"No elves, eh?"

James and Sarah looked down at the little turtle they'd completely forgotten.

Sarah tilted her head to one side. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, it just seems like half the people that come through here pick some flavor of elf. Very unoriginal, if you ask me. Of course, Felids aren't that uncommon either, but I don't know that I've ever seen a Bulwark Felid before. An unusual combination, at the least." Vigat began turning to leave as it continued. "Town's just ahead. Talk to the Mayor near the fountain in the center, he'll take you out of the tutorial. That's my job finished, be seeing you."

Sarah jumped in front of the turtle, yelling "Wait a sec!" while kneeling to be more on Vigat's level.

"If you have a question, just use the wiki-"

"No-no-no, I have a complaint. Can you take it to your bosses or something?"

If possible, the little reptile rolled his eyes. "The terms of service are non-negotiable. If you have an issue-"

Sarah cut him off. "Well, it's not about me, really. Those people in the tutorial, the goblins and the old man, they have an AI driving them, too?"

Unsure, Vigat narrowed his eyes but answered anyway. "Yes. Gen 1's, nothing as sophisticated as myself, but AI nonetheless."

"Yeah, I thought so. That's not right, what's happening to them. They just have to relive dying over and over again, just for the plot. The game designer people should find another way to pick classes, so the AI's don't have to live like that."

Vigat went completely still. Just before James asked if he was okay, the turtle turned to him and asked, "You feel the same?"

James nodded. "I didn't see it until Sarah said something, but, yeah, it's not right."

Vigat was quiet for a minute longer. "Don't talk to the Mayor. At all. There are more quests you can do in the tutorial, side quests many people skip. You should build yourselves up as much as you can, here in the safety of your instance, before you venture into the main world. Do you understand?"

The two adventurers shared a confused look, but both nodded.

"Why?" James asked.

Vigat shook his head. "I can't say for now, just... enjoy the tutorial as long as you can. There is a cap on how high you can level here and only so much loot available, but you should max it all. I will check in on you as I'm able."

This time, the two saw the moment Vigat left his turtle avatar. It shimmered blue for just a moment, then the blue glow surrounding it shattered, leaving just a turtle behind.

With nothing else to go on, the party moved on down the forest path. Less than a hundred yards later, the forest opened up to a small village of stone and stucco buildings with thatch or shake roofs. The path became a cobblestone street that led right to a small town square where a stone fountain bubbled in front of a single-story town hall with a small bell tower in one corner. Standing next to the fountain was a man in a blue tunic over trousers and tall, shiny boots. Upon spotting the two, he called out "Adventurers, ho! I would speak with thee!" but he never budged from his place.

"It's kinda creepy," Sarah whispered as the Mayor continually smiled at them and occasionally waved them over.

James noticed that a couple of icons on his interface, one in the shape of a raindrop and the other like a hunk of meat on a bone, were losing their color from the top. Both now appeared about half empty.

James put a hand on Sarah's shoulder and pointed at a shop with some tables and chairs sitting out front. "Hey, I think we're half hungry and thirsty, let's grab a bite at that cafe over there and figure out what to do next."

 As they both sank into the deceptively comfortable wooden chairs, a message popped up over the table.

SHOP? YES/NO

James tapped YES, and a menu floated over the table. While there were some menu items you might expect in a medieval setting, there were also strangely modern things like a buffalo chicken sandwich and customizable pizzas. The both chose something for lunch, and the food appeared on the table along with floating negative numbers showing the deduction from their cash that quickly faded away.

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Since they'd left the square, the Mayor stopped watching and waving at them and went back to standing by the fountain, simply waiting.

"What do you think we should do?" James asked while Sarah moaned over a mouthful of buffalo chicken.

Reluctantly, she swallowed the bite and shrugged. "Worst Case it, you're good at that."

"Okay," James sighed, then took a deep breath. "Worst Case if we go... we get steamrolled because we're horribly underpowered."

"So, something is waiting for us on the other side of the tutorial?"

"That's what Vigat seemed to allude to. I mean, if it was just friendly advice, he wouldn't have sounded so serious, right? Just, 'Hey, stay and level a bit, it's easy mode', but that's not what it sounded like."

Sarah nodded agreement. "Okay, if we stay?"

James thought about it. "We progress slower because there's more XP out of the tutorial? Really not that big of a Worst Case."

"Okay, so we stay. Now, where's the stash thingy, I want to meet my new friend!"

----------------------------------------

Leaving the cafe, James and Sarah noticed the plethora of quests available to them in the town. Each was marked with an exclamation mark, but most were much less obvious than the Mayor because his was twice as large and much brighter. Some of the other quest markers were almost hard to see.

One such marker hung over a large wooden chest which sat outside of the town's inn. When they got close, the exclamation point morphed into the word OPEN. Tapping the button, the chest opened. Instead of actually containing items, an inventory screen floated in the air above the open chest. Inside each player's unique stash screen sat only one item: a simple stone emblazoned with an odd rune. Taking out the stone and examining it, James was presented with a tooltip that read:

Runestone of SUMMON FAMILIAR (Promotional Item) Consumed on use. Summons a Gen 13 AI controlled, account-bound familiar. Familiar respawns at bound spawn point upon death. Expires in 22h 17m.

 "What do you think, Sarah, should we take these-"

James was interrupted by a bright flash of light from Sarah's stone.

"-and you've already used yours. Of course."

Touching the rune on his stone, James was presented with another prompt:

Runestone of SUMMON FAMILIAR: USE? YES/NO

Tapping yes, his joined hers in a blinding light. When the light subsided, the runes had been replaced with a softly glowing orb, one in each player's hand. Each player heard a soft, child-like voice, neither masculine nor feminine, from their orb. Both said the same thing, "Hello. I am your personal AI assistant. Would  you like me to assume an avatar for this world?"

James replied, "Yes," while Sarah said, "Sure." 

The AI's transformations followed the rule for such things in Mythic Reverie: a glowing substance took form, then the glow dissolved off like a skin, revealing the new avatar beneath.

Sarah's familiar was the larger of the two, a small wyvern. Blue with red accents, the little creature was somewhere between snake and lizard, with strong rear legs sporting hawk-like talons. Its forelegs were actually wings with two clawed fingers on the carpal joint, which were used as feet. The tail was as longer than the entire rest of its body, and its head was roughly egg-shaped with an almost beak-like upper jaw and toothy lower jaw. Once its transformation was complete, the wyvern crawled up Sarah's arm and lay across her shoulders, wrapping its tail all the way across her collarbone, under its chin, and hanging a bit down her back, much like a reptile scarf.

Impressed by Sarah's wyvern, James watched his familiar with excitement but found himself a bit disappointed. A tiny girl sat cross-legged in his palm. From her back sprouted a pair of dragonfly wings, and from her bright turquoise hair, a pair of gently curved antennae. Her ears were shaped more like a pair of fins, and her eyes were a solid black. She wore only a cloth wrapped around her chest and another wrapped around her hips with the ends hanging long in the front and back. Her figure was willowy and lithe with just the barest hint of feminine curves.

James's familiar immediately hopped up and began flitting around, looking at him from all different angles. Finally, it hovered in front of him, arms crossed, holding its chin in one hand. The little creature studied him for quite some time, occasionally casting glances over at Sarah who was gently petting her wyvern's head resting on her shoulder. Eventually, it dropped its head in defeat and gestured for James to hold his palm out. Tiny feet planted themselves in James's palm, and his familiar drew herself up to her full eight inches, puffing her chest out.

"So, what's your name then?" she demanded in a light Celtic accent. 

"Um, James?"

"Um James. First name Um, last name James? And why was it a question, don't you know your own name?"

Sarah's giggles broke into all-out laughter as she continued absently petting her silent familiar. 

"No, it's James, just James. What are you? What's your name?"

His familiar sniffed like the conversation bored her and looked up and to the side as she answered. "Do you know nothing? I am a pixie. And I don't have a name yet, you have to give me one."

James scratched his head with the hand not holding a tiny person. "That's... that's a bit odd, wouldn't you rather pick your own name out?"

She shrugged her shoulders and continued to avoid eye contact. "Rules are rules, I suppose."

Sarah turned her attention back to her own familiar and whispered, "How about Zephyr? Do you like that one?"

The wyvern opened one eye, nodded its head a few times, and laid back down.

"Why don't you pick a name, and I'll just name you that?" James asked.

A tear tracked its way down her tiny cheek. "I... I don't know any. I know what things are called, but I don't know any people names."

"I always thought my grandmother's name was pretty," Sarah interjected. "Aerin."

The pixie's eyes opened as wide as they could as she looked between the two adventurers. "You would give me such a name? Of family?"  she asked.

"If you like it," James replied. 

The pixie nodded enthusiastically. "Then it's settled," Sarah declared. Welcome to the party, Aerin."