Leroythegreat sat down, slumping in his chair at the table inside The Lame Dog. It was one of the many inns inside the Dwarven Capital of Sleanvarg. Enchanting was going to be a problem, it turned out. Stacy sat down across from him at the table.

This was the third inn they’d tried, and they’d finally found one without a stage or other entertainment area, so this inn didn’t have a noisy bard and an insane amount of people. This one actually seemed fairly quiet, with only a few other players at other tables enjoying food and conversing quiet enough that he couldn’t even make out what they were saying.

Stacy had picked a pretty dwarven avatar with long blond hair and a curvy frame. This had allowed her to start in the same area as Leroy, though she didn’t care as much about the racial bonuses. “It feels weird being so short now,” she said.

“You’re not that much shorter than you are in real life,” he said with a smile.

“True, but being four foot eight inches is way different than five feet two inches. I’m almost a head shorter!” She tossed her hair and added, “And that’s after making my avatar as tall as possible.”

Leroy had done the same, so he was the same height as she was, but had chosen tan skin and a long black beard to go with his shaggy black hair. He couldn’t grow a beard to save his life, so this game finally gave him the chance to have a full on beard, even if it was only virtual. It felt real enough.

“Should we get some food?” Stacy asked.

“Sure,” Leroy said, waving at a serving girl that came bustling over. “Two bowls of your finest stew,” he said as she approached.

“Anything to drink?” the waitress asked.

“Water is fine for me,” he said, glancing to Stacy.

She had her elbows on the table was leaning forward. “Water is fine for me too,” she said. When the waitress left, Stacy asked, “What do we do about the materials problem?”

“It’s fine,” Leroy said. “We just need to get some mana crystals, no big deal.”

“But nobody is selling any,” she said.

“So we go to the source,” he replied.

She twirled a finger through her hair and scrunched her eyebrows. “You mean we go into dungeons? That sounds scary.”

“Well, there isn’t much of an option otherwise,” he said. “I think we could find some other people that want to delve into dungeons with us if we are serious about it. I’ve got enough money to get us some decent gear, so even at level one, we should be able to attract other players to join us.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she said. “I don’t want to get hurt.”

“The game’s pain threshold won’t allow you to feel anything intense,” Leroy said. “If you get stabbed, it will feel like a hard pinch. Also, you don’t’ have to be on the front line at all. You learned about magic and healing from the magic tutor, right?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I can even go train it by healing the guards in the barracks that are injured. Should I become a healer?”

Leroy shrugged. “That or a mage or ranger. Which would you prefer?”

“I don’t’ want to hurt things, even if they are all digital,” she said.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“Then you can be the healer,” he said with a grin. “I’ll probably be the tank since armor is expensive and a lot of new players aren’t dropping the extra money to buy in game gold like I did. It should give us a huge advantage starting out.”

“It’s too bad you can’t just buy the mana crystals you need.”

“Yeah,” he said, pausing as their waitress arrived with their stew and mugs of water. With a grateful nod from Leroy, the waitress hurried off as another table waved her down. Leroy continued, “But it looks like some things in this game can’t be bought, at least not until the market catches up. I really want to become a top level enchanter fast, so we don’t have much choice but to fight in dungeons.”

They sat in silence for a minute as they ate their stew. It tasted delicious, and he could swear that he was eating a real meal.

“Any word from Corey yet?” Stacy asked, breaking the silence.

“Nope,” Leroy said. “Last I heard he was taking over a dungeon, but now he won’t respond. It’s actually got me a little worried. He said he was in a town called Butteville, and I found it on the map, but it’s really far away. On the other hand, it’s close to the Human Capital. Once we can take a portal, we should be able to get to him fairly quickly.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Then we could we go to Corey’s dungeon to get mana crystals.”

Leroy grinned. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. The problem right now is that we can’t teleport until we are level ten. It also costs a lot of gold to teleport somewhere you haven’t been, but I’ll buy more gold if it comes down to it. According to some claims on the Wiki, dungeon running is one of the fastest ways to train stats and to gain experience to level up. We might even earn enough money to pay for the portal as well. Either way, as soon as we hit level ten, we will be taking a portal to the Human Capital. I’d like to do it as fast as possible.”

“That makes sense,” Stacy said. “Is that why you wanted me to play so bad? Because Corey was too far away?”

“Yes and no,” Leroy said with a grin. “Even if Corey were here, it’s not the same as what we have. I like being with you.”

She blushed a little, which Leroy hadn’t known was even a feature in the game until now.

He continued, “I mean, I really want to be a pro gamer, it’s kind of mine and Corey’s shared dream, but I don’t want to do it if I can’t hang out with you too.” He rubbed his hands through his shaggy hair and added, “I guess I’m being selfish, but I hope you can understand.”

“It’s strange being a dwarf,” she said with a smile. “But, I like spending time with you too. Also, since I’m still waiting on acceptance letters to the colleges I’ve applied to, I’ve got time to kill. Plus, if I end up in school out of state, this game is so real we could hang out and it would be almost like we are together.”

This time Leroy blushed, which made him grateful for his beard. As though the thought had prompter her, Stacy said, “I could do without you having a beard though.”

“I thought you liked it?” Leroy asked.

“It’s cool, but I don’t know, it’s just not really you. Not the you that I know.”

“Maybe I’ll ditch it later. I can always go to the in game barber and change whatever I want about my avatar.”

It was a bit unrealistic that a barber could change your height, weight, or skin color, but according to the Wiki you could pay to have all of it changed up. Leroy supposed that it was something that a lot of people would demand, since they couldn’t have more than one avatar.

“You think Corey is okay?” Stacy asked.

“I hope so,” Leroy said. At her furrowing eyebrows, he added, “I looked up the dungeon challenge on the Wiki not too long after talking to Corey because I was curious what he was getting into. There was a new post by the game company stating that the dungeon masters would likely be unavailable due to a need to avoid breaking the terms of use that went along with taking over a dungeon. It said that there was no need for concern, and that the players were doing fine.”

Stacy let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Then he is okay.”

“I hope so,” Leroy said. “Still, something feels off, and I don’t like the wording. Corey is smart though, and I’m sure he looked into it before getting suckered into something dangerous. I just wish he would respond to my messages.”

Stacy leaned back in her chair, folding her arms. “So what’s our first move?” she asked.

“I think we need to do some shopping, followed by a bit of training,” Leroy said. “Only then will we be prepared enough to enter a dungeon. I honestly have no idea how hard they are, but according to the Wiki we can train our stats and abilities outside of combat, so I think we should get a little more powerful just to be prepared. After that, we will power level in some dungeons and get to level ten as fast as we can. I’m worried that Corey might need help, so I’d like to at least have that option.”

“I love shopping,” Stacy said, eyes lighting up.

Of course that’s what she took away from the plan, he thought. Then with a grin he said, “Yeah, let’s go shopping.”