“Where is he?” Asked Clara.

“He’s in the library, again.” Answered Morgan. “I understand he is eager to understand about our world, but usually you would ask the people around you, not dive into books.”

Morgan turned around and opened the door to the library to let Clara in. He had been assigned to help Anton with what he needed, which now had him with a foul humour locked in the castles library without being able to go flying with Raksasha.

Clara May, the King’s counsellor, walked into the room and stood in front of a table filled to the brim with books.

“Hey, Anton, Miss Clara is here to see you!” He called out to the only person in the library who hasn’t noticed Clara’s entrance.

Anton’s face rose from behind a mountain of books. Dark bags had formed beneath his yellow eyes and he looked like he had spent the night in that same table several days in a row.

“Clara? Oh, hello!” He said, finally noticing her and sitting properly.

“I see you haven’t been getting much sleep.” She smiled.

Anton coughed up a smile as he rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah, I just can’t.” He said. “There’s so much information here, so many interesting things to learn.”

Clara pouted.

“I know Anton, but you can’t keep yourself locked up, it’s not good for you.”

“I’ve- I’ve been trying to understand how this world works.”

Even though he wanted to talk to her about his situation, he wasn’t sure she would understand.

“Well, I know you are eager, but you’ll have time to understand.” She said. “Anyway, today we are taking you to the Sensing Stone.”

“What is that?”

“Well, it’s a stone that will read the abilities you carry, your profession and your current level.”

“Level? Like in a game?”

“Yeah, sure, like in a game.” She said. “That’s actually a good analogy I hadn’t thought about before.”

In the three days that Anton had spent in the castle, she had shown no signs of knowing she was inside a game and he was afraid of coming out with the revelation in case they didn’t take it well. This had led him to believe that she was something else, a different type of existence to him inside the simulation.

“We can tell the main element a person controls by the colour of their eyes, but if you want to know how powerful a person is and what their abilities are, then you need to ask the Sensing Stone.”

She looked at Anton, who was stretching his body while yawning. He was wearing only his linen shirt, some loose pants and a heavy case of pillow hair.

“But you’re not going anywhere looking like that.” She said and took his arm.

“Wha-What!?” Said Anton.

No matter how many days passed, he still could barely cope with Clara’s strong personality.

-------------------------------------------

After a bath in one of the castle’s indoor bathrooms and putting on a set of new clothes courtesy of the royal family, they headed off to the city to find the Sensing Stone.

Together with the castle on top of the cliff, which was comprised of a few big stone buildings surrounded by thick stone walls and several watch towers, and the various relay stations posted close to the cliff outside the castle walls that formed a line of stablished resting areas for the mounted guards to fly to and from, the City of Clifftop was comprised of a big city area where the bulk of the city’s population lived and some farming land, all off which was surrounded by another layer of stone walls that separated the city from the Great Tarnak Forest.

This forest’s tree density was so high that moving through it was highly difficult for large groups or merchants, so most of the commerce with other cities was made through the roads in the Emerald fields

Reading some of the books in the castle’s library, Anton had found out that the cliff city rested on was actually an extension of the Breakback Mountain that could be seen from every point of the city, one of the five huge mountains that could be found inside the Tarnak Forest.

Their walk towards the building that housed the sensing stone, which apparently was in the city centre, took them down the hill and into a city that appeared to be taken from a children’s fantasy book.

Ever since he had arrived to this world, Anton had only seen the green of nature and the grey of the castle walls, but now he was surrounded by a city that bustled with activity.

The stone road worked that as the main road and the stone and wood houses built next to it were pristine and clean and the people walking around wore beautifully coloured clothes. Some men and women sitting on the borders of the street, worked selling various kinds of items ranging from simple herbs, vegetables and fruits to carvings, sculptures and even weapons.

“It’s like a movie, It looks almost too perfect to be real...” He said.

“Exactly,” Agreed Morgan, who had come to keep Anton and Clara safe. “Not the entire city is like this, you could say this is the best side of town, the place closer to the castle and the place where the nobles live.”

He pointed at one of the many alleys that parted away from the main road in between the houses. Instead of stone, it only had a dirt floor.

“If you go that way, you will arrive to the area of the city where common people live, people like the merchants that work in this street but can’t buy a house here or the people that craft the items we use. And if you go even further deep into the city, you will arrive to the slums, where people too poor to buy a proper house or that want to stay hidden live, like the people who work at the farms or the thieves and murderers.”

“So it’s like any city then…” Whispered Anton. “The rich live in their own world while the poor fight for a place in their own…”

“See that?” Said Clara, who had been paying more attention to the shopping stalls than to the boy’s conversation. She pointed towards the end of the road. “That’s the market plaza, the centre of the city, and behind it, you can see the Palace of the Gods.”

When he turned his head to follow her finger, he saw a big opening covered in uncountable red tents, probably shops, and behind them, he saw a building which construction rivalled the castle itself.

A huge cathedral covered in several spires reaching towards the sky, each one with a different symbol at the very end.

“The 20 gods of the world.” He said, unable to hide his amazement.

The building was incredibly beautiful and detailed, every inch of its walls covered in statues representing different scenes from the godly books, every window coloured to show the forms of each god and their saints. It was so incredibly awe-inspiring, that he wasn’t able to compare it with any picture he had seen on Earth before, no normal human structure rivalled this building’s beauty, though some may rival its complexity.

Clara stopped and pointed to the tallest of the 20 spires.

“Do you see that one? The one with the feather at the top? That’s the goddess I follow, Alya, the goddess of records and information, she remembers everything that has ever and will ever happen in the world and has it all written down on her endless scroll.”

Anton looked at her, surprised.

“You believe in these gods?” He asked.

He had read about them on the books and would probably be able to remember their names, but he was surprised that someone he had thought to be another player like himself would believe on something so obviously taken from “Generic Fantasy Worldbuilding 101” like these deities.

Faster than he could react, he felt Clara’s hand press against his mouth, silencing him from saying any more. He looked around and saw several people looking at him with a displeased expression on their faces; even Morgan looked a bit uncomfortable, even though he was trying to not show it.

“Don’t say that!” She whispered, releasing him. “I know it’s hard to believe at first, but deities in here are not like in our world, they are not invisible forces you just have to believe in, in here deities are as real as normal people…” She looked around. “Also, people tend to take very badly when someone disrespects the gods, that’s what the demonic races do…”

Anton looked at Clara, confused; did she actually believe these gods were real? Or did she say she believe because otherwise she would be treated as a sinner and shunned? The way she had said it hinted at the second option as a possibility, but she had also sounded quite convinced before, when talking about her allegiance to the goddess of records.

“I understand a little bit how you feel because you are a traveller.” Said Morgan, loud enough for other people to hear. “I understand how the gods in your world work differently, but you will come to understand our point of view once you spend more time in here.”

Hearing that he was a traveller seemed to reduce the number of antagonizing faces around them; apparently it was a known fact that travellers not always instantly believed in their gods.

“I should probably just shut my trap.” Said Anton, smiling and trying to look dumb. “I don’t want to get on you people’s bad side for saying something insensitive.”

The few staring gazes disappeared after hearing him say that he didn’t mean wrong and, after there was no one close enough to hear, Morgan looked at him.

“Why are you putting that face? You look stupid.” He said, directly.

“Wow, sheesh,” Answered Anton. “At least soften the blow dude. It’s on purpose, if I look dumb, people will not take my statements as seriously.”

“I get the feeling that this is not the first time you do this to trick people into thinking that you are dumb…”

Anton smiled at him and continued walking.

---------------------------------------------

“Apples! Get you apples here! They are the best in Cliffend!”

“Brand new arrows and bows! Buy your hunting equipment here!”

Anton’s eyes jumped from one thing to the next as they walked in between the many shops. The market plaza was a big open area filled to the brim with shops and people selling and buying things like food, cloth and even fighting equipment.

“So-many-things!” He said, loudly, attracting the attention of many of the costumers and merchants.

Morgan smirked and played with his hair, embarrassed.

“Try not to speak so loud..” He told him.

“But… but… look at these things! They are selling swords!”

Anton ogled at the sight of a small tent that was selling some battered pieces of battle equipment.

“If I had the money I would buy so many things.” He said and moved to a different stall, this time selling mostly daggers.

He picked one of the daggers.

“You have a great eye young master!” Said the man that managed the place. “That’s a hunting knife of great value! And it can be yours for only 2 silvers and 30 copper.”

The man smiled, looking at how this person looked just stupid enough to fall for his ruse.

Anton looked at the dagger on his hand. It was beautifully made, with golden details engraved on its blade and a small red jewel on its pummel.

“Don’t even bother with…” Started to say Morgan, appearing behind Anton.

But before he could say anything, and to the surprise of both the merchant and Morgan, Anton spoke.

“Yeah, it’s trash.” Said Anton. “It’s nothing more than an ornamental dagger with a pretty bad balance and very low stats. A hunter would have an easier time skinning an animal with his bare hands than by using this knife.”

A small window had appeared in front of Anton’s eyes.

Ornamental Knife – Lv. 0

Looks nice, but it has zero potential as a weapon. Its balance it’s pretty bad too. The ruby on its pummel enhances fire attacks that use the dagger as a medium. (5% extra damage when using fire type attacks.)

Price of the components:

Dagger: 10 copper.

Jewel: 3 silver.

“The ruby is a nice detail though.” He said, as he placed the dagger back in the table. “You should probably try to sell the jewel, you could probably get a decent amount for that alone.”

The man looked at him.

“That’s a ruby?” He asked. “I thought it was just a piece of coloured glass…”

“Yeah, it’s a ruby. The gold is just plating though, no money in that.”

Clara appeared next to him and looked at Anton’s face, intently, with the same face she had when he met him, the face of someone who has found an interesting thing.

“Anton? Do you have the appraisal ability by any chance?” She said.

“What?” He said, backing up a few steps. “What’s that?”

“Yeah, you knew it was a bust before I could tell you, and you even saw that the jewel was a ruby.” Continued Morgan, stroking his chin as he looked at the dagger.

“What? Can’t you both tell?” He said. “Can’t you tell?” He asked Clara.

“No! Appraisal is a very hard ability to get!” She answered. “In my 10 years here, I’ve only met like 5 people with that ability, and they were all merchants.”

‘Shit’ Thought Anton. ‘Did I say too much?’

“No! I don’t really know what abilities I have, you know?” He said. “That’s why we are going to the Sensing… Stone…” His faced drained of colour. “Wait… you’ve been here for ten years!”

Clara blinked at the sudden change in topic.

“Yeah…” She said. “I arrived here when I was 14. Logan and James were just guards back then, like Morgan, but they have taken care of me ever since…”

“Ten years…” He said.

“Yeah, why is that so important?”

“It’s very important!”

Anton’s mind raced as he tried to make the timeline work with this new information. Before he had thought that maybe Clara was a previous player tester that had been trapped inside the game in a similar fashion than them and had, for some reason, forgotten, but knowing that she had been in here for ten years changed everything.

Ten years before, VR technology was on its infancy with clunky headsets and controllers, nothing similar to Anton’s generation VR technology, but what’s even more, ten years before Bluelight Corporation wasn’t even a proper business, it was just a couple of friends working from a garage filled with dreams.

So this only left one option only, Clara wasn’t another person, she was just another AI controlled NPC and for some reason, even though he knew that no one that he had talked with had been real, the idea of her not being real left him feeling really sad.

‘She had felt so… real.’ He thought. ‘Her personality felt different from the rest, so I thought that she was also real, looks like she’s not…’

“Anton, are you ok?” Asked Morgan.

“You look, distressed…” Said Clara. “Sorry for not telling you before, it just didn’t seem that important.”

Anton smiled and looked at them, trying to hide his true feelings.

“Yeah, it’s alright. I don’t know, I think I just felt homesick all of a sudden…”

‘Alone.’ he thought. ‘That’s how I feel, alone…’

He kept on walking towards the cathedral, leaving the confused pair behind him.