Hey ladies and gents!

Sorry for the delay in posting chapters. I have got the opportunity to write over the holidays, but my time has been limited. It gets crazy around here. As a late Christmas gift, I'm going to be posting the first 20k words over the next couple days. They are still rough, as I'm still tweeking them, but Chapter 2 has been redone, so it might be worth a read.

Cheers!

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The entire group was there that night at the OverEatery. It was the tavern with four boar busts that stared down at you. It didn’t take long for mouthfuls of meat to make you forget their beady eyes were watching you.

Kline’s wolf pup, Lulu, and Wink, my white eye patched pup, were having a playful game of who could take the biggest mouthful of boneless beef briquette from their saucers on the floor between to our chairs.

Reclining back, with his hands resting folded over his full stomach, Kline had been trying his best to follow the conversation without nodding off to sleep. His chest rose and fell, proving he had failed.

I leaned forward to help keep me from doing the same, but soon I found my elbows resting on the table. My chin soon found my hands and my eyelids grew heavy.

Victoria and Peter were discussing today’s meetings and the politics that went with them. I wasn’t interested in the least, but I wanted to try to stay awake for their sake.

Before the goblin’s had attacked Willingham, Victoria had seemed distant and depressed when we weren’t busy. That had changed with the founding of our new guild named Prodos. She hadn’t stopped having meetings with group and guild leaders in the last two days. Even now her silver streaked green eyes were focused and alive. Her posture was always refined, as you would expect from a politician’s daughter, but she sat forward on the edge of her seat with every hand gesture and nod of her head filled with subtle excitement. It was good to see her like this. She was in her element.

Peter wasn’t sharing the same level of furor, but to say he wasn’t enjoying the process wouldn’t be true either. The meetings wore on him, unlike her, but there was something about it that must have enthused him. He was constantly aware as an alpha wolf watches his pack. What motivated him was what I couldn’t place.

Quiet as ever, Oliver was even more of a mystery than Peter. He wasn’t nearly as large as Cornelius had been, but he was still one of the most well-built men I had ever met in person. He was quiet, like normal, and didn’t really seem to be paying attention to the conversation either, but instead of drifting like Kline and I, he was sitting up straight, wide awake, and looked perfectly content.

I was just about ready to excuse myself to go train one more time before bed, when there was an unexpected silence from the background noise. Looking up I saw that Mia, one of the primary gaming commentators that had been selected to report on Codename: Freedom, was uncharacteristically serious.

Mia’s purple hair rounded her face and turned in just below her chin. Normally any of her reactions, especially while giving serious news, would be over the top. Quirky was one of the main selling point to her brand. All of her quirkiness was gone during that moment, leaving nothing but the concern in her eyes.

“Ladies and gentleman…” She said, shaking off her shock. “There is breaking news from inside Freedom.”

After another delayed silence, she shook her head and mouthed silently. “Wow.”

With a deep breath she returned to her normal self. She wiped her hand across her forehead and started panting as if she had just been through and ordeal.

“So, one of the most common criticisms against Freedom has been the lack of a magic system. Not that it has stopped anyone from watching. I can’t be sure, but I think that concern has just been answered. Watch this.”

I pushed at Kline’s shoulder, jostling him awake.

“My food!” He growled, as he sat forward, startled.

Chuckling, I pointed at the screen taking up an entire wall at the far end of the room, where Mia was grinning back wildly.

A man wearing tarnished bronze chainmail ran franticly through knee high underbrush, with palm trees sprouting up sparsly here and there. The sun's insense rays made the green tinted armor shine more than it would have in normal conditions.

Everyone in the tavern was suddenly silent and watching intently. This was the first time any of us had seen a tropical setting in Freedom.

“Lulu, remind me to start looking for a bathing suit.” Kline jeered.

Even though Victoria was in front of us, I saw her head turn down as she tried to hold back a giggle.

The man looked back. It was also immediately apparent from the perspiration running down the sides of the man's face that wearing armor in that setting might not be the wisest thing to do. His eyes darted about. It wasn't just one enemy chasing him, but many.

As the view drew back, we saw what was after him. Bald, or balding, olive green heads darted after him. They had long skulls with strong jaws and bulky, muscular builds. Unlike even the largest goblins, these creatures were as tall as men and moved at a speed that pushed the man to his limit. They were orcs.

There was safe destination in sight. He was simply running for his life and there seemed to be no hope for him. They were slowly gaining and showed no sign of fatigue, but he had gone as far as he could.

In a surprising move, he turned to face the five burly orcs who were moments from running him over.

With a weaponless fist risen, he took a step toward the closest orc in a desperate move. The orc's bone-split spear was thrust toward his chest. It was about to skewer him, when he lunged to the side.

The move saved the man from the spear, but a second orc trampled right over him. A large foot landed in his gut. His life was at least spared momentarily as the orcs sped passed, then slowed to double back.

The man first struggled to get to his knees, pain was stitched across his face. As he made it to one knee, it happened. A faint, but wild red light seeped out of him as if it was erupting from the pores of his skin.

He looked up at the approaching enemy with a maniac glare. The first spear shot toward his knee. Instead of dodging, he caught the spear along the neck one handed, and twisted as he stood with little other than his wrist. The spear snapped.

The orc was standing his ground and when he saw what had happened he jabbed the jagged shaft that was left of his spear into the man's side. It did little against his chainmail.

Swatting the stick away, the man wasn't able to pursue the orc, as another spear point was aimed at his chest. This one he swatted away, but another pierced him high on the thigh.

The red energy radiating off of him flared as he grabbed the spear and yanked it from the hands of the orc.

Another spear jabbed him around the heart, but the chainmail saved his life. Blood started to seep slowly out of the wound down ringlets of bronze.

When the next thrust came at him, he pulled the spear out of his leg, and bashed the attack aside, using the shoulder height spear like a club.

Part of me wanted to laugh, but then he twisted, sending a backhanded swing at a vicious speed. The orc in its path looked to have caught the blow with his spear, but it drove through his two handed block and cracked against his skull.

I don't know if I would call this magic. It was more like a berserker's rage skill. Still, it completely contradicted everything about Freedom. There had been no magic and no skills, only your real life ability to fight that determined your outcome in battle. If this really was an experiment to see how people would survive in crazy situations, then how did adding magic and skills now help with realism? Not only did it seem unfair, but it also felt out of character.

The man swung again, making the orcs take a step back to avoid the blow. As if finally regaining his senses, the man grabbed the shaft with his other hand and turned it right way around to take advantage of the spear's sharp end. Could he win?

Then from off screen, a broken shaft smacked across the back of his head. He fell to his knees and dropped the spear. The energy that had been pulsing off of him faded.

One spear and then another struck the man in the chest. They still had trouble piercing his bronze coat, but it would soon be enough.

In one last move of desperation, the man targeted an orc and red energy surged from all over his body and shot up his arm, firing off a short ranged burst, the energy flew through the air and knocked the orc onto its backside.

A final spear entered the man's neck and finished him.

When Mia's shocked face returned, there was an explosion of voices throughout the tavern.

I immediately through of Victoria and the white light that I had thought I saw come from her hand when we had first met. It wasn't clear enough in the playback I had seen if it was real or not.

She glanced at Peter, who nodded slightly at her glance. Sitting behind them or not, I was now almost sure she knew something about this.

“You got to be kidding me!” Kline said, shaking his head in protest. “Are they going to blaspheme real fighting here too? What's the point if it’s not real?!”

Turning to me, I winced in acknowledgement of his point. To him, restoring the glory of real martial arts was one of his primary reasons for being here. A lot of the combat sports had been overrun by virtual versions, watering down the sports and overlooking the real athletes that have had to deal with the real pains of fighting.

I felt for him, I truly did, but on the other hand, I knew if things became more like a virtual games it would work in my favor. I didn't think that was the case though. After glimpsing what Victoria had almost done and seeing this, my gut told me it was something else going on here. But what?

Victoria, Peter and Oliver had all known each other before entering Freedom. That meant that it was likely if one of them knew what this was, all of them would.

I waited to see how they would respond to Kline, but no answers came.

“Has magic finally arrived in the land of Freedom?!” Mia's words broke my train of thought. “There is bound to be a massive amount of speculation in the next few days. Did this player unlock these abilities through some quest, or special circumstance? With so many players searching the continent for new monsters to hunt after the goblin attacks have stopped, will other abilities also be unlocked? Was this magic, skill based abilities, or something else entirely. Stay tooned. I will be on the front lines to bring them to you as soon as the answers are found...”

***

I had been planning on trying to train after dinner. Nothing more than a little running, but with the new revelation I needed to find out what was going on if I could. If there was an added skill or spell system, it may have been more important in the long run, to unlock my abilities than start training right away. I could always come back and train with Achilles at a later date.

Kline was already asleep on the couch, with Lulu on lying between his feet. I paced back and forth in the cabin style living room, sliding my socks across the smooth wood floor to keep the noise to a minimum. After dinner, Victoria and Peter had both gone back to the guild hall, and Oliver had followed. It was close to midnight now and they still hadn't returned. I doubted they would sleep over there, since they would have to set up a place to sleep for each of them. If they were now purposely avoiding us though, they would have the resources there if they wanted to.

A foot knocked against the steps outside, followed by a rustling of many footfalls. Looking at my minimap, I saw that it was indeed the three of them.

Swallowing down a guilty knot in my throat, I realized I had been assuming they were hiding something from me. I stood there for a long moment, not sure if I should go to the couch so that they didn't notice I had been waiting for them. It was foolish. Unless they knew what I was thinking there was no reason for them to suspect I was awake to see if they were up to something.

I hurried to the door and opened it for them.

Peter looked up at me with an outstretched hand. I had just beaten him to it. With a friendly nod, he walked past while putting his hands in the air to stretch.

“Hey Lucius.” Victoria whispered as she followed him in.

Oliver closed the door behind him.

“6:00 am?” Peter asked.

Victoria and Oliver both nodded that they agreed to the time, then they started to head down the hall toward their rooms.

Without having to ask, Victoria lingered behind and turned to me after their door had closed behind them.

She motioned with her head that we should go in the kitchen.

I pulled out a chair and offered it to her, just out of courtesy. The moonlight shone down on us from the biggest window in the house that sat above the kitchen sink. As unrealistic as it was, there was running water here.

The silver in Victoria's eyes lit up in the light. Her black hair was back in a pretty intricate braid that reached to the middle of her back. She wore a leather vest that offered decent protection, but also freed her arms and neck, by hanging on her shoulders like a loose tank top. A blouse in our guild's green was over that, making it almost possible to forget she was ready for a fight. A green knee-high shirt covered a bronze plated tasset that reached down the side of her legs nearly to her knees. Just below the knee were the laces of her leather boots that looked feminine, but would work well against glancing blades.

I pulled up a chair and sat down next to her.

She looked around, as if to keep the mischief between the two of us. My grin matched hers.

“You look like you had a good day.” I whispered.

“Things are going really well. Over 50% of the leaders we are speaking with are seriously interested in our player run bank. Everyone else wants to join our coalition because they think we are going to lead the invasion in the goblin city. We were in the top ten guilds in the city the moment we founded Prodos because of our accomplishments, but after Cornelius's support, we are easily in the top three and the other two are courting us for favors.”

She danced back and forth in her seat by dipping her shoulders from side to side.

Her enthusiasm was a potent medicine for the concern I had after the new revelations. Still, I had questions that had to be answered.

“That's great. Just don't offer them Kline's food. That might not go over well.” I teased.

“Too late.” She replied sarcastically. Looking across the hall into the living room where he slept, she smiled.

“Afraid he heard that, huh?”

“Terrified.” She giggled.

“I wanted to ask you something.”

“If its about sneaking out, it will probably be a few weeks before the necessity comes up again.”

“That doesn't surprise me.” I said. “But, it’s about the energy that came from the man facing the orcs earlier.”

“Oh?”

“You might not be able to answer this, but since you knew about the augmented system offering combat general abilities later in the game, do you know anything about this?”

“I.” She hesitated, looking off to the side, as if considering something seriously. “I don't. I'm sorry. Isn't it similar to what you are used to in the games you play?”

Was she hiding something?

“It is,” I replied, “but normally the person has activated the skill on purpose. If that guy did activate it, it looked as if he was just as surprised as we were to see it happen. This could change everything about Freedom. I'm just not sure whether I should train with Achilles, or put that off and try to figure out how to access those new abilities.”

“I see. I don't know then.”

With a pat of her lap, she stood and said. “Well, I better get some sleep.”

That was sudden.

“Okay.” I said, taken aback.

As I stood, she grasped me in a hug.

We had grown close, but this was the closest I had ever been to her. Her warmth and spell filled my senses. All of my suspicion vanished and all I wanted was to hold her longer.

I felt her breath on my neck, as she turned up her head. Looking down, her eyes were so large and clear. My weakness to her charm was immediately apparent. Everything about girls that Destiny had warned me about was true, but I didn't care. It wasn't just a beautiful girl I held, but a person I was growing to care for.

She motioned that she wanted to tell me something. Leaning down her mouth found my ear.

“It is not magic. It is real.”

Pulling away, she called as she walked toward her room. “Good night Lucius!”

What she had said hadn't really registered. The surface of my body where I had held her, and especially my neck and ear, was tingling from the foreign experience.

I found myself sitting down on the couch where I slept. As much as I didn't want to change my focus, she had obviously broken the unspoken barrier between us for a reason. We were alone where no one in Freedom could have heard her, yet she still waited to say it. She could have just leaned forward and whispered it to me, but then it would have been obvious and anyone watching may have tried to decipher her words. Instead, she adverted everyone's attention, including mine, by creating an uncomfortable, but enjoyable tension between us.

I shook off the feeling with reluctant finality. What had she said, “It is not magic. It is real.” What she was saying didn't make sense. The man fighting the orcs was illuminated with red light. How could that not be magic, or a part of the game system?

I was ready to except that the white light that was possibly coming from her hands before was a skill or spell given to her character when she entered Freedom. It was the same with the man who showed super strength and the ability to shoot an energy bolt, except he had unlocked his abilities. But what Victoria was implying was that this didn't have anything to do with the game system at all, but that it was real; real as in something that you could use outside of Freedom?

It didn't take much imagination to know how incredible it would be to have super strength or a super ability in the real world. And what was Victoria's ability exactly? If I had to guess it was some form of healing ability.

Wait. If that was true, when I had gotten hurt, that means that she would have been able to heal me. But that didn't make sense either. I had seen her tears and the way she sat next to me willing to help anyway she could. Remembering her hit Peter, it did make sense. If she had to hide her ability to protect her parents who she admitted had gotten her in Freedom, then...

Could I be angry at her if that was the case? No. Despite all my pain, if it was true, I had seen her struggle.

This was just conjecture. I had already spent most of the night being suspicious of her. It needed to stop. What was important is that I now knew there wasn't a hidden skill or magic system for me to unlock. That meant that training remained the priority.