Slowly, I closed the old leather-bound book. Placing it onto the read pile. I massaged my brow, the familiar pain of a headache coming.

That was more... well, less informative than I expected. Five different authors, all parroting the same information in their books. Each shamelessly stealing from the others while claiming their take on history to be the most unique and unprecedented. It was like finding an official-looking textbook written by a university professor only to realise it was 1 to 1 copy of the Wikipedia page.

I glanced at the pile of books I had gathered and internally grimaced. Four more books on general history. I wanted to be thorough but there had to be a limit right? Yes. Yes, there was and I probably passed it on book number three. Even if I started skimming after the first few repetitions I still spent way too long on them. So unceremoniously, I moved the remaining books of history onto the read pile.

That was history done, what was next? I glanced at the pile of books and grimaced again. Geography, at least that had some maps judging from my initial skimming, then a book on trade which I hoped could teach me the general value of things. After that were two books relating to magic and aura, and a Monster Manual, the fun parts.

I longed to go straight for the books on magic and monsters, but I needed to get the annoying parts done and dusted first. I knew myself enough that if I didn't get through those first then I would never.

Glancing around the library, the lengthening shadows probably meant that the sun was setting.

Hmm… I needed a watch of some kind. Did the menu have the time? With a quiet thought, the interfaces appeared around me. There was a clock. Good to know. Six-thirty currently, time went by really fast-

Underneath the clock, was my friends list. Matt’s character name, Noam was currently greyed out with a timer counting down next to it.

Noam, Australia, Gaia

Respawning in 0:03

I sighed, what mess was he involved with now? Oh well, if he needed my help then he would’ve messaged me.

Apathetically, I continued fiddling around with my menus. One or two minutes of fiddling later, I managed to find every relevant dropdown menu and display, setting it so that they’ll all appear around me whenever I call the menu. While I was doing so, Matt’s name lit up and greyed out again.

Noam, Australia, Gaia

Respawning in 6:28

Respawn times seemed to be pretty short, so that’s pretty convenient. Some games try to be more ‘realistic’ by having very limited respawns, I was glad to see that it wasn’t the case here.

Opening up the IP store, I only took a quick glance before and I can’t be bothered hitting the books again.

There were at least fifty races in there, without even considering the numerous subraces for each. The number of different elves there were…

Well, the good news was that the subraces were relatively cheap, only costing five to fifteen percent of the cost of the main race. However, they had the requirement of needing to unlock the main race first. I currently only had humans, dwarves, elves and gnomes unlocked, however, there was a small note saying that if I unlocked myconid for fifty Impact points, I’ll automatically unlock the Magic Cap subrace.

I opened up the page for the base myconid. It was classified as an Age-type Heteromorph? As a myconid ages, it’ll also gain new racial abilities. A Sprout is only capable of using Distress and Rapport Spores, but an Adult may use Pacifying, Hallucination or Reproducing Spores, older Myconinds are capable of an even greater feat. Through Reanimating Spores they may move the dead to do their bidding.

I continued reading. How this matters to a Traveller, is that a Traveller’s time as this race will contribute to their character’s age. A Myconid Traveller who’s been around for twenty or so years will have more racial abilities than one who just started.

Wait, shit. If a character changes as they age, could they die of old age as well?

Matt was really enjoying himself at the moment. In fact, it could be said that his entire day was just a string of really great moments, he thought as he narrowly dodged a sword.

Backpedalling, he swung his halberd horizontally, creating a loud clanging sound as he dented the helmet of a knight looking dude.

Last night- well this early morning if you were being technical, he was invited to one of the best virtual realities in the world. Then he explored a pretty nice place, met some new people and made some new friends.

“FUCK YEAH!!!” he heard Lung shout from far away from him. He turned around, quickly glancing at the lizardman suplexing someone, dodging a stray ball of acid in the same motion, before hurriedly turning back as he parried another sword with the haft of his halberd. ‘Seriously, why are so many people using swords?’ He wondered as he threw the swordsman back with a push kick to the gut. Quickly, he darted out the tip of his halberd and pinned them to the ground, then in a smooth motion, vaulted over the fallen swordsman, ripping out the halberd tip as he did so.

Matt landed on his feet, swinging his weapon in a wide circle around him, only to realise that there was no longer anyone near him.

‘Who’s left to fight?’ Matt idly thought as he stabbed the screaming swordsman with the spear bit of his halberd into his leg, barely glancing as they disappeared into light particles.

Matt took a moment to look around him. He could help out Lung, but he seemed more than happy to deal with the small crowd of people gathering around him. Everyone else was doing their own thing, murdering each other and whatnot.

“Over there!” Matt heard someone yell. “He’s not one of ours!”

He glanced at where the voice came from, spotting a small party of about five people. A blue-skinned mage with odd tattoos was pointing directly at him.

Matt smiled, the grin large and toothy.

Breaking into a run, he rushed directly towards the party.

A few of them looked surprised, but only for a moment. A swordsman stepped forward, followed by another bearing an axe and shield. An elf quickly drew her bow. The blue-skinned mage and a skeleton raised their hand, tattoos glowing on the former and fire appearing in the latter.

All three released their attacks at once. A fireball and two arrows, one physical and one magical. Spaced so that he can’t dodge one without getting hit by another, but far apart enough that he can’t dodge all three unless he stopped running and jumped to the side.

Still smiling, Matt raised his arms in a cross guard covering his face. Rushing directly through the ball of fire, avoiding the other two attacks.

Without looking, he swung his weapon in a wide arc in front of him, hearing it splinter wood as he quickly confirmed their new positions.

Shield caught his weapon, a horizontal strike coming from the right, someone was starting to cast magic again.

He let go of the halberd as aura flowed into his left leg. In a blur, his left leg moved right, knocking his remaining leg off balance, causing him to fall and the sword to barely miss his head.

Hitting the ground on his side, he clawed the ground, nails digging into the earth as he threw a long line of dirt at the two melees. Not bothering to check whether or not they hit, he rolled towards them, aura flowing into his arm as he rolled into their legs. Quick like a blur, Matt Swift Striked the shield user in the groin. There was a brief grunt of pain as he reflexively dropped his weapons and tried to cover his privates. As the shield user’s arms descended, Matt reached up and grabbed his hand, yoinking him down and over him. Just in time to block the downward swing of the other melee.

The shield user gasped in pain as the blade struck his back, Matt, now laughing, grabbed the axe the other melee dropped, and threw it at the swordsman, not hitting but causing him to back off long enough for him to throw off the shield user.

“Both of you get away from him!” he heard the backline yell. Ranged attacks, he grabbed the collar of the fallen melee, raising him in front of him. It didn’t help much, as a glob of something green hit the both of them like a water balloon. Matt felt a stinging pain as the liquid got into his eyes, forcing him to reflexively close them.

An arrow hit his shoulder immediately after, its momentum causing him to stagger a moment. Footsteps from the right, Matt threw the melee towards the sound, feeling a sharp pain as the arrow dug into his shoulder.

No sound of impact, the swordsman dodged.

Matt fell backwards, feeling the air rush above him as the swordsman tried another horizontal swing. Grunting as he hit the ground, he began rolling away from the swordsman-

“AHAARGH!” -only to scream in pain as his action inadvertently forced the arrow deeper into his shoulder.

The moment cost him, as a barrage of attacks hit him not long after.

...

...

Matt blearily opened his eyes to a dark sky, large numbers counting down from above him. All pain and wounds were gone. Despite that, he still groaned.

“Fuck. Only got one,” he muttered, sounding disappointed despite the large grin on his face.

He was in his respawn area, a small island with nothing but a halberd planted head first in the centre. A horned skull balanced on the top end.

At first, time here passed like a dream, but every successive death he had made the experience more lucid. Until he was completely aware of the place.

Matt sat up, wriggling his toes and fingers to make sure everything still worked. He could never be sure.

Matt stood up and began restlessly pacing around the island. He had already walked around and examined every inch of the tiny island. The halberd at the centre can’t be moved or altered in any way. The white sand which made most of the island can be though, but he got bored of throwing it somewhere around his sixth death.

Thumbing through the book on magic, strangely titled ‘So you want to throw a Fireball? A Comprehensive Guide to Magic for the Intellectually Deficient’, which if you got past the name and the casual insults the text lobbed at the reader, was a rather comprehensive primer on simple magics.

Apparently this system was belief based, where magic is a product of people believing they can do something, which with repetition made them better at doing that through confirmation bias. The book acknowledged that the various schools of magic each represent a different belief of how magic should function, and that most schools were largely incompatible with others, meaning a person would be stuck to a single magic school of thought unless they, say, got amnesia and forgot their training.

Magic was apparently getting simpler to use in recent years, a god ascended some centuries ago who named himself Manatheres, giving rise to mana, which is a resource that greatly expedited casting. An anology might be that it acts as the lubricating oil in machinery. It is certainly possible to cast without mana, but mana makes it more efficient and useful.

I was honestly engrossed in the book, and would’ve probably read it until the dawn came if not for the fact the menus to the side of me updated again.

Matt just died again.

Dustin (HitZaDecs): You alright?

He raised an eyebrow, opening the keyboard system, he quickly typed a reply.

Noam (Mattmanfoo): I’m aight, you finished already?

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Nah, just got tired of books. What are you doing? I saw you died like five times already.

Noam (Mattmanfoo): There’s a brawl at irl spawn, hurry up and come if you’re done reading!

Dustin (HitZaDecs): You mean Gaia?

Noam (Mattmanfoo): Same thing!

Dustin (HitZaDecs): Sure, give me a moment, feel free to keep brawling.

Every now and again, he would glance up, towards the timer counting down. When the timer hit thirty seconds, he stopped at the ends of the island.

He rested his halberd on his shoulder, silently watching the countdown. At five seconds, he began lightly jogging on the spot.

At two seconds, he started running towards the centre of the island.

At one second, he jumped.

Matt landed back into Gaia running, a broad smile on his face as he surveyed the carnage around him.

“Do you know any good inns around?” I asked the shopkeeper as he handed me the flask and change. I did a quick count, so ten silvers equalled one gold.

Money in hand, the shopkeeper cheerfully replied, “The Firefly Nest is down the street,” he pointed left of us, “take the third right, you can’t miss it.”

I nodded, pocketing the change and placing the flask in my bag, “Thank you.”

Leaving the store, I followed the path the shopkeep pointed out to me, quickly finding myself at the inn. It looked well maintained enough, not run down and plenty of people seemed to be around.

Entering, I paid the three silver fee of one night, getting my key, I made my way to the third floor. I took one of the cheaper rooms, only a straw bed and desk were inside, along with a wooden window that was locked from the inside.

I dumped most of my bags, leaving only my ration and coin bag in hand. The key I stored together with my coins.

I quickly checked Noam’s respawn time, looks like he died again, that idiot. I’ll have to meet up with him on the next respawn.

Locking the door behind me, tracing my path to the Wayshard from memory. It was almost night now, so the line wasn’t as long. I stood there, waiting and watching Noam’s respawn time.

At two minutes, I opened up my ration bag and began eating the dried jerky with one hand. With the other, I held the bark, casting Barkskin.

I reached the Wayshard at one minute, no one behind me. I stood there for the moment. At ten seconds, I directed energy into polypores. They quickly drained my satiety and grew to cover most of my body.

At five seconds, I touched the Wayshard.

You may Travel to:

Gaia

Indiri (Current)

Closely watching the timer. I selected Gaia the moment Matt’s respawn time hit zero.

The world turned to light for a moment, and Matt fell down next to me in Gaia