“I. Hate. Walking.” I said to my travel companion as I collapsed onto the ground a mile away from the city of Rosevale. Amy had insisted that we stopped here despite the fact that there was still plenty of daylight left for us to make it to town. I hadn’t believed her at first, but these enchanted road things were a huge help at getting places fast.

  “Assuming you stay on the path,” Amy commented, still reading my thoughts. “Oh, and only if you’re in the Empire. They don’t exist outside of it.”

  “They don’t?”

  “No, they don’t,” Amy replied. “Though I suspect that might change sooner, rather than later.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Politics,” Amy said, as if that was supposed to explain everything. Before I had a chance to reply, though, she changed topics. “I’ve completed my scan of Rosevale and, unfortunately, it looks as if Win Ro isn’t here.”

  “Who,” I asked impulsively before quickly remembering the name of Thorne’s friend. “Oh, right. I thought you said you couldn’t locate him already? Did something change?”

  “No,” Amy replied. “Based on what I was able to determine from Thorne’s memories, though, he and Win were supposedly going to head this way once they got the collar off.”

  “Why? What’s at Rosevale?”

  Amy jumped off my shoulder from where she’d spent the majority of our travel time and gave me a cat shrug. “Beats me,” she said while curling her tail around her paws. “If you asked me, I’d have expected them to head home.”

  “So let me see if I’ve got this figured out,” I said with a sigh. “You cannot tell where Win Ro is, nor can you tell where Thorne’s sister is. But the way you say it implies that you should be able to.” Silence was the only reply I got. “Well?” I finally asked again, trying my best to not sound impatient.

  With a groan, Amy looked away from me before muttering, “...Yes, that’s correct.”

  “And that’s not normal?”

  “No, it is not,” she replied, sounding annoyed at having to admit it.

  “Is this something we should be concerned about?” I asked, genuinely concerned by her reaction.

  I thought I was going to have to repeat myself before Amy finally said, “I don’t know. I’ve logged an anomaly report into The System and am waiting to hear back.”

  “How long does that take?”

  “Depends on the cause, but it’s usually only a frame or two.”

  I nodded my head as I recalled one of the many conversations that Amy and I had while traveling. In addition to micro-, macro-, and regular cycles, she’d explained to me some additional units of time that I’d need to know, the most common one being a frame, which was synonymous with a day back on Earth. It wasn’t identical, though, as a frame on ;Algion consisted of 32 hours, which The System referred to as iterations.

  “Remind me again why I only need to sleep for 10 hours when the days here are 32 hours long? That sounds like I’m being cheated out of some sleep time.”

  “Are we sure you didn’t have ADHD back on Earth? You bounce between questions faster than a hyped up child on Christmas day.”

  “Haha, very funny,” I grumbled. “My question still stands.”

  “I guess most people wouldn’t bother to do the math either,” Amy said with a sigh. “For starters, back on Earth it’s recommended you get anywhere between seven to nine hours of sleep, although the optimization settings for the Server indicate that seven and a half is the ideal number for you. On ;Algion, there are no doctors who recommend this kind of stuff, it’s whatever the body feels is ‘correct.’ In the case of Beastfolk, 10 iterations is the minimum that you guys need to be considered rested, but most don’t consider it a full nights rest unless you achieve 16 hours. You’re still adjusting to your new Character, which is why you woke up when you did last night. Give it some time, you’ll adjust.”

  “16 hours?” I said, nearly choking on the water from my waterskin I’d pulled from my Personal Space while Amy spoke.

  “Oh my dear sweet Naomi,” Amy said with a chuckle. “16 iterations is the equivalent to 1,024 Macrocycles, or 102,400 cycles. In Earth time, that is equivalent to 28 hours, 26 minutes, and 24 seconds, give or take a few ticks since Earth is at the bottom of the Server list.”

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  I’d been prepared for her to blow my mind when she’d started talking, so I’d thought I’d been smart by not taking a sip of water when Amy had started talking again. However, upon hearing the math, I just stood there, mouth agape staring at her like an idiot. I eventually gave up trying to process what I’d just been told, instead just sitting down and letting out a loud grunt.

  “10 iterations would be roughly 18 Earth hours,” Amy said as she walked up in front of where I’d sat down. I just glared at her, my head hurting at the thought of more math.

  “What are we doing here, anyway?” I asked, trying to change the subject so as not to let all that math get the better of me. “I thought we were heading to Rosevale?”

  “We are, didn’t you see the city wall before we got off the road,” Amy replied.

  “Yes…” I said, closing my eyes and counting to 10. “You know, for someone who refuses to stop listening to my thoughts, you sure don’t do it in moments where it counts.”

  “I don’t follow,” Amy replied while tilting her head.

  “Why are we here and not continuing to head into Rosevale?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Oh. Why didn’t you just say that to begin with?”

  I counted to 10 once more. As I did I noticed that a pop-up Amy had shown me how to pin to my vision had changed. I’d had a few more outbursts while we’d walked that had resulted in getting myself muted again, so Amy showed me that I could pin my current Anger Boost modifier to my interface so it would be easier to monitor. I was currently sitting at an 80% modifier, and we’d found that once I’d hit 120% is when I typically lost control and started saying stuff that got me muted. Exhaling, I counted to 10 for a third time, and as I did, I watched my Anger Boost as it slowly dipped down to just 20%.

  “You’re right, Amy,” I said with a nod. “I should have just said that to begin with.”

  “Glad we are in agreement,” she said with a flick of her tail, causing my boost to spike up to 100%. “Anyway,” she began, not giving me a chance to say something stupid, “there’s a dungeon nearby I wanted to take you to, first. It’s full of low level monsters, and hopefully will get us some ‘bonus points’ with the locals, as you’d call them.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “What do you think would happen to a Beastfolk such as yourself if you walked into town with that shiny collar around your neck? You know, the one that clearly indicates that you are a slave?”

  “I suppose I walked into that one,” I said with a grunt.

  “My hope is that, in addition to getting you familiar with how combat works here on ;Algion, we'll also be able to find something to hide that collar of yours with.”

  “Uh…” I hesitated, unsure of how I felt about the idea of having to fight other living creatures.

  “Relax,” Amy immediately said, still not the least bit shameful that she was continuing to pry around in my head. “The monsters aren’t sentient beings like you and I. If you’d like, I can give you the full technical explanation if you’re not convinced?”

  I shook my head before saying, “No, I think that might make my headache even worse than it currently is.”

  “I figured as much,” she said with a nod. “High level then?” I nodded, so she began explaining. “You know how back on Earth you took in oxygen and released carbon dioxide?”

  “Yeah, which plants then take in and use to make their food, releasing more oxygen in the process. I’m pretty sure most adults could tell you that.”

  “Well, it's sort of similar here,” Amy said, ignoring my last comment. “The biggest difference is that you play the role of both the human and the plant.”

  “I’m not sure I follow,” I said, my eyebrows furrowing.

  “While you still breathe oxygen here, it is significantly less important compared to the Mana that you take in and release. Even non-magic focused Characters such as yourself expel Mana naturally, immediately replacing it with new Mana, which is why your Mana pool never decreases except when you use it.”

  “So the Mana I release gets turned into some kind of carbon dioxide equivalent?”

  “More or less; I believe on this Server the scholars currently refer to it as ‘Anti-Mana,’ but the common folk just refer to it as ‘impure Mana.’”

  I nodded my head as I pondered what she’d said. “So you’re saying that these monsters you’re going to have me go and fight are made from this impure Mana stuff and that by defeating them it somehow purifies the Mana?” I asked, glancing down at my feline wikipedia-like friend who was currently licking one of her paws clean.

  “Aw, I’m your friend?” She asked sarcastically, causing me to immediately scowl. She ignored me as she continued, “Yes, that’s essentially the gist of it.”

  “But what about magic focused Characters?” I asked, curious if there was a difference since she’d specifically called out my non-magical nature.

  “What about them?” Amy asked, pausing from her cleaning to look up at me, as if confused by my question.

  “Don’t they expel more Mana than someone like myself? Wouldn't attacking with magic result in a net negative or something since that uses Mana to attack I’m assuming?”

  “Don’t be silly,” Amy said, a tone of amusement in her voice. “That would be stupid, and mean there would be no reason to pick a magic based Class.”

  “But–” I started, only to immediately get cut off.

  “Do you want the full explanation after all?”

  “No, but–” I began again, only to again get cut off.

  “It sounds to me like you want the full explanation,” Amy said. I glared at her, only to realize that she was appearing to enjoy this. I sighed and stored my waterskin back in my Personal Space before standing.

  “Whatever, let’s just go ahead and get this over with, I guess. Which way to the dungeon?”

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