Author note: Congratulations, if you're reading this, the world of Levia has a different meaning to you now. I suspect few, if any, saw this coming, but those with keen insights or deductive reasoning might see a slightly different story unfold in the earlier chapters ;)

The more serious parts of this work are inspired by an old Buddhist story, which I thought held a sort of relevance to how we avid readers interpret virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the human soul.

The story is roughly laid out as follows, perhaps altered by time or otherwise:

A flag blew in the wind above a temple on a mountain. The temple monks argued. One said, "It is the flag that moves." Another said, "It is the wind that moves." Another said, "It is the earth that moves." Finally the wisest of the monks approached this problem and said, "It is not the flag, nor the wind, nor the earth that moves. It is the heart that moves."

As such, I hope that your perceptions of this story were moved, despite its flag still blowing in the wind.

In completion of this caveat, I'll be brief. Suicide and depression are no joke. Many endure this type of mental and spiritual illness, and each have their own way to move forward. No one needs suffer alone, nor in silence, and there is always a way to forge ahead. If you're a person who has depression, talk to someone, and things will get better.

The serious stuff aside, there are a lot more comic antics, and lighthearted dialogue coming your way shortly. And now that the party and setting has been somewhat too thoroughly introduced in Volume 1, we can slowly start to shift gears in revealing a deeper side to their personalities, while expanding on the mmo technical stuff we all enjoy too. Thanks for reading, and please enjoy the remaining few chapters of Volume 1!

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The tingling sensation that echoed his earlier teleport, also returned him to his previous frozen position. This was it. This was his chance to save his friends, real or not.

All at once the world began to move. “Daphne! Drink your [Water Breathing Potion]!” The rest of the girls heard him and repeated Derek’s idea, pleading for Daphne to hear them.

Daphne stopped struggling and opened her inventory. She had already swallowed the green slime, and her head spun with the beginnings of oxygen deprivation. She rifled through countless gecko skins and giant rat pelts in search of one of the first items they ever acquired, way back in Baldor’s Loft. She put the blue flask to her lips, unsure of how to drink a potion under water. She had already released her last breath, and choked on slime in her airway, desperate for another breath. She swallowed as much slime as potion as she sucked down the blue tonic. The effect was immediate. She began to cough up green slime, which had magically been replaced by air. In fact, even with her mouth open, none of the slime was able to pass inside her mouth or nose. She gasped in the precious air, which was now the same as breathing normally.

It worked. Daphne was safe. The Slime King’s great eye locked on to his targets once again, sprouting four more tentacles. Now was their chance. All they had to do was beat the Slime King before the water breathing potion expired. “Claire, free Bell, and attack.” Edge ran as far away from the tentacle chasing him as was possible. Sakura followed beside him.

“I’m not fast enough,” said Sakura, as a tentacle hoisted her into the air.

Edge ducked as the other tentacle swooped in from the side trying to grab him. His dodge skill was the best in the group. But even as he stood back up a second tentacle grabbed his left ankle, dragging him upside down into the sky.

The Slime King’s cooldown was shrinking. There were two tentacles for each player now. Claire and Belladonna were too busy fighting to stay free to even think about coordinating another attack. “Sakura,” he pleaded.

“I’m still on cooldown,” she stated, simply, and shockingly.

He tried to fight his way free of the tentacle, but it was a useless struggle, not only because he couldn’t do an upside down sit up, but because the epic boss battle was already over.

Daphne wanted Edge to save her, but sometimes a girl just had to save herself. She swam up toward the big gross eyeball. The gooey slime was ten times harder to swim through than water, and it felt like rubber pressing against her skin, but whenever she moved an inch higher, she knew she was an inch closer to saving herself. The eyeball wasn’t even looking at her when she swam behind it. This must be what Edge called a sneak attack, or a gank. He said some geeky things sometimes. She closed her fists and drew them back into haymakers, slamming them against the back of the soft eye, [Double Punch]. It was the same skill she used against the first mob she’d ever attacked. It was the skill she only pretended to use against Edge, when he was being a pervert. And now it was the skill that saved her life. The eyeball shot out of the gap created by Claire’s previous massive strike, bouncing along the beach and rolling to a stop, covered in sand.

Both Claire and Belladonna were caught by the excessive sprouting tentacles. Everyone was captured now. And despite losing its eye, the Slime King continued to fight-dirty. Claire was the closest to the beast and therefore the next to be pulled inside. Edge tossed rocks at the eyeball, his arm like a machine gun. The Slime King wrapped a tentacle around his throwing arm, halting his barrage. At the same time it ripped away Belladonna’s bow, and stole the arrows from her quiver, crushing them in a tight squeeze. They were fortunate the Slime King wasn’t programmed to squeeze them, or this skirmish would already be lost.

“Claire, free me!” called Belladonna.

Claire was fending off the tentacles attempting to disarm her, while trying to [Slash] herself free. “I can’t. There’s too many.”

Edge could see the whole battle unfolding. Their last chance was slipping by. “Do it, Claire. Free her, no matter what!”

For Claire, she had a choice. She could cut herself free at the last possible second before being drowned in the goo. Or she could cut Belladonna free. These people, this group she’d joined . . . She wasn’t sure yet if she even wanted to be a part of it. Wherever they went, trouble and chaos and danger pursued them. And it was mostly their own fault, as far as she could tell. But these were also the same people that saved her life. The ones that somehow had done more and better and smarter than any Gambit she’d met. When it came to survival, she learned the hard way that she couldn’t do everything alone. Even a person, a delinquent, like Eugene had done better than her in Levia. Somehow, he’d become a hero. Maybe, even to her, though she was hard pressed to admit it. Claire closed her eyes and [Slash]ed with everything she had left, before she held her final breath and passed into the body of the green Slime King.

Belladonna crashed to the sandy beach, breaking her fall with forward momentum and a gymnastic somersault. She hadn’t a single weapon left to fight with, but she never needed more than one shot to pierce her opponent, and she never missed. Bell grasped the gooey arrow half buried in the sand; it was her missed shot that had been expelled along with the eyeball. Some might consider what she was about to do cheating. In Levia, the game was always cheating them anyway. It was her turn for some payback. She held out the arrow gripped tightly in both hands, pointing it at the natural bullseye, dead center. And she triggered her Kiten [Dash] ability.

The arrow buried itself deep in the center of the giant eye, and it popped like a balloon, sending white gobs of gunk in all directions. The Slime King shook like a bowl full of jelly, before melting into a pool of slime, most of which flooded down the grated iron drain.

Edge watched Daphne and Claire fall hard against the metal grate, and he was already running to check on them. They did it. They won. The finale was over.

[Observation: The slime is moving].

Nothing was ever that easy in Levia.