Shink!

Novus’ carving dagger gracefully glided across the hide from the dead sleeping foxes. It was the last significant cut as a system message appeared, signalling the end of the carving process.

Huff. Huff. Huff.

In contrast to Novus’ ease of carving, Adrianne was hugging the ground, entirely spent.

How does he do it?

At first, Adrianne was confident in keeping up with Novus’ training pace. The pace was simple: Adrianne would fight creatures while Novus taught her fighting strategies & techniques, then they would both reflect on the battle while Novus carved any valuable materials from the beasts, which meant everything, apparently.

Besides some embarrassing moments when she threw up at the sight of blood, she had been successful too. However, as the battles got increasingly complex, her mental fatigue began to pile up.

Then, the pace became her struggling, Novus reprimanding her, Adrianne trying not to fall to the ground in exhaustion, and Novus berating her for laziness. With a couple of positive notes thrown in.

But, as much as Adrianne hated to admit it, she could feel the difference. Not with her mentality. She was reluctant to swing at anything that would splurt blood. The difference came with her battling tendencies.

At first, Adrianne felt like she was gracefully swinging around her sword and hoping to hit something. Now, it felt like her sword was headed exactly where it needed to go, to strike precisely where she wanted it.

When she finally resolved to hit something.

Suddenly, a glowing mushroom bounced off her head.

“That should help with your stamina for a bit. You’re finally not throwing up each time. Congrats.”

Adrianne scowled as she reached and bit down on the glowing mushroom. The taste left much to be desired, but the electrifying feeling on her mind came as much-needed relief.

“But, your positioning needs work. The foxes surrounded you, and you had to work twice as hard to battle them all.”

If Adrianne had any excess energy, she would have spoken back, but currently, her mind was far too tired.

He wants me to perfectly position myself in a cramped den with hardly any light?

“She's a monster like Neipas...”

Adrianne’s ears picked up Novus’ mumblings. They were words, but they were practically gibberish.

“…I wonder how her swordsmanship compared against Neipas in his youth. Wait, maybe Neipas is in his youth. When did he enroll in the sword sect again?”

Inwardly, Adrianne felt a little better hearing about her improving swordsmanship. However, she didn’t particularly enjoy being called a monster.

“Here.”

Plop!

Flinch.

Gosh, that scares me each time.

“Why don’t you just use the trade function to give me the items to carry instead of throwing them at me?”

Novus’ gathering stopped for a moment, and he looked at Adrianne astoundedly.

“You can do that?”

Adrianne felt the need to facepalm Novus, but she calmly showed him how. Novus' face brightened from stone to slightly less stone as he pondered to himself.

“That’ll be useful. Why didn’t Percival show me this….”

Meanwhile, Adrianne once again questioned her decision to follow Novus.

Why is he the only one that can help me? And who is Percival?

 

---

 

Yawn!

Percival’s eyes drifted open before his arm shot from the bed.

Slap!

The blaring alarm was slapped across the room, having been turned off as Percival hit it. Reluctantly, Percival got up as he rubbed his eyes and stared at the dream board beside his bed.

On the dream board were cut-out pictures of the essentials: a mansion with sparkling pools, his favourite supermodel, and all those luxury items. There was only one item that didn’t fit the theme. In the center was a poster of a roughly drawn anime warrior with Percival’s face taped over it.

Percival ran his finger across the warrior as he recalled his first day inside the dream-like reality game. He could still imagine the fresh ocean air and the dense smell of vitality. The sunlight stung his eyes if he looked for too long, and fighting stole his breath from him.

Buzz. Buzz.

Percival hurriedly answered his nearby phone.

“Hey! Ah, yeah. I’ll be on later today. Yeah. Yeah, I could get you more of the gaming units. I still have quite a few for sale. Of course, the price skyrocketed when the game went best seller, but I could spare a couple for you.”

Percival got up from the bed, stretched off his drowsiness, and got dressed. Suddenly, Percival’s eyes perked.

“Really? I mean, I’d be happy to sell more to my lovely dojo mates. Just let them know about the online chat we have for info exchange. Here, I’ll switch you to admin for a second to add them on.”

Percival swung into his gaming chair and pulled open his laptop with his pants half on. It was an older model—the computer, not the pants—but more than suitable for Percival’s current needs. Now, most of his time was spent on the hottest virtual reality game of the century: Pathway to Godhood.

Percival spent a few more moments on the phone before saying goodbye to the person on the other end. Then, finally getting dressed, Percival rushed down and later, up the stairs with a piece of toast and egg still stuck to his teeth. Behind him, a worried voice called out.

“Don’t forget about your resignation letter to work! You still have to—”

“I will, mom! Don’t worry!”

Click.

Locking the room door formed a grin on Percival’s lips as he continued his morning routine. He lifted some outdated weights, practiced martial arts, and cleaned himself up with a cold shower. Soon, he stood before the machine that had changed his life.

It looked like a futuristic time capsule mixed with a luxurious sports car and boasted equally impressive features. Of course, it required brief maintenance, no matter how high-tech the machine was. Percival quickly got to work as he mumbled to himself.

“I wonder if I’ll meet that guy again.”

Percival pressed a few buttons, and a side panel revealed a few empty canisters. Percival headed to the closet and rummaged around his mess of space to find a box filled with full ones. Inside the canisters was a green gel that looked like jelly but cautioned with labels not to be eaten. A forbidden jelly.

"I'll have to get more soon. These things are getting damn near expensive. It's a good thing the capsules have been selling so well. Everyone wants a little bit of perfection."

Percival kissed his personal capsule with glee and nearly dropped all three canisters.

"Woah, there! I need you little nutritional gels!"

Percival placed the gel-filled canisters next to the high-tech capsule and waved his finger at each of them.

"Without you, I wake up very, very, very sore."

If there were one thing Percival could fix, it was the remoulding body feature of the capsule. Sure, it could cure degenerative diseases, correct old injuries, and tone muscles to perfection; but it also hurt like a bitch when he was done a gaming session.

The results: not much. Yet. Percival was sure it would turn his body into at least a mid-tier athlete, though. At least, that was what the capsule installer mentioned after Percival pestered him for 'insider' info.

“Between this machine, the martial arts lessons, and my training, I’ll catch up to him in no time.”

Percival winced as he was reminded of Novus’ relentless beating. But then, his expression eased as he clicked the empty canisters out and replaced them with full ones.

“He did have some good sparring tips, though. Even Sensei agreed with him on balancing my form.”

Percival tweaked a few knobs until the canisters released a clicking noise, and he slid the panel back into place.

Then, it was time for the main event.

Unlocking the sealed latch at the bottom, the capsule slowly revealed a central bed-like platform that Percival promptly laid on.

Slap!

Percival’s hands woke him up one last time as he tried to sharpen his mind.

"You've got this."

Percival clicked a button that slowly closed off the bed-like platform from the outside world. Lights flittered around him as he pressed colourful buttons in a sequence only he had access to. Each press registered fingerprints, while a scan swept over his entire body and confirmed his identity to be true.

“Today is the day I get to the forest and off to the goblin settlement in one go. I sure hope Derek was right about that bridge...”

Clink! Humm.

Percival rested his arms as the final inspectional scan finished, and a gelatinous fluid flooded inside as Percival’s eyes closed. Despite the lack of air, Percival’s body didn’t seem to reject anything, and his mind peacefully drifted to another world full of adventure.