Mature Content Warning: None

Author's Note: So, thus begins volume 4! If you wish to read volume three on Amazon or Smashwords, feel free to do so! Reviews on either site, even here, are quite welcome. I thank you all for your constant and steadfast desire to read the stories that I write. :)

The Smashwords coupon I shared in the last post is GQ54N Feel free to use it, if you simply want to read the final version of volume three, but do not feel a burning desire to pay for something that you largely read already. It is good for around 2 weeks. :)

-- Anyway, let's start volume 4 --

There are many things that I do not understand about my life. When I try to comprehend the strangeness of this beautiful, and bizarre, game-like world I can only feel like an idiot. The controlled processes that had to occur in order to create a place like this are far beyond anything that Earth had to offer. Yet, the one I love routinely takes part in the creation of such worlds.

The difference between a man and a god is staggering, and sometimes I wonder if perhaps I am fooling myself. Am I really the man who she loves, or am I little more than a favored pet? Can true and abiding love really exist between a fragile mortal man and a woman who will never know the cold and biting taste of actual death?

It can be disheartening to think of such things, but in the end all I can do is believe that she is as honest and sincere in her love as she seems to be. Everything that she says or does seems to be the words and actions of a girl who has found someone truly special to her. I chose to move past my misgivings once, and I will continue to do so. If I can’t trust her, after everything we have said and done together, will I ever be able to trust anyone?

--

Chapter 1: Learning the Rules

--

A gentle breeze flowed through a beautiful mountain glade. The sounds of nature and the ephemeral background music flowed together to create a glorious song that would be nearly impossible to recreate with simple musical instruments.

Within that glade there stood four people. Three of them were extraordinary in their beauty. The third was normally quite handsome in his own right. At the moment, however, he was rendered quite hideous. His face and form were a battered mess of bruises, gashes, and contusions that gave him the impression of a well pounded lump of beef wrapped in metal.

“Scott, seriously, you’ll need to do a lot better than this if you want any sort of edge when you transfer to the new server.” said Sharde.

The battered man attempted to rise to his feet but he only managed to rise part of the way on shaking limbs before he crashed to the ground once more. “Right. Give me a moment?”

Rhea laughed softly then shook her head in amusement. “Poor little Scott, he has been getting treated so badly by a couple of girls.”

“You’re not girls... You’re demons from hell, all of you.” muttered Scott before he tried to rise to his feet once more.

“Even me, Scott?” asked Ero with wide and innocent eyes. She fluttered around him for a moment and fussed about.

“No, you’re the nice one Ero.” said Scott.

Ero squealed out happily, but Rhea pouted at him. The high elf said, “I’m nice too.”

“You knocked out six of my teeth and dislocated my shoulders at least eight times already.” said Scott.

Rhea winced then bit the corner of her lower lip. Her eyes widened and she nervously shrugged her shoulders, before she unleashed a tentative laugh. “Yes, well... We always hurt the ones we love?”

“But... I would never hurt you Rhea.” said Scott.

Rhea’s eyes started to shimmer and a bright smile crossed her lips. “You wouldn’t.”

Sharde rolled her eyes then smiled as well, “Yeah, mostly because you can’t even stand.”

Scott stuck his tongue out at her. “Just let me catch my breath and heal from all of this internal organ damage. I’ll show you.”

The ninja girl laughed softly. “I’d love to see that, but it’s already time for me to leave again.”

“You community service?” asked Scott.

“Yeah, I’ll be gone for the better part of two weeks our time...” She tilted her head to the side then nodded. “Which is about two months or so, ARS time.”

“But, you’ll spend twenty years on that other world?” asked Scott.

She nodded one then sighed. “Yes, twenty whole years stuck in a modern day earth setting. I’ll be forced to incarnate there as a baby and grow up as a human.”

“Oh?” said Scott.

She sighed once more then acquired a faraway look. “I’ll have to play with kids my own age, go to school, make friends with humans, and watch anime. It will be hell...”

Rhea snorted. “Rub it in why don’t you.”

Sharde stuck out of her tongue at her sister then smiled. “Yes, I think I will.”

As time had passed and more of her community service sentence had presented itself, Sharde had become more and more excited for the future. It was rare for a god to be allowed to exist in a mortal plane for more than a few weeks of their time, much less two decades. It was even a long term project, which meant that she would be able to routinely visit that world. In fact, she had to visit it at least twenty hours per week after her insertion period ended due to her sentence.

Scott struggled once more and soon he managed to rise to his knees. He managed to push his body back a little then sighed out softly. “Finally.”

Ero clapped her hands excitedly. “Great! Now I can heal you.”

The happy little fairy fluttered over and gave Scott a soft kiss on the cheek. It was her strongest normal use healing technique, Fairy’s Sweet Kiss. Unlike her other abilities with a healing effect, such as sacred water, power, and her sweet blessing, her fairy’s sweet kiss was an instant healing technique that focused entirely on health restoration. There was no intermediary, such as what was necessary for her sacred water ability.

“Ero, your love has saved me.” said Scott with a smile. He felt much better as the power of her sweet kiss flowed through him. Bruises faded, is various status effects mended to some extent, and he could even think with greater clarity due to a reduction in damage to his brain.

“Good!” She kissed him on the cheek a few more times, and then nuzzled him sweetly, but the effect did not return. Her kisses were normally magical as far as Scott was concerned, but her Sweet Kiss ability only worked once per hour at her level.

Scott laughed at her antics then rose to his feet. He was still battered and his armor looked like it had been shredded, but he felt a great deal better. “Alright, ladies. What did I do wrong this time?”

Sharde spoke up first. “You were too slow on your transition. You need to work on your footwork.”

Scott nodded then turned to Rhea. She smiled sweetly. “You need to work on precision and timing a little. You know the basics, but you’ll need to develop your overall skill and reasoning more to be able to make it in the classic server.”

“So, basically move faster and focus more on where I strike?” he asked.

Rhea nodded. “Yes, exactly. Power is a good thing to have, but if you can’t effectively hit your opponent, you’ll be killed, frequently.”

“Your stats will be high enough at the beginning stat cap to batter your way through enemies that are really weak, but once you start to fight level ten enemies and above that won’t be an option for you.” said Sharde.

“Why is that? Are there no people who just power their way through?” asked Scott.

“Of course there are. It is a viable combat style for heavy armor classes, but you won’t be one of those.” said the ninja girl.

“I can’t just use heavy armor?” he asked. There were so many things to learn between leveling sessions. He had to train hard to level so that he could reincarnate, but he also needed to undergo basic skill re-training so that he could actually fight worth a damn. He had largely relied on magic and flashy moves to murder his way up the ranks in this world. It would not be so easy to do that in the classic server.

“You can certainly try to learn to use it. You’ll have terrible stat penalties for a long while, and will never be able to increase your heavy armor skills at a quick pace, but you could do it.” said Rhea.

“What kind of armor can I use then?” he asked.

“You can use any kind of armor. You’ll naturally have the ability to use light armor at earlier levels than other armor types. Every class has weapons and armor that they can use easier than others, but there is no real restriction.”

“So, I could be a sorcerer in full-plate who wields a greatsword?” asked Scott in a curious tone of voice.

“Sure. You’ll be killed a lot, but there is nothing to prevent you from gimping yourself.” said Sharde.

“How would that gimp me?” he asked.

Rhea answered him. “You can use higher grades of light armor at earlier levels because you can train your light armor skill as a primary ability of your class. That means that you could wear armor that is essentially better than what your level really requires simply by training that skill.”

“Primary ability... I see. So, since I can increase my light armor skill at an accelerated rate compared to other armor skills, I can potentially use better light armor sooner.” said Scott. It was simple, really.

“You can still be a heavy armor sorcerer if you really want to go that route, but it will take a lot of time and effort and the rewards are minimal at best.” said Sharde.

“Really? The improved defense would not be worth it?” he asked.

“No, not really. A sorcerer is an agility-based class. It doesn’t matter much in this server since it just costs a little agility, but in the classic server penalties are different.” said Sharde.

Scott nodded to her. “What would be the difference?”

Rhea raised her hand. “Well, for starters heavy armor automatically decreases movement and attack speed. It lowers several hidden stats such as evasion, and it requires a lot more effort to enchant it to enhance intellect.”

“Sounds like garbage then...” said Scott. There had to be a good reason to use it, though.

“For you, it might be. A heavy armor class would find it easier to negate those penalties over time, and even receive bonuses for wearing such armor. You would receive bonuses for wearing light armor faster than a heavy armor class would if they chose to wear light armor.” said Sharde.

“You also would receive better bonus defense and critical hit percentages for wearing light armor.” said Rhea.

“I see, so theoretically I can use any weapon or armor, but I am better suited to some than others if I keep my current class?” asked Scott.

“Exactly. There is nothing that prevents you from using outside equipment, though you would need specific training to do so with any effectiveness. You won’t learn to use non-primary skills as quickly as class based skills, and your bonuses won’t be quite as good, but you can use them.” said Sharde.

“If you stick with it, you would eventually be able to have enough skill to try and undergo higher-grade training and that would help a lot, though.” said Rhea.

Scott rubbed his chin. “So, ultimately, I could do almost anything, but it would be difficult to branch out and it would actually make me weak in the short term?”

“Yes, pretty much. If you want to branch out into other skills, it is best to pick a small few at first and only work with them during times when your primary skill experience pools are full.” said Rhea.

“I see.” said Scott.

“When your level is higher, you will be able to learn secondary skills easier since your level determines the size of your experience pools. It would be extremely difficult to have them stay anywhere near the same rank as you primary skills, but at least you would have options.” said Sharde.

Scott looked to the ninja girl and then over to the high elf of his dreams. “I still have a lot to learn, don’t I?”

“Yes, but you’ll get it. Everyone was new to the world at one point or another.” said Rhea.

Ero fluttered down to rest on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Scott. We’ll do this together!”

He reached up and extended his pinkie toward Ero. She gripped it with both hands and they shook on it.

“It’s a promise.” said Ero.

“Agreed!” said Scott.

The sorcerer and his fairy BFF shared a happy moment together. However, reality intruded upon their time together in the form of a dark blur that faded into sight a short distance from Sharde.

The ninja master turned toward her subordinate and the ninja began to speak. “I have information to report regarding our most recent mission request, mistress.”

Sharde made an imperious gesture. “Proceed.”

The masked man spoke quickly and precisely. “We have discovered six locations that are used to hold the captured mermaids. The mermaid queen could not be contacted by the mermaids who sought her out due to the fact that she is a player. She has not been in-world recently.”

“The mermaid queen is a player, huh. Well, that makes some sense. Do we have her player ID?”

“Yes, mistress. Shall we make offline contact?” asked the masked man.

“Please do. Report your findings to Gambol and once contact has been made, relay the discussion to him as well. I won’t be able to deal with guild business for a few weeks.”

The ninja sub-ordinate inclined his head, but before he left, he said, “Community service, huh?”

Sharde sighed. “Yeah, sadly so.”

He nodded once more then faded from sight. He had to get to work.

“He seemed like a nice assassin for hire.” said Scott.

Sharde glanced at Scott then smiled. “He is one of the best in the business, actually. You might want to look him up sometime on the classic server if you ever need information, an assassination, or have to deal with people camping your corpse. He won’t come cheap, but he’ll always get the job done.”

“So, I would just look for him specifically?” asked Scott. One never knew when they might need the help of an expert assassin.

“Sure, but you would be better off finding me, so I can add you and my darling sister to the preferential client list.” said Sharde.

Scott nodded then asked about her guild. It seemed like she took things a bit more seriously when it came to the classic server. As it turned out, she already had a Sharde avatar there. She only played in this world when she was bored or when she had a contract to fulfill. Unlike Rhea, she would not need to transfer her character over.

“Our guild works a little differently there. I’ll explain it all once I finally meet you there, but who knows maybe you’ll want to join.” said Sharde.

“Join your guild? I’m a sorcerer, not an assassin.” said Scott.

Sharde pouted at him. “You don’t want to spend many hard and exhausting hours serving under me?”

Rhea coughed loudly then gave her sister a look. Sharde winked at her in response then smiled.

She turned back to Scott. “Anyway, if you want to hire someone from the guild just let me know who they are, and what you need. I’ll be happy to charge you a small fortune to kill people on your behalf.”

“Sure, what’s his name?” said Scott. He chose to disregard the thoughts that had popped into his head when Sharde had mentioned long hard hours serving under her. Nothing good could come of those images.

“Just call him Shade. He doesn’t reveal his real in-world name for roleplaying purposes.” said Sharde.

Scott nodded. “Alright, I’ll try to remember that name if I ever need to have someone assassinated.”

“Great! I can’t wait to see how you fare in the classic server.” said Sharde.

Rhea smiled at her sister then nodded to Scott. “Me too. I was worried that it would be too much for you to handle if we had gone there from the start, but I think you can do it.”

Scott nodded. “I can understand that, though the system seems easy enough to work with.”

He continued after a brief moment to collect his thoughts, “But if I were to have been killed every time I stepped outside of town, it would have been a problem. The fact that I would have to start over at level one because my corpse rotted after three days would have had a mental breakdown after a while. At the least I would have probably become the sort of person who was fearful of leaving town.”

“Yes, exactly. You’re in a better position now. You have friends, associates, and will have a small buffer in the form of enhanced stats due to reincarnation. It won’t be as much of a surprise, and you know what is at stake.” said Rhea.

She was glad that Scott had so easily accepted her reasoning. There were many different things included in her decision to bring him to the casual server first. Yes, it cost them a little time but not much.

That short space of time would not have allowed him to achieve the same stat growth in the classic server that he would achieve through reincarnation in the casual server. In the end, it was for the best, or so she had hoped when she had made that decision.