James felt like he had spent an inordinate amount of his time in this game sleeping. He got up and left the tent, glad that he didn’t have a bizarre dream this time as he pulled his armour back out of his inventory and stepped outside. The weather had changed from bright sunshine to heavy rain, the first James had seen during his time on Sable. The NPCs and the very few players who were there had taken cover under tarpaulins. Lambda was already up, sitting on the back of one of the Vagrant Company wagons, scythe resting on the wheel. James walked over, using his shield as a makeshift umbrella, and joined him there.
“How are you feeling?” Lambda asked.
“I don’t feel like I’ve just been hit by a giant mace and fallen from a great height, so I think I’m better,” James said.
Lambda chuckled. “I really don’t understand how sleeping can just get rid of all these wounds, but I suppose I can separate game from reality.”
“It’s for the best. Next you’ll be asking where all the stuff in our inventory goes. Where’s Gungnir and Am-I mean, Glass?”
“I haven’t seen Glass.”
James nodded. Amelia had been known to sleep in, but he’d never known it to happen in a video game before.
“Gungnir and I were preparing to log off,” Lambda continued. “She wanted to stock up on some items before we left. We won’t have that whole Revive incident again.”
“My party always has someone on item duty whenever we play MMOs. We rotate.”
“Me and Gungnir don’t play RPGs often. I’m worried about wasting my money on items we won’t use.”
James laughed. “But what if you might need them?”
Lambda sighed. “I guess I might…”
“And now you understand how to play RPGs. Do your friends play RPGs too?”
“All the time. They got Sable Online around the time the second expansion came out.”
“And you didn’t follow?”
“We were hoping the Scavenger’s price would go down later on. Turns out the game’s price went down and the Scavenger’s went up, which kinda worked out.”
“Why haven’t they come to meet you?”
Lambda shrugged. “They said they wanted us to have the ‘authentic experience’.”
James was going to ask why they didn’t just make new characters to join Lambda and Gungnir in the early game, but something stopped him from prying further. He just smiled. The silence was soon broken before it could stretch out into something truly awkward.
“Yo, M-Lambda!” Gungnir shouted as she walked over, not even noticing James and seemingly not bothered about the rain. “We’ve got potions and revives. I think we’re done here.”
“I think we are.” Lambda nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with you.” James extended his hand towards Lambda. “I hope we work together again sometime.”
Lambda shook James’ hand. “The pleasure is mine, Cieth. If you ever need party members, please summon us.”
Lambda tapped in the air, bringing up the menu.
Incoming Friend Request
Lambda.
James brought up his menu in response.
Friend Request Accepted.
Gungnir smiled as she opened up the menu. “See you guys! Tell Glass I said bye!”
She logged out immediately, disappearing in a flash of white.
Gungnir has left the party.
Lambda smiled.
“See you soon,” He said as he vanished.
Lambda has left the party.
A few minutes later, Amelia walked out of her tent, rubbing her eye, and taking the seat where Lambda used to be. She never cared much for the rain.
“You just missed out on our guests leaving,” James explained to her. “Gungnir said bye.”
“And Lambda didn’t?”
“I don’t think he needed to. Anyway, how did you sleep?”
“Now I know how our D&D characters feel when we have a long rest after every fight,” Amelia replied. “Shame I missed those two. What do you think of them?”
“I like them, and if something like this happens again they’re available for another team up.”
“Well, now we’ve levelled up, I think we should get some new gear.”
James shrugged. “I think I’m doing ok, that damage bonus did a lot for me. Speaking of new stuff...”
James opened up the menu and checked his new skill.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Guardian Skill
Rending Strike
Slice down all defences
Deal 2*STR damage and apply Break to the opponent for 20 second
30 second cooldown
“I thought Patrick could already do something like this,” James wondered. “Oh well, I’m not using one of these moves often so I’ll probably keep it.” He swiped through the menu and switched out the skills.
Cieth
Removed Skill: Protect
Added Skill: Rending Strike
“It’s a good move, though,” Amelia told him.
“Yeah, but I keep forgetting it exists.”
Amelia shrugged and took a look at the skill she had gained.
Saber Skill
Whirlwind Cutter.
Strike while spinning, infusing your attacks with a tornado’s force.
AoE centred on you. Deal STR damage to every enemy surrounding you.
20 second cooldown
“Finally, an AoE,” Amelia said. “I’ve been waiting for one of these. I kinda like the skills I already have though. I dunno which one I should replace.”
James shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I don’t know what they do other than hit things. Not a whole lot of utility in there to throw away.”
Amelia glared at him as she closed the menu. “You sure you don’t want new gear? Remember how that guy one shot you before?”
“I don’t think any amount of health would have saved me from that, but you might be right.”
They walked over to one of the caravans that had various adventuring equipment stuffed into it. A blacksmith was sitting there, the exact same guy as in Heartily, despite the fact that there wasn’t anywhere for him to actually make weapons. There was no cover for James and Amelia, though, leaving them to stand in the downpour.
“Did...did they just copy and paste an NPC?” Amelia asked.
“You must have met my identical twin in Heartily,” The blacksmith said warmly.
“Yeah, we did, actually,” James smiled. “He says hi.”
“Well, I hate the man and went travelling so I could stay away from him. If you meet him again, tell him to throw himself at the nearest goblin patrol. Would you like to buy anything?”
Blacksmith
----
Shortsword:
Slasher: +5 STR, 500 Gold
Parry Blade: +5 DEF, 500 Gold
Hatred: +5 SPL, 500 Gold
----
Shield:
Buckler: +5 DEX, -5 DEF, 300 Gold
Excel Def
“This is literally the same list as the one in Heartily,” James said. The Blacksmith smiled.
“I did say we were identical twins.”
The two players raised an eyebrow before leaving, not even bothering to say goodbye to the blacksmith.
“Would have been nice if Grey told us about this first,” Amelia growled, before sighing, “Guess we’re gonna have to buy new stuff in Haelshire.”
James groaned. “I really can’t be asked to run back.”
“Gonna be honest, I think we’ve gone as far as we can go for today.”
James nodded. “Not unless we run into another duo like that again. Besides, we’ve been playing for…at least 7 or 8 hours at this point? It’s probably about 2 in the morning. I dunno if there’s time dilation in this game or something.”
“Are you really gonna chicken out?”
“Hey, I can get game burnout once in a while. Why do you think I didn’t play for the whole of February last year?”
“We really did miss having a tank that month.”
“I don’t want that to happen with this game, especially with this being Patrick’s first VRMMO.”
“He picked up on this stuff really quickly. I kinda think he’s played one before.”
“It’s Patrick, there’s no way he’s touched a console older than a PS5. And if he did play one, he’d rant and rave about it constantly. He just picks things up fast.”
“You’re right.”
Amelia was silent for a moment before she asked a question that had been pressing on her since she left.
“What was the thing about the guy in the cloak?”
James shrugged. “It was nothing, don’t worry about it. Just a weird thing I saw in a dream I got back in Heartily.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow but didn’t follow up further. “I wish I got a dream from this game.”
“I cannot recommend them.”
She opened up the menu. “Alright then, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“At school?”
She paused. “At some point. Sleep well.”
GlassAngel has left the party
James looked around and sighed, flicking open the log out button without even looking at it.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, you weird ass game.”
Player logged out. Shutting down headset. Have a nice day.
James Stats: Level: 5 HP: 300/300 STR: 15 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 15 INT: 1
Amelia Stats: Level: 5 HP: 200/200 STR: 25 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Gungnir Stats: Level: 5 HP: 100/100 STR: 30 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 5 INT: 0
Lambda Stats: Level: 5 HP: 150/150 STR: 10 DEF: 5 DEX: 5 SPL: 15 INT: 0
