Game On

Chapter Two: "Tutorial"

Mark lifted his sword in a way that would trigger his slashing marker. He held his pose and while Sean couldn't see his marker show up, Mark did. Slashing at it, the turtle dropped dead instantly, and the little screen dinged up in front of Mark. Pressing the button to accept the meat and materials, Mark grumbled out a bit gruffly. "That marker takes so long to show up. If I was in a fight, I'd get slaughtered..." Sliding off the boulder, Sean removed his dagger and quickly threw it at a dot marker that appeared on the chest of a hawk in a tree. The bird fell to the ground, allowing the little screen to pop up over the body for him to collect his dagger and the materials from the body. As the body faded away, Sean shrugged out to him. "The marker appears faster, the more skilled your character gets. You'd have a faster marker if you had bothered to do the tutorial. Now, you'll have to increase your marker speed on your own to match mine. About six critical kills should do it."

Mark groaned but trudged toward another turtle, stating out flatly. "Is that why you wanted to linger here and not follow the other gamers to the next town?" Sean shook his head, admitting as he leaned back against a tree trunk. "No. The game automatically starts us at level three. We're given those levels based on our racial trait skills alone. How we fight and what we do increases either our proficient racial skills or new skills that we acquire along the way. I don't think jumping straight to a level three town is wise in a game like this. Not with what is at risk..." Mark killed another turtle, then turned to lock soft eyes with him. Sean crossed his arms over his chest, trying to hide that he was really hugging himself to keep from shaking apart. He didn't want to think about being trapped in the game. He just wanted to pretend that this was all just part of the game. A publicity stunt to keep people logged in longer to play the game and get the word out about it in the real world.

Mark looked him over, then nodded as he said comfortingly. "Ya. You've got a point. If our characters don't gain experience in our skills, then going to higher levels won't help us. We should farm what we can and then go to the next town." Mark glanced around nervously now, asking him softly. "Then again... It's getting really dark. I can barely see... Maybe we should head out now. Stay in the moonlight." Sean blinked with confusion and looked up. The woods were bathed in bright soft blue moonlight that allowed him to see fine. It wasn't as bright as the sun, but it was peaceful and bright enough. Shrugging, he told Mark simply. "What are you talking about? This is fine." Mark tripped over a tree root and stumbled into the grass with a grunt, before growling out. "Sean. I could barely see when the moon was out and now that it's gone behind the clouds, I can't see anything." Sean eased away from the tree and looked up at the starry sky above the treetops. The stars sparkled like diamonds, but a few dark clouds had moved to cover the bright silvery moon.

Yet, as he looked around. He could still see everything just fine. Covering his mouth, Sean gasped out in awe. "Holy shite, Mark!" Mark jerked up to his feet, bumping into a tree but holding his sword up as he blindly asked with worry. "What?! What happened?!" Walking closer to Mark, Sean told him excitedly. "Mark, I can see in the dark!" Mark lowered his sword, leaning more against the tree as he blurted out in gruff relief. "Don't scare me like that. What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?" Chuckling, Sean reached out to touch his arm and Mark's hand moved blindly to touch his hip. In that moment, Sean was glad that Mark couldn't see his reaction. His long loincloth only had a thin leather tie that rested over his hips. The loose ends of the tie wrapped along the cord to keep it from being snagged on things. Mark's fingers pressed against his warm flesh, before he asked with a light nervous chuckle. "Guess you're going to have to lead me out of here. Wanna take my hand before I touch something that we'll both regret?"

Sean started to trail his fingers along Mark's arm slowly to his wrist, until Mark jerked his hand off him and excitedly said. "Oh, wait! Maybe the menu can light things up?" Mark brought up his menu screen, prompting Sean to step back a step and relay to him. "Mark, you can only access the menu while standing still. It won't help you out of here. It will just tell others where you are." Mark didn't listen, scrolling through his menu as he mumbled to himself. "Don't I have a torch or a lantern... Maybe a spell?" Bowing his head, Sean told him bluntly. "Mark. Aesir don't have spells. Besides, you don't have to use them. I can easily just-" Sean looked up and stopped talking. Staring at Mark's menu, he froze. Why couldn't he understand the words on Mark's menu screen? Putting a hand on his shoulder, Sean quickly asked him. "Mark? What did you do?" Mark glanced at him with confused eyes, before going back to scrolling through his screen, upon saying. "What are you talking about? I haven't done anything."