Back at the penthouse, I logged back in the game. The joy of finishing my training washed away the grueling day I had. Before I left, the training master asked me to wait for my “graduation gift”. These were his words. I didn't even know about it until he told me that although I didn't train at the training center, I was still eligible for it. I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth and agreed wholeheartedly to wait.

He entered the room with a big package in his hands. It was quite extravagant. It was brown with a big red bow around it.

“Here, your graduation gift.”

I looked at it like it was a snake ready to bite me. I mean, it was suspicious to the extreme. In the weeks, I trained with him, I got to know the training master quite well. He was weird. He was strong. He had a huge superiority complex. He loved clean things. And he was stingy as hell.

For all the weeks I'd been there, I received nothing from him. Even when I asked for something, he always found a reason or another to refuse me. I asked for a sword of my own, he said I didn't need it because we were not fighting seriously and I was still in training. I asked for clothes, he said that as a spirit I couldn't wear them. And when I asked how he knew without us trying, he said it was none of my business.

And now the guy who refused to give me anything but the knowledge he deemed important was giving a big present with a big bow on top of it. When he said I would receive a graduation gift, I thought that he'd give be a book or a sword not a one foot tall fifty inches wide suspicious package.

“Well, take it.”, he said as I didn't make a move to take the package from him.

“What is it?”, I was still not approaching him.

“A present.”

“I can see that but what's in it?”

“Open and you'll see.”

“You can open it yourself and I'll see.”

“Lad, don't be ridiculous. It's your graduation gift, I'll leave it here.” He put it down and went back to the door. “Oh! Before I forget you can't leave until you open it.” And he left.

“That damn suspicious geezer!” I waited for him to come back but he didn't. “Identify!” I tried to use a skill I learned that allow me to identify things. It didn't tell me anything that I didn't know already.

With caution, I went and opened the present. When I removed the packaging, I saw that there was a box ornately decorated with a peaceful scenery. I tried again to identify it with my skill, it still didn't say anything apart from the obvious. It was a suspicious box given by the training master.

I gathered my courage and opened it. A bright light engulfed me and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I was on a cloud. Literally. I looked around me and there was only the gray sky and a cluster of clouds floating around.

The only way to come down was to jump and I wasn't going to do it. So I stayed put and started admiring the scenery. Before long, I was bored of what was happening above me so I started to look down.

There was a war going on down there. Up where I was, I couldn't hear anything but I could see just fine. It took me a long time to understand who was fighting who. But after a while, I understood that I was witnessing the first adventurers' war.

Thirty years ago, war became unavoidable as natural resources dwindled. The United Nation (UN), in a bid to spare resources and to prevent untimely deaths, decided to use a VR game to allow the countries to wage war. Thus, Forgotten Soul, a game on the brink of being launched for the public was requisitioned and bought by the UN.

At the beginning, most country only allowed military personnel to play. It was a gift and a curse at the same time. They were quite adept at fighting and thus, had a more advantageous time in game. However, most of them were total noobs.

Their plays were all over the place. They wouldn't assign stat points when they leveled up. They forgot to use their skills. They behaved weirdly when they talked to NPCs (Non Playing Characters), they missed a lot of opportunities. Basically, there were a lot of face-palming when the game was broadcast.

The Asian Confederation, having predicted the situation, started the mass recruitment of experienced gamers. They proved to be an asset the other countries regretted not exploiting earlier.

The first war in the Soul was The European Union (EU) vs the Asian Confederation (AC). It happened six months after the launch of the game. The Asian Confederation decided to declare war on the European Union. In real life, this would have been risky as they would need large quantities of resources and the damages to the land could be quite extensive. But in the Soul all of those were a moot point.

The difference in their plays were like night and day. On one hand, the EU players only concentrated on leveling up as fast as they could and totally ignored the unique dimension of the Soul. And on the other hand, the AC gamers integrated themselves completely into the History and the population of the Soul.

These two approaches showed their advantages and faults on the day of the convened battle. The EU players demonstrated an uniformed front with all of them being at the same level. They had, indeed, trained following a plan devised in real life. Being the soldiers that they were, they didn't divert from the training plan. They followed what they were told to do and nothing more.

The AC gamers demonstrated a more diversified front. Some were overly powerful, others had a more modest strength. But what distinguished them from their opponents was that none of them had the same class. There were magis, priests, warriors, bards. Their races was also vastly different from the UE players who were uniformly humans. There were beastmen, elves, dwarves and humans.

It all started six months after the launch of the game, on a hill stood an army of twenty thousand humans, all warriors and archers. They all wore the same armor above the same uniform. It was a strange sight to behold. They all looked alike and were standing in rows waiting for their enemy to appear. None uttered a word. The silence was deafening.

Suddenly, drums were heard through the fog enveloping the valley. They couldn't see anything, yet the sounds resounded through their chests. Their heartbeats picked up. They were ready for war, they were ready to fight for their country. The only thing they were waiting for was the order to attack. They waited with bated breath. It would come soon, they could feel it.

The time they agreed on the battle came and went but still no orders were given. The soldiers were getting restless. The sounds of the drums added to the fog that still hadn't lifted brought a creepy aura to the otherwise silent battlefield.

They hadn't sighted the enemies yet but they felt a deep bone apprehension creep on them. They were losing the war. They knew it but they couldn't understand how because no fights had even broken out yet.

A sudden heat came from behind them. Shocked, they looked back and saw they comrades' corpses burning. Panic gripped them. They couldn't fight because they couldn't see enemies but only their comrades falling.

Their formation broke. Slowly but surely, they left the hill and went into the valley. They were not equipped to fight a fire so the valley looked more welcoming. Unfortunately, as they entered the fog they were immediately attacked by the enemies they hadn't seen before.

The AC gamers had separated their forces into two groups. One was in charge of taking down the EU central command, to disrupt their formation and to force them to enter the dense fog their magicians created. The other was to patiently wait and ambush the soldiers as they

came into the valley.

The plan went flawlessly and the Asian Confederation gained several favorable business deals from the European Union. It was the start of a massive movement that brought continuous war in the Soul.

I saw it on TV. It wasn't impressive as the other wars but it was still considered a classic. But why was I witnessing this war? And for that matter why was I on a cloud? Couldn't they just make me watch a video? No, they had to put me on a cloud above the battlefield.

Fast enough, I understood why. There were voices all around me even though I saw no one. They were questioning the stupidity of people among other things.

Then everything shifted. I was still on a cloud but the situation below had totally changed. Now, I was witnessing the second war. The voices around me were still quite relaxed but it soon changed when we got to witness another war. As the different wars kept happening below, the voices got more and more agitated.

At first, they had been simple commentators but then when it kept happening again and again, they understood the problem was bigger than they had thought. Another world was at stake but they were the ones taking all the damage.

I didn't know how long I stayed there but I got to observe all the wars that happened on the Soul. It was kind of interesting at the beginning but I reached my limits real fast. I tried talking to the voices, they couldn't hear me.

After a few hours, it was either listen to what they were saying or die of boredom. I waited and waited for all of it to stop but it didn't. I tried to log out, I couldn't. It upset me a bit but I bid my time. After what felt like years, it finally ended. The voices disappeared and the wars down there stopped. I was still on my cloud, waiting to see what would happen next.

All of a sudden, I fell down the sky. I should have been screaming but as my smile firmly place. It would finally end. I would be able to go back to Anaheim and start my adventures. My fall stopped short of reaching the ground. I flailed around, hovering. My movement weren't impeded but I couldn't stand. As a last resort, I tried to use the grass as leverage to get upright but it was hard.

When I finally stood up I was still floating a few inches above the ground and I was alone. I looked everywhere around me. I was in a meadow in the middle of a forest. I tried to leave but I couldn't.

A woman appeared out of nowhere. She was dressed in green and had some kind of moss at the sides of her face. She was gorgeous in an out of this world way. She looked in my direction and spoke. I didn't understand what she was saying. She was speaking in a different language. What I perfectly understood though was the pop-ups that showed up.

*ping*

You have met Gaïa, the landmother.

+ 100 luck for meeting a legendary figure no one thought actually exists

You have received a quest!

Save Forgotten Soul

Through ages Forgotten Soul has suffered through many wars brought upon by adventurers. Gaïa asks you to bring a stop to save her land from any more destruction.

Difficulty: SS+

Requirements: be from the spirit race, be an adventurer, meet Gaïa

Rewards: ???

“You know I'm level 2, right?” I asked sarcastically. She didn't answer me. It was like she didn't hear me either.

You have accepted the quest.

“I di...” I didn't even have time to protest as I found myself back again in the room I previously trained in. The training master was back again.

“ That bitch gave me a quest!” I was fed up with all the crap that kept happening to me day after day.

“Oh! so you have it?”

“It's your fault! You damn bastard! I should never have opened that shitty present. I knew that there was something fishy but did I trust my instincts? No, I trusted you. You! piece of smelly ass, how could you do that to me...”

“Shut up!” He shouted. “I helped you get a quest with great rewards and that's the way you thank my generosity...”

“Tsk...what are you calling generosity. I got an impossible quest!”

I went too far. I knew it and the dagger at my throat knew it too. I started sweating bullets in a matter of seconds. I knew I couldn't die but thinking about the pain was enough to make me sweat.

“You ungrateful little piece of shit! You're going to leave this place, NOW! If I ever see you in town, I'll kill you in the most painful way I can think of. And don't worry I have a great imagination. Now, scram.”

I would like to say that I stayed around and showed him who the little shit was but that would be quite the exaggeration. I flew so fast I didn't even know how I got out of there. When I finally looked around me I was in a forest, quite a few miles away from Soren town. Well, flying and limitless stamina would do that to you.

I was all alone in a forest with no weapon. Was the universe against me or something? My real life was hell and my game life was no better. I only had run-ins with fickle weirdos with huge superiority complex bent on having me do whatever they wanted. It didn't matter whether I fought back or not, I always ended up screwed. Maybe I should just avoid people. Yeah, that's what I should do.

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