Matt veered off to the side, then the walls constricted him into a small ball as a pinpoint of flashing, multicolored light pulsed in the distance. His vision blurred and his head started pounding. The colors swallowed him, encircled him, and flashed around his body as he slipped into something that felt like it was a bad remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Plop!

A moment later he found himself lying face down on a sterile, white floor.

“We’re here,” Stoffel said. “Stand up, brush yourself off. You’re about to meet the others.”

“Others? What do you—”

Before Matt could move to get up, a door opened in the wall about ten feet away. Matt looked up to see a pair of imps entering the room on foot.

“Oh bloody hell, not more of you.”

The two new imps stopped and stared down at Matt.

“Who is this?” asked the first.

The second one tilted his head and grunted. “Another gutter rat for your projects, Stoffel?”

Stoffel laughed and waved at Matt as if to say “don’t listen to them,” but Matt was very keenly listening.

“And puh-leeeeze tell me you didn’t burn another escape hatch,” the first imp said.

“Guys, I have this well in hand. Don’t worry.” Stoffel walked closer to the two imps and they spoke in hushed tones, occasionally throwing a glance or two at Matt.

Having had more than enough of others planning his future for him, Matt got to his feet and strode confidently toward the imps. “Stoffel, I want to know everything that’s going on. Who are these imps? Where am I? And, last, but certainly not least, what exactly is our arrangement? I just want to get it over with so I can go home.”

All three imps fell silent and looked up at him.

“You know my name, and that’s enough for now,” Stoffel said. “What I will tell you is that I am not operating alone. Others work with me to the same ultimate goal. As I told you before, I am a hacker. Let your imagination fill in the gaps as to how my colleagues might help.”

“And where are we?” Matt asked.

“The digital equivalent of a safe house,” Stoffel said with a shrug.

“Not to be used lightly!” one of the imps cut in. “So you had better be worth it.”

“Me?” Matt said.

The second imp nodded. “When Stoffel brought you here, he burned up what we call an escape hatch, a direct one-way ticket to this room. It can only be used once, and we can’t plant any additional hatches.”

“Why not?” Matt asked. “If you’re hackers, you should be able to do--”

“I’m just going to stop you there,” the second imp said. “We had a small window of time to plant the original hatches. After that, E.M. Games’ own security forces mobilized in a way that makes new hatches not only easily detectable, but reroutable. We almost lost another one of us in just such an incident when that operative thought they could create more undetected.”

Stoffel laughed. “Yeah, he lost a tail that day.”

“He’s lucky it wasn’t more than that!” the second imp said.

“Okay...” Matt looked at the two new imps and decided to give them nicknames of his own. The first had a wart on his left cheek, so he’d call him Wart. The second reminded him of a particularly grumpy student back in college, so he’d name her Crystal. “So beyond this door is what... your secret lair or something?”

“Something like that,” Stoffel agreed with a nod. “Come on, let’s show you around a bit.”

“You better not dress him like one of us,” Crystal chided as they all exited the room.

“Relax, it wouldn’t do any good to have him in one of our avatars. No, no. I have something special in mind.”

Matt scanned the hallway as they left the sterile room. Only from the outside did he notice the several levers protruding from the wall and the screens through which an outside observer could inspect the sterile room.

“What are the levers?” Matt asked.

“If you had been traveling without Stoffel, we would have pulled them to fry your brain,” Wart replied dryly.

Matt stopped and blinked. “Like... my actual brain?”

Wart shrugged. “Not really sure. We built it to be strong, and in theory it shouldn’t do more than give the recipient a bad headache when they wake up in the real world, but I suppose I might have made it overpowered.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Crystal added. “Luckily, we haven’t had to use it.”

Matt chewed his lip for a moment, and then reached out and tapped Stoffel on the shoulder. Stoffel turned around and barely had to look at Matt next to the levers to guess what he was thinking.

“Nah, mate, it won’t send you back. An auditor can come and go as they please, so it’s designed to force them to eject themselves to avoid the extreme pain. For you, it would just result in your avatar being electrocuted until you blacked out. Then we could relocate you in game. If it was so simple as to just zap you out, I wouldn’t be making a deal with you to pay me back for the favor.”

“Hell, I’d fry him just to watch him squirm if it would kick him out,” Crystal added.

“That’s rude,” Matt said without thinking.

Crystal shrugged and disappeared into a doorway about ten yards down the hallway on the right. Wart went in after her.

“Come on,” Stoffel said. “Don’t let their gruff facades fool you. They’re both quite caring once you get to know them.”

“Sure...” Matt followed Stoffel straight down what seemed like a laboratory hallway. White subway tile lined the walls. The dropped ceiling above him reminded him of films showing office scenes set in the 80’s. At the end of the hall were two doors. Stoffel turned around and clapped his hands together once as he flapped his wings and elevated up to Matt’s eye level.

“I always keep my promises,” Stoffel said. “I’m going to make it so no one outside will recognize you. You’ll get a new set of skills, and a whole host of powers. The downside is I can only spawn you in as a level one, but I know a few tricks to help you advance quickly. Plus, I’ll have your back, so don’t worry about getting mobbed early on.”

Matt was intrigued now. “So, I’ll have magic, then?”

Stoffel smiled wide, revealing his wicked fangs. “It’ll only cost you your soul,” he said with a laugh.

Matt chuckled for the first time in a while and shook his head. “I think I already signed that away to E.M. Games.”

Stoffel clapped Matt’s shoulder. “Too true! Come on. Let’s go inside. I’ll get you set up with a new avatar and you can help me pick the right kind of character for you.” Stoffel opened the door and floated in. Matt followed him into the room and then the door slammed shut behind them. The hairs on the back of Matt’s neck stood on end as a bright light shattered the darkness to reveal a single chair in the middle of the room. Thoughts of old prisons with electric chairs and every torture scene he’d watched in the movies flooded his brain for just a moment before he realized that this chair was different. The seat was padded, and the armrests didn’t have any sort of straps.

“Hop into the chair and let’s get you a character,” Stoffel said.

Matt complied, relaxing into the soft seat and leaning back, allowing the auto-adjusting headrest to take the weight from his neck. He was surprised at how relaxed he felt, considering he was in an avatar. Then again, up until now he’d felt some pretty incredible pain too, so perhaps he shouldn’t have been so amazed by a simple chair.

“You’re going to need stealth, lock picking, some good weapon skills, and a bit of magic,” Stoffel said.

“So a thief-mage?” Matt guessed.

Stoffel frowned as he hovered above Matt. “Not exactly. I was thinking more long term. You might need a certain set of skills for one mission, then a different set the next. I think what would be smartest would be to make you an enchanter.”

“An enchanter... like a guy who imbues items with spells?”

Stoffel nodded. “Precisely. Say you need to infiltrate a castle or something, and there are a lot of vaults or locked doors, then you’ll want an enchanted lock pick set and perhaps some boots of sneaking. The items aren’t impossible to find in the world, but we can go faster if you are able to make them yourself. Plus, as you level up, your enchanting ability will increase.”

“And what about fighting?” Matt asked,

“Same thing. Enchant a sword or a bow or whatever. Of course, I’ll make sure you have some destruction and healing magic too. I don’t want you getting stranded out there by yourself. Some missions I can go with you, but others you’ll need to do alone.”

Matt watched Stoffel float upward. The imp snapped his fingers and a hovering user interface appeared. Stoffel placed his right thumb on a glowing green square.

“Welcome, Stoffel,” a pleasant female voice called out.

“Initiate character creation,” Stoffel commanded.

An aura of light rose from the floor and encircled Matt as he sat in the chair. “Is this going to hurt?”

“Nah. Shouldn’t feel anything. First it will strip away your current avatar, then you’ll be ready to take on your new form.”

The light shell around him pulsed, sending several waves inward that washed over him. Matt watched the avatar melt away, leaving only the strange gray body he’d had in the very beginning.

“All right, first things first, pick a gender.”

“Male,” Matt said.

“You sure?” Stoffel asked. “Switching genders can help fool the auditors a bit.”

“Nah, I want to be male,” Matt replied.

“Suit yourself.” Stoffel touched a few selection boxes on the interface, then glanced over his shoulder. “What race do you want to be?”

“What are my options, and what bonuses do they confer?”

Stoffel cleared his throat and looked back to the interface. “Well, throwing out the more unique races, I’d say elf or human.”

“Why not something more unique?” Matt asked.

“I mean, you could be a werebear, or a half-giant, or one of several winged humanoid races, but I’ve found that humans and elves are the best choices for avoiding detection by the auditors. Remember, your compliance manager is probably going to be hunting you down full time now, as will the auditor that spoke with you in the dungeon.”

“Yeah, he wasn’t so big on speaking with words,” Matt agreed.

“I don’t want to send you out into the world just to have you caught. It wouldn’t do either of us any good.”

Matt’s mind went back to something the other imps had said in the first room. “Have you lost someone else?” Matt asked.

Stoffel bristled, but kept his face away from Matt. “Why’d you say that?”

“The others said something about another gutter rat,” Matt replied.

Stoffel coughed and gave a shrug. “They like to make hyperbolic statements. I wouldn’t read into it too much.”

Matt could hear the twinge in Stoffel’s voice. He was certain there had been another, but it was obvious that Stoffel wasn’t going to share any information about it. At least Stoffel seemed to feel uncomfortable about the subject. Matt took that to mean that Stoffel felt badly about whatever had happened. It was the first time anyone, whether compliance manager, recruiter, or imp, had shown any real sign of human emotion.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” Matt said after a moment. “I’m good with either elf or human. Pick whichever you think will be best.”

“I say human,” Stoffel replied. “Slightly better in terms of base strength, carrying capacity, and there are more human-led cities than elf-led cities. Should help with blending in. Elves are definitely better with magic overall, but once we get high enough enchanting skills, it shouldn’t be too much of a gap.”

A light pulsed over Matt, turning him into a human male and dressing him in modest trousers.

“Now, let’s set your class to enchanter,” Stoffel said. “Once I am done, I’ll bring the interface down for you and you can explore some of your stats.”

The light pulsed several more times as Matt was dressed in some basic robes and given a staff.

“Want to be young or old?” Stoffel asked?

“I dunno, young-ish I guess. Dark hair.”

Stoffel stopped and turned around. “You aren’t trying to look like your normal self in real life are you?”

“No, no, just, if I am going to pick, then that’s what I want to look like.”

The imp shrugged and went back to selecting options. “Just saying, if your face or other features are too similar, the auditors will recognize you.” A few more moments passed as light pulsed through the shell, then the shell receded into the floor and Stoffel descended, towing the interface with him. “Go on, have a look.”

Matt looked at the image before him and smiled. He was decent looking with a medium build, but tall. Wavy dark hair fell softly around nicely symmetric features that hinted at an athletic lifestyle given his slightly tanned complexion.

“So, your enchanting ability right now is limited. You can enchant items with stealth bonuses, fire damage, health regeneration, and bonuses to lock picking and persuasion. You aren’t exactly double oh seven, but you should do well enough in your first mission.”

Matt nodded as he selected his spells tab. “I can throw Minor Fireball, Magic Arrow, and Mythic Dagger.”

“Not to mention you have bonuses to your strength, intelligence, and charisma stats as a human.”

“What’s feral cry?” Matt asked. Stoffel didn’t respond, likely because the imp could see that Matt was already reading the small description under the special ability. “Raised in the wilderness by a reclusive guild of mages, the Feral Cry allows you to summon a random familiar twice a day to aid you in your quests.”

“Usually it’s something small in the early levels, like a scorpion or a snake.” Stoffel shrugged. “Maybe a bat or hawk or something. It’s fully random, but usually good in a pinch. It was either that or Star Sight, which allows you to see clearly in dark tunnels or at night, but you can only use that once a day. It’s kind of lame, to be honest, especially if you can enchant a helmet to do the same thing later on.”

“Sounds fair,” Matt said.

“Your mana should be high enough that you won’t need conventional weapons, but just in case, I set you up with a short sword. I also ensured you would have a decent amount of gold to start with. Shall we try our first training mission?”

Matt stood from the chair and nodded. “Yeah, you have a training room?”

Stoffel smiled and pointed to a newly formed door off to the side. “Right through here.”

Matt took two steps toward the door, then hesitated. “The last time I made a character and went through a door, I was locked into the game permanently.”

Stoffel laughed and went first. “I won’t lie, this is a one way door as well, but I’ll be going through with you. This will take us out of the emergency safe house and to one of my favorite locations.” Stoffel opened the door to reveal a thick forest. A pair of deer stood grazing off to the right, and a small creek babbled softly nearby.

“Want to take a shot at the deer?”

Matt smiled wide as Stoffel floated through the doorway and up to perch upon a branch. “Don’t mind if I do.” Matt stepped through the door and equipped his fireball. Flames crackled to life in his right palm, but he didn’t feel the heat. The fire was fully within his control. He threw it at the nearest deer. The ball hissed as it sailed through the air and slammed into the deer’s side. A circular area was blasted clear of fur, scorching the skin underneath. The deer snorted, then fell onto its side.

“Excellent!” Stoffel said.

The second deer abandoned its partner and bounded off through the underbrush, disappearing in the forest in a matter of seconds.

Stoffel floated down and rested on Matt’s shoulder. “I think I have a name for you now,” he said.

Matt looked at him. “If you say good cop, I’ll send the next fireball at your face.”

The joke landed well and Stoffel snickered. “No, no, I was thinking of something else entirely. I’m going to call you Gryl.”

“Grill? Like grilling meat?” Matt asked.

Stoffel nodded. “Yeah, but spelled with a Y to make it more fantasy-appropriate. The way you seared that deer... it’s the perfect name. Gryl the Enchanter.”

Matt’s smile grew. “Actually, I like that. A lot.”

“All right Gryl, then let’s go find something a little harder. You know, there’s a local merchant about a mile or two from here. Let’s go test your sneaking skills.”