Chapter 5 #3
“No, that’s the answer,” I explain. “I said that when I hurt my ankle. Who else would answer to Holy Fuck, but the holiest of all fucking, the Goddess of Love and Sex?”
The barmaid returns to the table with platters of food.
My heart sinks, because I realize I can’t pay. Guy notices my distress, and says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this covered.”
He taps at some invisible points in the air, and then the barmaid sets everything on the table.
“What was that?” I ask.
Guy squints. “What do you mean? I just paid her from my inventory menu.”
Sylvia smacks herself on the forehead. “Oh! She hasn’t set up her UI yet. She probably slept through the voice’s instructions on that.”
“UI? Like how I’d see things in a game?” I ask.
Sylvia nods. “Say something like ‘Menu up’ or ‘See my settings.’”
“Uh… Show me my settings.”
Too many words and symbols pop up at once, blocking my entire scope of vision. “What the fuck?”
Cait groans. “Can you at least try to watch your language?”
“Now say ‘Give me default settings,’” Sylvia says.
“Give me default settings,” I parrot.
Suddenly, most of my vision is almost as clear as it had been a moment ago, except that now I see details that hadn’t been there before. For instance, above everyone’s heads are their assigned class and deity. I tap on the top of my head as if I could feel the label above my own.
“Do I…?”
Sylvia shakes her head. “No, you don’t have your title turned on. Tell it to turn on your title if you want other people to see it.”
“Is there a reason to have it on?”
Guy shrugs. “I have mine on in case I bump into other players. Sort of, like, ‘Hey, I’m one of you.’”
That makes sense to me, so I say, “Turn on my title.”
Guy smiles and gives me a thumbs up, confirming it worked.
I redirect my attention to the bottom of my vision.
Just like in Legends of Sacrifice, I have a row of twelve spell slot boxes at the bottom.
Only one of them has a symbol in it. I tap on it, and a disembodied voice says, “You must choose an appropriate target before you can cast Healing of Minor Wounds.”
“Who is that?” I ask.
“The voice?” Sylvia asks. “Yeah, I don’t know who that is, but they kinda help you in the game. They’re who taught me how to do all this UI stuff. Like I said, you probably slept through that part.”
“Oh, well…I guess I have a spell called Healing of Minor Wounds, but I need to select a target to cast it.”
Tara rolls up her sleeve to display a nasty bruise.
“Got this when we were fighting some rock elementals this morning. Point at me and then tap the spell. Just as a forewarning, you’ll notice that casting a spell will make you feel a little tired.
There’s no limit on how many spells you can cast, but the lower your level, the fewer spells you can cast before you pass out. ”
I gulp. “Pass out?”
“It won’t happen at once,” Tara clarifies. “You’ll feel worn out first. It’s your sign to stop spell casting before you really do pass out. I don’t think casting your one spell on my bruise will do much, though. Give it a try.”
I do as I’m told and then watch in awe as Tara’s bruise simply blinks away. Just like she said, I feel a slight loss of energy, kind of like I want to curl up in a more comfortable chair.
The Rogue of Hermes sighs in relief. “Thank God,” she says. “I really didn’t want to be in pain until we could take a long rest.”
“So there are long rests here, too?” I ask.
Everyone nods.
“You all learned a lot fast.”
“We’ve been here for ages,” Joshua says.
“But…the game just came out yesterday.”
“We were beta players,” Tara explains. “Not that it clears up much. I mean, how is any of this possible?”
“Give it a rest, Tara,” Cait whispers.
Tara rolls her eyes. “Fine. I’ll stop making y’all think. You can put your blindfolds back on.”
“We can get philosophical when we’re not struggling to survive,” Cait says. “For now, let’s just focus on getting our offerings to our deities.”
I remember my dream again. The beautiful woman who talked to me must have been Aphrodite. She’d said something about rewarding me if I brought her an offering. “What kind of offering?”
Guy shakes his head. “We don’t really know. Something our particular deity would want. We just go around doing the quests they give us and hoping we get a clue because they’ll reward us whatever we ask for if we get it right.”
Quests? I search around my peripheral vision until I see a little glowing blue box that says, “Quest Log.” I tap it and there are two quests listed.
One is struck through to show it’s complete: Heal Wound.
The other one makes me blush: Inspire Lust. Then I watch a line cross through those words.
I barely hold back a gasp before I look around at my tablemates.
None of them are leering at me, not even Joshua, who seems distracted by the barmaid’s bottom as she leans over another table.
Before I can figure out whose lust I inspired, another quest pops up: Speak with Alexander. I really do gasp this time and look up to see the romanceable NPC I swooned over during gameplay. He’s leaning against the back fence with a blue orb over his head.
And he’s looking straight at me.