Dean was standing in a cobblestone square just outside the fort surrounded by wooden roofs with thatched roofs. At the other end, the square ended at a road leading down the pass and into a small valley of fields and pastures before being enveloped by a thick forest. The heady smell of woodsmoke and cooking meat permeated the air, reminding Dean that he hadn’t eaten since spawning in the game. He wondered, for a moment, if he needed to eat in the game, or if his growling stomach was just a conditioned response. Either way, his stomach was rumbling now that it was reminded of food, and he resolved to get something to eat the moment he could.

He spotted Will on the other side of the square, waving and calling out to him. Dean weaved his way through the other newly spawned players until he reached Will. “Ho, Will.” Dean said.

Will hopped down from the stone bench he was standing on. He blinked a few times before smiling. Dean knew Will remembered the greeting, and probably the reference, from when they were younger. I haven’t heard that greeting in a long time, a long time, Dean thought. If only Will were inclined to say it. Unfortunately, Will either didn’t think of the reference or chose not to use it. “Peace, brother.” Will said instead.

They briefly hugged, clasped hands between them in their brother hug, before Dean asked, “We still waiting on the other two?”

“No, you’re the last.” Will pointed at a shop further down the road, “They’re both at the magic shop. What kept you? Don’t tell me you actually did the escort mission.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Dean said defensively as they started walking towards the magic shop. “I got extra experience from it.” He hesitated before continuing, “And I died a few times trying to search the inn.”

“I did too,” Will shrugged, “I never unlocked that damn chest. Gave up after the third try.” He shook his head ruefully, “Was still the first one to finish the tutorial, at least of our group. Ben came second and Ryan third.”

“None of you did the escort mission?” Dean asked.

“We all did. Ryan walked with them too, but he didn’t search the inn. Ben and I accepted it, but kept going. We still got the experience about halfway through the conversation with the Captain.”

“Really? Doesn’t seem fair since you didn’t actually escort them.”

Will shrugged, “It’s video game logic. The refugees got to the destination safe, so we earned the experience points. And you could technically argue that we made sure the path was clear by going on ahead.”

“I guess so,” Dean said reluctantly, “but I still think it’s cheating. And you missed out on the conversation with the old man.”

“Yeah?” Will said, “Anything interesting?”

Dean started to fill him in on everything he could remember, but Will cut him off halfway through. “Hang on,” Will said, “You didn’t choose the amateur level, did you?”

“No, why?” Dean asked.

Will nodded at a passing player, “Because of that.”

Dean glanced at the player. She had two arrows sticking out of her back. Dean realized that she probably didn’t even know about them, not with the pain tolerance setting off and asked, “Shouldn’t we say something?”

“Nah,” Will said, “She’ll figure it out if she tries to sit down, or they’ll fall off on their own eventually. Until then, it’s just funny to watch people walk around like that.”

Dean rolled his eyes as he opened the door to the shop. A small bell chimed as they entered, and the frail shopkeeper smiled at them from behind the counter. “Greetings, sirs. Welcome to my shop. How may I help you?”

They ignored the man and focused on the two people in the shop. Ben was in the middle of saying, “-basket over his head. He won’t even know anything was missing.”

“No,” Ryan said sternly, “We’re not robbing him. I don’t care if you think it’ll work.”

“What’ll work?” Dean asked.

Ben started, wheeling around to glare at him. “Don’t sneak up on us.” He looked at Will pleadingly, “But you agree with me, don’t you?”

“About what?” Will asked.

“We can put a basket over the shopkeeper’s head and read the magic books. He won’t know what happened.” Ben said.

“I doubt that’ll work,” Will said dubiously, “Wasn’t it a glitch in some old game?”

“Exactly,” Ben said, “So maybe it’ll work here.”

“And what if it doesn’t?” Ryan countered, “And we’re arrested for stealing. We’ll be stuck sitting in a jail cell.”

“Games don’t work like that.” Ben argued, “We’ll probably just have to pay a fine before being released.”

“Probably being the key word there.” Dean said, “I’m with Ryan on this one.”

Ben growled then glanced hopefully at Will. Will chewed his bottom lip for a second before shaking his head. Ben sighed, “Fine. No stealing. I’ll go figure out what I want to buy.” He grumbled under his breath as he walked away.

Dean chuckled. “I see he hasn’t changed.”

“It’s just his gaming style.” Will explained. “He’s called chaotic neutral, though sometimes he prefers chaotic evil, depending on his mood.”

“You mean a villain?” Ryan asked.

“Not exactly.” Will said slowly as he thought it through, “It’s more like purposely choosing the option that creates the most chaos, just for fun. That’s kind of the point of a video game. You can do things in it that you can’t do in the real world.”

“Like I said,” Ryan said, “a villain.”

Dean tuned out the conversation as he browsed the shelves. Most of the books were magic spells, things like fireball or ice shards, but there were a few other books mixed in. He studied a book called Warrior’s Aura.

Spell Book: Warrior’s Aura

Cost: 40 Mana

Duration: 2 Minutes

Cooldown Timer: 1 Hour

+1 Strength

+1 Agility

+1 Dexterity

Dean almost put the book back, the cost and cooldown timer dwarfing the benefits from it. Except, he knew that the spell would become more powerful as he leveled it up, either increasing the stat bonus or lowering the cost. And it wasn’t like he had a lot of other spells at this point. He took the book to the shopkeeper.

“How much is this?” Dean asked.

“Magic books are five gold each.” The man answered.

Dean checked his coin pouch, bringing up a small window above it.

Coin Pouch

Gold

7

Silver

16

Copper

32

He clicked on the small question mark icon in the corner, pulling up a new window displaying the conversion rate.

Conversion Rate – Imperial Standard

50 Silver

1 Gold

50 Copper

1 Silver

The conversation rate was easy enough to memorize, which was probably done on purpose, but he was curious what ‘Imperial Standard’ meant. It suggested that there was at least one other currency in the game, and that it had different values.

“Hey, where are all the necro books?” Ben demanded as he walked out of the shelves towards the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper replied, “Practicing the Dark Arts is banned in the Empire. It’s punishable by death.”

“But…” Ben gaped at the man, his wide eyes turning to Dean before saying, “Why?”

“The Mad King,” The shopkeeper made the same gesture that Dean had seen the refugee make. “He used it to turn the nobles into wraiths. Of course, it hasn’t always been banned. King Logan declared it shortly after being crowned five years ago. Not that blame him, not with what happened to the young prince, poor boy.”

“What happened?” Dean asked.

“Killed by a dark wizard, he was.” The man replied sadly, “The whole kingdom mourned for months, he was well-loved by the people. And so young, he wasn’t even of age for the crown, not for another year.”

Dean glanced at Ben, his eyebrows raised in question. Ben shrugged in reply before turning and walking back down the aisle, muttering to himself again.

Dean laid the book and five coins on the counter, and said, “I’ll take it.”

“Excellent, sir. It’s all yours.” The shopkeeper said.

Dean opened the book to the first page and started reading. Before he was halfway through the first sentence, the page turned on its own. The next page turned faster than the first, and another after that. Soon, the pages were flying, stirring up a breeze that pushed Dean’s hair back. The back cover closed with a snap, and the book broke in half. It fell to the floor, where it exploded into a cloud of dust.

“Cool.” Will said from behind him. “And a little creepy.”

Ryan said, “At least we don’t have to actually read the book to learn it.”

The two purchased their own spells and quickly read them. A few minutes later, Ben walked out of the aisle, a maniacal grin on his face. He laid a spell book on the counter, the fireball spell, and read it.

“What’re you smiling about?” Dean asked.

“Nothing.” Ben said as he rubbed his hands together. “Everyone ready to go?”

They were greeted by the sound of swords clashing once outside. A group of guards had surrounded two players, yelling, “Surrender, thief” as they attacked the players. The battle didn’t last long, the players were both level one and the guards were at least a level ten. Once dead, the guards dispersed leaving behind two countdown timers.

“What do you think happened?” Dean asked the others.

A woman answered from a few feet away, her brown hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing basic gear starter gear said, “They tried to kill a merchant and steal his stuff.”

Ryan said with a glance at Ben, “You’re welcome.”

“Whatever,” Ben laughed, “They’ll spawn in a minute and it won’t matter. Just watch.”

Once the players spawned, the nearest guards started yelling and rushed them again. The players, still disoriented from the spawn, were caught off guard and quickly killed a second time. Ben’s smile slipped a little as he whistled. “Sucks to be them. The wanted level is probably on a timer or something.”

“That’s my guess,” Will shrugged, “And Ryan’s right. Trying the basket thing wasn’t worth getting stuck in an endless loop of dying and respawning.”

Ben said, “Yeah, whatever.”

“We should probably leave, guys. I don’t think these two are the only ones causing problems right now.” Dean said as the sounds of a lot more shouts and fighting broke out all around them.

They followed the road out of the village, dodging around any fighting, and made their way through the fields. The forest engulfed them, the same looming sensation creating a knot in Dean’s stomach, as the underbrush obscured everything around them. The others didn’t seem to notice, Will and Ben were still arguing about something.

A few hundred meters in, a player stepped out from behind a tree. Dean was surprised to find his sword in hand, couldn’t even remember reaching for it, but clenched it tightly as the man began to speak.

“Well, look what we have here?” The player said as he walked to the center of the road, arms crossed. He was tall and lean, with short black hair and a hawk nose. “The name’s Adam, and I own this road. There’s a toll to pass, and you haven’t paid it yet. Hand over all your money and we won’t have a problem.”

“Yeah? Make me.” Ben challenged.

“Boys.” Adam said loudly. Six other players stepped out of the woods surrounding them, swords or bows drawn. “Now then, easy way or the hard way? I’ll give you a second to think it over.”

“Hard way.” Will responded immediately, his quiet voice carrying as it always did, a split second before throwing out his hand in a series of gestures. A pair of vines exploded out of the ground and started attacking one of the players. A fireball exploded on the other side of the clearing, engulfing a pair of the would-be bandits in oozing flames.

Unsure of what would happen, Dean cast Warrior’s Aura on himself as he charged the first bandit, feeling he quick surge of power flow through his arms. The would-be bandit flashed an excited grin as he drew his sword and met Dean’s attack. Adam was faster and stronger than Dean, his blade swatting aside Dean’s attacks before pivoting on his back leg to plunge the blade into Dean’s side.

Dean leapt backwards, out of immediate threat, and stood panting as he stared at the man. Behind him, Dean could hear the sounds of fighting. He ignored them and charged again. The second exchange fared only slightly better for Dean. Adam scored another hit across Dean’s arm, but not before Dean was able to rake his own blade across the man’s thigh. This time, Adam leapt back.

“Not bad.” Adam asked between pants, “What are you, level two?” Dean didn’t answer. After a second, Adam grunted, “Doesn’t matter, does it? See, I’m already a level four and there’s more of us. You’re not going to win.”

Dean growled but didn’t answer. He risked a quick glance to either side. Will was on one side, dodging between three opponents and Ben on the other hacking at two. He couldn’t find Ryan, probably somewhere behind him.

Adam was smirking at him when he glanced back. Dean clenched his teeth. He was back down to three quarters health, and only a minute and half left on his spell, while Adam was still near full. Dean suspected the man had dumped his early points into buffing his health points.

A sudden warmth spread through Dean’s body and his health started ticking upwards. The sensation distracted Dean momentarily, and almost missed Adam’s attack. He got his sword up in time for the first blow, but Adam’s onslaught forced him backwards. Blows began reigning down on him, and Dean briefly thought about how much he missed the simple days of blocking, back when holding down a button on a controller worked. Now, he was trying to swing the blade around to counter and deflect the blows, missing half the time and only half succeeding the rest. His health started plummeting.

From somewhere behind Dean, a high-pitched scream of rage echoed off the trees, and a moment later, a blur shot past Dean. A young woman barreled into Adam and plunged her sword deep into his chest. Dean stared, mouth agape, as two more players ran by Dean on either side to overwhelm the stunned Adam.

For his part, Adam tried fending them off with his own sword, hacking and slashing at them with everything he had, but it wasn’t enough. Adam died within seconds.

The rest of the fight was over, three other players had attacked out of nowhere and helped to kill the rest of Adam’s crew.

The young woman that had first attacked Adam growled, “Take that, you bastard.” She kicked dirt at the countdown timer. Dean’s friends joined him as they glanced uneasily at the newcomers. The woman walked over to them, tucking a loose strand of blonde hair behind her head as she said, “That asshole has been trolling anyone that comes this way.” She gestured at the players in her group. “We decided to team up to teach him a lesson, since we’re all solo players and he trolled us.”

“Perfect timing, then.” Dean said.

“Not really,” She admitted, “We saw you leaving the fort and decided to follow.”

“You used us as bait?” Will growled, his hands tightening on his sword.

She shrugged, “Pretty much. It worked out though, didn’t it? None of us died and we were able to kill him. Why, you going to fight us about it?”

“Stop, Will. It’s not worth it.” Ryan laid a hand on Will’s shoulder. To the woman, he said, “I don’t appreciate what you did, but we’re not going to fight another player unless it’s necessary. And I’m not going to travel with anyone that uses other people like that.”

“That’s fine,” She responded, “We’re planning on sticking around here anyway to make sure he doesn’t try to set up shop again.”

They backed away, Ryan in the lead, until they lost sight of the other players. Dean took the lead, with Will and Ben on either side, and Ryan in the middle. They agreed that Ryan, as the group’s healer, should be protected over the others.

After another ten minutes passed without incident, Dean felt the tension in the group ease. He started looking around the area for small game to hunt, or plants to pick. The woods were teeming with life. The sound of birds and insects created a cacophony of noises that made the entire place vibrant with life.

A few minutes later, Will called out, “Over there, I think I see something.”

Dean glanced in the direction Will was pointing, and spotted a small, scraggly plant covered in red flowers twenty paces off the path. As they trudged through the undergrowth, Dean asked, “What is it?”

“It’s an alchemy ingredient,” Ben said without glancing up as he bent down to stare at the plant, “Why don’t you just scan it?”

“Do what?” Dean asked.

Ben glanced up with a look that clearly said ‘Newb’, before explaining aloud, “It’s a skill.” He sighed at the look of utter confusion on Dean’s face. “Study it for a couple seconds.” Dean looked at it for a second before glancing back at Ben. Ben shook his head, “I said study it, not glance at it, newb.”

Dean bit back his retort and looked back at the bush. After a few seconds, a small notification popped up indicating he’d learned the Scan Skill and a small window appeared above the plant.

Red Thistle Flowers

Rarity: Common

“Oh,” Dean said aloud, “Got it.”

Ben said under his breath, “Newb.”

The plant disintegrated in Ryan’s hand as he picked it. “Just got a couple of skills, Herbalist and Herb Lore.”

“What happened to the plant?” Dean asked.

“Uh,” Ryan said as he flicked open his status page. “Looks like there’s a chance of failure until we upgrade Herbalist.”

“Does it say anything about the failure rate?” Will asked.

“Fifty percent on common items, higher on better stuff. Next upgrade reduces it by five points.” Ryan replied, “Not sure about higher levels.”

“Then do we take turns or have one person do it?” Will asked, “We’ll lose more items now, but it might come in handy later if we can all do it.”

“They’re common items, aren’t they?” Dean asked, “Won’t there be a lot of them?”

“He’s right,” Ben said, “Probably better we waste those now and not lose stuff later when it’s valuable.”

They took turns picking bushes, only finding various common ingredients. Along the way, they encountered a few small animals, squirrels and rabbits, that they tried picking off with their bows. Hunting small animals proved to be more difficult than Dean expected. Ben was the only one to hit on their first try, the rest firing off into the woods.

“I used to hunt with my dad.” He said by way of explanation. Will hit on his second try, while Dean and Ryan took a couple more tries before successfully catching anything. After successfully killing something, Dean each received the Hunting Skill, along with the subskills Skinning and Butchering. Dean’s first hit was a rabbit, providing him with basic loot.

Rabbit Inventory:

Item:

Description:

Rabbit Pelt

Quality: Crude

Rarity: Common

Weight: .1 lbs

Attributes: None

Rabbit Meat x2

Quality: Crude

Rarity: Common

Weight: 2 lbs

Attributes: None

“Any idea what the crude quality means?” He asked.

Ben bit his lower lip in thought before answering, “It either means they’re raw materials that need to be refined or that the animals we killed were of a poor quality. Of course, it could mean that we completely suck and need to level up to get better quality.”

“Probably the last one,” Ryan said, “Have you actually looked at the items?”

They shook their heads. Ryan, reached into his inventory and pulled a rabbit pelt out. Dean didn’t see anything wrong with it, but Ben whistled and leaned down for a closer look.

“No wonder it’s such a poor quality.” Ben picked at one side. “Just look at how unevenly this thing was cut.”

Ryan nodded, “My guess is that they’re all the same. Half of that isn’t useable for anything except leather strips.”

It took Dean a few moments to figure out what they were talking about, but once he did, he received another notification.

Congratulations, You’ve Advanced the Subskill Animal Skinning to Level 2

“Hey, that’s cool.” Dean said.

“What is?” Ben asked.

“My Skinning skill just increased.”

“Really?” Ben asked. He pulled up his status page and grinned, “Mine did, too. I must have missed it.”

It took a little over an hour before they spotted Torial as they crested a tall ridge. At that distance, it was hard to make out details, but Torial had been built atop a large plateau overlooking a narrow river valley, the banks tilled into fields, winding through it. The massive, white walls, built along the vertical drop of the plateau, reflected the light making it glitter and shine.

The road twisted down the ridge, cutting back on itself several times, before they lost sight of Torial behind the canopy. They caught glimpses of it through the trees now and again as the trees thinned, the castle growing in size until the glimpses revealed it looming above them. Dean noticed that something was different about the surrounding forest, but it took several minutes before he realized the trees grew in straight lines.

The road straightened out, and several hundred paces further ahead, broke into out of the trees into the sunlight. Halfway there, Will said, “Hang on.” He pointed deeper into the forest away from the river, “I want to check out that building and those workers.”

“What workers?” Dean asked. He tried staring in the direction that Will indicated but couldn’t see anything through trees.

“What building?” Ben said beside him. They looked at each other in confusion, shrugged, and followed Will as he set off.

“See those guys standing around outside?” Will said.

“No.” Ben asked.

Will ignored him, “There’s only one reason a group of workers stand around like that.”

“They’re taking a break?” Ben suggested.

“There’s some kind of problem that’s keeping them from work.” Will said. A hundred paces later, Dean caught the smell of woodsmoke. He was completely amazed that Will had been able to spot the building, since he still couldn’t make it out. After another hundred and fifty paces, they reached the side of the building, barely discernible from the rest of the forest.

It was a log building with a thatched roof, hidden by large bushes and thick vines that snaked their way over trellises erected along the side. Will led them around the side of the building where they spotted six men sitting around a small firepit. Most wore plain spun wool shirts and basic leather vests over tan trousers. Each had a thick axe by their side and grumbled to each other.

They stood as Will approached and gathered together on the other side of the fire, where they eyed the approaching group warily. “What are you doing here?” A tall man demanded. He was balding in front but the rest of his salt and pepper hair was tied back by a thick leather cord.

Will held out his hands to show he wasn’t carrying any weapons, at least none in his hands, “I couldn’t help but notice that your group is sitting around instead of working.”

The man grunted, “What’s it to you?”

“We want to help.” Will indicated his friends behind him. “What’s wrong?”

“Wolves,” another man spat. He blinked and glanced around, surprised that he’d spoken up at all, before haunching his shoulders and taking a few steps backwards.

The first man grunted again, but nodded, “Aye, wolves. One in particular, an Alpha Wolf.” He pointed in the direction away from the castle. “It’s taken to hunting these woods and killing beast and man alike. I won’t risk my men dying for wood, not with that thing about.”

“We could help?” Will suggested, “We can hunt it down and kill it.”

The man eyed each of them in turn, “You look the sort. For coin, I take it?”

“No,” Ryan stepped forward after giving the others a pointed look to keep them quiet. Ben gave him a sharp look, but after a moment, he sighed and nodded his assent. Ryan nodded in satisfaction, “No, we won’t take your coin.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up, wrinkling his forehead, and stared at them in shock and confusion. A thought struck him, and he glared at them, “Then what are you asking for, instead?”

“Nothing.” Will shrugged as he glanced at Ryan, “A quest, for experience.”

The man nodded slowly as he thought it through, “A quest is all?”

A Quest notification popped up.

Optional Quest: Kill the Alpha Wolf

Reward: 50 XP

Description: An Alpha Wolf has taken to hunting the woods surrounding the woodcutter’s lodge. Kill the Alpha Wolf so that the Woodsmen can return to work.

Will accepted the quest and glanced up at the man. “Done.”

“We’ll see.” The man said before turning away from them and sitting down beside the fire. The other woodsmen followed suit, completely ignoring them.

Will turned to the others with a grin, “See, told you they needed our help.”

“Smart ass,” Ben muttered under his breath.

“What’s with the ‘no coin’ thing, Ryan?” Dean asked.

“I wasn’t going to take their coin.” Ryan insisted.

“Why not?” Ben demanded.

“Because I’m not going to, alright? They’re laborers, so they don’t make a lot of money to begin with, probably just enough to make ends meet as it is and I’m not about to demand they go hungry just to start working again.”

“You do realize they’re not real?” Ben said exasperated, “They’re just computer programs, nothing more. They won’t actually go hungry and die.” Ben paused as he thought about that, “I mean, unless they were programmed to, but even then, it’s not a like real person will actually die.”

Ryan said, “I know that, alright. It still doesn’t feel right to take from people that don’t have money.”

Ben threw up his hands. A thought struck him, and he said, “Wait. If you won’t take from the poor, then does that mean you’re cool with taking from the rich?”

“You’re not Robin Hood, Ben.” Will said, “He never giggled when he fought.”

“I don’t giggle when I fight,” Ben protested, “If anything, it’s a maniacal laugh of pure evil.”

“It’s a giggle,” Dean grinned, “Like a schoolgirl.”

“I do not.” Ben growled.

Will replied with an accent, “You like totally do. Like o-m-g, totally like a schoolgirl.”

“You’re a little too good at that, Will.” Dean said as Ryan muttered under his breath, “That boy ain’t right.”

“So, alpha wolf quest or main quest first?” Will asked in his regular voice.

“Main quest.” Dean responded immediately.

“Side,” Ben said, still glaring at Will, “I need something to kill and soon.”

“What’s wrong, Ben?” Will asked innocently, “Did someone upset you? Did you’re feely-weely’s get hurt?”

Ben turned away with a growl and started walking into the woods as he slashed at the nearby branches with his sword. Will raised an eyebrow at the others, “Little overboard there?”

“Yes,” Ryan said, “You should apologize.”

“No worse than he dishes out,” Dean said, “He’ll calm down once he kills something.”

Will tilted his head as he thought about it before saying, “I’ll apologize if he’s still mad after killing something.”

They set out behind Ben, giving him a wide berth to vent his anger as he muttered. Dean couldn’t catch most of it, but the few words he did forced him to stifle his laugh, probably breaking a few ribs in the process. Five minutes later, Ben had calmed down enough that he stopped to sheath his sword, letting the others catch up, muttering, “I do not laugh like a schoolgirl.”

Dean pretended not to hear him, making a point to look like he was scanning the nearby woods for danger. That’s when they heard the howling.