I can’t help but feel overwhelming guilt as I begin to re-create my character. The others asked me to be the deciding factor on how we handled the River Raiders in Bandit’s Pinch, and I let them down. I made the wrong call, thinking that we could take a few of them out and run through the thorpe without a casualty. If I could take it back, I would have stayed clear of Bandit’s Pinch and taken the long way around the mountains. The moment we saw Alloy, I should’ve told everyone to run. I should’ve known it was too much of a coincidence for him to be there.

I don’t bother trying to send Rubble and Rin private messages. I simply sit through the opening screen, listening to the female voice tell me about pain receptors and a bunch of other stuff that I don’t care about right now. The moment that table appears in front of me I pick up that short sword and confirm my choice as a warrior.

I try to rush through the opening cinematic with sheer willpower, but nothing I can do will speed it up. So, I wait and I watch the rat folk attack my caravan, capture me, and finally throw me into that god-awful cell. When my body is back under my control and I’m standing in the flickering torchlight, I’m quick to pick up the bone pick from the pile of debris, but then I hold off and wait for the others to arrive. It takes less than a minute until Rin and Rubble both materialize from the feet up next to me.

It isn’t until after they spend their extra attribute points before they really notice me. Rubble looks at me with a concerned expression. “Why the long face, Aiden?”

A groan escapes me. “Do you have to ask? I got you guys killed! I should have been the voice of reason and went with you, Rubble. We shouldn’t have went in there. I am so sorry I got us killed. Once Alloy came out of the tavern, I should have known we needed to run, but I just wanted him dead so badly that I just had to try take him out. I couldn’t do enough damage to get to him and survive, so in a split second decision I decided I’d try to converge with that sword and failed.”

Rin shrugs, and for a second I think she’s pissed at me, too. “Yeah, I saw that. Shoulda known better than to try to converge with an A rank Artifact with 22 Sway, greeny.” She parts her hair behind her ears, and the glimmer returns to her eyes. “Don’t sweat it, though. These things happen.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. I turn to Rubble. “Both of you?”

They nod. While it feels good that the others aren’t too disappointed we died, I still feel disappointed in myself. My worst fear is that this one mistake will cost the Shield more than it can afford. I’m down to just a week left, half the time I started with, and I’m back at level one.

Rubble claps me on the shoulder, pulling me out of my funk, and says, “If I had a dollar for every time I’ve died in Libertas, I’d still be peasant-broke because dollars aren’t worth anything anymore… But! I’d have a lot of them.”

Rin rolls her eyes at the giant. “What he’s trying to say is that you’re forgetting we are all in stasis, so we have no timer, and as long as nothing changes in the real world, we can stay here as long as we want. Most of us, Rubble and I included, have been playing this game for almost three years already.” She puts a hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eye. “It’s not always about the end goal of reaching max level, or feeling guilty of wasting time when you lose it all, it’s about the journey and the people you meet along the way.”

Rubble grabs me by the shoulder and turns me to face him, making me feel like a rag doll. He says, “See, greeny? That’s what matters. And we may not have the same ambitions as you do, here in Libertas, but we’re more than happy to help you get to where you want to be as long as we have fun on the way. So, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just try again.”

I stare at my feet for a moment, then nod. I know they’re right. These friends of mine are counting on me to help them put together an alliance that will knock the socks off of the River Raiders and break their stranglehold on Anticore. The Shield is counting on me, even if they don’t believe me. Maybe even all that’s left of humanity is depending on me. It’s hard to to look at myself and recognize the mistakes I’ve made, and then get over them and push on. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I can’t let this hold me back. I’m going to work twice as hard as before to pull this off and save everyone, because this isn’t over until I say it is.

Now that I know what to do to reach level 15 again, I’m sure it will go much faster. “All right,” I say. “I’m still sorry, but you guys are right. There’s only so much I can control. All I can do is try my hardest and hope for the best, so I’m getting rid of tomorrow’s regrets today.”

Rin’s teeth flash in a brilliant smile. “Good. I’m happy for you. What’s the plan, then?”

I nod. For the first time, I feel decisive. Empowered and in control of my own destiny. If my dad is somewhere watching me, I swear I’ll make him proud. “First, we gotta get out of here.” I open up my statistics page to spend my two starting points on fortitude and take a look at what I rolled. I was in such a rush through character creation it didn’t even register. Even though the new attributes statistics I roll are pretty decent for my class, I can’t help but feel loathsome that I’m at this point again. Thinking about all the lost time and all the people on the Shield depending on me still makes me feel sick to my stomach, but I gotta push on.

Aiden Rockwell

LV. 1 Warrior

HP: 80

STRENGTH: 15

FORTITUDE: 14

DEXTERITY: 17

WISDOM: 12

INTELLIGENCE:11

SWAY: 16

(LV. 1) Stinky Leather Helm: +1 ARM

(LV. 1) Tattered Tunic: +1 ARM

(LV. 1) Soiled Breeches: +1 ARM

(LV. 1) Rusty Short Sword: +1 DMG

(LV. 1) Dented Buckler: +1 ARM

The only bad thing about my statistics is my fortitude, even after dumping my points in it to get up to 14. It’s not a lot, that’s for sure, and I get the feeling that it’s is going to make the tutorial a lot harder. But, I do have two partners here with me, and maybe having a high strength and sway will be a good thing, too.

Rin must notice my dejection returning because she says, “Not too bad,” then nods to me affirmatively. I can see her eyes are lit up and assume she’s looking at my stats on her HUD. Speaking of stats…

“Here,” I say, “take a look at this.” With a few flicks of my fingers, I copy and paste the Rose Sabre’s details into a group chat and send it to everyone, including Felix.

Aiden Rockwell:

(LV. 10) The Rose Sabre (A Class Backsword Sabre)

+20 Damage

Special Feature: Substitutes STR for DEX and doubles class speed.

Magic action: extends to 10 feet in length for one attack. 60 second recast.

Rubble Miller: Holy buckets! That was one heck of a sword, huh?

Felix Brandt: Did you converge with that sword, finally? How did it go?

Aiden Rockwell: Died, of course. We were in a fight with the River Raiders and losing, badly, so I tried.

Rin Akari: Rubble and I died, too.

Felix Brandt: Shucks. Well, it happens. I’ve been doing some research while waiting for you guys to get to Gormsay. Guess I’ll have plenty of time now, but I think I may have found a good village for us to raid, provided we all get to level twenty before someone else takes it. It’s an NPC village on the outskirts of Anticore, so should be easy pickings.

Aiden Rockwell: Nice! Thanks again Felix for all the help. Sorry we wiped.

Felix Brant: NP.

With the three of us, we find the tutorial is relatively easy and even decide to farm the Yishi for experience for a little while. We have to stop occasionally to heal up, since we don’t have a healer with us, but with the three of us we have more than enough firepower to take out groups of rats quickly. Besides, I think we all want the extra time to think about it before we get too far, and we all hit level three because of it, so that’s good.

We go out the same tunnel Rin and I did last time. And, just like before, the sunlight hits the opening just right to warm me up as I step out onto the fields. We take a moment to rest up and regain what little HP we are missing, and then I say, “I’ve been thinking…”

Rin laughs. “Well yeah, you haven’t said more than ‘I’m fine’ and ‘attack that one’ in the last hour.”

I roll my eyes and continue, “I’m trying to look at the game a bit more statistically, here. Like you suggested when we first met, maximizing abilities and statistics is half of Libertas. So, compare the warrior formulas here with that of the Rose Sabre.”

HP = CL +9 x (0.6 FORT)

Damage = CL + STR + Weapon Mod + Status/Weakness - Armor

Armor = (.4 ARM Mod) + (.4 DEX)

Magic Resistance = (.2 MR Mod) + (.1 WIS x .1 INT)

Speed = 20% DEX

Then, I send them the statistics from the sword again.

(LV. 10) The Rose Sabre (A Class Backsword Sabre)

+20 Damage

Special Feature: Substitutes STR for DEX and doubles class speed.

Magic action: extends to 10 feet in length for one attack. 60 second recast.

“Do you see what I see?” I ask. “This sword could completely change how I build my class.”

Rin bites her lip, then says, “So what are you thinking? We go get another one?”

I can’t help but grin as I unfold my semi-pro pre-master plan. “It might be a crazy idea, but what if I use the sword to make a role in between tank and DPS? The benefits of substituting strength in the damage formula for dexterity could be incredibly beneficial because Dexterity already plays a role in my armor bonus and my movement speed. I think if I stack the living hell out of my dexterity, my armor and speed will raise up to a point it won’t matter if I’m low on the HP side. Instead of spreading myself out between Fortitude, Sway, and Strength, I can focus on putting points into dexterity and see a rise in my damage, armor, and speed. Sway will be second priority, and fortitude will be the least. I think if I give this everything I’ve got, I’ll be able to evade most attacks and dish out crazy damage at the same time.”

Rubble shrugs. “Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. Swing it by Felix and see what he says.”

I nod and pull up our group chat, my fingers shaking in excitement as I type.

Aiden Rockwell: Hey Felix. I’ve got an idea. What if I build my character around the Rose Sabre and push my DEX to godly levels. I think I’ll be able to do a kind of multi-role play style; dealing huge damage and tanking through evasion. What do you think?

Felix Brandt: Hold on, let me look at those stats again…

Felix Brandt: Okay, I see what you’re saying. It could be a great build, at least up through the early twenties. Rin, would you be willing to build your summoner toward tanking, instead of DPS just in case?

I hesitate. I hadn’t thought about how we’d probably want someone else to take on a more official tank role just to be safe. Quickly, I respond:

Aiden Rockwell: I don’t want to be the reason someone else changes how they normally build their character.

Rin Akari: I like my magic :(

Felix Brandt: You’ll still use magic, goof. Just summoning monsters instead of elements.

Rin Akari: I guess so… Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll do it.

Aiden Rockwell: Are you sure?

Rin Akari: Yeah. But you owe me.

Aiden Rockwell: lol, yeah I guess so. How about we get you an Artifact weapon, too?

Rin Akari: That sounds like sufficient payment ;)

Felix Brandt: Good plan. Two Artifacts would really increase our chances of taking a town. Aiden, it’s going to be hard, but go DEX and SWAY heavy starting right now. These first ten levels might suck, but it should pay off. Rin, you know what to do.

Rin Akari: Yep. Aiden, how hard was the Five Roses Keep?

Aiden Rockwell: I mean, it’s mostly puzzles… but I would need someone to be willing to die and go back to level one in order to get the Rose Sabre, and I’m not sure if it will work every time.

Felix Brandt: Someone to die? That’s weird. Well, it’s worth a shot, considering the stats on that sword. I think we can make this all work out.

Rubble Miller: Damn straight! We’re gonna take the River Raiders down!

Felix Brandt: Don’t get so cocky, rubble. But I gotta go. Business is calling. A guy’s got me working on modeling a castle for his personal hab and I’m almost done with it. Afterwords, I’ll head to the Five Roses Keep and meet you guys there.

Rubble Miller: All right, duder. See ya!

Aiden Rockwell: A castle? That’s sick. Bye!

Rin Akari: Duces.

Felix Brandt: Miss you all. Especially you, Rin.

Rin Akari: You too, Felix.

Rin and I exchange glances, and when she looks away I swear I see her cheeks turning a little red.An awkward feeling takes ahold of me. I don’t want to think about it too much, but maybe what Rubble said when he was drunk was true, and Rin and Felix really do have a thing going on behind closed doors. As much as I hope otherwise, I know it’s not my place, so I have to let it go.

All three of us swipe away our HUDs and look at one another in silent contemplation. I can’t help but feel eager to start and smile. I’ve got a good feeling about this plan. With newfound conviction, I swear to myself that I’ll give this my all, even if it means I don’t sleep until I hit level twenty.

Rin grins at me, then shrugs. “We’ve already hit level 3, so we only need two more levels. If we fight everything along the way, we could hit level 5 before we even reach the Keep.”

“Yeah,” Rubble says. “Five Roses Keep, here we come! I’m femur-ing for some skeleton action.”

Both Rin and I roll our eyes at his attempt at a joke.

He looks at us incredulously. “Hey, I tried! Fever? Femur? Get it?”

“Yeah, yeah, big guy.” Rin’s gaze turns back to me, those violet orbs shimmering in the sunlight. She motions to the northeast. “Come on then, Dex Warrior, you’ve got a sword to find. If we push harder than we ever have before, we’ll be up to level twenty in no time.”