“Next we will talk about the stats, including the six different attributes that accompany every other important aspect in the menu.” Alpha said.

I mentally scolded myself for being excited at opening up a simple status window. I mean it was just a window, nothing to be excited about, I’ve done it a number of times already, and besides this was all just part of the game...yeah, the game.

“As you can see on the farthest left side of the window lay your six main attributes. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and lastly, Charisma. The importance of these aren’t measured in numbers but in how they will affect your body, items, and overall experience in almost everything you do. I will give you ten points, which we will use in a moment, until then I want you to run from that tree, fifty meters away, and back here as fast as you can.” Alpha finished.

I’m not the best running, I mean I don’t have coke bottle glasses and an inhaler attracted to my hip, but I’m not Usain Bolt either. A light jog might get me winded as hell, but remember I’m a prized pony in the gaming world. So I did what he asked, I ran my ass off to the tree and back, while my lungs cursed my entire being.

“Oh my god, that was terrible, I bet if I held a GPU in front of your face like a carrot, you would have been back in a flash…” Alpha said, disappointed.

“Yeah, talk shit all you want, I can’t be great at everything…” I replied, irritated.

“No you can’t and you won’t but try putting those ten points into dexterity and do the running one more time.”

Having no other choice and a little curious myself, I mentally put all ten points into dexterity and started to feel something strange in my legs. They felt more powerful, flexible, toned, and gave me the feeling I had just become half jack-rabbit. I started bouncing all around the place, like a awestruck trampoline.

“Now, stop jumping around before I get whiplash and do the run again.” Alpha said, watching me bounce up and down.

With a big ass smile, I took off full speed, the environment around me blurred a little like I was jumping to warp speed in an X-wing. Before I had a chance to blink more than five times I was back next to a grinning Alpha. I have to admit I was smiling from ear to ear myself, despite him being an asshole.

“Do you notice anything different besides the speed?” Alpha asked, waiting obviously for me to catch up.

“No, not really? Everything just went crazy as hell and next thing I know I’m right next to ugly.” I said, grinning.

“Jesus, isn’t your breathing, normal?” Alpha asked, rolling his eyes.

Now that he said something, I wasn’t gasping for breath like a fat kid running after chocolate cake, I mean I don’t even like cake, I’m getting distracted again...I felt, for lack of a better term, normal, as normal as can be felt? Fuck it.

“Yeah! So I guess dexterity is directly related to the amount of stamina you have as well?” I asked.

“No! That’s next, but your faster moment, gave your body less time to react to the overexertion. So the more you have, the faster you’ll move and more importantly the faster your weapon will move.” Alpha answered.

In games this is a basic mechanic, used almost everywhere but never, even within nuero-net games have I ever experienced something like that. It felt as if I was changing on a fundamental level, as if I was progressively at the gym on leg day for weeks at a time, non-stop. In other words it felt incredible.

“So now that, that little experiment is completed, we will move on and do the same thing in each attribute.”Alpha said, taking the ten points back.

I felt deflated after those ten points were gone, as if my legs turned to jelly, I hated it. However, once the points were put into Strength, I could punch harder, had a great impact, and felt like I could carry the weight of the world of the shoulders. Of course I know this is because I’m feeling this for the free time, and I’d be damned if it didn’t feel great. Constitution was interesting, I didn’t really feel anything at first.

“What gives? I don’t feel anything at all, just normal.” I said, pissed.

“Calm down, you’re acting like a child who just had their lollipop taken. Breath in, try to look farther distances, close your eyes and try to feel your heartbeat, the breath in your lungs, etc.” Alpha recitied.

This felt like a kungfu montage but nevertheless I sat down, indian style, closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I opened my eyes quickly and looked up at Alpha.

“What the hell was that?” I said, surprised.

“Ah got a good whiff of the world huh? Try again and tell me what your mind takes in about the surroundings.” Alpha said with a hint of a smile on his lips.

“It’s unreal, hard to put into words but it’s like I’m getting a introduction of what everything around me is made up of. I can’t quite place the scents yet, and what they are composed up, but with a little more I feel like I could start.” I said, deep in thought.

“This is because with Constitution comes health and the stamina we talked about minutes ago. The reason why your sensing more now isn’t some extra worldly ability but it’s simply because your health and thus your senses have improved.” Alpha explained.

It made sense, I wasn’t smelling things that weren’t there, or aliens or some other bullshit, just details of my surroundings. Following the next steps, I closed me eyes again and listened to my heart or attempted to. For a couple seconds I felt like I couldn’t locate it, maybe because I didn’t have one? Stupid I know but, boy the things you think of while your bored, with your eyes closed, trying to find your heart. I felt a pulse within my chest after a full minute and had a feeling that, it was my heart. It was strong, rapid, and if I slowed down my breathing my heart beat slower as well. If I did the reverse, so did it, that shit was crazy as hell.

“Next is Intelligence and Wisdom, which are done in tandem of each other.” Alpha said.

“Why are we doing both at the same time? I thought the goal of all this was understanding of each one individually?” I replied.

“Usually that would be the best course of action, but these two are almost two parts of the same coin.” Alpha answered.

“Okay? I can’t help the irony here of not knowing what the hell you’re talking about and the topics being Intelligence and Wisdom, so spare me the shitty joke.” I deadpanned.

“Well...if you insist…” Alpha said, defeated.

“Anyway, as we come to the next part, we’ll need to give you a spell. Let’s start with a very basic offensive spell for teaching reasons.” Alpha says.

He strolls over to me with seemingly all the time in the world and taps two fingers to my forehead like we’re in some manga.

“Spark.” Alpha said.

I’m suddenly lightheaded, and fall flat on my ass. A flood of knowledge sweeps past my vision so fast I can’t keep track, and feel like I’m going to into a seizure if it doesn’t stop.

“What the hell did you do to me now?” I said from the ground, dazed and confused.

“I gave you the spell you needed, only thing was I streamlined the learn process. What should take maybe days to a week to grasp I’ve done in two seconds. This is where the rush your feeling right now is coming from. As we’ve done in the past, but all ten points into Intelligence. ” Alpha answered.

I placed all ten points into Intelligence like he asked. As I gained control of my facilities I felt that something was different, off in some way but as Alpha was talking I still felt something foreign in the back of my mind.

“So I’ve got a spell in the back of my head now?” I asked, semi disgusted.

“Yes, I know it feels like something doesn’t belong but that’s because it’s the first time you’ve felt such a sensation before. Let's try this out, hold your hand out anywhere and say the word ‘Spark’ either to yourself or yell it. Remember for this just point and shoot don’t think.” Alpha stated.

I wanted to hold my hand to his face and give him a first person perspective of the inside of a toaster, but for all I know he might not even feel it, and slap the shit out of me. From the look on his face I think I’m one hundred percent right, so with that thought blown to hell I pointed straight at a tree, and took aim.

“Spark!” I yelled.

As I finished yelling, sparks similar to the ones that fly off during welding came soaring out from my palm like a fire hose creating flames rather than putting them out. The flames shot everywhere but the tree in fact. I felt weaker and weaker as the seconds flashed by, without knowing anything else to do I closed my hand hoping the flames wouldn’t turn my hand to ash. I wouldn’t want to go from gamer to cigarette, just yet.

“As you can see, magic uses energy, your energy in fact to manifest itself. However this lightheaded feeling you’re feeling right now goes away from doing two things. Increasing your intelligence and increasing your wisdom. Now let’s place five points in intelligence, and five in wisdom and try once again.” Alpha finished.

As I lined up my shot I felt focus, like my hand was guided to the tree like a gravitational pull almost. I could resist it, but my gut pulled everytime I battled against it, so I decided to just go with the feeling and once my hand was spread up wide in front of the tree, I let loose.

“Spark!” I yelled.

The tree went up in flames as if my name was Moses and this was a burning bush. The only damage aside from the tree seemed to be the grass at the base of the tree but nothing else was damaged unlike last time where it just went wild with no control.

“Intelligence maintains the power, however Wisdom gives you the understanding and control. Without Intelligence you have no power, and without wisdom you have no control.”

I stood there looking at my hand, finally clicking together everything together as if I was lost in a fog for so long. Each attribute has a vital role in the development of well...me. Staring down, dumbfounded, I began to realize how little I knew about this ‘game’ and how visceral this feeling was, down to my very core, and this was still just the tutorial, the; little fish, big pond’ didn’t do this world justice.

“Ah, judging from your stance and the look in your eyes, you’re beginning to learn how possibly big this world really is, aren't you?” Alpha asked me.

“I guess so, the feeling is just so overwhelming at this moment. Hell, it’s hard to speak about it because as much as I resist, this ‘reality’ pushes back.” I replied, using quotes.

Alpha rolled his eyes at the sight of my quotes but knew what I meant and continued on with the lesson either way. I just think he was happy that I’d stop using the word game, and used the word reality, but he ain’t shifting me over to his cult just yet, no Kool-Aid for this guy here.

“Well at least your primate brain gets a little piece. Something is better than nothing I suppose. We are onward to the last leg of this part of our journey, Charisma. This is the attribute that isn’t just about how good you look to all those girls, but how much of a leader the public will see you as. Beyond the hill to our right is a pack of wild horses, put ten points into Charisma and go over to them and round them up.” Alpha said, completely serious.

“Umm besides that being a batshit crazy idea, how about no.” I proclaimed.

“We aren’t going anywhere until you do this, so you wish to spend your entire right here being an ass, suit yourself.” Alpha resisted.

This dude was out of his mind, insane like I’ve never experienced and I hang out with civil war reenactors. However, if I wanted to learn something, I’ve learned I have to be open minded, even if it means I get my ass kicked by ponyta beyond the hill. As I started to walk towards the hill without even one smart ass remark Alpha made another suggestion.

“Once you get there, command the horses to gallup around you, don’t ask, or suggest, but command. This is where your Charisma triggers, it brings your ‘aura’ to the forefront of the target’s attention, if it’s strong enough they will follow you not out of mind control, but because their faith, fear, or guidance will empower them to do so.” Alpha finished.

I didn’t know that leadership had that kind of, well not control but influence would be a better term. I always thought it was the way a leader stood, what they wore, or something else, but not Charisma, I always thought that was a myth. Anyway, I started my trek up the hill to where horseshoes were in my immediate future. As I crested over the hill I could see horses grazing all over the place, so of course I picked the three grouped together nearest to me because...laziness thats why.

As I walked closer to the herd they sensed my presence, either by my movements, smell or a mixture of both and began to stir. Slowly all turned towards me and began to stomp their hooves in challenge.

“So this is what the deep end of the shit pool looks like...interesting.” I said, cussing Alpha’s name.

Without warning, they rushed, anger embedded deep in their eyes towards me. I only had a slight chance to dive out the way but took a grazing hit in my shoulder by a back kick that felt like a tow truck saying hello. Once I felt the impact and my shoulder felt out of place, all the weight I placed on my shoulder felt like I was struck my lighting and I cried out. The horses couldn’t give a damn about my bitching and proceeded for round two. With great effort I managed to roll out of the way of a hoove and the dirt.

“Stop!” I yelled out.

The colt hesitated for a moment before continuing it’s downward hammering. It looked, well confused at first, like this was the first time it’s independence was questioned or threatened. Of course I had to pick the herd with the alpha male in it, luck loves a dumbass with time on his hands. I worked myself to my feet with my good arm and looked the ringleader in the eyes. With all the willpower I knew I didn’t have but forced anyway, I commanded.

“I said, stop!” I commanded.

The colt came to a dead stop and sized me up. I stood there, in magnitudes of pain, with one useless arm, cuts, bleeding and god knows broke inside but outwardly I just hoped I looked like a commander of an army. The other two horses came up the rest on the sides of the colt and looked at me as well. At this point it was now or never, so let’s roll for initiative shall we?

“Take three steps back, now.” I calmly but firmly said.

All three had anger in their eyes, so I tried my hardest to match their fury, for the first time it looked like I did, because they started to move backwards. The only took one step back, but it was a step in the right direction, away from me.

“It’s about time I’ve gotten some respect around here!” I said proudly.

The leader takes a step forward.

“I was just joking….” I said nervously.

He takes a step back.

“Gallup around me...Please.” I said meekly.

The horses much more time then was comfortable for my liking, they started slowly to approach but at a non-threatening speed. Once again I am stunned at how hard every step I take has been. It wasn’t taking a step back, but each step had weights attached to them and dropped in the bottom of the ocean, and then I stepped on them. Nevertheless the struggle is oh so real here. As the horses slowly started walking around me, I felt my shoulders relax, well one shoulder relaxed the other one was dislocated and I’m pretty sure it’s sporting a hoof shaped tattoo now.

I let the horses go on a couple more laps, while I stood there looking like an idiot but safe from being kicked, bitten, headbutted, or something help remotely as violent as long as I made no sudden moves.

“You can stop now, thank you.” I said, and bowed my head slightly.

I don’t know if it was the right thing to do, but I’ve watched a shit ton of kungfu movies and the guys do it after a battle. This wasn’t a battle so much as me almost dying a couple of times until I got the point. I walked, well let’s be honest, limped over the hill back to Alpha who was relaxing in a chair. Once I was close enough, just out of curiosity sake I tried something.

“Stand up!” I bellowed.

Alpha looked over at my general direction, waved, and continued relaxing.

“I’ll give you an A for effort, but my Charisma is just a tiny bit higher than yours.” Alpha said with his eyes closed.

“Oh yeah? About how much higher than me?” I asked.

“At this moment, it’s staying at 200. How do you think you wanted to listen to my commands so easily?” Alpha said with a ghost of a grin.

“What the hell? I resisted some...but now that I think about it, I’ve done almost everything you’ve asked and didn’t really have a problem with it…” I said, realization written plainly on my face.

“Yes, but it was because deep in your cortex you’ve realized I wasn’t guiding you down the wrong path. If I had be deceiving you, your flight or fight instincts would have kicked it and the mental battle would have been much longer until I eventually won or we just stood there until you became a mummy.” Alpha said, matter-a-factly.

“Eh I think the odds might’ve been a little closer to 50/50 then you think. I’m not a mental push over.” I said.

I held out my hand and made the universal sign for ‘eh it’s alright, or so-so’. That is before I gave him the finger, you know, like an adult.

“Oh yes, like that’s going to hurt me...Ow! Ten thousand points of damage!” Alpha said, feigning death.

“Laugh it up! You’re having entirely too much fun with this…” I said, pissed off.

“No my boy, I’m just having fun until the very last moment…” Alpha said cryptically.

Is it me, or did that sound like some next level, end of the world type shit? I might be losing it, but I’m not nearly that far gone.

“Wait, what do you mean, the last moment?” I asked.

“Nevermind that stuff. The last part of this leg of the journey is something that isn’t welcomed at all but is certainly needed…” Alpha trailed off.

“What do you mean….once again? I can handle anything you throw at me.” I said proudly.

“I have no doubt about that in time but you won’t like this part, I need to give you a taste of what dying feels like. Of course you won’t lose anything I’ve given you, because I will be taking it all back minus some clothes anyway, but the experience won’t be a tickle on the pickle either.” Alpha explained.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What kind of bullshit is that? I have to die to know what dying feels like? Last time I checked my name wasn’t Jesus and I don’t think I’ll be coming back like him either. I think by the look on that bastard’s face, it might be just a little too late to start gambling my life.

“It’s about that time…” Alpha said with his hand outstretched.

“Well isn’t this a damned good tim-” I said.