Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Voice learned Staff Mastery, then got his ass kicked by DefiledHealer.

Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed that last chapter! This chapter is going to do a brief synopsis of what the other three characters have been doing while the game has been on. As a side note, I didn’t actually think I’d make DH so sadistic. Ugh he has a twisted mind.

I’ve decided to keep going with my story as planned. Some people have been really encouraging, so I am going to try to show everyone what I was trying to accomplish.

Everyone had gotten a unique quest to affect the future of the world. For Voice and Defiled it was a battle against each other. EDI had gotten a quest a while back.

She would often sit in the meadow while she wasn’t hunting monsters in the forest. Eventually she had gained the ability to speak to rabbits, just as Voice had.

After killing many demon wolves the king of the rabbits called her to an audience. There were only two differences between it and the other bunnies. It had an intelligence that was unmatched, and the aura of authority it held over the other rabbits.

The king rabbit had given her a simple task. Clear the forest of one thousand demon wolves. She fought only the wolves whenever she had a choice. She hit a bottle neck after a couple of weeks. The wolves were getting scarcer and scarcer. She was about to give up, when Voice finally asked to go hunting with him.

They didn’t find a huge amount of wolves during the training, but while Voice was running around town EDI asked Heather to go hunting. The hunting trip was a huge success. They slaughtered multitudes in only a few days. Heather was really good in attracting the wolves. She was also very good at exterminating them.

She was happy to see the rewards screen. Not for the things she gained but because of how it affected the bunnies.

For defeating the bunnies arch enemies, the demon wolves, you have completed the Bunny King’s quest. Talk to him for your reward.

Intimacy with all bunnies around Rand has reached maximum. Bunnies around Rand will consider you their savior until the return of the wolves. The demon wolves have been pushed back for 180 days. The bunnies’ population will flourish during this time.

She was super excited for the bunnies. They wouldn’t need to worry about attack from their worst enemies. She was awarded with a special Trait. A Trait was like an ability, but was passive and didn’t consume any health, mana or stamina.

What she obtained was “A Rabbit’s Luck”. It increased her luck by 25 points. It gave her a much higher chance for critical hits, and rare drops.

The bunnies loved her after that. They threw her a party. Well it was mostly just eating a bunch of radishes and carrots, while she petted her many furry friends. She even met Troy and Rabs. They had become guardians of the rabbit kind. Whenever they were attacked by wolves, be it demon or otherwise, Troy and Rabs would defend them.

After she finished the quest, she still had another two days until the other players could join. She decided to enjoy the bunnies’ fur and kindness until then.

Now you may wonder how this effected the entire world. Well since the demon wolves have been killed repeatedly, their levels are now critically low. So even after they return to this part of the forest, they would not be nearly as strong. The guardsmen in Rand, and in towns around Rand, now had less to worry about from the forest, so the patrols focused more towards maintaining public morals, and codes. Before, the different cities near Rand had to send out guards at least twice a year just to deal with the wolves. Most of the other monsters kept to the forest, with only the occasional monster leaving to attack human settlements.

With LastingBeauty and ShortDwarf it was another matter altogether. They had been going into several dungeons during the week of gameplay. By the end of the 35 in game days they were both around level 80. SD was level 82, and LB was level 76. Now that wasn’t completely because of SD’s selfish tendencies to finish off all of the enemies, but it probably didn’t help.

A week before the other players got in they had beaten a level 80 dungeon. Now the thing about dungeons is that the level only actually corresponded to the level of the boss before anyone entered it. After that the dungeon became active, reconfiguring itself to better ward off players. It actually took people that were at least higher level than the dungeon level, to beat it in one go. SH and LB always tried to do that. If you were the first one in a dungeon you would get a bonus from it for a certain time period, or until you left the dungeon whichever came first.

They had amassed a large quantity of highly enchanted items. They didn’t know what kind of items they might get at higher levels, but their items were at least very good for their levels. They each had several bags of holding, and SH had a ring that decreased the weight of all unequipped items by 50%. That wasn’t even the best items they had. They each had a full set of enchanted armor, and weapons. If one closely inspected though, they would notice how SD had better gear in every slot than LB.

They hadn’t wasted any time in cities or exploring. The only time they spent not in dungeons was resupplying, or buying maps and looking for the next dungeon. The Adventurer’s Guild always seemed to have information on any nearby dungeon. The guild would also pay for any information that adventurers collected for them about the dungeons.

They had gotten the attention of a king from a small kingdom. He had his magicians cast a teleport circle, and draw these two hopefuls to him. He asked them for a single favor, in return they would be full citizens of his kingdom, and would be allowed to stay at his castle whenever they wanted.

He took them into a private chamber. The king was a regal man. He had a long flowing purple coat, and wore a powerful set of black armor embroidered in gold. He stood over six feet tall, with a light brown beard that matched his hair.

ShortDwarf at this point was wearing a fully white set of plate mail armor. He had his special two handed axe he had acquired from choosing the special item. It was a deep red, with a pitch black handle. There were a few oddly shaped ruins on the blade. He carried it over one shoulder. LastingBeauty wore a frilly dress. The dress never seemed to flow or wave, and would in fact swirl around any object that was going to harm her. If nothing was going to harm her, it would keep out of touch with any object.

They were tasked with killing a prince in a nearby kingdom. The king told them that this prince had murdered his daughter. They went to the kingdom posing as posing as guards for a merchant caravan. The caravan had no troubles getting to the city that held the prince. There was a small band of bandits that attacked it at one point, but SD killed them all easily. On top of doing massive damage his battle axe, it had two special qualities. One was it grew more powerful as he leveled his strength, agility, and dexterity. The other was that it had a 10% chance to instantly decapitate an enemy that had less than 10% health, as long as he hit the neck and the opponent didn’t have some sort of protection against it.

Once in the city they made a quick name for themselves by dealing with crime. LB thought up that plan. It worked perfectly. Not only did they get items and exp, but they also gained a lot of good rep. After a few days of this the prince asked to see them. LB was very good at making poisons, and had a high immunity to it. She made one that took 24 hours to incubate. It took a lot of money to buy the ingredients for that, but it was well worth it. Especially since they had gotten it before the trip, so this city would have no clue it was them.

She poisoned the prince and herself by obviously pouring a small amount of the poison into her glass of wine. When she was asked what it was, and why she added it to her drink she merely said it was a rare drink that enhanced the flavor of any wine. She had a skill called sleight of hand. It was already level 58. When a noble asked to try some she switched it with a small vial of honey lavender. It did enhance the taste, but didn’t cause any bad side effects.

The prince was interested as well. He asked if he may try some. LB hesitated noticing the guards eying her. Seeing this the prince quickly said if she didn’t want to, not to feel obligated. She relented. Even if they killed her she would just respawn. She switched the vials out before she got to the prince.

One guard stopped her and grabbed her wrist. She was scared that they had caught her. He only took the vial and tasted it. After a few seconds without dying he allowed the prince to drink some. After the feast they went as quickly as would not been alarming back to the other kingdom.

When they got there they were showered in gifts and luxury. After only a day of this it was time for the other players to join.

We’ll talk about how this affected the world a little later.

Brenton cursed as he left the pod. He wouldn’t be able to play for another five days. He might have tricked Davros into basically being useless, but now his character would suffer. Not to mention he would automatically fail the quest Elizabeth gave him.

Well at least I took that bitch Defiled with me.

Brenton smiled as he remembered the look on DH’s face as dozens of bombs flew at him. Voice hoped he had killed him as well.

Brenton sighed. He had died twice now. And both times were because of one person. The more he thought about it the more anger he felt. He decided to go for a jog to relieve him of some of his pent up emotions.

He ran for a total of two hours, well he also walked for a while when he got tired. When he got home he realized how hungry he was. He ordered a pizza (small), and an order of breadsticks. After that he hopped in the shower. After he had completely bathed himself he sat in the shower thinking. He was still upset about the whole dying thing, but his anger was blunter and less piercing than earlier.

Just as Brenton reached for his towel he heard the buzzer ring. He quickly covered the important bits and ran to the door. He grabbed his mom’s credit card and answered the door. The delivery guy gave him a questioning look about the towel wrapped around his waist, but didn’t say anything.

Voice tapped the man’s phone with his card. Apps had started running rampant in the last 15 years. They became so advanced that you could pay for things by just tapping a company phone with your credit card.

Cash was still a thing, but most people used cards since it was easier than carrying cash. Banks had invented a way so that only people registered to a card could use it. No one knew how they did that, and it had only been hacked once.

That woman actually spent the last five years learning how to do it. She didn’t take any money, just showed the bank that she did. They hired her on the spot to increase the defensibility of the cards. No one had been able to hack it since.

After paying for the food, and giving a nice tip (always tip), he logged on to his computer and started eating. It was amazing that he could eat so much by himself and not gain weight. He had a freakishly high metabolism.

What he saw online was mostly just DH and LB doing dungeons. They didn’t post anything about what they had done the last week. He also noticed that his video had over ten million views. Voice refreshed the page to make sure it wasn’t a mistake.

It was an outstanding number. Most of DH’s and LB’s videos had about 1-3 million views. Only two of their videos had as much as his. He smiled as he saw the massive number. He decided to make another video. He could use the any extra DI bills to make his white world a little better.

He did a few stretches to make sure he didn’t have any muscle failings, and got back into the pod. He started making his second video. He made the video show his series of training regimens. He then showed him killing the group of wolves. He excluded the EDI, and the part where he got his butt beat. It showed him going into a rage and killing the wolf. Next he showed them snippets of his battle with DH. He showed his super jump, and a few seconds of the battles that made it seem like it was on even footing.

All in all it was a pretty good video. After he finished he went about fixing up his neighborhood. He had several hundred thousand DI bills. He started buying exact copies of his house. He made sure they each had a two car garage, and a sizable front and back yard. The area took on a fifties cul-de-sac look. He built a few identical areas near each other. All in all he now had 90 houses. He had ten cul-de-sacs of nine houses each. The backyards of the houses along the straight part of the cul-de-sacs each were connected by picket fences.

After buying the houses he bought a map. When he went to the market he had noticed it. They had several maps. The cheapest one would only cover a small area. The larger an area the more the cost. The largest one covered 100% of the entire white space, and came with a zoom function. All maps automatically updated.

He bought the largest one for 50,000 DI bills. It was expensive, but well worth it as an investment. He connected the cul-de-sacs with a long street, then bought a huge building that he was going to make into a mall. He chose the biggest one, then started manually upgrading it. He made it three stories, and each story was identical to the others. The building was a long rectangle, with a part in the middle left open to the world. He was going to make that part an outdoor playroom. It kind of reminded him of a roman coliseum. He wanted the people in the mall to have to walk through it, or walk around the edges.

The mall was a massive 1.5 million square feet. It had one hundred rooms on each side of the coliseum, and on each level. The rooms were all empty, as was the coliseum. One could see every level of the mall by standing anywhere in it. It had ten sets of stairs, and two elevators. Five stairs on the left part of the building and five on the right. The elevators were made of glass, and directly over looked the coliseum area.

Even though it was just a shell of a building it took almost all of Voice’s money. He had about twenty thousand DI bills left. Although he had bought a shop menu icon so that he could buy from anywhere. That had cost him another fifty thousand. He decided to save it and went into the coliseum to rest. Even though he had planned to save it he thought it would be really nice to sit in some shade. It wasn’t hot or anything, there wasn’t even a sun, but he thought it would be peaceful.

He bought a few different trees, and set them around himself. He felt relaxed while he sat there. That is, until he started thinking of the game again. His thoughts invariably strayed towards DH. His anger started raising again.

Just as he hit his boiling point he had an idea. He went to a random store on the second level. It was slightly larger than the average room. He spent the rest of his money buying workout equipment. He bought a punching bag, a reflex bag, a weight bench dozens of different sized weights and dumbbells, a few ‘all in one’ work out machines, and a dozen exercise bikes. He had less than a thousand DI bills left.

He went to town on this equipment. He did weight training, and rode the bikes until he was exhausted. He continued to switch between the two until he couldn’t move. Whenever he started feeling tired he would think of how he lost horribly twice. And both to the same person. He would never have that happen again. When he got back in the game he would make his magic class op as fuck. Just like he did with those shitty potions.

He exited the white room and went to sleep in the real world. It took him about an hour to finally fall asleep because of his thoughts on DH. Even his dreams were gifted by the sight of him torturing Dh. When he woke up he grabbed some cereal and looked at how many hits his video had. He sighed when he saw it was not even in the thousands.

Guess it wasn’t good enough this time.

After that he got in his DIVE pod. His penalty time would end just a few minutes after the rest of the world could start their characters. He decided to play like he was a newbie. He went back into the white area of his pod.

He started to plan out how he would build his city around the shopping mall. The best part would be if he could get other people in here. He decided to ask Bit-Bee about it later. He walked around his mall imagining the best places to put different shops. He was even going to add in some sort of dojo.

After walking around the entire mall, and planning about half of it, it was finally time to go to the game. He ran to his house, and went to his closet. It still felt silly, but he liked it. When the timer went down to zero his door lit up. He walked through it planning on how to find and kill DH.

Once he started DIVE he heard a familiar mechanical voice.

-Iris scan complete. Returning user detected. Would you like to restart DIVE?-

Voice, confused, thought yes. He had never been asked that before.

-Very well. Welcome to the world of opportunity Voice0fReason. Your age has been registered as 20 what would you like your game rating to be set at? Maximum rating for your age: Mature.-

He chose mature so he wouldn’t miss anything that the game had to offer.

He was brought up with a screen that showed two couples. There was one man and one woman in each couple. A screen popped up.

Please choose your genetic grandparents. Any choices made before entering the game will be input to detail your story.

Oh, ok. I guess this is some sort of update. I did see something like that before fighting DH.

He saw two family tree symbols. On the left the two people connected to a woman, on the left a man. He went to maternal grandparents. The first selection was race.

Cool, I kind of didn’t want to be human. Adding in Enchanting and Smithing would be way too much effort.

He scrolled though the race selections. There were three categories: humanoid, magical beast and animalistic. He chose animalistic to look through it. There were six sub categories of non-humanoid animals: amphibian, avian, invertebrate, mammalian, pisces, and reptilian. This wasn’t that surprising as these were the six basic animal groups. He looked through each. They were similar to, though distinct from, the normal Earth categories.

Wow, that’s actually really cool. I’ve never heard of any, non-table top game, where you could be an animal and humanoid.

Voice was fairly impressed by all the customization options. He didn’t really want to have any animals in his immediate family tree. He was sure there would be some story reason as to why that was ok, but he just felt wrong about it.

His mind made up, he scrolled through the extremely long list of humanoids. He saw the original choices: human, high elf, wood elf, dark elf, dwarf, and half-ogre. He also saw many others, like kitsune, demon, cherub, and angel and so on.

Voice found it odd that you could pick demons and angels. Oh well, I guess they probably aren’t as powerful as the regular ones of their race. Either that or they have some extra restrictions.

The humanoids only gave overall descriptions, not detailed outlines like Bit-Bee gave him. Demons were amazing at dark magic, and fire magic, some could even fly or have other unique abilities. Interestingly dragons were considered as humanoid. They couldn’t consciously use magic, but could fly and breathe fire.

After looking over the massive list of humanoids Voice decided to go for some more magically talented ones. He knew he would pick high elf at least. Several races had unique racial magic. That is, some sort of magic that their race learned a long time ago and kept secret how to do.

He narrowed the list down to those that were either excellent in magic, or had unique magic. He also kept a few in the list that had really cool unique abilities, like the lizardman for the water breathing trait. He even added a few really, REALLY cool magical beast types. He was only left with handful. He could pick four of them, but wanted to only pick three since he wanted to be at least half high elf.

After looking through them for close to an hour he finally decided what he would be. He had compared and contrasted each race, and even the combinations of different races. For instance a demon-lizardman plus high elf-wood elf build was vastly different than a demon- high elf plus wood elf-lizardman build.

He toyed around with the idea of combining the magical bat and human, just to see if he got a vampire. In the end he chose: his maternal grandmother was a high elf, his maternal grandfather was a dark elf. He had wanted to see what kind of elf that would make.

After he was done he heard a sound like a slot machine. He looked over to where it was and saw a person being generated . It was a female, his mother. His mother looked a lot like his actual mother, except she had darker skin, and feline eyes. She was beautiful and regal. He wondered what his father would look like.

For his paternal grandmother he chose a wood elf. His paternal grandfather was another high elf. After he was done he waited while his father was generated. When he looked at his father he grew angry. This game had made someone that actually looked a lot like how he remembered his father to look.

He decided to not think of it and went on to the next part of his character creation. Or should it be recreation?

Anyway, the next part of character creation was choosing his grandparents background.

This game really likes grandparents doesn’t it?

Since the backgrounds didn’t say what the bonuses were he figured they were either obvious or a trick. He choose for his paternal grandfather to be an adventurer. He was the son of farmers and wanted a more exciting life. His paternal grandmother was a forest nomad, travelling between forests until she met her mate, just as her parents did.

His maternal grandmother was the daughter of merchant, not a wealthy one. She became a scholar and that studied about magic. His maternal grandfather was a higher noble within the realm of dark elves. He had inherited his estates from his parents. He met his wife when he wanted his niece tutored by an accomplished scholar.

Voice thought this was a pretty cool start to a story. After that was only his own character creation. He could change anything about his body he wanted, at least within a certain percentage from the parameters of his parents.

Voice chose to make his face and body as close to the original as possible. When he was done he heard a familiar ding that indicated a blue box.

You have discovered an ancient race. You will automatically be able to read, write, and speak this language as you learn to with the language you first learn.

Voice didn’t have time to think about it as he was warped into the game. He noticed everything was black.

The next thing he knew he heard a woman screaming in pain. The world was still black. The mechanical voice started playing while the woman screamed.

-You have been granted new life in Solun. As a returning player all of your skills, abilities, magic, traits, level, and stats have been locked until further notice. Your stats will only show a minimum for your race and age. This story takes place 20 years before the launch of DIVE.-

As the voice in his head finished he heard the woman scream louder. A dot of light appeared in the distance. He didn’t know what was going on, but every time she screamed he saw more light. With one final ear crushing scream he was bombarded by super bright lights.

GAH! Why is it so BRIGHT!?

He let out an involuntary scream. “Wahhh!” He stopped when he realized there was a baby near him. That must be what was happening. The woman in the next room was giving birth.

He heard people speaking. “Why did he stop crying!? Is he breathing?” “I don’t know! Someone check for a pulse!” “NOOO! MY BABY!” Voice thought the baby next door was dying. I guess that would have been a pretty common occurrence in the time period this game is set at.

He tried to tell them a simple way to get the baby breathing again. He had to yell to be heard, but just as he did, “WAHHH! WAHHHHHHHH!”

He quieted down. He didn’t need to tell them anything, not that he thought the game would let him. He heard several sighs of relief. Then someone started to towel him down. He managed to open his eyes slightly, but could only see light, not make out any figures.

Someone hit his back. “WAAHHH!” he screamed in protest. Wait, what? He screamed again. “WAHH WAHHHH WAAAAAHHHHHH!” Oh fuck. I’m the fucking baby?

As if in answer to his question he felt himself get put into the hands of a giant. I guess that makes sense seeing as I just generated my family.

His eyes were adjusting quickly, but he still could only make out very vague figures. He did note that the person that held him had the same skin color as the mom he made. He decided to giggle and give her his best baby smile.

He couldn’t see the person’s expression, but he heard several “ahh~s” from the people around him. The woman that was holding him asked, “Would you like to go to daddy?” He knew it was a woman from her voice.

He giggled again, and held his hands towards the largest congregation of people. “Aw. It looks like he understood me dear. Here you hold him.” It was a very gentle voice.

He was put into firm hands. They weren’t rough, just firm. He heard his dad(?) say, “Well don’t you look just like your dad?” Voice still couldn’t see any facial features, so he just smiled and grabbed at his ‘dad’.

After that he was handed back to the person he assumed was his mother. She put something in his mouth. As he sucked he fell asleep.

-You are now one month old. You may call your status screen when you are three years old.-

Voice looked around. He saw in a simple crib. His room was made of wood, and had a thatch roof. He tried climbing out of his crib. He received a notification.

Strength requirement not met. Dexterity requirement not met.

He cursed. He wondered what his status was. He was told he could open his status as three, but that didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t call it out now. He called out the word Status.

You cannot open your status this early in your development. You can open your status when you are three years old.

He looked around the room. He saw several books, and even a sword. He really wanted one of those books. Just as he was thinking about reading a book,

You are illiterate, you must learn letters before you learn to read.

He mentally sighed, there was nothing he could do until someone came in to check up on him. Even then he might not be able to get anything. A metaphorical lightbulb went off.

He started screaming bloody murder. As he did this his world started to blur and distort.

You have spent too much concentration in a short time. You are disoriented.

A woman came into the room. He was dizzy so he sat down. He stopped crying and started pointing to where he remembered where the bookshelf was. This made his world even more blurry. He cried and pointed until this person got him the book. When she did he gave his best giggle and pretended to read it, even though he couldn’t even see straight.

After about twenty minutes of being ‘one month old’ he was again transported.

He saw a notice that said he was one month and one day old. He tried calling his status screen again. Again he failed. He started crying again. When his mother walked in he stopped. He acted like he was reaching for the books on the shelf.

“Gahh! GahhHH!” He tried to stress to her that he wanted a book. She smiled and picked him up. He started crying again, grabbing for the self. He could see his mother’s expression. She looked concerned about his crying. She tried picking him up again. When she did he tried to wiggle to get a book. His body wasn’t even strong enough to do that.

Depressed he started crying. His mother started to gently coo to him. She eventually got a book from the shelf and put it in front of her, while holding Voice cradled in her arms. Voice looked at the book and giggled.

He slapped the book with both hands. And stared at it for a moment.

You have spent too much concentration in a short time. You are disoriented.

As he became disoriented his was transported.

-You are four months old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your love of books, you have gained two intelligence. You can call on your status screen at three years old. -

He tried calling his status screen again. Nothing happened. He decided he would keep calling it until it worked. He tried to sit up straight. It worked pretty well, although his first attempt at it made him fall backwards.

He was very excited at this new development. If I can sit up I can crawl soon after.

He could only sit up for a few seconds, but he was pretty excited about that. He again cried for books. His mother and father came in with a strange man. His father had a book in his hands. He picked Voice up. Voice tried to grab for the book. His mom whispered something to the stranger. The stranger nodded. Voice’s dad opened the book. It was a picture book! What’s more is it had only a few words at the bottom! Since the pictures were all of one thing Voice figured this was a book to teach the young either letters or how to talk.

Voice started trying to sound out the words, but the only thing that came out was baby talk. That didn’t discourage him though. Every word in the book was made of weird symbols, but Voice felt he could decode it given enough time.

Voice happily slapped the book his dad had brought. He found it odd how he could understand his family, but didn’t question it too much. The stranger nodded again when Voice looked over at him. The stranger left, and Voice’s parents rapidly talked to each other. Apparently showing such a large interest in books was something that was very rare at such a young age.

Voice knew that, but wanted to increase his int and wis as much as possible before venturing out into the world. He had already deduced that he would get all of his stats and skills and everything back when he got his body back.

He flipped through all of the pages, well his dad did anyway. He tried memorizing all of the book. By the time his dad was done flipping through the book Voice had managed to memorize the sounds for baby and puppy.

He realized the symbol for y was the same in both accounts.

You have gained two wisdom for learning new words.

You have spent too much concentration in a short time. You are disoriented.

The world turned black as Voice lost consciousness.

He woke up in his crib.

-You are six months old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your natural diligence to learning you have gained 1 int, and 1 wis. You can call on your status screen at three years old. –

Oh my GOD! How long is this freaking thing?

He called out status again. Nothing happened.

He noticed that his body was in a standing position, leaning on the railing of his crib.

He tried to move around his crib. He took a first teetering step, which promptly led to him teetering onto his butt. He sat back up, determined to walk. If this game made him live through all of the major development points of a child, then he would be the smartest freaking child alive!

He continued to hold himself up and try to walk. After several excruciating tries, Voice managed to take a step without falling. After that one step he tottered onto his face. Deciding to show his parents he lightly cried out. When they rushed into the room after hearing the spine chilling scream, Voice was already taking another step.

They exclaimed with join. Grabbing him and trying to get him to walk to each of them. As he tried to concentrate to walk over to one of them he fell. It seemed that the more he concentrated the easier it got, so he concentrated as hard as possible. He managed to slowly make his way over to his mother. She yelled with joy. Happily hugging Voice. Voice fell over into her arms.

You have spent too much concentration in a short time. You are disoriented.

-You are now nine months old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your natural diligence to learning you have gained an additional 1 int, and 1 wis. Due to your strong will to move you have gained 2 strength. You can call on your status screen at three years old. –

He called the status screen again, but once again nothing happened. His parents were looking over him. They were trying to get Voice to say words in their languages. Voice couldn’t tell exactly what they were saying, but it sounded like they may have been using at least two languages.

Both of his parents shared one language, and his mother clearly spoke two different languages. One was the same as his dad, the other was a deeper and harsher language. The only reason he knew this was because of the tones and inflections his mother sometimes switched to.

He tried mimicking his parents’ sounds, which made his mother squeal in delight. For some reason he blacked out immediately after.

You have spent too much concentration in a short time. You are disoriented.

-You are now 12 months old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your natural diligence to learning you have gained an additional 2 int. You can call on your status screen at three years old. –

He tried saying status screen again. This time it worked!

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassn/aHealth10Manan/aStamina10Leveln/aCurrent Titlen/aHealth Regen/Sec.1Mana Regen/Secn/aStamina Regen/Sec.1Strength2Agilityn/aWisdom4Intelligence6Endurancen/aDexterityn/aLuck10Vitalityn/aUnused Stat Pointsn/aFamen/a

It was weird that up until now he only received the blue boxes when he was about to go into the next child development stage, and the electronic voice told him his stat gains. He thought that might have been the update, but then he received:

You have figured out how to open your stat screen at the tinder age of one. You have shown you are of sound mind, plus five intelligence.

Five int? Now THAT’S something to brag about!

Through dedicated study you can now say: mama, papa, baby, huggy, puppy, bunny, and sleepy in Dark Elven, and High Elven.

Voice said the words aloud. Dark Elven sounded deep even in his voice. He also had a list of words he knew in both Dark Elven, and High Elven. He started sounding them out. After he was satisfied he sat there. He didn’t really know what else he was supposed to do in this time period.

He saw a large (for him) ball, so he decided to play with it. After playing with the ball for what felt like hours Voice noticed a book open on the floor. It had a picture on the right page, and text on the left. He smiled as he started to read it. Well he tried anyway. Apparently he was still illiterate. He still enjoyed the pictures though.

After another few minutes he cried for food since he suddenly felt ravenous. His mother came in with a smile, and something that smelled like applesauce.

In her very sweet voice she asked, “Does baby want milky, or appy?” Voice contemplated it. While suckling this woman’s breast wasn’t exactly his cup of tea, he had learned that for the optimum growth potential the baby should be breastfed until at least 18-24 months. He reluctantly pushed the sauce away. He moved his head towards her breast.

You have spent too much concentration. You are disoriented.

-You are now 24 months old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your natural diligence to learning you have gained an additional 2 int and 2 vit. –

Never had he been so grateful to blackout. He was getting agitated with this whole aging up thing, but it did seem to be going faster now. He took a deep breath, and tried to remember what two year olds learned.

The only two things he remembered was that they had infinite energy, and could speak understandably. He decided to work out all of his stamina and try to be as eloquent as possible.

He ran around his house until he came to a door that led outside. He tried opening it, but was scooped up by an arm.

His mom asked, “What do you think you’re doing?” in the way you would try to ask a baby while being cutesy. When his mom picked him up he suddenly felt like he needed to poop. Not wanting to poop himself he said, “Mommy! Potty!”

Hearing him ask for the potty she was confused. She assumed he had seen her husband use it, and just wanted to see it out of curiosity. She brought him to it. She giggled a little when he motioned that he wanted to sit on the toilet.

She pulled his pants down and let him act like a grown up. He immediately defecated. She called for her husband. She was going to start toilet training Voice soon, but to think her husband had already done it. He was always a sweet man, but he usually left housework to her so he could hunt and provide for the family.

Her husband came in. “Well, would you look at that? Got him pee pee trained already huh?”

She cocked her head slightly. “What do you mean? I thought you were the one that taught him. He suddenly yelled potty so I brought him her.”

They both looked at each other, then at Voice. He was wiping himself with the straw without even being told to.

After that Voice played all day. Then next day he went to the potty again. When he was done he saw the stranger from a long time ago. The one with the book.

The stranger asked. “Little boy do you know what I’m saying?” Voice slowly nodded his head. “Good that speeds things up. Your parents have kept me up to date about you ever since you asked for books. I dismissed that one because all parents want their child to be special. After that you kept doing things that didn’t fit the norm. You even learned to use the toilet by yourself. I have an offer. Would you like to come with me to learn magic? Time will seem to all fly by if you do.”

That last statement made it seem like the character creation game would be over if he chose to go. He thought it over. He already had a good magic class, and he was getting a lot of stat gains. Even if the way he got the gains was annoying he still got them. He shook his head. “NO! Mommy~ Daddy~” He ran and hugged them both. The man nodded and briefly spoke to his parents. After that he left.

You have spent too much concentration. You are disoriented.

-You are now 6 years old. Due to your upbringing so far, and your natural personality you have gained an additional 1 int, 1 wis, 1 str, and 1 vit.–

When he came to he saw two things. His mother was practicing magic, and his father was doing odd exercises outside. He felt that he could go study with one of them, but only one. He thought about it as he walked to the fireplace.

He didn’t really need to learn magic as the normal way didn’t benefit him. On the other hand learning to exercise might be good, but wouldn’t help in combat either. He stared at the in the fireplace. Suddenly he had an idea. He thrust his hand into the fire place. Even as his hand entered he felt a shriek leave his lips.

As he blacked out his only thought was, At least I know what the fire in this world feels like now.

You have spent too much concentration. You are disoriented.

-You are now 9 years old. Due to your past behavior you have unlocked a secret class: Force Mage. You must keep this a secret from your parents, as they will want you to train in a proper academy. If you do train there you will not be able to see your parents for at least 10 years. –

When he awoke he was sitting in a stream. He was sitting with his legs crossed on the pebbled ground. The water came up to his waste. He called up his status screen, and was gratified to see that he could now use magic.

He saw a group of humans coming towards him. He felt a sense of impending danger when he saw them. He started running towards where his mind told him his home was.

He got there in quick order. Laying in a large pool of blood he saw several humans. His father held a bow, and had a short sword strapped to his waist. His mom was obviously casting spells. Just as he was about to run to his parents he felt himself get hit in the back of the head.

When he awoke his wrists and ankles were in shackles. Both of his wrists were connected by a small iron bar, as were both of his ankles. The two bars were connected by a metal chain. He saw his mom and dad in front of him. They were all being hauled somewhere inside a caravan type vehicle.

He was about to say something, when he dad kicked is shin and violently shook his head left and right. After a few hours of the most uncomfortable ride he had ever experienced the wooden death trap came to a halt. He and his parents were hauled out. For a second Voice was blinded by the sun. When he got his bearings back he noticed the men that held his family’s chains were being given coins. When the coins exchanged hands the man that gave the money was handed the chains.

Voice didn’t want to start the game as a slave, nor did he think it was right for his family to be sold. After they were put into a different wagon, and the other people had left, he started focusing on the feeling of intense heat on his left wrist. He tried to remain as quiet as possible since the only sounds to be heard were the clopping of the horse, and the slaver. He might have been able to melt the bars, but he didn’t know how to control fire well enough to move it away from his body.

He didn’t have a lot of mana, but it was enough to heat the shackles. The metal cuff started rapidly heating. Both of his parents noticed this, and tried to get him to stop. They looked as though they just discovered that they were harboring a criminal. He only concentrated harder.

As the metal started to melt, Voice caused a wind to blow the molten iron away from him. He was still being bombarded by the intense heat around the cuff, but at least no liquid metal touched him. He quickly ran out of mana. He only managed to get a drop to melt off of his cuff. He smiled though. Given enough time, he could get his family free.

Eventually he made a small crack in his wrist cuff. He had his dad help pull the cuff at the crack. With his dad widening the gap he was able to slip his left hand out of the cuff. When he regained enough mana he did the same process to his other wrist, then to both ankles. He was completely free, now he only needed to worry about his parents.

Suddenly the caravan slowed. Frantic Voice tried putting the cuffs back on, but they had shrunk a little without the added heat. As he heard the man get off of the front seat he had barely managed to re-shackle his ankles. The man was only seconds from seeing that Voice freed his wrists.

Voice did the only thing he could think of. He forced both wrists into the cuffs. For the first second it seemed as if it wouldn’t work, but as Voice tore at the skin trying to re-insert his wrists they went in.

The blood pooling at his feet now made it impossible that the slaver wouldn’t know what had happened. Voice decided he would have to talk his way out of this.

The slaver came around and opened up the back curtains. “DSF WETEH OIULJK.” He said. Voice didn’t know what he was saying. The man knitted his brows as he noticed Voice’s wrists. He grabbed Voice’s left hand by his middle three fingers. He put his other hand in a semi-circle around the cuff. He yanked the manacle hard. Despite the pain Voice knew he would have to expand his hand so it didn’t come out.

Despite the flashes of lights he saw, and the mind numbing pain, Voice expanded his hand. Unfortunately he also fell unconscious soon after the slaver released him. The pain had been too much. When he awoke he noticed they were moving again.

He showed his dad that he wanted the cuffs off again. When his dad shook his head no Voice put the cuffs in his face and gave him a look that said, ‘Do it. NOW!’

His father reluctantly released all of the cuffs. Afterwards Voice started work on his mom’s cuff. He was going to do his dad’s, but his dad shook his head and indicated his mom. After releasing his mom’s hand cuffs, she did some sort of silent incantation.

The remaining metal on her dissolved, as did the metal encasing Voice’s dad. They all jumped out of the wagon at the same time. When they landed on the ground the slaver pulled the reigns of the horses.

Voice’s dad whispered to him and his mom. “You two go, I’ll stall him then come find you later. GO!”

With that they started running into the forest. When they had gotten to a place where the carriage was barely visible his mom turned around. Voice was following close behind her, so he saw the look of absolute horror on her face.

When he turned around he saw his father impaled by his own blade. The slaver snapped his fingers, and his shadow split into four. The four smaller slave shadows darted towards Voice and his mom. Voice tried to quickly think of a way to save them, but failed.

His mother spoke to him. “You are the best son your father and I could ever ask for. Please be happy in the future.” He turned around and saw her crying. She lifted up her hands. The shadows latched onto her. She began an incantation even as the shadows devoured her flesh.

“Oh goddess of light, bring forth your punishment unto this vile creature. He has committed the greatest sin by taking the life of an innocent. I offer up myself as humble tribute! DIVINE JUSTICE!”

Suddenly the area around his mother, and the slaver turned blindingly white. As the shadows had reached her the slaver thought she was giving up. When he noticed the white light it was too late. He had been consumed by Mar’s holy fury.

Voice stood there, gaping at the madness that had just happened. One, his father was somehow killed by his own weapon. Two, his mother killed the murderer. Three, his mother had to sacrifice her life force to take him down.

Voice could only stand, flabbergasted. He had no idea what to do next. His family had been killed by slavers, and now he was alone in the wilderness, in the middle of Mar only knows where. He had actually grown to like the two people that raised him. It kind of reminded him of what it would have been like to have a normal family. Then that slaver scum took it away. Voice vowed to kill every slaver he could find.

A voice rang out in his mind, clear and pristine, yet deep and full of power.

“Do you wish for power, One that holds the Ancient’s Blood?”

//

Wow, that was a long chapter. I just couldn’t find a good stopping point in it. Anyway, medium sized spoilers ahead for people wondering if I got off the main story. [spoilers] It will eventually make its way back to the main campaign after a few more time skips. [/spoilers]

So how did you guys like the chapter?