“Oh god oh god oh godohgodohgod...”

Scrubbing herself down with a wet towel, Jamie tried desperately to wipe the blood and gore from her skin. In the middle of the room, Heather’s body was slowly reforming, a twitching, squirming mess, and it just made Jamie want to make it all happen again–

Dropping the towel, Jamie punched herself in the face, hard, stars exploding in her vision. Coughing, she spat some blood out of her mouth, having bit her tongue.

“Alright, Jamie,” she whispered, starting to panic, “see the body? See Heather? Ignore it, ignore it, ignoreitignoreitignoreit. It’s disgusting and makes you want to puke. It just looks so absolutely–”

Another punch to the face brought her instincts under control, sending them back into the deeper recesses of her mind. Letting out a sigh, Jamie rubbed her swelling jaw as she went back to scrubbing, keeping a much more moderate pace this time, no longer trying to rub herself raw.

It took half an hour for Heather’s body to fully reform, enough time for Jamie to get her feelings under control and to scrub most of the blood off. Groaning, Heather sat up, wincing as she brought a hand up to her head.

“Blegh. That wasn’t fun,” she said, and Jamie immediately rushed over.

“H? You feeling alright?” Heather grimaced, her legs spasming.

“Nah, my nervous system’s shot, feels like it’s stitching itself back together. Gimme a few though and I’ll be good.” Jamie nodded, rushing off to get her some water. She had to hold the bottle for Heather to drink from since her arms were twitching too much to hold it in place.

“What the fudge happened?” Jamie asked, not even caring as the system twisted her words. Heather shuddered, finally starting to gain back some semblance of control.

“I’m pretty sure I tore every muscle and bone in my body simultaneously. At least, that’s what it felt like. Sending literal lightning through my veins probably wasn’t the best idea,” she chuckled, palming her face with her hand. Her body suddenly jolted, blue energy flickering beneath her skin, and she winced.

“Ah– no–” Heather grit her teeth as she started shuddering in place, sparks of electricity crawling down her limbs.

“Hey, hey, calm down. You gotta stay– GAH!” Jamie pulled her arm back, her hand burnt from where it had been shaking Heather’s shoulder. The glow beneath Heather’s skin grew stronger, Heather’s eyes frantically darting about as her limbs kept twitching.

In an act of desperation, Jamie poured as much water over Heather as she could, trying to find a way to shock her system back to normal. It was ineffective, and the last thing Jamie saw was Heather’s terrified eyes before everything went red.

Coughing and sputtering, Jamie hacked up some blood that had landed in her mouth and trickled down her throat. Feeling numb, she slowly brought her gaze down to look at her clothes, finding them soaked crimson. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she grabbed a fresh wet towel and scrubbed herself down again, waiting for Heather to regenerate.

Another half an hour passed, Jamie making sure to keep her back to Heather’s reforming body to negate her instincts. A low, pained groan brought her out of her self-induced haze, and she pursed her lips as she forced herself to turn around.

“…Sorry…” Heather whispered, coughing. Residue energy still trickled through her limbs, but it appeared to be dissipating, which Jamie was grateful for.

“S’alright, but… what was that?” Jamie felt the corners of her mouth pull down, her irritation showing on her face. Heather tried to say something, but she started coughing again, and Jamie had to feed her another bottle of water before her voice came back.

“Thanks,” she said, wetting her lips. “I think I got it to stop now, so we should be good.” Jamie arched an eyebrow, not impressed with that response. Heather smiled apologetically.

“Remember how LIGHTNING said I needed to ‘circulate my energy’ or whatever?” she asked. Jamie blinked, and then nodded. “Turns out I also have to turn it off. Just figured out how to do that; it’s not fun.”

Groaning, Jamie felt her anger bleed away, replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion that made her shoulders slump. “Figures it’s something stupid.”

Heather chuckled harshly before coughing again. Jamie tried to give her some more water, but Heather grabbed it from her hand with her own shaking limbs, forcing her body to move again. Taking deep, greedy gulps, she easily cleaned out the contents of the bottle before letting out a sigh, dropping the bottle on the floor.

“That… was miserable and felt like sticks,” Heather started, her face forming a brittle, pained smile. “Either way, I’m gonna have ta do it again, ya know? I know there’s things you aren’t telling me about this place, this… game… but I’m not stupid. This is probably the only real place where I can learn to control this without dying permanently, so I should abuse that.”

Jamie flinched at that, feeling Heather’s probing stare as she turned her head away. She hadn’t wanted to explain things to Heather just yet, but it seemed her options were quickly running out. Besides, it was about time she found out anyways.

“We’ll talk later, alright? Just… not yet. Dinner work?” Jamie asked, and Heather nodded. Reaching out a hand, Jamie helped pull Heather back to her feet, making sure to steady her shaking limbs before letting her stand on her own.

“Cool, cool. I’m just… gonna keep working on this, yeah? Don’t worry about me, go practice with your staff; God knows you need it. Can’t keep putting that off forever.”

“Only if you start using your knives again,” Jamie shot back, already leaving. It took her a few minutes to dig through the storage room to find her weapon, along with a tarp and some water bottles for Heather. By the time she returned, Heather was deep in her meditation as she tried to activate LIGHTNING, her muscles twitching sporadically.

The air started crackling around her, and Jamie’s eyes widened, watching as a blue glow formed beneath her skin. Rushing forward, she managed to throw the tarp over Heather’s body just in time. With a muffled scream and a sharp crack of thunder, the tarp jolted before floating to the floor, multiple lumpy forms lying beneath it.

Jamie stopped her thoughts there, not wanting to think about what Heather was willingly doing to herself. Instead, she let herself focus on the feel of the wood as it dug into her palms. Her staff wasn’t exactly the smoothest of things, but it was hers, and that was all that mattered in the end, wasn’t it?

Her hands shook as she held it, feeling her instincts roar to the surface. Ruthlessly pushing them back, she forced herself to take a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. It worked, mostly. She was still a little shaky, but she had to get over her aversion to her weapon at some point, and now was as good of a time as any.

Feeling her body relax, Jamie started moving through a few different quarterstaff forms, losing herself in the dance-like movements. Although in most cases it was better to grab the staff at the end, giving yourself a longer reach, Jamie tended to avoid that. It wasn’t due to any practical reasons; it was more her own personal preference.

A few years back, Heather had taught Jamie some bo staff techniques when asked, and the lessons had stuck. Ever since then, Jamie had used the lessons to grow her abilities within Leveled Plane, finding that most bo staff techniques transferred well to just about any larger weapon, which she tended to prefer in-game. It had helped her dramatically improve her skills as a player, but she knew that it wasn’t good enough.

Block, counter, sweep the leg, deflect an incoming attack. Letting her feet flow between positions, Jamie grimaced as she felt herself overbalance slightly, leaving herself open to an imaginary knife in her gut. She stopped, let herself catch her breath, and started again from the beginning. If they wanted any hope of getting out of this room, Jamie couldn’t be making mistakes like that. She needed perfection.

Hours later, dripping sweat, Jamie finally came to a stop, her staff falling from her hands and clattering to the floor. Her muscles ached, her hands cramping as she tried to move her fingers. If there was anything she’d just learned, it was that she was rusty.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d struggled that much with basic movements, and that really put into perspective how much they’d been neglecting their weapon practice. Heather had the right idea: if they wanted to get out of here, they needed every advantage they could get. Heather was already torturing herself to learn LIGHTNING, so Jamie had no right to complain.

Making her way over to their improv dining area (a tarp with some wooden silverware and plates in haphazard stacks), Jamie lost herself in her thoughts, idly spooning some beans into her mouth. There was a good reason nobody had ever even cleared the TOWER, with the COLOSSEUM and the ABYSS only being known about through data mining. If they wanted to get out of here and stay alive longer than a few years, they needed some serious improvements to their skills.

Their STATS needed increased, for one. Strength training and regular runs were useful, but they may need to start doing flexibility exercises to increase their DEX. Stealth training wasn’t really possible, considering the open environment they were in, so Jamie figured that they would neglect that STAT for a while. INT could be increased by regularly reading things online through the menu, so everything should be good there.

VIT, though… that one was tough. From what Heather had mentioned, she’d put no points into VIT at the beginning. VIT was a bit weird in the sense that if you didn’t put points into it originally, you couldn’t increase the STAT. While Jamie could use it, helping her to increase her defense, Heather would need to rely on her health points and her health regeneration when taking damage.

Nodding to herself, a plan started forming in Jamie’s mind. It would take advantage of their strengths and help to shore up their weaknesses while hopefully preparing them for the enemies they would face once their rations ran out. Hearing footsteps behind her, Jamie turned, realizing that Heather was right behind–

…Well then. That was… a thing, apparently. Heather glared at her as Jamie stared, every inch of her body coated a dark red. Her hair was matted to her forehead, strands clumping together, looking less like silk and more like an old, torn rug. The only things left untouched were her eyes, a cold blue that looked like a clear, stagnant sea.

“Don’t wanna hear it,” she mumbled, plopping down beside Jamie. A metallic scent wafted off her, and Jamie winced, leaning away slightly. Heather’s shoulders sagged, her head slumping forward as she sighed.

“You need cleaned up,” Jamie said. “Go scrub yourself down. I’ll help so you can get some food in ya.” Heather nodded, and the two of them moved to a different area of the room, one filled with old rags and buckets of water. Making sure to bring some canned corn and beans, she helped Heather scrub herself down with the rags and water as Heather ate.

“Any improvements?” Jamie asked, and Heather shook her head.

“Nothing,” she whispered, bringing a spoonful of corn to her mouth. “Just… more exploding. I started going numb to the whole thing after a while.” She winced, her expression darkening.

Jamie shuddered, trying not to think about it. She didn’t want to imagine how many times Heather had forced herself to continue, knowing the pain she was subjecting herself to once things inevitably went wrong. She was grateful that EARTH and WIND seemed to have… less drastic consequences. LIGHTNING was made by a sadist, apparently.

“You’ll figure it out. Just give it some time, alright? I’ll help however I can,” Jamie said, and Heather gave a halfhearted shrug in response.

“Alright. I’ll… probably need help staying motivated, so if you can do that, I’d appreciate it.” Jamie nodded, shooting Heather a grin before moving back to helping her scrub herself down. The atmosphere between them was a bit lighter than it had been before, the awkward tension having dissipated.

It didn’t take too long for Heather to finish eating, but removing the blood coating her body took almost an hour of work. The rags were covered in stains and dyed red, leaving Heather mostly clean. There were a few areas that they couldn’t wash properly, but those were small and barely noticeable.

Luckily, the rags would be clean by morning. No matter how realistic Leveled Plane tended to be, certain things were removed to enhance the user experience, which Jamie was extremely grateful for. No need to use the bathroom, cleaning materials being reset after sleeping through the night, unlimited water (for now), auto-repairing clothing (mostly). Considering how many times they’d needed to use the cleaning rags already… waking up to find them ready for another use was a blessing.

“Hey,” Jamie said, bringing Heather’s attention to her, “sorry for putting this off. I didn’t wanna freak you out, but…”

“I get it,” Heather replied, “but really, I need to know the plan. All I know right now is that we’re preparing for something, but you won’t say what.”

“Yeah, and that’s my fault.” Jamie sighed. “Alright, I’ll give you the basic rundown, I guess. Then we gotta figure out our plan from here on out. I’ve gotten way too rusty with my staff.”

Nodding, Heather let Jamie explain the situation. There was a bit of background that needed covered before getting into the meat of the issue, so Jamie started there.

Beginner areas, by themselves, were the only locations in Leveled Plane with infinite lives. Players were meant to learn the mechanics of the game in the beginner area before branching out into a central safe location, or a HUB, that allowed them easy access to QUESTS and gave them more starting resources. It was generally a well-designed system that allowed players to learn while they progressed, without dying right away.

The problem, though, was that the TRAINING ROOM had an entirely different function. That wasn’t its actual name, but all players just called it that to simplify things. The TRAINING ROOM was the only beginner area without a HUB stationed right outside its exit. Instead, players were thrown into a dungeon.

Jamie watched Heather’s reaction as she continued, further explaining the functions of the TOWER, COLOSSEUM, and the ABYSS. Other than her eyes narrowing and her face pinching in thought, there wasn’t much of anything, which was… a bit worrying.

“You good?” Jamie asked once she’d finished, letting Heather stew on things for a moment. Heather returned a slow nod, her eyes unfocussed.

“Yeah. It’s just a lot.” Chuckling softly, Jamie nodded.

“True, true. Think you’re good to work on a plan for training? It might take your mind off things for a bit, and I wanna make sure we have something in place for the future, ya know?” she asked, and Heather nodded.

The training plan was, honestly, about as basic as they could get. Half a day dedicated to increasing STATS, a third to magic and individual studying, and the rest to combat. If they stuck with it without slacking off, they should have the tools they needed to clear the TOWER, at the very least.

The COLOSSEUM and the ABYSS were a different story, but they didn’t have to worry about those yet. That would come later, after they managed the TOWER. One step at a time.

As they settled down, turning in for the night, Jamie reflected on how absurdly lucky they were. It was a bit of a mess, yes, but she had Heather with her, someone who threw everything she had at anything she set her mind to. With someone like that by her side, Jamie was forced to work harder just to keep up.

Closing her eyes, she felt a smile form on her face as Heather lay down behind her, the lights beginning to dim. At least they had a chance at things, no matter how unreasonable. It was something, and Jamie planned to chase after it for all she was worth.