Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Voice went to learn magic at the Mage’s Guild. He solved a few riddles, summoned his light fairy, and failed at learning wind magic. He made a bet about fighting with Heather, and lost.

Days until Ether Realm Battle: 2

Also I’m really sorry this chapter took so long. I’ve been busy with work since Friday. I will try to speed up the releases again.

When Voice fell asleep he expected to immediately wake up. He always seemed to wake up immediately. The DIVE pod seemed to be able to make the user go into REM at any moment. Voice theorized that it was because you were partially asleep during gameplay.

But that is not what happened this time. This time he found himself in the field of wind again.

I just went to sleep, there is no way I could be back here. Hm, maybe this is a dream? But I’ve never had dreams while in game before.

He noticed the familiar tornado. There were small differences from the one in the Mage’s Guild plains though. This one had the occasional rock floating around it, it also had large clouds raining down large globs of water. Fire broke from the ground, only to be blown out of existence by the torrent. The center of the tornado gave off a feeling of vile decay, and pure rebirth.

With his interest piqued he walked towards it. The wind didn’t seem to push him away, but his body felt continuously heavier. Every step took more strength. Inside he noticed a familiar shape sitting in the middle of the vortex. The figure looked exactly like him. Except it shone with an inner light, and gave off a dark aura.

What the hell? Am I going crazy for playing this game so long?

The figure stood up and walked to Voice, only to be stopped by the vortex.

It threw its arms against the tornado, it seemed to roar in agony. None of the sounds it made escaped the wind. Voice watched the spectacle for several minutes. At times it even seemed as though the apparition would break through the field of wind, but it never did. Every time it hit the barrier some liquid that was a mix of black and white liquids would spew from the place that made contact. It was like the two liquids were like oil and water, and refused to fuse together.

After several more minutes it went back to the center of the vortex and sat down. It seemed to meditate. Voice took this opportunity to look around the plains. He noticed that the winds were still there, he just couldn’t feel them.

Well, since I don’t know how long I’ll be stuck here I might as well try to train the wind magic. Probably won’t work, but if it does I can gain something pretty good.

Voice tried to replicate what he had done earlier that day. Unfortunately he managed to replicate not only his methods, he also copied his results. Nothing happened but that didn’t get Voice down.

Voice remembered the feeling of the wind blowing against his hand. The feeling of the wind torrent pushing against his hand. The wind in the dream world started to replicate the feeling. He felt his hair being tousled by the streaks of current weaving through it. He felt the gentle breeze caressing his face.

I guess this really is a dream. Whatever I think can become real.

He felt the wind pushing against his fingertips, and go down his arm. He focused his memories on when the wind was pushing against his back. He extended his right arm, and felt the wind flow over his shoulder and down to his fingertips.

He could slightly alter the course of the wind by twisting his fingers and palm in certain ways. He started feeling the wind around him. He burned the feeling of the wind into his mind.

He continued feeling the wind on every part of his body. He would push the wind in different directions. He made sure to memorize every feeling on every part of his body. Before he knew eight hours had passed, and he awoke in Susan’s house. When he woke up he was startled to see a blue box.

The Goddess Mar has granted you entrance to her portion of the dream realm. Magic and health will not be deducted in this realm. No skills or spells will be added to your character while in this realm.

You may only reenter this realm with the invitation of Mar.

He woke his two pets, and went to the outskirts of town. Even if he mastered the spell he wouldn’t have enough health to put up a fight against Davros’ chosen.

Voice, Heather, and Boris went into the forest, eager to cast the shadow of death upon their foes. It took quite a while for the group to any wolves to hunt. There were other monsters, such as something that looked like a bear with a long tail, but the wolves seemed to be all gone. The entire time Sol was talking rapid pace to Voice. He told Voice all about what it was like to be a light fairy, how light fairies use magic, and other things. It seemed as though Sol loved to talk. It had a very bright and bubbly personality.

On the first monster they met, a bear, Voice tried using the wind spell. He remembered the feeling, but the dream realm didn’t let him take the actual spell into the real world. He pictured the wind forming around his body. He made himself remember every part of his body being pushed and pulled by the gust. Heather and Boris attacked the monster while Voice visualized his spell.

For some reason seeing them get clawed and bitten by the thing angered him more than what he would have thought. Sol was healing them as quickly as they got hurt, but the light around it was dimming. Voice thought that meant the healing abilities were probably lowering as well. He let the feeling of the wind build up around him. He sensed the change after only a few seconds. He could hear the wind pushing through the trees, and he felt a leaf fall on his shoulder.

He unleashed all of his mana to direct the wind at the monster. Heather and Boris instinctively knew what Voice was going to do, so the jumped back from the bear. Seeing this Voice pushed as hard as he could with the wind.

The result was lackluster to say the least. The bear was hit in the face with a gentle breeze, meanwhile Voice was completely out of mana.

For feeling the flow of mana in the wind, and creating wind without a written spell you have unlocked the secret class Force Mage. Would you like to become a Force Mage? If you decline you will not be able to unlock the class Force Mage.

Voice leaned against a nearby tree while Heather and Boris took the bear. He wanted to be a magic class since Brom told him he would get bonuses while using magic. At the same time he really liked having Boris as a pet.

He weighed the pros and cons of each.

It’d be pretty helpful if I actually knew the pros of becoming a Force Mage.

As he was thinking it over Heather and Boris had finished killing the bear. They were eating the meat as Sol sat in a sunny opening in the canopy, regaining his magic.

“Yes.” He figured he could just become an animal tamer, then monster tamer, again easily. Giving up something that said secret class would be a lot worse.

You have become a Force Mage.

Force Mage level 1

For using the power of your imagination to cause a spell you have unlocked the class Force Mage

You may use any magic that you can perfectly recreate.

You can no longer use magic designed by others except in special circumstances, this includes spells learned from spell books.

You can currently only use one type of force magic out of eight.

Types of force magic available:

Wind Magic

To unlock more types of magic you must perfectly imagine them.

The higher level your Force Mage class is the more control over force magic you have. At lower levels you will not be able to use force magic to be as precise as later levels.

This class increases in levels as you use force magic, and learn more types of force magic. You can recreate any magic that has been put into a magic book, but you must learn to do the magic by feeling and imagination.

Force Mages have the natural ability to see magical auras when they concentrate. For becoming a Force Mage you have gained the skill Aura Sight.

“Inspect: Aura Sight.”

Aura Sight

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%

This skill allows you to see magical auras from spells, or people.

This skill allows you to see rough estimates of magical auras. Every level increases the distance you can see magical auras by 1 foot. Every rank increases the amount of information you get.

You level this skill by looking at magical auras. Looking at two auras that are 98% or more identical will not gain exp.

Heather and Boris had finished killing the bear, so Voice decided to use skill fusion. First he used inspect to view all of his compatible skills. He couldn’t fuse his last unique skill, but he was hopeful about this one.

His results were satisfying. He gained two skills.

By fusing Aura Sight and Mana Affinity he got Mana Sight.

Mana Sight

Current Level: Novice Level 1 00.00%

This skill allows you to see the flow of mana.

This skill allows you to see rough estimates of the total mana in the world. Every level increases the distance you can see magical auras by 1 foot. Every rank increases the amount of information you get.

You level this skill by looking at mana. The more you watch mana the more exp you get for this skill.

By fusing Aura Sight with Deception he got Deceptive Aura.

Deceptive Aura

Current Level: Novice Level 1 00.00%

This skill automatically makes your aura harder to detect. Most of the time your aura will appear to be something other than the real one.

Every level of this skill increases the believability of the fake aura. Every rank of this skill gives the user more power to manually alter the deceptive aura.

You level this skill by making believable fake auras. The longer you have a fake aura the more exp you gain.

You have learned all of the required skills to upgrade the Group Skill: Inspect. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Inspect? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

Voice took a brief moment to think about it. It might be a bit of information overload as he would either fuse Aura Sight, Mana Sight, or both. He took the risk.

I mean it’s not like I will face more detriments.

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Inspect. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Inspect. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Inspect.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you look at enough auras to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

Inspect

Current Level: Novice Level 7 Exp 18.00%

This upgraded skill allows you to use the benefits from: Identify, Identify Compatible Skills, Identify Skill, Sense Potency, Automatic Sense Potency, Sense Skill Potency, Mana Sight, and Aura Sight.

You can inspect anything. The higher the level of Inspect the more information you gain on the thing inspected. You must be able to see the thing to inspect it.

To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill.

This skill can be toggled to automatic. If you wish to toggle this skill to automatic say: ‘Toggle skill Inspect to Automatic.’ To toggle skill to manual say: ‘Toggle skill Inspect to Manual.’

This skill has been upgraded to encompass more skills. The exp and level will not be adjusted, but the exp requirement will be.

Voice looked at the skill with a bit of shock. He had forgotten to toggle the thing on after he had turned it off. He had gotten the skill then almost completely forgot about it.

It seems I do that a lot. I should really work on that.

He also got a notice saying,

Skill Fusion has leveled up to level 4. More skills can now be fused.

He was confused why it would open up more skills at level four, but hey more skills meant good things for him.

He could only do two skill fusions. So he did. Critical Strike plus First Aid made Critical Aid.

Critical Aid

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%

This skill allows you to aid those in life threatening conditions, by multiplying the healing ability of your First Aid skill.

This skill will add the percentage amount, according to the level of Critical Strike, to your healing. You can only use this skill on those in extremely life threatening conditions.

You level this skill by giving first aid to those in critical conditions.

Automatic plus Alchemical Aid gave:

Automatic Alchemical Aid

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%

This passive skill will automatically use potions in your inventory to create alchemic bandages. This skill levels as Alchemical Aid levels.

This automatic skill works exactly like Alchemical Aid, only it does the action automatically.

You level this skill by fusing potions and bandages.

You have learned all of the required skills to obtain the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing. Would you like to exchange relevant skills for the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing? You can choose to fuse them at a later time. At that time say exchange relevant skills.

“Yes”

You have exchanged all relevant skills for the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing. All relevant skills have been taken from your skill list. The total accumulated experience has been added to the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing. The total level requirements have all been added to the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing.

As you level this skill all parts of it will level up. For instance if you create enough potions to level up, you will gain the benefits the other skills would have provided at that level. This skill takes more exp to level up to level two than all of the skills that make it up would.

“Inspect: Automatic Nursing.”

Automatic Nursing

Current Level: Novice Level 4 Exp 90.00%

This skill allows you to use the benefits from: First Aid, Automatic First Aid, Alchemical Aid, Critical Aid, and Automatic Alchemical Aid.

In accordance with the many automatic skills used to fuse this group skill, the Nursing skill has become automatic. Anytime you have potions you will fuse them with your bandages on hand. Any time on of your allies needs first aid, this skill will detect the severity of the wound and use bandages and first aid supplies as necessary.

In accordance with the many overlapping skills used to fuse this group skill, the Nursing skill has doubled the amount of exp gained. Anytime there is an exp gain with this skill, you will gain twice as much as normal.

To level this skill you must do an action that would be encompassed in one of the skills that were consumed to make this skill.

While the skill actually had more exp than any of his first aid skills, the only thoughts going through Voice’s mind were:

No. Wait a minute. Hold on. SHIT!

The fact that the Group Skill: Automatic Nursing, would use his materials without his consent was an abomination in his eyes. It should only do what he wanted. He was having none of that.

“Skill Disassemble: Group Skill: Automatic Nursing.”

You cannot disassemble Group Skills.

FUUUUUUUUCK!!!! Voice was fuming. For several minutes he quietly ranted. That is, until he saw a nearby bear. He didn’t know if it was a monster or not, but the fact that it wasn’t Boris was all he needed. He got up and rushed the bear. He vented his anger on the poor thing for a quarter of an hour. He took his time to break as much of the bear as he could without killing it. Voice sustained a long cut on his left arm, but that was healed by his damndable auto nursing. During the fight Sol had kept quiet. He didn’t even heal Voice seeing as his master healed himself; and seeing as he barely had the strength to float he was silent.

Voice sat back down, leaning on a nearby tree. He was covered in the bear’s blood, but he was far too deep into his brooding to notice.

He looked up to see what Boris and Heather were doing. He gave a start when he saw Boris so close to his face. The bear was sniffing his face. Voice froze up. He had forgotten that he just gave up being a monster tamer. The bear didn’t seem to recognize him. He licked Voice on the face. Voice tried not to scrunch up his face, but the disgust was too much. The bear seemed to lose interest. It started to walk away. Voice was relieved that he wouldn’t have to kill it. It would be a pretty bad battle for him after all.

Heather didn’t realize what was happening, and so went up to Boris. The bear roared at her. She got into a defensive position. When he continued to walk away Heather got a grin on her face.

Voice inwardly shouted. NO!

It was too late to do anything. Heather playfully chomped on Boris. Voice didn’t know Heather was so playful, but he knew she would regret it. She was too innocent to realize Boris was going to try to kill her. Boris roared and threw her off. He swiped a large paw down at her face.

Boris shouted. “DIE!”

While Voice was happy he could still understand the bear language, he was worried for Heather. He jumped up to attack Boris. Before he got there Boris managed to create two large claw marks down Heather’s left flank.

Heather still hadn’t realized what was happening. Boris had thrown her against a tree, then Voice came with his staff. She had been healed by Sol, and she watched as Boris tried to kill Voice. At first she thought he was just being way too energetic, but she started to understand something bad was happening.

Voice didn’t have his heavy armor, so he was trying to be extra careful. Boris swiped and clawed at Voice, but Voice managed to dodge the blows by swaying and directing the attacks with his staff. He felt a slight pang of regret at the thought of killing Boris. Boris had helped kill a lot wolves with Heather, which meant he had proven his worth to Voice. Boris managed to land a hit on Voice. Boris had swiped at him, but Voice directed his attack behind him. Boris saw this coming and had already kicked with his hind legs. He rammed Voice, throwing him into a nearby tree.

As Voice got up he thought, Geez. Fucking asshole coming up with a new attack pattern.

As Voice struggled to get up Heather had launched herself at Boris. She clamped her teeth down on a chunk of Boris’ fat, and kicked off of him with her strengthening ability. Boris howled as a large swath of muscle was exposed to the air. Blood gushed from the wound.

Voice was amazed at Heather. Not only could she sense the difference in Boris, she even went so far as to make sure to try to end him herself. Voice looked towards where she landed to give her a few words of kindness, only to be greeted by the sight of a blood stained rabbit eating bear meat.

“HEATHER! GET OVER HERE AND STOP HIM!” Heather dropped the meat and got back into the action. Voice took his anger out on Boris. He might have been useful in the past, but now he was just a hindrance to gaining power. Voice didn’t suffer hindrances to live.

Voice baited Boris’ attacks, but his attack pattern was different than before Voice had tamed him. Boris was bleeding profusely, but that didn’t seem to slow him down. He grabbed Heather as she jumped back at him. He bit down on her back, just as Voice stabbed at the back of Boris’ head with his staff. Boris was distracted for only a moment, but that was enough for Heather to use a jump kick to dislocate Boris’ jaw enough to get out.

Boris’ jaw loosened with a sickening snap. One side of his jaw was completely torn off, while the other only hung by a rope of gums and bone. Heather was obviously damaged, so Sol healed her up to max.

Sol had been watching the battle while flitting above the trio. It had gotten out of the sunny patch to view the surrounding area, but came back when it heard the commotion. Sol wanted to heal Boris, since Boris was a nice bear, but it didn’t. If Boris was attacking Voice, Sol would not heal him.

Voice and Heather made short work of Boris after that. Voice quickly figured out all of the new attacks Boris had, since they were only alterations or improvisations of the normal bear monster attacks. Boris didn’t even get one more hit on the two.

After Heather had ripped out Boris’ throat and started eating the bear she heard Voice sigh. She saw him sitting in the shade of one of the trees. She went over curiously, and asked,

“Master? What’s wrong master?”

Voice looked at her with a sad expression. “Heather am I a bad person?” Heather didn’t understand the question, so she just tilted her head waiting for more information.

“I mean, I keep losing everyone that isn’t forced into a bond of some kind with me. The only one that ever stayed was my mom, but she HAS to.” He continued to look sad. He really felt his personality must be horrible for people to abandon him so much. He knew he could be a better person, but it was hard to kick his distrustful feeling of others. Not to mention the fact that most people were too stupid to do anything other than bend to his will.

//

Throughout his entire college career so far he had tried making friends. Whenever he did it would almost invariably turn out the same way. He would always be quick to learn the ticks of anyone he hung out with.

It started when he was a freshman in college. He had developed feelings towards a girl. They had the same major, and consequently had three classes together. She was a beauty, was one of the smartest people he knew, and was so kind it almost hurt. She was asked out by many people, but always declined going past anything other than a date.

He spent a few weeks studying people to help him figure out how to ask her out. He noticed that people would lie all the time. All. The. Time. How could he know this? Well he would watch the couples on dates. He would go to places that seemed romantic, and watch the young people that ate there. He would listen in on their conversations, and watch what they did during them. Brenton would ‘accidently’ see what the people were texting, or listen in on phone calls while the other person was in the bathroom.

Regardless of sex, race, orientation, or anything else, these people would always tell lies to their dates. Some lies would be huge, most were just little things. At least as far as Brenton could tell. He would sometimes see the couples on the street together.

He would remember their faces, because he had a nearly perfect memory for things he enjoyed. He couldn’t stand that people lied so often, but decided to try it with the girl he liked. His thought process was that if they could stay together because of a few lies, then it wouldn’t matter if he smudged the truth about himself.

He started watching the girl he liked while in class. It was a little creepy, but he didn’t seem notice his own folly. He watched the group of people that hung around her in class, then started hanging around those types of people. He watched how she would react to the different teachers, then started trying to understand why. He even started to ‘accidentally’ find his way to her local hang out places, and watched her there. Discretely of course. After watching her for a little over two and a half month he finally thought he figured out everything about her. (Author Note: Dang you a creepy dude.)

He set up the perfect circumstance according to what she liked. The time, place, even the people around were all painstakingly picked. After all that he asked her to go out with him.

She said that she only liked to go on dates, not actually date anyone.

He was heartbroken. He decided right then and there that he would make her regret not dating him. He became her ideal. Over the course of the rest of the semester he mimicked all of the overlapping points of everyone she went out with. He ended up with a short Mohawk, dark shades, and a piercing on his left ear. He also acted completely different than his actual self.

At that point she asked to go on a date with him. He inwardly smirked at that time. He told her he was actually dating someone at the time, so he couldn’t. Seeing the look of sadness on her face was a refreshing feeling for him.

He started to analyze everyone after that. In small classes he would always act whichever way got the best response. In large classes he mostly just watched the individual cliques, and memorize them for later information.

Eventually he couldn’t help himself. He would unconsciously start to analyze people whenever they hung out. He would watch how they react to certain triggers, and how they would start before certain types of dialogue. An example was one girl would close her eyes for a brief moment before she would say she was leaving. He would watch for signs of dialogue to come. Everyone thought he was just really attentive, but in reality he was far from that.

He would only need to study people for a short time. A month at most, or a couple of weeks when he was actively trying. After that he would basically understand everything that made them think the way they did.

He would only need to drop a few words, give a few gestures, and the people would basically do anything he asked. Of course this had its limits, but for everyday type purposes it served wonderfully. He didn’t even use this ability much, it just made him look down on others knowing he could. He would want something, do a few gestures or maybe tell some sort of sad story, and get it from someone.

He couldn’t bend someone against their own will, like trying to make a basketball enthusiast give up on basketball, but besides that he could get whatever he wanted. One time a boy wanted dating advice. Brenton didn’t really know him that well, but the boy knew of how good Brenton was at dealing with people. Brenton asked all kinds of questions about the girl while telling his ‘friend’ how to woo her.

His friend followed the love advice to the tee. Unfortunately for the boy Brenton actually told him how to make the girl fall for Brenton, not the boy. The entire time the boy thought Brenton was making him seem irresistible, but on the night of the big date Brenton came over.

They were at a bar, people below 21 could come in just not drink. Brenton approached the girl to ‘tell her how great the boy is’. In fact he did that, but at the same time he made himself seem a lot better than the boy. Suffice to say the boy didn’t talk to Brenton anymore after that.

With his entire social life following the same pattern during his two years at college, it was no wonder he thought so poorly of people.

//

EDI’s POV:

EDI had seen the entire battle with Boris. She had been watching since Voice left the town. She had been off training and wanted to see how he was doing. She hadn’t said anything when he let his other two rabbits go, but now he let his bear go as well.

It seemed to her that he couldn’t make up his mind on what he wanted. Then he started looking really sad. He began speaking to Heather about something, so EDI went closer to hear. She wanted to comfort him. After all his was the first person to try to connect with her. He even gave her the weapons and armor she wore.

She owed him a lot. Not only did he basically supply all of her equipment, she had been able to capture the first four floors by mimicking Voice’s strategy. Bait the enemy, then figure out all of its attacks. Some of the monsters just attacked wildly, but most would have a pattern. It took her a lot longer to figure out the patterns than it took Voice, but she didn’t mind that.

While he was talking to Heather, EDI approached him. She had been sneaking so he didn’t notice her. During the time she wasn’t with Voice she had been learning to hunt monsters. She had gained a nice assortment of skills including: tracking, hide, silent movement, skinning, and field dressing (Cleaning out the innards). She had gotten a notice and combined the skills into the group skill Survival. The best part was that she had leveled up her other skills so much, mostly sneak, that Survival was at apprentice level 26.

Since Voice always seemed so helpful and cheerful EDI thought something was definitely wrong. She decided to go up to Voice to try to console him. She didn’t want to startle him so she was as quiet as possible.

Voice’s POV:

After talking to Heather a little Voice felt a tap on his shoulder. He quickly grabbed his staff while turning around. He moved his staff into a guard position while looking for whatever just tapped him. He readied himself to attack, only to be greeted by EDI shyly waving to him.

“Hi Voice.” She gave him a smile. “I saw that fight just now, what happened?”

Voice sighed as he hung his head. “I changed classes and Boris left me.”

EDI gave him an understanding smile. “Well at least he will respawn in the cave.”

Voice gave her a confused smile. He had been wondering how EDI knows so much about the game. She said she had studied about it, but even with months of constant studying she couldn’t know that much.

She must be hiding something. She knows way too much about this game.

“EDI.” The tone in his voice made EDI worried. He sounded like a parent that had just caught a child doing something naughty. “I’m going to ask you a question. If you lie to me I don’t think we can be friends. I’ve seen a lot of people lie to keep up different relationships, but I don’t believe in that.”

At least if I’m not the one lying.

EDI gulped, she didn’t know what he was going to ask about, but if it was about the game she would probably have to lie. There was a reason she knew so much about different things, but she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone.

Voice continued. “You seem to know a lot about the game. Why?”

He looked her directly in the eye after he asked the question. He decided to end their friendship even if she just hesitated to answer.

She immediately answered. “I can’t tell you. There is a reason, but I can’t tell you. If I do I would most likely be killed.”

Voice’s eyes widened in surprise. He expected some out there answer, but that was too much. Looking at her he couldn’t see any of the usual signs of lying.

Voice was skeptical, but if she was serious he didn’t want to endanger her life. Still women would use excuses like this to suit their fancies. He didn’t actually believe her, but wanted to hear the story she would come up with.

“So exactly what is your purpose in this game? Are you trying to take over the world? Do you want to destroy DI? Is there some government conspiracy to cause the next world war?”

EDI calmly explained. “I can’t tell you why I’m here, just know that it will in no way harm anyone. It might crush some bigotry, but that is all.”

Voice had started forming a hypothesis about why EDI couldn’t tell him. “Hm, well would they really kill you?”

EDI smiled. “By definition they would.”

Hah, by definition huh? Voice forced himself to stop thinking about the subject.

If this machine can give me int for thinking of things and not saying them, it can most likely read my mind. So if I think about it she still might get fried.

Voice started to think about how to best use EDI’s stealth to benefit himself. It wasn’t that he was over the fact that she knew so much, but he had studied a bit of psychology while attempting to learn about why people do what they do. He had read about the ironic process theory. There had been many tests done about it.

The theory was that trying to suppress a thought only brought it out more. The harder you tried to suppress it the more it came out, since you would have to actively think about it to suppress it. The only real way to get the thought out completely, well most of the time anyway, was to think about something similar but not the same.

While trying to get his mind off of the topic of who or what he thought EDI was he managed to make a really good battle plan for his group of three.

“Alright EDI. I’m going to see if my armor is done. Would you like to come with me?”

She nodded her head eagerly. She didn’t have any friends in the real world, and Voice was the only player she knew in the game, so if he stopped being her friend she wouldn’t know what to do.

Voice decided to ask, “So have you decided to join my guild yet?”

EDI cocked her head in confusion. She was sure she had told him several times that she didn’t want to. She decided he must either not take no for an answer, be joking, or have head problems. Maybe a combination of the three. EDI figured he couldn’t even get the required materials to form a guild, so she didn’t know why he kept asking her.

She replied, “Sure if you can start one up before the other players join I will gladly enter it.” She smiled a dazzling smile.

EDI saw a spark enter Voice’s eyes. “Alright, just remember what you said. I still have five days to start one.” Voice was already planning out how to organize the guild when they started walking back to the city.

Before they left Voice told Heather, “Hey, stay around here and kill all the wolves you can. I want the entire forest rid of them.” Heather licked her savage lips. She gleefully hopped off to find her next wolfish pray.

On the way back Voice inquired about how EDI had spent her time since they last met up.

“Well, after you started all of your training I decided to learn how to hunt. I am pretty good at sneaking, and hunting in general, by now. I even disappear if I use my stealth mode ability. Well it only works on people that have a low spot skill. Ow.” EDI wasn’t paying attention and accidently bumped into Voice. She didn’t realize he had stopped.

“So wait a minute.” Voice turned towards EDI. “You disappear? Like how, smoke?”

“Uh, I don’t actually know let me show you.” EDI went behind a tree. Several seconds later Voice felt a Sai being pressed against arm.

“It only works if you aren’t looking directly at me Other than that it becomes extremely hard to detect me.”

Voice thought it over. After only a few seconds he felt he discovered how the bastard that killed him managed to do it. “So EDI, tell me. If you were to obscure your body in smoke, would that work to use the stealth power?”

EDI shrugged. “I don’t know, but probably if you had a high enough sneak it would.”

“Thank you that’s all I needed.” He started running towards Evan’s excited at having an actual idea about his enemy. With enough information you could completely negate anything. No matter how much stronger than you it is, as long as you know its weakness you can win.

Voice arrived at Evan’s. Evan was working on sharpening a sword. When he saw Voice coming he waved.

“Hey stranger, haven’t seen you in a while!” He had put the sword down and gave Voice a strong hug. “I see you brought your girlfriend. Well good for you. Although I think Susan might have something to say about that.” The blacksmith laughed as he wiped his hands on his apron. He gave EDI a handshake as he asked, “So to what do I owe the honor today?”

Voice looked at the smith with a bemused face. He didn’t have time for jokes right now. He was only two days away from fighting his battle.

“I need my armor Evan. And is Susan at home?”

Evan shrugged. “Alright, alright. I have your armor in the house, and I think Susan has been filling those metal ball things for a while. She had me make a bunch.”

Voice thanked him and ran inside to get his armor. After giving a quick hello to Elizabeth, he grabbed his armor and went to Susan’s.

When he arrived he didn’t see her. He figured she must be in the true lab. He made sure EDI wasn’t following and went into the lab. He saw Susan with two large piles of the metal orbs. She had just finished filling one and gently placed it on her right. Voice went up to her.

“Hi Susan. I suppose the pile on the right is the working bombs?” When he didn’t get an answer he realized she was too preoccupied to hear him. He found some parchment and a quill and left her a quick note thanking her for the bombs. He even singed it with a heart since he felt it gave it that extra oomph he wanted to convey.

After getting one stack of 99 bombs, the pile on Susan’s right seemed almost completely depleted. He decided to don his armor before leaving. Since Susan was just a bunch of code he didn’t even care if she saw him, so he just changed there.

He was in full chainmail. He had a chainmail cap that went a little past his shoulders, a chainmail shirt that went all the way down to his wrists, and halfway down his thighs. He also had gloves that went halfway up his forearm, and chain pants that went down to his feet. The gloves were fixed with solid metal bracers so they would stay up. He donned his helmet and boots that he had from his overweight set.

He went back up and got EDI. EDI was still talking to Evan, Elizabeth had even joined them.

“Sorry guys, I am going to need EDI back.” He gave his best smile. “I need for her to teach me a little bit about one of her abilities.”

EDI was surprised at how good Voice looked in chainmail. He looked very dashing.

Evan spoke, “Well now wait a minute. Aren’t those the helmet and boots from your overweight armor? Give me a minute.” After rummaging around for a few minutes Evan came back with a set of hard leather boots, and a leather cap.

“These’ll do you better than that stuff.” He handed the gear to Voice.

After Voice thanked him for the gear, he equipped them. He grabbed EDI’s hand and started to run for the forest, while waving towards Evan and his wife.

On the way to the forest Voice was formulating the best way to use EDI’s similarities to Davros’ champion to his advantage.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassForce MageHealth250Mana500Stamina290Level15Current TitleMaster Of The Green HerbHealth Regen/Sec2.5Mana Regen/Sec7.2Stamina Regen/Sec4.7Strength36Agility31Wisdom72Intelligence50Endurance47Dexterity30Luck10Vitality29Charisma19Compassion40Leadership36Logic22Piety44Unused Stat Points30Fame540

Skills WindowSkill Fusion Novice Level 3 Exp 00.00%Deception Novice Level 9 Exp 33.33%Flattery Novice Level 2 Exp 00.00%Critical Strike Novice Level 9 Exp 16.67%Automated Novice Level 7 Exp 00.00%Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Skill Dissembler Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Cooking Novice Level 24 Exp 99.99%Climbing Novice Level 3 Exp 60.00%Heavy Armor Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%Deceptive Aura Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 15 Exp 00.00%Group Skill: Inspect Novice Level 7 Exp 42.85%Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 4 Exp 90.00%Unique Skill: Skill Enhancement NoviceUnique Skill: Mana Affinity Novice

Affinities WindowNature10Light25