~Cobb POV~

  Fuck my head...

  I looked over JST's shoulder and noticed his burns, he didn't seem particularly in pain so I ignored it. The mana loss is really fucking with me, the cover of the skillbook is moving. Colors are flying all across the cover and oh my god my fucking head. I could feel throbbing aches pulse through my head. I didn't dare reach for my magic, I might actually faint. The pain was a distraction, every thought brought on small spikes of pain that I could only barely endure.

  Looking at my status bars I was at 95% red, 50% yellow and 10% blue. My stamina was low from running around gathering dirt and using Hyperfocus, I had to cover for Jones, which in turn lowered my mana a good amount. I wanted to conserve my MP and wait for JST to herd them together like I signaled. As it was I ended up using too close to my limit, so much so that when I unleashed the controlled inferno I almost depleted all my mana. I didn't even get to color it green like I wanted to, my focus was too fucked up.

  "This sucks so much ass." I moaned. "This has to be one of the heavier penalites for low mana I've experienced." Jones was peering at the lip of the root walls that enclosed us. My Hunted Sense informed of my various annoyed glares nothing close to hostile though.

  JST noticed him peering. "Yeah, lets head in." He said. We followed behind Jones as he walked into the gap in the base of tree.

  As the sounds of battle faded along with the adrenaline the surroundings came alive. There were no trees to rival the Great Tree but still the sounds of animals could be heard from over the roots, buzzing flies assaulted us, they had become larger as we approached the lair. My brothers would kill them with deadly precision but with an effort of will I myself ignored them. There was eerie silence that was even louder than the sounds around us. You would think with this proximity to the Geckan Lair Tree Lair something would be heard. No, complete silence from the tree.

  We weren't strangers to pain, experiencing it at length in real life through our sparring. It's no surprise my brothers have no problems dealing with the physical damage dealt in the virtual world. But my brothers have never dabbled in magic, they are ignorant of the mental strain that comes with it. Mana has always been linked to the mind, in most VR games, Contavia for example, the lower your mana the harder it is to concentrate. Your mana is still there but being able to use it effectively becomes increasingly difficult. For Twoen to hit me with enough mental block to stagger me, it was impressive, it was painful, it was a challenge, and it made this world just a little more difficult.

  I smiled, exhaling my excitement, my black eyes are probably sparkling. It was something that the cycling pain couldn't take off my face.

  I decided to look up my Character Sheet.

  It didn't escape my attention that the system removed my Unarmed Combat, likely from a lack of use. I demonstrated some skill in it so I was rewarded with the skill but sometime along the way I lost it since after that I barely used it. Of course the fact that I didn't even think about it probably added to the judgement of the system. It wasn't something I was gonna be using anyway.

  I leveled up twice and put points into my new stat Enliven or ENL. That bought up my available Squad Points up to 17. Yep, I was looking pretty good, Inform leveled up to Advance, Hyperfocus leveled up and Earth Magic leveled up. My Fire Magic jumped to Advanced 2. It was understandable since to the system I discovered the magic in about 10 minutes, I went from sparking a candle to a full on blazing fire tornado, add to that I formed the fire around my brother, a feat which required immense control on top of creating the tornado in the first place, and I did it while distracted with the penalty from the lack of mana. Yeah, I can see the reasoning behind the system.

  I read the bonuses and noticed the obvious similiarites to Earth Magic.

  A loud ding rang in my ear. A flashing prompt assaulted my peripheral.

  I tried to will it to appear mentally but the concentration required was the final straw, throbbing pain shot up my brain and I fainted after catching glimpses of blue.

  ~LoneJones~

  "He fucking fainted!" JST called from behind me.

  "Dang the headache must suck." I sympathized.

  "Yeah, I should've told him my trick to deal with headaches." JST said hoisting a limp emerald body over his shoulder.

  "And whats that?" I asked turning around. I had stopped at the entrance of the tunnel made by the roots, my hairs were still.

  "To fucking suck it up." JST said as he passed me. His figure dissapeared for a while before the roots on the floor started to glow faintly under his feet. It was dim but the purple glow lit up the tunnel enough for us to see, even though we both didn't need it. Motes of dust drifted in the tunnel, disturbed by our movement and visible through the glow of the roots.

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  We walked for a long time through the tunnel before I had to move ahead and empty a room, flashing prompts distracted me but I had to find a safe area before checking, it would be dangerous if I wasn't paying attention while Cobb was unconcious. A change in air caught my attention and I signaled a halt. Using my septules I stuck to the wall of the tunnel we were in, climbed to the ceiling and entered the next room crawling on the roots above and out of sight. Thankfully the roots on the ceiling didn't have the same effect on the ones on the floor. I paused on the ceiling, I was sticking to it with all fours, my hairs helped me track dimly lit Geckans below but that was the least of my problems. Something was up here with me. With my increased Perception, I was about to move before I felt something breathing, I could hear it clearly if I completely focused on my hearing, I stayed still for what seemed an eternity, something I had done many times before. With a soft breath it moved, crawling lightly on the roots I followed the displacement of the air, it positioned itself above one of the two Geckans. At that point I realized what it was.

  We dropped together with a silent screech, barely perceptible but there nonetheless. It dropped on the first silently, sank its twin daggers in the mottled colors of a Scoutsassin, and tied it up as it fell, gently laying it down so as not to make noise. Not one to be outdone, I had the strange urge to show off, yet the uncanny instinct to keep the Geckan alive. Activating Hyperfocus I dropped and time slowed down, the creature from earlier had taken out its daggers and watched me as it finished tying up the Geckan, I took this all in as I fell, at the same time I felt JST still in the tunnel to the side waiting for me to finish. Turning back to my prey I slowed my descent by carving a gash into its side, before a sound could be made I twisted my body nimbly as my dagger caught on bone and kicked it in the throat, before a move could be made I quickly swung up and wrapped my legs around its neck. With a jerk I broke its spinal cord, pushed off with my legs, backflipping onto my feet, and nine feet of Geckan fell over paralyzed,. The dim purple glow of the roots on the floor caught its body, and it lay there wide eyed and breathing heavily.

  I watched the creature from the ceiling approach, sink its twin daggers into the neck and wrap up the body with its white rope. I watched its movements in slow motion, they were precise and practiced, something done a million times and i admired its task. With two white cocoons I looked into eight blinking eyes, it turned and crawled up the ceiling dragging up two bodies against the wall, its six free legs skittering upwards. The creature left the soft glow of the floor and I was left amid distrubed dust and purple loneliness. It would leave us alone.

  I trilled the trill of a bird from another world. Heavy but silent footsteps were followed with purple light and JST came into view. He walked through and his movements activated the roots, the dim light was thrown across the walls and it caught my gaze, sprawling roots grew on top of each other, pockets of shadow where light never reached were nestled between them, they twisted and crawled over each other creating this cave. The motes of floating dust added to the ambience, it seemed devoid of life, still and beautiful but proof to the contrary lay in the shadows above.

  "We're safe here." I said. "Let's wait for Cobb to wake up." I stood there alone in the middle of the chamber.

  "And where the fuck are the bodies?" JST asked suspiciously. "I don't feel anything and you're literally just standing there alone glowing purple."

  "Oh, oops. Yeah, I made friends with a giant spider up there." I pointed up. "He's probably eating them right now." I explained.

  JST's face was deadpan. "Oook..." He breathed. "Fucking creep." He muttered, forgetting that I have super hearing right now.

  I ignored it, walking around I realized the glowing roots were slightly bouncy so I found a big one that was trying to crawl up against the wall and sat down, leaning against it. It was comfortable.

  Admiring the slow floating dust and purple glow of the cave I brought up my Character Sheet.

  It seemed that the illusion I made of myself took a good percentage of my MP. I leveled up twice so I split up the 10 points between END and PER, I had felt the drain on my reserves hanging upside down from the ceiling, but the fact that I couldn't sense my friend from earlier spooked me.

  After using the skill book the basics of Illusion Magic flooded into my mind, naturally my first thought earlier was to play a prank on my brothers. The skill was amazing. It was perfect, with this the normal assassinations and whatnot wouldn't be as boring. It also happened to be my fifth and final skill needed to get my class. I ignored that last part.

  Well I crossed off Assassin and Explorer, one was boring and the other just wasn't me. Though Illusionist seemed really cool especially since I would be able to unlock a higher Tier of Illusion Magic I just didn't see myself attaining that level of mastery. The kind of planning and manipulation that the Class mentions was something up Cobb's alley anyway. I crossed that one off too. A Ninja seemed so boring, every little kid wants to be a Ninja, I feel like I'd be obligated to act like one, and I really didn't want to so I passed that up too. It was too cliche. I chose Guerilla, it was the most highly recommended and I trusted the system. Irregular methods of attack appealed to me, it kept things interesting, the underdog mentality is something i've lived my whole life with competing with my brothers, the Class resonated with me. With them I have had to invent new ways to compete. I know my weaknesses and because of that I know my strengths.

  My stats increased, applying the Class stat gains to every level after 15.

  With that I waited for Cobb to wake up.