Chapter 3: Trainers and Trolls

Back in the village the group examined the massive damage of the houses and cottages. Barely any survived intact. The villagers lucky enough to survive were putting bodies on carts while the few survivors that had family sat by their corpses and wailed disconsolately.

"This seems a bit too realistic," Dave said as the group passed another villager. "I mean the graphics are awesome and I suppose I should be happy not to see body parts littering the area but... this is really a downer."

"I know," Marieta said uncomfortably. "They need a gore setting. System. Stop acknowledging feedback. It's annoying."

Aragorn shrugged and smiled happily. "I think that's the one thing they got right! This is how tragedy should look!"

The others looked at each other and nodded, "Definitely needs a filter."

Kretor looked around them sadly as they made their way to the center. "Our home. We are not yet strong though," he paused as his piercing eyes swept over them. "The village needs us. Now that our abilities have unlocked we all need to pull together and fight the enemies of our land!"

As he said this they reached the center of the village. Debris had been cleared away and the four NPCs from the Rebellion stood there in idle poses. Staring at them coolly with hands on hips.

"They all have the same look," Aragorn said. "They look like fashion models."

Immediately, the knight crossed his armed and his face took on a noble demean. Another idly began to flip a coin. The third began pacing in front of some kind of billboard with sheets of parchment on it. The billboard was titled 'Quests'. Only the fourth NPC, Heridyne remained in the same pose.

"Whoa!" Aragorn said slightly shocked. "Instant updates. Maybe the M&M program is as good as you say."

Walking over to the billboard he moaned. "Its mostly kill quests. Kill five mutated... buffalos? Aren't they extinct?"

"No, I hear they are farming them and distributing their meat to exotic food places," Marieta replied.

"Well now we kill and eat them," Aragorn said with disdain. "Says the portal energy warped the local wildlife and a bunch of war beasts from the Empire scattered and started breeding. Right. Its been ten minutes since they invaded. I call <beep>. I mean bull."

"There's a dungeon adventure but it not available. The system says we need a combat skill at level 5 for group play or level 8 for single play to do it."

"You can choose not to group?" Dave said in surprise as the system guided him how to send his clairvoyance into the billboard to perceive the quests."

"First skill in the Clairvoyance tree unlocked. Remote Viewing, level 0.

"Oh, cool." Dave spent a few seconds changing his point of view to above him and to his right.

"Remote Viewing +1."

"Neat, but I think it's making me a bit tired." With a thought, Dave set the camera back to normal. He supposed the energy drain was a subtle way to get the player to use the first person interface, rather than 'cheating' with a view that could see all around.

"NPC trainers can help you learn skills at an accelerated pace, compared to self-practice," murmured the system voice. "Up to an unspecified maximum."

"Um. Excuse me. Can anyone help me with the Psionic Bolt skill?" Dave asked. Marieta looked over in surprise.

"They can do that?" she squeaked.

"Yeah," acknowledged. "The system told me. You may not want to turn off the AI until you get an idea of what's going on."

"Grrr. Fine. It's just...such a..."

"Troll?" Aragorn interrupted. He had walked over to the obvious wizard and was talking to him. Oddly enough it was muted in such a way that Dave knew they were talking but he couldn't make out the differences.

"Remote Viewing +1."

"I can," the angel woman spoke up as she stepped forward. Deridel, Trainer, HP:10000, Mana:500, Psi: 10000.

"Clairvoyance +1."

"Please stop the system update on just the skill leveling. Keep me notified of new skills," Dave directed silently.

"Acknowledged," chimed the sweet voice of the system.

"Follow me," she said shortly. Turning, she led the way around the back of a nearby intact house. There were rows of targets. Placing her hand on his back she growled in his ear, "Feel how I move the energy. Do the same."

Under Deridel's guidance his psionic blast rapidly gained strength until the targets started to get knocked off their stands. Baramon who was shooting next to him looked on in consternation.

"How are you getting so good so fast?"

"Must be Deridel. She's giving me some kind of skill guidance."

"Deridel? How can you have Deridel? She's helping me?"

"In order to avoid player resource conflicts an additional instance of certain NPCs will be spawned to interact with the players. Other players will not see any except the NPC spawned for them."

"Won't we run into them or through them?" Baramon asked skeptically.

"We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical." Replied the system placidly.

"Holy <beep>, that's scary!"

"That's a partial quote from an old sci-fi show. It's trolling you," Dave smirked. The programmer was a funny man.

"Well, I am not amused. You must have sort of buff or bonus for high intelligence. We don't even get to roll our own stats, they're just assigned," he said dejectedly. "It's still fun but I think I'll put this in the beta report."

"Deridel, can you show me how to fly?" Dave said as he turned his attention to the NPC again. All the simulated exercise had had him a bit tired but he still really wanted to fly.

"There are several ways to fly. You can enchant an object to fly, use telekinesis to fly, use a manifestation skill to create an object to help you fly, such as wings or a pegasus," she flapped her wings to demonstrate.

"We can create animals?"

"Constructs," she corrected. "Wings are easier. You may wish to simply work on your telekinesis to start. Either I or Bolyn can help you train telekinesis or psionic constructs."

"Well," he said with a yawn. "Looks like I only have enough energy for one at the moment. Let's go with telekinesis."

For what felt like an hour he stood with Deridel's hand on his shoulder. In front of him danced the targets. They floated and swapped position with one another. Every once in a while Baramon would glare at him from the side.

Dave ignored him. He couldn't help that the system had assigned him better stats.

When he felt he was about to collapse he attempted to use telekinesis to move himself. The world blurred around him for a moment and he found himself five feet forward. A radiate haze surrounded him and rapidly dissipated.

"You have learned Telekinetic Movement skill from the ability tier Telekinesis, Level 0."

"Oh damn, I'm tired. And hungry," is that real or just the system simulating it?

"I'm logging off for a bit," he said. No one at the targeting area bothered looking. He visualized himself taking off the helmet and was back in his room.