The clouds above lazily floated high in the sky without a care in the world and air that blew around us was warming up. I basked in the sun, not wanting to get up, not wanting to think about what I left behind. It was fortunate I had picked up some mental resistance traits, because I'm pretty sure I would have shrivelled up into a hole and died by now. But here I was... still alive... I thought pulling those two with me through the warp would have torn our souls to shreds, but here they were. Well, we were all in the foetal position for some time, lying next to whatever was in our stomachs, but were otherwise fine…

I looked over to Kalm, now standing by one of the runic obelisks that formed a ritualistic circle around us. She hadn't a care in the world, almost unaware, just like the clouds. The warm wind blew her blonde hair in to her face, and she flicked it out of the way, something an NPC never would have done in the original game.

And to my left was Matilda, one of the first mercenary NPCs I summoned. She'd almost died twice, and I'd only just managed to save her both times. Though back then we'd only been fighting against fish, I mean they were giant scary fish with lots of teeth, but we were lucky they were on land and couldn't move properly. She had her fair hair tied into a pony tail. She was different from the other NPC, she remembered things, which made me think she was on her way to awakening.

As nice as it was, there was no point laying on the carved-rock floor any longer, I guess it just felt nice to not do anything for a change. Maybe that's where I went wrong... Urgh, focus! I sat up and looked around for the first time.

Ancient ruins stretched out before me like an endless sea of stone blocks, broken columns, and twisted pillars. There were hints of what once stood here: statues carved into the side of buildings; massive structures erected from huge stones; strange carvings etched onto the sides of monuments. Some parts of the ruin appeared relatively undisturbed, while others showed clear evidence of decay over time. Far off distant howls echoed through the maze-like streets, and a chill ran down my spine at the eerie sounds. A few times there were glowing eyes peering back as they darted past the pillars, though, the strange black obelisks appeared to mark a safe zone, guarding us from any monster aggro.

The Ruins of Almar… it's definitely dangerous... Well, it’s not that bad, I mean we’re in a safe zone. So, the ruins, as long as everything in the world is still where it was in the game would put us only two zones away from the capital of the Demihumans.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Why did things always seem so much more complicated than they needed to be?

There was a shuffling coming from over by Kalm, no it was her shuffling, and her eye and head were twitching.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Shit. Of course. She's an NPC, an innkeeper at that. She isn't at an inn, so she probably doesn't have any pathways to follow... I need to get her to awaken to the 2nd stage.

"Kalm, it’s okay…” I said approaching her slowly, the last thing I needed was another incident.

She turned her head towards me and gave me a smile. "Aww hello, miau!"

“Yes, hello!” I said, shocked for a moment by her sudden change.

“A room is 200 Aurem a night, and it comes with breakfast, purrhaps you’d like to stay a few nights?” she leant followed.

I tried to look her in the face. "We're not in Dagon anymore, Kalm, we're in the Ruins of Almar, and we need to get to get out of here and find you a new inn."

She looked at me wearily. "You know there's a beastmen invasion coming."

"Yes, I know Kalm." I was starting to get a little annoyed and frustrated, "that's already happened."

"I heard Princess Victoriya was in town, myaa, I would love to meet her!"

Ahh Princess Victoriya… Trails of blood dripped down her chest where the angel’s hand had impaled. Brrr! I shook until the images disappeared.

Okay... She wasn't like the mercenary I hired, I couldn't issue the [Follow] or [Stay] commands, and it's not like I could invite her to party, that function was gone, at least for commoners.

I need her to be able to walk and run. Maybe I could try carrying her... aww hell-no. I could barely carry her to the temple back in Dagon, and that was only a couple of hundred metres from the docks, I’m not going to be able to carry over several zones to a town, who knows how far that is in reality, I just ain't that strong.

That only left... Well, if Lord Mayor Avorak was one, I mean, how hard could it be to awaken an NPC. But if Azorak is awakened, does that mean Kalm is... what, asleep? And Matilda is kind of awake?

If I was to relate it to real world terms, then maybe it's more like a trance or maybe a drug addiction. When you take an addicts drugs away they’ll start sketching, right?

So, if this is like drug addiction... Oh gods what did they say in health ed...

“…addiction is a long-term brain disease, after one builds up a tolerance to a substance they become dependent…”

Right, so, in this case, the gaming world and its mechanics are like the ‘substance’, the NPCs have been subjected to it unknowingly and are unwittingly dependent on it. But what else did the teacher say?

“…stopping suddenly may cause adverse reactions and they can be serious…”

Yeah… that makes sense… sort of… god I wish I paid more attention now in class. But is this even a valid comparison? It kind of is… I have noticed certain reactions… though maybe its more like brainwashing? Like, whenever I’ve tried to tell an NPC that what they’re experiencing isn’t real or what I’ve said is contradicting with their beliefs, they start to twitch or wig out. So… how does one wake someone up from the illusion or the dependency?

It’s not as simple as “red pill, blue pill,” at least I don’t think so. If Kalm and the other NPCs have a dependency on this game world… then what she needs are tools to not be dependent… but first she needs to trust me, trust that I’m trying to do right by her, to free here, and how do build trust? Being vulnerable? That’s weird how do I even begin to be vulnerable with an NPC? I guess time together will build trust, but that’s too slow. I could try…