Chapter 17: Finding a group

“Good morning, Phillip.” Cecilia smiles as she walks out in to the kitchen. “Did you sleep well?”

“Good morning, Cecilia.” I smile back to her as I take a sip of some hot chocolate. “I was so tired last night, I had no choice but to sleep well. How about you?”

“I had another nightmare, and when I woke up, I realized everything was fine.” Cecilia sighs, “Is it too much to ask that we sleep in the same bed?”

“No?” I smile as I take a sip from my mug. “You never asked so I never even mentioned it. If you’re too scared to sleep by yourself at night, you are always welcome beside me.”

“It’s your fault I have nightmares in the first place. You do know that…” Cecilia sighs, “I don’t know if I want to sleep in the same bed as you yet though.”

“Fair enough.” I take a bite of the blueberry muffin in front of me. “There are some more muffins on the counter, I woke up early so I went to the store and picked them up.”

“Trying to make me feel better with food?” Cecilia sighs.

“Isn’t it working?” I nod my head.

“Yes.” Cecilia groans as she walks to the counter and grabs a plate and puts a muffin on it. She takes the wrapper off of it and starts to take small bites while walking over to the table.

“So, Cecilia, today is the day we find a group of people to take us to the Capital.” I set down my hot chocolate and Cecilia stares at my mug.

“It bothers me how you drink something that sweet in the mornings.”

“It’s cold, I want a hot drink that’s not coffee and tea is expensive… hm. I guess I can’t use that excuse anymore. Oh well, I hate coffee with a passion and I don’t feel like tea in the mornings.” Cecilia laughs and I just shrug my shoulders, “Did you get any information on the Capital? You know, while I was in a coma.”

“Yes, I did actually.” Cecilia smiles as she stands up and fills a glass with water. “I learned that the Capital’s name is ‘Solarius’. It is usually sunny there, or so some rumors say.”

“Huh, that’s kind of neat.” I finish my muffin and lean back in my chair. “So, anything else that we need to know?”

“Crown Prince Iskandaar Solarius III. He is the next in line to rule Romania Kingdom. The current continent we are on.” Cecilia put her hand on her head, “If I remember correctly, information on him said that he is a generally nice guy, unless you get in his way. His favorite pastime is torturing prisoners.”

“Okay, let’s not get on his bad side.” I look at Cecilia with a smile, “Sometimes I am glad you are so average that you won’t get special attention Cecilia. I won’t have to worry about him wanting to take you from me.”

“I don’t know if I should be happy, or insulted. I know you meant it in the nicest way though…” Cecilia sighs, “Whatever, Crown Prince Iskandaar is also known for his loyalty to a certain woman.”

“Well, I guess that’s not uncommon. I was expecting someone with the title of ‘Crown Prince’ to have a harem or something.”

“No.” Cecilia shakes her head, “It seems that the Crown Prince has a childhood friend and they fell in love with each other. The current ruling King decided that he was never going to convince his son to marry another girl, so he has arranged it so that they are going to be married in the coming months… roughly by the time we arrive…”

“You see the issue with all of this? I have a feeling we are going to get pulled in to some mess. Let’s just deliver the letter and talk to the guild, level up, and move on.”

Cecilia and I nod our heads in agreement. I stand up and rinse out my mug and clean my plate. I want another cup of hot chocolate… but I would be having way too much sugar in the morning. Hm.

“I’ve been thinking, you haven’t even been in contact with your parents since your injury. If someone told them you were seriously injured, wouldn’t it cause issues for their jobs if they had to return from wherever they are to check up on you who was supposedly dying just a couple days ago?” Cecilia clears her plate.

“You make a good point.” I look at my phone and dial my mother’s number, “I will just call them now while it is on my mind.” I hear the phone ring and my mother answers.

“Oh, Phillip? You rarely call us, especially this early in the morning. Is something wrong?” I hear my mother’s voice and oddly enough, it calms me a little.

“Nothing’s wrong. Um, did you by chance hear a rumor about me getting injured?”

“Yes.” My mother pauses for a while, “Last we heard you were in critical condition in the hospital… we are on our way back from abroad.”

“I see.” I take a deep breath. “Well, everything is fine! I’m alive and kicking. No need to hurry, I am at home with Ceci… lia… I guess you wouldn’t know about that yet, huh?” I scratch my head and Cecilia sighs.

“Cecilia? Isn’t that the girl that followed you around during your final years of high school? She even moved to follow you.”

“Yep. That’s the one.”

“Can she hear me?”

“No, do you want her to?”

“Yes. Please put me on speakerphone.” I listen to my mom.

“Okay, you’re on speakerphone now, mom.” I look to Cecilia with the ‘I’m sorry’ face. “Please don’t be mean.”

“Mean? Why would I be mean to the girl that saved my son?” I hear the mischievous smile in my mom’s voice and I am tempted to hang up right then and there. “Are you there Cecilia?”

“Hello Mrs. Tethers. It’s been a while since we’ve talked.” Cecilia smiles as we both sit back down at the table.

“It’s been a couple of months. Probably just before you moved in with Phillip. How are things going?”

“Things have been going slowly… kind of. We’ve both had our share of breakdowns and unfortunate events. We’ve also had a lot of good times together. In real life and in VR.”

“That’s great!” My mom shouts happily, “I’m so sorry Phillip, we weren’t able to be there for you when you were injured.”

“It’s fine. I’m better now…” I stay quiet for a short amount of time, letting the silence build up. “How did you find out I was injured if you haven’t talked to Cecilia in a couple months and no one called you from my phone? Who else has your contact information that we know?”

“The developers of Forged Path.” My mom sighs, “They contacted us asking for permission to try an experimental healing procedure on you.”

“Wait. Why’d they call you guys?”

“You were in a coma and it didn’t look like you were going to wake up for a while. You had been moved to a special facility owned by the dev team. They made everything look like a hospital. The doctor’s acting was subpar and he left you with a few hints, but you were on so many drugs to keep the pain down, you probably barely noticed anything.”

“So… Dr. Juiles… wasn’t a doctor?”

“No. Cecilia knew this as well. We left you out of the loop because you didn’t need unnecessary stress while you were practically dead.” My mom sighs again, “The developers of the game are now working towards healing many terminally ill patients due to your sacrifice.”

“My life was at risk the entire time… and you agreed to put me through an experiment!” I slam my hands on the table. The table creaks unnaturally. “I could have died!”

“You were going to die if we didn’t do anything!” My mom shouts through the phone.

An intense silence falls over everyone. There wasn’t even any background noise from my mother’s side.

“Phillip. I know you’re upset, but please think about it from our side. Every medical professional said the best they could do was give you another month to live.” I hear my father’s calm voice, “From our perspective, what would you choose. See your son suffer in a hospital for a month before dying in pain. Or try a completely controversial way of making you better, using magic.”

“I’m sorry I got angry.” I take a deep breath and lean back in my chair. “Almost dying really makes your nerves bad… doesn’t it?”

“You’ve got that right.” Cecilia says under her breath, glaring at me.

“Anyways, Phillip. No one is going to blame you if you are a little angry with us putting your life at risk. However, you are alive and kicking, and if I heard the creaking of that old table correctly, you seem to be in better condition than ever.” I hear my dad let out small laugh, handing the phone back to my mother.

“We’ll be back in town in two or three days. We have one more stop to make before we can come home. We’ll need to congratulate Cecilia and you on your marriage.”

“No, no, no!” I stand up quickly, “We aren’t married!”

“She told me otherwise…” My mother whistles and Cecilia looks away.

“Whatever.” I sigh as I toss the phone to Cecilia, “I have things I need to prepare in Forged Path. Cecilia and I are going to be traveling to the Capital. I need to talk with the guild as soon as possible.”

I walk in to the basement and head in to Forged Path, while Cecilia continues to talk to my parents. I hope she doesn’t agree to anything stupid while I am not there.

---At the guild---

“Welcome back Phillip, it’s been a while.” I listen to a familiar voice, “What brings you here today?”

“I have come to see if there are any merchant groups heading towards the Capital.”

“Oh? Why would you need to go to the Capital? Haven’t you just recently started to train under Sir Arthur Cunningham as his student?”

“Yes, that was until recently. I have improved a little bit.” I scratch my head, “I’m not confident I’ll be okay, but I have been told by Sir Arthur himself that I have to go to the Capital to train myself.”

“Hm.” The receptionist behind the counter starts to search through some papers. “I’ll trust that you need to go for some errand or another.” The receptionist places a few papers on the desk. “The left one leaves tomorrow, they are transporting novels for the library. The next leaves in a week and a half, they are transporting important figures from within the guild, and will be the safest.”

“I think I will take the one that is tomorrow if at all possible.” I look at the papers and decide that this is going to be the quickest one. Who is going to attack a pile of books?

“I didn’t tell you this,” The receptionist leans closer to me and whispers, “I’ve heard rumors that the Crown Prince’s childhood friend is going to be traveling with the guild in the next week and a half. She’s supposedly been staying in Innisgrale preforming some form of a task.”

“I will have to politely decline. With my luck I would either end up making an enemy of the Crown Prince, or cause an unprecedented event where I become a friend of the Crown Prince. Either way, its trouble and I want no part of it.” I grab the paper that is marking the transport of books.

“Fair enough.” The receptionist shrugs her shoulders, “Don’t haunt me as a ghost if you die.”

“Nah, haunting someone like you’d be fun.” She smiles as she grabs some paperwork for me to sign, “However, I don’t plan on dying.”

“Good. Please sign these papers.” As I start to work on signing away my life, almost literally, I look back up to the receptionist.

“If possible, could I sign up someone else as a burden for this trip?”

“Burden? They are unable to fight?” The receptionist makes a complicated expression as I nod my head. “They will have to come in and meet with the individual in charge of this voyage, but they should allow it. Is it something like your wife?”

“You know what, paperwork is easier that way, yes. She’s my wife.” I sigh as I finish up the last of the paperwork that was set in front of me.

“Not your actual wife, but you are in a relationship close enough you are willing to call her your wife to make paperwork easier?” The receptionist smiles, “Phillip Tethers, the only student of Sir Arthur Cunningham, who knew the girl he was going around with was someone that close to him.”

“Yeah,” I laugh while looking around, but suddenly deepen the tone of my voice and narrow my eyes, “If you or anyone you know dare to touch her. I will make their lives miserable. If any harm comes to her within the next month. I will know it is you that spread information and I will come to find you.” I then smile and clap my hands. “Thanks for your time today, I have to go and get the other person I want to sign up.”

“Thank you for visiting.” The receptionist keeps a nice smile on her face, but I can see the small beads of sweat on her forehead. I may have went overboard again…

I walk out of the guild building and see Cecilia walking towards the guild. She has a cute smile on her face.

“Yo, why’d you come here so quickly?” I walk up to her with a smile on my face. When Cecilia notices me she walks over.

“I see you were actually at the guild here. I was just on my way over to see if you were actually here. Did you find a merchant group or something that we can get a ride with?”

“Yep.” I scratch my head, “But you will have to meet with the person leading the group because you aren’t really able to fight.”

“Is there something wrong with that?” Cecilia nudges me. “No, it’s fine. I’ve been more devoted to learning information.” Cecilia taps her head, “I can recall from memory what most of the plants and animals in the area are. What to do in certain situations with monsters, their weaknesses. I know which plants are edible and which ones are good for curing wounds or making deadly poisons.”

“I think you are plenty strong then.” I point back to the guild, “Let’s see if we can immediately meet with the person in charge of the group. That way if they give us the no go, we can at least prepare for our next opportunity.”

“That’s probably a good idea.” As she nods her head we start walking inside the guild building. All of the guild buildings looked the same.

Wooden exterior and interior. It gives a nice fantasy feel with the red carpet and the dark wooden counters.

“Welcome back, Mr. Phillip.” The receptionist smiles gently as I make my way back over to her in the nearly empty guild building. It seems it is an off hour. I don’t actually know what time it is.

“Hello again.” I walk up to the counter and point to Cecilia, “This is Cecilia. She is the extra that I wanted to bring along.”

“Hello again Ms. Cecilia.” The receptionist slightly bows, “I will contact the individual in charge of transporting the books in the first place. Please wait here for a minute.” She stands up and quickly runs to the back, closing the door behind her.

Cecilia and I stand in place and awkwardly look around. A few people were here and there, talking to other receptionists about varying topics. One guy was looking at the quest board with a frown on his face. Is he having trouble deciding which one he wants to take, or is he complaining about the rewards that are always oddly low for the job.

“Sorry for making you wait.” The receptionist quickly comes back out. “Please follow me and I will introduce you to the person you need to convince. Not many people are fond of taking extra baggage that doesn’t profit them.”

“Okay.” Cecilia and I nod as we start to follow the receptionist towards the back of the building. We walk past the door and the receptionist closes it behind us.

Inside the room we entered were five wooden chairs placed around a wooden table. Who’s the person that designed the guilds? They really love wood, it makes me feel uncomfortable as a man.

“Please have a seat.” The receptionist gestures to the table, “The person you need to meet will be here shortly.”

“Thank you for your time.” I smile at the receptionist who quickly walks away. I pull out a chair and gesture to Cecilia, “Milady.”

“How fancy.” Cecilia smiles as she sits down. “Why are you acting strange?”

“What did you talk to my parents about when I left? I should have stayed now that I think about it. I’m always so curious about everything, in order to satisfy my curiosity, I should have pretended to leave and just stayed quietly listening.” I sit down in the chair beside Cecilia and sigh.

“It was nothing too important. Your mother just wanted to know if she could prepare for her grandchildren.” My head hits the table as Cecilia smiles.

“You know what, I’m glad I didn’t stick around.” I lift my head off the table and rub my forehead. “Is that really what you talked about?”

“Nope.” Cecilia sticks her tongue out at me and I just shake my head. “She asked if you were handling everything okay. I was saying that you had some troubles at first, but you are getting better. She also asked me to stay with you for as long as I could, as you seem to have liked me for a long time.”

“As sneaky as always, that mother of mine.” I close my eyes and smile. “I really have to thank her. They were already on their way home from their business trip and I just happened to call.”

“She says she was about to call you anyways.” Cecilia laughs as the door to the room opens and a tall woman with long brown hair walks in to the room. She was wearing a long red dress that almost dragged on the floor, it was not revealing at all, and it seemed like there was a lot there to reveal. I feel a slight glare from Cecilia.

“Hello. Nice to meet you two, my name is Diana Markenth. It is a pleasure to meet both of you.” She holds out her hand as Cecilia and I stand up to shake it.

“Cecilia Howler, the pleasure is all mine Ms. Diana.” Cecilia shakes her hand and goes to sit back down. I then shake her hand too, she seems frail, but I shouldn’t let my guard down.

“My name is Phillip Tethers. Pleasure to meet you, boss.” I smile as I go to sit back down. Diana sits down across from myself and Cecilia.

“Now then, Phillip, you have applied to become a guardsman for the novels I am transporting?” Diana gets straight to the questioning. She sits up straight in her chair and folds her arms.

“Yes. I am not too confident in my strength, but I have trained under Sir Arthur Cunningham for over a month now. Sir Arthur has told me that it is necessary for me to leave Innisgrale in order to continue my training.”

“Good. I accept.” Diana nods her head without asking me another question. “Cecilia, what benefits will you bring to me during the travel to the capital.”

“Nothing. Ma’am.” Cecilia hangs her head. “I have confidence in my cooking, but I am only average.”

“Hm.” Diana pensively looks at Cecilia, “Are you able to identify plants? To any degree of proficiency would be acceptable.”

“Yes!” Cecilia’s face brightens, “While Phillip was training with Sir Arthur, I was studying in the library and doing small gathering quests for the guild.”

“Good enough. I will accept you two coming along with me. Cecilia, you will receive nothing for a safe arrival and no penalty for failing. Phillip, you will receive a reward of two thousand silvers for safe arrival and you will be fined two hundred for a failure.” Diana unfolds her arms, “Any other questions?”

“Yes, actually.” I slightly raise my hand. “How many other guards are there?”

“Zero…” Diana looks away for a second. “No one feels the need to guard books on their way to the capital…”

“On the other end, aren’t they also less likely to be stolen if bandits attack?”

“That’s not true at all.” Diana sighs, “Bandits are vile creatures many times worse than monsters. Without at least ten guards, a trip to the capital is almost always a failure and no one returns alive, or unharmed.”

“Then why haven’t you cancelled?”

“Because I have to deliver these books.” Diana says resolutely. “The profit that can be made from transporting books is many times that of gold… mostly due to the fact that no one will offer themselves to guard books… the reward is higher.”

“So it’s profit?” I nod my head, “Alright. That’s all of my questions.”

“Actually, I have a question too.” Cecilia speaks up and Diana looks towards Cecilia. “My question is this: Are you going to be the one leading the horses?”

“Yes.” Diana nods, “I am a small merchant. I am just starting out, and all of my companions bailed on me when they learned I accepted a delivery for books to the capital.”

“Don’t you have to be a noble to become a merchant?” Cecilia tilts her head. “Most nobles should be able to pull at least a little bit on influence from their families.”

“I am not part of the most you speak of.” Diana frowns, “You two are almost too smart for your own goods. I guess that’s how Phillip became the only student of Sir Arthur and Cecilia became his wife.” Cecilia glares at me when Diana says this. Diana picks up on this and smiles, “Oh? Is this a fight I see?”

“No, I just said she was my wife for paperwork, not actually my wife, but she is really close to me.” I wave my hands in an attempt to save myself.

“No matter.” Diana coughs and regains her composure. “Tomorrow we will meet at the west gate when the sun rises. Since it will only be us three, I hope we can leave early enough that we can miss the bandits patrolling the perimeter of the town.”

“Of course.” I smile happily, “Cecilia and I will make sure we are there before the sun even rises. One last thing.” I lean over to whisper to Diana, “You were planning on going alone, so I know you have some strength, please don’t just hide if we are attacked. I would be really sad if Cecilia got injured.”

Diana just smiles and Cecilia glares at me once again. Cecilia has the look on her face that says, “I heard you, but I’m still mad you did that.”

“Well then.” Diana stands up from the table and quickly moves to the door. “I have some final preparations to make before we leave tomorrow. Please head to any blacksmith’s or the like before we leave. Good weapons and armor will be necessary for this trip.” As she finishes talking, she leaves.

Cecilia and I sit there in silence for a small amount of time.

“Shall we go prepare some weapons and armor then?” I hold my hand out to Cecilia and she takes it with a smile. We leave the guild holding hands, heading towards a shop to buy stuff to kill things…

Doesn’t really sound all that romantic.

Chapter 18: Traveling to the Capital

“You guys look suited up… well, Phillip looks suited up. Cecilia, you just look like a normal traveler.” Diane leans against a small carriage that is filled with books and two horses pulling it. They looked like standard horses, nothing too special about them other than they seemed a bit larger.

“Yeah, I need a weapon I am comfortable with.” I tap the spear I was carrying on my shoulder to the ground. It is a spear that is seven feet tall, hardened steel tip, sharpened. The shaft is composed of a wood I’ve never seen before, but after several test swings, I decided it was a good fit.

“I’m just wearing leather armor to cover my vitals.” Cecilia does a small twirl, the cape she was wearing, fluttering in the light breeze. The cape had a hood to cover her face. It looked like she was in beginner gear.

I was wearing a modified leather armor that had steel plates added over vital areas. It cost me quite a fortune to get a set for my entire body… did you know chest and arm pieces are normally sold separately? The armor is really heavy. With my spear and armor combined, it is almost an extra hundred pounds.

Cecilia and I agreed not to tell Diana, but hidden in Cecilia’s armor is a small dagger that is only really good for emergencies and not actual combat. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend money on a quality product, it’s just that with its small size, it is going to be really fragile, and with only one night, there isn’t much time to train using a fragile blade.

“You guys ready?” Diana hops on to the front of the carriage and gestures to the back, “There is room in the back with the books, please try not to damage them, the road is rough.” Cecilia and I hop in to the back. Of course I helped Cecilia in, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t?

Now that I get the chance, I look at Diana’s armor. It was similar to mine, but the steel was thinner and smaller, probably to promote movement. I don’t use large movements while I am fighting with a spear, but I do enjoy mobility. I have no idea how Arthur does it.

“We have a long journey ahead of us.” Diana starts making the horses move. “I should tell you a few things about traveling to the capital. First of all, trust no one. If you see a traveler, they might be a bandit trying to lure us. If we see someone getting attacked, we ignore them.” I nod my head and Cecilia winces. “Also, if you see a monster, let me know, because I may have missed it. Aggressive monsters should be killed as quickly as possible and non-aggressive we should ignore as much as possible, but keep an eye on them.”

“Aggressive? Like the Devil Bear?” I give a suggestion.

“Exactly. Devil Bears are a perfect example because they are the most common monster in this area.” Diana points directly ahead, “This path leads directly to the Capital, as an estimate, we should make it there in at most three days. Shorter if we miss bandits or they decide not to attack us, and shorter if I can leave killing monsters to you and I can focus on driving forwards.”

“Okay, that’s possible, but I don’t think I can run as fast as this carriage when the horses are pulling it. I can run fairly fast, but not that fast, I haven’t trained my speed all that much.”

“Do you know a magic that can boost your speed?” Diana asks with a straight face.

“No, I would love to learn such a convenient magic if I got the chance, but now isn’t the right time to start learning theory for a new magic.” I shake my head and sigh.

“So you do know magic.” Diana smiles as she starts to face forwards. “Not that you really cared to hide it.”

“You’re right, why would I hide the fact that I know a magic.” I smile slightly, “It would only hurt you if you didn’t know what I was fully capable of. The only magic I can use is Accelerate, and I can only use it at a basic level, as I learned it just the other day.”

“Not being cocky?” Diana tilts her head, keeping her eyes on the path ahead, “Most people your age that learn magic think they are the greatest in the world.”

“I’m not from around here, so I was raised differently.”

“I could tell that from the moment we met. It isn’t that you were rude to me, but you weren’t friendly.”

“My deepest apologies, milady.” I lean forward pretending to tilt a hat, “If you may have seen this lowly person’s attitude as unbecoming, I shall remedy it this moment.” I then completely bow my head with a smile.

“Please stop, you’re going to make me sick, sounding like a noble and all that garbage.” Diana smiles, “You just happened to judge my character quickly and decided on an appropriate attitude in order to get on my good side.”

“It was a gamble.” I laugh, “I just have a bit of extra luck on my side.”

Diana laughs and the carriage falls in to silence. It wasn’t awkward, but it wasn’t comfortable.

“You should tell us a bit about yourself, Diana. Phillip and I are both curious why you decided to become a merchant even though without help of another merchant company, starting out is almost impossible.” Cecilia breaks the silence wonderfully.

“Hm.” Diana slows the horses’ speed in order to rest them slightly. “It was just something I wanted to try doing before I was married off to another noble family. I have delayed my marriage long enough, I am nearing the end of my twenties.” She pauses for a long time. No one is going to compliment you on how young you look.

“How’d you manage to hold off a noble family for that long? Most marriages are arranged from a very, legally questionable age.” Cecilia asks.

“Oh, you misunderstand. My marriage has been decided for over fifteen years, I was just holding everything off so I could do the things I wanted to do before I had to tend to noble duties.” Diana sighs, “I’m not saying I don’t want to get married, but once I do get married, I’m not going to get much of a chance to do anything I want to without having a million guards around me.”

“You must be really envious of me. I could get married to Phillip right now and continue to do everything I am doing now.” I sigh as Cecilia laughs, “I would have very few extra duties.”

“I wouldn’t say envious.” Diana shakes her head. “Once I am married, I am sure I would be taken care of.”

“I think that it doesn’t matter what duties we have to do as long as we are happy doing them, if not, why can’t you just throw it away?” Diana and Cecilia glare at me. “Okay, I know what I said wrong, I’ll just go to a corner now.” I sit in the corner curled up in a ball.

“Actually Phillip, come up here with me for a bit.” Diana waves me over. I quickly make my way to the front of the carriage. “Want to learn how to drive this thing? We could move more quickly as we wouldn’t have to stop every time I needed a break.”

“Sure, what’s the harm in learning a useful skill?” I shrug my shoulders and stand behind Diana.

“Okay, so if you move this way…” The lesson went on for a while, so I will save you the details. I was not very good at first, and the sun had long made its way in to the sky.

I was able to do it on my own after a while. The journey was barely slowed at all, or so Diana told me. I didn’t believe her, the pace was dreadfully slow, but Innisgrale was no longer in sight, even though we just traveled through fields.

“Cecilia, how’s everything looking?” I whisper to Cecilia who had time to talk to Diana without me listening to them.

“It seems our worries are groundless. She really is just delivering books for the library in the Capital. She is not the Crown Prince’s childhood friend and almost fell over while trying to hold in her laughter when I asked if she was. She is marrying in to a merchant family and this will be her first and final delivery as a merchant in her own company.”

“That’s good news… I think. We’ll have to start from the ground up connection wise. We should get Diana to introduce us to someone that can get us a bit further in to the guild.” I point to the tree line approaching ahead, “As we enter back in to the forest, we are going to have to be more alert. Bandits and monsters tend to be more common when you are inside of a forest.”

“Yeah.” Cecilia nods as she makes sure her hidden knife is still hidden and there. “If I’m taken hostage again, please don’t freak out again.”

“I won’t… I hope.” I hang my head. “I just lose my cool when people try to harm you. I’m normally much smarter when it comes to things like this and I know the first rule of any emergency is to stay calm.”

“You’re too honest.” Cecilia smiles as she grabs one of the bag we brought. Cecilia then talks loud enough for Diana to hear, “Diana, Phillip and I are going to eat, when we are done, I’ll send Phillip up to take over so you can eat.”

“Don’t worry about switching, I’ll need his eyes to help me anyways. We are going to enter in to the forest soon and I need all the help I can get spotting enemies because the paths are always worse inside of a forest. I’ll need Phillip’s eyes on the forest, so I can focus on the road.” Diana points to her bag. “Grab me a hard bread and a jerky stick, I’ll eat while I drive for now.”

I do as she says and I grab her what she requested from her food bag, making sure to ignore everything else, as it is none of my business. She thanks me as I hand it to her. I go back and sit beside Cecilia in the carriage beside a large pile of covered books. I have already confirmed it is only books by looking at them.

“Cecilia, what are we going to do about our real world bodies? We can’t just make them sit in the VR pods for a couple days, we need to relieve them, then eat and drink an appropriate amount of fluids.”

“It’s okay.” Cecilia stuffs her mouth with the hard break and then makes a weird expression, “This bread is gross. Oh well, for our real bodies, we can just log out forcefully when we feel relatively safe for the night.”

“I almost forgot that was a thing.” I sigh as I tear a piece of the jerky and force it down my throat. I take a sip of water to get rid of the salty taste and cry a little on the inside.

“Phillip,” Diana calls out to me, “It’s time for you to come help me watch everything. Try to be intimidating if at all possible. Sit on top of the carriage cross legged and hold your spear over both shoulders. Be alert at all times, as you are open to fire from arrows and or long range magic. Cecilia, watch out the back of the carriage and make sure nothing sneaks up on us from behind.”

“Yes ma’am!” Cecilia and I reply at the same time. I grab my spear off the side of the carriage and climb to the top of the carriage. It is a wooden frame with a full wood top, covered in cloth. Very fantasy like.

I sit on top keeping a stern look on my face. It comes naturally because of how much I scowled at people during high school and then in the office. Sometimes I remember why I didn’t have friends. After a while, the carriage stops. I turn to look in front but don’t see anything.

“That’s actually a pretty scary look you’ve got on your face there.” Diana climbs on top of the carriage with me. “You can drive the carriage for now. I need a break. I’ll take over up here.” She points to the sheath that is on her waist. It was a simple leather sheath, and the handle of the blade didn’t look too fancy, but I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. “I have this.”

“Okay, I’ll take over your role and focus on forwards, don’t blame me if I mess up though, I haven’t learned too much.”

“Fair enough, just drive good enough so that I don’t fall off up here.” She laughs as I jump down to the front of the carriage and start the horses forwards again.

Cecilia sits behind me, continuing to look out the back of the carriage.

“You know, we haven’t been attacked, or even really seen anyone, or anything. Isn’t that weird?” Cecilia says this and I hit her head while looking forwards.

“Don’t say things like that. Those are what we call ‘Death Flags’.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Cecilia sighs as she stays silent, looking out the back of the carriage. “Is it fun, driving the carriage?”

“No. It is stressful, and I also have to keep my eyes forwards the entire time to make sure nothing cuts us off.” I sigh and shake my head.

“Phillip! Stop the carriage!” I immediately do as I hear Diana’s voice say, much to the horses’ complaint. “Prepare for battle! Two Devil Bears approaching fast from the left side!”

Planning sheet:

Phillip Tethers- our lovely MC. age: 20

Marc and Lily Tethers- MC's parents that will rarely get mentioned after chap 1

Cecilia Howler- MC's roomate and love helper

Ireina Orusu- AI in charge of Forged Path, MC love interest (that doesnt work... you know, physically)

Brianne- librarian, helps MC with troubles Crazy, considerate, helpful,

Angelica- librarian's grandaughter age: 15

Sir Arthur Cunningham- royal guard

Charles Grainsworth- Chief Executive Officer of Inter Corporation

Selena Grainsworth- wife and secretary to Chief Executive Officer of Inter Corporation

Mary Grainsworth- unimportant daughter of Charles and Selena

Jacob- important magic teacher and Arthur's friend

Dr. Juiles- not a doctor. is a part of the dev team for Forged Path

Julia- same as Juiles, they are brother and sister

Crown Prince Iskandaar Solarius III- crown prince of Romania Kingdom

Diana Markenth- Merchanty nobley thing

Ireina and Cecilia eventually become same person. (Share body nicely, rarely fight.)

Year 2078

Forged Path: game name

world name: Gaia

Continents(5):

-Romania Kigndom

Towns: Ravenwood, Innisgrale(2nd level), Galewater, Solarius(capital(3rd level))

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Levels:

White- 0-999

blue- 0-999

green- 0-999

yellow- 0-999

orange- 0-999

red- 0-999

purple- 0-999

silver- 0-99

gold- 0-99

black- 0-9

Magics:

Assault: Piercing Strike(A heavy spear strike that is said to be able to pierce even mountains)

Defense:

Support: Accelerate(speeds up movement speed and perception of surroundings)

Special:

Name: Phillip Tethers

Age: 20

Race: Human

Height: 6 feet (183 cm)

Current Occupation: Traveler

Level: 95

Guild level: 2

Money: 650 000 Silvers

Real life money: $1 882 267 198.56

Cecilia:

5'10'' average build, brown hair, hazel eyes

Phillip:

6' slightly muscular,

no exp from monster kills, just skills and actualy fighting itself that raises level. Fighting mosters does give boost to

skills learning speed