Mona kicked her shoes off, threw her jacket onto the couch, and ran to her room. She bit her lip before laying on her bed and pulling the VR helmet on.

"Hurry, hurry," she whispered as she pushed the button to the side.

-

Ferti opened her eyes and she was now back in Meleheim kingdom standing next to the water fountain. She breathed in a deep breath before brushing her short hair back with her fingers. She balled her fists and bit her lip before calming down.

"All right," she told herself, "to the library first," she started to head to the library with big strides and a smile on her face.

She reached the library and sat at the bottom of the ladder where she had left off the previous day. She opened the diary and reread the contents inside of it.

-

Dear Journal,

I have searched almost everywhere but I can't seem to find this damn herb. Grandpa mention something blac blue and white and something about tail first and something about fi- something but I can't seem to find it at all. I looked everywhere where's there's blue and white. If I can't find it soon I'm afraid that the nobleman's daughter is going to pass before they can spend any time together. I will continue to look for it.

Sincerely,

P.H.

-

"Hmm... doesn't say anything on how I can defeat it," she mumbled to herself. She chewed on the nail of her thumb as she shut the book closed and stood up from where she was sitting. "Hmm..." she thought to herself for a while, "Snake-like features... venom from fangs... dark places... I've... read something about this..." she clenched her fist and closed her eyes trying to think. She heard a system notification noise and opened her eyes to see a blue screen in front of her.

Searching... found:

-Snake-like features

-Venom from fangs

-Dark places

Crusaniblutia:

a creature who existed about three centuries ago. They once roamed the land of Meleheim kingdom and harm many people in their paths. A skilled swordsman and magician found the weakness to them and managed to chase them away from humans. Now, they are thought to be extinct as no one has seen one ever again. From the book Tales of Lost Creatures: Meleheim.

"Oh... so this is what this skill does," Ferti nodded her head. She smiled as she thought of something else.

Searching... found:

Crusanibluita weakness:

Crusanibluitas' love dark places and only come out during the night. They are weak to fire and light magic. They also have very quick regeneration abilities so to kill one, one must freeze the Crusaniblutia first and then shatter its body into pieces. If this is not done then the Crusanibulita will regenerate and come back even more vicious. Be cautious if you run into one as they are very agile and their venom is potent!

"Oooh... nice!" she mumbled to herself. Even though Ferti had a good memory and was able to memorize a lot of things, it did take her some time to make correlation if the wording was different because then she would have to think what she read and try to see if anything related to the subject she was thinking about. "Fire, light, and ice magic... also gonna need a warrior for combat..." Ferti made note of things. After she made sure she knew what she wanted she checked out some books and left the library.

She stood in the center of the city as she sat on a fountain. Her eyes gazed through all the players, observing each and every one of them.

"Not that one... not that one... that..." Ferti's eagle eyes lit up as she saw a male player walkabout. He was alone and seemed to be deep in thought as he continued to look over items people were selling. His attire was not a beginner's gear, however, they didn't look to be the gear of one that had already left the kingdom. She smiled as she got up from where she was sitting. She approached him as he stood by a nearby booth looking over the items. She placed her hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at her. His eyes were a deep green as they looked at her confused, his blue hair was messy.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Do you have a group you're currently traveling with?' she asked back.

"Uh, no."

"Then do you want to group up with me?" she said with a sweet smile. He scanned her up and down before shrugging her hand off his shoulder.

"No thank you, man. I want to group up with another girl, not another guy," he turned his back to her as he went back to looking at the items. Ferti laughed internally, not offended at all because she didn't expect him to agree anyway.

"That's the only reason you don't want to group up with me?"

"No thanks, man. You look like you literally just started playing and I can leave the safety of the kingdom in a week. Kind of don't want to group with someone who's gonna be stuck in here while I could be out there doing whatever I want."

"C'mon man," Ferti moved so that she would be in his view, "just give it a try. Besides," she moved closer to him, "I know a place right here where we can start hunting early," she whispered. The man's eyebrow went up before he looked up. He looked into Ferti's eyes as if he could tell whether she was lying or not.

"Dude, you're lying," he said, yet a trace of doubt could be heard in his voice.

"Really, man? Do you think I would be lying if I know we can't even leave the safety zone yet?"

"Where's the proof?" he asked. Ferti was waiting for this question.

"Records," she said. A blue screen appeared in front of her and she slid it around so the man could see. "There's the proof," she said.

"Huh? What are you talking bout?"

"Dude, look, I died yesterday. If that's not a red flag, then I don't know what is," she whispered as she raised her hands up in the air. The man's eyes grew.

"Uh, wait. You died? In the safe zone?"

"Yes."

"I thought you couldn't die in a safe zone?!"

"Well, technically it's not a safe zone. It's more like... a hunting ground," Ferti clarified. The man started looking interested as a small glint formed in his eyes. Ferti smiled because she knew he took the bait. "Group up with me and then I can show you," she offered again. The man stroked his chin.

"... why me?" the man narrowed his eyes at her. Ferti rolled her eyes as she placed her arms wide out.

"Dude, look at me! I'm a noob, barely just started! Not only that, but I'm not a warrior so I need someone who can fight to go with me."

"...sounds reasonable. What are your skills?"

"Look, you grouping or nah? If you ain't I'm leaving," Ferti began to turn around and she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Alright! Alright! I'll group, kay? Let's go somewhere else to talk about this," he said carefully and scanned the area around them, "Follow me, I know a place," he started walking away. Ferti let out a small sigh of relief before following the man.

-

The man brought Ferti a house near the outskirts of the town. The inside of the house was rather shabby, and poor. The word house did not seem to fit the description as the building was more like a shed.

"Welcome to my place," the man said as he sat down on an old chair. An old roundtable sat in front of him which he placed his hands on.

"Your place? You bought this?" Ferti asked as she took a seat across from him.

"Not really. I had to do a quest and somehow the quest ended up with me inheriting this house and the land behind this house."

"Oooh... nice..." Ferti nodded her head.

"Anyways, let's get down to business," the man put his hand out, "nice to meet ya, I'm Dspects," a blue screen appeared in front of Ferti.

Player name: Dspect (Dee-spects)

Gender: Male

Class: Fighter/Warrior

Level: 12

Title: Spearman

"Ooooou... level 12 already? By the time most people leave they are only level ten."

"Yea. I've been training... pretty hard."

"That's good. Nice to meet ya too, I'm Ferti," Ferti said as she took his hand. She also showed him her blue screen however she had her gender hidden.

Player Name: Ferti (Fer-tuh)

Gender: N/A

Class: N/A

Level: 3

Title: N/A

"Hmm... you really are a noobie aren't you?" Dspects said as he let go of Ferti's hand.

"Yea."

"What's up with your gender and title?"

"Oh, just my preference to leave them blank."

"I understand the title, but gender?"

"Yea, anyways," Ferti changed the topic as the screen disappeared from Dspects, "we need to recruit one more person with us if we want to go for it."

"One more person?"

"Yea. We need a mage to go with us because it requires some mage spells to be able to defeat the monsters we gonna be facing."

"What kind of magic we talking about here?"

"An all-rounder would be the best choice," Ferti answered. She watched as Dspects thought about something for a bit before nodding his head.

"I know someone who can help us," he looked at her and nodded his head.

"Someone? Who?"

"Just someone."

"As long as they're good with magic."

"Aight. Now then, can you tell me the plan and what we are gonna face?" Dspects asked.

"First," Ferti swiped a blue screen across to Dspects, "accept to join my party."

Party Request:

Details: Needs a warrior, and a mage.

Benefits: 2x EXP with one who discovered Snib's Crib

Rules: Everything will be divided as agreed upon the whole group

Leader: Ferti (until another is assigned)

Termination contract: Cannot tell others about where "hunting ground" is or leave party within the next two weeks. Failure to do so will result in the following penalty(s):

-Pay informat (Ferti) 20 gold coins, coins earned will automatically go to Ferti until debt is paid

If it is found that Ferti is telling lies, or giving false information, the following penalty(s) will be:

-Owes each party member 50 gold coins

Accept the invitation?

Yes or No

Each game nowadays had their own system to deal with others who wanted to play unfairly. The party contract was one of them.

Dspects looked at the conditions up and down before nodding his head.

"Sounds fair," he agreed as he clicked yes. Ferti was surprised at how fast he accepted. She thought he would've retaliated more. "Now tell me your skills."

"Well, since I just began, I have the alchemy skill, identification skill, and healing skill. You?"

"I just started a few weeks ago in real time, but as you can tell from my class I am skilled in a wide variety of things. Most of my skills involve weapons to fight with, and others make me move faster or predict the enemy's movement easier. I can also just work with my fists though."

"Oooh... not bad. Well then, welcome to the party Dspects... although it just consists of me, but eventually, I hope to gather more people. Anyways, for now, let's go get the magic user you are talking about. We need to do some training before we can go to the 'hunting ground' after all," Ferti said. Dspects nodded his head.

"Let's go."

-

Ferti stood there in the Alchemist center as her eyebrows knitted together.

"When you said a good magic user... you meant her?" Ferti questioned as she looked at Elizabat.

"Huh? Do yo- ah right, you have the alchemy skill... haha...ha..." Dspects let out an empty laugh as the two approached the booth together.

"What do you want?!" Elizabat snarled as she saw Dspects.

"You're still as fiesty as ever aren't you, Batty," Dspects teased.

"If you aren't going to buy anything, then leave."

"Ouch. A bit harsh here," Dspects feigned a painful face as Ferti stood there and made a face at him, "Anyways, is Foggy here?"

"Someone call me?" a voice called out from behind them. Ferti turned around to see the salesclerk who sold her the herbs walking towards them with a wooden basket.

"Oh, hey!" Dspects waved his hand at Foggy. "Let's have a chat, man!"

"What do you need?" Foggy asked as he set the basket on the booth table. Dspects leaned in closer to Foggy.

"Wanna go hunting?" he whispered. Foggy looked at him with what the heck eyes before shaking his head.

"Dude, we can't yet."

"Dude, yes we can."

"How?"

"Through him," Dspects pointed a finger at Ferti. Ferti felt as if she was some kind of merchandise as she gave them an awkward smile.

"Hi... again?" she let out an awkward laugh.

"Oh, you from yesterday!" Foggy recognized her. Ferti gave them a quick head bow. Foggy looked at her confused. "How's he gonna help? He looks like he just started playing the game."

"He did just start playing the game recently, but he's already found a hunting ground, right in this kingdom!"

"Stop lying, man. We can't hunt or go dungeon exploring until after this month is up. Why do you think Eliza and I have been sticking around here selling herbs?"

"Foggy," Dspects leaned in so his mouth was right next to Foggy's ear, "he died. I saw it on his records," his voice was barely audible. Foggy's eyes grew just like Dspects did.

"Wha-" Dspects covered his mouth to stop his surprised yell.

"Shh shh shh!" he quickly hushed him. Foggy nodded his head as he swallowed. "C'mon, Foggy, I've already seen it. You just got to agree to party with us and everything will be fine. We'll even agree to have Batty join in the party." Foggy looked at him, his eyes sparkling. Dspects moved his hand away from Foggy's mouth, to reveal a grin on Foggy's face. Ferti narrowed his eyes at Dspects but decided not to say anything.

"You're not lying to me are you, DD?"

"No man. I'm dead serious," Dspects looked into his eyes. They stared at each other long enough that Ferti thought they were about to lean in and kiss. After a moment, Foggy finally looked away and nodded his head.

"Aight man, I'm in. Let's start cleaning up here, Eliza," Foggy said. Elizabat had been listening to the conversation all along so she knew what was going on. She gave Dspects a glare but proceeded to do what Foggy told her to do.

-

The four of them sat inside Dspects small shed, no house, around the coffee table. Ferti slid them the party request and they had accepted. All that was left was to plan out some things before they could head to the Snib's Crib.

"All right," Ferti looked at Elizabat, "what kind of spells can you use?' she asked. Ferti waited but Elizabat just looked at her weirdly.

"Uh, excuse me," Foggy chimed in from the side, "I'm actually the magic user here. Eliza's a tank."

"Huh?" Ferti raised an eyebrow before looking at Dspects. Dspects just shrugged his shoulders and she combed her fingers through her hair before letting out a sigh.

"Sorry, my bad. Anyways, Foggy what kind of spells can you use?"

"Well, I can use mostly all of them."

"So, like fire, light, ice, etcetera.?"

"Basically."

"What's your affinity?"

"Well... you see I'm not specialized or working in one particular affinity so... I'm kind of below average for all of them."

"Ah..." Ferti moved her gaze to give Dspects a look.

"Whuutt?!" he blinked innocently, "you just said you wanted an all-rounder!" Ferti let out another sigh and nodded her head. He was right. That was all she said. She looked back up and gave them a smile.

"Well before we go into the dungeon, let us take a day or two to practice first. Does anyone here have a knife?"

"I do," Dspects pulled out his knife.

"Great. Now please cut yourself."

"Huh?"

"Please cut yourself."

"Uh..."

"If we gonna go to the dungeon then I need to level up my healing abilities somehow, so I'm gonna need to practice some of my healing skills."

"Why?"

"You're not supposed to die in the safe zone from other characters killing you, but you can self-harm as long as you don't kill yourself intentionally. That's how alchemists can test how what kind of potions they make if they are unsure of its abilities. Now please, cut yourself," Ferti ordered.

"Huh? Uh, why me? Get the tank to do it," Dspects slid the knife over to Elizabat. Elizabat looked down at it and picked it up. She sliced her palm with it and didn't even wince. Ferti stood there frozen shock for a couple seconds at her.

"Heal me," Elizabat ordered. Ferti pulled herself together and nodded her head.

"On it," she said as she cast the healing spell. After that, she pulled out some herbs and passed them to Foggy and Dspec, "since you don't want to cut yourselves, then eat this."

"Uh, this is poison..." Foggy said nervously as he pointed at the herb.

"I need to learn anit-poison so I can save you guys later. Just trust me and do this," she said with a calm voice.

"Err..." Foggy glanced at Dspects who glanced back at him. Ferti narrowed her eyes at the two. She placed her hands back on the herbs.

"I mean you don't have to if you don't want to. I don't want to force you guys to do anything, just that the creatures we are gonna face is... deadly poisonous... to say the least," she said as she started to slide the herbs back. They placed their hands over hers to stop her from moving the herbs away.

"We'll... do it..." they both gave up in the end. Ferti gave them a small smile of gratitude as she watched Elizabat cut herself again.

-

After a while of constant pain for the other members and Ferti leveling up to level 5, they decided to call it a day.

"Meet back here tomorrow so I can talk about the plans and tell you guys more about what we should do," Ferti told them. They all nodded their heads, tired, before everyone logged off.

-

Mona pulled the helmet off her head and opened her eyes. She was again in her cover of darkness, her alarm clock the only illuminating light. Her lips felt dry and she got up to go to the kitchen for a glass of water. When she walked into the kitchen she saw another illuminated light that she hadn't seen a long time. On her old landline telephone laid a message on the screen that read one new message. She walked over to it and pressed the voicemail button. After that, she made her way to the refrigerator to get a glass of water.

"One new message," the female robotic voice said, "recorded at six thirty-four p.m..." she downed her water and was about to stuff the water bottle into the fridge.

"...hey honey," she froze as she heard the all too familiar soft voice, "we're going to have a family dinner this weekend at Kumuldas. We would love it if you could join us, hun. Stay safe. Go to school. We... miss you. Hope to see you there!"

"...end of message," the robotic voice took over. Mona stood there next to the open fridge, unsure of what to do. She just stared blankly into space. After a moment of complete silence, she returned to her bedroom. She switched the light on and grabbed a marker from her desk. She walked up to her calendar that was only filled with test dates. She filled in the blank spot for the weekend.

The more letters she drew to remind herself of the appointment, the more and more life seemed to drizzle out of her eyes. By the end, her eyes were lifeless. She returned the marker to its place before crawling under the covers. She drew the blanket over herself as if she was trying to hide from a big monster. Her eyes were tightly shut, a part of her wishing that the weekend would never come.

-

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Mona peeked out from under her covers, her eyes tired.

"What the heck?" she mumbled, her voice hoarse from just waking up. She laid her head back down to go back to sleep but then she heard it again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Go away! I'm not buying anything!" she yelled from her room.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Go away!" she yelled again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Oh my fucking goodness!" she swore as she got up from her bed. She looked at her clock and it read six thirty a.m. She had only slept four hours. She rubbed one of her eyes as she glared at the door in front of her. She unlocked it and swung it open.

"What do you fucking want?!" she yelled. She looked in front of her to see her teacher standing there looking at her with huge eyes.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked, a bit baffled at her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Ferk?" she asked with a tinge of toxic in her tone.

"You haven't been attending school lately, or at all, so I just wanted to check up on you."

"Oh, I didn't know teachers did this kind of thing," Mona hissed.

"Well some of us do," Mr. Ferk said, "and you don't seem sick today. How about you come to school with me?"

"No thank you. I'm not feeling so well," she started to close the door. Before she could, Mr. Ferk put his hand on the door. She looked up at him. "Shouldn't you be going now?"

"I'm saying you should start coming to school for your own good."

"What?"

"I got invited to go out and eat with your family this weekend at Kumuldas. They wanted to know how you were doing in school," he informed. She paused as she stared at the ground.

"And?" she asked.

"Do you want me to tell them the truth?"

"What truth?"

"That you haven't been attending school at all."

"Say whatever you want to say then," she looked back up at him, "I don't care."

"Really?"

"Yes. I don't care. Now leave me alone," she started to pull back the door again.

"Wait," he pulled the door back, "just come this week. If you come to school this whole week, then I would lie for you," he offered. She looked at him with doubt in her eyes.

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Just because?"

"Yes, now get ready and come out. I'll wait for you here."

"And if I don't come?"

"You... are you really going to disappoint your adopted parents who sent you to this prestigious school?" he asked. Her face flushed red.

"Ho-"

"Don't disappoint them. They took care of you when your real parents abandoned you," his voice was filled with emotions as he told her this. Mona looked up at him before she bit her lip. After a moment she let out a sigh.

"I understand... I'll be out in a moment," she couldn't help but agree. Mr. Ferk gave her a small smile and nodded his head.

"I'll be waiting," Mr. Ferk said as he pulled his hand back. She closed the door and walked back to her room. Her eyes traveled up her uniform and she balled her hand into a fist, before getting ready.