Chapter 13

1PX

Brun awoke to a splitting headache. The food had obviously been poisoned, and they all slept for several hours. As he was waking up, guards came into his cell and told Nikko it was time for him to go to work. Brun was floating as if he was in outer space. Was that right? Had Graul called in a favor to get him onto a top secret mission? The zero gravity made him throw up.

Brun used the hours alone to do lunges and pushups, which didn’t work too well, then he wedged himself between a bunk and the bars to do isometrics. His muscles groaned in protest, but he didn’t dare look up his Stats. He had no way of knowing what they could detect about him.

His thoughts strayed to his “application.” He was a “scout.” Was that like a boy scout? That didn’t seem likely. What other scouts were there? Perhaps a military scout? He knew nothing of driving off road vehicles and setting up communication devices to send pics back to base. He pondered the idea for a half hour before he came up with old time scouts. Louis and Clarke style. As he thought about it, that made more sense. If his theory about Graul pulling strings was right, the Regulators had more experience scouting than anyone on Earth. No technology included in their mapping the terrain. If someone asked him questions about scouting, he could give satisfactory answers.

Hours later Nikko returned looking exhausted. Brun had ignored the conversations of the other prisoners, locked in their cells, all day, and Nikko took short choppy jumps in and flopped onto his bunk face down, then floated up. The guard locked the door and left, then Nikko started talking, having strapped himself to his bunk, face in the pillow. Brun ignored the mumblings about too much hard work washing pots and pans all day, but perked up when Nikko mentioned a guy who refused to work. He said the guards pointed guns at him and said “Work or die.” That was strange behavior in any culture, but aboard this ship their lives were forfeit.

Every day for five months Nikko came back and complained, and in all that time Brun never said a word. The other prisoners had given up on trying to converse with him, but not Nikko. He always tried to get some reaction out of Brun, sometimes talking politely, sometimes threatening. It never worked.

One day a group of soldiers approached the cell in the middle of the night. “Brun Parsons, get up. Proficiency testing.”

“What is that?” Brun asked through a groggy throat.

“Papers say you’re one of the best scouts in the world. We need to know just how good you are.”

Brun climbed out of bed and followed them down the hallway, as Nikko watched their backs with shock. Brun was wearing cotton pajamas and socks, but felt comfortable. But they couldn’t expect him to scout without proper gear could they? And where would he scout? Hallways enclosed in metal?

His worries were relieved when he was taken to a computer room. A man sat behind a bank of computer screens and in the middle was a padded floor with circle railing. Brun stepped into the circle, and the man instructed him to put on a headset and strap his ankles to the floor. Brun complied and a few seconds later the screen lit up. A loading screen was on, then multiple prompts came up and disappeared asking about terrain, easter eggs, and difficulty settings. In the brief glances he got, he saw they were all set to max difficulty. It must have been the programmer behind the screens who was doing it.

His voice came into the headset. “Brun, my name is Tyler. We have a program to test wilderness survival skills. You will be placed into a terrain type, then given three minutes to gather as much information as you can. After that you will be given a test to know what you observed.”

Brun was shocked. This was not his specialty. Video games were never his thing. Sure he played a little, but would never categorize himself as a gamer. The screen changed and he was in a desert. He didn’t know what to do. He saw no familiar terrain features, so this was a desert not in America. He started walking to the top of a hill, felt his feet bound to the floor but the screen moved, then realized he had no stamina limitations. He ran to the top and got a good survey of the land. Just as he saw a potential oasis in the distance, the screen changed and a test came up.

What time of day is it? What type of sand is prominent? Where are the mountains causing the desert terrain? Where is the closest water? What wildlife is tame, and what wildlife is aggressive?

Brun had no idea. He thought it over and remembered seeing distant mountains. He remembered seeing a shed snake skin, and the oasis. After one minute the screen changed. His score was 71/100.

Suddenly he was standing in a dense jungle. This time he knew what was coming. Four minutes later his score was 89/100. Then he was on a snow packed mountain. Score 75/100. Finally he was in a sparse forest. He named nine animals, the time of day, terrain features, water sources, food sources, and found a gold coin under a leaf. Score 114/100.

Tyler’s voice came up. “Your overall score was slightly disappointing. What happened?”

“I have little experience in jungle, and mountains during the winter, but I’m good at mountains in the summer. I should ace the desert, I have lots of practice there. I didn’t know what to expect, and didn’t know I could run everywhere. Let me try it again.”

Tyler reluctantly agreed, and Brun was in a different desert. He didn’t find the gold coin, but his score was 98/100. He was congratulated by Tyler then led back to his room. The next week was a barrage of questions from all the inmates about where he had been taken, and what was a scout? He stuck with his habit of never talking to another prisoner.

He went back to do scout training every day for a week, and the last day got a score of 402/400, having found two gold coins. As he was going to bed that night a voice came over the intercom. “This is Commander Gary Jones. We are two minutes from entry. Secure yourself as best you can.”

“What entry?” All the prisoners were confused, as were the guards, and the scientists.

The pilot navigated the ship to face the portal, bringing it to a crawl. Gary looked at the monitors and watched through the cameras mounted on the outside of the ship. He watched as the nose entered the portal. Suddenly the whole ship was sucked in and a moment later the cameras showed a fast approaching small planet. The pilot hit reverse thrust, but they were caught in the gravitational pull. Gary watched helplessly as the ground came closer and closer. Then the ship slammed into the single landmass in the planet, in the middle desert strip. The ship broke into hundreds of pieces, and he held on to his seat as the cockpit tumbled over and over. Despite all the best engineers working on the ship to make it not crash, the gravity was too strong, the portal too close. No ship could approach and get into orbit. Gary lost consciousness knowing this was indeed a one way trip.

Brun held on to the bars of his cell with all his strength. Why did the ship crash? He got banged up in the tumbling, but he lived. He looked around. His cell bars had come partially detached and he was able to crawl through the gap between the bars and the floor. He tried to stand but fell over because his socks slid on the slanted metal floor. He crawled away and saw daylight ahead. He exited the ship and saw he was standing in a desert. He surveyed the wreckage and didn’t see anyone else walking around.

Several minutes later he heard yells. People were alive in the wreckage. He came to them and helped them get away from the ship and sit comfortably. Then he walked further away and found more people alive, but these weren’t dressed as prisoners, they were dressed in business casual. He helped them get away from the debris and sit comfortably. When he came up to one woman she shrieked “Get away from me you criminal!” Brun shrugged and walked away not caring if she bled to death.

Soon others were helping him rescue the badly injured. After a few minutes some military people showed up and took charge of the situation. Brun thought they were too pushy and would be better off asking for help, but he was low man on the totem pole here. As the military cleared debris and set up a trauma center, nurses arrived and started bandaging and stitching people up. Brun walked away from it all.

He saw in the distance a part of the ship that had tumbled a long way. He walked over to it. Inside was the ruins of maybe a server room, with computer parts and wires scattered everywhere. He heard talking. “Sir, there is no way to transmit anything right now. I’ll have to find enough spare parts to build another transmitter. That will take days.”

“That’s not good enough! We need to let them know what happened!”

Brun interrupted “Hello, I came by to see if anyone is in need of medical help. The military set up a trauma center back there.”

The angry man yelled at him. “Go away. If I need something done I’ll tell you to go do it. Don’t interrupt me again. In fact, go wash some dishes.”

Brun wanted to walk away, but he had to give a little barb. “Fine. You just pissed off the best scout on this ship.”

“Scout? Hey get back here scout! We need your services!”

Brun didn’t care and walked away. If that man thought there was still an intact pecking order on this mission, he was sadly mistaken. Feeling rejected by everyone he walked to the top of a sand dune to look around. Finally alone for the first time in two years, he checked his Stats.

Level 29 Health 419/450 Strength 6 Stamina 54/55 Mana 80/80

He then checked each of the remaining icons available to him.

Weapons Armor Money Cities Notoriety/Quests Maps Exp StatsItems Spells

Except for spells, the others were all zero or blank. He had lost multiple spells when they teleported to Earth, all his highest level ones. They all lost twenty-five levels: fifty health, five strength, thirty stamina, and twenty mana, and nine of their top spells. In the hospital his strength and stamina had probably dropped all the way down to two and thirty respectively, but five months of working out in his cell brought them back up a little.

While he sat there contemplating what to do, he saw dust clouds coming from the ground in the distance. And they were headed straight for the trauma center. He was too far away to help, and he had no weapon or armor. He watched from a distance as three Giant Sand Snakes burst out of the ground. The military shot guns at them, and eventually the sand worms died, but they killed dozens of those who were too wounded to run away.

Brun moseyed back to the wreckage to find chaos and panic. He avoided everyone and looked for the kitchen. He found it and found bottled water. He helped himself to four bottles then found a dead soldier, who happened to wear the same boot size he did. After further exploring he found a rucksack and canteen. In a couple hours he had broken shrapnel that qualified as a knife, cammo pants, and a wool sweatshirt that qualified as a mage’s tunic, giving his spells an extra ten percent damage. He left the chaos behind, and walked away back to his hill.

Hours later more sand worms attacked, killing dozens more people. After that, he thought maybe now whoever was self-proclaimed in charge would want his help. Brun walked back and saw the wreckage was far worse than he thought. Dead bodies lay everywhere, most survivors were in numb shock, and a couple dozen military personnel were trying to get the civilians to gather supplies and drag away bodies. The language barrier made the task very difficult as there were people from seven different countries trying to plan and organize. His Translate ability was still active, and he could understand everyone, but he could only speak English and he couldn’t let everyone know he could understand every language. There was a one second delay as people spoke before it was translated in his mind, so he knew who was speaking English.

A major saw him and yelled “What happened to your uniform soldier?”

Brun looked down and saw his cammo pants and combat boots, along with his maroon sweater. “It was shredded in the crash, sir. I just gained consciousness. I’m a scout. How can I help?” This was his chance to remove his past as a criminal.

“Scout huh? Perimeter check, ten click radius. Report back to me in two hours.”

Brun tried to salute but having never done it before it came out sloppy. He was reprimanded “Get your bearings soldier! Do not salute in the field! And find a weapon.”

Brun walked north. He didn’t know what a click was, but it didn’t matter. From the top of the hill earlier, he thought he saw some vegetation in the distance to the north. He asked other soldiers for a gun, but was told he didn’t need one. Most of the ammo was lost in the wreckage and what they had was spent fighting the “Huge underground alien worms.” Another attack from sand snakes and the military and everyone in the area would be completely screwed. The probability of Sand Snakes attacking again was too high for his comfort, and he wanted to get away from their easy meals.

An hour later as he walked as fast and far away as he could, the desert slowly turned to jungle. The temperature changed from a dry searing heat to a hot sticky dampness. He saw a good shade tree not far off and headed for it. He approached to find a few people sitting under it, deep in conversation.

They looked up as he approached, but were too tired to yell at him. Brun took off the sweater and sat down. “Hi guys, I’m Brun, a scout. I was checking out the area for food, water, and hostile life.”

“Hey Brun, it’s Tyler, the programmer that assessed your scouting skills. This is Commander Gary, Judge Susan, prisoner Nikko, and liaison Joe.”

Joe turned around and they recognized each other. Brun jumped up and shook his hand. “Joe, good to see you. It’s been years. I didn’t know you were here.”

Joe was Rome’s brother, and had been a good friend of Brun’s before his departure to Nuva. Brun wanted to hint to Joe to not speak about their past, but Joe went straight into the story.

Chapter 14

Introductions

Joe began “Brun and I had known each other for years. Then one day, six years ago, Brun, my brother Rome, and some other friends of ours went on a nature hike. All seven of them disappeared. We found their equipment and clothes well off a trail in the mountains, but there was no sign of them. We searched for two weeks and came up with nothing, they were presumed dead. After three years five of them were found on that same trail, butt naked. But they had all… changed. Like you had the same faces in different bodies, young and strong. Rome and Torger didn’t come back, and you guys never did get your story straight of what happened. After that we lost touch.”

Nikko chimed in. “What happened is Brun here committed some crime he won’t talk about. He was my roommate, but whatever he did the staff was afraid of him, had him tied up.”

Gary looked at him. “Tell us Brun. What did you do? And what happened to your other two friends?”

Brun was trapped in a bad situation. He needed to buy time. “Sure I’ll tell you, but first I want to hear from everyone else.”

Joe started “I went into politics, not as an elected politician but an assistant to politicians. I worked my way up. My job on this mission is to keep the peace between different countries and make sure all observations are accurately reported back to the U.S.”

Nikko went next. “I started cutting myself when I was a kid. Since then I’ve attempted suicide three times.” He stopped speaking and smiled broadly as if that fit perfectly natural into the conversation.

Gary went next. “I’m commander of this mission. My job is to see a successful transmission of data back to Earth. This is the first inhabitable planet we’ve found, and they were hoping to make multiple missions here. But that portal is just too close to the planet. They’ll have a lot of work to do to figure out how to land a ship on this surface successfully. We don’t know who made the portal, but it seems like it was made long ago and is being slowly sucked into this planet. It’s called 1PX meaning first planet in the x-zone of the galaxy. Basically we have no idea where we’re at. As for the planet itself it doesn’t rotate. It is always daylight here, and we think it is just a single land mass. We’re in the middle strip near the east coast. The equator is desert, north and south of that is jungle, beyond that both directions is forest, and at the edges is tundra.

“As for why I took this mission. I knew it was a one way trip when I signed up. I’ve always been career driven, and didn’t have family except my mom and sister. Two years ago they were brutally murdered and I kind of went numb, not caring about anything.”

Brun took notice. He had brutally murdered a mother and daughter two years earlier, and no one ever found out he had done it. He kept his mouth shut as Susan began.

“I am responsible for presiding over any disputes that may arise. If two people can’t agree on something, I will decide what should be done. I accepted this opportunity to further my own career and hopefully one day be a Supreme Court Justice.” She spoke with a haughty attitude that was an immediate turn off.

“I’m Tyler, the chief of systems networking. My main task was to ensure all our transmissions made it through back to Earth. I’ve always loved sci-fi and I’m a true computer geek at heart, so going into space is the dream of a lifetime. Technicians are finding pieces in the wreckage and I’m going to have to build a new transmitter from scratch.”

It was Brun’s turn and he had to pick his words carefully. “As Joe said, six years ago I was on a hike with friends. We got lost and lived off the land for a week. We liked it so much we decided to go to Mexico and live off the land in the desert there. We came back after three years and went back to normal lives, but I got trapped into being a mule- someone who smuggles drugs across the border. Since then I’ve been incarcerated.”

“That’s B.S. and we all know it. What’s the truth?” demanded Susan.

“I, uhh,”

Brun was interrupted by the judge again. “The truth is you displayed some sort of future tech electric zapper against that cop. Remember everyone? That video was on every news channel in the world for three weeks. This is the guy!”

Brun looked on as heads bobbed. They all remembered. In a moment of panic Brun had cast Lighting 2 at a police officer. It didn’t kill him, and Brun surrendered immediately after that, but the damage was done. The officer was wearing a body camera and the patrol car dash cam also caught it on film. Most people in the world thought he had the world’s smallest taser, but the unreleased reports stated there was no taser, and how he electrocuted the cop remained a mystery. That led to a year of being a lab rat for dozens of scientists. What no one knew was why he killed Gary’s mom and sister and why he attacked the cop.

“I’ll tell you what. If we live a week, I’ll give you the whole story.”

The others didn’t like his answer but they could see he was going to clam up about it. He should be able to explain his attack on the cop without tying it to his murders.

Far to the north Torger and Rome materialized in a round, tall glass case, the same as it was on Nuva. They stepped out and a message appeared before them.

You have entered training area TZ18. Form your party before leaving this entrance room. Your time will begin as soon as you exit here.

“What does that mean?”

Rome shook his head “I don’t know.” He looked up Cities and saw none, then looked up Maps but it was completely blacked out. Under Notoriety/Quests he saw a quest to form a squad. There were a hundred names or more on the list to choose from, but the two at the top were highlighted: Torger and Brun. He selected both. Torger received a message to accept as squad member under “captain” Rome, and he mentally selected Yes. Torger didn’t have Red Fury or any armor, or any clothes, and neither did Rome. That was strange, teleporting around Nuva always allowed them to retain their gear. On the floor were three thick blankets and three non magical satchels.

As they were walking out of the sparse building, Brun’s name was added to the squad. When they stepped outside a message appeared.

It is strongly recommended to have a squad of 5-10 hunters. The fewer hunters in the squad, the more points you will each receive, but completing the training will be much more difficult.

They ignored the message and walked out. Torger checked Maps again and saw three dots. A small part of the map was revealed where he and Rome were standing, and far to the south a larger part of the map was revealed where Brun was. He hoped Brun would check his own Maps and start heading their direction. Torger had no idea what they would do when they met, or what the goal of being there was. All he knew was Ristopan insisted they come save Brun.

In their vision on the top right corner a timer began. It showed 0d 0h 1m. There was no explanation for it. Rome looked around and saw tundra everywhere. He was shivering uncontrollably and wrapped the blanket tighter around himself. There were low hills all around them and lichen everywhere. He noticed the land around Brun was desert. This seemed to be a tough planet to live on. He and Torger had nothing but a satchel and a large blanket each, and a spare presumably for Brun. The items formed as soon as Rome sent the invitations to join the squad. They wrapped themselves tighter and hoped frostbite on their bare feet would not come too soon. All their clothes, supplies, and weapons did not come through the portal with them, and as they walked they checked their Stats. Just as Ristopan had said, they each lost twenty-five levels; some health, stamina, strength, mana, and high level spells. That was a very expensive trip they took.

After walking for hours, they saw that the sun hadn’t moved. Perpetual daylight was good in this cold wasteland. A little while later they came to some evergreen trees. The Tundra gave way to cold forest. They gathered firewood and cast Fire 1. As they warmed up they saw Brun was starting to head north towards them.

An hour later they came to a cave. “I think we should go in and check it out,” said Torger.

“No, we need to get to Brun. Remember Ristopan was very worried about him.”

Torger was very curious about the cave, but Rome wouldn’t be deterred, so he marked the spot on Maps. He definitely wanted to come back to it, and Analyze 2 gave no information about it.

The snow on the ground was getting less and less. They had to cast Cure 1 a few times to keep frostbite from forming, but something seemed off. After a while Torger asked “Where is all the wildlife? Rabbits, deer, foxes?”

Rome looked around and saw nothing. Birds were chirping far away, and there were signs of animal trails, but they had not seen one single animal. Rome’s stomach grumbled at the thought of having to eat untested alien fruits and nuts on the trees. Hours later he couldn’t stand the hunger anymore and picked some fruit that looked like a blue banana. He peeled the skin that was like an orange peel and bit into it. Torger watched and was ready to cast Heal 2. Rome bit into it, his face soured, then he smiled. “Awesome, no poison.” He finished it and they walked another half hour before Torger accepted it was safe. His first bite was an explosion in his mouth, the tastes of fruit juice mixed with dirt and grass. Not the most appetizing meal but his rumbling stomach seemed happy.

Not long after that the forest became jungle as they kept jogging. Once they had made it to the forest and off the tundra, they were able to jog for hours as their stamina slowly dropped. They had been walking and jogging for fifteen hours straight, and their stamina was getting low. They could see Brun was making much slower progress. They stopped to get a little shut eye.

Brun was going agonizingly slow. His stamina was nowhere close to what it used to be, but he was still faster than half of everyone else in the group. Gary and Joe were in great physical shape, better than Brun after his prolonged incarceration, but Brun had years of navigating virgin terrain and exerted less effort going over and around rocks and bushes. Joe and Gary had obviously lived in cities all their lives as they seemed to kick every rock and shrub. Susan and Nikko were barely able to keep up with him, but Tyler was lagging behind and they had to take a lot of breaks for him. He wasn’t obese, but it was clear he spent most of his time sitting in an office chair. Flabby would be a polite description.

He couldn’t believe the message that came up inviting him to a squad with Torger and Rome. Shouldn’t they be on Nuva? How did they get here? But his Maps showed their location far to the north. He urged everyone to follow him north but they flat refused. He couldn’t say what he knew, but they could see something was agitating him. He started walking away without them, but Gary threatened to have the military track him down and drag him back. Finally he pulled Joe aside and whispered “I think Rome is here, far to the north.”

Joe was hesitant. They used to be good friends, but Brun had become a bit crazy. His time in a mental hospital was proof of that. Still, Brun would know better than anyone what really happened to the missing Rome and Torger. Joe urged Gary to let them check it out, and after a few hours Gary relented. First they had to go set order to the survivors, create a proper chain of command.

Now they all thought Brun truly was crazy. After hours of walking there was no indication of any life. Everyone was complaining to Gary to turn back, and he seemed like he was about to. They were low on food and water, and blisters were forming on their feet, except Brun who secretly cast Cure 1 on himself a few times.

They sat down again to let Tyler rest. He complained “This is a pointless hike. I need to get back to see what the techs have found, and start building the transmitter.”

Gary looked at Brun. “You said you could see a mountain up here, a good vantage point to get our bearings. Where is it?”

“I said large hill, not mountain. It’s still about twenty miles away. We’ve been moving at a little less than two and a half miles per hour, far slower than I’m used to. I thought we would almost be there by now.” He glanced at Tyler to redirect the blame for this wild goose chase.

“Another twenty miles is too much. I had no idea it was that far. We’re going back.”

Brun got nervous about the idea. They were only about fifty miles from Torger and Rome, who had stopped moving. They seemed to averaging nearly nine miles per hour, a light jog on Nuva with their great stamina there. Brun had to buy time for them to catch up. “Fine, we’ll head back. But tomorrow I want to come with some military people to make better time. For now I think we need a long rest. You guys take a nap while I keep watch.”

“I don’t think so,” said Susan. “You’ll either run off or kill us in our sleep.”

Joe volunteered to stay up, and so did Gary. Nikko, Tyler and Susan leaned up against trees and closed their eyes. Once they were breathing deeply, Gary summoned Brun and Joe to walk away a little.

“What’s really going on Brun? There is nothing here. If you’re not taking us somewhere specific, you wanted to get us away from the ship. Why?”

Brun looked at Joe who nodded. “I can’t reveal my sources, but I believe we have allies about fifty miles north of here. There really is a large hill another twenty miles north, and from the top we could see if my information is correct.”

“What allies? How did they get here? Brun, let me level with you. I’ve worked with prisoners all my adult life, and I’m very good at determining which ones are decent people and which ones are a menace to society. It’s the same with guards; there are good ones and rotten ones. I’ve always been a good judge of character, and you seem to be an independent thinker and self starter, quick on your feet to make the right decisions most of the time. But you’ve been lying to me and everyone else since I met you. You’re not doing it for your own giggles and grins, but with a definite goal in mind. It’s time to come clean.”

“The truth, Gary, is you think you’re in charge here. You think there is still some sort of pecking order. But there’s not. In the wilderness it’s all about survival. Kill or be killed. I’m not going to submit to your leadership, or her highness the arrogant judge. I’m going to survive. It’s what I do. From the bottom of my heart, I don’t care if you live or die. If you can help me live, great let’s team up. If you’re going to hinder me, I’ll knock you down when we’re chased by a bear. Joe here is my friend, and I’ll put my life in danger to protect him, but no one else on that ship. As for where I’m headed, I really do believe I’ll find survival help further north. If it’s there, you’ll find out why I can’t tell you more right now.”

Gary nodded, then a slow smile broke across his face. “That is some refreshing honesty,” he said as he clapped his hand on Brun’s shoulder. “For years I’ve had to walk on tip toes always being politically correct, suppressing the truth of the prison system to government suits. You’re ‘It’s all about me’ attitude is the truth many of us have and we want to shove down and squelch it. I think if it came down to surviving for a week in the wilderness, I would want to paired up with you. I know exactly where I stand with you. But back at the ship, I am in command and I can’t have talk of mutiny. Will you agree that I’m in charge at base, but we’re equals here with no one around? Your attitude would never work in a civilized society.”

Brun stuck out his hand and Gary shook it. They agreed to keep going north when the others woke up in a few hours. Meanwhile Brun had to go find food and water. It was an easy task since the jungle was full of fruits and he found a trickling stream. He loaded up the rucksack and poured a few gallons of water through a filter designed to kill viruses and remove minerals. When everyone woke up, they headed north again, against the complaints of the three who were asleep. Brun smiled to himself as they obviously respected Gary’s authority.

After five hours they saw Torger and Rome coming towards them. Brun and Joe smiled and ran to greet them. Hugs were exchanged and everyone tried to talk at once. Gary and the others cautiously approached, having no clue why other humans were on this planet.

They all sat down and Brun began his tale. “As you all know, six years ago seven of us were lost on a hike. Five of us were found naked three years later. Torger and Rome were the missing two. What happened, the truth that nobody but us know, is that during our hike we found a small portal device. We didn’t know what it was at the time, and it sent us to another planet called Nuva. The planet is controlled by an alien race called tyters, which is slang for predators. On that planet there are elves and dwarves, and physics work differently. Our bodies were changed, actually we got new bodies but our old minds and faces. We didn’t build muscle and stamina like all life forms we know of usually do, it was quantified. We gained levels, and spent ability points gained from experience to increase our stats.”

Tyler interrupted “Wait, you were in a video game, like not just playing, but actually in it? That is so cool. What class were you? What was the game called? What-“

Brun held up a hand. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. I’ve never played a video game like that. We died and respawned, and it hurt. A lot. I don’t know what a class is, and there was no name of the game. The tyters bring dangerous prey to the planet, let us level up for three years, then kill their prey. We survived, the third group ever to do so, after the elves and dwarves. A dwarf demigod named Ristopan gave us a scroll to override the tyter portal, which is how Jex and Arden returned. A couple hours later the tyters sent us back after our victory. Rome and Torger had to stay.”

Tyler’s face lit up and he started asking all kinds of questions, but Susan and Gary scoffed at the bunch of liars. Torger stopped the talking and once everyone was paying attention he said “Follow us. We found a cave that looks interesting.”