We Meet Again

The other books dissolve into dust piles on the ground, and the one under my hand begins to glow white. Thalla screams, grabbing me with her bony hands and pulling on my wet robe.

"What have you done? You've betrayed us all!"

"Sorry!" I call out, as the world fades from view. I'm blinded by whiteness and falling again, but this time, it's a slow, cushioned fall, as if I'm floating down on an invisible cloud.

I don't know if I've made the right choice by choosing the Aquifera mastery. My only advantage against other players may be that water, as the least offensive skill set in the mystic's arsenal of skills, won't be what most people choose.

As I drift down, the world comes into view. I can see Chimstad castle from afar, and the cream-colored walls of Starford even farther away. The sun is low on the horizon, and the sky is a splash of pink and orange around it. Beneath me, the Antmound Grasslands get closer. The place looks more alive under the remaining rays of light of the day, and the red clay anthills stick out like pimples in the grass.

When I reach the ground, the game's interface of floating menus appears, and I wave my hands. That does the trick, and I'm able to select my character page. It says:

Stormborn, level 100 Aquifera Pythonisa. So my class is no longer called elemental mystic. Pythonisa definitely sounds better.

I close the interface by waving my hands again, and I reach out to the bag that hangs from my hip. When I pull on the drawstring, things start to fly out. The pink piano I purchased last week knocks me back as it flies away, landing near an anthill without making a sound. Herbs, crystals, metal slabs, ores, scrolls, armor parts, leathers, and even more furniture keeps coming out of the bag, as if all my items are relieved to be free for the first time. Everything is now scattered on the grass around me.

A notification appears on the corner of the screen.

The blue pop up says INVENTORY CHANGES, and I wave my hand to open it. Bags no longer carry unlimited weight. You must purchase or craft new bags and wagons to carry more items. You can use now use mounts, wagons, carts and carriages to transport larger items.

Great. I don't have anything that resembles a wagon, and the only mount I haven't sold is my scrawny, white rhea named Eugene. There was no need for mounts when there were portals, but I have a hunch those are gone too. This final update and its proclivity towards realism is going to piss off a lot of people.

I rummage through a pile of crystals and varied items, including a frog's leg I have no idea why I kept, and I finally find Eugene's silver plume. I'm not sure how to activate it, since I can't click on anything, so I call out his name. The crystal disappears and Eugene materializes next to me. I stretch out my hand to pet him, and he ducks his head.

"Eugene!" I call out, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. I try to caress his head again and he backs away and scowls if that's even possible for a bird with no eyebrows, and he starts pecking on the grass.

"They need food now," says someone behind me. "It won't move until it's fed."

I turn, ready to yell at whoever spoke. It's the third time someone creeps up at me in less than half an hour. But then I see her, and I swallow my voice.

It's Desdenia, human, queen of Starford, leader of the Purists and archenemy of all Chimstad in all her glory. She's sitting on an anthill with her legs crossed like she's been waiting for something. How long has she been here?

In one hand she holds her crystal bow, made of diamonds and white gold. It's rumored to be a unique item, one no else but her possesses or knows how to obtain. Her gear is one of my creations, though I doubt she knows I crafted it. A golden aura surrounds her, and I wonder if that's something that came with the latest update. There's no cosmetic spell or skill that makes a player glow like this.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, Desdenia and I had been friends. We had shared laughs regarding her choice for race, back then when the game was new and we ran into each other on a low level quest. "Why, of all the fantastical races in the game, would you choose a boring human?" I would say to her, and she'd laugh it off, trying justifying her choice. "They are conquerors in the lore," she would say.

That was when she was only Charlotte Matthews, the girl from Ft. Lauderdale who had just finished college and started playing while she hunted for jobs. Now, playing the game is her job too, except she's a world-renowned streamer with hundreds of thousands of subscribers and multi-million dollar contracts with several companies.

Coincidentally, she's also the poster head for all the real life trolls who hate players like me because they say we ruin Amoria Online by profiting off the game's economy.

¡"What are you doing here?" I say, realizing I'm still wearing my high-level gear from last night. Aside from clan names, the only difference between Starfordians and Chimstadians is our gear. Starford controls most of the hunting zones, which means they're the only ones with access to good equipment dropped by monsters.

Crafting is the sole source of gear for Chimstadians, but most of them don't care about powerful, flashy clothes. They prefer practicality over flair, using equipment that boosts farming or improves crafting proficiency in their various areas of expertise.

"My flying mount got hungry, and it dropped me. Then I saw someone floating down from the sky and came to see who it was," says Desdenia, getting up and walking towards my scattered things. She scans them as if searching for something.

I remember what Thalla said about the ticket being in my inventory and I start to panic.