Chapter 3: Redemption

Games are supposed to be fun. Entertaining. To help you evade the monotonous reality. To hell with that! It’s been three whole nights, 30 hours, of me wandering a deserted land without any clue on where to go or what to do.

Today marks the 4th night. Log on!

“Mike, you there?”

“Aye, you still lost?”

“I think so… At least I’m on the exterior now. Yesterday just before login off I exited the cave system.”

“Is that so? What do you see?”

“There is a huge mountain in the background. Behind me, I can see the hill I have exited from. Probably the same one where I fell, just on the other side.”

“Hah… You son of a bitch. You took 3 days to cross that stupid ravine, the same one everyone jumped over. Go straight to that mountain, you’ll bump into the city just a few hours after.”

“Really? I’ll be able to revive at last?”

“Yeah, you will. We’ll meet you there, so don’t be late, okay?”

“Yes yes, I promise! See you later!”

“Later!”

Okay then, let’s go mee-

[Congratulations! You have earned a unique achievement: Soul without vessel]

Your body has degraded beyond recuperation. Eaten by scavengers, decomposed by time and weather, eaten by worms. Your soul has nowhere to go back to.

[You meet the requirements to become a Wraith, would you like to change races?]

You are dead. You have nobody to go back to. You are full of resentment.

Wraiths wield powerful magic. They specialize in curses and damnation.

Your class would also change.

This decision is irreversible.

“No! Noo! Noooo!” My screams flow along with my tears, soon enough developing into an incessant sobbing. “Heal! Heal! Heaal! FUCK! Resurrect! Heal! What do you want from me? What do I have to do? I’m lost! Please help me!”

[Your connection with Jonas has been lost]

[Your class has become Forsaken Priest]

Your God has abandoned you, or you have forsaken him. You no longer are God Jonas’ priest. He no longer grants you any power.

“Fuck you, Jonas! You are useless! You couldn’t help me when I needed you. You are no God! Motherfucker, all I asked was for help, and you go and decide to abandon me? Shit! FUCK YOU!”

So what if you don’t want to give me your powers? I don’t need them! “Heal! Resurrect! Heal!” My view, which just a moment ago captured the mountains’ grandness, starts to fade away. Going black by the moment, everything turns blurry. But I keep on going, not letting it stop me. “Resurrect! HEAL!”

[Do you want to become an Inquisitor?]

You have met the requirement to become an agent of chaos and free will.

You hold one or more unique achievements related to death You committed heresy against your God by trying to unleash forbidden magic Your soul has been separated from your body in a 1:1000 ratio (2 minutes bound, 33.33 hours separated) Your mortal vessel is gone from this world

Inquisitors do not fear Gods. Evil and Good are defined by their own terms and not others’. Wilding their own powers, Inquisitors have a hard time while growing. Still, upon reaching their peak, their healing magic has no paragon. Their understanding of the spiritual is also unrivaled.

So no more God? Freedom? That’s fine, that’s all I need. The rest is a little vague, but I will still have the power to heal others as it seems, so that’s fine with me. I’ve not even been a week here, and I’ve already grown tired of its bastard god.

“Yes, I want to be an Inquisitor.”

[You are now an Inquisitor]

You have unlocked Health Points (HP). If they reach 0, you enter a stasis state. During stasis, you might move in specter form but can’t interact with anything nor cast spells. You regain your normal status after 12h.

You have unlocked Mana. Your abilities might require the use of Mana.

[You have learned Materialize]

Your soul can now take material form. While in material form, you shall interact with the world as if it was your own body. Specter form allows you to bypass physical interactions but increases your spells’ cost by 50%.

Changing between forms triggers a cooldown of 5 seconds and has a cost of 1% of your maximum Mana.

Bound items and wearables stuck with you independently of the form.

[You have learned Heal]

Gather your Mana to heal the wounds of yourself or an ally. Costs 25 mana and restores 20 health. Has a cooldown of 10s.

Huh… Until now I didn’t have HP? What kind of sick joke is this? I should be wary of that 12h lockdown when I die, it’s almost like being locked out of the game. At least Mana is the usual one I’ve seen in all games, no surprise there. Then… let’s try this? Materialize!

Has… something happened? I feel exactly the same. Mmhh.. let me see my hand. Oh! Nice! There it is! It’s actually made of flesh and bones, or it seems like it is. Finally! Things are going right for once! Can I check on my status? Um… Character! Ahem Status!

[Status]

Name: Mark

HP: 100/100

Mana: 90/100

Inquisitor [1]

Materialize

Heal

I can’t complain, I guess, there’s nothing to compare to after all. And I’m still some kind of healer; not everything’s lost. Let’s go! Irisgarth here I come!

After this whole ordeal, having a pleasant stroll, feeling the sun again, it feels so good, you know. An uneventful excursion, without Gods, wraiths, nor death. That is precisely what I expected from the game, and what I’m now having.

“Yo Mike! Finally!” I hear the shout coming from the horizon, a manly voice resonating through the air.

Huh? I can’t see him? There are some shapes, but they are way too far to be discernible. “Dorian, is that you?” I give it my earnest effort at making it loud, but… nobody answers me back. Whatever, who knows how he did that, let’s keep on walking.

And so I do, for 5 more minutes until the city comes completely into sight. And with it, the party of 4 that I guess are my friends. I guess because I have never actually seen them. I do know their voices, as we used to communicate via voice chat, but that’s it.

A muscular dude stands at the foremost, with his arms crossed below his chest. He seems strong. Well, maybe strong is not the word, let’s say robust, borderline fat. He is clothed in baggy pants, threatening to fall down but resisting thanks to a pair of suspenders.

Pants… Ah! I might have even screamed up loud upon the realization. Am I even clothed? Huh, why didn’t I think of this? Panic mode on, I forget my sense of touch and raise my arms. Barely after they are in my field of view, I confirm the worst of my fears. I’m fucking bare! Red starts coming to my face, which I dejectedly drop to the floor. Oh, wait! I do have pants on! How is that even possible? Not that I’m complaining!

Regaining my senses, at least to some point, I stare back at my company. To the sturdy man’s left, I’m met with a skinny and somewhat short youngster. He is wearing camo clothes, tightly dressed to his skin and fully equipped with daggers at each side. The bastard is handsome… I mean, look at his face, his hair! Is that his real appearance, or has he tweaked it?

And how can I miss her? My mother always told me, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. And this, here, is the best example. She is beautiful, and her extravagant clothes only accentuate her curves even more. Clothes, though, might be too generous of a word. Rather an exquisite armor that exposes her belly and her arms.

Does she usually dress like this? Hah! I know she hates it! Look at her face and how afraid she is of showing off like this! I wonder what her class is, to have to wear it. And more than anything, I know now how sweet and caring she is. She might now be as shy as I am, but I know she is too self-conscious for those.

And that one on the back, tapping his foot with impatience and making as if this doesn’t go with him, that must be Mike. I mean, who else would behave like this? Is he some kind of mage? He certainly acts the part with that long robes and the staff.

“Hey there, family!” I say in a confident voice, trying to forget I am going shirtless into our first meeting.

“You sure know how to make an appearance, eh!” Oh, so that bulky man is Rand! And that timid laughter in the background is clearly hers, Lillia’s.

“Not that I wanted to! I’ve gone through an ordeal here, you know?”

“Are you some kind of monk?” Lillia asks with genuine curiosity.

“Hahahah! I wish! I actually started as a priest devoted to that Jonas, the so-called God.”

“You started as? What does that even mean?” Impatient as always, aren’t you, Mike? And still, even though he hides it, we all know he asks because he cares.

“When I died, I temporarily lost my connection with him. Then, maybe due to trying to self-heal or revive while dead, the connection completely broke, at which point I became a Forsaken Priest. Bu-”

“Doesn’t that mean you are still a Priest? Make up your mind already.” He is caring, he is caring, he is caring. I repeat it as if it was a mantra. He can also be quite exhausting, I think, breaking the spell.

“At that point, I still was, yes. Long story short, I continued my futile attempts to resurrect, until it seems I reached a breaking point, one that implied I had been dead by too much time. I got the option to become an Inquisitor, and I took it.”

“An… Inquisitor? I don’t recall reading about this class.” Dorian always was the most informed of us all; it seems this game won’t be the exception.

“Here, let me show you!”