“That’s so cool!” A burly barbarian says in admiration, his ale-soaked beard wagging atrociously.

“How the hell did you get that?” Interrogates a tall, armored, jealous-as-all-get-out knight.

“Nyan! Please notice me!” Says another… interesting type with cat ears.

The random-priest-healed Hero only smiles and waves as he tightens the grip on the Dragon Scythe. He needs to be careful of thieves, but fortunately his reflexes are now faster than a cat’s. He keeps clicking up his stat points, nearing the 1,500 range for all of them as Kell approaches the innkeep, Jonson.

“A room for an hour,” Kell says, his midnight cloak convulsing with slow, methodical movements.

Jonson steeps his fingers nervously behind the desk as he overlooks the looming, neigh ether-like figure of Kell, and the young Hero with his sick-as-hell scythe.

“…So…you guys understand that this isn’t a sex hotel, right?”

Hero leans over to Kell. “What’s a sex hotel?”

Kell shakes his head. “Of course, who would have sex in an on-…, wait, damn,” Kell looks behind him to the laughing group of players overhearing his conversation. “We are well aware this is not a place for that, we just need a bit of time outside of public eye,” Kell explains.

Jonson squints. “Okay then. But I have to clean anything up there I’ll be charging you. It’s two hundred gol.”

Kell places the precise amount on the table. “Thank you. We’ll be clean.”

“That’s what they all say,” Jonson says with a sigh.

“N-no, not like-”

“Here’s your keys, have a good one,” Jonson says with facetious sense of humor, thinly veiled by his dull gaze.

“Thanks.”

Hero and Kell beeline up the stairs to their room, ‘2G’. Nothing is suspicious in the slightest as they pass into their room, with the exception of a compact, crumpled section of the hallway, being a very, very slightly darker shade of color than the rest of the hall. While INT is the opposing stat to stealth modifiers, stealth modifiers are jointly boosted with DEX; an important thing to know when your opponent is of the sneakier sort.

“Pipi?” Bright-Solemn asks as Kell closes the door behind them.

“Probably not. I imagine we’d be safe here, at least for a while,” Kell says, pulling up a chair in the pretty, if Spartanly minimal, room.

Hero takes a seat on the bed. “So what’s the plan now?”

“You just get into your skills as far as you’re comfortable. I’d recommend some self heals and buffs, frankly, then I’ll take us to Exeranoth and be done with it.”

Hero peers out the window to the gold-white spires of the bustling city, each spire lit with a magic beacon to draw travelers from all over. “This seems… wrong.”

“How so?” Kell asks as he pulls out his empty coffee canteen and just stares at it.

“Like… it’s something inside of me, I feel. Like there needs to be a great, epic quest, not only for the scythe, but too kill this dragon. Are we really about to save the world in just a few hours?”

“Usually saving the world only takes a few hours, and it usually isn’t ‘the heroes’ that end up saving it.”

Hero has enough INT and CHA to tell Kell would totally go off on a pseudo philosophical monologue if he pushed further, so he won’t. “Huh, alright. I’m going to take care of my skills,” Hero says as he opens up his skill tab and looks over his stats.

Kell sighs. “Hey, I’m going to go out for a moment.”

Hero raises a brow. “Don’t you think that’s sorta risky?”

“No one knows where we are, and they won’t mess with me in a crowd. I just need some coffee.”

“Coffee… it’s a drink?”

“Yeah.”

“It must be important.”

Kell laughs. “Not really. I’m addicted.”

Hero purses his lips. “Alright, well…” Hero fights off the urge to ask Kell how the hell he drinks, or eats, for that matter.

“Be back soon.”

“Will do,” Kell says with a nod. “Bright-Solemn.”

The little golden card zips about in a quick, daring figure eight. “Pipi!”

“Keep an eye on Hero for me, please?”

“Pipi piiiii!” It responds with a military tone of enthusiasm.

“Wonderful, so long,” Kell says as he passes back out.

“See ya,” Hero says.

The door shuts, and Hero is alone with the little eyesistant.

He begins folding through his skills, considering at first what to max, but when he scrolls up to take tally of all the skills, he recalls that he has enough points to max out every skill in the game, all he needs is to unlock them. He randomly clicks up skills in the first three trees of Warrior, Thief, and Mage, until he’s unlocked every skill for each of them. Hero tries a few, like hide, iron physique, and trauma care. Rather than needing to set them to a skill bar, Hero can call up any skill he knows intuitively, like it’s suddenly an integral part of him. Now that all of his lower trees are maxed out, the only way he can spend more is to unlock more classes.

As Bright-Solemn floats about listlessly, Hero goes up to the window, and stares toward the great spires. He doesn’t say it, but he knows he could bring those great towers down with one hand. Steadily, the seeds of pride and superiority sprout within the young man’s heart. It’s not a bitter feeling, but enormous, powerful, and kingly. Just this morning Hero felt himself as a common boy who was interested in nothing but doing the right thing, but he’s beginning to wonder if he isn’t meant for something more.

He spots a colored dot move across one of the spires of Eizerith’s Royal Keep. Curious, he pops off magic sight, and zooms in.

Walking across the balcony promenade within the shade of the great flying buttresses is a young, incredibly comely lady, escorted by a set of caretakers. Hero leans in with great interest. She’s nothing like the girls back home, and he doesn’t mind that one bit. Hero tells himself that one day he might hold her hand as her king; that wouldn’t be such an unreasonable goal, would it?

Musing about future visions as he leans into the windowsill, Hero sees a great shadow overtake the town.

This is where the true story of Dragon Scythe Online begins.