Clyde excused himself for a minute. They had been talking about the bounty with the Sheriff, describing exactly what the monster stalking this village at night was. It ended up being a feral vampire, which led to the question: were there more of his kind? They also wondered if there were non-feral vampires in the area, and if so, would they have "popular media" type vampire weaknesses.

The conversation had slowed down some and then the Sheriff had to step away. Clyde took the opportunity to take a walk outside. For a couple of hours now, he had been feeling a certain sensitivity in his body. It was a hard feeling to describe, but he felt like maybe he needed to unload some magical energy, as odd as that sounded.

That would be a first for sure, but every day seemed to introduce a new round of firsts. He walked to the edge of the village towards one of the farms. There was an open field with a few animals.

Clyde looked downrange and activated his heat vision spell. Before now, the 2nd level spell would transform his normal human optics to a thermal variant. Anyone who had seen the Predator movie would know what he was talking about, although his spell was sharper.

When he activated it now, things had changed again. He not only saw warm objects light up, but he also received prompts informing him what those objects were. For example, as he looked towards the animals, not only were the two cows colored in shades of red and orange, but their color was much brighter than the others, allowing him to see heated objects more clearly.

Beyond that, there was a prompt similar to what Iron Man saw in the movies, telling him what everything was (far less detailed at his stage then Iron Man). He looked farther down where he could not tell exactly what was lighting up the heat sensor. In this situation, the prompt only informed him that he was looking at organic material, so not something artificial with a heat signature. Still a very helpful addition.

He checked his journal and saw that things had not changed. He wished there was a section for notifications like how cell phones used to be, something to inform him of any changes in the ambient magic or whatever other pertinent information he needed.

Walking back into the building, Clyde wanted to try one more thing. He found an open patch of grass and projected his fire hands spell outwards; normally, all it did was heat his hands up unless there was some conduit. Because of this, he really pushed power out from his hands, hoping to get some kind of improved reaction.

What he got was far more than he bargained for. A geyser of red-hot flame shot out of the palms of his hands. It wasn't jets of flame like you might see in a video game, nor was it like molten lava. What came out of his hands was something in between, jets of thick magma-like fire.

It landed on the ground up and out to 10 feet away. The fire burned any grass and weeds that lay under it, finally sitting steady on top of the ground.

“Wow, that was intense!” he exclaimed, excited to finally have a true offensive spell. Although he would need to be careful not to burn any friendlies in a close quarters fight.

-

Travis was inside, waiting for the Sheriff while his friend was outside, it had been a while, but he was starting to consider Clyde as a real friend. Omar had gone to get something to eat at one of the nice ladies' houses in the village.

He took out his journal to double-check the missions related to this cult. He also received a message from Paul, telling him about the interaction with the vampires and the wolves. He now had more information about the vampires, though he didn't like any of it. They were so close to his base and they had no idea, well Paul did. That was another thing he had to deal with.

Apparently, Torak wanted to speak with him. He never seemed to be able to get this adventure of his going before things started happening left and right.

Looking over the older missions, he knew those couldn't really get started until he found the settlement to the north, which had been his goal the entire time. It was the new missions that he was concerned with at present.

'New Mission Type' - *Nemesis Mission*

'Nemesis Mission' - You have discovered a cult that is bent on power at any cost. Its leader does not share the same values as your faction, and you have already put a dent, although small, in his operations.

You will have a choice to accept or reject this and other nemesis missions.

'Objective' - Find and shut down any Cult of David camps or bases you find. Also, fight to kill, capture, or turn any member of this cult you come across. Be aware that accepting this mission will turn this cult into your sworn enemy instead of just people you may disagree with but let roam free in certain situations.

By accepting this mission, you do add to your list of enemies while also adding to your already large workload. But you will also be rewarded for fighting people that you would probably be fighting for free anyway.

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Do you accept or reject this mission?

'Nemesis Mission' - You have taken prisoners from a cult with a contrasting alignment to your own. Instead of putting them all in the ground, mercy has won out. Is this a trend or a one-time thing? If it's the former, then you will benefit from continuing to take prisoners. Any cult members that you fight but do not kill will earn you a reward. However, if they go back to their old ways, then you will have a damage penalty against them for 24 hours per member returned. This will stack and only runs during time outside of your base. The rewards for saving a member and bringing them into your faction will be exponential though. Trust us, you will like those rewards.

Accept or reject?

As if he didn't have enough going on considering the super-smart werewolf mage with a crush on him, plus hidden covens of vampires. He also had to get the gold economy going, expand his base, level up, be the main character, and fight monsters. He would say that he didn't sign up for this, but unlike the army, he didn't sign up at all.

It still boggles his mind that an almost reclusive non-game-playing former soldier with PTSD was chosen as someone's main character to play in a game he didn't even understand the lingo of.

"Ah, fuck, stop complaining," he chided himself. It could be far, far worse. As he thought about the benefits he had been given, he thought about Clyde. Where was he anyway?

They bumped into each other in the doorway. "Travis, come outside, I have to show you something." Clyde was more excited than Travis had ever seen.

"Watch this." Clyde walked over to the spot he had been at and held out his hands. He practiced for a few minutes before showing Travis so knew he didn't need to put everything he had into it.

Hands out and palms up, Travis watched, not knowing what he was going to see. Then a wild spray of half lava, half fire came out of his hands. It shot about 5 feet but was still greater than anything he had seen before from Clyde's spell.

Clyde stopped and stumbled a little bit. Travis ran over and grabbed him. Luckily, the fire had stopped spraying, or else Travis would have been burned.

"How the hell did you do that, and are you okay? Is that a new spell?"

"I overextended myself. You don't know how much I wish this game had a mana bar. I could feel myself draining somewhat, but the first time I used it must have taken a lot more out of me then I thought."

Travis walked him over to a small stone wall and sat him down.

Clyde looked up, "I'm fine, and no, it's not a new spell. I think something is going on with the magic. If it was just me, I wouldn't think so, but combined with your perception power, I'm starting to wonder. I have a strange tingly feeling in the parts of my body that eject magic too, it's weird I know. Anything like that for you?"

Travis thought about it for a second. He didn't have magic per se like Clyde did; his power was a skill. Now that he said it, he realized he didn't know what the difference was, if there was one at all. He focused but this time on his own body, nothing.

Then he focused on Clyde's body and aura; yeah, there was something there.

"Did you just run your senses over me?" Clyde asked.

Travis nodded his head, "why is that rude or something?"

Clyde ignored the silly question, where would someone get an idea like that (hmm).

“Okay because I could feel it. It's almost like the magic is tangible somehow. Let me try something.”

Clyde summoned his skeleton warrior, except when he did, three appeared. They were in a triangle formation, and the one in front had an improved shield and sword—improved from before and better than the other two. He must be the main summons, with the others being added with more magical power.

“It really is crazy that there is no way to measure magical power.”

“Is it though, Clyde?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, as you told me in games and stuff, you have some type of meter, but how would we even see it? If it was in our journals, then it would be impossible to use when we are fighting. The magic, power, and stamina are all innate abilities that we are supposed to feel.”

“Feel how, though?” Clyde said, getting more than a little frustrated. Like in the way a teacher might with a student who is trying to correct them.

“I wish you could experience things the way I do with my perception power." He tried to think of a way to explain it, "You know how you feel happiness or love even? Well, you can't describe how you feel them right; you just do. That's how I feel the things around me now, but maybe it's also how we are supposed to feel our powers. It could have something to do with our perception stat, but you have a good one.

I know I do not know anything about the games this is all based off of but maybe that allows me to see something you are missing. In the real world with the type of powers available only in fiction until now, maybe this is the only way it can work. Is a mana bar really practical in real life? I think you need to stop trying to measure everything like a science and just try to experience your new abilities man.”

Clyde looked at him in a way that Travis hadn't really seen before.

“What?”

“Nothing, it's just that is well said and a great point I hadn't considered.”

“Don't be so shocked, damn, am I that dumb to you?” Travis half joked, but he was really asking.

Now Clyde gave him a flat look, “Travis, the things you do well, you do better than anyone I have ever met. I'm not just talking about your powers either. But we are all good and bad at different things, and while you have the analytical mind skill, that is the first time you have analyzed something complex so succinctly.”

Unsure if he was thrilled with that explanation, Travis dropped it. “Anyway, try it, man. But okay, I've been thinking about the plan, wanna hear it?"

Clyde gave the affirmative, "Once we leave here, we go straight to the settlement up north, I have a couple of missions that require it. Then we head back while keeping an eye out for any cult strongholds. When we get back, I have to talk with the wolf mage.”

“How do you know?”

“Paul messaged me; they had quite the adventure with his little hunting missions. Almost got him and Trevor killed, but I can't be bothered with that right now. I know the base isn't what I'd consider a fortress stronghold but it's never going to grow if we just sit there.” He was trying to console himself with that last part, Travis worried every day that the base would be attacked while he was gone.

“Where the heck is the sheriff already?” Travis almost yelled; they had been waiting a while.

“Speak of the devil, and he should appear.” The sheriff walked from around a corner with his typical jovial demeanor. As he walked over Travis realized that he didn't sense him.

“How come I didn't sense you? Come to think of it, how come I cannot sense you now?” Travis asked.

“Because I do not exist, or not in the way you understand it anyway.” Because he was always joking, it was easy for Travis and Clyde to dismiss this as just another ridiculous thing. How could he not exist?

Although something was tugging at Clyde's mind; he just didn't know what. He would file it away just in case it came up again. If he and his leader survived long enough, it most certainly would.