Owen was a bit problematic in the beginning when we met him, but now he trusts me and follows my orders. He did the tests I asked of him.

In all honesty, I don’t blame him. I was much luckier than, well those who got trapped within the game at least, in that I had someone who was my friend. Owen told me that he didn’t have any friends who were with him. Which is why he partied with others but it didn’t work out. He also had 50 coins. Which he didn’t use it at all.

Owen chose the class called Mage, and it seems to include a staff, a robe, basic light armor, and leather boots. The spells he can use are basic and use up a lot of mana, but the mana will regenerate, and he also has heal spells, but they can’t be leveled up he tells me.

The basic spells he can use are Fire Arrow, Water Slash, Air Shield, and Rock Crush.

To my testing his accuracy was similar to Ana. It’d drop after 5-10 meters. So then most ranged attackers’ basic range is the same. However what intrigued me most were the attacks. Although he could only do maybe 8 per hour, they were devastating.

Fire Arrow was good because the fire was constant and didn’t seem to go out even with water, however it went out due to a time limit. The fire could spread, but its power output would divide between the different targets. The fire lasts about 1 minute.

Water Slash was able to cut through rocks and was high pressure water.

Air Shield although seems stupid, it seems to form a wall of air with a radius of 1 meter and lasts about 10 minutes.

Rock Crush takes a piece of rock and launches at where Owen aims. However with increased distance the speed reduces a lot.

I then talked with all of them about how he'd play into our team.

“Okay guys, as long as Owen uses his attacks properly, we should have a huge advantage, but keeping him at the front is impossible, his attack delay is too big but his output is proportionally big too.”

Then Ana said, “So Owen stays with me?”

“Pretty much.”

Then Owen asked, “Uh.. I don’t get what you mean by using attacks properly, can you tell me, Bluu?”

“Well, for a Fire Arrow, you should only use it on enemies that are between the ranges of 5-10m, don’t go above or below that. This is to both be efficient and make sure that the fire doesn’t affect us. Water slashes are odd because they can be used at low and high range, so I leave it to your discretion, but don’t use it if you risk hitting us in the vanguard. Regarding Air Shield, you should use it whenever you feel that one of us is in danger, that includes you too. Rock Crush can be used in low range, essentially when you have to attack back at an enemy.”

“O-Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Then Ana said, “Owen, I know we may have had our differences, but I was only trying to keep my friends safe. Of course now you’re also a friend, don’t forget that.”

Hen and I said, “Same here.”

“I understand guys, I’m sorry for that too.”

“Bluu, we should go get some food.”

“Nah, you and Ana go, we’ll be sitting here on the sidewalk. I’ll have a kebab.”

“Alright. What about you Owen?”

“U-uh, 2 rice cakes.”

“Owen, I wanted to talk to you alone when they weren’t there... Because... I can’t say this with them here.”

“Wh-what did you want to say..?”

“In case any of us are in need of healing from you, then... Choose hen as a first priority and Ana as second. At any cost, do not save me unless only I need it. Those two won’t accept this, but please don't say this to them. This is my request to you.”

“I... understand Bluu. I’ll do as you say. But please remember that I will not abandon you, just as you have done for me.”

“Thanks Owen.” The truth is, I don’t want to die. But even so, the priority is to keep the others alive. I am useless and always will be in this game. The others need to be alive. Especially Hen, Ana, and now Owen. Soon the others came back and then we ate, and soon we went to sleep in the cave.

Since there are four of us, it’s easier for us to have shifts. We decided we’d redo the party contract. We thought it would be more fair to have an even share since we’re all teammates now.

“So, all of us agree to a 25% share rate, right?”

All of us nodded and fistbumped. And then a green circle formed below us and rearranged our already pre-existing markis. Since we had 75 Markis from the five spiders we killed yesterday. I could see that we now each had roughly 18 Markis.

Once we were done, we decided we’d go back to the mine through Stonegate. But as we were passing we saw this guy who was shouting within the town, there were a few players gathering around him, filling forms.

“I invite all players to our guild! We’ll provide food and a bed!”

For some reason I didn’t feel like trusting them, so I walked on my own way and didn’t bother with them. We need all the freedom we can get, after all it’s our lives on the line. We can’t afford to be limited.

Anyway, we continued onto the mine and got in there. We decided if we were to explore, we should do so in the same place instead of changing every time.

Once we got inside, we cautiously walked through and we were at the fork again. I told Owen to standby while we would clear out these enemies, since it’d be easier to defeat them now without worrying about them ganging up.

Except something felt wrong. The spiders weren’t there. While me and Hen tried to figure out what was going on, suddenly Ana shouted, “Bluu dodge to the right!”

It was by instinct, but it saved me. What jumped at me was a 7 meter long worm, its face was disgusting with its saliva dripping down onto the ground, its teeth grinding upon itself, and its body slithering around. It was defensive.

Hen tried to charge at it, but the worm spat at him, and right as it was about to hit, Owen shouted “Air Shield!”

The acid flowed down the wall and hit the ground, it melted the soil and rocks. I shouted, “Hen, back! Owen, fire!”

Hen then jumped back and then Owen fired a fire arrow into its mouth, the fire arrow pierced through the mouth and started a flame from the inside of its body, while it was twitching and rolling due to the pain, I said, “Ana, fire!”

She then fired two of her arrows pinning the worm, from head to tail, to the floor. It stopped twitching and tried to move, but before it could, Hen sliced its body down from the head towards the tail, he couldn’t do the entire thing, but this would ensure it would die.

However, it smelled like a ditch due to burning from the inside-out with the acid that was leaking out. It was a disgusting image, Owen started vomiting to the side. I stopped myself, but I can’t lie, it was disturbing.

Ana said, “What in the hell was that...?”

Hen answered, “We don’t know... We didn’t see this last time.”

Owen then said, “G-guys..? L-Look here...”

He was pointing towards the mine’s wall... Except it was open..? It’s a hidden door..?

“How did you open it?”

“I-I just sat here and suddenly it opened!” Well he wouldn’t lie, but should we go inside here?

Hen said, “We’ll go inside.”

I was gonna argue back, but I just can’t. Afterall it’s just an assumption that it’d be dangerous. If we were to go away, we might miss important stuff.

“Alright Hen. But we have to be cautious.”

Hen said, “Cool.”

Ana said, “Understood.”

While Owen just nodded.

We went inside and then lit the lamp. But what awaited us was...

“A library..?”

Ana asked, “Why are books here?”

Hen said, “I don’t even know what we’re supposed to do with this...”

Being careful, I took one of the books on the table in front of me within this room filled with bookshelves on each wall.

I dusted it off and read the front page, “Journal of NeiR Erik.”

Owen said, “A journal?”

“Yeah, it seems to be filled with this guy called Erik.” I should read this, for some reason my gut tells me that this’ll be important.

I then said, “Guys! Ana and Hen immediately get outside and guard. Owen, you’re with me for looting this place, since you’ve got a bag.”

Owen said, “Okay bluu.”

Hen said, “Aight dude.”

While we were looting, we found a short sword, though it was rusty, it was good enough, I mounted the scabbard and the sword onto my hip. We also found a bag of gold coins. With some blankets and clothes. The bag had about 120 coins.

Owen shouted, “HOLY CRAP! We found the motherload!!”

I said to Hen, “Bro we just found so many coins!”

“YO that’s sweet!”

Ana replied, “Cool.”

Together we had about 232 coins, a necklace, and a golden cup. And the clothes and blankets we got are perfect because now we have everything to sleep without freezing in the night. Although the shirts and pants we have are for males, I think we should be fine.

“Bluu, I just found a book on magic, and it seems useful. Can I take it?”

“Hm, take it. It seems useful, and it’s okay if you make your own calls.”

“Okay, thanks Bluu.”

“Ah also, if there’s any info about the ‘infinite’ or ‘infected’, take that too.”

“Mkay.”

“Uh.. Bluu, I think I may have figured out how to open the door.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I just needed to get a look at it.”

Just a look? How the hell did he...

“Okay so Bluu, just come out with me and let's close the door behind us.”

“Hm, okay.”

It was as though the door never existed with only the wall of the cave remaining.

“To open this door, we’ll have to...” He felt his hand down the wall and once he felt a bump on it, he pressed against it.

“Now we hold this and then...” He then moved his other hand a few centimeters to the left-side and then pressed the button, the door then swung open.

“There we go!”

“Owen, how did you figure it out?”

“Well, the door seemed to be unnecessarily thick and I thought that it must have a mechanism inside. So then I looked behind the door and saw that the corrosion of metal was less at two specific parts, this most likely meant that it had been changed or opened, meaning that it must be where the buttons must be.”

“You figured all that out with just that?”

“Oh and the fact that me sitting activated it, means that the buttons had to be low. So I felt the bumps and roughly pressed where the buttons would be.”

Owen has a talent for observation and his memory is good. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious.

“Good work Owen, you did well. Honestly.”

I asked them, “Also guys, we’re keeping this a secret from the other players, yes?”

Hen said, “Yeah, not to mention it can be used as a stash.”

Although the room was a bit too small for all of us to sleep in, it could fit one person and it had enough room for stashing stuff here. But I wonder why this Erik guy went through all this trouble to hide these books...