The beautiful Indian girl was staring at him. Justin was sure of it.

He had been standing at a weapon vendor’s stall, perusing an array of daggers laid out on a wooden plank that served as a countertop. When he glanced up, he had seen her looking at him. Now she was coming over.

Wow. She had long blue-black hair and full, lush lips. She had to be a player. From what he had heard of the game, Greystrand wasn’t supposed to be very culturally diverse. It had been designed as a fantasy medieval version of England, and the game designers thought they were being authentic, so no people of color. Except players.

“Don’t buy any weapons yet,” she said in a hushed voice that was kind of deep and husky.

“What?”

“You get much better weapons as quest rewards. Save your money. Trust me.” The corners of her mouth turned up in a half smile.

“Uh, okay.”

“Madame, I don’t appreciate you interfering with the customers!” the shop keeper complained.

“Let’s get out of here,” the girl said.

She motioned for him to follow and led him to a side street off the town square.

“I’m Pari, by the way.”

“I’m Justin.”

“Nice to meet you, Justin.”

“Don’t you mean ‘well met?’”

“Ha, ha. No one really role-plays, so don’t worry about getting the lingo down.”

“That’s a relief. I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but are you an NPC or a player?”

“Didn’t they tell you how to check for that?” she asked.

“Yeah, but—”

“Then go for it. Nothing rude about inspecting someone. Besides, only you can see the overlay.”

“Good to know.”

He popped up an overlay on her.

:::::. Pari Kintala. (Healer). Player, Level 5 .:::::

“Whoah, you’re level 5,” he said. “That’s like halfway to max level.”

“Don’t be too impressed. I’m a brand new level 5. Just dinged last Friday. And I’m a February, so…”

“A what?”

“That’s what they call our group. I’ve been playing since February. You’re an April.”

Justin wasn’t exactly sure what she was talking about, but then she explained further.

“Most of us Februarys are level 5 now. The Januarys will hit level 6 next month. Lazarus is a January. He’s the leader of our fellowship.”

“Is that like a guild?”

“Yeah, that’s what they call them in Greystrand. We’re The Fellowship of Wood and Silence.”

“Wood and Silence? What does that mean?”

Pari shrugged. “I don’t know. I think Lazarus just thought it sounded cool. What about you? How do you like your first day in the game?”

“Well, it’s more like my first hour. And I think I pissed off my trainer really bad. He refused to give me any quests.”

She laughed. “Wow. I haven’t heard of that before. Did you try to kill him or something?”

“No. I didn’t do anything to him. He was giving me attitude the second I walked into the library.”

“You came from the Library of Globes?”

“Yeah.”

“Impressive. And you’re a sage. That’s cool.”

“Is it? I really wanted to be a battle mage.”

“No way. Much better to be a sage. You guys are rare.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re going to be the most popular guy in this entire town. Everyone’s going to want to hang with you.”

Was she serious? He still didn’t get what the big deal was.

“Anyway,” she said. “Your quest chain is going to start with Marshal Swart. You know where he is?”

Justin shook his head. “No clue. I told you, the library guy just shut me down.”

“That’s okay. I’ll show you. He’s at the training grounds. That’s where most people go after they’re done exploring the town. It’s not far. See that big building there? It’s on the south side.” Pari pointed down the street towards a massive stone structure that looked like a low castle.

Without even thinking about it, Justin somehow knew that the structure was called ‘the Keep,’ and it was an old fortress built upon the ruins of an even older Pycerian citadel. The Holgate town guard kept a small garrison there. Marshal Swart was the commander of the garrison.

“This is so freaky,” he said.

“What?”

“Things just pop into my head. Information. Like the names of things. Or where they came from. Does that ever happen to you?”

“Yeah, that’s either your knowledge or lore skill kicking in. My knowledge is pretty low, but sometimes I’ll be out in the forest and I’ll see some random berry and I’ll instantly know it’s good for menstrual cramps or something.”

“It’s so weird.”

“Yeah. You’ll get used to it. Every profession has some special abilities. Yours is knowing stuff. It’s a big one.”

They walked along the road to the Keep which had a fair number of other players on it. Justin didn’t feel so bad about inspecting people now that he knew he could do it without them knowing. Pari was right. Lots of mages and warriors, but not a single other sage.

“That’s Marshal Swart.” Pari pointed to a tall man in his 40s wearing armor and sporting an eye-patch.

“He certainly looks the part.”

“You’ll see that the game designers pay a lot of attention to detail here. C’mon.”

They walked over to the grizzled old soldier, who stared at Justin with his one good eye.

“We’ve been waiting for you.”

“You have?”

The man nodded. “Don’t mind Desiderius. He hasn’t been himself since his top student was lost in Hell’s Gate. I’m glad you’re here. We could use your help, son.”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Follow me, then.”

Justin looked at Pari questioningly.

She said, “Go ahead. I’ll be hanging around here. Find me when you’re done, okay?” She smiled at him.

“Definitely,” he said.

“Have fun!”

As they walked, Marshal Swart asked, “What weapons do you wield? Just the sword?”

Justin had forgotten he even had a weapon. He patted the scabbard and wrapped his hand around the hilt.

“This is what I have.” He drew the sword and held it out in front of him. It was a plain-looking straight blade around two feel long, sharpened at both edges.

Swart nodded. “Training blade. That’s do fine for now, but we have much better in the armory.”

About a hundred yards behind the Keep, on the edge of the forest, were a series of rocky mounds ten feet tall and overgrown with weeds.

“Hold,” Swart said. “That’s their lair.”

“Whose lair?”

“Ratkins. A bloody nest of them.”

“I’m not familiar with ratkins—”

“I’m sure you’ve seen them in your travels, son. Little buggers. Half man, half rat. Vile creatures, dripping with disease. No?”

Justin had expected his knowledge skill would kick in, but it didn’t.

“Uh, we don’t have anything like that where I’m from.”

“Count yourself lucky, then. At night they get into the grain silos. Infect our foodstuffs with disease and pestilence. We have no idea where they’re coming from, but they need to be taken care of and you’re just the man for the job.”

“So I just go over there and kill some rats, is that it?”

“Ratkins,” Marshal Swart corrected. “Bring me back six tails. I’ll see that you’re well rewarded.”

“Sure.”

:::::. Quest accepted: slay 6 ratkins and bring their tails back to Marshal Swart .:::::

Marshal Swart clapped Justin on the shoulder. “Just don’t get bitten. It’s not pleasant. Not pleasant at all.”

With that, he turned on his heel and strode away.

Justin held his sword straight out in front of him and made his way towards the mounds. As he got closer, he could hear faint, muffled squeaking sounds. His heart began to pound, but still he moved closer. How bad could it be? They were little rat people, for god’s sake. Level one monsters, or maybe even level zero. This would be cake.

And then he saw one, grubbing through the weeds.

Swart had described it well. It looked like a pudgy eighteen-inch-tall midget with a rat’s face, mottled gray fur, and a stubby naked tail. It didn’t have any weapons or anything, but it did have sharp looking claws on its hands and feet and was pretty gross looking. He popped up its overlay:

:::::. Ratkin. (Humanoid). Hostile. .:::::

Hmm. Hostile. That was the first time he had seen that. But no stats about creature’s health or level or anything. That was weird.

He moved closer. Here we go. It’s really happening.

“Die!” Justin lunged forward with his sword and impaled the ratkin right though its side. The creature screeched in pain, but quickly convulsed and died.

:::::. Victory! +10 Experience .:::::

He did it! His first kill in Greystrand. Woo-hoo! Justin cut off the ratkin’s tail, stuffed it into one of his pouches, and moved around the mound, looking for more movement in the grass.

The next ratkin he saw was poking out of a hole in the side of the mound. Its nose wrinkled, and it sniffed the air. Maybe it had smelled him, but it was looking the wrong way. Justin whipped his blade down and hacked the vermin’s head clean off.

:::::. Victory! +10 Experience .:::::

Easy peasy! He was one-shotting these critters. Maybe he wasn’t as wimpy as he had feared.

After collecting the tail, he moved on to the next mound. There were two here and as soon as he slashed at one, the other leaped on his leg. Tiny claws ripped through his pants and his leg burned in pain. He was hit. Ugh, his first hit. It hurt like hell.

“Get off!” He kicked his leg out, dislodging the creature. But now the first one was coming at him. Its fur was matted down with blood, but its red eyes burned with hatred.

Justin lunged forward and skewered it. Boom! Dead!

:::::. Victory! +10 Experience .:::::

He didn’t have time to celebrate, because the one who had scratched up his leg was trying to sneak up behind him.

“Oh no you don’t!” He spun around, leading with his blade, and used all his strength to slice the ratkin’s abdomen open like a gutted fish.

:::::. Victory! +10 Experience .:::::

Yes! Four down. Just two to go. But now it looked like the whole hive had been alerted. At least dozen ratkin swarmed out of their burrows and they were all scurrying at him. This wasn’t good.

Justin quickly backed up, trying to put some distance between himself and the ratkin, but they kept coming. And then his foot caught on something and he tumbled backwards. He landed hard and his sword flew out of his hand.

Damn it!

He just lay there for a fraction of a second. The wind knocked out of him.

But then they were on him, a swarm of ratkin. Clawing, scratching, biting. He was being eaten alive!

He tried to roll over and protect his stomach, but there were too many of them. One sunk its teeth into his wrist and he felt another gnawing his ear off. A shooting pain shot up the side of his leg as a ratkin tore at him. Blood was everywhere and all of it was his. He thrashed for a bit more but then started to get woozy. Then the darkness took him…

Justin awoke on a hillside overlooking the town. He was very groggy, but he could tell that he was sitting upright, his back against a huge tree which towered over him.

A Life Tree.

As his head cleared, he realized that this is what happened when you died here in Greystrand. You came back to life under a Life Tree. Supposedly Life Trees had a connection to the life force of this world and that’s why they could bring you back to life.

Justin stood up and examined himself for injuries. His clothes were torn up but he wasn’t wounded. And he still had both of his ears.

That was intense. He had never died before. What a horrible experience.

He looked up at the massive tree. It had white bark and big reddish leaves and stretched up a good hundred feet over his head.

A voice called from in back of him, “I thought I might find you here.”

It was Pari. “Were you swarmed?” she asked.

“How d'you know?”

“That’s pretty much the only way to get killed by ratkin. Individually, they’re pretty wimpy.”

“Individually, I’m pretty wimpy.”

“Don’t worry about it. Happened to me too. How many tails did you get?”

“I killed four, but I only was able to pick up two tails.”

“Let’s go back. I’ll help you.”

It turns out that they were only a five minute walk from the mounds. Justin cautiously approached, looking for signs of the ratkins.

“The bodies should still be there,” Pari said.

She was right. He collected two more tails, but he still needed one more in order to complete the quest.

“It looks like I’m going hunting again.”

“Just try to keep the mobs spread out,” Pari said.

“I’ll try.” Justin took a deep breath. With his blade out, he carefully moved over to the next mound, watching for telltale signs of movement in the weeds. His heart started revving up again.

Pari stayed back, but she called out to him. “Remember what you know about these guys. Use the lore.”

“I don’t know anything about them. That’s the thing.” He continued to move forward, slowly but surely, winding his way between the mounds where the ground was clear of vegetation.

“You sure?” She sounded very surprised.

“Yup. Everything I know, which isn’t much, I got from Swart.” This was weird. There was no sign of any ratkins.

“Did he tell you about their traps?”

“Uh… no…”

“Justin, do not move. Do not take another step—”

But it was too late. The ground collapsed all around him and he felt himself plummet down in a tangle of branches and dried mud. He hit the bottom of the pit hard and twisted to the side, and his left ankle exploded in pain.

Damn, damn, damn!

Black spots danced in front of his eyes as he looked up. The top of the pit was at least fifteen feet over his head. But that wasn’t the worse thing he saw. Ratkins began pouring out of little passages in the pit walls. He was being swarmed again!

He staggered to his feet and began slashing at his attackers. Blood spattered, and the vermin squealed in pain, but they kept coming. They dropped on his shoulders and clawed and bit at his neck and face. Others tore at his legs, chittering angrily as they attacked. He flailed around, trying to dislodge them. Then stomped on any he had knocked to the ground. With every kill, his overlay flashed the experience he was earning, but he couldn’t pay attention to that, because the ratkins kept coming. Ripping, biting, slashing.

More landed on him, weighing him down, biting and digging at any exposed flesh. He stumbled, lost his footing, and went down.

This was the end. Justin was going to die again. Torn apart by ratkins.

As his life ebbed away, he heard a loud humming sound. And then a bright flash of light enveloped him. Energy pulsed through his body and the ratkins were flung off of him like moths hitting a bug zapper. All his pain evaporated, and he felt like he had just guzzled a gallon of espresso.

This was fantastic!

Energized, he renewed his attack on the creatures, slashing, stabbing, smashing, stomping! He could hit them, but they couldn’t hit him. This was freaking awesome!

When he finally stopped to catch his breath, well over a dozen bodies were strewn at his feet.

“Nice!” Pari called from up above.

“Did you do that? The energy thing?”

She grinned at him. “I might have tossed a healing shield your way, but hey, I’m a healer, right? That’s what I do.”

“Thanks. I thought I was a goner. Again.” He was still breathing heavily.

“Collect your trophies while I find a rope. Let’s get you out of there.”

He started hacking off ratkin tails and by the time he was done, Pari was back. She tossed a rope down to him.

“What’s your climb skill?” she called down to him.

He focused on himself and didn’t see any climb skill listed. But he now was at 220 experience.

“No climb skill, unfortunately. But I was pretty good at the rope climb at gym class. Does that count?”

“Give it a try. I tied my end to a tree.”

The energy from Pari’s healing shield must have still been in him because he climbed the rope like a monkey. She stuck out a hand and helped him up over the edge.

“That was crazy!” He smiled at her and pumped his fist. “Woooooo-hooooo!”

“Your first victory!”

“Just call me Justin the Rat Slayer!”

She laughed and said, “You’re just getting started. Let’s go back to turn this quest in.”

Marshal Swart was back where they had originally found him, in the training grounds.

“Ah, Justin. You don’t look any worse for the wear. How did you fare, son?”

Justin just dumped out his collection of 22 ratkin tails. “Boom!”

Swart whistled in appreciation. “Good lord, boy. I said six. Did you leave any for my other recruits?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“I’m jesting, son. Good work. Very good work.”

:::::. Quest complete! +65 Bonus Experience .:::::

“Thanks, but you could have told me about the pit,” Justin said.

“I could have,” Marshal Swart said. “But I fear that would have taken all the fun out of it. Right, son?”

Justin just shrugged.

Marshal Swart fished in his satchel and brought out a bulging leather pouch the size of a grapefruit.

“This is also for you.” He tossed the pouch to Justin.

Gold coins! It was filled with gold coins.

:::::. +200 Gold .:::::

“Whoah. Thanks.”

“You earned it.” Swart clapped Justin on the shoulder. “Besides, I have another task for you. We need to determine where all these ratkins are coming from. There’s an old ranger by the name of Klothar who lives a few miles out of town to the northeast. I want you to find him and ask him if he knows anything about these ratkins. Do you accept?”

That sounded pretty easy.

“Okay.”

:::::. Quest accepted: speak with Klothar the ranger in Durbam Dell .:::::

“Good man. I know you’re new to these parts, so I have something here that will help you find your way: your own Circle of Reckoning.” He handed Justin a flat copper disc the size of a drink coaster.

“Truth be told, I’m not a man who completely trusts magical gewgaws, but a Circle of Reckoning can keep you from wandering lost in the forest.”

The disc was maybe a quarter inch thick and was engraved with various designs which looked vaguely magical. On one side was inset another disc that looked like it was made of shell or cloudy glass or something. It took up most of the circle, with just a small border of metal around it.

As Justin examined it, he realized that the Circle of Reckoning was a magical device used for navigation. He just wasn’t sure how to activate it so he asked Marshal Swart.

“The Circle ’tis not especially difficult to operate. Just push your finger on it to call the spirits. They’ll conjure a map and you can see where you are and where you’re supposed to be.”

Sounded simple enough. And when Justin pressed on the shell side, an image of a hand-drawn map appeared on the disc. The map showed Holgate and the Erslo River and the main roads to the north and south. A pulsing red icon showed his destination while a pulsing blue icon showed his current location. An arrow just inside the edge of the inner disk pointed towards the destination.

“You can pinch and zoom just like a nav app,” Pari said.

“This is awesome,” Justin said. As he turned the disc, the arrow moved around so it always pointed towards the destination. It was kind of like an old mechanical compass.

“Good luck and let me know what you find out from Klothar,” Marshal Swart said. He strode away towards another group of recruits who were trying to shoot arrows into a straw training dummy.

“Do you know this Klothar the ranger?” Justin asked Pari.

“Yeah. Interesting guy. He’s not too far.”

“You want to come with?”

“Um, I have some stuff in town that I need to take care of,” Pari said. “But you’ll be fine. Just keep east of the road and stay out of the Dark Tree.”

She was talking about the Dark Tree Forest, a nearly impenetrable forest that stretched from Rathenhall to the edge of Hell’s Gate, over 25 miles.

Pari motioned at his pouch of gold. “By the way, that purse he gave you is another magical item. It’s called the money bag. Everyone gets one when they finish their first quest. Keep it safe. It’s special.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s basically a magical purse that can hold an unlimited number of coins, but doesn’t weigh anything.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, as you collect stuff in general, you’ll find that lugging it around is an issue. It’s tough to fight with a forty pound backpack. Since gold is so heavy, the game designers came up with the money bag.”

“I’m liking these magical items.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of good stuff out there, but like I said, don’t buy any gear quite yet. Save your gold. You’ll need it for formal training and stuff.”

Justin had a million more questions, but Pari looked like she had some place she needed to be, so he nodded and just said, “Thanks for everything. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Definitely, Justin, definitely. Hey, I’m going to send you a friend invite now.”

:::::. Pari has invited you to be friends. Accept? .:::::

“Yes,” Justin said aloud.

:::::. You and Pari are now friends .:::::

“Cool,” Pari said. “Now we can send each other voice messages. Check this out. “Message to Justin: watch out for ratkins.”

Barely a second later his overlay popped up.

:::::. New message from Pari. Listen? .:::::

“Yes.”

All of a sudden he heard her voice saying “watch out for ratkins.” This was wild. Just like voice texts.

Pari said, “Let me know if you get into trouble up there, but I doubt that you will. Let’s find each other back in town towards the end of the day.”

“Sounds like a plan.”