Nothing really happened while we were traveling. We arrived at the capital at the expected time, in the morning.

Paprika and I got out of the cart that had parked near the city gate.

“It’s huge!” Paprika almost yelled this as soon as we got out the cart, her mouth agape with disbelief.

And she was right. It was absolutely massive, not even comparable to Altair. The city had massive walls surrounding it, extending out as far as the eye could see. A castle peeked over the city wall, seemingly overlooking everything.

“Wow! So this is the capital of Soleris, huh? Amazing…”

“It is quite sublime, is it not?” Someone spoke behind us.

I got startled and immediately turned around to see a middle aged man with hazel hair and eyes and with a very refined and kind-looking face.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you” The man raised his hands in apology.

“No, no don’t worry about it” Paprika also heard me talking and turned around.

“Is this the first time you two visit the capital?”

“Yeah” I responded.

“I hope you have a wonderful time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to move before the guards spot me.” He pulls down his hood and continues walking like he’s just taking a stroll.

“Who was that?” asked Paprika.

“I have no idea… What a strange man...”

As we were looking at the receding back of the man someone called us.

“Hey, you two adventurers. Stop loitering about! Come on, let’s enter the city.” It was the messenger that gave us the letter. He motioned us to follow him.

“Halt! State your business here!” The guards shouted this as soon as we got close.

“We are here on official government business” The messenger handed the man a letter.

“S..s.ssir Robert! I’m so sorry for the inconvenience! I didn’t recognize you!”

“Do not worry about that. You were doing your job. Now, if you don’t mind” Robert motioned at the gates.

“O, of course!” The guards opened the gates with haste.

As soon as the gates opened you could see people moving around, entering buildings, and exchanging things. Hell, you could even spot a couple of players. It was the hustle and bustle of a huge city, not unlike the metropolises of the real world.

Robert looked at us and smirked.

“Welcome to the capital” he said.

He started moving and once again motioned us to follow him.

“Is it always this busy?” I ask him.

“Yeah, pretty much” he answers nonchalantly.

“Where are we going anyway?” asks Paprika.

“Where else? To the royal castle of course! You are the king’s guests after all.”

The royal castle huh… that’s a first.

After walking for a while the road starts to get steeper. The castle nears with each step we take.

It was majestic, refined and goddamn huge! The Plexus Castle was by no means something to scoff at.

We entered the castle without a moment’s hesitation, the guards lowering their heads as soon as Robert walked by. It was clear that every military personnel in the city respected and feared this man. Hmm, I wonder who he is though. I’ve never heard of him. After we climbed a set of stairs, Robert stopped before two doors.

“You will be staying here. The king wants to have dinner with you so I advise that you get some rest. When the time comes you will be escorted by the servants. Now, if you’ll excuse me” He walks away, leaving us alone.

“Well, that’s that. We might as well sleep, log off for a bit” I say.

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been playing for way too long. But… dinner with the king. I suppose it doesn’t happen often?”

“You can count the players invited to the Plexus Castle with two hands, so it’s just a tab bit rare.”

“All this because you killed a gargoyle? Hmph, talk about over-compensation.”

“Do you know how hard it was to kill that piece of shit? That thing survived getting buried in boulders! But I don’t think it’s about the gargoyle as much as it is about the cult. The gargoyle must have played some part in it too, sure, since I haven’t heard of a player actually ever killing one but the cult must be the main point of interest.”

“You think we’ll get information on Corrazgus?”

“Yeah, we’ll finally get some information to advance that stupid quest.”

“Finding information on that guy was hard enough. We had to comb through the entire library in Altair and even then we only found tiny pieces of intel.”

“Yeah, we basically wasted our time. Just remembering all that reading gives me a headache” I cringe a bit at the memory flashing through my mind.

“I’ve been meaning to ask this actually, but how did you find out that Corrazgus was one of the 7 demon lords? Intuition?”

“If ‘Corrazgus’ isn’t the name of a demon lord… I don’t know what is.”

“You went by that ‘logic’ alone?”

“Yeah. Something wrong with it?”

“No, no, there’s nothing wrong with it” Paprika chuckles as she enters the room on the right. “You can be surprisingly simple sometimes, Jack.”

“Eh, did you say something?”

“Nope, nothing. By the way, how do you sleep in this game?”

“Sigh; say ‘Sleep’ while lying down on a bed.”

“Ok, thanks!” She closes the door.

That girl really lacks some common sense. I open the door to my room and head straight for the bed, laying down on it. Now that I think about it, it’s been a while since my character has slept. A bit more and he’ll become sleep deprived.

“Sleep!”

________________________________________________________

Do you wish for your character to go to sleep?

Doing so will log you off the game automatically.

You can resume playing anytime you wish.

_______________________________________________

“Yes, I’ll sleep.”

__________________________________________

You are being logged off.

___________________________________________

***

As soon as I open my eyes, the capsule opens up in sync. Sheesh, that was quite the session.

For now I should go and make something to eat. I’m kinda hungry.

I trot down the stairs and straight to the fridge.