To say that Zed was in a bad mood wouldn’t be exactly correct. He was curious, and even a little excited about how the state of the game would change thanks to the update. But none of that really seemed to matter to him at the moment as yet another yawn escaped his lips, the light of day and even the air itself stung his eyes as he fought to keep them open, his body was filled with a stiffness that nothing could clear away.

Simply put, Zed was exhausted, and he hated everything at the moment.

Zed had always considered himself a man of strong mental fortitude, but even he had been shaken by the experience of the version update.

The terrible sensation was a result of extremely advanced software interacting directly with their minds, it was unnatural in a way no living thing could ever hope to cope with, and although Zed had been able to move past the experience consciously, he was still shaken by the experience and unable to fall asleep until it was near dawn. He had managed to get a few naps in since then, enough to clear the fuzziness out of his head, but he still just wanted to go back to sleep.

‘Is this how Loran feels all the time?’ he wondered fearfully. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever joke about him being tired ever again.’

He had been planning to go hunting for Iron Ant Drones with Alexx today, but while he could probably still fight he was in no mood for the long trek north. Hopefully, the brawler wasn’t feeling too eager right now, because there was no way he was going to agree to anything other than lazing around the village today.

As Zed left the Kitchen, pork bone soup in hand, he made his way toward Alexx’s shelter, grimacing as he drank from the bowl. The soup wasn’t bad by any means, but considering that the cooks were as exhausted as he was right now it was understandably far below their usual standards.

It wasn’t long before Zed made it to Alexx’s shelter, the brawler sleeping soundly even as the midday sun glared down directly onto his face.

Feeling petty, Zed kicked Alexx’s shoulder to wake him up, using just enough force to deal a single point of damage to the sleeping player.

In a combination of surprise and survival instinct, Alexx rolled over while lashing out with an uncoordinated backhanded strike. Unfortunately, that strike hit one of the shelter’s support beams before it ever got close to Zed, snapping it in two and bringing the whole structure down with a crash.

Every player nearby turned to look at the noise, a silence came soon after as the rubble settled on top of Alexx.

“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” Alexx shouted from below his broken home. With the silence broken and Alexx not sounding hurt, Zed as well as a few other players began to laugh at the situation.

“Sorry man,” Zed said, wiping away a tear, “I didn’t mean to go that far.”

“It’s fine, I can rebuild it again,” Alexx said as he stood up, barely acknowledging the weight of the rubble. His eyes grew distraught as he realized what he had just said. “Fuck, I’ll have to chop wood for this.”

“I still can’t believe you’re upset about that.”

“At this point, it’s mostly because a bunch of the guys from the building teams keep calling me Tree Killer. I get that it’s not a big deal but I just,” he stopped to groan in frustration. “I swear, one of these days I’m going to smack one of them, full force.”

“Let me know when you do, I want to see how much distance you can get with that.” Zed took another sip of his soup before gesturing toward the Kitchen. “Anyway, let’s get you something to eat.”

~~~~~

“So do you know what features were picked yet?” Alexx asked, gingerly holding his soup bowl. The two sat next to an entrance to the Kitchen as Alexx ate.

“Yeah, you can check the menu.” Zed gestured to the air in front of them. “There’s a notification log now, everything is listed there.”

“Wow, they really changed a lot,” Alexx said as he opened the menu. He quickly found the notifications page and saw the listed features, as well as the patch notes. “Is there anything interesting in the patch notes?”

Zed shrugged. “No idea. There’s way too much for me to bother with. Hopefully, someone with more patience than sense looked through it to see if anything important happened.”

“I guess we’ll find out tonight.” Alexx tried to take a sip of his soup while looking through the other menu pages, but the bowl slipped out of his hands. He easily caught it, but as his hand closed around the bowl he applied too much force and easily crushed the wood in his hand. Realizing what he had done, Alexx simply sighed defeatedly.

“Still having trouble with that huh,” Zed said more than asked.

“Yep. I need to go hunting soon.” No longer needing to bother returning the bowl, Alexx tossed the pieces into a nearby campfire as the two began walking away.

After reaching level 34 Alexx had, unsurprisingly, invested most of his Ability Points into STR, reaching a total of 156. The power it gave him was incredible, and he could even kill Iron Ant Drones just by running over them now, but when they returned from the expedition he began to notice a problem. Things had started breaking around him more often. Usually, it was just a wooden fork or when someone asked him to pass them something when he visited the Workshop. One day he tripped while getting ready to sleep and grabbed his shelter for support, tearing the whole thing down, at which point he realized that something was clearly wrong.

It didn’t take him long to figure out what the problem was. He remembered how having high STR and low END resulted in him damaging himself and made the connection between his astronomical strength and his pitiful 10 DEX. Simply put, Alexx had reached a threshold where he couldn’t control his own body anymore. It was similar to how he was too strong to craft items or wield weapons, except now his strength was so great that even the minimal amount of force he could consciously apply was too much for his surroundings. Even Yang, the tankiest player in the village, couldn’t so much as shake his hand without suffering bruises from the pressure.

He used the AP he had on standby to try and fix it, but it hadn’t been enough. He had apparently crossed the threshold a while ago but hadn't noticed until now. He needed to level up more before he could correct his stats, and that certainly wasn’t happening today.

“It’ll be fine,” Zed said, patting Alexx on the shoulder. “We’ll head out tomorrow and then you won’t have to worry about it.”

“Alright… hey, let’s go find Loran,” he said to distract himself. “I think he said he was excited to get the magic system.”

A grin slowly spread across Zed’s face. “You think he’s figured anything out with it yet?”

“Only one way to find out.”

The two made their way to the Training Field to see if Loran was there, and while they didn’t see their friend they did get a chance to see magic in action. All across the field were small blue wisps of light being directed by the players. A few of them were controlling the lights almost playfully, while most of them wore expressions of extreme concentration. Some of the concentrating players were sitting meditatively, eyes following the lights in front of them or unfocused if they had no lights.

“I don’t see Loran,” Zed said, scanning the field, “but it looks like everyone’s having fun with the update.”

“I would say they're more frustrated than that.”

Zed shrugged. “Some of them are having a good time.” He glanced the side of the field.

Alexx followed his gaze to see Maya, jumping around as three lights danced around her. His shelter was near hers, so he knew that she hadn’t slept well, but that didn’t seem to matter as she made the little beads of magic twirl through the air, smiling wide despite the slight bags forming under her eyes.

“Regardless, Loran isn’t here.”

“Let's ask around, I think he was here recently.”

Alexx glanced at him questioningly. “What makes you say that.”

Zed just smiled. “Call it a hunch.”

Zed turned out to be right, as they had apparently missed Loran by around twenty minutes. Both were mildly surprised to hear that Loran had been the one to figure out the magic system first, especially after finding out that some of the other players present had been trying all morning. They asked a few more questions about the magic system out of curiosity before continuing their search for Loran. As they left, Alexx noticed that Zed had a glint in his eye. It was the same look he would get whenever they were about to start hunting.

“Something got you excited?”

“Yep. Fighting Loran is going to be way more fun than I thought.”

“What makes you say that?” he quickly followed up with, “and don’t just say it’s a hunch again.”

Zed laughed before explaining. “You saw how many of them were struggling with the magic right?”

“Yeah, so magic in NEO is complicated, so what?”

“It’s not just complicated. You heard them, Loran figured it out in about an hour with barely any help. Even that kid, Maya is practically playing with magic while everyone else is practically ripping their hair out in frustration. I think there might be something else that makes people good at magic, something not represented in the menu.”

“So you’re saying you think Loran might have a talent for magic?”

“Yeah, and depending on how talented he is, he might be ready for a fight today.”

“Weren’t you complaining about being exhausted earlier?”

“I’m always up for a fight,” he said proudly. “Besides, no matter how talented he is, this will be his first fight with the new system. We both have a handicap here.”

Alexx felt skeptical, but amused by the older player’s excitement and stopped questioning him. He was also eager to see what Loran could do right now. As someone who almost exclusively played one-on-one fighting games, he had never seen magic used in combat aside from movies and streaming shows.

But those were all choreographed fights, not actual battles. Alexx had no idea what magic combat would look like, how it would change his own tactics, or what he would do to fight against it. This was going to be a learning experience for everyone involved, and he couldn’t wait.