After a few moments, Rebecca finally stretched and slowly stood up. “Fine. Let’s go see if there’s anything in the drama supplies which I can wear now. We can’t just sit here forever, anyway.”

“Exactly.” Taking a moment to stick his hand in the black hole floating before him, Matthew pulled out a long narrow sword in a scabbard and fastened it around his waist. Reaching into the hole a second time, he pulled out a pistol with a small bag tied to in by what looked like a thin piece of yarn. Looking over at Rebecca, he held out the gun and asked, “Want to see if you can use this?”

Taking it gently, Rebecca slowly chewed on her lower lip. “I’ve never fired a gun before,” she admitted.

“It’s no big deal,” Matthew told her, chuckling slightly. “Just point and pull the trigger. It’s not loaded yet, so give it a try and see how it feels to you.”

Frowning, Rebecca slowly turned and pointed the pistol at the trashcan near the sinks. “Bang. Bang. I killed it,” she joked and then frowned slightly as she lifted the gun up to look at it, before asking, “How do I take the safety off? It won’t fire.”

“Crap.” Shaking his head, Matthew held out his hand towards her. “Might as well let me have that then. It’s not a weapon that your class can use. The safety isn’t on. You just can’t pull the trigger.” Frowning, he let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know if it’s because a spelldancer is a wizard type, or whatnot, but apparently firearms aren’t one of their allowed weapons. We’ll just have to play around and see what you can use.”

“I thought you knew about this game already,” Rebecca snorted with a huff. “Weren’t you a beta tester for a year?”

“I was,” Matthew assured her, “but I was also stuck as a soloist. Like I said before, being a beta tester had some sort of serious NDA with it…”

“NDA?” Rebecca interrupted, questioning.

“Non-Disclosure Agreement,” Matthew clarified. “A lot of games seem to have those for the beta testers and such, where you’re not allowed to release information to the general public about the game. This god’s game had something similar to that, except it went a step farther; you didn’t go to jail for breaking your NDA, you simply couldn’t break it. I literally couldn’t tell, type, write, sing, or even mime anything specific about the game to anyone, and when I tried to warn people in some sneaky roundabout way, they decided I was crazy and sent me to the hospital for treatment!

“What I’ve learned about this game,” Matthew sighed, “I learned by soloing, trial and error, and personal experience. I’ve never had a chance to group with another character, so I really can’t tell you the specifics about the other character classes out there. All I can do is tell you how such things affect my class, and try to apply the same logic to yours.”

Frowning slightly, Rebecca asked suspiciously, “Then how do you know about group level limits, mentoring people, and all that stuff?”

Shaking his head from side to side, Matthew let out a slight groan. “Look, it’s going to take time to tell you and teach you everything I know, and the explain everything. Do you want to sit her naked for several hours while I try and explain things, or do you want to get out of this bathroom while it’s still daylight and we can see what we’re doing? You probably haven’t noticed, but the lights aren’t working in here anymore.”

Still frowning, Rebecca stared up at the lights for a moment and then looked back at Matthew. “That still doesn’t answer my question,” she muttered irritably to herself. “Let’s get out of here while it’s daylight. I don’t think I’d enjoy the idea of sitting in the dark, trapped in a small bathroom with a gibber-jabber-thing’s corpse.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Matthew smiled. “There was a class zero spawn point here, and they have a chance every eight hours to respawn again. We’ve sat here for half the day now. It won’t be much longer before it has a chance of popping a monster out on our heads again.”

Sounding puzzled, Rebecca asked, “We haven’t been here that long, have we?”

“Every bit of it,” Matthew assured her. “After I killed the gibberling, you fainted and I simply let you sleep while all hell was breaking lose outside. It’s got to be afternoon by now. Probably around one or two o’clock.”

“How long was I out?” Rebecca asked, shocked. “I thought just a few moments had passed.”

“Sorry,” Matthew shrugged. “It was several hours.”

Remembering her state of half undress, and waking up leaned back in Matthews arms while he had his way with her, Rebecca frowned and stared in his direction. Suspiciously, she asked, “You didn’t have anything to do with that, did you?”

Ignoring her question, Matthew rubbed his ring once, making the black hole finally disappear, and then he slowly walked towards the door while opening the bag attached to the pistol and pulling out a clip full of ammo. “I’d like to mentor Rebecca,” he muttered to no one in specific.

Startled, Rebecca blinked a few times and stared off into space, looking at something only she could read. “I accept,” she agreed, before looking up to find that Matthew had already rounded the corner to the doorway and was already out of sight. Rushing, she caught up to him just as he was starting to unlock the door. “That was odd,” she whispered. “There was a screen that just popped up out of nowhere that asked if I wanted to accept you as my mentor.”

“I told you this was all like some sort of crazy video game,” Matthew whispered back as he gently pushed on the door. Frowning, he told her, “There’s something on the other side, against the door half blocking it. I’ll have to force it, so go back and wait in the other room for me. I’ll come back and get you just as soon as I’m certain the hall’s safe.”

Rebecca hesitated for a moment, thought about saying something, and then slowly eased back around the corner. As much as she didn’t like the idea, what else could she do at the moment, naked, weaponless, and uncertain how to even use her own skills or magic. Chewing on her lower lip to the point that it began to bleed, all she could do is hide and wait until Matthew came back for her.