"Oh yeah, Gav?" Darius asked, his headset in hand. He laid on his bed, his head tilted backward.

"Yeah?" His brother sat next to his bed in a chair, the headset already on.

"What's your IGN?" Prior to this, they hadn't met up in-game yet and had done their own things.

"Gav."

"...Wait, what?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't expect for them to ask for like an actual name, 'cause like if you try to input like numbers or something, then it tells you to try again. So I was like, guess I'll just put my name then."

"Huh. Well, let's go."

Gavin said nothing, already immersed in the game.

Legacy loaded up quickly. In just a few seconds, he could feel himself leaning next to a tree, his legs crossed, right where he had logged out. Just two days before, he'd discovered that he could log out in the fields. And of course, he experimented with it, testing the boundaries of the "safe zone."

His back ached. He got up with a groan, nursing his sore body. The ground was hard and bumpy while the tree wasn't any better.

The sun glistened, shining directly into his eyes. He blinked, rubbing his eyes.

The sound of footsteps came from his right. Turning around, he saw a figure running towards him in the distance. They wore a full set of armor, minus a helmet, their face in full view. A small knapsack was strung along behind them.

He walked towards the figure. Sure enough, it was his brother.

"How'd you get here so quickly?" Gav asked. Despite running in full armor, he hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Oh, I spawned here. You can log out here, you know."

"What, really? Dang, that's... how'd you find this?"

Daru shrugged. "Just found it a few days ago, and well, that's it, I guess. Anyway," he said, changing topic, "so, what do you want to do first?"

"Mmm... Well, I don't really know. There's this one thing that I want to go to, but it can wait until later," Gav replied.

"Okay, well then, I kinda just want to walk around then, I guess. Let's go exploring," said Daru.

They went into the city. It all looked the same, save for the players. Most of them weren't wearing the beginner gear anymore, with a few in bizarre-looking outfits and grabs. He could have sworn he saw someone walking around in a lion suit.

Up ahead, to their right, a scuffle broke out. Two NPCs, each with a sword sheathed at their waist, restrained a player that was naked save for a loincloth. The man resisted but suddenly fell limp, their head swaying to the side. They weaved through the crowd, dragging the player by his arms.

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Daru heard his brother mumble. "No one wants to see that shit."

Daru turned his head. "Wait, so people are actually doing this kind of thing?"

"Yeah, this is like the third time or something, I don't know, I haven't been counting," Gav responded.

They kept walking, passing through the square. The pathway wasn't as congested as before, becoming a lot more organized over the past few days. Daru looked around, taking everything in. The past few days had just been making potions, selling them to Bell, then studying and gathering materials, so he hadn't bothered to notice the changes.

Another fight broke out up ahead. A glass dome formed around two players, signaling a duel.

"Well, looks like that crafter is screwed," Gav said.

"What? Are you sure? I mean, they could be like me, right?" asked Daru.

"There's a level difference of 2, and besides, you got lucky. If the guy you fought had been taking it seriously, you would've lost."

"Oh, really?" And just as he said that, the fight began. The warrior had an iron sword, while the crafter held some sort of weird contraption. It looked like some kind of flail, but with some mysterious boxes trailing behind it.

"What the-"

"Okay, yeah, that guy is definitely screwed," broke in Gav.

The crafter swung the flail around and around. The boxes swirled around, wrapping around the stick. They swung it at the warrior, who simply caught it, ripped it out of their hands, and stabbed them with their sword.

Their body crumpled to the ground and vanished, leaving behind a few vials of blue liquid. The warrior gathered them up, placing them in their sack just as the dome came up, and the crowd dispersed.

"Well, that was fast. Alright, moving on," Gav said, dragging his brother along.

"Wait. Explain." They talked while they moved.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Have you seen this before?"

"Oh yeah, it happens like all the time now. People are using it to... buy stuff, I guess."

"What?"

"Yeah, since like, you need to wager something or else it doesn't work. There's like one guy that's getting filthy rich off it, by selling off what he gets. He used to bet money, but then that got removed so he bets items now instead. And- what the?"

Another commotion was breaking out, between another crafter and a warrior. This time, however, it didn't seem like the crafter was eager to battle.

"Come on, just accept it already!"

"No way, I'm not stupid."

"What do you mean? Don't you want this shiny piece of armor?"

"You have a sword. I have a stick. A fucking stick. I might as well just hand over the potions."

"U-um, then I'll go easy on you, how about that?" The warrior's voice began to waver.

"Bullshit. Either pay or get out," said the crafter, folding her arms.

"Ugh, come on, can't you at least lower the price? 10 Zil is too high for something so little!" his voice rising.

"It's not like these are cheap to make, you know. Why don't you just make them yourself if you need them so badly?"

"W-well I-," he sputtered.

"Besides, look around you." A crowd had formed, some with dark looks on their face, as they waited in a pathetic excuse for a line. "You're not the only one in line. Pay, or get out," she said, stressing each syllable.

"Y-you... I'll remember this!" He turned to leave, the crowd staring him down as he walked away grumbling.

"Great. Now then, listen up, you folks in line. I only got about 10 mana potions left, okay, and then I'm closing up shop for today. Got it? 10, and only 10. I don't accept orders in advance, duel requests, none of that shit. It's first come, first serve, so either pay up or get out. Capiche?"

Seeing no response, she walked back to her bag, pulling out vials of glossy, blue liquid.

"C'mon, let's go," said Gav, pulling on his brother's arm. "There's still a bunch more to see."

They walked some more, eventually coming to a halt in front of a giant message board. Countless papers and advertisements were pinned to it. Players stood around it, huddled up in small groups of 3 or 4.

"What's this?" asked Daru.

"Um, okay, so like a few days ago, they put this thing up, since so many people joined the guild, right, so it got way too crowded in there and they couldn't like submit or take requests or anything. So they moved the request board out here, but someone's been posting things like patch notes and stuff to it as well, and besides that, it's basically just a billboard," Gav explained.

"Alright, so wait, don't the NPCs notice like the patch notes stuff too?"

"Mmm, so there's this video, okay, and by the way, this has also been proved lots of times, but so basically at the start of the game, someone tried to test the NPCs by asking if they knew if they were in a game, and got like no reaction. So they tested some other stuff, and they found out that the NPCs either don't know what you're saying, or will just ignore you."

"Oh, okay. Anyway, before we take a quest, shouldn't we find some more people first?" said Daru, changing topic.

"Nah, it'll be fine if we go to the plains."

"But there's only two of us."

"It's fine, I can carry."

"Are you sure?" Daru looked over his brother's gear. It didn't look like it was in the best condition and was slightly torn in some places.

"Hey, my level's not as high as some people, but the monsters there are pretty weak, and besides, I've done this before."

"Oh, yeah, that's right, I forgot to ask; what level are you? I'm only level 2, since I've only been making potions for the past week."

"Level 7. I've been grinding for a while. Besides, there'll be plenty of people over there anyway, so we can make a party later."

Gav grabbed two quests off the board.

Quest Received! Wabbit Season(F) Hunt 15 Wabbits Reward: 15CZ Quest Received Whack-A-Mole(F) Hunt 10 Trapper Moles Reward: 20CZ

The white rabbit eats alone, away from its peers. Shunned from society, it munches away, carefree and without responsibilities.

Suddenly, something bumps into it. A young boy, also shunned from society, has mistaken it for a soccer ball. It is but a small disturbance, and the rabbit ignores it. The boy kicks it again, yet it has no-

"Will you shut up and help me kill this thing already?"

The boy mutters something into the air, but it is of no importance.

"Why are you narrating random shit out loud? Get over here already!" Gav sat on the ground leisurely, watching his brother fight. Their bags lay on the ground nearby.

"No way, this shit's hilarious. You killed a player twice your level but you can't even hurt a frigging rabbit!"

"Get over here or I'll make you my next victim."

"Haha, okay, okay, but you need to actually hurt it first, you know. Otherwise I get all the cre-"

"I'm trying, dang it! What the hell's going on? I did this before!" Frustrated, he threw his staff on the ground.

"You sure 'bout that?" Suddenly, the rabbit turned and attacked, stabbing Daru's palm. "Ow!"

"Oh, there we go." Without even getting up, Gav reached into his pocket and threw something at the rabbit. It pierced its head, letting out a small spray of blood, and the rabbit fell limply to the ground.

Gained 15 EXP

"...Are you serious? How are you so strong? What the heck did you even throw..." Daru tugged on the object, but it snapped in two. "Is this a snake fang?"

"Yeah, I've been using those as like throwing knives. I tried using them as arrowheads before, but they broke way too easily.

So, how much EXP did you get from that?"

"15."

"Oh, that's not bad. Shouldn't take too long for you to get to level 5 then."

"Why level 5?"

Gavin got off the ground and stretched. "They released like a rpg style dungeon but you can only go there when you're level 5. I'll give you details later." He yawned.

"Now go get some more rabbits," he said, leaning backward, his hands behind his head.

Daru picked up the staff, threw it at him, and trudged off.

"Aren't you going to need this?" Gav yelled, but Daru was too far away to hear him.

Goddammit. Did things really change this much in 1 week? What the hell, man... Whatever, we gotta do this faster. Let's see how many he can take at once. Daru thought, staring at a pack or herd or whatever a group of rabbits was called, a few meters away. He picked up a rock and threw it at one. The rabbit immediately turned and charged. The rest of them followed suit.

"Hahh... I should've done this from the beginning." He ran off, leading a herd of angry and perhaps bored bunnies toward his brother.

"Oi, Gav!"

"Back already? Oh, dang, that's actually kind of a lot. Alright, give me a second..." He reached into his pocket, pulled out 2 more fangs and threw them. One of them embedded itself into a horn, while the other took a rabbit out.

Daru quickly grabbed his staff and smashed it down on a monster. The rabbit merely shook it off and kept charging, then stopped, an arrow in its head.

Gained 15 EXP Gained 15 EXP Gained 15 EXP Gained 15 EXP Gained 15 EXP Leveled up! Gained 15 EXP

"Wow, that was easy." Daru turned to see 4 rabbit corpses at his brother's feet. He held a bow, but no quiver was in sight.

"What the- how'd you kill them so fast?"

Gav held up the bow. "I got this from the dungeon. It shoots arrows made from whatever you've got on hand."

"What?! That's so broken," he exclaimed.

"Not really, since it actually loses DB each time you use it and it's so weak too."

"Even so, you don't have to make arrows or anything. And whaddya mean it's weak? You just one-shotted those rabbits."

"It still consumes the materials you need for arrows, and there's a charging time period for when it loads up on them. And the arrows only do like 5 damage anyway since I don't actually have a bow skill. Wabbits are just weak enough to get one-shotted. Anyway, you should've leveled up, right? Lemme see your stats."

Status

Name: Daru

Lvl 3

Class: Mage

EXP: 25/300

Titles: Monster Hunter I, Dark Horse I

HP: 33/36

MP: 38/38

ATK: 12 (+1)

INT: 9 (+2)

DEX: 16 (+3)

END: 10

DEF: 15 (+9)

VIT: 8

AGI: 16 (+4)

WIS: 11

LUCK: 10

SP: 5

"Oh, dang, these are kinda low." Gav had a pensive look on his face.

"Is it really that bad?" There's no way things changed that much in a week, right? he thought.

"Yeah, I have like double everything, except for INT, WIS, and LUCK. Plus, you'll be reaching the limit soon."

"What do you mean?" he asked, dismantling the corpses.

"It depends on the class you chose, I don't know what it is for Mage, to be honest, but there's a stat cap on the... stats that aren't related to your class. Like for example, warriors don't really need INT or WIS, so they're capped at 25 points each."

"What? That's bullshit."

"Yeah, but it's like different for each class and stuff. Besides, I would recommend putting points into INT and WIS anyway, because you'll get 2 points in each of those stats for every SP you put in."

"Is that a new thing too?"

"Yeah, since they decided that the current difficulty was a little high. So anyway, put the points into INT for now."

"Okay." Daru tapped on the screen, placing all 5 of his points into INT. It felt like a small gust of wind entered his brain. His MP now sat at a max of 58 points, and his INT at 18. He let out a small gasp.

"Oh, it worked?" asked Gav.

"Yeah- wait, you didn't know it would work?"

"I tried it before but I didn't get the double, and I heard only mages would get the bonus. Since, you know, you guys are-"

"Okay, okay, I get it, you don't have to spell it out for me."

"Great, so now go get some more rabbits. We still gotta do the other quest, ya know."

"Is this enough?" Stacked neatly on the ground was a pile of rabbit fur, a few slabs of meat, and a little tower made of mana stones and rabbit horns.

"Should be. I'll stick em all in my bag for now. Now, we gotta go find some Trapper Moles."

Gav stood up, pointing to his left. "Go stand over there for a few seconds."

Daru strolled over and tripped over something.

"What the-"

He fell on the ground with a thump. The tall grass closed around him, tying him to the ground.

"Nice, you found a few. Gimme a couple seconds..." He heard Gav say, but it was muffled. He struggled, but the grass was thick and strong, almost like ropes.

Suddenly, the pressure released, and he got up with a gasp. He looked at his brother. A few hairy overgrown rats lay dead on the ground. They looked like giant kiwis with too much hair on them.

"What the hell was that?"

"A trap, duh."

"If you knew, why'd you tell me to walk over here?"

"So you'd set it off- Oi, don't punch me! You got EXP from it, you should be thanking me." Gav said, dodging.

Acquired 30 EXP Acquired 30 EXP Acquired 30 EXP Acquired 30 EXP Acquired 40 EXP Leveled up!

"..." Daru walked up and punched Gav in the gut. He doubled over, clutching his stomach.

"Oh my god, it hurts sooo much, I'm going to die, oh nooo."

"Shut up. And seriously, what the hell was that?"

"It's how they fight, basically. They set up little traps in the area, then once you fall into them they stomp you to death. It was either this or trying to find their little hidey holes."

"...Let me check my status real quick...Oh, I leveled up."

"Okay, then just either put them into INT or WIS or something else. Make sure everything's at least 10 points."

Daru tapped on the screen, putting 2 points into VIT and the remaining 3 into WIS, putting his HP at 40 points and his MP at 70.

"Are they like super weak or something? My HP's completely full," asked Daru.

"Nah, when you level up your HP and MP goes back to full. Anyway, help me dismantle these things."

"Can't you just do it yourself?"

"Their skin's really tough, so if you press in the wrong spots you could destroy your knife. They can still take internal damage, like concussions and stuff, which is how I took them down. But there's supposed to be a weak spot for each one, though it's different for each one."

"And considering what these guys look like," Gav continued, noting the amount of hair on them, "it'll take some time to dismantle them."

"Okay, well then, what does the weak spot look like?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I told you, it's different for all of them. Just stab it until you find it." He sat down, picked up a mole, and began tracing all over it with his knife.

Daru stared at him for a moment, then copied him.

It felt like a fleshy wooden log in his hands. He traced over it carefully, until his knife suddenly sank in with a little thunk.

The corpse disappeared, leaving behind a large patch of fur, 2 bones half the size of his leg, and a mana stone.

Trapper Mole Fur Trapper Mole Bone x 2 F-Rank Mana Stone

"Damn, you got it fast." Gav was still tracing his, cutting hair off to make it easier. "3 more. Get to it."

Daru picked up another one and kept at it. While doing so, he noted its physical features.

It had 2 slits for eyes, two tiny nostrils, and a small mouth. The head resembled a coconut or a bowling ball. At the end of each of its limbs were stubs instead of claws, and light green fur so it could blend in with the tall grass. Originally, he had tried poking at the eyes but they were just as hard as the rest of the body and too tiny to make a dent in anyway.

He looked over at Gav. His forehead wrinkled, and his knife was starting to look dull.

Suddenly, the weight in his hands disappeared. Gav stared at him.

"What? How'd you get another one so fast?"

Daru shrugged. "Guess I'm just lucky."

"Erm..." Gav looked down, feeling a shift in pressure in his knife.

Durability has decreased by 1.

"You know what, since you're so good at this, why don't you dismantle and I'll hunt." He stood up awkwardly, setting the mole on the ground.

"I'm just gonna go farm for a bit, okay?" he said, walking off.

"Wait, but then how do I get EXP?"

Gav shrugged. "It's fine, we can get more later. We'll just hunt goblins or something."

Daru stood up, stretching. It hadn't taken long to finish dismantling. Maybe Gav was just unlucky.

Swish Swish

He heard a noise from behind him. Turning around, he came face to face with... a wolf.

A strange feeling came over him. It looked familiar somehow, like deja vu.

It barked, wagging its tail. He walked over to it, relaxed. And then it bit him.

"Aaagh! Fuck, that hurts! What the hell?!" he screamed, pulling back.

The wolf barked again.

Would you like to make the contract?

"What the...What contract?" he asked, gasping for air.

Contract has been made. Overwriting. Assimilation commencing...

"Wait, what the-"

A burning pain struck him, in the place where he was bit. He didn't even have time to scream before he blacked out.

When he came to, the wolf was nowhere to be seen. His arm still throbbed, meaning it wasn't just his imagination.

"Status," he said, groaning. It felt like he had just gotten a beatdown.

Status

Name: Daru

Lvl 4

Class: Mage

EXP: 5/400

Titles: Monster Hunter I, Dark Horse I, Tamer I

HP: 10/48

MP: 74/74

ATK: 12 (+1)

INT: 18 (+2)

DEX: 16 (+3)

END: 12

DEF: 15 (+9)

VIT: 12

AGI: 16 (+4)

WIS: 19

LUCK: 10

SP: 0

"What the...Oh, shit, I have 10 health?!" He reached for his bag quickly and grabbed two potions, downing them both.

"Ugh, my arm... One bite did that much?" He turned to look at it and stopped.

A wolf head was tattooed on it.

"...Why do I-"

A party member has died.

"What-"