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

Authors Note: Apologies for delay. It has not been a good month. Hope you still enjoy the chapter. It hasn't been edited yet so will be doing that later.

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Swamy woke up in the morning and after his daily ablutions, he opened his laptop to check the Long Island forums. He followed this habit to keep himself updated on the latest happenings in the game. Well, some of it atleast. As he had invariably found out, the incredible number of discussions and posts in the forums would probably require a data mining engine to completely sort through. Or someone like Rajan.

Now that was a singular being who lived for his interests. Or maybe he was like many human beings who put effort into what interests them and ignore the rest, like studies. In any case, it was hardly possible that Rajan would miss something unless someone was deliberately trying to hide it, using code and what not.

Today's news though was pretty obvious. The location of the starter villages in the dwarvish lands had come out. What was interesting though was that it was not the game company who came out with them but rather the players who found it out after logging in as the corresponding dwarf race.

'So Hya'cinth became one of them, for the Mare dwarves. The other is Fudi'thi for the Fare dwarves. Quite a mouthful. Though uncovering starting locations like this...I wonder how they are chosen.' The locations in Ilmentia and the other human islands were chosen because game testers had determined them to be starting locations. But the ones in the dwarvish lands should have been determined by the game system.

'Ah no point thinking about this stuff. Better get ready.'

"Hi Swamy!"

"Hey Swamy!"

""Hey Raka! *giggle""

Swamy sighed. If you are wondering whether these voices were of his friends then you would be wrong. These were complete strangers. Ok not all of them. Some were familiar faces of random classmates who he seldom spoke to. 'But the rest are, well...'

Swamy sighed again. As it turned out, his friends were not the only one who recognized him from the video. At first there were only suspicions. But after looking at the video again and again and comparing his face, well, they did see his face daily, so they figured it out. And then the word spread.

Swamy couldn't understand why it was that people were interested in him personally. I mean Raka's videos had something in them. Suspense, action, etc. On the other hand, he was just a normal guy. Even if people were interested in the top most player in a virtual reality game, there were several of them. As many as the games out in the market. So he wasn't anything special.

But then he guessed maybe it was just his two minutes of fame. Like those actresses who get caught without makeup. 'I hope it passes away soon.'

"Hey Swamy, would you like to join us for a bit. We were talking about Long Island...." Some random guy said while pointing to a group having a couple of guys and girls.

"Ah..I am sorry. Bit busy right now." And Swamy walked away.

This was the other problem. People found pretences to ask him 'stuff' about the game. 'I mean it's not like I know much more than you in the first place. Also if I had to tell someone I would rather tell my friends than you people.'

Swamy finally entered his classroom.

"Hey Swamy, how's it going?" Manish said. Swamy grimaced.

"As usual eh..." Rajan laughed.

Amazingly, Swamy had realized, that his friends were the ones who became his hiding closet. More than that, they didn't even try to weasel out game stuff from him. 'Guess I lucked out when we became friends.'

Rajan and Sneha were not from the same island so many of the things Raka knew was not really useful for them anyway. What surprised him more was that Manish and Himali refused to find out things through him.

"We like to play our own way. Though we won't say no to some help from time to time," they said smiling.

'Kinda ashamed that I did not tell them about me for so long.'

"So would you be interested in joining our guild?" Himali asked while smiling.

"Well, I would like to have my own guild. Sorry again," Swamy simply smiled.

And that was that. Life went on as they started their own discussion about the game.

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Raka stood outside the library staring at that God Metalman statue again. He had this feeling like he had once again started this game. Whether he liked it or not, in this place, he did not know anyone or had anything to do.

Except Kilthan.

'He is running late.' For now atleast, his primary source of information was the library. And for that he needed Kilthan's help.

'Once I am done here, I will go look for a job,' Raka thought as he planned his game day. 'From there I will need information about the things around here.'

Anyone looking at him right now would have thought that he was fervently worshiping the God Metalman. Though, if one could look at his eyes they would find that they were completely unfocused like if his mind were anywhere but here.

"Sorry, I am late." A voice interrupted Raka's train of thought.

He looked back and saw Kilthan running up to him. A running dwarf should have made a comical sight. But Kilthan's running had the kind of balance and grace only a seaman could produce. 'Or perhaps that is due to earth magic..hmm..maybe both.'

"It's alright. Thanks for coming like always." Raka smiled.

Because entering the library required the dwarf's help, Raka always prioritized this thing over all else. After all, Kilthan couldn't always be around. Also he didn't know when Kilthan might need to head out on another voyage.

Today, he was gathering information about the geography of this island. 'Let's spend a little time in history as well.' Thinking all that he headed up to the second floor and looked up some books. He brought them to a reading desk and sat down to peruse.

The dwarf island is called the Earth Ring in common tongue. This is because when the first dwarves settled here, the island was in the shape of a circle or ring. The dwarf history is said to be one of the oldest in the world as we were one of the first ones to choose Inflection. The reasons we had to move to this island have not been found yet but the oldest records and ruins found do indicate that the first dwarves arrived on this island about 70,000 years ago.

Over the years due to natural erosion around the coastal region and varying sea levels, the island's shape changed and is no longer considered a circle. Observers in high flying balloons have often remarked that they cannot distinguish the circular shape or ring and that the island now has an indeterminate shape.

'Hmm...what is Inflection? Are they talking about curse magic?' Raka was confused. Although he understood that the reason for the creation of dwarves would probably not be called something like a curse. Atleast the dwarves wouldn't call it that.

A little while later he found some other interesting things.

Around the time the humans arrived, that is 20000 years ago, the dwarves split into two groups one of which headed north across the Du Var mountains. Records do not indicate what entailed them to split. But eventually these dwarfs would form the Fare who had pale and whitish skin.

Around the same time the group remaining in the south claimed the name of the Mare and found their skin getting darker.

For a long time it was believed that this may have been due to some sort of magic disturbance on the island. However new evidence has recently been uncovered due to studies in weather patterns which indicate that the changes in our physiology may have actually been caused due to change in weather patterns and not magic like it was believed previously.

Due to some cataclysmic event around that time period, which some researchers have attributed to an extinct volcano in the Du Var mountains, the weather south of the mountain range became hotter while the weather in the north became colder. We may have adapted to suit these changes.

'Hmm so it is like the south became Africa and the north became Europe?' Raka continued. In a history book he found this.

The first humans arrived on this island about 20000 years ago from the east. Records indicate that through them we learned much of what had happened in the rest of the world. At that point in time dwarves were still not willing to sail and make long voyages of discovery. This is what we refer to as the Dark Ages where the common belief was that if the dwarf went to sea he would not come back and be devoured by sea beasts as he lost his strength. Unfortunately, it was a time of great superstition and free thought was condoned.

All of it changed with the arrival of the humans who came sailing on their ships. All the previous beliefs were put to test as young dwarfs realized that a lot of what they had been taught about the world for so long, might have been simply wrong.

However, the powers that be at that time feared rather than welcomed change. The humans were only allowed to stay on the island for a short period of time after which they were forced to move further west. They will eventually settle on four different islands. But the damage had already been done. Even after the departure of humans, the thinking of individual dwarves kept changing which eventually brought us out of the Dark Ages and started the Age of Innovation. However, it is only several thousand years later, that we finally sailed again and re-established relations with the humans which brought about a great prosperity eventually allowing the dwarves to once again become the leading race in the world.

'Interesting! Truly interesting!' Raka nodded his head.

The renewal of the relationship with humans also became the trigger to the end of good relations between the north and the south kingdom. Around 3000 years ago, both the north and south kingdoms jointly decided to approach the humans and seek their help in discovering the world. Through them, we learned the art of ship building and many of our oldest ship designs show signs of their influences. This began what we call the Age of Innovation. An era of invention and discovery was brought forth.

But around that same time, conflict arose between two schools of thought. One school still advocated the supremacy of the Dwarf race as passed down in ancient teachings and chose to dominate. The other school chose the modern view that all races have their own advantages and disadvantages and chose to accommodate. Eventually, the Fare were influenced by the school of Domination and the Mare went the other way and chose Accomodation. In hindsight, these schools of thought may have also been due to the influence of the humans.

Many wars were fought between the north and the south kingdoms during this period, eventually leading to the slave wars which occurred around 1200 years ago. This war was particularly fierce and threatened the survival of both kingdoms.

It was only when God Metalman arrived that the war ended....

'Wait! God Metalman arrived? The God came?!' Raka was stumped. He read further and the book did mention the God Metalman again. But no factual information was provided. 'Gods! Seriously! Wasn't he just a powerful being?' Raka doubted. But then there was this statue of God Metalman.

'Did he truly arrive here on a mecha? Or did he just look like it?' Raka sighed. 'Guess this is enough for today.' He looked up and found Kilthan reading some books.

"Hey Kilthan, what are you reading?" He asked.

"Oh these....they are God Metalman comics." Kilthan smiled sheepishly.

"Ah...wait! WHAT?!" Raka was shocked.

"Hey quiet down. Where do you think you are?" Kilthan reminded.

"Uhm...yeah sorry. Um could you show me?"

"Here you go. This one's about the God Metalman and his fight with the Green Dragon." Kilthan handed him one.

Raka flipped a few black and white pages and saw that this was the story of a dwarf who suddenly found himself facing a green dragon for some reason. Raka flipped the page and the dwarf transformed. 'Um...' Yep, the dwarf transformed. From nowhere came pieces of metallic armor which automatically snapped onto his entire body. Looking extremely cool, he then declared,

'I am God Metalman. And you are going down!'

Raka could not believe his eyes. He stared at this thing so long that tears started forming in his eyes. 'Is this for real!'

"Hey Kilthan, is this God Metalman for real?" He just had to ask.

"Ofcourse he is real. He once came to our island to end a very fierce war which threatened the existence of the dwarves. He is our saviour." Kilthan replied.

"And where is he now?" Raka asked.

"Dunno. He is a God so he might be doing godly things you know. Many believe that he will always come back when we are in a great crisis." Kilthan said.

"Ah. And by any chance, is this thing real?" Raka could not explain this. He simply showed the picture of the armor attaching to the dwarf.

"Ah yes. That is the metalman technique given to us by the God Metalman."

"Metalman technique? You mean to say this thing is for real?! Can you do it too? Can all dwarves do it?" Raka asked.

"Hahaha how could it be that simple! It is a very advanced technique only the best can learn. One can only learn it in the Metalman Academy which the God Metalman established himself. Only the most talented dwarves can enroll in the academy and only the best among them can get the right to learn the metalman technique." Kilthan said proudly.

"In fact, in the entire thousand year history of the academy, there have been only ten who have been successful in learning the metalman technique. None of them are living now, unfortunately." Kilthan sighed.

"Really? So difficult, eh? I guess the requirements to learn this technique must be very high?" Raka remarked.

"As high as the moon from where I stand," Kilthan laughed. "Ah now that you mention it, the Academy ranking exam will soon begin. Lots of people would go there to watch. Why don't you come watch as well?" Kilthan said.

"Don't worry, many humans attend." Kilthan added as an afterthought.

"I would like that. Maybe someone will perform the metalman technique," Raka said.

"I wouldn't count on it. No one has been able to do it for a long time. But if someone has, by the moon, it will be very exciting." Kilthan's smile grew even wider.

'This I got to see to believe.' Raka simply thought.

As they left, Raka saw the statue again. He again thought about the God Metalman. Knowing this thing was real had completely changed his perspective. As he looked at the statue, something bugged his mind connecting a link from the deep past.

'The Oracle was an existence which came 17 generations ago to stop the fierce war in Ilmentia. This God Metalman came around 1200 years ago to stop the fierce war on this island. Considering an average human lifespan, wouldn't they have come around the same time?'

Raka did not know if that meant something or rather he did not even know why he had this thought.

'Could be just an interesting coincidence. But both the Oracle and this God Metalman seem to be powerful existences if they could stop the wars single-handedly. Wonder where did they come from and where did they go?' Raka pondered for some time but could come to no conclusion. He sighed.

The next thing on Raka's list was to find a job. He decided to try the most obvious place he could think of.

"Hello and welcome to Minnie's Spell Scrolls," came a soft voice as he opened the door. This shop was in a simply painted building, which somehow highly contrasted with the surrounding houses that had been painted with all the colors of the rainbow.

And then he was shocked again. Raka simply stared at the one who called out not believing his eyes.

"How may I help you?" that soft voice asked again shaking Raka up from his shock.

He simply shook his head and sighed. 'Guess today is going to be one weird day.' What shocked him was this woman who greeted him. She was a beastman. 'Or in her case beastwoman?' In fact, looking at her, she seemed like some kind of large brown cat who had suddenly decided to stand up like a human. He half expected her to swish her tail around but then remembered the beastmen he saw before didn't have tails.

Unlike the past beastmen who had only covered the basic lower parts and looked like those guys who have 8 abs and could punch through walls, she was slender and wearing a dress. And it clearly bulged out near the breast region. If he couldn't have told by the voice, this kinda proved that she was a female beastmen.