We stood there in silence for a while taking small steps forward as the line advanced. It was pure torture for Raccoon. How did I know? He wouldn’t stop moving.

“Do you want down?” I asked, for like, the fifth time.

While Raccoon was smaller than a house cat, it was still annoying being crawled on.

He scurried from one of my shoulders to the other. “No, I told you I'm nervous.”

“What do you have to be nervous about?” I whispered.

The person in front of me, a yellow goblin that came to about my waist, turned. “Who are you talking to?” Their voice was sultry and features feminine.

“My pet,” I said.

They stared at Raccoon and tilted their head. “Is it bound to you or something?”

I wracked my brain for information from the patch notes and came up with nothing. Raccoon, are you supposed to be able to talk?

I glanced at him and he didn't even look at me.

Raccoon?

He was either ignoring me or he couldn't hear me. Perhaps his logging into the pet separated our direct connection?

“Yeah,” I said. It was true enough.

The goblin's eyebrows shot up. “I have to find someone to bind to me too!”

Pets were supposed to boost people's stats but I wasn't sure about the need for them to bind to you.

They could battle each other too but the fights were said to be just as bloody as the rest of the world's combat.

The goblin turned away after I didn't continue the conversation. The people in neutral races tended to stick to their own. They would join with the Enlightened in defense from the Hexed but they never sided with the us.

There were a lot more undead wandering the streets than I'd ever seen before. It reminded me that I needed to either buy equipment with enchantments or work on my enchantment skill. Despite my desire to make them myself I couldn't imagine living a day without being able to use Undead Domination.

I would have to visit several shops to buy them or put out a work order on the black market. Undead had a hard time buying gear but hiring people through the black market didn’t divulge who you were. It did require I visit the thieves' guild which had risks in itself.

It seemed I was on autopilot because I hadn’t realized how fast we’d gotten through the line. The goblin trotted into Victor’s hut and I took a step forward. From what it looked like they only had a single item.

“He’s really tall,” Raccoon said.

“Who?” I asked.

He pointed at Victor. “Him.”

“Is he making you nervous?” I asked.

One of his little shoulders went up. “No…”

Could AI lie?

A booming laugh came from Victor and Raccoon fled into my hood hiding in my hair.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

His little whiskers tickled my ear as he said, “He… speaks weird.”

“Is that scary?” I asked.

“No,” he squeaked.

I sighed. “It’s okay if you are.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah it’s—”

“Next!” Victor bellowed.

Raccoon squirmed.

Victor turned away as I entered the hut. “One second, I ‘ave a customer over ‘ere.”

I proceed to stack several sets of leather armor on the counter. Only eight would fit but I could easily put them away after he finished with them.

When he finally finished with his real-life customer he said, “Not again. Don’t be a copycat, lass. It doesn’t suit—”

He caught a glance at my mask and paused. Almost immediately he pressed his fingers together.

I didn’t see his menu, which was interesting.

“I didn’t know you were coming,” he said as his fingers separated.

He lifted the counter and several of my armor sets fell to the floor.

“Sorry—”

His finger went up to his mouth shushing me as he passed.

“We’re closed for a bit,” he said to the line behind me.

They moaned as Victor pulled down a single flap draped over the top of his hut.

He pulled out his spell book chanted and gestured at the flap. It glowed a dark purple and then faded. “If they are still out there they can’t hear us anymore.”

The accent he normally used was completely gone.

Raccoon squirmed out of his hiding place and peeked past my mask before driving back inside.

“Molly is on her way,” he said and put a large red hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Y-yes,” I said.

He sighed. “Sorry to hear what happened.”

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

How would he know what happened?

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Molly told me,” he said.

I pulled down my hood and removed my mask.

His eyes almost popped out of his skull. “What the—”

“She didn't tell you I evolved?” I asked.

Raccoon chose that moment to jump from my hair and land on my shoulder.

Victor staggered backward a step. “Who's that?”

“A friend,” I said.

“Don't say words without the ‘h’ anymore please,” Raccoon said.

Victor reached for Raccoon and scratched behind one of his ears. “She's a cute one ain't she.”

“She?” I asked.

“Yup,” Victor said as he pointed to Raccoons nether regions.

I raised an eyebrow at Raccoon.

“I didn't think it mattered,” Raccoon said.

“It doesn't. Your voice is a little squeakier though,” I replied.

Victor crossed his arms. “Just came back and you already have a bound pet, eh?”

“Can you hear him?” I asked.

Victor shook his head.

“Ah, he says he doesn't like it when you don't use an ‘h’ when you speak,” I said.

Since AI were advanced language models, it made sense he wanted speech as legible as possible. I didn’t know why would it scare him though.

“Sorry little one, gotta keep up appearances,” he said. “The devs want the players engaged.”

I winced at the ‘p’ word. “What did Molly tell you about what happened to me?”

“That you were added to her ward,” he said.

“Ward?” I asked.

He nodded. “Doctors Stevens comatose ward.”

What were the chances of that happening? Then I remembered when I logged out two nights ago and didn't see Molly's blurred form in the real world. If she had been in AR I would have seen her.

I also got a connection request from a guy named George. Did research on him and found out he was one of the patients. Could he actually be—

The flap flew open as Molly’s ghostly form soared into the hut. “Azerail!” She flew into my arms and hugged me. “I’m so sorry.” She held on for dear life.

I glanced at Victor and his eyebrows had sunk. His features spelled pity and I didn’t like it.

“I can’t talk about what—” My mind flashed to what Raccoon had said about me dying and I practically fell to the ground in a fit of dry sobs.

Victor kneeled and put a hand on my free shoulder.

“T-they said I’m going to die,” I said.

Molly let go and caught my eyes in her gaze. “What?”

“Rac- I mean my Zix told me and my mom confirmed it,” I said.

“I'm Raccoon, not Zix,” Raccoon said.

Molly jerked away. “Who's that?”

“My friend, Raccoon,” I said.

Raccoon hugged my neck.

Molly’s little eyebrow rose. “Their name is Raccoon?”

“That’s what he prefers,” I said.

As Molly reached to pet him he scooted into my hair, hiding.

“Don’t take offense, he doesn’t like to be touched,” I said.

Raccoon's little whiskers tickled my neck as he said, “I finished the program to mitigate your emotions.”

Molly nodded. “Do you want to talk about…”

“Not really,” I said.

We all stared at each other for a while. Awkward? Me? Nah.

“How’s that cursed sword treating you?” Victor asked, removing his hand from my arm and standing.

I reached out to him and he helped me up. “It… changed.”

“Show me,” he said.

Molly backed away as I spread my hands out and pulled it from my inventory. I tapped a few of the leather sets, putting them away so we had room on the counter.

The sword stuck to my hand, similar to how Kumo’s Fang did.

“Wow, it's a fox now?” Molly asked.

I nodded. “Can't talk about why.”

Victor slipped behind the counter and laid his spell book on it. He flipped to the Golden Identify page he used previously.

“Be ready to put it away, in case it poisons you,” Victor warned.

I turned to Molly. “Figured out why I couldn't use my skill.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Turns out, I need to buff my concentration,” I said.

She swung her legs in the air as if they were dangling from a chair. “Oh, so that's the stat it uses.”

“Yeah, don't tell anyone though. Make them find out on their own,” I said.

Molly's arms folded behind her back as she rocked from side to side. “Everyone wants to know where you are.”

“I lost access to the Qweb and my implant,” I said.

Raccoon's trail popped out of my hair and twitched. “You keep saying you can't talk about what happened and then you tell her anyway. Why?”

“Because I trust her,” I said as I used my pointer finger to run circles around his tail.

He popped out of my hair and beat his little paws on my collarbone. “I can touch you! It worked!”

“Told you it would,” I said.

Molly shared a glance with Victor.

“What?” I asked.

She twisted in place. “I thought only animal trainers could talk to them?”

“You can talk to them if you bind with them,” Victor said.

“Oh,” Molly said.

The covered hut brightened as the spell Victor was casting finished its preparation. He touched the blade and it also began glowing. After it faded I felt a warmth spread across my body followed by a slight stabbing pain.

I winced. “Pain.”

“Hold,” Victor said as he swiped his hand through the air. “Okay, put it away.”

He didn't have to tell me twice, into my inventory it went.

“Anything different?” I asked as I recovered.

“Lots,” he said with a grin. “It's still cursed but it has a completely different name.”

The pain continued but was different from the poison Kumo had used. This one came in waves. “It's not going away.”

I checked my menu and a buff was in the corner of my screen. It was a heal-over-time spell. Thanks, Zix, but that type of healing hurts me.

It wasn’t going to kill me since my health healed up faster in town than it could damage me.

“The curses are all changed around,” Victor said.

My interest was peaked so I checked it’s stats through my inventory.

Zix’s Rapidtail Blade

Strength: 83(+10)

Physique: 91(+10)

Intelligence: 220(+20)

Concentration: 185(+30)

Agility: 105(+30)

Perception: 103(+20)

Presence: 107(+10)

They were geared toward avoiding combat rather than running headfirst into it this time. The extra to my Concentration was nice. It meant I only needed fifteen extra to get Undead Domination working.

“It still has the sword mastery bonus and—” He paused, his eyes wide. “Feystride, that’s the skill elves with maxed-out agility have. How is that even possible?”

I shrugged. “Maybe it replaced the Drain skill that Kumo’s Fang gave me?”

“What do you mean? You don’t have the Drain skill anymore?” he asked.

“Nope,” I said. I didn’t want to tell him that I maxed out my intelligence and was thinking of skills that I could combine to recreate it. The fewer people that knew, the better.

His big red hand scratched at his chin. “About the name—”

“I have a ton of equipment that needs to be identified,” I interrupted.

He squinted. “Okay…”

I put my mask back on. “I don’t mean to be rude. There are a ton of things I need to get done today and I have a lot of equipment.”

“She killed Koffer, a platoon of Lily’s personal guard, and over twenty singswords,” Molly said.

The corner of his mouth quirked. “I saw Koffers VRV.”

“I promise we can go over every detail about the sword later but I also have to buy some equipment too,” I said.

He sighed. “I suppose.”

“Did I mention Koffer dropped an enchanted amulet?” I said.

He grinned and his fangs jutted out. “Now ‘at’s interesting. Let me ‘ave a look!”

Raccoon covered his ears.

***