We mostly just chilled the rest of the day like old times, and it was like I had never left. But all good things come to an end, and after a particularly brutal defeat Jake set down his controller, prompting me to look over.

“I have some bad news I’ve been avoiding all day, but you’ve gotta know sooner or later.” I tensed slightly, unsure what form this bad news would take, and Jake resumed.

“Dungeon guards work for weeks at a time and I’m one of the best there is, others will catch up, but it’ll take them weeks to replace me. I have to go to the bottom of the dungeon again next Wednesday and I’ll be there for a while.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure how to take that, I had just gotten my friend back, and I wasn’t ready to lose him just like that. Sure he would be back in a week, but then he would go again and again and again. I didn’t want to grow apart again.

“How hard is it to reach the bottom of the dungeon?”

“Oh, very hard. you’d need at least a tier seven avatar to be safe alone, or a party of three tier sixes, because as we learned the hard way this past week monsters over tier 6 get much stronger.” The tiers went over my head a little, but what I heard was I could feasibly visit him when I wanted if I got strong enough. I felt a rare stupid plan forming.

“How hard is it to reach tier seven exactly?” Jake was catching on to my plan, and he had the beginning of a grin.

“Very, every tier builds on the last, and you need to have enough sync to advance each tier. Ah, sync is how connected you are to your avatar, it's easier to explain when you have an avatar of your own.”

“Oh, but it's doable?”

“Yeah, it’s just time consuming. If you want we can start figuring out your avatar now”

“How would I start?”

“Well if you want to delve the dungeon you would want to find your fighting style first so you know what direction to go. I would go to the delver’s guild and attend a few of the sparring sessions, they’re free and pretty helpful.” I decided that sounded like a good place to start, but it was getting late so I decided to turn in for the night.

—

Yesterday had gone so well it almost felt… like a dream! I bolted out of bed, and breathed out a sigh of relief as I saw the unfamiliar room I was in. It really had happened, my home was getting fixed, my car was found, and my friend was back. I checked the time, and froze. 7:30! I had to be at work now. I started to rush out of the room. I was halfway down the hall when I remembered what Tom had said, I was on time off. Looked down at my new outfit, brown pants with a lighter green shirt. Right, relax, I can do that. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and got ready for the day. Hearing sizzling I walked into the kitchen to find Jake frying an egg.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Hey Ethan, took you a while to get up. Want an egg? Jake asked. I accepted his offer, and he gave me the egg when it was done. I tried to apologize, I hadn’t realized I would be taking his, but he waved it off and just got started on another one, so I just shut up and ate the egg. By the time I was finished Jake had finished and eaten his egg too, leaving me sitting unsure what to do next. Fortunately Jake did have an idea.

“Alright, so if you still want to start delving then we should probably start early.”

“Alright, that makes sense. So how do I start?”

“I think the best place to start is the delver's guild, they can give you rental equipment and lessons. I took a look at their current free classes, and there is an introduction to weapons class around ten that you will want to attend before we go to the dungeon. So we have about-” jake checked his phone “-an hour before we need to go there.”

“Okay” I confirmed I understood and Jake continued.

“If you really want to make this push I could give you a crash course on avatars so you know what to keep in mind?” Jake ended the sentence as a question, and I agreed.

“Yeah, if you think it will help then that sounds good.”

“Alright. So avatars are almost like a second self over you, their stamina if different from yours. You could push yourself to your very limit with your avatar and when you unsummon it you’ll feel like you hadn’t even had to move. Likewise when you summon your avatar your physical fatigue fades away.” Jake explained, and I was starting to understand how this could be game changing even just in everyday life. It put what the lady (I think it was Beth) had said yesterday into context. If a worker could work for hours and then just fully recharge it would be so much easier to do labor intensive work… Jake was still talking, whoops

“-so you won’t be able to keep up an avatar for very long when your starting out, but it should get better pretty quick.” I probably should have asked him to repeat that, but I think I got the gist of it. Besides, Jake looked like he was enjoying explaining him, he had the same expression as when he explained a book he really liked, and I didn’t want to interrupt, so I just let Jake continue explaining. “What exactly your avatar is like and what it provides depends on what orbs you incorporate and how, but even if you don’t incorporate armor your avatar will provide some defense, stopping weaker attacks. More importantly your avatar is only as strong as your connection to it. we call how in tune with your avatar you are sync, a percentage that tells you how much of its potential you can bring to bear, and you need to reach complete sync to add another orb to your avatar, so that's the key to advancing. You gain sync by using your avatar and making it better match your vision.” I decided to keep track of this information better, and opened my phone to start writing down what Jake said, and by the end I had added several new notes

1. An avatars tier is how many orbs it has

2. How long you can keep your avatar up is a mix of sync and tier

3. Attunement is largely useless unless tied to an aspect, and aspects are very limited without an attunement (apparently it will make more sense when I do it)

4. Avatars also make you feel stronger because you can maintain your maximum strength for longer. (easy example: sprinting easy as jogging but still can’t manage faster)

After we were done Jake packed a few things in his backpack and I grabbed my shoes. It was time to get going.