Author's Note:

I'm back and writing again.  Was having with the site and it wasn't letting me add chapters, it fixed a couple days ago but it made me lose my desire to write for awhile (I was on a writing streak but it kind of derailed the train and it took awhile to get it back on the tracks).  Anyways shout out to Idle Editor for pointing out some potential problems with how I had set up certain things for the game world.  Your post gave me some good ideas for later on in the story in regards to how leveling, stats and skills will work so I hope you look forward to it.  I have made small changes to things in my other chapters and updated the basic info post (new descriptions for stat effects and some other stuff).  If anyone else has feedback, suggestions or tips please let me now in the comments (or message me if you're not comfortable) I will take it into consideration and I will respond.  Now enough of this I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Arc 1 Freedom has its price

Chapter 5 A skill unmatched

"Hey mity."

"Yes sal?"

"Are you sure we've been walking straight the entire time?"

"Of course I've been walking towards the sun the entire time, why?"

"No reason, just that I'm pretty sure I've seen that tree before."

"We're walking through a forest inside of a VRMMO, the trees would look similar in a regular forest let alone one inside a game."

"Hmm, are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Then why do I get the feeling you're acting defensive."

"...You're just imagining things."

"AH! What was that pause there for!?"

"....Nothing."

"There it was again, tell me the truth are we lost?"

"We're not lost!  ....At least I don't think so."

"So we are lost then!  I thought you knew where we going, and now we're going to be stuck inside this forest forever.  *sob*  I can't live in a forest forever, I'll die if I can only live off roasted squirrel for the rest of my life."

"Stop being so dramatic, it's just a game, worse comes to worse you can just make a new character right?  Besides it's not like we're definitely lost, it's only a possibility."

"Then why have we been walking for 30 minutes straight with no sign of the exit?"

"The forest is pretty big?"

"....I'm going to take a break now"

Saying this Salvation promptly dropped herself onto to the ground while sighing.  Deciding to join her I lowered myself to the ground, taking a seat next to her with my back resting against a tree.  Looking over at me Salvation stares at me with a curious expression on her face.

"Do you ever take off that backpack?  It seems like it'd be uncomfortable if you wore it all the time, you didn't even take it off while you were fighting."

Startled I crane my neck over my should and notice that I was still wearing my backpack which startled me.

"I had completely forgot about it, I probably wouldn't have remembered it if you didn't point it out."

"Really? Can you not feel it or something?"

"Yeah, maybe it's part of the game system or something but I don't notice it at all and it doesn't encumber my movements either.  How convenient."

"It's strange how they store money in a digital inventory but not other items when they make it so that you don't even notice you're carrying something anyways."

I shrug "Who knows, but I'm not going to complain."

Salvation nods in agreement after which we sit in silence for a couple minutes before she asks me another question.

"Hey mity, do you have a map or something similar?  I tried looking through the different screens and didn't find one."

"Unfortunately I don't otherwise we wouldn't be potentially lost."

"Oh? Still so stubborn I see" she teases

"Starting to pick up on that eh sal?"

Sighing a bit she asks "Are you really going to keep calling me by the name of some hair bouncer?"

"Of course, as long as you keep calling me mity that it.'

Making a pouting face she says "But I can't stop calling you that, mity is mity after all."

"Then I hope you can get used to sal, eventually the entire game will hear the name of sal the healer and picture in their mind a 6ft 5 mountain of meat with large hairy arms and a bald head."

She cries out "You're going to spread that to other people too!?!?"

"Of course! Sal is sal after all."

Whimpering slightly she looks at me with puppy dog eyes and asks "Can you please at least not call me sal in front of other players?"

Damn that's just not fair how does a sun/bird/human hybrid thing manage to look so cute.

"*sigh* Fine I promise, but if we adventure or party together with other people I make no guarantees that it wont slip out."

"Deal! Thanks mity!  Despite how you look you're actually pretty nice huh?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"You do realize that you kind of look like a demon right?"

"Oh right, sometimes I forgot I'm playing my character sometimes.  That 99% realism sure is impressive."

"Yup!  So back to the problem at hand, you really have nothing to help us out in this situation?"

"Yeah why?"

"You just seem like the kind of person to prepare for anything is all."

"Well that's not wrong but I thought we'd spawn close to a town or something plus I had a very small number of points after making selecting my skills."

"That's right you said you got two of them, you said that one was for close combat what does the other one do?"

"I don't really know I haven't tried to use it yet and its description is pretty vague."

"Oh?  Can you show it to me?"

Shrugging I bring up the skill and show it to her.  She takes stares at the skill screen for a few seconds before lifting her head back up and looking at me.

"That's pretty interesting and you're right it's really vague, how many points did it cost you?"

"55 points."

"55!?  That's crazy even my buff only cost 35 points.  This skill is definitely not normal."

"I realized that but I don't have a clue about how it's supposed to work though, my other skill is fairly straightforward and gives me a passive damage increase but this..."

"Well have you tried saying the skill name?  That's what I do to activate my heal and buff."

"I did mention that I haven't tried to use it yet, so no I haven't but it's something I'll definitely try."

"Why not try it now?  Not like having the break last longer will make a difference if we're lost."

"We're not lost! ...Probably."

"Ok, ok we're not lost but even still a few minutes spent here wont hurt.  Humor me?"

"Fine, I'll try to figure it out, but it's not like I'm doing it for you or anything I just want to figure it out as well."

"Sure, sure.  Tsundere mity is so cute."

"Who the hell is Tsundere!?"

Salvation just chuckles slightly.

"*sigh* Whatever I don't care anymore."

I stand up and walk a few steps away from where Salvation was sitting.  Pulling the skill back up I double check the name before calling out "Imagination is Magic".  I wait for a bit but nothing happens, looking down at my body and then at my surroundings I don't see any changes.

Nothing?  I wasn't really expecting any physical changes but I guess I sort of expected a white light to.

Before I could finish the thought a blinding white light drops down on me and envelops the surroundings.  After it extends a few feet it stops then slowly fades away leaving me and Salvation rubbing our stinging eyes.

"Ow my eyes, what did you do mity?"

"Nothing I just called out my skill and nothing happened, a few seconds later then that light appeared."

Although that looked exactly like what I imagined would happen.  I wonder why it looked like that and not similar to the light from leveling up though?

After thinking this I recall the image of me being encompassed by light after leveling up for my first time.  As soon as I bring up the image in my head the same image appears in the game.  

"Huh?  Did you just level up mity? How?"

"I don't think so, let me check my stats real quick though."

Bringing up my status menu I see that I'm still the same level but before I close the menu I see my mana out of the corner of my eye.  

Status WindowName:CalamityAlignment:???Level:1Class:Wandering DragonRace:DraconianGender:FemaleTitles??Fame:0Infamy:0-Health:150 / 150Health Regen:0.2%/ SecMana:5 / 100Mana Regen:0.2%/ SecStamina:100 / 100Stamina Regen:0.2% / Sec-Strength:15Agility:10Vitality:15Intelligence:10Wisdom:10Endurance:10Luck:6-Attack:15Defense:10

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Almost all my mana was gone.

What the hell happened?  I'm guessing my skill used it but what did it do, those lights I assume but how and why?

Immersing myself deep in though I forgot about answering Salvation and focus on trying to figure out what happened.  Probably because of my skill Concentration but I didn't hear Salvation yelling at me or her walking up to me, I only noticed her presence after she shook me.  Startled I exit it my thoughts and look at her.  Apparently my surprise at her being this close to me was evident on my face because she asked me.  

"What, did you really not her me yelling at you or notice me walking right in front of you?"

A bit embarrassed I reply with "Ah, yeah I didn't notice, it's because of a skill I obtained not because I was ignoring you I swear."

"Hmmmm?  Well whatever I'll take your word for it.  I just asked you again if you had leveled up."

"What?  Oh no I didn't I think it was caused by my skill but I don't know how which was what I was thinking about when shook me out of my thoughts."

"Why do you think it was from you skill?"

"Well for one thing almost all my mana is now gone and for another there was no visible cause for it nearby and it had no actual effect on either of us besides some burning eyes."

"Interesting but since it looks like it might take awhile I'm going to go take a nap.  Wake me up when you're done.  I'll want to know what you found out when you do."

"Ok, have a good nap sal."

"Ah! Now I'm going to dream of large hairy men how could you!"

I laugh a bit before returning my focus towards figuring out how my skill works.  

So nothing happened after I called out the skill name but after a few seconds a blinding light showed up, a bit after it disappeared another light exactly like the one that showed up when I leveled appeared.  What did I do leading up these events that might have caused them?  After nothing happened when I called out the skill I was disappoint and thought about what I imagined it would have looked like.  When it disappeared I was thinking about why I didn't look like the leveling light and I had brought up the image of that event in my head.  Is that it?  The skill is called Imagination is Magic so it would make sense if it was linked to my imagination.  Let's test it out.

Looking at my mana I note that it is now full, keeping the display open (health and mana don't display on the screen unless you're in combat) I prepare to test out my theory.  Closing my eyes as it helps me visualize things I think about a ball of fire appearing in my hand.  The ball is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter, round on the bottom and with the actual fire visual appearing on the 'top' of the ball.  The fire is orange in color with a faint trace of red appearing on the tips of the flame.  Opening my eyes I see the same fireball I had imagined resting in my hand.  Looking at my display I see all my mana had disappeared once more.  I also note how the fire doesn't feel hot in my hand at all.

Dang this skill really sucks up my mana but it looks like my theory was correct.  Now all I need to do is run a few more tests, like how long it will last, what other things can I create, if I can effect other things with the skill directly, ect.

I start to experiment with the fireball I created, tossing it back in forth between my hands, tossing it up into the air, trying to increase and decrease the size and then finally throwing it at the ground.  The last one nearly caused a forest fire but I was able to stomp it out before it reached any trees.  After which I continue with testing out the full extent of my skill all while keeping an eye on my mana and the costs and effects my tests had on it and my regeneration rate.  

What I found was that that changing something I had already formed costs additional mana relative to the scope of the changes made.  

Creating something smaller costs less points than something big in general, this changes if the small creation has more to it than the big thing.  For example a small fireball costs less than a medium fireball unless the temperature of the smaller one is hotter than the medium one, or other similar changes.  

All creations cost mana to maintain, this is taken by cutting my mana regen not by taking mana from my pool unless the cost exceeds my regen rate after which the creation disappears.  

Any creations lasts indefinitely as long as it is in contact with my body and I have the ability to meet its upkeep requirements.  

Anything that leaves my body will disappear after a few seconds but it's effects on the surroundings wont, i.e the fire caused by the fireball or a scratch caused by a thrown rock.

If I try to make something that I don't have the mana for the largest possible version of it shows up instead.  For example when I tried imagining an ocean a small puddle showed up instead that cost me all my mana.  When I tried imagining a sword a dagger in the shape of a sword appeared instead, the damage from the summoned weapon isn't different from my normal hits (I had found a level 1 bunny to test this on).

I can't directly change or interfere with an existing object (I can't make a patch of grass burst into flame or change the shape of a branch I pick up.

Some creations cost less mana than others such as a flash of light like the one I created earlier costs less than something like the fireball.  This might be due to the potential to inflict damage as when I tried to create a laser (same element as the light) it cost all my mana and was only about the same level as a laser point and only lasted a couple of seconds.  More tests are required in the future.

The skill is toggle-able and when it's on any time I think about something hard enough or visualize something the skill is used, turning it off the effect is gone (this is done by calling out the skill name).

Lastly I can't make physical changes to myself like growing wings or changing my looks 'permanent', they only last for a couple of seconds.  This is likely due to extremely high upkeep costs but it's not possible to find out at this time.

After two and a half hours of constant testing those were the results that I had found.  Looking at the skill I see that it has leveled up once from all the testing I did but nothing has changed with it.  Shrugging to myself I go and wake up Salvation.  Shaking her awake she slowly gets up with a vacant look in her eyes and some truly wild bed head, all in all fairly cute.

"Huh?  Did you finish mity?"

"Yeah, you've been asleep for about 2-2 1/2 hours"

"Ah....Did you figure out how it works?"

"Yup! I think I even found out a way to get us out of the forest thanks to my skill."

Hearing this she instantly loses her sleepy expression and loudly says "Really?  That's great, now I don't have to brush up on my Tarzan impersonation."

Laughing slightly I close my eyes and imagine a mini map screen like the one from the previous VRMMO I played.  Good news it worked, bad news is that it showed me what I imagined,  the map depicted was the city I lived in from the previous game.  

So much for that plan, well all we really need to do is continue in the same direction as the other players assuming of course that they continued in the same direction after they entered the forest.  Oh well that was what I was going on before so might as well continue with that.  Since a map wont work what about a compass?

Switching gears I visualize a compass and this time my plan is a complete success, smaller that what I had imagined but apparently fully functional.  Looking at the compass I start walking East with Salvation following close behind.

"So mity, I thought you said you didn't have a compass."

"I didn't"

"There's no need to be embarrassed because you forgot about it, it happens to people all the time."

"I'm not embarrassed! I made it using my skill."

"There's no need to blush mity, I don't judge you for it.  It's kind of cute that you're a bit of a scatterbrain."

"I'm not blushing! and whose a scatterbrain!  stupid sal!"

"Yes, yes you're definitely not blushing or forgetful.  Don't worry I wont tell anyone, you're secret is safe with me."

Pouting a bit I sigh and say "I can't win against you, do whatever you want."

Salvation comes up behind me and starts patting my head "You're such a good girl mity."

"Do you think I'm a dog!"

"Hmmm"

"You have to think about it!?"

"More like a puppy mixed with a pet lizard."

"Whose a puppy!?"

"Maybe one of those small dog breeds, like a terrier."

"Listen to me!"

Once more we continue our journey through the forest while arguing, though it's a bit more one sided this time.

Author's note

Got most of what I wanted to say written above.  This should be the last chapter of them in the forest, expect the story to pick up a bit in the following chapters.  Give me your thoughts, ideas, critiques or what ever below.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of FREE,

Ren Waya