Chapter 5 The Journey

Lying down facing the ceiling with his curtain drawn, the room was dark. But his eyes could see every nook and cranny of the room. 'Strange...' he thought. Somehow or another, since playing the game, his body had began to change with the game.

'Maybe what the mind experiences also happens to the body?... hmm' Finally tired of thinking for an answer, he got off the bed and headed out of his room to the kitchen.

The place he lived in was a university dormitory, a flat occupied by 9 people with their own bathrooms but with a shared kitchen between the 9. They were all first years in university, and they were relatively good friends. As close as someone could get within the first few months of meeting each other.

He entered the kitchen occupied by 2 of his flatmates having breakfast, Rachel and Adam. "Morning" he muttered as he headed towards the fridge, instead of the usual 'morning' he'd get back, he was greeted with silence. He turned his head towards them and caught them staring.

"...what?..." he asked suspiciously.

"...You been working out or something?" the boy asked.

"No, not really. Why?" They both signaled with their eyes towards his body. He looked down, he was shirtless, nobody really cared when guys were shirtless especially living together.

His eyes met with a body that wasn't his, a body that was refined, not particularly muscular but one could tell it was trained. He wasn't fat before, but he wasn't fit either. Seeing each other shirtless most of the time, his flatmates could really tell that his body had changed. He even had abs forming! 'Strange' he thought once again.

He drank the milk he had taken out of the fridge and shrugged to his friends. "Meh..." he said as he placed the milk back and headed back to his room. He sat down in his room, found a notepad and a pen and jotted down some notes.

Atlantis game/real life

Game features carried over?

Something to do with the brain?

Improved vision

Body changes

He placed his pen down and laid on his bed. 'Should investigate more next time... so many things to think about!' whilst fiercely scratching his head. 'And my next class as well!' He gave up, and put on his gear and logged back in.

In-game, he too was lying on a bed, his stomach strangely warm as he stared at the ceiling. He looked at his stomach and gave a shocked expression. A dog was lying on him. 'What in the world...' he paused, its somewhat cute. He look a long look at the dog and recognized it, it was the dog from the other day! He stroked it gently on the head, its eyes opened and looked back at him. The two stared at each other, unsure of what to do. Just then the door opened, and a silhouette of a man approached.

"Hey Gus" J said after the dog jumped off his stomach. He looked around for it, but it had disappeared. J frantically searched, bewildered.

"Something the matter?" He asked as his eyes encompassed the room, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"You didn't see that?"

"See what?"

"Nevermind" Obviously he didn't see it, maybe he dreamed it. 'hmmm...'

What a strange kid, he thought to himself. "Anyways, the head wants to see you."

"Sure." He got up, adjusted himself and followed Gus out. They had finally arrived at the chamber, his master sitting impatiently.

"Finally, run here next time geez." She said. Is that really how the head should behave? He saw Gus bow and proceeded to greet her the same when she interrupted.

"You don't need to do that. You're my first disciple. Scrap the formalities." She said with a wave of her hand.

"Sweet."

"Now then, you're leaving for your first task soon, am I right?" Something clicked in J's head, 'oh right...' He checked his in-game time, he still had 12 days left, he nodded.

"Well then, before you leave for your mission, you can access the armory, Gus will take you afterwards. He will also inform you of the essentials." J nodded continuously as he listened. "More importantly, once an assassin accepts their first task, they are granted a name. An assassin name, it helps our communication between fellow assassins, plus it can serve as a disguise too." She threw him a scroll.

"That's a magical scroll, passed down since the beginning of the guild. Each assassin's name is chosen and recorded by it. Drop your blood on it, and it will show your new name. Worry not, only the guild master can read it. To others, its just random scribbles."

J opened the scroll, and it was true, he couldn't read a single world of it. He took out his dagger and touched the tip with his finger. A droplet of blood formed and landed on the scroll, the parchment slowly absorbed the droplet and seemingly disappeared. Nothing happened. He looked at his master then back down at the scroll. 'Did I break it?...' Then all of a sudden words began to appear. 'Ah...' It read,

Raizel, The Harbinger.

*Ding!*

Title Acquired!

The Harbinger

Can be equipped to show on your name.

'That sounds badass' is what J initially thought. 'The harbinger of what though...' As he thought about it, he was interrupted.

"Hand me back the scroll, lemme see." He handed back the scroll to her. She stared at the scroll as if it was an enemy, then turned her gaze upon her disciple. J felt a chill run down his spine.

"Raizel, its a nice name." She omitted the rest on purpose. It was very unusual for one to be given a title. Even she, did not have one granted by the scroll. 'I might have brought a more amusing boy than I imagined' she smiled at the prospect of his future.

"With fellow assassins, you must use this name, Raizel. It is best to give your real name to people unaffiliated with us, to walk among others unnoticed. Whilst using your other name, to commit your deeds. Well with that, I'll leave you to it. Good luck boy." She stood and was about to leave when she stopped.

"Oh, one last thing. Follow me." They headed towards a room with a metal door. She pushed the door open to reveal the inside. It was filled with animals, just tons of birds. "These are our messenger birds." In the middle of the room stood a statue of a woman clad in a cloak with a fierce bird perched on her shoulder. Underneath her feet, was what seemed to be a birds nest and in the middle, an egg.

"Like I thought" She said as she grabbed the egg and handed it to J.

"This guys going to be your pet." J took the egg in his hands, it was quite small, around the size of two of his fists. 'Fight?... What am I going to do? Throw the egg at people?' J thought to himself, but he couldn't say that aloud.

"What kind of animal is it?" he asked only to be replied with a dumbfounded stare. 'Okay...' "What kind of bird is it?..."

"I have no idea. Well my jobs done, Gus get him prepared." And she left.

J followed Gus as he carried around the egg in a pouch. He first visited the armory, and was given additional weapons plus a set of disguise in the form of a robe and a large hat. He was then informed of the process of assassinations, and certain points he had to remember such as the secret codes of identifying informants and assassins alike in each city or town.

At last, J stood on the surface and breathed a refreshing breath. After Gus had told him all he needed to know, he was led to one of many exits that the headquarters had. And just as Gus said, there was a wagon in front of him and that it would take him to a nearby city.

J approached the wagon is his newly disguised appearance. Which he thought in reality was pretty crappy, but he kept that to himself. He was wearing a simple cloak which covered his assassins attire and a medium to large sized hat which looked like a magician's hat. He was pretty sure the man driving the wagon was an associate of the guild, but it didn't hurt to be safe.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"You heading to the city?" he asked the man.

"Yeah, need a lift?" the man replied in a smile. Continuing their charade, "Yes please." J replied and got on the wagon behind him and they set off for the city.

J was admiring the scenery on the wagon as they journeyed through uneven land. Something in the wagon caught J's eyes, the wagon which contained some accessories, old armour and the sorts, seemed to have moved. The movement, which didn't escape J's trained eyes was identified immediately and J lifted the sheet which covered the assailant. 'You again?...' What met his eyes were the eyes of a black dog. The one from the guild.

"Why are you here?" J asked it hoping for a reply. The dog simply titled his head towards him. J heaved a sigh and sat back down at a lost. The dog moved and sat underneath between J's legs, making himself comfortable. Thinking of a way to get rid of the dog, J's side was nudged. 'What now...' He looked at his side, the egg was moving!

J pulled the egg out and saw a small on the side of the egg. 'Oh my God! Its coming out!' J couldn't hide his excitement, the dog sensing the movement also stared at the egg. More cracks appeared on the egg and at last, a leg appeared out of the egg. A talon more like. After it struggled a little, its head appeared. J had to admit, it was sort of cute. After it cleared its small body of the egg shells, J took a better look at it. It was a small eagle or hawk or some sort. A small golden beak, with white and brown feathers and silver eyes.

It stared at J whilst sitting on his hands. 'I should name him...' After a long thought he decided.

"Steia." He said to the bird, it seemed to accept it as it flapped its wings and made its way to J's shoulder. He couldn't help but release a smile at the bird. Small, fluffy and cute. Not really a pet an assassin should have, he thought. And just then the wagon made a sudden stop. From outside he could hear multiple yells.

"For f*** sakes, what is up with all these developments. What is this, a game?!" he cursed as he stood up in the wagon, he then realized the irony in his curse. He ignored his own idiocy and moved next to the driver.

A group of people were fighting against one another not so far ahead of the wagon. Steia peeked its head out from inside J's robe and stared at the origin of the noise. J observed and concluded, it was 10 against 2, the 2 looked like they were winning. Well not surprising as the two were armed pretty well where as the 10 only had leather of some sorts around their body. Bandits probably.

A bandit closer to them saw them and yelled something, immediately 3 more bandits looked our way and broke off from the group and headed towards J. 'Great...trouble...' J stepped out of the wagon and landed on grass. He estimated there was about 20 seconds left until they had contact. J didn't even draw his weapons. There was no need, he could kill all the bandits within seconds bare handed if he wanted to, but that was not the reason.

"What are you doing? Kill them!" the driver yelled, fearing for his life. Even though he was an associate of the guild, he was still just an informant, a helper.

But J still did nothing and just stood on his spot, unmoving. He identified that there was no need for him to act.

Suddenly an arrow struck the bandit at the front and he laid still, dead. The 3 other bandits looked shocked as they tried to identify the origin. 2 volley of arrows then came from the sky and injured all three of them. Barely standing, they were then simply picked off one by one.

J knew that was going to happen. He had already identified the presences of everyone around him. There was 12 in all in front of them, but J's senses were trained and he knew better. There was actually 13, a person resided in the trees to the large groups right hand side. As soon as the small party broke off, the presence among the trees followed. J concluded that the presence was an ally to the 2 fighting the bandits and didn't see it necessary for him to act.

Seconds later, all the bandits were dead and they were face to face with the 3 adventurers.

"I apologize for that, we nearly got you killed." The man clad head to toe with armour said to J and the driver.

"Its fine, your friend saved us anyway." J gestured towards the archer who came out of his hiding after the bandits were dead.

"Thank you for saving us, are you headed to the city? As thank you, I could give you a ride." the driver told the three. The three nodded their thanks and the four of them climbed onboard.

As the wagon began to move once again, they each introduced themselves.

"I'm Dan, Paladin, level 83."

"I'm Claire, Cleric, Level 81."

"Andrew, Archer, level 82"

"J, level 24"

"Whats your class?" the man named Andrew asked. The three looked at J expecting him to diverge the information as they did.

"Um... er..." J mumbled and stuttered. It wasn't because he didn't want to say, but he didn't know what to say. He couldn't exactly just tell them he's an assassin. There's a bounty on his head for christ's sakes.

"Its okay, no need to force yourself. Some people like to hide their class. Keeps their advantage." The man named Dan said with a smile. J nodded his thanks. He made a mental note to himself, 'definitely need to figure out what class he should choose after this task'

"Oh, what a cute dog!" The girl named Clarice said as she gestured towards the dog. J had forgotten about it, ops. "What's his name!" she asked.

"Er... um..." J once again found himself stuck.

"Seriously? You can't even tell us his name?" Andrew said with a 'what the hell' face.

"No no... I just... haven't named him yet..."

"Oh why not? You should! He's so cute!" the dog barked as if understanding Clarice and looked at J expectantly.

"Um..." J thought at the top of his head. "Adra?..." J asked the dog hesitantly, the dog barked in reply and rubbed his head against J's legs. Seems like he likes it, he thought. Steia also poked its head out once again which caught the sight of the three opposite J.

"OH MY GOD" Clarice said once again, "THATS SO CUTE!" she yelled and tried to touch Steia, to which she retreated back into J's robe. Clarice looked on disappointed but her eyes shined and sparkled.

"You're like a Tamer. Are you a tamer?" Clarice asked.

"No no..." J semi laughed to avoid the question. "So, so what you guys doing in Dismonia?" attempting to switch the focus. Both Clarice and Andrew looked at Dan, seemed like he was their leader. He nodded his head to them and spoke.

"Well, you're low level so it doesn't really matter. But we got a special quest from completing a chain quest for the church in Denia. Us three were assigned to guard an individual in the city who was suspected to be targeted."

'No... no way... please don't...' J cried inside. Remembering Gus' words, "A level 3 assassination will not be easy, there will be strong guards."

"He's the one who governs Dismonia." Clarice whispered even though there was no one to overhead the conversation. J broke down in tears inside, he wanted to literally cry. 'Please not the Earl, pleaseeeeeee.' He pleaded in his head to an unknown deity.

"We're guarding the Earl of Dismonia." With Andrew's words, J's heart shattered. He looked down, only one thought across his mind.

'Shit...'