As usual, dialog in this story has the speaker's initial in front of it unless it is bleeding obvious who is talking. NPCs will have some name or descriptor, leaving initials to be used by the player characters.

A: Ashcroft - mage with biased to fire

J: Jorlund - as close to a dwarf as a human can get

M: Maledictive - the party healer

W: Werlkhan - title character, first person naration is from this perspective

Jorlund's time limit was approaching quickly. Soon he would have to sign off, and then it would be unwise for Ashcroft to continue without our resident tank. This thought put an urgent edge to my activity as we continued our forrest hunt. Fortunately, it only took another pack of three wolves to level the rest of the party to 6. I am 81% of the way to 7, so another 4 wolves will push me past. They are quite simple to deal with while I have Dreameaters in my pack. These moths are annoying, but oh so helpful against anything close to town. Jorlund is still carrying the pelts we have collected, but the silver from the kills is being spread evenly amonst the party. But the party at the moment is just sitting about. They have received their first skill points and have some decisions to make. Well, Ashcroft and Maledictive have decisions to make, while Jorlund is like me and does not have a tree to spend the points on at the moment.

-= POV Ashcroft =-

I have to get FireBall, it's what I am known for. Also, my inner child is a serious pyro. It's a pity I only get 5 skill points per level, even when I have two skill trees. Fireball will be most of the points from my next level up, and Blazing Pillar will be a level's expense by itself. Fireball requires File Bolt, so that means I have 3 points this level and 1 next level that are not claimed already.

Fire Mage Skills In My Element 9 Fire Bullet 0 / Heated Weapon 2 Fire Bolt 2 / | / Blazing Echo 3 Fire Lance 4 Heated Seekers 3 Fireball 4 | | / / Superheated 6 Fire Trail 5 Fire Bolas 4 Blazing Pillar 5 Lava Eruption 5 / / | Fire Wall 6 Fire Rune 6 Nova Pulse 7 Meteor 7 / / Immolation 7 Champion Conflagration 7 Burning Soul 8

# - skill point cost Shadow Mage Skills In My Element 9 Shadow Bullet 0 | | Shadow Cloak 2 Shadow Spike 2 | | Muffle 3 Shadow Perferation 4 | | | | Fear 4 Detect Concealment 4 Foreshadowing 5 Shadow Bind 3

... ... ... ...

Looking at the early part of the shadow tree, damage is the right side and utility is the left side. So I could get Heated Weapon, Heated Seekers, or Shadow Cloak with those unclaimed points. I chose Shadow for its utility, might as well get a little of that now. Two points to unlock Fire Bolt and two more for Shadow Cloak.

Ashcroft: Stats Name: Ashcroft Class Mage0.05 Level 6 (6%) exp to level 820 Vitality 2 Health 77 Strength 3 Mana 240 Dexterity 3 Stamina 65 Intelligence 17 H regen 0.78 (99s) Wisdom 12 M regen 2.54 (94s) Charisma 5 Armor 0 Carry limit 42 unspent 0 Money 6s 47c

-= POV Maledictive =-

Those wolves are a pain. Literally. Every time I try to take one on it ends up biting me. I dont want to just spectate this game, but I dont know how Jorlund is doing so well. Being the party band-aide dispenser is not my goal. I got this fancy pod to play these immersive games, I'm partied up with some hardcore gamers, and I am going to keep up. So, the healing skill tree will wait. Here is what the Auras tree has for me. Five points do not go very far.

Aura Skills Compassion 0 / | Fortify 3 Envigorate 3 Spite 2 / | | Battle Spirit 5 Stone Heart 4 Sanctify 4 Intimidate 3 Oppression 4 | | | | | Noble Spirit 6 Clarity 6 Healing Pulse 5 Radience 5 Motivate 5 | | | | Pontificate 7 Guidence 7 Encourage 6 Anointing Armor 6 | | Divine Pressence 9 Aural Marker 9

# - skill point cost

The description for Spite is just how I feel at the moment, Reflect part of damage. I will take a hit out of spite just to hit you back. This skill sounds like a start. My class has excellent health regen, and putting my new stat points in Vitality will bring my max up. I acquire both Spite and Intimidate, as I cannot get Oppression until next level anyway. I will make monsters regret chewing on me.

Maledictive: Stats Name: Maledictive Class Devout0.05 Level 6 (9%) exp to level 828 Vitality 9 Health 203 Strength 7 Mana 150 Dexterity 5 Stamina 104 Intelligence 10 H regen 2.11 (96s) Wisdom 10 M regen 3 (50s) Charisma 3 Armor 0 Carry limit 82 unspent 0 Money 3s 30c Maledictive: Skills Skill Cost Cooldown Description Mend 30 mana 2s Apply healing to a friend, heal amount based on wisdom. Compassion aura n/a Add Devout's regeneration rate to party members in range. Radius based on level. Spite aura n/a Reflect part of damage. I will take a hit out of spite just to hit you back. Intimidate aura n/a Reduce the defenses of enemies that come in range, Radius is based on level

-= POV Werlkhan =-

My last level up notification mentioned skill points, but I have nothing to spend them on. It must be a quirk of my class, and is a reason to switch to another class soonish. Jorlund seems content to sit and polish his hammer. I know he is the most pressed for time here, and when he leaves the others probably will too. I suppose I should take that opportunity to write my initial game review, and get it up sooner rather than later.

W: "Are we ready to go? Any changes to our strategy?"

M: "I'm changing auras. I now have both damage reflection and defense reduction."

A: "I just have an increased damage output."

J: "And I am still pressed for time. Let's move."

W: "No juicy class tips for me to share with the world later tonight?"

J: "Maybe next level, but I dont know if we can kill enough to get there tonight."

A: "Challenge accepted!"

I pick up my turtle and we head further into the woods. In the next hour we killed another 20 wolves and I captured 1 into my pack. The wolf added 1.2 vitality to me, but I would have to dismiss my whole pack to learn a skill from it. That gave us all enough experience for level 7, as well as 5 silver a piece and a dozen pelts. Mal's new aura had removed the little armor that the wolves had, allowing Ashcroft to actually deliver miniscule amounts of damage when he ran out of mana.

Ashcroft unlocked his beloved Fire Ball and used it on a couple of unsuspecting trees before logging off for the night. Jorlund demonstrated a Shield Rush that he acquired, and Maledictive selected Oppression which was very helpful. It had a wider range than any of his other auras and reduced enemy movement and attack speeds. I gained 5 more skill points with nothing to spend them on. Then we all signed off for the night.

When feeling returned to my body, I slowly undid my helmet straps, the belt, and the other fasteners keeping the VR Frame in position on my body. It was about as old a piece of equipment as one could use and still access this game. I had yet to catch the attention of an executive at Cerebro, the company that recently launched a functional immersion pod, so no freebies in the mail. I threw dinner into the microwave and started my blog update. All the ads on the site were promoting FoH, since it was launch day and that kind of hype still messes with the ad tracking AIs. My post had the usual shout-outs to my supporters, some fanservice, a few great screenshots from my session (including the one of Jorlund getting a Fire Bullet to the face). I ended it with enthusiastic promises of more to come, and a mention of the existence of some hidden classes I had already uncovered. I have to keep my illusion of omniscience up, or my revenue readership drops. Dinner was cold again by the time I posted it, so I restarted the microwave and started reading some competitor's blogs as well as checking the official forum.

There was a whole starting event I had missed. Aparantly, the human race was already involved in a war out the Western gate with a race called Molekin. Jorlund would be very upset that the whole internet got to the whack-a-mole joke before he did, because we went East instead of West.

Aren't moles nocturnal? I could probably spare another hour or so before sleep.