Out of the horde of weapons Avi collected, Eli kept two wands and one power stone. He stood in front of the counter holding the three-sided stone in his hand, inspecting it. It was a deep blue with lighter blue veins that shimmered.

Sparc

Projectile, Lasting, Electric

Mana: 5

Create electrical disturbances that move randomly until they hit an enemy or expire.

1-60 Electric Damage

Duration: 2 seconds

4 projectiles

Eli's eyes went wide. That's impressive, high variance but average damage is thirty and it hits four times. If I could stack all the projectiles on a single target... He looked at Avi, who was holding her sword up. Her lips curved into a smile as she inspected it. He'd installed Heavy Impact into her sword. Heavy Impact was a physical skill that used mana. He knew she had little mana but even if she only used it once per fight; it was an amazing physical attack that increased range, damage and had a knock-back effect. In the shield, he installed Rejuvenation Aura, another mana-based skill that created a temporary health regenerated effect around the user. Eli thought it was a wonderful compliment to her high health and defense.

He sold the other five power stones and all the other weapons for ninety-five silver, with him agreeing to install the power stones for 3 silver each.

Sundri disappeared behind some dusty purple curtains. Sounds of rummaging and clanging could be heard before she popped back a moment later. She held five weapons, appropriate ones for each stone. Eli installed the stones, further exhausting his mana. After all the selling was done, he looked around for some level-appropriate gear for himself and finding none, decided to just purchase a few utility items. For just under thirty silver he purchased Primroses' Clutch, two vials of minor health recovery, and one vial of minor mana recovery.

With thanks, the promise of more goods to sell soon, and Sundri's open invitation for all the work Eli could handle, the party left the store. Eli's steps were uneven as he stepped into the fading daylight. He glanced down at his mana indicator and saw he only had access to fifteen of his original fifty-three mana. He felt exhausted, mentally and physically. He looked over at the other guild members.

Diamedes was in a conversation with Delle, Avi and Andras were discussing something, while Leandra just peered at him from behind the warrior. He did not know what the formerly fierce cleric was thinking, but it was a little unnerving to be stared at. He did a quick round of inspections and found they all were at higher levels than he or Avi.

"You guys are all higher level than us," Eli started. "Avi and I will level up a bit. After that maybe we can do some guild quests together?"

"We all share the loot?" Diamedes asked. He templed his fingers together. It reminded Eli of someone getting ready to feast. That and that he responded so quickly that Eli concluded he had been considering the idea for some time. Quests with only the completion reward, no loot - what a painfully slow way to gear up. Eli considered it for a moment, then looked at Avi for input.

Avi shrugged, her armor plates clicking as she did. "There are dungeons that require full parties. We will need to team up for those."

Eli considered dungeons, that's where the best loot is obviously. "Our inventories are limited, and I never want to see another meat sculpture like earlier today, so whatever we can't fit in our inventory, you guys can split. How's that sound?"

"Fair." Diamedes agreed immediately.

"You have to show me how you pull a great sword from a small animal. I still find it hard to believe." Adras said, then yawned.

"Seeing it will not bring you any satisfaction and may cause a cascading program fault given your system limitations," Avi replied.

"You're one weird woman." Andras sighed.

"Right, then we'll meet you guys in the Guild in a day or so." Eli shook his head. Avi must have been trying to explain to Andras he was just a program. That seems pointless.

"It was nice meeting you both." Leandra bowed. Eli nodded to her as she and Andras left.

"And thus our first day ends, the curtain closes, the audience applauds." Delle smiled and waved as she began to leave. "Till we meet again, Legend and his noble protector, Avi."

When the two of them were alone, Avi turned to Eli.

"They are not the simple interaction agents you said they would be."

"Yeah, something's not right." Eli frowned. After a moment of reflection, he turned and headed towards The Aerie. Avi followed, her eyes scanning everywhere.

****

Eli looked at the small room. It had a single bed, a stool that sat in front of a low washbasin, a simple trunk that could double as a bench, and a small table with a sputtering oil lamp. The lamp flickered, throwing dancing shadows from the table. The small window was closed and shuttered for the night. It was everything he imagined it would be when he purchased a two-night stay this morning. That was before he'd known Avi would stay with him.

"Right." Eli rubbed the back of his head. "It's going to be tight."

Avi turned around, having stepped into the room first, and looked down at him. Frowning, she pulled the stool over beside the door, then sat down. The drum and pan flute penetrated the floor from the lively wedding party in the common room below. She had just been there, thoroughly enjoying delicious meat pie with Eli, when he hurried her to finish and retire for the night.

"Now what was so important that I had to rush through the first meal I have ever eaten?" Avi asked, glaring at Eli.

Eli stepped into the room and pulled off his bag. As he did, it disappeared. Curious, he opened the menu and verified that realistic item management was disabled. Guess that means I don't have to worry about getting my things stolen.

"While we were eating, you said my body was heading towards my complex." Eli opened his inventory interface and dragged the lady's clutch he purchased earlier out of the box it was in. It dropped in front of him onto the bed. He picked it up to examine it.

"I had a thought," Eli said as he turned the purse over in his hands. "I think that when I go to sleep here, my body will go to sleep there. If that's true, there may be a sort of home-seeking function. I want to check if my body returns to my living quarters when I sleep."

After a few seconds of inspecting the purse, he felt the telltale pull of an object with a power stone. He watched the blue mist seep from the purse and create the phantom image of the purse. "Can you see this?" Eli inquired, "Everyone else just looked at me like I was crazy, waving my hands around in the air earlier when I was working on the gear."

"I see you holding the item you purchased earlier." She said, then after a moment, "What if you are correct, and you return to your unit when you sleep?" She pulled off her bracers and stored them away.

She can't see the... meta form. He reached up and pulled the round stone free.

Quick Slot Storage

Quickly store and retrieve hand-held items. Requires one hand to access.

4 slots

"Huh." Eli held the round stone up to the lamp and looked through it. The opaque green stone had veins of silver that seemed to capture the light and bend it around the stone. He looked back at Avi. "If I go back to my living quarters, I want you to wake me up. I'm going to disconnect."

"Can you? I thought you would be trapped between here and the routing program."

Eli picked up the purse and stored it and the storage stone in his inventory.

"I did it once before. The first time... when I was a kid. I reached up and pulled the headset off."

Avi pursed her lips, her brow furrowed. "You plan on triggering an episode on purpose?"

"It's my only chance. When the wires cross, I may feel the headset." Eli took off his shoes, and set them neatly on the floor, before pulling himself up on the bed and climbing under the sheets.

"Those wires you are talking about crossing are in your brain. That is not a good idea." She disagreed.

Eli reached over to the table and turned the lamp down as low as he could, without extinguishing it completely. "Just wake me if I go back." Eli closed his eyes. Under the weight of the mana exhaustion, he fell asleep quickly.

Avi watched Eli drift asleep. She closed her eyes and checked on the feeds she had gained access to. Eli wasn't anywhere she could see. She started more processes looking for him and found him again in short order. From the perspective of a transport cart, she watched Eli's body walk back towards his complex. She waited fifteen minutes after his body entered his building before moving to the bed and kneeling. For a moment she just watched him breathe, reaching up to push a stray lock of hair from his eyes. She shook his shoulder. "Wake up Eli."

She had to shake him three more times before he finally awoke.

His eyes flickered open. It was a moment before he remembered where he was. He checked his mana bar. Still exhausted.

"Eli, if you can remove the headset, doing so while it is transmitting may cause lasting damage to your neuroreceptors. It could cause paralysis or worse."

He looked at her, kneeling beside the bed, and swallowed when he saw the sincere concern in her eyes.

"I can't have the system pull me around like a puppet on strings, and if my power dies, who knows where I'll be. I may be surrounded by people that want to kill me like in the park." He took a deep breath and clenched his jaw. "This is my best chance."

Eli opened his interface menu and began disabling elements. Event log, gone. Mini-map, gone. Quest log, gone. Hotbars, experience bar, mana, health - he disabled them all and then closed the menu. The reaction was almost immediate. Eli focused on a knot in the wood ceiling, trying to keep his eyes there, to ignore anything else. Though he refused to move his eyes from the knot, the knot moved off to the right, then sprang back. It was slow at first, slower than his pulse, but it quickly sped up until the knot looked as though it was jumping over and snapping back. He felt his pulse quicken and the room heat as beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

"Okay, here it comes," he gasped.

"I will be here, in case you need something." Avi leaned in and whispered.

Eli closed his eyes and let the sensations take him. Immediately he felt the room spinning, felt his body slipping down, down. His stomach soured, his mouth watered. When he heard the buzzing, felt the numbness spreading down his left side, he reached up, feeling his head with his fingers, probing. He kept falling. Struggling to think, to control his hands, he probed with his fingers where he knew the harness was, the skullcap, feeling for it and feeling nothing. His stomach churned, the world flipped over, he could feel his heart speeding, then he felt himself fall faster, down, faster, spinning around and around. His hands made one more effort, his fingers pushing into his hair... Where is it? Where is it? There. His fingers dug under the cap and ripped it off.

He went from falling down to being thrown sideways. He felt his body impact against a wall, then crack through it into a white void. He clenched his eyes tight against the bright light. He felt his bones shatter like glass before his body collapsed. He breathed. He could breathe. He came to, turning over and spitting out the vomit that filled his mouth. He struggled to rid himself of it all as strings of it slowly dripped out. It was dark. He opened his eyes. I'm in bed. He turned back over, feeling the room spin. He felt around. It's my bed. He sat up. Crack. His forehead impacted something hard. Not the ceiling. He felt weak. He moved slowly, deliberately, flipping over, looking around the room. In every wall columns of beds, only illuminated by the light blinking of the environmental monitoring systems. Rows of sleeping people, armored.

This isn't my room.