Now that I was back in the city, there were a few things I wanted to do before going to see Captain Vermund. My first stop was to pop into the alchemist shop and smile at the old man as I dumped eighteen herbs of various types onto the counter. Some were useful for poisons, some for potions of basic quality, but all were useful to him. He once again offered to teach me alchemy, but I declined for the time being with the promise that I would go out the next day and gather a large stock of herbs in order to learn the profession when I had an hour or so to spare. Instead, I left the shop with the man promising to have several potions and poisons ready for me in the morning and would pay me for what was leftover then.

My second stop was to the leather armor shop where I had received my bracers and belt, and that visit was a bit more interesting. When I stepped inside, the woman who ran the shop greeted me warmly. “Ah, welcome back! I hope your adventures went well?”

I waved at her and nodded with a smile of my own. “Indeed they did! And I have to say, the armor you sold me went a long way in helping it turn out for the best.” I moved over to the counter and withdrew the seven wolf hides I had looted. Not all of the wolves dropped one, which seemed kind of silly to me, but I didn’t need to skin the beasts to get them at least. “I brought some materials for you if you can use them!”

She stepped over to the pile of pelts and grinned as she flipped through them with a nod. “Oh of course I can use them! As for what they make, well the armor you can get out of these will surely be better than what you have on…”

“Well, that is good to know, but I actually had something else in mind for my own armor if you can use it…” By this point, Aly knew what I had in mind and flew out of the store quickly so as not to see the large bundle of snake hide I pulled out of my inventory next. “I really wanted to see if you can do anything with this one.”

Her eyes went huge and round as she gazed upon the Grotto Guardian Hide folded up in my hands. The item was the size of the snake I had killed, and weighed a good thirty pounds on its own. “That… I…” She stammered a bit and took the bundle from my arms. “Yes! This is actually perfect! With this hide I will be able to make a full armor set, with a bonus, and hopefully break into the master ranks of my craft finally!”

I couldn’t help but grin at her, and waved my hand at the wolf pelts. “Would these be good enough as a payment for crafting that set for me then? If you need more, I can try and get some money together. Even with bringing the materials, I assume you will still require some compensation for your work.”

The woman nodded her head to me, her eyes still glued to the Grotto snake hide in her hands. “Yeah, that will be more than enough. Come back tomorrow before you leave the city for the day and I will have it ready for you. My name is Amara, by the way.”

“Sounds good to me then Amara. I am Calamity. I will visit you again before I leave in the morning.” I waved and then left the shop to find Aly so we could head up to Vermund’s building. I thought about it, and decided I should probably log out for a bite to eat and to take care of other business instead. I wasn’t sure how long of a spiel Vermund would have for me when I turned in my quest to him.

Once I was outside again, Aly flew down onto my shoulder and stretched her arms out in front of her body. I was curious about something, so I decided to just ask the Fairy about it before any nasty surprises popped up. “Hey Aly, what happens to you when I return to my world? I am an Outlander and shift between my own world and this one quite frequently…”

“Oh that is easy enough to explain.” She shrugged her shoulders and drummed her bare heels against my collarbone lightly. “Since we are bonded by a Contract, I will go to the Æther Realm until you return to Grendor. In that plane, a Fairy goes into a kind of stasis where we don’t notice the passage of time.”

“I see. Well I am glad you won’t be stuck flying around here bored until I come back. I need to go back to my world for a short time, but I will return in a little while.” I smiled at Aly and called up my menu in order to log out.

“No problem. From what I know, it is like a peaceful rest for us to spend time in the Æther Realm, so take your time.” I didn’t reply to her, instead focusing on the log out button. A pale light surrounded Aly and her body vanished right before I blinked my eyes and found myself in the white ready room between the game and my waking body.

Looking around this place, it reminded me almost of a hospital room with its smooth white walls and stark lighting. I would have to spend some time eventually to figure out how to change the room around to be more inviting, if I could. Not now though… Now I needed food. I could feel my hunger in the real world like a distant echo, and I wanted to get that taken care of quickly.

To log out of the ready room, I only had to touch a pad on the wall opposite the door to RoI to bring up a ‘Return to real world?’ menu. Accepting that, darkness closed in around me and my reality slowly returned to stare at the roof of the tube inside of the immersion machine.

Soreness hit me like a ton of bricks and I groaned faintly as the table began to slide my body out of the tube. All of my muscles felt like I had spent way too long at the gym, and that wasn’t even counting the pangs of hunger coming from my belly.

“Welcome back Dale. Please take your time and be careful when standing up please. Until your body gets used to the experience of the immersion device you will be a bit sore upon logging out.” Jensen’s voice called out from the hidden speakers.

“Yeah, I feel it, trust me. Ugh… Why do I feel like I got beaten up Jensen?” As soon as the table stopped moving, I swung my legs over the side and sat up to remove the cap from my head and neck, then stretched my body carefully to try and relieve some of the pain. It helped, but only slightly.

“In order for you to feel the realism of the game, the machine sends out tiny stimulating impulses to the muscles of your body to allow your brain to feel what happens inside the game itself. Dumadine Technology does not yet have the ability to directly plant those impulses into the brain, and the muscle fatigue is a side effect of the process used currently, as your muscles are actually twitching slightly while you are inside of the game world and performing actions.”

Hmm... That was quite interesting, but at the same time it really sucked. Oh well, nothing I could do about it except get used to the sensations. The human body was quite an effective organism and I knew I would soon get used to it, and my muscles would soon function properly when I log out in the future. Of course, it would take several more sessions in order for that to happen, but it was only a little pain. What really shocked me was the suddenness of it as soon as I regained awareness.

“Right then. Up we go.” I stood carefully, wobbling slightly as my legs had a slight case of that jelly-like feeling that comes about after a session in the gym on leg day. Balance came quickly, and I walked slowly out of the room and out into the hall to head downstairs for some food. I figured I would grab a small snack, step into the gym for some light exercise to work the soreness out of my body, then I would sit down for a proper lunch. Or dinner, as the time was getting closer to then anyway.

My whole routine only took me an hour before I walked back into my room. Nobody else was about in the complex, all of them still either logged into the game or recuperating in private to deal with the aches of surfacing into the real world.

I was still a bit sore, but a hot shower did wonders on top of the gentle exercise I did in the gym before eating and I was now ready to dive back into the game. Surprisingly, I was just as excited to log in now as I was earlier. The realism of the game world, the power I could feel there, all of it just seemed addicting. In all of the games I had played to date, none had captured my attention as thoroughly as Realm of Infinity seemed to be doing.

The cap replaced and strapped around my neck, I laid on the table and pressed the start sequence on the lip of the tube to draw myself in. The soft hum of the machine whirred to life around me as Jensen informed me the launch countdown.

Darkness, then a bright flash, and I was back in the ready room staring across the small space at the door with the game logo. An almost childish grin split my face as my hands rubbed together in anticipation of diving back into the game world. I walked steadily forward and pushed through the door, logging back into RoI with eagerness.

The familiar sensation of vertigo hit me, but vanished quickly as I blinked my eyes open to view the city of Tyrith before my sight. Another flash of light on my left made me look over to see Aly appear beside me with a yawn. She greeted me warmly and I returned the salutations, then she took her place on my shoulder for the trek through town.

I didn’t realize it before, but the way the townsfolk acted towards me was as a complete stranger to this world. Now, with Aly bonded to my character, I could feel a sense of acceptance from the NPCs. They saw not just an Outlander, but someone who had managed to make a Contract with a Fairy and looked to be on good terms with the small being. From what I gathered by looking at the NPCs, they valued their Fairies highly so me doing the same raised me a bit in their esteem.

Striding down the road, I noticed again the various stores and buildings lining the main street. One in particular caught my attention, the clothes on display looking to be tailor made for Fairies. Once I got some money in my pouch I decided to see what they had available, but with almost no funds it would be a waste of time.

Quickly enough I made it back to the keep and the two-story building containing Captain Vermund and his desk. I pushed inside and strode across the floor to stand a few paces back from the man as he was once again looking through papers. Busy man, this NPC.

Thankfully, Vermund only ignored me for a minute while he scrawled on a piece of parchment. Once finished, he set the quill down and rose to his full height to eye me up and down. I noticed his gaze catch on Aly, and the corners of his lips twitched slightly as if hinting at a smile. “Well, I see you made it back alive and have followed part of my orders…” His hard gaze locked with mine as he waited for me to prove I completed the rest.

“Yes… Uhm. Here.” I reached into my inventory and brought out the Glowing Ruby Eye, stepping forward to set it onto the desk. “You know, you could have warned me that this thing was part of a gigantic fucking snake…”

The grimace on my face made Vermund chuckle as he lifted the item up in his hand to look it over. He nodded in satisfaction and placed it in a drawer of his desk. “Now why would I do that, Calamity? House Tyrith doesn’t take just anybody in, and a trial is necessary in order to make sure only the worthy are given entry to this faction.”

Quest Completed!

You have completed the quest Vermund’s Trial

Reward: 200 experience, 25 silver, Acceptance into House Tyrith.

Due to your going above and beyond the definition of the quest by returning with a Unique Fairy, you have been awarded an upgraded rank within the faction. Speak with Vermund to learn more.

Congratulations!

You have gained a level!

Current level: 3

You have 5 stat points available to distribute.

Warning! If you die before assigning your points, they will be lost!

Nice. Looked like I had to hit 1500 exp in order to make level 3. My stat points would have to wait for a bit though, as I still had to talk with this NPC more apparently. I doubted he would appreciate me messing with my character screens when I was supposed to be listening to him. I dismissed the windows and focused my attention on Vermund again.

“Now that you have proven yourself quite well to me, I can officially give you a position in the ranks here.” He drew out yet another paper from his desk and lifted his quill to write some things down on it. “Seeing as you were quite productive in the results of your task, I think we can fit you in with a title of Nightblade. Not exactly high up on the list in the grand scheme of things, but still more than a normal new recruit would get, so be grateful.” The paper was slid across the desk towards me, and when I went to pick it up, it vanished with a new window opened before me.

Congratulations!

You have gained a Title within the faction: House Tyrith

Your rank: Nightblade

A rank 3 title, you are now eligible to receive Faction Quests from those of higher rank than you within your faction. You will now also receive the following bonuses to your character:

1. +3 Str, +3 Dex, +1 Int

2. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to a random stat

3. Upon level up, you will receive +1 to two random skills.

(Skill level bonus can possibly effect the same skill twice.)

Warning! Leaving the faction will remove the first effect bonus from your character, but the level up rewards will stay with you.

I nearly jumped for joy at the perks of joining a faction, and seeing the bonuses I got upon level up made me grin from ear to ear. I quickly pulled up my character screen, and my smile faded away as quickly as it came. I didn’t receive the bonus for making level 3… Damn. Oh well, I was still a low level character so I had plenty of opportunity to make use of these perks.

“Thank you, Captain Vermund. I will strive to make sure I do my best to represent this House.” I embellished my words with a grateful bow to the hulking NPC. “Is there any chance you could tell me more about House Tyrith by chance? I would wish to know more about the faction I am now allied with.”

I had thought the Captain would give me a derisive answer, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a look of approval on the older man’s face. “A good topic to start your career here.” He circled around his desk to lean against the front of it just to my left, his arms crossing over his chest. “Although, it isn’t a short subject… To start, I think I should bring you up to date on the current course of Grendor.”

“This continent is divided up into seven parts. The central providence is the Royal Domain, with six providences surrounding this central area. Each of the six outlying providences are ruled by a different House, and every House is always vying for control of the central domain. The House who controls the Royal Throne can control the tide of the continent itself. For the past two hundred years, the six Houses have warred, negotiated, and performed treacherous acts all in the name of gaining dominance over the rest and claiming the throne for themselves. All of this was to no avail though, as no House has yet succeeded to date.”

“Roughly fifty years ago, a new prophecy had surfaced which caused a lull in the power struggle of the land. That prophecy was of the arrival of you Outlanders and the power you would be able to gain the more time in this world you spent. Every House saw the benefit of these Outlanders immediately and switched focus from destroying each other outright to preparing for the arrival of these new people. Every Lord and Lady in Grendor began to hoard their power, accumulating wealth, weapons and armor in order to buy the Outlanders into their service. Even Lord Tyrith is of this mind set, despite me telling him that only the strongest should be welcome among this House.”

“So for fifty years, the land has known a form of peace. Not quite bloodless, as Houses still try to sabotage the others, but nowhere near as bad as before the prophecy was given. This all brings us to now, with you - an Outlander - standing here before me. House Tyrith has always been one of the stronger Houses within Grendor, although our might isn’t what one might consider normal. We strive for power of all kinds here, be it honorable or otherwise, and a person’s position within the House is determined by that strength. Due to you bringing back a powerful Companion, you were given an according rank here. There is still plenty of room for you to grow, and there are many ranks ahead of you should you wish to rise in power with House Tyrith.”

“Among our ranks we include many different skill sets, some of which are shunned by the other Houses, but since they are a power to be reckoned with we welcome them here. At least so long as they prove themselves useful to our cause that is. We do not allow slackers and laggards to remain in House Tyrith, so remember to keep up the same quality of effort you have shown me today and you may well rise far in our fold.”

“Now then, that is a history and explanation of the state of the continent as a whole. As to how the state of affairs look for us right this moment… Well, we are between a rock and a hard place.” He grimaced slightly and rubbed a hand over his face. “Besides you, only two others have arrived to this providence to join House Tyrith. We were actually expecting many more, but if it comes down to it I would honestly prefer quality to quantity.” He chuckled ruefully then and shook his head slightly. “Anyway, Lord Tyrith and I both have the same goal in mind, but we need our Outlander recruits to get stronger before we can put some of these plans into motion. Towards that end, I will have several tasks that I can give you as they come up. Maybe not the most entertaining things ever, but it should help you well enough anyway.”

Vermund seemed to have wound down with his talking, and it left me with countless questions after hearing all he had to say. Most importantly was what the plans were that he and the Lord had in mind and how I fit into them. I was glad to see there were others who completed the Trial in a similar way that I had too. Perhaps if they were serious enough about the game I would be able to count on some help when going forward with the main story quests…

I was just about to ask a few questions of the NPC when he spoke up again. “Anyway, you need to get stronger. To the west of Tyrith City lay some old ruins overrun with goblins and other monsters. Your first task as a member of House Tyrith is to get some better equipment, then clear out these problems and bring me back the Banner of the Goblin Chief. You should have enough coin to buy yourself a new weapon and another piece or two of armor, so don’t come back until you have obtained the Banner and grown stronger.”

Quest Received!

Show of force.

Captain Vermund has tasked you with clearing out an infestation of Goblins and other creatures that have settled into the Old Ruins to the west of Tyrith City. You must also grow stronger before you can receive the next portion of tasks, so don’t hold back and let your enemies know how dedicated you are!

Requirements:

Kill Goblins: 0/30

Kill Creatures: 0/15

Banner of the Goblin Chief: 0/1

Level: 3/10

Reward: experience, coin

Bonus rewards available based upon unknown variables.

Vermund waved me away, then walked back behind his desk as if I was no longer in the same room as him. Damn, that was one callous NPC… I didn’t get to ask any of my questions, and I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t be a fan of mine if I were to lay into him with them now.

Grumbling under my breath, I left the building. As soon as we were outside, Aly let out a long breath from her position on my shoulder. “Hah… That man is so intense I was afraid to move, let alone make any kind of comments!”

I chuckled at the little Fairy and shook my head. “Oh, he isn’t that bad really. A bit serious and maybe more than a bit of an ass, but he has a lot on his plate I think. He didn’t have to fill me in on everything he did, but the fact he told me all of that puts him in a better light in my books.”

“That is all well and good for you Calamity, but he is gigantic to someone my size and I thought I was going to die if I breathed wrong…” She flew up off my shoulder and circled my head a few times. “So what are we doing next? You can’t get the stuff from the shops until morning, and it is starting to get late… Night time isn’t exactly friendly to people outside of the city walls.”

Shrugging my shoulders at her comments, I thought about what I needed to do yet. “Well, I need to spend some time figuring out my stats for a bit, then I suppose we can head to a couple more shops before they close and end the day at a tavern.” I paused and tilted my head at Aly. “Actually, do Fairies eat and drink like Humans?”

Aly giggled and shook her head. “Not quite. We can enjoy food and drink if we want, but we survive on mana. That is why we are happy to make a Contract with people. They feed us mana in large quantities and allow us to grow stronger than we ever could alone.”

“I see… Then we can have a drink together to celebrate our Contract!” Aly grinned at that, spinning in a happy circle through the air at the prospect of a party. The first thing I wanted to do though was assign my stat points. Now that I had a Fairy, I would have to start placing them in a smarter fashion or I would fade away into the crowd of average players…

There was a bench along the wall of the building, so I took a seat to stay out of the way and looked over my stats quickly to see where I was at, and thought about how I would be going forward with the game in general.

So far, my Strength and Dexterity were my highest stats, with Fortitude right behind them. Aly’s power gave me an advantage in melee combat, and so far I had been doing fairly well on that front but I wanted to do more than just hack and slash in this game. Well, I should be able to add to my options as I grew in level and acquired my second and third Fairies.

In respect to Fairies though, I would need to boost up my mana pool and regen rates if I wanted to be able to use their power more. Aly’s skill alone took a good portion of my mana every second while I used it, and that didn’t take into account any more skills she would gain as she leveled up. As a Unique Fairy, she was essentially limitless in her growth potential just like a character was.

With my Faction Title giving me an extra random stat point every level, I felt that I should be able to focus on Agility, Fortitude, and Intellect for now. Agi would allow me to make better use of the True Haste skill by attacking and moving faster, Fort would do the obvious thing by giving me more health and energy to fight for longer, and Int would let me channel True Haste for longer periods at a time. With any luck, my extra point every level would go into one of the other stats to let them grow, but I could always put a point into a different stat if one of my main three get the random bonus.

Plan for the future development of my character in place, I assigned my points. Three points went into Int, and then one into both Fort and Agi. I still looked like a jack of all trades character at the moment, but given time my development should shape up to become something interesting and useful. It wasn’t like I had gotten a ton of free stat points yet, and repeating actions was supposed to be the easiest way to get those free points so I wasn’t too worried about it yet.

With that task done, I closed out my character window and paused. I hadn’t noticed when it happened, probably back when I actually got the Contract with Aly, but I had yet another new icon at the bottom left of my UI. This one was in the shape of a Fairy, so it seemed pretty self-explanatory, and I focused on it to make sure.

Sure enough, it opened a new window with Aly’s level and abilities listed and also had a tab at the bottom marked ‘Path’. Curious as to what that was, I opened it and grinned widely. A talent tree opened up before me with True Haste at the bottom which branched off into three more skills, each of those leading to one or more skills. All of the skills except for True Haste and the three connecting to it were grayed out unfortunately, so I looked at the three in the second tier to start.

Time Heals all Wounds

A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. This skill allows the Fairy’s Contractor to recover from status ailments and severe injuries faster than normal.

Status Ailment Duration: -10%

Severe Injury Duration: -5%

This is a passive skill.

Exp: 0/500

Swift Regeneration

A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. This skill increases the rate of Health, Mana, and Energy regeneration both in and out of combat.

Regeneration Rate: +10%

This is a passive skill.

Exp: 0/500

Temporal Step

A Unique Skill known only to Alysandaria the Chronomancer. Freezes time around the target for five seconds, allowing free movement of the target if able. No actions can affect the world while this skill is active, including damage or looting.

Duration: 5 seconds

Cooldown: 35 seconds

MP cost: 50

Exp: 0/1000

All in all, some very nice skills that would be awesome to have. And it looked like I could have any and all of them! Each time I focused on a skill, it became highlighted on the tree and stayed that way until I selected a different one. So, thinking logically, the highlighted skill would receive exp and once completed Aly would learn the skill. Shit… That meant I missed out on the 200 exp from turning in Vermund’s quest towards a skill! Dammit all to hell…

I cursed this game with no real guide book or tooltips, then made sure Swift Regeneration was highlighted before closing the windows out. That was my first targeted skill, with Temporal Step being number two, despite the doubled exp cost. The skill seemed to be my Fairy’s equivalent to a blink spell from older games, which transported a caster a short distance instantly. Granted, mine seemed a little more versatile, but was balanced by the fact that I had to actually move the distance required. That meant that if I wanted to get up onto a low roof top, I would need to still physically get up there instead of just magically appearing like with a blink spell, and I only had five seconds to use with it. Oh well, still useful.

The rest of the first evening in the game was spent looking through various shops until they closed down, then heading over to a tavern with loud music and equally loud voices spilling into the street. Aly and I shared a drink and I chatted up various NPCs, all around enjoying myself like I hadn’t done in quite a long time. It may have been just a game, but the realism aspect of everything just swept me away and I found myself enjoying the relaxation just as much as jumping around in combat.

Finally, the time came when my UI flashed its warning that five hours had passed and I should log out to attend to my real world body. I bid goodbye to the few NPCs I was talking with and headed out onto the dark street in order to log out. I needed to get some sleep, and knew I was going to be back in the game bright and early the next morning in order to collect the items from Amara and the old alchemist.