Having the trial finish so fast threw everyone for a loop. Rosha had been betting that even with truth spells they would be here for a few days. James had been even less optimistic and thought it might take a solid week. Jason can only shrug his shoulders as they leave the courthouse. “I guess the wheels of justice move a lot faster when greased with the direct orders from kings and emperors.” Everyone else including some other people that had been in the room with them can only nod mutely at his words.

The gaggle of people leaving the courthouse soon breaks up to go home. Soon after our trio make it back to their loggings. Though it seems not all is well. James with a sheepish look is explaining, “So we sort of have to break up at this point. I know we just got our group together, but that was sort of a sequence break. While I don’t know about Rosha, my level is now at the second bottleneck. We all know you level slower but this is ridiculous.”

Rosha nods, “Yeah, after this bottleneck, which to note I am at as well, our levels don’t matter as much. However, the game doesn’t expect a team to form before level 10. You can see that just by how the first two bottlenecks require you to do something alone. Going forward none of the others require that. There will always be a way to team up for the task.”

Continuing on from that James adds, “We can’t even stay together. Shine Fish as a starter town has a glaring flaw. There aren’t any good low level bosses in the area. The only one even close to use is the goblin chieftain whenever one of those pops up. Not that we would have a chance against it. They aren’t technically a raid boss but with all the goblins in the village they might as well be. In fact, the guild has a continual quest out for higher level adventurers to kill them on sight in the forest. They lose too many new people to goblins when one is around.”

Looking guilty now Rosha chimes in, “James and I PMed about this last night. We plan to head deeper into this kingdom. No matter how much that brat was in the wrong the kingdom next door won’t look kindly on us. Plus, they have some prime dungeons there. The locals can’t use them as there is a few too many instant death traps but players don’t need to worry as much about it.”

James nods in agreement, “Plus because the traps are so difficult the actual bosses are weaker. With a guide to the traps that the guild provides we can be relatively certain to of breaking through.”

A silence fills their room as Rosha and James fidget. Finally, being able to get a word in Jason barks out a laugh before comforting them, “I understand and in fact was expecting this. Hell, there was a guide for this town that said to do just that. You don’t have to worry about me. After all you aren’t just heading off to another plane of existence. If anything comes up, we can still PM each other. When I finally breakthrough we can always meet up again.” Then he leans in and whispers, “Want to hear a secret? I was planning on telling you guys I would go on my own way as well.” Then he falls back onto the bed laughing at the other twos shocked faces.

Calming himself, Jason continues, “I level slow, no question about it. However, I can also punch above my weight. As it is what my plans going forward, involve is heading into dangerous areas. As a team we couldn’t even step foot into higher level areas. No offense James but you're wearing full plate. As our little romp through the woods proved, full plate does not a stealthy armor make. Also, Rosha, while I respect that your master trained you to be stealthy. However, I was trained in what is basically magic parkour. If anything happened, I am confident in my ability to escape while you are more restricted on that front. To be honest, I am not pushing myself hard enough. I can’t tell you why but I need the stat ups from exerting myself and I have seen none since we got to the temple that first time.”

Lapsing back into silence the group seems deep in thought. Rosha occasionally looks like she is going to speak up but stops herself. A handful of minutes pass this way before James breaks the silence, “Well I guess that is that. I enjoyed being a team, but the situation is forcing us apart and we all expected it. So yeah, Rosha, later on when you get to the dungeons PM me. I plan to travel with a group of dwarves to continue my training. Now with my actual weapon of choice I have more to work on.”

After that Rosha finally speaks up, “My master will be sending me off for a similar bit of polishing. There is an elven ranger heading in that direction who while not using my weapon uses a bow and daggers. She thinks that should be close enough to help me get a good foundation.”

They all share a few more goodbyes and then the two leave. James off back to the dwarven outpost and Rosha to her masters abode. Jason for the first time in an almost a week is alone again. He looks around the room and is struck by a sudden sense of loneliness and he thinks to himself, “Huh, I guess I have friends now. Ever since the stupid hero I’ve kept to myself. During school it was just training and learning. With so much to unlearn from my past and a new body to work with there wasn’t any free time. Mom will be happy I guess. She always was worried I would end up as some lone wanderer or something. Though as I am still living with her at the moment I can’t really say I have spread my wings, now can I?”

Akhier

Things I wanted to mention but didn’t:

Two things this chapter. The first is easy enough. PM’s don’t work between dimensions in the game. If you get sent to some plane of fire or what have you, then you can’t message your friends back on the main plane. This was a compromise the System put in place so that PM’s where not the end all be all of communication. To communicate between planes, you need to use the locals magic and tech.

The second thing is about the bottlenecks. First and Second are both under what I would call tutorial bottlenecks. One being to be a monster by yourself (this one is generally completed during the tutorial for players though the locals have to go out and find something themselves) and the second is to beat a boss monster by yourself. They are basically meant to test a person's basic ability to live in the world. Even a crafter could one day find themselves confronting a monster. The respective level caps for them are 0 and 9.

The next set of bottlenecks are about proving yourself in the path you plan to take. They are bottlenecks 3, 4, and 5 which level cap at 24, 49, and 74 respectively. 3 and 5 require either beating a dungeon or reaching a certain rank in a production skill (plus a few other misc methods). Number 4 is interesting as you get to choose from a giant list of System quest. These quests generally never change barring realm shaking events (for instance the advent of players added a bunch of restrictions for how many times you can die before the quest fails).

The last bottleneck I will talk about is the 6th. This is the big one that separates the skilled from the unskilled. Until this one the rest of them can generally be completed by everyone (though some still fail to do so). When you cap out at level 99 with 99% xp, the System will generate a special quest that is tailored to you specifically. I won’t be saying anything else about this except that if you fail the quest, then you need to wait a year and a day to get a new one.