"Urgh... Can't believe we actually managed to skin this entire thing and even managed to pull the meat out of it. How long did this thing take us?" Soren asked tiredly, as he looked at the piles of cut meat and bones, next to sheets of fur and buckets of organs and blood.

"Well it took us around two hours, but you managed to save me around two hours of my life as well. Honestly, I never expected you to be such a good butcher. You seemed to struggle a bit at the start, but in no time, you became a lot more stable and were even able to keep up with me. If anything, it's rather impressive, albeit a little horrifying." Stephen stated casually, as he wiped his bloodied hands with a clean white cloth, before passing it to Soren.

"If we're talking about impressive, the impressive thing is the magic pump you used to drain all of its blood for. Seriously, if it wasn't for this thing, I'd think we'd have to wait for an entire day for its blood to be drained of and I don't exactly have that much time in my hands." Soren stated, as he examined the metallic box with a couple of bloodied, leather pipes protruding out of its side and a couple of yellow and blue buttons.

"So, how was your first experience in the butchery industry?"

"Honestly... Less messy than I thought. I expected to be covered in blood by the end of it, but I'm surprised how little mess is actually here."

"That's because it's important to have a clean environment, when it comes to cutting the meat of the bones. You don't want your meat to be dirty with all kind of weird stuff, unless you want some food poisoning. Besides, aside from having to deal with a messy head, most of the body was rather intact, so that made the job a lot easier for me. Speaking of head, here's the your sword from its head. Of course, it's been cleaned and sterilized from the blood and brain matter it was covered with. Before I also forget, go sharpen it at Maybelle's. The blade has dulled quite a bit, which is why it also got stuck in its eye." Stephen explained, as he gave Soren his iron sword back, before picking up one the trays with cut meat on top.

"Got it. I'll get going now. Take care."

"Take care and take it easy for today. Also, don't forget to come back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why for?" Soren asked curiously, as he wasn't expecting such a response.

"You'll know then. Now get going already." Stephen responded casually, before the two of them split on their own ways. After Soren left the Hunter's guild, he was immediately contacted by Neil, who sounded rather annoyed. "Are you done finally skinning the beast? We're getting behind schedule already."

"Sorry, sorry... I didn't expect I would be suddenly skinning my own game. Besides, it also gave me a new proficiency skill and it has already hit level 3. It was just too good of an opportunity to skip." Soren apologized, as he decided to open both his stat and skill panels.

Name: Neros (Soren) Race: Human Class/Position: Undetermined HP: 15/15 (+0.02 HP/s) MP 30/30 (+0.05 MP/s) SP: 20/20 (+0.03 SP/s) Strength: 4 Intelligence: 3 Vitality: 2 Agility: 4 Wisdom: 5 Focus: 3

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Current skills: Active skills: Holy Touch Passive skills: Beginner Sword Proficiency Lv.6, Bless Magic Proficiency Lv.5, Beginner Alchemy Proficiency Lv.1, Butchery Proficiency Lv.3

"I already go two stat points and that and who knows how many more points I can get out of it."

"Good for you, but we're still under a schedule, so I'd like to get some of the necessary tests out of the way. Now, let's get started Soren. I want you to jog around the settlement five times. Chop chop, we don't have all night."

Once Neil gave his order, Soren engaged on numerous physical exercises and performed all kinds of movements with his body, which ranged from simple jogging and running, to performing one-handed push ups and even handstands, or at least tried to, since he would always lose his balance and fall on the ground. This entire physically demanding ordeal lasted for nearly an hour and a half and by the end of it, although Soren wasn't feeling tired physically, he was feeling mentally fatigued, since the continuous feeling of fatigue and breathlessness took a mental toll on him.

"Are we done Neil? You haven't given me any instructions for over five minutes." Soren asked, as he was slowly becoming nervous, with every minute passing.

"...hear...Soren...out..." Neil's disjointed voice came out after nearly thirty minutes of waiting. Hearing the disjointed voice, Soren wondered if there was another issue with Neil's microphone, but decided to wait for him to fix his technical difficulties, before doing anything else. During this time, he mostly spent it sitting under the shade of a tree, near the settlement's entrance and enjoying this moment of peace and quiet. It wasn't until another thirty minutes passed, that Morgan's disjointed and frantic voice echoed in his ears once more. "Come...So...you...g...out...hea..."

'So he didn't fix it... Did something actually happen? Better get out, fast!' Soren thought to himself, as he decided to log off and check on the situation in the real world.

...

"Come on Soren! You need to get out here! Soren, can you hear me dammit!? Come on already!" Morgan frantically asked, as he was constantly changing the microphone's settings, hoping to get through to Soren, as the two of them had suddenly lost all visual and auditory feed on him.

"Sir, let me try changing the cable once more. Maybe it could work this time." Neil suggested, as brought out a different cable from his backpack.

"We've already tried that three times! I doubt if it's going to work... Try something else dammit, don't you have a noggin at least? Try using it for once!" Morgan desperately suggested, as he checked on the microphone settings once more.

"I've already tried everything I could think of sir. I tried changing the equipment, re-installing the applications, checking on the helmet itself for any problems, but I got nothing. The only thing that could be causing it is something in the game's or AION's software. I just can't think of anything else!"

"Dammit... How did this even happen? Have you managed to get through with one of the main squads?"

"Not yet... I'm calling every member of the development division that I know of, but I'm not getting any responses."

"Urgh... Give me the phone quickly. I know someone who's always available, no matter the time." At that moment, Morgan swiftly took Neil's phone of his hands and fervently typed a series of numbers and waited until someone picked up the call.

*beep* "Hello, this is AionTech's Head Chief of Glaxion City's Public Relations Division, Harold. How may I he-"

"Cut the crap you greedy gremlin. I need you to get me through with the Head Chief of the Development Division. I also request a full diagnostic check on AION's software and any connection logs of the past six hours." Morgan requested fervently, as he kept checking on the settings on the laptop, which was connected to Soren's helmet.

*sigh* "Did something actually happen? You're not one to lose your cool like this." Harold asked in a serious manner, as he could already foresee the trouble that was about to annoy him.