He slept fitfully on a thin mattress laid atop a wooden pallet in, he supposed, the same inn Hecate had deposited Hugh. Waking at every small noise during the night, when the sun rose and arrowed into the east-facing room, Clyde was already awake, laying on his back and pondering the bare ceiling.
He asked himself the same question he had asked himself time and again over the long night: how the hell had he gotten himself into this position? He had been impulsive, this was true. Yet the decision to reroll his character and explore this fascinating rare class was not one that should have had such devastating and far-reaching consequences. He couldn’t argue that being the champion of a powerful dark goddess was not hella cool, some straight-up gangsta shit, and possibly the most amaze-balls thing that had ever happened to him. No, he would not be ungrateful to the goddess lest she decides to snack on his balls and feed him his intestines. Nope. Very, very grateful, thank you mysterious goddess of the underworld, witchcraft, and sorcery.
Whew. That out of the way, he would also be remiss in not mourning the loss of his friends, family, online acquaintances, anime club buddies, online forum nemeses, and the countless trolls that had littered his inbox and PMs. All gone before he had so much as the merest chance to consider his decision to enter the game world alone to enter into a compact with a dark goddess that had seemed - and likely was - the better choice out of a bevy of twisted, nightmarish beings, most of which were not part of this or any world, but were rather outside. Gawd but he would miss cheeseburgers and pizza; not to mention chocolate.
He started at a hard knock at the wooden door to his room. Sitting up, he flung the thin blanket from him and answered, “Yeah, what do you want?”
“Clyde, um, is that you? She said you’d be here. I hope that’s you.”
He recognized Hugh’s voice even as it quavered and broke through the thin planks of the door. Clyde got up, still clothed in the plain, homespun clothes of a beginning character, and pulled open the door. Hugh was hunched over and even took a half-step back. He was taking this transition even harder than him, Clyde thought.
“Come in. It’s fine. I was awake, anyhow,” he said a bit gruffly.
There was nowhere to sit so Clyde sat at the end of the bed closest to the open window, the shutters never having been closed the night before, and gestured for Hugh to take the other end. Hugh brightened at the courtesy and slumped onto the edge of the bed.
“So you met Hecate?” he asked, peering at Hugh and trying to catch his eye as the young man dipped his head and cast his eyes on the floorboards.
“Hecate? Is that who that was? I mean, yes, I guess so,” Hugh replied with a stammer.
“Yeah, but, I mean, I guess I should make sure we’re talking about that same thing. You know Hecate’s a goddess, right? I guess I took the Dark Monk class for myself, pure impulse and probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, and logged in. She answered my summons, accepted the compact - she was raving about how she couldn’t accept anything but a servant of flesh and blood, that this digital world would never do - and the world went dark. Hugh, I’m assuming she already let you in on this, but maybe I’m wrong. She changed everything, turned the game world into the real world. We’re stuck here and we’re real people, everyone is.”
He knew he was rambling, but despite Hugh’s suddenly horrified expression, he continued to vent until he ran out of breath. Hugh hadn’t known, he realized then. What had Hecate told him other than where to find Clyde in the morning?
“What the fuck do you mean?” Hugh asked, anger lining his face and lighting his eyes on fire. ”Clyde, I logged in last night. Instead of spawning in the glade, I found myself in a room with a staggeringly beautiful woman. I’m not gonna kid. She was the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever been alone in a room with by orders of magnitude. I was like a fifteen-year-old, standing in front of the class, and I had a boner. But I wasn’t embarrassed - can’t tell you why not. If she had asked me to cut my dick off and hand it to her, I would have. A goddess? Yes, that makes sense. That does, but not any of the other nonsense you spouted off about.
“Dude, this is a game. We are playing a friggin’ game. It’s not real. What have you been smoking?”
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He shook his head, seeming more assured of himself, but also giving off a feeling of disgust and regret as he pulled back and relaxed.
“Have you tried to log out, Hugh? If you haven’t, try right now.”
Hugh’s silver eyes glazed over as he accessed his visual interface. Then his eyes widened, and his shoulders tensed. Hugh shot forward and grabbed Clyde’s shoulders.
“Don’t mess around with me, dude. This is not cool. How are you doing this? I can’t log out.”
He pulled Hugh’s hands from him and stood, facing outwards and looking out the open window. Hemsbrooke was a small village, more a hamlet, and the inn was the tallest building. What he saw was the dense thicket of trees bordering the village, a few small buildings including the roof of the stables directly below his room, and the wispy smoke of an early morning fire rising from the stone chimney of a thatch-roofed hut. The sky was clear of clouds, bright with the morning sun, and a cool breeze wafted lazily through the window.
“Haven’t you noticed it yet? It’s the same, yeah, this game is amongst the most advanced in the world - but it’s different now. I can feel the faint warmth of the early morning sun, Hugh. The slight wind is cool against my bare arms, and you can see and I can feel the goosebumps there. My teeth ache a little like I need to brush them. I’m squinting, my god, I’ve never had to squint in-game. The sun is too bright. Frankly, as beautiful as the world outside is I want to close the shutters to hold in what warmth is left in the room. Maybe go downstairs for breakfast and see if the fire in the hearth is lit so I can get warm.
“This is the world now, Hugh. Hecate, she is a goddess - the real thing - and she transformed the game world into a real world, and we, we are stuck in this world along with any gamers that were logged in when she did whatever she did to make it all real.
You can’t log out because this is our life now.”
Hugh hit him in the back of his head. The feeling was strange. He jerked forward, pushed by the blow to his head, and he knew someone had hit him, but it was all so weird. Clyde caught himself on the windowsill and twisted around in time to block Hugh’s next haymaker. He sunk his fist into Hugh’s stomach, eliciting a grunt and forcing the breath from his lungs. Hugh grunted and fell back on his ass.
“What the fuck, man?” Clyde asked, stunned at the sudden violence.
“I’m sorry,” Hugh gasped, arms tightening around his midsection. “Just what the fuck did you do? A compact with a goddess? Are you insane? How are we supposed to get back to the real world? Man, I’ve got a girlfriend, I’ve got a few friends and I’ve got my family. Not to mention my fucking dog. What are you saying? Is all that, what, gone? We can’t get back to it?”
Clyde paced back to the window, turning from Hugh despite the possibility of another attack. He stared blankly out the window before grasping the shutters and closing them firmly, latching the shutters to prevent them from flying open unexpectedly.
“Yeah, and I’m sorry. I wasn’t really given a choice, ya know? Hecate, she’s a goddess, apparently the real thing, and she didn’t ask for permission. I’d offered her a compact, and she said she accepted, and the next thing I knew I was back in the glade but everything felt different, alien, and thrumming with strange energies.
“She assigned me some quests, told me to start a coven, and sent me packing. And here I am,” he said, looking at the spare room.
“Quests? Like what kind of quests?” Hugh asked.
“First off, to get with you and fulfill my commitment to help you regain the levels you lost in rerolling your character?”
“Levels? Character? I thought you said this wasn’t a game,” Hugh seemed exasperated at the end of his rope.
“Right, and it’s not. But Hecate gave me quests, we still have our interfaces, and she gifted me +5 Charisma when I’m around a woman I’m attracted to, to help me form a coven. So, I guess, not a game, but all the game stuff still applies. Except I’m not sure if we still respawn. I asked, and she said she’d run outta time and didn’t exactly answer. I’m gonna say we need to be careful not to die in this world.”
“Fucked. We’re fucked, aren’t we? This is insane.”
“Well, I know it’s not, um, optimal, but there’s a bright side, of sorts,” Clyde said, smiling faintly if not with his eyes as he tried to inspire some confidence in the young Monk.
“And what would that be, Clyde? Is your goddess gonna offer free hand jobs? Send us buxom succubi to fulfill our every fantasy before sucking our souls from our bodies?”
Clyde replied, “Whoa, grim dude. Really grim. No, definitely no on the hand jobs. Probably no on succubi. I’d have to ask, really. She is a goddess of the underworld, so maybe?”
He shifted his feet nervously and continued, “I’ve got a quest to start a coven. Technically, I’m the warlock leader of the coven, and I just need to find women that will swear an oath binding them to a life of service to Hecate. For every woman I bring into my coven Hecate will double the experience I receive. Okay, not much of a bright side to you at first glance. But the stronger I get the more that promise I made to help you level will be of value to you.
“Right now, I’m the same level as you, nadda. If I can start filling the coven, I’ll level up quickly and I’ll be able to help you more.”
Hugh lifted his head from his hands and glared at him. “I really want to hit you again. You’re a fucking warlock and I’m a monk? What the fuck, man? That is really not cool.”
Clyde chuckled, ignoring Hugh’s displeasure, and said, “Yeah, guess you’re right. I didn’t intend for any of this to happen. Hell, I figured, I’d log in to the game, experiment with the Dark Monk class build, maybe even level a bit, and worse case scenario I’d admit I fucked up and reroll as a Paladin again. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, but also I wouldn’t have brought the hurt to my party.”
He glanced around the room and smirked. “Instead, I’ve got a crazy goddess in my head. The game world is now the real world, we’re all stuck here for good, and I’m guessing everyone is gonna hate me when they discover I am the one responsible for this massive FUBAR.”
Hugh grinned - there was something almost feral in that grin - and he responded with a light chuckle, “That may be the smartest thing you’ve said this morning, you daft idiot.”