It took a month before their dynamic went mostly back to normal, one filled with tension and regret as Heather and Jamie skated around each other, trying not to set off their new instincts. Painful as it was, Jamie knew it was necessary. Even now, she could feel the whispers in her thoughts, the sweet melodies playing in her head, punctuated by Heather’s screams of pain and the panic filling her eyes.

Shaking her head, Jamie focused on what she was doing, trying to drown out the visions filling her mind. Pressing her chest against the floor, she exhaled softly, lifting it back up again. She let herself hang like that for a while, her head angled towards the floor, her body only supported by her palms. Without weights or a bar to work with, calisthenics were really the only way for her to gain strength.

Pushing her body up into a handstand, she watched as Heather moved about the room, sweat dripping down her form as she panted, circulating between running and pushups at regular intervals. They’d both done a strength workout together yesterday, an unspoken reconciliation occurring for what happened a month ago.

Sighing, Jamie bent her arms until her head was almost brushing the floor, locking her body in that position. Unfortunately, neither of them could stomach having their weapons on hand after what they’d done, so they’d hidden them away in the back of the food storage room, which was behind one of the walls. It helped negate the impulses they both felt, but it was only marginally better than it would’ve been otherwise.

It had taken them almost a full day to clean the room (and their clothes), scrubbing hard to remove the scent and stain of blood. They’d both stayed far away from each other as they worked. Jamie felt bile rise in her throat as she remembered… exactly what she had done to Heather. It was so far removed from how she normally acted that it had almost felt like she was possessed.

And yet… it was strange. It was both not how she acted and somehow exactly how she acted. It was hard to explain, but it was almost like having the most horrifyingly dark thoughts she’d sometimes think in her own mind be released upon the world. It was making her wonder just how much of how she was acting was truly influenced by the game.

Grunting, she forced herself up, springing off the ground. Tucking into a flip, she landed with her body horizontal to the ground, bending her arms to reduce the strain from the impact. Her legs stayed in the air the entire time, and her chest and core were burning as she held her body in place. Continuing through her exercises, she lasted a few more minutes before letting herself rest, her muscles throbbing.

Heather continued for another half hour, gradually speeding up the pace. Jamie watched as she worked, her eyebrows slowly rising as she saw just how fast Heather was starting to go. Having a high AGI STAT was no joke. It wasn’t anything crazy compared to some of the other players she’d seen in the past, maybe half the speed of a car on a highway, but if Heather continued growing as she was…

Jamie shuddered, turning her attention away and guzzling some water. Heather, with her monstrous speed and the skills given to her as a BERSERKER, would be a true terror once they made it out of this place.

…Well, that was if they made it out of this place. Jamie hadn’t told Heather what waited for them once they left the TRAINING ROOM, but there was a good reason nobody ever finished this beginner area. Climbing the TOWER, then conquering the COLOSSEUM, and then wading through the ABYSS were enough to give people nightmares.

She was pulled from her thoughts as Heather collapsed, almost hyperventilating. Even laying on the ground like she was, her muscles were still twitching and shaking from exertion. Shaking her head, Jamie made her way over.

“Here,” Jamie said, handing Heather a water bottle. She took it gratefully, downing it faster than Jamie could blink. “You’re starting to push yourself too hard, H. You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“What… do you mean?” Heather asked, struggling to form words in her exhausted state.

“If you keep pushing yourself this hard, your STATS will start decreasing as a punishment. You gotta treat it like you’re working out in real life, not like you can just keep going without consequences.” Heather frowned for a moment but seemed to quickly come to terms with that realization. Jamie smiled at her, reaching down to help her up.

“Alright, we’re gonna take a break day tomorrow. Let’s get some dinner and head to bed, and we’ll work on something different in the morning,” Jamie said, and she watched Heather’s eyes light up for a moment, excited at the prospect of having something else to do.

She chuckled at that, and Heather shot her a glare. Heather was a bit of a workout nut in real life, but even with that the constant training seemed to be getting to her. Especially since she wasn’t getting returns from her efforts as quickly as she would in real life.

Jamie gave a cheeky wave before bounding off to the storage area to grab some food. They’d barely made a dent in it, which was comforting. It meant they had more time to prepare before they challenged the beginner area.

“Ugh, canned soup? Again? Man, this is getting old…” Heather sighed, using a can opener to pry the lid off. Grimacing, she brought the can to her lips and downed it all in one go, her face turning slightly green.

“Yeah, I know tomato soup isn’t your fave, but we’ve got way too much of it in storage and gotta eat it at some point,” Jamie replied, cracking open her own soup can. The flavor that hit her tongue wasn’t anything she enjoyed, but it was better than nothing. She’d eaten worse.

They spent the next hour or so exploring their menus before bed, trying to research whatever they could find that would help improve their avatars. Jamie had already found a few things that were useful, some of which she would mention in the morning, but most things led to dead ends. Barely anyone ever played on Realistic mode, so not much was known about how it worked.

Sighing, Jamie closed her menu before moving over to a corner of the room with a small pile of blankets lying on the floor. There were no beds in the TRAINING ROOM, so they had to make do with whatever they could find. They’d found the blankets covering the food in the storage room their first day stuck here.

Closing her eyes, Jamie let her body relax as her thoughts finally calmed down for once. She felt a warmth press against her back and smiled as Heather’s breathing leveled out. They’d been sleeping back-to-back like this ever since their first night here, and Jamie honestly didn’t mind it all that much. It helped ground her, reminding her that she wasn’t alone here.

She’d been worried that their unspoken sleeping arrangement would be broken after she’d… snapped, but Heather had still slept in the same position as the nights before. The only difference Jamie noticed was that her muscles were stiffer than usual, which was perfectly reasonable after what happened.

It took Jamie far too long to fall asleep, and her dreams were filled with visions of her actions from a month prior. The smell of blood permeated her nightmares, and she felt a nauseating satisfaction in the depths of her soul as she watched Heather scream and beg for mercy.

Heather’s multitude of deaths played on loop, and Jamie felt her pleasure grow after each one. It was some carnal desire to just… kill kill killkillkillkill–

Waking up with a gasp, shuddering and shaking as sweat ran through her clothes, Jamie felt a pair of warm arms wrap around her stomach. She shuddered, letting the feeling ground her, trying to drown out that accursed voice screaming for blood.

“It’s all right,” Heather whispered behind her. “You’re still in control.”

It took everything Jamie had not to puke, half-choked sobs wracking her frame. This whole situation was a nightmare. She’d just wanted to spend time with her friend, helping her learn the ropes of Leveled Plane. And now…

Jamie broke, a wail filling the twilight darkness of the room. Distantly, she felt Heather’s arms tighten around her, a wet spot forming on her back, and knew that she wasn’t the only one to suffer nightmares tonight.

Sadly, this wasn’t a new occurrence for either of them. Ever since that first week, they’d both woken up from the occasional nightmare, which was only exacerbated by the new instincts they both had. It was a miracle that they were able to function throughout the day, considering how little sleep they’d been getting.

By the time Jamie calmed down, the twilight in the room was starting to lift, signifying that it was getting close to dawn. Sighing, she pushed herself to her feet, groaning from the sourness of her limbs. Her stomach was still churning, but it was at least manageable compared to before.

After a short breakfast, Jamie led Heather to the center of the room, laying down against the floor. Heather joined her, and they spent a few moments just staring up at the ceiling.

“Alright,” Jamie sighed, “there’s something I wanna try today, but I dunno how well it’s gonna work. It’s the whole MP thing that we have in our STATS. Stands for magic potential, and I wanna see if we can do anything with it.”

She heard Heather yawn next to her. “Yeah, I noticed that. The menu said something about me having a LIGHTNING affinity? Dunno what that means though.”

“Ah, that’ll work well with your setup,” Jamie said, some of her thoughts clicking into place. “Makes sense actually, since you built your avatar around speed. Since your affinity's LIGHTNING, though, that's the only type of magic you'll be able to use. Not a bad deal.”

Heather stayed quiet as Jamie opened her menu, shifting so that she could see it better. Moving through a few different windows, Jamie eventually found the one she was looking for.

“See this?” Jamie asked, pointing to a symbol on the top right corner of the screen. Heather nodded. “That’s how you’d usually activate your MP for the first time. Hit that button, and everything just sorta… works. It’s hard to describe.”

“Oh… but it’s grayed out…”

“Yep, which is why I looked into it a bit. Wanted to see if anyone’s ever activated their MP on Realistic mode, since it automatically disables most of the menu functions.”

Heather didn’t reply, seeming to be focused on her own menu. Jamie worked through a few more windows before finding what she was looking for.

“Alright, here we are,” she said, catching Heather’s attention again. “This says I have both WIND and EARTH affinities, which lines up with my CLASS. Now, there should be an activation requirements page, I just gotta…”

Doing a particular motion with her fingers, the same used to zoom in on smartphones, Jamie brought up a page that showed more information about her affinities. There was a ton of intriguing information (from what she could see) but what she was interested in was only visible when she scrolled to the very bottom of the screen.

WIND: Feel the shifting currents of the air around you. Let them flow and shape your form. As you seek the truth, fill your center with the key. Become one with the passage of the root.

EARTH: Let the glass be filled from the bottom. Energy flows within and without. Shatter the core as you tread through the mud. Bridge the gap between self and sod.

Jamie just kinda… stared for a moment, her mind going blank. Then she groaned.

“Well, that’s useless,” she whispered, a bitterness creeping into her tone. She felt Heather perk up beside her and shifted a bit so she could see her face better.

“I dunno about that,” Heather said, propping herself up on her elbow. She brought her face closer to the screen, her eyebrows pinching together as her forehead crinkled.

“Remember how I did karate, Jay?” she asked, and Jamie nodded. “The EARTH affinity describes some pretty similar stuff to the more advanced techniques we were learning at the dojo. There’s the whole concept of qi, which I think is one of the things they’re getting at here.”

Jamie hummed, her doubts starting to recede. “Whatcha mean, H?”

“Well, I never put much stock in it, but the concept was to draw your energy from the earth as you moved. It’s supposed to give you greater strength during punches and kicks. Sure, it worked, but that might’ve just been because of how I was focusing instead of some external energy source.”

“How’s it work though?” she asked, and Heather frowned.

“Usually, you’d try and focus on your center, for starters. I was never too good at it, so that’s like all the advice I’ll be able to give you. Sorry.” Heather was sulking when Jamie glanced over at her, and she chuckled.

“Don’t worry. It’s something to start with, at least,” she said, and Heather nodded.

“No clue what to do about WIND, though,” Heather said. “Can’t help you there. The phrasing’s a bit weird.”

“Meh, I’ll figure it out eventually. I’ll work on EARTH for now. By the way, what’s yours say?” It took Heather a moment to find the description for her affinity, but once she read it, she let out a soft chuckle.

LIGHTNING: Circulate the energy running through your veins. Draw upon the shifting poles of the world. Release the trigger, pump the round. Shatter the barriers of time and space.

“That’s like the most convoluted thing I’ve ever seen,” Heather said. “There’s no meaning to any of this! What the heck!?” Jamie only caught Heather’s slip from her small wince, the system having corrected her language. She grinned, and Heather glared at her.

“Looks like we’ve both got something to work on, don’t we?” Jamie asked, and Heather’s glare disappeared as she nodded. They both stood, clasping hands for a moment before moving to opposite ends of the room to practice.

Jamie tried a multitude of different ideas to draw upon her EARTH affinity for hours, but nothing seemed to work. The best results she found were when she tried meditating. There was… something that brushed the edges of her senses, but she couldn’t seem to grasp it whatsoever.

Growling, she let out a shout of frustration, unconsciously throwing her arms up as she broke her meditative state. She felt her blood suddenly rushing through her veins, and the ground beneath her feet trembled. Letting out a startled shout, she fell on her butt.

She heard Heather laughing from the other end of the room, and she tried to send her a glare, she really did. But just being able to at least figure one part out of her MP brought a blinding grin to her face.

“I did something, H!” she called, and before she knew it Heather was standing in front of her, helping her up.

“I saw! You looked like such an idiot!” This time, the glare broke through, but Heather wasn’t fazed, still chuckling. “Well, I’m getting close with LIGHTNING, but I can’t seem to circulate my energy properly.”

“It’s a start for me, but I’m nowhere close to being able to use it,” Jamie said, shrugging. “Anyways, wanna show me where you’re at?”

Heather nodded before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath. Jamie watched as her muscles tensed and contracted, her eyes shifting beneath her eyelids as she focused. Heather stayed like that for a few minutes, sweat starting to drip down her frame. She grit her teeth, her skin starting to tint slightly blue.

Jamie’s eyes widened as she watched flashes of electricity suddenly spark beneath Heather’s skin. It looked absolutely beautiful… for all of one second. Then Heather’s eyes snapped open, her blue eyes filled with lightning, and with a pained scream, her body exploded, gore splattering across the room. Jamie froze, covered in red flesh with a lung sliding down her face. Then her stomach rebelled before she tried to scream.