After the last wolf died, a golden aura filled my vision. “Congratulations, you are now level 5! You may now acquire an advanced specialization,” the system’s voice informed me. After killing another wolf pack, I now had 240xp, which to reach level 5, I only needed 235xp. Also, now that I had 2 more pieces of rawhide from the pack leader, I could get Moire to make me a couple of bracers for my wrists. More armor never hurt!

My steps much lighter now, I walked back towards the village, excited that I was able to finally specialize as an assassin. I was also really enjoying the game, except for the fact that the smell of both the wolves and their blood was almost enough to make me gag. They smelled exactly like wet dogs, and the coppery smell of blood made me woozy. However, since it was just a game, I was able to put the new sensations in the back of her mind.

While I absentmindedly walked towards the blacksmith, I decided to at least allocated my stat points. I now had 23 Strength, 17 Dexterity, 28 Agility, and 17 Vitality. Before I could specialize though, I would need to sleep at the inn and speak with my deity, Noctis, inside of the dreamworld. I figured that I would pick up both Assassinate and Apply Poison once I got access to those skills tomorrow morning.

After dropping off the rawhide to Moire, and getting back to the inn, I laid down in the uncomfortable bed and almost immediately fell asleep.

Once more, I woke up in a world of fog, as a voice called out to me. It was the same voice that I heard when I first started the game.

“Child, you have come far in your travels, but this is just the beginning. There are many paths before you and many ways you may become my champion,” Noctis said. It seemed to me that her voice was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It was hidden in this world.

In front of me, the fog began to disperse, and what was beyond the fog was a thief, stalking behind his mark, ready to pick the mark’s pocket. The scene faded to the next one, showing the same thief unlocking a treasure chest in some dungeon. Noctis provided commentary on the scene, explaining the thief class and how useful the class could be.

The next scene that played out for me was my assassin class. It showed an assassin appearing behind a goblin, slicing it’s throat and assassinating it. More commentary from Noctis, and I started to grow bored as the scenes showed the remaining rogue specializations - the bard, swashbuckler, and shadow dancer.

Although I was intrigued by the the shadow dancer class, when Noctis finally asked me what class I would like to specialize in, I chose the assassin. Since this world felt so real to me with the new equipment I was testing, I didn’t want to attempt to play a brand new class without the proper tutorials or guides. Wuang probably knew the same thing, hence why he suggested it.

“You have chosen to become my assassin, to become that which is feared in the night, that which has people looking into the shadows. It requires patience, strength, and tenacity. You must never falter, and you must never fail,” Noctis said.

She then added unexpectedly, “You are unique among my champions, and I will be watching.”

Noctis then appeared beside me, facing the opposite way as she put her hand over my heart as she did before. This time she did not push though, and I felt a warm feeling starting to grow.

“Go forth into the world my child, and learn what it is to be an assassin,” she whispered in my ear, her breath making my heart skip a beat.

I suddenly woke from my dream, still in my bed which was a mess, the covers entangling me. I felt different though, more… deadly, which was a different experience than I had before, even on ShadowBlood. I pulled up my skill list and saw the skills which I could now purchase.

I immediately distributed the two points into Assassinate and the other point into Apply Poison. I now had a good selection of skills to last me until level 10. From level 5 up to level 90, additional skills would only come every 5 levels. It was hard enough for me to track them as a player, I could only imagine how hard it would be for the developers to keep track of them all, let alone balance them.

However, something did bother me about my dream. Perhaps it was because this character worshiped Noctis, but on my main character, the deity didn’t tell me that he would be watching me. Mentally shrugging to myself and thinking that it was more than likely due to a different storyline path, I got out of my hay-strewn bed and walked back to Moire’s shop.

“You seem… different, but whatever, I have your bracers” Moire immediately said after I walked into the blacksmith’s shop.

I walked over to the counter as Moire pulled out the wrist bracers from beneath it, laying them on the counter.

“Hmph, those look adequate for my purposes, for now,” I replied to her as I equipped the bracers. I didn’t want to spend much time talking with her, since I was getting excited at the idea that I would be able to go into my first dungeon with this character. With the bracers, I now had 9 armor. The gloves, boots, and each bracer giving 1 point of armor each. I was also looking forward to getting rid of this rusted dagger that I was using. With an upgraded weapon, I would finally start to do some decent damage.

After this quest, I would try speaking with Moleari about starting the quests to become an alchemist and herbalist, since it was extremely beneficial to be able to create both poisons that could be applied to my weapons for various detrimental effects, as well as healing, regenerating, and buff potions. Not only was being an alchemist beneficial to me as a solo player, but I could also sell the excess for some really good money. The quest itself should finish in the main city of this region, which I would need to speak with the alchemist there as well.

As I stepped towards the door, Moire called out to me before I left, “Raven, before you set out towards the mine, if you want some advice, I would recommend not going there alone.”

I looked behind me and just smiled, replying, “Moire, you haven’t heard? I’m an assassin now, so if there is anyone you need to take care of, all you need to do is let me know.”

Moire just stood there and shook her head as she said under her breath, “If you say so Raven, if you say so.”

I stepped out of the blacksmith and thought about her words. I wasn’t sure if she knew I was able to hear her, but I thought it was a curious thing for an NPC to say to a player, even though I didn’t dwell on it for that long as I walked towards the exit of the village.

When I finally arrived at the exit of the village, I asked the guard that gave me one of my first quests if he knew where the abandoned mine was located at, and if he could give me directions.

“Sure, I can give you directions. The mine is located roughly a mile outside of the village. If you follow the path down, you’ll come to a rope bridge that crosses a crevice. The mine will be just past that. There’s a path that leads up to it,” the guard kindly informed me.

“I heard it was over-run by goblins though. You might want to take some friends up there with you, veil-walker,” he added.

I looked at him and sighed before giving him my thanks. Why did it seem like all of these NPCs were forcing me to group up? It was starting to get on my nerves and I had to wonder if it was because I was now playing as a female character instead of a male character. If that was the case, then the developers were just as sexist as most of the guys that I’ve met in the game, and I would need to talk to Tom about it.

I left the entrance, now able to walk comfortably along the road with the boots that I had finally equipped. It took me about 15 minutes to get to the crevice that the guard mentioned since I didn’t run across any wolves or other aggressive creatures on the way. The rope bridge looked, unsteady could be one word for it. Decrepit and rotted could be another. I had to wonder why the developers made it look like that, since I knew it wouldn’t collapse. Shrugging, I crossed the bridge and continued walking down the path.

Just as the guard said, there was a foot path that looked like the foliage around it was overgrown, and I went along this path. A few minutes later, I arrived at the entrance of the mine, my first dungeon! The mine entrance didn’t look like much, just a hole into the side of the mountain, where it went straight up. The door to the mine was surrounded by large wooden logs, as if it was preventing the side of the mountain from collapsing, however the door looked to be in shambles, with some of it breaking apart.

Before entering the mine, I silently casted my Apply Poisons ability, which gave me the Poisoned Weapons buff. Now, with each attack, I would poison my prey, whether from my dagger or my Throw Magical Dagger attack. The poison damage itself would cause 3% poison damage each second. Combined with the damage from Eviscerate, it could devastate an opponent depending on their resists.

My other ability, Assassinate, would cause over 250% weapon damage to the target, and while it was wildly known, but not in the description, was that it had a chance, albeit a small chance, to instantly kill the target. That chance only being 1%, which in the grand scheme of things, hardly ever happened.

“Well, no time like the present,” I thought to myself, as I opened the wooden door to the mine. As I stepped through the door however, I instantly got a migraine, and the dungeon itself started to waver as my vision blurred. The migraine was extremely painful, and it felt as if my head was going to burst open. However, as instantly as it happened, my head cleared and the pain vanished.

“What the hell...” I said out loud as I shook my head, wondering what that was about and if it was another bug in the equipment I was using. If it was, it might be due to the fact that the dungeon’s instance was being opened. Just something else I would need to bring to Wuang’s attention once I was pulled out of the game.

Now that I was in the dungeon, I looked around the interior of the mine’s entrance. To my left, it looked like there was a small campsite, with a few burnt logs under a kettle that was on small, metal legs. The kettle and the legs were rusted through though, evidence that it hadn’t been used in an extremely long time. The mine itself was also extremely damp and had a mildew like smell that permeated the air, the walls covered in dew and what looked like sickly brown and green moss. There were also mushrooms growing from the walls in several spots, both on the walls and on the ground.

To the right, across from the small campsite, was an overturned cart, also rusted. I could also hear the small squeaks of rats in the distance, probably hiding from the new presence that they sensed. Straight ahead of me though was a tunnel that went further into the mine, with wooden tracks that led into it. This area must be a safe-spot for players to zone into.

I activated Stealth, becoming invisible, unsheathed my dagger, and started walking down the tunnel. As I got further into the mine, there were several rusted, metal sconces that were mounted on the stone walls of the tunnel, lighting the way for players. The tunnel started sloping downwards, and I could start to hear the sound of a pick-axe banging against the stone.

“My first victim,” I thought to myself, feeling a vicious grin starting to form. I missed this feeling of being the predator, the thing that went bump in the night.

I continued walking down the tunnel, towards the sound of the pick-axe as I came across a bend. Before the bend was a wooden door, which after testing it, I found that it was barred from the other side. It must lead to the dungeon’s boss, since most dungeons had a short-cut back to the entrance once the main boss was defeated. I continued on, the sound of the pick-axe getting much louder than it had been, and if I guessed correctly, the first goblin would be just around it.

I continued walking down the tunnel, and as I suspected, after the bend, I came across a small creature that had greenish-gray skin. It was a skinny looking thing, with extremely large, malformed ears and a long face. The smell of the creature was as rancid as it looked, and it was wearing nothing but a tattered piece of cloth around its waist that went down to its knees. The creature, a goblin, was swinging the pick-axe wildly, banging it against the stone wall, small sparks appearing every time it it the wall.

As I inched closer to the goblin, it stopped banging the pick-axe against the wall and turned it’s head so that it could hear better. I could only guess that it could sense death approaching, as I was the bringer of death. I only wished that I could see what level the damned thing was, but I guessed that it was either level 4 or 5, but not any higher than that. Too bad I couldn’t see it’s health bar, but that wasn’t exactly a concern either. I did stop moving and hoped that it went back to what it was doing. Patience was definitely the prerequisite for being an assassin.

The goblin, now disinterested in what it had sensed, started working again, banging the pick-axe against the stone. I slowly crept towards the goblin from the opposite side of the tunnel so that I could get behind it, which was much easier now that it started working again. As I got behind the creature and within range, I performed a quick movement with my dagger, sliding the edge across the goblin’s neck as I whispered, “Assassinate.”

The goblin made a screeching noise as it tried to alert others before it fell to it’s knees, dropping the pick-axe and grabbing it’s throat to stop the blood from spewing out from it’s wound which covered the wall in blood. The rotten smell made me gag as I backed away from the goblin, now in it’s death throes.

With the goblin now dead, I walked to the corpse, covering my nose with my left hand. Bending down over the corpse, I looted it, finding only 10 copper. Taking the coins and depositing them into my inventory, I backed away from the goblin and pulled up my character stats screen so that I could see how much xp it was worth.

Skimming over the other information, I saw that I now had 265/311 experience, which meant that each one of these goblin miners was worth 25xp, even if they didn’t drop anything decent as far as loot was concerned.

“Nice,” I thought, as I reactivated Stealth, continuing my descent into the mine. I left the corpse to despawn as I made my way further into the mine, following the bends and curves in the tunnel. I killed yet another goblin miner, using the same tactic of inching closer, letting it become disinterested in it’s surroundings, and then killing it. I was only rewarded with 17 copper this time though, although I did get some good experience from it.

A few more minutes walking down the tunnel, and I finally heard some real activity other than the sounds of rock being pounded against by pick-axes.

“Skrah el’ech! Skrah el’ech!” something screamed from in front of me, the sound reverberating on the walls of the tunnel. The sound of the screeching was like fingers scratching against one of those old style chalkboards. I would need to go around yet another bend through the tunnel to see what was making that awful sound.

Coming around the bend, I entered into a large, round cavern. I immediately saw that along the walls of the cavern were several goblins that were mining with the pick-axes, 8 in total. The cavern had two other tunnels that went further into the mine, on the opposite side of where I was now standing, hidden in the shadows.

Looking towards the sound of the screaming, which was in the center of the cavern, was a goblin that was wearing a leather tunic that looked as tattered as the cloth pants it was wearing. Both were covered in mud and other stuff that I didn’t want to even guess at, looking utterly disgusting. I could even swear that I could smell the wretched goblin from where I stood. It was also holding onto a rusted short sword, swinging it wildly as it shouted. Next to this goblin, which seemed like it was an overseer of some sorts, was a small cart with the iron ore that I needed, filling it.

I came up with a plan to kill the overseer first, since the damage it would do with it’s sword would be much higher than the goblins with their pick-axes. I was sure that this was an encounter that would involve all 8 of the goblin miners and the goblin overseer at once. I pulled out my dagger from it’s sheath, and stalked toward the overseer, making sure that I was behind it at all times.

It was slow going, since the overseer would turn as it shouted at the miners, but with the noise of the pick-axes banging against the walls, the overseer didn’t notice me, which made me grin. I would be able to kill this thing in two or three hits, making this encounter a cake-walk.

“Such a foul stench coming from these low level creatures,” I thought to myself as I neared the overseer, coming into melee range. I slipped my dagger across it’s neck and grabbed the overseer’s head and tilting it back as I came out of the shadows, no longer invisible.

“Assassinate,” I whispered in it’s ear, feeling my blade slice the goblin’s neck open. As expected though, it would take a few more hits for the goblin to die, since the goblin stumbled forward, screeching. A feint green glow surrounded the goblin, giving a visual notification that the goblin was now poisoned.

“Klah a’nack!” it yelled, causing all of the goblins that were mining to stop and turn around, their beady little eyes narrowing with hatred as they saw who attacked their overseer. With a group yell, they all started to run at me.

I lunged at the overseer who was still within melee range and performed Eviscerate, my dagger entering into its stomach, twisting it, and pulling it out, it’s blood now gushing from both wounds. The smell almost made me gagged as the goblin raised it’s sword and sliced into my left shoulder.

I could only scream as the immense pain shot through me as I stumbled and fell backwards on the hard rocks that littered the ground, which caused the goblin’s sword to rip out of my shoulder. The immense pain was more than I had ever experienced before, even in real life. Grasping my wounded shoulder, my dagger now forgotten, the cavern blurred as tears filled my eyes, the pain ravaging my mind. All thoughts of fighting were gone, and I could only think about running away from this thing that caused me such agony.

The damn thing was smiling wickedly, the predator was now the prey, and it walked towards me. Its rusted sword was dripping blood, my blood, each drop splashing on the ground. The other goblin’s were getting closer, and I could only close my eyes as I stood up… and ran.

I ran as fast as I could out of the cavern, knowing that there was now a 30 second countdown until I could reactivate Stealth. Hoping in vain that the goblins would stay inside the cavern, I could hear them yelling behind me, following me. The pain was so intense that I couldn’t even keep a mental countdown, I just kept trying to reactivate Stealth in my mind, hoping that I would be covered in the shadows.

“This can’t be right, there is no way I should feel this amount of pain in a fucking game. It’s a FUCKING GAME!” I screamed internally. I continued to run away from the goblins that were chasing me, and looked behind me, only to see their shadows, growing closer to me. I looked ahead, trying to run faster, knowing that I was already going as fast as I could while holding onto my shoulder.

I ran around one of the bends in the tunnel, unsure how further the exit was when I saw a black mass of movement just ahead. “What now,” I thought as I got closer to the mass, still running as fast as I could.

I neared closer to the mass, I saw individual outlines and heard the noises that it was making. When I first entered the mine, I heard them, but making my way to that forsaken cavern, I didn’t see any. It was a massive horde of rats, sensing that I was wounded, all coming forward to finish me off. And yet I ran, hoping against all odds, tears freely falling from my eyes.

The horde of rats, which was roughly 10 of them, larger than I had seen before, looked at me with hunger in their eyes. I looked back and still saw the shadows of the goblins behind me, and I stopped, knowing what would happen to me now.

“Help me, someone, please help,” I said softly as I dropped to my knees, my arms falling to my sides. The rats surrounded me, squeaking in glee that they found food in this wretched place. The rats jumped as one, each of them biting into my skin, each bite sending a stream of pain through me.

Two of the rats crawled up to my neck, one making it’s way onto my face, hanging on by digging it’s claws into my skin, continuing to bite, continuing to eat. All I could do was scream. Scream in pain, in sorrow, and in frustration.

After what felt like an eternity, my vision faded into red as I heard the manic laughter of goblins, enjoying watching me being eaten alive. My vision faded, darkness now enveloping me.

I opened my eyes, my vision clear. I screamed, yet again, as I sat up in the bed.

“No, no, no. This can’t be happening. No, fuck this,” I said, my voice still quivering, even though I couldn’t feel any pain at all.

“System, log out,” I yelled.

“Error,” the system’s voice resonated from around me.

“Log out,” I said, yet again, confused as why the command didn’t work.

“Error,” the voice repeated.

“System menu,” I said out loud, bringing up the non-opaque window, which should allow me to adjust the settings in the game, as well as provide a manual way of logging out. I waved my hand, down and up, to scroll the window. Reaching the bottom, the log out button was faded out, indicating that it could not be used. Tears once again started to form.

Shaking my head in disbelief, I waved my hand to the right, the gesture causing the window to close, and called out, “Contact GM.”

“Error.” the voice said once again.

Tears now running freely, I pulled my knees to my chest and started to rock back and forth in my bed. “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening,” I said, over and over, the empty room providing no comfort.

This had to be a dream, right? This couldn’t be real, I was just dreaming about this entire thing. In fact, I would wake up back in my apartment, and have to go back to Bob’s, back to my life. Back to being a waitress in the real world, and not some character in a game. I had to wake up.

Mentally exhausted, I fell to my side in the bed, still curled up as I made a wish, the wish to wake up in the real world. A wish that this was just a vicious and horrible dream. Making this wish, I closed my eyes, my face still wet from all of my tears.

“Raven, my poor child. Perhaps my champion, or perhaps nothing,” Noctis said as she looked down at me as I opened my eyes.

Again, I awoke in the world of fog, in the realm of Noctis. I looked above me in shame, not willing to meet her eyes. Even though this was just a damn game, and inside of that game, just a dream, I felt ashamed. I again felt the start of tears forming in my eyes, as I finally looked at her and just muttered one word with my broken voice. “Help.”

Noctis only tilted her head as she looked down at me, with what looked like a mixture of both rage and sorrow in her eyes. Using my hand to wipe my eyes before any more tears could form, I stood up. I was free to move.

Gathering what remained of my shattered courage, I looked into her eyes, and again I spoke, my voice still wavering, “Noctis, what… what is going on? Why am I able to feel what is happening to me, why can’t I leave? What’s happening to me?”

Noctis straightened her head and smiled softly, obviously content with what little bravery I showed by getting back onto my feet and meeting her gaze with one of my own.

“Child, even though I am the goddess of Chaos within the Veil, I know not what you ask of me. What I can say, is that you are unique amongst all of my other champions, and even amongst those that would destroy me. It is a curious thing that amongst all of the champions, you are the only one that can truly live within this world and cannot leave it behind when it suits you, unlike all of the other Veil-walkers. As for what happens now, that is for you to decide, my child.

I ask you again, will you become my champion, able to vanquish those that would oppose Chaos, or will you become a being worth nothing, to no one?”

Noctis began to pace, walking a few steps and then turning, and walking back a few steps, constantly looking at me as she walked.

“There are many paths to chose from, and should you chose to become a true champion of Chaos, a true champion within the Veil; not just one of those that can choose to run, to leave the Veil behind, I will continue to support you within the Deitic System and allow you to resurrect from your death. However, should you stray from the path of Chaos and become as worthless as those you have dealings with, I will strip you of my blessings,” she continued, ending her speech with a menacing snarl.

As she got to her final step before she turned around, Noctis began to disappear from my sight, however, she had one final thing to say to me it seemed, as her voice grew low and soft, “And you will truly be on your own.”

I looked around me to see if Noctis would reappear and force me out of her realm. When she didn’t, I figured that she wanted to give me some time to think about my future before awakening from the dream world, to think about my future.

Sitting down with my legs crossed, I looked into the distant fog and began to think. Looking back from the time I logged into the game, nothing really hurt until I entered the mine. Sure, there were sensations, the slight burning from first awakening from being touched by Noctis. The feel of the stones that were in the roads. The way the dagger felt, the way the blood from the wolves felt and what it felt like when they attacked me and I took damage.

However, nothing was truly painful until I entered the mine. There was that brief migraine when I zoned into the mine though. Did something happen that coincided with entering the mine? Did the pain-limiters of the immersive VR rig somehow bug out?

Even then, I didn’t think that I should actually be able to feel true pain, not like I had. The pain in my shoulder where the goblin overseer sliced into me, and the rats. Those ugly rats, eating me alive.

Never before, even in my real life, had I ever felt something so utterly painful. Perhaps no one has, and no one should. One thing was certain, whatever happens in this world is now real.

Is this what Noctis meant when she said I was unique out of all of the other players? If what I know from quantum dynamics, if my brain’s neurons where entangled with particles that were apart of the quantum servers that helped to run the game, does that mean that my actual consciousness is in the game?

But then, why couldn’t I leave when I tried to log out? The developers would ensure that their players could leave the game when they wanted or needed to. Did something happen to the VR interface? I just don’t have enough information to know for certain. I could ask other players to contact the GMs, or even try to get some information, but would Noctis consider this to be “straying from the path”?

I can’t risk that, not if she is truly able to prevent me from resurrecting. A ridiculous thought starting forming and I which made me smile evilly.

This is a game, governed by game mechanics, and as such, if I become so powerful that nothing can harm me, let alone kill me, then perhaps I won’t need the Deitic System.

Yes, I can do this. However, I do not want to feel a horrific death as I had felt before I resurrected in the inn. I would need to go slow and not take risks. I’ll need to get help when I need instead of just rezz-zerging as I used to do with ShadowBlood.

Yes, it will be slow, but if I can’t leave this world and go back to my life of being just some worthless waitress, then I will be damned sure become the best assassin that the Veil has never witnessed. I was not only the best assassin, but I was the best player in the game as witnessed by that stupid tournament that got me into this mess.

I will become the best again, and nothing, nothing will stop me. Now, I just need to leave this dream world so I can begin fresh.

“AWAKEN!” I shouted, and as the words echoed around me, I felt myself fall through the world, my vision fading to black.