The last red marker on the map took Lucas and Tony to the edge of the town. Here they saw one of the four exits of the town, a large gated archway. It was currently closed, though a smaller gate beside the much larger one had people coming and going. The two weren’t here to venture outside the town walls. Their map led them to a young man frantically pacing around with his head lowered. Once closer, they saw that the man was going around a circular object embedded into the road. It was metal and looked oddly similar to a circuit board, except it was dark black with silver lines engraved into it.

Tony approached the pacing fellow and spoke to him, causing the young man to come to a stop. A brief conversation later, and they had learned about the Lodestone Network. What the man was pacing around was a lodestone, a piece of magical equipment that, when used, could teleport a person to another lodestone in the same network. The reason for his distress was the fact that the Lodestone Network, or LSN, was not operational. This is where the quest came in. The party was tasked to help the young man fix the LSN before he got in trouble.

They were given a rundown of what was needed of them, along with a harmonizing crystal. The two headed off with their new quest. It required them to visit every lodestone in town and use their blue harmonizing crystal to sync the network back together, while the young man stayed where he was to work his own set of crystals. The quest was fairly simple.

The part that made it difficult was how they needed to traverse every major district, and the four gates, to visit each lodestone. Other than tiresome walking, they needed to harmonize the crystal on each node for a few seconds. It took nearly an hour for the party to accomplish this goal. Their quest had given them plenty of time to chat and see new parts of the town.

They saw the different class guilds spread throughout. This included the melee, magic, archery, thief, healer, and bard guilds. These were spread between two districts, with two other districts containing the profession halls. The two weren’t sure they had seen all the professions on their travels. The ones they saw included carpentry, cooking, weapon smithing, artificer, botany, and fishing. When the party tried to join a guild or hall, they were turned away. Both required a player level of five, and theirs was only three.

The trip back to the quest NPC had given them plenty of time to contemplate and chat about what combat class and profession they would end up picking. By the time they had returned to the young man, the sun had fully set, and they had narrowed their choices down. Tony spoke to the quest giver and finished the quest, with the NPC giving them each a LSN disc. It looked like a smaller version of the lodestone. The lodestone embedded into the road was big enough for a handful of people to stand on comfortably, while the disk easily fit in one’s hand.

The NPC prattled on about the item he had gifted them. The smooth top of the disc that was identical to what they saw in the road was actually the bottom, and turning it over revealed a more complicated device. Five small metal pegs with a blue crystal embedded into the center, cut to be star-shaped. The young man explained that this device would allow them to use the LSN in town for free. If they wanted to teleport back to town, then it would cost them five silver coins.

He pulled out his own LSN disc and showed how the silver coins fit onto the triangle shaped pegs. The silver coins sported a triangle hole in the middle, allowing them to slip into the device with ease. Once a coin was on each of the five pegs, the device would then allow a person to teleport back to the last town they had visited. Upon completion, it would use the coins up as payment. The demonstration ended with the man showing the party a bronze and gold coin. The bronze coin had a square hole in the middle, and the gold coin had a circle. Neither of them could fuel the teleportation, only silver coins.

"We won’t be able to teleport anytime soon." Tony pocketed his new device. "At least now we can get around town more easily. It would’ve been helpful to do this quest first."

"We have it now, that’s all that matters." Lucas looked over the device a bit more before slipping it into a pocket. "That was the last quest, wasn’t it? What are we supposed to do now? We still aren’t level five."

Tony motioned to the nearby town gate. "We go out and grind on some monsters." He walked over to the smaller gate where people were lined up. "A handful of monsters should be enough to level us up. We’re almost halfway to the next one."

"Grind with what? The wooden swords we have?" Lucas retorted, moving into line behind his friend.

"It’ll be fine. I’m sure some level one monster won’t be able to handle us." Tony assured the Draconian, his attention shifted to the guard as their turn came up. "Can we go out?" He asked as the guard looked back with a blank stare.

"Do you have your paperwork allowing you to leave town limits?" The armored guard asked. The man showed no emotion as he looked down at the Kobold. His eyes and mouth were the only parts of him that moved; spear firmly planted against the ground.

"Uh, what paperwork?" Tony glanced back at Lucas, who shrugged.

"It is not safe outside the town walls. Unless they have given you permission to leave, I can not allow you outside." The guard’s voice and facial expression did not waver.

"Who can give me the paperwork then?" Tony asked, hands on his hips.

"If you show me your map, I can mark where a guard lives that can help you."

With a grumble, Tony pulled his map out and held it up. The emotionless man waved his free hand over the parchment, and when Tony gave it a look, it now sported a blue circle.

"Come on, Art. Let’s go." He stepped out of line and moved away.

"Did we just get a new quest?" Lucas followed along.

"Looks like it." Tony studied the map. "The mark is over in the district with the melee guilds." He looked it over a bit more. "I don’t remember these black dots. Do you?"

Lucas peered over to his friend’s map, then pulled out his own. It had been updated and was identical to the one Tony held.

"The Lodestone Network spots?" He pondered. "I think those are where the different nodes were."

"You’re probably right. We can go and come back fast with the LSN." He folded his map up and walked the short distance over to the lodestone. "Time to see how this thing works." Tony pulled out his LSN disc and stepped onto the node. Once in place, the device he held in his hand reacted. The star-shaped crystal glowed, and it displayed a list of town locations in the air.

"Come on, stand on it. Maybe it can do multiple people at a time." Tony turned to Lucas, who was standing off to the side. The Draconian joined him, then the Kobold picked a destination. A soft hum filled the air as their surroundings became fuzzy and shifted. Within a few seconds, the party found themselves in a different part of town, outside the melee guild.

"That was pretty cool." Tony took in the fresh sights for a moment, then stepped off the lodestone. "Would be cooler if we could log out." He pulled out his map. "Can you check if that’s fixed yet?"

"Uh, sure." Lucas pulled out his journal. "No. I still don’t see an option for it." He looked up from his book to see that Tony had walked ahead, jogging over to catch up. "I’m sure they will make an announcement to let everyone know. No point in checking—"

"It doesn’t hurt to check!" Tony said with a raised tone.

"Are you Okay?" Lucas gave his friend a look of concern when the other glanced back at him.

"Yeah. Just peachy. I love being trapped in a super cool video game!" Tony grumbled, staring down at his map. "It’s not like my parents, who didn’t want me to get this thing in the first place, are going to lose their minds and take it away from me!" He threw his map to the ground, gaining the attention of a few passersby. "And I don’t know where to go!"

"You think they’re going to be that upset with you?" Lucas asked as he bent down and picked up the map. "I can navigate for now." He folded up the parchment and held it out.

Tony let out a long sigh. "Yep. It doesn’t matter if it’s my fault or not. If I play this for a really long time, they will be furious." He took the offered map and slipped it into his pocket. "I’ll get yelled at for missing dinner, not helping around the house and for ignoring them. I’m sure they’ve called for me a bunch by now."

"It’s not your fault you’ve been here so long. Won’t that help explain things?" Lucas used his own map and took in their surroundings.

"Nope. That’ll only be even more reason for them to take it away from me. Even though I bought it with my money." Tony shook his head and crossed his arms. "My parents don’t like most of the things I do." He followed his friend, who led the way. "This game seems pretty cool, and the Nest is even cooler, which sucks cause I probably won’t be able to play again after this."

"So, you’re saying you should enjoy it while you can?" Lucas glanced back at the Kobold. "That, and maybe think of what to say once you get out."

Tony laughed. "Yeah, you’re right. At least about that first part." His laughter turned to a light chuckle. "If I could log out right now, I could probably do a bunch of chores and promise to fill out some job applications to stay on their good side. That’d be enough to not get my Nest taken away."

"Is that why you got so upset?" Lucas asked, to which Tony nodded. "It’s been over four hours. You’d think they would have fixed it by now."

"I know, and my window to grovel to my parents is nearly nonexistent." Tony huffed. "I’m going to try and not think about it. Might as well enjoy this all before I eventually lose it." He forced a smile. "Did you figure out where we’re going?"

Lucas stopped in front of a building. It was two stories tall, wider than most houses, and was painted tan instead of the typical white most of the buildings in town had.

"I think this is it."

A brief wait in line awaited them once they were inside. It was nothing compared to the lines from the earlier quests. They lounged around in the spacious living room before it was their turn. In an adjacent room, they found the NPC. He looked similar to the guard from earlier, except he was more animated and muscular.

The man gave the party a smile as he pounded a fist into his metal plated armor. "Hello there! What brings you to my home?"

"Do you have a quest?" Tony asked, a phrase that had become customary when talking with the NPCs.

The guard gave a look of confusion at the Kobold. "I don’t have any quests, but you could see if anyone needs help around town."

Tony gave Lucas a sideways glance. "I thought you said this was the place."

"It is, plus we had to wait for that small group to leave. They must have been doing a quest here." Lucas turned his attention back to the guard. "We were told by a guard to come here for some kind of paperwork."

The guard’s face lit up. "You mean Henry?" He smiled and shook his head. "It seems no one else was available. Very well, follow me." The man turned and led them into an adjoining room and down a staircase into a cellar.

This level of the home was one large room, containing a handful of training dummies and several kinds of weapons in racks along the walls. The guard explained to the two that they would have to prove they could handle themselves in combat before being allowed to go outside the city walls. He had them equip their best gear, then scoffed when they pulled out wooden swords and shields.

"You should join a guild. They give out starter gear. What you have should be good enough if you don’t wander too far away from town." The guard went over to a wall with a line of five wooden dummies, each one equipped with a wooden sword and shield. They looked fairly similar to a crash test dummy. He went behind one and then another, activating a yellow crystal on their backs that brought them to life.

The two dummies stepped away from the wall, their arms raising up to brandish their weaponry. He explained that if the party could defeat their own dummy, then he would provide the paperwork needed for them to come and go from the city as they please.

"When you’re ready, stand in front of a training dummy and say ‘duel start’. I’ll call the duel off if you get too injured and give you a health potion so you can heal up and continue."

Lucas and Tony shared a glance, then took their places. One phrase was all it took for the dummies to begin combat, swinging their swords at their targets. The party had been introduced to combat in an earlier quest, but this was different. Now they had a target that would fight back, attacking while dodging and blocking attacks.

Tony beat his dummy within a few minutes. Lucas was having a harder time, needing to restart the fight after taking too many hits. One health potion later and he restarted the fight. His friend coached him to block and land hits.

"That was harder than I thought it’d be." Lucas put away his sword and shield. "How did you beat it so easily?"

"I’ve played a lot of VR games. It’s the best way to play games, and medieval combat is pretty common." Tony shifted his attention to the dummies. Once defeated, they hung their heads and arms down. Now that both were beaten in battle, they stood back up and walked backwards to their place on the wall.

"So, a training dummy is nothing. I am a little rusty, though. I’ve been mostly playing rhythm games lately."

Lucas nodded, glancing over at the dummies. "I haven’t played VR much. I’ve tried it out a few times because my friend plays VR a lot, but that’s about it." He turned back to the guard, who hadn’t moved at all. "Can we have the paperwork to leave town now?"

The guard came to life once more, instead of standing idly by. "It seems you are stronger than you look. I will allow you passage in and out of town. Follow me." The guard instructed, then made his way upstairs. He took the party to a room with a large desk and filled bookcases along the walls.

"Before you venture outside the walls, I recommend you take these."The NPC went behind his desk and opened a drawer, pulling out four leather wristbands. He placed them on the desk and looked at the party expectantly.

"Wear these, especially when you’re not in the safe confines of town. In the heat of battle, you could push yourself too hard. The adrenaline of a fight is powerful, and you might not realize how badly you are hurt before it’s too late. With these, you can keep track of your physical and magical well being."

The party stepped forward and grabbed a pair of wristbands when the guard stopped speaking and simply stared at them. Even when they were holding their two bands, the man kept still.

"I guess we need to put them on?" Lucas asked.

Tony nodded in agreement. "Yeah, maybe his dialogue will continue then."

The two slipped the leather wristbands onto each wrist. It was simple in design. One strip of leather went around the wrist, the ends connecting with magnetic pieces of metal, and two strips of leather running along the top. Once the wristbands were secured, the two strips of leather changed color. One turning green and the other blue.

"Pay attention to those colors when you’re fighting. It’ll be hard to adjust at first, but it is important that you do so." The guard came to life once more. "The green one is your health. Bright green means you’re healthy, and it will turn more yellow as you take hits. When yellow turns to orange, you should heal yourself, and the more red it gets, the closer death will be."

"Don’t let adrenaline trick you into an early grave. Just because the blows don’t hurt much, doesn’t mean your body isn’t taking a beating." He continued. "The blue one is for magic. The more black it becomes, the lower your magical energy is." The guard sat down at the desk and pulled out some papers and a quill. "Give me a minute to fill out the paperwork."

It wasn’t long before the party returned to the town gate, documents in hand. Henry, the guard, awaited them and took their papers after a brief wait in line. They could now travel freely in and out of town. After spending hours inside the large town, they were now stepping outside.

What waited for them was a big open grassy field that was split in half by a dirt road. Trees came together to form forests to the left and right sides of the field, branches of plentiful green leaves came out towards the upper half of the tall trunks. Other players headed up and down the road, illuminated in the dark by the twin moons in the night sky. The party took in the fresh scenery for a moment before heading down the road. It wasn’t until they had been walking for a few minutes they saw their first monster.

Humongous gray rats, as big as a large dog, were dotted through the tall grass of the field and being attacked by players. It took several more minutes for them to find an area empty of people, giving them their own monsters to fight.

"I’ll get the attention of one and you attack it." Tony said, sword and shield in hand. "We shouldn’t need too many for a level up."

Lucas pulled the weaponry from his bag. "Let’s do it."

"Here goes." Tony stepped towards a rat which was almost big enough for him to ride.

The rat snarled, then ran at the Kobold. Its red eyes bulged from its sockets as it swiped and clawed. Tony used his shield to block the attack. Lucas charged in and began slashing at the rat with his sword. Tony focused on blocking and dodging, occasionally getting a hit in. It took over a minute for the rat to be slayed, falling onto its side and fading away. The only thing left behind was a handful of copper coins.

"That was harder than I expected." Lucas said.

"It wasn’t too bad. Definitely easier with more than one person." Tony bent down and scooped up the coins, sharing half with Lucas. "We have no gear and wooden swords. It’ll be better when we have actual armor and weapons."

"Right, that makes sense." Lucas accepted the coins, reaching back to slip them into his backpack. "At this rate, we should need two or three more." He said while checking his journal for his experience. "Oh!" The Draconian slipped a hand into his pocket.

"What?" Tony asked, glancing away from his next rat target to his friend.

Lucas pulled out the magnifying glass they got from earlier. He held it up to his eye and looked at the nearest rat. "Giant Rat, level five, and it doesn’t say a specific value, only a health bar." He pocketed the tool. "Isn’t it normal to have specific health values?"

Tony shrugged. "It could be a part of the whole realism for this mode." He raised his hands, looking at the bands on his wrists. The blue strips were still a bright blue, though his health strips were a yellowish-green.

"We don’t get to see our exact health or mana with these bands, only an idea of what range it's in." Tony readied his shield. "I should be able to tank a few more rats. Come on."

Lucas readied his equipment. "I’m ready when you are."

The next rat was easier to kill than the first, and the one after that was easier still. Tony could block and dodge while landing a hit here and there. Lucas simply had to swing and stab at the rat. He only needed to use the few skills he had when accidentally getting the attention of a rat. With four rats slain, they had gained a decent amount of copper coins, a few rat tails, and one piece of rat fur. Checking their journals, they saw their level had gone up.

"Finally, we can pick our class." Tony stored his equipment, then moved to the road.

Lucas did the same and followed after his friend. The area was filled with even more players now. As soon as they left their patch of the field, a few players swept in to replace them.

"Let’s head back then." Lucas gave one last look around. This game was more interesting than he initially gave it credit for, though that might have been more because of the VR headset than the game itself. The thought of being trapped in the game constantly hung in the back of his mind, and certainly hampered the experience. He could only hope it was a problem that would be fixed soon.