“100 Gold pieces to solve the goblin infestation near the road along the north edge of the valley,” Perseus read aloud, sounding thoughtful. “Alright, fine. I guess you found the better quest.”

“Damn right I did,” Ether smiled proudly. “Turns out [Identify] can help scan an area if you use it right! You should try to get it too.”

Perseus snorted derisively. “Why would I waste time staring at random objects to learn a skill you already have? I don’t play these games solo, ya know!”

Ether waved him off. “I know, I know. Now let’s get questing! We’ve already wasted an hour by this point!”

“First,” Perseus said with a glare, “you wasted an hour - and after I was nice enough to wait a whole month for you to save up for the Souldive, too!” Ether had to admit, he’d been impressed that Perseus hadn’t made… well, Perseus until today - a full month after the game’s official launch. Patience had never been his strong point.

“And second,” the obnoxious young man pressed, “you’re forgetting the craziest part of the game. Time dilation! We’ve played for an hour, but we’ve only actually been here 15 minutes!”

Ether nodded thoughtfully. “That’s right, I remember hearing something about that. That means we could easily play for another… what, 8 hours or so?” The math was escaping him for some reason - perhaps because of the sudden headache he was having.

“And that’s just before dinner!” Perseus said excitedly. “Today’s Friday, so we can pull an all nighter or rise early tomorrow, and play all day! We could play a week’s worth of this game in just one weekend!” The pale young man was grinning ear to ear as he spoke, clearly ecstatic at the idea of a week-long gaming binge.

“Well if that’s the plan, we’d better get started!” Ether practically shouted, drawing the attention of nearby npcs and players alike. Rather than getting embarrassed or self conscious, his friend decided to double down on absurdity.

“Onwards!” Perseus declared melodramatically, pointing towards the northern gates leading out of Alfam. “To glorious battle… against a small group of goblins!”

The pair of them laughed as Ether opened his menu and sent a party request to Perseus, who stared at the empty air in front of him for a moment and frowned. “Why should I let you be the party leader?”

“Because less than half an hour ago you threw me into a ring with a wild boar for your own amusement expecting me to lose and I’m not above guilting you into giving me the symbolic and irrelevant title of leader.”

Perseus just stared at his long time friend for a moment. “Anyone ever tell you you’re incredibly petty?”

“Just you,” Ether shot back, “and tend to ignore the opinion of anyone pettier than me.”

“Fair,” his pale companion said, tapping the air in front of him.

[Perseus] has joined the party!

You will remain in the current party -even after logging out- until you choose to leave it or until you are the last remaining member of the party, at which point it will automatically dissolve.

Congratulations!

You two thoroughly deserve to be stuck together.

Perseus chuckled as Ether scowled. “Gotta love these menus,” he said with a shake of his head. “Kinda shocked I haven’t seen anything online about how smug the system messages are.”

“Not just smug,” Ether added grumpily, “but snarky too. Did you give the writers some advice during the beta?”

“I wish,” Perseus said with a smirk. “If I was involved with a game this big, I’d demand some sorta royalties.”

“You seem to be forgetting that the game is free. It’s only the damn helmet they make money off of.”

Perses shrugged. “Whatever. Hey, what’s the craziest message you’ve gotten so far?”

They discussed the peculiarities of the system as they slowly made their way north, following the long, winding trail that apparently led to the exit from the valley. The walk took longer than they’d expected, but that only gave Ether time to pester his lanky pal into learning [Identify] - and to try using it on as many things as possible in hopes of improving it. The skill did have a level attached to it, so it stood to reason that it should be able to improve with use.

And it did - for both of them!

[Identify] has reached lvl 2!

Congratulations, you stared at even more random stuff.

I mean… you get more details now,

but was it worth 15 minutes of scanning rocks and pinecones?

Fucking menu.

[Running] did not level, unfortunately - probably because it was something the game expected you to use more often than [Identify]. Still, even a single skill level was enough to make the journey feel productive - and that was before the first monster showed up.

[Wolf] lvl 2

This scrawny beast seems to have lost its family.

How tragic! But I’m sure a hero like you is happy to reunite them.

Right?

The mangy gray wolf charged the pair before they’d even had a chance to finish reading the description [Identify] had provided, intent on tearing them to shreds. It leapt towards Perseus, probably mistaking his lithe physique as a sign of weakness - and in doing so, it sealed its fate.

Perseus blurred into motion, drawing and throwing one of his daggers in one smooth motion. Unable to even attempt to avoid the attack whilst mid-leap, the wolf could only yelp and whimper in pain as the blade caught it in the throat. Before Ether could join the fight with his glaive, Perseus had already drawn a second blade and buried it to the hilt in the poor beast’s skull.

[Wolf] has been slain by [Perseus]

Ether wasn’t sure which shook him more - the practiced efficiency with which his oldest friend had just slaughtered the local wildlife, or the fact that the system hadn’t tried to make a joke that time.

“What?” Perseus said, sounding puzzled at his party leader’s reaction. “It started the fight, and it’s worth some experience! Was I supposed to just let it hit me? That actually hurts in this game, ya know!”

“No, I get it,” Ether said, snappin himself back to reality - or virtual reality, he supposed. “I just… you’re level 2, same as me, right? How are you so… good at this?”

“I might have lost most of my skills when the beta ended,” the pale man replied with a smirk, “but I didn’t forget how the movements felt. It’s a lot slower and weaker without the system backing it, but [Assassinate] and [Soaring Blades] are still pretty effective. In fact… hell yeah! I just re-unlocked [Soaring Blades]! Wonder how long it’ll take for the other one… ah, who cares! This was my favorite skill in the beta.”

Perseus quickly cleaned his knife on the wolf’s fur before resheathing it. “I don’t wanna sit here and skin the thing, do you?” When Ether shook his head, Perseus nodded. “Right. Then let’s just move it off the road and get going! We should be getting close to -”

A scream from somewhere nearby interrupted his train of thought. For a moment, he froze.

Ether didn’t.

Charging in the direction the scream seemed to be coming from, he tightened his grip on his glaive. The scream had been high pitched, but he was too far away to tell for sure if the person was in pain, frightened, or just surprised. In fact, he couldn’t even tell for certain that it was a person - for all he knew, there were monsters that could make themselves sound human to lure in prey.

That didn’t matter, though. Everyone played RPG’s differently. Perseus was the mercenary sort, doing whatever paid best - within reason. He played to be the best equipped, most skilled character he could be.

Ether, though?

He played to be a Hero.

As he approached the source of the sound, he could make out voices. “I said STAY BACK!” a young woman’s voice called out angrily. He crested the hill he’d been climbing and saw, to his surprise, the red-haired girl that he’d seen fighting the boar when he first arrived in Alfam. She was dressed in black leather armor, and still clutched a carving knife in one hand as she stared down two muscular men. Her other hand was clearly broken, hanging limp at her side with the fingers jutting out at odd angles.

[Bandit] lvl 4 x2

Some thugs choose to stay in the Valley of Beginnings,

knowing that few can hope to match their strength here.

Cruel and greedy, their love of coin is matched only

by their love of bullying those weaker than themselves

The Law of Lazuros varies from country to country,

But the punishment for Banditry is universal.

Death.

[Sharlette]

Human

Level 3 Battle Chef

Status: Hidden by Player

“I’m not usually the nosey sort,” Ether said as he placed himself between the player and the bandits, “but I can’t help but notice this seems a little one sided. Mind if I join in, miss?” He really hoped he understood the way his newest spell worked correctly as he gestured towards the redhead.

You cast [Silent Lesser Heal] on Sharlette

You heal Sharlette for 11 points!

“Your funeral, kid,” one of the bandits said, brandishing a stout club with one hand while drawing a line across his neck with the other.

Sharlette clutched her blade in a deathgrip, flexing her newley healed left hand as she glared at the thugs. “I’d appreciate the help,” she said, her voice kept low and gaze focused. “I can take one of them for sure but…”

Ether nodded. “I can at least keep one busy,” he muttered back. His mind raced as he tried to think of a way to stop the leering brutes - then a flicker of movement behind them caught his attention. He couldn’t help but smile as the pieces fell into place.

“I’ll give you two a chance to turn and run now,” Ether said confidently. “You’re outnumbered. If you turn and run, we won’t chase you. But if you stay…” He pointed his glaive at the nearer of the two bandits, sinking into the ready stance Orlando had taught him. “I won’t spare you,” he finished quietly.

The bandits were unimpressed, chuckling as they each took several slow, deliberate steps forward. “Seems to me like you can’t count, kid,” the taller of the two -who was nearly as tall as Orlando - said with a smirk. “It’s 2 on 2, and we’ve got the level advantage.”

The smirking one turned to his companion, only to freeze in horror as the man dropped to the ground, two daggers buried in his skull.

“It’s 3 on 1,” Perseus said as he yanked the blades free with a flourish, “and in case you were wondering-”

The man turned to run, but Sharlette cut him off, a crimson light wrapping around her carving knife. “[Slice]!”

The blade cleanly deep into the back of the man’s legs, sending him tumbling to the ground in pain. Ether didn’t waste the opportunity. “[Shock]!”

The burst of electricity caught the man on the back of the head, causing him to scream and spasm. For a moment, he wondered if the man would spring back to his feet - but in spite of what he’d said earlier, he couldn’t bring himself to strike the defenseless bandit.

Thankfully, he didn’t need to.

You have dealt 13 electric damage to [Bandit]

Congratulations!

By helping to murder this murderer, you have reached level 3!

You have gained 1 stat point!

“… dunno how I feel about that,” Ether mumbled. He had fought human’s in video games before, but none so… realistic. He’d half expected the scene to be censored, or to have the body vanish, but it just sat there. He could smell burnt skin and hair from where his lightning had struck the man, and the blood pouring from the cut on the man’s leg told him he’d sliced through the man’s femoral artery. It was stomach churning, but he couldn’t stop staring at it.

“It’s a psychological thing,” Perseus said calmly. His eyes were locked on Ether. “It’s gonna be hard to fight people for a while. They’re way too… real. I mean, gotta hand it to the game, the AI is amazing, but it makes fighting people really uncomfortable. It’s one thing with other players - Chosen bodies sorta disintegrate when they die, and you know they’ll be back. Still, feeling bad about this is normal. A good thing, really. I reacted the same way back in the beta. You either get used to it, or stop fighting people.”

“R-right,” Ether managed, trying to calm his rebellious stomach. The game suddenly seemed a lot less fun.

“Hey,” Sharlette said hesitantly, “d-do you guys have some room in your party? I don’t really have any friends to play with, and after this…” she gestured awkwardly at the corpses. “I’d rather not play alone. I’m Sharlette, by the way. Shar for short.”

Perseus raised an eyebrow, glancing between the redhead and Ether. “I’m Perseus - and I’m fine with it. What do you think, oh fearless leader?”

Ether forced himself to take a deep breath and look back towards the player he’d stepped in to save. “I’m Ether,” he said with a smile that was only slightly forced, “and we’d be happy to have you.”

Congratualtions! Sharlette has joined the party!

That poor girl…

“Guys,” Sharlette said slowly, “why does my menu sound like it pities me?”