Lamb spent the next day practising and experimenting with his new qi abilities, and walking Epona through the basics of how to shoot qi blasts from her fists. Epona spent the day training her magic and practicing to use heaven and earth.

Lamb focused on practising his heaven abilities, practising to shoot qi blasts from his fists and practising different types of qi blasts using different kicks.

They pushed themselves to train for 7 hours before retiring to dinner and taking a break. Lamb smelled himself whilst they walked about town. The sun was setting, and they were walking off a nice hot meal.

“Do I smell?” He asked. Epona sniffed him, getting really close.

“Nope, you smell..” She sniffed him some more. “You just smell neutral. How about me?” She asked, lifting her arm.

“You’re good, you smell a bit like lavender.” He concluded after an examination. He smelled himself some more warily, “Are you sure I don’t smell sweaty?” He asked again, he’d been training and sweating through his clothes everyday since he got here.

“No, honestly you don’t. If you reeked, I’d be the first to tell you to take a bath!” Epona promised. She grabbed a random middle-aged passerby, “Can you smell my friend?” She propositioned the stranger. He gave her a startled look and quickly jotted away, clutching his purse.

Lamb wasn’t sure, but perhaps it was something to do with the ever-present magic and qi everywhere. Maybe that was fine he still smelled fine after 7 hours training.

Everyone in Alyzia possessed healing qi, when they got hurt or received fatal wounds, their healing qi would activate, and the qi would heal their wounds within a few seconds. However, once you run out of healing qi, you won’t be able to heal anymore until you rested. Resting gradually and slowly replenishes your qi. If you received a fatal blow when you’re low on healing qi, you’re dead

“Is there a place to take a shower?” Lamb asked. Their tents were essentially just a small bedroom. There were washrooms with flush-toilets and sinks everywhere, but no showers Lamb could find.

“Yeah, I found a bathhouse on my first day here, they’re all over the place.” Epona replied.

She led him to a large nearby building with bright Arabic writing. They walked in to look around and were immediately greeted by several very heavy-set, very hairy, very oily, and very, very naked middle-aged-men. The naked oiled men waved to the youngsters as they slapped each other’s nakedness. They then proceeded to put on a puppet show.

The two immediately turned around and headed for the exit.

“There goes my innocence.” Epona lamented.

“I’m blind.”

“I think I just discovered what my weakness is.”

“I think I need therapy.” Lamb replied.

Behind them, the jolly grandpas began jousting.

“There only seems to be public bathhouses here, and I’m not really a fan of being naked in a room full of strangers.” Epona replied, looking down. “I haven’t really bathed since I got here.”

“I don’t like public showers either, no thanks!” Lamb agreed, they quickly made their way to leave the building.

“Yooohooo!” Naomi and Jezebel, the drunk party girls from yesterday, greeted them.

“Are you two here for a couple’s massage?” Naomi inquired in Farsi, subtitles appearing beneath. Jezebel giggling.

“No we were just leaving.” Lamb blushed, him and Epona both looking down. It took a quarter second after Lamb’s reply for his English to be translated into Farsi subtitles for Naomi and her friend.

Jezebel grabbed Epona by the arm, pulling her towards them. “You must join us for a mud bath, the mineral rich clay will detoxify your body.”

“No boys allowed,” Naomi added, waving a finger at Lamb, making a frowney face.

“We have to get going.” Epona said, struggling to pull herself free.

The two of them laughed as they waved Epona goodbye, making her promise to go out for lunch with them tomorrow. They found a ‘cute guy’ they want her meet.

They finally made it out of the bath house. The salty perfume smell of the bathhouse was replaced once again with the sandy smokey aroma of the streets.

“Never going in there again.” Epona said. Lamb nodded. “Once I realized all the showers were public, it was either do that in front of strangers, or not wash. I figured since we’ll only be here for five days at a time, so long as I don’t smell too bad, I’ll just not wash and shower when I log out.” Epona explained.

“Yeah, seems to be working, you smell just fine.” Lamb nodded along.

For health and player’s safety, each player can only stay in Alyzia for 5 days maximum at a time. Afterwards, they must log out. After you’re logged out and back on Earth, you must wait at least 2 days before returning to Alyzia. Additionally, if you get killed in Alyzia, you’ll automatically get transported back to Earth, and as a penalty for dying: you’ll lose any gold you had on you, and you’ll have to spend a week on Earth before you can log back on.

There were several game guides spread out throughout the town. Epona and Lamb spent a good chunk of time talking to them, asking questions and learning as much as they could about the rules and mechanics of their new home.

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“Today’s my fifth day here,” Epona told Lamb, “I’ll have to go back to Ålborg tonight.”

“Today’s my..” Lamb counted looking down on his fingers.

“Today’s your third day dummy, you still have two day’s left.”

“Wohoo!” Lamb cheered. “We should sync our times,” Lamb said as he began calculating. “—hhmm… if I log out tonight too, we can both meet back here in two days.” Lamb suggested, double checking his math using an imaginary abacus.

“I was gonna suggest that too. But you still have three more days here, would you really want to leave early for me?” Epona replied.

“It’d be no fun here without you.”

Epona looked down blushing, “What about Jezebel, you can go on a double date with her and Nadia.”

“I’m doing that the moment you leave, imagine the things she can do with that scorpion arm.”

“Gross!” Epona exclaimed, kicking Lamb in the shins. “How about this, you should still get one more good day of training. You spend one more day here tomorrow and then log out that night. I’ll spend 3 days resting at home, and we’ll meet back here in 3 days for me, 2 days for you.” Epona pitched.

Lamb tried to do the math on his fingers, he was gonna be a while.

“My math is correct Lamp!”

“You’re ok with spending an extra day back home?” he asked.

“I’ll be dyeing to come back here and go for lunch and bath with Jeze and Nadia, obviously, but I’ll use the extra day to stuff up on my favourite foods,” Epona reasoned.

“You’re gonna spend an entire day eating cheese aren’t you?”

“Don’t judge me.”

They spotted a purple monkey in the corner whom was a familiar game guide.

“Are there any showers here?” He asked the monkey guide.

“There’s plenty of bathhouses, I recommend the Arabica Delight on the east corner.”

“Are there any places with private showers?” Epona asked.

“Ohh those, yeah there’s one in the big rest station by the entrance to the marshlands.” The guide explained. The towns and villages had guards to keep the peace and prevent violence between players. The ‘marshlands’ had no such safety precautions. The marshlands was a lawless expanse of empty desert, filled with monsters, and no guards. It was where players went to fight dangerous monsters and get stronger. It was also rumoured to be filled with ancient temples, legendary weapons, and bountiful treasure. Several players set out to the marshlands on the first day Lamb arrived and still haven’t returned.

“Let’s check it out,” Lamb suggested.

The two made their way to the marshlands entrance. They’ve heard about several players going missing, and decided to train for a few more days first, before venturing out to explore the marshlands next week. They should take some time to get as strong as possible before venturing out into danger.

The marshlands rest station was definitely the biggest one they’ve seen. It had a large bulletin board, and a separate quest board lined with posters of available missions. They skimmed through the quests, noting most of them required going out and hunting large monsters—- boring. Lamb wasn’t interested in fighting monsters, he wanted to fight other people. He wondered if there were any bounties available— hunting bandit camps and criminals. That, he could he himself enjoying.

Epona pulled Lamb away from the quest boards as she found the showers. There were several large private washrooms with built-in showers inside, sweet! Lamb smelled himself again, Epona had already reassured him he smelled fine, but he hadn’t bathed in 3 days, and felt like he needed a hot shower. “Ok if I take a quick shower?” Lamb asked.

“Go ahead,” Epona was happy her friend finally found a place to shower. She really needed a shower too, but she was leaving tonight, so she could wait until she got back to Earth. Then, she could finally take a nice long shower in her own home… in her own bathroom. She couldn’t wait.

Lamb came out twenty minutes later in a steamy mist, his blonde hair wet and spiky. He looked refreshed.

“Well then, since it’s my last day here, want to send me off with a final bout in the training grounds?” Epona asked, twirling her blades between her fingers. “Round two?”

“I’ll send you home… in a coffin..” Answered Lamb in a deep Russian accent.

“I’ll just go home then.” Epona replied.

They stopped by a weapon stand on their way back, Epona mused about wanting to practice against opponents with weapons, so they found a nice sturdy wooden short sword that wasn’t too expensive. Lamb bought it for a half-gold. The training sword was slightly longer than a gladius, with a dull straight blade, and a good weight. Lamb excitedly twirled around his new toy.

There was a small crowd of six people gathered around the training grounds, chatting and sharing snacks. They hushed up when the two of them arrived and peered over at them.

“You guys gonna dance again?” Naseer said from the crowd.

‘You bet we are’. Lamb thought.

The two of them circled each other inside the ring. “We’ll use just the weapons, no powers alright?” Lamb proposed. Epona agreed, this first match would be just blade-on-blade combat.

Lamb stabbed and slashed at her non-committedly with his wooden practice sword. He was feeling out his new toy, as well as Epona’s blade fighting reflexes. Despite never practicing any form of martial arts whatsoever, Epona was a natural, and skillfully parried and deflect all of Lambs strikes; only letting a few stabs go through her guard. The stabs struck deep and left her wounded from the shoulder, stomach and legs. But she had lots of health left, and the flesh wounds healed quickly. After a minute, she was already covered in bruises. The bugger loved to go for her hands and slashed her fingers several times. He also poked at her legs repeatedly. Though Lamb’s sword was dull, he still managed to do heavy blunt force damage. If she didn’t have her healing factor, she’d be crawling on her knees right now from all the leg shots she took.

Lamb had to admit, he did love fighting with weapons. There was a sense of joy in using a blade as an extension of your body. He liked using the sword, but his favourite was knives. Swords just couldn’t compare to knives. There was just something primal and dangerous about using a knife and having to get up close and personal.

He kept poking at Epona, helping her let a hang of blade fighting. Epona’s defence was improving and she was getting impressive, but she still hadn’t landed a single hit on him.

She still hadn’t realized the special trick to using sais yet. Lamb decided not to tell her, he decided she needed to figure it out for herself in the heat of battle, and this would be a great opportunity to pressure test her.

She came in with a right lunge, he reposted with a wrist flick, ducked and stabbed her in the knee, making her trip. She got up again, ignoring the pain and pressed the attack. Lamb side-stepped her next swipe and brought her on the defensive, he pressed the attack, purposely telegraphing his attacks, until finally it happened…

Lamb slashed down at a diagonal with his sword, Epona raised her sai to intercept, and whether it was a fluke or done intentionally, she trapped his blade between the trident prongs of her sai. Then everything clicked, it was like a match was lit— she immediately stabbed Lamb in the gut with her other sai, there was nothing Lamb could do— his sword was trapped between her prongs, all he could do was helplessly get stabbed in the belly.

Cheers of celebration, claps and shouts of encouragement came from the crowd. They were spectating, and from their perspective: they saw Lamb lunge in for a finishing blow, then suddenly, Epona did a thousand IQ move and trapped his sword between her prongs, and then stabbed him through the belly; it was the most ninja thing they’d ever seen.

Epona bashfully thanked them for clapping. She wiped some blood away and bowed. Lamb bowled likewise, hiding an embarrassed smile on his face.

Naseer and a large long-haired man they’d never met before stepped into the training grounds.

“Could we have a match?” The bearded, long-haired gentlemen asked in Arabic, yellow subtitles translating his request.

chapter end