Losing to him put extra viciousness in Viseral’s attacks, which fueled the rage building in Peacock. Four times Peacock had lost. Four times Viseral had hurled insults.

Peacock wasn’t losing this time.

Peacock suppressed the urge to lash out as the timer hit zero, and another round began. Viseral circled left. Peacock didn’t move, allowing him easy access to his exposed side. His losses revealed a pattern to Viseral’s attacks. Viseral took the bait and lunged. Peacock’s tail lashed around, catching Viseral across the jaw. He hit the ground in a stumble, his head snapping to the side. Surprise registered in his eyes as Peacock sunk his claws into his shoulder, using the momentum to cut a rut down his side.

Blood splashed onto the cave floor and vanished, a phenomenon in the virtual world Peacock had grown accustomed to. Viseral twisted, trying to pull away from his assault. Too slow. Peacock pushed forward and grappled onto his flank, tearing with his teeth and claws.

PEACOCK WINS

“Damn it!” Viseral hissed and slammed his tail into a nearby boulder. “If I wasn’t so damn squishy….”

Arianrhod rolled her eyes from her perch on top of a pile of mushrooms and lichen she’d collected while they fought. “Oh, shove it, Viseral. Just admit it, you aren’t half as good as you want to believe.”

Peacock picked up on the venom in Arianrhod’s words. With the high from the flawless victory thrumming through his veins, continuing the attack seemed the only correct thing to do. “Yeah, I have to agree with her. If you’re as good as you say you are, there’s no way I should be able to beat you, squishy hatchling or not. Anyway, I’m pretty sure you promised to tell us how you died if I won again.”

Viseral stopped his abuse of the rock. His eyes narrowed. “I don’t make promises.”

“Oh, so you won’t tell us. Guess you really are just a blowhard. What, can’t make up something on the spot?”

“Watch your tongue, newb,” Viseral said through clenched teeth. “Or I’ll rip it out for you.”

Arianrhod shook her head. “He’s got nothing, Peacock. Probably died to a human hunter, or worse, a Plantfolk.”

“Believe what you want, pushover. I have nothing to prove to either of you.” Viseral turned and stomped off, which would have been more impressive if his rounded body hadn’t made him waddle.

Peacock chuckled, then realized he didn’t know what a Plantfolk was, or why dying to one was so bad. He looked at Arianrhod in time to see her stick out her tongue at Viseral’s retreating form. He was starting to wonder if being a hatchling made Rebirths act less mature. That would explain a lot of the outbursts, including his own. “Uh… what are Plantfolk?”

Arianrhod pulled her long, pink tongue back into her mouth and grinned. “Ah, only one of the lowest tier races in M and M.” She paused, concern in her eyes. “Do you remember how tiers work?”

“Yes, I think so. Tiers equal power and ability, right? A top-tier race, like a dragon, should be able to obliterate low tiers.”

She nodded. “Exactly. Humans are tier eleven, dead last. Plantfolk are tier ten.”

Peacock cocked his head. “If that’s the case, shouldn’t humans be the worst?”

“Not necessarily. Human, Plantfolk, and Smallfolk make up the bottom bracket, which means they get no extra point to their stat growth. But,” Arianrhod held up a clawed finger for emphasis, "humans are plus zero to all stats, while Plantfolk have a serious penalty to agility. They are, after all, walking plants.”

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He snorted, an image of a tottering shrub popping into his head. Getting killed by that would definitely be embarrassing. It was a good insult and drove home the need to learn more about his new world. “Does the game have help files?”

She grimaced. “Dumbly, no. You’d think with Rebirths like you, with no memory of their past life and no knowledge of your new one, there’d be something, but it’s either you learn from another, or jump in and hope you learn to swim before you drown.”

“Oh.” That seemed unfair. But it wasn’t like he could stop playing if things got rough.

“Which is why I, Cavua, and Oncian are here to teach you. Bring up your UI again.” Arianrhod waved in his direction and waited.

Peacock did as she asked. His time spent digging mushrooms had unlocked his inventory screen, and the backpack icon now sported shades of brown. The other tabs were still annoyingly grey. He ran his eyes across his character sheet.

NAME: Peacock GENDER: Male RACE: Dragon (Tier 1)

LEVEL: 0 XP: 90 (100)

His eyes widened. “Oh, I’m almost level one!” Peacock stopped, looking closer at the numbers. “Why is my xp light blue?” Not only did it make the numbers hard to see on the grey background, but it also made them different from all the others. That usually meant something special.

“Yep, kind of rough to read, huh? Wish there was a way to change it into a bar, or bring it outside of the UI, but I guess the developers thought it would break immersion, or something. Anyway, ugly blue xp means temporary.”

“Temporary?” A horrible idea shot through Peacock’s mind. What if all the xp he’d gained wasn’t real? But then, why get it at all?

“Mmm hmm. Temporary means you’ll lose it all if you hit near death.”

Great. More terms he wasn’t familiar with. Still, he had an idea, and it sent shivers up his spine.

“We set xp to permanent by sleeping,” Arianrhod continued. “Which is different from napping.”

“You can nap? Why would you want to?”

“Healing. If you don’t have, or don’t want, to use items, you can nap to recover. Of course, naps are only possible outside of near death.”

Peacock frowned as he tried to ignore the rising panic in his gut. “I’m thinking near death is as fun as it sounds.”

Arianrhod shuddered. “Even less than you’re thinking, probably. In M and M, when you hit zero percent health, instead of dying, you enter near death. You can still feel everything, and see what’s going on around you, you just can’t respond.”

The phantom sounds of alarms and frantic yells haunted the air surrounding Peacock. His breath caught as he trembled.

Arianrhod reared up on her back legs and waved her arms. “No, it’s all right! Near death’s actually a good thing. It allows time for your friends to heal you, and things to trigger. It’s a buffer, one last chance to save your current character. As long as you’re healed before hitting negative ten percent, you’re golden.”

He closed his eyes, breathing deep and urging the memories away before Aisha decided to zap him. It was okay. It was just a game. A game that was literally his new life. Peacock gulped. That wasn’t helping.

“Anyway,” Arianrhod interrupted his dismal spiral. “Let’s concentrate on sleeping, for now.”

He focused on the forced happiness in her tone. It barely covered the worry underneath, but it helped.

“Sleeping will always recover all health and magic, of course. It will also remove a lot of buffs and debuffs, although it depends. Most importantly, it sets all your hard-earned xp to permanent. Not to mention….”

“Peacock! Arianrhod!” Oncian’s voice ricocheted down the cave tunnels, making it sound like he was shouting in their ears.

Arianrhod flinched. “Guy’s a bit loud, isn’t he? Ah well, seems it’s time to head back.” She moved over to her pile of mushrooms and lichen and waved her hand over it. The items vanished as they got sucked into her inventory. She flashed Peacock a grin. “Good thing these stack to ninety-nine.”

Peacock shook his head. His own inventory had a stack of forty-three mushrooms and twenty-five lichen and getting those had nearly bored him to death. He couldn’t imagine grinding out multiple stacks. Viseral was right about one thing, fighting was way more fun.

“Come on,” Arianrhod bumped into Peacock’s shoulder as she passed by. “We had better go see what Oncian wants. It’s probably important.”

He felt one corner of his mouth pull up into a crooked grin as he turned to follow. Maybe they’d get to see Oncian kick Viseral out.