Dom returned to find Cedric punching a tree with brass knuckles, and Dom trying to perform a cartwheel. Dom was getting a few weird glances from passing players, but it didn’t seem to bother him much.

Dom huffed as he landed on his butt.

“Dude, what are you doing,” Gary asked sarcastically.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Dom retorted. “Trying to get the Acrobatics skill, duh.”

Cedric wiped some bark off his brass knuckles. “Yeah, as far as Dom goes, it’s actually a good idea.

Dom stood up again, and tried to cartwheel in vain. He slipped, and ended up on his back, taking in air with big gulps. “Uhhhh, out of Stamina.” Dom moaned.

Despite himself, Gary started laughing, and tried his best cartwheel. Like Dom, it didn’t work out so well, and he ended up on the ground. It also took 24% of his Stamina just to attempt.

After a good twenty minutes, Dom finally landed one, and gained the Acrobatics skill.

A few minutes later, Gary got it as well.

Acrobatics level 1: Real life level 5.

“Cool,” said Gary. “I already have 5 level in real life.”

“That it?” said Dom. “I have like 23 dude,”

“Woah,” Gary mused. “That’s pretty good.”

Suddenly, Gary realized that it was 11:23. That was late for a school night.

“Ah, shoot guys, it’s late. I think I’m going to log. I’ll see you guys in class tomorrow.

“Later,” said Dom, this time landing a cartwheel.

Gary logged out and removed his visor. He just now realized how tired he was. ForeverQuest certainly had that effect--when he was playing he never got as tired, or even as hungry, as he normally did.

He hardly had enough energy to brush his teeth before setting his alarm and collapsing on his bed.

The next morning he was pretty tired, he didn’t really sleep well the night before. He got dressed and ate a quick breakfast before heading out the door on his bicycle. Thankfully, it was a nice morning, no rain or anything, instead the sun was bright and the traffic wasn’t bad. Not that the traffic really ever got too bad in Litchfield.

When he arrived at school, he locked his bike, and went to his first class--gym. He never really did much in gym, the teacher always just told them to play kickball--it just wasn’t fun for him. However, with ForeverQuest and all, Gary realized he couldn’t waste any time playing kickball. After all, kickball hardly even counted as exercise, most of it was just standing around.

On that note, one reason Gary didn’t like school too much is that so much time was wasting. Sure, some classes they actually learned stuff, but others were completely boring.

Anyhow, Gary thought he could sneak into the weightroom without anybody noticing. The gym teacher, Mr. Anderson, was just looking at his computer. He looked like he could care less about the kickball game, or anything else, really. Probably watching Netflix, thought Gary with a snicker.

First period ended at 8:46, so as long as Gary could get back to the gym a couple minutes before the bell rang, he should be fine.

So Gary simply left the gym and entered the weightroom. It was surprisingly easy to just leave, he literally just walked out unnoticed.

The weight room was empty, and Gary went straight to work. Bench Press, pull ups, dumbbell curls, push-ups, and to finish up, squats.

Gary was still benching 95 pounds, but it had started to feel a bit easier. He felt like he could maybe move up weight, but wanted to be sure before he added another 5 or 10 pounds.

After a tough set of pullups, Gary collapsed on the floor, and suddenly started laughing at the irony of the situation. He was risking getting a detention for bailing out on class, because he was skipping gym class to actually exercise. He couldn’t help himself, he started dying laughing, even though he was the only person in the room.

Gary shook it off and finished his routine, heading out of the weightroom and slipping back into gym class at 8:44. It was like he never left. The entire operation was so easy, he could hardly believe it.

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The rest of the day, Gary daydreamed about leveling real life skills while at school. He would take classes like Chemistry and Trigonometry seriously--because he had to actually try to get an A in those and because studying that stuff might raise his intelligence, he thought. But in classes like Gym and Art, he would try to find a way to either train something in class, or slip out like he just did in gym class.

It wasn’t that Gary was a rebel or anything, or he at least didn’t think of himself that way. He just wanted to use every second--in-game and in real life--to train for ForeverQuest so he could get better. For Gary, it was all about progress, leveling, and being the best player he could be.

At lunch, Gary described his plan to Dom and Cedric. Cedric was skeptical at first, but Dom liked it right away.

“Dude, that makes total sense,” he said as he dug into a chicken nugget. He took a few seconds to chew, and then made a grimace as he swallowed the food. “Ewww, tastes slimy.”

“We can’t waste time, but we also can’t play in school,” Gary reasoned.

Dom huffed. “Wish we could.”

They all knew that school had already blocked ForeverQuest--like most games, it was impossible to play on school internet.

“That’s a good plan” Cedric said. “We spend school training. That makes sense to me.”

“For sure,” Dom agreed.

From another table, Gary could see Tommy and his goons chucking the chicken nuggets at unsuspecting victims. Every time a victim was pelted, the table erupted in laughter.

Gary smoldered. “Man, he’s such a punk. I can’t wait to crush him in arena.”

“Chill out Gar-bear,” Dom said with a half-smile. “We still have a couple months until the competition.”

“Yeah, Dom is right,” Cedric agreed. “He’s a punk, but there is no reason to get mad about anything.”

“Hey, speaking of that, you want to do some practice after school today?” Gary asked. Despite all their plans, the three haven’t even done any skirmishes yet.

Dom ate his last chicken nugget. “I’m not sure if I’m happy that they’re all gone, or sad that I don’t have any left,” Dom said thoughtfully.

“What?” said Cedric flatly.

“The nuggets. I mean, they are total crap, but they still satisfy my hunger. I’m not really sure if I want more, if you know what I mean. But if I had more, I would probably eat them.”

Cedric sighed. “Yeah Gary, we will be on.”

“Sweet.”

After school, Gary put on his headset and slipped into ForeverQuest.

In game, he was on the outskirts of Lomberg. In the distance, he could see a Giant Snail in the green plains. The slimy beast was crawling around aimlessly.

Dom and Cedric weren’t on yet, so he decided to see if he could take it out by himself.

First, he dumped his quest-reward points into Archery and grew to level 4.

Oak Shortbow in hand, he moved into what he thought was striking distance--maybe 20 or 30 meters away.

His grip on the bow was shaking as he nocked the arrow. He held his breath and lined up the shot the best he could. Twang!

The arrow missed, flying left of the target. Instantly, the Slug locked into him and started its slimy charge.

Shoot, Gary mumbled under his breath as he took a few steps back. His second shot was a little better, hitting the slug right in the neck. A little red 3.4 appeared on impact.

The slime moaned, and started pouring out a viscous green liquid. Over the slime’s head, a bleeding indicator appeared.

However, the slime was upon Gary. With a spinning attack, it took out Gary by the shins. The boy hit the ground hard, groaning as his back slammed against the ground.

For a second, he was almost smothered by the snail, but Gary performed a quick backwards somersault, landing on his feet in a crouched position with another arrow nocked and ready to go.

Gary gracelessly let the arrow fly, and as embarrassing as missing a five foot shot, that’s exactly what happened.

Before Gary could even think, a raging slug was now on top of him, smothing him and draining health points quickly.

Gary tried to shove it off, but it was too big. He was being crushed by the snail. This totally sucks! Gary thought as he saw his oxygen meter start to drain. It was now at 52%. I can’t take much more of this!

In a desperate move, the boy equipped his dagger and started stabbing frantically. He can’t knock the slug off, but he might be able to kill it.

Suddenly, the slug wailed and started to dissolve. Gratefully, Gary got to his feet, and wiped some ooze off his armor. It was close, but Gary Swamps just soloed his first Giant Slug.

I guess I can go pro now, Gary though jokingly as the slug dropped a few copper, a couple Standard Arrows, and a pair of Worn Leather Shoes.

Gary picked up the loot, equipped the shoes, as they were 2+ defense better than his current Beginner Sandals, and entered the Lomberg gates again. Dom and Cedric should be on soon, he thought.

He took a few second to look over his gear. His Oak Shortbow, Bronze Dagger, Worn Leather Tunic, and these new shoes were the only thing of note. Compared to other games he had played, it was much more difficult to get good gear in ForeverQuest. At first, that had kind of annoyed Gary, but he was just starting to appreciate it a little bit. After all, if it was too easy, then everybody would be walking around in legendary armour already. The most impressive thing Gary had seen on other players so far was iron.

The game notified him that Dom had logged online. It didn’t take him long to find Dom, he was just in the same spot he logged out the day prior.

“Cedric said he’s going to be on soon. Let’s go the the arena!”

“Alright, good thinking,” Gary agreed.