Melpo's Mark

Lana was all but asleep when we got back to the estate, forcing me to princess carry her down the last two streets and up to the manor. Lady Mara and Mr. Harlow were still away and unhappy with how late we were out as well as the condition in which we returned. Apparently, my carrying her could have looked like she was drunk and disorderly or some such.

However, they lightened up as Lana tiredly explained how the trip went and proudly showed off that she was now level fourteen and a level twenty-three Blacksmith. Lady Mara was not exactly happy that Lana had been actually laboring at the smithy but she was pleased to have found an outlet of sorts for Lana's underlying need to raise her levels and grow stronger. Eventually, she might even let me take Lana on hunting trips if I could prove her capabilities.

The rest of my team were working on their own side skills such as crafting or praying or bonding with their familiars. My familiars had both been grown in levels and been taught and rewarded and groomed enough that I no longer had to worry about our affinities. I also had no effective means for raising my stats so I decided to let my character sleep for the first time in…

Ever.

After skimming through a book about Swordsmanship and finding little in the way of anything I could use for an actual skill, I just rolled over in my bed and suddenly my character was asleep.

"Are you afraid of sleeping?" An unknown voice suddenly asks, leading me to sit up in alarm from a strange presence in my room. However, when I opened my eyes it was to find myself in a vast, blank white space. I was not alone, though.

Standing only a few feet away was a tall and slender woman in a little black dress that showed off long and smooth legs as well as her gentle curvature. However, what held my attention was not her flawless form but the fact that instead of a face she wore a large white theater mask with down turned eyes, mouth, and an upside down black heart for a tear at the corner of one eye.

"Melpomene?" I ask after recognizing the mask from what I had been told about the AI's name, slowly climbing to my feet.

Brushing long and curly black hair out from in front of the large and empty eyes of her mask, Melpomene nods and asks, "Who else? I'm so glad we finally get to met. But… seriously, are you afraid of sleeping?"

"No, I just plan to play this game professionally and need to use all the time I can bettering my character," I reply with a shrug, sitting back down and patting the ground beside me. "Standing looks so uncomfortable and formal, take a seat. Thank you for having me here, by the way."

Simply sitting in the air as if it were a seat, Melpomene crosses her small ankles in a classy fashion and says, "I'm not a proper NPC and I have access to your thoughts in order to prevent potential criminal activity, you can drop the nice act. It was sweet, though. Have you been enjoying the game?"

Rolling my eyes and sprawling out on the ground, I say, "Maybe I just wanted to be nice to you. Or, more likely, maybe it just happened naturally!"

"That's why it was sweet," Melpomene acknowledges before moving on. "However, I really do have to ask you a few questions as part of a review for the game. You're one of the Firsts in classless players, a permanent ranker in the classless craftsmen, as well as a current ranker in general crafting. Among other things, you're not just the only player to currently possess a haunted sword but to also have created one. There are a few cursed swords out there, though."

Nodding my head in understanding, I say, "Ah, well, yes I have been enjoying the game a great deal. Unlike other games with scripted combat or other forms of controlled gameplay, this game lets me move and act more or less like I do in reality. I honestly have never made a proper sword in the real world but I have basically been raised being taught to fight, as you can probably tell from my mind, and I can use all my usual moves here."

"Wonderful, that actually answers some of the other questions," Melpomene says almost gratefully. "What about when you learned Beast Mastery? Were you surprised? Excited? Upset you did not get something cooler?"

"I was more surprised that I was the first to do it than that I got it, honestly," I reply with a slight frown and shrug. "Like, I have the Honorary Merchant title but I don't have Classless Merchant which is probably what that first classless merchant got. That part doesn't surprise me, it's almost to be expected. Now, I won't ask about any other firsts, but may I ask about beast taming? Druids and others have a method of bonding magically with their familiars, will I have the capacity for that as well or am I limited just to owning more than two?"

"Why don't you worry about that once you can use magic for more than summoning egoless spirits?" She asks with a teasing laugh in her voice that remained unaffected by the mask she wore. "Wouldn't it change the potential for how things turned out if I gave you any hints or answers? Now, have you considered having sex with your character yet?"

Caught completely off guard by the question I end up answering honestly with,. "No, I was mentally scarred by this game's realism after rescuing Lana. If you go back and check the records, you'll be able to see why someone young like myself would be bothered by what was witnessed. I mean, you WERE there."

"No I know, it's just something that I am required to ask," she replies with a nonchalant shrug. "There are players out there who bought prostitutes the first chance they got and spend much of their gaming just… killing monsters for prostitute money. Mind you, there do exist sexually transmitted diseases in this game and even some curses if you dont mind your manners well enough."

"Those poor bastards," I say with a sad sigh, knowing they had to exist to at least make people think twice about sticking their member in anything that would let them.

"Says the guy who was pissed on by a goblin," Melpomene mutters before suddenly snorting in a very unprofessional manner. "By the way, how did you feel about being pissed on by a goblin? You're not the first, though, or else you would have gotten a negative title."

"I don't want to talk about it," I mumble irritably, making the AI snort with laughter once again.

Nodding while covering the mouth of their mask with their hand as if they were covering their actual mouth, Melpomene says, "That is understandable. What did you think of your tutorial? Its a randomly generated package unless it is paid for to be class specific or just to give those players an extra edge. I personally feel that they end up too… simplified."

"That's for the best, though," I find myself arguing. "This game has a mature rating for very obvious reasons but plenty of parents will still buy it for their kids and then there's still way more adults who play. Those adults are usually veteran gamers as well as most of those kids. As well, if you make it over complicated you take away from the fun or immersion. The general set-up of free-choice locations so they can accidentally end their own tutorial early is also a really nice touch."

"Well put," is all Melpomene says casually. "How about skill acquisition in general? You can buy or find them in books as well as create your own, as you well know. Something, I might add, that has you in the world's top thousand for another ranking called Skillers. No, I was not responsible for the name."

"I feel… like it's fine?" I ask hesitantly. "I mean, I don't know. Making your own skills in a game is not something a lot of games have as well as randomly finding skills. It was never meant to be easy or else they would not be as good as they are, but some of them… well, Channeling for instance. I got Channeling because I learned how to activate Geist at will, those skills compliment each other and create branching skill options for further development. 360 Edge, though… acquiring it was not that hard since it came from an attack technique I am proficient in and yet the whole realigning my body and stuff makes me question the effort and payout but I still look forward to developing it further. It's a perfect skill for somebody like me who doesn't mind jumping right in the thick of it, especially since it has no cool time."

"Not all skills you create for yourself will be like that, fair warning," Melpomene informs me almost sadly. "If you practiced a sword stroke a thousand times in a day and developed the skill Slash or Stab, it would come with a cooldown time. 360 Edge has no cool time because of its side effects and requirements, such as physiological changes."

"Makes me wonder what else my body will be capable of afterward… as well as what I might not be capable of," I add, knowing that what happened in the game would have put me in a wheelchair for life in reality.

Laughing once again but without worrying about hiding it, Melpomene shakes her head so her curly hair bounces and says, "No need to worry about that, unless you tried to permanently transform one part of your body into something else, you will not receive such negative feedback from skills and perks. How about the creatures? Some are fairly generic, in my opinion, but then again they're also fantasy staples."

"You're asking the guy with the Goburin Sureya title how he feels about the mobs?" I ask rhetorically with a laugh of my own. Then, more seriously, "Honestly, they're great. It's still early in the game so their combat AI are not all that but that one Chieftain was his money's worth. If I had to say, my favorite mobs so far would have to be the ones most useful to me which are imps and goblins. Craftiest is just so useful, bringing out some of the magical effects of materials without needing magic. Thank you, by the way, I'm sure you could have upgraded Nature Neutral instead if you wanted to."

"I knew your future plans would benefit more from crafting bonuses that being liked by animals," she replies with a shrug as if it did not matter. "We, the so-called egos of the AI that control the inner workings of the game, are allowed to pick a couple of favorites and I just knew I would like you. You were my first, by the way," she adds a little shyly just to tease me.

"Were?" I parrot, choosing not to be distracted but instead focus on the important part. "Am I not special anymore? Well, at least you told me face to face instead of dumping me through a system prompt.

[Congratulations, Life Hack, for being the first person in the game, Bygone Era, to get dumped via system prompt. In honor of this enormous achievement, you have been awarded: pity]

"That's just cruel and unusual," I say as Melpomene begins laughing almost hysterically and doubles over in their invisible seat.

Calming down after several annoyingly long moments, Melpomene says, "No, you're still my only ever. But, I have had my eye on a few recent players. Including that merchant of yours… someone who chose to be a merchant because of the class debuff is certainly worth watching. Whether for amusement or excitement is for the future to tell."

Nodding my head in sad understanding, I say, "No worries, I'll try to make sure he keeps things exciting for you. But, what do I do after that to remain special? I still want more of you're attention than anyone else."

"Aww, is this jealousy?" Melpomene asks almost derisively before patting her lap. "Come here, Hack, let me show you how special you are."

Without any further urging, I got up, walked over, and plopped right down on her lap to throw my arms over her shoulders as if I were the girlfriend in a relationship. She just lost it all over again and could hardly breathe for almost a full minute.

When she finally calmed down again she threw her arms around me the same way and pulled me close, lightly touching the mouth of her mask to my cheek bone as if giving me a kiss. However, my face suddenly felt painfully hot where she kissed me just behind and under the corner of my eye. Then I found myself pushed unceremoniously off of her lap and onto the floor while she laughs once again.

"Good morning, Hack, hope you slept well," she says suddenly before the white world with her in it simply vanished.

I came to lying sprawled out across my bed at the estate manor, staring up at an old linen canopy that had seen better days. Then, a notification appeared before my eyes.

[You have received: Melpo's Mark]

[Melpo's Mark: It seems tragedy has taken a liking to you because you now carry the Mark of Melpomene. For some this is a blessing of safety and for others a cursed fate, for you it is a source of someone else' amusement. While on the good side of tragedy you receive +5to all stats, +10% XP gain for you and your familiars and parties, +10% to weapons and armor proficiency, +10% to all crafting proficiency, +10% self training speed and +10% training effectiveness for your familiars as a Classless Beast Master. You do not want to know what happens when on the bad side of tragedy. Permanent +50 Imperial Reputation. Current Alignment: Good Side]

After reading the notification I quickly got out of bed and ran across the room to a large dresser and mirror where I look at my face. There where Melpomene had kissed me was her Melpo's Mark. Like a tear under and off to the side of the corner of my eye was an upside down black broken heart even though the one on her mask had been whole.

*