Alice had chosen the Cleric class when she'd been given the choice, sure it wasn't meant for Frontline combat, but they weren't defenseless, but that wasn't the only reason she chose it, she chose it, because eventually she'd be able to fly on ethereal wings, she had always dreamed of flying, and when she was able to do it in voidstar online it was like a dream come true, but now, she realized this dream was a nightmare, she didn't know how a damn video game managed to become real, but she'd recognize the void tree anywhere.

She opened her menu checking her stats, she'd been exorcising and training with her father, he'd decided to teach her unarmed combat, not the weak shit they taught to civilians, the kind of unarmed combat that could kill someone by striking their nose so hard that it shoved the cartilage into their brain, or how to properly snap someone's neck. It was well and truly grueling training, she'd found that alot of it was based on physics and the amount of force you can exude on what point, like kicking someone in the knee cause their legs to snap backwards. She'd also been learning how to use a knife, though they used sticks to avoid injuries.

Name: Alice Blackwell.

Age: 23

Class: Cleric.

Stats:

Strength. 9

Dexterity. 13

Vitality. 6

Constitution. 8

Intelligence. 9

Wisdom. 14

She wasn't too concerned about her strength stat, that mostly effected her carry weight and damage dealt using more heavy weapons like sledge hammers or fire axes, sure there was a chance someone could become superman in terms of strength, but in her opinion dexterity was a bit more flexible because of the fact that it not only made you faster and your reflexes sharper but it also effected more weapons than strength.

She was concerned about her Vitality stat being so low, she was rather squishy when it came to health.

She sighed looking at the spells she saw a few basic ones, Holy blade, Minor heal, Holy flame, purify food and water, holy ground.

She took a double take, holy ground? That was a mid level spell used to create safe zones. She looked over at the vines, it had reached the fences and a little into the ground of their cows fields, part of the reason her father had taken to jogging around the property every day was to keep the vines at bay after seeing what happened to Gunner. She cast the spell, nothing obvious happened save for the vines that were encroaching on the house and fields burst into golden flames.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She looked, over to the cows, who were thankfully not going to turn into chargers as they were called in the game. Alice went to her father who was inside. "Dad?"

David turned to her, she laughed at him, he was dressed in a leather trench coat and wide brimmed hat. "You look like you just walked out of an old western movie, just put on your old military fatigues, people will take you more seriously."

David nodded. "Maybe you're right, it'd offer more in the way of versatility and it tear resistant, the long tassels of the coat would get tangled up if I were in a mix up. Though the deep pockets are nice."

Alice put her hands in her hoodie pockets. "That's what your backpack is for."

David nodded, turning to walk into the other room but she spoke up. "Dad, I've fixed our vine problem, come on out when you're ready."

Her dad looked taken aback. "You're joking, I'll be right there!" He rushed into his room and she walked outside onto the porch and onto a wooden rocking chair.

Eventually he came out of the house, looking at the ends of the corruptive tendrils burning at the tips in golden flame as they continuously grew forward. He ran a hand through his brown hair. "How did you do that?"

She laughed. "It's a spell, it basically turns our property into an area they can't enter, any creature that does will get burned alive in holy fire. I noticed it when I was browsing my spell list, it was just there, I guess I missed it yesterday when I was forced to use holy flame."

He sighed. "So, explain to me about this mumbo jumbo VR game you were playing, you said it had something to with this, back in my day... Games were played on TV's and VR headsets were a thing."

She laughed, giving him a playful punch in the shoulder. "Hey old man, you aren't old enough to say back in my day, you have to reach atleast fifty first."

He chuckled. "Yeah, but uh, can you explain?"

She nodded, "well, the games opening scene started with an explanation of the stars and something about a void, about how the stars were dying out, and how they were eventually going to come here and consume the light of our star, in the game it started out looking like this, then turned larger and larger until it eventually looked like an eclipse, and the sword, it's not a sword, eventually once the sun is fully swallowed the hilt and guard start to grow branches turning into something that more resembled a tree than a sword, the community called it the void tree, and once it starts branching out like it was, any hosts assimilated by the void would have their hosted shredded as the vines within took on new forms that didn't have much in the way of weaknesses, it's clear that the hostess were just used to cultivate the void creatures, if it got to the cows they'd have been turned into chargers, which would grow many horn like protrusions on their heads and would charge at people full tilt the spikes tearing the flesh and impaling their prey in like thirty different places, its like a demonic cheese grater. Some people kept their sentience when they were corrupted, they had classes too, but theirs were twisted and they always became the most dangerous of creatures when they turned..."

David leaned forward on the railing. "How did you beat this game?"

Alice shook her head. "I didn't, nobody has. The game seems to be more a how long can you survive type of game-" just then they heard a shriek, they looked across at the treeline, she swore she saw something move, but then it all but confirmed it when a strider came skittering out of the treeline, the large spider like appendages coming out of the persons back were long and allowed them to move up walls, move as fast as a car and attack prey by spearing them with their appendages, she conjured a ball of holy flame and threw it, it dodged and she realized this strider was rose. It rushed forward, but as soon as one of it's appendages came over the border it burst into flame and shriveled, causing it to lose balance and fall over, it's arm burst into flame as only that went over the border and the vines burst from the skin before shrivelling and becoming ash. She saw her chance and threw another one, and her father chased it with a couple bullets. The creature didn't last long under the barrage.

Her dad backed up, and and collapsed onto the chair. "That was rose... The sweet girl from the diner that always gave me an extra helping of hash browns with my breakfast... Fuck... And if that barrier wasn't there, she would have killed us, no doubt..." He shook his head and started breathing in a practiced pattern.