Maree was perplexed as to why four grown men were scared of her. She was only a first level cleric, and even with her size and strength advantage, she had figured out that they should be able to win the fight, especially since she had no weapon other than her spells.

As she spent the days asking them question about the world she was in, she decided that the reason they were scared was because they were bullies with fear in their hearts.

They dare not attack her, even while she slept, because they each feared she would kill whoever started it. And neither of them wanted to die in the name of bullying.

They were right. Maree, even though she took the entire death in the game situation seriously, she would fight back. She was in a game, and in games, she was tactically aggressive.

On the first morning Anna said, “As part of you class of Cleric, you need to spend one hour giving prayer to your god, Obad-Hai. If you fail to give prayer to Obad-Hai, you will not receive the spells you elect and lose those you already have.”

“Anna, how do I do that?”

“I suggest you pray to find out”

“You are really useless.”

When she talked, the men woke up. They were less fearful now they had been talking to her for a while, but Maree had ensured they remained cautious of her. They had, after all, attacked her.

In spite of the unclear answer from Anna, she decided to do as was suggested

Given she had no idea how to pray to Obad-Hai, and all she remembered about the god came from a game years ago when a druid was in the group for a while (who was brutally, and ironically, killed by a boar.), she figured the focus should be on nature.

She sat on the ground, crossed her legs, bowed her head and began to quietly chant, “Shalm, my thirst for knowledge grows. Lend me your wisdom and bury my doubts.”

She found her own rhythm in her chant. Remained quiet in her words, and was open to something coming her way in the form of knowledge, wisdom and the removal of her doubts about how to pray to him.”

By the end of the hour, none of the hoped-for things came.

You have successfully prayed for the morning.

Since you did not select any spells before the prayer, you have kept the spells from the previous day’s selection.

She was feeling slightly annoyed about not selecting spells. Tomorrow, she would change them.

She spent the day ignoring the men other than telling them to stay where they are or there will be consequences.

When the jail keeper came by with their excuses for a daily meal, he saw the men in the corner and laughed. He said to Saver, “Orckin women are scarier than the men”. As he walked away after delivering the meals he said, “Hey, boys, do not upset her, they deserve their reputations.” And laughed some more at the how childlike the men were compared to Saver.

Saver looked down at the meals and wasn’t sure if it was edible. And the shares within the bowls were uneven. So, she lined the bowls up and scrapped out half of the other meals into her bowl then slide them over to the boys.

They dared not complain.

Then she cast Purify Food over her share.

The request for purify food was given.

The food looked no different, although it may have smelled slightly better. At least she knew she wouldn’t get sick from it. She began scoping the food up in her fingers and shoveling it into her mouth. She had the odd comparison to taste as her last meal in the real world.

When she completed her meal, she looked to the others engulfing the respective meals. They were hungry.

She didn’t care.

“Why did you attack me?”

They stopped eating. She glared them into talking.

The younger man said, “We thought that since you are a cleric that you wouldn’t fight back much.”

The bearded man added, “And hardly anyone cares if an orckin is attacked.”

The oldest man said, “I just hate orckin and orcs.”

Saver looked at them and wondered why they were being so honest. Then she didn’t care because she wanted them fearful of her. Asking about the honestly would show she cared.

She did care.

But she also wanted to smack them all in the head for attacking her for the reasons they gave.

She sat back on her bed, allowing them to finish their half meals. She was pondering what to do all day in a room with four idiots that she wanted to punch. Her questioning from the day before achieved very little other than they knew very little about the world beyond two days walk.

The most interesting thing was a rumor of orckin setting up a base two days South. She figured that sounded like something Jason would do. He was always trying to turn evil creatures into something to care about. When he was being the dungeon master, he would create sympathy for creatures like goblins and orcs, succeed, then proceed to smash the sympathetic group into the ground.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

She wondered if he was laughing now.

As she sat there, pondering how she had somehow managed to be in an adventure based virtual reality yet was sitting there bored out of her mind. She was also wondering if the 91% who died in the game had died of boredom.

He was startled by the jail keeper banging the bars. He looked up and saw him, plus four orckin behind him. Three male, one female. Now that she was seeing her own kind, she understood why people feared orckin. They were all scary ass looking people.

We have highlighted Jason’s character, Grarl for you. This highlight will disappear in five seconds.

She looked up to see there was an orckin showing a slight red highlight around his body.

She said, “Sweet cheeks, what took you so long?”

The glowing orckin, with the highlight fading, said, “You must be Tinkerbell”

Everyone was looking at them with confused looks.

Grarl said, “This is Saver, the cleric we are looking for. We already know each other.”

The jailer said, “Man, how is it orckin are so freaking ugly yet also nice?”

Saver said, “The world is a mysterious place, you should start seeing rather than looking”

Triuk said to the jailer, “Is the deal met?”

“Yeah,” he answered, “it is met” The jailer removed the keys from his pocket and told everyone, meaning Saver, to step back and stand against the wall. She did. The door as opened while he said, “Saver, you can leave, the rest of you stay.”

Saver left the cell, walked over to stand by Grarl, looked up at him and said, “I know it is you, but I can’t give you a hug, it is, well, it is weird hugging a body I have just met.”

The cell door was closed, then locked, and they all heard a sigh of relief from within the cell.

Masin asked, “What did you do to them?”

“Nothing, they tried to attack me, we ended up here. I politely explained to them that if any of them touch me again I would rip off their heads.”

Masin said, “Kudos, because it clearly worked.”

The orckin all laughed. The jailer put his head down then led them up the stairs. He unlocked the door, led them into another room, locked the door behind them, turned around then knocked on the large iron door, a slider opened to check everything was good then the exit door opened.

Saver’s eyes suddenly struggled with the excess light, and she became aware that the cells were far darker than she understood. Then she remembered that half orcs have dark vision. The men in the room were probably struggling to see properly.

They entered a larger room, the jailer got Triuk to sign something, was handed a pouch with what sounded like coins in it.

The jailer said, “It was good doing business with you. I hope you hang around as I would like more of the same kind of exchanges.” Then he laughed. It wasn’t malicious, it was like a laugh of realism.

When they made it outside, Saver was overwhelmed by everything. Buildings that were new yet styled from thousands of years ago. People in what looked like costumes. Everyone staring and giving plenty of distance around the group. The smells of an unclean town, the sounds of horses, and too much light.

She started to feel unwell.

Masin placed a hand on her shoulder while saying, “This can quickly become overwhelming, look at the ground, we are leaving Thakis immediately to set up camp a couple of hours walk away. You will feel better when we get out of here.”

She put her head down as suggested. She was guided through the streets with her hand in Masin’s hand. The uneasiness in her mind remained but when they left the town, as the sounds reduced and the air freshened into the scents of forest, she regained her composure.

When she finally did look up, she was treated to the soft greenery of nature, the calming view of rolling hills with a backdrop of snowcapped mountains bringing a chill breeze to them.

She thanked Masin for the support, he smiled back. Even though it seemed to be a cruel smile on an ugly face, his eyes told her the story of kindness that he had.

After a while they found a place to sit and rest.

Grarl said, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I don’t know why I started to freak out. I was doing fine before.”

Triuk said, “We all understand. This is not a normal game, we are all trapped until further notice. And the quality of the experience makes me wonder if this is virtual or, in fact, another reality.”

Saver said, “Grarl, just tell me you have a plan.”

Grarl answered, “We have a plan. Basically, we treat this like a normal roleplaying game. That means we need to find a boss of some sort, deal with it and hope the save point, and escape, is there. In the meantime, we do what adventurers do, we play the heroes of the world and do good shit.”

Saver asked, “And what is the good shit we are going to do?”

Triuk said, “We are building a force of orckin to separate and negotiate issues between the orcs and humans, who are in conflict. We have only just started. We have a home being built right now. We have started to build trust in the human village. Now we are heading into the forest to gain the trust of the orcs.”

Saver asked, “Can we actually die? I mean, this is a game and the idea that we can actually die in a game is stupid, but look at this place, this is not normal so maybe Anna is telling the truth.”

Grarl answered, “Nobody knows for sure because nobody here has been able to leave the game. We are all first level. For now, lets assume it is true. So, be careful, stick together, build up the experience points so we are more capable of staying alive.”

Saver said, “Sounds like a plan. Where are we going to get the experience?”

Nunda said, “By killing some evil fucks in that forest. Not orcs though. But there are gnolls in there attacking the orcs and something big influencing them. That is where we are going.”

“Yeah, we may as well enjoy it. Shall we get going?” Saver asked.

Triuk said, “Not before you put on the armor we got you, and hopefully you are okay with either a mace or quarterstaff.”

Your god preferred weapon is the quarterstaff.

“Quarterstaff.”

Nunda threw the quarterstaff to her, she caught it easily. Without really knowing what she was doing, she started doing some quarterstaff drills for attack and defense.

She was surprised at how her body knew what to do while she had no idea.

“Okay,” Saver said, “I know how to use this thing. I will practice while we walk. The first fight is going to be interesting.”

Masin laughed. “Yeah, that is for sure. Can we get moving again, I want to be in the forest before the night arrives.”

Without anything else being said, they stood up, Triuk in the front and began walking. Grarl waited for Saver to stand while saying, “We have been together a few days, we already have a routine.”

She asked, “Are you scared?”

“I am terrified. But the fights, while scary, are also a lot of fun. Prepare yourself for it, and stay close to me because I kick ass.”