>>><<<

  [System Notification: You Got Mail!]

  >>><<<

  An orange halo surrounded the mailbox next to the prison. The notification on my interface vanished when I rotated my head away from the mailbox. It was time to cross the street and make our way through the other players, who hung around the prison entrance waiting to get a reward or free a friend.

  “Are you ready to go?” I asked Triangle.

  Triangle patted the cat one last time and picked some flowers that bloomed nearby into his inventory before following me to the mailbox. The player hunters moved aside as Triangle ran up to the prison. One player even nodded his head at me, like we were two parents passing each other at the grocery store in a supportive nod.

  Once I opened up the mailbox, I instantly received four thousand gold coins from CheezWiz with a note saying, “This should be enough to free Naiad. Do something besides dailies.”

  I nodded, even though CheezWiz couldn’t see it. The same old dailies bored me, and there was still a lot to see on the Fanamel continent. I wanted us to leave the capitol and have monster-fighting-fun, but the promise I made to Beth echoed through my head. The vow made the game slow, and honestly boring. At least slice-of-life farming games had an objective, this felt like the longest escort mission ever and the NPC even forgot its destination.

  I glanced at my stats; I had the lowest ones in the guild with how we played.

  >>><<<

  Player Name: Boulder

  Level: 4

  Race: Human

  Class: N/A

  Affiliations: None

  Status Buffs: None

  Expanded Details: Skill stats:

  Strength 3 | Dexterity 2 | Constitution 6

  Fortitude: 1.25 | Reflex 1 | Will 1

  >>><<<

  I wasn’t ready for grand adventures, and neither was the family. We were too under-leveled and had to stay in the city. Maybe we could make our own pottery guild so could stop collecting it.

  [Guild Chat]

  [Boulder: Thanks, CheezWhiz.]

  I never got a reply. The man was likely concentrating on a real altercation. I wanted to do a battle today, one that wouldn’t scare Naiad or Triangle too much, but at least get rid of today’s tension by swinging my axe around.

  Triangle and I entered the courthouse. The only NPCs I could talk to were the ones wearing powdered and perfumed wigs. Everything had a scent of basil on it. Triangle’s presence could break all the NPC guards as he walked by. They flinched and would grin down at seeing him, instead of the stoic face they gave me.

  “I have a fish!” he would say. Or he ran up and pulled out his catch of the day. “Do you want to see Goldy?”

  The guards would break character and bend down to look at his pet. One even gave him a fish tank. “Child, take care of it. Don’t overfeed it, or it will grow too big. This fish likes to hunt.”

  “Okay!” chimed Triangle back.

  It could have been because of his smile, but the light around Triangle became brighter, and my shadow grew as we got further into the old musty building to find his sister. With the coin CheezWiz gave me, I paid the bail on Naiad. When she came out, I stood in front of Triangle, ready to block her incoming rage.

  Instead, she rounded the corner with the biggest grin on her face. “That was so much fun! We’ve got to do more of that.”

  I chuckled at her enthusiasm. “It was definitely a new adventure, but let’s not go breaking the rules anymore.”

  Both Triangle and Naiad stuck their tongues at me as we walked back out of the courthouse and onto the main street of Fanamel. Twisting my head around and looking at my map, we could make our way to the richer part of the city with a quick stroll.

  “Why don’t we head to the Northern streets and look for some crafting quests to unlock new class quests?” I asked the kids. “Or we can try my NPC because she owns a pottery shop?”

  “No, Dad,” Naiad stopped walking and put her hands on her hips. “When you were sick, Grandma took us out of town, and it was fun.”

  “Grandma wasn’t supposed to take you to the mountains, and look what happened to CheezWiz!”

  Triangle bowed his head. “I didn’t mean to.”

  From what I heard from everyone involved, Triangle had tossed the bomb to show off his new ability he got from his class quest to CheezWiz. No one knew how powerful it was then.

  “I know, bud, it was an accident, but we have to be careful with your bombs. They can hurt anyone or anything around them. Or else we end up like CheezWiz on another continent.”

  “Or we can apparently take a boat and do that,” Naiad sassed back.

  “If we find and do class quests, we get more direction in the game, to avoid trouble like that.” I explained to her.

  She counted off on her fingers. “Dad has to unlock his class quest. My quest says I have to look for tracks, and the best place to do that is outside the city in the woods. Or we can continue Triangle’s.” Her voice perked up, and she pointed at Triangle. “You’ve got that quest to blow things up. Let’s go to the fancy part of the city and see what we can do.”

  Triangle ditched standing beside me and joined the other side of the argument. “Yeah! It was fun with the sheep.”

  “What sheep?” Neither kid answered me as they turned to run to whitewashed buildings and churches. I had to stop them as I ran in front of them. “This game can be fun without explosions. We can uhh…”

  My voice trailed off as I tried to think of what to do in virtual games that weren’t hunting monsters. “Farm, open a coffee shop, umm…” I was trying to think of other slice-of-life games that a young kid could do.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “I want to shoot large slimes and make friends with other creatures.” Naiad explained as she side-stepped around me. “The ones outside of the city.”

  Triangle pulled out his little dagger. “I want to fight something too!”

  “Put that away before you hurt someone on the street,” I lectured him. I was done with dealing with guards and poor random strangers dealing with my child.

  “Dad', you’re trying to get a new shield, for what? Your costume design?” Naiad pushed again.

  “In case I have to protect you.”

  “From a burning cup of coffee?” She nudged her brother to join in. “What do you think he is protecting us from if we were on the farm?”

  “Weeds?” He was losing interest in the conversation, determined to get to the heart of the city. In his small little hand, I heard the jingling sound of his newest weapon.

  “Look, look, okay.” I sighed, hands outstretched. “If you could let me finish my daily to get that shield, I will use it to protect you outside the city. But you have to listen to me.”

  “Will you let us fight monsters? We handled those rats in the city fine!”

  Triangle put his bomb away and stabbed with his knife again. “I got two rats!”

  I got between him and the people walking around us. “Yes, you did, so put that away now or we aren’t going outside to fight anything.”

  I hated myself for saying the words because I was breaking my promise to Beth. Well, actually, her mom broke the promise first. Triangle listened finally and put his knife away.

  “You’ll let us play outside?” Naiad asked.

  “Yes, I told your mom I’d let you play how you wanted to,” I explained. I could only play this game if the kids wanted to play it and that I wouldn’t control how they played. This wasn’t my game only. That statement is what would keep me grounded from slipping into past habits too.

  “To the broken pots!” Triangle cheered.

  “We’re going to have so much fun!” Naiad skipped along.

  With a deep breath, I joined in their smiles, and felt the joy radiating from them. A big part of me was excited to see what monsters Seconds-Over offered. “Yeah, we are.”

  The game had a ton of safety features in for him, and Naiad being quick, along with my veteran gaming experience, we could handle the surrounding woods. To confirm, I looked at Naiad’s stats.

  >>><<<

  Player Name: Naiad

  Level: 5

  Race: Half-breed (elf + human)

  Class: Scout

  Affiliations: None

  Status Buffs: None

  >>><<<

  She grabbed the bow on the first day we started and didn’t switch weapons once, gaining some proficiency with it. I could keep the enemies slow for her while she poked at them with consistent damage. She wasn’t our strongest player.

  >>><<<

  Player Name: Triangle

  Level: 6

  Race: Half-breed (gnome + human)

  Class: Tinker

  Affiliations: Goblin’s Apprentice

  Status Buffs: None

  >>><<<

  In the few days I was out sick, Triangle ended up as a tinker. Tinkers are normally shopkeepers, but in the hands of a child, things became explosive. He had a fanny pack where he could easily access his bombs and snappers. Everyone in the guild prayed he would pull out the smoke bombs during fights, instead of the explosive bombs.

  He would be our last-minute resort if things went wrong.

  I put a hand on Triangle’s shoulder. “Do you have enough smoke bombs for when we go out?”

  “Some, but I have more bombs!” He cackled as he patted his red fanny pack.

  “You’re scary when you laugh like that.” I told him, giving him some space. “Remember to watch out for us if you ever throw the bombs. Friendly fire is a real thing here.”

  “I know…” His head lowered. He dashed to catch up with Naiad as we walked toward my daily quest.

  We owed CheezWiz a lot of keys for all his help. He laughed about his death to Triangle and begged for keys for his own guild hall entrance - a place for player housing and business that connected to our main hall here in Fanamel with three of his friends. CheezWiz could’ve started his own guild, but stayed with the Shrimp Guild because he liked shrimp.

  “Sorry, Triangle,” I said. “I was too hard on you there. It’s just a game, and this shield will protect us, especially with how I need to catch up in level to you guys.”

  Triangle looked above my head and started counting on his fingers. “You’re two levels behind me!” he declared victoriously.

  “Good job on the math.” I gave him a thumbs-up and started thinking about his schoolwork. Did first graders start arithmetic already? That was not on the last take-home worksheet from school.

  He continued to count the number of horse hooves that passed us as we walked, showing how he could do it by four. Listening closely, I could hear him mumble the numbers in between and talk about points to various plants. We passed a community bulletin board where players put calls for help.

  “Tank wanted for guild. Blacksmith in the guild. DM Moogie.”

  “Looking for adventure escort into the mountain caves. DM Rangaera.”

  “Information on Alchemist class quest wanted. PotHolder.”

  The papers covered the board, and a lot of the requests were still the same ones as last week. None of them were interesting to me.

  We stopped where an old lady swept the street outside her shop.

  The shop displayed multiple colorful pots, statues, and various parts for tools. The smoke billowed out of the roof from the kiln inside. Shards of broken pottery were being swept into piles. She hummed to herself as she pushed the broom, and more shards spawned beneath her to sweep. An endless spawn until a player engaged with her.

  I patted Triangle’s head and said, “Time me. Let’s see how fast I can get all the pieces!”

  “Okay,” said Triangle. A stopwatch appeared instantly started above his head with no warning.

  I rushed forward. The old NPC began to apologize, but I cut her off. “Hello Mrs. Crockery, I see you ran into those hooligans again.”

  “Oh, yes…” Mrs. Crockery’s cracked voice filled the air. Heavy smoking and the kiln fumes caused her raspy voice.

  I zoned out the rest as I quickly picked up the various pieces and put them in a bucket nearby with care. If I prevented the pieces from chipping further, I would gain a better reputation with Mrs. Crockery. This quest was only available once a day, as long as no other player took part in the quest event.

  It was rare for that to happen.

  Only a few players became tanks. It meant dealing the least damage, moving the least, not being flashy, and taking all the hits. In a game that was about feeling real, getting hit did not appeal to anyone. As a tank, you want a shielding ability. Through the shop’s glass window, I could see a shield with an intricate carved pattern on display in the back wall, but Mrs. Crockery wouldn’t let me in until I proved I wasn’t a hooligan.

  “Then they threw rocks and almost broke the display window!” the woman cried, dropping the broom on the ground next to me just as I put the last shard in the bucket.

  The mix of her crying, but the animated hearts above her head indicating I improved my reputation, sent all sorts of mixed signals to my brain. I was happy, but had to remember her tears weren’t from a real person. At least I was done with the gathering of shards.

  I glanced at Triangle to see what my time was.

  Neither kid had seen me finish. They gave up waiting, bored on the dailies as much as I was.

  Naiad stood on patrol above Triangle, who was now digging up something out of the planted pot nearby. The timer was still going above his head, already past two minutes. Triangle couldn’t pay attention for two whole minutes. He pulled out a centipede and wiggled it at Naiad, who laughed and gathered it in her hand.

  The archerfish that Triangle had caught earlier appeared in his hands. The large fish inhaled the bug up instantly. With a pat on his head, he sent the fish back to his inventory. I needed to ask how the fish stayed alive in his inventory.

  Before I could go over and ask, a new message blasted my interface.

  >>><<<

  [A Quest! Mrs. Crockery wants you to put a stop to the hooligans who are throwing rocks at her store.

  Accept: Yes or No?]

  >>><<<

  “Yes!” I jumped and shouted, startling poor Mrs. Crockery.

  She grabbed the bucket from my arms, smiling nervously at me. I noticed Naiad had noticed and I waved her over, but she ignored me and continued her older sibling’s duty of keeping an eye on Triangle.

  The woman took a deep breath and said with a polite smile, “If you could stop them from destroying my shop display, it would mean a lot to me, and save me from losing products, too.”

  “Of course. Any clue who did it?” I inquired.

  The woman raised her eyebrows. “I already told you that Mr. Crockery found pieces outside of the eastern wall.”

  “Any clue on what they looked like?”

  “Hooligans!” she puffed and rattled the bucket of pottery, annoyed at having to repeat her words. “They wore their hoods and came from the shadows, purposely making it difficult to determine who they were. They were shorter and narrower than me but ran quickly like young-ins do when causing trouble.”

  People shorter than Naiad, but taller than Triangle. Hoods and eastern wall. It was a start. Seconds-Over did not throw quest markers over an NPC’s head or a location about any quest information. I was going to have to investigate on my own. At least I finally earned enough reputation with her to work towards a class quest. I had to do this today. “Thanks for explaining it again. You’ll be hearing from me shortly!”

  It was about time for our family to leave this boring city and have fun.