Over the course of the next few days we carried on with our excursion of the wilderness. It was mostly uneventful, until one afternoon we were trekking around the base of a hill, when Sam froze and let out a shriek.

“Holy shit!” he said, as he sprang towards a boulder leaning against the elevation of the hill.

“What happened?” I asked.

“This is the place where I came across the old NPC who made portals to the real world!”

I looked this way and that and finally spotted the other hill from which we had observed the boulder the first day I came to Dharti such a long time ago.

Sam looked up at the sun.

“I think it’s around time when the tunnel opens,” Sam said. “Care to see the old guy? You wouldn’t be in the game world without him.”

I thought that would be interesting.

“We would have to move this boulder though,” I said.

“I had a temporary strength spell when I put this boulder here,” Sam said, “but I don’t have the spell anymore.”

I scratched my chin thoughtfully. I activated the transform spell. Sam whistled as the shape of my body altered. I grew taller. My muscles bulged, and my colouration changed.

I became a Skhite.

I applied my newfound strength on the boulder. The Skhites were stronger than humans in body power, however not by a steep degree.

The boulder was still enormous and it was challenging to roll it aside. I fell to my knees once the job was done, exhausted, respiring with my tongue out. My mana levels had dropped significantly. I reversed my form.

"With a spell like that, no wonder they made you king. Must have seen the potential in you," Sam commented wistfully.

“I got the ability to transform after I became their king, not before,” I said.

“Doesn’t matter,” Sam said, “it is just a question of before and after. You were always a monster… at least at heart, even in the real world.” He laughed, thinking it was funny.

I grimaced at Sam. He was blabbing random things now. Days in the wild were affecting his already kooky mind. We waited for the tunnel to open.

“Are you sure it’s even going to open?” I asked, aimlessly kicking a pebble, after an hour had dragged by. “Or have we missed today’s time?”

“Just wait a little more,” Sam said, stretching and popping his back. “It’s not like you have a flight to catch, is it?”

The human brain despised waiting. I sat down on a patch of grass, surrendered hope, and counted the green blades.

It was after an additional dull hour that the portal finally opened. I had lain down on the ground and was dozing away, when a sharp kick on the leg roused me.

"Quick!" Sam hollered. I was still partially in a daze as we jumped through the opening, which immediately closed thereafter.

“See?” Sam said to me. “Patience is an art.”

The tunnel had a claustrophobic vibe, elevated by the knowledge that we were locked in the place for twenty four hours. However, thanks to his respawn stone, Sam could log out and return to the same spot with no trouble. The case was not the same for me though.

A few strides into the tunnel, we saw the sage. He had white flowing beard and was sitting with his legs crossed on the ground in a yogic position. Cerulean skin. His eyes were shut in deep meditation. The sage radiated a palpable contentment.

“Hey,” Sam said to him. The sage was lost in his inner world and didn't respond.

“Didn't you speak with him the last time?” I asked.

“Yeah, but he takes his time.”

Sam sat down imitating the sage's posture, and I did likewise. The sage was so still he would have passed for one of those life-like wax models.

It was fifteen minutes later that the sage finally parted his time-worn eyelids.

A faint frown criss crossed his forehead seeing us

“I recognize you,” he said to Sam.

“I just came by to meet you,” Sam explained.

“Who is this other youth with you?”

“He is my brother, and he is a king,” Sam said, “He rules over two clans of Eviluns. He’s not from this world, but the real one. But he had an accident there and his legs don’t function anymore, so he is staying here in Dharti, and he is doing very well actually.”

The sage gave me an intent stare as though he was trying to look into my soul.

“The game world has unique plans for you,” he stated.

The sage would be the second mystic, after the deceased shaman, who appeared to know more about me than myself.

“What kind of plans?” I asked.

“It wants to help you,” the sage said. “Because one of the first things that you did after coming to this world was an act of kindness.”

“Yes, he helped a skhite couple,” Sam said.

“He helped monsters,” the sage said, “but all monsters are a part of the game world, while he himself is a foreign entity. The game world feels indebted and wants to repay him. And it is in fact working on ways to repay him. His legs don’t function, you say? There is a strong possibility that the game world might help him get his real world body back in its prime form.”

Those words made my ears perk up. Was this old guy saying there was a chance I could heal? It was as if a ray of light had peeked through after an endless season of cloudy weather.

“But that is not possible,” I said. “Once I tried going back to the real world and my legs just went dead.”

“Yeah, it’s a different world,” Sam chimed in. “This is a game world and that is the real one. This world only exists inside computers.”

The sage let out a laugh.

“You should not really think so, my friend,” the sage said to Sam with an amused expression.

Sam was taken aback and he glanced at me, slightly embarrassed. The sage continued,

“Didn’t I tell you the last time you were here? There are no game worlds or real worlds. There are just different realities. You humans like to create many worlds. Fictional worlds, game worlds, whatever. Even if all the books and all the computers are destroyed, the worlds will still continue to exist in one form or the other. Yes, if all the computers are gone, the players would not be able to enter this place. But the native inhabitants here will continue with their lives as before. And sometimes, when I am residing in a particular reality, it becomes possible for that reality to be merged with another. All realities are self intelligent non-beings. They reward those who truly respect them. Dharti’s reality is no different. Now,” the sage raised his brows at me, “this game world considers you a friend. As such, it might be very willing to create a quest that, if you can complete, will reward you with a healed body in the so-called ‘real world’.”

“How do you know that?” Sam asked the sage.

“Dharti has become a close friend of mine, and after I laid my eyes on your friend, I inquired the game world about him, and the game world gave me all the answers.”

“But you were talking to us,” I pointed out.

“You have to understand,” the sage said, “talking with the game world does not require me to even open my mouth. We are very close friends, you see.”

Sam and I kept silent. I reminded myself that the sage was afterall an ancient supernatural being, though thankfully a benevolent one. He had claimed to Sam before about walking on the moon before Neil Armstrong. Dismissing the sage was out of question, because without him I wouldn't be in the game world. I reasoned that a lot of things impossible for us were effortless for the sage.

The sage suddenly frowned.

“You do not believe me, do you?” he said. We did not reply. The sage chuckled. “It will not be long before you recall what I have said, and realize that I only speak the truth.”

“Why doesn’t Dharti just return him to the real world completely healed?” Sam asked.

“The game world wants to test him,” the sage replied, “He will have to prove the game world quite a few more times that he is truly worthy… oh, wait, the game world wants to give him the quest right away! You will see now that I was not lying when I told you that I can converse with the game world even while speaking to you.”

The next second a white box dropped into my vision. I swallowed. The sage really had been speaking the truth.