The people of Mudtown had gotten more friendly and everyone called me Loser rather than half-breed, something that still made me grind my teeth slightly, but enough that I was starting to get used to it. At some point in the last two days an Inn had opened at the edge of town, in a building I would have sworn was a one story home, but was now a two story inn with a bar downstairs. I actually recognized one or two people inside sitting at tables as I walked in and stood in the door to look around. It looked like a classic tavern from the movies, with wood floors, round tables scattered around, a large fireplace that was lit but not really putting off much heat, and a wooden bar next to the stairs to the second floor. A large bearded bartender was wiping mugs clean as a serving girl came out of a door behind him with a large platter of food in her hands. She was wearing clothes like the St. Pauli girl on the beer bottle, the kind that emphasized the bust very well. She was a pretty blonde with a big smile and she caught my eye more for the fact she was the first young woman I had seen.

No one said anything, though a couple of the people at tables nodded at me as I found a seat in the corner. The girl came up with a smile and said "So our Priest has come to sample our fine offerings. What can I get you sir?"

I just stared at her for a few seconds, then chuckled and said "How about an ale and your name if you would"

The words brought a shy smile as she said "You ask for Mary if you need me, and my father makes the best ale in the Abandoned lands he does"

The ale cost 1 copper, and it seemed to cover everything I could drink in an evening. I didn't join any of the conversations, just listened to the other groups as they laughed and told tales. Seth wandered in for an ale, but sat at the bar and just nodded my way when he came in, and again when he left. I was surprised at how nice it felt to be recognized.

The owner, Samuel, was also the bartender, and in response to a short conversation with Mary, ended up offering me a room with meals for one copper a night. I accepted after some thought, and Dina didn't seem put out at losing my company. The room on the second floor was much nicer, and I ended up with a bed, chest, and a wash basin. I had been washing using a basin behind Dina's house, though I never really got smelly as far as I could tell, just dirty. My clothes stayed clean for the most part, though some things seemed to stay with them, blood not being one on them. Weird.

I finished my first batch of healing potions, leaving me eight after the two I gave Lentz. I bought ten more vials, and was sitting down to make some more when I got to thinking about the whole process. It seemed like I cast the blessing on the water and vial to prepare it to hold the healing spell, and I got to wondering if it would hold a different spell. I didn't have much in the way of spells since adding the Fist spell to a potion seemed wrong since it would be the opposite of a healing spell, but I did have the cure disease one.

Working the same way as the healing one, I blessed the water, restored my mana, then cast cure disease on the vial. That's when things got weird. The normal glowing effects happened, but when the Cure Disease one settled on the vial the whole world froze. I mean actual time standing still kind of froze. Telina popped into existence in front of me with a shocked look and said "What have you done?"

"Um, made a potion" I mumbled

"A potion?" she said doubtfully, before looking down at the glowing vial. "A potion" she mumbled like I did before slowly grinning and saying "A potion!. Yes, you made a potion to cure disease, how remarkable"

"What?"

She giggled, something that really gave me a twinge in my lower regions, then said "My sweet priest, there is no potion for curing diseases, one must get a priest to cast the spell. My sisters will be quite jealous when they learn that my priest can create a new potion and they can not"

"Um...What?" I mumbled again.

Her grin was positively lascivious and darned if she didn't know what I was thinking as she said "Our world felt the ripples of your creation Loser, and has stopped as it assimilates the changes you have made. You have altered the fabric of reality with your casting and by doing so, you have placed a new spell in my priests hands. You have gained my favor"

The world started back up again when she disappeared, and I got a message:

Spell added:

Create Potions

Healing potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Telina's Gaze

Healing= Telina's Gaze + Telina's Blessing + 2(Faith)

Cure Disease potion:

Vial of water with Telina's Blessing + Cure Disease

Cures any disease Level 75 and below

(Cool down 12 hours)

+45% Faith

Wow, that was really weird. I changed the fabric of reality. How many people can say they ever did that?

___

I settled in a little, spending the week repairing stuff with Seth, blessing the Captain's men if he was sending them out on some mission, and cooking any meat I could buy to see what it offered as a benefit. To stay on Telina's good side I gave the Captain and his men (four of them now counting the captain) each a healing potion to use if they needed it, not that the Captain offered to pay me anything anyway. By the end of the week I had made four Cure Disease potions and six more healing potions, and decided that was enough for now since it was getting seriously boring making them.

Of course with everything seeming to be going nicely, this was the time for me to meet some other eternals. I was sitting downstairs in the tavern at my normal seat in the back, chatting up Mary in the hopes that digital sex might be forthcoming, when three people came in and stopped in the middle of the room. It looked like two fighters and a mage based on dress, since one was in actual partial plate mail, one wearing chainmail, and the other in a robe while holding a staff with a crystal on top. I grinned at how much it looked like the cover of one of those swords and sorcery novels, but lost the grin when the plate mail guy said "Call your guards in so we can kill them and get this over with. Your little town belongs to the Blood Boys now"

Blood Boys? What were these guys, five? No one actually left or said anything, but the Captain and his three men walked in the door and faced off with the three intruders. The Boys didn't waste any time, with the leader just saying "do it" to the mage. I hadn't seen anyone do magic other than myself, and was interested in seeing what he would do. Not much. He raised the hand not holding the staff, muttered two words, and the Captain and his men collapsed on the floor. I finally did the focusing thing, but the eternals only showed names:

Conan the Barbarian

Gandalf the Wizard

Jack of Trades

What a bunch of morons. Looking at the town guards I got:

Sleep spell

Level+5 minute duration

The three morons were kind of laughing and joking about who got to stab the sleeping beauties, so I powered up my dispel magic spell for the first time. It took about four seconds and a hand wave to work, but it caused a flash of light to happen around the sleeping guys and the three morons. The three guys all yelled in surprise, with the mage saying "Someone dispelled!"

Conan and Jack pulled swords, but the Captain and his guys were up and pulling theirs as soon as my spell faded. The spell used up most of my mana, but I had enough for a healing if needed, so I just stayed where I was and watched. The two fighters ganged up on the Captain, obviously trying to get the highest rated fighter first, and while I couldn't read anything other than the names on the eternals, I could see they were doing 30-50 points of damage with each hit. I used my heal spell on him just to help a little, something that drew the attention of Gandalf. He had been kind of dithering in the back, seeming to be afraid to get to close, which I kind of understood if he was going to run around in a bath robe. Anyway, he turned when he saw the glow of my spell and yelled "It's a goddamned player, he dispelled my spell" I laughed out loud at how goofy he sounded, but stood up and pulled my mace as he did a series of gestures and three bolts of fire swooped away from him and slammed into me. When they hit, my message display showed

Flame bolt

30 damage each

-45% faith protection.

Well neat. He ended up doing all of 50 points of damage, with Telina's faith blocking the rest. I gave the guy the finger, and did a mana restore. It takes half a minute to do, but no one other than Gandalf was paying me any attention. Gandalf seemed at a loss, just yelling "Loser! What kind of name is that? You're a healer priest? No one picks healer priest?"

As soon as his missiles hit me his information became viewable:

Gandalf the Wizard

Elemental Mage

Level 14

Health 75

The Captain managed to kill ole Jack at that point, which left Conan facing four guards. Only two could actually attack at a time, but when the Captain stepped back and drank his healing potion, Conan yelled "Hey, you can't heal a hundred points, that's cheating" Luckily I finished my restore before bursting into laughter at the stupid stuff these morons were spouting. They sounded like a bunch of kids, but I knew that couldn't be true, this virtual world was basically for prisoners and other undesirables.

Gandalf tried another set of missiles at me, getting another 50 points this time. When I pointed my mace at him and began the flame spell, he tried to make a dash for the stairs, but it caught him just as his foot hit it. I was kind of shocked when a column of white flame seemed to slam into him from above, getting a high pitched scream as he burst into flame. Got to say it was pretty gross because his hit points being lower than the spell damage, we watched him burn down to bones in about two seconds. The best part was when the flame sort of hit the floor and spread out, hitting Conan and my guys, but only hurting Conan. 20 points wasn't enough to finish him, but a thrust of the Captain's sword was.

"Thank you for your assistance Loser" the Captain said with a nod "luckily there was not room for the mage to use fire against us. He was an elemental mage and they have strong flame magic, but it is not safe for them to use in close quarters. His spell of sleep is a ninth level spell, but as he was an elemental, it probably required most of his mana, so he was helpless against you once his missiles failed"

Got to admit the Captain could supply useful information in a thank you sentence.

"They will have returned to their birth place having lost a tenth of their levels, a small, but welcome punishment for their actions"

Whoops, a tenth of what? So dying caused you to lose a tenth of your accumulated levels? Good thing old Krin was killing me when I was level 1 or it could have gotten ugly. So Gandalf, being level 15, would lose 1 and half levels. Bet that hurt. You must only be able to see other players information if you are fighting them, because I didn't see Conan or Jack's other than the names.

"Where did they come from?" I asked, getting the Captain to say "They have traveled far, raping and killing in small towns like ours. This is the bane of the eternals that the goddesses have placed upon our world, but It will take some weeks for them to travel this far again"

"Well" I said slowly "I wouldn't blame the goddesses, or at least not Telina. As her priest she requires that I stop them from performing their evil acts"

"Truly?" Mary asked softly from behind the bar "the goddess would stop them?"

I stood up, wanting to ensure I made a good impression, and said "Truly. The goddess Telina acts through her priests to protect those who face evil or are unable to protect themselves. Farmers and craftsman such as yourselves are the blood and bone of our world and it is the task of those who take up weapons to protect you"

Man, I should have been a politician. I could feel Telina's humor, almost a ghostly giggle, as everyone in the tavern started talking. Mary came over to bring me a fresh ale, staying long enough to give me a big smile and a jiggle as she walked away. Life was not so bad in Mudtown.