The First Bond

Bowing, Raven smiled. "Myest name be Raven, and thy humbly request you shut the hell up, and speaketh normally."

Immediately, Rainheart deflated. Laughing nervously, he scratched the back of his head. "Ok, yeah, so I guess that was a little much... still, STILL!" He quickly perked back up, smiling. "There was a player nearby, just as I expected. That sudden gust of wind was the same as when I spawned, I swear it!"

Raven sheathed his dagger. "Interesting, so it's possible to look for abnormalities in the wind to locate a player when he spawns? Are all player spawns the same?"

Rainheart rubbed his chin. "Well, it happened with me, and it happened with you. 2/2? Statistically speaking, that's 100%!"

Raven sighed. "Buddy, that isn't how statistics work..."

Rainheart laughed. "I know, I know. I was joking!" Suddenly, he leaned forward, with an intense expression on his face. "However, now is not the time for dilly dallying! We have a mission, fellow adventurer, that requires great ha-"

Raven cleared his throat.

Rainheart froze, and then smiled shyly. "Er- I mean- Uh, I have a quest! You see, when I first ventured into this la-"

"It's not the time for dilly dallying, remember?"

Rainheart sighed. "You're right... Okay, succinct then!" Standing straight, he stared off into the distance as he recounted events. "One hour ago, I spawned in! After a few minutes of walking, I found a road. On it, a group of travelers were being attacked by goblins!"

"I defended them, took about 3 minutes. Escorting the travelers on their journey, we arrived at a nearby village, taking another 10 minutes. The village, however, was also under attack by goblins! Swooped in from behind, joined with the militia to drive them away. That took about 10 minutes. Then, helped the villagers treat the wounded. At that moment, I got a new quest! To locate the Goblin's leader, kill it, and save the village! After that, I ventured into the forest, looking to hunt it down."

Raven fiddled with one of his throwing knives.  "Okay, interesting... Sorry but I think I am missing something. You have been in here for an hour, but the game has only been out for at most, what, a half hour or so? Care to elaborate?"

Rainheart cocked his head. "Huh? Did you not know about the time dilation?"

"Time dilation?"

Rainheart wagged his finger, while clicking his tongue. "Really, you should've done more research. It was all over the news leading up to release! Every hour in real life is two hours in the game! In other words, this world moves at double the speed as ours!"

Raven froze. "Huh. Okay, that is... something to think about."

Raven looked out into the distance, his mind drifting.

'That... so, the game must, what, speed up how fast the mind experiences things? How else would this work? And now that I think about it, is the game actually messing with our mind when we train our Disciplines? Would I be able to leave the game, and throw a dagger with more precision? Also...'

Raven looked back at Rainheart. "Doesn't that sound kind of... ominous? If time travels at twice the speed in here, then you could effectively double your lifespan by spending every moment you could in here. The capsule is hooked up to the sewage, water, and food systems, so it is possible. Wouldn't that be a great encouragement to keep people playing for exceptionally long periods of time?"

Rainheart cocked his head. "Huh. I didn't think of it that way. It's a little paranoid. Well, if people start getting addicted, it will be treated as a public health crisis, and the health care officials would step in. Also, if there were any serious risks, the government wouldn't have let the game release. Besides, spending tons of hours in a game is harmless, anyways"

Raven sighed. "Well, you're probably right."

Rainheart shook his head, looking disappointed. "Now that I am thinking about things, I am a little confused..." He pointed an accusatory finger at Raven. "What the HELL could possibly be more important than the release of the first ever fully immersive VR experience? A whole thirty minutes? That's an hour you could've spent getting ahead of the competition!"

Raven crossed his arms. "Oh, fuck off. I signed in on launch. The issue was that damned game release event! I logged off to check with a friend and see whether we should pick it as our spawn. Well, she didn't respond. I wasn't really surprised, though. As soon as I saw it, I knew she would want to do it. She probably guessed I wouldn't even bother trying to contact her."

Rainheart blinked. "Wait, huh? Game release event, what's that?"

Raven, likewise, blinked. "What do you mean? It was one of the options for your spawn. Didn't you see it?"

Rainheart chortled, a smug grin appearing on his face. "Oh, of course not. Do you not realize how excited I was to play this? I didn't even spend more than 10 SECONDS building out my character OR selecting my spawn, so as to maximize the amount of time I would spend in game! Hehehe, I bet you couldn't even DREAM of getting into the game that quickly."

Raven looked at Rainheart, dumbfounded. Eventually, the words sunk in, and an expression of intense disappointment and contempt appeared on his face. "Dear god, that isn't something to brag about..."

Rainheart waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Yeah, yeah. Anyways..." Rainheart produced an annunciatory cough,and waved his hand dramatically. "Fellow adventurer, I hereby request your aid in this perilous quest!"

Suddenly, a new screen appeared in front of Raven.

___________

Quest Request From: Rainheart

Quest: Kill the local Goblin King

Expected difficulty: Moderate

Reward: Perks, quality variable. Loot from the King's abode.

Accept?

Y/N

___________

Raven shrugged. "Nah, I'm good."

Rainheart laughed. "Wonderful! Now we can sta-" Rainheart frowned. "Excuse me? Why the hell not!?"

Raven grinned. "I wanted to see if you could send a Quest Request to someone after they denied it."

Rainheart huffed. "Dick move, dude. Could've waited to search for that information online. people are probably already working on the wiki. Whatever, I am a forgiving guy." Rainheart waved his hand, and the Quest Request was sent to Raven again. "You are quite the character, aren't you? Whatever, now we ca-"

A ding resounded in Rainheart's mind, along with a message.

"Raven has denied your request to work together."

After a brief moment of silence, a gloomy expression appeared on Rainheart's face. "Oh, well, I guess you don't want to do the quest? It's cool, It's fine. I guess I can be a little... annoying to deal with. Well, I will be on my wa-"

*DING*

___________

Quest Join Request From: Raven

Quest: Kill the local Goblin King

Expected difficulty: Moderate

Reward: Perks, quality variable. Loot from the King's abode.

Accept?

Y/N

___________

Rainheart stared at the screen in front of him for a few moments, and then turned towards Raven. "So, does that mean you want too..."

Raven shrugged. "Sure, whatever. I needed the combat experience anyways."

Rainheart brightened up, smiling broadly. He began to pump his fists into the air, cheering loudly. "Fuck yeah! My first adventuring partner! Man, those goblins are NOT going to know what hit them!"

Suddenly, he stopped, and then looked towards Raven.

"Oh, by the way, are you a boy or a girl?"