Toldos waves at the tombstone and stands up. “This is your burden, a burden until such time as you complete my tasks of atonement. Tasks to right the bent in the balance of the living world. A bent, created by your actions.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. “What I am supposed to do with this?” I gesture toward the tombstone.

“You are going to carry it,” he says. Then, the specter picks up the ghostly tombstone. I open my mouth in protest as the specter swings the tombstone around to my back, clasping it around me. I feel the full weight of it as the clasps chains dig into me.

“This will mark you a servant of Toldos,” he says. “You will carry this; nothing can cover it, and it cannot be removed until your penance is complete. All who see you will know you are mine and that you carry the burden of your actions in atonement.”

This is crazy, I had no clue they did this for player killing. I thought it was a simple system where you could wait it out or do your penance by killing monsters. Slowly bringing down your PK status. Now I have to do quests to remove a literal millstone around my neck.

Toldos ignores my scornful look. “For your status as a player killer, if you like you can work here and cleanse my realm in your current state. If you would prefer, you could also pay me 440 gold to clear your status. Do you have a preference?”

“Take the gold,” I say, initiating the transfer and wincing a little at depleting the fund I had planned to use for the fortress defenses.

“Your status is clear; I will contact you about your quest once you are strong enough to complete it,” he says.

“What?” I blurt out.” What do you mean? I have to gain more levels.”

“Until next time.” Toldos says, returning to his work.

***

Josie could scarcely believe the abrupt violence of her death; it was efficient and ruthless. It intrigued her when she realized that the little runt was the one who had done it. To top it off, the runt was the leader of the clan who completed the first run of the contest dungeon. She re-watched the videos of her death and the subsequent trampling of Kesmai square by a rhino. How had the game masters barely kept that rhino under control? What was that thing? Josie saw the image of the little thief standing there as her body turned to wisps of smoke. She could not allow these mice from her school to beat her, and she would stop them, in game, out of game, whatever it took.

She didn’t care about the eye for an eye free kill returned on her, she needed this to find her family, find out what happened to them. She had worked her way up in the school while the runts just walked in without a care and were handed everything.

She had overheard the group talking, the cleric, two fighters and two mages who seemed convinced that someone had cheated them out of the world first boss takedown. She heard them talking about how someone had sabotaged the instance at the last minute to kill-steal the boss—that sounded like something she could use.

Jossie walked up to the group and said, “If you are interested in the [Nightfallers], they killed me too and I know who they are in real life—do you want to form a clan with me and my group of rangers and fighters to take their fortress?”

The group looked up; she had their interest.

***

I arise from a grave in murky dirt near an overgrown cliff by the seaside village. Checking my map, I realize I’m not anywhere near where regular players would likely be. I don’t need to be attacked right now, I need to figure out what just happened and what kind of damage I did to my name. I check that my player killer status is reset and that I’m neutral to all characters which is what matters most right now. I imagine there are hunting parties out for blood on anyone with a PK status.

My strength and dexterity are both decreased by one from the tombstone. Strangely it grants me extra damage, and I have a new system stat that is guild specific called ‘Infamy’ which is currently set at -440. The info pages on Infamy simply says, “A measure of your fame for pious works or for villainy. It may draw attention to you when you would rather stay inconspicuous.”

I want this tombstone off, so I wiggle around, scrape my back on a tree, jump up and down. I cannot remove—or in any way interact with—the tombstone on my back. It is not spectral, and it looks real, but it does have some ghostly wisps that float off it. If I stay still, the strands seem to puddle around my feet. I check my character sheet and see that “Talisman of Toldos (rank 3),” a cursed visual item, is attached to my character. This is going to be a pain to deal with.

I can see the news channel flooded with videos coming in from players who have arisen from the graveyard after their wait time. Everyone keeps showing the video of me standing over dead Josie with my cloak dragging dusk shadows. There is a lot of wild speculation about how I am such high level. Videos of the rhino trampling the players and the GM are also there, and there are memes with people flying and me as rhino charging through them. The text on the most popular meme says, “Unlimited Worlds they said…” Most in the public channel are saying it was a planned Game Master event that went wrong somehow. Everyone knows three things and that is my name, my level and that I am a member of [Nightfallers]. Just great.My in-game mail indicator shows I need to find a mailbox to see my mail.

Checking my notifications and status, I have forty-four Eye-for-an-Eye players who can kill me with zero repercussions in the next week. I also now have a bounty on my head of 300 gold and climbing. There is a bounty system?

I open up my inventory and pull out the Summon Familiar skillbook I looted from the wizard’s house and flip it open. The book lights up and with a small flash turns to sand in my hands—it was single use. I get a notification that I learned the skill. It is a ranked skill, meaning that it ranks up for every five levels I attain. Higher rank provides greater ‘remote sight’ distance for each rank level. I activate the skill and I am given multiple options; a wolf, a ferret, and so on, but I already know what I want. I select the raven—click that I agree choice cannot be reset. Finally, I hit the Summon button.

The ground lights up around me in concentric circles with runes circling them. Above me the shadows swirl and coalesce and become too bright to view; they fade as a raven flies down to land. I inspect it and see its name is Morrigan, a female, and is a rank-three familiar. Its new icon in my display has a crossed-out eye next to it. I sit down and close my eyes, and the display icon lights up.

I look at myself--I am viewing from the eyes of the familiar. The view changes and I fly to a branch. I don’t control the familiar fully, but with higher rank I think I might be able to have complete control. I open my eyes, returning to my body. Morrigan flies down and lands on the tombstone on my back. She communicates with a low, gurgling croak and a 'kraa kraa’ sound that only a raven can make.

“Morrigan, I think you will like it with me. We are going to be busy.” I say.

I need to go through my other items, but I will have time later. There are multiple quests I should get on the mainland, as I am level sixteen and can now choose an advanced class. I should find out how do my advanced classes, but I need to wait for Kian and Briar. They are going to laugh when I tell them what happened. I hope. For now I need to log off and sleep.

***

I awake to go the bathroom. My dreams were filled with sneaking in the dark, flanking tactics, stabbing, cracking a safe, and knife combat in the dark. I make my way down the hallway, entertaining the thought of my real-life bathroom icon being lit up. Thinking of the dreams, I know it’s how my brain makes sense of the SAINT data I learned. My brain is processing the overload of information and catching up, but it’s still odd. A vital part of learning with the SAINT is getting proper sleep. Without it, your brain can begin to deteriorate, which is why the limits are so tightly monitored. I am at my current limit and I hope these goggles don’t fry my brain.

Finished, I tumble back into bed for fitful sleep.

***

When I wake up, Saturday morning feels strange to me. My sleep was disturbed with many dreams of training, running, and charging as a rhinohrough my school, smashing everything to bits. I shower and eat, make sure I go to the bathroom, and then it’s time to log in.

Once in game, I appear in the woods and Morrigan flies down and perches on the tombstone on my back. This tombstone is definitely going to slow me some. Hopefully I can get this off soon.

I see Kian and Briars icons are on and we are still in a party. I bring up my map and notice they are in the port town close by. I run over to them.

As soon as he sees me, Briar blurts, “Esme, you crazy crazy—”

“Good job,” Kian says. “That bitch deserved it.”

I see they were hanging near the edge of the village and it looks like they had been practicing skills. As I walk up, they both turn and see me.

“Duuuuude,” Briar says.

“What… what is that?” Kian says, pointing to the tombstone. “And that?” He points to Morrigan.

I explain about our new clan Infamy stat and how Toldos cursed me to carry the tombstone as some form of punishment for killing all those people.

“I heard something about this. It is a special back piece that you get for player killing.” Kian says. “There was no specific number for the player killing score, they just said it was a lot. The greifer clans want them as status symbols.”

“You killed forty-four people. Damn,” says Briar.

“Let’s go claim our fortress,” I respond, waving him off.

We walk to the dock and the guard looks us over and says, “You have become seasoned adventurers. It’s time you leave this place.”

Quest: Reach puberty completed.

No experience points, but at least we can leave Newbie Island. We didn’t actually get to see all of it, which is fine by me. From what I read on the the forums, there are more Kobold tunnels, a small Orc fort, a bunch of encounters with wolves and trolls, and a few field mini-bosses. We need to maintain our lead and get to the mainland. We have no time for sight-seeing.

The guard continues, “You will be unable to return to this island once you leave. Are you positive you want to go the mainland and have no further business here?”

“Yes!” we all scream at once.

***

The ship is named The Ettin, and it’s great on the water. The sun even breaks through the clouds and dolphins jump at the bow. The captain informs us the trip will take ten minutes, so we have time to enjoy it. Morrigan flies to the rigging and settles in looking over the water. The mainland comes into view and it is massive, mountain ranges stretching to the horizon. We will be the first players in the world to set foot on it.

Oh great, another—

A cutscene of the ship with us on it begins. The cinematic follows a seagull above the ship, the rising music starts, and the narrator says, “Our hero crossing the sea of storms begins her journey in full. She has passed the trials and gained valuable experience in the ways of the world. Her long trek is fraught with challenges and her quest finally in sight.” An epic rise in the music happens as the camera pans over the seedy-looking Port Yarrow and on to the mountains and a volcano in the distance. The ship starts to dock as the camera returns to my character.

Stepping off The Ettin at Port Yarrow Docks is a full experience of a busy port. There are NPCs walking everywhere, fishermen busy fixing nets and moving carts of fish. I can spot merchants, pirates and smugglers and all manner of goods piled high. Surely there are a multitude of quests just here in the port were we to look. We want to move though; it is time to go to the town square and seek out the quest. We have a fortress to claim.

The town is a mix of what looks like rough timber-framed multi-story houses with rock filling between the wood. The roof of each building is slate, but many are thatch or straw, which look like a giant fire hazard since they are so close together. I make a mental note that fire would be an effective tool within the city. The lower halves are typically shops or mixed areas for crafting, and the upper halves appear to be living quarters. Clothes lines hang between buildings with all manner of different sizes and colors of clothing.

We pass into the town square. In the center is a large stone statue of a centaur with a bow standing over a dead snake. The sculpture is at least thirty feet high and makes an impressive appearance. Near to a lively looking trade shop called Boltac’s Trading Post we find the quest board. Next to the board is the quest manager, a nervous sort, sitting idle in a counter window set up at the base of a house. There are two bored-looking guards standing by the window.

As we walk up the quest manager recognizes us and a huge smile spreads over his face.

“Welcome to Port Yarrow, my lords, you have an important choice to make today.” He picks up a paper and holds it out. “Are you ready? Please examine your options and when you are ready, let me know.”

I take the paper and I see we have three options for a fortress, each shown on a map. There is The Jade Fortress, protected by a natural moat, and many large swamp creatures. There is a mountain fortress called The Eagle’s Crest, which has a naturally difficult approach, some control of the weather and local mountain creatures. Lastly is The Leviathan Fortress with sea caves and the protection of sea creatures and some control of the weather.

I pass the paper around. Kian and I both lean towards the mountain fortress.

“The swamp fortress sounds bad ass,” Briar says. “I just keep thinking that we would have, like, an army of swamp things out there eating everyone and sucking them down into the muck,”

“Think of defensibility,” I say. “Also, I have a dev coupon for an elite guardian and the mountain fortress is already the most defensible.”

Briar nods and it is settled.

“The mountain fortress,” I say, handing back the paper to the quest manager.

“Very well,” he says with a smile before stamping the paper. “You have fast travel available from the stone.” He points behind us. In a corner of the square sits a large rune-covered column with a crystal on top and four smaller columns around it. The stone pulses with an energy I can feel just by looking at it. He continues, “Travel to your fortress is free and limited to those bearing your clan mark. Travel back here will cost you the usual rate of five gold. As regent of your fortress you collect an adjustable clan tax rate of 3%. This amount is for all gold collected as loot, and it is automatically taken out and applied to the clan war chest. If you have further questions, please see the help book located in the fortress command room.”

REGION NOTIFICATION

Clan [Nightfallers] claims Eagle Crest Fortress.

“Fast travel costs gold?” Briar asks, waving the notification away.

“It’s a gold sink for the game,” Kian says. “Gold sinks help stabilize the in-game economy, without a gold sink no money leaves the economy.”

Kian’s knowledge of game mechanics is impressive. I have already selected him for our clan logistics commander. Once we start recruiting, we are going to need a capable leader for raids and coordination, and he has experience with these.

I walk with them to the stone and touch it; I get a small shock as this location is added to my fast travel list. To add any other fast travel points in the game I will have to travel to one and touch it.

My travel map appears, and I see there are two locations: “Port Yarrow” and “Eagle’s Crest fortress [Nightfallers].” I choose our fortress and select “travel.” With a fast crack of electricity my consciousness moves.