Derrick opened his eyes and stretched his muscles, at the five-hour mark, EO had sent him a message warning Derrick he should log out of the game to take care of his real body. It had been a fun and interesting day so far, but it was far from over. 

As soon as he stood up, his bladder hit him with a reminder to go to the bathroom. Afterwords Derrick made his way to the small kitchen to make a late lunch as he sat down to watch some tv. "Sir, you have a message waiting for you from your employer," Cleo called out over the apartment's sound system. 

Derrick frowned and pulled up his email and started reading. By the time he was done, he was cursing up a storm as he called the companies HR. "This is Mary Jenkins, how can I help you?" the voice on the other end responded.

"Ms. Jenkins, this is Derrick Sumner. I just received an email saying I was terminated with cause. I need to know what the cause was and anything related to my termination." Derrick told her. 

"Well Mr. Sumner, we received a complaint from one of your co-workers, Nick Santos and your supervisor Jake Daniels supported him. I am emailing you copies of their complaints and the transcripts as well. You have one week to file an appeal Mr. Sumner." she replied, causing Derrick to freeze for a moment at the mention of both names. His supervisor was a piece of shit and had skated on the back of his subordinates for years, but Nick jumping in was a surprise. "You will have a copy of everything shortly, do you need anything else from us at this time?" Derrick wanted to rant and rave but he shut his mouth for now.

"No ma'am, thank you for your assistance," he told her before disconnecting the call. 

Yelling at the HR rep wouldn't help anything, but he knew someone who could help him. "How's my favorite nephew?" June asked as she picked up the line.

"I am having a shitty day Aunt June, I just got terminated based on the lies of my boss and someone I thought was a friend. Can you help me out or tell me who can help me?" Derrick asked her as she went into lawyer mode.

"Oh, my dear nephew, they have no idea what they stepped in but if I am going to help you, you got to be honest with me. Did you do anything to warrant termination?" June asked in her lawyerly voice.

Derrick shook his head even though she couldn't see it, "No ma'am, I have been busting my ass for the last six months working twelve-hour days and the project is finally done. I took this coming week off and my employer sent me an email saying I was terminated with cause. I called my HR and the lady working on my case said she was going to send me a copy of the complaint and a copy of their interviews." Derrick told her, and while his voice was controlled and calm, on the inside he was anything but. 

Being terminated from his first job out of college would leave a black mark on his record for the rest of his life and he wasn't going down that easily. "Well send me everything, including the original email. Whatever you do, don't talk to your friend or your former boss. Let me look into this and I will call you back with what I got, ok sweetie?" June asked as Derrick took a bite of his food.

"Yes auntie, but you should know, this isn't the first time my boss has done this to his subordinates. Rumor has it that he is as slimy as they come and has gained more than one promotion from the works of others," he told June before ending the call. "Cleo, please block all forms of communication from Nick Santos," Derrick told the V.I. who complied promptly. 

"What about any messages he leaves sir?" Cleo asked as I finished up my lunch and continued to drink my juice, while playing a game was not physically taxing, it still required you to somewhat maintain your physical needs which meant eating healthy. 

"Save them for now, I will review them later." Arthur finally responded as he watched the various feeds coming on the tv. 

'So far, Paramount Entertainment's latest game, Endless Online, is a complete success. Both the critics and players are raving about the realism of the game and excuse the pun, endless possibilities in the game.' one broadcaster stated causing more than one groan from his coworkers. 

'To continue the story, while Paramount has not confirmed it yet, from our initial polls they have a player base of over ten million and growing. Analysts say that this could be the biggest and best VRMMORPG that has come out and they expect the player base to grow to at least twenty million worldwide by the end of the month.' another reporter stated. 

'More importantly, streaming services are up and running, the market for in-game items should also be up soon. Sales are projected to be through the roof for real-world cash, for in-game items, and gold. So, if you have a Paramount account and are playing Endless Online, feel free to post some content and let us know what you think of the game.' Derrick shut off the tv and cleaned up his mess before heading back to his gaming chair, time to get back to the grind since he wouldn't find out anything from his aunt for a couple of days at least. 

When Arthur opened his eyes, he was still in the small city square where he had been before logging out. As a last piece of advice before leaving the Dark Conclave, Amelia had suggested I try to find some other Travelers heading out of the city. A quick search revealed a couple of places that Travelers were already congregating while in Vindomora. Arthur pulled up his map and found the inn he was looking for and headed for the Stuck Pig. 

According to the Forums it had good food at reasonable prices and considering how dirt poor he was, he needed to pinch every last copper until he started earning some money. Thankfully the Stuck Pig wasn't far and while it was in one of the more moderate sections of the city, it was still well maintained and liked by both the Citizens and the new Travelers. 

I quickly grabbed a table near one of the back walls and ordered some foot as I looked around the room. The entire first floor of the inn was a common room where people could eat and drink. Despite it being in the early afternoon, all the community tables were nearly filled, only the smaller tables like the one he was sitting at were relatively empty.  

While more than one person eyed him, Arthur was largely ignored since most of the people were busy with one thing or another. After ordering food, he studied the various people and quickly settled on a duo that looked like a couple. The man was an archer and the woman a warrior of some sort and once they saw Arthur eyeing them they made their way over to his table. "Can we help you?" the woman asked.

"Possible," Arthur replied as his food arrived. "I got a Quest that takes me out of the city, two days east of here. I need a party and I think we could work well together." Arthur told them before he started eating. 

The woman raised an eyebrow before glancing at her companion before sitting down, "Can you share the quest?" she asked, and Arthur shook his head. 

"Nope, Class Quest. We get equal shares and it's a two-day walk so we can grind out some Levels along the way." Arthur told her as he extended his hand. "Arthur Payne, I am a Dark Magus," he told her, trying to be upfront about what he was.

The man rocked back, "Seriously?" he asked as he took the hand and Arthur nodded his head. "Cool, I am Rob, this is Penny. I took the Ranger Class, she has the Warden Class. It is a hybrid class that can use some magic." Rob informed Arthur. 

Penny took his hand next, "So what can we expect?" the tank asked as they sat down. 

"A difficult Quest, possible a low-level Dungeon. We won't know until we get there." Arthur told them between bites of his food. "If it is a dungeon, it sounds like a one-off," Arthur informed them making them smile. Arthur had failed to invest his Attribute Points so far, as the two other Travelers discussed his proposal in hushed voices, he brought up his Character Sheet.

He had 40 points at this point, he quickly put two points into Constitution, one into Endurance, Strength, and Dexterity leaving him with thirty-five points. 20 went into Intelligence and the last 15 went into Spirit. Arthur studied his Character Sheet, while he was still squishy, at least he could kill things more easily now. 

"Ok, we got about eight hours before we have to log out, let's go," Penny called out as she stood up.

Arthur looked down at his plate, he had eaten everything and despite knowing it wasn't real, it tasted amazing and was very filling. "Ok, let's head out," Arthur told them before standing and grabbing his staff and following them out of the inn.