by Dante Steel
It took five tries for Gary to yank the dagger back. Black blood dripped from the tip, and he wiped the blade on the goblin’s threadbare vest.
Now what?
Well, if this was a dream, Elena or Olivia or maybe both of them should show up soon. That would be great. Gary hadn't seen them in a little while, and perhaps it was ridiculous, but he missed them. He hoped they weren't too far ahead of him level-wise. Maybe he should train more.
But when he took a few steps, he knew training wasn’t an option. He couldn’t walk straight no matter how hard he tried. His gait was like a drunk person’s. What was happening to him?
He glanced down at his arms, his legs. Everything seemed to be normal enough. Well, normal-ish. Gary was in his avatar, but he had somehow gotten his wires crossed.
Because of the lightning?
Yes, because of the lightning, but because he was in a coma or dreaming. Something like that. Nothing more.
He wasn’t actually in the game. He’d wake up soon enough.
Having no better idea, Gary headed back to town. A ton of people was milling about, and he tried to find Elena or Olivia or even Jorge. He was desperate for someone to talk to, but he didn't see any of them.
Instead, he saw a woman, blinked, and blinked again. She looked so familiar to him with her sloped nose, dark hair and eyes, that heart-shaped face…
Nicoletta?
Yeah, this had to be a dream.
Too curious to pass this up, he strolled over to her, doing his best to walk as straight as he could. Considering he only bumped into four people on his way over to her, he thought he might be getting better at his motor skills.
He tapped the avatar that looked like a more mature Nicoletta. “Excuse me,” he said, “but you look just like someone I know in real life.”
She turned and gave him a once-over. She frowned and then smiled. “You kinda remind me of someone. Gary?”
“Nicoletta, it is you. Wow. Ah…” He rubbed the back of his neck.
Damn. Gary hadn't realized how good-looking Nicolette was before. Probably because Jorge had always been around.
“Um… You play often?” he asked, feeling lame.
“When I have the chance. You?”
“Now and then.” He grinned. “What’s your power?”
She scowled. “I hate it.”
“You hate your power? What kind of messed-up game is this? First, Jorge is a mage, which admittedly isn’t a superpower. I have no power at all—”
“You don’t?”
“Nope. I met a woman who doesn’t either.”
“Must be a glitch. I’m sorry.” She shrugged. “What can you do?”
“Why do you hate yours? Come on. It can’t be that bad.”
To his horror and surprise, her eyes welled with tears. Avatars could cry? Insane!
No. This is a dream, remember?
“I… I can use… I’m a fire wielder.”
Gary’s eyes widened. That was right. Jorge had told him, but he hadn’t put two and two together then.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
It really wasn’t right at all that a person who was deathly afraid of fire should have that ability. Not cool at all.
Back when she had been five, Nicoletta had been over at a friend's house. The parents hadn't been watching them closely enough. Nicoletta and her friend had gotten into candles and matches, and Nicoletta got burned on her hand so severely she still had a scar on her palm. She had a tendency to wear gloves of all kinds as an excuse to hide it. Sure enough, her avatar was wearing gloves.
Gary didn’t know what seized him, but he grabbed her left hand and rubbed his fingers over the palm.
“You play with fire. You get burned. But you’re a phoenix.”
“I rise from the ashes, huh?” She shook her head and pulled her hand away. “I am not going to use that power, so it’s like I didn’t get one either.”
“Then, I guess we should stick together, huh?” He grinned. “What level are you?”
“Three.”
His smile widened. “Not bad,” he teased.
“You?” She grimaced. “Huh. Normally, I can tell by looking at a person. A box of stats will appear.”
“Really? I never noticed that.”
“It’s small and tucked in the corner, so it’s easy to overlook,” she explained, “and if you aren’t looking directly at the person, nothing will show up.”
“You can’t get a reading on me?”
“No.” She glanced around, her gaze pausing on certain people. “Everyone else, though, I can…”
He swallowed hard. Just a dream. Just a dream.
“You, ah, want to train?” he asked.
Nicoletta grinned. “I thought you would—what happened to you? Do you need to go to an innkeeper and pay a few coins to sleep?”
“Pay to sleep?”
“It’ll heal you. You won’t actually sleep.” She laughed and rolled her eyes playfully. “You really don’t know much at all about RPGs, do you?”
“I’m learning on the fly. Playing with fire.”
She winced. “Not funny.”
“A little funny?”
“Nope. Try again. Come on. The inn’s this way.”
He fell into step beside her, walking smoother now.
Nicoletta kept glancing over. “I’m surprised how real that wound looks,” she murmurs. “The blood…”
“You can’t smell it, right?”
She shuddered. “I’m all for crazy cool graphics, the sights, the hearing… but the stench? War is all blood and guts and if done accurately, loosed bowels and decay and rotting and no. No thank you. Oh, and monster dung! Yeah, that’s a hell no.”
Gary chuckled, but he could smell the metallic hint of his blood. He swallowed and tried not to feel so nervous.
He had more than enough coins to pay for a night at the inn. He asked Nicoletta to join him.
She arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’d have to pay. It’s not as if the rooms have more than one bed in them, and I’m not sharing a bed with you.”
He swallowed and nodded. It was wrong for him to be attracted to Nicoletta, but he was. This wasn't even her. Sure, her avatar looked like Nicoletta, but hearing her voice made Gary picture the real girl. Woman.
Shit. Gary was in trouble. If Jorge ever found out Gary had the hots for his cousin…
But this wasn’t real. He’d wake up, and everything could go back to normal. Right?
Chapter Ten
For several hours, Gary and Nicoletta trained, exchanged quips, and bantered, and Gary was disappointed when she said she had to go.
“Seriously?” he griped. “It can’t be that late.”
“It’s ten at night. Hey, wait a second. Isn’t today your birthday?”
“It is.”
“Happy birthday, Gary!”
“Thank you. Now, play with me a little longer.”
“Gary, we’ve gone up five levels! I think that’s serious progress.”
She was right about one thing. They had made progress. Gary wasn’t so sure that he had leveled up, but he did feel stronger. He couldn’t access the menu yet, which, in his mind, served as further proof that this was just in his head.
“But we don’t have much new gear.”
She sighed. No way could she argue that. They had found a bunch of threadbare stuff that they would be lucky to get a single rupa back in return for it.
“We did gain some rupas, though,” she countered.
“I needed a sword,” he grumbled.
“No axe?”
“Hmm.” He rubbed his chin. “A throwing axe would be handy. A magical one that would come back to me after I launched it.”
"A boomerang throwing axe!" She giggled. "All right. Fine. We'll kill off that horde of goblins, and then I'll really have to go."
“Sounds like a plan.”
They slaughtered through the goblins easily enough, but then some orcs came, and fighting them was so much ha
rder that they ended up having to run away.
Nicoletta only stopped when they were close to the town again. “That was intense,” she said.
“You betcha. Thanks, Nicoletta.”
“For what?”
“For playing with me. Staying on later than you wanted to.”
“No sweat. Wanted to make your birthday fun.”
“You really did.”
What the hell. It was a game. It wasn’t real. Besides, while he wasn’t an avatar, she was.
He leaned over and went to kiss her cheek, but she turned, and his lips pressed against hers.
She kissed him, opening her mouth before jerking back.
“Gotta go.” She waved and disappeared.
Gary yawned. It felt late even though the sun was still up here. No, wait, it was going down. Huh. In all the other times he had played, it had always been bright and sunny. Never any rain, no storms, no snow.
He’d have to find a spot in town to sleep. He didn’t want to pay for the inn. Nicoletta had been right. He had paid, and honestly, nothing happened. His chest wounds looked no different at all. Thankfully, Nicoletta hadn’t realized that.
Eventually, after wandering around town through twilight and the darkening sky, Gary settled down on the hay just inside the stable. The other animals were all sleeping. Hopefully, when he woke, he'd be back in his body, back in the real world, in his new apartment. The first thing he would do? Eat the last three cupcakes and drink some orange soda.
But when he woke, Gary was still in the game. This time, he could access the menu, and he had a ton of points to allocate around. He had gained four levels during his training with Nicoletta.
Should he continue to pump up strength and vitality? Did vitality matter now that he was in the game?
Was he in the game?
He lifted his shirt. His wounds looked like they had healed a little, the usual amount they would've healed overnight.
No. No, this couldn't be. Gary couldn't actually have been transported into the game through the lightning strike, right? Stuff like that just didn't happen!
Dazed and confused, Gary stood and lumbered out of the stable and over to the well. He waited his turn to be able to lower the bucket, and he stared at the water once he claimed his. More accurately, he stared at his reflection.
He might be wearing the same attire as his avatar, but his features, his face, that was him.
Nicoletta had been teasing when she’d said he reminded her of someone because he clearly looked like himself.
How was this happening? A super long dream? Was this reality? A game?
“I’m going crazy,” he muttered.
He cupped his hands into the almost too-cold water and drank deeply. All he wanted was to grab something to eat, but would the food here nourish him? Had the game developers given grub much thought?
Gary walked over and approached the tavern. It was empty aside from some obvious NPCs, which wasn’t that much a shock given the hour.
He strolled toward the back and sat down at a table. Soon, a bar wench wearing a short skirt and a tight, low-cut shirt that gave him more than a bird’s eye view of her chest bounced over.
“Would you like something to eat or drink?” she asked.
Options floated above her head. Yes, the game was back in full force. Why it hadn’t been earlier, he could only guess. The lightning strike might’ve jarred him and the game a little. Now, it all seemed to be back to rights.
Immediately, Gary tried to log out, only that option wasn’t there for him. It wasn’t as if it were grayed out, and he couldn’t click it. The option for him just wasn’t gone.
On second thought, the game wasn’t entirely corrected after all. He could still smell the wood from the table and the lingering scent of alcohol from the previous night’s activities.
Could he taste though? That would be a huge test. Gary wasn't sure if one could eat in a dream, but he personally never had.
“I’ll have the chicken and some ale,” he said, noting that the chicken would cause him to have a few bonus points to strength and the ale would lower intelligence but add to dexterity, which confused Gary but whatever. He wasn’t going to complain.
He had to pay the wench up front, and she returned almost immediately with his food.
After wiping his sweaty palms on his pants, Gary reached for the ale and swallowed. It was room temp, and he would’ve preferred it to be chilled, but honestly, it was decent.
Which meant, yes, he had tasted it.
The chicken was the same lukewarm temperature as the ale, but Gary didn’t care. He shoveled it down and had to wipe away grease from his chin. His stomach grumbled, wanting more food.
Why was he starving? Typically, he was never this hungry in the morning. He only ate like this after a huge race.
Or after training and using muscles over and over again while training.
No. That was ridiculous. None of this could be happening.
Before he could use all of his money on food, Gary walked out of there. He tried to talk to some of the other NPCs, but none of them noticed anything out of place with him. Not knowing what else to do, Gary sold the few worthless items and then strolled out of there.
If he was going to be stuck in the game, he might as well actually play it.
So he went around, killed the rats, the bats, the goblins but ran away from the orcs. By then, he had gained another two levels. That should be more than enough to take out that dragon. Hopefully.
Just to be sure, he returned to the town and bartered with the arms’ man. Eventually, Gary walked out of there with a short sword and a helmet. If this somehow wasn’t a dream, he wanted to keep his head protected at all costs.
Then, he marched back out of town to that hill. He had slain about half of the baby dragons when he realized someone was beside him.
Elena.
He grinned at her. It took her a moment before recognition flashed. “Gary?”
“Yep.”
“I didn’t know you could change your avatar.” She considered him critically, thumping her fist onto a baby dragon’s head without looking away from Gary.
“Well? Do you prefer me this way or before?” he asked lightly.
“This way,” she said without hesitation. “Leveling up well, I see.”
“Yep. Why not?”
“We’ll slay this dragon and collect that reward.”
“You better believe it.”
Together, they knocked out the last of the baby dragons. The big one took exception to that and tried to burn them with a blast of fire, but they ducked out of the way. They flanked the dragon on either side, and when it faced Gary, he would slash it with his sword short. When it turned to Elena, she would punch it as hard as she could with her metal fists.
Gary ended up getting the last blow and over half of the experience. From the carcass, they found a vial of dragon blood, a dull sword, some robes and other wearable gear, and lots of rupas.
They split the rupas. Gary got the sword and some of the gear, while Elena claimed the vial and the rest of the clothes. They took some time to finish leveling up, and Elena swapped out her boots for newly acquired ones.
“Looking good,” he said.
“Yeah? It’s nothing much,” she said.
The two rushed back to town and to the man, who clapped his hands together and looked like he wanted to hug them.
"You not only returned, but you also saved our water supply! Here. It isn't much, but accept this."
They both were given a large sum of rupas.
"I think we're high enough levels that we should save our money for higher-end items," Elena suggested.
“You don’t have to go?” he asked.
“Nah.”
“Oh, good.” He hesitated. “What time is it where you live?”
“Ah… almost noon.”
Gary nodded. “Where do you live?”
“I’m not answering that,” she said dryly.
&n
bsp; “Oh, right. Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to get too personal.”
“You’re fine. Don’t worry about it. Do you want to talk to more NPCs and gain other quests, or do you want to just try to find a dungeon or another town?”
“Let’s find other quests. We don’t have to accept them all.”
Sure enough, that man did run off on an adventure, and the wife asked them to drag him home by the ear if you have to. Gary laughed once they were out of earshot.
“I’ll pull your ear,” Elena joked.
“You’re too short to reach it.”
She grinned and examined her metallic fingers. "Do you really want me to touch it?"
“Ah, that would be a no. Are your hands cold?”
Elena tilted her head to the side, apparently confused. "I can't feel much in the game," she said slowly.
“No, no, I know that,” he said. “I just thought because of the metal and the cold…”
“Maybe.” She shrugged. “The wife said to the west.”
They headed for the west exit of the town, but the gate was closed. The guards stationed there said it was too dangerous to allow people out there.
Elena, as it turned out, could be very persuasive when she wanted to be, but her charm didn’t work on the guards. Gary even offered to bribe them, but they refused to accept rupas.
The guards were sympathetic but unmoving. “Depart the east gate and head toward the west. You can do this.”
“Yeah, right,” Elena grumbled. “This quest is going to be more trouble than it’s worth.”
“You think so?”
“All of that walking, having no idea where exactly to find the guy, and then having to drag him home…”
“It’ll be fine,” Gary said. “Like a grand adventure.”
They walked all the way across town to the east exit and had to circle around until they saw the closed gate to the west behind them.
On and on, they walked. Gary’s legs were sore, but he kept on going. He wasn’t about to allow Elena to get there before him.
Unfortunately, Elena was the first to spot the man. Even more devastating was that he had been captured by orcs. With pink flesh tones and pushed-in noses, the orcs looked as if they were distantly related to pigs although they were generally humanoids, with two arms and two legs.
