"That's fantastic; now that I have a recording of that, here's the quest! Good luck!" Izor bounced back from his serious face so fast space seemed to spasm. 

A chime announced the quest in Rydr's head. He ignored it to reach for Izor with both hands, convinced that nothing good from Izor paired with words like "recording." A bubble coalesced around Izor and protected him from Rydr's wrath. 

With a cackle, Izor threw his head back and thrust his hips out with hands-on both hips. A blue platform formed under him and carried him away into the trees while he caterwauled and power posed. 

Syrna walked up behind the deflated giant, unsure what to say.

"I'm...sorry?" Syrna patted Rydr's elbow to comfort him. "I don't know why that's bad, but can you share the quest?" She tried to keep Rydr on task. 

With a sigh, Rydr opened the notification about Izor's quest.

 

Save Grotto! Investigate the Wellspring!

Izor was dispatched to study the wellspring before he closed it. After more than a year in Grotto, he has found only legends and rumors. Without being influenced by Izor's bias, you must find the wellspring of wild mana to quell the uprising of ever more aggressive plant growth. Find the wellspring to save Grotto and figure out how to close it before Winter. Succeed, or the souls of Grotto's citizens will curse you forever! ·       Monumental Quest ·       Rewards: o   Izor’s Favor o   Unknown Rewards ·       60 Days Remaining ·       Can Be Shared ·       Failure o   Failure Will Curse You

 

An anguished sigh left Rydr as if his soul left his body. Wordlessly he willed the quest notice to Urginok and Syrna. Rydr chuckled mirthlessly as he watched their expressions drop when they read how they would receive no help. 

"What the fuck?" Syrna blurted. 

"Yeah, seriously? So we 'won't be influenced'? Isn't this guy just slacking off?" Urginok's face twisted in distaste for the skeletal-thin man. 

Rydr shrugged and said, "It's about par for the course with him, honestly. Ten out of ten with that serious performance, though." Rydr almost acknowledged Izor. If it weren't for all this murderous rage! He howled in his mind. He vowed that one day he would overpower Izor in a single blow. And then he would teabag him. 

Rydr discovered that there was a second spot on his Shit-List.  Terrible company, really.

Rydr shook his head and let his companions rant while they calmed down. 

Rydr ignored them and opened his map to see where his grave marker was. Several more areas of his map fleshed themselves out to be more than gray nothingness. They showed more of the town, the graveyard where he and Syrna respawned, and the town square where they picked up Urginok. 

The grave marker was a red, glowing X on Rydr's map. He could even see his winding path through the forest. On the map, his death marker was relatively close, less than a kilometer away. If Grotto's local plantlife was taken into account, it could easily take them an hour to get over there. 

Rydr clapped his hands to get his companion's attention. They looked over at him, and once he saw they were paying attention, he said, "I'm down to shit talk Izor any day of the week, but we need to move if we want to get stronger. The time limit for finding the wellspring gives us two months before winter comes." 

Urginok nodded and said, "I think that we should focus on getting stronger first; before we tackle the much harder, certain-to-have-a-boss-fight quest." He lightly punched Rydr in the arm. "Let's go get your pickax, knock out the smith quest you have, and start to kit ourselves out." He poked Rydr's shirtless stomach. 

The giant shoved Urginok away, careful not to send him flying.

"Sounds good to me. We are definitely too weak for a Monumental quest right now." Syrna started to walk into the woods. Rydr panicked for a moment before he remembered that he died on top of her. Syrna's grave marker was in the same spot as Rydr's marker. Of course, she would know the way. 

Urginok nudged Rydr with his elbow and took off after Syrna. For a moment, Rydr looked in his inventory for a weapon, but he owned absolutely nothing, so he sighed and loped after the other two. He caught up quickly and decided to quiz Urginok.

As he walked beside the smaller man, Rydr asked, "So how do you tank without a shield? Among the classes, tanks seem like one of the more gear dependent ones. Losing your shield gives up a lot of defense, right?" Urginok nodded as he listened to Rydr's questions but took a while to answer him. 

Rydr waited, content to focus on not tripping over the undergrowth. His trip was more like a roller coaster. Rydr constantly ducked to avoid branches and climbed over plant growth and terrain. 

After a few minutes of silence, Urginok said, "I have an idea for how to play it. This is the game where anything goes. I don't know what will or won't work, obviously, but if it does..." Urginok grinned, a faraway look in his eyes. 

After a moment, Urginok shook himself and continued, "I'm only ever going to put stat points into my Constitution score. I want to use a combination of my weapon, armor, and skills to focus on mitigating and redirecting damage."

"Like 'Reflect' skills?" Rydr guessed.

Urginok pointed at Rydr, "Exactly, but not that straightforward. As I said, I don't know if it will work. For now, I will focus on creating a style of tanking that doesn't require a shield." The tank hung his Warhammer on a shoulder and laughed.

Syrna called over her shoulder, "You need to use a lot of interrupts and aggro skills to manage that and still call yourself a tank." 

Rydr hummed and said, "You won't be able to put out any damage that way, though." 

"Just like you won't survive a single hit later on?" Urginok fired back.

"That's fair." Rydr realized that wasn't strictly true and said, "I do have some points in my Constitution, but I didn't put them there. I earned a feat that gave me free points in Con." Urginok's eyes bugged out a bit at that.

"Are you serious?" When Rydr nodded, Urginok said, "No way, dude. Are feats like achievements in other games?" 

"Honestly? I don't know. I've never played a VR game before, or any games at all. I'll defer to Syrna on that front." Rydr quickly surmised the information he gave Syrna about feats and warned Urginok that it was his best guess. 

While Urginok chewed on his thoughts, Rydr checked the map to ensure they were still going the right way. In the last few minutes of talking to his teammate, they had covered a little under a quarter of the distance. He should probably say something about the wolves to Urginok.

"So that you know, we got killed by a pack of wolves up ahead. One of them is really big too." Rydr cautioned Urginok, in some part, to offer him one last chance to back out. 

Urginok just glanced at Rydr and nodded, his mind still focused on planning out his build. In a game where anything is possible until proven otherwise...there was a lot to figure out.

If you made a mistake in your build path, it might not be possible to reverse or correct things. Suddenly Rydr realized that the only reason he had so many feats, outside of luck, was because he had no preconceived notion of how to play. Ultra noob for the win.

They traveled the rest of the way towards the grave markers without speaking. Rydr and Syrna kept their eyes and ears peeled for any sign of the wolf pack that had done them in. Rydr experimented with his [Third Eye] skill, just like he had on his first trip through the woods. 

With two teammates with him, Rydr focused on using the ability and still moving. As a way to test himself, and because his mana pool was pointlessly large, Rydr tried to focus on the skill and keep up with his team. 

If he made too much noise, dropped the skill, or lagged, then it was a failure. While significant, the mana drain didn't matter to him since he had no abilities that used mana except for [Third Eye]. 

Rydr didn't know why, but his gut told him that the skill would be crazy important for every diver in the game. He watched how mana floated through the air, coalesced on the top of leaves, and swirled around Syrna and Urginok. 

Sometimes it was like cobwebs, and at other times it behaved like smoke or water. There were differences between mana close to the plants and the free-floating stuff. Rydr suspected there existed more than one type of mana. 

If mages could cast fire, ice, wind, water, and who knows what else, then mana's use or location had to have observable properties. The scientist in RYdr was fascinated by the behavioral dichotomy exhibited by mana near the plants, which was clingy and cobweb-like and stuck to his hands and arms as they swung through the "structures." 

Mana in the air seemed more fluid or smoke-like and swirled around the divers as they moved through it; the behavior strongly resembled the way aerodynamics theory surmised air resistance against surface areas. Rydr knew mana wasn't aerodynamic itself because he saw that Urginok and Syrna's breathing didn't suck any of the mana into his mouth. 

There was no water nearby for Rydr to look at, but there was enough evidence to support the idea that "water" mana would behave differently as well. The last bit that Rydr found interesting was what happened when he looked at himself. 

As [Third Eye] ate his mana pool, Rydr watched where ambient mana entered his body. If he held a hand up, he could see where some mana met his skin and absorbed instead of pushing away. Tiny motes of blue light traveled under his skin, up to his arm, and down into a core behind Rydr's navel. 

Rydr started to mentally "reach" for that core, but his concentration shattered when he suddenly bumped into Syrna and almost knocked her over. His head snapped up to look around, and he was about to speak when Syrna, foregoing her normal violent reaction to Rydr's oafishness, shushed him with a finger held to her lips. 

A glance behind Rydr showed that Urginok was only a few steps away. 

Another look at Rydr's map proved they were almost on top of the grave markers. Motion out of the corner of his eye brought him back to Syrna. 

The blonde gestured quickly and with obvious purpose, but Rydr couldn't make heads or tails of her message. He looked at Urginok, who also had a confused frown on his face, and the other man shrugged and overtly mouthed sign language. 

Rydr looked back at Syrna and shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly. Syrna huffed quietly and rolled her eyes. If it weren't for their efforts to remain silent, Rydr was sure Syrna would have expressed her opinion of their intelligence. 

Syrna pantomimed, tiptoeing forward, and pointed at her eyes, then at the clearing using exaggerated movements. I'm going to sneak forward and take a look. 

Rydr gave her a thumbs up and gestured to himself, and made a squatting motion. I'll stay here. Syrna held her hand up in the universal sign for "okay," but Rydr felt that her constant eye-rolling wasn't necessary. 

What reasonable person expects someone else to speak an entire language just to make things more convenient for themselves? Rydr thought.

Urginok shouldered his weapon, a massive war-hammer, and nodded at Syrna to show he was ready. Rydr motioned for her to shout if she needed anything and looked around them. Rydr picked up a nearby rock with no other option, about the size of Syrna's head, and nodded to show he was ready. 

Some more eyes rolled. 

With the boys ready to charge in after her, Syrna eased forward, careful to avoid the undergrowth, until she disappeared from view. 

Rydr and Urginok kept their heads on a swivel as they waited. First one minute passed in intense silence, then a second, and before they knew it, five minutes elapsed without any sign from Syrna. The guys exchanged looks—concern on their faces. 

A faint rustle caused them both to whirl around, Urginok held his war-hammer ready, and Rydr raised his rock like he was a pitcher at the mound, both of them ready to crush the first wolf to surface. 

A flash of blonde hair calmed both divers as Syrna stepped gingerly into view, a few leaves stuck in her hair. Syrna raised her hands, her bow held loosely in her left hand, and the familiarity of the situation struck Rydr.

Syrna quickly walked up to them. Urginok spread his hands and raised his eyebrows, asking her what happened. Syrna held up her finger, telling them to wait a moment, while she squatted down and gently cleared a spot on the forest floor. After Syrna swept aside the leaves, taking care not to crush any of them, she started to write in the dirt. 

The wolves have camped out in the clearing where we died. She then erased that message and wrote, The big one that killed Red is chewing on his pickax like a toy. 

Rydr frowned, worried because he needed to return the pickax to Lynn. He only borrowed the pickax in the first place. 

Urginok reached down, erased Syrna's message, and wrote, How many are there? 

Syrna held up all ten fingers, then two, then just one finger she tapped to emphasize. A dozen wolves and the large alpha stayed in the clearing. 

Are there others? Urginok wrote, but Syrna shrugged at him. 

Rydr waved his hands to get their attention; he hadn't joined them on the ground per his no-squatting rule. 

When they looked up, he mouthed Levels? and raised his eyebrows. 

Syrna wrote The smaller wolves are a mix of level 5 and 6. A quick swipe with her sleeve and she continued to write, The alpha's level is hidden, but we don't know how high it needs to be for that to happen. 

Syrna erased her messages a few times to write it all out, but afterward, they stewed in their own thoughts for a while. They couldn't exactly brainstorm effectively with Neolithic texting. 

After a few minutes of despair, Rydr got an idea. He tapped Urginok on the shoulder and gestured to his war-hammer. Urginok frowned until Rydr made the motion of writing on his hand, then gestured to his friend's weapon and down to the patch of dirt they were writing in. 

Realization dawned on Urginok's face, and he quickly handed over the weapon. His instant willingness surprised Rydr, but he shoved it aside and grabbed the hammer by its head.

Slowly, with the help of Syrna and Urginok to erase his writing, Rydr explained his plan using the hammer's handle as a stylus. 

Once done, Rydr handed the hammer back to his friend, who nodded in thanks. 

Syrna tapped her chin thoughtfully, staring at the ground. 

Urginok stretched his arm out and wrote, Think it can work?  

Syrna nodded her head slowly, then again with a determined look flashing in her stormy eyes. She erased Urginok's message and wrote, It can. Red has a crazy high strength score. 

Rydr waved his hands and, when they looked at him, squeezed his bicep, then jerked his thumb into the air a couple of times. 

You can raise your Strength more? Syrna wrote. 

Rydr nodded at her and flashed his fingers at her, showing two sets of ten and then three. I can raise my score by twenty-three points. 

If he did that, it would use all his free stat points, but it would bring his strength score from 55 points up to 78. 

If Rydr calculated these things based on the level up free stats, he would have the same strength score as a level 15, pure Strength, warrior. Of course, that didn't account for the base 10 he started with or the 5 strength from his gauntlets. Rydr's functional strength score sat at 83.

Syrna didn't know that, but she trusted that Rydr was telling the truth. 

Do it. Syrna wrote in their dirt "slate."

Rydr mentally accessed his character sheet and proceeded to add all 23 free points to his Strength score. With a strength score of 83, Rydr quickly closed the menu and watched his arms and torso, looking down at himself. 

What once pleased Rydr started to worry him each time his strength went up. The giant feared he would become grotesquely muscular if there weren't an upper limit to "showing" his avatar's stats. 

To Rydr's relief, there was only a moderate increase in his muscle mass this time. What he saw instead was an upgrade to the quality of his muscles. His lines and muscularity became more defined, like he lost weight but not muscle mass. Striations stood out against Rydr's skin like he constantly flexed, but Rydr was confident that his figure started to plateau. 

The fear that he would turn into a tower of bulging muscle tottering around faded from Rydr's mind. 

Once the transformation stopped, Rydr heard the trill of a system notification in his head, followed by another. A flash of adrenaline ran through him, but he calmed down quickly. There's no way I got more mage stats after I put all my points into strength. Rydr used that as his mantra as he opened his notifications. 

 

Hidden Skill Unlocked! [Peerless Physique]

Congratulations! You have reached 75 Strength and have unlocked the innate hidden skill [Peerless Physique]. Your prowess defies logic, letting you shrug off great blows and effects with pure power. Use [Peerless Physique] to temporarily have the Strength to rebel against the Heavens! ·       Add 50% Strength to the current score ·       Duration: 1 Minute

Elite Feat! Show Off!

Congratulations! You are the first diver to unlock an innate hidden skill. Your abilities make you stand out, but it is your astounding growth that makes others drool with envy. Rewards changed due to relevant stat. ·       +10 Strength ·       +5 Constitution ·       +5 Dexterity

 

*Paragon Triggered*

Rydr pumped his fist after he read the notifications, surprising his teammates. A big part of him twinged with guilt because he still felt like these feats were coming too easily. That voice inside him said he didn't deserve them. 

That voice always sounded like a certain someone. Rydr swallowed the uncomfortable knot in his throat and shoved the feelings of inadequacy aside.

Urginok stared at Rydr open-mouthed as he watched his friend swell in front of him, gaining months of constant working out in moments. It was lucky Rydr's extra boost of strength from the sudden feat didn't affect his physique more; otherwise, Urginok might have cried blood from the injustice of it. 

Rydr shared the notifications with his party. What little guilt remained in his heart vanished while he watched the other two react.

With his Strength solidly at 98 points, Rydr clenched his fists, tendons popping audibly, and nodded at Syrna, a savage smile on his face. 

Syrna grinned back. She enjoyed watching someone else's reaction to Rydr's physical changes.

Rydr used his foot to write, in large, blocky letters, Let's do this. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope everyone enjoyed this week's chapter; things are starting to move quickly! As always, if you see a typo or mistake, let me know, and I'll get it fixed ASAP!

I want to give a special shout-out to @Howldawg for being my first official Patron! So far, they are the only person in the world to read up to chapter 15! 

I'm stupendously grateful to Howldawg for not posting any spoilers in the comments!

Read ahead on P.atreon @Zelthias_FW