I awoke feeling surprisingly good , having slept on what was basically a wooden board.

Unlike a lot of people in the game , I actually slept there too , rather than just setting my avatar at rest , and logging out

As I mentioned earlier I look on Gates Of Doom as place to live as much as a game, because as far as I’m concerened aren't many other places I can go .

I mean theres other online places , but they don't feel like home to me , and there’s the ‘real’ world , which ..God! really doesn't feel like home.

The people I want to be with are here , the things I want to do are here , the body I consider to be real is here.

The rundown husk that my brain is still parked in is not really me anymore ,at least not as far as I’m concerned

I’d have to return to it in the next day or so for a checkup and that was a big black cloud on my horizon.

Right now though , I had a day of a exploring both my world and my abilities ahead of me.

I checked my stats

STR   WIS DEX INT CON LUCK ARM HP MANA 4 18 2 28 15 5 12 450 840

After levelling up the previous day , my intelligence wisdom and constitution had levelled up , stats like strength and dexterity though , being of very little use to my class levelled up much slower though . The increase in intelligence and wisdom meant I had a larger mana pool to use, and my health points had grown thanks to constitutions upgrade .

I made my way through the shrine ,compared to the chaos of last night , it was quiet, calm ,a place of peace.

Sunlight streamed in through stained window, and dust motes danced in the light,I sat on the nearest bench.

BUFF ADDED

[Blessing of Solas]

The light of your God shines on you.

You will regain mana and health at an advanced rate

Duration one hour or until dispelled.

Wow! Honestly I’d actually just sat down to sort out my inventory so this was a bonus

I made a note to always take a moment to rest in the shrine.

I slipped out the door without talking to any of the acolytes.

If I’d stayed there was too much of a chance they’d give me more town quests, and the last thing I wanted was to be tempted to stay in town.

I made my way through the market , Lars the cheese merchant waved at me , I waved back , tempted to stock up on some wheels of cheese , but in the

end decided to keep walking towards the edge of town.

Within a few minutes I was on a dusty path heading away from civilisation.

I walked on.

I thought very seriously about logging out , and popping back to my home space to check some game forums, or message Mike or Val to see if they were in yet.

I’d wished I’d made better arrangements for the getting the guild back together , I mean we’d all agreed that it would get back together , but we hadn't planned on meeting up, plus we’d be seriously short on members , at least until we recruited , or possibly talked some of the old members back.

I walked lost in thought for a while , until I came to a sign that said “Elstaad Five Miles” and pointed in the direction I’d came.

I sat down and grabbed some food and drink from my inventory(some jerky style meat and a water)

“I really miss not having a mount “ I said out loud , Some of the items I’d left behind in the old game were a fairly fast Piebald (”Gary”), a Griffin (”Alan”) and a huge ridable wolf (”George” , the fact that I named all the exotic creatures the most boring names I could think of used to drive everyone nuts ) .I even had a sort of flying disk that I could crouch on and zip around the air with (although I didn't name this).I’d be half way to the next town if I’d had them . I stood up, dusted myself off and started walking.

It was tough going , as the path led up hill.Eventually I saw a figure in the distance. I slowed my pace as I wasn't sure if they were friendly or about to murder me as soon as I got within stabbing range.I tried to hide but I’m no rogue though and they spotted me straight away .Thankfully rather than attacking , they waved me over.

“Hey man , you a real person?” , he asked.

The man was dressed in light grey leather armour, with with wicked looking daggers strapped to either side of his belt .No Helm but a military style buzz cut and thick stubble, his face had slightly Asian features, and both he and his armour were seemed to be covered in a light layer of dust.

“I’m a player alright , how you doing “ I wasn't sure how to continue , so on a reflex I held out my hand awkwardly,”I’m Tedius , or just Ted”

He looked at my hand for a for a moment and did that weird handclasp thing some people do instead of a handshake ,

“Cool man , I’m ..ah shit it happened again … hang on” .he stared off into the distance and started waving his hands and jabbing ,like he was being attacked by a swarm of flying creatures. Figuring he was doing something in his interface , I called up mine . A translucent menu appeared in front of me , around it I could see a simple display of my health, mana and level statistics , also things around me now had text in brackets over them , for example looking back , in he very far distance I could see Elstaad , and sure enough in brackets was [Elstaad - town- 15.2 KM], to the left of us was a bracket that said [Quarrystone Lair] .There were also some messages from my PA , probably to remind me about the following days appointment .Over my new friend was another bracket , but this showed [Obsidian llama] which struck me as weird kind of name.

“Got it” he said , and the name changed to [Kamal Toe].

“Yeah ,” he (Kamal?) said “GM keeps changing my name , something about being ”, and here he did a geeky, high pitched voice ”outside acceptable grounds” ‘I mean what the fuck guy , they’ve no sense of humour”

“What was your old name then?” I asked

“Oh , lemme see , I started as Ridemypole Knightly, and yeah that got changed to some random shit as soon as I got out of character creation, then Bangma Stepmohm..and they did not like that , then the oldie but goldie Ben Dover ..but nope , that must have been changed too as it turned into ..mother fucker! They did it again.”

[October Fruit] looked pretty pissed off as he frantically changed his title again

“Did you think of , maybe not using bad porn actor names ,” I asked “I mean I think they’re funny , but I don't know if some people want to group with…oh , right its Obi Camblowme now”

“Look man , I’ve a sense of humour thats , kind of off centre , so I figure that it’ll act like a filter , if you cant handle my name , you cant handle me. “ Said [disallowed nametag]

“C’mon” he shouted up into the sky ..” OK , look I’ll tone it down a bit “

[Stabastian McStab] looked around , trying to somehow make eye contact with his nemesis ,the Game Master who was invisible and most likely ,not even physically there with us.

“OK , Buzzkill , can you leave me alone now , said [No Comedy-Names]

“Seriously?” he shouted “..SERIOUSLY?? “He screamed hoarsely spinning around to try and catch his unseen assailant..

[SERIOUSLY]

More frantic waving and pointing

“No!” he shouted , That bastards locked my character name setting”

“I’m not going through this game being called seriously …I don't want to be called seriously , Fuck!”

I checked his name tag .

“Hey , its not all bad.. it justs lists your nickname as Seriously, the name says Sirius Lee now”

“Yeah..seriously, thats what I said guy!” said the newly named Sirius.

“No Sirius , like ..the dog star , or the old Harry Potter guy”

He waved his hands around again , evidently deep into his settings

“Ha , well alright then. I can live with that I guess ..my names really Jason Park ,man but ..” He bowed “Sirius Lee at your service man”

He continued “So you a healer right? , I’ve been trying to find someone to heal me out ,I got a portal to this place cos one of the forums said it was “and here he made that chefs kiss sign with his fingers “.for XP , but everything here’s way too high level to take down.”

He sounded young ,maybe early twenties, and had what I guessed was an American accent .While quite often peoples in-game form was pretty different from real life , I mean..look at me, right? but I figured given the way he acted (and picked names) he probably was that young.

We walked on for a bit talking ,well ..Sirius talked and I tried to get a word in edgeways .He was Canadian rather than American , and roughly was his character’s age .He’d flunked college , and was waiting out the rest of the semester before going back to his folks and getting a job in their business , which was apparently Toronto’s best chain of musical instrument shops.He had two sisters and a brother , all older , had a ‘TMS Panther’ neuro patch connection , which was ‘just as good as the jack in ones”.He’d never played the old G.O.D , but got ‘pretty hyped’ for the new version , hence starting on day one.He’d picked a rogue , and that dust I’d noticed was to help him blend into his surroundings , provided he applied it every hour.He’d made it level five in Northbrook but after paying a sage to teleport him here hadn't made much progress , he’d had an NPC helping him but she died the first time they tried to fight a creature , and he barely made it out. He was shocked when I told him my age , and said Ireland was ‘cool cool cool man’ , although I’m fairly certain based on the stuff he was saying about fjords he thought I was from Iceland.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

By the time we left the dusty path and came to a patch of trees I was pretty much an expert on the subject of Jason Park.

“OK , what abilities do you have then Sirius?“

“Back stab, stealth,knife throw, slash, plus I have some blinding powder I can throw.”

“OK , I’m going to create a party and add you to it”, I called up the menu and made the selection.

[Sirius Lee has joined your party]

[Tedius ][Priest][HP:450 MANA:840] [LEADER]

[Serious ][Rogue ][HP:480 FOCUS:450]

I adjusted my view so I could see mob health bars as well as our own , as I’d need to adapt strategy based on how they changed.

We walked into the forest and while being as quiet as possible scouted for something to attack.

A few minutes later we came upon a group of deer , which were carefully moving between the trees , evidently looking for something to graze on.

We hid behind a tree , out of their line of sight

Sirius pointed to them and as he did ,seemed to fade until he was almost invisible.

“Hold on , if we attack one ,theres a good chance we’ll pull all of them , and we mightn't be able to handle them , lets start smaller” I whispered.

We waited , eventually the smaller deer wandered off , leaving the largest one ,a buck with large antlers still foraging .

I tried to check the beasts level , but I was missing the EVAL(Evaluate)ability in my menu , God! I’d really messed up not making sure I had the starter champion skills.

“Can you check your evaluate and let me know what level he is ?, I’m ..er having a problem checking mine”

“Sure ..hold on …OK he’s a level 8 , think we can take him?”

“Yeah , with two of us it should be fine, hang on a second ”

“Ok I can cast this now , and after it fades I have to wait a few minutes before I can cast it on you again , so be careful”

I cast shield on Sirius . Instantly a barely visible bubble appeared around him .As a fully levelled priest , the shield would appear as a thick , dark blue tinted geometric shield around both myself and the other party members , but that class of shield that was way in the future.Still though I was glad I’d levelled it up to 100% anyway as it would be that little bit stronger .

I waited a second and then started casting it on myself ,I turned to tell Sirius that I’d need a minute to recover my mana , and that the shield would last a few minutes but I couldn't see him .Turning to look at our target , I could just barely make out Sirius as he quickly positioning himself behind the unsuspecting animal. I tried to get his attention without the deer noticing .Because my mana was now half full it would limit the amount of heals I could cast, but too late ,he’d already phased into view and trust his daggers into the mobs back.A critical hit . It’s health bar dropped a third ,as Sirius circled back around to attack from the side. The animal screamed in pain , and turning toward its attacker , brought its head down and up in a quick motion catching Sirius with its large antlers.The shield I’d cast took the brunt of the damage and its power spent ,burst with an audible pop. Sirius had lost maybe a tenth of his health though . I started casting "Healing Hands" , it topped up the health bar ,but casting it was draining my mana , plus I needed to stay within line of sight of Sirius for it to work , he was dodging and weaving to avoid the bucks thrusts, which made my job a lot harder.I tried moving closer and Sirius was quick off the mark working out why his health wasn't going up. He spun and slashed at the creature , which caused its health to dip again.This moved him away from the deer and towards me , so his health bar now rose quickly while my mana bar dropped.Unfortunately for us , this gave the deer the room it needed to charge .It ran back ,and then its hooves thumping furiously, came around in a wide circle before lowering its head and charging at Sirius. Its antlers caught my arm as it shot past , breaking the healing charge and causing me to shout out in pain.With my cloth apparel I had very little armour , so even with my shield spell, it really hurt .I’d lost about a quarter health . Worse was that it caught Sirius in its antlers , pinning him to a tree and causing his health to drop to about 20 percent.It was a critical hit , and (hopefully) the deer's strongest attack.As quickly as my sore arms would let me , I brought my hands up and started the incantation for “Burst of Light” .Thanks to my levelling it to 100% it cost a little less and healed about 25% more, but I'd really preffered something that sped its casting up .The spell lit up the area.Still though , as much as that was ,while it healed me back to full health, it only brought the rogue to about 65%. At this point we had two problems , firstly I was out of mana , secondly and probably more importantly , the buck was now charging at me. Mobs in most games will hone in on whoever is doing the most damage to them , unless someone is casting a healing spell that heals more than the damage being done to the creature.The only way to avoid this was to have a ‘Tank’ (nearly always a plate wearer)constantly taunting and enraging the creature to pull its attention away. We didn't have a tank , and worse the mighty heal I’d just done (400+) was out performing the damage that Sirius had been doing at that current time (0), so I’d pulled the creature’s enraged focus on me. Now, I used the only tool I had at my disposal :my legs ,I ran. As I did I remembered that I had mana potions which , quite frankly I should have had ready before the fight .I ran in a wide circle , hoping that I could get the creature over to Sirius , who could , stab it , or insult its mother or do anything to get its focus back. In fairness to him , he was up and throwing knives at the buck , but either because of the difference in levels between us and our quarry , or because he hadn't used the skill before and it wasn't levelled up , his knife throw ability kept missing .I pulled a mana potion out , and while still running popped the cork and knocked it back. Immediately I felt the effect , my mana bar shot up! Yes! But as it did though everything seemed to go grey for a second ,then I was the centre of a blue explosion and suddenly flying through the air . I slammed into a tree and dropped into an undignified heap on the forest floor.

[Effect : Overcharged]

[you’ve consumed a mana potion intended for a higher level caster , your spells will be significantly stronger]

[duration 30 seconds]

[Debuff:Mind blown]

[you’ve consumed a mana potion intended for a higher level caster , leaving your body in shock, you’ll lose 40 hp per second]

Duration 30 seconds]

Crap!! I’d bought a few potions back in Elstaad , and while I was shopping I picked up a few that were intended for level 10+ to use when I levelled up. Just now I’d panicked and grabbed the wrong one.Thing is ,most games wont let you user higher level potions , but Gates, did , with a random chance of a buff , or a debuff. Now I had both .My health was plummeting but my mana was full to the brim. Sirius seeing me being hit by a mana explosion and flying through the air , had ran at the deer and thrown a blinding powder at it . This was a critical hit , so as well confusing the creature it did damage .Taking the opportunity he’d briefly stealthed again and then backstabbed the deer. It didn't work as well as the first time , but brought the creature down to about a quarter health.It was fighting back though , hard, as if it sensed its approaching death .I couldn't help yet as I was having to constantly heal myself with "Healing Hands" to stay alive , as my health dropped like a stone. Luckily though , because my spells were currently supercharged I was able to bring my health back to about 75% , switch to healing Sirius for a few seconds as he was close to death , and then just as quickly switch back to myself when I dropped below 20% health .The only reason this was working was a combination of the overcharge buff ,and the Aura of Light ability I had plus the blessing I’d received at the shrine... which was slowly adding health points back to us, Without any of those we’d be dead. This tug of war with my health bar seemed to last forever , but probably was only took 10 seconds.Our attacker was almost dead , but so was Sirius .The cool down on casting shield on Sirius had finally expired so as a last chance I stopped my "Healing Hands" and started to cast the shield spell.It hit Sirius just as he was below 5% and as quickly as I could I switched back to healing myself, as I had jjust a sliver of life left. Finally , after what seemed like an age ,the deer dropped with a bellowing cry.It was dead.

[300 XP received]

Sirius went up a level so he must have received something similar as well.

I dropped, panting on the ground .Sirius was draped over the dead animal , His health bar was flashing red with a hint of red at the end . He had 1% health .

I started laughing .

“Whats so funny man? “ he asked .

“Its just that we had this epic battle that nearly killed us , and it was with a freaking deer! , I mean Bambi’s dad! These things are supposed to be a slight inconvenience before you get to the hard mobs , they literally have to walk around in packs to provide a slight challenge . And killing it made me fight harder than…than I have in ages! ..Harder than fighting Mother of Pearl in the Kala-sic Ocean raid…and she’s designed for 10 people to fight at once..you know I think we might be slightly underlevelled for this area”.

“Well I did gain a level , but man! I do not want to go through that again. And have you gotta go through all that damage just to drink a mana pot?”

“It was ..it was a bad one I think..maybe out of date?” I was embarrassed enough about nearly dying to a woodland creature without bring up the fact that I couldn't drink the right potion.

“OK , two things , firstly we need to have a GO! Signal to start fights ‘cos I was starting on half mana there , and secondly …we need a tank if we’re going to fight anything around here.”

We rested up and recovered our health. I gave Sirius some bread and cheese from my inventory (Smoked Gouda, look ..I’m not obsessed with cheese or anything)and he gave one of the beers he had in his pack.

I also threw him the spare health potion I’d been given the day before , he’d need it a lot more than I would.

We looted the deer , which netted us antlers , skin and venison .No gold or equipment though (as deer aren't known for having pockets) Sirius took the meat , and I took the the rest.

We settled on a plan , head towards the marked area [Quarrystone Lair] which might be a dungeon , which might attract another party , who might possibly let us tag along. Either that or try and find an easier creature to attack , like possibly a squirrel or if we were feeling brave , a chipmunk.

With that we started walking out of the forest towards the dungeon.