That is your new training grounds.

Kit woke the next day by a thumping at his door. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Come in." Dove pushed the door open and was tailed by Cadbury. "What are you two doing here?"

"Are we not going hunting this morning?" Dove started rummaging in Kit's closet as he spoke, soon clean clothes were placed on the end of his bed. Kit raised his brows at the strange behaviour.

"Are you not working today?" Kit collected his clothes and let the weird behaviour slide and headed towards the bathroom.

"We organised with Snickers to take some time off so that we can accompany you," replied Cadbury.

Kit thought about the lack of customers and felt it would be fine for the twins to tag along in raising his swordsman level. "That's fine, I'll get ready and met you in the dining area." Kit shut the door of the bathroom, when he emerged, he was showered and dressed.

When he entered the dining hall an ecstatic Twix bound over to him. "Kit! You're finally back!" Yesterday before heading to bed Mars had informed him that Twix and Grandpa had left Spartan Fire on an errand. So, he was surprised to see his friend.

"Hello Twix!" Kit beamed back, "Is Grandpa here as well?" Kit searched the room for the old man but couldn't see him.

"Kit my boy, are you ready!" The old man's voice sounded from behind him.

Kit swung around to see Grandpa entering the dining room. "Grandpa!" Kit's mood was bursting, now all he needed was to find Snowball and his reunion would be complete.

Peaches was the only other person who he hadn't seen, but he knew before entering the game that Peaches wouldn't be in CAL for a while due to moving.

His thoughts were interrupted by a tight hug from the old man. "You rascal, you had this old man worried sick! Poor Twix looked like a lost puppy while you were gone."

"Hey! I did not!" Twix puffed out his cheeks. "I just missed Kit that's all! I'm allowed to miss my friend!"

A warmth spread through his chest, it was a nice to see they hadn't changed. Too many other things had changed while he was away.

"You guys have all day to catch up, right now we need to focus on getting Kit's swordsman level to 100." Mars motioned to the chairs behind him.

The sound of chairs scraping rang as they all sat down. "Getting him to level 99 will be easy it is hitting 100 that will be the problem." Grandpa sighed.

"What's wrong with level 100?" Kit felt his chest tighten at this latest information.

"You can only rise to level 100 after you taken a test given by a master swordsman. There are people that never pass the test and get stuck at level 99 forever." Kit eyes went wide, he stared at Grandpa dumbfounded. How had he never heard about this before!

"Ai, don't look like that Kit. We will make sure you are ready. You're a Forsaken state resident now and we pride ourselves on our high levels!" Grandpa motioned to all the people sitting at the table. "We already came up with a training plan this morning while you were lazing about. I've just finished setting up the obstacle course outside, so once you've eaten, we can head out."

Curiosity made him scoff down his breakfast, when he took his first step out the front door his jaw dropped. A large earthen wall took up most of his front lawn. "What is that?"

Grandpa chuckled behind him. "That is your new training grounds." Grandpa waved his staff and a section of the wall turned into an arch. Kit's feet took him forwards to see what was inside.

He stood in a daze staring at the new training grounds. Off to one side was a long flat piece of earth with circle targets at one end and a stand of bows and wooden swords at the other. The other side was an obstacle course with high walls, thin ropes, random poles sticking out of the ground and even mud filled trenches.

A tremble ran through his muscles, he could already imagine how fatigued he was going to be every day. Grandpa came over and clapped in on the shoulder. "I see you like it! Then let's get started!"

Three hours later Kit felt like he was going to die. Every muscle on his body was crying out in pain. Grandpa was smirking at him while he was flopped on the ground. "Kit, you have no stamina, we will have to fix that real fast. You can have 10 minutes rest, then we will need to get going, we still have some monsters to hunt!"

Kit felt like crying, that damn old man had just made him shoot arrows until he felt his arm was numb, then he made him run the course while the others shot flat arrow heads at him. They fuck'n hurt when they collided with his body!

But that was not all! Twix would also shoot lightning across the course if he was going too slow! Then for the finale he had to practice sword fighting with Mars, Dove and Cadbury!

Now Grandpa was telling him that he still had to kill monsters! Kit had a bad feeling this was going to be his daily life from now on until he reached level 100 swordsman. He had a suspicion that wouldn't be done in two days!

With a groan he rolled onto his stomach then tried to stand. When he got to his feet he almost toppled over, luckily Mars was there to steady him. "Mars I can't go hunting!"

Instead of consoling him, Mars passed him a potion bottle. "Drink up Kit." Mars had the cheek to laugh at his pained expression.

Kit gave Mars a deadpan look. "Mars I'm going to kill you."

"Haha, you will have to improve more before you can do that!" Mars laughed harder as Kit gave him a murderous glare. "Kit, come on, this is for your own good! You want to keep playing CAL, right?"

Kit swallowed back his complaints and sculled the potion. He felt all his fatigue lift, he finally felt like his body belonged to him once again. "You're right, come on then let's head off." His friends were working hard to help him, so he shouldn't complain.

Six horses were saddled waiting at the entrance to the training grounds. Kit spotted a familiar shiny coat amongst the group. "Hello Pint, long time no see." The large horse whined on hearing Kit's voice and bumped the other horses out of the way to get closer for a nuzzle. "Ah, I missed you too Pint."

In response to his words Pint started to bite at his pouch. Kit had a feeling he knew what the horse was after. Kit pulled a bottle of rum from his pouch and watched as Pint started to prance on the spot. "Well, I can see you missed alcohol more than me." Kit chuckled at the silly horse antics.

"Since you have been gone, I've had to ration his alcohol, so he hasn't been a happy boy. No wonder he's excited to see you." Mars patted the overwhelmed horse.

Kit gave Pint three more bottles with the promise of more on return. Then the group set off to grind some monsters.

When they finally returned home Kit was covered in gunk, he went straight to the shower and then flopped on the bed. Before he went to sleep, he looked around for Snowball hoping he had come home while he was out.

Not even a stray hair could be seen from his companion, Kit tucked away his sadness and consoled himself with the fact that soon he could head out to find Snowball. He was sure he would come across him on the way up the mountain.

On his travel to Spartan Fire, Snowball had always been able to find him after a night out. He was hoping that if he was closer to his companion Snowball would magically appear.

The next day went by the same as the previous, at night Kit dragged his tired body to his room. After two days of grinding, he had only risen 1 level. Kit consoled himself with the fact that tomorrow he needed to log out so he could quit his job and talk with Kat.

He had already informed every one of his departure so they wouldn't worry. Mars had insisted on logging out with him so they could keep the same schedule. When the lid opened on his capsule Kit wandered into the living room.

When he didn't see Kat, he knocked on her door. He listened for noise but couldn't hear anything, he assumed she was at her new job, so he immediately took a shower then headed out to quit his job.

Mars was leaning against his door when he returned. "Why did you not wait for me!"

"I only went to hand in my resignation." Kit opened the door and Mars followed him inside. "Mars have you reached level 100 yet?"

"Mmm, I got there awhile ago. Are you worried about the test?" Kit nodded his head. "You don't have to worry about it, I already prepared a suitable swords master to give you the test." Mars declared.

"Even if you say that I'm still concerned. What if I can't pass the test." If he couldn't get to level 100, he couldn't enter the devouring ranges.

"You really have nothing to worry about, it is the same person I tested with." Mars grinned.

"What does him letting you pass have anything to do with me being successful?" Kit was getting confused the more Mars spoke. 

"He will be lenient with you, I promise. Besides I already sent him a letter telling him to come to Spartan Fire, so you can't back out." Mars looked confident that the instructor would come.

"Will he come just because you sent him a letter?" Kit was a bit sceptical.

"Sadly, yes. By the way you owe me big. I wasn't going to tell him where I lived!" The conversation didn't clear up any of his confusion, it was only getting worse.

Kit decided to change the subject. "When will Peaches arrive?"

Mars glanced at his watch. "In an hour or so."

"What! Mars why did you not say so earlier!" Kit felt a strange panic grip him thinking of meeting Peaches in person. What if Peaches didn't like his real-life self? Kit mind started to whirl, it came to a sudden stop when Mars flicked his ear. "Ouch!"

"Cut it out, whatever you were thinking is nonsense." Mars flicked his ear one more time.

"Stop that!" Kit rubbed his ear and frowned. Mars was right he was being silly. "Let's go and get some groceries. I'll cook lunch for all of us!" Kit felt Peaches would be hungry after moving.

When they returned from the market, Mars took them via his apartment. Movement could be heard inside. Mars dropped his bags and opened the door. "Peaches! Stop what you're doing and come to Kit's he is going to make lunch!"

A familiar face popped out from one of the doors off the lounge area. Long black hair swung behind him tied in a messy ponytail, Peaches hair colour was the only difference between his real self and his avatar. Thankfully Peaches didn't change his appearance too much so Kit could easily recognise him.

The man's brows raised to his hairline as they settle on Mars. "Did you make yourself look uglier in game?"

Mars grinned, then raised a brow at Kit. "See Kit, even Peaches recognised me on first sight. You really need to work on being a best friend!"

"Of course, Peaches would recognise you! Who else would be opening the door! It would not take a genius to figure out it was his new roommate!" Huffed Kit, he had a thought that Mars was not going to let his mistake go easily.

Peaches eyes moved from Mars to Kit, they lit up when he saw the bags in his hands. "Hello Kit." Peaches gave a wave. "Are you really making lunch?"

"Hello Peaches, yes come on up." Kit motioned with his head towards the stairs.

Two pairs of eyes watched Kit's every move as he bustled about in the kitchen. Peaches soft voice floated to his ears, "Mars is Kit's cooking as good as in game?"

"Of course it is!" Mars outraged reply resounded.

Kit couldn't help but chuckle. A smile tugged at his lips, having people in his tiny apartment was great!

As he was placing sandwiches on a plate, the front door swung open. "Kit, I hope you made lunch for me too!" Kat ignored the visitors and snatched a sandwich. Kit just shook his head, handed the two remaining sandwiches to Peaches and Mars then went back to make his own.

"Oh, who are you?" Kat finally noticed that there was someone new in the room.

Kit lifted his head to see Peaches blush. Kit's eyes thinned, his sister really was too good looking! "Hello ma'am, you can call me Peaches." Kit watched as Peaches bowed his head.

Kit had to swallow back a laugh at Kat's outraged expression. "Who is a ma'am! I'm not that old!"

Peaches blush deepened. "I apologise, it was a slip of the tongue. Your beauty made me momentarily confuse my words."

Wow, Peaches was smooth! Kit watched as Kat became flustered. Then Kit clicked who Peaches was flirting with! Kit strode over and smacked the back of Peaches head. "Kit?" Peaches turned confused eyes to Kit.

"No flirting with my sister!" Kit yelled.

"Peaches, I will lend you a copy of the friend code." Mars looked serious about his offer.

A strange premonition filled Kit. "Mars do you have a physical copy of a friend code?"

"Yes, I made one for you too! I should make one for Peaches as well, instead of just lending it to him," said Mars.

"Um Mars where did you get this friend code from?" Kit had a bad feeling Mars friend code would not be the normal bullshit that people came up with.

"I researched it off the internet, but some of the stuff was no good, so I added some off my own rules." There it was, the confirmation that Mars was going to make Kit and now Peaches do some crazy shit!

Kat interrupted before Mars could delve into his ideas on friendship, Kit was so thankful for her timing! "Mars you can show them later, first I want to hear how Kit's time in game went."

Mars gave a full pout towards Kat, "Mars don't be sad, I really want to read your friendship code!" Kit felt his jaw drop in horror, he could see the evil glint in his sister eye! "But after I hear from Kit."

Kat then began to pepper Kit with questions about his return to CAL. When he had caught her up, the conversation turned to his job. Kit realised he forgot to discuss things with Kat before he quit!