“Woooow!” Liana said with wide eyes as they stepped through the door way and Darith quickly changed to his Nemothyne body. In all directions around them was sand. Hills of sand and clear blue skies, but beside the door way that they used to enter were several other doorways. Darith glanced at the other doorways curiously to see unfamiliar cities on the other side, one doorway had a city with hanzi signs all around on shops and buildings, and just as he peered through he saw three people running towards the door, looking straight at Darith unlike most of the other people who didn’t notice him looking into their world.

He stepped back as the three young asian boys ran through the doorway and landed their feet into the desert sands, they couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9.

“Nihao!” One shouted at him, showing as Jin - Level 5. He suddenly transformed into a tall male elf, while another boy turned into a lizard man and the other into a male nemothyne. The other two were only level 1 though.

“Hello!” Darith said with a smile.

“English?” Jin asked, and Darith nodded. “Niceu tuu meetu!” He smiled, then turned to his friends and said something in mandarin Darith couldn’t understand, Liana watching curiously.

“Bye bye!” The three boys shouted, then ran off towards the top of a sand dune.

“Wow, this portal came from China! This game is all over the world?” Darith asked in amazement.

“That’s really cool.” Liana smiled, she was wearing her white starting armor now but she took off one of her shoes to wiggle her toes in the sand. “Hehe...” She smiled excitedly.

“The boy was level 5 like me, he probably just invited his friends. I wonder where they were going though.” Darith said. “Want to follow them?” He asked, and Liana nodded while putting her shoe back on. They then headed up the sand dune where the boys ran as they glanced back to see more people entering the desert from other doors.

“It’s weird, when I got into the Frozen Caverns it was the only door, there weren’t so many. It also said dungeon, not region... Maybe regions are easier to get into.” Darith said.

“Probably, it’s strange to start out in a dungeon anyway, isn’t it?” Liana replied.

“Yeah, you’re right, most MMORPG’s don’t send you into dungeons until you’ve learned the basics of the game. Maybe I got unlucky...” Darith replied. When they reached the top of the dune they could see over to the other side, in front of them was not sand but rather a lush green jungle filled with palm trees and other wild plants and strange birds flying above.

“Whoa, is that an Oasis?” Liana said excitedly.

“Looks like it!” Darith replied. And there! The boys went to those NPC’s over there, I bet there’s some starter quests we can do, maybe get a weapon for you!” Darith said excitedly.

“Let’s go!” She cheered, and they walked down the dune towards a broken down wagon with a sleeping camel and 4 worn down looking men wearing desert clothing. They had lots of white cloth on with some wrapped around their heads, and wooden sandals. None of them were standing upright, they were all leaning on the broken wagon or laying near it to stay in the shade, and one had a blue circle above his head.

“That blue circle, is that a quest?” Liana asked.

“Yup, let’s see what these guys need.” Darith replied as they got close and the three boys from China ran off towards the Oasis.

“Water.. Please, we need water. Oasis, monsters.... We can’t get it ourselves...” The man with the blue circle said.

Thirsty Man(Neutral) Level: ??

Quest: Collect water from the nearby Oasis.

Objective: 0/1 Filled Jug of Water

Reward: ??

Accept Decline

“I accept, right?” Liana asked, and Darith nodded. They both hit accept.

“Let’s do the first quest!” Darith cheered, and Liana nodded, walking with a tiny skip in her step towards the oasis, however she didn’t get far before tripping and falling face first into the sand. “Ow.”

“Be careful.” Darith said while holding back laughter, lending a hand to help her stand. They walked towards the Oasis together, Darith taking note of more and more players arriving at the NPC’s behind them. The cave felt lonely and cold but this place, it felt like it was a real MMORPG. Just how many people were a part of this game, he wondered.

As the sand beneath their feet transformed into dirt, and then grass, the palm trees of the oasis began to tower over them and shield them from the scorching sun. The wildlife around them was beyond anything Darith or Liana could have imagined. There were wild plants and flowers with strange insects flying around them, and they could clearly see a pool of water ahead that reflected the sunlight.

“There!” Liana said as she walked ahead excitedly.

“Be careful!” Darith sped up to keep up with her, but she got to the water first.

“Starting quests are always easy, right?” She smiled, then reached down to the water. “How do we pick this up?” She asked, realizing she didn’t know what she was doing.

“We got a jug as a quest item, take it from your inventory and fill it up.” Darith said, the two of them opening their menu to make a jug appear in front of them.

“That’s so cool! How do you think all of this is possible? Magic?” Liana asked as they both filled their jugs.

“Don’t be silly, magic is impossible.” Darith replied. Liana only turned to him with a raised eyebrow, but from the corner of her eye she saw something dark under the water coming towards them.

“Watch out!” Darith pulled her back from the water as a tiny green head broke the surface and snapped at them.

Name: Oasis Hatchling(Hostile) - Level 1

Health: 5/5

As they backed away from the water, the tiny little green shelled turtle waded out of it onto the ground, making little squeaks at them.

“Hm... It’s really weak, compared to the spiders in the cave... I wonder if you get doors around you based on your stats.” Darith said, meanwhile Liana was terrified of the turtle and threw her jug at it, but before the jug hit it vanished and returned to her inventory.

“Darith what do we do! It’s trying to bite me!” She cried at him.

“Use your kick skill!” He said as he backed away.

“No way, it will bite me!” She called back. “Can’t you shoot it with your fireball or whatever?” She asked.

“I think we got a door to this place for you, these monsters are really weak, so it's the perfect chance for you to practice.” Darith replied. The turtle snapped its jaws at her again and she squeaked and then kicked it as hard as she could, dealing 3 damage to the turtle. It retaliated by biting her foot.

“Owww!” She shouted as she pulled her foot back, looking at her health she lost 5 points. She stumbled backward away from the turtle and landed flat on her bottom, but by the time she did the pain in her foot was already gone and she wiggled her toes a bit. “That’s weird, it stopped hurting so fast!” She commented.

“Remember that damage you take will go to your health bar, not your body. Just don’t let it hit 0 and you’ll be okay.” Darith said as the turtle waddled forward towards her.

“Okaaaay!” She stood up then gave the turtle another swift kick, causing it to flop over with 0 health remaining. “I did it! I beat my first monster!” She cheered as she and Darith both saw 2 experience gains.

“Great! It seems like as long as we’re in a party we both get the experience. And look, your first monster drop!” Darith pointed at a tiny piece of the turtle’s shell on the ground.

“What do I do with that?” She asked.

“No idea, but it’s better to collect this stuff for now, we might need it later.” He replied.

“Okay.” Liana nodded while picking it up.

“We have the water, so let's return to the NPC.” Darith said, Liana nodding. The two turned and headed back through the Oasis, but on their way they walked past a lot of different players of all different races, most were unarmed and some hadn’t figured out how to put on their armor yet, or were still holding their cell phones and looking at them for guidance.

“There’s a lot of players around.” Liana commented, but most were so busy with the new world around them to look at Darith or Liana. He wondered what it would’ve been like if he had started in a place like this.

When they reached the NPC they both handed him a jug of water and all of his companions drank from it. He thanked them, then as expected offered them both to choose a beginner weapon. However the weapon selection he offered was not the same as Mayiera’s.

“Hmm... A staff, a sword, a crossbow, and a sphere.” Darith said as he looked through them, several players around stopping to watch him while staring at his gloves.

“E-excuse me, where did you get your clothing?” A player asked him as Liana started reading about the weapon rewards.

“Oh, this is starting armor, it’s in your inventory. The gloves are from a dungeon somewhere else though.” He replied, looking to the tall lizard man that asked him, whom was wearing torn clothes destroyed by his transformation into his new lizard body.

“Oh, I see, thanks!” He replied as he started going through his menu.

“No problem.” Darith said with a smile, other players around seemed to have heard as well and they started taking their starter armor out of their inventory. “This staff teaches a skill called Waterbolt. I wonder if I can learn it too... I’ll take the staff please.” Darith said to the NPC.

“Then I’ll take the Sphere!” Liana said excitedly.

“Wait, what’s a sphere!?” Darith asked, but it was too late to check, the selection disappeared and the staff he chose appeared in the air in front of him. He turned to Liana to see a blue ball appear in front of her, it was transparent and glowing white as she grabbed it out of the air and held it in her hand. It didn’t stay in her hand long though and began hovering above her hand.

“Wow, that thing looks cool!” He said while grabbing his staff.

Spell Gained: Waterbolt (?)

“What does it do exactly?” He asked Liana.

“Hmm, if I throw it, it comes back according to the menu. I learned a skill called Restore.” She added.

“Restore? Is that a healer item?” He asked.

“Yup!” She smiled while looking through her menu.

“You want to be a healer? I thought you’d try the sword or something.” Darith shrugged.

“Well you said I could only play with you around, so that means you can kill stuff for me and I can keep us healthy!” She said excitedly. “So how do I cast it?” she asked, other players were blatantly listening into their conversation now, desperate to learn the game but too shy to ask them directly.

“Well, if you look in your skill menu it has a cast command, by default you can cast it just by calling out its name, but you can change the cast command to whatever you want.” Darith replied.

“Alright, let’s try! Restore!” She shouted while pointing her orb outward at Darith. A green circle appeared in front of her and began slowly forming.

“Remember, you can’t move while you are casting or it will cancel.” Darith said, and she nodded as they as well as all new players around them watched the circle form. After 5 seconds the circle vanished and a glowing green ball of light shot forward from it at Darith. The ball reached Darith and then spun around him releasing tiny green sparkles and causing his whole body to glow, and he saw a green +15 text appear over his health bar.

“You healed me for 15 health!” Darith said excitedly.

“Yeah!” Liana cheered, some other players standing by making sounds of aw.

“It looked like it had a pretty long cast time though, and how much mana?” Darith asked, looking to see she had 0 mana now.

“Ahehe... 20 mana, and 5 second cast.” She said hesitantly.

“You’re out of mana already?” Darith said in disbelief.

“Y-yeah...”

“We’ve got a lot of training to do.” He sighed. “The starting NPC’s should be able to restore you back to full, try asking him.” Darith said, and she turned back to the NPC.

“Uhm, excuse me but can you return my mana?” She asked the man leaning against the side of the broken wagon, though very nervously.

“Yes, of course, anything for the one that got us water.” He replied, then stood up and tapped her forehead, restoring her mana after a bright glow surrounded her. “Wow, thank you!” She smiled.

“It’s no trouble. If you wouldn’t mind, we could use more help, ask my companions what we need to get out of this place.” He replied, and a blue circle appeared above the heads of 2 other NPC’s.

“Good work, you unlocked the next quests.” Darith said.

“Oh, and here, you should take this, both of you. I’m told you world travelers need these to return to familiar locations.” He handed out a yellow key to both of them.

“Thanks.” Darith said as he grabbed a key, Liana taking one as well.

Desert Gate Key Obtained:

Allows Travel to the Suutrin Desert Region

Suutrin Desert: 1-9 (Area)

Forgotten Sands: 10-19 (Area)

Fyu'jin Ruins: 20-29 (Area)

Forgotten Temple: 30-50 (Dungeon)

“The progression here seems much more normal... Why were the Frozen Caverns so different?” Darith wondered. “Let’s grab these quests.” Darith said and Liana nodded while playing with her sphere a bit, waving it around like a toy. They received a quest to collect scorpion meat and logs from the oasis to help rebuild the wagon and feed the caravan.

“Before we go, cast your heal spell a bit and try to improve it while the NPC is here to restore your mana. One heal every 30 minutes won’t help us much and I don’t have unlimited mana potions.” Darith said, and Liana nodded. She started casting Restore on herself while Darith went to his menu to his new spell, ignoring the staff that had identical stats to his current one.

Water Bolt - Rank 1

Shoot a bolt of water dealing WATER DAMAGE to the first target hit,

Damage: 12 + (1+50% of int(11))

Cost: 5mp

Cast: 1.9(-5% from items)

Command: Waterbolt (change)(?)

“Hm, with my gloves its a 1.9s cast, for only 5 mana. It does a lot less damage than Firebolt though. Easier to use I guess, so this place really is better for newer players.” Darith said.

“Let’s try it! Waterbolt!” Darith shouted, a blue circle appearing in front of him. After a 1.9s delay the circle vanished and a ball of water shot out into the desert until Darith waved it into the sand to create a damp spot on the ground.

“Not bad... I wonder...” Darith said, oblivious to all the new players watching him excitedly. “Firebolt!” He shouted, waiting a bit for the red circle to partially form. “Waterbolt!” He then called out, the blue circle appearing beside the red, then both casts completed at the same time. He directed the waterbolt and firebolts to collide with each other and the water surrounded the flame, shooting forward into the sand ahead.

Spell Created: Scald (?)

“Wow, it worked! Awesome!” Darith shouted excitedly as he opened his menu once more.

Scald(Custom) - Rank 1

Shoot forth a ball of scorching hot water to melt your foes. Chance to inflict the Scalded effect on hit.

Damage: 16 (5 + 50% of Int(11))

Mana Cost: 15

Cast: 5.8s (-5%)

Effect Chance: 10%

Scalded: Increases fire damage taken by 10% for 10 seconds. Does not work on non-organic enemies.

Command: Scald (Change)(?)

“Now that’s interesting... Long cast but a neat effect. I’ll have to use that for dangerous fights, hopefully the higher rank it gets the higher the scald chance is. For now I’ll keep working on Firebolt though.” Darith said, messing with his menu.

“Hey! I got new skills! And Restore went up a rank! I also got lots of more mana regeneration!” Liana said as she walked to him away from the NPC’s and crowd of new players.

“Really, that fast? What’d you get exactly?”

“I got healing mastery, it increases my spirit by 5% and the amount I heal targets by +1. Then I got orb mastery for my weapon, which is really cool. My orb does damage based on spirit, and the mastery increases my spirit by 1! Oh and my restore only costs 19 mana now, 4.9 cast time.” She said excitedly while navigating her menu.

“You’re a spirit based type then... You should start getting a lot of mana regeneration. What is your regeneration now?” Darith asked

“It’s at 3.0 a minute... Still not very good.” Liana sighed.

“It’s okay, first we should try and do these quests to get you more starter equipment. I got a ring that boosts my mana per minute by 5! You should also get more health and mana for leveling up.” Darith said.

“Okay, back to the Oasis then?” She asked, and Darith nodded. The two then left the side of the NPC’s to step back under the shade of the palm trees.

“Let’s split up the tasks. You try and find the logs, I’ll get the scorpions killed.” Darith said to her.

“Are you sure that’ll be okay?” Liana asked.

“It should, just grab enough for both of us. I’ll do some power leveling.” He grinned, glancing around and spotting several scorpions wandering around the oasis. They were bigger than he expected, the size of a large dog, level 2 with 20 health, their chitin a bright red so they could be spotted easy. He opened his skill menu to make a change to his multicast skill. Once satisfied he lifted his hand holding the staff in front of his face and made the coolest pose he could think, Liana not watching but instead scavenging the ground for logs.

“MultiFirebolt 5!” Darith shouted, getting Liana’s attention as 5 Firebolt circles appeared, and seconds later shot forward in different directions, each hitting a different scorpion and causing them to turn and run towards him. “MultiWaterbolt 5!” He shouted, and 5 blue circles formed in front of him, casting fast enough to kill the scorpions before they reached him.

“Wow! You just made me level up!” Liana said excitedly.

“Told you, power leveling! You pick up the items, I’ll do the killing.” Darith said.

“Okay!” She said excitedly, running towards the bodies of the scorpions as Darith spotted another, drank a mana potion and started his next cast.

The two continued to hunt in the Oasis long after their quests were marked as complete, Darith keeping his mana up by only using single casts and mana potions and Liana casting a heal every chance she got to try and skill it up. She also used her orb to attack scorpions a few times, shooting it like a ball that always came back, but she quickly learned its range wasn’t more than 10 meters.

The more Darith had her run around gathering the items that dropped the better her balance and walking got, earning her her first point in agility while she was at it.

After an hour had past the two finally decided to head back to turn in their quests, the Oasis was starting to get crowded and a lot of players were trying to kill the scorpions for their quest.

After turning in the quest Liana had reached level 4 and Darith reached level 6, but they got no new item rewards.

“Seems like we only get health, mana, and energy boosts every 2 levels.” Darith commented after leveling and not gaining more than a stat point. He had however gained another rank in Firebolt.

“I’m almost 5, so I should get more then, right?” Liana asked, sitting at 65 health and 40 mana now with 30 energy.

“Yup. Here, they have another quest.” Darith said as they spotted a new blue ball above the main NPC’s head.

“Thanks for the supplies, we’re only missing one last thing before we can get moving past this Oasis. When we got attacked by the sandworm it scared away one of our camels, it ran off into the Oasis somewhere on the north side. If you could find him for us we could get out of here.” The NPC asked, and they both accepted the quest.

“Now we’re camel hunting?” Liana asked.

“Yep! So, how are you liking it so far?” He asked.

“I feel so aliiiiive!” Liana cheered. “I never thought I’d ever be able to do something again, let alone live in a game world!” She cheered as she stretched her arms up to the sky. “It’s all because of you Darith!” She smiled, then leaned in and kissed him on the cheek suddenly. His face went bright red as he stumbled away.

“W-wh-what are you doing!?” He said shocked.

“It was just a thank you kiss.” She smiled innocently. “I wanted to give you one, since you’re always doing stuff with me.”

“Y-you can’t just kiss people!” He protested angrily, though his bright red face was saying something else completely, and he found himself unable to look at her.

“You’re really bad with girls, huh.” She shrugged, spun around in a circle then started walking towards the Oasis again, only to trip and fall head first into the sand once more. “Ow.”

“Pfff” Darith chuckled.

“Sure, laugh at the girl in the wheelchair.” She replied angrily, her face now red from embarrassment.

“You can’t use that line while we’re playing this game.” He replied, and she turned to give in an angry glare. “Okay sorry sorry, let’s go find that camel.” The two headed back in and used Darith’s map skills to explore the Oasis Jungle, making sure not to check the same area twice. The further they got into the jungle the fewer players they saw, and the scorpions started to go up in level. Anything Darith couldn’t kill in one hit would be attacked by Liana’s orb. Together they were able to kill anything before it could get close enough to attack.

It wasn’t long before they found themselves fighting level 7 and 8 monsters, and the experience they gained went up a lot, but so did their kill times. They gained several skill points and levels each, but it was an hour of walking before they finally spotted the Camel.

“He’s just sitting there, but this is really far into the Oasis.” Darith said as they approached the oblivious camel drinking from a small pool of water, standing in a large opening in the jungle. They took a few steps forward and the camel looked up at them. Seconds later a notification came up telling the quest was completed.

“Well, that was easy.” Liana shrugged. They watched as the Camel ran past them in the direction they had come.

“Hm, I was kind of expecting a boss type monster or something.” Darith shrugged, and as they turned to follow the camel they were surrounded by a blue dome that formed over the open area, Liana bonking her head into it and fell backwards.

“Ow, what is this blue wall?” She asked as she stood up.

“I’m guessing...” Darith began to reply as the ground beneath them rumbled, and moments later something began rising up out of the ground where the camel had been. As the sand and water poured off the creatures body it revealed a large black shelled scorpion.

Giant Scorpion (Boss)(Hostile) - Level 9

Health: 300/300

“A boss... It looks as strong as the spider queen even though its two levels higher.” Darith commented.

“Uhh, what are you talking about? That thing is huge!” Liana panicked as she shuffled back to her feet and tried hiding behind the tiny nemothyne.

“Let’s kill it” Darith shrugged. “You know the basics of being a healer?” Darith asked Liana.

“Hide in the back and just heal people?” She asked.

“Yup!” Darith smiled. He was now level 8, his health was 180 with 140 mana and his Firebolt at rank 8 hitting was for 32 damage. “Enchant!” Darith shouted, causing his weapon to glow red with fire, he then charged forward fearlessly at the Scorpion. It let out a loud screech at him and then swung one of its pincers towards him. He ducked under it then swung his staff at the scorpions head dealing 22 fire damage, fire exploding out of his staff on impact. The scorpion swung at him again though from the side and he wasn’t watching for it, taking a direct hit and losing 50 health.

“Wow, this thing really hurts! And it’s pretty fast!” Darith shouted as he tried to regain his balance.

“Restore!” Liana shouted, seconds later landing a heal on Darith for 19, putting his health back up to 149.

“Thanks! Firebolt!” Darith shouted, standing still to cast the spell as the scorpion turned to him and started running forward. With a less than 4s cast now he managed to finish it and then use dash backward to avoid the scorpions attack, dropping the scorpions health down to 246 health. He then charged forward again and hit the boss a few more times with his staff as Liana healed him for another 19 health.

“Good! It’s not so scary taking damage when you’ve got a healer.” Darith said to himself, but just then the scorpion spun around and hit Darith with its tail sending him flying off his feet into the blue wall that was locking them in the area, causing him to drop another 50 health.

“You have to be careful, I can’t heal very much yet! 2 more and I’m out of mana!” Liana called out to him. “Restore!”

“Got it!” Darith said as he stood back up, the pain from the attack fading after a second.

“MultiFirebolt 7!” Darith shouted, creating the circles in front of him as the scorpion started its charge again. All 7 hit the black monster at once dealing 112 damage and causing the boss to flinch, canceling its charge.

“There, I’m out of mana, I’ll help attack now!” Liana said, Darith now missing only 24 health thanks to her healing.

“He’s almost dead, but finish him quick, most bosses go crazy when they’re low health!” Darith said, and just as he did the scorpion began stomping its legs into the ground and lunging its tail’s stinger at Darith. Darith quickly dashed to avoid it as it crashed into the sand turning the ground green where it had hit. Darith noticed this and cautiously used Dash to get some distance.

“It’s using a poison attack, don’t get hit by the stinger.” Darith shouted.

“Don’t worry, it hasn’t even noticed me!” Liana replied as she threw her sphere at the boss hitting it for 15 damage, but as Darith remembered from his previous encounter, it only took one hit on an enraged monster to get its attention.

“Watch out!” Darith shouted as the scorpion turned its stinger towards Liana. She started backing away but her movement was too slow, her legs went shaky from fear as the large scorpion stomped towards her. Darith stayed calm and used his dash skill to get across the area, arriving just in time to push Liana out of the way so that the Scorpion sting hit Darith instead, dealing 100 damage and adding a status effect.

“Darith!” Liana screamed as his health dropped to 56.

“It only has about 80 health left, hit it fast!” He shouted, feeling a burning sensation under his skin.

“R-right!” She replied, shooting out her sphere as Darith swung his staff at the scorpion a few times while drinking an energy potion. The scorpion tried to sting Darith again, but before it could finish it’s attack it’s health hit 0.

Darith and Liana backed away as the Scorpion began screeching in pain and stampeding backward before collapsing flat on its stomach, its tail falling to the ground seconds later sending up a puff of sand.

Gained 300 Experience!

Congratulations, you’ve reached level 9!

You’ve gained:

+25 Health

+20 Mana

+10 Endurance

+1 Attribute point

Enchant has reached rank 3!

Staff Mastery has reached rank 4!

Your recent activities have increased your Constitution by 1!

“Nice! I leveled up!” Darith said excitedly, but noticed the status beside his health bar, and that his health was now green.

Scorpion’s Venom: Lose 10 Health a minute, immune to healing effects.

As he read it his health dropped to 46.

“Uh oh... I’ve got to get back to the Caravan fast, 4 minutes.” Darith said as he stood up.

“What is it?” Liana asked as she closed her menu, level 7 now with 105 health and 80 mana.

“I’ve got a poison, it’s draining 10 health a minute and it won’t let me get healed by anything...” Darith said, watching as the blue wall around the area started coming down.

“4 minutes? It took us almost an hour to walk here...” Liana said worriedly.

“I know, if I through the pain I can probably dash and sprint in time... Maybe.” Darith said, not sure himself, and the seconds the wall was taking to disappear seemed like hours.

“Well, normally in games, doesn’t the... Look!” Liana said, pointing at the vanishing corpse of the boss. Laying on the ground was a sack of gold and a book.

“What is it?” Darith asked as Liana quickly ran to the book.

“It’s a spell tome! It says it teaches a skill called remove poison!” Liana said as she picked it up.

“Oh, perfect! Can you learn it?” Darith asked her as he walked forward.

“Are you sure you don’t want to learn it?” She asked him.

“Of course not, you’re the healer. Quick, learn it and cast it on me!” Darith said and she nodded, using the item from her inventory to gain the skill.

“Remove Poison!” She shouted and a green circle formed in front of her. After 5 seconds it shot a light that pierced through Darith’s body, and the status effect was removed. His health turned back to red.

“Phew, that was really dangerous.” Darith let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry... You got hit because I am so slow.” Liana said while looking at her feet and kicking at the ground.

“It’s my fault, we walked into a boss and I didn’t take it seriously because of my last boss encounter.” Darith replied. “Besides, that stinger did 100 damage, if it hit you it would have instantly killed you.” Darith said.

“Sorry... I’m not a very good healer.”

“Nope, you’re a great healer! I only lived because you kept healing me, that extra 56 health you gave me kept me alive. Of course we’ve both got to level up a lot still though! We’ll just keep raising our stats until we’re the strongest people in this game! Okay?” Darith smiled at her.

“Okay... And what do we do after that?” She asked excitedly. Darith thought two things in that instant, that he wanted to save Aaron and that he wanted to beat the game. But as he thought this, he remembered the rules, that beating the game would end it for everyone. That would mean Liana as well.

“Well... We’ll help some people first.” Darith replied hesitantly.

“Like heroes?” She asked, and he nodded. “Cool!” She replied, cheerful once more. “And now I can cure people of poison, do you think it would work at the hospital? Or maybe my restore spell too?!”

“Remember you can’t let people know about the game or the city guards will get you.” Darith replied while picking up the sack of gold and putting it into his inventory.

“H-hey! We aren’t sharing the gold?” She asked as she watched the gold vanish into Darith’s inventory with sadness.

“Wha? But you took the book.” Darith shrugged.

“Only to save you!” Liana pouted.

“We don’t even know what to spend it on yet.” He said, the two heading back into the oasis now.

“So... I still want some.”

“You’re not going to be one of those loot hungry players are you?” Darith asked her with a raised brow.

“N-no...” The two walked back to the Caravan, taking only 20 minutes as they knew the direct path thanks to Darith’s map. As they went along they used spells to help other players, Darith helping kill monsters and Liana randomly healing them as much as their mana allowed, getting a lot of thanks and smiles, but it wasn’t completely selfless as their goal was to improve their skill ranks.

When they arrived back at the wagon it looked completely different. The wagon was repaired and the 2nd camel was already tied up to it with the first, the three NPC’s sitting on the back of it with their supplies.

“Great, you really saved us! I thought we’d die in this desert. We’re going to continue on our journey to the forgotten sands. If you feel you’re strong enough, you should join us. I’m sure we could use your help! Here, take this as a token of our gratitude.” The NPC said, handing them both a headband before turning the wagon and riding off around the Oasis.

Name: Cooling Headband of the Mind(Common)

Slot: Head

Type: Cloth

Armor: 1

Attributes: +2 Int

Special: Prevents damage from Overheat

Description: Linen headband given to those who travel the Suutrin Desert

“Hmm... What's overheat?” Darith said out loud.

“Mine says that too, Cooling Headband of Spirit, it gives me +2 Spirit! I’m getting a lot of spirit!” Liana said as she equipped the white headband. Darith did the same, both headbands were bright blue and went around their foreheads, Darith’s just under his big brown ears.

“I think I’ve decided, I’ll split my bonus points into mostly int and spirit. I don’t think I really need the other stats if I’m being a healer.” Liana said as she opened her character menu.

“I would save them, I think it’s harder to raise the stats by themselves later on...” Darith said.

“They’re burning a hole in my pocket!” She protested, ignoring his words and spending 3 points into her intelligence and 3 into spirit. With all her work so far she was now at 14 intelligence and 22 spirit, giving her 6 mana regeneration per minute, and her restore spell now costing 14 mana, meaning she could heal once every 3 minutes.

“Alright, shall we?” Darith said, motioning to the Caravan as it got further away.

“That’s a level 10 to 19 area right? The forgotten Sands?” Liana asked.

“Yup!” Darith said excitedly.

“You’re sure we’re strong enough for it?” She asked nervously.

“Of course!” He said confidently.

“Okay! I will keep you healthy while you kill everything fast.” She smiled and clenched her first.

“That’s the spirit! We’ve got about 2 hours left before mom is back from work, so let’s make it count!” Darith cheered.

“What do we do when she gets home?” Liana asked.

“Well, she’ll get suspicious if we’re not there, so...”

“I’ll have to go back to normal, right?” Liana frowned.

“We have to follow the rules, at least until we really understand the game.”

“Right...”

“It’s only for a bit, its the weekend now, so we can play all night after she goes to bed! And after that too! Don’t get so sad!” Darith said encouragingly, smiling at Liana, eventually getting her to smile back.

“Yeah, the weekend.”