Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! SUPAH LONG CHAPTER! 4800+ words!

ANYWAY, I actually wanted to use this chapter as kind of a chance to introduce some fantastical things to the “real world”, but I kind of held back in this, I wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to mingle the two so suddenly… Thinking about it, it would end up looking like another story idea I had some time ago… Hmm…

ALSO, Window-ball is back! Hooray!

ALSO (2) I MAY take a break tomorrow, but i'm still not sure...

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I shed tears. The salty liquid completely clouding my vision as it rolled down my face. Emotions so powerful I couldn’t hold myself back. How could something so divine exists in such impure planet like this?

And as I finally managed to hold the tears back, I did it again.

And once again I shed tears.

“My, my! Seems like our guests really like your food, dear.” Said Illwen to Giselde, who was smiling proudly.

“You have no right to talk! You are also crying!” I rebutted to the night elf who also had tears forming in the corner of his eyes.

And truly, I didn’t think that such a good food could ever exists. It felt like a very piece of the heavens was slowly melting in my mouth. I could even see a few angels descending from a spot of light in the ceiling while singing with their beautiful voices followed by their heavenly trumpets.

“He, he. Mister golem is strange like papa!” Said the last addition to the table. A young half-dwarf half-dark elf girl. She was five years old and greatly resembled her father, But Illwen said that she was a bit too strong for her age when compared to the Dark-elfs. A trait that she got from her mother, along with the red hair.

“No… Mister golem isn’t strange, It’s just that your mama’s food is too good!” I corrected her while gently patting her head. She seemed delighted at this as she leaned towards me.

Earlier, I had been invited to dine with their family, for me, who had my satiety fairly low had gladly accepted, so I waited in the living room while talking to Illwen. He was interested in my story with the wild dogs, so I told him what had happened with me on this day before coming here. He was specially shocked when he heard that Wallace himself had taught me how to manually skin and that he was buying my wares.

Apparently, the old man is famous in the village for being rude and unapproachable, so not many people actually talk with him more than what is needed. Also, it seems that the old man once received orders directly from the king in the capital! Rumors says that he even killed a dragon alone!

God dammit, old man! Stop getting more amazing!

He also told me that Wallace left his old job when his wife died after giving birth to his daughter, so he took her in and decided to raise her.

Somewhere during our talk, Aliwa, their daughter had appeared and started to listen everything wide eyed. I have no idea when exactly, I actually only noticed her when she suddenly jumped at me saying.

“Mister golem is amazing!”

So yeah… She’s adorable.

After that I spent some time playing with the little Halfling for some time before the dwarf put on the table. From there I went to paradise and back a few times during dinner.

After dinner, I once again sat back on the bear rug in front of the fireplace to hear Illwen’s worry. Aliwa picked a small book from somewhere and sat on my lap happily to read, it seems that she really likes me… Illwen gave a small smile before putting a more serious face.

“So… About my request…” I nodded, telling him to go on. “You see. When one earn the mining ability, we are able to see the places where there are ores as small bright spots. Each ore has a slightly different color.” Hmm… So that’s how it works. “My usual mining spot consists mostly of iron and copper, so I’m very used to their colors, but once, when I was walking through the forest behind the temple, I saw a light different from any that I had ever seen…”

“But there was something that kept you from getting it… right?” He nodded.

“The vein was deep in a cave. Although, during the day, the forest is relatively safe for me to walk, that cave is especially dangerous, after all, that is where the lynxes go during the day.” I see, if the cave is filled with a lot of the lynxes during the day, that must mean that they leave it during the night… however, something was bothering me.

“From what I know… Shouldn’t lynxes actually be diurnal creatures?” I asked with some doubt, but Illwen shook his head.

“Usual lynxes, yes. But the red claw are different. They have black fur and prefer to hunt during the night, using stealth to their advantage.” Dammit, they just got a lot more difficult.

“So, you want me to mine that ore while the lynxes are out of the cave?” He nodded once again. “Is there some specific reason that you want that ore in specific?” I asked, it was a bit strange for me that he would be willing to give-me a piece of equipment just to get a piece of ore, no matter how curious he was.

It seemed that he was expecting this question, since he answered almost immediately after sighing.

“Yes, yes. My old master, blessed be his soul, once told me a story about some rare ores that only form under certain conditions. If that ore is the one he told me about… I may need to inform the capital to take action…”

This smell like a very important quest…

“Okay, I’ll take a look for you. Do you have any idea on what would be a good time to go there?”

His eyes shone… Or at least must have shone, I couldn’t really see well through his almost closed pupils.

“Thank you, Gondorrer! Thank you, thank you!” He said excitedly.

QUEST:

Miner problem Illwen, the miner, is bothered by a strange and uncommon ore found deep in the lynxes cave. Mine the ore and bring it back to him to clear his worries. Rewards:

Piece of equipment.

Increase in mining skill.

After that he told me that the lynxes should all leave the cave in around three hours. As it was around six or seven in the night, judging by the sun. I still had a good amount of time to wait, so I took a few tips on mining and even got a interesting information.

Independent of the ore in the vein, each vein had a chance to have element-crystals together with the ore. One for each of the eight elements: Fire, water, earth, wind (lightning), light, darkness, chaos, order (arcane). You could use these crystals as ingredients to improve your crafting, or as consumables, each one having a specific effect, and this left me very excited.

For those around who plays monster hunter, you probably have an idea on what I plan to do with some of these crystals… For the others… Let’s not spoil the fun, ok?

DIE WITH CURIOSITY, YOU PUNY MORTALS! FOR I SHALL REVEAL NOTHING!

For now at least.

Well, going back to the story. Since waiting three hours is not something I can do easily, I decided that it would be a good idea to leave the game and prepare myself for the holyday, since I was a bit short on food.

I bade my farewell to the miner’s family, having a hard time to free myself from the little girl’s grasp who still wanted to play some more.

After walking back to an alley near the border of the village where I could see a few newbies hunting the rabbits and squirrels, I opened the menu and looked for the button to log out.

But no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find it…

…

..

.

Just joking!

Logging out, please do not move or the process will be canceled.

10 sec.

You had to see your faces! It was hilarious!

Ok, bad jokes aside, the countdown was probably so players wouldn’t log out in the middle of a battle. As I was used to this, it didn’t bother me too much.

However, when the countdown reached around five, a voice sounded in my head.

“Gon, do you mind if I pull you really quick?”

I was shocked, to say the least, but after some time I recognized the voice as the one of the great goddess who ruled this world.

“Sure, I’m not in a hurry.”

Just as I said that, the countdown became zero and I was consumed in a flash of light. When I came to, I was back into the login area, with the only thing between a long fall back to the world and me being what looked like a glass floor. In front of me stood the silver-haired A.I., who sported a strange smile.

I was worried for a moment, it felt like she was laughing at me…

“What?” I asked after some time.

She giggled slightly after some time, before looking mischievously at me.

“Nothing… I was… I just remembered something funny I saw earlier…” She said in a playful tone, and then her face turned back to a more serious one. “Also, I’ve been hearing some dangerous rumors around your starting village.” She said leaning forward with one finger lifted to give more emphasis. “There is a ridiculously strong player who goes around killing level five animals with one attack. It seems that he is crazy and attack on sight, no matter if player or monster. It’s also said that his eyes can always find you no matter where you hide, so if you see him, your best reaction is to flee. Some rumors even say that he is already level thirty with dungeon grade equipment, at least! So be careful where you hunt from now on, ok?” She had a worrying tone at the end, so I nodded seriously

But wow, for there to be such a strong player right from the start… What kind of monster is this person? He must be insanely good with weapons and such…

Hmm? Why do I have this strange feeling?

Cygnas straightened herself after that, her face turning back to a smile.

“So, are you enjoying the game until now?” She asked curious.

“Yeah… In fact, there were even some times where I forgot this was a game… The NPCs look so alive that I always end up forgetting about it.” I said giving my honest opinion, which seemed to please Cygnas, as her smile widened. “Somehow I even got lucky and met this really strong old man who have a rare class!”

The girl giggle slightly from my excitement.

“Wallace, right?” She said. “I honestly wasn’t expecting him to end up as a skinning trainer at your village!”

I nodded in agreement with her. It was pure dumb luck that the one I had met was Wallace, not some other random trainer… Wait a moment.

“What do you mean you weren’t expecting? Wasn’t it you who created the game?” I asked when the information finally sunk in, but much to my surprise, Cygnas shook her head slightly.

“Although I did create the system and am the one who is managing it now, I wasn’t the one who made the story of the game.” She explained with a proud smile. “What I did, was only create the initial setting, the final parameters for the time when the game is launched, and then I focused all my processing power on letting the time flow in game. After that, it was the very NPCs who created the story within the game. I only intervened on the same way as gods in mythology do, by giving blessings and such!”

“Wait… How much time of story are we talking about here?”

“Four thousands, three hundred and eight six years, I guess?” She tilted her head cutely.

I was in a state of shock. There were more than four thousands of years in history to explore in game! And it wasn’t something like the usual pre-scripted things, but real story created by characters? My internal lore-keeper was jumping with joy at such news.

To tell the truth, if I wasn’t so focused on going all monster-hunter in this game, I would be questing like a madman, after all, I play most games for their lore, even shooting games!

I only recovered myself when Cyg started to look a bit too smug for me.

“That is impressive and all, but I don’t think this talk was the reason you called me…”

She suddenly looked surprised, then blushed slightly while looking away.

“Sorry, I got a bit side-tracked.” She looked back at me, still looking a bit shy. “Say… Do you remember the promise you made me…?” She asked with her voice a bit low.

“The pet thing?”

“Yes… I spoke with one of my creators about the idea… And…” She started to become even more nervous, when she got silent I decided to take my guess.

“He didn’t allow you?” Her eyes widened in surprise, then she started to shake her head nervously.

“No, no. It wasn’t that… He actually liked the idea… It’s just that… He kind of… wants to meet you…” Her face was almost completely red by now. I wonder if what she was feeling is similar to introducing a friend to a father…

“Let me guess… He is a bit eccentric?” I couldn’t hold my curiosity, and she answered with a slight nod. True, that would actually be embarrassing… “Oh well… I will have to log out now, but should be back in one hour or so. Think we can meet then?”

She blinked in surprise, then closed her eyes for a few seconds.

“He said that it should be fine.” She said after a moment. “So, will you log out now?”

“Yeah… I kind of have to buy a few things…” I was about to bid my farewell to her when I remembered something. “Actually, could you check something for me first?”

She blinked in surprise, but nodded after some time. I told her about how my character, for some reason wouldn’t make any sound when I walked around, and this would end up surprising the NPCs every time I approached them from behind. She heard me with curiosity for a moment, but promised to take a look at it later.

After that I finally logged out.

I opened my eyes slowly, feeling a little sluggish. What I saw was the empty screen of the D-lute, my limbs feeling a bit numb after spending some time in the same positon.

I took out the D-lute, put it back into the small table besides my bed, and lifted myself up. I took some time to do a few stretches before changing my shorts for one with a thicker fabric, then I took a light jacket and put it on. After a quick search, I found my keys, wallet and cellphone.

I had a missed call from my father, so I picked the earphone and connected it the cellphone before dialing him back, meanwhile I was on my way to the elevator.

“Hello? Sonny?” His voice sounded after a few rings.

“Booh, father.” Don’t ask me, long story. But it’s the way I greet my relatives. “Sorry about earlier, I forgot to link my cellphone to the unit. So, what’s up?” I asked curious.

“Not much actually, just wanted to know what you are thinking about the game.”

Let me explain something, my father, despite being fairly old, is still pretty much in touch with technology. I can easily say that he knows ten times more about computers than I do. This also means that he plays games; I wouldn’t call him a gamer since they aren’t many, but in the ones he does play, he is very good, sometimes even better than me. So I guess that It’s fairly normal for him to be interested in the D-lute.

“Oh, the game is great!” What I told him was pretty much the same thing I told Cygnas, but also added a few extra things. He heard everything in silence, when I finished he laughed lightly before saying.

“That looks really interesting… I actually am thinking about buying a couple of these machines for me and for your sister, and I wanted to see if you could help us in getting started up!”

“Really? Well, sure, I don’t mind, but I’m not sure how I could help. I’m a beginner as well…”

“Oh, just show us the basic, like character creation and such.”

I stopped to think about it, I’m not sure how exactly I would be able to help my father, after all, everything up until now was only the basic for me. And I’m not sure if I can help him in the character creation… But maybe…

“I don’t think I can be much of a help, but I guess I know someone who may be able to do it…”

“Oh, you do? Then I’ll be counting on you.”

“Leave it to me!”

After that, we talked a bit more about other simple things, by now I was already at the market near my house, so I ended the call.

The buying process was fairly fast, since I already knew what I had to buy and where it was on the market, but since it was a Friday afternoon, right before a holiday, the market was fairly full, so I spent a good amount of time in line to pay. It took me thirty minutes to come back home, meaning that had passed two hours in game. Seeing that it was almost seven o’clock here, I made some quick calculations, the servers opened at two in the afternoon, I left at six, which meant that I spent twelve hours in game hunting and skinning dogs?

Wow, I didn’t even notice the time pass!

Anyway, I quickly put the things I bought in the kitchen before drinking a few glasses of water, just to be sure. Then a quick pass on the bathroom and back to my bed. This time I remembered to link my cellphone to the console.

The whole ritual of putting the gear and activating the game later.

And back to the login area, where Cygnas happily greeted me!

Not.

In fact, she didn’t even notice when I arrived. She was floating while slightly curled up, her small hand pressing in her chin as if she was thinking hard about something. I approached her and stood right in front of her, but she didn’t even react.

I even caller her a few times, but she didn’t even blink at my words.

Of course, I could have simply gone and slightly nudged her to get her attention… But where is the fun in that?

I calmly walked back to the login window and crumpled it in it’s super useful ball form. Since It didn’t seem like she would notice me any time soon, I took my time to gather more energy on my throw.

The result… I don’t think I really need to describe, right?

…

“That was mean! Why did you do that?” She was pouting besides me.

“Because it’s fun?”

“… Couldn’t you at least give me a better answer?” Of course not! She was looking away, as if angry, but I simply couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.

“So, I’m back here. Are you going to call the guy now?” I asked to see if I this could distract her a bit.

For a moment, I thought she didn’t hear me, but after some time she stole a glance in my direction, before sighing and closing her eyes. For a moment she went silent, then she opened her eyes and let out a much longer sigh.

“He’s coming…” She looked at nowhere in particular, and after a brief moment a flash of light appeared and a person came from it.

It was a vampire. With short white hair, blood red eyes and a long pair of fangs in his mouth. He wore a black cloth robe and had a large black cape, in his hand was a cross-bow, which I found a highly amusing choice of weapon. He was fairly tall, probably even more than me, and he had a serious face that naturally seemed to look down upon the others , giving him the looks of an elite.

Or would give, if he didn’t suddenly open in a wide and silly smile before running towards Cygnas and throwing himself at her with his arms wide open.

Cygnas didn’t simply stand there, she also looked back at the man, a small smile in her face, and when the man jumped.

She disappeared in thin air, letting the man fall face first in the ground. An amusing scene if I were to say so myself, as the vampire had used all his strength in the jump and ended up sliding a few meters with his face in the ground, ending with his butt up in the air.

“Gon… this man is one of my creator… his name in game is…” She had appeared besides me. She was looking away while using one of her hands to cover her eyes, a classical face palm… Well, I can understand with a parent like that. “His name is… It is…” Wow, I didn’t expect it to be that bad. “S2daddylovescygS2”

OH!

MY!

GOD!

MY SIDES! THEY HURT! I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING!

I had literally fallen to the ground and started slamming it while laughing. That goes beyond bad! Goodness! I would surely be depressed if my father did something like that! By now, Cygnas had gone almost completely red.

When I saw it, the man had already lifted himself and was dusting away his clothes while approaching me. A slightly more acceptable looks on his face.

“You must be Wargon, right?” He said offering his hand to me, which I somehow manage to take without bursting in another laughing fit. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, you can call me Vlad in here.”

“It’s a… Pleasure to… Meet you…” I said while trying to regain my breath, but he seemed completely indifferent to hit.

“Hmm… I’ll go straight to the point with you. You offered Cygnas to have her take control of your pet so you can take her around in the game, is that right?” I nodded in confirmation. “Well, to tell the truth, me and the other developers really like the idea, since it would allow our dear daughter to interact frequently with other people besides us.” He looked at Cygnas, who was still a bit embarrassed, and gave her a warm smile. “All we want to ask, is if you would have any problem if we started to monitor your data and moves as you advance through the game after she joins you. Mostly so we can understand what is happening.”

“Is that all…? There will be some embarrassing moments… But I don’t think I would have much of a problem with it.” I answered to him. If being monitored in-game was all I needed to do, then it wasn’t much of a problem for me.

It seemed that this answer pleased him greatly, as he smiled widely.

“Great. In fact, I could even allow Cygnas to create a pet just for you right now…”

“No, no…” I stopped him when I noticed where this was going. “If it takes too long for me to find a pet, then I won’t mind it, but I’m just starting the game now, so I’d rather try to find one my self for now.” I turned back to Cygnas. “Is that a problem with you?” She shook her head slowly.

“Hmm… I see… I see…” Vlad answered while nodding, then he turned to Cygnas. “Dear, could you give us a moment here… There is something rather personal I would like to talk with him.” Cygnas opened her eyes in surprise, but nodded slightly, before going away. Somehow I had the feeling that she would actually hear all our talk. “You see… As you might have seen, Cygnas is kind of like a daughter for us…” He started with a nostalgic look in his eyes while friendly putting his arm on my shoulder. “She is pretty, young, smart, bright. And it seems that she took a liking of you!” Huh? Where did that friendly atmosphere go? And why do I feel this pressure on my shoulder? “So, let me leave something very clear for you… ” He locked his serious eyes with mine. I could feel a shiver running down my spine. “If you ever do anything to our little Cygnas, I swear that I wil…”

“STOP THAT!”

We just heard Cygnas shout embarrassed before Vlad was hit by something right on the head. He flew even farther than what we had seen on the first time. When I looked on the ground, still surprised, there was the window ball I did earlier.

Cygnas blinked to my side again, her face completely red from anger and embarrassment.

“Please, forget what he said!” She was almost begging me, so I could only smile wryly. “Muu… Why did he have to go and say that…” She looked so cute when angry! After a long sigh she calmed herself again and looked at the window ball. “… I might have to patch that…” She said after some time. Alarms rang on my head, if she patched it, then my dear-friend, the window-ball would cease to exist! I could not let that happen!

“Do you have to?” She looked back at me surprised. “I mean, we don’t even know how it works in game!” For a moment, she looked confused, then she opened her eyes in understanding.

“Then please, try to do it in game. If nothing bad happens, I may let it go…” She said after a sigh.

I thanked her endlessly before being transported back to the game.

I appeared in the small alley I had logged out.

“Now, try to create another one!” I heard the goddess talking to me in my head.

I nodded and opened a menu. Just to be sure, I tried creating an error message by dragging a wild dog fang into the weapon slot, and sure enough it happened. I didn’t even bother reading the message, as I simply picked the window and crumpled it.

Finding a random target amongst the players passing on the small road in front of me, I threw the window-ball, hitting the player right in the head. Surely, he fell down just like that, and a commotion appeared amongst the passing players. However, I didn’t see any damage number appearing above his head. I closed the equipment window which caused the error window-ball disappear.

“Hmm… I don’t think I have much other choice…” I heard her saying.

“But… But… But… There was no damage! Can’t you… I don’t know… Make so that it only works in safe areas? Just for fun?” I tried begging her, which rewarded me with some giggles inside my head.

“I guess I can do that since no one else knows about it… But if too many people start using, I’ll have to patch it.” I thanked her endlessly once again. “I’ll be going now… If you need anything, just say my name three times!” She said with a playful tone.

“What are you? Beetlejuice?” I joked back at her, but quickly recalled her. “Just a second, why were you so out of it earlier?”

For a moment, she said nothing, but I could almost see her widening her eyes in surprise.

“Oh… Nothing much…” She answered after a moment. “It’s just that… Never mind. I’ll tell you later. See ya!”

And with that she left me alone. I shrugged it off, must not be anything too important.

After a quick look in the sky and seeing that it was already a good time in the night, I walked away from the village, after all, I had some lynxes to hunt.

Of course, on the whole way there I was doing my whole rolling acquisition routine, making sure that no other player was near me, but…

I had taken the outer way so I could train a bit more before reaching the forest, and since the way with less players was the wild dogs area, I took that way, even if it was a bit longer than the other.

But I still made sure to be on the outer part of the area, where there was a small forest, not the lynx one, just to be sure that no player would end up seeing me. I mean, it’s kind of embarrassing to be rolling for absolutely no reason.

However, just when I had started rolling for the Nth time, a figure surged from a tree besides me. I almost panicked when I noticed that we would collide head on, but much to my surprise, the figure managed to back step nimbly right before I hit it.

Due to losing my time because of the surprise, I ended up falling on my butt, but I still managed to get up and pick my weapons just in case it was an enemy attack, but what I found was a girl still wearing her beginner’s gear. She looked surprised at me and said.

“What could you be doing?”