“Sleep” as it turned out was how you switched between the two worlds because when I woke up I was not in the shack I was back in my room. Although I'm back in the real world it's not exactly the same my vision had changed in the bottom left of my vision there are buttons that say:
PROFILE STATS INVENTORY
After seeing this I Thought profile and a new screen popped up before my eyes. This one showed me in a 3d model listing my characteristics:
HEIGHT 6'1" EYE COLOR BROWN HAIR COLOR BLACK WEIGHT 180 AGE 21 SEX MALE
Apparently, the Sleep Infinium chip scanned my body and clothes before putting me in the game.
I then thought stats and a screen showing my information stating:
NAME: GREEN OCCUPATION: NONE CLASS NONE HEALTH 199/200 MANA 80/80 GOLD 18 LEVEL 1
STRENGHT 8+1 AGILITY 6+1 INTELLECT 4+1 WISDOM 2+1 DEXTERITY 6+1 CONSTITUTION 8+1
I think Inventory And a new screen pops up with a small list of items.
INVENTORY:
DPS (DAMAGE PER SECOND) AT CURRENT SKILL LEVEL
DURABILITY ENCHANTMENT GRANITE ROCK 2-5 20/25 NONE IRON HUNTING KNIFE 6-8 198/200 NONE WEAK WOODEN SPEAR 5-7 25/50 NONE SMALL WORK HAMMER 5-8 195/200 NONE
Deciding to think more on this stuff later I check my clock and realize my alarm didn’t wake me up on time because I now have 5 minutes before I need to be in my office working on today’s orders. So I ran frantically putting on my work clothes and skipping most of my morning routine. I ended up being a couple minutes late arriving at my desk my boss is waiting for me with a sneer across his face. He says “Green! Get your ass to work or I’m going to have to report you to IWB!”
Mentally screaming I reply “y-yes sir right away!”
My boss gives me a disdainful look and walks away. Luck was on my side today as I have seen my boss fire people for much less than that. I let out a sigh of relief and start working. The day passes pretty uneventfully after that. I get told I’m trash by customers and then repair or replace there broken Sleep Infiniums. Sure it’s not great but compared to what the manual labor slaves go through this is completely fine. In most cases, manual labor slaves don’t last more than a few weeks before their bodies just can’t take it anymore and they die of exhaustion.
After working my 12-hour shift I return to my room and fall onto my bed and almost instantly fall asleep.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
I wake up to the feeling of something warm pressed against my right arm. I open my eyes to find myself back inside the wooden shack. I look down at my arm and see Amy gripping my arm with a scared look on her sleeping face she is slightly shaking. I do another mental scream I reach with my left arm to wake her up but as soon as I touch her shoulder her eyes open and she stares directly at me she then notices how she is wrapped around my arm her face immediately turns beet red and she instantly lets go and scrambles to her feet saying “WHAT, NO! It's not what you think! I was just sleepwalking! That’s it sleepwalking!”
trying to end her embarrassment by saying “don’t worry we should pack up and get on the road I don’t want to spend another night in these woods”
she relaxed a bit after hearing me try to change the topic she said “Yeah that sounds good, I will go wake up Lucy” but Lucy had already begun to stir due to all the noise saying “Ammmyyy why are you being so loud!” She then gets off her cot and opens her eyes with a glare pointed at her sister.
Amy looks at her sister and with mournful eyes says “sorry Lucy didn’t mean to be loud I just had a bad dream” shooting me a look that says to keep quiet about what happened.
The girls packed up their belongings while I sat and watched as I don’t have anything to pack because all of my items are kept in my inventory system. The girls were confused by this at first but they seemed to believe that it was some type of magic so they soon forgot about it. When they finished we left the shack and returned to the main road the second sun was steadily rising and was making a beautiful sunrise. Which cast a soft blue light on the surroundings. Strangely I could look directly at the sun and not hurt my eyes. I also could not feel any heat on my skin from this sun. The sun felt almost cold and almost oppressive for some reason. Truly this place was strange I thought to myself.
We were headed toward the rising sun so I assumed we were headed east. We walked all day taking short breaks every hour or so. We talked about how the world works and how magic works. Amy explained that during the blue sun mana is released onto the world and during the blue sun mana is recharged in every person and monster and During the yellow sun heat is released to keep the world from getting too cold. Monsters usually only come out at night because that is the only time portals from our world and the monsters world open as the suns banish these portals keeping the monsters away. She also explained the adventure guild and how it’s their job to hunt monsters and collect their bodies as they can be used in powerful potions and spells.
After around 6 hours we finally arrived at the edge of the forest the sun was quickly setting and Amy said that it should only be only 20 mins till the next shack so we hurried along the path and when we got there we hurried inside just as the blue sun vanished from the horizon.
the shack was almost exactly the same as the last with five cots to sleep on a small set of table and chairs in the middle and one window on each wall with the entire structure made out of wood.
I peaked out the shack's windows checking to see if there were any threats and as I looked around I noticed a light slowly growing brighter just outside the front of the shack. When the light had grown to around 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide a figure stepped out of the light and as it got further away from the light its features became clear. It had a bull face with large horns on each side of its head it looked to be about the same height as me but much wider as it’s weight could only be described as obese. It walked on cloven hooves and had an ax that looked like it was meant for battle rather than cutting wood. It lumbered toward the shack I whispered for Amy in a frantic manner she came over to where I was and looked outside spotting the portal first and then the hulking beast. Gasping she whispered that’s a 3-star beast know as a Minotaur!” She pulled her bow out from behind her back and grabbed an arrow from her quiver and notched in on her bow and pulled back and released the arrow sending it flying straight at the Minotaurs face with a sickening thwack it sunk into the Minotaurs right eye.
With a roar, the Minotaur grabbed the arrow out of its eye and threw it to the ground looking around to see who shot it. Spotting the window with Amy standing in its frame it roared again causing the shack to vibrate. It rushed much faster then I would have expected of something of its obese weight. We ran away from the window as the Minotaur burst through the wall leaving it in shambles. Lucy screamed and ran to hide behind Amy. Amy quickly notched another arrow and fired at its face but unfortunately, it hit one of the Minotaurs horns and deflected off. I grabbed my spear from my inventory and jumped toward him but before I could even get close it swung its war ax and cut the point off my spear and when he swung the ax back he clocked me in the jaw with the back end of the ax knocking me to the floor.
-5 HP
I heard him stomp his way over to where I had fallen and I looked up at his bullish face and then I heard a whisper “use me…” I looked down at my now unpointed spear and felt a weird cold sensation travel from the center of my chest down my right arm and down the shaft of the broken spear and then the top of the spear began to glow. But during all this, the Minotaur was getting into position to cleave me in half. Right as he had raised its ax over its head I unleashed my spear and shot a ball of pure blue light up at him.
Unfortunately, my aim was not as good as I had hoped and even at point blank range my shot only hit his hands and not his head like I was aiming for. The brutes ax was not as lucky as it was flung from his hands and launched out of the hole that the beast had made in the cabin. But that was not where my blue bolt stopped as it kept traveling past the Minotaur it smashed through the middle of the roof of the shack. The Minotaur fell backward after having its hands get rather melted. It landed on its fat ass causing the shack to shake in an unsettling manner. It was at this point that I realized that my bolt had been too damaging for the shack and it was coming apart at its seams. I quickly got to my feet and picked up Lucy and grabbed Amy’s hand and rushed out of the gaping hole in the wall just as the shack fell in on itself.
I looked at Amy and Lucy and said “well that had to have killed it right?” just as I finished saying this we heard boards creaking and being lifted we turned back to the shack and I heard Amy say “nope” and ready her bow and drop down to one knee and just as the Minotaur stood up from the wreckage Amy let loose another arrow this time striking its last remaining eye.
It’s howled in pain and anger as it ripped out the arrow from its eye. During his anger I noticed the Minotaur’s ax laying just a few steps to my right. The howling from the Minotaur stopped just as I was running to the ax. Seeming to have heard me running the Minotaur wailed and sprinted at me. Gripping the ax in both hands I raised it above my head and right when the Minotaur was in range I slammed in straight into the top of its head. Unexpectedly it just cut right through almost like it was butter. Blood and brain matter splashed all over me as the Minotaurs momentum carried it straight into me collapsing on my chest I couldn’t even breath. I tried to push it off me but the fat fuck just wouldn’t budge then just as my eyes starting to lose focus the weight was lifted and me, Amy, and Lucy were able to push the body off to my right side.
1-LVL 1 ★★★ MINOTAUR KILLED
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
EXP EARNED: 1,000
GOLD EARNED: 200
LVL UP! 1045/50 EXP
NEW LVL: 2
+ 3 STAT POINTS
LVL UP! 995/100 EXP
NEW LVL: 3
+ 3 STAT POINTS
LVL UP! 895/200 EXP
NEW LVL: 4
+ 3 STAT POINTS
LVL UP! 695/300 EXP
NEW LVL: 5
+ 3 STAT POINTS
LVL UP! 395/400 EXP
NEW LVL: 6
+ 3 STAT POINTS
I sat up and looked around to make sure that there were no more immediate threats. Seeing none I moved over to Amy and Lucy and asked, “are you two OK?” They seemed a little surprised by my question and Amy replied “were fine, are YOU? That was a 3 star Minotaur and you were just in close combat with it. Most people would not have survived let alone kill it” inspecting my self my stats screen comes up and tells me my health
NAME: GREEN OCCUPATION: NONE CLASS NONE HEALTH 194/200 MANA 75/80 GOLD 218 LEVEL 6
STRENGHT 9 AGILITY 7 INTELLECT 5 WISDOM 3 DEXTERITY 7 CONSTITUTION 10
UNALLOTTED STAT POINTS: 15
I say “I’m a little beat up but I will manage. If it wasn’t for you blinding it there’s no way I could have pulled that off so you take just as much credit for this kill as I do.” I then spot the destroyed shack and with a grimace, I ask “are we going to have to fix that?” Amy and Lucy look back and see the shack and then turn back to me with a smile “no, this damage is beyond our ability to repair we will have to report its destruction to the authorities at Serpenridge luckily we only have to pay a small fee. The workers guild will be sent out and they will replace it. So that other travelers won’t be stuck outside at night. Like we are now.” She took a glance around after saying that looking for any threats.
We built a fire so that we wouldn’t be in the dark and stood watching the darkness hoping we wouldn’t have to deal with any more enemies. After another hour we see the bright yellow start to dye the skyline and just 20 min after that the sun is visible and we let out a collective sigh of relief.
We pack up our things and then Amy asks for my iron knife saying “we need to remove the horns and mana core from the Minotaur” I hand her the knife and she starts the process of removing the horns which come off rather quickly but the mana core was another matter. She slashed open the skin from the top of the chest to the bottom of the stomach releasing a disgusting amount of fat that sloughed off onto the ground revealing a fist size blue orb right in the middle of its chest cavity. Amy looks at me and asks “can you reach up through the stomach and rip out the core?” I look at her in mild horror but do as she asks. I reach up into its chest and rip out the core taking quite a bit of its lungs with it. The core is not a perfect sphere like I had originally thought. It has dents with small holes in the middle in an almost symmetrical pattern all around it the holes are only about the size of a worm and seem to go all the way through it. The core gives off a cold glow of blue that sends shivers down my spine. Amy takes the core and puts it into a bag and says “this is a good size and quality core it will definitely pay for the fee for rebuilding the shack and even give us some gold to spend on ourselves. She then hands me the core and horns and I put them into my inventory.
We clean ourselves off at a stream near the trail and move off toward Serpenridge. We get there an hour later and meet the guards the entrance. The guards surprise me as we get close to them as they appear to not be human. They have scales all over their bodies and have more of a reptile shaped heads. They stop us and ask our names and what our business is in the city. Amy replied saying “we look to buy citizenship here and I’m looking to join the adventurers guild.” we look at Amy in surprise because we had no idea she wanted to join the adventurers guild. The guard eyes her and Lucy up and down and then proceeds to ask me “and what about you?” I reply “I also plan to buy citizenship and maybe join the adventurers guild.” The guard's nods and Amy then says to the guards "we also need to sell some monster parts" the guards bring out a city official who looks to be half human and half reptile with blue and gold scales he is wearing a rather luxurious robe and has a book in his hand. I hand him the horns and the core and he says after inspecting them "The core and the horns together equal up to 80 gold" Amy gets a look of anger on her face and says "80 gold! the core alone is worth that much! 120 gold sounds way more accurate." the official seemed to expect this outburst and smiles saying "Fine, fine how about we meet in the middle and make it an even 100 gold?" Amy smiles and says "that sound better. you have yourself a deal." we then told the official about the destroyed shack and paid the 20 gold for the repair. we collected our remaining gold and Amy give me half and we head into the city
My first opinion of it is that it is big but not nearly as big as the city I live in. It’s not even ¼ the size of my city. But it seems much cleaner then I would have expected and I notice that a lot of people are using some form of magic to do tiny things like cook food or clean a window. But no one is using magic like I had used on the Minotaur at least that’s what I assume I did I don’t actually know what I shot at the Minotaur. Some of the houses are made of wood but most seem to be made of some sort of greenish blue stone. Most of the people are human-ish most of them have scales but there are a few that don’t have any apparent scales. The people who have scales ranging in all colors of the rainbow and honestly their scales are beautiful. Amy walks us to a rather large building with a sign outside that says, "Stiff Cooper Guild Hall" we walk inside and approach the inside of the guild hall looks clean and is mostly made out of that green stone with around 15-20 tables with quite a few people enjoying food and drinks at them. We walk up to a table and sit down.
Amy asks, "Green, do you want to join the adventures guild? The guild offers a way to make an income by taking quests and missions that have gold as rewards for completion. joining also gives a reduced price to rent rooms to sleep in. It costs 5 gold to join but you easily get that back by " I think about what she said and as I have no reason to decline so I say "Yeah that seems like a good deal"
Lucy had been staring daggers at Amy since getting to Serpenridge and had finally decided to voice her concerns "Amy why do you have to join the adventures guild? Why don't we go to aunt and uncles house and live with them?" Amy frowns and says "Unfortunately the more I thought about it the more I came to the realization that there is no way that aunt and uncle didn't already claim our parent's wealth and possessions. Plus if they find out that we are still alive they would sooner have us killed than give that wealth to us. So I plan to have our last names changed when and Green and I register with the guild." Lucy gasps in shock at Amy and says "you really think that Aunt and Uncle would do such a thing?" Amy shakes her head yes and says "Unfortunately wealth makes people do unreasonable things, so we are just going to prevent this by changing our last names."
We walk up to the clerk at the counter who appears to be a full reptile person with beautiful blue and green scales that blend in well with the green stone behind her. As we approach her she smiles and says "Hello! what can I do for you all today?" Amy takes the lead asking for me and her to join the guild and for her and her sister to have their last names changed. The clerk has us approach something called a "Status Stone" Amy reaches and places her hand on the stone and her status pops up
NAME: AMY BLUEBIRD OCCUPATION: NONE CLASS NONE HEALTH 240/240 MANA 50/50 GOLD 60 LEVEL 8
STRENGHT 7 AGILITY 12 INTELLECT 4 WISDOM 1 DEXTERITY 15 CONSTITUTION 12
After examining her status the clerk changes the last name to the requested "Songbird" and adds the Stiff Copper adventurer to her occupation section. She then motions for Lucy to grab the status stone. She approaches the stone and places her hands on it
NAME: LUCY BLUEBIRD OCCUPATION: LOCKED UNTIL AGE 15 CLASS LOCKED UNTIL AGE 15 HEALTH 100/100 MANA 30/30 GOLD 0 LEVEL 2
STRENGHT 4 AGILITY 6 INTELLECT 2 WISDOM 1 DEXTERITY 7 CONSTITUTION 5
The clerk changed her last name to "Songbird" and then motioned me to come forward. I stepped up to the stone and placed my hands on it. But my stats didn't show up like Lucy and Amy, instead, I got an error message saying
MUST ALLOCATE STAT POINTS BEFORE USING A "STATUS SONE" WOULD YOU LIKE TO USE AUTO SELECTION?
YES NO
Thinking quickly and in all honestly not very intelligently YES and then my stats page showed up for everyone to see
NAME: GREEN OCCUPATION: NONE CLASS NONE HEALTH 234/240 MANA 125/130 GOLD 258 LEVEL 6
STRENGHT 15 AGILITY 8 INTELLECT 7 WISDOM 6 DEXTERITY 8 CONSTITUTION 12
The clerk gave me the Stiff Copper adventurer occupation and then we proceeded rent two rooms for the night we paid which cost me 10 gold altogether and cost Amy 15 gold.
Just as we ended our transaction and headed upstairs to our rooms we were stopped by a shorter girl who looks to be a half lizard with white and gold scales on her forearms and legs that end in sharp claws she has pale white skin and is wearing a white and gold robe that gives off a "Holy" vibe she looks to be around 16 years old. She says "HI! my name is Sletha and I noticed that you two just joined the guild. I joined the guild a few days ago and was wondering if you would be interested in letting me join your adventuring party? I promise not to be a burden, plus I'm a great healer." after saying this she pulls a long staff out from behind her and points in my direction and chants "Heal" a beam of black and red light envelops me in what feels like a warm blanket.
+6 HP
I turn to Amy who looks at me and then turns to the girl saying "We would love to have you on our team! my name is Amy and this is my sister Lucy and this guy is Green. How about we meet here later today to decide what our first quest will be? we just got into town and are pretty exhausted" Sletha Smiles wide and exposes her rather sharp looking teeth and says "Yes! Alright, I will meet up with you in a few hours" after saying that she skips out of the guild hall. I turn to Amy and say "well she seems full of energy." Amy replies "Yeah, I hope I didn't just make a mistake." we head up to our rooms and say sleep well to each other"
My room had a shower that apparently runs on some kind of magic so after cleaning myself I appraised the room and found that it was rather lavish I have never experienced something this fancy before and it kind of surprised me. The bed was more than three times the size of the bed I have in my room at the office and it had blankets made of really soft red fabric. When I entered the bed the mattress seemed to almost hug me it was so comfortable and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep almost instantly.