'Calamity Lara/ Short name Cala' Level 94, Title: Warlord, Class: Assassin.

Statistics:117.256 kills; 3 deaths

Oh! Runs out in 2 days. Activate? Y.

Oh my, I almost let Cala run out!

Cala is about an inch taller than me, and I am a tall girl; her hair is raven black, cut short, and her eyes are of a steely-blue greyish colour. When she looks at you, there is a light in those eyes as if they would have inside lighting.

She can move incredibly fast; she is powerful but has a lithe silhouette. She is sporting a pair of cheeky breasts, has long legs and slender arms and dresses like a barbarian princess, wearing leather armour.

Her nose was originally perfectly straight but now has a minor deviation in the middle; some time ago, one healing did not work perfectly. Yes, even magic has its blunders. A visit to a high-level specialist and a decent amount of gold could have fixed it, but it was not on Cala's priority list.

Her rather thin lips are encircling a relatively wide grinning mouth displaying two rows of perfectly white teeth. Yes, I am happy to be here!

I have to get used to being her... I needed a couple of seconds to do it. It is strange to see how fast our brain adapts to a different body: stronger and faster yet mine. I slowly moved my hands, closed and opened my fists, stretched my legs, and moved my shoulders. I breathed deep and then slowly exhaled.

Why had he called her a cheated character? Oh yes, because I did not grow her myself. I have her from a temporary friend; I got her when he ceased playing. At the time, I was working on a games-related school project; I met him, we talked, and he stopped playing, and this is how I got Cala. Well, that's another story.

It didn't feel like a cheat. I am Cala. Cala is me. I remember why I stopped playing. How could I forget? The problem was not Cala nor the game. The problem was Dolores. I was the problem. When leaving, becoming Dolores, becoming myself, I was starting to feel incomplete. I was losing myself. I feared becoming too much in love with being Cala; that's why I ceased to play her.

Yes, I was feeling incomplete.

With Cala, only with Cala did I feel complete.

Now it felt like coming back home. I entered the lobby. A lot of people in the lobby, everybody in a hurry.

I went with fast steps directly towards the wall that opened portals to private rooms.

Such a simple action, a relaxed run, and yet such a difference to my day-to-day existence, to my day-to-day Dolores. How can she move so elegantly, so smoothly? I mean me, Cala. Each step is fun, each step is a pleasure.

I would shake my brain and feel tired after running the 50 meters. She simply dances over those puny meters! As Cala, I could run for days and feel happy. Yes...

Don't get too excited, Dolores!

I called as he instructed me:

“Spartacius' room!”

I entered and found him there waiting for me: a warrior, a handsome guy, blond about a meter eighty-five, a little taller than Cala, a nice sixpack not covered by the patchy armour. Oh yeah, low-level armour. He watched me, a bit surprised. Sure, he had not seen me with this avatar.

“It's me, Cala!”

He smiled happily.

“Wow, you look sexy!”

A red panel blinked above his head: careful, minor 14 years.

He had to use the word 'sexy' ... I sighed. I am here with a kid!

The fuck? Why was he allowed here? I remember how difficult it was for me to be allowed several months before maturing, so how comes he is allowed?

My first impulse was to run, but then wait, I am not here for an adventure? I am here for the fun of it, Mephisto is great, and I feel terrific as Cala, so why not? I'll help him a little while; then I'll go farm for money in the upper levels areas and have some real fun. The system will port him out if anything above what has been approved for him is about to happen. I will not have such luck. Three ports, and he'll be banned.

I am here because he asked me to help him complete a quest in Mephisto Chapter 2: Kill the Lynx.

This is why I reactivated Cala. At least for the fact that he made me reactivate Cala, I should help him. I had known him since that day when I desperately searched for a co-pilot and mechanic to help me in a car racing game. He was one of the few who volunteered and was qualified.

After we did together that Paris-Dakar rally, which exists now only in Dreamland, I added him to my friends' list. We finished eight from I don't know how many thousands with me as the driver and he as co-pilot. We were a good team! I need to put a note about his age in the character tab.

I grinned:

“Nice outfit, isn't it? It took me a lot to find these things that fit together!“

Well, that was true. At least half of my game time went to raiding the action house or chasing rare mobs to get the desired pieces. Not leaving him time to comment, I added:

“Let's go kill that beast!”

then I turned towards the wall:

“Mephisto, chapter 2.”

Another door opened, but this time like a magic portal.

Joining Mephisto's world. A New Reality! No repetitive quests, no fixed outcomes. Help build the world with your imagination! Fight for good or bad, be an angel or a demon! And many more pictures and slogans plastering the wall.

The greatest and most popular game online!

We entered the game. I needed a couple of seconds to get used to the light. Amazing well-done graphics. It looks better than real. Incredible high computing power. All computers of playing people are connected; I remember I saw the table when entering the lobby: there are millions of users playing Mephisto now and have made their computers available for the game in addition to the company servers! Millions, tens of millions of computers power connected! Wow! But the clue and their secret are how they made them work together and in this way become the greatest, fastest computer ever!

Powered for a game!

“Hello, lady Cala.”

The sweet voice woke me up from my thoughts and made me smile. A beauty to fall in love with. I turned and watched her red hair cascading over her naked shoulders. She was resting in her bow, dressed in trapper-look, carrying a bag full of arrows on her shoulder. The best fire-arrows shooter I ever knew. What a wonderful picture I was looking at: this ginger-haired lady with the background of a wild forest. Wow, the last upgrade did really improve much; I could not see any issues, any simplified background parts; I could see perfectly, near and far, the image going into details everywhere. I could even smell the forest. My connection must have been really good. Mephisto – more real than reality. Oh yes, they made it with this release.

Spartacius wondered seeing her, waking me up from my reverie:

“You still have a rogue-archer from Chapter 1 as your bodyguard? I heard they are good for nothing.”

Alice stayed near me, smiling, ignoring the insult as should any NPC do, but I had the feeling I saw a slight reaction in her eyes, a twitch on her face, and her hand tightening the grip on her bow.

I instantly thought:

“Lol, she would give you the beating of your life!”

I shrugged. I think the former Cala – Markus, the guy from whom I have the character - kept her because of her looks. There were other more efficient mercs* in Mephi**, but none so good looking.

“She is OK. She is level 84.”

“Whoa, that's a level! How many years to get there? Crazy! But you should see what a sorcerer from one of Chapters 3 with level 84 can do!”

“Yes, yes, I know. Your choice to level them, I prefer her.”

“Should I also hire one?”

“I would suggest so, you need to arrive in Chapter 3 to be able to hire a sorcerer, and you need help to arrive there.”

“OK, that makes sense. Can you lend me some gold to hire one? I'll give it back to you once we get the reward!”

“Sure, let's go to the camp before visiting the town. Wait! Don't run! We'll rent a pair of horses, or else we will be walking for the next hour...”

The ride to the rogues' camp will take less than ten minutes. I'll lend him the money to rent a horse too. We are lucky to be very close to a good spot to hire or buy horses.

This travelling time is one of Mephisto's 'features' subject of many serious discussions and controversies. You spend at least half of your time going from point A to B. Yes, there are portals, and higher levels have more mobility; you can port people, fly or ride a coach or even a zeppelin, but still, you waste a lot of time just travelling and doing other mundane things.

Well, the argument is that this is not a shooter game. This is a realistic fantasy game. Do you want to travel faster? Raise your level, learn spells, buy expensive mounts, and use other tools. Not an easy task.

Oh well, this is hard-core Mephisto. Why do people like this?

I exchanged a look with Alice. Our eyes met, and she slightly nodded. She understood what I was meaning and will protect Spartacius the noob as a guest of honour. I watched her naked shoulders again. She is smaller than me, her skin white, freckles appearing on her cheeks, and even on those round naked shoulders shining like two apples in the sun. Should I take a bite?

The thought passed through my mind, and I felt my mouth watering. And now we get to the dark side of the game. Mephisto: the game where everything is possible, you can do what you want here, there is no limitation. Really anything your mind is capable of.

I grinned at the thought, then shook my head. How come these stupid thoughts passed through my mind? She is my Alice? Use my Alice? Fuck?

Yeah, there is the dark side of Mephi, and sometimes I did surprise myself with funny thoughts. Players organize themselves, kingdoms and empires have their rules, and you can be punished if you break the rules, but you can try here what your heart desires. When you know you could do anything, what would you do? I shrugged. Most people do the most normal things, drink beer, eat well, dance, have fun and occasionally have sex. Oh, yes, rob the bank, raid foreign cities, become a warlord or run away with the princess. Or just open an inn.

Alice came closer to me to chat, interrupting my confabulations.

“Slaver gangs movement have been reported and a couple of settlements raided. We should take some precautions. What do you think?”

The annual Empire raids for slaves have started. They regard most neighbouring countries as a source of cheap labour and training opportunities for their raiders. They always focus on the weaker neighbours. No, not declaring outright war, just sending 'privateers' who raid for money. A bunch of parasitic depraved bastards, but occupying a huge chunk of strategic territory. The republic had considerable losses in its current war against the orcs. What better opportunity to take its citizens as slaves?

I sighed:

“You should go scouting in front of us. Don't risk anything.”

She nodded; nothing else needed to be said. She would scout and warn us in case of any trouble.

I looked around, comparing things in my mind. I should be now shopping with Clara and Lola.

A shopping tour has its appeal, and with Lola, it is always fun, but Clara, her older sister, is a pain in the ass. I live with the two sisters in a rented apartment, Lola is my schoolmate, and Clara, her one year older sister, is 'the adult in the room'. Yes, true, without her, our parents would not have allowed us to relocate to this school, but she overplays her 'adult' role; that's so tiresome.

Just now, we had a heated argument about why I didn't want to go shopping with them. Why? Because I like Dreamland, that's the straightforward truth.

I snorted with disdain. Forget Clara! I am now in Dreamland, Mephisto's World, and I am going to raid… yeah, I am going to kill a poor Lynx in a beginner's chapter. Chapter two. And I feel good. Let's get that beast!