Cleric John pushed me out of the vault and we both made our way up to the surface and back outside the abbey.

“Well, good luck with your quest, young Cleric. Hopefully I’ll see you again soon in a few months!” he said. He went back to sweeping the sidewalk directly in front of the abbey.

“Eh, hold on a second. Can you do something about this? Some illusion magic or something?” I waved my cybernetic arm.

“Oh, yes, that would draw a lot of undue attention wouldn’t it?” He waved his hand at me and I saw a square icon with a flexing arm on it appear underneath my health bar, as well as an illusion of the arm that was supposed to be my body. I now had for all intents and purposes, an actual arm. The cybernetic arm could feel as well, so it wasn’t like I was lacking a sensing arm or anything. The arm looked and felt like a normal uh, Naz’catec arm. I turned my gaze toward the buff I just received and a small window hovered underneath it:

[Permanent Illusion]

Expires in: ∞

It just had an infinity sign next to the buff, implying it would never expire.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“Well, the abbey appreciates some coin for our services…” John raised his eyebrow at me and smiled, his beard raising and the smile reaching his eyes. What a cheesy smile, what the heck. I reached into my bag and grabbed a 100 gold piece and tossed it to him.

“Keep the change!” I barked and I walked away. He looked mildly surprised as I walked away, surprised to have gotten such a large amount of money.

The abbey was situated in a small valley surrounded by woods. There seemed to not be any immediate monsters in the area that I could tell, so I just followed the trail up to the top of the hill to see what was over it and to map my path.

Speaking of map… I thought, I mentally commanded the UI to show the local map, and it brought up a translucent map over my vision. I could see what was generally around me for about 400 feet it seemed on my map, and all I saw was the path and the path cutting through the forest. I was getting nowhere fast. Though, I forgot I had my [Brown Pony] mount. I went ahead and opened up my collections window by willing it open and summoned my pony. A good looking pony trotted out from the trees, saddle equipped and everything.

I hopped on the pony and sped off. I looked at the boost the pony gave me as a buff:

+100% Move Speed

Cannot be stunned.

I thought the “cannot be stunned” thing was a bit much, but I had never had a mount before, so I thought it might be normal. I opened up my mount’s user interface as well:

Brown Pony

Level: 1

EXP: 1%/100%

Skills: None

Equipped: Basic Brown Leather Saddle, Basic Brown Leather Neck Cover, Basic Iron Horseshoes

I was surprised to find out that I could get different items for my mount, and that I could level it up. If I had to guess without opening up the web interface for the game and looking at the forums, leveling increased mount speed, and the only way to get the mount’s EXP up was probably to ride it.

So!

I hauled my mount’s ass up that hill and got to the top of it. I Was able to see for quite a while around me, and I decided to take a break in the game since I was apparently feeling hungry. I immediately got off my pony and led it to a tree with some low hanging branches and tied it up. Then sat down on the opposite side of the tree and got some cheese and bread out of my pack, courtesy of the game devs spawning me with bread and cheese.

I took a bite of the cheese. It tasted like cheese, as to be expected. Pretty much hard tack for food at this point. I inspected the cheese and the bread.

Plains Cow Cheese. If eaten for 5 seconds, boosts HP recovery by 10% per minute

Plains Wheat Bread. If eaten for 5 seconds, boosts HP recovery by 5% per minute.

I had also some waterskins, three half full of water. This was the first time I actually looked at the contents in my bag, but alas it was just some food and water, which was fine. I took one half-full (half-empty?) waterskin out of my bag and inspected it.

Pure Spring Water. Increases Mana Recovery by 10% per minute.

I ate my tiny meal in peace, listening to the birds chirp. After I finished eating attached my pack to my horse and fell asleep under the tree for a little while.

I’d have that armor before I knew it.