“It’s some sort of magical light, like the type that everyone has from their respawn package, but yours is the most interesting one that I’ve seen.” remarks Weiss, gesturing towards my chest.

“Everyone else seems to either have a glowing mass inside of them or an object that itself glows with energy. The colors differ from person to person and object to object. Angie has a sharp blue energy inside her while George’s is a mellow yellow cloud, for example.”

Weiss has started pacing back and forth in front of me.

“Yours is not the only external glow since some people have what can best be described as an aura around them, but as the name suggests, they hang around a person like a cloud.”

He stops, pointing a finger back at my chest.

“But you are unique in that there is a thin silver wire sticking out of your chest that extends out past the point I can perceive it.”

“Huh. That makes sense, I guess.”

“Something special about your power then? I’m quite curious what it is at this point.”

How do I explain it without sounding like an irresponsible pet owner who let their vicious dog out of the yard? Should I try to explain?

. . .

Well, maybe I can get something out of this if I phrase it right? I mean, exchange of goods and services is a staple for gaming. . .

“If I tell you about it, can you make sure that Doctor Lewis never uses his healing power on me again?”

“Deal.” Weiss says grinning.

“What? After healing you back to full health that’s how you thank your benefactor?”

“So what does the silver line do?”

Ignoring the miffed face of Doctor Lewis, I start in on what my “reward” happened to be.

“As far as I can tell, the reward that I got for dying was something like a companion creature like druids or warlocks have in some games. The silver wire is probably the link that connects us together.”

“Interesting. A bond makes sense, I suppose, though why items aren’t connected to their owners is a bit mysterious.”

“You mean like the swords that people have been carrying around?”

“Exactly. They disappear on death with the user, so they are still connected in some way to the owner, we assume.”

“If it isn’t ownership, then it probably has something to do with the secondary power. . .”

Weiss just raises his eyebrow at me as if to say “Go on.”

“When I was sleeping last night, I had a very vivid dream that I think was through the creature’s eyes, so that might be what the connection is?”

“Ah, so the link is probably connected to a remote activation feature. I might need to hunt down the person who supposedly has the teleporting daggers to check that out. That and hope than another person with a companion spawns to interview.”

“Ugh, I wouldn’t wise that on anyone I liked.”

I shiver remembering the time I spent around the silver imp. Having more of the things running around would be horrible.

“Some sort of side effect from the power? Shared pain receptors, or a separation of your soul?”

WEll, I guess that puts things in perspective. It could always be worse to the point that I couldn’t just ignore the asshole and let him run off to do his own thing.

“No, he was just an asshole who kicked me in the balls and then ran off to do his own thing.”

Weiss glanced between the line coming out of my chest and my face.

“So the rumors of the little silver monster that came out of the respawn pods. . .”

“Yeah, that was him. Maybe don’t spread that around?”

“Hah, of course not. People were royally pissed off about that. I hear that Lewis actually. . .Lewis?”

We both glance to the side where Lewis had been sitting eating soup. Instead of the pouting/insulted look from earlier, his eyes are slits and he’s glaring at me something fierce.

“Err. . .would it help to say that I have no control over the creature and think that it’s an asshole?”

. . .

“Doctor Lewis?”

. . .

“I’m really sorry that whatever it was happened to you because of-”

“It pushed me into a fire. Hopped off my back and pushed me face-first into a campfire, knocking me out long enough to be halfway dead before I woke up. Had to get one of the other healers to bring me back to normal, but that was after I had been laying there for half an hour due to the confusion that happened.”

Wow. Well, that’s worse than I expected. If that’s normal for the creature than I’m in serious trouble if this ever gets out. I’ll be spawn camped back to level 1! Assuming there even are levels here. I haven’t seen them, and chanting status or menu doesn’t do anything. . .

“The kid’s right, Lewis, you’re two men suffering from the same cause. It sounds like it wasn’t his fault that happened. . .”

Lewis’s face twitches for a moment as he glares over at Weiss.

“Look, Weiss, we aren’t suffering together or some other bullsiii. . .hmm, suffering together. . .”

His face freezes for a moment and then lights up in a horrible grin.

“Hey, Mike was it? Which guild are you a part of?”

“What? Why would you even. . .”

I still don’t have enough energy to run away, but my adrenaline is spiking a bit and I think that might be a good enough substitute.

Lewis is just grinning at me, his eyes alight with madness.

“Can I just go with patient Anonymity here?”

“No.”

“Well, I don’t think I’m going to tell you when you have that look on your fa-”

“Omni! What kind of idiot runs off into the wild alone without even a weapon? It’s a miracle that you survived this time without help. Trying to go off and die on me again?”

I’m starting to get used to that voice popping up out of nowhere. With a slow turn of my head I find Buffy walking up behind me, a gigantic frown on her face and hands on her hips.

“Do you know this young man, Miss. . .?”

“Call me Buffy, I’m this idiot’s guildmate. Thanks for healing him up for us.”

She doesn’t even seem to notice the evil grin that Lewis has on his face. Probably too preoccupied being annoyed with me. Somehow Lewis’s smile grew wider. It’s touching his ears now, I think. Human faces don’t work that way. . .

“I quite agree with his irresponsibility, Miss Buffy. Now, is your guild recruiting? I feel like Mike here could certainly use a dedicated healer with how much trouble he seems to be getting into.”

“Oh, Hera is always recruiting. I usually take care of healing this idiot up, but I haven’t gotten my respawn power yet so I’m not sure if I can-”

“Excellent. Just let me grab my things and then we can see about getting everything in order.”

Weiss only gives me a look like “I tried, kid,” before he sneaks off into the rest of the camp. Traitor!