Chapter 10: Paused

It seemed like today was a good crisp day, the Llama was back just standing at the gates and looking out into the world. The Guards were complaining about the Under Weredog, and the Food Giver was walking out with a soft smile at seeing them. They couldn’t help giving a small nod to the Food Giver as they set the plate down and having small talk.

“You seem to be in a better mood, wish I could say the same for me...” Food Giver sounded sad but quickly wiped his face from any sorrows and smiled, his tone lighter, “I’m having trouble with a Quest.”

Eating the food as well as the plate they watched the man as they started to talk about nonsense, about the weather. ‘Doesn’t really concern me, I’m asleep for most of the weather updates. Will he stop giving me food at some point if this Quest doesn’t progress? Clouds, I hope not...’ they chewed thoughtfully on the plate. Food Giver laughed and stood, walking back into Zeonsi’s gates where the Guards teased him about them.

They gave a big yawn to hopefully traumatize the Guards and settled to watch the daily life of Zeonsi and Players. Seeing some of them pull out a map and disappear, others walked the path not even bothering to stop and look at the flowers along said path that was once barren and lifeless as the rocks next to them.

Shame on them.

‘Oh! Under Weredog is back! Scoping out the place, honestly the Dog is more than enough entertainment. If I had better Observe Skills I would know a lot about this creature. It also seems that the Slime Bugs was fixed, haven’t seen them in quite a while.’ Looking at the gate the Llama was on the move and started walking around the walls of Zeonsi.

For a moment the White Llama looked golden but it could have been sleep creeping up on them again. It is a rather boring day without pots and pans being thrown out of the gates along with weapons of some sort.

‘Oh spoke too soon, here comes the new batch of Tamers. Excuse me Sir or Madam, how do you take your rejection?’

A Player yelled.

‘Not well done it seems sorry, REJECTED!’

Another Player ate their hat in frustration and stared them down in anger.

‘You get Rejected! And you get Rejected!’

A Player was Banned for Bad Words.

‘Oh, this is fun~’ They bounced a few times happily at rejecting even more people. A few more Players attempted but in the end they all got rejected.

‘Again! Again! Let me laugh at your misery!’ They quivered from trying to keep from laughing out loud and bounced to try and calm their excitement. The remaining Players backed away and left, leaving them to their hysterical silent laughter.

“Lunch is ready, you look like your having fun,” Food Giver set down the food and sat with them to watch the daily life of the other Players. Taking their time with the food this time they watched in silence, every time Food Giver glanced over to them they make a big motion of eating the whole thing only to take a small bite and eating happily. It seemed to make them smile for a moment before looking out at the Flower Path. “I think I’ll log out here. See you in a bit...”

Food Giver sat there for a long time frozen until the sun started to dip down into the hills casting a momentary blaze over the lands, the flames lapping towards the skies trying to reach. The crackle and pop of the woods as the heat silenced their barks and the flames tore them apart bit by bit. The once green grass now brown and quickly devoured leaving nothing but ash. The people...

The hills returned to their normal green sight and the lights flickered on warmly as people were walking into Zeonsi to stay for the night.

“Fire, truly is both wonderful and terrifying...” they looked over to the “sleeping” Food Giver and wondered when they’ll wake up or in the Player sense ‘Log back in’. Yawning they started to drift off to sleep, there was hardly anything happening at night other than the Slime's relocating to Slime Hope and the Under Weredog lurking around for their next target. Looking at the Skills was also getting boring so no point in that and getting rid of the notifications as also a hassle, no point in even attempting to look at them.

Yawning again for what felt like the hundredth time they closed their eyes and finally the darkness took over.

Looking out into the hills was a nice view to wake up to. The Food Giver wasn’t beside them anymore and nothing was left beside them to indicate that there was food waiting for them.

Rude.

“Good morning, Sleepy Head,” Food Giver walked out with a plate and a smile. Setting the plate down it was BBQ of some sort, what was the last time they had something like this? Not even waiting for the plate to hit the ground they ate it out of his hand, which shocked Food Giver at first but then settled quickly laughing. Sighing he sat beside them again while they ate the plate slowly, glancing at the Food Giver he seems to be sad about something. It could be Real Life stuff or maybe the Quest was a little difficult. Whatever that Quest is they hope that it wasn’t going to stop the Food Giver from coming by to give them food every now and then. They have gotten used to him coming by with a plate of food for them.

Food Giver looked over to them and smiled sadly, they knew he was only doing this for show. They remembered their friend did it often... Friend?

‘Were we friends?’ they pondered and tried to think.

‘No, we’re more like acquaintances,’ nodding to themselves.

‘That seems about right. Food Giver the Acquaintance.’

“THE DAMN DOG DID IT AGAIN! WHY ME?!” The Guardsman ran out searching the trees along the dirt path until the end of the lights. “YOU’LL PAY FOR THIS YOU MUTT!”

Food Giver laughed so much they fell backwards still laughing and rolling to their side, then stopped to say “Ow, ow, ow, ow.”

They looked out to the forest and for some reason they could see further than before. Was this due to the Carrots from earlier? Or the accumulating Skill Points being thrown every which way. Could they still put points into their Stats?

‘Interesting so some of them are locked to a certain number at each level. Possibly to keep from people from being Overpowered or something. But I’m broken, can’t they lift that from me?’

‘Alright so this is locked with the HP and if I levelled up it would rise it seems, at least lift the restrictions on adding Points to those Stats. This game gets more and more complicated, why can’t it just be a simple game without having to think of all this?’

‘So this was locked from the start, since the Skill Points maxed this stat out.’

‘Attack and Defence are together like HP and MP are locked together, does that mean Speed is also tied in with these two? Oh, actually no, Speed is at 16 currently so that can still go up it seems. Now I’m starting to wonder if there are hidden stats under the Base Stats and the added stats from Equipment and Skills.’

‘It locks out at 20. Is there a reason why all of them are maxed at certain levels? Or was it just broke for me and me only, it might as well be it since I have 4 classes unlocked and maxed not to mention the messed up Skill Points Locked window that shows up every now and then. This is starting to hurt to think about, just leave it and let the System take care of it.’

Yawning once more in a stretch, Food Giver was watching the hills. It was quite peaceful, they didn’t mind Food Giver sitting beside them. They liked that Food Giver hasn’t even bothered to ask to Tame them, or poke them with sticks and sharp things. Settling down again they closed their eyes and listened to the world around them. Listening to the light cool wind, the soft breathing of Food Giver, the rustle of the leaves, the gentle songs and rhythmic sounds from birds. It was almost disappointing that they couldn’t hear other Slime's but it was for the best.

“Tomorrow is a scary thought...” Food Giver said softly. They opened their eyes slowly a bit and looked at the Knight beside them. The armour was silver with blue and it seems to fit him tightly and the movement was not restricted very much since some of the armour clipped into the other set of armour. But despite that, Food Giver looked real, they had emotions on their face, they breathed steadily and the armour moved with his breathing. Was this place only real to them or did it feel just as real to the Players? “You probably don’t even care about it because you know you’ll be here when you wake up. It’s scary to think that... haaa... everyone will be sad. I can see it when I look at them, they’re scared just as much as I am.”

‘A Penny for your thoughts?’ They took a Coin out of their Inventory and gave it to Food Giver, wanting to hear more of their sad and lonely dark thoughts of what Tomorrow could bring him. Instead Food Giver looked at the Coin shocked and quickly gave them a hug saying ‘Thank you’ happily and repeatedly before running into Zeonsi. Their eyes wide at the sudden hug attack they then turned their focus on the Guards and tried calling out to them, ‘GUARDS! I JUST GOT ROBBED!’

They just then saw Under Weredog run out of the town with their most recent steal, quietly tip toeing into the woods.

‘Never mind, so did you it seems...’