A week later, the gravity drive propelled R.V. made it's way into a rain forest, and settled down in a small clearing along the side of the road. The clearing was just barely large enough, and they had to use the small drive cabin on the unit to move it into place, and connect the two together. Once the covered porch was connected and fully deployed, the group brought out folding chairs and set them out on the porch, so that they could enjoy the rain forest from the comfort of the screened in porch. The sounds of the rain forest echoed in the clearing, and the five enjoyed a moment of piece.

The trip here had been rather leisurely, and they made many stops to sight see. In fact, this stop was also such a stop, and they were headed to a town within the temperate rain forest as the first step of their journey. They would be staying in the town for a few weeks before they needed to head off to the first event venue and play their parts.

Brad looked down at the power armor he had on, he was wearing it in order to get used to it, but it was surprisingly comfortable. This armor didn't work like his psiber-armor in the game, and instead opened up toward the front in a rather interesting method. First, the front plates would be released and pulled off by a unit in the bus. Once that was accomplished, he stepped back into an alcove beside where the armor plates were pulled off, and the front of the unit would then open up to allow him to exit.

The armor lit up, and his mother looked at him, then asked, “How are you doing?”

Brad looked up, and responded, “I can still hardly believe I have these abilities. I mean, I know that in Trinity I should have these abilities too, but I had never learned how to activate them. It's so easy to activate them here, and it's a bit disconcerting.”

“Just don't use them to harm others without good reason, is all I can tell you. Randomly attacking people is no good, but defending your new sisters, your wife, yourself, or me is acceptable. It's just like with a gun, use it for defending others, and you're good, but use it to harm others for no reason, and you're no better than a criminal,” she responded, “Now, let's get the rest of the deck furniture moved out here so we can enjoy a meal out in this beautiful scenery together.”

Brad headed into the drive unit, and grabbed the large, circular table. It was quite bulky, but with his power-armor suit it was rather easy enough to maneuver it through the huge opening that the windows made when they folded them all out and pulled them all to one side. He carried it out to the center of the porch, and placed it in the connector there, which then locked it into place. It would stay there until they were ready to go, and gave the command for it to release, at which time Brad would carry it to it's temporary spot in the drive unit once more.

The five enjoyed a meal together, with the sights and sounds of the rain forest around them. It was quite the relaxing experience, and Brad thoroughly enjoyed himself. He couldn't help wondering how things were going in Trinity, but they had made an agreement to stay out of the worlds of Trinity Online until they arrived at the new place, a R.V. park in the rain forest. There would be a reward inside, and outside the game if they stayed out until then, or so their mother had told the four. Later that night, Brad's mother found some time to talk to him alone.

“What's going on? Eva has told me that you haven't consummated your marriage in out world yet, and she's worried,” she told him.

“I, I'm just worried about having kids too early,” Brad responded.

“I see, but there's a bigger problem, my son,” his mother spoke gently to him after a few moments of thought. “Eva is still a virgin in our world. Norton did say some of that attachment has passed on to here, but what happens if she is forcefully taken by someone in this world? She's attached to you in the game, but if a man were to come along and do something to her here would she still have such strong feelings for you? Would she be able to withstand being torn like that with the way her race are made? You have more to worry about than the fear of having children too early, my son, remember that. If she gets pregnant, I'll just have to make sure your child is taken care of. They'll be my grandchild after all.”

Brad thought about what his mother said for a moment, and realized she was right. He hadn't done anything with Eva yet because he thought of this world as reality, and so more serious, yet he also thought of them as already connected because of what they had done in the game world. The fear of impregnating her before they were ready in reality, and the thought that they were already connected had held him back. He hadn't bee thinking straight, and it showed. He had mixed up the two realities, and hadn't even realized the problem until his mother explained it to him. There was a real chance that Eva would be taken away from him if he didn't stop pussyfooting around and consummate their marriage here, and that would have serious affects on their whole family. For all their sakes he needed to man up.

“Thanks Mom,” he told her, “and, I'm sorry, I was just nervous, and didn't think straight. I didn't even consider the possibility she could be taken away.”

“It's okay, just make sure my daughter isn't taken away,” she told him, smiling lightly. “She doesn't want that to happen after all. You may think that she's only attached to you because of her genetics, but that girl is genuinely attached to you, and has valid reasons to be so aside from her race.” Brad hadn't even thought of that consciously, but somehow the words his mother spoke made relieved. Perhaps he had been worried about it, and just hadn't realized her was.

That night Brad spent with his wife doing the things married people do. This time they used a black towel with a plastic bag under it to prevent bedding being stained. The night went by swiftly, and the next morning they woke up bright and early. They got everything packed up, before detaching the porch sides, and stowing them, then attaching the trailer unit to the drive unit, and boarding the drive unit. They soon headed off down the wooded road, leaving very little proof of their having been in that place behind, and that only being the depressions in the ground where the gravity drive pods had slightly sunk in, along with some trails of footprints, and matted down grass that would soon disappear.

-----

“Here we are,” their mother said, as the crested a rise just outside the town they were heading toward.

Brad looked out the windows of the R.V., and out toward the town. While the view was a bit hidden by the rain forest surrounding the town, it looked very interesting to the young man, and apparently so to the girls, with all the oos and ahs he was hearing. The town was like something from out of the distant past in some ways, but in others it wasn't. Paved roads and some tall office buildings contrasted with buildings which looked like they had been built from the logs of the rain forest around them. In the center of town was one of those new reactors Brad had seen on the news. The announcement of this power plant had made history a while back, and it had been running strong for the past ten years without any incidents. They were a form of nuclear power that relied on the barely radioactive natural state of thorium and other radioactive materials. The reactors were much smaller than nuclear reactors of the past, and their shielding allowed them to be safe within the town's center. There was no danger of a nuclear melt-down either, due to the materials used not being enriched, and in their natural state.

As the land signature was much better than solar plants, and it didn't employ windmills that kept killing off native bird species, the plant was quite suited to keeping the natural environment, and the creatures of the rain forest, as they were. This lead to this town being a natural tourist attraction. Why they would be heading here? Because his mother had always wanted to visit the place, and decided it would be one of the better places to begin advertising for Trinity Online before they had to head out to their first convention.

Eva's looks would draw attention no matter where they went, so they would have to deal with that anyway, but they could take advantage of them during their stay-cation, and get some practice in acting as cosplayers while they were here. Well, they were the real deal, but no one else needed to know that, and they would just act as if they were practicing their roles for the upcoming convention. Their mother knew a couple of amateur cosplayers whom she thought could give them some advice, so that had been a part of the reason she chose this place. They were trustworthy, and so she had gotten Norton to bring them into the project to help Eva live comfortably in their world. They, and their entire family, had agreed to the deal, and signed a non-disclosure agreement in regards to Eva's actual situation. In exchange, they would receive a monthly stipend, lifetime accounts, and pods for Trinity Online for their children, and themselves. Of course, they would be working in an unofficial capacity for Norton's company and would have no power within the company. While they were out on the road, they would accompany Brad's family, and act as support staff which was something they had real world experience in doing. It was a win-win situation for both parties, and they were coming here to meet them at the small R.V. Park they owned, and lived in.

-----

The group finished pulling their units into Forest Trails R.V. Park and were aligning them to deploy the porch. A crowd had gathered nearby, the residents intrigued by the new neighbors. It wasn't uncommon to see new neighbors here, but the owners had a habit of introducing everyone who came into the area. As such, the long-term residents, and visitors to the R.V park took an interest in meeting those around themselves, for the most part.

On the side of Brad's now enlarged family, they were busy getting ready to finish up the connections, and deploy the bug netting. The twins had dressed up in their outfits for the conventions, and were waiting in the trailer unit for everything to be deployed. While Brad and his mother readied the final steps of aligning the units, Eva was getting dressed in the outfit that was designed to look like an outfit the people of Aegis wore. Once the netting was deployed, and secured, Andaros took the big round table, to it's connecting point, and placed it into it's slot, much too the amazement of their impromptu audience. After that, the deck chairs were brought out, although he and the twins brought out more than they normally had along the trip to this place. They would be staying here for a while, and so they brought out the furniture meant to be used for guests, and not just the bare minimum necessary for all five of them to sit on the enclosed porch.

As the three were putting into place the finishing touches, the R.V. Park owners arrived, and went in to speak with their mother. Shortly afterward they came out with his mother, with Eva in tow. His mother was dressed like a native of Aegis as well, and motioned them to follow. They proceeded to follow the couple out, down the stairs of the porch, and over to the crowd.

“Everyone, I would like to introduce you to the Fultons, beginner professional cosplayers. They will be practicing here for the next few weeks before they head off to their first big convention. Maria is an old friend, and we have agreed to take on the role of crew members, assisting them during their travels, and taking part in cosplay events with them with most of our family members. This means we will be leaving our son Lucas in charge of Forest Trails R.V. Park, and travelling with them. As such, we request your assistance in teaching the newbies the ropes, and helping them acclimate to their roles. Be patient with them, they're just starting out, and the job offer was rather unexpected. This is Maria, I'm sure some of you old coots remember her. This is her son, Brad, George's boy. The twins are Meiya and Reiya, her new adopted daughters. The final member of their group is Eva, Brad's bride, she'll be wearing her costume at all times, as her role is the most important one, as a native of Aegis, and Maria wants her to get used to it. She'll be playing her part all the time, so don't be surprised if she doesn't change out of the most important parts of her costume, like the antlers, scales, and tails.”

“Anyway, Maria will tell you a bit more about their roles, I just wanted to make sure you were aware of Eva's condition, and why she won't be changing out of the most important parts of her costume.”

“Hellos Dale, Jen, Goldie, and Bob, I haven't seen all of you in quite a long time, but it's nice to see you again. Maybe we can travel together again. I will be portraying the role of a priestess of Aegis. My son Brad, will be playing the Role of Andaros, an angaellis psiber-knight sojourner, who later on should be taking on a very interesting change in role, but we won't ruin that surprise now. Reiya and Meiya will be playing a pair of half-elven sojourners, a priestess and paladin more specifically. As Gary explained, Eva will be playing the role of a resident on Aegis, princess Eva de Angaellis of the Queendom of Avelinn, on the Veiled Isle. She wasn't willing to change her name for the role, so Mr. Coolidge found an Eva she could play the part of. Anyway, she'll be playing the part full-time from now on, please let me know if you catch any hitches in her roleplaying. Well, the role is that of a member of Aegis coming to understand our society, and all, so it's not a big problem if she starts out right, and begins to get used to our society, we just want her to play the role, and if you could act as if she is completely telling the truth, that will help her out nicely. You can even act as if you don't believe her, she will have to learn how to handle that before the first event anyway. You guys know how those people are.”

Brad saw the people his mother had addressed earlier give nods at her words. There most be some reason behind her words that he didn't know of yet.

“As for the parts the twins, and Brad are going to play, it's fine if they mess up, and act as themselves, so long as we return them to their roles. It's pretty common for sojourners to mix up their real-life roles and their sojourner in the game. I'm sure if they get too good at playing the part of their character it will become unbelievable, rather than believable. Eva's role will be the opposite, but she's a bit of a gem as a method actor, and should do fine with playing the part, so as long as you're nice about it you can try to trip her up and get her to reveal that she's not really a native of Aegis. In fact, if any of you can get her to break her role without being mean-spirited or cruel, I will give you a reward. Now, her role also requires that she play a rather unique part, as a one-quarter blood member of the malkiim race, a race that is exceedingly faithful to their mates so if you can seduce her, without resorting to rape mind you, that will also count toward breaking her role. I think, however, that you'll find this very difficult, as she is rather devoted to her husband.”

Brad couldn't help thinking that it was impossible for them to do so, even with rape. There was no way the young woman could ever be seduced, and rape was by no means seduction. Why his mother even included rape left him lost, and wondering just what sort of friends she had. For that matter, why was she even suggesting they try to seduce her, it was a ridiculous suggestion! He couldn't help wondering what happened to the mother he knew and loved. Where had that woman gone?

-----

The group settled in at the R.V. Park, and Brad got to see the new “hover bus” the others had received, and a new vehicle that Norton had sent over along with it. Apparently the vehicle was for him, but he wasn't old enough to drive it himself anyway. His mother had just started to teach him how to drive using the new R.V.s, everyone had started to take to calling hover busses. She was of the opinion that he could drive the vehicle if he could drive the hover busses well, but he was cautious about it.

In Brad's world, no license was required to drive a vehicle, but drivers were held more accountable for their failures as a result. Insurance companies were still a thing, and sometimes they required certain certifications be met, but these were not the same as a government mandated license. I.D.s were a necessary part of everyday life, but these were not controlled by the government, and instead companies in various areas offered the service. The companies that were in such business were quite a bit more cautious in ensuring the identity of the people involved was accurate, as they were not covered under the blanket of government protection, and could be sued should a person's identity be used by a a criminal to do things, and they were to be blamed for what the criminal had done. Without those blankets of protection, and without monopolies, companies were far more careful, and serious in ensuring the truthful identity of the individuals involved with them.

Individuals were also much more careful, because their reputations and livelihoods would be affected by their actions far more. If the person's reputation dropped enough, they wouldn't have such an easy time with law enforcement, or companies wanting to sell to them. A man's reputation was worth something, and a bad reputation was not worth having. Someone with a bad reputation would have trouble getting, or keeping a job. It wasn't some kind of social credit, it wasn't controlled by the government. It was simply that a man couldn't get things he didn't earn, and if he did bad things he could earn troublesome things.

The vehicle in question was a hover car akin to a four-door DeLorean in overall shape. Although a bit sleeker than a DeLorean, it was of a similar style, and floated on a cushion of air. The back was not taken up by a large engine, nor the front, but it used the same small-scale sustained reactor Trinity Online's pods used, although on a slightly enlarged scale. It produced no noticeable heat, so the back functioned as a trunk of sorts. It would fit all five of them well enough, and with no real discomfort.

DeLorean Motor Company had never experienced setbacks in their world, and while they were not a huge company, their commitment to quality spoke measures for them. People could trust DeLorean vehicles, and they enjoyed a stellar reputation. They vehicles were extremely robust, and survived crashes many others would not. Their vehicles incorporated many safety features that did not involve the vehicle falling apart in a crash, and not a single person had been lost in a DeLorean crash in their world. The company owner's commitment to quality had often shown up the biggest companies.

Norton had requested a collaboration on this vehicle, a once of a kind DeLorean unlike any they had made before. It still incorporated the same design philosophy, a commitment to quality, strength, and safety, but the vehicle was designed to work with special technologies no other vehicle could incorporate. Not only did the vehicle use gravity drives and SuperCal's reactors, it included a number of new, next generation technologies Norton had brought to the table. This one was a bit special, but Norton had agreed to cooperation in producing similar DeLoreans using a more standard to their designs chassis. This was a huge windfall for DeLorean, and they had agreed to work together, even with the requirement of producing this single unique variant of the new model at their own cost. Just being associated with Norton's company was worth the required variant, even if it could not be produced for sale. As for the standard form, they went back to the original DeLorean, and added all the new features that Norton was willing to work with them on. It would be a limited edition DeLorean that would soon make history, and have people talking for the next several hundred years. Of course, Brad had no clue of this, he only knew that Norton had ordered the vehicle, and it was pretty amazing.

Brad was reluctant to drive the vehicle alone, but when his mother was with him he was not so reticent to drive it, and allowed her to push him to do so. As a result, he would slowly build up an understanding of the vehicle, and a confidence that he could drive it safely. A few days went by, and once they had settled in, Brad and the girls finally got to log in once more.

-----

Brad lay down in the pod, and got ready to reenter Trinity Online. He was understandably nervous after what had happened, but also had promises to keep in the world of Aegis, so he ventured forth despite his fears. The girls, and his mother would be joining him this time. The two girls really loved the new homeschool curriculum Norton had provided for all of them, and had been happy to do it each day, although now they would sit together in the same space, and their mother would watch over them.

This curriculum made them really think, and was not made of multiple choice or single answer questions, but required them to think, and many questions were rather open-ended asking someone to explain things. There was reading to do, and some of this was rather taxing, but well-worth the effort put in. With the additional people in the schooling, debate was brought in, and they would discuss the various sides of an issue, considering many viewpoints, rather than just a sole viewpoint in a each discussion. This was already starting to yield results, with the four thinking through their views more thoroughly than they had in public school.

“Link Start,” Brad hesitated for a few moments, but eventually gave the command, and Andaros appeared at the sojourner starter shrine.

Andaros looked around before he stepped outside the small garden there to find his mother ad Eva already talking to Percy.

“Ah, Andaros,” Percy addressed him as he approached, “It's been a while young man. I heard of what occurred, and I pray such a dangerous thing does not occur again. We've taken into account your wife's and mother's situations, and their quests will reflect this. For now, can you show them to where the class trainers are? I imagine you'll want to get your skills and abilities sorted out as well, after what happened. Don't worry, no one else knows the specifics, not even your uncle, all they know is that a problem occurred and your looks have changed as a result. I believe the Professor explained it as a secondary caelestial-born transformation.”

“My looks have changed,” he asked in response.

“Yes, in fact, they match these two quite well,” Percy explained.

“How are we supposed to explain my mother's looks?”

“Is there a reason to explain her looks,” Percy asked, “We see plenty of people come through with strange looks, and the caelestial-born transformation alone explains the looks, so no one will mind much. While I understand that such transformations are unusual, the two of you are the strange ones, and anyone who looks will just think she had a transformation that was similar in looks, that her looks simply happen to be similar to yours. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened. Numerous times in just the past of this small hamlet there have been people who have undergone similar transformations, it's far from as uncommon as you might think it should be. On the other hand, a secondary transformation is not unheard of, but exceedingly rare.”

“I see, I'll take them over to the class trainers.”

“Let's get going. We'd better get your tutorial quests done, and I need to get my new skills sorted out, like Percy brought up.”

“Before that, don't forget to open your packages,” Percy advised. “You'll likely need the funds, and I was told there were some other items in there for you.”

Andaros opened his inventory and found that there was a package in there, along with his equipment set items. He ignored the equipment set for now, and looked at the package. He hadn't received a message, yet somehow Percy knew about this package. Opening it, he found messages appearing one after the other.

You have received 1,000 Mythril Coins

You have received an [Ability Token: Caelestian]

You have received an [Ability Token: Caelestian]

You have received a skill book, [Dodge Level 5]

You have received an ability token, [Caelestian Touch]

You have received a [Letter]

Looking at these messages, Andaros wondered what was going on. He had received the Dodge skill at level five, and a new ability, as well as a two ability tokens, whatever those were. The last item likely held the key to what he was receiving. He pulled it out of his inventory, and read the letter.

My dear boy,

I am sorry to have to inform you that much of your progress was lost with the situation that occurred, and the damage it did to your body. In fact, in all technicality, you died in that event, and a new Andaros was born as we rebuilt your body from the destroyed state it was in. We were unable to save your skills, and abilities, but your equipment set was able to be salvaged, and we applied a new crafting class similar to your old one after we found your class data had been destroyed. Thankfully, I was able to learn what class from Crafts Master Jurgen.

Your equipment set, while surviving, was also severely damaged, and had to be repaired, so it has lost some of the impact it would have had thanks to the crafts master's help. That being said, I have made the set able to be upscaled and you can restore much of the additional functions he added with effort, and time. The equipment set will scale up with you until level 25, at which point you will need to upgrade it. The binding has been applied, as has one of the major set abilities, the one which returns dropped or disarmed weapons to your belt's holsters and scabbards. Once your equipment set reaches level 25 in all equipment, you can upgrade it to reach the next milestone. This will require your new class, and a number of materials, but you'll have to learn about that with the Crafts Master.

Let's move on, to some information on the items I have supplied you. The two tokens will upgrade a single ability each to a Caelestian version. The skill book will replace the dodge ability which our logs showed you have spent the most time on. As for the Caelestian Touch ability, it will replace Heaven's Touch, and is in line with the theme of your new race and classes. This ability has a bit of an upgrade, but due to it's nature it will not cause any overpowering. Do not immediately go to use the ability tokens, as these will not work when all your abilities and skills have been removed. You will need to purchase new abilities for your class and race, as the damage to your race affected all of these.

Now, about your race, while normally it should have been the base Caelestian race, we decided to change it, using the opportunity presented by having to nearly scrap your sojourner completely. Your race is now a Caelestian Quava, a race that will account for your previous physical features, and still allow physical features of the races Eva was a member of.

As for your traits, we have changed the plan we initially had for them. Your racial trait does not include abilities in it. You will choose your abilities yourself, and the choice of racial abilities chosen will affect the skills set you have available as part of your Caelestian Psiber-Knight class. This will play into the Caelestian race later on, when we release Caelestian Era, but until then you'll be testing the new system in exchange for this unique race only those of your family will have access to.

You will have access to all the ability choices for yours and Eva's previous races and caelestial-born transformation, with some other choices available to allow you to customize your sojourner a bit more for the troubles. However, past the first 3 abilities there will be a cost to purchase. There will be similar abilities in the sets, only one of these may be purchased for use, but once it is chosen, upgrades to the ability can be chosen in the place of the other available abilities of that type. These upgrades will cost you funds, and increase in cost for each ability upgrade purchased. Greater power should come at a cost, after all, I can't let it be free.

Let me cover a few more details, while the default free abilities are only three, you can equip up to seven racial abilities in the slots provided. This means that it is in your best interests to spend money on racial abilities, but consider them carefully before you purchase. There is one suggestion I am willing to give, the Angaellis racial trait you originally possessed gives you access to an unique racial ability only available to your new race called Psion Armaments, this ability will give you access to your original Angaellis racial abilities and the shield ability you have access to in our world. This is all the specific advice I will give, as it is all Pamela will allow me to.

You should get Shiro and Blesse contracted once more after you have gotten your racial abilities sorted out. Unfortunately the contract was broken in the incident, but they should recognize you and be willing to reestablish the contract with you once more. They're still tamed, and able to recognize you.

Andaros, this old man would drone on for hours if I let him, just remember to accept [Psion Armaments] first, it is the most costly of all the abilities, so if you purchase it after your three free abilities, it will most definitely cost a great deal, and increase the cost of all the following abilities you purchase. Summoning abilities are similarly lumped together, but I won't give anymore details. Take care, and take care of Eva for us. We're counting on you.

P.S. Head to the queendom with Eva to reunite her with her mother, she misses her greatly, and worries for her sake.

P.P.S. Expect a package to arrive in the next day or two.

P.P.P.S. Don't forget about your sister on Aegis.

P.P.P.P.S. Thank Norton that you kept that ridiculous feature you chose to invest most of your ability to customize your character in, otherwise you wouldn't have it, nor that ridiculous underwear.

The letter was not signed, but it was easy enough for him to understand who was addressing him. Aunt Pam, as the girls had taken to calling her, had obviously interrupted at the end, but she also let slip a bit of information of her own, aside from that given by Norton. That wasn't the usual for her, but as she had come to know the family, she really did seem to act like an aunt to both the girls, and himself. The part about his customization was embarrassing, but he couldn't do anything about it now. He decided not to mention her words, and simply accept the thoughtfulness of the woman. Once he had confirmed the information, he decided to wait and purchase his abilities and skills before using any of the items he had received. He didn't know if the dodge ability would increase by five levels, or if it would increase to five levels, but he decided to wait and see. If it didn't do any good, or there was no dodge skill in the list, it would be no big deal, but if it did increase levels by five it would be best to wait and see if he could purchase the skill before applying the book. As for [Caelestian Touch], he didn't know if that was a racial ability, so he decided to wait until after purchasing abilities, in case it would take a free slot and increase his costs.

Andaros put the letter away, and turned to see that Eva and his mother were both reading letters of their own. Seeing this, he waited patiently, while giving Percy a bit of an apologetic look. The man just shrugged, and game him a grin. He then continued waiting until a new sojourner should enter their world.

“Andaros,” he heard his name called, and turned to see Meiya and Reiya approaching. The two waved as they came toward him. “How far have you gotten,” Reiya asked once they had arrived.

“Not far,” he told Reiya, at least he thought it was Reiya, “We received a package with a letter explaining our situations, and some items. Mom and Eva are reading their letters now. I'll give you more details when we're back in our world. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about it here.”

“Okay,” the two replied in chorus. “So, you need to see the class trainers?”

“Yeah, they have to do their tutorial, and I have to choose my new abilities and skills,” Andaros answered. “It's probably going to take a while to decide, and I think they'll likely have to choose theirs as well.”

“Sounds troublesome,” Meiya responded, “We'll wait for everyone. I'll power-level you all once the tutorials are done. I'm at level thirty, so I should be able to get you all up in level quickly.”

“What about skills,” Andaros asked, he had a strong feeling they were important, especially after finding the skills to be so difficult to level after getting used to being fellowshipped with Reiya.

“We can work on skill levels once you're all close to my level,” Meiya told him. “There is plenty of time for that later.”

Andaros let out a sigh, “I'd much rather keep my skills up at the proper level.”

“There's no need for that,” Meiya said, shaking her head. “Once we cross into the queendom, there is a skill training center at the nearest village. They have a number of tools to allow you to upgrade combat skills, including defensive skills like dodge. It costs a bit, but with the funds you guys have, and the money the professor gave us, it shouldn't be difficult to upgrade skills to allow everyone to reach their maximum skill level for a level thirty even.”

“It's not so simple,” Andaros responded, “our ability costs are going to be bad due to the way our change works. Or, at least, that's what the letter indicated.”

“It shouldn't be more than 120 silver to max out a level 30 sojourner's skill levels,” Meiya insisted.

“It might be okay then,” Andaros replied, “but I don't know if the usual will apply with us.”

“It's possible, but it shouldn't be too bad even if it doesn't,” Meiya said. “Reiya at the very least, can catch up there, and if you're careful about what skills you train, you can get yourself competitive easily enough.”

“She means you don't have to have all your skills maxed out for your level, in order to be capable,” Reiya told him.

“Yeah, that,” Meiya responded.

Andaros had gotten used to Reiya translating for her sister, who could say things in very confusing ways, so he didn't comment on what had happened. It was a bit weird, but it turned out that if she didn't actively match her sister's way of speech, he wouldn't have any trouble telling the two apart as soon as Meiya opened her mouth. Of course, getting accustomed to the name switch was going to be a bit of a pain, but there was the fact that their equipment here was going to make it much easier to see who was whom regardless of whether he mistook the names or not. Meiya could not wear Reiya's suit of armor she had received from the Crafts Master, so she couldn't use it to easily trick him.

Eva and his mother took some more time to read their letters, but soon finished up. He decided they must have had much longer letters, and Pam hadn't interrupted until Norton was writing his letter, coming very close to the truth. Norton had been not been concise in his wording, and thus had taken overly long to explain things. Pam had also had some things to add to his letters, and this had made them a bit longer too. She ended up being a bit long winded herself, and thus it took them a lot longer to read their letters. For his letter, she had stopped his overly long explanations, and explained more quickly to Andaros. This actually showed the level of care she had for Eva and their mother, rather than Andaros/Brad, but he would still thank her for the quick explanation if he had known the situation. He knew enough to do what was needed, and that was enough, he didn't need a complicated explanation, and was happy with this result.

Once the two looked his way, Andaros nodded to them, and said, “Let's go.”

He led them over to the class trainer area, and the twins went to show the two to their trainers, while Andaros headed to the psiber-knight class trainer. The first thing Andaros did was to look over the racial abilities, finding that there were quite a number. He looked over all of them, and swiftly found that the [Psion Armament] ability was, indeed, what they had stated. He first took this ability, as per Pamela's suggestion, and then looked over the summoning abilities. The abilities included, [Summon Companion], [Summon Dragon], [Summon Creature], and several other summons. Notably missing was the [Summon Demon] skill many games that included summons included. Norton was a devout man, and would not include demon summoning skills in his production.

Looking over the abilities, Andaros found an ability that would allow him to contract and summon all kinds of beings. As the ability allowed him to contract and summon any being, it would be useful, but he thought over whether the ability set would be too much to handle, and how it would affect his available skills. After careful thought, he bit the bullet and decided to get the skill, being able to contract all kinds of beings would be useful in the end. There was also the fact that he had recently heard that summons would not be permanently killed, and would instead be pulled into a safe space only he could access, and could be called out once more after twenty-four hours. This meant that he could use the contract skill to protect natives of Aegis if needed. The only think it didn't work against was a natural death due to old age, which made sense. While it would prevent other forms of death, death was not immutable, and would eventually come in the end.

Death was a constant in the world, and even if some forms of death could be avoided, the saying, “It is appointed once that man should die, and then the judgment,” still held sway on Aegis. One might think the saying didn't apply due to the multiple races, but if one were objective, they would see that man could apply to any of the sentient races, who were all humanoid in nature. Therefore, the saying still applied to all the sentient races of Trinity Online. It was also possible for all the sentient races of Trinity Online to mate with each other, although none knew this yet, and despite some having creature-like looks, they could not mate with creatures, and that was still considered an abomination.

Accepting the ability actually did change his skills set, as he verified by paying attention at this time. Having chosen his first two abilities, he looked over the other abilities, and found that a number had changed to represent ability upgrades for the original abilities. He looked over the available racial abilities more carefully, and found he could find out what feature had given him the choice of that ability, much like with the caelestial-born traits of before. For the Angaellis race, there had only been the psion armaments ability, but the other two races gave a choice among two racial ability choices.

As for the Caelestial-born transformations of before, the new tails were interesting. Andaros had looked in his character window to see what he now looked like, and he still had the nine tails, but four of them were now wolf-like while the other five were fox-like. The abilities these tails allowed him to purchase were either an illusion ability that would allow him to change his appearance, or an ability that increased his strength and pace by multiple times for a short period of time. The values seemed to coincide with his number of tails, and would increase his pace by five hundred percent, and his strength by four hundred percent for a duration of nine minutes with a cooldown of twelve hours.

The S.P.I.R.E system was Trinity Online's basic stat system. The stats consisted of Strength, Pace, Intuition, Reason, and Endurance, these were the basic stats of Trinity Online. Strength was pretty self-explanatory, it was your straight forward maximum weight capacity, and damage bonus to physical attacks, among other things. The other stats had their own things they affected, resulting in the overall picture of the sojourner's effectiveness in and outside combat.

Strength: The most basic measure of physical power, Strength determines maximum lift capacity, maximum carry capacity, and base and maximum damage boost for physical attacks at it's base. While this is so, strength appears to affect much more than just these.

Affects:

Maximum lift capacity

Maximum carrying capacity

Base physical weapon damage

Max physical weapon damage

Maximum bow draw strength

Maximum Health

Armor Class

Reduces damage from the sojourner's own attacks

Glegchjor reservoir size increase

Pace: A measure of speed and reaction time. This stat has far reaching effects, and affects much more than most would believe.

Affects:

Movement speed increased

Step distance increased

Reaction time increased

Bonus physical damage when moving at high speed

Chance of knock-back on opponents when moving at high speed

Armor Classmates

High weight movement speed

Low weight movement speed

Small stamina increase

Glegchjor reservoir refill rate increase

Xorchelen reservoir refill rate increase

Tonchern reservoir refill rate increase

These were the two stats Brad had been able to gain any reliable information on the effects of while he was stuck offline. The other three stats were rather debated, but there was some agreement that; Intuition increases the Tonchern reservoir size, Reason was a replacement for Wisdom and Intelligence, and increased Xorchelen reservoir size, and Endurance affected a great many things, but none of the community could seem to explain just what it affected or how. SuperCal, and Norton refused to explain just what the stats did, and left it to the community to figure out. Aside from what the stats affected, there was the issue of increasing stats. This was done through level ups for the most part, and determined by the class of the sojourner, but there was a maximum of one hundred points in each stat that could be gained at special training centers if one was willing to spend the time, and money on them. The biggest costs for these was in time, much like the skill training centers, but the training was very different than for skills, and the centers were different. He felt like asking Meiya about them, but he didn't know if she would know where they were yet. Even being a level thirty didn't mean you have gone very far yet, and Andaros had no clue if the veiled isle even had a stat training center.

Looking through the abilities, Andaros decided to take the disguise, illusion-like one, but didn't immediately take it, as he wanted to see if there were any other abilities that had multiple uses or effects. While looking at the abilities descriptions, he found one that was surprising.

[Guardian Aura]

A prime guardian ability, this ability steals aggression from fellows, and allies alike, and transfers the enemy aggression directed toward the various fellows toward the ability user. A powerful ability, it greatly increases the armor class, defense, and health regeneration of the ability user. In addition to this, it increases the amount of incoming healing, giving the healers of the group an increased capacity to keep the ability user alive.

Effects:

Steals 75% of existing enemy aggression from all allies within a thirty mel radius(unaffected by ability duration)

+400% armor class

+200% defense

+50 health regeneration per second

+200% incoming healing

Duration: 30 seconds

Cool-down: 35 seconds from activation of ability

Restrictions: Must purchase within first three free abilities

Andaros was rather amazed by this ability, but there were hints there as to the problems it would cause. The armor class, defense, health regeneration, and even incoming healing bonuses would all greatly increase the ability user's survival rate for the duration of the skill, but during the five second interval where the skill was down, their survival rate would severely plummet. This meant that if they were using the skill to tank an encounter they could not physically handle, the healers would be used to the high survival rate, and the five seconds where the skill was on cooldown might very well be the end of the ability user, and perhaps the entire fellowship or raid once they fell.

After quite some debate with himself, Andaros finally decided to take the ability, as it would give him a good option should his family experience an emergency. It was by no means a fix-all, but the [Guardian's Aura] would allow him to step in during dangerous situations and stabilize them. This was a very important ability for any tank to have, but he would have to find a means to negate the problems that the five seconds of return to normal would likely cause.

Once he had accepted [Guardian's Aura], Andaros looked through the other abilities, seeing if he could find anything to offset the troubles of returning to normal, but found nothing. Seeing this, he continued looking at abilities. The next skill he bought was an ability called [Observation and Identification] which was a sort of combined ability, but at the same time was not. This ability was one with both a passive, and an active state. During the passive state, one could observe things to glean some information about them, what you received would depend on the individual, and the one, or ones, they were observing. The ability would slowly reveal more about the one being observed as time passed. The active effect had two different modes, one that identified an item, and only cost one-quarter of the xorchelen, and had no cooldown, while the other would activate for fifteen seconds at a significant xorchelen cost, but would show the details of everything seen in that fifteen seconds for a full five minutes following the use of the skill.

That was four abilities chosen, he went back to looking at the abilities. The next ability he chose was a passive that increased the stats and health of companion creatures, sadly there was no such ability available for humanoids or other companions, but he decided this would do. Following this, he chose a passive that increased his base armor class and defense, which appeared to be from his caelestial-born transformation.

Finally, he chose the ability which would let him change his appearance in a manner similar to an illusion. This ability was, much like the eyes ability, both a passive, and an active ability. The passive form stored multiple appearances, and using the active mode he could switch between these appearances, or create a new appearance on the fly. Not only did this ability allow him to change his appearance, but it could also disguise his race, or so the description indicated.

Looking through the abilities, he found that the the only ability left for purchase was a choice between an ability that would power him up using his wife as a basis, or one that supported Eva and him equally while they were in the same vicinity. These choices came from the fox-like race of Eva, the Malkiim, and while it wasn't important, he needed to make sure of if Eva had the same choices or if the choices were different. After some thought, Andaros decided to wait on that one and discuss it would Eva. He went and purchased all the ability upgrades, and the costs came out to just a little over two hundred and fifty mythril by the end, which put into perspective just how much that shield-like thing he had bought before had been worth.

Once he had bought everything, Andaros stepped back away from the class trainer. Before he bought his new skills, he decided to talk to Eva. It seemed Eva had the same idea, and the two approached each other. They found that the ability choices were the same, and they decided to purchase the passive ability that gave a boost based upon the other. The bonuses for this ability were lesser, but would be better in case they were to suddenly find themselves separated.

Andaros returned to the class trainer, and purchased the ability, and the new skills for level 1. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have level two anymore, but his overall strength had increased from his original race and class. Once he had purchased everything, he opened his inventory, and the first thing he did was to gain the [Caelestian Touch] ability. After some thought, he applied the Caelestian tokens to his Psion Armaments ability, and the Summoning ability, gaining the [Caelestian Armaments], and [Caelestian Summons] abilities. Once more looking at the skills in the class trainer's skills list, he found that the skills hadn't changed, but looking in his abilities and skills list he found that the attachments to the skill had become caelestian skills, [Caelestian Taming], [Caelestian Contract], and [Caelestian Call]. The skills were linked to the ability, and would not level up on their own, but as the ability was able to be leveled, they would also increase in power with the level of the ability. As for [Caelestian Armaments], he could summon any of the armaments with a thought, and there was no separated skills, unlike with the [Caelestian Summons] ability.

The final thing he did was to use the dodge book, and it reached level 5, indicating the book only raised the skill to level five.

Andaros met up with his mother, the twins, and Eva once he had finished purchasing everything, and setting the abilities he wanted to use. There were some other abilities he could buy, but these didn't seem useful, so he skimped, and saved the mythril, thinking he could invest it at a later time if needed.

“So, head back to Percy,” Reiya asked.

“Sure, once we're done with their tutorials I have a quest to finish up at guard headquarters before we go power-leveling,” Andaros said.

“It'd be good to get everyone their sojourner card too,” Meiya added, “I didn't find out about it until I arrived at the next community on the queendom's side, but it will help with leveling everyone faster. So, we should register everyone with the sojourner's guild as soon as possible after the tutorials are done.”

“Let's head back to Percy like Reiya suggested, and we'll worry about all that when the time comes,” their mother suggested.

“Yeah, Mom has a point,” Andaros responded, “Let's go, I think Adolpho's is next. Hopefully the ghost shop doesn't appear.”

“That doesn't appear often, and it's spread among the other Adolpho's, so it's unlikely,” Meiya explained.

Thankfully, Meiya was correct, after their mother and Eva had turned in their first quest, the group headed over and found Adolpho's as it normally was.

“Welco... Oh, it's you, what business do you have with me,” Adolpho said as Andaros entered the store with the others.

“It's not me that has business with you, it's these two,” Andaros responded, wondering why Adolpho was reacting that way, he had been looking directly at him as he spoke. “They're doing their tutorial quests.”

“I see, then I'll prepare your beginner packs. Look around, and choose something to purchase. You each must make one purchase, but make sure it's something you can actually use,” Adolpho informed them.

Andaros decided to open his sojourner screen while he waited, and when he did he found his equipment had been removed. He then looked in his inventory menu, and found that all but his equipment set were missing. Thankfully, his underwear was still there, and he had basic clothing on, although it really sucked that the growth clothes that came with the beginner items were missing. They would only reach a certain level, but still, they would give bonuses, unlike the basic ones that were immediately equipped to the sojourner upon creation.

Seeing the state of his inventory and sojourner window, he equipped his equipment set, but didn't activate his psiber-armor, still remembering the warning of Crafts Master Jurgen after all this time. There was nothing else left in his inventory, even the free food that came with the beginner package was missing, so he found he would have to purchase items.

Andaros let out a sigh and gathered the items he would need, including the armors he had previously bought, a set of prospector's tools, and a set of smithing tools. He grabbed some basic traveling food, and a few containers for water and other liquids. He considered buying some leatherworking items, but decided against it, as he didn't know about his new crafting class yet, and might end up buying extraneous things. Of course, he didn't even think of the fact that the smithing tools he had grabbed could be the same, and continued toward Adolpho, intent on buying them.

“I thought you said you had no business with me,” Adolpho told him, as he offloaded the items on the counter. The man had an unhappy look on his face, despite the fact that he would be selling stock, and gaining money, very much unmerchantly behavior.

“Just found out my situation was different than I thought,” Andaros responded, sighing once more.

“That secondary transformation, huh,” Adolpho responded, clicking his tongue in annoyance.

Andaros just nodded his head, not sure how to respond, Adolpho was acting strangely, and he wasn't sure what to do.

“I can sell you the food, and tools, but you'll have to find another source for armor. Those have already been purchased,” Adolpho told him.

Andaros accepted his words, this did explain his unhappy look, so he took his actions as being unhappy he couldn't sell the stock. He purchased the other items, and left the store to wait for the others.