There was a long moment of silence as we looked at each other. Then, Tabitha said, “You first.”

I examined the title, which had auto-equipped itself since I had had no active title displayed to the world. After a moment to process what it said, I replied. “The system said that you gave me the title of ‘Little Sister.’ It, um, grants ‘threat radius increased by 10%, threat generation decreased by 10%,’ and ‘+5 Charisma.’” I read aloud the title’s characteristics.

She hugged me again. “I knew it!” I was half-expecting her to pick me up and twirl around, but she took a deep breath and visibly restrained herself, stepping back from the hug.

“What about you?” I asked, “Did you get called ‘Big Sister,’ then?”

She shook her head, “No. It’s a bit more complicated than that. Just a moment, let me re-open the message log. Here we go; it says ‘Backstory Activated! You have been awarded the Unique Perk “Undispirited”!’ And the perk says ‘Your search continues but you may have found a surrogate. When in her presence, critical successes are more likely and more potent. When out of her presence for more than a day, critical failures are more likely and more potent.’” She looked at me, eyes still a bit wide, “So it’s like you’re my good-luck charm, now, ‘Little Sister’!”

I felt my own eyes get a little wider again. The system had just made Tabitha’s gameplay experience dependent, in part, on me. What if it did that to other people who didn’t like each other? Or what if the schedules were incompatible even if the players did like each other?

Rather than voice my concerns, though—I didn’t want it to sound like I didn’t like her—I asked something related. “Well, it seems like we’ll be playing together a lot, then? There’s got to be a way to send a friend request to make it easier to find each other, right?”

I focused on my interface and expanded the button bar in the lower right. One of those probably opened an menu for friending. As it turned out, the icon of two smiling faces was the Social menu, and it included a friend list (currently empty) among its myriad options. I sent Tabitha a friend request. Then, as an experiment, I tried to send one to a player name I recalled from the tutorial, but the request errored out:

Request failed. There is no nearby player named Lynica.

“Huh. Looks like you can’t send a friend request if the person isn’t nearby?”

Tabitha nodded. “The website said that they didn’t go with unique usernames in this game since they wanted names to feel real—no Alexis1994 or xXShadowXx or the like. So, there’s probably a hundred or more other Tabithas out there by now since it’s a ‘real’ name. Therefore, you can only send a friend request or message to someone nearby to help ensure you get the right one. At least, that’s the way I understood it.”

That was fortunate. Since I was now somewhat famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, due to the fight at the end of the tutorial, I could have been at risk of non-stop friend invites or unwanted private messages from hordes of random players. Even if there weren’t any other Madelyn Alexises, the proximity requirement meant that I’d be relatively unspammed. After all, there couldn’t be all that many Lynicas, either, right?

Tabitha then sent me a group invite, which I accepted through the social menu. After I did so, my UI updated with a small, square portrait of her below the larger, circular one of mine. A thin red bar formed the left side of the square, and a matching blue bar formed the right: health and mana, most likely.

I also received two achievements: “Social” for adding a friend and “Party Time!” for joining a group. Of course, I didn’t get the doubled rewards for being the first player to earn the achievements, but for something as basic like that, I wouldn’t have expected it—even if I hadn’t have spent so much time in the home instance and tutorial. Nevertheless, they were still achievements, albeit minor common ones, so they’d add a few more points for Jasmine to spend decorating.

As I was thinking that over, Tabitha said something that jarred me out of my train of thought. “Oh, it looks like that dwarf won his duel.”

“Huh?” The statement came out of nowhere, and I wasn’t sure what she was getting at.

“I was ... just looking through the message log to see if there was anything else in there to maybe foreshadow the backstory activation. There wasn’t, but I did see ‘[Local Message] Stegnar Rockbottom has defeated Ben d’Overan-Tayket in a duel!’ The first name sounds dwarven, or at least, sounds like what I’d think dwarven sounds like, anyway. The second name?” She shook her head, “I think the naming filters need a little work.”

“Ugh. Yeah.” Well, it wasn’t like I was any good at coming up with names, either, but still even if Pandachan or Casper hadn’t been great names, which I had realized immediately, they weren’t on the level of that elf’s character. “So….” I didn’t want to press her, but I was starting to get a bit antsy to go out and kill a few monsters, quest, or explore. I mean, there was a little bit of exploring in going from store to store, but walking around a town isn’t the same as walking around the wilds, hunting wild monsters and wildflowers. True, I was having fun, even if a good part of the time had been spent as a living doll while Tabitha and the elves dressed me up in dress after dress, but that wasn’t going to level me up!

Well, not unless I took the Modeling skill or something similar, but…. Yeah, no.

“That was the shop you wanted me to go to, right? Anything else to visit on our way out to the wilds?”

Tabitha shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. Oh. Wait! Yes, there’s a little jewelry shop on the way to the city gate. I didn’t go in yesterday, but I could use a couple accessories. How about you, Sis?” She smiled as she stressed the last word.

“I’ve got several empty equipment slots, but I don’t know if I can afford very much. This outfit,” I glanced down at myself, admiring the fabric and fit but mentally wincing a little at the slight suggestion of a bust that the padded cami provided—what would happen if I had to activate Hidden Nature again? I certainly did not need any extra boost in that form! “This outfit and the new weapons took a big chunk of my money. Maybe we should get some loot to sell first?”

“No harm in looking, is there?” She took me by the hand and started walking further westward, so naturally I walked alongside her, following her lead. “Maybe they have something cute and cheap, like a ribbon for your hair, but if nothing else, we’ll get to see how much we need to save up.”

A hair accessory might be nice; the ornamented headband that was part of my starting outfit didn’t match my new dre— ah, tunic and leggings, so I wasn’t wearing it. A ribbon might be a bit much, though. Tabitha was wearing something like a small tiara, perhaps to match with her backstory, but that would be a bit much for me.

The jewelry shop, denoted by a picture portraying five golden rings, was very near to the town gates, which was unexpected. Then again, it occupied the building immediately next to the guard post, so its placement did have its own sort of logic. The building was in better shape than most of the other shops we had visited—except, of course, the dress shop. Like the dress shop, it had glass windows, though the displays weren’t of mannequins and full outfits, but rather display cases of jewelry.

As with most of the other places in town, the shopkeeper was an elf. Unlike most of the other places in town, the shop had its own security even beyond the adjacent guard post. There were a pair of older dwarves who had the look of mercenaries or former adventurers. One was thin (for a dwarf), dressed in studded leather armor, and carried nearly two dozen different blades in various obvious sheaths or bandoliers: daggers and throwing knives. Who knows how many concealed weapons he had as well. The other dwarf looked like he could have arm-wrestled Sar’Glagalth and won. Though he was unarmored, wearing only a sleeveless white tunic and billowy trousers, he by far looked the most dangerous.

In the end, we didn’t get much. The jewelry was rather expensive, after all. And while we could afford a few trivial pieces, buying anything really good would have gone into gold prices rather than just silver. Even with my being a Heroine and Tabitha’s money (did she really get that much from just quest rewards?), much of what was on display was significantly above our price ranges. However, I did get a cheap, copper hairclip ornamented with a small butterfly. The butterfly’s wings appeared to have been made with petals from the white blossoms I had encountered in the starting plaza. The hairclip was mostly ornamental, offering only a minor boost of one point of mana, but even so it had cost an entire silver piece—possibly for the craftsmanship. Tabitha bought matching earrings.

For a newbie starting settlement, Echeirn had some surprisingly high-end shops. Maybe the shops had a tradition behind them and they remained to retain that tradition even as the town started to wither away due to lack of trade. Or maybe, just maybe, those two shops had some of the high-level skill trainers for their professions. Idly, I considered my as-of-yet unselected skill slot. Perhaps I could learn sewing beyond the level of simple repairs to Luna? Being able to make my own dresses, um, cloth armor would go a long way toward being self-sustainable. But … no. It was a primary skill slot, so that meant I’d need to level it up and couldn’t just treat it as a hobby or dabble in it from time to time. Plus, there wasn’t just to me to consider; there was Tabitha and whomever else I’d be playing with. Tradeskills were one of the areas where a group should specialize rather than everybody doing the same thing, and it seemed like dressmaking might be right up Tabitha’s alley. Speaking of which….

Almost as if she could read my mind, Tabitha turned to face me as we left the the jewelry shop and asked, “So, Sis, I know you have a bow and arrow, staff, and dagger as your weapons, but can I ask your skill build? I have Restoration Magic for healing, Summoning to have a pet tank for me, and other skills to support them. Oh, and Alchemy that I haven’t been able to do anything with, yet. But someday I will!”

“I do have Archery, yes, but Dagger is a secondary skill and it’s mostly a just-in-case weapon that I haven’t needed to use much.” Well, except for the fight with Sar’Glagalth, but I didn’t need to go into that. “Mostly, my secondary skills haven’t been used much, yet except Meditation. I also have Gathering, which levels slowly, and Spellcasting since I have a couple spells. I haven’t decided on my last skill, yet.”

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Tabitha’s eyes lit up again when I mentioned Gathering, but then she got a thoughtful expression. “You really should set your other skill. With fewer skills to level, it’s harder to level up and get the more skill slots.”

“I know. It’s just…. Well, a lot of things sound fun or sound helpful, so it’s hard to decide. Other things, well….” I explained my reluctance to make something niche into a primary skill, since if I rarely made use of it, it would be much the same as not having a skill set—at least, when it comes to leveling up. Cooking, for example. Right now, I think it would be something I’d like to have, as a secondary skill, but was it something I wanted to work on every day I was in the game, which is what a primary skill sort of needed to be?

“Well, if you care about efficiency, probably your best choice is to take something you can use in fighting, then? Either a fighting skill like another magic or a support skill like my Arcane Reach. Or maybe something like Tracking, since you’re a bow-user. That might not help in a fight, but it could help us get to the fights we want. But I think you should take something fun, like Dancing!”

“Dancing? Really?”

“Yep! It should boost Agility, which you need for Archery. It’s fun; it’s attractive; and in games, Dancers usually give buffs to their parties or audiences.”

“I’m not going to be an exotic dancer!”

“No, no, not like that.” She gestured a bit dismissively. “Well, I suppose you could, once you got older, but that’s not what I was suggesting. Think of it like cheerleading!”

I shook my head, “That’s still too embarrassing.”

Tabitha shrugged and give me a one-arm-around-the-shoulder hug. “We’ll think of something, maybe something you do while fighting will suggest a new skill. So let’s go and…. Oops, looks like we have company.”

A group of five young men was standing near the gates to the city but to the side of the street and making it very clear that they weren’t trying to block the way. However, striding down the middle of the street toward us was a dwarf, hands raised and palms outward in an apparent show of non-hostile intent. Of course, hostility right next to a guard post with a small squad of city guards would have been a less-than-brilliant-idea, anyway.

We stopped, and the dwarf stopped several paces away.

“Ach, Ladies, we mean you no harm.” He lowered his arms slowly. “Me and the boys,” with a tilt of his head, he indicated the group of five players, “want to apologize for the trouble we helped put you and your little sister through. None of us knew what sort of scoundrels we had fallen in with, but we really should have done more than just back off. Some of those knuckleheads should have been pulled back, at the very least. For not doing more, we’re sorry.” He doffed his hat and bowed deeply, forehead almost to the ground.

“Stegnar, was it?” Tabitha stepped forward and extended her arm, looking every bit the epitome of graciousness. “Thank you. We accept your apology. It’s not always easy to know how to react in a new situation.” He took her hand, and she helped him back to his feet. “Congrats on winning your duel, by the way.”

“Ach, that pebble? All bravado and no follow-through. He got the first hit, but I got the last hit—the one that matters. My motto, after all, is ‘When you hit rock bottom, you know it; when Rockbottom hits you, you show it!’” There was a roar of approval from the rest of his party, but as an aside the dwarf half-whispered, “Of course, I don’t know what my motto would have been if the wife hadn’t vetoed Stonejaw all those years ago.”

He gestured his group forward, and they approached, all but one staying a non-threatening distance away. The last, a blond-haired youth in faded green caster robes approached and retrieved something from his inventory. “Here!” he held it out stiff-armed and blushing. “We thought that words were maybe not enough, so we all pitched in and bought something to help make up for appearing scary to you. Sorry again!”

‘It’ turned out to be a bundle of quality potions, four of healing and two of mana. While I remained in Tabitha’s shadow, she accepted the potions and thanked him graciously, her smile including all six members of the band. Then she inquired, “So, does your group have a name yet? Rockbottom Rascals or Stegnar’s Soldiers or something?”

Stegnar shook his head, but one of the four remaining in the background piped up with “The Brotherhood of Brothers!” for which he was thumped on the back of the head by the other three.

“What, are you ten or something?”

“Don’t just make things up on your own!”

“That’s like putting up a treehouse sign saying ‘No Girls Allowed Forever and Ever.’”

Stegnar rolled his eyes and Tabitha laughed softly and continued, pitching her voice to carry. “He has a point. Drat. There goes my idea of ‘Sister Squad.’” She winked to show she hadn’t been serious about that name. “Thank you all again for your apology and generous gift, and good luck with your hunting and questing.” She curtseyed, which prompted me to bow and wave as the dwarf and his band headed through the gates into the wilds.

“Well, that was unexpected, but not unpleasant,” Tabitha said after the men had departed. We divided the potions equally and then looked around. “I guess it’s time for us to brave the wilderness and see what monsters there might be for us to defeat. Are you ready, Sis?”

“As ready as I’m ever going to be, without spending fifteen hours looking through all the skills and trying to make a choice. We’ll see how things go when we work together out there, but I’ll probably end up taking something on impulse, like I did with Gathering.”

“I still think you’d make a cute cheerleader.”

“Nope!”

As we approached the gates, a pair of guards moved to block our way. “It’s too dangerous for children this way,” one said. “Go play in the parks or the farms out the eastern gate,” the other said.

“Excuse me, but we’re Travellers, and my little sister is older than she looks,” Tabitha said. “We’re able to take care of ourselves.”

The two guards looked at us with doubt. “That’s what the last children said, and it’s been hours since those two girls left….”

I equipped my quiver and bow, being careful to keep it obviously not at the ready and definitely not drawing an arrow. “Thank you for your concern, Guards, but I really am able to take care of myself. If you want us to look for the missing girls, we can keep an eye out for them. What did they look like?”

The two guards conferred amongst themselves in hushed voices for a few minutes, shooting occasional glances at Tabitha and me. I was uncomfortable with the way one of the guards seemed to keep eyeing my chest. Finally, they stepped aside.

“I guess you might be old enough to not count as a child. We’re not real familiar with Beastkin, but for you to be here strongly supports your claim to be a Traveller.”

The other guard nodded and continued where the first left off. “If you see them, you’ll know them. They’re two girls that look alike enough to have the same mother, but one is clearly not really an elf. The hyper one is Ria’Dine and the shy one, I don’t know. Maybe a type of human? Maybe a mixed-blood?” He sounded uncertain.

The first guard picked up again. “She looks elfin, but something about her suggests she isn’t. Regardless, they’re both flatter,” he winced as the other guard elbowed him in the ribs, “uh, I mean younger than you. Shorter, too. Darker skin, but not as dark as you. Basically, keep an eye out for two young girls. Even if they are Travellers, they might need help.”

System Message: You have been offered a quest by T’Dhii and T’Dhum, gate guards of Echeirn. [Accept] [Decline]

* Resin Warning: The guards at the western gate of Echeirn are worried about two young Travellers who haven’t returned. Soothe their minds by bringing back the missing girls or news of their whereabouts. Reward: Increased reputation with the guards of Echeirn.

Tabitha accepted the quest for the both of us, and we walked out of the town and into, well, more of the town. Just that outside the city wall, these buildings were clearly abandoned and overgrown.

I looked around. Some of the plants growing in the yards and through the cobblestones of the old road looked like they could be harvested, but had clearly already been picked over by other players. There also was no sign of Stegnar and his group of guys, but with all the ruined buildings, it wouldn’t have been that hard to get out of sight quickly even if Tabitha and I hadn’t been delayed by the guards.

“Just a moment, let me summon my pet…. Spirits of earth, lend strength to one who honors you. Ground that supports and stone that shields, this one humbly requests thy assistance. By the pact that was made, the promise fulfilled, and accords that exist, this one calls upon the strength of undying stone to be her companion and helper. Rock beneath, rise and take form. Servant, sculpt thyself into an image of strength—Tamakotz!”

While I was looking around, Tabitha was slowly chanting, her voice rising and falling rhythmically as if matching the beat of a slow drum. Magic energy swirled around her until, with a gesture, she directed it to a spot a few feet away. Then, the very ground seemed to split open as a stone … figure … of some sort climbed out.

It was vaguely humanoid in shape in that it had a head and two arms in roughly the right places, but its body was a tapered slab of stone looking a bit like an inverted and stretched-out pyramid. It had no legs, but the slab of stone disappeared into a swirling cloud of dust at ground level reminding me a bit of how cartoons used to portray their characters running quickly. Tamakotz’s face was fairly featureless, but it did have two glowing eyes the exact same shade of green as Sar’Glagalth had had.

When the creature, elemental I guess, fully appeared, its portrait showed on the interface as a smaller one immediately to the right of Tabitha’s. The crack in the ground also faded away as if it had never been there.

Tabitha sat, probably to meditate since my interface showed her mana had fallen by almost half in the summoning. “It would be easier,” she said, “if they let summoned pets inside towns, but I kind of agree with some of the rationale to leave them out. Can you imagine this guy in the dress shop, dust going everywhere?”

I nodded. “Yeah, and finding one to fit him might have been a challenge.”

Tabitha laughed. “Maybe something in green, to match his eyes. But Tama’s been very helpful. He keeps the enemy’s attention on him and away from me. And he’s more than just a shield, he’s a sword, hitting the monsters, too. He protects me and I keep him healed. It’s a bit slow, but it works.”

“You don’t have a weapon?” I asked.

“Tama’s my weapon. Well, I do have a wand, but I can’t use it until I can learn the skill. Until then, it’s just a pretty, polished piece of wood.” She stood and took the wand from her inventory: thirteen or fourteen inches of gently tapered wood, the grain more of a hint than visible due to the dark varnish. “If I was close enough, I could poke an eye out, maybe, but it won’t shoot magic until I have the skill to use it.” Stretching languidly, she continued. “That’s my next skill. After that is probably another magic skill to give me more spell variety, but I don’t think that will be something offensive. Well, we’ll see. That’s not happening anytime soon.”

I decided to try my hand at teasing her. “What about Dancing? You said yourself that it’s a support skill, and a healer is very much a support player. You would make a cute cheerleader.”

She laughed and ruffled my hair. “I will if you do. Then we can dance together, Sis!” Seeing my pout at the deflected tease attempt, she gave me another quick one-armed hug. “No, I get it. You’re going DPS, so even if you were tempted by being a cheerleader, it wouldn’t be the best skill for you this early, but….” She paused for effect, and then winked. “Maybe later, once you get a few more skills under your belt, it’ll be a good hybrid fit.”

“We’ll see,” I tried to be non-committal rather than just dismissive, but I didn’t think I wanted to relay this discussion to Michelle when we inevitably talked about the game. She would be tickled at the idea of me being a cheerleader, and I might not be able to resist her. I certainly hadn’t been able to that time when, well, never mind…. “I may still take something support—Tracking like you suggested or maybe Cartography. I like the idea of better maps and minimaps.”

“Sure, that would be good, too. Well, shall we go see what we can see and slay what we can slay? And maybe find those missing girls? I admit, it’s a bit interesting to get a quest to find players rather than the typical ‘Hey, kill ten of these pesky monsters that are threatening the gates.’ Young girls, too. Maybe they’d be a good fit to our party!?” She looked excited at the prospect of more little sisters.

I felt a slight twinge of unexpected jealousy, which I immediately suppressed. With a smile, I pointed down the overgrown road and said, “Monsters beware, we’re coming for you!”