Adil focused on his internal map, and Swift's icon flashed into existence. It was as though he was still a part of his party even after death. Swift's icon was in a black area of the map Adil knew was as spawn, a place he had only been before he got his internal mapping ability.

“Follow me. I can get to Swift.” Adil announced.

“You what?”

“It’s a talent,” he replied, taking on a sly expression.

Seras acknowledging his response only said, “Lead the way.”

They sped through the maze, avoiding any sign of goblins along the way, but as they travelled, it felt like they were being followed. As though the strange robed lady was fresh on their trail.

notification

Quest failed: Try again!

· Non-repeatable

· No XP

· Earnt the scorn of Kurt

Note:

Are you serious?

They carried on a while further, scouting path after path until they came to a dead-end, still a while away from Swift.

"Where now?" Seras asked.

"I don't understand it should be this way."

Adil reached, pressed into the wall and his hand disappeared through it.

"Well now," Seras said.

"You don't see that every day."

Passing through, they found themselves on another path. The way they had come still visible.

“Looks like it was more hidden than I originally thought,” Adil said.

Seras passed through and saw still a multitude of paths for them to take. Adil looked concerned.

"Who was that, in the robes? She seemed to know you."

"We crossed paths, she took out a lot of my friends and killed me in a pretty bad way. That was about a week ago. I think she is responsible for spreading the plague, or whatever that black shit is."

"We should hurry before it's too late."

The narrow paths they followed came to an outcrop of rocks that now seemed familiar to Adil. The foundation was firm to the touch until he came across a specific area filled with jagged spikes protruding from the ground. Walking into the rocks, he passed through them, each spike just a distraction to move them along another path. Seras again followed behind.

They passed through another wall, the and as they did the wall became a shimmering light that disappeared, leaving him in the grassy field he remembered. Swift was there in his nooby cloth clothes, waiting for them.

A black purple creature appeared to be berating him.

“You had three days!!” The creature shouted.

“Does it not hurt??” He added.

When Swift noticed Seras and Adil walk in through the pathway, he waved a hand.

“Hay,” he said. The creature noticed the two and drew eyes to Seras.

“You see this fine lady is a pristine example of a traveller. Died early, though two weeks was not that early by comparison. But she was already level four. Think of my surprise.”

“Hay Sméagol, have you got anything to help Swift out?” Seras replied.

Ignoring her name-calling the creature went back to Swift.

“Some books would be nice” Swift chimed.

“you damn scrubs aren't worth my time.” The demonic thin stated.

Adil gestured to Swift “We need to talk,” he said.

An explosion erupted behind them and rocks flew across the cavern, a cloud of dust slowly dissipating, revealing who was behind.

The dark-robed mage walked out, alone.

“Shit,” The interdimensional creature said and quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The mage raised her staff and seemed to draw the creature back. The creature was choking now, almost moving in and out of its point in space. There was a smoky cloud where the creature's limbs would repeatedly disappear only to rematerialize moments later.

Swift gathered a burst of fire and threw it with tenacity whilst Adil fired a shot at her.

The mage reached out a hand and created a small shield of rock like wood around her arm. The dark mage blocked the arrow with her guard but allowed some of the flame to rush over her. The fire had not visibly damaged her, but she appeared to show discomfort as her hood flew back. Whatever they did seemed to work.

“Dryad” Swift exclaimed in a hushed tone. Small tree-like growths appeared around the mage's head. As the flame cleared more details emerged, a slight green tint to her skin obscured by glowing blue veins that lead even to her pointed ears.

The mage started coughing and the channelled spell dissipated, allowing the black-blue creature to disappear. Swift got another fireball ready. Adil fired a shot towards her. The dryad pushed the arrow away and then seeming to push mana into her staff, flung Adil to the side. Adil's head smashed against the rocks. A concussion icon appearing in his awareness.

Swift got rid of the fireball, dispersing the heat.

Seras had charged forward but was thrown to the side before being wrapped in rocky roots. The witch began coughing some more, a drip of red visible around her mouth. She was more injured than they thought. She shouted something at Swift before collapsing to the floor.

Adil’s focus slowly faded, struggling to stay conscious, drifting away. He saw Swift talking to the dryad. He fought the urge to pass out and got to his feet, ready to help.

Suddenly an excruciating pain took over as Adil saw Swift being circled by a strange power. The mage held her hand over Swift as he was coated in roots. Tendrils of black and white mana resonated around him. A chord between Adil and swift across the distance became visible. The cord snapped, and Adil received a notification.

Member: Swift

has been forcibly removed from your party.

System unstable; loop uncaught.

The pain was so great Adil could barely focus. Swift looked towards him in panic before the rots receded from covering him. Before Adil's vision faded he saw Swift walk with the mage into the rock face. A path cleared and a cave was now visible. Space itself then seemed to warp as Adil’s vision faded to black.

New chapter insert

title: The simulation

Adil's mind was awash, he felt as though something in his core was leaking out before being pulled back in. In his awareness system, messages seemed to move in and out of existence.

Loop uncaught, mana matrix denied.

Party member Swift has been replaced with party member Adil in Adi's party. Party Adil is interfering with party member Adil due to presence of party member Adil. Removing from the party. Error, the party leader is Adil. Leaving party leader Adil's party.

error

error

containing an error in the sandbox.

essence moved to simulation.

Simulating experience failed.

consciousness contained within a simulation.

Adil managed to open his eyes and found himself in a new area, a sandy plain that slowly shifted. suddenly the sand fell, changing and forming into a rocky landscape like the outer ends of the maze. Adil had a bow in his hand, he was in a place from his memory, taking his first shot on the rabbit again.

The bow seemed to fumble within his hand compared to how it normally was. With a strange compulsion, he took aim and fired at the rabbit. Missing worse than he had before.

Another message formed in his awareness:

Ineffective adjustment, non-constructive to enhancement. Repeat.

He was again in front of the rabbit. It's beady eyes staring at him as it always had. The compulsion came again, and he drew the bow to fire. He shot at the rabbit. This time, almost hitting as the arrow grazed passed the rodent. simulation success, adjusting muscle memory analysis.

Failure archery I already met. Repeat.

He was once more in the same position, the rabbit in front of him. He held the bow and felt the compulsion but refused to fire. He fought against it with all his strength. He held the bow down as it shook in his hands.

"No," Adil stated forcing himself down. His mind was his own and he would not be manipulated into repeating the same task.

Simulation error encountered, assessing error. Forming new sandbox parameters. Recalibrating simulation.

Adil found himself in a small arena, a beast-like creature in front of him that appeared to be an amorphous blob-shaped into the outline of a humanoid creature. As he focused on it the creature formed more into that of a goblin. Adil looked down to see a sword had appeared in his hand. He felt a compulsion to attack the turtle, an urge to use his sword and end the being's life. He fought the urge but saw as the creature finally formed it stared daggers towards him. The creature ran out at him and attacked. Adil braced the first hit but lost his balance as the second in a fury struck deep.

Failure, event non-constructive to system configuration. Recalibrating.

This time there was just a turtle, a creature of quaint beauty before him. He felt the compulsion to attack the creature. He considered just following the events to try and get out of it.

"Hey, turtle. Sorry I have to do this." He dove in chopping at the turtles head as it appeared to look confused and bleedingly towards Adil. His sword sank deep, Failure, non-constructive to system configuration. Recalibrating.

He opened his eyes. This time, he was looking up from the ground at what appeared to be himself. He saw the man, or himself approach the now him. "Hey, turtle. Sorry I have to do this." The man dove forward cutting down at Adil as Adil tried to speak in surprise ."I'm not a turtle" before his poor turtle neck was cut. Recalibrating

he woke up again, but this time in some sort of orcish body. Another orcish being on the other end of the arena. He felt emotions he had never felt before. It was as though his brain was not working the way it normally would. Was he really himself. He felt angry.

"Fazurah gometu ramathos!" he shouted. He meant to say "This shit is messed up," but instead in some strange tongue it was more like "In these cold nights, rage keeps us warm."

Across the space in front of him. Was another creature of the same size build and race. He charged in, a war hammer seeming to appear within his hand. An uncontrollable rage building inside him. But the thought was constantly in the back of his mind. *what are you doing?*

He clashed with the humanoid adversary in front of him, avoiding a swipe. *why am I fighting?* He pondered.

He slammed his war hammer into the humanoids knee.

*Is this really me?* He thought

The creature gritted its teeth collapsing and then uppercutting with a spiked gauntlet

*Or was I the turtle?*

Adil smiled with the taste of blood in his mouth and grabbed the humanoids hand. He then grabbed the back of the creatures head and brought it down as he lifted his knee. Adil struggled with what or who he was, existential thoughts flowing through him,

*Am I my body?*

The creature still seemed to be desperately holding on, then a glint of metal showed in his hand as he tried to stab a small dagger into Adil. Adil felt like he knew what to do and tried to recall a some of his training, but could not.

*Am I my memories?* he thought, *but what If I can't remember who I am?*

The knife sunk in, but to the great beast he was, it only fed into his rage.

*Am I my feelings, my actions? What makes me who I am?*

He channelled the rage into his arm and brought the war hammer down for one final swing.

*If I am not me what am I, what is my purpose?*

Failure, Recalibrating.

Adil found himself in what appeared to be a pub, he was standing behind the bar. There was a man on the floor in front of him appearing to wear some sort of blue army uniform. The man on the floor appeared to be bleeding out as though something had stabbed into his stomach. Adil looked down at himself and saw the knife in his hand, blood coating the blade.

A throbbing pain robbed Adil of all his senses, his vision began to shake and his essence felt as though ti was compressing. A strange indescribable feeling but he was aware of what it was.

Failure: Recalibrating.

Adil appeared in a white space with many people around him, all of them looking and dressing just like him. Adil looked down and noticed he was also him.* That's good * he thought.

"Check this out." one of them said, before letting out a massive belch. The others laughed.

"Wait, I can do you one better." another said, trying but making a sub-par attempt, only acknowledged by a few grunts. He shrugged.

Adil smiled at one getting a smile in return. He went to high five him and his hand met with Adil's but then seemed to pass through, a strand of ethereal energy being left behind. Adil started to play with it as the other him gave a shrug. He felt a push, and pull, he could push it further out and pull it further in. Twist it and shape it. He pulled at the strand and saw the other Adil disappear, pulled into the strand with an expression of surprise. He looked at the strand of energy still visible as he brought it in and out and moved it around himself. It was as though he could push out and pull in a part of himself.

*Maybe I'm just a mess* He thought. trying to conclude his existential breakdown.

Then he saw as though each one of him started slowly disappearing, each clone vanishing from within the blank space. In unison, the remainder murmured an "Uuuuuh."

Success. Simulation complete. Look fixed.