Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.

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Swamy woke up to find a video of the event quest. Someone named Caterpy had uploaded the video recordings from their game capsules on to the Long Island forums.

'Holy cow, its got four hundred thousand hits already!'

Swamy had often wondered how many players still stuck around after 3 months. 'Atleast these many are still there... and the view count was still increasing'.

Swamy clicked on the video and started watching it...but

'Oh! its like 2 and half hours long. Can't be helped...will watch it later.' And he started to get ready for class.

The class today was of his favorite professor again, Prof Samuel D'souza. And this time he was discussing about the mechanics of movement in a virtual reality environment.

"Especially when the virtual environment allows non humanoid type of characters. Non humanoid as in not simply having two hands and two feet. For example flying creatures. In the real world, the limbs of birds turn into wings. The skeletal composition changes and the bones become hollow, etc. But if we closely see the skeletal structure, we will see the similarities between the whale fins and the bird wings to the human hands.

So a similar argument can be made in the games that flying creatures will follow these rules and mathematically, it will be deemed possible. But you often see races which go contrary to the real world rules. A good example would be a dragon, which has all four limbs and wings. If you go by real world rules, we will have to assume that it actually has 6 limbs, with one pair being transformed into wings. Oh and lets forget the tail for bit. Do we have a real world creature like that to compare? Not really. Then how do we generate the mathematical rules of movement for that kind of creature?

This question can also be extended like this. A human brain only gives inputs to four limbs. How in the virtual world can you choose or transform into such a creature...and be able to move? Well think about it, the human brain should be ideally trained for four limb movement only, as nature intended. If we simply go by real world mathematics, you should not be able to move in a dragon's body."

A food for thought indeed.

"Separate into teams and come up with facts and arguments into what makes this possible. You will write a research paper on this due Friday next week."

And the class went on...

During lunch everyone was excited. Swamy was stumped for quite some time trying to understand what had happened.

"Wow...that was amazing Himali!" Sneha said.

"Yeah...bad for you Manish" Rajan added.

"True...it was an amazing experience! I felt real fear..." Himali was speaking.

"Yes yes...it was like lightning. One moment I saw them and the other moment I was dead" Manish was saying.

And Swamy simply sat silent pondering.

"Yeah yeah I had goosebumps even when watching. No doubt you must have felt quite afraid. It must be quite a thrill though" Sneha said.

"Yeah tell us about it" Rajan added.

"I am most sad.....I missed out on such an awesome thing." Manish sighed depressingly.

"Oh I don't know how to start describing it...."

And Swamy simply sat silent wondering.

"Um... what are you guys talking about?" Swamy asked.

"Uh....video! what else? Didn't you see the video?" Sneha asked bewildered.

"You mean the one about the event quest?" Swamy finally figured it out.

"Duh! Himali sent us a copy before posting it." Sneha replied.

"Oh...wait the video was posted by someone called Caterpy...is that you Himali?"

"Yes. I thought everyone knew that already" Himali replied.

"Apparently I didn't" Swamy smiled sheepishly.

Everyone became quiet at hearing this. Before the mood could get too awkward, Swamy added,

"Well now I know. Thanks. So you participated in the event quest? I think it had two parts....which one did you get?"

"I got the capturing the beastmen one. I and Manish both reached 14 already" Himali replied smiling, maybe thankful that the atmosphere did not get weird.

"Yes yes....and you were telling us the details again. The video was awesome....But I am sure hearing it from the horse's mouth would be even more exciting" Sneha said excitedly, dispelling what little of the awkward atmosphere that still remained.

"Ah...well it started like this........"

And for the next half an hour everyone listened to her, as she relived her encounter with the beastmen. How it started, strategies and the people. How epic the fights of the captains and Lady Altia were. How they thought they would lose everyone but somehow they survived. Manish added a few bits in the beginning she had missed out on. It turned out he died early but it was his team who was initially attacked by the beastmen. They came up from the trees, totally surprising his team, and before they had any time to react the beastmen had killed everyone.

Swamy had not seen the video yet and he was deeply interested. Maybe far more than the others. Ofcourse in his case, when he was listening with all ears, he had this tendency to go super quiet. The others asked questions in between but Swamy concentrated on listening. This was valuable information. He made up his mind to watch the video...even though it will cut into his already meagre game time.

"And at the end, I asked my sergeant how many had been killed. And he said almost 70 people."

"Oh...that's sad. And how many of them were npcs?" Rajan asked.

"Not sure. I didn't have the heart to ask."

And then there was brooding silence while everyone thought about what they heard.

"So there were no healers? And no healing potions either?"

"There were. The soldiers did have a few people who could heal. And most of them could do first aid, like applying bandages and cleaning wounds. Just that there were no separate healers. Makes sense right, as there are no classes in the game, you could have soldiers who also have healing skill" Himali added. "But no healing potions were given. I also didn't ask about it, so I am not sure about it."

"No one had gotten any healing potions. I asked about it to the other players on my team."

"So there are no potions in the game?" Rajan asked.

"Not sure. There could be....the game world is large place" Manish said.

............

.........

....

Back home, Swamy quickly opened his laptop and clicked on the video of the event quest. It started slow, what with people talking and walking into the forest. In the beginning people had excited faces...but it soon changed to boredom as time passed. And then to seriousness.

'Traps? the beastmen deployed traps?' It was a little different from the behaviour he had come to expect out of them. And the video rolled on. Soon the fight started and Swamy was riveted. It was exciting, of that there was no doubt. And then the fight ended with the beastmen having run away or killed. But the video was still not over. It changed locations..and like other people, at first Swamy couldn't see anything. Just the boom sound or the clank sound. His first thought, 'Did the recording break here?'

He minimized the video to check whether anyone else had faced the same problem. He hoped that they would have posted if they had. Sure enough....a couple of people did ask whether the recording had caused an error or something at the end. But no, Caterpy had replied the video was ok.

"Just watch it till the end. The video is not broken. Once you watch it, I suggest you to watch it again in 4x reduced speed, just the part at the end where you do not see. You can just make out what happened at that speed."

Swamy watched the video again. More thunderous sounds but nothing could be seen. And then almost for a moment a flash of color. And then it was gone. It repeated...and again. Swamy could not understand but then a voice came up followed by the person. 'He was the sergeant I think!' And it explained what it was. Swamy could not believe his ears as he heard that.

All that time he spent with Lady Altia and not once had he realized how powerful of a teacher he had. Oh he knew that she was quite strong and compared to him it was like the earth and the moon. Now he realized it was a bad comparison to her strength. Watching the fight between her and the cheetahman, she was more like the stars than the moon. The cheetahman was captured. Lady Altia won. But she couldn't move afterwards. And then the video ended.

Swamy restarted the video at Lady Altia's fight scene and reduced the playing speed. And then he could see, the cheetahman and Lady Altia clashing against each other, claw against steel. Even at 4x reduced, the two were moving quite fast.

What Swamy wondered at the end though, 'what happens now? People are gonna realize as players will come back.' And for the moment he had no answer to that.

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'Damn!' Raka could not believe how much Lady Altia had to hold back against him. 'And Lady Verina was sparring with her.'

For the past 15 minutes, since he logged in, he was staring at the heavens and thinking how the hell had he managed to get two incredible people to teach him. By all counts, they were masters of the most advanced level in their fields.

Raka sighed. It will be incredibly hard to stand up to their standards.

Once he recovered from his reverie, he decided to head down to the pet shop. He still had questions about the monkey he had bought. His identification had revealed some questions marks. Specially on the class thingy. 'Aren't they animals?'

Well answers could wait. He was eager to get his own pet, hopefully. It would be his first, virtual or real. His mom hated animals, "the amount they shed and poop...disgusting," she said. Raka remembered trying to find a pet which didn't shed and poop so much...all through 5th grade. And somehow he had failed. The only ones which didn't, had been slippery slimy creatures. He was pretty sure they wouldn't be allowed as pets. 'Well snails were no fun anyway'

Soon he reached the pet shop. Today there was a sign outside which said,

The results of the High Rise Pet Lucky Draw are as follows: Congratulations to the lucky winner Mr. Raka. Your prize will be delivered to you by pigeon.

Raka entered. The same smells and sounds like before embraced his senses.

"You are here. Please wait a moment." Signer greeted with a smile as usual.

He went back in and returned a few minutes later, followed by a man carrying a cage holding a monkey. The cage had been cleaned. The monkey was looking much better than the last time, though it still looked a bit under the weather.

"Here you go" as Signer handed him the cage. The cage was heavy but not so much that he had trouble carrying.

"Thank you" Raka said holding on to the cage sides.

"Thank you for your business sir" and Signer started heading back.

"Hold on a minute! What about the prize of the lucky draw, can't I take it now?"

The smile turned down a little bit as Signer turned around.

"Ah I am sorry. But we also have to keep up appearances. We will wait till the evening and dispatch your prize by pigeon" and before Raka could ask anything else, he hurried back. 'Definitely suspicious!' Well in any case that had been a gamble. Raka looked down in the cage to see the monkey looking at him. He turned his head wondering what he should do now. The monkey imitated him by turning his own head. Raka smiled.

Raka headed out towards the docks. It was only two blocks to it. On the way, people stared at him as he carried the cage. As he reached the docks, he turned towards the beach instead.

'Phew, people do stare too much!' Raka put down the cage on the sparse rocky sand and opened it. "Alright big guy, I don't know if you understand me but here's the deal. I wanna set you free. Ofcourse I would like to be friends and hopefully you will accompany me on my travels, but if you want to go somewhere else ...you are free to do so."

Ofcourse, the monkey did not reply back. But Raka thought it looked happy. It tried to move outside the cage...but soon got tired and laid down. After a while it tried again but could not. It seemed it was still not recovered from the sickness. It laid down again.

"Hmm say what. I will take care of you till you get better. And then you can go wherever you want to. Till then what say, we get rid of the cage?" and Raka lifted the monkey out of the cage.

"Alright now climb on to my back" and the monkey held his armor with his fingers and moved to his back. Its legs and tail circled his waist as it made a better grip to hold on.

"Now...see here...the cage goes away." Raka picked up the cage and threw it in the sea. "Hope you are happy with that. Now lets see, first lets get you some food...and then we will head down to the library and find out stuff, shall we" He spoke to the monkey but by the reaction on its face, he could as well be talking to himself.

Raka bought some fruits from a shop he knew. He gave one to the monkey and ate one himself. And then they headed to the library. The library was quiet, hardly a person inside. As he started walking in, the lady sitting in the reception complained, "No pets allowed!"

"This sucks. Well can't help it bud. If we want to find something to make you better, you will have to wait here. He put it down next to the reception desk. The lady turned up her nose at that but didn't say anything. The monkey simply curled up on the floor, closed his eyes...and fell asleep. Talk about one cool monkey!

Raka headed to the books. 'Well finding them is another quest....Why can't they put up signs on the shelves saying what subjects they are. Its not even a piece of technology for goodness sakes.' And the search continued.

It took almost an hour of browsing till he finally found some books which looked promising, way up on the 5th floor. Till then he had to browse every shelf to make sure what kind of books there were. He had found a book on history of the world, which he now carried, intending to read. Usually similar books, atleast books on similar subjects went on the shelves together. He wasn't sure of what he was looking for, he just had a vague idea that it would be somewhat related to healing. And he hadn't found anything. He went through all shelves looking at the book titles all the way up to the 7th floor. But nothing had come close to healing. Giving up he turned to look at similar things.

Which is how he arrived back on the 5th floor, looking at books on Biology. He opened one and sure enough there was a figure of the human body drawn with lines marked with their names and descriptions. He started looking at the other book titles, A description of the human body, How does the human body work, 5 ways to bandage, Making the heart tick, Common diseases, and much more.

'This book looks ok' and he took out the 5 ways to bandage book. He looked around some more and then took out books with titles like Understanding Medicines, Knowledge of nutrition, Are you down on the weather?, Tips to Improve Health, Keep your Teeth Shining and a few more similar ones. He avoided the encyclopaedias though.

'Who knows what could help', thinking that he sat down on a chair and started reading them. A lot of it was useful but somehow he couldn't see himself being able to use it. He eagerly opened the Understanding Medicines book, he hoped it would be more helpful. Considering the discussion he had this very morning with his real life friends and watching the video, learning potions or any form of healing had become very important.

The book talked about various herbs which could be found in nature and then have to be processed, ground, crushed...and whatever else and mixed with various stuff and then applied on the wound. Different types of wounds required different kinds of herbs. Also some herbs could be consumed and helped against disease but there was just too much information in it to remember. As he kept turning the pages,

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Skill Herbal Medicine: You have discovered a skill. You can now learn how to treat and cure using various herbs. Only through proper application will such a skill be effective.

Requirements: Apply Herbal Medicine successfully.

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'Alright! A new skill!' Raka was happy but the information on herbs was extensive. He would have to steal the book or hopefully copy down all its pages....lets just say it was a lot. In any case it was helpful. He would have to come down often to learn all the things in this book.

He opened another and started reading and then another and then the next. The books were both broad and complex and covered a lot of information, for someone who would want to become a doctor possibly. For Raka it became difficult reading, he trudged on simply in the hopes that there might be some other skill.

Finally he opened the 5 ways to bandage book. It was a simple book with lots of helpful drawings. But most of all it was thin or to say a lot thinner than the others. As Raka swept though the pages looking at the drawings,

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Skill Bandage: You have discovered a skill. You can now learn how to make, wrap and use bandages for various purposes.

Requirements: Apply Bandage successfully.

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'Another new skill. Today must be my lucky day!' Bandaging was easy. The steps were drawn on the book and looked simple. The only tricky part was making the bandages themselves. Simple bandages made of sterilized cloth looked easy enough. But as he read on, the book mentioned other kinds of bandages as well. It did not elaborate on these other kinds simply stating that it could be made of different materials. 'Maybe there is another book for that'.

Raka stood up and started looking for books on bandages. Unfortunately, not many were there. The couple he found, also had the same things showing how to apply. 'Hmm that's sad.' Raka looked through the 5 ways to bandage book again. 'Maybe the author wrote some other book.' The author's name was Afsana Cladwell. He searched again, this time looking for books by the author.

'Nothing!' There was no other book by the author. Just to be sure he searched again, and it was good that he did. A very thin book nestled between two very thick encyclopaedias that he almost missed it. In fact, had he not been looking closely he would never have noticed that there was something between the books in the first place. It almost looked like part of the encyclopaedias themselves. He carefully brought out the surrounding books in a hail of dust. Raka coughed. Seems like no one liked to touch these thick books either. And then carefully lifted the thin dusty book off the shelf.

He wiped the dusty cover with his hands and saw the title, 10 Massage techniques written by Afsana Cladwell. The book was there like it had been forgotten. Raka dusted the book and started reading it. As per its name it contained various techniques on how to massage, shown with helpful drawings. It looked useful, what with massages being able to improve circulation of blood, relax muscles and what else.

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