Back in their room at M&P’s Pizzeria, Pete had changed into his pajamas—made by Tay at Timmy the Taylor’s smithing and clothing shop—and sat on his bed. He rolled the glove inserts over in his hands. He wasn’t sure why they called them inserts. They looked like thin gloves made of cotton. It reminded him of the stretchy, one-size-fits-all gloves his mom used to buy him and his siblings when they were kids. He shifted his eyes from the insert to Zoey. “How do these work?”

A top of her own bed, she answered. “According to the mayor, they’ll attach to the first item you use them on. For example, if you put them under a normal pair of gloves, they’ll become part of that normal pair of gloves. Those normal gloves will become able to damage ghosts.”

“I will save them for later.” He said. “I’d love ghost-slapping gloves, now. But what if I get better gloves later? Then I’ll have given the ability to slap ghosts to weaker gloves; that doesn’t make any sense.

“I’m saving my wrap for later.” She agreed. “They could have legendary loot…or epic loot…or whatever they might call it in this world loot. I want to use it on an epic loot item.”

“I hope they have items like that.” He told her. “I’d love to have legendary-epic whatever they might call it ghost slapping gloves.”

“Yeah, I’d love all that, too.” She said. “But in a fork…not for gloves.”

“How do you think you blocked the soul eater and Turkey Titan attacks?” He asked. “Why didn’t they go through your shield?”

“My guess is that they have to materialize to hit me, and they do that a microsecond before the attack lands. When they are material, it lets me block it?”

“Ah,” he nodded. “That would make sense.”

“I know we didn’t get experience for fighting those things,” Pete said. “But between slapping myself to sleep and fighting those things, I have gotten some skill-ups.” He pulled up his character sheet:

“Have you gotten any concussions, too?” Zoey asked him. “Do you remember what that concussion icon looks like yet?”

He ignored her question, excited to see his slapping skill and slapping defense had gone so high. “If I’m correct about how leveling works in this game when I gain my next level, I’m going to get some serious stat increases.”

“When your intelligence goes up, will you stop slapping yourself?” She paused, letting a smirk spread across her face. “Or will your intelligence go down because you keep slapping yourself?”

Instead of responding to her comment about slapping himself, he changed the subject. “It’s crazy how the triplets won the soul-capturing contest.”

“For sure,” she agreed. “Since it wasn’t us, I’m glad it was them.”

“It’s even better how Roger didn’t finish in the top three,” Pete said.

“It is because he spent too much time following around Nick and the mayor. If he had focused on himself—instead of tormenting others—things would have worked out better for him.”

“How have the skills on your character sheet advanced? Did they go up any with the contest?”

“Mmmm… I’m not sure.” She admitted, pulling up her own character sheet to check:

“When you slapped my peel the other day, my peel skill went way up. When we fought the Turkey Titan, I noticed a difference. It was super easy to maneuver the shield. It felt more natural.”

“When you level up,” he said. “I’m guessing your vitality will see a significant boost.”

“That’d be great.” She stretched her arms over her head.

“Yup, it would.” He agreed. Then before she could protest, he activated Slap’m Silly and slapped himself to sleep. He fell into his bed with perfect precision. His head landed on the pillow. His blanket floated down on him like a happy parachute.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

* * *

Pete awoke around noon, sat up in bed, and stretched. He looked toward Zoey’s bed. When he saw she wasn’t there, he remembered their plans to farm tomatoes that afternoon. Because she didn’t have to sleep, he guessed she went early. If so, she was waiting for him. He wished he didn’t need to sleep. If he didn’t need to sleep, he’d be able to play so many video games…if he were still on Earth.

Harvestfest required Pete to wander through a forest for three days. As a result, his joints ached; his muscles felt sore. To recuperate, he wanted to take an extra day and sleep. Even so, he understood how M&P’s Pizzeria had already gone three days without its delivery drivers…Zoey and himself. It was essential to get back into a routine at work. To get back into the routine, he knew he had to work that day. To work that day, he needed to hurry.

After stretching, he stood and walked toward his chest of drawers. Though, he didn’t walk like an average person. Rather, he took long, exaggerated steps, stretching his legs as he walked. At the same time, he stretched an arm back over his shoulder. Then he did the same to the other arm. If Zoey had seen what he looked like doing the morning stretch walk, she would have teased him for it.

When he reached the chest of drawers, he opened the top drawer. Even though he didn’t have to use the drawers, he liked to. It reminded him of being back home on Earth. He reached into the drawer, pulling out his delivery uniform. He also removed a swimsuit before shutting the drawer. Then he hurried to the closet. From there, he removed a towel. Then he pushed his way out from his room, out from the pizzeria, and toward the lake's shoreline. There he would bathe to clean the muck and dirt which he’d accumulated during three days of soul-catching.

Once he’d left the restaurant and saw the lake in the midday sun, it amazed him. In truth, the lake never ceased to amaze him. It didn’t matter if he saw it at night or during the middle of the day. The size…the shifting currents…the way the deep blue water contrasted with the surrounding jade vegetation…it wasn’t something to which he’d ever grow accustomed. The beauty of it all would always amaze him.

He walked toward the lake, moving along the sidewalk, passing a pair of dwarves along the way. At that point in the day, Greenlake was full of movement. Aside from the team of dwarves, there were some gnomes, many humans, and elves. The elves were like those from fantasy stories and video games, not like those from Santa’s workshop. Pixies moved through the air.

As Pete passed the dwarves, he heard one of them say. “And then the triplets became adventurers.”

Pete wasn’t sure what it meant when the triplets earned their adventurer passes. He knew their parents would never let them go into a dungeon, not at their age. As such, he suspected the adventurer passes would go unused until the triplets became adults. Even so, he was happy that they’d earned the passes. It would make their adult life easier because they’d be able to earn more money for themselves and for their families. It was like having a master’s degree back on earth…or a doctorate. If I ever get back to Earth, Pete told himself, I should focus more on college.

As he reached the Lake, he turned east and began to walk parallel to the shore. In time, he’d reach the outskirts of town, and he’d have some privacy to change into his swimming suit and bathe.

During his walk, he passed by tall, gnarled trees. They had thick trunks and wide branches which sprouted out like elephant trunks. For the most part, the ground was soft, made from clay, slate, and volcanic sand. He could see a volcano further east. Its white snowcap stood out in a range of green mountains.

When he emerged on the other side of the gnarled trees, the ground became soft black sand, nothing else. Opposite the lake, a green field of tall grass wafted in a calm breeze. That was his bathing spot.

He laid out his towel on the sand, placing his clean clothes on top. Then he changed into his swimsuit—leaving his dirty clothes next to his towel on the sand—and moved to the lake.

It was clichéd, but Pete stuck his toe in to gauge the temperature of it…colder than the last time he’d bathed. That makes sense, he realized, we are moving into Autumn. During the winter, he guessed he’d have to find a new way to bathe. The lake would be too cold.

For the time being, though, it was a tolerable temperature. In fact, Pete preferred it cold. He took a few steps back, got a running start, and jumped into the lake. With his increased attributes, his jump carried him fifteen feet high and twenty feet out. He landed in the water with a mighty splash. When he resurfaced, he noticed a prompt had appeared. It was about an increase to his jumping proficiency. He blinked the prompt away and began to swim. He hadn’t been swimming for long when he felt a pull on his leg. The pull came with enough force to drag his head below the water. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t free himself from whatever grasped him. He couldn’t get back to the surface. Instead, he continued to go deeper and deeper beneath the surface. Also, he realized whatever had him was pulling him further toward the lake's center.

As a child, he loved learning about sharks. One thing he remembered was how when sharks attack, their victims say the attack didn’t feel painful. They say it felt like a pull. Was a shark attacking him? He worried that was the case.

In a panic, he tried to kick at whatever held him, but it avoided him easy enough. Panicked attempts to defend yourself won’t work, he told himself. You must calm down, observe the situation, and devise a plan.

Calm down is what he did. In that calm, he looked at his leg, trying to find what held him. It was a mermaid…the same mermaid he’d encountered during one of his other trips to the lake. When she noticed him looking at her, she smiled, releasing his ankle with her right hand. She continued to grip it in her left hand, and she waved with her free hand.