Morbid

I didn't know you could get a horse before you even started the tutorial. Kelly thought in amazement. She caught her breath when Arnold had pet the Game Guide's head and then grabbed the glowing woman by the hand and the intro ended. You can touch her?!? She asked herself... then all three of them appeared inside the tutorial. What the hell?

Arnold still held Helena's hand and the old nag was behind them. He had been trained to gather everything he found in the game, no matter what it was, so it was only natural that he would try to bring everything with him.

“Welcome to the tutorial.” Helena said from beside him, rather than appearing in her usual position behind the player's heads to keep their field of vision clear. “In this section, you will choose your name and your class, then your skills and abilities will be tested.” She waved her free hand and a popup appeared. “Please state your name or type it in.”

Arnold thought back to the display in the lobby and what his mother had called it the instant she saw it. “Morbid.” He said and typed it in, just in case.

“Welcome to my lands, Morbid.” Helena said warmly. “I hope you enjoy your time here.”

Arnold turned his head and looked at her with a huge smile. “I know I will.”

“Let us get started.” Helena said and pointed to a stall with a stiff looking man beside it. “You can choose your class from the trainer and then...”

“No.” Arnold said.

“You need to choose a class to grow your character.” Helena prompted.

“Do I have to choose a class right now?” Arnold asked.

“No.” Helena said. “I must warn you that if you don't choose a class, you will not get any bonuses from having a chosen class.”

“I don't care about that.” Arnold said. “I need to let your hand go so I can work.”

“Then I will return to...”

“Do not leave.” Arnold said. “You are coming with me.”

“Arnold, you can't force the guide to stay with you.” Kelly said.

“She's the guide. I can call on her whenever I want, right?” Arnold asked and the guide nodded.

“Yes, you can.” Kelly said.

“Is it against the rules for her to come with me, since she can go anywhere?” Arnold asked.

“No.” Helena said.

“I beseech thee to heed my call for I am in need.” Arnold said to Helena. “Listen to my plea and help when you can.”

“Your words move me, Morbid.” Helena said. “I will stay and help when I can.”

“Thank you.” Arnold said and put a hand behind her head and pulled her in close as if to kiss her, then a popup appeared.

' There are no personable actions available during the tutorial. Actions menu is disabled. '

“I can't thank you properly until after the tutorial.” Arnold said and let her go.

Helena just stood there and didn't say anything.

“Geez, Arnold.” Kelly said with a chuckle. “You're actually trying to coerce the game guide!”

Arnold smiled. “You told me to do as much as I could to succeed.” He said and walked over to the next stall. Each one had a different person at them and they each revolved around a different skill test. He had practised a lot and knew he only had a limited amount of time to work, so he only spent five minutes at each station to unlock all the skills and to give himself a base stat in everything, including magic.

Arnold really wanted to stay and level everything up as much as possible, and he knew he couldn't. He also unlocked all the basic skill trees in the game. He couldn't do much with them at the moment, since his skills were so low, so he concentrated on the skills needed to increase his speed. He had leaned that speed was essential to earn faster skill levels in almost everything else. Both Helena and Kelly watched him with awe as he worked and leveled up his speed stat to a level that was ridiculous for a first time player.

“Can I come back to the tutorial later?” Arnold asked and his fingers flew over his buttons to keep performing the proper actions when prompted on the screen. “I don't have the time to finish it.”

“As long as you don't accept any quests or join a party, I can bring you back here.” Helena said.

“I didn't know you could that!” Kelly said. “If I wasn't so high level already with great equipment, I would be tempted to start my character over.”

“How's my time?” Arnold asked and a timer popped up on his display. “Helena, how long to travel to Haunting Hollow?”

“By foot it's an hour. You have a flying horse, so you can be there in five minutes.” Helena said.

“WHAT?!?” Kelly yelled.

Arnold nodded. “I have an hour left before I have to meet Brad.” He said and kept working. The button sequences to keep moving became more complicated as Arnold's speed kept increasing. He didn't slow down at all and kept going.

Not surprisingly, after an hour of solid work at the Speed skill stall, Arnold had his speed up to fifty and his Acrobatics, Agility, Dexterity, Dodge, and Endurance were over thirty. His Strength was up to twenty and his Vitality, which was his Health, was almost double what he had started with.

“I have to go.” Arnold said and stepped back from the Speed stall.

“Wait.” The skinny man at the stall said and held out a pair of medium quality boots. “You have impressed me by working so hard and I believe you deserve these.”

Arnold took them and they were much better quality than the boots he wore, so he equipped them and gave the old boots to the skinny man, who looked surprised for a moment and then took them. Arnold didn't notice the ten percent bonus he had gained to his Speed as Helena led him and his horse away from the training area.

Kelly saw it, though. If he goes back there and does the same thing to all of his stats and skills, who knows what kinds of special equipment he's going to unlock?

Kelly walked over to her computer and turned it on, waited for it to start, then opened one of her old links to the game's message board. She searched for tutorial items and clicked on the most popular message.

Top list percentages for items in the tutorial. Kelly read silently and then looked at the list. She found the Unnamed Boots of Speed about a third of the way down the list in the Speed Skill section and saw that it only had a five percent chance to drop. Wow. She thought. Only two things are rarer. The Boots of Instantaneous Movement at three percent and the Footwear of the Gods at one percent to drop.

Of course, now that she had the list, Kelly saved it to her computer and read through all of the skill drops and shook her head. It was ridiculous what the equipment would do for starting players, especially because they didn't have any requirements. She closed the browser and put her computer into sleep mode, then went back over to watch Arnold.

Annie had watched them both silently and hadn't even turned on the television. So, he can surprise her, even though she knows how tenacious he is. She thought with a smile, then the smile faded as she watched Arnold buy a ratty old saddle for a couple of copper coins and put it on the horse. Arnold, you should treat your animals better than... She stopped her thought when the horse neighed happily at him. What the? Why is it happy?

What Annie didn't see was the description Arnold has seen about the saddle being soft and worn in because it was so old, and it fit the old nag's slightly deformed back perfectly and didn't cause it pain. Arnold helped Helena climb onto the horse and she sat on it side-saddle, then he climbed up and sat behind her and the old nag didn't notice the weight change. She was a magic horse, after all.

Arnold held her reins and spoke. “Haunted Hollow.”

The old nag was covered in sparkles and then two huge translucent butterfly wings popped out of its shoulders, flapped so fast that they looked like hummingbird wings, and the horse took off.

“Make sure you land just outside of it.” Kelly cautioned him. “You know Brad and his friends have an ambush set up for you.”

Arnold nodded and flew the horse to the right location. Luckily, it wasn't that far and only took five minutes because they flew. They had also skipped over half a dozen monster encounters that would have slowed them down considerably if they had been on foot. They landed just outside the lowland area that was between two mountain ranges. It had sparse groups of trees and a small river running through it as well.

“Be careful.” Kelly whispered.

Arnold climbed off of the old nag, left Helena on the saddle, and led them into the Haunted Hollow. It was darker here than anywhere else, even though it was a bright and sunny day, and there was something flickering in the distance. Arnold followed the flickering and ignored everything else around him. Kelly had warned him about the ghosts and spirits that would try to trick him into following them to his death, so he only walked forward.

It took almost ten minutes for him to reach the edge of the clearing and saw the piles and piles of item drops. Armor, weapons, crafting materials, crates of food, and even some large animal carcasses were there. The animals had been Brad's idea to make it a tempting target for Arnold, because Heather had told him how much Arnold liked dissecting things.

“Arnold!” Brad said loudly from the other side of the pile and waved. “Hey, buddy! Over here!”

A couple of Brad's friends saw the old nag Arnold had and started to laugh. For some reason, none of them mentioned the beautiful Goddess that rode it, almost as if they couldn't see her.

Brad glared at his friends and loudly whispered. “Quiet! You can laugh at the ratty old horse later!”

“Sorry, Brad.” A few of them said in a chorus.

“I can't believe Eric is gonna miss this epicness.” Kevin whispered and gripped the hilt of his sword. “I'm going to smash in Arnold's face just like he smashed in mine.”

Brad put a hand on his shoulder. “It's not going to be the same as doing it in real life; but, I'm going to stomp his dick into the ground.”

“It's too bad he doesn't have a full dive VR headset like us, then he would feel it.” Kevin said.

They weren't even bothering to whisper anymore and Arnold looked at Helena.

“Is that true?” Arnold asked in a whisper. “If I have a full dive setup, I'll feel this?” He ran his hands through the mare's mane.

“Yes.” Both Kelly and Helena said.

“It won't quite be the same as doing it in real life like they say, though. It is just a game and you can feel the difference.” Kelly said as an explanation.

“When I craft, I'll be able to actually feel it.” Arnold whispered as he wiggled his game hand's fingers and Helena nodded. “Then let's get this over with. I have to get back to the tutorial.”

“Make sure you don't accept anything they offer.” Kelly warned him. “You know why.”

Arnold nodded and handed the reins to Helena, then he started to walk over to the large pile of items.

“That's it, stupid.” Kevin whispered. “Come right over to us through the pile.”

Brad chuckled and then spoke loudly. “Go ahead and set your spawn point for the Hollow.” He said and stopped his laugh before it escaped. “That way you can keep coming back here.”

“Don't do it and tell them that you did.” Kelly advised him. “If they kill you at a spawn point, you'll pop right back up there in five minutes and they can kill you again.”

“Okay.” Arnold said in a normal voice and Brad and the guys assumed he was talking about the spawn point. “Done.”

“Ha! What an idiot.” One of Brad's friends said and was punched. “Hey, it was a slip of the tongue.”

“Now you have to come over here so we can transfer ownership of all these great items.” Brad said loudly in the hopes that it would cover up what was just said.

“It's on the ground, so no one owns it right now.” Arnold said and when he was close enough, he received several popups that asked him if he wanted to store the items in front of him. “Kelly, does this count as accepting their offer?”

“No, you're right. It's discarded and you can take it all.” Kelly said with a smile and Arnold started storing the hundreds of items as quickly as he could.

“I knew it wasn't going to be that easy.” Brad said. “We're going for Annihilation!”

“YEAH!” They all yelled and ran back about thirty feet, then two of them hit their macros and powered up their spells and charged magical items. A second later, the others had magical bows and weapons equipped and they all opened fire at the same time, right at the spot where Arnold stood.

The entire pile of items and a good portion of the clearing was engulfed in several different colored lights as magical explosions lit the entire Hollow up. Cracking thunder sounded as Lightning burned through the sky and struck the pile ten times from a high level spell. The two magic users used up two thirds of their magic reserve to assault with everything they had prepared.

It was quite the sight to see.

Brad had even used a sword with a lightning discharge multiple times to add to the damage being dealt, then he expended two spell scrolls for Fire Bolt, which was a combo scroll with a Fire charged Lightning Bolt. Their group had taken down several of the big bosses in the game with the same tactic and they knew there was no way for Arnold to survive the onslaught. Even the ghosts and spirits in the surrounding trees were wiped out from the magical barrage.

“Ha HA! Take that, motherfucker!” Brad yelled and all the guys in his party cheered.