Sooooo.
I'm terribly sorry for taking this long to post, and not even a chapter at that, just a small side story.
Life has been... Well life for this past few months and I just never found the time to write. Things are starting to settle down now so I expect I'll be able to write more and quite frankly you guys should demand it xD
Last but not least my sincere apologies to Nimasaur who agreed to be my proofreader just before this whole mess started and I kinda left him dry.
Sorry Nima, I'll be good. Please don't abandon me!
Road to Freedom by Moskatero
Chapter 5.5
Chapter 5.5
Darkness and exhaustion welcomed Kyle as he logged out our Royal Road. It made no sense to him how even after relaxing for days in Royal Road his real body and mind ended up bonelessly tired.
Not bothering to exit his capsule Kyle gave himself up to exhaustion. He simply closed his eyes and in seconds he was in a deep, dreamless slumber. So deep in fact that he never heard the voice that filled his capsule, a soft, feminine and familiar voice.
“Just wait. A bit over a week now and I’ll be able to join you, my cute little half-dragon”
Inside the silver capsule the sleeping figure shuddered and shivered in unease.
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Waking up in unfamiliar darkness filled Kyle annoyance, his thoughts immediately reaching the most reasonable conclusion to his current plight.
"Goddammit!"
Did Eva bury me alive?
It took a couple of seconds for his waking mind to realize where he actually was. Pushing the capsule open he slowly stood up. The first thing he noticed was that his kidneys were killing him. Hurrying to the bathroom he noticed something else, It was now close to dawn.
Having logged in around noon, and after close to twenty-four hours of continuous play he must have slept close to fifteen hours. That made close to forty hours laying in his capsule, any more and he’d have triggered the emergency systems integrated within it.
As he relieved himself and stepped into the shower Kyle realized something. Having spent four days in Royal Road under increased gravity he expected to feel somewhat lighter in reality, even if it was for a short amount of time. But to his surprise what he felt was sluggish and clumsy. It wasn't until his muscles started to burn that he realized what was happening. He was exerting twice the amount of strength to make even the simplest of movements.
Bothered by such a psychological after efect of Royal Road he focused on getting his body back to normal. Grabbing a couple of broomsticks he started to slowly work through a series of maneuvers and strikes Bergroth had taught him.
As soon as he started Kyle realized something was wrong. Not only was he using an absurd amount of strength to move his body, puting that much strength into the moves slowed them down considerably and Kyle, used to performing these movements at an even higher speed than normal in Royal Road discovered that moving from one position to another in slow motion while exerting all his strength was considerably harder.
Slowly Kyle managed to move from one position to the next, fixing minor errors in balance in each position which he’d never noticed when performing them at full speed. After thirty minutes he was sweating profusely and had just managed to finish the five minute cycle of movements when he decided to take a break.
After a short rest Kyle went back to training. He completely ignored his fully equipped gym and instead focused on his fighting katas. Once again he started them painfully slow but, as he completed each cycle he tried his best to speed them up whilst trying to keep the modifications he’d made to fix the errors he notices while going slow.
After two hours Kyle was thoroughly exhausted. With a laugh he realized that now both his bodies seemed to be in a similar state of pain and exhaustion. This, plus the fact the he fell asleep on the capsule made him realize that once again he would have to change his schedule.
After doing some thinking Kyle decided to split his days equally between Royal Road and reality. It would hurt his progress in RR and Eva would be far from pleased that he disappeared for two days at a time, but even after having roasted and eaten he could feel his mental exhaustion. The strain of accelerated time in Royal Road proved to be too much for a brain that had never experienced Virtual reality before.
Twelve hours is more than enough for two nice meals, some exercise and a good night sleep. No need to extend that. I could however reduce my playing time to eighteen hours a stretch. That will still get me three days of continuous playing in Royal Road not to mention reducing my chances of dying from renal failure. Gods, forty hours, it’s a wonder nothing inside me exploded.
Inside Royal Road it was not a problem, he was well fed, exercised like a madman and his body didn’t need sleep (So wrong, poor Draky) But his plan to play for twenty-four hour periods, allowing himself around twelve hours IRL to take care of his other body…
This though surprised Kyle, at some point he’d started giving more importance and priority to Kalthier in his mind. In fact, now that he thought of it he was treating his real body and reality itself as a game and Royal Road as reality. When he logged out all he did was take care of his body like he was playing one of those old life simulation games where one controlled a family and watched them do completely normal things for hour to no end. Hardly entertaining in his opinion but that was how he was treating his body.
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Having twelve hours in reality did seem like a lot of time in which he would have little to do, but Kyle simple decided that he could sleep the recommended eight hours, experiment with cooking IRL and perform whatever he learned from Bergroth at varying speed to analyze the movements in detail. This way kyle mused, he would be able to keep is body healthy, rested and exercised whilst keeping his focus on Royal Road.
The only exception was perhaps when cooking. This was the fourth time he’d logged out since becoming Eva’s apprentice and every time he was delighted to find his newfound knowledge applied to the real world perfectly. It was this realization that made him decide that he didn’t particularly care which of his bodies he was in or that ‘Kalthier’ was slowly becoming more important to him than ‘Kyle’ ever was.
Shrugging at the realization the he didn’t particularly care one way or another as long as he could continue to feel the well of emotions Royal Road had sparked within him, Kyle though back on his schedule problems.
Reaching his kitchen Kyle decided to try one of the recipes Eva taught him. It was somewhat nicer than anything he’d ever even thought of making on his own, but it’s taste, even when prepared by his unskilled hand had him hooked in an instant.
----Recipe---- you guys can go ahead and skip it if you like, not that interesting I’m afraid----
Taking a couple of steak medallions from his freezer Kyle set the to thaw as he prepared the rest of his meal, never thinking on what the time was and that any civilized person was supposed to be making breakfast… Or sleeping.
While he waited he took a couple of potatoes, some parmesan cheese, paprika, pepper and garlic. Mixing everything but the potatoes and mashing it to a small powder in his shiny new mortar. Once it was as fine as it would go he set aside for later.
Peeling and cutting the potatoes into thick slices he covered them in a bit of olive oil then threw them into the bowl with the powder. After stirring and making sure all the sliced were covered with the powder he set them on a tray and put them in the oven.
Next up he took a frying pan and a small cooking pot. In the pot he put around a fingertip of blue cheese some cream and a bit of butter and left it in a slow fire.
In the pan he cooked two slices of bacon and wrapped another two arround the pieces of steak. Using the grease from the bacon he then started to slowly cook the meat, making sure the bacon around it’s edges was also cooked and that it stayed in place.
He also took the two slices of bacon he’d already cooked and, crushing them into tiny bits added them to the potato slices in the oven.
----Recipe---- ----
Once he was done he couldn’t stop grinning, It smelled just like Eva’s did and the thick, heavy cheese sauce on top of the meat made it look like something out of a five star restaurant.
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As he got ready to log back into the game Kyle made a small list of thing he had to take care of in next days.
* Get the smoke affinity from Uldren’s friend
* Learn Blacksmithing from ANOTHER teacher, Uldren
* Survive Eva’s hell
* Survive Eva’s hell
* Survive Eva’s hell
* Find a way to remove the black rings of pain.
* Ask Eva to teach me how to make wine or alcohol in general.
The last one was an occasional wimp Kyle had as he was eating. After all such a fancy and delicious meal should be accompanied by something a bit more… just more than a Coke. Just like he would never think to accompany a pizza with wine or scotch.
Oh, now that I think about it there is no pizza in Royal Road. Ha time for the student to become the master. I will teach Eva a recipe.
*Teach Eva how to make pizza… Don’t die because of it.
Envisioning the success of pizza inside Royal Road among the players Kyle entered his capsule. With a glint in his eyes and a laugh in his voice he yelled
“Login”
End Chapter 5.5
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This side chapter original had John make an appearance but it didn't quite fit chronologically so I cut it out. I still have most of their meeting written down but It'll take place much later.
This is not my best work but i do feel like I've improved my writing since I started.
I also promise not to abandon this until its done. I may have to go on unexpected hiatus or, god forbid, a complete lack of imagination... or death. But I will carry on.
As always Every and all feedback is appreciated. I only have plot points planed out but the roads to get there are pretty much improvised on the spot so anything you say has a chance to influence me.
That was a very polite way for begging for feedback...
I'm rambling so I'm gonna end this here.
Nima, sorry once again, hope to hear from you soon.
{[999aba}] "Nevermore"