Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.
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The four starting islands of Long Island were Ilmentia, Dalmund, Brittanica and Khardoum. Just like Ilmentia looked like ancient roman civilization so did the other islands resemble ancient earth civilizations. Dalmund was similar to the Germanic tribes, Brittanica the English and Khardoum was similar to the Egyptians. How closely did they resemble these ancient civilizations was a matter of debate. Although it would be safe to say that the clothing was similar.
And like Gurrow village, all the villages where players started were guarded by an Age barrier. Dalmund had the earliest Age limit at 12. Ilmentia and Brittanica opened up at Age 14. Khardoum had an even higher Age limit. It opened up at 15. And it seemed that very recently it had finally opened up to a single player who had reached Age 15 in the Hebenu village, the starter village of Khardoum kingdom.
Swamy was looking at a forum post titled "Difficulty C quest" posted by someone named Thadian. The contents of the post were...
"I reached Age 15 yesterday and headed out of the village to go to the capital city of Fayyum. Not going into much detail but I just found a quest with difficulty C. Unfortunately I died, failing the quest. I have tried asking around but it seems that no one has yet encountered a quest with a higher difficulty than D+. So I was wondering whether I wasn't the first one to discover it.
Thinking back on the quest though, I think this was a quest specially for the first person to leave the village. Did the other villages also have something like this?"
Lots of people had seen this post and a few had asked questions also. But mostly there were no replies as there would only be like 4 people who could have answered that question. One of them was Swamy.
'Ah a kindred spirit.' Not very long ago Swamy had encountered a difficulty C quest. It was more luck than anything that he survived it. Lady Altia's blessing had played a major part in this. Though the difficulty was C and he had luckily survived, Swamy didn't think that it was harder than a D+ quest. Perhaps because he had survived, he could afford to think so.
'Maybe you need to have the right set of blessings or equipment or training to survive this C difficulty quest. But that would depend more on luck than anything else I suppose.'
Swamy posted his own reply. He generally avoided this but he had felt a strange camaraderie with this Thadian, whoever he/she was.
"I also encountered a difficulty C quest when I left Gurrow village. Fortunately I survived. It eventually led to the Capture the Beastmen and pirate subjugation quests, both of which were D+ difficulty. I suppose this kind of thing would have happened in the other islands as well seeing that it already happened in Ilmentia and Khardoum."
He then put his laptop to sleep and started getting ready for college. He still hadn't found any information about Sea Gods.
Lunch time...
Another exam over. Though Indian universities followed the semester system (6 months) and not the term system (4 months), examinations usually happened during the 5th month. The time afterwards was dedicated to project work or similar things with about a week to 10 day holiday between two semesters. Well education was still being experimented on by the authorities that be, in order to determine the average amount of time needed to study something. While that may be going on, it was the end of semester examinations at the University of Bangalore.
After the exam, Swamy arrived at the mess hall to a table containing three dejected bodies. Or maybe they were simply sleepy. Late night study was taking its toll on most students and half of the heads in the mess hall had started lolling as soon as they reached a seat. Swamy was no exception. He had kept his routine of playing during the night even during this period. That meant he had to do his revisions before he started playing. Fortunately during this exam period students did not have classes. They only had to appear for 3 hours for the exams and then they could go home afterwards. Which meant that Swamy had ample time to study.
Not that it helped. Late night playing was not recommended during these stressful times. Not when you wake up to a doubt filled morning and you start trying to remember if you had missed something or if that thing you read was the right thing.
But then he enjoyed the game so much and if possible, he didn't want to stop playing it.
"Hey guys...how did it go?" Swamy asked the dropped heads in front of him. Slowly they moved and lifted their heads.
"Hey Swamy" replied back Himali.
"mmmhsnhmm" said Sneha.
*snore....went Manish.
Swamy almost laughed remembering yesterday.
"By the way where is Rajan? Doesn't he not like staying in the classroom long?" Swamy asked referring to the missing person.
"He was here earlier. But then went somewhere saying he'll be back soon." replied Himali.
"Must be the toilet!ghghgh *snore" went Manish.
Both Himali and Swamy stared at him but he was really truly asleep. Then they broke out laughing. Their laughter broke the solemn sleepy silence around the mess hall, breaking off more than a few dozen fantastical or erotic dreams.
A little while later Rajan returned. Contrary to his usual exam-depressed-sleepy-mood, he was quite excited. He walked quickly up to them and in a voice which seemed louder in the relative silence of the mess hall,
"Hey hey hey....why are you guys asleep! Wake up and hear the most exciting news. Raka has posted again!"
Swamy almost fell off his seat.
The voice carried over to quite a few ears, not all familiar. Quite a few perked up after hearing this and started looking towards Rajan. Then they dived into their cellphones probably to access the forums. Who knew so many people around Swamy played Long Island.
"What? Did you say Raka? Did he post another video?" Himali quickly asked. The exclamation and the resulting noise woke up Sneha. Manish however chose to be oblivious to real world or virtual world problems and snored some more.
"Yes. It looks like the quests you guys did, the one to capture the beastmen and then the one Raka did, the one with the naval battle, both of them started from a difficulty C quest. Seems like the first person to leave the village gets some kind of difficulty C quest." Rajan continued.
"What?!" Sneha exclaimed. "Hey hey but we didn't get something like that. Does that mean it did not happen in Dalmund?"
"On the contrary. It means that the first person actually failed the quest. That's why the other quests did not happen." Rajan answered. "But that is not the only news. It seems that the first people, the 4 who were the first to leave the starting villages and got this quest, all of them replied to this post. See we have Firelord from Dalmund, Raka from Ilmentia, Raven from Brittanica and now Thadian from Khardoum. All of them have confirmed that they got this C difficulty quest. But they all died, failing it, except Raka ofcourse. Man, they all posted this morning like a few minutes from each other almost like they were waiting for this."
"Wow! I so wanna meet Raka." Sneha said.
"Oh we rushed over to Thelmova to catch him. But we didn't find any player coming from the ships. Maybe he hid himself. It would be so awesome if somehow we could convince him to join our guild, right Manish!"
*snore....what my love?" Manish woke up with a start.
"..........."
This time Swamy couldn't help laughing. And he was joined by the others.
Back home, Swamy quickly checked that post.
"Holy.....what the!" he couldn't stop from exclaiming. The forum was now full of this new thing. Where in the morning there were various posts on various things shown in prominence, it had all been replaced by new posts discussing the four players. Oh and each had a topic named after them now. Yup, there was an entire discussion going on with the subject 'Raka'.
'For something that happened due to luck, aren't they making a big fuss about it!'
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'This may be troublesome.' A thought invaded Raka. He did not mind the interest. Then again, he was no where near strong enough as they were making him out to be in the forums. Sure, he had a high Endurance and Stamina stats, but that wasn't special. Anyone with training will eventually get that number. His Strength and Agility stats were quite low. His Vitality stat was low too. He hadn't yet discovered a way to increase his Vitality so that was also a problem. His Focus and Perception stats were also low.
In fact looking at his stats, he was turning out to be kind of a jack of all trades character. Whether that made him good or bad was sort of up in the air at the moment. Most of the things he had done so far had relied overly on luck. Meeting Lady Altia and Lady Verina and asking them to train was luck. Getting blessings from them was also luck. Then those blessings helping him to survive the difficulty C quest was also luck. His meeting with Sambal and eventually getting to participate in the pirate subjugation was luck. In fact his surviving the ordeal, even when he was weak like an insect could be considered mostly luck.
Everything so far that had happened could be considered a part of his luck. His luck of meeting the right people. After all, was it really his skill that had made the Ladies train him? Was it really his merit which allowed him to meet the Queen? Was it really his survival instincts which saved his life against the wolfman?
So did he really deserve to be happy now that he was becoming famous?
Raka was depressed. In his defense though he was comparing himself with the sun or the moon.
Being depressed though, would not solve his problem. He had to become stronger. And for that he needed items, skills and ideas. It is an old game saying, a skill is worth ten items, an idea is worth ten skills.
Raka had steadfastly noted down each and every idea he had while on the voyage related to his various skills but mostly about magic. And now he was going to experiment to see whether it would work like he imagined it. For that, he needed a safe place, away from prying eyes. Also for this experiment he needed somewhere with soft ground. Or water.
Therefore Raka made his way to his old training grounds. The hill where he trained with Lady Altia. It was quite far from the capital but it had a lake. After his job ended yesterday, he started making his way to the hill. And now he was almost there. 'Now that I think about it, it has been quite a while since I fought.' His battles with the rabbits and wolves enraged with bloodlust seemed so long ago.
"Hmm...should I run up again for old times sake?" He asked monkey and parrot who had gladly decided to come along with him when he mentioned he was going to the forest. They loved the forest more than the city.
"khi khi khih khi"
"Ah so you want to race Sir Raka to the top eh," the parrot translated. "He will give 5 to 1 odds that he will win!"
"No bet!" said Raka. "I am here for training." 'I can bet that he will win though...hahaha.'
"Osh....here we go!" and Raka started climbing the hill as fast as possible.
He reached the top some time later, panting! His speed had increased which meant that his stamina was sapped more as well. Well not that much. He quickly took some deep breaths to calm down. From now on was business.
"Ok, monkey, Nobby, stay away from me. It might get dangerous. And if you do I might cook something good for you later."
That got their attention. On they went in search of their lunch.
Raka equipped his staff. He closed his eyes and started embedding his staff with air magic. He had improved his magic skill but it still took some time to embed. Atleast he couldn't use it in combat yet. Not that he had found a way to get to his colorful world without closing his eyes. Imagine doing that while fighting!
'Ok. Now to hold on to it tightly and... upright. Here we go!'
Raka measured about 10 breaths and then released the air magic. He quickly shot up about 10 feet in the air with Raka holding on as hard as possible. Just as he felt the staff beginning to slow down, he shifted his weight so that the top tip of the staff made an angle. Slowly the staff started making a parabola as it further lost speed and then lost all power and simply plummeted to the ground.
Splash! And Raka crashed into the lake. The lake was not very deep but thankfully the water cushioned him enough. For a moment Raka felt that he had lost his breath. But then he resurfaced.
"HAHAHAhahahahahahahahah! YES! YES! YES! Whoopiee!" And Raka started splashing in the water.
The Wright brothers first flight lasted 12 seconds. Raka's lasted 4 seconds. The level of excitement was the same. Though technically his was not a flight per se. More like being shot off on a rocket and then crashing because the rocket lost power.
But it proved that flight was possible to some degree.
Some time later, Raka finished his shenanigans and came out. He unequipped his clothes and hung it on a nearby rock to dry. Do you get naked after you unequip your clothes? Yep! Well, atleast his audience did not include any bipeds. Raka took out a paper and wrote on it.
Flight - possible. The mana required is high. Mana lost after ascending. But power was controlled till mana was consumed. Flight distance is an issue. Control is an issue. More experiments required after mana increases.
Accidentally being flown off towards the wolfman had put this idea in Raka's head. It was the same magic but applied appropriately it could launch Raka in the air. After that it was just controlling his flight by shifting his weight. Oh there were problems. Many many problems with this. But atleast he had proved that it was possible to do so. He did not know how much mana would be needed for a completely controlled flight, maybe a value in thousands. It was not an idea for the near future.
'As they say then, on with the next.'
Raka roamed around looking for pebbles. He was looking for 8 pebbles actually. It was another idea he was itching to try out. This one would be more practical though and if it worked, he could even use it in battle.
After finding 8 pebbles of a size and shape he liked, Raka embedded them with air magic. During naval training he had learned how to control the flight of a stone and use it to attack. Well, his control was still too weak for him to be of any use.
That's what he was trying to get around though. His control was weak but his magic power was strong.
'Ok that's done. Let's try it with one pebble first.' Raka focused on moving the pebble forward slowly. About ten seconds later he was out of mana. He then waited to recover, thinking about things. 'Moving things slowly should need more mana because it needs more control. I should try it faster and let momentum do most of the work.'
After recovering he tried it with the other pebble. But this time he made it move faster. Maybe because the speed helped, but his mana consumption reduced. 'Hmm. Let's see how fast I can make it go.'
In his third attempt he focused on releasing as much power as possible, without having it blow back on his face. The pebble zoomed ahead. In fact it was so fast and so small that Raka lost sight of it completely. 'How should I control it if I can't see it!' It was so bad that he did not even know if the stone went straight or veered of to somewhere else. 'Less speed.'
His fourth attempt proved better. The stone went straight with great speed and then dropped down after expending its magic. 'About 10 metres. Ok, this will do.' His mana was a quarter gone. This experiment was to determine at what speed to launch the pebbles. He wasn't done yet.
Raka focused hard and took deep breaths. This was the moment of truth. And then, he launched all the remaining 4 stones straight ahead. The stones flew straight and true and then at the end splashed down on the water making clean arcs.
"Yes! It works!" He was ecstatic. Oh but this experiment was still not over. 'Next test!'
Raka went out to find 8 more suitable pebbles. Then he embedded them with air. He rubbed his hands in excitement and took deep breaths to calm down. He really had to focus on this. Then he released all 8 pebbles at the same time. Raka had a look of concentration as he focused on all the flying pebbles, now flying straight and true. To help him concentrate he had eight fingers pointing straight with his thumbs tucked inside. Then, he folded three of them pointing them down. Correspondingly, three stones changed trajectories and headed straight down maintaining their speed but he lost control of the other stones.
"Hah!" Raka sighed loudly. He had almost succeeded. He had got this idea from the pawn in chess. A pawn always goes straight but then moves diagonally when taking a piece. Similarly the stone would move straight but could change direction once. Not much control required in that. And at a good speed it could be used to do damage. 'It could be used to distract if nothing else.'
As his control and mana increased, more changes in direction would be possible. And possibly greater speed and weight. Right now he could only move pebbles, even then only light smooth ones. Raka could imagine it's prospects though.
'Alright lets practice it some more.' After a few tries he became confident in being able to move them straight, no matter their number. And then change direction of any number of stones. Well he only changed them from straight to down but the principle worked.
"Alright I am going to name this magic, Switch!" Raka had not named a magic before. Well, it was not like naming it actually did something. That was supposed to be common sense however it made teaching easier. Which meant the magic system allowed naming them. It was difficult though.
Raka pulled out a piece of paper and started writing the steps of this magic in magic language. He had thought of it for days on the appropriate steps. See, when you write the steps of some magic in the magic language, you are basically constricting your magic, applying a rule on yourself. Your energy self, if that makes more sense. So that the next time you say Switch or Dragonball, it would process the steps as you had written, like a macro. 'Complex stuff.' So you had to make the rule precise but also flexible.
It was not automatic magic however. It simply created a rule. And like most rules, it only worked if you followed them. Lets leave that explanation for some other time.
After writing in the steps, he closed the paper like a magic scroll and sealed it. Then he wrote 'Switch' in Ilmentian letters outside. The final step in using the magic was committing it.
"Switch!" Raka clearly said. The scroll burst and then disappeared into thin air. A magic rule had been established for Raka. A magic had been named for Raka.
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You have named a magic Switch. According to the steps written, a rule has been established. If you invoke the magic Switch, it will inform you of any deviations to the rule.
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Well it was time for lunch. Raka started a fire going and when monkey and parrot returned with the rabbit, he skinned it and then put the meat in a skewer. He put in the herbs and spices he liked and then hung it over the fire to roast. While it roasted, he took out an orange from his bag and started eating it.
% Satiety increases by 5. %
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Disease is being treated. Disease information updated. Scurvy Stage 1: 74%
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And then it was time to head back.
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Swamy was delighted. His experiments had worked. And his exams were finally over.
Today was the last exam, well not exactly the last. But it was the last written exam. Tomorrow, that is Friday, they would have a different kind of exam. Well 'Virtual Reality' was not exactly a subject you could take a written exam on. So they made a new type of exam.
But for today, his exam was over. This exam was the lengthiest. Too many argumentative and essay type questions and Raka was the one to write a lot. So the time he finished was only when the exam ended. As he stood up to submit his paper and leave the class, he heard talks about him. Well not him, but Raka.
"That is one bad ass dude! That Raka."
"But I heard he is alone. I am part of the hunt. Heard nothing."
And then they walked off leaving Swamy as confused as ever.
In the mess hall, no one was asleep!
'What is going on?'
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Swamy asked his friends.
"It's a Raka hunt." replied Rajan instantly.
"Say what?!" Swamy was perplexed. For a moment he just stood there frozen.
"Ah..what do you mean by Raka hunt?" Swamy asked.
"Hahaha. Its this thing which started when someone said that he will spend his time hunting for Raka. But then everyone started going that they will hunt him too. So everyone is going 'Hunt Raka' now. No idea what they will do once they find him though. Hahahaha" and they all laughed.
"Hahaha...." Swamy started but most of his happiness had flown out the window.
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Raka walked on the road. And then he sat down and sighed. 'Don't the players have something else to do?'
He wanted to reach the capital today. He had lots of things to do. Moreover, he had an meeting with Lady Verina regarding his completion of the quest, 'Taking care of Lady Altia.' Raka had assumed that she would return back to Gurrow, but she had stuck around the capital, probably for discussions regarding the aftermath of the pirate incident. And she was being kept really busy. Thankfully, Sambal's assistant had helped him in this regard and set up an meeting with her when she came to the Magic Academy next. And that was today.
But then, there was this ridiculous Raka hunt! 'Thinking about it, how will they recognize Raka? Its not like they have seen me.' Cheered up, Raka started walking again.
An hour later, he sat down again with his head in his hands. When you worry, you worry of the worst that could happen. All the things, which couldn't happen, and all the ways, which couldn't be there, started invading the realm of possibilities. 'I hope no one calls me out by name.' He had little intimacy with the gate guards so they always asked his name whenever he entered or exited the city. Raka sighed again.
Few hours later, Raka arrived at the gates of the capital, where the guards stopped him. Amazingly enough, there were no players there. 'Maybe they thought I wouldn't come from this side?'
Inside the city, things were almost normal. Players roamed around doing different things. He had met a few players who were coming out to hunt and somehow he had avoided suspicion. No one had asked about him, no one cared and he had been able to pass by in relative anonymity. It changed inside the city though. Every eye looked at him, analyzing him, considering him. And then disregarding him. Raka looked down. He was still wearing his old shabby clothes. He smiled. He didn't wear his armor as it had been torn to shreds. Without it, he looked just like a beginner with shabby clothes who had never attended battle school in his life. In fact, he may have looked like a character who had only been learning all sorts of crafting till he became of Age. 'Without the staff, that's how I look, probably.'
He wasn't going to complain about a good thing though. People's expectations of the grandeur of Raka played against them as he simply passed by other players.
In the training hall of the Magic Academy, Raka was trying to learn water magic. He had found the clue to imagine water. A lot of it had to do with the various water magic he saw being performed during the weeks at sea. In short, he just had to imagine turning water. When water rotates, it can rise, fall, and do all sorts of things which makes a magic like Kraken possible. So all he had to do was imagine it turning round and round.
And it had worked. He placed his hand in the bowl and then entered his colorful world. Then he imagined the colors around his hand turning in a circle. And then he thought, 'Water' and wallah! He had made magic water.
Raka looked at the shimmering shining water magic which was still turning but sticking to his hand instead of the bowl. Now came the next step. He brought out the two bonded mirrors from his bag and placed it on the ground with a little distance between them. He touched his magic water on one of the mirrors and imagined it sticking to the glass. The water slipped off his hands and spread, shimmering and shining over the glass.
Raka had to transform another bit of water magic for the other mirror and repeated his steps. Once water magic was applied on both the mirrors, the shimmering stopped and pictures started forming. He lifted one of the mirrors and pointed them towards the wall, while he looked in the other one. He saw the wall. He turned the mirror in his hand towards the practicing students and he could see them through the other.
"Hey Veronica, could you help me a little?" He asked the self professed Lady Verina fan. Most students still avoided him, but thanks to his massage, one of them had opened up a bit. Veronica came and asked.
"What do you need?"
"Ah just hold this mirror. I am trying to see if my communication magic worked."
"Really? You can do communication magic? Wow, you must be good." Veronica looked impressed.
'Is it that hard for you guys?!' Raka did not believe that. Here they are jumping and sticking to ceilings and a little water magic is hard?!
"Um...well I got lucky. Here hold this one. I will walk over there." Raka walked about 20 steps from her. And then he looked in the mirror, which was now showing her ample cleavage. Small thing to note about mirrors when communicating. They did not reflect you back. So you could never be sure where it's actually pointing at. Especially if they are small, hand held ones.
"Hey Veronica, have you met with Lady Verina recently?" He whispered.
"Oh I haven't. She's so busy nowadays. I would really like to have tea with her or something." Her cleavage replied back from the mirror.
'Ok that worked.'
"Well you know what...I am sure you will soon..." and Raka continued on with nonsense for a few minutes. After that he ended the magic, which involved removing the water magic from the mirrors. Somehow, Veronica had become quite happy after their talks, though Raka did not remember half the things that had been said. 'Wonder if that classified me officially as a man!'
Well, now that he had learned and enjoyed his cool piece of water magic, he headed down to Cassian to finally learn the highly anticipated magic, Peek.
A smile crept up on his face as he made his way to Cassian's house. Anybody seeing him right now, would have been pretty sure he was up to something evil. Or stupid. Maybe both.
He knocked on the door. Taum opened the door.
"Ah..it is you. Come in, come in. It's been a long time since you last came and Cassian was getting absolutely bored. Hmm...yes he knew you were part of the ship but you did not come even after landing."
"Yeah. Well I would have liked to visit but events had been keeping me very busy for the past few weeks."
"Ah true. But you are here now so I hope his mood gets better," saying that Taum led him to Cassian's room.
"Here you are sir, Raka has come to visit." Taum started.
"Ah young man. Nice to see you after such a long time. Let me tell you, you were sorely missed. Why don't you sit down and tell me all about your adventures...Taum could you make some tea?"
Taum went back out while Raka sat down on the chair and started telling him about all the things he learnt, felt and experienced.
"......and then she talked to me while it showed her cleavage all the time." Raka finished recounting his happenings till today.
"Hahahahaha....*cough cough! Sorry that was too funny. So you made a magic called Switch, is it. But from your talks it seems like it could end up being similar to the Kraken magic of Verina." Cassian took a sip of tea to soothe his throat.
"Yeah that was the original inspiration." 'He seems much older than before.'
"I knew you were a man after my own heart. I can almost remember my youth in your stories."
Just then Taum knocked and entered.
"Excuse me sir, but I have to step out for a bit. I will be back in a couple of hours." After receiving the ok, he left.
Raka was anticipating such a moment eagerly and it was being reflected on his face.
"So I guess now that you have learnt water magic, you want to try Peek again. Alright bring the mirror pieces we made last time. Lets see you try." Cassian said.
Raka stood up and from the next room, he brought out pieces of the one-way bonded mirror. He got himself a cup of water from the kitchen as well. And then he focused to transform energy into water. A little while later, he got himself some shining shimmering water. He touched one mirror, the one starting the connection, and watched as the water spread all over the glass surface.
And then it started showing a room. The very same room they were in. Raka showed the result to Cassian and he nodded satisfied.
"Wonderful. You can now do Peek."
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You have learned the skill Peek. This is classified as a secret bound by the Official Secrets Agreement. You are not the original developer hence you cannot teach the skill to others.
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Finally! So long had he laboured on learning water magic because he knew the results would be worth it. Oh now he had another problem. Communication magic mirrors and Peek skill mirrors were different, you could not use the same mirror for both. But he would find a solution eventually.
"I was not able to pass it on, no matter how much I tried. Now it feels like I have passed on a legacy. Hahaha...not too melodramatic, is it. Ah it sucks getting old. But then I should be proud that life was fun. Even though I can't teach you anything anymore, would you still have tea with me when you can?"
"Yes. I wouldn't miss it."
"He he he he he ....." a furtive evil laugh escaped Raka's lips as he walked back to the Magic Academy to meet with Lady Verina. Raka may have trouble sleeping tonight. "He he he he...."