Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Voice finally completed the librarian’s quest. He learned a language, and read a book in Ancient Elven. He was transported to a world full of books. He completed the task there and got a spell that helped him regenerate.

He was surprised to see Susan, Evan, and Elizabeth crying. Even the librarian was here, and she looked a bit somber.

“Guys? What’s all the crying about?”

They gave a collective gasp as he spoke. The first one able to respond was the librarian.

“We thought you had been killed, well not killed but doomed to die.”

I guess the enchanter story was a warning. Fuck!

“Don’t worry guys, I’m f”

As he tried to reassure the group he was fiercely hugged by Susan, quickly followed by Evan and Elizabeth.

Now that the sexual harassment is over…

“How long was I like that?” Voice wasn’t sure how long he could spend there.

Susan cried out, hugging Voice again. She told him.

Voice was dumbstruck. He didn’t believe what Susan just told him. Today was the tenth day that he had been here. Time must have sped up substantially. How did his mind withstand that? He needed to log out immediately.

He reassured the group he would be back soon and logged out.

He looked at the clock in his room. It displayed the time and date. It said the time was 10 am, but it was two days after he had gotten the pod.

Shit! Reading those books took way too long, it doesn’t matter how much exp I got for auto read.

He went to greet his mother. She gave him a big hug.

She had a very sweet voice. “Geez, if you are going to be on all day at least shower!”

He realized he did have a bit of a smell. He would take a shower after spending some time with his mom.

“There’s been something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

Uh, oh Brenton thought.

“I’m going with your aunt out of country for a while!” Seeing how he was confused she continued, “I’ve made sure all the bills will be paid so you don’t need to worry about anything. It’s a business trip, but still!” His mom was way too excited for him to ruin her mood.

“Uh, when will you be back?” Brenton had never spent more than a few days away from his mom at time. It wasn’t a stretch to say he was a momma’s boy.

That was actually one of the reasons he was so hateful.

//

His father had left when he was four years old. After a fight about something. His dad wasn’t physically abusive, but emotionally he was swine. They lived in a small town in California, so everyone knew just about everyone else.

A couple of years after his father left, his mother tried to get back into the dating scene. Brenton was happy for her. Sure he didn’t want to share his perfect, loving mother, but if it made her happy then he was content.

That guy turned out to be a jerk. He brought Brenton to a baseball game once. Brenton was happy to go see the game, even though he had no real interest in sports. He really wanted to get along with this man so that they could be a happy family. When they were seated Brenton realized he needed to pee. The man sighed a little and got up to go with him.

Brenton gave him his best smile and said,

“That’s ok, I am big enough to go by myself. At least one of us should enjoy the game.”

The man gave a slightly approving grunt.

When Brenton got back he was amazed at what he saw. His mom was out of town for the day, but right there she was kissing her boyfriend. Brenton took a photo of it as commemoration. As well as ammo for teasing his mom.

As he got closer he realized the long brown hair of his mother was slightly blonder than usual. Then he noticed it was shorter.

Maybe she went to a hair stylist?

Brenton knew it wasn’t true, but tried to deceive himself into thinking that.

He got to his row, and his mother’s boyfriend noticed him. He immediately disengaged from the blonde.

Through the rest of the game the man pretended nothing happened, so did Brenton. The day his mother returned she took him aside and talked to him.

“Sweetie, I know it’s been just me and you for a while now, but how about we add one more person to the family?” She asked in her sweet as usual tone.

Brenton began to cry. Not for her asking, but because he knew what he was about to do would hurt her. She tried to comfort him, but he only got his phone out and showed her the picture he had taken. She knew when that picture was taken, but didn’t want to think her boyfriend would do this.

But since I know my son would never lie to me I have no choice but to accept it.

“Mom, I’m s-sending this picture to you. You should talk to him. If you are ok with his excuse then I’m fine with him moving in.”

After receiving the picture she did just that. She wasn’t waiting for an excuse though. As soon as he started to try to lie his way out of it she kicked him out.

The next day he came back and vented his anger all over their house. Brenton was alone, so he called the police. As the dragged him away he locked eyes with Brenton who was looking out of the window.

After that it was a depressing string of failed romances on his mother’s part. She basically started to rely on Brenton to determine how far in the relationship she should be willing to go. He would almost always get some sort of dirt on whoever she dated.

The ones he didn’t get dirt on he happily signed off on. Those all ended up in failure because of one thing or another.

Brenton and his mom moved around a bit. In the fifteen years since her divorce with Brenton’s dad, she had eight boyfriends, and had move three times.

Brenton never complained. But his breaking point was the last boyfriend she had.

He was a well to do kind of person. He was very suave, and had impeccable manners. He even played with Brenton, although Brenton was a sophomore in high school at the time. So instead of playing it was more like martial arts training.

He was pretty good at it, but quit once he noticed the truth. The man’s name was Paul. He had been physically abusing Brenton’s mom for a while. Brenton never noticed, but that was because his mother tried so hard to hide it.

The tipping point was one random night. Brenton heard a loud crash upstairs. He ran up there with a baseball bat. He saw Paul trying to force himself on Brenton’s mom. Brenton lost all semblance of sanity and beat Paul until he was dragged off by his mother.

That night Brenton forced his mother to call the police and tell them what had been happening. She told them the whole story and they went to investigate.

She had never told any of this to Brenton. When he asked her why her response torn his heart out.

“It was because you liked him so much.”

The next day the police arrived and handcuffed Brenton. Paul was suing him for assault.

They went to court. The case against Paul was dismissed as a way to get her son out of trouble.

Benton had to spend a few weeks in the juvenile home for delinquent children. For one reason or another he had a reputation as a badass there. Since Paul was one of the most powerful men in the city they lived in, beating him with a bat was something akin to showing a kindergartener a live superhero.

He was bailed out by his mother. She didn’t want him spending any time in there, but had to get a few loans to bail him out. Brenton got a job as a grocery clerk to help pay the loans. They were a hefty forty thousand.

Even for assault that’s way too much man.

He worked harder than anyone else in the store. He worked longer than anyone else in the store. He worked cheaper than anyone else in the store.

After a few months his manager even suggested a promotion to assistant manager. He would have to work full time, but they could pay off the loan very quickly.

The next day Brenton saw a man in a suit talking to his manager. Later that day he was called in to the manager’s office. The manager had two shady looking police officers standing by him.

“Do you know why I called you in here?”

“No sir, is it about the promotion?”

“Very funny smart ass. You are fired for theft of property. You stole a fifty dollar bottle of wine two days ago. I saw you do it. Now leave the premises.”

Brenton was flabbergasted. “But sir, I’ve never stolen anything in my life.”

“You either leave now or these two gentlemen will escort you to the cell they have prepared. You’re lucky I’m not suing you. If the cameras hadn’t malfunctioned at that three minute interval I would be.” The manager smiled as he patted his pocket. It had a square bulge, much like one that money would make.

Voice left dejectedly. The next few months were the same. He’d get a job, start to get recognition, and get fired. Eventually he started slacking off a little so that he wouldn’t be fired. That too got him fired.

That would have all been ok, if the all of the people in the city didn’t have some sort of horrid sense of humor. They thought what was happening to him and his mom was funny. They would openly jeer at them, and go out of their way to make trouble for his mom and him.

After they paid off the loan it had been two years. They both were worn out. They once again moved. This time his mother had contacted his father’s sister.

She was a very cheerful person apparently. Brenton had never met her. They moved into a small house given to them by his aunt. He only met his aunt twice, as she was excessively busy. Once when she was leaving his house at 7 in the morning, and another time that his friends from college had tricked him into getting drunk.

He didn’t really any firm impressions of her, except that she was nice. She had given his mom a very nice house, as well as a job to work at.

It was rare that Brenton thought she was nice. He actually thought she had ulterior motives for the first year, but she never asked for anything in return. He thought something shady was going on for a while, but he asked his mom directly after checking on her for a few weeks.

He hadn’t found anything, and she said no. She was a little sad that he still didn’t trust her after the Paul incident, but it was her fault after all. Brenton apologized so much, so quickly that his mom almost burst out laughing at her frantic son.

//

“I’ll be back in about a month. Don’t worry darling, if I meet another man you can check him okay?”

It was a joke she had come up with a while ago. Brenton seemed distrustful of everyone but her and his aunt at this point. That was why his mother arranged for him to get a DIVE pod.

Maybe he can get some positive human interaction for once.

Brenton noticed the three suitcases on the floor. He sighed and hugged his mom. She gently hugged him back before pushing him away and saying:

“Bath mister, now!”

He went to take a shower, knowing that his mom would be gone when he returned.

After finishing his shower he noticed his mother was indeed gone. Business trip or not, he would be very sad to not have her around.

He noticed the fridge was stocked with food to the brim. He opened the freezer. It had a lot of frozen chicken.

The best thing he could cook was chicken and rice. It was very similar to the dinner box hamburger hand. It was actually where he got the idea. After a little experimenting he got quite good at cooking it.

Unfortunately he didn’t have a wide variety of things he could cook well.

He cooked his imitation chicken and rice. It only took about fifteen minutes. He always made two portions, so he cooked too much. He was reminded that his mother was gone. With a sad expression he put the left overs in the fridge, washed the dishes and got back into the pod.

The pod seemed like it was just taken out of the box, even though he stunk and figured he must have been sweating a lot. When he got in the pod he realized it had a very cool temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

He started the game.

It had been about six hours since Voice left. Everyone was worried at first, when he suddenly disappeared. Susan explained to them his situation. He was one of the first five outsiders that the goddess had spoken about.

He reappeared in the room where he had left. Evan, Elizabeth, and Lydia, were surprised when he reappeared. Susan told them they would, but they were still caught off guard.

Lydia started speaking. “So, I don’t think it did but, did the book I lent you have anything to do with your episode earlier?”

Voice decided to be truthful. “Yeah, I got transported to the realm of Hermit Mirror.”

Lydia was taken aback. “You mean you could actually read that thing?”

Voice confused. “Yeah, what do you mean?”

“Well it was written in the Ancient Elven, the translator book I gave you. Er… I meant the book you had to put up. Oh whatever. I gave you the book that would translate it, but the book only lets those that it wants read it.”

“Wait, so the book is sentient!?”

Lydia chuckled. “Yeah, that’s why it’s so rare for people to read it. You are the only person I’ve actually met that could read it. It seems to have some requirements to read it. The last person able to read it was an enchanter.”

Voice dubiously asked, “Did he happen to slaughter his whole town, and build a golem army?”

“YES! How did you know that!?” Lydia basically screamed at Voice.

“It was in a book I read inside that realm.”

“What else did you read?

“Like eight other stories.” He summarized the other stories.

Lydia’s mouth was agape after hearing the stories.

“Those… those are the other six people that have read this book! Although I have never heard about the knight or the man from the other world. I guess they were probably read it.”

Voice asked her how she knew this.

“I always liked to study the rare books in my possession. This one is said to drive the reader to the brink of insanity, but also grant vast power.”

Voice decided to keep the book. “How much?”

Lydia asked “What? How much? For the book?”

Voice nodded.

“I can’t sell that. I… Do you know how much that cost me!?”

Geez she sounds like she thinks she’s my mom. Did I just brake a vase or something?

“Fine,” Voice was annoyed but kept his tone calm. After all everything can be solved with quests! (Voice’s conclusion with zero evidence) “Alright, how about I do a quest for it? Name it and it will be done.”

Lydia was loathe to part with the book. Sure this person was a close friend to Susan, but he didn’t really seem like he would appreciate it enough.

“Get me a book I’ve never read, then you can have it.”

Voice pondered how to do this. He only came up with one solution. He had to return Mirror’s Realm. Seeing as this was the only library/bookstore in town that was the only reasonable way.

“Well I’m going training then. I’ll be back soon.”

Everyone was surprised at the sudden declaration.

Susan took the initiative. “What do you mean training?”

Voice explained his plan to train the rabbits, and maybe get some new ones on the way.

Susan was positively beaming.

“So does that mean you’ll stay a little while longer?” Susan asked with an upturned gaze that reminded him of when his pleaded for him to do something.

He couldn’t resist the smile that came to his face. “Yeah, that means I’ll stay a little longer.”

Susan was ecstatic. Not only would she be able to finish her gift, she would get to spend more time with the person that taught her about chemistry.

Voice asked for a few books on history. Strangely Lydia had several. He borrowed them from her, not with his card, just from her.

“Are you a bibliophile or something?” Voice asked in an amused tone.

Lydia looked very happy at being called that.

Weirdo

He also took a few bandages from Susan’s stock for the fight ahead.

It was six pm, but Voice wanted to get in a little training before he slept. He grabbed a few bandages and left. He walked to the forests on the west side of the city, followed closely by his rabbits.

Voice went into the plains and collected vegetables for about half an hour. Once he had a nice stock of carrots and radishes he looked for a few more rabbits to tame. Once he called out tame and indicated the rabbit he wanted hunt he got the message.

You can only tame up to three of the same archetype of animal.

Well that’s a letdown. Looks like the only way to grow my army is to recruit new species.

Voice and his trio went to the forest to train. At this point he didn’t really care about what he killed, be it monster or animal. But since he knew the weakness of the demon wolves he decided to go with them.

Once again Rabs went into the forest to lure out some wolves. This time Voice told him to only get one or two.

When Rabs came running back he yelled, “I’M SORRY!”

He was followed by five demon wolves.

Troy instantly took his stance. He was knocked to the side by two wolves chasing after Rabs. Rabs ran towards the city wall. His tamer had told him that if things got really bad to do that.

Heather jumped towards one of the wolves and managed to kick its face. The kick left no visible damage. As she kicked one of the three wolves aimed at Voice’s throat.

Voice tried to deflect the attack with his staff, but he only managed to divert a portion of the damage. He took a whopping 35 points of damage.

Voice didn’t have any potions. He had a few common weed, and four green healing herbs, but he was saving them for planting when he finally got a base of operations. He would not use them under any circumstances. He had hidden them in the room Susan lent him.

He didn’t want to use the boon thing, so he hit the wolf with all of his might. His strength wasn’t that much, but it managed to loosen the wolf’s jaw.

He quickly pulled the wolf off him and threw it into its friends. Voice couldn’t actually throw it the few feet he needed to, but he did manage to toss it a little ways.

Before the wolf hit the ground it was already preparing to strike again.

When the wolves burst out Troy was knocked to the side. He got up to notice Voice taking on one, and the other two baring their fangs and surrounding Heather. He went to help Heather.

Troy was supposed to be the one to take the danger. Since Heather had very weak defense he would aid her. He used his usual aura of intimidation. It wasn’t very intimidating, but the bigger monsters found it annoying that he would bare his fangs at them. This usually led to him being attacked. He bared his little bunny teeth, and was promptly swatted by one of the wolves.

Heather saw the five wolves run from the forest. She jumped up at one, intending on kicking out one of its eyes. She managed to kick its face but it didn’t even pretend to feel the light rabbit kick. After she landed the wolf was snarling at her, and pounced her.

Troy came in just in time to take the agro. He jumped in front of her and the wolf changed its target. The wolf was a centimeter away from chomping off Troy’s head, when it suddenly stopped.

Voice somehow intuitively knew where the wolf would strike. He aimed his staff at the exact location he thought would stop the wolf. He got a notification, but since he was in battle he only got a red dot on the bottom left of his eyesight for a second.

At the exact moment when he blocked the first wolf, another came behind him and thrashed his back. Pain exploded from the contact. He arched his back to help alleviate some of the pain, but it did nothing. The only thing he could do was scream. He screamed, not just with agony, but with anger. His level was in danger. He only had 15 hp left!

His scream was so loud, and intense the wolves stood still for a moment. They seemed confused at the fact that this man-thing could release such a roar. It commanded respect and fear.

ARGH! Screw this! MIRROR’S BOON! He shouted the spell in his mind.

The image appeared. It looked exactly like him, except that it shone with an inner light, and gave off a dark aura. The wolves were stunned for one second. They saw the image and had an intuitive feeling that they needed to attack it first.

One wolf was caught by Troy’s agro ability. The other two charged the apparition. As they charged it the wolf that had been kicked in the face gave a yowl of pain as it felt its left foreleg give way. Heather had bit down on it, hard.

The last wolf was met by Voice’s staff. It easily avoided the staff and tackled/ tore at the image. Voice felt pain wrack his entire body as the ‘boon’ was destroyed. He grabbed his head as he heard the single most ear piercing noise ring in his eardrums.

His health and stamina were restored by to about two thirds...

Since your Mirror’s Boon spell was dispelled before the completed time you receive only partial restoration. Your body has been affected by the recoil spell Demon’s Wrath.

ARGGHHHH

It would have been nice for someone to tell him that before he used it. Normally he would make a complaint, but he felt his mind slipping from him.

When the pain was over he noticed a large dust trail coming towards him from the city. The trail was huge, and it was approaching fast.

Voice wanted to warn the others, but two wolves attacked him. One was slightly weighted down by a blood sucking rabbit, and attacked his legs. The other was unencumbered, and jumped at his face while releasing a feral howl.

He knocked the wolf aiming for his face aside by hitting it in the head with his staff. Honestly he was aiming for a body blow to negate some part of the damage, but he was more than content with the outcome.

He took a little bit of damage from the wolf at his leg, but the worst part was he got a crippled notice. He speed was temporarily decreased by 80%, and any attacks or skills using legs would be useless.

He cursed his luck. His health had dropped back down to thirty points.

All the thing did was add a little more pain to an already unbearable situation.

The wolf was not going to let go of his leg, so he took the risk of the wolf dodging and stabbed at the back of his head. His staff was blunt but it would do at least a little stun damage.

It worked, and as soon as his staff connected, he saw that the thing causing the dust trail finally reveal itself. It was a very angry, very fast Rabs.

Voice knew he was angry because he plowed right into the wolf that Voice had smacked away. The wolf hit a tree twenty yards away, staggered into an uprate, though dazed, position. A creaking sound came from behind it. The entire group of combatants looked in that direction for a second. The tree he had hit was cracked in the trunk. It was as if an inept lumberjack was plying his trade.

The tree started falling towards the dazed wolf. By the time he realized what was happening it was too late. The tree fell down. With a loud crunching noise the combatants all knew what had happened.

They resumed their fight. It was now four against two. Or it would have been had Rabs not collapsed after his attack. Troy roared, a much more fearsome roar than what a bunny rabbit can make. Both wolves turned their attention to him, even Voice was surprised.

That was a mistake that will cost them.

Voice was receiving a small bleed damage effect. He needed to end this quickly. Voice hit the wolf closest to him in the back of the head. He stunned the beast, and kept hitting. Heather had let go seeing Voice take command of the killing. She felt a thirst for the other wolf’s blood. She jumped up, and caught the wolf’s tail in her mouth. She had the tail at the base, and her feet had happened to land on its hind quarters.

She did the only logical thing.

The wolf knew what was coming and went to kick and bite her off. He was too late.

When she got a firm grip on its tail, she jumped. Normally a rabbit could never tear the tail off of a demon wolf, but she felt a sudden surge of power and released it. The rabbit flew off the wolf with the tail in her mouth, and landed right next to Voice. The wolf’s howl of pain could be heard for quite a distance. As she turned around to admire her handy work, she felt a muzzle close over her.

Voice noticed what was about to happen and tried to do anticipate where the wolf would land. He felt a sudden drop in his magic. He had some sort of instinct telling him where to plant his staff. He followed it wondering what was happening.

No one kills my slaves!

He caught the wolf’s jaws, but the angle he had put his staff was slightly different than what his instincts told him.

I guess it’s not easy to follow your instincts perfectly.

The wolf he was mercilessly beating stood up. Heather was still in the jaws of the wolf, and Troy was too far away to help.

The beast was obviously wounded at this point. It had blood dripping from the area that Voice had repeatedly struck. The back of its head, the spot that got hit, was in complete shambles. You could see past the fur and skin. If you squinted you could even see the outline of the bone.

Troy roared, but the wolf ignored him. What happened next stopped Voice for a few moments.

The wolf said, in broken human: “I will never forget this. You…” He coughed up blood on the grass. “You will… regret…” a coughing fit took him. By now Troy was there but Voice motioned for him to be still.

“You... will… regret the day…” another cough of blood, “the day… the day you crossed paths with” The wolf fell over dead.

Voice found this very entertaining, but was worried since he felt no pressure on his staff. He looked to see Heather eating the stomach of the wolf that just tried to eat her. No not just eating it, eating her way out of it. Voice gave her a questioning look.

“Well the quickest way to get out of the situation of being eaten, was to get eaten. I didn’t want to die though, so I ate my way out.”

Voice once again thought to himself to never get Heather angry.

After the battle the loot was auto place into his inventory, by his rabbits that he told to collect the stuff.

He lay back on the grass a little ways from the forest, panting and bleeding. He used auto first aid.

He had forgotten this skill, AGAIN. He inwardly cursed himself, while at the same time asking the trio if the developed new skills during the fight.

Troy was the one that answered. “I don’t know about the others, but at one point during the fight I got the feeling that I could use the ability. It was right before Rabs came back. It seemed like some sort of roar ability.”

Heather agreed, she felt a surge of power when she was biting the wolf’s tail.

Rabs explained what had happened to him.

As he ran away, towards the city walls, two wolves were chasing him. When he reached the walls the sentries had started to fire on the wolves. The wolves were killed quickly, and since they were currently in combat with Rabs, Rabs’ party got a small exp boost for killing them. Even though they didn’t really do anything.

He had leveled up when they died. Rabs thought it was the same for the other two. When he got to level six he got the notice that he unlocked a new ability for his actions. He could quadruple his max running speed, but for five times the cost in stamina. Heather told him that she felt like she had twice as much physical power when she used hers. But her stamina drain had been about ten percent of her total stamina, and the effect only lasted for one attack.

Troy looked proud as he told them about his ability.

“I just copied what you did earlier. The roar thing. I put as much magic as I could into it, and let loose.” He was proud at having copied his master.

Voice remembered something like that happening. He looked at skill list. It hadn’t changed. The only thing he could think of was that it was an ability. He said, “Open ability window.”

Abilities WindowRoar of ParalysisInstinct

“Show ability: Roar of Paralysis.”

Roar of Paralysis

This ability allows the user to cause momentary paralysis to enemies that have a lower threat than the user.

As you use this ability it will: last longer, cost less stamina, and raise the enemy threat percentage that it effects.

Current Duration: 3 seconds

Current Stamina Cost: 50 stamina

Current Threat Percentage: 60%

Instinct

This ability allows the user to instinctively know the best place for a successful attack or block.

As you use this ability it will: last longer, cost less magic, and raise the amount of information you get.

Current Duration: 1 use

Current Stamina Cost: 100 magic

Current Information: Basic

He was pretty happy with the turn of events. He was a little sad that when he tried skill fusion it wouldn’t even register that he wanted to fuse either of the abilities. He decided to find some way to fuse abilities soon. It would give him a nice advantage over the other players. His sadness was also tempered by the fact that he was level six now, and had gained two str, and two end.

That wasn't really training, but oh well. I did get to kill stuff.

He went back to town and dumped the loot on Evan, gave the loot to Evan for free. He was hoping it would prove useful in the future to have done this.

(Author’s Note: I’m going to make a separate thread with all of his abilities and skills listed by chapters. It would add way too much to the size of the story to tack those on, since I think he might plan on either learning magic or abilities later. Don’t worry though I’ll cover them with a spoiler tag. xD)

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassAnimal TamerHealth160Mana180Stamina290Level6Current TitleBunny LoverHealth Regen/Sec1.3Mana Regen/Sec2.0Stamina Regen/Sec2.8Strength15Agility10Wisdom20Intelligence18Endurance28Dexterity25Luck10Vitality29Charisma11Compassion35Leadership36Logic12Piety10Fame370

Skills WindowIdentify Novice Level 9 Exp 15.56%Skill Fusion Novice Level 3 Exp 00.00%Identify Skill Novice Level 5 Exp 00.00%Herbology Novice Level 1 Exp 40.00%Gardening Novice Level 6 Exp 60.50%Plant Location Novice Level 2 Exp 50.00%Alchemy Novice Level 13 Exp 88.24%Planting Intuition Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Alchemical Fusion Novice Level 5 Exp 77.77%First Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 90.00%Deception Novice Level 3 Exp 82.50%Critical Strike Novice Level 6 Exp 75.00%Automated Novice Level 6 Exp 25.00%Auto Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 90.00%Alchemical Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Speed Reading Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Auto Read Novice Level 19 Exp 52.63%

Affinities WindowNature10