“What the heck are they doing?” A tall female Lizardfolk asked as she walked through the Suutrin Oasis, approaching a small group of people who had gathered. The group was watching the pair Darith and Liana as they did pushups while allowing a turtle to snap at their feet. Liana was casting healing on both of them repeatedly, while Darith was constantly shooting firebolts into the sky.

“I think they’re trying to level up or something.” A Nemothyne commented.

“Do you guys need help? I can kill the turtle for you…” The lizardfolk asked shyly.

“We’re okay, thanks!” Liana replied. It was late Sunday evening, the two had spent the entire weekend doing physical activity and casting their spells to level them up. “9 997. 9998. 9 999. 10 000. Finally! Another point in strength!” Liana cheered as she stood up excitedly, her stamina getting close to zero now, as was her mana.

“How much experience does it need for the next point?” Darith asked as he stopped as well, the two ignoring the turtles still, much to everyone’s amazement. They began walking back towards the NPCs at the wagon with the turtles nipping at them.

“75 000…” Liana sighed.

“Same as me. Push ups only give 1 strength training experience point… it’s not worth it to keep doing them. We stopped getting constitution, agility and endurance experience as well. I think we reached the limit of what we can do at this level.” Darith commented.

“How about your skills? I can’t get my Restore skill to go up much anymore…”

“Well, from hitting the trees I could get staff mastery to 26, but it stopped getting experience. Firebolt and Multicast went up to 99, I think that is thanks to the experience bonus I get for spells as a Nemothyne, but they won’t go up further, I think it's the max.” Darith shrugged.

“That’s pretty good though right?” Laina asked as the turtles gave up chasing and the crowd stopped watching them.

“I think so… I don’t know if it’s enough, but we should be okay going to level 10 soon. I got Firebolt down to 1 mana and 0.5 second cast, and Spell Mastery went up to 51 but it also stopped getting experience from Firebolt. Look!” Darith said as he started casting Firebolts all over the sky around them while moving, looking like Fireworks.

“For some reason I still can’t move when I cast Restore…” Liana frowned.

“I can do it because of Spell Mastery, do you have some sort of mastery for your Restore spell?”

“No, just Sphere mastery… I got it to 52 and it stopped like yours.” Liana said as she went into her menu and clicked around. “It says it helps me regulate my mana for healing spells, and increases damage with spheres, and improves my mana regeneration by a lot.”

“That’s different then Spell Mastery… that’s more like my Staff Mastery. They’re both weapons I guess, it’s weird you didn’t get something like Healing Mastery too.” Darith commented. The two arrived at the NPCs and got quick taps on their foreheads to have their stats fully restored, looking at the new players still flooding into the area.

“So what do we do now? We have to go above level 9 to get stronger right? Do you think we’re ready?” Liana asked as she looked to Darith.

“First let’s see if we can make some new spells using our upgraded ranks. I’m going to try some stuff out.” Darith commented.

“Okay, I’ll try some too.” Liana clenched her fist excitedly. The two walked a good distance away from the caravan to stand on top of a sand dune and looked up to the sky.

“My firebolt cast is 0.5s, while moving even, and it only costs 1 mana. Because of the training I have 285 mana, but also my mana regen is at 131 a minute… that means if I cast Firebolt constantly, I won’t run out of mana unless I cast something else.” Darith said to himself.

“So you could make something like a machine gun?” Liana asked.

“Y-yeah… Multicast doesn’t increase the cost anymore, just reduces the damage by 5% at rank 99. So let’s try this.” Darith fiddled around in his menu. He tinkered his cast command with Firebolt for a bit, then held out his hand.

“Chain Fire!” He shouted, and it began. Firebolt after Firebolt started casting, shooting outward up towards the sky from circles forming and disappearing in front of him every 0.5 seconds. “Hah, it works!”

Skill Created: Chain Fire (?)

Chain Fire - (Custom)

Cast a Firebolt once per second from in front of you at a target of your choice.

Damage: (Firebolt + Multicast)

Cost: (Firebolt + Multicast)

Cast Time: (Firebolt)

Command: Chain Fire (change)(?)

“It’s based off of Firebolt… so it won’t get any stronger, it’s just a different way to cast.

“That’s so cool! Let me try something too… I was getting a weird feeling when I practiced the Mind Body Spirit skill.” Liana said. “Don’t move, okay?” She asked, and he cancelled the Chain Fire, turning to face her.

“What are you doing?” Darith asked curiously.

“Shh, I need to focus.” Liana replied. Darith nodded and went quiet, though she couldn’t see him nod with her eyes closed.

Seconds went by, then minutes, Darith started to get impatient, tapping his tiny feet in the sand, until suddenly a puff of blue and yellow energy shot out of Liana at him.

“I did it!” Liana cheered. Darith saw a quick message saying he had gained +100 mana and +100 energy.

Skill Created: Concentrate(?)

Skill Created: Energize(?)

Concentrate - No Ranks

Transfer your mana to a nearby friendly target that you can see. Cannot be used when mana is below 100.

Effect: Grant 100mp to a Friendly Target

Cost: 100mp

Cast Time: 3s

Command: Concentrate (change)(?)

Energize - No Ranks

Transfer your energy to a nearby friendly target that you can see. Cannot be used when energy is below 100.

Effect: Grant 100energy to a Friendly Target

Cost: 100energy

Cast Time: 3s

Command: Energize (change)(?)

“Wha- how’d you do that?” Darith asked in amazement.

“I could visualize them, and then give them to you. Look!” She pointed at her own mana and energy to show that they had gone down by 100.

“You gave me your mana and energy?” He asked in disbelief.

“Yup. Now I can heal all your stuff, not just health!”

“But that’ll put you at risk if you drop your resources too low.” Darith commented.

“That’s ok, I can be careful with it. This way you can do more fancy stuff when I don’t need to heal much, since I can’t really do much damage compared to you.” Liana shrugged.

“Alright… in that case, I’ve got another spell idea.” Darith grinned, then tinkered in his menu once more with Firebolt. “Okay, got it. See that tree over there?” He said, pointing at a lone palm tree growing away from the Oasis. Liana nodded.

“Stand back a bit…” He said, then dug his heels in and held his hand out. “Fire Storm!” He shouted with enthusiasm. In an instant Darith’s mana hit 0, and in all directions around the palm tree, firebolt circles formed. He was able to cast 285 firebolts at once, and at rank 99 they were dealing 99 damage plus his intelligence, which he’d gotten to 53. Reduced by 5% from multicast, each firebolt did 144 fire damage. In total, he watched as a huge 41, 040 damage number popped up on his screen, the tree was obliterated and the spell left a small crater where it stood, with a huge flash of red light. Several other players ran over to see what the light was.

Skill Created: Fire Storm(?)

Fire Storm - (Custom)

Consume all available mana, casting as many Firebolts as possible at locations surrounding the target.

Damage: (Firebolt) + (Multicast) + Max MP

Cost: All MP

Cast Time: (Firebolt)

Command: Fire Storm (change)(?)

“What the hell was that!”

“Did you just blow that up?”

“Holy cow did you guys see that?” Various onlookers commented.

“How the heck did you cast a spell like that?” A small female Nemothyne asked eagerly, looking to Darith.

“Practice!” Darith gave a thumbs up, repeating what Mayiera had said to him.

“I can do something like that too!” Liana joined in, turning to Darith. She quickly combined all of her mana into multiple restores using Multicast and used them all at the same time. With her mana of 225 now and restore costing 10 mana, she was able to cast 22 Restores at once, each healing for 43 from the rank of her restore spell plus 36 from her spirit, minus 5% from multicast, which equaled to 76. In total, after the 3 second cast, Darith was healed for 1672 health.

“Dang that wass like 5 times my health. I don’t think you’ll need to use that one for a long time.” Darith commented. “What’s more impressive is your mana regeneration, you get it back full in less than a minute.” Darith said.

“Yup! It’s because I got lots of spirit from Mind, Body, Spirit, and lots of regen from Sphere Mastery.”

“In that case you could help me cast that Firestorm more often! Hey, we’re actually kind of strong! The only problem is I don’t know how to get stronger… why was Firebolt and Multicast so easy to hit max, while the others stopped getting experience almost completely? This game really needs a user manual.” Darith sighed. They began walking back towards the NPC again, several other players ogled and talked about them but they had gotten used to it at this point.

“I think we’re strong enough to go save your friend in the ice now.” Liana said.

“What? That monster that froze them had to have been at least level 60!” Darith replied.

“Well, you said you were dodging him at level 5, as long as he doesn’t hit us we should be okay right? Wouldn’t it be more risky to do it when other players can attack us?” Liana asked.

“Y-yeah, that’s true… but it’s risky either way. What if we get hit and lose? I don’t want to risk having you taken out of the game.” Darith replied.

“I’ve been watching you… you’ve been thinking about it all weekend, right? Worrying? I wonder what would happen to Kristen if me and you disappeared suddenly like that. Imagine all the families of those people you said were frozen there. We should go and save them now.” Liana said confidently. Darith watched her expression and saw her determination. “Besides, look at our stats, we’re really strong, even though we can’t get stronger right now!” She exclaimed.

He briefly looked over his character sheet and eventually gave her a nod.

“Okay, but if I get hit and game over’d, you run away and just keep playing without me, okay?” Darith said to her in a serious expression.

“Psh relax, it’s just a normal level 60 enemy. That won’t happen!” Liana cheered excitedly.

“Don’t go in so confident, that’s how bad things happen.” Darith sighed. The two arrived back at the NPC and got their full restores. “Alright… let’s go save those people.” Darith hesitated for a moment. In a normal game, kiting high level monsters was possible, and he already knew it was possible to outrun the Ice Wraith - it should theoretically be possible for them to win. But the game just felt too real, he wasn’t completely sure. Either way, his desire to save the people won him over.

“Gate, Frost Key!” He called out. Liana watched as the icy gate formed in the desert over the course of 10 seconds. “Be ready, it’s really frickin’ cold.” Darith said as the gate finished forming.

“Good, I’m so tired of this heat!” Liana replied excitedly. Once they stepped through, the gate closed behind them and they felt the chill of the caverns, white misty breath forming in front of their mouths. “Okay, which way to the Ice Wraith?” Liana replied.

“First, I want to check something.” Darith said as he turned from the familiar fork in the Cavern to walk back to Mayiera. “When we found the ruins we completed a quest.” He walked forward, turning the corner to see Mayiera sitting there with the complete quest icon above her head.

“You found it?” Mayiera said excitedly as she stood up and ran to him. “You really found the ruins? Wow, incredible! I was starting to think they didn’t exist! So what did you see?” Mayiera asked excitedly. Darith didn’t reply at first, he was waiting for a quest turn in to pop up, while Liana was staring at her curiously. “Come on, tell me!” She asked again.

“Uhm... I saw giant Frozen Gates, heavy winds blowing from within them in a large open cavern. Two big statues of weird looking creatures that looked a bit like Gnarks.” Darith replied.

“Hmm hmm, a lot of theories about the Gnarks. Some people think they are descendants of the Coldrinn. I need to see it for myself though! Do you think you could escort me to the ruins?” She asked excitedly.

“Sure.” Darith shrugged, not sure how to interact with this NPC.

“Great! Oh, here, a reward for finding it for the world traveler.” She reached into a pocket and pulled out an amulet, handing it to Darith. Simultaneously he got a message saying he gained 300 experience for completing the quest, just 100 shy of leveling him to 10 now.

Name: Locket of Warmth (Common)

Slot: Accessory

Type: Necklace

Special: Immune to Freezing Wind of the Core

Description: Copper pendant with enchanted Lapiz Lazuli stone.

“And one for your party member as well!” She smiled, handing the exact same necklace to Liana.

“Oh, thank you!” Liana smiled as she put it on.

“It seems like some quests we complete count for each other as a group.” Darith shrugged.

Name: Mayiera(Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Bring Mayiera to the entrance of the Coldrinn Ruins

Objective: 0/1 Mayiera Escorted

Reward: Unknown

Accept Decline

“Accept.” Darith said as he pressed the button.

“Great! Lead the way, World Traveler!” She smiled

Info: Mayiera is now following you.

“An escort quest huh? I wonder how she’ll interact with enemies.” Darith said.

“Maybe she’s really good at fighting?” Liana asked.

“Or maybe she can’t fight at all.” Darith replied.

“Hey, just because you are world travelers doesn’t mean it’s okay to talk like I’m not here!” Mayiera replied grumpily, causing both Liana and Darith to look at her, then each other.

“Sorry.” He said, leading the way forward.

“It’s okay. I guess I should be happy, I heard some world travelers treat us Avistion’s like we’re not even living things. Stealing from us, killing us, kidnapping, even worse things than that!” She replied.

“What do you know about us? The World Travelers?” Liana asked.

“Well, you guys can look like any of the races from our world, and use very strange magic. You also get a lot stronger than any of us Avistion’s could ever hope to get.” Mayiera shrugged.

“Why did you give me the staff? And the necklace? Because I did what you asked?” Darith questioned.

“Well, it’s normal to reward the world travelers for helping you.” Mayiera shrugged.

“So you just carry rewards around with you wherever you go?” Darith asked.

“No, that’d be insane! I use a spell we Avistions are all taught that helps us grant you rewards. We usually can’t choose what we give you, the spell does it for us.” She replied.

“I see... Hm.” Darith shrugged.

“She doesn’t seem like an NPC.” Liana whispered.

“What’s an NPC?” Mayiera butted her head forward between Liana and Darith.

“It’s nothing... Something from our world.” Darith replied.

“Oh, I see.” She replied obliviously.

“So why did you want to go to the Coldrinn Ruins again?” Darith asked.

“It’s a bit hard to explain...”

“We’ve got time.” He replied.

“Well, it’s said that finding the 6 cores will return our world to the way it was before the Realm Breaking incident. Most people don’t believe it though, they just accept the world for the way it is now, Broken.” Mayiera replied. “No one really knows if the cores exist, but I’ve spent my life looking for them and all the rumors led me here, to the Frozen Core.” Mayeria replied.

“You just said a whole lot of stuff I didn’t understand... Realm Breaking Incident? 6 Cores?” Darith asked curiously.

“Wow you must be brand new to our world!” Mayiera mocked.

“We are.” Liana boasted.

“Well, it all started from the Realm Breaking Incident, or at least that’s all we know. Something happened in our World that tore it apart and made everyone lose their memories. We basically all woke up and the world was like this. We only know what it used to be like because of history books and libraries left behind. Lands were ripped apart and almost all the cities were destroyed, so everyone still alive headed to the last standing city, Avistion.”

“Hmm... So that sounds like how the Broken Realm was created. Every NP- every character in this world started from that point.” Darith said, then leaned in to Liana. “It sounds like what she’s describing is when this game’s servers first went online, they don’t realize they are NPC’s.” He whispered into Liana’s ear, and Liana nodded.

“The World Travelers started showing up not long after that, and so our leader taught us a way to use their strengths. He said they could help us with our problems, to help fix our Broken Realm, we only had to reward them using the spell.” She shrugged.

“I see. So these 6 cores, you think that if you find them you can return the realm to the way it once was, before you all lost your memories?” Darith asked.

“Yup! And thanks to you, we may have finally found the first core!” Mayiera said excitedly.

“What are the other cores, where are they?” Darith asked.

“I’m not sure... It’s hard for us to travel to different lands of our world because of the tears, we usually have to ask you world travelers to travel to different places. Since I’m suck in the Coldrinn Region, I only focused on searching here for a core, because travelling over the tears is dangerous. You’ll have to ask for help from Avistions in the other areas to find their cores... If there’s even cores there. It all seems really hopeless, doesn’t it?” Mayiera sighed with sadness.

“No, it just sounds like this will be a hard game to beat.” Darith shrugged.

“Game to beat?” Mayiera replied sounding offended.

“Well, I mean... to fix the Broken Realm, we’ll have to travel to all the different lands and find the 6 cores, and this core alone seems to be guarded by really strong monsters.” Darith replied.

“Right... well, if the core really is here I can tell the people of Avistion and I’m sure they’ll get all their hope back and start looking for the rest!” Mayiera replied.

“Is Avistion in the Coldrinn Region?” Liana asked.

“N-no, I used a Grendal to get here from Avistion... But it was killed by the creatures of the tears, so I’m stuck here.”

“What’s a Grendal, and a creature of the tear?” Darith asked.

“Jeez you really don’t know anything! Those things you’ll have to see for yourself.” Mayiera shrugged in response.

“Got it. I think I’ve figured out most of what’s going on.” Darith said, turning to Liana. “The Broken Realm is like an MMO world, but traveling between the area’s seems to be difficult because of these ‘tears’. So we have to use the doors to find each region and dungeon until we can collect the cores and restore the world, then everything will be finished.”

“Got it, but are we going to start going for them? If we...” Liana paused to glance at Mayiera. “Finish the Broken Realm, then it will be over for all World Travelers, right?” she asked.

“Right... For now let’s focus on what we came here to do.” Darith said, looking down the final tunnel leading to the Coldrinn ruins. He could already feel the Icy winds blowing up at them.

“Okay.” Liana nodded back to him.

“It’s just ahead here.” He said to Mayeria, then walked forward against the wind gently blowing at them.

They followed Darith on as he lead them down the steep tunnel, the winds getting heavier and colder as they continued. As they got closer to the entrance of the ruins Darith had a clear image in his head of the Ice Wraith, remembering how it Froze Aaron and threw around its heavy white fists. When they reached the cavern the three of them stepped out onto the high ledge overlooking the Coldrinn Ruin Gates.

“Wow.” Liana said in amazement.

“Unbelievable, I can’t believe it at all! It’s really here, the ancient ruins! So deep under the ice! You found it!” Mayiera cheered excitedly.

Name: Mayiera(Neutral) - Level: ??

Quest: Bring Mayiera to the entrance of the Coldrinn Ruins

Objective: 1/1 Mayiera Escorted

Reward: 50 experience

A message popped up for Liana and Darith, this was edging them extremely close to hitting level 10 now.

“I’ve got a pretty ominous feeling from these ruins though, I don’t know if I should ask you World Traveler’s to head in there just yet. You should try and travel around and get a bit stronger first.” Mayiera said to them.

“Right, we’re too low level for your next quest. We’re not here to do quests anyway.” Darith said as he walked towards the stairs.

“Wait one second. Mind, Body, Spirit!” Liana said, channeling a spell for a few seconds until she gained a status effect. “Okay, ready.” She said, following behind Darith as they began descending down the icy staircase. Darith wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or his nerves, but he began to shiver slightly as they got closer to the bottom, if it wasn’t for his Gamer’s Mind skill, he knew he’d definitely be afraid.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at the broken part of the stairs where the Ice Wraith had punched trying to kill Darith, but the Ice Wraith was nowhere in sight.

“We’ll have to jump here.” He said, and the two made a big hop down from the final stair to the ground of the Cavern where they got the status effect from the Icy Winds of the Frozen core. Thanks to their new necklaces though, it wasn’t dealing any damage.

“Remember, if it's going badly, make sure you run away, use return or something, okay?” Darith said, and Liana nodded while looking to the center of the large flat cavern.

“Is that them?” Liana asked as they looked ahead to the Frozen Players in front of the gate.

“Yeah, that’s them.” Darith replied, tightening his grip on his staff.

“Where’s the Ice Wraith?” She asked as she glanced around.

“It’ll come out when I get close. You stay back and focus on healing me and keeping my mana and energy up, and I’ll deal the damage, okay?” Darith said and Liana nodded. “Here goes nothing.” After a short pause he began slowly walking forward into the howling winds of the cavern. It seemed all too familiar, like he had just left the place, despite it being several days ago.

As he got closer he got a more clear view of Aaron’s health bar, still the level he was at before, still full HP, still blue skinned with wide eyes. He stepped right up to the block of ice.

“I’m back, I’m here to get you out.” Darith said as he put his hand on the block of ice, then saw a shadow appear beneath his feet. “And I’m here to kill you.” He said angrily, then dashed to the side as a beam of ice shot at where he was standing. Looking up he saw it, the same Ice Wraith that had attacked him before. The same one that froze his friend, and forced him to run for his life.

“Chain Fire!” Darith shouted to begin the barrage of Firebolts. Though he was generating 60 energy a minute now, it wasn’t enough to outlast constant sprinting and dashes, so he had to reserve using them only when he needed to dodge. This time around, instead of puffs of smoke, he saw that his firebolts were dealing damage. It was less than expected, hitting between 90 and 110 against the high level ice based monster, but it was working.

The Ice Wraith reacted to his attacks by turning to him and swinging it’s fists down at Darith wildly, slamming its white knuckles into the earth of the cavern to send chunks of ice and rock upward, but Darith used Dash quickly get out of the path of the Ice Wraith. His mana was not going down very much so he was able to use this last second dash tactic for a good 2 minutes before his energy was getting dangerously low.

“Energize!” Liana shouted from across the cavern, a yellow circle appearing in front of her. After a short delay her circle shot a yellow beam of light at Darith that restored 100 Energy to his bar.

“Thanks! If this is all he’s going to do, then we should be able to get this guy! It might take awhile though, he’s resisting a lot of damage. He’s high level but he’s just a normal monster, nothing special!” Darith shouted confidently. As if he heard Darith speak, the Ice Wraith suddenly stopped trying to punch Darith and a huge blue circle appeared on the ground beneath it. The blue circle began expanding outward as Darith stopped moving and Liana took a few steps back, the circle slowly overtaking the entire Cavern’s floor. “I think I might have spoken too soon...”

“What’s it doing? What’s it casting?” Liana asked worriedly.

“I’ve no clue, be ready to dodge!” Darith shouted. It didn’t take long before the circle finished forming beneath their feet and the Ice Wraith let out a horrific screech. Starting from beneath the Wraith came huge sharp icicles erupting from the ground, the icicles began growing outward to cover the entire room, making a horrific crunching sound as they did.

“It’s coming in a wave, time your dash forward to avoid the Icicles!” Darith called out to Liana and she nodded back at him. Darith waited patiently for the wave of Icicles to shoot up from the ground in front of him, then dashed forward into them just in time to avoid getting hit by the next wave as it shot up where he had been standing, and it continued to grow outward from the wraith to cover the room. Liana did the same so that they both avoided damage.

“Great job!” Darith cheered.

“No problem!”

“That’s amazing, if spells like that are possible from a monster, I wonder what I can do.” Darith said in disbelief as he glanced behind him to see the icicles continue to shoot up and overtake the entire floor of the room.

“Focus!” Liana shouted at him.

“Right.” He nodded back as the cast finished, causing the icicles to dissipate and the ground return to normal. “Let’s see if I can do enough damage to end it with the big spell.” He said excitedly as he glanced at his mana to see it sitting at full still. He spread his legs out into a horse stance and slammed the base of his staff into the ground in front of him.

“Fire Storm!” Darith shouted, and the entire room suddenly filled with red circles on all sides of the Ice Wraith, changing the light of the cavern from icy blue to burning red. Liana watched as Darith’s mana pool drop from 285 to 0. A few seconds later, the massive amount of firebolts crashed into the Ice Wraith creating an explosion of mist and flames. He saw the damage number, it dealt only 19 869 fire damage, less than half of that it did to the palm tree. As he anticipated, once the smoke cleared, the Wraith remained and it rushed it’s frozen white fists forward at Darith forcing him to dash away.

“How much health do you think that thing has?” Liana said in disbelief.

“It’s lowest possible level is 60, if you take into consideration that my Firebolts are hitting for 100, it’ll take probably take about 5 of those Firestorms before it’ll even get close to dying.” Darith replied as he began dashing and sprinting once more.

“If that's the case, we’ll definitely die if he hits us even once!” Liana said.

“Yup. That's why I said it, If I go down, run away, okay?” Darith shouted back at her. “Chain Fire!” Darith began streaming out his fire bolts once more.

“Concentrate!” Liana shouted, shooting the beam of blue energy at Darith to help restore his mana more quickly.

The battle continued with the Ice Wraith for over 20 minutes. During this time he attempted to cast his large ground ice spell as well as tried sending Icicles out at Darith in bunches of three, but by managing their energy and Liana sharing her resources with Darith, they were both able to keep dodging his attacks, getting very comfortable with his attack patterns after the first few minutes.

Whenever Darith got full mana he shot off another Firestorm, and every Firestorm that hit the Ice Wraith left them hopeful that it would end up dead, but every time the flames faded and they saw it still swinging its white fists they did not get discouraged, they instead prepared themselves for their next barrage.

Close to what Darith predicted, it wasn’t until the 8th Firestorm that the Ice Wraith let out an abnormal screech, different from its usual. As the light faded from Darith’s firebolts they watched the Ice Wraith fall to the ground of the Ice Cavern, its white skin breaking on the icy floor as if it were snow, the only part of the Ice Wraith that kept its form was its silver shoulder pads, and in front of them dropped a glowing white item.

You gained 36 453 experience.

Congratulations, you’ve reached level 21!

You’ve gained 175 Health

You’ve gained 140 Mana

You’ve gained 70 Energy

You’ve gained 12 Bonus Attribute points.

You’ve unlocked the ability to form a guild!

You’ve unlocked the ability to fight other players!

Rank Up!: Spell mastery reached rank 52!

Rank Up!: Dash reached rank 16

Rank Up!: Sprint reached rank 11

Darith’s message said. He was shocked by how many levels they had gained. He turned to Liana with his jaw dropped and saw a 21 above her head as well, and she looked back at him equally stunned.

“Maybe we should just kill these for training from now on.” Darith spoke.

“No thanks. So what did it drop?” Liana asked as they both walked forward to the glowing item in front of it’s shoulders, spotting a large glowing golden book. “What is that thing?” She asked as they both used their game interface to analyze it.

Name: Tome of Time Warp (Legendary)

Type: Spellbook

Teaches: Time Warp Rank 1

Description: A Legendary spell tome awarded to the first players that defeat a monster 50 levels or more above their own. One of the 1000 hidden spell tomes in The Broken Realm obtainable through various hidden challenges. This unique spell can only be learned once, by a single player. If the player is removed from the game, the Tome will be obtainable once more, but the method of obtaining it will become more difficult.

“Incredible, so this is like a super ultra secret spell?” Darith said excitedly. “If we learn this then no one else can learn it, unless they beat us and then copy what we just did!” Darith squeaked like a kid on Christmas.

“What does the spell do?”

“Let’s see!” Darith said as they looked to read the details

Time Warp - Rank 1

Creates an artificial zone in which time is slowed for all non-living things that attempt to pass through it.

Effect: Time slowed by 1/100 (1s = 0.01s)

Cost: 150mp

Cast Time: Instant

Duration: 15s

Radius: 2m

Command: Time Warp (change)(?)

“Hmm, I don’t get it.” Liana said while scratching her head.

“It slows anything that isn’t a player or NPC, like my firebolts for example... this is an incredibly powerful spell!” Darith said excitedly.

“It doesn’t do a lot of damage or anything like that though, right?” Liana said with disappointment.

“No, but this is much better than that, if it’s used correctly... But that mana cost is hefty, and it’s more of a support skill... I think you should take it.” Darith said to her.

“Are you sure? I don’t really think I’d use it.” Liana replied.

“Oh you’ll definitely use it! We can do some really cool combinations with that.” Darith said excitedly as he started to tap his fingers together.

“Alright, if you say so.” Liana shrugged, picking up the golden book. Darith watched as the book dissipated and a bright golden glow swirled around Liana, until finally it gave her the message that she had learned Time Warp.

“Try it, try casting it!” Darith said excitedly, while Liana was visibly unenthusiastic about the spell.

“Time Warp!” She called out, her mana taking a huge hit as a purple dome appeared around them. The snow that was blowing in the wind around them began to slow to a near stop as it went into the dome, while everything outside the dome continued to blow around in the wind at normal speed. “Wow.” Liana said in sudden amazement, moving her hands through the snow flakes in the air that were nearly motionless while inside the dome.

“See? Look!” Darith said then raising his staff. “Firebolt!” He shouted, and as he fired the bolt, it froze outside it’s red circle, traveling incredibly slow through the dome. “Now try canceling it.” Darith said. Liana opened her menu to her spell commands to check the command on Time Warp to end the effect.

“Right, End Warp!” She shouted, and in an instant the dome vanished, the snow that collected in the dome suddenly blew into their faces all at once and Darith’s firebolt shot out across the cavern. “Okay, I’ll start practicing that one.” Liana grinned.

“Great, now the real problem.” Darith said, he turned and ran towards the players frozen in ice, Liana following after him.

“Can we just use your Firebolt?” Liana suggested.

“I hope so... Firebolt!” Darith shouted, and they both watched as the bolt hit the block of ice and dissipated, doing nothing. “Didn’t think so.” He sighed.

“We’ll need to make a new spell, something that can melt ice...” Liana said as she put her right index finger to her chin. Just then a light bulb seemed to flick on in Darith’s head.

“Scald!” He shouted, and after a few seconds his ball of boiling hot water shot at the block of ice. A tiny portion of the scalding hot water melted a bit of the ice down, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Multi Scald 10!” Darith shouted as Liana stepped back, 10 Scald circles formed around Aaron’s block of ice and hit it from all sides. It was working, but slowly, and Scald was draining Darith’s mana much faster than Firebolt because of its lower rank.

“Concentrate!” Liana shouted to help boost his mana back up.

“Multi Scald 20!” Darith shouted, this time 20 balls of boiling water shot at Aaron’s block of ice and melted the top half of it completely, down to his shoulders.

As this happened 2 things changed about Aaron. His status changed to Half Frozen, and his health began to drop rapidly.

“Ah, Liana, heal him fast!” Darith shouted, but she was already on it.

“Restore!” She chanted, and within 3 seconds his health went full, but began dropping again. “Restore! Get him out fast, Darith.” Liana said.

“Multi Scald, 20!” Darith shouted, aiming at the remaining ice left behind around his body, draining the last of his mana. His health continue to drop then go back to full as Liana continuously healed him, and Darith watched as his skin started to regain its color and his status effect faded, until finally he let out a loud gasp of air in his high pitched female elven voice, falling to his knees.

Skill Gained: Melt Ice (?)

Melt Ice - Rank 1

Removes the Frozen Status Effect

Effect: Removes Frozen Status

Cost: 150mp

Cast Time: 5s

Command: Melt Ice (change)(?)

“Aaron , can you hear me?” Darith asked as he dropped to his knees beside the archer.

“Ugh, aheh, yeah...” Aaron said as his lungs cleared and heat returned to his body, his health stabilizing. “What the heck happened? The last thing I re- Whoa! Why are you suddenly level 21?” Aaron said as he spotted Darith’s health bar.

“You got frozen by a level 60 monster, but we beat it and got you out.” Darith replied.

“A what? A level 60 monster? Oh that's right, my wife! She’s here, there! Belle!” Aaron shouted as he stood up and turned towards his Wife. “You got me out, right? You can get her out too?” Aaron asked anxiously.

“Let’s try this new spell. Melt Ice!” Darith shouted and a dark red circle began to form above the block of ice with Belle frozen inside. After a 5 second delay a wave of heat and steam came down from Darith’s spell circle and turned the block of ice around Belle into water. She instantly fell to her knees and let out a loud gasp of air.

“That was a lot better, no need for my healing.” Liana commented as they watched Aaron throw his arms around his wife.

“Belle, are you alright?” He asked her as she coughed for air.

“Y-yeah... What happened?” She said while putting her hands to her head, her voice deep and manly to match her male elf body.

“You can explain, I’ll go free everyone else.” Darith said with a big satisfied grin, Liana nodding back to him. By the time Darith had run around the windy cold cavern there were over 20 players gathered around Liana, listening to her explanation on what had happened to them.

“If that date is correct, I’ve been frozen here for three weeks. I’ve got to get back to my family! I’ll never forget this though, Darith and Liana, right?” One lizardfolk man asked them, looking to his two rescuers. Darith and Liana both nodded. “I owe you guys one. If you ever need help, the Friendly Fox guild will be there. Return!” He shouted, surrounding himself in white light before disappearing. Several others expressed thanks and disappeared until all were gone but Belle and Aaron.

“You leveled up pretty quick from the last I saw you, it feels like it happened in just a few seconds... You were around my level, and then bam! 21!” Aaron said in his female elf voice.

“We did some heavy training.” Darith replied, looking at Belle briefly. She was also an elf, but in a males body with short blonde curly hair and holding a wooden harp in her hand.

“I’m Belle, thanks for helping my husband and saving me.” She smiled, her boyish voice throwing Darith off a bit as she reached her hand out to shake Darith’s, who happily obliged.

“That’s a harp, right? Is that a weapon from the game?” Darith asked excitedly.

“Yup! I figured I’d try a bard-type class since I’m a musician outside of the game.” He shrugged as he held out the Harp for Darith and Liana to see.

“What kind of stuff can you do with a harp?” Darith asked.

“Eh, typical bard type spells. It started with restore, but I managed to learn an inspire spell.” She said, then plucked a few strings to make a gentle melody, and as she did a small green spell circle appeared over the harp strings, Moments later tiny glowing green music notes began to float around Darith and he saw a small green 19 number appear in front of him.

“Typical bard type spells, huh? You sound like you know a few games with bards in them.” Darith commented as he watched the music notes fade.

“Yep. Let’s just say my music career leaves me with a lot of time for playing games.” Belle replied with a displeased expression.

“Just waiting for the perfect opportunity for it to take off.” Aaron replied supportively.

“Right.” She replied to him with raised eyebrows.

“Well, playing this harp in the game will probably give you some new great ideas.” He shrugged back.

“When’s the last time you’ve heard a popular song with a harp in it?” She replied.

“Maybe you can make it popular, make it like, your own style.”

“The second I can find a different bard type weapon, I’m swapping it out.” She sighed back to him. Liana just watched them bicker with a nervous smile, while Darith seemed to be waiting for an opening to ask something.

“I was wondering if I could ask you something Aaron.” He finally spoke up, drawing Aaron and Belle’s attention back to the two.

“Y-yeah, sure, what is it?” Aaron asked.

“I was wondering if you could tell us how you got that analyze skill in detail, so we can try and get it too.” Darith asked.

“Wha, you learned a skill in this game, all by yourself?” Belle replied surprised.

“I’ll have you know that not only did I learn a skill, but me and Darith defeated a boss!” Aaron replied proudly.

“Whoa, really? Must’ve been hard to carry this noob.” Belle replied to Darith sarcastically.

“Hehe.” Darith smiled at her. “Your lingo is kind of refreshing, you seem to know a lot about MMO’s.” Darith commented.

“Makes it more embarrassing that I got stuck in ice like this, Guess me’n Aaron will have to do some power training too! Go on and teach him your analyze skill.” Belle bumped him forward.

“Well, I would but, I don’t know how.” Aaron said.

“It’s easy. Click on their names floating above their heads with both of your index fingers at the same time and click the teach option.” Belle said nonchalantly.

“Whoa, you can do something like that in this game?” Darith asked.

“Yup! Try it! There’s a couple of options available. You can only teach some basic skills though, not all of them, and not spells.” Belle replied. Darith and Liana both did it A small menu did appear that listed several options.

Liana - Level 21

Invite to Party

Duel

Inspect

Teach

Trade

“Huh, would you look at that.” Aaron said as he did the motion. “So I probably want the teach menu, right?” Aaron asked as he clicked it. “It says I can only teach you analyze, sprint, and evade.”

“Oh, how about in return for Analyze I teach you guys the ones I found? I’ve got kick, conceal, cartography, dash, and a really good one called through the pain.” Darith suggested.

“It woulda been nice to know that you could teach it to me before you made me do those painful pushups to learn it myself.” Liana grumbled, remembering something unpleasant.

“Ooh, through the pain? What’s that?” Belle asked.

“It’s easier if I teach it so you can see all the details yourself.” Darith said as he pulled up the teach interface on Belle, selected through the pain, and confirmed to teach it. A sudden yellow spell circle appeared in front of both Darith and Belle and a clear yellow beam shot between them, connecting them. Then a bright yellow light surrounded her, getting brighter and brighter for a few seconds until after 10 seconds it flashed and vanished.

Info: Teaching Successful!

A message popped up in front of Darith’s eyes.

“Whoa, this skill looks neat.” Belle said excitedly.

“I’ll try next, here comes Analyze. Ready?” Aaron asked Darith, and Darith nodded back at him.

Info: Player Aaron is attempting to teach you the skill Analyze.

Accept Decline

Darith quickly tapped the yes button with his finger. It took about 2 minutes for them to all exchange the basic skills so that all of them could use everything the four together had combined.

“This map thing is handy.” Belle said as she swatted at it with her hands, though she only caught the snow blowing around them.

“We really need to get back though, I’ve got to call work and explain why I’ve been missing.”

“Oh, right, we’ve got to get back too before mom comes home!” Darith said, suddenly panicking.

“Then we’ll see you around!” Belle smiled, and after saying goodbyes the four of them quickly cast their return spells, leaving the icy cavern.

Darith and Liana re-appeared back in the living room of the house, it was now late Sunday evening and all of the lights were off in the house, allowing them to easily see the headlights of Kristen’s car as she pulled into the driveway.

“Just in time.” Darith said relieved.

“Will we go back there tomorrow?” Liana asked as she reluctantly sat back in her wheelchair and returned to her normal body, Darith did the same and felt instantly uncomfortable in his clothes. He began stretching out his shirt fruitlessly.

“The level progression in the desert area seemed a lot more reasonable, we should head there tomorrow after school. I want to make sure those kids aren’t still running around killing low-level players.” Darith said.

“Oh right, you have school...” Liana frowned. “Do you think I could come to school with you? In my other body?” She asked.

“School? Are you crazy? That’s way too risky!” Darith replied hastily.

“Why is it risky? I have a normal body.” Liana replied.

“Well.. Hmmm, but what about mom? She’ll know something is up if you keep asking to stay home.”

“I don’t think she’ll mind.” Liana replied just as the door swung open to reveal an exhausted Kristen rushing to take off her shoes and run into the bathroom. “Welcome home!” Liana said cheerfully towards the closing bathroom door.

“Thanks, Darith order pizza, I’m too tired to cook.” She called back.

“Okay.” Darith replied excitedly, pulling out his cell phone. He hesitated for a moment, unsure if it would work normally, but to his relief after dialing the number he got a normal ring sound to say that his call was going through.

“Can I stay at the house tomorrow?” Liana then asked.

“Nope, you need a checkup and bath. Tuesday’s fine though and I have a few days off starting Thursday so we can do whatever you want, okay?” Kristen replied, and after the toilet flushed she emerged to hear Darith ordering a pizza.

“Okay.” Liana replied, trying her best to hide her disappointment.

“Make sure you get meat. Lots of meat.” Kristen said to Darith, and he nodded back to his mom.