Congratulations on evolving into GEN2 of Agility! There are now more options available to you! Persistence gained 30% toward GEN2 for increasing all physical Genesis within twenty-four hours.

She sat her foot on the rock as she slowly got out of the stretching position she had been in. Bending her legs, pushing herself of the cold granite that had been her training station. She had logged back in the moment her exercises were finished, not even bothering to dive into the pool as she was too impatient to bother. It would probably earn her another reprimand, or an extra day of rations but she didn't care. All she cared for was the noob flood that was approaching the game. The problem at hand being the need to build herself an ark to keep from drowning in noobs.

She knew it really wasn't as bad as she was letting it be in her psyche. The universe Rsquared had created was extremely big. The chances of meeting over twenty players on a desolate planet were small, not to mention thousands. Still, it was a valid reason to whip herself forward. To generate some extra motivation to not only enjoy the view, but also make progress.

She stretched herself out, feeling her bones crunch, some popping sounds escaped her joints. Jabbing the air followed by an uppercut, turning on her right heel and letting her left leg soar through the air in front of her. It was still difficult to move in the suit. The boots were still too heavy, the fabric to inflexible. At least now she had some wiggle room. She was only breathing slightly louder than before the sequence.

Jumping of the rock and into the grass she looked around. Everything still looked the same, no real land marks. The distant mountain peaks on her right that didn't seem to become even slightly smaller ever since she started out on the plain. What was she going to do? It was a question that had bothered her ever since she read the article. She felt like the plain was a great place to farm, but the creature's were weird and spread out thin. She needed to find a way to earn a lot of credits and increase her GEN's and also needed a grinding spot. Sophie leaned her butt against the stone and thought. She could just continue as she was, stumbling around and hoping some really nice Dues Ex Machina moment would happen. She had read many stories where a pot of gold was just laying right around the corner. She had picked hard mode for a reason, and that reason was the pot of gold, but that wasn't going to happen. The plain was too large; she had seen it stretching out for tens of kilometers when she had decided on its location. What she really needed, was a better view to search kilometers at a time instead of her immediate surroundings. She knew just the person to provide her with such view.

Opening her friend list she stated "Invite Bee for a Comm." A picture, filled with static appeared in her field of view and she waited. He was online, so he should be picking up. Looking around and seeing nothing of interest, she started to walk around the rock. The green spiraling blades of grass giving way so much easier now that her physical attributes were GEN 2. Two minutes passed and nothing but the static showed on the video feed. She began to worry that maybe he was ignoring her for some reason. When the feed blinked into existence and showed Bee. His face was red, beads of sweat and smears of mud gathering on top of his face, his hair a mess. She looked at him, forgot what she was about to ask, and asked instead "Bee, what happened to you? You look like you ran a marathon in the dirt." Her face was serene, but on the inside she was laughing at him, it was just too hilarious to see the guy in this state, her eyes sparkling with a faint amusement. The fact that his face was twisted into a scowl and his eyes looked like they could start crying at any moment, only added to the fire. This must have been how she had looked after many of her loops around the rock.

He sighed and looked into the invisible camera in front of him. His scowl lessening and his eyes drying up a little, but holding on to their melancholy before grumbling " First, I hope you will thank me on your knees for installing that third chair, It only cost me 200 credits in a junk yard, but that thing weighed like fifty kilo's.."

She looked at him before coughing a little and interrupting him: "I'm definitely not going to say any thanks on my knees, and am rather appalled by the suggestion that I would do any such thing.. I will say, thank you very much that I don't have to sit on the floor anymore, though!" She looked at him with some fake strictness in her eyes that hardly hid the mischievous glint hidden inside. He turned slightly pale, stumbling to find his words again "W-what? N-no that was definitely not how I meant it! I would never suggest such a thing!" he protested. She kept looking at him like he was a child that needed a good spanking, using the way Frank used to stare at her when she had thrown a tantrum about him not being her real father. When he turned his face away from her stare growing even paler, she felt a tinge of guilt washing over her. She gave him a sincere smile and spoke up again "Sorry Bee, just teasing you, I know you wouldn't, but that can't be the only thing right? You look way worse than just moving a fifty kilogram weighing chair.." He looked up and into her eyes, mumbled something about her acting too much like his sister, then continued his story.

"Well no, I also had to install it, but that wasn't that big of a deal. Actually got me some Engineers progress which is nice. No, the main problem is that I had five dead batteries, and that was one too many for me to return to the city in time as it seemed that the sixth was faulty.. So I have been walking through a damn marsh for the past hour! Have you met any of the wild life? I'm so glad that those plasma guns have some serious fire power. But these boots are killing me, they make me sink into the ground. Goddamn realism."

She felt a little disappointed that her plan was ruined, but then got over it and asked "Can't Maya sent something or someone to pick you up? How far are you from the city?" He frowned and then scratched his ear, he had removed his helmet too somewhere along his hike, he thought for a while and whispered "That is actually not a bad idea." He zoned in again and responded to her question "I have no clue, It would have been ten minutes by space ship, but the way I'm going now it could be days, or if I'm lucky weeks. Wait a moment, I will invite Maya into the Comm."

His eyes went hazy and out of focus before snapping back when another video feed entered Sophie's field of vision. Maya looked the same as before, the only difference being that her helmet was off and her black hair fell down past her suit. She looked at the both of them and then started laughing out loud. Sucking deep gulps of air it seemed like she was rolling over the ground. It took her two minutes before her hysteria faded a little and only slight hiccups stayed behind. That and the smile from ear to ear, her dimples outstretched into slits, her eyes sparkling with amusement before she made the first none laughing sound of the day. She coughed a little, trying to pull of the incredulous act of hiding her smile after she just literally rolled over the floor laughing. She looked at the both of them again and then asked the obvious "What the hell happened to the two of you?" She kept smiling and Bee rolled his eyes and repeated his story to her. She looked at him with some sympathy, before turning her attention towards Sophie "What about you? You actually look a lot worse than my little brother here." Her smile had turned into a smirk at this point.

Sophie sighed and told of her encounters, and the way she had been training to get her physical Genesis up to something more like the real world. The story actually got her some ooh and aahh's from the brother and sister crowed. Especially when she arrived at the story of the Whistlers, they couldn't contain a little gagging as Sophie vividly explained every detail of almost being the home of one of them and how it had splattered across her face. When she came to the part of training herself with the massive stone parkour, Bee actually asked some questions on why she had done certain things, while Maya paled slightly when Sophie stated that they should do the same. Sophie stated that it would take some of the stress off that the suit provided on their bodies. Maya had croaked at that with a "Yeah, don't think that will be really necessary do you, right?" Bee had been quick to pick up his sisters apprehension and the smell of revenge had made him say the words that Maya feared the most. "Oh I think you will have to, it will be funny for your audience to see you stumble, and those Japanese guys might think it is weirdly sexy to see you sweat." He moved his brows up and down insinuating more than Sophie would have liked to think about. Maya's only response was a dejected "Dammit".

Almost forgetting about the news article and the noob flood, her subsequent idea and instant failure of that idea, she perked up and broke the silence that had been caused by their collective introspection. "Hey guys, have you read about the five VR companies going broke?" Their attention had been somewhere else but now it was slowly returning to Sophie, as they both looked at her with a bit of confusion. Maya spoke up first "Why would we read any news? If I want to be baited into clicking on a site full of adds, I can go onto one of those Social media sites and be entertained while I take in the propaganda or empty articles written without a shred of nuance or journalistic integrity."

Ahh a girl to my heart Sophie thought, before Bee chimed in "But what about it? Was Rsquared involved too?" she nodded and told them what was in the article. They both reacted extremely differently. While Bee just groaned and shook his head, probably thinking of the same noob flood as she was. Maya hollered something that sounded like "Thank you god, you mighty being." Then did a little dance while smiling and closing her eyes.

"Why the hell are you so happy about this?" Sophie asked, with as much confusion as she was feeling. Bee reacted before Maya could be brought back to the living, stating "More players mean more attention from the public which means more people wanting to watch her stream and higher sponsor deals. For her it's like hearing that she might win the jackpot soon." This Sophie understood, even though she didn't think it could have been this important to Maya, apparently it did. She waited a little before Maya calmed down again and then brought up her idea "So Seeing that we will have an increase in player base, I would like to find a good grinding spot and start making some credits so we can start upgrading everything before the influx of new players starts affecting the market." At this Maya suddenly looked extremely sour, and then extremely excited. The change in facial features was remarkable, like a sudden dawning that everything she planned could go to shit, before a light bulb going off. She exclaimed with a smile on her face "That would mean we can buy low and sell high! That would be awesome! How far away are you guys from the city?" They both smiled wryly and then told her why she had been contacted in the first place.

Maya's smile shook a little as irritation surfaced into her eyes, but she kept her voice calm as she said "So you want me to send someone with batteries your way, so you can go pick up Sophie and then scan the plain for good grind spots while I do.. what exactly? Hmm, I suppose I can come along, the shopping is not what it is supposed to be when everything is way too expensive. Did you know that a new space suit, common quality, is five thousand credits? It looks way better than the Beginner suit we are wearing right now, more slim, lighter and with some pretty nice extra's; but damn, I barely have five hundred credits! This is going to be some grind." Hearing this made Sophie almost tear up out of joy, she really didn't like her current space suite. Praise the developers for gear upgrades. Then she thought of something and asked Maya "How much are things like med kits or something like that?" Maya looked at her and then thought, a moment later and she responded with "I think I have seen something called a first aid injector. It's something you buy for a thousand credits and keep until it breaks. To use it, you can buy vials of red fluid that you are supposed to insert into the injector and then, you know, inject yourself with them. It supposedly restores 10% of your health. It's a cash sink, but I suppose we can't really hire a healer…" She trailed off for a moment lost in her thoughts about how easy a healer would have been, before asking "So you want one?"

Sophie thought for a moment, the body healed automatically, and it was thus not a high priority when the time was there to heal. But once that time was not given, it could be a lifesaver. And as long as she hadn't heard of anyone having a healing touch or the healing light of the gods ,they would have to rely on tech. She sighed, already mourning the loss of her hard earned credits and grumbled "Yes, can I send you credits? I want the injector and six vials." they both looked at Sophie, their mouth slightly a gape before Maya responded with a jab "You, big spender you. Better use some of that liquid gold on us when we are dying. I think you can send it by opening a trade window. Only credits though, wireless banking and all. Physical products have to be delivered, or be sent through the games postal service which is, as you would expect another way to extract credits from the community." Sophie frowned, then assured them that she was broke now and would of course share. She looked around in the friend list and saw a wire transfer Icon and send Maya sixteen-hundred of her hard earned credits. Maya said thanks in a mischievous way, before smirking and saying they would arrive at Sophie's location soon.

Soon was forty minutes, which really was soon in Sophie's thoughts. She had expected to train her Psionics for another two hours but when she heard the approaching vessel, she was pleasantly surprised. Breaking off her exercise and being rewarded by a 3% increase in Mental Fortitude. Later they had told her that space taxi's actually existed, which was weird but handy. The Space ship had been in much better shape when she had last seen it. The hull was now covered in mud, the windshield included, and wooden sticks with leaves still attached to them were sticking out of various places. Nevertheless, it still flew, and that was all that mattered right now. The grass of the plain swirled and spun to all sides as the Ship landed a little over twenty meters from her location, and as soon as it landed the door was slammed open and came to a screeching halt as its hinges almost flew out of their rusted bolts. A couple of seconds later Maya's head stuck out, and she looked around. When she saw Sophie, she smiled, walked down the uneven stairs, while creaking and moaning of steel followed her down. Once on solid ground and surrounded by the grass, she shouted "Supplies!" to Sophie who smiled and couldn't help but shake her had at the slightly racist joke. She made her way towards Maya, who gave her the first aid Injection and six, five centimeter high glass vials. She focused and inspected them.

First Aid Injector I

Common Quality

In the absence of healers the only real alternative in a pinch. Can only use the 10% vials and breaks down after 50 uses - review by Nurs3Joy Small vial of Aid I

Common Quality

The elixir that changes B negative into B positive. - review by ToSeriousForMyShirt

This review is under investigation for stating untruthful information, the multiple complains will be taken into consideration.

She smiled a little at the cringe worthy joke that the vials review contained but was not surprised in the least. If you gave teenagers the chance to come up with game content, some will see that as a great opportunity to mess around. She shook her head and stored the products into her almost full Inventory, the vials stacked in what seemed like ten a slot so that was good. Then went into the space ship the same way Maya had done earlier; accompanied by a concert of groaning and screeching metal. Finally inside of the vessel, she looked towards the front and saw the glorious new addition. A chair. It was exactly the same as the other two with the big difference being that hers seemed to be flat, with the springs slightly against the leather fabric. Bee saw the slightly disappointed look on her face and without knowing her bad experience with springs and flying, he admitted "It's not the best quality but it was the only thing I could find that didn't murder my budget in one foul sweep. Sorry." She looked at him and smiled, before stating "No apologies necessary, I'm just glad I have a seat. Do you know if there is a way to get the leather off so I can inspect the insides?" she looked back at the chair, a plan forming in her mind.

Bee looked at her with a slight frown, then got off his own seat and looked at hers saying slowly "I think I saw.. Ahh yes there it is.." he grabbed a zipper on the side of the chair and pulled it, the leather giving way to the synthetic cushion filling that was currently occupying the insides. Sophie smiled as Bee looked up and said "something like this?" she nodded and said "Yes!" before getting the Sholf wool out of her inventory and pressing it inside of the chairs internals. It wasn't much of a difference but at least now she was not sitting directly on the springs. Aa system message popped up for both her and Bee, he made a little whoohoo cheer noise while she took a look what had happened.

Engineer Genesis has gained 2% towards GEN2 Space cruiser LM231X has gained 1% towards Uncommon Quality

Allright, interesting, so it was possible to upgrade space ships, that could be really nice in potential. Everyone would start out with the same space ships, but the longer the game was out, the more diverse the space ships would become. She smiled as she saw how happy Bee was as he cheered "I already got 5% when I installed the chair, good job Sophie!" she laughed and said "No problem just trying to prevent the chair from molesting me." He didn't understand what she said, but he was too happy to care and she didn't want to go into the details of her flying aptitude test. As they were still gloating over the upgraded chair, Maya turned around in hers and argued "So shall we go or are you guys going to stare all day? I have Japanese men to entertain you know?" She turned back around in her chair, not even a little flustered about what she just insinuated, while Bee took on a different color, a mix of pale and red that should not be possible. Sophie shrugged as he gave her a tormented look and took her upgraded seat behind the brother and sister duo. As she searched for the seatbelt, Bee started the launch procedure, but after a few seconds of searching Sophie came to a horrible conclusion "Bee where are the seatbelts?" He turned around with his head sticking around his own chair and just smiled apologetic before pressing the launch button. She screamed and got thrown off the chair when he made the first corner.

They had stabilized after gaining some height and were now slowly flying above the plain, looking out of the windows to see if there was anything worthwhile down in the endless grass. Sophie was still moping from the earlier launch, rubbing her head as she was looking at the swirling green grass sea underneath her. Bee had told her that the chair had been so cheap because it didn't have a seatbelt and he had figured they could just make one or buy one. He hadn't mentioned it earlier because he knew she would not be pleased. She had not been pleased at all, but had more important matters to attend to anyway. Like searching for a pot of gold. They had been at it for at least half an hour now and it had been quite uneventful up until now. They once saw a flock of Sholf's and Sophie had asked to go down, but Maya had asked if slaughtering three Sholf's was worth getting thrown around again, and she had grudgingly agreed that it wasn't. But now she saw something that was more than worth the stumble. She went back to the front and motioned towards her intended target and asked Bee to land it next to it. At first they didn't understand what she was planning on doing with whole in the ground. That was before she reminded them that Ethereal Space was still an RPG even if it didn't have healers. They gaped at her for a moment before realization finally hit and they both at the same time exclaimed the one word that was on Sophie's mind "Dungeon".

As Bee was preparing to land and Sophie was trying to stay seated, Maya had all the time in the world to act excited for all three of them. Mumbling "This is going to be so awesome, maybe we can get some good loot, shoot up some monsters, aww my viewers are going to love it! Maybe I can convince Sophie to do a little dungeon after school special…" She looked back towards Sophie who was staring at her with a blank, but very scary looking face, then turned back and whispered to herself "she is not ready yet, better wait a little and… " The rest was too soft to hear and as Sophie was about to ask what exactly a dungeon after school special entailed the space ship landed and Maya practically stormed out, barely waiting for the ship to touch ground. Following her in a slightly less hurried way, Bee and Sophie walked out and saw how Maya was currently struggling to walk through the half a meter high fluorescent green grass. Sophie got out and walked twice as fast through the grass as Maya did, reaching her position and placing her hands behind her head while she leisurely walked beside her struggling friend. Taking an exaggerated deep breath of fresh air she sighed loudly and boasted "Ahh the fresh air, a lovely walk, what more can one wish for." Hearing Maya mumble something about murder between ragged breaths, she laughed a little and then said "You should gain some percentages in speed, otherwise I would have offered to carry you, but I don't want to take away this special opportunity." She smirked and increased her speed a little, as she strutted away, arriving at the gaping hole in the ground first of the three.

She had seen it from a hundred meters up and from there it looked quite small, but from up close it was quite large. The entrance seemed to be a small hill of three meters high, grass already growing on top of it, it was the highest place in this region of the plain as there seemed to be no Kevoulders around. The entrance was a hole in the hill of around two meters in width and two meters in height, the sides were strengthened with wooden beams like the old mines used to look like and on the horizontal wooden beam on top, words were written that she didn't understand. As she looked at the words, heavy breathing that came from both sides signaled that her friends had arrived at the structure too. She didn't look away though, trying to focus on them as if she was using inspect, and after a minute it blurred a little revealing a word. Followed by a system message.

"… …. …. … .. .. … …. Risk."

Linguistic Genesis has gained 3% towards GEN2

"Risk.." She mumbled, probably enter at your own risk.. Well Hard mode and all. She turned to look at her companions and saw the both of them bent over, hands on their knees, breathing in and out in loud breaths. She patted Maya on her back and smirked "You know, if you stretch yourself out you will get more oxygen." Maya only responded with a growl, but Bee stood up and placed his hands behind his head. She smiled at him and Maya mumbled something about disowning him. A minute later they both recovered, and Bee said "We should probably put our helmets back on, we will have to use the lights." He kept looking into the darkness of the tunnel in front of us and then added "And maybe it will prevent whatever is in there from killing us faster." Both Maya and Sophie nodded silently and put their helmets on and entered the gaping, pitch black hole that was in front of them. As they entered a Ting sound could be heard and a system message floated up into their view.

Welcome to the Forgotten mines of Utek

Entering is at your own risk.

For being the first to find this dungeon you are awarded the right to review it and a 500 credit bonus.

They all stared at the message for a few seconds before they smiled and cheered. Maya was the first to walk further rubbing her hands, her face plastered with a greedy grin. They had found their grinding place. As they walked in, their flash lights lighted their way and Sophie got another invite to join TheHive, which she accepted immediately, facing the new situation they had regrouped and were now ready to grind their way to success.