James was held aloft by thick vines, thorns digging into his skin as they curled around him, and one running through his mouth to keep him from speaking. The elf woman he saw when he first entered the game stood before him, running a hand gently along his cheek, even though the thorns sliced the palm of her hand. She smiled warmly, her eyes locked with James’. Her eyes were as divinely beautiful as the rest of her, but they seemed older somehow, and despite her warm smile, they felt sad.

  “You’ve finally come to this world,” she whispered. “I’ve waited for so long for a hero to save us. Once you understand the suffering of this world, we’ll see each other soon. For now...dream again.”

  She pulled James closer and kissed him on the lips, the thorns digging into both of them before James woke up.

  He was sleeping in an inn, presumably where the mysterious knight had taken them after their disastrous encounter with the zombie in the forest. He’d known that Sable Online was the first game which induced artificial sleep in order to give realism to sleeping in inns, but he couldn’t say he’d enjoyed his first experience of it. He quickly checked on his health.

  Cieth

  Level 2 Guardian

  300/300 HP

  Another, far more unusual, popup then appeared.

  Dream Bonus

  Dream of the Maiden

  INT+1

  Current INT: 1

  “Dream bonus?” James muttered.

  While sleeping in an inn, you can experience a pleasant dream that will give you certain stat bonuses or temporary boosts to your abilities. Can only be experienced once per 24 hours unless you buy a Dreamweaver item, only $2 each.

  “I’ll pass,” James replied, “and I wouldn’t say they were pleasant.”

  He swiped the air to make the invasive pop up disappear as he climbed up off his bed. His casual clothes reverted to armour as soon as he stood up and walked out, looking out over the bustling inn. Players were dotted around, chatting to each other and drinking the local brew. James scanned the room before noticing Amelia and Grey sitting at a table, with large tankards in front of them. James walked down the stairs and joined them.

  “How are you holding up?” Grey asked “You were out for a while. Apparently the more you’re hurt, the longer you need to sleep.”

  “Pretty logical,” James replied. “What happened anyway? That must have been a bug, there’s no way you’d fight a Level 60 in that area.”

  “Level 60?” Amelia chuckled. “Damn, you’re salty. It was a Level 3 giant chicken and you pushed yourself too far. Patrick went nuts, nearly got wiped as well, and we dragged your sorry asses back here. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, funny, but what actually happened? Zombie dragons in the starting area?”

  “James, stop kicking yourself.” Grey smirked. “It’s a new game, we all put a foot wrong sometimes. It was a lucky crit on the monster’s part. The inn just happened to be the next location in the main story. We’re going to talk to Delarius once Patrick’s up.”

  James looked at them in shock. “You seriously don’t remember?”

  “We remember, the question is do you?” Amelia growled “Patrick’d say the same thing.”

  James sighed. He knew he wouldn’t get anywhere just going against what his friends said. If he was calm he’d figure out what was going on faster.

  “Where is he anyway? He was damaged less than me last time I saw.”

  “Sleeping in, I’m guessing,” Amelia replied. “Probably wants the peace and quiet.” She took a massive swig of her tankard and smashed it down on the table. “Wow, they really captured what it’s like to drink alcohol in this game. This stuff’s almost the real deal.”

  “Is it...any good?” James asked. Amelia smiled.

  “No, it tastes like shit, I'm just doing this for the fun of it. It is accurate, though.”

  James glanced around at the rest of the room and soon noticed the person who had saved them sitting in the corner of the bar. There was a tankard in front of them, but their helmet was still on and they weren’t drinking anything.

  “I saw them too a while ago,” Amelia chimed in, noticing James' gaze. “The Dark Knight Oblivia, infamous on the PvP circuit. Heard they've made a good bit of cash from tournaments in this game. They’ve just been sitting there, menacingly. Honestly don’t know why she’s there, maybe there’s some gratification in being creepy.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” James said, standing up and walking towards the person in black. Amelia was about to call to him, but Grey held up a hand and signalled her to stop.

  “I wanna know more about them,” they explained, "and I want to know what James is up to."

  Amelia shrugged and got back to drinking. James stood in front of the mysterious warrior, who didn’t even respond to James’ appearance.

  “Hey,” he said “I was the tank of the party you saved. I was unconscious when you saved us, and everyone else seems to remember it completely differently, so I just wanted to say...thanks.”

  “Uh-huh,” Oblivia responded, not acknowledging James in any other way. After a few moments of awkward silence, James tried to keep the conversation going.

  “What the hell was that thing, anyway?” He asked. “It must be a glitch. Did you know it was going to happen? Has it happened before? You’d think they’d fix a zombie dragon appearing in the tutorial and then...mind wiping people, I gue-”

  “Kid, I need some time to think,” She replied “Please leave me alone.”

  James shrugged, “Ok, sure. Just wanted to say thanks.”

  James turned around to leave. As he did so, Oblivia quickly checked his stat block.

  Cieth

  Level 2

  Guardian 2

  HP: 300 STR: 5 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 10 INT: 1

  She got up from his table and grabbed James’ arm. A few bar patrons glanced around, but none of them thought anything of it: if anything bad went down the NPCs would throw them both outside.

  “How the hell did you raise it?” She growled. James looked confused.

  “Raise what?”

  “Your Int stat. How the hell did you raise it?”

  “I-I don’t know, I got one of those dreams that give you buffs, and it just gave me the Intelligence one.”

  “Listen to me. There are only five people in the history of this game who have figured out how to raise that stat by even one point. All of them did it after the base game, and none of them play the game anymore. No one has managed to get it this early, especially from dumb luck.”

  James raised an eyebrow, “What’s the point of a stat you can’t raise?”

  “I don’t know, but you seem to be a goddamn magnet for insanity right now, and I won’t be there to protect you every time it goes down. If you value the safety of you or your friends, you need to pack up and leave now. Nothing good has ever come out of that stat. I hope you don’t go down the same road they did.”

  “The same road…” James thought for a moment, “You knew them, didn’t you?”

  “Take my drink if you want.” Oblivia let go of James’ arm and turned to leave. “I hope we don’t run into each other again.”

  “At least tell me why no one else remembers what happened,” James shouted back, but the armoured woman was already out the door. James sighed, picked up the tankard and walked back to the others.

  “That looked like it went well,” Amelia muttered, having apparently refilled her tankard during the conversation.

  “How much are you drinking?” James asked.

  “Too much,” Grey interrupted. “What did she say?”

  “Nothing,” James lied. “Just got annoyed at me hanging around.”

  Grey raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. James sat down and took a long sip of his brew, thinking over what he’d just heard. It sounded like the woman in black wanted him to stop playing the game altogether, but at the same time, the knowledge that he was the sixth person in the game’s history to achieve this stat gave James a weird sense of accomplishment, even though he’d been playing for less than a day. He wanted to discover the secrets of the INT stat more than anything now, why his friends didn’t remember the encounter with Draconautis, and to do that he was going to have to play the game he had just been told not to play. He finished drinking and put the tanker down on the table.

  “It sounds like we have a lot of work to do.”

  James Stats: Level: 2 HP: 300/300 STR: 5 DEF: 15 DEX: 5 SPL: 10 INT: 1

  Grey stats: Level: 2 HP: 100/100 STR: 5 DEF: 10 DEX: 5 SPL: 10 INT: 0 Healing Pool: 200/200

  Amelia Stats: Level: 2 HP: 150/150 STR: 20 DEF: 5 DEX: 5 SPL: 5 INT: 0

  Patrick stats: Level: 2 HP: 100/100 STR: 15 DEF: 5 DEX: 10 SPL: 10 INT: 0 Mana: 100/100