"And so you see—it was all his fault," After a long, detailed explanation of what had transpired—Sophi pushed all the blame onto me.

"Hey!" I tried to protest, but before I could get another word out, a stick came down between us, producing a loud thwap sound.

"And you both saw it fit to bring your fight here?" The woman before us scolded me, as she emanated an aura of fury.

"Yes ma'am." I quickly replied.

This is a person you do not want to anger.

Head Priestess of the Temple of Marthyl.

She was an old woman, nearing the decline of her health, yet still quite strong. She reminded me of my grandmother, with how hardworking she was despite the loss of her youth. A work ethic I don't think I could ever maintain.

In many ways, she's at the head of the religious organization, considered a medium by which the goddess Marthyl speaks to the church. Sophi's existence thus creates an interesting situation, but the details to that aren't really public.

Sophi was a candidate destined to become the Head Priestess herself, but as the story was meant to go, she would have given a single oracle, foretelling the coming of the Players, before eventually falling sick and dying.

Considering her oracle came true, it's believed that she will become the Head Priestess's successor—and one might think that was the natural course. But it's more complicated than that. After all, in this world, the gods often communicate with their followers.

So then, Sophi is in an awkward position, where she is regarded as an oracle of Marthyl by the people, but it was not Marthyl herself who passed down that prophecy to her. The one who knows this more than anyone should be the Head Priestess and Marthyl herself.

Sophi realizes it's weird, but it doesn't seem like the Head Priestess has told her anything.

So how do they see Sophinna, I wonder?

Still, she's a kind person all things considered. When we finally arrived in Iohro, she offered to let me stay at the church, but I declined her offer. Church makes me uncomfortable—can't imagine living in one. It also feels wrong, when I consider that I'm "blessed" by Aien, an Elven Fertility Goddess, and Marthyl is a Tigerkin War Goddess. Or at least, she use to be a War Goddess.

"Aishean," Pulling me out of my thoughts, the Head Priestess called my name.

"Yes?"

"They followed you here. But you could have taken them out much sooner. Why didn't you?"

"Well... I sort of got poisoned?" I said, showing her the arm that the player assassin "Sen", had cut me.

"You got injured. But even with that injury, you should have been able to kill them without bringing them here. Am I not correct?"

"No no, they were plenty strong, you know? Besides, I was trying to capture at least one of them for information," I argued.

She looked into my eyes, as if seeing right through my lies.

"So you mean to tell me that a group that weak was enough to trouble someone like you, who is seen as an enemy to the Desert Witch?"

Ah, she saw the fight, huh?

Then that means...

I took a glance over at Sophi, who looked to be pale-faced for a moment, as she tried to avoid eye-contact with the Head Priestess.

"Yes, I saw," She confirmed my suspicion, before she grabbed Sophi's right arm, and pulled back the sleeve. "What have I told you about using that dangerous magic?" She said, exposing Sophi's arm, which was covered in black tendrils.

Within those black veins, the player mage and the assassin were sleeping. Dark Magic sounds rather menacing, and it is, but in this world, it's weak towards divine magic.

Sophi learned it to defend herself, and to be of use during our journey. But it has quite a massive consumption of Aether, and is difficult to control.

She had used it to keep the two players within an isolated space, but she needs to maintain the magic do that time. And every second that she does, she risks having her arm torn apart by her own magic. A single mistake, and one of her tendrils might tear into her flesh, and from there she'd be in too much pain to stop her magic from causing even more damage.

The Head Priestess knows this, so as soon as she sees those tendrils laying close to her skin, she scolds Sophi, "Release your magic, now."

A second later, two bodies are ejected from her arm, as if forming out of shadow, and the black vines which twirled around Sophi's arm vanishes.

"An Oracle, making use of Dark Magic," she said, as if pointing out the absurdity of her own statement. When we arrived in Iohro, it was hard to hide the fact that Sophi knew Dark Magic, and it was ultimately restricted from use.

Still, looking at Sophi's hands, I could still see plenty of burn marks that seemed to be caused by the tendrils. Sophi brought over her left hand, and began using healing magic to get rid of the marks, but the Priestess still had a stern expression.

"I learned it to defend myself," She said plainly, as she took a glance at the two unconscious players.

The Head Priestess, could only let out a loud sigh. "Take these two, and do what you want with them. Just keep them out of my temple, and don't use Dark Magic again!"

Well that ended about as well as I expected.

In the end, Sophi insisted on interrogating the two Players, and pushed me out of the temple so she could get to relieving her pent up stress.

I'm missing out on quite a bit of fun, huh?

The Priestess was right though; I probably should have handled it quicker, but most of my stronger attacks aren't really well suited for populated areas that I don't want to maim, so I kind had to bring them somewhere without people. And because I couldn't use anything too large scale without damaging the temple, I kept to close-range combat.

My wind blades have improved, but they're only useful in close to mid-range, because they have no weight behind them, and thus lose much momentum very fast.

If it was out in the open with no need to worry about casualties, I'd like to think that I could pass as a mid-level boss, which considering things as they are now, means that I could probably take on an army of Players.

Players have yet to reach the pinnacle form of power in this world, which is expected. The nature of this world calls for rather slow progress, and I've had some advantages when it comes to accelerating my growth.

There are still plenty of natives that can easily take me on though.

—Speaking of Players, "So? What have you got for me today?" I asked, looking back at empty space.

"Ah—!" A surprised voice was let out, as that "empty space" shimmered, and revealed a cloaked young boy, who seemed close to my age in this world. He had black feline ears, and wore a similarly black cloak that you might expect to see on an assassin or thief from a fantasy game. On top of that, he had an expression that gave the impression that he was ready to sleep at any moment. "You noticed me again. I could have sworn I'd surprise you this time," the young looking boy pouted.

"Even if you combined Light and Sound magic, you won't be able to sneak up on me," I claimed as I waved away such thoughts.

"Right," He said, as his feline ears seemed to fall depressed.

"So? What have you got for me?" I repeated, causing his ears to perk up as he recalled his business.

"Right, I saw your name show up on the forums in my world, so I came to let you know," He explained.

"Figured as much. A bounty maybe?"

He nodded, "A Player calling himself Arthur offered a large sum to have you captured and interrogated. He gave a brief explanation of your fighting style, as well as mentioning that you have a mysterious companion with a magic he can't find anything about. Probably safer to kill her."

"Did they mention anything else?"

"I don't believe so?" He said, with a tone wondering if there should have been more.

I looked at him with an amused expression, as I tried to hold back a laugh. I let out a small burst of laughter, as I couldn't hold back much more, but quickly contained myself.

"Hah, that asshole. He left out some crucial details," I said as I crossed my arms with a grin.

"What'd he miss?"

"That I have connections with the Church," I blatantly stated out. "Anyone who kills me will have to run away from Iohro. And the girl he mentioned was the Oracle, who is next in line to be the matriarch of the Church. Killing her would be tantamount to assassinating the heir to a throne, and make it difficult to live anywhere in this world."

The boy's eyes had opened pretty wide from their usual drowsiness, as he realized the implications of what I said.

"And you're saying they knew this?"

"They followed me to Marthyl's temple, and saw me order the guards to stand back. And of course the young girl with me was dressed in standard Priestess ware. He knew we had some importance, but being a Human who works under a different kingdom, he didn't care. He would merely go back home, and be protected from harm. But anyone answering that bounty won't have such convenience—not that he minds,"

"I see... So you want me to trash his reputation with the Players for setting them up like this?"

"That's exactly right, Toren," I said, tossing two golden coins at the boy—one for the information, and one for the assignment—which he caught without flinching, "Educate the uninformed about the quest Arthur is offering up,"

"Got it. However, because time moves differently in this world and that, it will take time for the information to propagate. Also, the Players who are already here looking for you won't learn of the possible consequences of going after you, so you still may be attacked."

"Don't worry about the small stuff. About a day or two of exercise can be good for the soul,"

He let out a smile at those words, and with a single utterance of an English phrase, he vanished.

I picked Toren up months ago, and made him an informant for me. It seems that he wanted to play the part of an information broker and I thought he was trustworthy, so I hired him.

I don't quite know his age considering Players could create their character to be any age, as long as it was 15 or older. Of course even 15 year-olds come in a variety of sizes, so he probably made himself smaller to look even younger.

He could be quite young, or maybe he's an old man. Who knows?

It annoys me that he can use Light Magic better than me, but I guess the initial Light affinity is just higher for Tiger-kin than it is for Elves? I'm not sure why, but it might just be an arbitrary thing the developers did. Before the Players entered the world, I was the sole Light magic user, I've been caught up to, huh?

Still, he's useful. I haven't told him my circumstances, and I'm sure he assumes I'm just a normal NPC that wants a connection with "his world," and I guess he's right in that regard.

He wouldn't try to kill me either, because of the amount of money he makes with my being alive. I am also useful to him, considering my connections and knowledge of this world, that rival any NPC he could hope to talk to at this stage in the game.

It's nice that I have indirect access to the internet though. But only on topics he's willing to discuss, or let slip. Usually it's things related to this world, but beyond that, I don't think I could convince him to look up my death.

At least I learned that Players still haven't discovered Dark Magic—or if they have, they haven't publicized its existence yet.

Anyways, I'm eager to play around with some players you know? Some good, all out fighting is all I need to cheer me out of my boredom.

That said, I should probably go talk with that guy from yesterday, huh? Where did I hide him again? In the underground tunnel systems right?

Deciding that now was as good a time as any, I jump to my feet, and start heading down the stairs. Usually I don't bother using these stairs to get onto the watch tower, and merely fly on top. Wind Magic being my specialty, I don't see the need to walk up so many steps, unless I'm going down with a client.

This is one of many watch towers throughout the city. It seems that when the city was originally built, these towers were used to see beyond the walls, and archers would be placed on them to shoot down invaders. Being in constant war, the ancestors of this city used enemy slaves to mine and build up the thick walls, to defend against their other enemies. As the city grew, the watch towers were left, and instead used in cases where the outer walls were breached, so they could rain down arrows from all sides. This eventually lead to an onion-like design of the city, with many layers separated by these thick walls.

In times of peace—like now—they are merely a convenient tourist attraction to get a view of the city.

The walls however, have undergone various changes, been brought down, rebuilt, or completely reshaped to fit the current needs.

There are a total of about 10 rough layers left, but there should be about 20 or so more, if you count the portions of wall left, that were converted into commerce and housing. And even most of the 10 layers still have large openings in their walls to allow roads to pass to and fro. Still, in the event of an invading army, the gaps in the wall will serve to funnel large forces through these roads, and slow down the advance into each layer.

At the same time, the two outermost walls act as complete shells. Even if a city manages to breach the first wall, they will only have entered the region of the city reserved for people who are only passing. Passing through the second wall generally requires proof of residency, a visa or a voucher from a permanent resident (which requires some paper work). Like this, they control immigration into the city, while also acting as a second line of defense against an invading force.

Between the first and second walls, there aren't many large buildings. In fact, it's illegal to build anything with a height above half the second wall within this region. Still, the region is quite populated with tourists.

One of the things I did on my first year in the city was draw out a map of most of the roads and walls, including the ones that were mostly torn down.

Looking at the history of the city, you can kinda see how the amount of enemies Iohro had, affected the distance between each wall. The earlier walls had sparse distance between them, though many of them were torn down to make room, and the middle walls all have different distances between them.

And then the 3 outer walls, which have the largest difference in radius, showing the period in time where the Southern Federation formed, and the fear of going to war with neighbors vanished.

—Or did it?

After all, these last 3 additional walls, are the thickest.

—As if preparing for an inevitable greater war.

As I reached the bottom of the spiral-stairs, I was greeted by a party players. All Tiger-kin of course. And of course they wanted the bounty set up by that Arthur.

They didn't want to kill me yet, so they ended up trying to capture me. They likely heard I was some kind of Wind Elemental Assassin, and so they figured cornering me inside would keep me from running away.

"Got 'em!" The first person to reach me said as he grabbed onto my arm and shoulder.

Following that, I was pinned to the floor by 4 large tigers, holding down my body, probably expecting me to use some kind of wind magic. It's true I couldn't blow them away when they all had me like this, but I'm not defenseless you know?

"That was easier than I thought?" One of them said as if giddy with excitement.

"Ok, we have some questions," Said one of the Tigers who wore Magician-like attire.

"Ah, so you're the leader?" I asked as I pulled myself off the ground, not minding the extra weight holding onto my arms and legs. My Strength stat was much to high to hold down that easily. "Well, this strategy would certainly work if I was a mere Assassin Mage," I told them, as I looked down at the one holding onto my left arm, and trying to pull me back down by my shirt. He was clearly surprised by how effortlessly I resisted him, but he was getting annoying. "Hey, you're gonna tear my shirt like that," I said as I raised my hand to grab his face, and crushed his skull.

"Huh. Guess his Vitality was pretty low," I said. Despite the goreish scene, my hands were perfectly clean

"W-what the hell?!" The leader said, as he aimed his wand at me, and began constructing an already familiar spell.

"Now now, pointing that thing at people is dangerous," I said, as he brought up my right arm, pulling the goon holding onto it in the path of the high-pressure water-bolt spell the mage used, moments before it activated. The goon wasn't killed, but received quite a lot of damage from that. Still, he was pretty heavy, so I ended up using Blood magic to keep my balance.

"See what I said?"

"W-we only want want some answers," The mage repeated.

"I see, I see. But you know, I don't really like to give confidential information on my clients," I said casually, as I used Wind Blades to finish off the man who was still holding onto my right arm. Dude had a monster grip, even when in pain.

Watching their tank collapse to the ground in a single hit by me, it looked like the other two holding my legs understood that they couldn't do much else. So they let go, and turned to try and run away.

"Tsk tsk," I looked at the two as they ran passed their Mage leader, but they didn't make it far before exploding. Their magic resistance and vitality was far to low to even resist my Blood Bomb, let alone survive it.

"You didn't run, huh?" I asked with raised eye brows, and an amused grin.

"You already have me cornered," He said with a sigh.

"Oh?" Don't tell me—Come to think of it, that human mage could also detect my magic, more-or-less. I assumed she could sense its activation, but maybe she actually had Aether Perception?

According to Sophi, Players entering the game won't be able to understand English, or any other language really. The only thing they'll be able to understand is the native language of their home region. It's like part of their mind is separated from the rest of it, for the purpose of immersion. That said, learning new languages will be quite easy. But upon leaving the world, language-related knowledge practically disappears, because that knowledge is actually stored within their character profile.

For that reason, Players shouldn't find anything weird when there's words from real-world languages laying around.

So I can't imagine players easily making the connection between Aether, and what it meant in ancient Greek. Unless—video recording of game play? Would that retain the original audio without "translating" what a player heard into what he understood?

Maybe I'll ask Toren.

Still, learning what Aether means wouldn't mean anything in of itself. It's just another name for "mana", or "magic power".

But it's not so strange that a Player learned about Aether Perception on their own though. And then what? They spread the knowledge on the forums?

That's no fun.

Maybe I'll ask—"Now what do you mean by that?" I asked with an innocent smile.

"I can feel the mist in the air—its moving unnaturally. You have me in some kind of web," He said, as he reached out—and sure enough, ultra thin string of flying blood flayed away flesh from his arm.

Looks like I worried for nothing—his high affinity for Water magic probably allowed them to sense my "web".

This was a highly inefficient spell I made for fun—I can't really hold it up for long, and it's really only good for restraining a small group of people. Still, I haven't really had a chance to test this spell, and I doubt I'd have a better chance than now.

"Well then—how about you come with me?" I asked with a smile, as my web tightly captured my target.

"Where are we going?" He asked a bit nervously. Surely he wasn't scared for his life—but I doubt he wants to lose any EXP or have his items looted.

"Hmm, it's a secret—"

Author Notes:

I was thinking of restricting my schedule to only posting chapters on Thursday, but I actually finished this chapter LAST Thursday, and have kept it in waiting for long enough. Figure I'll post it before I change my mind and rewrite the whole thing. Started working on Chapter 14 too.

Figure I'll plug this: I'm also working on another story called I'm a Kitsune? if anyone is interested in a story I have even less direction for. Chapters are shorter. Who knows if/when I'll drop it though.

As always, Feedback and Suggestions are always appreciated and encouraged.