The rest of the day went fairly smoothly, and we managed to collect all 5 of the Soul Shards that I needed to complete old man Kerr’s Quest. Once we had enough Soul Shards to complete the Quest we decided to hunt some more toads and collect some extra Soul Shards in the hopes of being able to get an extra reward from Kerr or use them myself once I finally unlocked my Core Creation Skill.

We had also run into a rather disturbing new monster that resembled a giant leech that could spit either acid or poison at you depending on whether it was had green markings or yellow markings. Thankfully these creatures were pretty easy to defeat because I could use my lightning magic to electrify the swamp water which fried them pretty quick. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to obtain any loot from them because we decided that it was too dangerous to enter the water now that it was full of acid and poison, not to mention any monsters that might be hiding nearby.

None of us had reached the next tier for our Soul Cores but Kelly and Warren had both reached Level 4 and Katy had reached Level 5 which seemed like fairly good progress to me. Katy had decided to get the Fletching and Woodworking Skills which would allow her to make specialised arrows like the ones that she had used against the croc earlier as well as weapons like bows and staves which both seemed like pretty good choices to me since Fletching was specifically useful for her and Woodworking could be used to help make things that just about everyone else in the party used like staffs or weapon hafts.

Having decided that we were done for the day we started to head back to town.

“So, you’re back at work tomorrow, right?” Warren asked while we were working along the road.

“Tomorrow in the real world yes,” I agreed. “But I’ll still be playing when I finish work.”

“Well I hope that you get that job with Gransoft,” Kelly chuckled. “It doesn’t sound like you’re looking forward to going back to work.”

“Not really,” I sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with the people that I work with or even most of the customers, but I’m just not really cut out for retail.”

“True, you’re way too awkward for dealing with large numbers of customers,” Warren agreed. “I’m actually surprised that you’re still working there. You’ve been complaining about it for years.”

“Well it’s not like I really have any skills other than playing games,” I pointed out. “I mean, I could’ve gone back to school, but I’d have to rely on my parents even more if I did that. Besides Reggie and Diane have taken good care of me over the years.”

Reggie and Diane were the owners of the shop where I worked. As one of the few shops left in the city that still used real people to stock their shelves and work the tills, they both treated their staff very well. Business wasn’t doing as well as it could be these days which was why I was struggling financially at the moment but that wasn’t their fault.

“That’s true,” Kelly nodded. “But your life would definitely easier if you could get the job that Gransoft offered you.”

“Of course, it would,” I nodded. “But I have to get the job first.”

“You will,” Katy said firmly, and my friends nodded in agreement. “We all believe that you can do it and you should too.”

“Thanks Katy,” I said to my companion with a smile.

Warren and Kelly glanced at each other and Kelly sighed.

“Fine,” she snapped making my burly friend smirk triumphantly. “I’ll ask him then. Zeke why did you decide to name Katy after your sister?”

I sighed sadly as everyone turned to look at me curiously. I didn’t really want to talk about this but answering this question was something that I was going to have to do at some point. Katy especially deserved an answer to this question.

“I honestly don’t know for certain,” I sighed. “As you both know my sister died a couple of days after she was born due to some rare medical complications so it’s not like Katy’s personality or looks could remind me of her or anything.”

“Wait, what sort of medical complication?” Katy asked. “Aren’t those incredibly rare these days?”

“Wait, why don’t you already know?” I asked looking at my companion in confusion. “I thought you knew everything about me?”

“Not everything,” Katy replied quickly. “I do have access to some of your personal information because I’m your AI. But I can’t access medical records like that unless they’re yours.”

“Ah, that makes sense actually,” I muttered as I realised that I had just asked a stupid question. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to access my sister’s medical files.

“Anyway, you’re absolutely right Katy,” I told my AI companion as I felt the familiar weight of depression slowly press down on my body. “The chances of a baby that young dying these days is about one in 2 million worldwide and about one in five or six million in the richer countries.”

Medical technology had come a long way in the past 30 years and now there were even treatments for the majority of genetic problems that can cause babies to be stillborn. There were still some people who refused to get the treatment for genetic issues for religious reasons of course but even then, the annual infant death rate was in the single figures in rich countries like America.

“So, what happened?” Katy asked as she placed a comforting hand on my shoulder.

“Mum was in an accident while she was pregnant,” I told her. “Some idiot was using the manual controls on his car and hit her at high speed while she was driving. Mum wasn’t injured thanks to the car’s safety features but that didn’t stop Katy being rattled around way too much in the womb. The accident only happened a couple of weeks before she was due, and the doctors were hoping that they would be able to save her. They were wrong.”

I could feel the tears forming in my eyes as I recalled my sister breathing her last breaths. Her tiny body hadn’t looked any different from any healthy baby but inside her body was a different story. The accident had jolted her enough that not only had her brain hit the inside of her skull causing serious damage, but she was also paralysed from the waist down. My mother had almost been destroyed by the guilt of what had happened. Something that not even the idiot who had caused the accident being jailed had been able to fix and had tried to take her own life several times over the following months.

I ended up dropping out of school to help take care of her and things basically went even further downhill from there. My mother was basically bedridden, so I had to do everything around the house like I had while mum was pregnant but this time, I was also dealing with my own depression from what had happened. As time passed, I lost contact with all of my friends from high school and mum wasn’t getting any better, dad was working almost constantly which didn’t help matters much.

Several months later my mother finally started leaving her room to eat but it took a couple more months for her to start leaving the house to do things like going to the supermarket. And it took even longer to get her to go to her therapist whom I had also started going to see because of my own depression which had been getting steadily worse. It was the therapist who recommended that I started using VR games to further my recovery in the hopes that I would start to make new friends.

My father took some convincing because of how expensive VR Rigs back then but my mother and the therapist eventually convinced him that it was the right thing to do. So, he ended up buying me what was then a state-of-the-art VR Rig. The same VR Rig that was in my room right now.

A few months later I met Julian and Sarah in a game, and they took me under their wing. I still didn’t have a lot of friends today, but I’d rather have two great friends like them than a bunch of friends that I wasn’t as close with.

It took over a year before I had recovered enough to go out and get a job and not long after that I moved out of my parent’s. Eventually I got good enough that I could make enough money to help support myself by selling stuff in games.

Then I heard about this strangely expensive new game being made called Soul Core Online and decided to save up and buy it which led to Katy obtaining the personality that she had.

“Okay, so that explains what happened to you and your family but why did you name me after your sister? Katy asked once I had finished explaining everything to her.

“Well, I guess you just reminded me of the way I had imagined my sister would be when mum was pregnant,” I replied after thinking about it for a few seconds. “I’m sorry I don’t really have a better answer than that.”

“You’re right, that’s not a very good answer,” Kelly said as she put a hand on my arm. “But I think that I understand what you mean.”

“I suppose it does make a certain amount of sense,” Warren chuckled.

As soon as he finished speaking Katy threw her arms around me and I froze like a deer in the headlights as my general dislike of close contact warred with my understanding that Katy would never harm me.

“I’m sorry that all of that happened to you,” she told me gently. “And I want you to know that you will never have to go through that alone ever again.”

“Thanks Katy,” I said as I reached up with trembling arms and hugged her back while my other two friends looked on with smiles on their faces. It had taken months before Kelly could give me a hug without me having a minor panic attack back when we had met. Thanks to me barely leaving the house while my mother was suffering from depression, I reached the point where I just couldn’t handle being around anyone for any real length of time and even now, I did my best to avoid physical contact.

Once Katy finally let go of me, we continued on our way back to Ponson and about an hour later we had arrived back at the gates of the town. I had half expected things to be awkward between the four of u on the way back but as I turned out Warren and Kelly were quite happy to accept the explanation that I had given them and Katy didn’t think any less of me after learning more about my personal issues.

“Right it’s pretty late,” Kelly said. “Should we head back to the inn for now and do everything else tomorrow?”

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. I did kind of want to complete Kerr’s Quest and ask him if he could teach me Core Creation, but I had a feeling that he wouldn’t be particularly happy to see me this late.

So, we headed back to the inn and had some dinner before going up to our rooms and logged out.

Opening my eyes with a sigh I clambered out of my VR Rig and threw some pants and a hoodie on before staggering out of my room to grab something to eat. As I ate, I decided to check my emails and found one waiting from Reggie who was checking to make sure that I would be at work tomorrow.

I quickly typed out a response and sent it while I was eating before popping to the toilet and then heading back to my room and logging back into the game. Once I was back in-game I fell asleep.

The next morning, I got up and went downstairs where I found everyone else waiting for me at our usual table.

“Morning sleepyhead,” Warren chuckled as I wandered over. “We bought you some breakfast, so eat up we have places to be.”

“Thanks man,” I sighed as I sat down and picked up the cup of coffee that was waiting for me before turning towards Fern and Evie who were watching e with mildly amused expressions on their faces. “And how are you two today?”

“I’m good thanks boss,” Fern chuckled. “Sounds like you guys had a productive day yesterday.”

“Yeah, Kelly and Warren are basically caught up to your Level now,” I nodded. “And we have the Core Shards that we need to complete the first part of the Quest that Kerr gave me and then some.”

“Well that’s good,” Evie said with a small smile before looking away with a sigh.

“Is something wrong Evie?” I asked with a frown. The only times that I had seen the petit blonde without a smile on her face were during combat and when something that annoyed her had happened recently, so this seemed odd to me.

“It’s nothing,” she sighed. “Just some family stuff.”

“Well okay then” I shrugged. If she didn’t want to talk about it then I wasn’t going to pry. I just hoped that whatever the issues that she was having were they wouldn’t affect her ability to play with us.

“Right, so what’s the plan for today?” Fern asked once I had finished eating my breakfast.

“Well, we need to offload the loot from yesterday and then Zeke should complete that Quest of his so that he can ask Kerr to teach him how to use his Crafting Skill,” Kelly said.

“Okay, so how long do you think it will take to learn how to make new Soul Cores Zeke?” Fern asked as she turned back towards me.

“Not a clue but I’d go ahead and make plans for what you guys are going to do for at least a few hours,” I replied. “Because I’m planning on making some new Soul Cores with the Soul Shards that I have.”

“That would be useful,” Warren nodded. “I noticed that Soul Cores are pretty expensive. Well, unless you’re buying a weapon which is kind of weird.”

“That is weird,” I agreed. “But I would like to point out that a weapon isn’t very useful in this game if you don’t have a Soul Core to give you related Skills and Stats. But if it makes you feel any better, I’ll make sure to ask Kerr why that is the case.”

“That would be great,” Warren chuckled. “I mean, I’m not complaining about being able to get a Soul Core for a weapon without having to shell out even more money. It just seems odd.”

“How about we all go and sell the loot while you go and see Kerr then?” Kelly asked. “It would save us a bit of time.”

“Sounds good, feel free to use the money that you get to buy some new gear as well,” I agreed. “Warren needs some more armour as soon as possible. Some accessories that increase Spirit might be a good idea for Evie and Kelly as well.”

“As much as I’d like some more gear as well, I agree with Zeke,” Fern said giving me a wry smile. “Making sure our Tank and Healer are properly equipped should take priority.”

Sorry Fern,” I chuckled. “Don’t worry you’ll get your turn soon enough.”

“Alright and what are we going to do after we’ve done that?” Kelly asked.

“Well I suppose that depends how long it takes me to learn how to create Soul Cores,” I said. “But you guys could always go and do some simple Quests or go and learn how to use your own Crafting Skills.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” Katy agreed. “I’d quite like to learn how to use my Crafting Skills.

“Well how about this then,” Kelly suggested to me. “You, Evie, Katy and Fern can go and learn one of your Crafting Skills while Warren and I go and do some Quests. Hopefully we’ll reach Level 5 as well and then if we have time we can go and do another Quest together.”

“That sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “I’m sure all of you can work out what Crafting Skill you want to learn today by yourselves.”

Having made our plans, we all made our way out of the inn and went our separate ways. Once I arrived at Kerr’s shop and stood outside for a couple of minutes. I had dealt with characters like Kerr before in other games, but they had all had scripted responses and I was able to get them to help me out multiple times. If I messed up this time, then I would have to find someone else to teach me Core Creation.

Eventually I sucked it up and entered the shop. To my surprise I found Kerr actually dealing with a customer once I was inside. I was guessing that the customer, a young man with long blonde hair that he had tied up in a ponytail was an outsider like me because they were still wearing the same grey tunic that we all had when we started.

“Hmph, so your back then?” Kerr snorted when he spotted me. “Just wait a minute, I’ll be done with this customer shortly.”

I nodded in agreement and waited patiently until they were done at which time Kerr turned towards me.

“So, did you complete the Quest that I gave you?”

“Yes sir,” I replied quickly as the Soul Shards that he had requested appeared in my hands. “Where should I put them?”

“Hmph, well done I guess,” Kerr snorted, and a screen appeared in front of me.

Quest Completed!

Kerr’s helper- Part 1

(Uncommon Ranked Chain Quest)

You have successfully retrieved the Javelin Toad Soul Shards for Kerr. Speak to him to unlock the next part of the Quest.

Rewards

150 Experience. Basic Lightning Magic Soul Core. Core Creation training. Access to next part of the Quest.

I blinked in surprise as I read the rewards for completing the Quest and looked up to see Kerr glaring at me.

“Are you done kid?” he grumbled.

“Uh, sorry,” I stammered.’ I was just surprised to see that one of the Quest rewards was you teaching me Core Creation.”

“Hmph, what exactly did you think I was going to do with those Soul Shards?” the old man grumbled. “They’re way too common to be worth my time.”

“Then why did you want me to get them?” I asked in confusion.

“Because we’re going to be using them for your training you dolt!” Kerr snapped angrily.

“Ah, of course,” I sighed as I placed my hand over my face. “Are you going to be selling them when I’m done?”

“Well I do need more basic Soul Cores,” Kerr admitted. “But I doubt that you’ll be able to make a Soul Core of a high enough quality for me to sell it on your first try. I suppose it is possible, but I was planning on letting you keep the Cores that you make this time, and have you make some better ones that are good enough to sell.”

“That’s very generous of you,” I told the old man politely.

“I don’t need you to kiss my ass kid,” he grumbled but I caught a glimpse of a smile quickly cross his face. “Now follow me and we can get started.”