Respected 27 Sending a message and building reputation

Sara rushed back to the practice building without much hope that she'd be able to find that other player. If he wasn't there, she'd just have to ask around about him.

'What was his name again…? Pariah? Pervious?' She should have listened better when he told her his name.

Sara was still going over different names in her mind as she entered the building. The lights in the streets were becoming lower, signaling that it was getting close to dusk. She wasn't sure if she had a curfew or not, but she wanted to rush to find that other player, just in case. It'd put a real damper in her future plans if she ended up losing out on another spell just because she'd gotten slightly distracted during the first part of the tutorial. She hadn't felt crunched for time until then, perhaps because she spent most of her time just checking out the city and wandering around for the first half of the tutorial, rather than actually trying to further her character.

She passed by the door of the room she'd previously burned while pointedly looking away.

Sara came to the room the other player was in before and found that the door was still closed.

She didn't knock, instead throwing open the door hurriedly, her anxiety getting the better of her. The door hit the wall behind with a bang, causing the man in the room to cry out in shock.

He whirled around, his eyes wide as he took in the form standing enshrouded in shadows in the doorway.

"Whwhat do you want?!" The man asked, clearly flustered. He started at the wide glowing eyes with apprehension and fear.

Sara stared at him, trying to figure out if it was the same man she met before or not.

Why didn't she get a good look at him!? His voice sounded…familiar…maybe….or not…

"Pervius!" She yelled out as she stepped into the room.

"What? I'm not…" He began, before finally seeing who it was that entered the room.

"Oh! It's you…" He leaned forward against his knees and took a steadying breath. "Jesus, you looked like a crazy person…" He began, only to be stopped short of his explanation as Sara strode forward, gripping his shoulders tightly.

"I need your help!" She shouted into his face, spraying spittle as she did.

Perseus shuddered at her thundering voice. His mind went into a frenzy, trying to figure out what this other player could possible want his help for that could be so dire. It wasn't likely that a major event was happening, it was only the tutorial, after all. Even after wracking his mind, he couldn't figure out what could possibly be the issue.

"If…you think I can…" He began.

Sara nodded exaggeratedly. "You can, I know you can."

Perseus hesitated before answering, alarms beginning to go off in his mind. "Alright…"

Sara leaned in, emphasizing each word as she spoke it. "I need to know your spells and I need to know where you got them."

Perseus listened intently to her request, only to have confusion fall over his expression after she asked it.

"Wait…what?"

After calming down, Sara was able to put her request into intelligible words. It turned out, Perseus started out with three of the spells that Sara started out with. He started out with the Flame spell, the Water spell, and Wind Blade. She wondered if those were the spells that everyone started out with.

When she told Perseus that she'd started out with four spells and her only mission was to attend her graduation, he seemed reluctant to believe her.

"Why would you have all the requirements to graduate right off the bat? That doesn't make sense. Maybe it's a bug…"

Sara snapped her fingers in his face, trying to get his attention back to the task at hand.

"Focus, alright? What's that spell you learned in the tutorial? I want to know what it is and where you found it."

Perseus watched her snap her fingers in front of his nose with irritation. He toyed with the idea of refusing to give this strange and rude player what they asked for, but thought better of it after thinking it over. It wasn't a good idea to make an enemy of a player in the tutorial, especially one that seemed to have been given certain benefits from the gaming company. Either, this guy knew someone in the development crew, or else he was an experienced gamer that knew how to get the best rewards from the game. Thinking over their interactions, however, Perseus was inclined to believe the first theory.

Either way, it was nothing more than a low level spell, it didn't matter if he told him where he found it, or what it was. It wasn't unlikely that he would end up learning it sooner or later. Besides, it wasn't even a combat spell, so what did it matter if he learned it or not?

Perseus rolled his eyes. "The spell is called message, it's actually pretty useless. It just sends a message within a short distance to a target. I mean, you can do that anyways with the chat feature of the game, so what's the point? It took me four tries to figure it out, so I thought it'd be something a little better, but it's just a low first level spell. Like, bottom of the barrel first level spell. I got it from a teacher back at the academy. I just had to ask, and he gave it to me." Perseus size up Sara's form as he finished his explanation.

"Hey, I told you my spell, what's your fourth spell?"

Sara's face was concentrated as she listened intently to the spells description. She had hoped that by hearing about the spell she'd be able to learn it, but it turned out she needed the incantation first.

Sara waved her hand at his question. "It's nothing, just another low level spell, like message. Can you copy down the incantation and description for message for me?"

Perseus gave Sara a look as if he were asking if she were a stupid kid that kept asking why the sky is blue after being given an answer.

"Just go ask that instructor."

Sara shook her head. "It's late, he's probably asleep. And if he's not then I doubt he'd be happy about being disturbed."

"He's an NPC. So what if he's a little ticked off at you for waking him up?"

Now it was Sara's turn to look at Perseus as if he were a stupid teenager that suggested dancing in a campfire with gasoline drenched clothes.

"Um, because I don't want to die? They kill people for literally nothing in this place."

Perseus wondered if Sara had something wrong with her head. The tutorial was there to help them learn the mechanics of the game, not to torment them… He sighed after turning over her request in his mind.

'Fuck it, I already told him about it, whether he heads out to get the spell himself, or I give it to him, there isn't much difference.

"Alright…" He copied down the spell for Sara, giving a quick description of it with the incantation just as she asked.

"Alright, here you are," He said, handing Sara the paper. He watched as she took it with gleeful eyes.

Sara made to leave, but was stopped by Perseus.

"Hey, what's your name, so I can add you after the live play starts?"

Sara paused, turning back to stare at Perseus. This guy was obsessed with becoming her friend… She weighed her options, but decided that she felt bad getting a spell from him without giving anything in return. She could be his friend…

"Serendipitous." She stated plainly before leaving.

Perseus sat staring at the open doorway after the other man left.

It took him a long time before he finally spoke to the empty room.

"What the hell does that mean? Does he mean maybe we'll get a chance to meet in the future if we're lucky? What is wrong with that guy…?"

Sara hurried back to the residential building. She returned to her dorm just in time to find her roommate packing up his unharmed belongings with a crowd watching. She squeezed through to watch him scowling down at his things as he made his way out of the crowd.

As he passed her, he gave a hate filled glare before snorting in her direction and walking away in a huff.

Sara watched him go as she listened in on the conversations around her, trying to figure out what was going on.

"-tried to take advantage of his roommate, then came back to find out his roommate had destroyed his bed."

"It's really telling that he destroyed the bed, of all things."

"Who was the roommate?"

"Serendipitous, that middle ranked mage?"

"I don't remember him to well…"

"Eh, he's a good looking guy, but really forgettable…"

"Why are you talking about how good looking he is?"

Sara's expression darkened as she listened to the conversations around her.

'Hey, that was just a joke? I wasn't actually accusing him; I just wanted to scare him into letting go! It just slipped out…people joke like that all the time….'

As the crowd began to disperse, a couple Drow took notice of Sara, talking amongst each other behind their hands. Though they were whispering, Sara had an idea of what they were saying.

She blinked, not sure what to do. Finally, she did the only thing that made sense in that moment.

She darted into her dorm room, slamming the door behind her.

As she stood with her back against the door, a notice popped up in front of her.

Notice!

Your reputation has grown! More people within your society know your name today than yesterday!

Reputation+2

Character familiarization +1

Sara's expression darkened as she read the notice.

Chapter end