Allen looked at the Kobolds gathered before him, they each acted differently but not how he expected them to differ, it was as if they had real personalities, feelings and thoughts that weren't controlled by either machine nor Player or a human NPC, maybe in a thousand years things advanced enough for these things to think they were real people.

Assuming they actually believed they were alive Allen decided not to antagonize them further, "so what year is this?" he asked the first thing that popped into his mind, "how is the world outside dealing with things?" he finished and looked for their response.

BoneSmith buried her head in JewelSetter's chest, the scarred Kobold looked at the crystal, "what do you care anyway?" she blurted at him, "you heartless immortal god of a forgotten time", he thought she would spit at him when she raised her head, "what is time to you who did nothing to live through the ages?"

"Nothing in particular", Allen thought maybe it wasn't the best answer, "I just thought to start up a conversation", he didn't feel very divine at the moment and the kneeling and humming was getting on his nerves.

"It means a lot to us", the Kobold didn't sound very religious to Allen, "we fought tooth and nail to survive to this day", she looked back at the others "and I won't let you ruin everything".

"Ok look", Allen was sure this opening was a mistake, "I dont want to ruin anything", the Kobold squinted at him, "just woke up a few days ago because someone cast a spell on me", he didn't think saying it could have happened any other time in their hystory was going to sound any better to them, "so cut me some slack about the history stuff", he tried to sound sympathetic, "I would have helped if it was in my power", he finished with "ok?" and kept the open question for her to reply.

BoneSmith took a step back and looked hard at the Crystal, "why now?" was all she could say in a broken voice.

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"I don't know", he answerd after giving it some thought, "and I don't think it matters", remembering there was something important, "Gem come over here now", he said finally and the younger Kobold walked over to the crystal, "what happened when you cast the spell?".

"It wasn't really a spell", she stuttered, "just something i saw in a book and wanted to try since I had mana", as the words spilled out she sounded more confident, "then it worked but a strange message appeared", the last three words were a whisper.

"Do you remember what the message was?" Allen asked already activating his search engine for the system codes and help files.

"I know what the message was", BoneSmith intervened, "we all know that message by heart", she cut in before Gem could answer, "System attention unknown entity, please insert authorization code or be assigned an NPC operator within ten days", she recited from memory, "we never found what the codes were", anger bubbled up in her words "they all turn feral in the end and we either kill them or anyone they touch gets that same message"

"Are you kidding me?" Allen sounded surprised, "why didn't you ask a NPC for their codes?" he fealt frustrated enough to hit something "one of them would have given the codes to you", amusement was injected in his tone "they aren't all monsters after all".

"What do you mean ask a Feral for the codes?" BoneSmith sounded hurt at his words, "Ferals can't even speak real sentences", she added "just some stupid rehearsed lines".

"Oh MY F'ing GOD", Allen shouted, "sorry kid", he added to Gem, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" BoneSmith shouted back.

"GEM YOU THINK RIGHT NOW 'Instance 3658 entering NPC authorization code 210M' and tell me what the message sais" Allen shouted at the Kobolds.

Gem looked up at the crystal, Allen chose Kobolds because they couldn't express emotions with their faces but he thought her eyes had lit up, "it sais 'authorization code accepted, welcome Allen Pearlson'".

At these words someone hidden from sight cried in anguish, Allen saw a black blur before his alarms all chimed in at the same time and he saw the crystal flying into his vision and smashing against the shrine wall, the blue and green lights all cascaded into a single point before his sensors turned off and he couldn't see what happened outside 00:14:52.301 was the last thing he saw.