Chapter 6: The Journey to Hillsborough

Lucas and Joten left the small village bright and early the next day. They had stayed at the apothecary's home in his extra bedroom, which was where Joten had the unfortunate experience of learning that Lucas snored. Loudly. He had awoken from his spot on the floor in the pitch black night to the sound of a cow attempting to swallow a piglet, or something to that effect, only to realize it was Lucas asleep on the bed above him. There are some things you don't know about yourself until you live with others.

The path from the small village toward Hillsborough followed an offshoot of the Venedair River. Lucas had pulled up his virtual map from his game menu and found it was named the "Little Troublemaker Tributary". He had joked that perhaps it was named after himself during their first trek into the area. A few local fishermen were stationed along the banks like sentries, their long fishing poles extending proudly above the stream as if they held swords out in challenge to one another across the banks. Spring flowers from the blooming trees floated gently down through the water, adding splashes of pink and yellow and white to the green and brown of the muddy bed. It was a windy day, and each gust added to the slurry of petals making their way downstream.

Once, as a fisherman near them had hooked a particularly large and spirited fish, Lucas and Joten stopped to cheer him on and give unwarranted pointers on how to reel it in. When his line broke and he began to curse the obnoxious duo for breaking his concentration, Lucas activated [Waterwalking] and [Fleet of Foot] and chased the fish down over the surface of the river, spearing it with [Nevermore]. Unfortunately he had forgotten about the freezing effect of the black smoke, so when he had finally managed to bring it to shore and present it to the angry fisherman, it had frozen completely solid. And, according to the large mob that had amassed behind him, his waterwalking stunt had scared away all of the fish in the area. He and Joten ran from the local fishermen just as they began to flip their rods around in their hands in an imitation of clubs.

After they had lost the pursuing fishermen, Lucas and Joten took a break to wash off the sweat from their past few days of heavy exertion in a nearby waterfall that ran through the woods, also fed by the Venedair River. Beneath the waterfall lay a deep and calm pool of clear water. An unexpected notification appeared on Lucas's screen as he bathed, indicating he had begun the quest [Spirit of the Falls]. A few moments later, Joten screeched like a child and came running from the pool naked as an ethereal spirit followed. They had abandoned that quest after fleeing the ghost. Too spooky.

The sun had begun to set and the duo, exhausted from a day of being chased by multiple parties through the countryside, set up a bivouac in a clearing beside the road. Joten had shown off his ability to build an impressive fire with the help of his [Produce Flame] spell, bringing nostalgic memories to mind for Lucas. The two shared stories from across the crackling fire as darkness settled upon the lands.

Joten told Lucas of the first time he and Ben had gone out to hunt a deer after Ben's returning to Hillsborough from the Demon King's fortress. Apparently, he had forgotten how much stronger his legendary equipment was compared to the average person's, and used it while out hunting a basic deer. In an attempt to show off, he used his [Snipe] skill on a buck from 300 yards. The resulting obliteration got viscera and pink mist as high up as thirty feet into the trees. All that remained were the antlers.

Joten had laughed so hard when telling the story that he could barely finish the part about the antlers. It was nice to see him reminiscing happily about his adopted father. Lucas had briefly forgotten during that moment that Joten was an NPC.

On Lucas's end, he shared a story of the trio's first night bivouacking in the wild. Ben had gloated all day about being an engineer, and how his experience with mechanical solutions would allow him to create a fire for them that night. It took him an hour to build a hand drill from scratch, and then for three hours into the night he tried to get a fire going to no avail. By the time morning had rolled around, the three of them had nearly frozen to death, and all were suffering from mild hypothermia status effects. When Ben leveled up his Survivalism skill the next day, the first skill he chose to unlock was [Produce Flame]. Cara teased about that for an entire week - though they did appreciate the fire every night.

"Hey, that's the first skill he made me take!" Joten said between laughs. "I wanted something cool, like shooting two arrows at once, but instead all I got was this little flame!"

With a snap, Joten ignited a small flame from his thumb - the tell-tale sign of the [Produce Flame] spell from the Survivalism skill. Lucas couldn't help but laugh as well. Ben could be a bit of a know-it-all at times, but it was nice being reminded of his goofy side. It warmed his heart to hear that he hadn't become as jaded as Lucas had after the failure at the fortress.

"Hey, that reminds me, I've been meaning to ask about your skill levels. What are they? When did you start gaining skill levels?" Lucas asked when the two had finally calmed down.

"Let me try and remember them. I don't have that fancy screen that Saviors have, so I have to keep them up here," he said while tapping his temple with a finger. He rattled off his skills and the last number he remembered seeing from a level up message for that skill. Lucas created a note through his game menu to keep track of the levels, just as Ben had done, according to Joten.

Joten:

[Dexterity]: 12

[Strength]: 15

[Defence]: 7

[Hitpoints]: 19

[Agility]: 23

[Archery]: 44

[Magic]: 22

[Survivalism]: 40

[Crafting]: 21

[Healing]: 23

[Cooking]: 16

Lucas was slightly peeved that the boy's Archery and Cooking levels were higher than his, though it couldn't be helped. He had never been a good cook, and Cara and Ben had always been the ones to fight from a distance.

"It's impressive you're able to remember all those numbers. I struggle to remember my own, and some of them haven't changed in five years," Lucas said as soon as he finished adding the numbers to his notes. "When did you start gaining these skills?"

"A few weeks after Ben came to Hillsborough, I asked him to teach me to be a Ranger. I had seen a few dozen Saviors come to my mom's inn over the years, and I always loved seeing the ones with big bows strapped to their backs. Sometimes, if I snuck them enough drinks, they even let me fire an arrow at the wall. Although mom really hated those ones," he said with a smile and a far-off gaze. Lucas felt a pang of envy as Joten reminisced of his life back in Hillsborough. He had never had a fond childhood to remember, and most of his time in Savior Online had been spent in solitude. Ben's choice to live a life among the villagers began to sound more appealing, despite Lucas's original standoffish attitude toward the NPCs.

"Anyways, our first outing learning the bow was when I gained a level in Archery. I still remember Ben's surprised expression. He had called it 'a glitch in the matrix', but I'm not sure what that means. The next day he taught me to fletch arrows, and I gained a level in Crafting. That was proof that it wasn't an anomaly, he said. Over the next few weeks he took me to do a wide range of activities to test my leveling abilities. I jumped over logs in the forest for Agility, whittled spears and fished for Survivalism, wrapped bandages for Healing, fried steaks for Cooking… It was the best few weeks of my life. Eventually my mom got really mad at me and Ben because we were slacking on our work at the inn, so we had to slow down the leveling stuff. We continued like that for a few years whenever we had slow days at the inn.

"I think Ben had more fun with it than I did, sometimes. He even built an entire agility course in the woods with rope swings and tightropes. When a passing merchant stopped in Hillsborough for the night, Ben bought out the man's entire stock of beginner tomes and made me read them every night before bed for two months straight. I complained a lot at the time, but thinking back, I don't think I'll ever be able to repay him for the things he did for me," Joten said while wiping his sniffling nose. "He wanted to make sure I was strong enough to protect Mom if anything ever happened to him. I never thought the day would come that he wouldn't be there. He was the strongest person I'd ever seen. But, now that it did…" Joten trailed off for a moment. His eyes stared straight ahead, adrift in memories. Their glassy exterior reflected the flickering fire like a snowglobe on a hearth. "I don't think I'm ready. He was so, so strong, and I'm just not! I'm not good enough!" Joten choked up as he finished his story, beginning to sob gently.

Lucas laid an awkward hand against the boy's back and tried to comfort him, but his mind was simultaneously working on overdrive to understand what he had just heard. Why did Joten only begin gaining levels when Ben taught him how to level? Could the AI that controlled the NPCs have been learning from the player system? He would need to investigate this anomaly further, preferably with another NPC that had gained skills similarly. For now, his mind was too preoccupied with the realistic emotion on display in front of him. He felt like some sort of psychopath, analyzing the sobbing child's response rather than giving him his full attention. It couldn't be helped, though. His mind was telling him the boy sitting beside him mourning the loss of his second father was nothing more than the game's manifestation of a series of zeroes and ones, but his heart was telling him that it was a naive child who needed a role model to guide him.

Did it matter if the emotion on display was natural or generated by an algorithm? Do the NPCs even know that there is a higher power influencing their decisions and actions behind the scenes?

Not being able to stomach the awkward thoughts anymore, Lucas clapped Joten on the shoulder with a firm hand.

"You'll be alright, kid. You have a lot of potential," Lucas said honestly. He wasn't sure if it was good enough. It was hard suddenly being an adult and pretending to pass wisdom when you were unsure of your own circumstances. Especially when he was passing wisdom onto a system with a million times better pattern recognition than he had. He felt as if his words rang hollow and meaningless.

"Thanks. Ben said the same thing," Joten said, suddenly beaming at Lucas.

Stupid Ben. He was still beating Lucas at everything.

The two went to bed shortly after, listening from bedrolls as the crackle of the dying fire punctuated the silent, enveloping night.

"You know, I wanted to be a lawyer before I got trapped here," Cara said from beside Lucas. They both sat atop the railing of a stone bridge, their legs dangling over the side above the creek below. A pink sunset blazed across the horizon like a distant wildfire. The smell of evaporating rain still seeped from the stone.

"You, a lawyer?" Lucas said with a chuckle. "I've never heard of a lawyer with a heart," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up," Cara said defensively. "I meant a public defender, not a corporate lawyer. Someone to protect the downtrodden. Something really noble. There are people who want to do good in the world, you know."

"Well, if anyone could have done good in the world, it would be you," Lucas said, turning to look at Cara. She looked down at the creek below, seemingly lost in thought.

"What about you?" she asked after a few moments.

"I was never really the noble type. Got enough problems without worrying about another person's, especially a stranger's. I'd have probably taken the first job offered to me, if I got any. My GPA wasn't the greatest or anything," Lucas admitted. He had always felt that he wasn't important enough for lofty dreams or aspirations. That was for people in books and movies. He was just a regular person trying to escape his daily monotony.

"What you did yesterday was pretty noble," Cara said. "You took on that overseer one-on-one to protect a town of impoverished people you've never even met." Lucas looked down at the sword at his side.

[Nevermore]. His reward for defeating the principal overseer in the heart of the Gerelda Desert.

Lucas felt his heart beat faster as he realized he had been here before. The bridge, the sword, the conversation with Cara about the NPCs. Right after this he had made a bad joke and ruined the mood between them. He kicked himself for weeks after that.

He forced himself to relax as he recognized the dream and turned again toward Cara, who looked at him expectantly.

"It's nice to see you again," he said softly. "I've missed you terribly these past five years."

"I know you have," Cara replied with a smile. He missed the way her eyes turned up at the edges when she smiled. "But I've always been here with you, watching over you. Speaking of watching, you should be nicer to Joten. He's a good kid."

Lucas couldn't help but laugh. Even the Cara of his imagination was scolding him.

"You think so? He's an NPC though," he replied.

"So what? You think people stop having hard times just because there's a computer in their head? How do you know the AI isn't influencing your own brain waves?" she asked him, inspiring a flash of worry in Lucas's stomach.

"I'm just joking," she clarified after seeing the fright on Lucas's face. "In all seriousness, though, it's time to stop letting life happen around you. You may be stuck here in Savior Online, but you still have the power to choose your own future. Don't let wariness of the NPCs or memories of your past hold you back anymore. You've been waiting to live your life for 30 years now; it's about time you started."

Lucas sat and thought about her words beneath the cotton candy sky. The cabin in the woods, the hoard of collectables in his inventory, the awkward hand on Joten's back. He had been going through the motions of life and only half-heartedly reacting to the events around him for so long. It was hard to be genuine in a fake world. Hell, it was scary to be genuine in any world.

"I wish you were here to whip me into shape again," Lucas said aloud, but nobody answered. He looked to his side to notice the world around him was crumbling. The creek ebbed into blackness below while the stones of the bridge cracked and broke. From far away on the horizon, a massive wildfire had broken out and threatened to raze the city to the ground. Somewhere, a voice called out to him.

"Lucas… Lucas… Lucas!"

Lucas sat up with a start and grabbed the sword beside him. Joten knelt next to him with a look of worry plastered on his face.

"You were sweating and mumbling in your sleep. I thought you were sick," Joten said cautiously. Lucas rubbed his sore neck and head. They were still stiff from the anxiety of the dream.

Around them the woods had begun to awaken with the morning light. Birds chirped eagerly in search of food and fluttered through the canopy above. Crisp spring dew clung to the grass and the burnt-out logs of last night's fire. It felt real.

"Let's get going. We still have a day's hike to Hillsborough," Lucas said without acknowledging Joten's words. He was in no mood to explain the dream, even if he could stop his racing thoughts long enough to actually articulate it.

Lucas quickly packed away his things by tapping their interaction panel and adding them to his inventory with a flash. Poor Joten needed nearly twenty minutes to roll his bedroll and pack his things onto his traveling pack before they could continue on. The AI could give them sentience and skills, but held back on real quality of life additions like an inventory. Maybe Joten just needed to pay a microtransaction for that. Heh.

After packing up, the duo continued along the same path beside the river from yesterday. It now angled downward for a ways before inviting them into a beautiful rocky glen that the river had carved out over millennia. Or at least virtual millennia.

Waterfalls cascaded from above down into the river as the two walked carefully along the rocky walls of the gorge. The walls above and below flaunted vibrant red and green strata within their eroded stone. Each wall was smooth to the touch, weathered by thousands of years of running water. Wind sprites danced over the surface of the slow-flowing river, circling each other happily and diving in playful spirals over every steep waterfall.

Lucas had seen a place like this once before on a trip to the Finger Lakes with his family, before Savior Online. He began to wonder if the AI had modeled the area on the same glens he had seen, but remembered Cara's words and forced the thought from his mind. Did it matter how the AI had created the world, or did it matter more that he was experiencing its beauty? Though it felt foreign at first, he realized that the latter was far more relaxing and enjoyable. Was it ignorance to accept the world around you at face value?

The pair exited the gorge to a wide view of a forested valley below.

"Hillsborough is just at the other end of the valley," Joten said as he walked up beside Lucas. They stood at the edge of a cliff, using the vantage point to scope out the valley below. Lucas examined his map seriously and plotted out the easiest path to the other side of the valley. They would probably make it before sundown, as long as nothing else attacked them in the woods.

"I've been wondering something," Joten began to ask Lucas in an uncertain tone.

"Yes?" Lucas answered curtly before remembering Cara's advice. "Ask away," he added, trying his best to be kinder.

"Do you and Ben have statues built of you too?" Joten asked. Lucas grumbled a bit as he remembered a conversation from many years ago.

"Yes, I have a few," he answered. "But not of my own request. Cara paid for them." Joten cocked his head in confusion. He really did look like a puppy when he did that.

"Why would she pay for your statues as well?" he asked.

"I once asked her the same thing," Lucas said. He started his way down and around the cliffside in order to descend to the valley below. Joten followed and listened intently. "It was just after clearing out an overseer in the south…"

"We did it! That's the second village we've saved," Cara shouted as she unlocked the chains on the last enslaved villager. Lucas and Ben sat beside the corpses of the demon overseer and his guards, still exhausted from the battle.

"I bet 1,000 gold that Ben wants to build another statue of himself in the square," Lucas ribbed the bespectacled man to his left. After they had defeated the overseer and saved the villagers of Greentree, the first occupied village they had encountered during their two months in Savior Online, Ben had accepted the system's option of paying to have a statue created in his likeness and engraved with his name. Lucas thought it was the epitome of hubris.

"Why shouldn't I? At least now some people will know I wasn't a coward that hid at the starter beach my whole life," he shot back at Lucas. Tens of thousands of players still lined the beaches in the southeast corner of the continent of Alstyn, afraid to venture into the woods for fear of death. Lucas shared Ben's scorn for the cowards.

"Actually, Lucas, I was going to buy this one for you," Cara said cheerily as she returned to the two seated men.

"Why would you do that?" he said, surprised by her generous offer. They had not yet amassed much gold, and a statue seemed like a burdensome waste of their coffers.

"Well, to be frank, you fight awfully recklessly. One of these days it's going to catch up to you, and there's nothing we'll be able to do to save you. When that day comes, Ben is going to miss you an awful lot, you know," she said, cracking a smile and watching Ben's eyebrow raise from the corner of her eye. "It'd be nice to have a statue of our friends that we can visit when we're missing them."

Lucas waved away her concerns nonchalantly, but inside his stomach tightened into a knot. Was he really that close to death that a near-stranger worried this much for his well-being, or was she just being overly sentimental? Surely none of them would die. Things had been going so smoothly thus far.

"Whatever you need to do," he said instead. "But the next one is yours, then. If you're going to make a prideful sinner out of me, then you deserve it too." Cara agreed happily before purchasing the statue of Lucas in the center of the village. It was such a gaudy bronze, and the way it modeled his wind-blown hair like an anime character was way too embarrassing.

"I bet you would make a beautiful statue," Lucas wanted to add to Cara, but he left that part out.