The misty valley

"Whoa! Do you see that as well Mo? That's amazing" Having eyes as big as saucers, I started screaming from amazement. Leaving Shira and Mo behind, I jumped, with my reverted and normal body, down the thin path along the wall of the valley, that was more like a cauldron, as there was no other way out of it and the mist that gathered here, looked like a soup that was brewed. I only have seen the village and the ground because the mist had shortly dispersed, but now, it was once again shrouded by the mist. Running and jumping down the path, the grey surface of the mist came nearer and I literally dived into it.

[Mana and stamina recovery has been boosted by 50%]

[You have entered an insular place]

Turning around, I yell at them that they should come to me. But while I was turned around, some shadows appeared behind me, materialising into two men in black suits that covered their faces and body. In one of their hands, there was a one 40 cm long blade and in the other hand, there was a short blade of 20 cm and both looked really vicious, one with a serrate blade to tear out the victim's flesh and the other looked poisonous green. I wasn't aware of them and still shouted excitedly that the two of them should come to me and receive the buff that the valley gave. Unfortunately for me, in my excitement, I forgot that it was the panther tribe's valley and they were at home here and would probably defend it against unknown people like me. They were waiting behind me and waited for me to take an action that would indicate, that I would attack them and they should kill me for the sake of their village. Luckily for me, Mo and Shira, didn't come and so, I walked out again, unconsciously avoiding an attack that would have had serious consequences for the panther ninjas and for my health as well. Out of the mist, I saw them coming closer to me slowly because Mo was weary of the mist. "Where were you? I screamed for you guys to come in." I asked them having an incredulous face. "We didn't here anything. Was it in your imagination?" Before Shira was able to answer, Mo interrupted her attempt to answer. "No! It wasn't in my imagination, and I even felt like someone has heard me and looked at me, but I haven't seen anything in there."

Finally Shira had a chance to speak and she said: "You got a message, saying that it is an insulated place, right. So, an insulated place is a place in which you can speak and hear each other, but the noise that is made on the inside, isn't heard in the outer places like where we stood. Further, the stares you felt or the looking at you, as you descibed it, that were probably the gate guardians and they are even stronger than you in your demon form." Looking at her with disbelieving eyes, I can't imagine that, except, if they would be elite NPCs and a higher level. And I haven't experienced that yet. She started walking again,directly into the mist, "Come on guys, they probably expect us already, so don't let them hang." After that, the mist swallowed her body, as she descended through the smooth mist surface. Mo and I ran after her and soon, the mist had swallowed us completely as well. After passing the spot, where I had been earlier, I see two pairs of thin boots that stood behind me just half a metre and I was scared about their stealth abilities. Catching up with Shira, who walked through the grey passage as if she had done it several times already, we hid behind her back and looked into the mist, searching for signs that the 'guardians' had come come back. Quietly walking forward into nothingness, we eventually stepped through a wall-like mist wall that stood in the region with nothing holding it upright. Dazzled about the effects of magic, besides healing and seeing it for the first time for real and not hidden below his hands during heal or creating a miracle with his words, but true magic, that held up a wall of gaseous substance.

In the end, we saw the village again that we had seen on the plateau through the moving mist. The only slightly disturbing scene we saw, was the village's warriors and guardians had gathered around a decently stronger individual in the middle of the crowd, waving with a katana with green shine around it at the crowd. Although you might possibly mistake it as the crowd consulting with the chief of the village about the problem his daughter created with helping the two outsiders, letting them damage the treant and getting her own uncle hurt by one of them through a fight that shouldn't have happened. Getting nearer to the noisy crowd we heard the themes they talked about and then someone was pushed out of the group and as they looked into the direction of the one who was pushed, they saw us. Instantly, complete silence descended and you would have been able to hear the insects chirp in the grass. Carefully, the leader who was assaulted earlier, asked Shira: "Shira, what has happened?"

Now everyone looked at her and expected her to answer them. Feeling the need to protect her, after she helped me earlier during the fight with her uncle. "She hasn't done anything that would need you all to react like that. If someone has to be punished then us, but Shira hasn't done anything that would endanger your tribe or anything. She had just helped us with problems and helped us avoid a catastrophe that wouldn't have benefitted you at all. We nearly killed the treant, that lives a few hours walking into the north, I think it was. You know, I am not that good at geography and my sense of direction is terrible. Yeah, Shira hasn't done anyhting that could make you all this upset."

"Nice speech, little halfling, but I don't think it will be of any use. Last time, such a thing happened, she nearly brought back a spy of a nearby living tribe, that had long since wanted to eliminate us. So, we don't know if you are spies or just some idiots that can't even use a map. Through your speech, we know, you aren't stupid and so we have to assume, that you guys are spies and that's why we have to arrest you. You too, Shira darling, one time is an accident, but a second time that's treason. That's why you guys will have to be arrested until you or we can prove that you are innocent. With a tired voice, having done anyhting that his daughter doesn't have to be expelled from the tribe, he was too exhausted from his 'talk' with the other villagers and elders. Even the uncle of Shira was on his legs again, after the light of the heavenly orb in the sky has disappeared for another day. Some of the few armored and tanky guys in the village and bound us up in chains. Afterwards, they carried us on their shoulders into a cave, specially made for guys like us, the spies of other tribes, with many torture instruments in it. There, they put us off the shoulder and slammed us onto the ground, seeing the faces of them, I realise that I have seen them before. They were the ones that got the body of that as*hole from the body after I slammed him and somehow they wanted to get revenge for that. Kicking Mo and me until we cringed on the floor they punished us for weakening and dishonoring their pack leader by defeating him. With black and blue bruises and blood wounds all over our body, we lie still until they go away and silently, I swore to kill them for that. But before I could do anything, the blood loss let the game kick me out temporarily, for a few hours. Currently, the time difference of in-game time was double the time in real life. Even without the blood loss he had experienced, he would have had to log out because of his nutrients running dry. After the logging-out process had ended, he opened the lid that was covering the bed-like capsule and took a shower to wash away the nutrient secretion that had covered his body. Then, he ran to the store where he had met that unpleasant snobby girl and bought a few packs of nutrition. Then as he opened the computer, he saw a new post of the game's website.

~Statistics of how many players are expected to join the new game

After I had clicked on it, I saw, that already hundreds of thousands online were and who read that article. Don't they have anything better to do, or are they expelled from the game like me because of reasons that had happened in the game? Looking at the statistics, I can't believe that already 2.5 billion people started playing the game. And the company expected more than 4 billion people to join it, which was over 70% of the worlds' population after a comet had struck the planet and eliminated a quarter of the world's total population. The dust and dirt that followed it, swallowed the lives of another billion people. The rest of the population on the other side of the planet was pretty much safe from the disaster that had happened. That's why the people wanted to flee to the virtual world, to start anew and have a second chance on a planet that hadn't yet been ruined by pollution or a catastrophe that had affected the whole world. Browsing through the web, he discovered, that, after you died, you would be barred from joining for a week. As well, soon there should be a patch, since soon 3 billion players would have joined the game.

On another page he found, there was a vote about if the people, that had joined the gaming in the multiverse, would like to stay there forever and the vote of all people that had voted was already at 92% voting for yes and the percentage kept increasing with more and more time that had passed.

On another page he found something very interesting, but wasn't able to believe it. It claimed that the company of dragon rising, the gaming company, was developing a medium to create items with the same power as in the game and as well create bodies for NPCs to live in the real-life.