As Atticus began to walk down the pathway in the center he sighed as he remembered that when he told Sasha he would keep going that he would not kill any of the boss monsters without her, This put a damper on his excitement as he doubted he would be getting any EXP but he kept pushing on.

Luckily for Atticus he was wrong, The entire center pathway was filled with armored Wolfmen in an array of steel and leather items. He found himself licking his lips at the thought of breaking down all of that armor and making a new set of his own out of Steel to see how it would compare to his rare leather.

As they encountered the first Wolfman it let out a pathetic howl and not long after he heard more howls down the hall and the clank of armor and claws on stone, Atticus held his axe tight and began charging the first Wolfman and let out his own howl, filling the tunnels with enough dread and bloodlust that he noticed Rena crouch onto the ground.

He sighed but he swung his axe and bashed the Wolfman across the ribs with the spike on the back of his axe, shattering three ribs and resulting in a yelp as it was soon slung against the wall, impaling itself on a stalagmite. Atticus clicked his tongue as he only got 50 exp but was soon grinning widely.

At the same time, three large Wolfmen around his height and weight began charging down the tunnel, their swords and shields at the ready as Atticus threw himself upon them with a reckless abandon, not thinking of dodging or being surrounded he merely swung his axe with all he had.

The sounds of whimpers and whines, the snaps and cracks of bones, and the shattering sound of steel rang throughout the tunnel as Atticus fought the three beasts now identified as level 10 Wolfman Guards.

Whenever one of them would swing their sword Atticus would throw his arm up, parrying the blades using his new armor, or he would spin and take the slash across his shield and cloak, At the same time as the spin he would swing his axe which resulted in another injury to the Wolfmen.

He soon stood over the bodies of the beasts and was panting softly, noticing for the first time that his stamina was drained severely by blocking blows rather than dodging. But it was of no concern to him, Even if he took the blow he had a Shamaness behind him.

Though he would need to break her of the fear she had of him, He looked down at the wolfmen and smiled as he noticed the EXP gain was 150 each. He looked through their loot and shrugged, none of it was better than his own but he took all of the iron and steel pieces and weapons

Atticus kept pushing down the tunnel until Rena collapsed from exhaustion. In this time he had killed enough Wolfmen Guards that they had both leveled up, He sighed and gave her food and water and let her rest, telling her to take care of herself and to tell him when she needed a break.

After twenty minutes they resumed the push down the tunnel, soon entering a large room which had a bunch of wolf pups in large iron tubs of some odd liquid that reminded him a lot of the gel in the Cradle.

As the thought ran through his mind he realized it was a potion to speed up their growth before the armor was forced upon them. Atticus felt sick about this but he kept moving on, noticing a large steel cage that looked like it was built for a beast.

Not five seconds after this thought ran through his mind he heard the laughter of a madman from above the cage.Atticus looked up to see Floki for the first time, The sight of him sent chills down his spine.

Floki was almost exactly like he had been before he was given his initial boost in stats, Tall, slim, awkward looking, The same madness he himself felt when he was forced to watch the other kids do all the things he could only watch was there as well

”It seems Lucian's hounds have finally made it this far… Too bad it shall all be in vain!” His voice was filled with madness, not anger, nor rage, But simple madness, like the hatter of wonderland. An odd mix of insanity and joy.

As Floki finished speaking he clapped his hands, this caused the entrance they came in through to close behind them, And the steel cage ahead of them to open. And out walked a new abomination.

Two massive wolfmen that stood at close to fifteen feet tall, five foot wide, weighing close to one ton, and wearing full plate armor and wielding massive weapons to match. Seeing the beasts Atticus' blood sang as it began racing through his body, knowing worthy foes stood before him.

Floki pointed to Atticus as the beasts looked him over.”Hati, Skoll, Kill him!” With his orders given the two beasts began to charge Atticus as Floki left the cavern. Atticus felt no small amount of fear as he saw the massive beasts stomping towards him, Hati carrying a large shield and spear, and Skoll carrying a large battleaxe.

His mind began to slow as he took in everything about the two beasts, From their massive size to their armor. He noticed that they were toying with him as they took their time walking to him, Not seeing him as a foe deserving their respect or their full attentions.

If anything they were more interested in the female who was cowering behind the runt their master ordered them to kill, All the while Atticus’ rage built rage at being disregarded before even the first blow was thrown.

As his bloodlust began to flow throughout the room and he felt his ax growing lighter he let out a howl as he began charging the two beasts.

To the shock of the two and Rena, Atticus hurled himself at them with an intense aura of rage around his body, causing it to be surrounded by the dark crimson energy as he leapt onto a table without breaking his stride, then leaping again as he howled in anger.

He saw Hati raising his shield but he did not care, He swung his axe with all the power he could manage, activating Overpower as the spike on the back of the axe connected with the shield, resulting in the loud sound of steel shattering, and a yelp of surprise as the spike went through the shield and into the back of Hatis hand.

In reaction to this Hati slammed his shield to the side and smashed Atticus between it and the wall. As his health dropped to only 10% Atticus gasped for breath, His body all but shattered as he vomited blood all over the shield.

Right away Rena began healing him but she soon cried in fear as Skoll swung his massive axe at her, barely missing her head. Seeing this only served to fuel Atticus’ hate as he fell to the floor with a disgusting sound like that of meat hitting the ground.

He let out as loud of a howl as he could and forced his broken body to stand, blood pouring from spots where bones had broken the skin and were slowly being forced back together due to Rena's spells. It was a gruesome sight as his limbs that had been shattered and twisted were forced back into the proper position.

It was enough that he saw a bit of disgust even in the eyes of the two beasts, He then picked up his axe and charged again, the aura around his body growing darker as he charged Hati again.

Hati decided to stop this tiny being from getting close so he thrust his spear out, but as the spear was extended the runt swung its axe and batted the spear aside before leaping and swinging its axe again, this time, it found its mark across Hati's eyes.

Hearing the beasts howls of pain and seeing it drop its shield and spear to cover its ruined eyes brought a dark joy to Atticus’ eyes, But he did not stop and began swinging his axe wildly, hacking into Hati's face and the backs of his hands.

Soon he heard Skoll growl and turned in time to duck under the massive axe, Smiling as he got a few system notifications.

Through a quick act of instinct you have killed an enemy in an unusual way.

Skoll has killed Hati!

You have gained +2 Intelligence for your quick thinking.

He thought it was odd that he did not get any EXP as Hati's body went limp with the top half of its head cleaved off, but as he looked at Skoll he realized this was a twin boss, one that had a split health pool.

But something worse happened as when the bar hit 50% Skoll grew large and its black fur turned blood red.

Skoll has entered Frenzy at the loss of his brother and has gained +10% attack speed and damage!

Seeing this Atticus kicked himself, but more importantly, he noticed a blur on his right side, Skoll's massive axe had cut his arm off at the shoulder. and he was greeted with intense pain and the notification that he was crippled, along with his health taking a dive.

Atticus howled in pain as he held his battle axe with only one hand but now his rage was at its peak, he began charging the massive beast as it swung its own axe furiously, with no pattern or reason, just trying to kill the thing that tricked him into killing his brother.

Atticus swung his axe at an angle, the spike clashed with the head of Skoll's axe. This caused a shower of sparks as the spike caused a large chip in the axe.

This alone was the only thing that saved him as he was slammed hard against the wall, his body sitting between the wall and a large chip in the axe where his attack had shattered a piece just large enough to shelter him.

Atticus took the chance he was given and slammed his axe down into the hand that held the massive axe, severing the thumb on the lead hand. As he did this Skoll let out a howl of pain and rage as he used his ruined hand to throw a punch at the runt, growling as his first slammed hard into the wall.

Having seen the fist coming at him Atticus dropped to his knees below the axe as Skoll's fist slammed into the wall, At the same time Atticus swung his axe again, cutting the thumb of the other hand off, rendering the massive axe worthless.

As the massive axe fell to the ground Skoll backhanded Atticus, sending him flying across the room and slamming into a vat, luckily none of his limbs broke but he could feel his ribs breaking as he struggled to breathe.

His axe had been thrown off to the side when he was hit which left him unarmed save for the hunting knife he kept, He took out the blade as he jumped to the side to dodge.

Barely dodging the four large claws that raked through the stone wall like a hot knife through butter. He went into a roll and began scrambling to find his battle axe.

During this time he heard sobbing from Rena before a bright green light went off, where she had been was now empty and she was gone. As he began to worry about the possibility of her dying a message popped up.

Your ally has abandoned you due to overwhelming fear! She had returned to her Home location using an ancient stone and may potentially be recruited again.

Atticus grit his teeth as he felt a hot pain across his back, his body going flying across the room once more, but with a much worse effect. As he landed his forehead slammed into the spike on the back of his axe.

His world went dark and he soon saw only a message in the usual blue text.

You have died! You have lost one level and the status points that came of it. You have dropped no gear through sheer luck. You will be unable to play for 12 hours, This will leave you with 62 hours remaining on your quest, Farewell Warrior!

____________________________________________________________________________

When he next opened his eyes he was back in the real world, floating in the gel of the cradle. His mind going blank as he took this in, He had died for the first time, he had been forced back into his miserable broken body. But most of all he had been betrayed by his ally, One who had sworn to help him at all costs.

Adam yelled in his anger and frustration for quite some time before he reached up and unlocked the seal of the cradle and pulled himself out of the gel and into his wheelchair which was waiting for him.

It had been near three days since he went inside of the game, in that time the leaderboards had been established so Adam decided to check them. His overall ranking was #15, Money was #200, Level was #98, Murders was #1, Play time was #1, And he only had one death where most had at least five

In the number one spot for every rank was a user by the name of Dark Desire. In the three days, the game had been out this player had reached level ten and become the first to obtain a Unique class, Valkyrie, a melee and magic hybrid class.

She somehow managed to get a total of 50500 gold somehow perhaps through a quest like his own?

All in all this amazed him as he thought he was off to an amazing start, with a sigh he pulled up the auction house tab in the desktop portion of RO and was able to at least put some of his items up for sale, choosing to sell all of the bags and extra armor he made, along with two tents, he left the starting bid low and left it to do as it would, after all, it cost him nothing to get the leather.

He sighed once this was done and decided he would go out into town for the first time in a long time, He took a shower and shaved though to a much lesser extent than before, leaving a thick full beard behind. pulling his hair back as he did in RO, He was quite depressed that he was back in his scrawny body but he just shook his head a little and got dressed, pulling on a pair of jeans, a black Rebirth tee shirt and a pair of pull on boots.

With this done he grabbed his phone and his wallet before wheeling himself out to the garage where his truck sat, It had been modified to use nothing but hand controls so he could still get around alone.

He pulled himself up and into the driver's seat and grabbed his wheelchair and broke it down as far as he could and resting it in the passengers floorboard before he cranked the old ford up and opened the garage.

When he left he mainly just wandered, Without thinking he drove out of the town and was on the road towards the city where his friends were attending college, not knowing why he wanted to go there but he soon ended up on campus taking a tour around with a young woman from admissions.

He surprised himself by how calmly he was able to talk with her, not stuttering or panicking like he would have in the past when he talked to women. After almost an hour they decided to take a break for lunch so she lead him to the cafeteria and brought some food for them as he waited.

It was during this time as he had his eyes closed and just taking in the various conversations that he heard a gasp and the sound of multiple trays being set down, Opening his eyes he was greeted with not just the face of the attendant but that of his oldest friends Lily and Alice and Sasha, she looked just as she did in game.

“Wha...What are you doing here!” The first to speak was the younger of the two sisters, Alice a cute woman with a short petite body lacking any real curves but she had just enough to hold. When he could stand she barely came up to his chest.

As usual, she preferred a pair of ragged jeans and a band tee than a skirt and tight top as most other girls were wearing in one form or another, Her hair was a dark black color and was kept long, coming down to just between her shoulder's, Her eyes were a soft golden color which when combined with her personality and size made him treat her like a kitten.

He grinned seeing them and looked Sasha up and down.”I see you're still wearing normal clothes… It's a shame I still think you looked cuter when we first met....”

He smirked seeing her face turn a dark pink from embarrassment.”What are you doing here you perv, missed me so much you started stalking me?”

He sighed softly and leaned forward.”I got killed and because I was bored with nothing better to do I decided to come take a tour of the campus, here in a few months if things work out I'll be attending.”

Hearing this the attendant was confused but Sasha’s mouth went agape.”You're kidding me!, What the hell could have taken you out, usually you're swinging that damn axe with enough force to cleave people in half.”

It was as Sasha said this that the attendant caught on that they were players in RO, she finished her lite salad and excused herself as she had to return to work, writing a pass for the girls to show him around the campus instead.

As she left Lily and Alice leaned forward and were shocked.”What do you mean battleaxe? all he ever used were light weapons like a rogue I mean look at him, his build is perfect for it..” This time, it was Lily who asked.

Lily was very similar to her sister in looks, short and petite but she had an amazing body that defied her short stature, curves that would drive any man crazy with bright red hair and deep blue eyes she was a knockout.

Sasha shook her head.”No, the game chose him to be a Str user and in the first in the game day he had a steel battleaxe and a high enough infamy that the NPCs looked on edge when he walked into the tavern. Not to mention that he was already built like an MMA fighter.”

Adam smirked and leaned his head into his hand as he looked her over.”And whose fault was that Sasha? if you kept your guard up without thinking it's only a game you would have killed those two before I ever had to do it, Since then the fuckers keep harassing me, hell just last night I had 5 of them come after me....”

For the next hour, Sasha retold their exploits, focusing mainly on the battle with Fenrir where he kept fighting with a massive weapon despite only having one arm. He then told them how he brutally slaughtered the 5 players and included the bit about his Interrogation work skill , though not the full extent of the torture, telling them that after the three fingers were cut off the boy gave up.

They cringed at this but they never planned on upsetting him, He then told them about the dungeon and the changes to the situation with Beta being friendly and having been slaughtered by Skoll, And how that little whore of an ally abandoned him to die.

“When I'm able to log in again i swear I'm going to discipline that little wench...” Without realizing it he spoke out loud and was met with three shocked looks.”What?”

They shook their heads at him and soon began to share their story, Lily and Alice chose to use their same appearance and names, though for a last name they choose Shadowsgrove as they usually did, just as it didn't surprise them that he chose Atticus Shadowsong.

They told him how they were asked to go kill deer and bring them back to the small elven village where they were all taught archery, skinning, and leatherworking right away by the village elders as a Rite of Passage. They had partied with Dark Desire, another girl who they went to school with for the last few days and were now level 10.

Both had taken up their new jobs, not unique like the Valkyrie but still rare classes, Lily had the Pathfinder class which combined the Beastmaster work skill with archery making for a two man team between her and a large owl she found.

Alice, on the other hand, became a Lorelai, A sort of siren type class using magic to enchant her enemies into ignoring her or fighting for her and inflicting cold damage.

Adam was impressed with their progress as they went into detail about how they had all found a dungeon on the coast near the elven starting forest, inside had been an array of goblins and Naga who were conducting dark rituals.

Their classes had all been drops along with even finding rare items and even an Epic item but it went to Dark Desire due to it being restricted to Valkyries.

They talked for a while as they began to tour the campus, deciding that when he hit level 10 and had his class he would try to meet up with them in the central city of Midgard which was Jotuns Hammer, A massive mountain city built by an alliance of the three races, from there they would quest together.

As they had to go to class and they wanted to talk with him some more they took Adam to the library where he could relax and read as they checked him in as a guest. He went straight to the desk and asked them to help him find a section on crafting things such as arms and armor, Planning on finding out all he could and combining items to make unique sets.

As he sat at one of the large oak tables reading the books he had found he noticed a beautiful young woman, She was tall for a woman, standing at what he would guess as 5'9 , She was not petite like Sasha and the others but she was not overweight either, she had curves in all the right places, simply put she was perfect.

Adam swallowed his saliva as he looked her over, she had long dark black hair, so dark that it was like the abyss, Her eyes were a color he had only seen once before, A soft grey with red tint around them, Ocular Albinism if he remembered correctly.

He was lost in thought and didn't notice her walking over to him until she was right in front of him, bending down and placing her hands on the table as she looked him in the eyes.”Excuse me, are you finished with this book?”

He jumped a bit as she snapped him out of his daze and he looked down to a book he had grabbed on nordic style weapons, having already read it he nodded.”Y.Yeah, go ahead...”

As she grabbed the book she noticed his shirt and gave him an odd look of appraisal.”You play RO?” Caught off guard by her question he nodded softly.”I do, I would still be playing but I got killed by a boss monster...” He felt anger once again at the cowardly NPC ditching him.

He then noticed a smirk on the girl's gorgeous face.”What's your name and ranking?” She had sat herself down across from him as she took out a small tablet and was checking the leaderboards.

Adam was surprised at this but shrugged it off.”Atticus Shadowsgrove, Rank #15 overall.” He had not expected to be well known despite this so as he finished speaking and he noticed her eyes go wide he was stunned.

Her eyes shot wide open as she opened his player profile, seeing everything about him save gear and stats, meaning she saw his high infamy and his title.”You're the one who people are calling the Cain of RO!”

Hearing her shout a few people looked over, Hearing this a familiar looking boy stood up, his chair flying back as he stared at Adam with a look of rage and horror.”I am the same, The first two I killed were trying to rape a girl in game, After that the idiots brought friends to attack me again, Then last night one of the idiots brothers and four friends attacked me....”

He then smirked and looked over at the boy who was storming over to them.”So Noir did you tell your brother the next time he messes with me I'm going to have a talk with you again?” Hearing this the boy froze in place, not just from the reminder of what happened but the dark look in this crippled man's eyes.”H...He said to go fuck yourself, Our guild will see to it that you never leave Black Rock Hold!”

The girl sitting across from him went wide eyed at the coincidence of this.”You killed him just last night?” Adam laughed and shook his head.”Oh, we had far more fun than that, He wouldn't tell me who his brother was so I tortured him for a while, I unlocked this lovely skill called Interrogation, It forces my target to feel 5% of the pain they would have felt if they left it enabled. We had a lovely three hours together didn't we Noir?”

The boy broke out into a cold sweat and was trembling at the memory of being flayed alive.”Go fuck yourself you sick bastard!” He went to turn and run but Adam reached out and grabbed his wrist with quite a bit of force.”Do not test me you insolent whelp, if I am attacked by you or anyone affiliated with you or your brother I will find you, and I will use my authority as Thane to have you imprisoned...”

Noir turned around and snatched his arm away.”What does that matter, it's only one in-game day that I'll be in there...” After all, no matter the situation the system would only let him be held for one in-game day without just cause.

Adam then grinned cruelly, like a child pulling the wings off of a bird.”But it will be 24 hours spent with me in a closed room with all of my tools, And ill have a Shaman on hand to heal you up every time your health drops. Picture it with me Noir, A room painted red in your blood all because your brother's friends are sick rapists.”

Noir swallowed and ran as fast as he could, As he did Adam looked back to the young woman in front of him, A bit of shock in her eyes but not fear, and an oddly sexy little smile.

Adam swallowed again and took out his own tablet and pulled up the leaderboards.”Well, i told you my in-game name, what's yours?” She smiled as she saw his discomfort with being alone again, his confidence from a moment ago gone.”Dark Desire, Rank #1 overall...”

Hearing this Adam perked up, not even typing in her name as he looked into her eyes.”The Richest Valkyrie...”His mind spun but he soon bowed his head for a second.”Then i guess I need to thank you for taking care of my two friends, Alice, and Lily.”

Hearing this her smile grew, She held out her hand which exposed a small tattoo on her right wrist, the rune Yr, or Death in the old norse.”Then you must be Adam, my name is Samantha Grey, a pleasure to meet you...”

Adam smiled and shook her hand as well.”The pleasure is all mine...” They began to talk for awhile, exchanging stories about Alice and Lily, Their exploits in RO, And even the things they like and dislike. Soon they even got on the topic of weapons and armor as they were both melee fighters but she had a leg up on him and already had Mithril armor that was a reward from her quest that gave her the Valkyrie class.

So they weighed the pros and cons of plate over leather and soon got onto the topic of designing armor, She brought up how most armor didn't cover her arms yet and she had actually had both arms chopped off before.

He then told her about his Pauldrons, opening a 3d design program on his tablet and pulled up the design, having it saved from when he made a set in real life, He then explained to her how it worked using an animation in the program and said it could be made in the game, telling her he had taken the design and made it there before selling it to the craftsman.

She was amazed by just how much he knew about the game, remembering he was the player with the longest playtime to date, though that was already changed since he died. She wanted to keep talking with him but then something happened, Her eyes went wide just in time for Adam to see it and react.

He turned and fell back in his wheelchair just in time to see Noir swinging a machete at him while yelling, the threat from earlier having sent him over the edge.

Adam would later find out that Noir or Jack was the youngest of three children and had been abused by his oldest brother so at the thought of being stuck with being tortured by Adam should his friends attack him once more he could not take it. After all, he played RO to escape the abuse.

The blade barely missed Adam and luckily Samantha jumped back and away from the table, Jack, on the other hand, had turned and was swinging the blade again at Adam.

Cursing himself for his crippled body he did the only thing he could, He rolled out of the wheelchair as the blade slammed down where his throat would have been, Adam then grabbed a pen off the floor and stabbed it through Jack's wrist that held the machete.

With a scream of pain Jack let go of the blade but went to kick Adam instead, Adam, however, had grabbed the blade and swung it with all the force he could, severing Jacks right leg and severely damaging the left, having passed through the leg at the knee.

As this happened the police ran in and called the paramedics, handcuffing Adam as they saw him as the attacker at the moment. Before anyone could say anything else both he and Jack were being carried outside though he was going to the precinct and Jack to the ER.

"Man....Just when things were looking good with life..." Adam thought as he was wheeled down to the patrol car and moved down to the precinct.

____________________________________________________________________________

As the quick but brutal fight played out in front of her Samantha felt something odd coming over her, it was not fear but Lust, Not for the well-toned young man swinging a machete like a madman. But rather for the scrawny, pale, crippled man who reacted so calmly and smoothly, As she saw the blade pass thrown one knee only to stop in another she could feel something hot between her legs, and a feeling she only got from fighting in RO.

Sexual pleasure, Samantha had been a cruel girl, killing young animals at a young age, severely hurting other children, and just a general abusive nature towards men to the point where she still had never had a boyfriend despite her beauty. This was mainly due to her uncle molesting her but she had grown mostly out of physically acting out and had put her anger into video games, and was now hoping to find a boyfriend.

And as she thought of her desire for a lover here before her was a man who showed the same look of pleasure on his face as the blood began flooding out of his attacker. But before they could say a word the police were there and he was gone. She gave her statement and she immediately called Alice and told her what happened, And also asked for Adams phone number. She had made up her mind that Adam would be hers.