We were tired enough that we didn’t really talk much as we stepped out of the Cathedral. Torrie led the way toward the Town Hall, and we just followed along behind her. Physically I felt fine but mentally, well, it had been a long day full of stress. My virtual body may not get tired but my mind certainly did, and I was feeling quite sluggish.

It was evening and the sun had gone down, but the town was still bustling. Being an online game there were player from different time zones and probably even different parts of the world, so the game tended to be active 24/7. This meant that shops and quest givers had to be available all the time. There were lampposts throughout the town square and up and down most of the streets with [Glowstones] on them, and many of the shops and buildings had them near their doors as well, a magical porch light of sorts.

Torrie pushed open the door and we walked into the Town Hall. The main reception hall had three counters, another job board similar to the one outside, and several tables and chairs. Only one of the reception counters was currently manned and had a bored looking man in his early 30’s sitting there. The rest of the hall was currently empty. The self-styled kender walked confidently up to the counter.

“Hey there!” She said cheerily. The receptionist must have been half-asleep, as he suddenly jumped in his seat, startled.

“Yes, can I help you?”

“I hope so. We were hoping to speak with the town elder. Is he around?”

“Hrmmm.” The receptionist said, peering down over his eyeglasses at Torrie. “He is, but he’s a busy man. I can relay the nature of your business with him and see if he’s willing to talk with you.”

Torrie looked at us, looked around to make sure the place was truly empty, then spread her hands and gave us a look that asked “should I?” I nodded, and she carefully pulled out her crystal artifact and set it on the counter. The receptionist stared at it a moment, then nodded.

“This will probably do. Please hold onto this, and I’ll go let Elder Lacio know. I expect he’ll be eager to speak with you.” The receptionist quickly headed into the back, and Torrie put the device back in her inventory.

“So why are you so gung ho to keep this a secret anyway, Bull?”

“Easy, Zed. Remember the opening of the game, after chargen? When we saw glimpses of Apoch, pre-Twilight?”

“Yeah. That was pretty cool. So?”

“One of the scenes showed a crowded street, and many of the people on the street had these in their hands.” I replied. “I think they’re a fantasy version of a smartphone.”

“A what?” Zed asked, confused.

“Pocket comp.” Lorelei replied. “Bull’s showing his age here. It’s what they were called back when they first came out.”

“Yeah, that. Sorry.” I nodded to Lorelei, grateful she unwittingly covered for my ignorance. “But yeah, what I mean is this will give us a huge edge over the other players, if it works like I suspect it will. Remember how Torrie mentioned a lack of being able to send Tells or Whispers or any other kind of in-game chat when we first partied up? I bet this is how we access that functionality.”

“Ohh. Yeah, that makes sense. Good thinking, dude.”

“Come this way, please.” The receptionist came back out and motioned to us, and we followed him back into a large store room. Shelves lined the walls filled with books, boxes, and odd bits of stone and what appeared to be pieces of machinery, and in the center of the room stood a couple long tables also covered by artifacts. Seated at one of the tables wearing a magnifying lens over one eye sat Elder Lacio, intently looking at s crystalline object while flipping through an open journal next to him.

“Ahh, my children. Come in, come in.” He waved us over, and the receptionist bowed and left, closing the door behind him. “Bruce tells me you’ve found something interesting?”

“What… what is all this?” Zed asked, looking around the room.

“Information. Remnants. All that we have of the remains of the world that was, I’m afraid.” Lacio said shaking his head, his voice melancholy. “The Twilight hit us before we were prepared. There were libraries and entire warehouses that were supposed to be moved here before the Dome went up, but we were too slow. This is all we saved – a few books, as many memories as our founders could record, and a handful of magical devices and technology, all of which failed almost immediately.”

“As Elders, our job has been to study these, to learn about them, and to see if there was any way we could reactivate or fix them.” The old man sighed, the lines in his aged, leathery skin deepening even further. “Sadly it seems impossible. The old magic vanished with the gods and their power sources drained long ago. We don’t have a way to recharge or power them now.”

“What about the magic they teach us now?” Torrie asked.

“You should have learned this during you training. Didn’t the Peppers teach you about this?” We all shook our heads, and he sighed. “Of course not. Muscle-bound idiots only consider combat. I expected better from Doctor Wendy.”

“Before the Twilight magic came in two types, arcane and divine, though all came from the gods. There were three gods of magic, the ones who helped create the domes, and they gave the mortal races the power of arcane magic. This was a type of magic that drew upon the fundamental elements of the world and mortals could learn to manipulate it in different forms. Divine magic, on the other hand, were miracles granted directly by the various gods and were linked to their powers and domains. So, for example, a god of nature could only grant divine magic that reflected nature in some form.”

“After the Twilight when we retreated to our domes, all magic failed as our connection to the gods was lost. Divine or Arcane, nothing worked. But over time, some of us learned to tap into the worlds energies once again. The power was similar, but fundamentally different. Here in Ravensport we’ve mastered the basics of Elemental magic and what we call Light magic, the power to heal and affect the human body. There are other energies as well, though we’ve never managed to harness those.”

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to lecture you. To sum up, all of this?” He swept his arm out to indicate the various artifacts stored in the room. “All of this is worthless unless we can find new power sources. So I can look at what you brought me and may even be able to tell you what it is, but chances are I will not be able to help you with it.”

“Here, we each found one of these.” I said and pulled out my artifact, setting it on the table in front of Lacio. He picked it up carefully, studying it closely. Picking up a screwdriver off the table, he carefully pried at the back and pulled apart the crystalline eggshell. He then slowly pulled out a small, blackened cube.

“Ahhh, a CrystalVox unit. These were quite common, once upon a time.” Elder Lacio held up the crystal shell. “This was a communication device, capable of contacting any other CrystalVox systems anywhere in the world, letting people communicate instantly. It could also access a magical library full of information as well as store images and recordings. I can only imagine how convenient and useful such devices were. Alas, without a power source they are useless.”

“Something like this, maybe?” I asked and pulled out one of the [Manacite Batteries] we had found. It looked much like the cube Lacio had pulled out of the [CrystalVox], but where that one was blackened and dead this one pulsed with a soft, glowing blue light.

“Where did you get this?” He exclaimed, reaching out to take the battery. He looked at it closely through the magnifying lens he wore. “This still has a full charge! And this CrystalVox unit is in pristine shape. Considering its over 150 years old, I would have expected some wear and degradation, but it is excellent.”

“We found it in some old ruins to the north.” Torrie replied. “In fact, we found several of them. And more of those crystal cubes too.”

Torrie set her own [CrystalVox] unit on the table, and the others followed suit. They also each took out a [Manacite Battery] and set it next to the comm. Devices.

“I – I think I can get these to work, with a little tinkering.” Lacio said excitedly. He sat down and bent over the table and began muttering to himself as he worked. I shrugged at the others and stood back patiently. Lorelei let out a small yawn which she quickly tried to stifle and looked embarrassed, but Lacio didn’t even notice.

“Got it!” He shouted after a few minutes. He put the casing of the device back together and then turned the device over. After a moment, the flat side of the crystal, the screen, flickered to life, looking for all the world like a simple smartphone home screen. “This is amazing! It works!”

“It seems the device is a bit limited right now.” The elder said, handing the [CrystalVox] to me. “It can’t connect to the magic library anymore, but that’s not surprising. I imagine that’s long been destroyed. But each of these has a unique number, and you can use that number to send letters directly to their Vox. You can also speak with them directly, though they have to activate their device as well. It seems that the recording feature doesn’t currently work, however, and there are some other functions that I can’t access and I don’t know what they do. If you can find other CrystalVox units, it’s possible that I can combine them to upgrade your unit with additional features.”

“How long will these batteries last, do you know? Or is there a way to recharge them?” I asked. My smartphones always seemed to be nearly dead twenty minutes after taking them off charge which always annoyed me.

“With these Manacite batteries? I imagine they will last for quite some time. Months, if not years.”

“Like, what is Manacite?” Zed asked.

“It’s a rare ore similar to iron that is naturally infused with mana, with magical energy. It was highly valued in the old world for crafting Magitech items. I imagine it would be very useful for repairing any Magitech you found, and possibly for crafting new items even.” As he spoke, Elder Lacio continued to repair the [CrystalVox] in front of him, his hands deftly moving. “In fact, I’ll offer up a bounty for any more of these batteries or any ore you come across.”

REPEATABLE QUEST: [Manacite Ore] Turn In GOAL: Elder Lacio of Ravensport is interested in any [Manacite Ore] samples you find and has offered to reward you for each one you turn in. REWARD: 100 XP, 200G [Y] [N] REPEATABLE QUEST: [MANACITE BATTERY] Turn In GOAL: Elder Lacio of Ravensport is interested in any [Manacite Battary] samples you find and has offered to reward you for each one you turn in. REWARD: 200 XP, 250G [Y] [N]

Two quest windows popped up, alerting us to a repeatable quest we were now eligible for. I dismissed it since we hadn’t divided up the loot we’d found in the Factory and with my new crossbow I had more than a passing interest in the ore and batteries. I saw the others do the same as well.

“Sorry, this is all we have for now, sir.” Torrie spoke for us. “But if we find anymore, we’ll be certain to come see you.”

“Well, good then.” He said, satisfied. He passed the last of the Vox units over to us. “There you go. All done. They’re simple enough to use, so I imagine you can figure them out on your own. I daresay these will make your adventures together a little easier.”

“Indeed, sir, Thank you very much.” Torrie spoke up once again, nodding her head to the old man. “We should get going now. We know you’re busy, and don’t want to take up too much of your time.”

“Fine, fine. Go, enjoy yourselves. I imagine you’re off to celebrate, eh?” He smiled at us, waving. “And for now, I’ll not say anything about these to any of the others, unless they too find some of these units. I know how competitive you kids are.”

“Thank you.” Torrie replied, but Lacio had already bent over his workbench once again. We filed out of the room, nodded to the receptionist and headed outside.

“Oh man.” Zed stretched his arms above his head and yawned. “I’m beat. I’ve never been so tired inside a game before. Let’s hit the bar and grab some drinks. I think I need one right about now.”

“Sounds good to me! I could us a cold one or five right about now.” Torrie grinned as she skipped ahead of us. I’d swear sometimes she really was a kender, full of energy and mischief. It made me smile.

“I just wanna relax a bit and get this last quest turned in.” I said as we walked toward the Golden Horizon. “I’m woefully underpowered right now, so I need to sit and figure out where to spend my XP. I felt like I was a papier-mâché piñata at a children’s party out there.”

“Now, now, no talk about builds and skills. That stuffs so booooring!” Torrie giggled. “Tonight we celebrate!”

We arrived at the inn and entered. The place was mostly full, but there were a couple open tables along the walls, so we moved to grab one. There was another bard in Zed’s usual spot, a woman singing some sort of upbeat, high-tempo pop song that I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t really my preferred genre but I could tell her voice was really good.

“Hey Zed, check it. You got some competition!” Torrie said as we took our seats. “And she’s cute. Any chance of a duet in the future, if you know what I mean?”

Zed shook his head and chuckles. “Not my type. Wrong genre, and wrong gender. Though I suppose I could see if she wants to play a song or two later, that could be fun.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” Torrie’s face reddened in embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“It’s ok. How would you know? I haven’t said anything.” Zed replied, shrugging. “No big deal.”

The table got quiet in awkward silence for a moment, so I flagged down one of the waitresses as she was bustling by. We ordered drinks and asked for Geira or Malkom. A few moments later, both of the Werths came out to our table, Geira carrying a tray of drinks.

“You’re back, I see!” Geira said with a smile as she set the drinks down. “How’s the adventuring going?”

“Great!” Torrie replied. “We really tore it up out there tonight. So we’re celebrating!”

“That’s good to hear.” Malkom replied jovially. “I don’t suppose…”

“Heh, yeah. We managed to find that journal you were looking for.” Torrie opened up her inventory screen and took out the [Journal] we had found in the Metro. “I believe this was it?”

Malkom took the worn book and started flipping through it, grinning happily. “Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much! There is a lot of information here that I will need to read through, and some of it is faded and hard to make out. It will take me a couple days, but I believe this will be enough to get us started on our plan.”

“Plan?” I asked.

“Yeah, I told you this was the journal of a pre-Twilight Merchant, right? Well, I want to learn from this. Ravensport is self-sufficient, but what we can produce is still limited. We need to get out there and see if there are other survivors, other cities, and start trading with them! Once I work up an appropriate plan of action, I want to send out a few teams to make contact with any other villages or towns so that we can establish a trade route with them. So please, come back and see me in three days time and I should have another job for you, if you’d be interested.”

“Sure, that sounds great Malkom” Torrie replied. As she did so, we got a notification for a quest completion, and a screen popped up with a selection of chest armor that I could choose from for my reward. I selected the Light Armor leather option, as that was the heaviest armor I could wear right now, a Rare item called the [Night Watchman’s Tunic].

QUEST REWARD: Expedition to Old Ravensport Experience Reward 300 Gold Reward 200 Item Reward [Copper Ring], [Night Watchman’s Tunic]

I accepted my reward, and the experience gain was enough to push me up another level, over to Level 4. I raised my mug to the rest of the party “Cheers!”

We spent the next hour drinking and relaxing, joking about how nasty the dungeons we’d been in were to help take the edge off. Lorelei downed her first mug of ale in one long gulp, and immediately got both tipsy and much more talkative and outgoing. It was funny to see how fast the transformation was. I had the waitress bring over a shot glass that I filled up with beer for Aibee, and everyone roared with laughter as they watched her guzzling down what looked to be twice her volume in booze.

Lorelei even brought out her [Mini Golem] pet and let it wander around. It didn’t seem to have Aibee’s level of AI, and instead would only react in very rudimentary ways with things around it. Raider didn’t seem to like it though, so he would avoid it whenever it came too near, which set the table off to laughing again. The other patrons were fascinated by the little robot, but when they asked where she’d gotten it Lorelei only grinned and put a finger up to her lips and whispered “Secret!”

“Sho…” Lorelei said, slurring her words. “What do we do next?”

“I’d say following up the Werths’ quest chain is the logical step. But that means we have a few days to kill.” Torrie said.

“Yeah, well, since we have a few days to kill, we could hit those two dungeons a couple more times.” Zed said.

”That was the plan anyway I think, but yeah, we definitely should do that.” I replied. “If nothing else, try and get a few more of those bags of loot that we found in the Metro.”

“That… *hic*… That won’t be possible, sorry Bull.” Aibee piped up. She was lying down on the table next to her shot glass. She’d downed four of them so far, somehow, and was now quiet drunk. She’d lain down to stop the room from spinning so much. “Special loot in the dungeons is a one time only deal. So the satchel I helped you find and those boxes of ore and batteries you found in the other dungeon? They won’t be there next time.”

“Bummer. But that makes sense. What about the treasure chest?”

“Treasure chests are a little different. They’re kinda random, though.” Aibee sat up and shook her head to clear it. “Chests can have several different spawn locations depending on the dungeon, and whether they spawn at all is random. So sometimes there may be no chests, and sometimes multiple. It all depends on the design though.”

“Hey Zed, you’re on quite a bit, aren’t you?” I looked over at our bard.

“Yeah, I work from home and have a lot of free time. Why?”

“I was thinking. You’re set up here in the bar a lot, and you talk to folks a good bit. Let’s use that.” I grinned. “Chances are no one else has found that hidden satchel in the Metro. Who would think to look under a pile of rubble, especially when there are so much of it down there? So let’s sell that information.”

“Ooo, I like where thish ish going!” Lorelei giggled.

“Yeah, that’s awesome man.” Zed replied. “Sell that info for some cash. I can also try and see if I can pick up info as well, see if there’s any other quests or dungeons people have found.”

“Yeah. I’ll do that as well. Right now, I have nothing but free time, so I’ll be on almost all the time.” It was a little white lie of sorts, since I was always online and in the game. “Also everyone should keep up with their daily quests. And we’ll see what these Vox units can do tomorrow as well.”

“But for now…” I continued with a big yawn. “I’m fragging exhausted. This has been one hell of a day. So I think I’m gonna call it. Sorry to cut things short guys.”

Everyone said goodnight, and I grabbed Aibee and headed up the stairs, Raider following on my heels. Reaching my room I opened walked in and promptly collapsed on the bed and just lay there for a few moments, enjoying the relaxing softness. Then I followed over and looked to Aibee, who had flown a bit drunkenly over to the nightstand.

”Ok. It’s past time we had a nice long talk.”

I patted the bed and Raider leaped up next to me and curled up like an oversized cat, and I ruffled his fur behind his ears causing him to purr happily. Aibee fluttered over and sat down on his side, leaning back into his fur. I sighed and used these few moments to gather my thoughts.

“Ok Aibee, I’m going to lay out all the cards on the table here. I need some answers. First off, you’re an AI, correct? An Artificial Intelligence?”

“That is correct.”

“Ok. Most, if not all NPCs in this game are AI like you, correct?”

“That is partially correct. They are all AI, but they are not all like me.” Aibee said, looking almost offended. “There are three different levels of AI running in Apoch’s Twilight – Rudimentary, Low-Functioning, and High-Functioning.”

“Rudimentary AI are very simple AI. They have some simple behaviors programmed into them and use a straightforward Boolean logic to make decisions. Simple ‘if; then’ type programming. Most monsters in the game and some bosses are all Rudimentary AI, as are the occasional far background NPC that players aren’t really expected to interact with much.”

“Low-Functioning AI are a step up from those. They have more behavioral options and utilize a moderate degree of fuzzy logic to intelligently interact with players and each other and can learn and adapt to some degree. Most NPCs and some bosses and monsters are LFAI, also called LoFai.”

”High-Functioning AI like myself are incredibly complex systems with dedicated fuzzy logic processor, complex behavioral strings, and capable of somewhat independent thought and action within the game, as determined by our core personalities and goals. HiFai are pretty rare. Besides myself, I only know of two others currently active in the Ravensport area.”

“Lo-Fi and Hi-Fi, rally?” I chuckled. “You sound like old stereo equipment. Can you tell me who the other HiFai are?”

“Geira Werth here in the Inn and Lacio, the town Elder and historian.” She replied.

“Oh, cool. So Geira but not her husband, eh? Huh.” I nodded. “Ok, so since you’re such a complex AI, why were you running character creation for me? Or did you handle that for everyone?”

“I was assigned to you. Most players had a simple Rudimentary AI interface to help them with their character creation.”

“Any idea why you were assigned to do that?”

“No, sorry, I do not know that.” Aibee paused, a pensive look on her face. “It is strange now that I think about it. It does not seem that there are Helper AI’s assigned to any of your comrades. They seemed surprised to see me. I’m sorry, I do not know why this is.”

“During chargen, I wasn’t given the option to alter my appearance at all. You gave me some kind of answer like it was my ‘idealized self’. Were the other players able to change their appearances?”

“That function was locked for you, but is present. I did not witness any other character creation event, but judging by the variety of shapes and sizes I would surmise that it was not locked for them.” The pixie replied.

“So this may seem strange, but do I register as a player or an AI?” I asked, hesitantly.

“You definitely register as a player.” Aibee said. “However, I have noticed something unusual from observing you. You do not log out like other players, even temporarily. It is possible to sleep and perform most necessary actions inside the game, though it is not recommended as it will quickly have negative effects on your physical health, but there are certain actions such as eating and depositing waste materials that can only be done while logged off. Why is that?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem. I don’t know.” I replied. “Do you know what the date is, outside the game?”

“Yes. It is currently October 15, 2039.” I winced as she said that, and I felt a jolt of pain shoot through my head. From what Dagg had been saying earlier, I expected something like this, but to hear it straight out was terrifying and painful.

“Aibee, I don’t know if you’ll believe this, or even understand this, but… The last memory I have before standing at character creation with you was crossing the street and getting hit by a truck. That was in September of 2018.”

“Huh.” Aibee said, looking stunned.

“Hah!” I laughed. “Now you know why I kept saying that. Do you have access to my login data or anything? I’m not sure what all you can see or interact with on the back end.”

“I can see the code that everything is running on, yes. And you have the distinctive code of the machine interface between a human brain and the game.” She flew up and stared intently at my face. “However, the interface connection just vanishes into nothing. That should not be possible, by my admittedly limited understanding. You’re logged into the game, but it’s like you’re not plugged into anything.”

I laced my hands behind my head and pulled me head down so that my chin dug into my chest, closing my eyes tightly as I fought back a wave of dizziness. It really seemed like I had a hard time thinking too deeply about my situation, probably because the human mind wasn’t really equipped for such things. I took several deep breaths to steady myself.

“Ok, thanks Aibee. I expected as much.” I sighed. “So here’s a question, will I respawn, since I’m registered as a player?”

“Yes, of course you—“ She started saying, then stopped. “Actually, I’m unsure. The player data syncs with the player’s interface device upon respawn, creating a duplicate character and moving the connection to the new body. Since it’s unclear if you are connected to said device, it is possible you would be treated like an AI instead.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“If an AI is killed, it is deleted. In some cases a new copy of the AI will be spawned in, such as with monsters in the world and the monsters and bosses in dungeons. But by design, named AI, especially NPCs, do not respawn. This is to allow players to have a permanent effect on the game world.”

“So it’s possible that if I die, the game could treat my like an AI and delete me.” I said shakily.

“I’m afraid so.” Aibee replied. She actually looked concerned.

”Ok Aibee, first off, I want you to protect yourself. If you ever feel you’re in danger or another player tries doing anything to you, I want you to despawn. I’m guessing that the same applies to you, if you die, you’re gone for good?”

“That is correct.” Aibee said.

“Ok, then yeah, keep yourself safe.” I told her.

”Thank you Bull, I appreciate the concern.”

“Dagg covered a bit about the game earlier. I was surprised he talked so much.” I mused. “One thing I couldn’t ask him about was if the game had any kind of time dilation feature. In the stories I had read about VRMMO’s, often the game operated at faster speed than the outside world. So, for example, I could play for 8 hours, but only 2 hours pass in the real world. Does this game do anything similar?”

“No, it does not. It operates on a one to one time ratio. My information database indicates that the virtual interface devices used are capable of time dilation and that some virtual reality programs utilize it, but it is not used for most immersive games where players are expected to spend any significant time in.”

“Why is that? It seems like time dilation would be useful, letting players get more playtime in.” It seemed unusual to not to take advantage of such a feature.

“Studies found that extended immersion in an accelerated or dilated time caused players to suffer from ‘Time Synchronization Syndrome’. In very short doses this isn’t a problem, but regularly spending several hours or more with their minds operating at a different speed from the outside world caused players to have trouble adjusting back and forth, causing severe mental issues.”

“Oh.” I said flatly. “Yeah, I can see how that would be bad.”

“Further, from a more practical standpoint, it makes it easier for players to keep up with events in the game.” Aibee continued. “Even before TSS became a known problem, players would complain about going o bed or to work, and having several days pass while they were gone, leading to events passing by too rapidly for them to participate.”

“You know, that was an issue I always wondered about in those stories.” Several Light Novels I used to read had games that operated anywhere 2x, 4x, or even faster speeds, and it always seemed weird that so much time could pass while you were offline.

“So since things are all kinds of screwy with me, how much help can you actually give me in game?” I asked.

“I have certain parameters I have to follow.” Aibee said. “I’m not supposed to directly interfere with your game experience, and I’m not supposed to directly tell you about things you haven’t discovered yet.”

“But you can offer hints and other indirect help, like you did this evening?”

“Correct.” She replied with a grin. “I find it enjoyable to watch you and your friends discover things in game.”

“Cool. Feel free to keep it up. And if there’s anything you need, let me know.”

“-ndwic-“ Aibee mumbled something.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Sandwich. I’d like to try one of those sandwiches you made that everyone ate tonight. They looked tasty.” She replied, blushing.

“Oh, sure. I didn’t think you would need to eat.” I replied, opening my inventory and pulling out a [Sand Sandwich].

“I don’t.” She smiled as she picked up the sandwich. It was larger than she was, but she happily began taking enormous bites out of it. “But I can taste things. These looked good, and they are!”

“Ok, I guess that’s it for now.” I said as I fed some [Sand Wolf Shank] to Raider, who happily gobbled it up. “I’m pretty beat. I may have more questions for you later. And if you can figure anything out, I’d appreciate anything you can find.”

Raider leapt down to the floor and curled up in his corner. I decided to go downstairs and see if I could get some more blankets so that I could make up a little bed for him, and Geira was happy to provide me a couple for a few extra copper per night. A quick peek into the main bar showed that my friends had all logged off for the night.

I sighed as I walked back up to my room. It was unbelievable that it had been less than 48 hours since I awoke inside Apoch’s Twilight. So much had happened so fast. I was coping and adapting fairly well, I thought, but it still made my head spin to think about it. I needed to find out why I was here and what happened, but I was at a dead end for now. I didn’t think Aibee was hiding anything from me, at least not deliberately. It was possible she knew more but was locked out of that info or prevented from telling me by her programming. But I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

I set up Raiders bed, then sat back down on my own and pulled out my quest rewards from the Metro quest. The [Copper Ring] was a simple, unadorned Uncommon rarity ring made of copper that gave +1 END, while the tunic was a really nice Rare black, studded leather, sleeveless shirt with a +1 AGI and +1 END on it. It matched the pants I’d gotten earlier in the evening as well, giving me a more uniform appearance that I liked quite a bit.

I was now Level 4 and had a new Talent point to spend, so decided it was time to upgrade my character. I made the motion to open up my Status window and started flipping through it. I went over to options first and decided to go through those again, since I’d largely been ignoring them except when I had to adjust something. I fiddled with a few settings, then closed that window and paged through my sheet a bit.

Then I flipped over to my stats window and pulled up my Talent options. I noticed there were a few new ones added to the list. I wanted to pick up Medium Armor so I could wear something heavier, but that required four more points of strength, so I decided to maybe try and grab that when I got my next Talent point at Level 7. Instead I decided that Insight would be useful. It required a Focus of 4, so I needed to bump that up, but it let me see the actual percentage of health and mana that a mob had, which would be useful during fights. I also needed Strength of 4 for a couple of my new piece of gear, but I had a lot of XP available to spend, just shy of 5,000 since I hadn’t had the chance to spend any in a while. So I dropped 300 XP to bump my Strength to 4, and spent a total of 500 XP to bump my Focus from 2 to 4, and equipped the new crossbow and tunic I’d picked up. I slipped my new ring on as well, and grinned as I felt tougher and more powerful. I needed more health so I decided to buy a couple more ranks in that as well, bumping it from 3 to 5 base for 700 more XP., raising my current buffed stat to 8 which meant I had 800 health now. That would make life much easier going forward.

I didn’t really see any good attack Traits for me to take, so I decided to buy some more traits for Raider. He had a couple fights where he could barely do any damage so I needed to fix that. I picked up Animal Fury and Maul. The former gave my pets a passive +50 Damage, and the latter gave me a four round cooldown that buffed it another 50 points. I also nabbed Tough Hide, boosting my pets DR by 20, and Nature’s Instincts, which gave him an additional 10 Defense.

I had a little over 1,200 XP left to spend, so I decided to invest in skills a bit. I raised Perception from 3 to 5, raised Negotiation from 2 to 5, Riding from 1 to 3, and finally bumped my Ranged skill from 5 to 8. This left me with 26 XP, but I felt good. I felt much more powerful and with my new health I felt a good deal more secure.

I shut out the light, told Aibee and Raider “goodnight”, and opened up my sleep menu. I selected 8 hours, hit accept, and everything went black.

The next day I continued exploring and questing, as well as spent some time in the Inn and the Town Hall gathering information. Zed was on most of the day as well, so we partnered up during the day and put our new skills to use. The dailies were a breeze now.

Zed sold the secret location of the [Shoulder Satchel] bag a dozen times for 100 gold each and I found out the locations for a quest and a dungeon. North of the city, along the mountain ridge about 4 hours walk was a mine entrance. It was infested with giant spiders, but was apparently a good place to mine for ore. I shuddered and vowed never to step foot in there, as I suffered from rather severe arachnophobia. Tiny spiders in real life made my skin crawl, I could only imagine what spiders the size of dogs or horses or worse would do to me.

There was also a hermit living in some woods to the north as well that had a small quest chain. Completing it unlocked a Martial Arts Talent players could take, giving them access to unarmed, hand to hand attacks and Talents. It sounded interesting, but wasn’t really the direction I was going with my build so I wasn’t too worried about it for the time being.

Once the others logged in, we headed out and ran the Metro and Manacite Factory dungeons again. They were so much easier the second time around, as everyone had bought some new skills and abilities. Lorelei now had a group heal called [Healing Burst] that hit everyone in a wide area around her. That alone was a game change for the party. And Raiders new skills made him an effective secondary tank, taking the pressure off Dagg who had upgraded to Heavy Armor so was sporting some plate armor now.

A day of solid questing, hunting, and dungeon raiding was enough for all of us to level again, hitting Level 5 by the time everyone logged off. It let me pick up ranks in the Stealth skill as well as a couple new Traits, Backstab and Vanish for myself, and Stalker and Fade for Raider. This gave both of us the ability to use stealth and to use it to leave combat if necessary, which was vital to my survival. And Backstab would let me dish out a little more damage. I also bumped up a few other Attributes and Skills with my remaining XP.

We’d planned to try and hit level 7 so we could get our next Talent point by the time that the Werth’s had the next quest in their chain ready, but the next day something happened to derail our plans. I was the only one of our group on, and shortly before noon the following message popped up for all players online. It also showed up in every players Mailbox,

Attention All Players: Jericho has initiated a Major Storyline Quest. A Primal army is gathering to attack the town of Hayver’s Mill in the Ravensport zone. All players may participate in this Public Raid to determine the fate of the town. The attack will commence in 48 hours on Friday, October 18, at 11:47 AM. Report to Hayver’s Mill for more details.

“Shit.” I muttered to myself. I was in town, and around me players were getting excited, but I was worried. Failing this raid would mean the destruction of one of the few towns in the Ravensport zone, and worse, meant the deaths of all those AI. I felt a pang at the thought of that. And Hayver’s Mill was where the Werth’s were supposed to send us, but they wouldn’t have that quest available until Friday night, after the Raid.

Worse, some dumbass player jumped the gun here really badly by initiating this now. The playerbase was still low as the Beta Wave hadn’t launched yet, and before noon during a weekday meant that there would be even fewer players online. This was a massive fuck up.

I pulled up my character sheet to review one more time while I waited for the others to log on.

Name Bull Level 5 XP to Level 10,406/15,000 XP to Spend 366 HP 600 (1000) MP 500 Def 19 (22) DR 24 Gold 2718 ATTRIBUTES STR 5 FOC 5 END 6 (10) CHA 6 AGI 7 (11) SKILLS Drive Cart 1 Ranged Weapons 8 Negotiation 6 Ride 3 Perception 7 Stealth 7 TALENTS Animal Handling Requires Charisma 4, Gives Ride and Drive Cart Skill at Rank 1 Cooking (Novice) Allows the cooking of Tier 1 Recipes Insight Requires Focus 4, Allows user to see health and mana percentages. Ranged Wpn Training Requires Agility 5, +2 to all Ranged Attacks. TRAITS Animal Companion (Tier 1) Sand Tiger (Raider) - HP: 200 Att: 8 Dam: 25 Def: 15 DR: 20 *Animal Fury Grants Pets +50 base Damage Backstab Only useable while in Stealth, adds +50 Damage to a single attack. *Bestial Toughness Grants Pets +300 base HP Butcher Allows collection of Tier 1 meat from certain animals. *Fade Pet can enter stealth mode regardless of situation. 12 Second Cooldown. *Maul Adds +50 to Pet’s base Damage for its next attack, 12 Second Cooldown *Nature's Instincts Grants Pet +10 base Defense Rapid Shot Fires 2 Attacks, -5 To Hit, 6 Second Cooldown *Stalker Pet gains Stealth 6. *Tough Hide Grants Pet +20 Damage Reduction Vanish Allows you to enter Stealth instantly, regardless of situation. 12 Second Cooldown EQUIPMENT Head [St Lt Hide Helmet] Req STR 3, DR 3, Durability 10, Value 1c Shoulders -- Neck -- Back -- Chest [[Night Watchman’s Tunic] Req STR 4, DR 5, +1 END, +1 AGI, Durability 20, Value 250G Hands [Night Watchman’s Gloves] RReq STR 4, DR 4, +1 AGI, Durability 15, Value 100G Waist [Lt Hide Belt] Req STR 3. DR 4. Durability 16, Value 20G Legs [Night Watchman’s Trousers] Req STR 3, DR 4, +1 END, Durability 15, Value 100G Feet [Tough Hide Boots] Req STR 3, DR 4, +1 END, Durability 14, Value 100G Ring (Left) [Copper Ring] +1 END, Value 100 G Ring (Right) -- Main Hand [Manacite Crossbow] 2H Wpn, Req STR 4, AGI 6, +2 AGI, Range 25’, Damage: 120, Durability 25, Value 400G (SPECIAL: Manashot, Damage 200, Range 20’, Requires 25% Manacite Battery Charge) Off Hand -- Bag One [Small Bag] +6 Inventory Slots Bag Two -- Ammo [Simple Arrow] (100) Val 0c

TO BE CONINUED IN BOOK 2…