Little action, more real life character development. Guess big action chapter tomorrow :p

Enjoy!

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"Seriously? The damn tutorial rat was more of a frickin challenge than you!" Steel growled out angrily as he stab the last rat with his spear. It gave out a miserable cry as it dissolved into light and dropped it's loot. Steel huffed in annoyance as he gathered the pelt and fangs. The rats in the barn were level 2-4, which should have been a difficult challenge for Steel even without his curse.

However, the rats did not give aggro until Steel attacked them. This made it very easy to inflict a lot of damage with his 'Spear Thrust' ability, but he was also helped by an unexpected source. His curse, which made him naturally unapproachable to most people, seemed to have the added effect of making animals wary of him as well. The rats didn't seem to want to fight him, preferring to escape into the hay and holes in the barn.

Naturally, the escaping rats irritated Steel so much he had finally thrown his spear at one of them. The spear had traveled straight and true into the rat's back, killing it instantly. As it turned out, Steel had acquired a new skill from his actions.

You have learned the skill: Spear ThrowDescription:While not the smartest thing to do, throwing your weapon actually more dangerous than using it up close. You throw your spear to inflict greater damage on your opponent.Level:Beginner 1Effects:Inflicts 1.25 damage on your opponent. When used against a fleeing enemy, it will always critical hit. Once used, the weapon will leave your inventory and you must retrieve it.

Thanks to this new skill, Steel had a wonderful time picking off the rats in the barn at his leisure and trained both skills. To the added benefit, every once and awhile one of the rats would drop 'rat meat' instead of it's pelt. Steel couldn't wait to learn the 'cooking skill' so he could cook the meat and eat it. It had to taste better than the bread he was almost out of.

"Now," He muttered as he picked up the last pelt, "Let's go get that skill."

He walked out of the barn and back to the house. He knocked on the door and waited patiently.

The door opened to reveal a heavyset man in a straw hat and peasant clothes. He glared down at Steel and crossed his arms. "What d'ya want?" He asked.

Feeling a strange sense of deja vu, Steel smiled courteously and bowed. "Good day sir, I'm just reporting the completion of the quest your wife gave me."

The farmer raised an eyebrow and turned his head, "OY!" He shouted down the house, "Get down here!"

Steel frowned at the farmer's attitude, but made it disappear before he turned back around. The two of them heard bustling as the farmer's wife appeared in the doorway. She was red-faced and panted softly from the exertion. She smiled at Steel when she noticed him.

"Did you kill the rats?" She asked brightly.

Steel nodded, "I did, these pelts are proof." He took out the pelts and hung them over his arm. As he displaced them, a fat hand reached out and snatched the pelts off his arm.

"Thanks for the help stranger, have a good day." The farmer smiled and slammed the door in Steel's face. Steel, slightly shocked, rubbed his nose as he began to hear loud voices arguing in the doorway. As he wondered what was going on, he heard a loud slap and a small cry of pain.

At this point, Steel had spent the last few hours fuming in anger at the fleeing rats. He had all the pelts he had acquired stolen from him and was treated rudely as the nose hit his nose. Now, he had heard the farmer slap his wife, who was obviously on Steel's side.

Steel decided it was time for a little venting.

He reached up and touched the necklace on his neck. Scrolling through the options, he settled on the illusion that his whole body looked like his left side. Skeletal in appearance, he calmly knocked on the door again.

The door slammed open and the farmer glared out of it, his wife crying on the floor, he cried out, "Leave before I call the guards you . . ." He began to rapidly pale as he took in Steel's new face.

Steel grinned evilly and walked into the house, casuing the wife to cry out in fear, "I'm the ghost of justice and have come to deliver punishment to those who deserve it." Steel appreciated the theatrics of the moment.

The farmer, who was obviously not an educated sort or brave in anyway, began to beg pitifully as he scooted backwards.

"Mercy oh great one, for I have done no wrong. Here, take my wife who promised wrongly." He grabbed his wife and threw her at Steel as he ran into the house. Steel caught the women gently as she screamed in fear. "You won't have to worry about him anymore." He promised her, calming her down as he placed her on the floor.

"I need him for the field." She said meekly.

Steel nodded and cracked his knuckles as he walked into the house. She only needed him alive and in decent shape after all.

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"This book contains everything I know about cooking." The farmer's wife explained as she handed Steel the skillbook. Obviously, she had no idea Steel and the skeletal reaper were the same person, but she was so happy she was glad to help Steel out. "Also, I'm returning to you the pelts my husband wrongly took from you. Here is one of my famous pies as an apology."

Steel gave her a warm smile, "Won't your husband be mad that you're returning this?"

The wife giggled and shook her head, "He'll be fine with whatever I say for awhile. I have someone to thank for that. Anyway, have a good day and feel free to return if you want to buy one of my pies in the future." She gently shut the door behind her.

"Let's see: I got a new skill, got my pelts back, got a free pie, and taught someone a lesson in vengeance. Good day so far." Steel was vaguely pleased with himself for a moment before his frown returned, "I wonder if they'll be some unforeseen, but predictable problem that comes about from messing with an NPC."

After a brief moment to consider, he sighed and nodded to himself in defeat. His luck was just that bad.

"Well, I'll deal with it when the time comes." He muttered to himself as he checked the notifications. The quest and rats netted him a decent amount of exp, but his advanced class still required more for the next level. He had gone ahead and added the 10 stat points from his previous level up to strength and endurance, so even with the decreased health and mana, he could skill survive in a battle. Even though his actions hadn't been part of a quest, he had still received a weird notification that had spawned his previous thought.

Side Quest CompletedDeal with Domestic troublesYou came across a cruel farmer who mistreated his wife. You dealed with him in a way that benefited the wife, who has thanked your disguise for the help.Reward:The story of the "Spirit of Justice" will spread through the city

Abused wives may pray to you for help

Exp has been acquired

Steel couldn't help but scratch his head at the notification. Apparently, his disguise had worked a little too well and activated a hidden side quest. He felt bad about having people pray to him for help, and resolved himself to try to avoid situations like this in the future.

Since he had finished with the rats, Steel's next step was to find some wolves and get their fangs. Since the mini-map wasn't being helpful, he figured it was best to start his search closer to the woods.

As he walked away, he began to feel itchy. Annoyed, he scratched his left hand, wondering only for a moment why it seemed to feel like his old hand.

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Sarah sat next to a hospital bed as she gazed down sadly at his injured body. She held his hand in hers as she slowly rubbed his palm.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you." She whispered to him, "I'm sorry you're trapped in that world."

Everything had crashed down on Sarah that day. It had been night time when the alert came in that two students were hospitalized. She was worried at first, but hadn't paid it too much thought at the time. She had been so angry after the events in game she'd shut her wrist-phone off and locked her door.

She had been reading in her bed when her former best friend Reva began crying frantically at her door, desperately trying to get Sarah's attention. Sarah had relented and allowed her in to hear what the problem was.

"Sniff, Plat and Dia are in the hospital, waaahh." She cried into Sarah's shoulder. Sarah went into shock at her words and froze up.

Plat was in the hospital. Her Plat was in the hospital.

The shock took Sarah's mind back to when she first met the little boy that would eventually grow up into the man she now knew.

Flashback

"Sniff, leave me alone." A little girl cried out, her body hugging a tree for dear life.

"Stupid Sari Sari, we can see your eyes glow." A boy taunted below her. She called him Rain, and he was part of a group that loved to torment her for her strange eyes. Whenever she saw him, her tears would fall. They threw rocks and sticks up at her, trying to get her down.

"Wah, leave me alone." She gripped the tree tighter, trying to avoid the projectiles thrown at her."

She didn't like to hurt people, so she didn't fight back. The kids took it as a sign of weakness and berated her with taunting songs and silly antics. Today was a bad day, she hadn't found a hiding place so she was tree'd.

"Weak, Sari is weak." A girl giggled below her.

"Not weak, not weak!" She cried. They laughed and began trying to climb the tree. They failed, of course, since she had more practice then they had. They eventually got frustrated and ran off to play elsewhere.

She stayed up in the tree and cried. Her pretty hair had sticks in it, her skin itched from contact with the tree bark.

"Sniff, I don't like it here." She then realized she didn't know how to get down. She had never climbed up this high before. Her crying resumed, harder than ever when she realized her predicament.

"Help me."

She heard a noise to her right and looked over scared. The grownups had told her there were no monsters in the play woods, but she didn't believe them.

The sound of moving leaves cam again, and a face popped out of a tree in front of her face. The two stared at each other a moment, before the boy cried out and retreated. Sarah cried too, but didn't dare move from her spot.

Eventually, the boy returned and looked at her.

"What'chu doin here? This my spot." He proclaimed loudly.

"Sniff, I'm sowwy, I just wanted to hide." She apologized through the sniffles. The boy cocked his head at her.

"Ohh, your hiding too. That's k then." He said matter of factly, "Stupid bullies can't me up here, are u playing hid-en-go seek?" He asked curiously.

She shook her head, "Meanies chased me up here and I can't get down." She admitted.

"Umm, okay, I'll help you." He declared, "I'm Supa Plat!"

"That sound stupid." Sarah declared.

The boy looked sad, making Sarah realize she said something wrong, "Um, if you help me, then I call you Supa Plat." She promised.

He brightened up, and disappeared back into the tree. He reemerged with sticks, which he placed from her tree branch to his tree.

(In case your wondering, His tree top is about the height of her branch, and about a foot away)

Satisfied with his "bridge" he said, "Okay, take my hand and walk to me."

She looked dubiously at the bridge, "It look scawy Supa Plat." she said.

He shrugged, "Caretaker said, "Risks lead to triumph or defeat"." He declared.

"What's a wisk?"

"I don't know, sound cool though."

Believing in the admittedly cool sounding words, Sarah took his hand and got up on her branch. She put her feet on the bridge and walked across. She managed 3 steps before the bridge broke.

s luck would have it, he had pulled her in before the sticks fell to their doom. She crashed into him and they both tumbled into the tree. Inside the leaves, she found a floor made of wood.

She looked down to see Supa Plat under her. "Stupid, stupid." She cried as she hit his chest with her little fists, "That was scawy!"

He smiled up at her, "But I saved you? So I am Supa Plat!"

She hit him again and giggled, "Stupid name, I call you Plat." She declared. She looked at the floor, "Why is the floor nice in the twee?" She asked.

Plat shrugged, "Don't know. Found it like this, it's my supa secret base!" He put his hands on his side, then looked worried, "You don't tell right? I'll share it with you."

She liked the idea. She could hide here and play.

"Okay, but I'm in charge." She declared.

"No, my base, I'm in charge." He challenged.

"I'm a girl, and girls are in charge. Caretaker say so."

Plat opened his mouth, then frowned and sat down, "Caretaker say girls are "de-le-cate"." he pronounced slowly, "So I guess I'll let you be in charge. He squinted at her, "What's you name anyway?"

"Call me Mistress Sari." She declared.

They had played together in the tree as often as they could the rest of the year, Sarah in charge and Plat generally going along with it. She had "rescued" the prince from the dragon, played a house mom (they didn't know what a mom was, but they had heard it was like Caretaker), and had fun together.

Unfortunately, that had been the last year of the age group, so they were split up the following year.

Sarah's bullies started to woo her instead of hurting her as the years went by, her beauty growing with age. She never held any flame to them though, she remembered every boy who had hurt her. Girls too, but she quickly learned the vast political scene that was girl social life and got back at them. While never the top of the class, Sarah quickly became one of the top girls of her grade.

However, after the mid grades, she never saw Plat again. As the third age group came, she chose mind and soul as her specialties and began to train hard to succeed in life. Eventually, she had moved into the dorm with her best friend Reva, who had been her roommate for the last few years. She had been in the garden when she saw Plat again, moving into his room within the dorm. She had been pleasantly shocked to see him, but incredibly sad that he no longer recognized her.

She confided in Reva that night during her sleepover, the two giggling over the memories she shared with her. Reva told her she knew Plat from the second age group, and they discussed him til they fell asleep.

Fast forward to the present year. Sarah had never managed to talk to Plat. Really, it became hard to even be near him. He was bullied all the time, and his scores weren't good enough to get him near her academically. She had silently wished he'd stick to a faction soon, but he stubbornly kept his position trailing behind everyone. Reva warned Sarah to not talk to him, that it would only make things worse for him with the bullies. It annoyed her that Reva could sit and be friends with Plat at lunch and she couldn't. She instead hung out her her other longtime friend, Raim.

She met Raim near the beginning of the high school years, and had recognized him as one of her former tormentors. He had apologized profusely, but she would not budge. However, his kind attitude and helpful nature over the years eventually began to wear her down and she became good friends with him. She finally agreed to a single date with him during the first senior party.

Still, everything changed when she went to the party. She had spoken with Plat, and he knew her. Even better, she could clearly see his feelings toward her even though he had forgotten. While she played if off casually, she immediately looked forward to when Everlife came out. She was so excited by the possibilities that she sent Plat her real gaming information in the hopes of playing with him. She'd had not done that with anyone but Reva and Raim, opting to trick her would be suitors to think she was in the human kingdom instead of the elvish one so they wouldn't bother her.

Everything was going well for her, except for the strange rumors that had started to pop up about her. She was very offended by them, and Raim helped her clear up the mess before any serious damage was done. When Raim told her Plat had been responsible, she was half shocked and half incredulous. The Plat Raim described sounded nothing like the one she had known. However, who was she to judge since she hadn't seen him in years and Raim had been her friend for a long time.

After all, Raim had always looked out for her.

End Flashback

She remembered clearly when Reva came into her room. She had fallen to her bed as Reva sniffed on a chair.

"How, how is he?" She had asked quietly, "Is he hurt bad?"

"Sniff, yes, and it's all my fault." Reva cried out into her hands.

Reva explained that she had had a crush on Plat since she had first met him. Meeting Sarah and learning about her connection to Plat had started feelings of jealousy inside her. Raim had come to her and offered his help to separate the two, so she had worked to keep Sarah away from Plat so she could have him to herself.

When Sarah had told her about her plans for Plat, Reva's anger had burned over and she had blurted it out in anger to Raim, her ally in keeping the two separate. He had told her he would take care of it, and left. She had received a message about what she needed to do, and she had obeyed. Now, her crush was possibly dying and one of her friends was hurt badly as well

"To make it worse, I think Raim had something to do with both injuries." Reva confessed, "He seemed kinda deranged after hearing about you meeting, and he was definitely unstable in the game."

Sarah was in shock at the news. Her best friend loved the man she had feelings for, and had tried to keep them apart so she could have him. Not only that, but her good friend was possibly responsible for Plat being in the hospital. As she thought about it, she couldn't help but remember Raim's cruelty back when they were children.

'Maybe,' She reasoned, 'He never outgrew it.'

Guilt shook her as well as rage. She calmed herself though, using the meditative techniques she had learned from her soul classes. It was hard, the betrayal of her best friend cut deep, but she understood her feelings. After all, Plat was a boy worth have feelings for.

It was not, however, going to make her punishment any less.

"Why are you telling me this?" Sarah asked evenly, keeping her voice down.

"Because you're my best friend, and I'm sorry for hurting you and him." Reva looked into her eyes, the apology showing in her eyes and face. "Please forgive me, I'm sorry, so sorry." Her crying resumed, this time sitting on her knees with her arms hanging uselessly on her side.

Sarah's heart broke seeing her friend like this. No matter how angry she was, Reva was deserving of a little forgiveness. Not now of course, Sarah saw years of personal repentance for this shit, but she did like Reva as a best friend, and hurting her even more now would likely break her before she properly repented.

She took her in her arms, "Okay, but never lie to me again, understand?" Reva nodded, tears of relief running down her face, "Thank-you."

"Don't thank me yet." Sarah said coldly, pushing Reva back abruptly, "For this sin, you owe me a life debt and I won't except anything less."

Reva pales quickly, frozen in fear. A life debt came from a terrible sin, a loss of honor, or saving another's life. It bound the debtor to serve and obey until the oath was released verbally, otherwise it passed on to the next of kin. It was something that arose during the A.I. wars in order to create greater unity within the human side of the war. It had succeeded, but many servants to this day still worked under the debts their parents swore.

"Sarah, please no." She cried softly.

Sarah shook her head, "This is not only for me, but for Plat too." She declared, "I'm going to have him no matter what, and your actions hurt him and me." Her gaze softened a bit, "But I love you like a sister, and someday you may redeem yourself, so please, take the oath. Otherwise, I never want to see you again."

Sniffling, Reva had nodded.

"I, Reva, swear to serve Sarah Brighteyes until the day of my death or oath fulfilled, in this I swear." Reva said.

A red light glowed on her wrist-phone, registering the debt. Now, all of her person was legally controlled by Sarah.

Sarah smiled at her friend and hugged her, "Okay, now lets go see Plat."

The two had then visited Plat after school. Reva couldn't bring herself to say anything but "sorry" to him, but Sarah talked to him the entire visit. They visited the rest of the week, but Reva stayed outside the door after the first visit.

Now, Sarah sat alone in her seat, taking the time to burn her love's face into her heart. Raim hadn't come to see her the entire week, but he had sent a single letter to her the night of Plat's accident. The letter had only held two words:

"You're mine."

Sarah knew of his father's position, which was doubly important as most kids didn't know their parents. If he wanted her, he would stop at nothing to have her.

Still, events from the game forcibly separated her from him and she was now in the elf kingdom taking on quests for their country. She and Reva decided then that they would strong enough in the game to leave the elf kingdom and journey to find Plat, no matter how long it took. Privately, Sarah resolved herself that if she couldn't stay with Plat in the real world, she would make sure to join him in the digital one, even if it required sacrifice.

As she left the hospital room, Sarah returned to her chair to continue her weekend training spree.

Plat was hers now, and she would do anything to reach him.