The next morning Azrael found himself on the back of a horse drawn cart. The stocky creature was almost more pony than horse and plodded along at a very sedated trot. While he appreciated the ride to the next town over, the pace was making him reconsider returning back to the elven village and just stealing the horse from the fort.

He didn’t though. It would be poor repayment for the trust and kindness shown to him by Zen, the elder and the elf that had housed him last night. Just because he didn’t like people and didn’t want much to do with them, it didn’t make him a bad person.

Azrael glanced at his chauffeur. The young male elf, or at least the elf who looked younger, was gazing off between the trees. Azrael had realised rather quickly that his companion wasn’t much of a talker. One- or two-word answers were the extent of his conversations, though not through lack of intellect. Resigned that the trip would take more than a few hours, Azrael lay back amongst the cargo and logged out.

Stepping out of his capsule, Kade blinked at the unexpected light that streamed through his window. He’d expected it to be evening. Obviously, he’d been wrong.

The unexpected light wasn’t the only disorientating thing. As he stepped out of his capsule, he almost stumbled. He’d forgotten that his normal height was different from in-game. He ran a hand through his hair – brown, instead of black. Another difference. Sometimes he wondered which was the real him. The black-haired-golden-eyed Azrael, or the brown-haired-brown-eyed Kade. It was a dilemma for another time.

Going through a series of stretches that he’d picked up on the internet, Kade got rid of any residual stiffness from the gaming capsule. The game capsule supported the player with sleep and nutrition, but not exercise, meaning he always exited stiff from prolonged stillness.

He still went jogging every two days when he logged out, to counteract this. His jogs had even gotten longer since he started.

Walking into his bathroom he looked into the mirror and admired his physique. Ok… It wasn’t fantastic, but it was an improvement.

You could no longer call him chubby, as the faintest of muscle definitions was visible under the bathroom light. It was… an improvement. He hadn’t been this fit in a few years.

Jogging could do that. Maybe he should hit a gym every second break? Give his arms some definition too? He hopped into the shower, imagining himself with a buff body. If only he had a little extra height too. He sighed and applied shampoo.

Rinsing, towelling and dressing himself, Kade found himself in front of his laptop. It was an old second-hand gaming one, but had been with him since high school. Another, happier and simpler, lifetime ago.

Dropping himself into his seat, he briefly glanced at his gaming capsule and logged in to his laptop. Two pictures with smiling faces greeted him.

On one side he stood beside his parents, smiling into the camera. He was in a uniform. It had been his first day of high school.

In the second photo he was in a café in casual clothes. Two others accompanied him. A chubby boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a girl with tan skin and straight dark-brown hair. They were both his age, if a bit taller.

He smiled a sad smile. One was Samson, his gaming partner and nerdy best friend. The other was Leila, a girl they’d met on a quest online. This was a picture of their first IRL meeting.

A girl meeting two guys she only knew from gaming was probably something that could raise a few eyebrows, if Leila hadn’t been able to probably whoop both his and Samson’s asses half with her hands tied. Leila always played as a combat class in games.

He opened a web browser and the photos vanished behind the search engine. The past was in the past. He’d accepted that he would never see any of them again.

Opening his bookmarks he logged into a site that he didn’t think he would. OneWorldGaming. A mix of blog, game wiki, news site and forum the site was a key resource for every gamer.

He typed in: New Earth.

Originally, his plan had been to enjoy the game, discover it on his own and just play it the way he wanted to. Reality had different plans for him. Players had made a base nearby, Holy Empire had sent a scout and then the gods had decided to become involved, leaving him on the other side of the known world.

Despite his resolve to ignore the rest of the world, the world didn’t seem intent on ignoring him. Ruefully, he wondered whether he should have just kept ‘Cain’ as his in-game name, with how much trouble seemed attracted to him.

Exiting his musings, he turned his attention to the New Earth Forum.

WORLD GUARDIAN QUEST UPDATE

Posted by: ExplorersOfficial

THE QUEST SYSTEM IS SHIT!!!

Posted by: Mad_Lad5000

BEST DUNGEONS TO FARM

Posted by: Bob_Is_King

CURRENT LOCATION OF 50 TOP RANKERS

Posted by: ProWatcher

100 REASOSN WHY DEVS SHOULD ADD A STATUS

Posted by: WhiteTiger14

DUNGEONS, WHAT ARE THEY??

Posted by: Pun-ishable

…

Dozens of forum posts popped up on his screen. Kade scrolled through them, taking in the various titles of the posts. He was looking for relevant information. Currently that meant maps, fastest means of transport and general information regarding the End Forest.

The topmost post caught his attention though.

WORLD GUARDIAN QUEST UPDATE

Posted by: ExplorersOfficial

Following the defeat of the four Bosses of the first ring, the Explorer’s Guild launched an investigation on the Bosses of the second ring, after the existence of the second ring was discovered…

Kade skimmed the rest of the article.

…The Bosses use traditional western RPG creatures. So far four have been confirmed…

…The Red Dragon of the West, The Sea Serpent of the North, The Gryphon of the East and The Giant of the South…

…These Bosses have been unofficially dubbed ‘World Guardians’…

…Similar to the Guardians of the first ring (Ogre, Orc, Goblin and Gremlin)…

….They guard and bar the way to the rest of the world…

…The first ring contained nothing, the second ring contained civilisation…

….Who knows what lies beyond these mighty guardians?...

…Join us…

Kade finished what was essentially a recruitment page. The information was interesting, though not overly helpful. He’d already realised that the red dragon Sophie had been trying to locate was some kind of Boss monster, he just hadn’t realised how important of a Boss it was.

Essentially, the four World Guardians would block all passages out of the second ring, until the players were strong enough. It was a clever game design. Essentially, it allowed players to choose when they wanted to conquer the next level, but also forced people to work together. Equal parts challenge and freedom.

Skipping over a lot of complaint posts, Kade found a few relevant ones. Fastest methods of travel, locations of major cities and a few others.

As it turned out, Amelia, unsurprisingly, had been correct. The fastest way back was by horse. Travel magic existed, however this was currently limited to small buffs. Teleportation spells seemed to exist, but so far nothing larger than a mouse survived even short-range teleportation. Other solutions, such as cars, also drew blanks.

When he researched cars, motor wagons and planes, a whole series of posts greeted him. As it turned out, several motor enthusiasts had tried to recreate modern technology, however more complex technology failed.

This included electricity, gunpowder and motor engines. Oil lamps, waterwheels and such still worked though. They had chalked it up to some sort of magic interference. This meant that motor vehicles, guns, dynamite and possibly even nukes would fail to function. Briefly, he’d considered building a steam engine, to see if that worked, but then realised that he had a more pressing problem. He needed to get home.

Clicking through various other posts and pages, Kade planned his route by horse. The best and fastest route from the Forest of Origins to the village in the End Forest would be through the first ring.

Judging from a few brief articles he’d skimmed, a sort of unofficial capital had sprung up at the very center of the map, where the first players had logged in. The only problem was that the first ring was almost completely filled by a lake. A circular lake with a circular island.

Luckily, the island was also the location of the city, Nova Lux, meaning that there had to be some form of transport from shore to island and back again. Either by bridge, or by boat.

Ignoring the option of passing through the first ring, Azrael had the choice of either traveling over, or under the ring. Passing south of the first ring would be the easiest of the two options, while the northern route would carry him across a mighty river, which flowed from the lake of the first ring to the northern ocean of the second ring.

The best route seemed obvious, until he discovered something of terrible importance. Nova Lux, the player capital, was a city funded, controlled and run by the Holy Empire. It was probably fuelled in no small part by real world money.

It was either a longer route to getting home, or risking enemy grounds.

Kade ran his hands through his hair and leaned back onto the back legs of his chair.

Theoretically he had nothing to fear. He was no longer affiliated with them, had nothing to do with them and looked completely different in game. The chances of anyone recognising him amongst hundreds, if not thousands of players was almost zero. Then wanting to do anything to, or with him, was almost zero again. The risk was negligible, if it even existed. Still, he had a tight feeling in his gut.

With a sigh he logged out of his laptop and stood up. He would get there when he got there. Checking the clock Kade went for the routine jog, before showering again.

Next, he cleaned out and refilled the game capsule. Technically, he still had two in-game days left before he needed to refill, but it felt strange being out and not changing everything out. He didn’t want to break the routine he’d built. Then, undressed, he stepped into the capsule, preparing to close the lid.

He paused, a thought emerging. He jumped out of the capsule and rushed over the laptop. It was important.

Two minutes later, Kade logged into the game, a smile on his face. Sera watched him pass with a stifled giggle. He didn’t mind.

He’d confirmed something important.

Slimes existed.