Note : Statements enclosed within '#' like '# statement #' are system messages or similar type of messages
Proodread by Max Lambon
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Past
“Why are you going now? Come with me. Let’s go to Subway.”
Dishita was running behind Rohit in an attempt to stop him.
“I am sorry, I gotta go. I only have 2 hours and then my most important day in the game is gonna start.”
“But, if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have even gotten to know about the class test and you’d have missed it. So, you owe it to me. Come on, it wouldn’t take even 30 minutes.”
Rohit thought for a minute. It was true that he’d have missed the test if it weren’t for her. She is his only friend in the whole college and vice-versa is also probably true. Who’d want to befriend a girl who covers her body from head to toe when she is a teen? Even though she is slim and might even look good if she put on some make-up, dressed properly, and let her hair fall freely over her shoulders instead of tying them up in double braids.
As he was in his imaginary world, he looked at Dishita and imagined her with untied hair and a good one piece on her body.
’Shit, she would definitely look good. I will ask her to do all those things when she is my girlfriend. Girlfriend? What the hell I’m thinking? No! No!’
“I know you are my only friend here and thanks for letting me know about the test but you see the problem is that I have a really important day today and I can’t be late.”
She stopped her feets, pouting.
“Okay.”
Rohit couldn’t stop himself after seeing her pouted face.
“Fine, but I will leave after 30 minutes. Is that okay?”
“Sure but tell me your character name in The Sphere.”
“Worm.”
*
3:45 a.m. (Game Time)
“Today is the last day for our quest, Adalwolf. If we don’t bring the wood today, master probably won’t teach us fighting tactics probably. And you have grown in these two months, haven’t you?”
Adalwolf’s head now stood at a height of 1 metre from the ground instead of 20 centimeters, as when Worm had found him. He looked mighty and majestic because of his white fur. Adalwolf listened to Worm and nodded happily. The relationship between these two had changed. After suffering through unimaginable pains together, they have become close.
Adalwolf didn’t do his head tilt routine anymore with Worm. However, that arrogant routine was always done on someone else now — their master, Sanderp. Worm continued talking.
“Do you remember when I told you that I hadn’t planned on becoming stronger but now I want to take revenge and that’s why I am enduring all these pains to become stronger? Well, that is true but I hid one thing from you.”
Adalwolf stared at Worm with unpleasant eyes. He didn’t like that his master hid something from him.
“That Linxx also got himself a pet. But his pet is better than any other pet in this world – a dragon. In his quest of Fighter Genk, the dragon was as small as you when I found you. But its flying speed was unimaginable. It disappeared from one place and then, in an instant, appeared at someplace else, usually behind other wolves.
The quest was to hunt 22 wolves but the dragon alone hunted 15 of them and with ease too. Linxx sat at one place while the dragon was hunting. Then, he said it wouldn’t look good if he just sits while his pet does all his work, so he took out his long sword and within 4 hours, he hunted 26 wolves and sometimes he fought against 3 wolves all alone.
He has become very strong and the world knows that he has a dragon as a pet now. So, taking my revenge sounds a lot harder now. But, I will take it. I won’t be able to rest because he was the first person who bullied me in this game.
And you wolfy bastard, I don’t care if his pet is a dragon. If I’m going to be stronger than him, then you are also gonna have to be stronger than his pet dragon. I won’t forgive you if you lose to his pet when we fight just because it is a dragon and you are a wolf.”
Adalwolf was surprised to see that his master was this angry at someone. He knew that even though his master likes to act as if he doesn’t care, he is very good natured. He was seriously thinking of having his revenge. Adalwolf also knew that it’s practically impossible to win against a dragon for any creature. But if he has do the impossible for his master, he was ready to train until his body breaks, as he has himself seen his master train for the last 2 months with him and the result was indescribable.
Sanderp came out and gave them their usual 2 breads and a bottle for each of them.
“It’s been very long. I hope you will bring the wood today. Don’t waste any more time. Ahh, I shouldn’t forget…”
Worm already had 22 kilograms extra weight on him while Adalwolf had 44. Everytime they had returned, Sanderp would add 2 kilogram belts on Worm’s and Adalwolf’s limbs. The extra weight should have slowed them down a lot but these two never quit. They kept shortening their time to reach the tree every time. And after reaching there, they would just sit there and improve the proficiency of the ‘concentration’ skill.
Worm had tried things on his own. Instead of just sitting there and raising his skill ‘concentration’, he had tied his right arm and leg and started doing ups and downs on the mountain as well. After about a month, now he had no problem going up a hill even with a leg and an arm tied.
Adalwolf, too, didn’t just sit and watch. They had asked for extra weights from Sanderp and Adalwolf would carry those whenever he was free and do rounds with Worm. Adalwolf, also used a stick that he would hold in his mouth (as a substitute to sword) and run with that. Now, the stick feels like an extension of himself.
Worm looked at Adalwolf.
“Well, it’s your turn today. What are you waiting for? I will catch up to you in no time. I will give you 10 seconds handicap.”
Adalwolf understood and started running. But his running couldn’t be described as just running, even with 44 kilograms of extra weight, he was fast. Adalwolf’s next step was always 2 metres ahead of the last one. Worm knew that he wouldn’t have any chance to catch up to Adalwolf if he didn’t put his all from the start. Only using one leg and one arm was too much of a handicap to begin with.
“Toe Sprint.”
He learnt this skill when he was going up and down the hill to improve his speed. Unconsciously, he began using the toe of his left feet with more force while releasing his feet off the ground to move forward a little more. This began a habit for him until the skill formed. The skill allowed him to move much faster than he anticipated. Even with the weights, his speed was impressive.
They reached the base of the mountain within 50 minutes. Worm quickly did the math. 8 kilometers in 50 minutes. Close to 9.5 km/hr. He wondered whether he would be able to achieve that in real life without the weights and using both his legs. Worm stopped there just until the straps came off. Other days, he wouldn’t stop and climbed with the straps on but today was different. He couldn’t afford to be wasting his stamina. They continued.
Adalwolf must have went easy on him earlier because Worm couldn’t manage to catch up to him even when he could use both his legs. Toe Sprint almost doubled his speed now since he didn’t need much effort to balance his body as he could use both his legs and arms. It didn’t feel like they were climbing a mountain because of the speed and the ease with which they were climbing it.
After 3 hours, they were at their destination. The tree was humungous. He didn’t have time for rest. He had tried axing it before, the wood is too thick and dense. It doesn’t cut easily. They had decided to cut a branch that was around 2 metres off the ground. Worm climbed up, sat on the branch and started axing.
Adalwolf didn’t sit idle either. Being a white wolf, jumping high was pretty easy for him. Without the weights, his reach would be more than 3.5 meters but since he has never been without weights, the height wasn’t clear and now he could only manage around 2.2 meters. He had another axe that was given to them by Sanderp. He held the axe in his mouth and kept jumping while hitting the tree with his axe from the front and back.
(To understand, imagine a branch on which Worm is sitting, he naturally would axe the top side. Jumping vertically won’t have any force behind Adalwolf’s axe so he was jumping forward to hit the front and then after landing, changing his direction by 180 degrees and jumping forward again to hit the back. The bottom side wasn’t hit by any force.)
Worm was axing from the top, while Adalwolf’s front and back attacks were synchronous. Adalwolf was so fast that between Worm’s 2 hits, he was also landing another hit even though he had to jump continuously to land his hits. The branch was denser than they had thought but they didn’t give up. After seven hours of hard work, they managed to separate the branch from the main tree.
It took them another 2 hours to cut the branch in the required shape. They now had only 5 hours and 10 minutes to return to the castle and they also had 8 kilograms more, each. They ate their food in the next ten minutes and started towards the castle. The food didn’t replenish his whole strength and hence he couldn’t use Toe Sprint continuously. They barely managed to make it in time because of Worm as he had to travel the last 8 kilometers with a hand and a leg tied.
Sanderp was impressed.
“You managed to bring it. But what’s with the sad looking state of both of you. You both are my students and you still can’t bring some wood from the mountains and be in good condition? There will be punishment.”
Suddenly, Adalwolf’s limbs each received 6 kilograms more weight, making his total extra weight to a whopping 68 kilograms. Adalwolf, himself, didn’t weigh that much. His weight was now more than twice that of his actual weight. Worm wasn’t spared either, the leather straps came off but 4.5 kilograms weight were added on both of his arms, making each of them weigh 10 kilograms now. He upper body bent down and Adalwolf was already on the ground because of extra weights.
Sanderp was now satisfied.
“Well, this isn’t a punishment but your next training to be honest. I will teach you how to handle spears in this next four months. For a spear to be most effective, a mount is required so Adalwolf, worm will be sitting on you for the next 4 months. I think you are now big enough to handle that weight.”
Adalwolf couldn’t believe the words.
’How the hell am I supposed to carry him when my extra weights aren’t allowing me to stand straight in the first place.’
But he knew better than to complain. Sanderp would add more weight if he was to say a single word. He nodded. Sanderp looked at Worm.
“Well, get some rest. I will make a spear out of this wood and it will be ready by the time it is morning. The spear won’t be light. Hehehehe. Off you go now.”
The devilish laugh of Sanderp scared him. He turned around and started towards his room when a system message appeared.
#
Quest Complete.
You won’t gain any experience due to the nature of the quest,this is the rarest type of quest that doesn’t reward any experience, but the main reward is better than most other high level quests.
Reward : You’ll be trained by Black Magician Sanderp.
#
’What the hell? No experience? I can’t even lift my arms and that’s a reward somehow. Ughh!’
*
Present
“Did you see the broadcast about a character named Worm?”
“Huh, no. Why?”
“Well, Spherical News ran it at prime time. They gave that story a full 10 minute coverage, so I thought you must have seen it.”
“I only follow Colors TV broadcast since they tell about Linxx and gaining information on him will probably help us face his guild in the future.”
“You are saying that we 4 can face a high level guild of over 500k members? You do know that their lowest level player is 60 right?”
“You are a girl, so you think that’s impossible but it’s not. We just need to have enough stamina and a situation where each of us wouldn’t face more than 20-30 opponents at once.”
“Ohh, I’m sure that I can take care of 20-30 opponents myself but what about Linxx?”
“Well, it’s not that he has done any harm but if I am correct, he will try to make us join him and if we refuse, they are gonna fight us until we join. That dragon of his is a problem. Perhaps, we should start looking for a pet ourselves.”
“That’s not the problem here. I think we four wouldn’t be able to take down Linxx even if he fights alone.”
“Hmm, you are correct but I don’t wanna join him. It has always been us four since Roman Empire game and…”
A man appeared in front of them out of nowhere. He was handsome, but not as handsome as the person in front of him who was talking with one of the most beautiful girl this world has ever seen. Within seconds, another beautiful girl appeared and all four of them were together now.
The girl who appeared just now was named Anya. She looked shaken as if something bad had happened to her. She looked at their unofficial leader.
“Blake, did you see Spherical News’ prime time news about someone named Worm?”
“Who the hell is this Worm? Even Eva was talking to me about that. Dylan, do you know anything about it?”
“….”
Before Dylan could answer, Anya cut him off and looked at Blake as if he was the person who knew nothing.
“Worm was at level zero until hours before. Within 10 minutes, his level was 51. He gained 51 levels in just 10 fucking minutes.”
“What?!”
Blake couldn’t believe her. He knew the name Worm. Almost everyone, at least once would have checked the last ranked level to see how the game was shaping up but Worm was always at level 0.
“Ranking Table. Search Worm.”
It was true, Worm was really at level 51.
“How did he do it?”
Anya frowned. She rushed here to get some information from Blake but he was even more clueless than her.
“No one knows. None of the media channels have any sort of contact with him. And no one knows which country he is from. Apparently, all the media channels are in a race to find him ASAP.”
“Hmm, I think we shouldn’t dwell too much upon it. Let us clear out another dungeon today? We need to get much stronger. If we have to hold our own with just 4 members, we can’t lag behind Linxx.”
Dylan took out his sword from thin air.
“It’s unlucky that we four can’t use our unending supply of money to move forward in this game as we had done with previous games but we can’t lose just because of that, can we? Even with unlimited gold, we have not much scope to move forward as people don’t sell their valuable items much in this game.”
Blake nodded.
“No matter what, we have to hold our own. Others won’t understand us anyway so its no use looking for other members to join our party as it will only disrupt our progress as we will have to take care of other members too.”
Eva was a little scared.
“I’m just a priest. I can’t do much either. But what’ll we do if Fierce Warrior threaten us to join their guild?”
Anya wasn’t in a mood to discuss this. She hated bullies the most. She knew Eva the best, even though Eva is all scared now, she is the most important member of the party because of her healing skill and useful chants that increase the stats.
“Eva, stop being scared. We are all strong. Almost 10 levels stronger than our current level because of our good stats. No one cares to increase stats like we did, so we can even fight higher level players. And all of us are already in top 10k rank wise. We won’t be defeated easily. Now, shall we head to the dungeon and gain some levels?”
Eva was still scared but she nodded anyway.
*
Rohit woke up with a start and was surprised to see his mom and dad waiting for him to come out of the game.
“Er..Is something wrong? Were you waiting for me?”
His dad was happy but he didn’t let the happiness show on his face. His face was neither too pissed, nor too gentle.
“Did something happen in the game?”
“Huh? I mean no, why?”
“You are in the news.”
“What? But…”
Before he could continue any further, his mom walked over to his side and sat beside him and then began touching his arms.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“Its just that you have always been so skinny. So why do you have these bulging muscles?”
His mom hadn’t paid much attention to him these last 2 months but he had looked himself in the mirror and the reason was simple. The endless practice and training that Sanderp gave him in the game resulted in good built in real life as well. He not only didn’t have a better-than-average built chest and biceps, but also four pack abs(he was close to six pack abs) and triceps cuts.
“Yes mom, a little of the workout done in game affects our real life body as well.”
He saw that his mom’s face started having that ‘worried’ look so he continued.
“Don’t worry, I have checked. Only the positive things like good body is changed in real life and that too at hardly ~1% effect. So, unless you are working pretty hard in the game, real life bodies won’t show any change. Moreover, none of the damage is transferred. I wonder how they made this game.”
His dad had to ask now.
“How much workout are you doing in the game? If 1% change results in this body, then that means…”
“Yes dad, I have met a master who is training me. I do everything with 40 kilograms extra weight now. And he trains me 18 hours a day, not to mention that it has been six months in the game already, so…
“Ohh yeah, why were you waiting for me? What kind of news?”
“Umm, every media channel concerned with The Sphere are looking for you. You were shown at prime time of Spherical News. Not you literally, but a character named Worm. Any information regarding Worm would be bought by them apparently.”
“But I didn’t do anything wrong in the game, then why…”
“It’s not because you did something wrong you idiot, it’s because you gained 51 levels in 10 minutes. Shall I call them? They will probably offer you some money to watch your video.”
“No dad, I don’t wanna expose myself. I will become stronger gradually but right now I’m weak so no.”
“Umm, okay. It’s your game anyway.”
Rohit had promised dishita that he would come to the college today. He went, not just to see her, but also to fulfill his 10% attendance quota. After a long time, he took out his iPod and listened to music while travelling.
The t-shirt that was too loose for him earlier, was now too tight. To him, the plain blue Benetton full sleeve t-shirt felt as if it was made for him. Dark black denim matched perfectly with the t-shirt. He alighted at the train station and started walking towards his college. He noticed some of the girls staring at him.
’So, working out really has its uses huh. I wonder if Rupesh has always felt the same way.’
He looked around and saw a locket selling shop nearby. He went there and purchased a Wolverine locket with the only change that the name tag had ‘Badass’ written over it instead of Wolverine. He asked the shopkeeper to take care of his bag and that he would collect it while returning. He took out a single long book and a pen and left the shop while carrying the long book in his hand.
He reached the college a little late. The lectures had already begun. He had a hard time remembering where his class was and had to ask the peons for directions. The class test that was held was in a random class and not his class. Almost no one except Dishita had seen him that day or for others, he simply didn’t exist.
“Can I come in sir?”
Rohit stood in the doorway asking permission from the teaching faculty to enter the class. As he said so, all the eyes in the class turned towards him. Most of the eyes couldn’t return back to their original position. Rohit felt the gazes punch holes in him. From the corner of his left eyes, he saw Rupesh making a pissed face at him and then saw Sneha, his girlfriend, who was looking at him with mouth wide open. Pleased, he returned his attention towards the teacher.
“Are you from this class? I have never seen you before.”
“Yes, sir. I have health problems and so the principal has allowed me to rest at home as much as possible.”
The teacher checked him from head to toe twice.
“Health problems? You look fine to me. Anyways, what’s your name?”
“Rohit Rana.”
The teacher’s irritated face was no longer looked irritated.
“Ahh, you are the guy who topped my subject. I was very surprised that you scored full marks in the subject. Come in and have a seat.”
Rohit saw Dishita smiling at him and when he smiled back, she winked at him. The students were still looking at him when that happened. When they saw Rohit smiling towards someone, they wondered who’d it be. But when they looked at the face of the concerned person, they couldn’t believe it.
‘That weird girl is his friend?’
The girls, especially, were disgusted. Many had forgotten about him even after the first day humiliation he had suffered. So, he was a new hot boy in the class which was up for grabs. Or so, they thought. When they saw Dishita wink at him, they literally cursed under their breaths. But neither Dishita nor Rohit could see them.
In the lunch break, they started walking out of the class. Dishita was pushing him while her hands still held the back of his collarless t-shirt as if she was trying to get him to come with her and at the same time making sure that he wouldn’t run away.
The change in Rohit’s body was noticed by Rupesh. He didn’t even dare to stop him and humiliate him again. He was scared. Scared of the guy he had bullied for years. The fear took its place inside his heart when Rohit first stood in the doorway and looked at him from the corner of his eye as if he was challenging him for a fight. In that one moment, Rupesh knew that he would lose without landing a single punch.
Sneha, on the other side, blamed herself for laughing at him on the first day when he looked like shit. She initially liked Rupesh but now, she was tired of his bullying everybody and showing money to people everywhere. She wanted to leave him many times but was afraid of doing so. His dad being a local politician, Rupesh used this power as much as he could. She had lost her chance on Rohit because of her stupid mistake on the first day just to impress Rupesh a little.
’Is it too late? I can’t give up this early, can I? I’m Miss Fresher, I should be confident about my looks.’
Dishita and Rohit went to the cafeteria, ordered lunch and sat on a table. Dishita noticed many of the girls looking at them, or were they looking at Rohit?
“Did you work out all these days? Your body looks perfect and this is not what I am saying. Every girl’s eyes are fixed at you, Mr. Hot Shot.”
“Come on, not you too. I hate all these people who are only concerned about looks.”
“Ohh really? Then where is your bag? And why did you get a Wolverine locket then?”
“Okay, okay. I started enjoying the attention so thought that this would make me look good. But I still don’t like these people. It’s just to make me feel good.”
“Yeah Yeah, I believe you. So, you gonna tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Why every media company is looking for a character named Worm? How did you manage to gain 51 levels in 10 minutes? It must be a big issue since even the forums were flooded with comments about Worm leveling speed.”
“Alright, but it’s gonna be a long story.”
She winked.
“Well, who cares about the stupid lectures after the break?”
*
Past
“Good, you are up. I hope sleeping with extra weights isn’t much of a problem”
“We are used to it master.”
Adalwolf still had problems standing straight while Worm couldn’t lift his arm up.
“Well here take this wooden spear.”
Out of thin air, Sanderp produced a wooden spear and threw it at Worm. With much difficulty, he caught it with his right hand. The spear was perfect but the weight not so perfect for Worm. His hand instantly came down and his body bent a little due to the weight.
’Why is everything so heavy?’
“Information”
Spear made from a special banyan tree. The excellent craftsmanship and application of magic to further increase the weight of the spear gives it excellent damage.
Damage
45~60
Durability
60/60
Weight
7 kgs.
’What’s with this ridiculous damage? Even steel long swords don’t have this much damage.’
Sanderp yelled.
“What are you waiting for? Adalwolf, let him ride you and run towards the plains in the east. I have made 170 dummies with a red spot on them. The spot will turn green when you’ll hit them at the centre riding at more than 30 km/hr speed. You have to turn at least 20% of the spots green today.
The dummies would increase by 10% every day and the number of dummies you’ll need to hit will also increase by 2% every day unless I increase more, hahahaha. Ohh yeah, Adalwolf, the minimum speed limit will also increase by 10% every day. And as usual, you won’t get food unless you complete your quota. You better start ‘cause you are wasting your time.”
When did their master turn so wicked, they didn’t know. As if their master was enjoying tormenting them.
*
Present
“So, that was my training schedule for 4 months in the game. It was damn hard for us. We didn’t eat anything for 9 days other than a nibble of our breads and a drop of the water. We had learnt how to survive on just 2 breads and a bottle for eight days but here we knew that we would die so the ninth day we finally managed to complete the quota for food.”
“That is pretty hard no? I don’t know much about the game since I can’t play it but it figures that it would be hard by the way you are telling.”
“Yes, it was. We realised that we managed to complete the quota because of the adrenaline rush that day and couldn’t complete next day’s task again. We worked hard again and again until finally one day, by the end of these 4 months, we managed to hit 100% of dummies.”
Dishita was overjoyed when she heard this. The happiness could be seen on her face.
“Ohh, so you completed it? Wow, must have felt nice.”
“Not exactly..”
“What do you mean?”
“When I returned to master, he asked me to show him my basic stats but I had blocked them until I reach level 50 so I couldn’t show him. He got pissed and removed all the extra weights and told me a about a dungeon further east. He told me that i won’t get food until I show him my stats and Adalwolf can only carry me until there but not participate in the fight.”
“So that’s why you stopped once you reached level 51?”
“Yes, it was very easy though. When I entered the dungeon….”
He was cut by a ringing voice. Dishita’s phone rang. She motioned Rohit to wait for a minute and that she had to take this call. After a minute, she came back and was a little furious.
“I am sorry Rohit, something urgent has come up and I’ll have to go. Can you tell me this interesting story tomorrow?”
“I will be in the game as 2nd part of the training is starting tomorrow. I am sorry but master is very strict.”
“Then can you email me? Ohh wait, call me when you come out of the game. Please, please, pretty please..”
She made a face that said she really wanted to hear the rest of the story. He couldn’t refuse her.
“Sure.”
Her facial expression did a complete 180 turn and was now happy.
“Thank you, thank you.”
She came near Rohit, hugged him which made him blush a little. He didn’t know when they became this close, but they were.
“Alright, my mom is at the college gate waiting for me. I gotta go, don’t forget to call me and I am sorry for leaving in the middle of a good talk.”
She waved him good bye and ran out of the cafeteria.
’I wonder what made her run so quickly. Must be pretty important because even her mother came to pick her up.’
He then realised that he had to pay for the food they ate and wondered if this was her plan all along but then remembered that she had paid when they ate in Subway, so this was fair enough.
*
Dishita sat in the back seat of the car and looked at the girl too young to be her mother sitting beside her.
“I had to lie to my only friend because of you.”
“I am sorry but we have to hurry. It’s 3 hours drive from here.”
“Fine. I am gonna sleep now. Don’t disturb me until we reach the destination.”
Dishita put her bag on her lap and her hands were inside the bag. Without parting her lips, she whispered, “Enter the Sphere.”