“Keep us alive as long as you can, then we’ll switch places.” Darith said as he and Liana did push ups side by side while a small oasis hatchling snapped at their legs. They did their best to not let the attacks of the tiny turtles affect them while they trained their strength and Endurance.

“Restore All!” Liana shouted, causing a large green circle to form above her head, and after a short delay she healed both herself and Darith for almost half the amount of her normal heal.

“Firebolt.” Darith said, aiming his bolt straight ahead into a pool of water using the motion of his eyes rather than his hands. His Spell mastery was raising ranks almost as quickly as Multicast and Firebolt, but he wasn’t using Waterbolt or Scald much yet. “Say when you’re out of mana or energy, I’ll kill the turtles and we can head back to the healing NPC.

“Okay... One or two more casts I think. Oh! A point in constitution!” Liana cheered. She casted two more Restore All’s before Darith turned to aim his Firebolts at the turtles attacking them.

“This feels great! I mean, I can really feel it inside my body.” Liana said as she stood up and stretched, looking at her arms and legs.

“Yeah, it’s not just stats, our bodies are really getting stronger. The game makes us that way, check it out!” Darith said as he flexed his tiny nemothyne arm to reveal a bit of muscle.

“Ooh, I wonder if it gives you muscle and strength with your real body?” Liana asked.

“I’ll have to try when we go back home for dinner... Speaking of... Uh oh, we’ve gotta go back! Mom is going to be home any minute now! Return!” Darith shouted, beginning his cast of white circles.

“Return.” Liana copied him, though she was momentarily startled by the many white circles forming around her. After 10 seconds they both re-appeared on the street where the door to the desert had been.

“Uh, damn it!” Darith panicked, pressing buttons through his menu quickly to switch back to his human form. When he did, he released a flash of light, causing Liana to panic as she pointed at two adults walking on the sidewalk right beside them, but they acted as though they could see nothing.

“What? They can’t see us?” Darith asked as he let out a sigh of relief.

“Look, we have a status effect!”

Return: Fading slowly back into your world over 10 seconds.

“Oh phew, that’s lucky. I hadn’t noticed that status before.” Darith said as he moved to the sidewalk with Liana. They were not far from their house and could see the driveway empty, but just then a familiar car drove past them and pulled into their driveway.

“Oh no, your mom!” Liana whispered to him as she pointed at the car.

“Uhhh, try and sneak in the back door, I’ll distract her! Go, fast!” Darith said as he ran forward, Liana then followed after but headed into the backyard of the neighbors house as they got closer.

“What’re you doing outside? And who was that girl you were walking with?” Kristen asked as she stepped out of her car.

“Oh, it was just a friend, she asked me to stop by and uh, I was helping her with something... From school! She wanted help with her homework.” Darith stumbled his words, but Kristen seemed in a hurry.

“Is that the girl you helped yesterday?” She asked as she got to their front door.

“Y-yeah.” He replied anxiously.

“She looked oddly familiar... Hm. I thought you’d be at home with Liana, did she get tired of your game?” Kristen asked as she opened the door and walked inside. “Liana, I’m home!” She called as she took her shoes off and Darith followed her in.

“N-no, she was just tired and wanted to sleep a bit.”

“Okay. Can you put some water on the stove? I’ve gotta use the toilet real bad.” His mom said, and without waiting for a response she walked into the washroom and shut the door.

“Su-sure!” Darith replied, then glanced to the back door to see Liana knocking on their glass sliding door and pointing at the handle. Darith remembered it was locked and quickly ran across the house to unlock it.

“Thanks... Back to my body I guess.” Liana said as she walked to her wheelchair and sat in it, the excitement of not getting caught was now washed away by the reality of her body.

“Only for dinner, then we’ve got to get back to training.” Darith said to try and cheer her up and she nodded, pressed buttons in her menu and re-appeared after a flash of light as her regular self. As Darith headed to the kitchen to put a pot of water on the stove, Liana sat in her chair moving her right arm.

“It feels different...” She said as she wiggled her fingers, but as she tried to move other parts, nothing responded. She turned to look down the hall to see the bathroom door closed and Darith out of sight around the corner in the kitchen, then moved her wheelchair using the control on her right armrest so that she was out of view of the hall.

“Restore.” She whispered, and a green circle appeared in front of her right hand. After a few seconds it rotated around her body, but had no effect. She then lifted her right hand to her mouth, held it there for a moment of hesitation, then bit it as hard as she could.

Skill Gained: Bite (?)

She watched her health drop by 3. The red mark it left behind was gone within a few seconds, as was the pain. Darith then re-appeared in the room and sat on the couch beside her, letting out a relaxed sigh as they heard the toilet flush and the bathroom door opening seconds later.

“So, is Liana still sleeping?” Kristen called as she moved to the kitchen.

“Nope, I’m awake!” Liana replied back across the house.

“And? How was it? Was it fun?” Kristen asked.

“Yeah...” She said as her voice trailed off for a moment. “Yeah it’s the best game ever!” She said excitedly, Darith smiling at her.

“Good, but this was a one time thing Darith, you’re back to school on Monday. Don’t forget our deal.” She called back.

“I got it.” He replied.

“I’ll make you something extra tonight, being such a good little schmucky poo.” She said in a babying voice as the sounds of pans and dishes rattling filled the kitchen.

“Yeah yeah.” He replied reluctantly.

“Hey, Darith... Do you think maybe there’s a spell that could fix my body?” She asked him hopeful.

“I’m not sure... Maybe? I don’t know how well spells work on our real bodies.” Darith whispered back.

“I don’t think we can get cuts or burns or broken bones, because our wounds disappear right away...” Liana commented.

“Yeah, all damage goes to our health points instead of our bodies. And look, I just checked.” Darith said as he lifted his flabby arm and tried to flex his muscles, but nothing in his arm moved. “All that work but no change... It’s like my body is going to stay the way it was when I started the game.” Darith shrugged.

“Yeah... I guess it’s probably not possible then.” She sighed.

“Well, we don’t know for sure yet, we haven’t tried anything. We don’t know if the game lets our abilities even affect things not a part of the game. I haven’t tried shooting a fireball at something in the real world yet.”

“Do you think maybe I can use Restore on people to help them get better?”

“Maybe, but then you’d have to do it without them noticing, and we need an injured person first...” Darith replied.

“What about Kristen?” Liana replied.

“I don’t think she’s injured right now...” Darith replied.

“Well, we can try giving her a cut maybe?” Liana asked.

“We’re not going to cut mom just to see if we can heal it.” Darith replied quickly.

“Maybe an animal then?” Liana suggested.

“We’re not going to- let’s just try my Firebolt first instead of going around cutting things.” Darith replied as he stood up and went to the backyard door, opening it. He took a glance back to make sure his mom wasn’t in the hallway watching him, then looked down at the ground.

“Firebolt.” He whispered, and after a short delay the ball of fire shot down into the dirt sending tiny pieces of grass and earth upward, leaving a small crater the size of a fist. “It worked!” Darith whispered back to her.

“That’s just the ground, try something else!” Liana called back in an excited whisper.

“Okaay...” Darith said as he looked to see if his mom was there again, then looked around for something to shoot a Firebolt at. He found a newspaper on their living room table and grabbed a page out, then quickly put it on the dirt in the backyard.

“Firebolt.” He whispered again after double checking for his mom. The firebolt hit the center of the newspaper and left a hole in it as well as setting the rest on fire. The Newspaper quickly burned up and turned to black ash as Darith and Liana watched excitedly.

“It worked!” Darith whispered back with excitement.

“What’re you doing in the backyard?” Kristen asked with her head poking into the hallway of their house from the kitchen.

“Oh nothing, just getting a bit of fresh air.” Darith replied nervously.

“Close the screen door before bugs start flying in.” Kristen replied, her head disappearing back into the kitchen.

“Okay.” Darith replied, shutting the door then huddling back to Liana with excitement.

“It worked, that means we can use our spells on anything... Like our spells are real...”

“So I can heal people?” Liana asked.

“Well, maybe.” Darith replied.

“Why maybe?” She said with a frown.

“My firebolt is a bit different than your restore spell. It creates fire to burn enemies and do damage, but your heal spell is something used on strictly our health bars. Normal people don’t have health bars to redirect their damage, they get real cuts and bruises. I don’t think that the restore spell will work on anything like that, only our health bars.” Darith replied as he thought about it.

“So I’ll need to learn a spell that can heal injuries instead of health bars.” Liana said.

“Yeah... We don’t know if something like that exists though, injuries are outside of the game world. People in the game don’t get injured, they only lose health, so it wouldn’t have a reason to let you learn a spell to heal injuries.” Darith said.

“What about my remove poison spell?” She asked.

“It works on our status effects that say they are poison... We don’t know if it will work on real poisons inside people.”

“So we just have to-” Liana started saying, but Darith stopped her.

“Before you suggest we poison my mom, I’m going to say no.” Darith replied with raised brows.

“It doesn’t have to be your mom, it ca-”

“No. First, it’s too risky, so until we learn about the City Guard system you shouldn’t try it. Second, if you really want to try it then you can do it on really sick people at mom’s hospital, I guess... But only if you’re absolutely sure no one sees you. Until then let’s just leave it a mystery and focus on training.” Darith replied.

“Okay.” Liana replied but with visible disappointment.

“For now let’s think about how we can improve ourselves for combat. Our biggest problem is our mana. My Firebolt is going down in cost slowly, but your heal stopped going down in mana cost at 10. Energy too. There’s got to be some sort of skill to help us restore it in a fight so that we don’t just drink potions all day.” Darith replied.

“Hmm, maybe something like meditating?” Liana suggested. “A few games we played had meditate skills in them.”

“Not a bad idea, we can start from there...” Darith said, then looked down the hall from the living room. “How long until Dinner’s ready?” Darith asked.

“About 15 minutes, and no playing that game at the table.” Kristen replied.

“Okay!” Darith called back. “Let’s try learning something like meditate while we wait.” He whispered to Liana and she nodded. Darith then sat cross legged on the couch and put his hands on his knees, closing his eyes. Liana did her best to imitate by putting her right hand on her lap.

“I’m not feeling anything.” Liana whispered.

“Try focusing really hard on your mana or something, imagine the bar filling up.

“Okay...” Liana replied. Darith then squinted his eyes as if to meditate harder, but still nothing. It went quiet between the two with the only sounds in the house being made by Kristen.

“In games they usually say you have to clear your mind to meditate.” Darith said.

“Right, clear my mind... Don’t think of anything... Hummmm.” Liana said, carrying a quiet hum now. She went on for a good 10 seconds with it until Darith interrupted her.

“You don’t have to hum.” He whispered at her.

“It helps clear my mind.”

“It distracts me though!” He replied.

“Hum with me then. Hummm.” Liana went on. Darith hesitated for a moment then tried humming as well, only quiet enough so that Kristen wouldn’t hear them. A good minute went by with nothing happening, until finally Liana got a notification.

“Hey, a new spell!” She said excitedly, breaking Darith from his concentration.

Mind, Body, Spirit - Rank 1

Meditating for a short period of time will grant you increased synergy with your body and spirit, and grant you a calm mind.

Cast: 10s

Duration: 30m

Effect 1: +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Intelligence, +1 Spirit

Effect 2: Immune to Mental status effects.

Command: Mind Body Spirit (Change)(?)

Liana read it out loud of Darith.

“It’s not exactly good for mana restoring, but that’s still strong! I can even see it on your status!” Darith pointed at her health bar above her head. “It has a white border, I guess white means good and red means bad like my poison had. How’d you do that?” Darith asked her excitedly.

“Just clear your mind!” She replied.

“Okay, let me try a bit more.” Darith said, closing his eyes and continuing the humming as Liana watched for a bit while messing around in her menu.

“Dinner’s ready!” Kristen’s mom called, breaking his concentration.

“Ugh, still can’t get it!”

“Clear your mind better.” Liana shrugged.

“I’m trying.” He replied grumpily as he stood up and started moving her chair to the kitchen. “Ah, Macaroni and cheese!” Darith said as the scent of dinner filled his nose, hurrying Liana along into the kitchen so that he could sit down and start eating.

“I figured you’d be happy.” Kristen smiled. “And I trust you cleaned your room?” She asked with a smirk.

“Ah- uhm, I was going to do that tonight.” Darith replied with his mouth full.

“You better. I’ve got long shifts this weekend so we can have some extra cash this month, can I trust Liana with you?” She asked.

“Y-yeah, of course!” Darith replied.

“That is of course if you want to spend the weekend with this lady killer.” Kristen said, looking to Liana now.

“Lady killer?” Liana asked with a raised brow.

“I saw him walking back with a pretty cute girl just now.” Kristen said, gossiping to Liana.

“A c-c-cute girl? You thought she was cute?” Liana replied as her face started going red.

“Well not as cute as us of course.” Kristen shrugged. “So, want to hang with gamer boy? Or would you like to sit with the nurses and have fun with me?” Kristen asked.

“I’ll stay home, this game is really fun!” Liana smiled.

“Alright then, but don’t just play the whole time, I don’t want you to turn into Darith who only knows how to play games.”

“H-hey, I know more than just playing games!” He protested.

“Yes, yes of course you do my schnuckums.” Kristen replied sarcastically. She finished eating quickly and put the dishes in the sink. “Oh, dishes too, do them. I’m cashing in early, long day. Have a good night kids.” She stretched then headed up the stairs. Liana and Darith listened intently to her footsteps as they started eating faster and faster to fill their stomachs. Darith finished before Liana and hastily washed the dishes.

Once Liana finished, she made sure Kristen was in her bedroom and then switched bodies to help Darith do the dishes.

“I’ve always wanted to help clean them.” She smiled with enthusiasm.

“Really? Then you’ll clean them from now on?” Darith asked excitedly.

“Not that badly.” She chuckled. After they were done and Liana had put her wheelchair away in her room, Darith opened the door back to the desert. They found themselves in their game bodies back by the NPC’s with even more newer players now. Most were ranged from level 1-5 and a lot of them seemed to be forming groups, talking to each other about the game.

Darith picked up on some conversations of people discussing where the game came from or how it was possible, another player talked of swearing he had seen this exact area in a game he’d played before, but Liana and Darith didn’t say a word. They walked calmly through the new players right into the shade of the Oasis, getting several stares of aww as they spotted Darith’s level 9 health bar.

“E-excuse me, but how did you reach level 9 so quickly?” A tiny male Nemothyne asked with black short ears and a black tail.

“There’s no secret to it.” Darith smiled at him and looked to see his name, Sam, a level one. A lot of other players walked in close to listen as they saw Darith stop to answer.

“Use your fists and feet to kill the low monsters until you can finish your first quest, pick a weapon and then use it to learn some new skills! I don’t know much about the game, but it seems like the skills are limited only by your imagination.” Darith replied with a smile.

“Whoa, so the starter quest gives a weapon?”

“He said you can just punch monsters to beat them?”

“Any skill I can think of, wow!” Different people around them said.

“Uh, can you tell us how to get out of here? Some of us have been trying to figure it out for awhile now. If I don’t get back soon my husband will worry...” A tall female elf with long blue hair asked.

“If the door you used to get here is closed you’ll have to get the region key, that should teach you the return skill. Just do his first quest, he should give it to you. Then you can shout RETURN! And don’t move for 10 seconds, it’ll take you right back to where you came in.”

“Oh so that’s it!” Some people whispered as Liana turned and smiled at the people asking questions.

“Thanks so much! You’re a real savior!” One of them said.

“Come on guys, let’s go get that Oasis water for the NPC!” Others cheered, and a large number of the players started heading into the trees towards the water.

“That was really nice of you.” Liana said.

“Well it’s pretty hard to figure this game’s basics out, the least we can do is share a bit.” Darith shrugged. “Let’s get back to our training then, we should try letting a stronger monster hit us this time.”

“Okay.” Liana nodded. “Does that mean you are giving up on learning meditate?” She asked.

“N-no, I’ll just try it later, there’s too many other things on my mind to get a clear head. First, I want to understand how mana works in this game. I think if we can learn to call upon it without a spell we could turn it into whatever we want, just like we can use our bodies to make skills.”

“Hmm, you really think that’d be possible?” Liana asked.

“It has to be! I think it's related to our mind or body somehow, I mean intelligence affects our spells, and constitution and spirit affects mana. We just need to learn where it’s coming from.” Darith shrugged.

“Ask the game designers.” Liana replied sarcastically.

“If only we had a clue who designed the game. All we know is that it’s called Broken Realm, and I’ve never heard anything about it before. Something this big you’d think would get announced by the company who made it, but they want to keep it as unknown as possible. It’s probably made illegally.” Darith shrugged.

“It’s definitely made illegally.” Liana replied.

“First priority is to break those people out of the ice that are trapped in the game. I can only imagine what it feels like to be frozen, or what their families are thinking.” Darith replied. “Ah, there, a scorpion. Ready to start?” Darith asked her.

“Yup!” She nodded back.