“Who’s the tramp [Osiris]? Did we intrude on your fun, we can leave if you want?” [Phat-Cat] asked with her scary smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

 

Gabriel saw that [Phat-Cat] was seconds from blowing a gasket. It looked like steam was actually about to come out of her ears. Gabriel decided to quickly switch gears and use his trump card.

 

“Oh! By the way [Phat-Cat], I got you a present!” Gabriel said while still maintaining his smile, inwardly sweating. From his inventory he pulled out the spell book [Steel Feathers].

 

He got up from the table and stood in front of [Phat-Cat]. Gabriel dropped down to one knee and held up the spell book like he was proposing.

 

“Please fair maiden, accept this lowly one’s offering. I hope this calms thy anger”. Gabriel said while speaking in a Shakespearian tongue.

 

[Phat-Cat] looked startled for a second at the quasi-romantic gesture. The guys all around her stifled their laughter at Gabriel’s performance.

 

[Phat-Cat] finally rolled her eyes and gave a slight slap to the top of Gabriel’s head.

 

“Stupid man. This will quell thy anger for the moment but be careful, if you further anger this fine maiden. Be prepared to suffer my wrath.” [Phat-cat] played along with Gabriel’s act, accepting the skill book and stuck out her hand fingers down.

 

Gabriel smirked up at her and grabbed her hand with his own. He brought his lips to her hand. Without thinking he planted a soft kiss on the back of [Phat-Cat]'s hand, basically just brushing his lips on her skin. Gabriel froze as his lips touched her hand, looking up at [Phat-Cat] with his eyes only,  he thought, 'Why did I do that? [Phat-Cat] is going to kick my ass now'. 

 

[Phat-Cat] looked at Gabriel a little stunned herself. She quickly retracted her hand, ears turning slightly red. [Phat-cat] thought, 'Is he actually just a player in disguise?'. Looking at Gabriel closely, searching his face. Her eyebrow raised when she noticed Gabriel's own cheeks were slightly red with embarrassment. 'Hmmml, he might not be like that disgusting old man. He is just a little too confident.' [Phat-Cat] thought after assessing for a moment. With a small smirk she gave Gabriel another rap on the head, a little harder this time.

 

 

“Just get up you silly man and sit down”. [Phat-Cat] said before sliding gracefully into the booth. She seemed to have completely forgotten about the moment Gabriel had with [Jesabelle], that had originally set her off.

 

The brothers [T] and [Rex] looked at each other in bafflement. They knew [Phat-Cat] their entire lives. They also had never seen her forgetting to berate someone when she was in anger, especially a man. [T] looked at Gabriel and bowed deeply.

 

“Teach me master. Please. I must know of your mystic ways. Let this little one be your apprentice”. [T] pleaded to Gabriel.

 

“Yeah, yeah. Big brother [Osiris] take me as your apprentice too!” Mouse said excitedly.

 

Mouse didn’t quite understand what was going on before but he knew apprentices followed their masters everywhere. Like son and father. The thought of that excited his child-like mind.

 

Gabriel laughed at both of them and adopted his aged 'wise one' act again, stroking his long-braided beard.

 

“Hmmm you are both good candidates to learn from the mighty me... I can however only choose one.... and that person will be...Mouse!” Gabriel yelled the last part while pointing at Mouse.

 

“Yeahhhh! In your face brother [T]. [Osiris] and I are family now. So don’t even try bullying me or else [Osiris] will beat you up”. Mouse exclaimed with his nose pointed up. He then took his seat beside Gabriel in the booth.

 

 

Gabriel laughed out loud again.

 

“That’s right Mouse. If someone ever messes with you. I as your master, will bring down a world of pain onto them”. Gabriel said while waving his fist in the air in mock anger.

 

 

The whole party laughed and all took their seats. [Rex] gave Gabriel a deep look and saw that although Gabriel was joking. He looked serious about his words too, which pleased [Rex] greatly as he felt the same about Mouse. ‘The kid has been hurt too much already’ [Rex] thought to himself while looking at Mouse. [Rex] worried over each of the [Wolfpack], he was truly an older brother in that regard. He alwasy tried to protect Mouse and [Paht-Cat] as much as he could. With work though and taking care of [T] and his little sister, he ddint have time to check on them too often. 

 

When he used to see the bruises upon [Phat-Cat]'s skin when she was a little girl, he felt his heart break every time. 'That piece of trash so called father mysteriously disappearing was the best thing that ever happened for [Phat-Cat] and her family', [Rex] always thought as he looked at her smiling face now. Mouse and [T] were the last hold out. With Gabriel and Tom joining their friend group he hoped, all three of them would open up more.    

 

“Okay guys. There are a few things I wanted to talk to you about.”. Gabriel talked about the Westwood & Westwood agency and how they offered to represent the [Wolfpack] too. The partied seemed excited by the news as they were all trying to be professional gamers like Gabriel. They however all had to still work part time jobs as they hadn't made much money yet.

 

 

“Great! It’s decided then. I know you guys can go far if you really put your time in. You have the skills and good team dynamic. You just need to flesh out your builds. As you don’t have a designated healer. I recommend [Rex] stay with his current class as a paladin and focus on being a tank with healing skills. You will have to suffer not having much attack power though.” Gabriel said. He decided to leave them a few words of advice.

 

 

“That’s where [Phat-Cat] should come in, you need to be a glass cannon. When you hit Level 15 as a mage, you will be able to specialize in one of the higher DMG elements. For example, lightning or fire. Fire has better AOE spells where lighting has better single target spells.” Gabriel said while looking at [Phat-Cat].

 

Gabriel decided to stop there as he didn’t want to influence the party too much and he didn’t have time to babysit through their development. Gabriel knew from his past that the team managed to rise through the masses on their own. This time line they might rise a bit quicker and Gabriel knew he caused enough changes already.

 

Gabriel was all too aware of the butterfly effect and was already keeping his ear to the ground of any big divergences from his past timeline.

 

“I won’t say too much more on the subject. You guys don’t need my advice. Just take it with a pinch of salt if you want.” Gabriel said, trying to downplay his advice a bit.

 

 

“No [Osiris]. It is good advice. We will take it on board, honestly, we were planning the same things as well.” [Rex] said in thanks to Gabriel.

 

The party ordered a couple of beers and chatted for a bit. Before all heading off in different directions. Leaving only Mouse and Gabriel alone. Mouse was throwing uncertain looks at Gabriel appearing nervous.

 

 

Gabriel could tell what Mouse wanted to ask, he decided to ask instead.

 

“Hey Mouse. I plan on going over to one of the dungeons nearby. I will probably be there for a couple of hours doing a dungeon run. Do you want to come with me?” Gabriel asked while throwing his arm over Mouse’s shoulder.

 

 

“Yeahhhh!! Let’s go big brother [Osiris]!!” Mouse exclaimed leaping from his chair.

 

Gabriel chuckled and proceeded to head to the bottom floor with Mouse. Gabirel looked over to where Tom and his soon to be Master were. They looked like they were in a heated argument and had multiple empty flagons on the table. Tom slammed his hand on the table.

 

“You know nothing you old fool, it is all about the chest! If she doesn’t have that, she may as well be a man!” Tom yelled at the old drunk in righteous fury.

 

Gabriel could take a guess what they were arguing about. Gabriel thought ‘I knew Tom would get along with that pervert. He will probably be one of the few people who will enjoy the old drunk’s quests.’

 

Gabriel and Mouse left the Inn and headed out the exit of the main gates of Roma. Where they took the road to the left for 20 minutes. The two chatted as they walked, with Mouse’s unbridled enthusiasm the time went by quick. They soon arrived at a forest filled with players. Hunting solo or in parties the multiple [Dire Bears] that populated the forest.

 

After walking another 20 minutes they arrived at a clearing with a small hill in the middle. On the side of the hill was a round door, big enough for a young teen to walk through. Surrounding the hill were multiple groups of people.

 

The door on the hill was an entrance to a Dungeon called [Hobbit’s Hobble]. It was an (Instance) dungeon, meaning multiple solo players or parties could enter at the same time. The players would be sent to their own dungeon map. They were popular dungeons as people couldn’t interfere with your run or take your kills.

 

Most of the people standing around were looking for players to join their parties or waiting for their friends. As Gabriel was making his way over. A specific party had caught his eye. They were standing to the side of the entrance and seemed to be planning.

 

The party had five members. They consisted of a mix of races with a tall human male stealing the show. He had bright blue eyes and short blonde hair. Gabriel recognized him immediately. He was the Guild Master of [Eden]. They were a powerful guild, that played across multiple VR games before moving over to D.O. They always placed in the top three.

 

The guild [Eden] was supported by a tech company called Rony. The guild master being a man in his late 20’s that goes by [Rockafella] in game. His real name was Tony Rockerfella. Gabriel had many dealings with the guild in his past as a mercenary.

 

 

[Eden] were known for being an upright guild, full of elites. The Guild master was a charismatic guy who always treated others with respect. He was known to be quite humble too. A rare personality trait for someone who was powerful, good-looking, rich and famous.

 

Gabriel moved to the side as he passed, looking at the [Eden]’s party’s gear. They seemed to have had some good luck, with most being (Uncommon) and a couple of the party members having at least one (Rare) item equipped.

 

 

“Come on Mouse, let's find a couple of people to party with us and we will run through this dungeon.” Gabriel said.

 

Gabriel swept his eyes around at the different groups of people and spotted two people standing together, appearing to also look for members. Gabriel gestured in their direction to Mouse and they made their way over.

 

 

“Hi guys. Are you looking for a couple of members?” Gabriel asked.

 

“We sure are mate. My name is [Crocco]. I am a front-line tank; I wield a hammer and Greatshield. This is my wifey [Dundee] she is a [Priest of Apollo] as she is focusing mainly on healing she has next to no offensive spells. She has an instant heal spell and two buff spells.” [Crocco] said. He was a large Northman, with a short crop beard and mohawk. By his accent Gabriel could tell he was Australian.

 

“G’day” [Dundee] said with a friendly smile. She was a human wearing priest robes, with red hair in a pony tail and freckles.

 

“That’s perfect. My name is [Osiris]. I am a front-line warrior, focused mainly of high DPS. I wield a long sword and use throwing axes for range. This is my bro [Mouse] he is a Dwarven combat engineer. He can set traps and wields a crossbow for range.” Gabriel explained their roles.

 

“Sounds good, let’s party up. Do you both have time for a full run of the Dungeon? I hear it’s a fairly large map.” [Crocco] asked.

 

“Yeah, we both have plenty of time.” Gabriel replied as he and Mouse accepted the party request.

 

All the party members name and current HP pool appeared on the side of their vision. You could switch this option on or off. Most players did except for healers, as it was paramount they know the health of everyone.

 

The four made it to the entrance and [Crocco] out his hand on the door. The whole party received a notification as they were teleported.

 

[You have entered a dungeon [Hobbit’s Hovel] (Instance)(Hard) (LVL 13-18) Recommended party - min 4.)]