[p=center]The Winged Knight[/p]

[p=center]Volume 1 - Chapter 3.5 - Introductions[/p]

I once again found myself in the Palace, standing in front of the giant sofa in my living-room. I was about to turn towards the wall-screen but before I could even do that, I heard a voice coming from it's direction.

"I can't believe you made friends with Aiden that fast!"

I turned towards the screen and saw a woman standing there with a lab coat looking at me happily. She was around 1,75m(5'7) tall, had medium length black hair and blue eyes that went with a cute face. When I saw her up close like this, it felt like Déjà vu.

I know she was in the room when I met the whole group, but I didn't really get a good look at all of them. So why do I have such a strong feeling of recognition? I thought puzzled.

"I'm sorry, I was overly excited. I'm Dr. Diane Tarell. Nice to meet you." she continued in a calmer voice that could barely restrain her excitement.

"Nice to meet you Diane." I said with a gracious smile, she smiled back at me.

"And what did you mean? Did you mean Eiden?" I asked her.

"No no no, I meant Aiden. Eiden and Aiden are the same person, he wasn't really all that imaginative choosing his name in RR was he? Anyway, Eiden/Aiden is my little brother." she said with a smile filled with sisterly affection.

Eiden is her little brother?! What are the odds of that? I thought very surprised, and more than a little suspicious.

"Really? Is this just an incredible coincidence that I met him then? Or..." I looked at her suspiciously.

She started fidgeting and looked away as she answered: "I knew he started in Dale by accident, and I've talked to him about you. What happened to you and about some of your training in Royal Road, he's also seen your photo on the news so he knows what you look like." she finished nervously.

Aha, so she's spoken about me with other people huh. Well, I don't really mind. I don't know if we have doctor-patient confidentiality but I'm okay with her speaking about me. I thought unfazed. While I was thinking, Allie had begun walking towards Diane with a thunderous expression on her face.

"Dr. Diane! You know you're not supposed to talk about a patient without permission..." she trailed off ominously. Diane had gone very pale as Allie spoke.

Looks like she's in trouble, it's time for me to help out.

"Allie," she looked away from Diane and at me questioningly "it's fine with me, I don't really care. Any of you can speak about me as much as you want, after all what possible bad thing could you say about the noble and dignified personage that is me?" I said with a smug smile.

"You mean so dignified you couldn't even mount a horse?" she countered with just a hint of a grin.

I knew I'll never be allowed to forget it.

"Touché." I said and we all started laughing, especially Diane who seemed to keep that episode in a special place in her heart.

"Alright, I guess if Marcus says that it's no problem it would be silly of me to berate you. Just make sure not to talk about a patient again without his/her permission." she told Diane seriously.

Diane nodded, she looked very relieved.

"As I was saying, I knew he needed help with a quest, but he started out in Dale by accident. And I'm currently over in The Britten Alliance, so I don't even know how long it would take for me to get to him. That's why I'm very grateful that you've decided to help him." she told me sincerely. It made me a little uncomfortable like praise or thanks always does.

"It's no problem, but he's very shy isn't he?"

"Yes, that's why I was very surprised he opened up to you enough to ask for your help. He's sixteen by the way, but since he's so shy it makes it tough for him to make friends." she said a bit sadly.

"I understand." I told her seriously, and I did. My little sister used to be the same when she was younger, always hiding behind me when people tried to speak with her. She was really shy back then. I thought a bit wistfully.

"Anyway, where's the rest of the team? I thought they'd be here now since it's only a little after 12:00?" I asked Allie questioningly.

"They're on lunch, they'll be back any second now and then I'll finally introduce you to everyone else. And for your information, everyone has watched all of your time in Royal Road." Allie answered me with a smile that let me know they hadn't missed the horse episode.

"How does that work? Isn't Royal Road 4X faster?" I asked trying to move on from that embarrassing subject.

"Yes, but there's a lot of time where you're either sleeping or running or things like that. So we can just forward past those things."

I wish I could've fast-forwarded during my running at Kat's place. I thought a little jealous.

"Okay, I get it." Just as I a finished answering her she turned her head towards where I presume the door to the lab is, and I heard sounds off-screen as people were talking.

"Great you're all here now, Marcus just logged out so it's time to finally introduce everyone." Allie said waving everyone closer to the camera to stand in a line so I could see them properly.

They all lined up and Allie placed herself to the furthest left of the line and started it off.

"As you know, I'm Dr. Allison Harrington leader over this team, I prefer to be called Allie and I'm happily married." she told me with a smile.

The older woman next to her continued: "I'm Dr. Erica Tamberlaine, nice to meet you." she said with a smile. She was around 1,70m(5'5) tall, had light blue eyes, a kind face and long light brown hair.

"Hi Erica a pleasure to meet you. And you have a daughter right? What's her name?" I asked her with a smile.

"Her name's Lisa, she's 7 years old and very mischievous." she said with a glow about her that made it clear how much she loved her daughter.

I gave her a smile as the next person continued.

"As you know, I'm Dr Matthew Johnson, but you can keep calling me Matt, and the only thing I love more than medical research is martial arts." he told me with a grin.

I responded with a smile and nod, not really that surprised at the notion that he does martial arts as the next person continued.

"I'm Dr. Robert Galeman, nice to finally talk with you. It feels like I know you after watching you play for so many hours." he said with a kind smile. He looked like a calm and collected person, was 1,80m(5'9) tall, had light green eyes, and short dark brown hair. His face was average, but he looked like a confident person.

"Nice to meet you Robb, if I can call you that?" I asked, and he nodded calmly. I flashed him a smile as the next person started.

"Like I just introduced myself 5 minutes ago, I'm Dr. Diane Tarell, I love my family more than anything in the world, and I'll never take down my screensaver of you failing to mount the horse." she said with a blinding smile.

Matt laughed a little until he received my glare and fell silent.

"I'll be sure to find some way to retaliate in the future Diane." I told her with an anticipatory smile. And finally we came upon the last person.

She was surely the youngest person in the group, in fact she didn't look all that much older than me. She was short, around 1,65m(5'4), had platinum blonde hair, deep blue eyes and was very beautiful.

"Nice to finally meet you Marcus, I'm Dr. Helen Angelopoulos." she said with a smile that could put the stars to shame.

I managed to recover before I was quiet too long.

"A pleasure to meet you Helen." I told her with my most charming smile.

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"And now you've met the team Marcus, we're the ones who'll be monitoring both your condition and when you play Royal Road." Allie told me with a smile, stopping me from looking at Helen too long.

I can't believe I didn't notice her before, she's the type of person that attracts attention like a supernova. I thought a bit shaken.

Everyone went back to their various duties, leaving me watching them for a while. Just trying to remember all their names, and watching them was kind of soothing. They all went around confidence and what looked like efficiency.

I decided to leave them to it, and that it was time to test out the pool. I walked up to the master bedroom, undressed and put on some bathing shorts.

I walked down into the living room again, but this time I walked to the end of the room to the glass doors. I opened them and saw the gigantic pool close up for the first time. It was gigantic, just like everything in this Palace. It was almost guaranteed bigger than two basket courts.

I feel like they went completely overboard with this place. Everything is gigantic, though I suppose when you build something in virtual reality costs aren't that high on the priority list. I thought amused by this Palace.

I decided just to dive straight in, and so I did. The water was kind of cool, which I liked. It was cooler than the temperature in the air anyway, not that I knew how warm it was here. I assumed I could change it if I wanted to, but found it comfortable enough.

I used the spawning menu to spawn a floating mattress and a cool drink as I decided to lay floating on it in the pool.

This feels great. But I wish I had some company to enjoy it with. I thought a bit lonely.

"Hey Allie, you can see and hear me here as well right?" I asked the sky.

"Yes we can, what is it Marcus?"

"Can I have some company?" I asked her longingly.

"Like who? Your parents or sister? You should decide a time and day for that, I doubt they have the time right now. They're probably at work." she told me sounding a bit concerned.

"I knew that, but how about someone else?" I kept pressing her.

"Who?" she simply asked.

"Well... how about you or anyone else from the team? Couldn't this be called 'research into the subject's natural habitat' or something?" I asked with a slightly bitter smile.

She was silent for a time, then finally responded.

"I guess it can be done, I hadn't really thought about it before. We'll have to bring down some capsules here and modify them, but we can do it. And one person can enter while the other work... yes we can do it." she said in an excited tone that made me smile.

She seems to want to try the pool, or maybe the spawning menu for some delicious food?

"How long will it take? And will you do it now or later, so someone can join the next time I log out?"

"We can start with one capsule, I've already sent Dr. Matthew and Dr. Robert to fetch one and it shouldn't take more than maybe half an hour to reprogram it, or what do you think Dr. Erica?"

I heard a voice I presume belonged to Dr. Erica Tamberlaine say something in the background.

"Yes she agrees, half an hour or so. I'll stay here and monitor it, and we need Dr. Erica to watch so the programming is working perfectly. Hmm... I'll let Dr. Matthew join you once we've finished."

That's good, I think I'll feel comfortable with him. I thought satisfied with her choice.

Forty minutes later Matt joined me. We swam some, ate a ridiculous amount of different desserts and watched some normal and Royal Road TV on the "screen-wall". He stayed for a couple of hours, then logged off.

After that I had an idea, if I can spawn almost anything using the Palace Menu, why don't I just spawn a steel armor, sword, spear and shield to train with?

And so I did. I spawned a big steel armor that weighed around 30kg(66lbs), a steel sword and spear and a large wooden shield. It was very heavy without all the bonuses to strength I receive in Royal Road. But I managed to equip it all.

I started with the sword and shield, I tried imagining I was fighting Kat again. You would probably call it "shadow-fighting", I imagined what she was doing, I dodged and slashed when I thought she showed an opening. Jumped back when she came charging at me in my mind.

After almost an hour of that I tried changing the opponent to the white wolf instead, it was very different fighting a huge beast compared to a human.

Half an hour later I stopped shadow-fighting the wolf, and put down the sword and picked up the steel spear instead. I repeated the previous training against Kat and the white wolf but this time with spear and shield instead.

After doing that for another hour I was completely and utterly exhausted. I quickly took off all the armor, put on my bathing shorts and dived into the pool to cool down.

While I lay floating in the pool on by back, I thought about spawning a horse to ride with but quickly decided against it.

I could almost certainly do it, but it just wouldn't feel right. Since I wouldn't be able to bring it with me to Royal Road, I would still have to get another horse there. And in a strange way to me that would be almost be like cheating on a spouse, I couldn't have two horses. I needed one, a partner and friend that deserved all of my dedication and respect. Not just to be replaced with another horse as soon as I left Royal Road.

No, I won't spawn a horse here. I will only have a horse in Royal Road, and she/he will be my only one. I thought determined.

After the swim I decided to spawn some mushroom risotto for dinner. After I finished the delicious meal, I trained some with the armor again, took a shower and then watched TV until 22.00 when I decided it was time for bed.

I really wanted the next day to come so I could continue playing Royal Road.

[p=center]***[/p]

"This is good right?" Dr. Matthew asked Dr. Allison.

"Yes, he managed to stay logged out for more than half a day. And I'm encouraged that he wanted someone to stay with him, it shows that he at least deals with it when he feels lonely instead of just shutting himself away." she said seriously watching the screen showing Marcus sleeping in his bed.

"Yeah, that's what I thought as well. I'm a little worried about his desire to play Royal Road, but at least he can hold himself back. And let's be honest, Royal Road is a pretty addicting game and even more so for him. But he isn't showing any signs of running away from reality thus far." Dr. Matthew replied equally serious watching Marcus sleeping.

"Yes, let's just hope everything keeps going as good as this." she told him.

[p=center]***[/p]

When Marcus woke up, he spawned some pancakes with syrup for breakfast. After that he took a morning swim in the pool, then logged onto Royal Road again.

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And now I've posted everything I had written, so from now on I will have to write new content. So don't expect as fast updates at it has been ^^.

And thanks for the continued interest. ~borgen92