Post by Micheal Worm 3:44 AM April 25th, 20XX

I’ve been talking to other people about their experiences in this PPVS.. A lot of them have very different worlds and races they’re part of. The odd thing is our world. There are people playing in a world similar to medieval Europe. Some are in ancient China with flying swords. Some are in ancient Africa. There are even people playing in a superhero world. But I’ve only met a handful of people playing contemporary Earth. Just... what is the PPVS and why did they give us so many odd worlds?

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When I exited the portal I arrived at the back of the sweets shop surprising several pâtissiers who stood intensely still while creating abstract forms using liquid sugar. Lore appeared beside me just before the portal closed. A strange noise sounded from behind us and I turned to see the cave opening constrict to a close as the wall return to normal.

Jovian, the sweets shop owner, walked around the corner with a frown then stilled when he saw me. His frown turned into a big smile. He looked distracted for a second and then Crimea popped up next to him. I jumped in surprise.

“Good Job, you two!” Jovian said, while he grabbed two boxes from his inventory and handed one to Crimea then one to me.

Congratulations! You’ve completed the quest, Extermination in the Sweets Shop! You’ve earned the rewards: two boxes of samplers worth 500 PMk and 3000 EXP.

Congratulations! You’ve leveled up! As an Arcane Assassin, you gain 1 to your Athletics score and .5 to your magic score! This leaves you with 4 points to split between your Strength and Dexterity, and 2 points to split between Wisdom and Intelligence!

Would you like the Passivity Precept to optimize your attributes for your class’s current level? You have 5 seconds to decide.

I grimaced while I liked distributing points, I had to admit that the PPVS had done a good job so far. Maybe I could treat this game as one of those JRPGs that leveled my numbers automatically?

Crimea surveyed me with glittering eyes and clapped excitedly. “Congratulations! I just knew the rat dungeon would help you level quickly!”

She wasn’t wrong but... “It doesn’t feel that quick. Compared to the games I’m used to, it feels very slow.”

She snorted.

Lore eyed me. “You have merely the nail of your toe in a simulation that near immortals play for millennia.”

I looked around. “I don’t see any near immortals. Where are they?”

Crimea chuckled. “This simulation is vast and as you gain levels, it only gets bigger. What you think is the end is only ever the beginning of something else. So to answer your question... They’re elsewhere! What high leveled individual would stay in a noob area like this?”

I pointed to her and made a “duh” expression.

She grinned. “There are those with higher levels. I am also paid by the PPVS to be a class trainer in the Rogues Guild for a certain amount of time in which I have to stay at my current level.” She pouted.

A throat cleared and we turned to a still smiling Jovian. “Although I am grateful that you’ve rid me of the rat dungeon, my chefs and I still have work to do if we’re to finish the Crimsondallia’s cake on time.”

I grinned. “Then we’ll get out of your hair.”

We kicked ourselves out of his busy shop. When we reached the street Lore grabbed my hand and started pulling. Crimea waved happily. Right, she probably understood that we needed to shower and possibly change so we could get rid of our Charisma debuffs and prepare for the heist. My heart sped up and I grinned. We were going on a heist!

As soon as I started running at his pace, he released my hand and wiped it on his clothes. I guessed he gave up trying to keep it clean?

We ran swiftly down the street while jumping around slower foot traffic. The chill wind blew through my hair. After a few streets, we reached a deserted stretch of road and Lore picked up speed. I sped after him. When I neared the half wall of an empty restaurant I stepped onto it then jumped onto their weird leaf-like canopy. I flipped off it, did a roll, and kept going. I had to gain experience in my Parkour skill somehow.

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Lore reached a massive building with beautiful trunk-like curved beams and blue colored glass windows. Its wood had been burned into the black-grey color seen in old fences, and a few of the windows were obviously patched with a newer glass of lesser quality.

“You’re staying here?”

He nodded and walked up the building’s steps to the arched doorways that appeared to have been replaced recently.

I took one last look around me. This whole area was deserted. Not a bird flew by. And now that I was listening for it not even the chatty squirreletters made a sound. Only the cold wind lived here. The wind and Lore, apparently.

When I stepped into the lobby a beautiful smiling woman walked toward me wearing a pressed robe-like uniform. Lore waved her off. “This is my guest, Mia.”

The woman nodded and bowed. “Welcome to Ghost of the Moon Inn. I’m the keeper of keys here, miss Mia, guest of Lorevinel. If you need anything, please inform me.”

“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind.”

We bounded up golden oak stairs to a second floor where a twisting organic-looking hallway had doors with no numbers. He took out a thick key, inserted it into a hole in the door’s flat surface and, using the key as a handle, opened it. I stepped inside Lore’s place.

The place was closer to an apartment or a resort. It had a common area with elegant elven furnishings, a giant fireplace, and a table. Of two doors, one led into a dark bedroom and a second into a washroom. For the outside being so run down, the interiors were spotless and almost luxurious.

Lore rushed into the washroom and slammed the door closed. It took maybe a few minutes but he soon came back clean and in a knitted sapphire sweater and brown leather pants of some kind.

“Your turn.”

I took a step toward the bathroom but then paused. “I don’t have anything clean to change into. Can I borrow something?”

He frowned. “The dungeon entity was kind to you and left a set of armor you could use. It’s in our shared inventory.”

“The what now?”

“We have a shared—“

“—inventory. Yeah, I noticed. I meant the other thing.”

“Dungeon entity? Well, it’s not anything confirmed, just, some believe that the PPVS gives control of its dungeons over to ‘dungeon entities’ that challenge and teach players through its puzzles and monsters. And if you do well, it will reward you with items you need.” He shrugged.

“So when you get something that seems tailored for you, people say that the dungeon entity was kind?”

“Or impressed, or other things. And if you get nothing useful, people say that the dungeon entity must have found your face offensive.”

I eyed him. “Did you get anything good?”

He cleared his throat. “Enough about this. We will eventually need to sell some things and you need to not have a Charisma debuff when we do.”

I smirked at him but moved into the strangest washroom I’d ever seen. It looked more like an alcove in some waterfall infested forest. Well, the huge jacuzzi sized pool of water in the center of the room counted as a bath and the various tiny waterfalls worked as the shower. The sink? Had to be that waist-high stone with the small pool. Five tiny streams poured into it from stones jutting out of the wall. For a second, I balked at the waste of water, but then I remembered that this wasn’t real. If these elves wanted to waste imaginary water to have a badass washroom then so be it.

I closed the door and started removing all of my starter gear. Each piece, other than my weapons, had maybe 25% of the durability left when I checked. With a whoop, I jumped into the warm pool. I had the urge to just soak in it for an hour or two.

When I ran my hands through each of the small waterfalls I realized that their temperatures changed. The left side had cold water and the right had hot. Weird.

I started washing with my soap. I’d used it so much at Lore’s insistence that I only had a little left. Still, it was enough. As I dunked my head under a hot waterfall something slimy brushed against my foot. Something unseen bit my toes. I flailed and shrieked.

My foot slipped on a rock. I fell back into the pool. My lungs emptied sending bubbles up to the surface. I was only under for a few seconds before I resurfaced then I threw myself at the edge of the pool and climbed out onto the surprisingly fluffy grass-like floor. Slowly, I wiped the water out of my eyes.

A knock. “Are you all right?” Lore asked from the other room.

I smiled weakly and cleared my throat. “There’s something in the bath. Something slimy and...”

“You don’t have cleaning fish where you’re from?”

I remembered hearing about expensive salons that let people have fishes come and help clean their feet or something. “I mean... maybe? But it’s not like, something we bathe with though...”

“Well, if you’re done we have things to do.”

“Fine, fine. I’ll be out in a second.”

I flopped onto my back and threw my arm over my eyes. My cheeks burned.

I looked over our shared inventory and found the leather armor folded there, nice and pretty. It counted as light armor and would add a whole 4 points to my Armor stat, bringing my HP up to 56 points. Not super impressive but it upgraded my noob gear. After standing, I put it on. New and shiny equipment was the best, except this one wasn’t actually shiny — more like a matte dark brown-grey with a camouflage pattern. Also, it looked ugly. I hoped higher levels had cooler gear because this was not flattering.

With a sigh, I left the washroom.