Damon awoke the next day to the sound of an alarm blaring in his ear. He was starting to get used to hearing this alarm now, after so long in his new home. He slowly got out of bed and made his way to the kitchen, where a drone had already set breakfast out for him. Damon thought absently about what life must have been like before the automaton drones had been invented, some twenty odd years ago. Must have been a hard life.

After breakfast, someone knocked on Damon’s door and asked if he was ready to re-enter King’s Wrath. After showering and quickly getting dressed, Damon made his way over to the DIVE room. Samuel was waiting for him once again.

“Good morning Damon, I trust you slept well? Just wanted to inform you on a little software update we’ve added to the helmet. In short, it causes simulated muscle twitches. This’ll allow your body to simulate exercise and so will help to prevent atrophy caused by prolonged time in the game. You’ll still need to eat and go to the toilet, but you won’t have to worry about exercising anymore!” Samuel declared, clapping Damon on the back, before helping him down onto the bed and ensuring the helmet was put on correctly.

“OK, thanks for the heads up.” Replied Damon before thinking dive.

A moment later, Damon was stood in his Hub space. Blinking, he looked around at the colours, before noticing Billy stood a couple of feet away, smiling at him.

“Hello Damon, how are we today? Did you enjoy your first couple of days in King’s Wrath?” Billy asked, beckoning Damon to sit.

“Hi Billy, I’m well thanks and yes I really did. I have a few questions for you though.” Answered Damon, as he sat down on a chair opposite Billy.

“Ask away my boy, ask away!” Came the jovial reply.

“Firstly, what do each of the stats mean in game? I think I kind of get Endurance: It gives me an extra 10 health every point I put into it and adds to my health regeneration as well. The others though, I really don’t understand.”

Billy nodded and then began to explain. “Firstly strength. Strength determines your muscle mass. If increased, you will be able to carry more weight, your strikes will do more damage and you’d be able to use heavier bows. Next is endurance. As you said, endurance increases your health pool and regeneration, but it also increases your body’s overall hardiness, density and weight meaning that you can withstand harder hits.

"After that comes Agility. Agility focuses mostly on speed and grace of movement. The idea behind this is that you’ll gain more stamina, as your body learns to move in ways that conserve energy. Closely associated to this is Dexterity. This focuses more on accuracy and external factors to your body. Reflexes also fall under dexterity. Keeping up so far?"

"I think so." Damon nodded.

"Then we have Intelligence. Intelligence is both your common sense, as well as critical thinking. Think of it as your creative ability. It also increases your mana regeneration, as your ability to absorb ambient mana is increased. Wisdom is closely related to intelligence. Wisdom is more focused around knowledge and memory. Improving this stat will help you learn faster; Intelligence and wisdom are connected in this way. Your mana pool is increased by 10 with each point added to wisdom, as you are able to comprehend more."

"The final two stats are almost miscellaneous. There’s Charisma: determining your likability and persuasion skills. You can use it to woo the ladies, or men… It can be used to bring down shop prices, or raise payments made to you. The last stat is Luck, the unpredictable stat. Even with a very high luck stat, you can still be unlucky. The most quantifiable way of using it is for loot rewards and sometimes it can even be the deciding factor between life and death. There are also some other stats, but I’m not at liberty to say any more than that.”

"All this information is found in the in-game wiki. Unfortunately for you, the hardcore package disables those kind of game mechanics, so its lucky you have me really!" Billy finally finished talking and Damon had to take a second to process all the information that had just been thrown at him.

“OK, that’s a little clearer now. The next question I have then, is how do the critical hits and sneak attack work? They seemed to ramp up my damage a whole bunch, but they seemed a little random…”

“Critical hits apply if you hit a vital part of a creature’s body. In your case, you hit the neck and head of the wolves a lot, which meant you cut main arteries and caught soft spots like the nose. You even hit the heart of one, I believe. As for sneak attacks, if the target is unaware of your presence, or is surprised by your attack, then they take extra damage. The damage received for both, are made up of a number of factors such as the area hit and the power behind it. Safe to say, they’re a great help and you should probably try for them as often as possible. They also increase skill progression every time they are triggered.” Came the reply from Billy.

“That’s fair.” Damon thought for a moment. “Last question, for now, I keep having off handed thoughts and the system still acts accordingly, why is that?” He asked.

“The system interprets your wants through thought and follows your commands. It’s to make it easier for situations such as combat, where you don’t really have time to fully control how the system should respond. Saves a lot of time.” The AI nodded, seeming to agree with himself.

“Huh, that’s pretty good!” Damon replied, a smile tugging at his mouth. The AI nodded once more and then gestured to the swirling doorway to King’s Wrath.

“Indeed. Now, would you like to re-enter the game?

…

Damon opened his eyes to the sounds of the forest and village once again. He’d been told by Billy that the game worked using a sort of time depression, in which time passed roughly twice as fast in game than in the real world. It had probably been an entire day since he’d logged out. Sighing, he climbed out of his bed and put his boots on, before heading outside. The air was still and the suns bright glare reflected off of the white snow. Even with Damon’s poor vision, it slightly hurt is eyes and he had to squint slightly. He made his way over to Benjy’s hut to find Diana just exiting, carrying a container that had a sloshing liquid inside.

“Morning!” Called Damon, as he approached the hut.

“Almost lunch actually.” Diana replied, setting down the container.

“Ah… well. Do you fancy going hunting today?” Damon scratched the back of his head, unsure of Diana’s tone.

“Of course, although we might not have a lot of time left today. Maybe it’ll be enough to learn the basics though. I’ll grab the bow and arrows, you go see Uncle Benjy - he has something for you.” She pointed towards the hut’s doorway and then walked around the back of the hut.

Damon slowly walked up to the doorway and pushed open the door. Stepping into the hut, Damon noticed it was far homelier than his own. There was a soft grey rug on the floor and Damon could just make out two beds, a chest and two chairs sat next to a small wooden table. He caught site of Benjy sat on one of the chairs and greeted him. The smith turned, nodding to Damon, before asking him to take a seat.

“I have something for you my boy. It’s quite common in this world, however up north in these parts it’s actually quite rare. But, I think you deserve to have it. You’ll probably need it more than anyone here anyway” Benjy opened his hand, to reveal a small blue rock, motioning for Damon to take it. Damon did so and examined it.

Map Stone (Basic)

This small blue stone contains deep magic which will imprint a virtual map into the mind of whoever activates it.

Durability: 5/5

Would you like to activate Map Stone (Basic)?

Damon’s eyes opened in shock and he looked back at Benjy. “I can’t accept this, it must be worth a lot of money and I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford it.”

“Nonsense! As I said, they’re quite common and it’s the least I can give you for saving my life.” He beamed. “Now get on and use it already!”

Damon thought Yes. And the rock crumbled to dust, while a small, translucent map popped up in the top right field of his vision. It wasn’t very detailed, but it seemed to show Damon’s current location and the individual buildings of the village, along with a little of the surrounding area. There was a small blue dot in one of the buildings and Damon could only assume that was him. When he focused on the map, it enlarged slightly and a small, blue gear icon appeared just below it. When Damon focused on the gear, two options appeared. ‘Create waypoint at current location’ and ‘Expand map to full view’. Damon was speechless for a moment, just staring at this new feature.

“Now, the map itself won’t be very detailed for the moment, as you've only known the village so far. The stone comes sort of pre-set with the main outlines of the world and major cities in each kingdom. Apart from that though, you’ll need to either explore areas yourself, or read physical maps to update your mental one. This should enable you to find your way back here, but set a waypoint just in case.

Damon did so and a small red cross appeared, over his blue dot. “I’ve never actually read a map before; how does it work?”

“Maps are easy. You can see where you are currently located, then simply look to an area you wish to go, point yourself in that direction and walk. The blue dot will move as you do, so you won’t have to worry about trying to find out where you currently are. The distances are to scale, but the sizing depends on a number of factors, so I’m not sure I’d be able to tell what it is for yours. I’m afraid you’ll have to work that out on your own.” Explained Benjy.

“OK, I think I get it.” Damon stood up, hearing Diana walk back into the room.

“Are you ready?” She asked.

“Yes.” Damon turned back to Benjy. “Thank you so much for this. I’m sure it’s going to be a huge help.”

Benjy just chuckled back at Damon, before turning to some sheets on the table.

“Let’s go then.” Diana headed outside and Damon followed.

The two made their way out of the north-east side of the village. Damon, once again, marvelling at his new virtual map., watching as his blue dot began moving. He almost laughed at the novelty. He almost bumped into Diana, who’d stopped for a moment to make sure that he was following. When he thought of Diana, a small green dot appeared slightly in front of his and he really did laugh then. Diana glanced back, before continuing into the trees.

It took about an hour and a half of continuous trudging through the snow before Diana spotted their first rabbit. She motioned silently to Damon, who’d given up trying to see anything properly in the woods and had simply resorted to listening to the world around him.

They both crouched, “Rabbit, almost directly in front, maybe 20 paces.” Diana murmured, if it wasn’t for his enhanced listening skill, Damon probably wouldn’t have even heard her

He focused and tried to pick out any sounds the Rabbit was making. Slowly, he filtered out the chirps of the birds in a nearby tree; the faint sound of flowing water off to his left, along with other noises common within this forest. Finally, he heard a faint rustling and movement of snow ahead of him. From the sounds of the rustling, the rabbit had found a small bush, or perhaps a clear patch of ground with grass. He pictured the animal. There probably weren't any obstructions between them, or else Diana wouldn’t have spotted it. He could see the rabbit in his mind’s eye, the trees around him and the bush it was eating from. Silently he raised his bow, let out a deep breath and activated Instinctive shot.