The journey up the mountain was smooth. In fact, it was far smoother than Vaile anticipated, mostly due to his prior experiences with things in this new world. The roads that snaked up the towering natural edifice were remarkably well thought out and maintained. Not to mention also well defended. Roughly every two kilometers there was an outpost of some kind, either simple and made of wood and dirt or more complex and made with stone and what could only be described as medieval concrete. Even before you would reach one of these outposts there would be traps both concealed and obvious.

A tree perched in a precarious position, so that if a cord is pulled it will fall down and block part or all of the path.

Patches of thorny bushes that would force advancing movement into kill boxes.

Rounded boulders and wicker balls covered in tar, fat and cloth that could be rolled downwards into the flank of an invader.

These and more were visible to the attentive and skilled eye and Vaile had a sneaking suspicion that he, lacking a Primary Job/ Class that specialized in such things, could only see the tip of the iceberg. At every outpost the convoy passed, there were flags hung and people standing at attention, which was odd because these people were all supposed to be cutthroats, vandals, highwaymen and the like. The seeming incongruity between what little Vaile knew about the people here and their behavior filled Vaile with a sense of confusion, and the show was only getting started.

The higher up the mountain range they went, the bigger the outposts became until they were the size of (for medieval times) large towns. Each settlement that was passed through had people lined up alongside the path. Rather than saluting, these people who seemed to be more civilian than bandit were kneeling and seemed to offer prayers. Vaile couldn’t figure out for the life of him what that meant, until they passed a church.

A church that just so happened to have a finely detailed statue out front.

A statue of Vaile himself.

The statue’s base was covered in offerings, bouquets of flowers and had candles and incense bearers nearby like it was some sort of shrine. All it took was for Vaile to see that and he began to put two and two together. He turned to Seivalt and asked him the question.

“So, I’m a god?”

Seivalt nodded as Nora snuggled closer, sending jealous glares at every woman they passed.

“Of course you are! Someone who can take any foe and make them an ally, who can control the very beings that could have brought about the apocalypse, who resolved crises without killing leaders and brought unity to countless disparate factions, what else could you be other than God?”

“So, I am God, not A god?”

Seivalt chuckled.

“That is up for debate.”

Vaile watched the people as he passed them.

“And you never thought that maybe, just maybe, I did not view myself as such?”

Nora spoke up this time.

“Oh, Darling! You are so humble! So great and noble and powerful, yet you try and lower your grandeur to that of the people!”

Seivalt nodded.

“It seems my descendant speaks for me. Don’t worry, my Lord, we all know your true nature and will bring word of your boundless humility to the masses.”

Vaile wanted to refute them but realized that it would be futile to argue with these fanatics and resigned himself to his treatment.

“How do I keep getting into these messes?” He asked in his head, far from the ears of those who could hear his displeasure.

…

They were reaching the highest peak of Red Mountain, which in and of itself was less a single mountain and more a mountain range. The heavily fortified medieval city seemed to have been made by shaving off the peak itself and building the city on the stump, as Vaile could not see any evidence of there being a true peak.

Then again, maybe the mountain was naturally flat, which wasn’t something impossible but merely highly improbable. Then again, this was a world that seemed to have lifted several things from the VRMMORPG he had played, so it wasn’t as unlikely as what Vaile first thought. The game sometimes had places that the Players could not reach, but ingenious Players would manage to reach regardless by glitching.

Most of these places were just test zones, but most normally inaccessible mountain peaks just kind of flattened out when beyond view and usually had no texture. Such a thing might have affected this mountain range, but Vaile had no idea if this was the case.

Either way, the top was flat and covered in medieval cityscape, including a rather imposing fortress at the farthest edge. Vaile secretly dreaded the fact that the doorless carriage would have to travel through the streets. Vaile was not one for the limelight. He preferred to stay out of sight and just have fun, but he had either been forced to or tried to go against his introvert nature several times in the past and the crowds that were gathering were causing him no small degree of stress.

Vaile had been very uncomfortable as the convoy had passed through the prior settlements, the mix of attention and cobblestone roads causing his anxiety to build up. Now the crowds were massive and while the roads were better there was still the chance that he would get an anxiety attack.

“Breathe, man. Breathe. It’s just a cinematic, it isn’t real. They are just NPCs, man. You can do this. Just breathe, you don’t have to look at them, just keep facing forwards.”

Vaile repeated the advice his therapist had given him on Earth in his head. Sure, viewing real people as NPCs was normally a bad idea, but Vaile wasn’t the kind of guy to treat people as trash just because they were ‘NPCs’. The therapy had helped him socialize a bit and was the main reason he actually had the gear he did. He had been so morbidly afraid of interacting with people until then that he was barely even able to go outside.

After that help, he was able to expand his horizons from singleplayer games to multiplayer and then to massively multiplayer games. Without that help, he would never have been able to get a job, go to college, or even go outside his tomb-like apartment. He had been a shut-in for several years until his family, caring as they were, stepped in and got him help.

However, he still sucked with massive crowds of real people. Especially people who looked up to him. He never had experience with people looking up to him in such massive numbers, let alone having tons of people worship him as a God.

“How long till we reach the stronghold?” Vaile asked. He wanted to get out of sight and get somewhere where he could cool down and try and de-stress.

“Not long.” Seivalt replied. “It will take another twenty minutes at this rate. Why do you ask? Do you wish for more people to have a chance at seeing you?”

Vaile did not want to tell Seivalt and Nora that he was close to having a mental breakdown and instead gave the best excuse he could come up with.

“I need to use the men’s room. ASAP.”

Nora and Seivalt were surprised for a moment before nodding and the procession moved a bit faster. They reached the stronghold in only ten minutes instead of twenty and exited the growing crowds just in time for Vaile to avoid a full-on mental break. Vaile was escorted to a lavatory and he closed the door behind him, locked it and sat down.

He did not need to do anything aside from calm down and relax, and sometimes the shitter is the perfect place to do so. As Vaile had discovered long before this moment, no one judges you when you are in the toilet alone. The only thing you have to worry about is people asking if you had complications if you take too long, and a simple excuse is often enough to end all inquiries. No one really wants to know what you did in there.

At least, no one who doesn’t have a really bizarre kink.

So, Vaile sat on the ceramic bowl and went through the steps that his therapist had taught him and twenty minutes later he emerged to see Seivalt and Nora waiting outside the door.

“Did you guys really just stand around for twenty minutes and listen for me to do my business? I wasn’t aware you had that kind of kink.” Vaile joked as he was escorted away to…

Somewhere.