"I should have kept my mouth shut." Tony mumbled. "Sleeping on a bench wouldn't be that bad."

Lucas put away his map as they left the city. It would be no help outside the walls. "It gave us a bedroll for a reason. I would rather find a quiet place out here than sleep on a bench."

"That's what everyone else is doing. You saw all the people in the plaza laying on the ground." Tony retorted. "And we had prime real-estate! We each could have had our own bench to sleep on."

"That sounds uncomfortable, and I doubt we would've been alone for very long." Lucas looked around, then turned left and headed into the forest. "Having our own secluded spot, where we can use our bedrolls, sounds a lot nicer."

"That's assuming we can find a safe spot to sleep. This place is probably crawling with monsters, and they could be strong!" Tony continued to resist the idea, even as he kept following the Draconian.

"Seems pretty quiet so far." Lucas said as he maneuvered around bushes and trees. "I have a new skill I can use if we run into anything. We should be fine." He glanced back at his friend, whose head was darting all around as they walked. "Are you afraid of being out here?"

"What? No! It's just that I can't see well in the dark like this." Tony explained, still turning his head every few seconds. "We don't want to get jumped by a monster or anything."

"Alright, just making sure." Lucas said, continuing on. They traveled in silence for several minutes. The light from the twin moons filtering through the trees was their only light source. "Hm?" He slowed to a stop. He caught sight of a different light source not too far away.

"Do you think that's a fire monster?" Tony asked, following behind his friend, who had only stopped for a moment.

Lucas ignored his friend's questions, making the short distance to the orange glow of light. "Oh, hey there." He stepped into a small clearing where a pair of fair-skinned women were sitting, illuminated by a lantern on the ground.

"Hello! Did you want to join us?" The older of the two asked with a friendly smile. She was a human with long dirty-blonde hair with her bangs braided, the two braids hanging down each side to frame her face. A short sword was sheathed on her hip and a shiny armor piece covered her upper chest and back.

"Cookie!" The younger one, who looked to be near Lucas’s age, nudged the other in the shoulder. "What are you doing?" She was dressed similarly to the Draconian. He saw the same wand and cloak, except her cloak was white, and the hood was pulled up.

"What? The lizard guy is probably nicer than he looks." The armored woman, Cookie, explained. "And look at the cute lizard behind him!" She pointed to Tony, who was peeking out from behind the Draconian.

"Whoa, whoa!" Tony stepped out to stand beside Lucas. "We are not lizards." he pointed up at his friend. "He is a Draconian, a race descendant of dragons. Calling him a lizard is an insult!"

"Uh..." Lucas raised an eyebrow, glancing between his friend and the two women.

"I'm a kobold, and we're related to dragons as well." Tony continued explaining. "Except, kobolds were minions and servants of dragons." He mumbled.

Cookie gave the kobold a confused look. "Huh? A go-bald and a dragon?"

"What? I said-" Tony said before being interrupted.

The cloaked woman sighed. "Don't worry about it Cookie, it's just the name of their races." She placed her hand on the older woman's shoulder, who looked to be in her late 20’s. "You two can join us if the go-bald can calm down."

"Excuse me, but-" Tony tried to speak up once more.

"Yes, we would appreciate that! Thank you." Lucas stepped in front of Tony, motioning to the kobold with his hand to pipe down. "I'm Lu-, uh, Art. You can call me Art, and this is Tony." He stepped aside to reveal the cross-armed kobold. "Are you both settling here for the night?"

"Yes, we are!" Cookie replied, still smiling. "Oh! How rude of me. You can call me Cookie, and this is Raven."

The younger woman, Raven, gave a wave. "We were trying to start a fire." She motioned to the pile of sticks inside a circle of stones. "We don't have a way to start it, and it's getting chilly."

"Huh, it is, isn't it?" Lucas replied, not having given it any thought. This game didn't feel like a game very often. A game was a cool world to dip into, but rarely was as immersive as this; where the world felt real. The night air was cool, the occasional cry of an insect could be heard, and the moonlight was absolutely gorgeous as it came through the branches of the trees above.

"If you're a dragon, can you breathe fire to light up our campfire?" Cookie asked, interrupting Lucas' thoughts.

"He's not a dragon." Tony said through clenched teeth.

"Eh heh, as far as I know, I can't do that. But I can light the fire another way." Lucas explained as he pulled his wand from his hip. "Probably." He had not used this spell before, but given its description, he hoped this would work. "Ember." The Draconian said, pointing his wand to the unlit campfire. Sparks erupted from the end of the wand, a small flame quickly sprouting to spew copious amounts of embers and bits of fire onto the campfire. The flame on the wand's tip vanished after a few seconds as the skill ended. "Uh..." He crouched down and got a closer look, his skill not having any effect.

"Honey, you need to do it down here." Cookie scooted closer, spreading apart the twigs to reveal the dead leaves and bits of paper underneath. "You have to ignite the starter bits, then it will burn the rest."

Lucas nodded, crouching down to point the end of his wand a few inches away from the core of the campfire. "Ember!" He said with more vigor, the flame at the wand tip reappearing to induce the spell once more. This time, the skill was more focused and calculated, hitting the leaves and scrunched bits of paper and igniting it.

"There we go. We have a fire going!" Cookie exclaimed, crouching down to blow puffs of air into the small flame. This helped the fire to grow, and she lightly fanned it with her hand while rearranging the sticks. "Nothin' to it!" Her face was beaming as she returned to her previous sitting position, watching the fire slowly grow.

"You're a mage?" Raven asked.

"Yep." Lucas glanced at his friend, who had sat down near the campfire. "You went with the bard, right?"

"Yes, but technically I'm a muse. I'll be a bard on the next class upgrade." Tony looked at the two women. "What are you two?"

"Um..." Cookie looked off in thought. "Warrior?"

Raven shook her head. "You're a soldier, remember?"

"Oh, that's right!" Cookie smiled at the group.

"I'm a healer." Raven said, pulling her hood back as the heat from the fire grew. Her brunette, neck-length curly hair and pointy ears came free.

"I should've guessed." Tony chuckled. "It seems obvious after you say it."

"Right." Raven began. "So, what even is a muse? Are you going to give me inspiration or are you some kind of jester?" She motioned to the kobold’s shirt. “Your outfit is kind of goofy.”

"No, I’m not a jester." Tony scoffed. "It's basically a different name for a bard." He looked at the two women, both giving him an unsure look. "You don't know what a bard is?" His gaze shifted to Lucas, who also had a look of uncertainty. "You too?!" Tony sighed, pulling and holding up his flute from his hip. "Bards are a support class, buffing their party members. It's kind of like being a magic user, except instead of spells we have songs."

"Sounds lame." Raven said.

"Says the healer! All you do is-" Tony retorted.

"Is anyone else hungry?" Cookie quickly piped in, changing the subject. "I've been peckish for a while, but I'm pretty hungry now."

The others turned their attention to Cookie.

"Now that you mention it, I could eat." Raven said.

"Me too, but I've been ignoring it since we can't actually eat." Tony agreed.

"We could try eating food right now. Aren't we supposed to eat and drink, anyway?" Lucas proposed.

"If we're hungry, eating some virtual food isn't going to change anything." Tony replied.

"What if our hunger is virtual, too?" Raven asked. "I haven't eaten since noon, so it's been almost twelve hours since I had lunch, but I only started feeling hungry a while ago."

"That doesn't-" Tony stopped, looking up at the trees as he thought. "Wait, that makes sense. If the Nest is intercepting brain signals, then we won't feel hungry or thirsty."

"Our hunger could be fake?" Lucas asked. "That dev mentioned realism and survival." He sighed, pulling his pack from behind himself. "Well, I could make us some food. Let's see..." His backpack menu came up and was being scrolled through.

"Oh yeah, you were going with the chef job, right?" Tony asked, pulling his bag from his back as well. "I still have my bread and cheese from that one quest. Do you two have anything?" He questioned the women.

"Um..." Cookie hummed as she and Raven pulled their bags around as well. "Raven, can you help me? I always have trouble using this dang backpack."

"Again?" Raven sighed. "Here, like this." She helped the other use the backpack screen while demonstrating with her own.

After a few minutes, everyone had pulled out what food they had, which turned out to be four large bread rolls, four wedges of cheese, and a few rat tails.

"All we have is some bread and cheese?" Raven asked as she looked at everyone's lap. "What is that?" She pointed to Lucas's lap.

"Rat tail." Lucas replied, grabbing one of the big tails to hold it up. "It says that it's edible."

"Yeah, no. I will not eat a rat tail." Raven shook her head. "So we each get to enjoy some bread and cheese, great."

"Hold up! Art said he would cook something." Tony turned his attention to the Draconian. "Do you have some kind of cooking skill to turn this into something tasty?"

"Uh..." Lucas looked at the group as all eyes were on him, storing the tails away in his bag. "I think I have an idea." He pulled a pot, pan, and a cooking knife from his bag, setting the cookware down beside the fire. "Put the cheese in here." The Draconian took his wedge of cheese and dropped it into the pot. "And the bread here." He placed his large bread roll into the pan. After everyone had done as he asked, he continued. "Tony, could you get some more firewood?"

"Me? I, uh..." Tony got to his feet and looked around into the darkness around their camp.

"I'll go with you, honey. We'll need a decent amount of wood to keep the fire going for most of the night." Cookie stood up, taking the lantern in one hand and the kobold's hand in the other.

“Yep, sure. Okay.” Tony glanced back at his friend as he led away into the darkness.

"She seems pretty nice." Lucas commented, pulling a cooking rack from his bag. He unfolded the legs on it and set it above the fire.

"She is, which makes it hard to get mad at her." Raven leaned back with her arms.

"Does she get on your nerves or something?" Lucas asked. He reached into his bag and pulled out his bedroll, unfurling it to place a bowl of butter and the pan of bread on it.

"No, she's super sweet, but I don't think she's played a single video game in her life." Raven said. "I've had to explain to her how to get items out of her bag so many times, for example. This is a lot to get used to, I guess. I try not to hold it against her."

"It doesn't help that most things aren't explained much at all." Lucas continued working, now cutting the bread up into cubes. "If this was a normal VR game, I'd probably be having more trouble, but..."

"It feels real." Raven finished.

"Yeah. There aren't any controls to learn or weird mechanics. It's..." Lucas tried to think of the right word.

"Like being in a new world." Raven went into her bag and pulled out a book and quill. "This place feels real. You walk and talk just like the real world, interact with things how you normally would. It doesn't feel much like a game."

Lucas nodded. "That's a good way of putting it." He put the pot of cheese on the left side of the rack, followed by the pan on the right side after adding some butter to it. "Even the NPCs act oddly real. Not perfect, but better than I've seen in the games I usually play."

"I wouldn't know about that." Raven was using her quill on an empty page of her book. "I don't play games very often, not anymore anyway."

"Really? Why did you stop?" Lucas put his butter away that he hadn't used and pulled out a large wooden spoon from his bag. He used it to stir the bread cubes around, spreading around the butter in the pan that was quickly melting away.

Raven shrugged. "My brother moved out years ago and took his consoles with him."

“Damn, that sucks.” Lucas turned away from the fire. “Christmas isn’t too far away. Are you going to save up or ask for a console, or a gaming computer?”

“Pft.” Raven exhaled. “I’m lucky enough to have gotten my Nest. I’m not going to bother asking for anything for Christmas, not like my parents would get me what I wanted, anyway.”

“I guess the Nest is the best thing you can-” Lucas said, stopping mid-sentence when he heard footsteps and branches cracking.

"We're back!" Cookie announced as she returned, lighting the way with the lantern while her other arm was full of branches.

"Yep. That was fine." Tony followed in after, carrying in two armfuls of campfire fuel.

"Something smells good!" Cookie set down her branches near the fire, turning off the lantern before setting it down as well.

Tony added his firewood to the pile Cookie had started. "Yeah, but what are you making?" He gave a critical look at the cubes of bread being fried up and the pot of melting cheese.

"It's nothing fancy, since I don't have many cooking instruments, ingredients, or even utensils and plates." Lucas continued stirring around the bread, trying to get it all evenly toasted. "It's fondue, and should be done soon, once the cheese melts."

"Oh, that's so fun! I haven't had fondue in years." Cookie smiled at the group as she took a seat around the campfire. "Do you want me to add more to the fire?"

"No, it'll be better if the heat goes down. Otherwise the cheese might burn." Lucas pulled the pan off the rack and set it aside, satisfied with how the bread had turned out. He glanced over at Raven, who was still busy with her book and quill. "You two didn't run into any monsters?"

"No, they must have gone to sleep. Even nasty critters need sleep." Cookie answered.

"What? This is a game they don't..." Tony trailed off. "Realism?" He asked with a sigh as he looked at Lucas. "Maybe even the monsters need to eat and sleep."

"Could be." Lucas shrugged. “That or maybe there aren’t monsters in this area.” He went to his bag once more. "I think It's about done." He pulled out four skewers, holding three out to the others. "Like I said, I don't have plates or anything. You'll have to skewer a piece of toasted bread then dip it."

"That's the fun of fondue!" Cookie happily took a skewer.

"Doesn't matter to me." Tony said as he took his.

"Cheese is always good." Raven set aside her book and quill to take the last skewer.

"Alright everyone, dig in!" Lucas announced, moving the pan of warm toasted bread cubes where it could be easily reached. Everyone stabbed a piece onto their skewer, then dipped it into the molten cheese. The bread came back out of the pot covered in steamy cheese, requiring a few quick puffs of air to cool it down before being eaten. "Oh, wow." He was the first one to take a bite. It tasted pretty good, though he was more surprised at how he could enjoy food he had cooked in a video game. Lucas had figured the food would have taste, given how everything else so far felt so real, but it was another to experience it.

"This is good!" Cookie finished her piece.

"Wow, the food tastes good?" Tony said. "Uh, I'm surprised the food has taste, I mean."

Raven nodded her head, finishing her piece. "This game is pretty cool."

"Too bad we're stuck here." Tony said, staring at the pot of melted cheese. The clearing immediately grew quiet as the other three looked at the kobold, reminded of their situation.

"Come on, everyone! Eat up while the bread is still warm." Lucas interrupted the silence to grab the handle of the pan and held it up until everyone secured a new bread cube. "Plus, we don't want the cheese to burn."

There was a pause before the others stabbed another piece of bread. Lucas then did the same, waiting for his turn to dunk his cube. He wanted to change the topic away from the topic Tony had brought up, but now it was an awkward silence as they ate.

“Do you think we’ll be able to leave the game by morning?” Cookie asked after a minute, finishing her bite of food. “I didn’t agree to test this out for so long.”

“None of us agreed to test out the beta version of this mode, and we definitely didn’t agree to being trapped here.” Tony held his skewer in his hand and quickly stabbed a cube of bread.

“They have to be working on it though, there’s no way they haven’t noticed by now.” Lucas said, gingerly stabbing a new piece of bread for himself as he watched the kobold dunk his bread deep into the pot of cheese.

“Even if they only noticed an hour ago, they should have fixed it by now! How hard can it be to add a log out button, or force us all to disconnect?!” Tony jerked his skewer out of the pot and chomped down on the steamy cheese covered cube. “Ah, hot!” His muzzle hung open as he breathed in and out quickly.

Raven shook her head as she watched the kobold. “It’s not a big deal. It’ll get fixed at some point, we just have to chill until then.” She waited for the kobold to calm down somewhat before acquiring a piece of bread and dipping it.

“How long do you think it will take to fix? Does this kind of thing happen often?” Cookie asked, looking at everyone sitting around the campfire.

Tony’s hairless eyebrow perked up as he looked at Cookie, finally swallowing down his bite of food. “No, this kind of thing has never happened before. There hasn’t ever been a VR headset like the Nest.”

Cookie hummed. “You said the ‘Nest’? Is that what the helmet is called? Seems like a silly name. It doesn’t look like a bird’s nest.”

Tony’s lower jaw slowly lowered. “What? You didn’t know the name of it?” He shook his head. “You know what, I’m not going to ask. But, to answer your question, yes. The VR headset is called the Nest, and it stands for Neural Evolution Simulation Technology.”

“Oh yeah, I remember my friend mentioning that.” Lucas took a drink from his waterskin. “Still no idea what that means.”

“Sounds fancy.” Raven said, helping herself to another cube.

“I don’t understand any of this.” Cookie sighed softly. “The food is good though, and that sky is so beautiful.” She tilted her head back, catching glimpses of the night sky through the trees.

“Yeah, the food is good. Thanks, Art.” Tony smiled at Draconian.

“I’m glad you all like it. Hopefully, I can find better things to cook tomorrow.” Lucas dipped a piece of bread, holding it in a moment before pulling it out. “If we’re still here, anyway.”