn’t explain how we change our appearance.” Ryan replied as Darith started fiddling with the display options. He managed to get his interface to display his own health, mana, and energy bars in the top left corner of his left eye. As he looked around the menu stayed in the corner of his vision, taking awhile for him to adjust to.

He eventually found an option to make it slightly transparent so that it didn’t distract him so much.

“I didn’t get much further than the menu and options though. Why’s your information showing up to me as question marks? I can’t see your name or your level.” Ryan asked, stepping back curiously now.

“I’m not sure...” Darith paused his menu tinkering to think for a second, then an idea popped in his head and he took the shirt off his head, pulling his tail through his pants like normal.

“Ah, wow, there! I can see it now. Darith, Level 2 Nemothyne. How’d you do that?” Ryan asked.

“I think its my conceal skill, I learned it when I was trying to hide my ears and tail.” Darith shrugged.

“Whoa, you learned a skill already? What’d you do exactly?” Ryan asked excitedly. Darith told Ryan in detail everything he had done so far in the game in detail, including the dungeon and the NPC, the monsters and the skills.

“So that’s why you’re carrying around that stick, it’s a staff?” Ryan asked.

“Yup, a magic staff.” Darith grinned.

“Let me try this then...” Ryan walked to his closet and pulled out a baseball bat. “Yep, it’s a weapon.”

“Really?” Darith asked impressed.

“Check it out!” Ryan tossed it to Darith and he caught it. Sure enough, he got a message that he'd equipped the bat and it did 2-4 damage. The text appeared in front of his eyes in a blue popup window now, though no one else could see it. He looked to see his staff in his other hand.

“Hah, I could be the baseball bat Wizard!” Darith said as he struck a pose with the two weapons. “That means I can give you this staff right? It should teach you the firebolt skill.”

“Pass it over then!” Ryan said excitedly, and Darith threw the staff, but after leaving his hands it dissipated into thin air. Ryan reached out for it but caught only air. “What the heck?”

Warning!: Bound items cannot be dropped or traded, only destroyed.

Do you wish to Destroy this item?

Yes No

A prompt appeared in front of him.

“It’s saying I can’t trade bound items.” Darith shrugged as he hit No and the staff re-appeared in his left hand. He passed the bat back to Ryan.

“Lame.”

“So if you’re level 1 and I am level 2, why’d you say your parents are level 4 and 5?” Darith asked.

“I dunno, they definitely aren’t part of the game though. I guess the game thinks everyone has a level?” Ryan replied.

“Right... But how does this game really make everything a part of it? It’s starting to feel like it’s not a game at all.” Darith said ominously.

“Well, we should have fun with it! I mean, with what you said we can train some awesome skills and raise stats on ourselves right? I bet people wouldn’t mess with us at school if you shot a firebolt at them.” Ryan grinned.

“Yeah.” Darith chuckled. “We can’t use it around people though, we still don’t even know what a city guard is yet.” Darith replied.

“Oh, right. City guards sound like buzzkills. Then let's go into that dungeon you found and power up! We gotta get level 5 so we can invite Jacob!”

“I can’t yet, I’ve got to turn back to normal and let my mom know I’m okay, she’s probably freaking out.” Darith said as he began to navigate the menu to his appearance.

“Ah, hold up a second!” Ryan stopped him, causing Darith to focus his eyes on his friend over the menu in the air in front of him. “What were you wearing when you turned into your character?” Ryan asked.

“Uh, shorts and a t-shirt. Why?”

“Where’s those clothes now?” Ryan asked.

“Well, the shirts here, the shorts are back at my house...”

“Uhh... Here. I got a pair of baggy shorts somewhere here, they should fit you... When you turn back your armor won’t transform with you, you’ll be naked. It only does that the first time though.” Ryan said as he dug through his clothing drawers, pulling out a pair of big black cargo shorts and handing them to Darith. “Don’t do it in front of me, I don’t want to see you naked. Better yet you should leave the house first, my mom’ll get suspicious if a little boy enters my room and you leave instead.”

“Good idea.” Darith said with a smirk. “I’ll head home now then, we can try going into a dungeon tomorrow after school!”

“After school? Why even go to school when we can do stuff like learn to shoot firebolts?” Ryan asked.

“If I don’t go to class my mom will kill me.”

“Well, my parents don't care either way.” Ryan shrugged. “I’ll try and learn some skills on my own tonight then. Good luck with your mom.” Ryan replied.

“Thanks.” Darith said, opening his bedroom door and running down the stairs.

“Take care!” Ryan’s mom called as she heard the front door open.

“Bye!” Darith squeaked back, still nervous talking to others in this form, then shut the door and took off towards home.