Raidishier realized too late that he should have continued fighting in the Sparring Rings to pass the minutes and obtain combat experience. At the time he’d been too focused on making a badass exit, and was thus forced to wait around the cafe he agreed to meet at for half an hour.

Eventually, just as the video Raidishier was watching ended, a couple of familiar voices caught his attention, prompting him to stand up from the bench he’d been resting on.

“...too expensive, but hey, if I had the gold I wouldn’t mind having it because those frills… There he is!”

Angela and Michael approached from Raidishier’s right, and when the former spotted him she broke into a run.

“We’re all finally in VR!” she yelled, barreling into Raidishier--whom she nearly bowled over with her Warrior Strength--and wrapping her arms around his shoulders in what others might interpret as an attempt to squeeze the boy to death. Raid laughed at the enthusiasm, unsurprised that she was still so hyper after three hours of walking around the city with Michael, and thankful to the gods that new players couldn’t take damage within cities. Soon, a much larger figure wrapped his arms around both Raidishier and Angela, adding to the coziness.

The display of affection between the three garnered some looks and whispers from passing players, but the trio paid them no mind. Virtual reality technology came out way before they were born, forcing them to grow up envying everyone who had capsules while constantly pestering their parents to set money aside for them. They had spent many days and nights in their youths and recent years fantasizing over the prospect of playing one together...and they were finally here, within a brand-new VRMMO.

Their histories together made it so much more difficult for Raidishier to go through with his plans, even if it was only for a week or two.

They eventually untangled themselves and, at Raidishier’s suggestion, headed for the West Gate.

“So,” Angela began, flanking Raid’s left side and hopping with every step, “Bard, Celestial Mage, or Monster Tamer? We know you didn’t choose Sorcerer, and frankly, we already set up a Wager on your Class choice.”

Raidishier smiled at the mention of Wagers and the 200 silver coins he’d gain in two weeks. He knew from the internet that bread cost an average of 3 bronze per loaf, and with 1 silver being worth 50 bronze, 200 silver equaling 10,000 bronze could buy…

“What’re you counting?” Michael asked from Raid’s right, looking down at the fingers which kept flicking up and down.

He continued calculating for a moment under the curious eyes of his friends before saying, “Three thousand three hundred thirty-three. In two weeks I’ll win enough silvers from a Wager to buy three thousand three hundred thirty-three bread.”

Both friends’ eyes went wide, and Angela covered her gaping mouth with a hand as she mocked a gasp. “You had a gambling problem behind our backs?! We would have gladly gone into debt with you had you just said the word!”

The trio shared a laugh as Raidishier worded his explanation of the events they weren’t present to witness.

“That’s...thankfully not the case, but I have begun my own Wager with some random jackass Warrior about...things. What’s important is that I wiped the smirk off his face when we tied in a two-round duel and that in two weeks I’ll be 200 silvers richer.”

Michael and Angela put on their thinking caps and drew silent as they pondered over the implications of their childhood friend’s news. After a few moments, Michael lifted his hand off his chin and used that hand to absentmindedly point at the sky, as though his finger were a lightbulb that lit up.

“I do believe that the fifty bronze will go to Angela,” the teenager a foot taller than Raid said, causing the girl he mentioned to pump her fist up in celebration. “It certainly wouldn’t be an easy task for a new Celestial Mage or Monster Tamer to defeat any Warrior.”

“I knew it! The lame instruments he learned in middle and high school were only preparations for his future in Aff!” Angela half-joked, looking at her friend with a crazed look in her eye that told him to say the magic words.

“I will neither confirm nor deny either of your statements,” Raid said instead, causing the girl to frown and the giant to chuckle.

“But whyyyyyy?” Angela complained, turning her peppy step into a sluggish gait for theatrical effect.

“Because…” Raidishier drew out the word for dramatic effect as the trio exited Beginnerville through its West Gate and they were all met with the sight of a vast plains biome, “...I want to surprise you guys.”

At the sight of Raid’s mischievous smile Angela perked up, dropping her spoiled act, while Michael raised an eyebrow.

“Remember how yesterday I definitively chose to record my progress to edit and upload to YouTube, and also considered the option of streaming in hopes of going professional?”

The two nodded, expressions uncharacteristically serious after picking up on the fact that Raid had found something important besides his previous goals to work towards.

“Well, after looking at what the rest of the playerbase has done and tried, including hints from the developers, I think I found a direction that no one else has discovered, yet... I want to be a trailblazer.”

His friends regarded his admission normally, unlike most others in the game would. Many people lacked an understanding of how lofty a goal it was to carve a niche for oneself in any system involving hundreds of thousands to millions of other people, but gamers certainly didn’t lack it. For any popular game there existed a content market--commonly in the form of YouTube videos and streaming--and many tens of thousands of people threw their lot in, attempting to take a slice of the monetary pie...but only the best of the best typically succeeded, gaining huge online followings and becoming celebrities.

What Raidishier just claimed was not only that he’d found a method to carve himself a niche, but in two different, equally difficult ways! Sure, his plan to build an online following was dependent on the idea that he had discovered a unique path of growth for his chosen Class, but it wasn’t as though he’d necessarily become popular if he really trod that path. Thus, he had two lofty goals in one.

And his friends respected him all the more for it.

“Hell yeah!” Michael exclaimed, heavily patting Raid’s shoulder.

“Don’t forget us when you’re rich and famous!” Angela playfully chided, rubbing her thumb, pointer, and middle fingers together in reference to money.

……

After explaining how he wanted to surprise his friends with his progress Raidishier begged them not to look him up, watch his streams or videos, or listen to any news that might appear about him until he allowed them to--unlikely as that last one was to occur. Angela and Michael then guided Raid through the plains west of Beginnerville for a few hours at his request saying that his destination was beyond it, and gave him the majority of the bread stores they spawned with, because he claimed he’d likely be unable to find much to eat where he was going.

Raidishier also began streaming from his perspective upon separating--a simple process, given the fact that Aff had in-built systems for such things.

‘Now, it’s up to me to arrive without dying.’

Raidishier held no illusions as to how difficult his plans were--especially the first part, which “simply” involved him traveling to the location the rest of his plans took place. Having exited the plains which spawned monsters ranging from Base Levels 1 to 3 with the help of his friends, the teen entered a jungle zone with levels ranging from 2...to 30. Granted, it was an enormous biome that spawned the higher-level monsters in general locations that he might be able to safely avoid, but Raidishier was still basically empty-handed. Could he even survive crossing paths with a level 3 enemy? All the boy had to his name was 2/10’s of the experience required to reach Level 2 gained with his friends during his travels through the plains, 250 bread from what he spawned with and what his friends gave up, and a raggedy level 1 bullwhip.

To anyone strictly looking at his possessions: no, he would not survive anything the jungle could throw at him. But what those imaginary onlookers didn’t know was just how much Raidishier studied for this event!

The Monster Tamer gingerly crept through the undergrowth and past towering behemoths of jungle trees whose crowns shaded much of the sun, bullwhip in hand, uncaring of the moisture and heat, his eyes fixed on the prize.

Raidishier was sure he could arrive at his destination because of more than just the fact that he’d prepared a map in a file he could pull up on his phone that would lead him through the safest possible route toward the very center of the continent--a map he’d commissioned from a popular player who specialized in exploration. What gave him so much confidence was instead the experiences of the Monster Tamers who came before him.

As if on cue, a colorful snake monster curled up on a branch to Raidishier’s far left hissed at the intruder of its small territory, but showed no intent to attack. In response, the Monster Tamer lowered his head and kept it bowed while he sped up through the bushes, leaving the Level 3 snake’s sight.

Time and time again the Aff playerbase proved how Monster Tamers interacted with monsters differently than the rest of the Classes. For most players, any monster at, around, and above their Base Level within range of perception spelled out a fight. Excluding those more than five Levels below the player, all monsters immediately aimed to kill everyone they laid eyes on...with exception to Monster Tamers, who were viewed as fellows. Once discovered that Monster Tamers had an easier time traveling through the wilderness without confrontation by monsters because they only infrequently fought their own kind, players immediately began using that Class for exploration purposes, and Raidishier would take advantage of the same Class trait to make his travels possible. He didn’t need any special stealth training or stealthy equipment because he, unlike most other players, would simply be ignored by the many monsters so far above him!

However, it wasn’t guaranteed that he’d be left alone by every creature he passed, which was why exploring as a Monster Tamer still had its risks. Monsters still fought anything not of the same species that approached too closely, and some monsters just randomly spawned far more bloodthirsty than the rest, leading to them aggressively defending their territory or hunting everything in sight. Additionally, the closer a monster’s Level to a Monster Tamer the more likely it was to attack, just like with other monsters--the reason Raidishier required that his friends help him fight through the plains to reach the jungle.

Sidenote, Raid refused to pull out his bullwhip in the fights against the plains beasts, as that would have revealed his Class. Instead, he fought with his bare hands alongside Angela’s shortsword and Michael’s hammer--admittedly not accomplishing as much, which was why he only had 2/10’s the experience required to reach Level 2 instead of 3 and 4/10’s, like them. But his efforts weren’t useless, because the boy knew that his whip would likely be of little use where he was going...

‘Unlike right now,’ Raidishier thought as he hurriedly jumped backwards off the fallen log he was previously stepping over. A Level 2 lizard the size of his head covered in bright-yellow scales lay on the other side, and his luck from the snake encounter had clearly forsaken him when the beast jumped at him.