We walked the short distance back to town and logged out. It had been a long session, and now it was day again. I was going to have to figure out when to schedule downtime. Sleep during my sleep-gaming? Maybe just relax in the library and digest books for a few hours every night. Regardless, it was time to get up and face the day. Jessie would probably be in soon wanting breakfast.

I took care of my morning business and started pancakes. Chocolate chip this time. Just as I'd guessed, she came through the door a few minutes later. We ate while discussing the animal fights. It would be interesting to see how much my game time affected my power in real life. I pulled up my stats, and there were those 5 unallocated points I had just gotten. I checked over the others, and all the gains I had made tonight were there. I checked my skills, and sure enough, they had all gone up just like in the game.

I told Jessie and she nearly choked on her pancake. “Are you telling me you don't have a game interface when you are in the game?”

“No, just my power, I think anyway. Nothing was different except absorbing that book, leveling up, and the loot system. I mean, we could go looking for a squirrel to kill, but that seems cruel. I don't even really want to do that in the game anymore.”

“Huh. We'll have to see how the systems differ and possibly make a change so you can function in the game. What would happen if you got a class in the game? Better question, is that the ring you picked up in the game?”

I looked down at my hand. I hadn't even noticed it, but the Ring of the Rabbit was there. I pulled up my stat page before remembering my Observe skill. Yup. Same ring. Or at least a copy. I should try to level that skill, see what else it could tell me about things.

“My skill says it's the same, but it would be interesting to see what happens when I log back in. The inventory was able to pass things into the game, if it could pass completely digital items back out that would be something else.”

“Can you still make gold coins?”

I open my inventory and try to Will a gold coin out of my inventory. After a bit of a struggle, nothing happens. “Either my skill levels are too low, or it's just not possible.”

“There are just so many exploits going on here. Do you meet with your trainer today?”

“Yes, I am supposed to head in around 9. I was thinking of training in the game...I just had an awful thought, what would happen if I died in there?”

“I'm tempted to say you'd be fine, but after you meet your trainer, come to my lab. We'll run tests.”

I pull a meat bun out of my inventory. Still hot and fresh from the oven. I put it back. This is too deep for me this early in the morning.

I make a shopping list and get some suggestions from Jessie. We are both stumped when it comes to coffee. Dragging in a generator seems like an inelegant solution, while brewing a lot of coffee and storing it leaves us with the question of what to store it in. Plastic won't do, and we would need a lot of carafes if we wanted it to last beyond one night. A french press and some magic could do it, but we will experiment with reheating cooled coffee as well.

Candies make the list, though that's going to have to come from cash, as it's not practical to make myself. I need to restock on meats and flours. Eggs are available in-game, and are cheaper there. I've stocked up on spices, so there are no worries there, but I'll want more salts and sugars. I'm going to wait on the question of sneakers, steel toed boots, or in game footwear until I can try out a few different things in game. I don't want my sneakers getting torn up from sword work, but it might be a good idea if I'm just training. I toss my training gear in my inventory and put the game headset in there as well.

I've got to get a couple headsets for my parents. They may or may not take to combat, but I'm sure they would find enough to enjoy even staying in the cities.

Swiftly running out of goofing off time, I text my parents and tell them it was great, and I'll try to hook up with them after work. Then I get in Speedy and we humble the common plebs with our outstanding handling and ability to follow the law in regards to traffic. Street racing is strictly a Noble's sport.

* * *

My trainer and direct superior is named Chester. What an awesome name. It didn't inspire boot camp levels of fear, but that's what the muscles were for. Chester wasn't all muscles though. We sat down and he had me explain every aspect of my power I knew, guessed, and even wondered about. Twice. I got the impression he had trained a wide variety of powers, and it was all old hat for him.

His advice boiled down to grinding. I would need to run my ass off, press weights until my HP started taking damage, read books until my eyes fell out of my head, and most importantly, play games. My wisdom was sorely lacking, and the chess experience showed that it could be raised in that fashion. I asked about a trip to Vegas for luck, and he suggested a taser every time I flipped a coin and it landed on tails. We agreed to table luck for the moment. It was rising slowly but steadily as I cooked and abused my Gaming The System skill.

As for training in the game, it opened a whole new range of options. The first thing I would be doing is acquiring stamina potions. I could run myself ragged, pop a potion, and do it all again. I'm sure my Transcend for superhuman feats will go through the roof if I'm constantly pushing that hard. Second, I would need to learn proper healing. Not the 'restore my body to its natural state' kind, but the kind that infuses you with life force. We speculated that it would restore my HP, and it made sense. Especially if I was convinced it made sense.

Those things were available outside of the game, but were ridiculously costly. If needed, I could take some cash from my discresionary account and convert it into gold in-game.

There were a variety of buffs that enhanced a variety of things in the game, but it was still inconclusive on whether they would do anything for training purposes. Finally done with initial planning, we moved onto a testing portion. I was going to measure my strength, increase it, and measure it again. Twice. We needed to know if it was linear increases or not. Would double the strength mean double the lifting power? News at 11!

It didn't take long in this gym to raise my strength. I was pushed much harder than I had been at home. The second point took a slightly longer time to gain, and it proved that my gains were not linear. The second point increased my lifting capacity slightly more than the first. The higher my stats got, the more each point would do.

Based on all these factors, Chester strongly advised me to refrain from spending my unallocated points I had gotten from the level-up. Regardless of where I ended up putting them, they could represent a huge power boost if I laid the proper foundation.

Chester gave me a hundred dollar bill and told me to jump in the game, find stamina potions, and run in the forest until I broke 50 agility. Then find a string instrument, learn to play, and practice till my dexterity hit 50. Based on the bonus my peak intelligence provided, it could be lucrative to go after those other bonuses sooner rather than later. The 400 gold Chester's 100 dollars would turn into should be more than enough for both tasks.

I put together a makeshift pillow, laid down on a bench near a wall outlet, and put the game set on.

“Start System Link.”

* * *

The merchant district was packed as usual. It was early, but most booths were already manned and the doors to the shops behind were open. I asked a guard where to find stamina potions, and he sent me one street over and told me to look for an alchemist sign. I hoped they weren't the indecipherable symbols we had found at the mall.

It turned out, I had the opposite problem. The mortar and pedstle symbol was all over the place. There must be 5 alchemist shops, more wand and book shops, presumably general magic stores, a few runed swords and shields, enchanted goods. The whole street seemed dedicated to magic in all flavors. I didn't want to waste all day comparison shopping, so I found another guard. I indicated I would be generously grateful if he could point me to the shop with the best potions for the lowest price.

“Ha. Everyone wants the best without paying the price. Thorn's Mixtures has decent enough potions, but if you truly want the best, Esmerelda's Alchemy is the place to go. If there were any very bad deals around, we would have run them out of the merchant's quarters by now. That's not to say you can't find such a thing in the city, especially in the stalls, but not around here.”

I passed him two gold, not really knowing the value, but it was only 50 cents to me. I decided to go grab one stamina potion from Esmerelda's, and a bunch from Thorn's. I'd try one of Thorn's first, and Esmerelda's second.

Esmerelda's was immaculate. It was strange, I hadn't seen any place in Ellesmere that was so clean before. The floor was polished wood, and the counters were marble. There was a very wide selection of potions around the shop, going by color and size. Most were no bigger than a stubby pencil. The largest was the size of a small perfume bottle. I guess smaller is better?

A moment after I stepped in, a young man stepped forward and, slightly haughitly, asked if he could help me. I suppose I could see his point. I was entering the most expensive alchemist's shop in the city, and I was wearing torn beginner's clothes.

“I'm looking to buy one stamina potion, but I'm concerned. These look a little fragile.”

“Our bottles are enchanted glass. They react with saliva to safely dissolve. Until they are exposed to saliva, they are harder than iron.”

He directed me to the stamina potions, which after I told him I was level 2, he indicated the smallest bottles. They were about the size of the tip of my pinky finger. I picked up one and it cost 10 silver. I willed 10 silver out from my inventory, paid, and left. He was just too snooty for me to buy more right now. Ten silver was about 2 cents, but the bigger bottles, for people with more stamina, went up in price quickly.

Thorn's Mixtures was just across the street. The inside was decent, if not quite as immaculate as Esmerelda's. There were ingredients on the shelves as well as potions in bins and barrels. None of these were as small as Esmerelda's, but they weren't too large. They honestly looked like 5 hour energy drinks. The larger potions went up to the size of a canteen. Were there multiple doses in there?

A much more friendly woman came forward this time. “Buying or selling?”

“Buying today. Stamina potions, I'm only level 2.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. We all start somewhere. Do you know how to use these?”

“I thought you just drank them?”

“Well, yes, but you can't drink too many in a short time. It takes about 30 minutes for one to wear all the way off, but you can take another sooner. It'll just do less. At 20 minutes you'd get about half effect, at 5 you'd get about a quarter. It gets worse if you have two potions in your system and drink a third. You don't want to drink more than about 7 before letting your system fully clear, though you'd be getting nothing at that point anyway. Eight at once is toxic to your body and mental energy.”

“Does that mean I can't take a stamina potion and a health potion, one right after the other, and get full effects?”

“Not at all. It depends on the ingredients and the magic. Stamina affects anything with stamina, so an elixer that replenishes everything would affect a stamina potion as well. Some people buy potions with more rare ingredients as a backup in case they need two in a row. The prices go up rather sharply though, they aren't called rare ingredients because they grow in the street.”

I ended up getting the full tour, learning about health, stamina, and mental energy potions. There were specalized mental energy potions, but again, they were more expensive, and not as useful to me as I was already mixing two schools of magical thought and the prices for those went into hundreds of gold.

I ended up buying a handful of individual stamina potions for 1 silver each, and a canteen full of the same for 25 silver. Ten for the canteen, fifteen for the potions inside. I also picked up a stamina regeneration potion. It only lasted ten minutes, but it was supposed to let me run at a brisk pace and regain energy as if I were resting. It was more expensive than the regular stamina potions, due to costly ingredients. I would have to learn about alchemy and see if any mass produced goods on Earth qualified. With modern farming and more specialized techniques, it might just be cheaper to get some potions at the mall.

* * *

I could really feel the burn this time. I was circling the city and sprinting most of the time. I had to keep looking all about as I dodged tree roots and enthusiastic thorn bushes. There was no beaten path through the woods, which was good for training, but a bit exasperating when I had to find a way around and sometimes over obstacles. I wasn't at my limit yet, but I really wanted some increases in Transcend, so I was pushing hard. I figured the potion would get me moving again at least enough to jog if I fell down from a sprint, so I didn't hold anything back.

At one point, before I landed in the grass, my health did drop a tiny bit, either indicating a pulled muscle or more general muscle strain taken to the extreme. I managed to keep going for another 5 minutes, a mind bending effort. I finally went down to my knees and managed to not throw up. I took a minute to catch my breath enough that I was confident I could swallow a potion. I took one of Thorn's, and it was like getting a good night's sleep all at once. I'd imagine it would be peaceful and relaxing if it didn't occour in an instant and leave me feeling like I had woken up from a nightmare.

I wasn't one hundred percent, but I was good enough to keep going. I switched it up between jogs and sprints and just kept going. I wish I could listen to music, or do something with my mind, but I was outside the city and I didn't want to risk being ambushed or followed. I did have my smuggled in smart phone to keep track of the time. I suppose that time was one of the game elements I wasn't seeing due to my power.

The reminder softly chimed on my phone, and I picked up the pace. I drove myself straight into the ground again, and again took some time to get my breathing under control. This time I took the potion from Esmerelda's and the difference was immense. This wasn't like getting a good night's sleep, this was like a vacation at a resort. I was absolutely at 100% and ready for anything. I was refreshed and ready to take on the world. I didn't like the store itself, but the products were something else. On the other hand, I had to start my excersise from scratch. I wasn't even winded anymore. There was no runner's high.

I started up quickly enough, but it was easy when I was this fresh. I wouldn't be able to use these to train. I would have to use Thorn's. I guess it was good I had bought enough to last.

Another reminder chimed, I went full out, and did my whole collapsing routine and potion routine. This time I drank the regeneration potion as well. It was amazing, sprinting all out for ten minutes. I gained more skill levels during those ten minutes than I had during the hour before, but no stat points.

At this point it was inescapable. Grinding stats was going to mean pain.

* * *

A little over three hours total, and I had my 50 Agility.

Your Agility Has Reached 50! For Passing Peak Human Agility, Skills 'Body Mimicry' And 'Sure Footed' Are Unlocked!

Sure Footed was fairly self-explanatory, but I wanted to know exactly what they meant by Body Mimicry.

Body Mimicry Level 1 (0%)

By observing someone, you may learn to mimic their movements and adapt them to your own body. Higher levels will increase the speed at which muscle memory sets in.

That sounded pretty great for fighting. I could just sit around the training area and learn. Assuming the person I was watching was highly skilled. I wouldn't want to pick up bad habits. I would probably level skills faster by watching now, as long as I was committing to learning the style. It also might help if I decided to get some rogue training and needed to disguise myself or impersonate someone.

After my marathon, my Transcend had increased by 6, making the final sprint last a little longer each time. If I kept it up, I would absolutely become superhuman. But it was terrible. I needed a way to increase Transcend without nearly killing myself running. Maybe weights would be easier. I did have a lot further to go in that department. Maybe if I pushed at least one physical stat far enough above 50, and thus above peak human, Transcend would slowly level itself like Luck had been doing.

Well, I wasn't going to commit my unallocated stat points on a vague theory, and it was time to go find a music tutor.

The jog back into town was positively relaxing. I stopped at the gate and asked if there was some place in town I could buy and learn a musical instrument. They directed me to the Bard's Guild, and off I went.

I was turned away at the Bard's Guild. I was tempted to bribe them, but they did have a point. All of my clothing was ragged at this point, and I smelled terrible. I wasn't sure how I wanted to solve the first problem, so I decided to start with a bath. I tried to ask the doorkeeper at the guild if there were baths, or the closest inn that offered them, but he just kept shooing me away like I was some kind of stray cat.

I was getting a little tired of having to go to the guards all the time, so I finally asked one where I could get a city map. It turns out the library is where I could get a map, but I didn't want to go in there as foul as I was. I asked where I could find the nearest bath, and he pointed me to a public bath only three streets away. It seems cleanliness was valued in this world.

Arriving at the bath, it was surprisingly luxurious. I was able to wipe away most of the sweat and filth in lukewarm soapy water, and then jump into a gender separated hot water area. I wasn't shy, so the public portion of the public bath didn't bother me. After half an hour of soaking, they had cleaned my raggedy clothes for me. I dried off, dressed, and was off to the library. With a map, I found the smithy portion of the city, also where the leather workers were stationed, fortunately not near the tanneries and their requisite smells.

I picked one of the fancier sounding names from the map, and set off to find some armor, and figure out what kind of under clothes I would need to wear it. I didn't really want to go in without some idea of what quality I would be getting, but there was a severe lack of urchins with street smarts I could cheaply bribe for information.

The Tooled Hide Handler featured mannequins showing off various leather armors. Some fur leathers, some studded, and what I was looking for, plain leather. I got my answer on what to wear underneath, slightly padded or irregularly thick clothes. I even got a recommendation for a tailor who did that sort of order along with unpadded regular clothes. I would just pop over to Wal-Mart and get something, but I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb with industrial weaving techniques and synthetic fibers.

I put in an order for custom fitted leather, and they assured me it would be ready in a day, which meant when I logged on at night it would already be ready. The armor was fairly cheap, but I still took the opportunity to haggle, even if I didn't do a great job.

Step one of getting proper clothes complete. It turned out the tailor was back in the merchant quarter, which meant jogging across half the city again. I wasn't putting in anywhere near the speed or effort I had in the woods, so my gains tipped vitality over the top for a point, but didn't push agility far at all.

The tailor was actually fairly posh. There were fancy clothes, commoner class clothes, and some specalty types like robes and evening wear. Not much in fancy women's dresses, but I wasn't here for that kind of thing. I was able to pick up a few off the rack common clothes. I also custom ordered my padded clothing and a set of fine clothes if I needed to get into somewhere fancy. The custom orders would also be ready when I logged in for the night.

Properly attired in my off the shelf common clothes, and less disgusting overall, I went back to the Bard's Guild. This time I was almost turned away before I could tell he wanted a bribe. I passed him a few silver which seemed to be sufficient. The inside of the Bard's Guild was very similar to the Adventurer's Guild. Tables and a bar, a few people in various qualities of clothing lounging around, and food and drink. There were a few with armor and weapons, but mostly, they only had instruments. I approached the desk off to the side and asked about a teacher and an instrument.

“You want to become a bard?”

“Not really. I was just hoping to learn an instrument.”

“You don't look like a noble.”

“Ah, I'm not. Just an adventurer. But there's nothing like a little song around the campfire to lift the spirits.”

“Aye. Which is why people take bards with their parties.”

“I'm not looking to steal work, I really just want to learn an instrument. I appreciate the art of the song, and if I can dance across the strings, I imagine my fingers would be agile enough to dance with the sword.”

“Now that makes sense. Do you know what instrument you want to learn?”

“I was thinking a violin, but if that's not available a guitar or lute would do just as well.”

“Fancy. It's harder to sing with a violin and guitars are a specialty instrument. A lute would be easier to find a trainer for.”

“I would really much prefer a guitar to a lute, are there any trainers around at the moment?”

“Bertrand is drinking. He could show you the beginnings of the guitar without much trouble, even drunk. Guitars are more expensive than other instruments. Fifteen gold for a reasonable quality, carry case included.”

“Perfect.” I passed her fifteen gold, and asked which one was Bertrand. He was a short fellow, seemingly deep in his cups. After I received my new guitar, I approached him and offered to pay for the next round.

“Mighty kind of you stranger. I haven't seen you around here before. Are you new to the Bard's Guild?”

“In a way. I just came here to learn an instrument. I was hoping you could teach me the basics of the guitar.”

“A fine instrument, the guitar. I'd be more than happy to teach you, provided the price is right.”

We haggled a bit, and I was out a dozen silver. Bertrand managed to carry three cups of whatever he was drinking, and we found our way to an insulated room, only losing our way twice.

The songs were different here. At least I wasn't learning Wonderwall. We started with the basics. Chords and fingering. This wasn't very difficult with my enhanced Strength and Dexterity. I was able to deftly move along the strings, and keep it up without calluses. It seemed Strength added a bit of toughness, which made sense as punching wouldn't be as much good if your bones and skin broke with each strike.

He only had to show me a chord once before I memorized it. He demonstrated a few songs and I was able to mimic him fairly well. My mimic skill did not extend to fine dexterous movements, but that wasn't a problem once I memorized the positions and how to switch between them. I wasn't singing like Bertrand, but I don't think he noticed. Nor did he notice how fast I was picking the whole thing up, likely attributing it to his teaching skill if he thought about it at all. He was finishing his drinks quickly, and I was sure the lessons would be over when he ran out.

I learned what I needed to. My plan was to get rid of Bertrand and try to copy songs I enjoyed from Earth. As the drinks ran low, I thanked him for his most excellent tutelage, and expressed the desire to practice on my own for a while. He lit up a smile and said to stay as long as I wanted, there were plenty of rooms for practice.

I was sure Jazz would level my dexterity faster than anything, but I wasn't anywhere near improvision levels of proficiency. It broke my heart, but the first song I tried to copy was indeed Wonderwall. I managed a decent impression, and I had no intention of mastering it.

I had spent a total of four hours here, and I really didn't want to go over six. I had spent an hour with Chester, and I expected my testing with Jessie would take at least an hour. Regardless of how much time passed outside, I wasn't willing to put in 32 hours in-game to satisfy an 8 hour Earth schedule.

I spent two hours trying to puzzle out the chords of various popular and favorite songs of mine. I was fairly successful, but I wanted to compare with various youtube videos and guitar cover tablature before I went too much further. I was getting faster, and my Dexterity was increasing, but not fast enough to reach 50 today. With 10 minutes left before I planned to be out of the game, I found my way out of the guild and logged out in the street.

Jack Ambrose Webb's Statistics

Strength

37 (+1)

Wisdom

24

Agility

50 (+7)

Charisma

33

Dexterity

48 (+3)

Luck

8

Vitality

42 (+6)

Transcend

8 (+6)

Intelligence

60 (+1)

Unallocated

5