Chapter 11: Home Sweet Ho-ly Crap my hair is Still blue.

His eyes slowly opened, but his vision was clouded. His hearing he did not recognize sounds properly at first. It took a moment to get his bearings, but when he did his eyes widened. He knew exactly where he was. Scott was home. Rather, he was back at his house on Earth.

“What…?” he asked intelligently. His speech was slightly slurred, and he had a bad case of cotton mouth. It was like he had spent all night on a drunken bender, and he was having a headache free hangover.

It can be a truly daunting experience the first time; that was what Rhea had once said to Scott. However, she had spoken as an immortal goddess capable of surviving almost anything. She knew intrinsically that she only existed in part, on the world of ARS. Scott, was not used to such a divergence and it played havoc on his mental state.

Was what he had experienced real? Was it all merely a dream? He had awoken on the floor, so it was possible that he had underwent some sort of near-death experience after hitting his head. Though, that latter possibility was the least likely.

“How did I get back here?” he asked softly. His left hand rose up to wipe his face. In the process he saw something truly strange. He gripped his surprisingly long hair and pulled a lock of it forward. It was still blue, as blue and shining as the purest lightning that he had ever seen.

Scott rose to his feet and staggered over to his bathroom. His hair had been decidedly brown before he had gone to ARS. If his hair, was really blue then he had not been dreaming.

The moment he looked into his bathroom mirror, his eyes widened once more. He had never really looked at himself much before. The man staring back at him from the mirror was almost disturbingly handsome in an anime-esque sort of manner.

“Damn, son…” Scott shook his head and watched his luxurious and fabulously rockstar style hair wave back and forth. He looked like he had just stepped out of an eighties era glam metal band.

He checked out his body for a moment and noticed the sleek, tanned and toned goodness. “How have I not really noticed this before?”

In fact, he now noticed many things that he had merely accepted as reality before. Outside of his almost absurd level of masculine beauty, he noticed the lack of background music. He no longer felt like every thought and feeling that he had was the most important thing in the world. Hell, he downright felt like ignoring them altogether.

It could be said, that for the first time in months Scott was truly himself. Without the mind and spirit altering effects of the world of ARS, he could think clearly and logically.

Memories of the actions and choices that he had made in the last few months came rushing to the forefront of his mind. “What the hell have I been doing?”

Scott shook his head again. He had made so many decisions based solely on emotion that is was amazing that he had not died dozens of times already! That was ridiculous. You don’t just rush in like an asshole, you scout properly! You do reconnaissance. Hell, the whole corpse rat thing was the worst offender of the lot! Holding grudges against people was stupid when the world itself was at stake. Yes, they had captured Scott and Rhea, had done a terrible thing to them, but why the fuck was he wasting time on them when he should be focusing on building his power-base?

“It’s a four-to-one ratio, right? So, less than twenty years of ARS time till the lords of destruction event starts.” Scott continued to berate himself for wasting time for a moment, but then to his surprise he heard someone knock at the door.

He went to see who it was, but stopped to stare after he opened the door. On the other side was a girl with equally bright blue hair and jade green eyes. She was fairly tall and had a certain sweet sensuality about her that he could not possibly mistake. “Rhea?” asked Scott, surprised.

The visitor laughed warmly then shook her head. “Why no, sir. My name is Aria, Aria Ardent. I’m your new neighbor. I’m young and impressionable girl who has recently moved to town. I know nothing of the area. Can we have sex now?”

Scott squinted at her then threw back his head and laughed. OK, so maybe there was one thing that he’d done in ARS that made sense.

“What’s with the name change?” asked Scott lightly.

Aria grinned at him. “Different world, different name. Besides, it’s the name that I wanted to choose for this form before.”

She took out a pair of glasses and put them on. Aria placed her hand to her cheek, her thumb cradled her jaw while her index finger rested against her cheek. “Don’t you recognize the poor little fat girl you helped long ago?”

Scott eyed her critically for a moment. It was odd to see her without elf ears, but he would hesitate to call her fat. If anything she looked like a fitness model who had been blessed with way too much charisma. “Whoever said a good deed was its own reward was wrong.”

“Hmm?” asked Aria.

“There aren’t enough good deeds in the world to make having you in my life a fair reward.” said Scott lightly.

“Why, Mr. Neighbor, how bold of you!” said Aria with a giggle.

Scott reached out and pulled his human-form girlfriend to him. He kissed her warmly on the lips and they stayed that way for quite some time.

“You’re a bit more curvy as a human.” Remarked Scott playfully.

Aria poked him. “I used to be a cute little fat girl, remember?”

“Yes, you were so fat that I was afraid that the moon would be pulled out of the sky and start to orbit you.” Replied Scott before reaching down to lightly grasp her rear in both hands.

“Thanks!” exclaimed Aria before she kissed him again. He was so sweet sometimes.

They finished being all ridiculous and romantic a few minutes later, and Scott invited his body-swapping love interest into his abode.

“Sorry, the lights are out. I haven’t paid the bills in a few months.” said Scott.

“That’s fine, it’s cozy like this. Though, there is another option.” Said Aria.

“Oh?” asked Scott.

Aria grinned at him then raised up her hand. “Let there be light!”

Almost instantly electric lights and various appliances awoke all over the house. Scott stared at the light bulb over head for a moment then cursed because he had nearly blinded himself.

Aria placed her hand to her lips and laughed a little. Scott was still a bit goofy even here. It was one of the things that endeared him to her, truth be told.

“I know you’re a goddess and all, but how did you do that?” asked Scott.

Aria grinned at him wagged her finger in the air. “No fair asking a girl to give up her secrets.”

Scott smiled at her. “I like your secrets though, especially the dirty ones.”

“My secrets are not dirty, Scott.” Aria crossed her arms over her chest.

“Give me five minutes. They will be.” he replied.

Aria’s face became slightly flush, but it was nowhere near the extent that it would have been on ARS. Earth was a bit more subdued about visible emotional traits, after all.

“Anyway…” said Aria. “What do you think about being back home?”

“I’ll know when I can go back to ARS.” said Scott. This place did not really feel like home to him.

Aria turned her head toward him and gave him a simply wonderful smile. “Do you really mean that?”

Scott reached out and took her hands. “Home is wherever you are. Here or there doesn’t matter, but we have things that need to be done there.”

“Yes, we do. What are you thinking?” asked Aria.

Scott was not certain what to think to be honest. He could not do much here besides take a break. He was also worried about Ero. He could sense her, but it was like she was unable to answer. That could be for any number of reasons. He mentioned it to Aria.

The blue haired girl next door sighed. “I checked her status before coming. She managed to finish off all of the bandits, but she died in the process. You probably won’t be able to talk to her for a few hours. The time difference is roughly similar here as it is in the divine city.”

“It is?” asked Scott.

“It is now. I had to wait until you left ARS and returned here to set it properly. I hope that amount of difference is fine? It was one-to-one here until I changed it.”

“So, I’ve been gone for around three months or so, but from now on every four days that passes on ARS is one day here?” asked Scott.

“Uhm, yes. Is that, alright?” she asked hopefully.

“That’s perfect.” Scott leaned forward and kissed her on the nose.

“I’m glad. If you’d have been man, I don’t know what I would have done.”

He shook his head. “There are a lot of things that you do that used to disturb me, but these last few weeks have helped me a great deal. I get that there are things you can’t tell me, or don’t think to tell me since they seem obvious to you.”

“My, so level-headed.” she said with a smile.

“Well, we aren’t in anime soap opera land right now. It’s actually easier to concentrate.” said Scott.

“True, ARS is a fun place but it was not really designed for normal human mental states. You’ve no doubt been acting on impulse more than anything.”

“That needs to stop, seriously.” said Scott.

“Does it? Most of the time it has worked out for you in the end.” said Aria gently.

Scott nodded to her, but he also disagreed. “Yes, but barely. Now that I know the reasons for my actual existence on ARS, it feels like I should be focusing on building a sound strategy against the lords of destruction instead of plotting revenge.”

Aria smiled at him. “If that’s what you want to do. You’re the champion.”

He grinned at her then shook his head. “What do you want to do, Rh… Aria? Corpse Rat needs to die, but crushing them completely will take a lot of time.”

“Honestly? I know it doesn’t sound right, but I say forget about them entirely. We killed their people, thy tried to kill us but still failed. If anything, we’ve already crushed them. Besides, we could just pay my sister’s people to hunt them down like dogs a few at a time. We can’t use the money we earn on the casual server when we go to the classic server.”

“Let the badass ninja assassins handle the light weight, while we focus on becoming as strong as possible?” asked Scott.

“Sure, between my various item cache locations, and the money we can earn from hunting till we reach level one hundred, we can probably hire them to keep after Corpse Rat long term.” said Aria.

“They weren’t strong enough to take them by themselves though, were they?” asked Scott.

“Not in one glorious offensive, no. They’re ninjas and ninja masters, though. If they are paid enough, they’ll devote themselves entirely to routinely assassinating Corpse Rat. Throw in a provision about forcing Corpse Rat out of that town and I bet we can even achieve the goal we wanted. Best way to spend our money, I think.” said Aria.

“Well, that is certainly better than allowing all of that money to go to waste.” said Scott. There was also the time factor. Sure, they’d lose a level if they died but they would just respawn. It was not hard to gain a level on ARS-Casual. It would be a long war of attrition. That was not time well spent when it was not even the right server, and none of it would matter in the end!

Another thought occurred to Scott. “How about those items though? Are there any that we can use to help us level faster?”

“Absolutely! I don’t really have any weapons suitable for a sorcerer, but plenty of armor and accessories. If not for the fact that we were trying to help the mermaids, I would have suggested that we go to my best store house. It’s back on the mainland near the northern mountains.”

“Why not mention it before?” asked Scott.

“Like I said, we were on the mermaid mission. Besides that, it will take about three months to reach it on foot. Did you want to let the mermaids languish for months on end?” asked Aria.

“Good point.” said Scott.

“If you let me level up enough to pass you by, I can lead the party and take you there with world travel. The months will fly by, and weeks will pass here, but at least we won’t have to walk in person.” said Aria.

Scott rubbed his chin. “Hey, Love of my life… Do you know where I can get my hands on those permanent lore crystals? You know, the kind that impart skills that won’t be lost?”

“Sure, I have a few of those in my storehouses, though they won’t do you as much good if you’re changing servers.” said Aria.

“Ah, right, the limit caps on skills and stats?” asked Scott.

“Yes. The system works differently on the classic server. You’ll be able to start out with a few specialized skills that you choose to have or create from everything that you learned here. Spells tend to work differently as well.”

“How so?”

“Well, sorcerers… You’re sticking with some kind of sorcerer upgrade, right?” asked Aria.

“Yeah, I think so.” said Scott.

“Well, anyway, instead of having a few dozen different variations of the same exact spell that only differ due to strength, you have to focus on developing one spell type and taking the time to charge it up to the next level.”

“What, like my burn spell has to be conjured and held until it charges up to Ar-Burst Rain?” asked Scott.

“Yes. So, that entire spell progression takes one spell slot, but it takes much longer to cast a more powerful spell. Your spell can be interrupted and all the mana lost. It’s much more tactical. Though, the customization aspects will be worth it.” said Aria.

“I’ll probably understand all of this more when it actually happens, right?” asked Scott.

“Probably. You’ll have your basic upgraded sorcerer skills, and four additional skills that might be from any legitimate source. Plus you can choose a certain number of spell types that you create via customization since you will have reincarnated. You get more spell slots as you get stronger. You only get more skill slots for reincarnating.”

“Legitimate source?” asked Scott.

Aria said, “Skills gained from high-grade lore crystals and events. Your boomerang and survival skills would count, though they will work a little differently. Most everything else won’t transfer. You’d really have to just be there to understand.”

“What about the primordial magic?” he asked. Sure, he had no real idea what to do with it at the moment, but he’d earned it. He was already a little bummed to hear that his spear and shield skills would not transition over.

“That sort of thing is an expansion of being your class, so it gets to go too. Honestly, if you really want to spend time trying to develop new skills here, those are the kind that you should focus on.”

“There are other sorcerer skills to learn like that?” he asked, excitement growing in his voice.

Aria smiled at him. “Absolutely. There are not many that you can gain as a basic sorcerer, but if you take a little time after you class-up, you can find a few of the other abilities. They exist on the classic server as well, so it’s really up to you when you try to acquire them. They can be useful, but not particularly necessary early on.”

He nodded. “Which would you suggest? Get them now, or wait?” he asked.

“I suggest that you wait. There are items that you receive during those quests that would be a lot more useful on the classic server, since you can’t take them with you from the casual one.”

“Makes sense, alright. So, when we return it will be full-bore training to the finish?” he asked.

“Sounds good to me! Though, if you really want to go the path of balance you’ll have to take up a specific questline.”

“What do I have to do?” he asked.

“I can’t give you details or I’ll ruin your chances. I can take you to the place where the quest starts, however. You can’t do it till you are level one hundred, though. It’s not a particularly long quest chain. It can easily be completed in a day, but you only get one chance.”

“Ah! Good enough for me.” said Scott. If he failed, then it just meant that he should choose a different class. Honestly, given the way he fought now it might not be a bad idea to change classes anyway. The spear, shield, and heavy armor did not exactly seem fitting for a martial artist mage. A dark knight or paladin route might work out better for him, especially since he could keep some of his current attack magic via customization. It all remained to be seen.

There were many things to plan out for the near future. He definitely saw more merit in developing his skills and abilities instead of spending his time on a futile war of attrition like he had originally planned. Ultimately, he needed to be stronger for both himself and everyone that existed on the various versions of ARS.

Whether or not he could stop the lords of destruction when that event finally kicked off in the years to come remained to be seen. Yet, he knew that allowing himself to focus on what amounted to petty revenge would be the best way to ensure that he failed and everyone paid the price.