Chapter 3: Separation

It was in much satisfaction did I wake up from my sudden slumber a few hours later.

My failure from collapsing after just one mob aside, my new party had taken it to themselves to help me up and place me to safety before fighting off a few wolves of their own. Due to the EXP-sharing option in the Party Menu, all in all with their kills they uplifted me a few more levels until they were sure I could fight again. Safely this time.

But first, I studied the list of everything I've gained so far through battling. First, the ones from the Pleine Rabbits.

Knife Mastery (Passive): Lvl 6With every level, you are less likely to stab yourself with a knife!

Effect: +18% damage to attacks using knives and daggers.

Title: Rabbit HunterYou've shown yourself capable of killing adorable rabbits!

+5% EXP from battling Beast mobs.

And the skill from battling the Dirge Wolf...

Critical Eye (Active): Lvl 1You now can see weaknesses of your targets when this skill is active! Go, Critical Eye!

Effects:

+5% damage to critical hits. Costs 50 mp per minute.

Percentile damage and useability increases with every level.

I felt amazing. Really, was this the reason as to why other people entered VR games? To feel strong, to feel powerful? Why was it that even though I just fainted earlier from that battle, I felt like I could take on the world? This [Critical Eye]... it was a bit costly for my level, but it was an amazing skill!

Shaking my head as to keep check of my ego, I focused on the important details.

I was far from strong at this point. Stat-wise, take away my weapon and armor I was still a level 3 even with the three levels Caelum and the rest had gained for me in my sleep. I still hadn't spent all of the stat points I gained so far after all - so far, I was still undecided as to what I was going to focus on and still held on those 50 points just in case I ended up needing them.

Plus, I also knew that stat increases through exercise was possible - just by my Pleine Rabbit hunt alone, I managed to gain a few points of dexterity that I didn't have before. If so, then logically there would be a plateau upcoming in the future for the method. No doubt after a few more points, just increasing them via exercise would take weeks.

But still, consumable stat points were a limited resource. I had to think about them carefully before I did anything with them.

"Hey, Rain! You look deep in thought."

A smile lit my face without heed as I turned to the person I owed all of my progress to. "Hey you too, Caelum."

The charismatic leader of my party gave me his characteristic charismatic smile as he flipped his blond hair to the side. I had to note that he could actually go for a model's job with those kind of looks. Nevertheless, I only shook my head at his not-so-empty bravado.

"Caelum, I-"

I was about to ask him on the matter when he interrupted me by placing a finger on my lips.

"Want to hunt Dirge Wolves again?" Caelum asked me with that smile again. "You leveled up a few times, right? Maybe this time, you could last a bit longer against those mobs."

"That's the thing I was about to ask." I replied, brushing off the finger. "I was wondering if I really should spend up a few of my points on STR and END... Manual grinding of stats is possible, right? Then wouldn't it be counterproductive if I spent 10 points now when I could simply gain them through other ways?"

Caelum blinked at my words. I had to hide a flush of embarrassment at that reaction - in my deep thinking, I had forgotten my image as the 'happy-go-lucky-if-sometimes-sarcastic kid' of the party.

I really hated the fact I was who I was sometimes.

Shaking his head, Caelum provided me a counterargument with a proud(?) look. "Look, Rain, it's good you think on these things, but sometimes you just have to go with your instincts. Plus, those two stats are your lowest at the moment, right?"

I nodded. Every other stat either started high (like my INT and WIS) or was raised by something else (like my low LUK).

"Stats are strange things, Rain..." Caelum taught me with a wise look on his face. "Without points beforehand, how can you train them? Endurance is gained by enduring hits - which is a tad too difficult for you at the moment. So is strength, which needs a you to be suitably strong first before you could level it up by using weights."

I took a moment to absorb that and realized, yes, Caelum was right.

If stats were increased by repetitive successful usage of what they stood for, then how could I manage to train my STR when I couldn't even lift a single dumbell? How could I even train my END when all it took for me to black out was a single hit?

"So, I should place a bit of my points on them?"

Caelum nodded. I opened my Status Window and increased both STR and END by five points before closing the screen.

It was a strange feeling, using those points. It felt like I was unloading a weight behind my back with every point I spent, and that my body felt a bit better - more efficient, more hardy, and more importantly, much stronger than I was ever before.

"So, are you done?"

I gave him just one reply - a grin as I dramatically flexed my arm to expose new muscles: not so much like I became a sudden bodybuilder, but there was a bit more of flesh than what used to be there, a bit more of growth and masculinity.

Strangely, Caelum's response was an almost sullen look before he gave me another smile.

"Alright, let's hunt then."

"Rain, remember to watch your enemy at all times this time, all right!"

I held back a snort as I ignored Caelum's redundant and counterproductive words. What if I listened to him and got hit again by another claw for my efforts?

Instead, I kept my eyes on the aggravated mob in front of me, its life bar already in the yellow. It seemed that damage I was dealing was indeed partly affected by my increased STR, as now it only took me just one strike over the lungs for the Wolf's health to decrease to half this time.

Though...

"Critical Eye."

Like a switch was flipped, suddenly my world went mostly black and white. A few splashes of red color were placed directly over what I knew were weakpoints. The redder it seemed, the more critical the hit. It was the heart, the internal organs, the exposed veins and arteries that had it the reddest.

I had to wonder though, would there be actual effects to striking what I knew were important to a body's continued function?

The Dirge Wolf, impatient and angered, took the initiative to attack this time. However, my experience over my previous fight with one of them saw me through as this time; I easily read ahead of the incoming attack and tilted to the side to evade the claw with minimal movements.

There was a sound of a window opening, but I ignored it to move my dagger over the beast's belly, slashing through flesh and aiming for my real target.

The spine of the Dirge Wolf.

CRACK!

The shock of striking and cutting through bone sent shivers down my arm, but I ignored it in favor of evading the next pained claw sent for my face. Stepping easily into over a few feet away from the injured Wolf, I watched carefully as I patiently waited for the results of my experimentation and for the monster to stand up again.

The Dirge Wolf sent me a glare with its red eyes, but failed to stand up as its rear legs didn't move no matter what it did.

When after more than fifteen seconds and the monster still failed to recover mobility, I took that as a chance to look what the System made of my action, and therefore, its result.

Through inflicting a debilitating blow on your enemy, you've gained the skill Disable!

Disable (Passive): Lvl 1'Tis is not just a flesh wound!

During critical hit, 30% chance to inflict the following:

- Paralyze or Slow when certain nerves or nerve structures are struck.

- Blind when eyes or other ocular structures are struck.

- Poison when liver is struck.

- Bleed when heart, arteries or veins are struck.

I stared at the window for what felt like a minute before a crazy smile almost came to my face. Almost being the operative word as I somehow managed to keep the expression down into just smug.

I shifted my eyes back to the Wolf, which was still bleeding paralyzed over the ground.

By then, it was plain easy to just walk over and kill it, which I summarily did before turning back to my new party with a smile on my face. A whole non-verbal conversation later through expressive nods and looks, Caelum and the rest of his friends walked away from the battlefield, leaving me alone this time with the respawning Dirge Wolves.

I still had to learn how to fight a group on my own after all.

Dozens of red eyes turned up from the ground, lit in utter bloodlust as they all gazed at me, their canine owners almost licking their own mouths at the thought of bloody, savory human. If I was the person I was just an hour before, who couldn't even kill a single rabbit, I would've ran. But that time wasn't now.

And this time, I was the one with the smile as I jumped into the pack of wolves.

"ORYAAAAAH!"

I first stabbed the first wolf I came upon with a dagger through the left eye, going horizontal and cutting through the other eye and everything else in the way. The next one jumped in aid of its fellow monster, which I dodged via ducking before I pulled out the knife from the first wolf and inserted it this time into the other one's belly.

Two more wolves, a team made by Mother Nature herself, naturally took the moment to pounce back as my weapon was held stuck into lupine flesh.

They failed as my left hand easily took out a few more glass shards to successfully embed them into their sensitive noses. The moment they yelped out in pain, I spun over my left foot as my right kicked out in a 360 to further deepen the

shards until it pierced through the skull.

The sounds of windows popping up filled my ears again, but I didn't need to read them to know just what they contained.

It seemed that Critical Eye's damage boosting effect really made things easier over the long run, as both wolves quickly dipped into red and getting lower as both of them Bled slowly to their deaths.

However, I didn't have the time to just watch that happen as the sound of clenching teeth alarmed me to more incoming wolves. Three of them this time, as they circled all around me and their fallen brethren with hate in their eyes.

I closed my eyes for a millisecond.

They pounced over what they perceived as a moment of weakness, only to hit nothing but air as I vaulted over them, new windows popping up again ringing in my ears as I jumped up the same moment they attacked, landing with one foot over my dagger that was poised to stab.

One of the Wolves had an entire blade inserted into its brain.

Enraged by the sudden death of yet another comrade, the two surviving wolves attacked me in the same time only to fail again as I simply took another jump and flipped right out of their melee range.

That didn't stop their claws from goring through each other's heads though.

I watched, almost transfixed at the still-monochrome image of what little remained of no less than seven of the wolves that almost killed me just a few hours ago.

It was almost too easy, doing that. Even considering my new boosts, even considering the new Acrobatics Skill I knew I just gained, it was still too easy for me to just walk into a battle with a mob of monsters... and walk away still uninjured.

Where had did this sudden mobility come from? This sudden battle instinct?

My thoughts were interrupted as yet the sounds of more wolves entered my ears again. Turning my eyes around, I counted five- no, eight- no, ten, twenty, thirty Dirge Wolves.

I gave out a sigh as I jumped into the battle again.

"Nice job, Rain!" Caelum greeted me the moment I finished, the remaining monster blood on me thankfully already flaking off in pixels. I gained no less than six more levels and yet another title from that battle. "Isn't that right, you guys?"

There was a resounding chorus of agreement.

"Thanks." I said sincerely. I then quickly opened up my own Inventory. "Caelum, do you want the drops again this time? I've got Dirge Meat, Dirge Fur, Dirge Claw, Dirge-"

"A-tut-tut-tut!" My party leader interrupted me, placing a hand on my shoulder again. "This time, that's your own loot, Rain! Plus, look at our armor."

Doing so, I didn't notice anything too special. "I don't see what you are talking about."

Saelum gave our party leader a nudge. "Caelum, did you forget that Rain just started already? He still doesn't have Identify!"

"Oh." Caelum palmed his own face. "Rain, come here for a sec, alright? I'll give you the skill."

Caelum is teaching you the Skill 'Identify'. Learn this skill?

Yes/No

Immediately, I pressed the Yes message as I had done so far.

Identify (Active): Lvl 1See information about what you observe.

Finally understanding what he meant for me to do, I quickly activated my new Skill over the armors of my new party.

Windows popped all over the place. They were honestly what I expected: high level armor focused on offense than defense, which was appropriate for their level and battle style. It seemed that there were enchantments as well, but as my skill was still too low, I failed to Identify exactly what those enchantments were.

Identify has leveled up! Identify has leveled up! Identify has leveled up! Identify has leveled up! Identify has leveled up!

Ah, there it was.

"Rain, I believe now you can see what kind of theme we have ongoing here?"

I nodded at Caelum's question. "You are all wearing Wolf-themed armor... am I right?"

Caelum gave me a pleased smile. "That's right! And by the time we arrive at our base, we would use that fur you just received and give you your very own Dirge Wolf Armor set!"

I was swept away by a warm feeling at his words. This was... this was it, wasn't it? An actual welcome, what I was striving for the moment I entered this game. This group... this team... I was just a newbie, and they were accepting me like an old friend without any problems!

I hid a blush as I looked away. "Alright. If you say so."

"Only if for now you don't mind being the rabbit in this pack of wolves!" Caelum teased. "Care not to be eaten!"

There was much laughter.

"Oh yeah," Ormentum interrupted the moment by throwing me a bag. "I picked this up for you like you said, Rain. I wonder though, what are you going to do with all these herbs in the first place?"

I caught the bag with care. "Just another experiment. You though, are you really alright that I used you as a gopher?"

Caelum gave out a snicker, but Ormentum only waved it off. "Don't worry."

He then traded glances with Caelum and the rest. "We've got our own stuff to take care of anyways..."

It was after a few more hours later and a group hunt with Caelum and the rest did I log out with a smile on my face.

My new friends waved me goodbye as I did, Caelum promising that they would log out when they finally arrived to their base. As the Party system made it so people always logged-in to the previous location of the last online member of the party, the moment I entered Fate Online again, I would finally see their so-acclaimed 'base'.

"Don't worry about us getting tired!" Caelum assured me. "In this world, Stamina is just a statistic after all."

Thus, after my first day inside the world of Fate Online, I logged out.

But as for the moment I put off the intricate piece of machinery over my head, all I could do was stare at the ceiling on my bed as I tried to blink away the beads of moisture in my eyes.

...Did it really happen, just like that? My own wish?

It... was both was and was not I expected. I didn't know what to think, really... Somehow, I felt like there had to be more things to do before I managed to make friends. Call me dramatic, but, somehow I almost thought that I had to prevent an uprising or save a princess or win a war before I managed to meet the people I could call friends.

After a short introduction, several acts of good-will and well-intentioned bantering and several more hunts outside the starter city, I... I had made friends.

But really, it was just like that. Just. Like. That.

I knew it was a little over the top for me to react this way but... still. After years of trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing, somehow I managed to finally gain what I wanted.

What now?

...I shook my head of all those thoughts before I rose back up to feet.

I failed.

The moment I stood back up, for some reason I had miscalculated the position of my foot and tripped over it in the process. My legs gave, and my eyes were wide and completely empty of tears as I watched the floor coming for my face-

...Ow.

"What happened to me?" I asked myself, rubbing my sore nose.

For some reason, the pain wasn't as prominent as I had expected. It was ignorable, really.

Knowing to do it carefully this time, I placed my hand back over the bed, pushing myself up and slowly placing my weight back on my feet. Taking care to take the steps slowly, I came down the stairs to our kitchen. With a sigh of relief as it seemed that it was just an abnormal occurrence, I took my focus off my feet to my hands as to cook some breakfast for my family-

My feet suddenly hit one of the legs of the table. Ow.

It looked like this was going to be a problem for a while...

"Mr. Walter, would you care to tell me why you were late for today's class? It is unbecoming of you."

I gave a bow in apology to my teacher. "I'm sorry, Professor Brunnings. I just had a small incident over this morning."

If tripping over your feet for eight times, almost cutting myself with a knife three times, and accidentally burning my hands six times in the process of making my breakfast was a small 'incident'. My mother had to sit me down back to the table as she cooked in my place instead of letting me continue.

"I see..." His eyes came over me, no doubt seeing the small marks left by the 'incident'. "If there is anything you should tell us about your health, Mr. Walter, you should tell me now before we start writing this into your attendance."

Inwardly, I didn't want to tell. After all, I was a model student of my college. What would my professors say when they hear of me playing a virtual game and getting a bit of clumsiness in the process? They might decide to tell my parents to take me off Fate Online. I wasn't about to let my new friends be separated from me before I actually interacted with them.

...But then again, the man in front of me was special. If there was anyone in my campus I could trust with the information, I would be him.

"Sir." I gave him a loaded stare. "Would you promise to keep it to yourself if I tell you?"

"It depends as to what you would tell." Professor Brunnings answered without a beat. "Would it harm anyone?"

I shook my head. He nodded in return, "Then there is no problem with me keeping it silent."

I took a deep breath. "Sir, have you heard of any incidents regarding Virtual Reality wherein people wake up being less physically coordinated or any problems of that sort?"

A glint entered the Professor's eyes. "I see..."

That was it. I knew I did the right thing, then and there. After all, who else to trust about one of the problems with the VR technology than one of those who developed it in the first place?

Professor Abraham Brunnings was a famous man of the age 42. With silver hair and eyes, he made for an impressing air, and it was only right for him to do so. He was, after all, one of the lead developers along with my father in the initial Artificial World Creation System project, or A.W.C.S for short, that started the first VR world that still existed today.

Fate Online.

It was only right for me to ask the developer of the A.I system of Fate Online, wasn't it not? Plus, the man was honestly like an uncle to me when I grew up.

"While it isn't unheard of people gaining lesser physical coordination over time due to VR technology, it is still a very rare incident that happens only for less than ~0.0001% of the population that uses the technology." Prof. Brunnings cut me off my thinking as he explained, re-affixing his glasses as he did. "Why, my boy, are you telling me that you have used your father's creation at last? And have become... clumsier in the process?"

"Clumsy isn't the word I would use for it." I answered back absentmindedly as I rubbed my sore legs. "It's just like-"

"-your body isn't like what you thought it was, and because of that you are making mistakes?" He interrupted me with a smile. "That, my boy, is called clumsiness."

I simply looked down back to my feet, internally simmering with shame. "Is there any way to fix this, Sir?"

Professor Brunnings rubbed at his chin. "Mr. Walter, would you first care to tell me how you did your first stay inside a virtual world? What game did you enter in the first place?"

"...Fate Online. And yes, I would be fine with telling you Sir. I trust you."

He chuckle easily. "Like father like son. Now, tell me."

And thus, I regaled the teacher I knew since childhood about my entry to the world they created and how I entered with my physical appearance, met a few people, gained a few friends, and on my way to enjoy the rest of their world.

Honestly it felt... nice. Since when had it been that it felt like the man in front of me was the uncle figure I knew since childhood instead of the professor I knew in this college? Since when had it been that I could relax like this outside my own home?

"So you've entered the world of Fate Online as yourself?" Asked my teacher the moment I finished. "Strange decision you have made there, my boy."

A flush rose to my cheeks. "Uncl- I mean, Professor Brunnings, you won't tell anybody about this if I told you as to why I did that?"

He nodded, smiling wistfully at my almost-referral to him as my uncle.

"I... I wanted to be myself, in that world." I started slowly, with my eyes lowered. "I had wanted to start over, but to not change my looks in the process. If I'm going to be me, I'm going have to show who I really was, right?"

I didn't choose Human as a race in Fate Online because of any in-game advantages or reasons.

I chose it because that was the only way I could retain my appearance.

Suddenly, I felt a hand over my hair.

"My boy, you've grown well." Prof- no, Uncle Abraham gave me that twinkling smile again. "But it seems that you have uncovered a secret we would've wanted kept hidden for much longer."

I raised my head in surprise. "Uncle?"

"In Fate Online- no, in VR technology, there is a slight flaw in the works." He explained, rubbing at my hair for a minute before taking away his hand. "It is what we call the 'Synchronicity Factor'. Tell me, in the game, have you ever felt like you were too fast or too quick for your level?"

I nodded quickly. That was what I felt when I fought off those wolves.

"I knew it." Uncl- no, Professor Brunnings had this analytic look in his eye. "It is not actually a problem of speed or agility, instead, it is actually a problem of reaction time. It is all normal, I tell you. There is no problem in your mind or the VR tech itself."

"Then where is the problem?" I asked, trying to understand his thought process. I tried to recount what I knew from my programming courses. "Reaction time... wait, don't tell me-"

My professor read through my mind again. "It isn't that you are faster at reacting than everyone, but everyone is slower at reacting than you. That is the 'Synchronicity Factor'. Do you remember how your father once complained to you back then when you were still a kid and we haven't accomplished our project?"

I nodded. "Father once told me that the virtual models failed to work like your team had wanted."

Professor Brunnings took out a cup of coffee. "It is because the human mind does not normally work with another body other than its own. Moving faerie wings isn't possible with a human mind because as humans, we don't have wings. Not only that, you also have to take into account differences in height, mass, arm length, leg length..."

"Basically, unless you use your real image in VR, you won't be able to move efficiently." I finished for him. "But you've all managed to fix that problem, right? After all, there are many other choices in race and in appearance inside Fate Online."

"How we fixed it is another secret." He had this twinkle in his eye again. "However, the doesn't change the mostly unnoticed, but still there, effect of having a body in VR that is different from your own. Which is just one thing:"

I answered, "A slowdown in reaction speed."

"Correct. That's why all VR models have abnormal physical stats the moment they begin. In order to hide that problem, we've set everyone to move, talk, and basically do everything in the minimum speed that is twice of the normal." Professor Brunnings continued. "However, you don't have that problem. You chose to be yourself, and in the process, you have unlocked the hidden potential of being a VR player."

I gave out a sigh as everything clicked in my head. "The reason why I'm tripping all over the place is because now I have to get used to at least half the speed of what I'm now used to, huh."

"Just go outside every once and a while and exercise your body, my boy." Professor Brunnings comforted me. "Do a bit of running - that would get your mind back into the 'Earth' you. Plus, the higher your physical capabilities here in real life, the less discomfort there would be after you log out of your VR gear."

So that means I'm going to have to improve my real body as well the same time I level up my stats... I don't know what to feel about that. Well, at least this secret seemed to be safe, if a bit problematic.

"Professor, are there any more of these 'secrets' you aren't telling me?"

The twinkle in his eyes lit up again. "Why would I hide anything from you, my boy?"

Damnable. There were other secrets.

I sighed again. "I'm going to go now, Sir. Thank you for helping me in this problem and for telling me this information."

It was telling of how much he trusted my father, and in extension, me to not release this information to the public. No doubt, this wasn't the first time this happened, but by the fact that he explained it to me when no one on the internet even knew anything about the subject...

There was no way I was about to break that trust.

Little did I know that by the moment I left, my once-uncle and now-Professor took out his phone, dialed a few numbers, and made a few reports.

User detected. Rain, welcome back to Fate Online!

"I'm back..." I called out for my party the moment my vision returned from the loading screen. "Now, where are-"

There was nothing in sight other than a ruined camp and the remains of a battlefield. Left and right of me were dozens of smoking craters, and all over the place were what I knew as the armors of my friends - ripped apart to pieces by a battle I had been too late to witness.

Suddenly, a familiar voice entered my ears. "Rain, run!"

"Caelum-!?"

I turned my head to the direction I've heard my friend from, only to see a person.

And I didn't know the man I was looking at.

Dressed in armor of pure black, wearing a red cloak flapping in the air behind him through the winds caused by the heat of the battle, a man of long brown hair and blue eyes turned to me. Almost as if annoyed by an insect, he took out his sword from what I knew of as a friend.

Caelum, my new party leader, bled as a red sword left his chest.

"Tch, didn't need for you to see this." The unknown man hissed. He then walked to my direction, ignoring the bodies that were left of my friends. "Here, I'll come to you."

All I could do was stare as he came closer. I was too afraid to even breathe.

He held my shoulder in a tight grip. "I'll take you to the place where you need to be."

That snapped me out of my trance. I tried to escape, taking out my dagger and made for a few stabs - no use, as his skin just caused my attacks to bounce off. Realizing it was to no avail, I just tried to shake off his hold.

"Let me go!"

He held me closer, meeting my eyes with his in a stare that paralyzed each and every fiber in my body.

"This is for your sake."

He took out a small, cubical crystal from his inventory and pointed it at the sky. Making a crushing gesture, the item shattered into pixels as everything around us swiveled in a swirl of colors, from red to black to blue to green to-

I opened my eyes again, not knowing when I closed them, and once again saw the gate of Pratumira.

You are now more than 500 meters away from your party. PARTY DISCONNECTED.