Time left for Tier 1: 6 Days, 20 hours.

  I slipped the coat on over my Super Mario T-shirt and felt a sharp haptic buzz course through my body. A faint ding went off internally in my head and I felt an almost unnerving pull to open my main inventory.

  As I brought the main inventory window up on my HUD I could see there was now a few tabs at the top, These tabs featured various labels on them. The general Inventory seemed to hold everything I had collected so far. Which was a couple of hides and the jacket I was wearing, along with my trusty lead pipe and the rest of my current outfit, Which appeared to all be of the common rarity and called basically the same thing. Pre-trials common (basic name for the item) like Shirt, or shoes. In the bottom left corner of the Jacket, the rest of my clothes, and the pipe in my right hand was a large letter E displayed. Which with my extensive experience with role playing games, probably meant they were equipped. I looked at the picture of the pipe and then my own right hand holding the lead pipe. I took it into my inventory and it left my hand. Also removing the letter E from the corner of its item frame.

  “Yup, it means Equipped, good to know.” I said to myself.

  The jacket had a faded lime green background to it indicating its rarity. Still, the coolest thing to me so far was the rarity system. Any and all items that you found in the Trials would be given a background with a specific color indicating how rare something was, starting with common items and going all the way up to mythical. So far just my jacket was above the common rating and that was only at the Uncommon rank. I had only been in the dungeon for about four or five hours so far total, so overall I’m guessing that’s pretty good. Just the helpfulness of knowing whether something is probably better than something else without having to do a deep analysis of it was pretty freaking cool.

  The next tab in my inventory said Craftable and it just held the animal hide. The following Tab was called Armor/Apparel. It showed the various things I was wearing. The last tab for now, as I’m pretty sure more tabs will appear as I discover new loot that belonged in other categories, is Weapons. In the tab was one item, the lead pipe I have been clinging to like a life preserver since I ripped it from the wall to fight off giant ducks. Just thinking about that was fucking ridiculous. Since I woke up a few hours ago I’ve already fought off a giant duck, two Giant porcupines, and a host of 9ther woodland critters. Along with being taught basic game mechanics by a giant Lion man. Also, I have appeared to have acquired this pink-purple cheerleader sprite. Who was now following me around like god damn Na’vi from Ocarina of Time.

  “Hey TAI can I ask you something personal,” I attempted to ask again since my last inquiry was interrupted by the discovery of my new jacket. I started moving the porcupines corpses out of my way so I could leave the room I was currently trapped in.

  “Absolutely, Voyager, I am your personal AI for the Trials, I encourage you to ask me as many questions as you can, you’re going to need all the help you can get, you’re kind of a mess at this so far.” She responded in that way to chipper voice, and did she just say I suck at this? Great.

  “What does that mean really? You’re my personal AI, So you’re here to what, help me?”

  “Absolutely Voyager, I’m here to increase your chances of being successful in the Trials. I can’t guarantee you will survive but I will try. I’m also here to help you be as entertaining as possible. I can do many things for you too. I can evaluate how well you performed in combat and let you know how to improve, I can advise on how to proceed with a task. I cannot however tell you how to beat an enemy before you fight them or join you in combat myself. In order for you to gain combat assistance you will have to either find another Voyager or recruit an NPC within the Trials that is willing to join you.”

  “Got it, so are you supposed to be so Chipper and happy all the time or is that just a personal choice? Either way, you could calm it down a little bit. It’s just a little unsettling being in mortal peril and hearing a cheerleader telling you disturbing shit in the background.” I asked warily, worried I would insult her for her personality choices. Which was insane. I just crushed two giant rodents with a loose lead pipe and now I’m worrying about the feelings of a computer-generated fairy sprite person things.

  “You may request any personality changes you would prefer, Voyager I will attempt to simulate them to the best of my ability” She responded in a flat even monotone. I couldn’t tell if this was some kind of generic attitude mode or if TAI was just fucking with me.

  “How about we go about 50 percent of the last personality, not overly chipper but still in a positive mindset.” I didn’t want some weird goth, emo girl monotone cheering me on, or for my death or whatever.

  “Is this more to your preference Voyager?” She asked in an upbeat but rather normal voice. It was a huge improvement over both the former voices.

  “Yeah, that’s perfect, now on to what you can do. Can you see any more of this floor than I can and are you allowed to suggest which way I should go? I’m absolutely fucking lost right now and I could use a nudge in the right direction.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Well, first I have to ask how dangerous you want your interactions to be. That will change what I suggest.”

  “Let’s go with like a four out of ten. one being I would have to fall asleep to die, and ten being ‘Holy shit why the fuck would you send me this way you sadistic AI’ or something like that,” I responded trying to be nonchalant.

  “So, you will live but may call out for your momma from time to time?”

  “Yeah that should work”

  “then I suggest we head down the Left hallway once you leave this room.” She said in a helpful fashion.

  “Sounds good,” I said as I finished moving the now-conjoined corpses of the porcupine giants. I poked my head out into the hall looking in both directions for anything else planning on burrowing into me. It was a wasteland of a hallway. Everything was rusted to the point you would believe the place had existed for over a century just rotting away. I took a left out the door heading for another intersection about a quarter mile away. Doors lined the walls every few hundred feet. TAI told me these were mainly empty. I wasn’t sure if any had important stuff in them so I started opening the ones that weren’t empty and had no lock.

  I opened the first door TAI indicated wasn’t a blank space. Inside I found a crying person, but not a human. They were about normal preteen size, I would assume between eleven and fourteen. That is only if they aged similarly to a human, but this teen also had red skin and small protruding horns on his head.

  “Uh, hey there. What are you doing here?” I asked cautiously, waiting for this to be some elaborate fucked up situation where the game makes me murder some weird kid creature demon thing.

  The alien nonhuman thing continued to sob into their arms, not looking up. I began moving closer, inching carefully toward them. Reaching out a hand to touch them. I got within an arm’s reach and shook the elbow of the small creature. Their head shot up to look at me with a terrified expression that immediately made me feel like an asshole.

  “Please don’t hurt me, I promise I’m not a monster, I promise, I promise.” He cried. He looked up at me and I saw his eyes. They were a deep honey gold. They reflected all luminescent light back at the viewer and were slightly slotted like a cat or a dragon.

  “I’m not gonna hurt you, buddy, what are you doing in here all alone? Where did you come from?” I asked while attempting to reassure him. I stood back up to full height and moved back to the door to keep an eye out for threats. “What’s going on here, why are you hiding in this room? Is someone after you?”

  “You’re a Voyager, right?” He asked in fear.

  “Yeah, that’s what they tell me. isn’t that right TAI?” I tried to say in a calm, relaxed voice to give the kid some ease.

  “Do you wish for me to be visible to this NPC child? I am your AI guide, only you can perceive me unless you wish for me to be perceptible to others” She informed me, which did explain why I was getting a weird look from the kid.

  “yeah, for now on just be visible to any white dot NPCs. Stay invisible for Red Dots. That way only friendly units will be aware of you. Anyway, can you let this kid know I’m not a threat to them?”

  “It is true small child, Nathan here is not harmful to you, he is still very new and less prone to unnecessary violence than the other Voyagers are.” She explained to the child.

  “He, he is? You aren’t going to try and beat me up or anything, the last person I saw that looked like you attacked my village. I ran away while the rest of my people fought him off. I don’t know what happened to them, I just kept running. Then a bunch of other monsters showed up and started chasing me, so I just kept running till I lost them and then I hid in this room until you came threw the door and started talking to me.” He rambled on nervously as preteens tended to do. “So your saying your a real Voyager that doesn’t just attack everything on sight?”

  “Yes he is. So far this Voyager has taken on any challenges presented to him, but has shown willingness to avoid them when possible and has never displayed any wants to seek out the violence that others find enjoyable. I feel he may be the best candidate in the Trials to help assist you with your current predicament.” TAI spoke in a more factual neutral tone to the small child than she usually did to me. It was odd how she interacted with the guy, like she didn’t see them as young. I’d have to remember to ask her about that later if I had a chance and remembered to do so.

  “Yeah, whatever the floating fairy just said. I’m the good guy in this situation. Which is honestly kind of a turn around from my normal life. so what’s your plan kid, and what’s your name? You want to head home and see what we can figure out or do you have another location you want to get to?” I questioned him.

  I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon so I figured I could help him out and gain some levels and equipment along the way. It sounded like it wasn’t exactly a safe treck back to his place. I stood up and offered them a hand so they could get back to their feet.

  They took it and stood up. First thing I noticed was their weight and height. They were solidly built, kid probably weighed nearly as much as I did, but definitely didn’t look like it, and they were roughly five feet tall. I’m not a small guy myself standing at about six feet two inches tall, and weigh about two hundred pounds. This kid was close in weight and only about a foot shorter. They had bright red skin with little horns on his forehead and both his nails and teeth were black. If I had to describe them to someone I would say they looked like a demon child.

  “What are you exactly kid?”

  “I’m a boy, my names Marco.” he responded

  “I mean like what are you? you look like a demon or some kind of devil child.”

  “Oh, I am an incubus, I ‘m sorry I’m not use to talking to other races. My whole village is Incubi and Succubi.” He answered more thoroughly.

  “That makes sense, your people aren’t going to seduce me with some weird magic are they? Is that possible TAI?” I had to ask, this would be a bad idea for a mission if it would just result in my enslavement by sexy demon ladies. not the worst thing that could end me but still freedom is preferable. “I don’t want to be hypnotized by some sexy Succubi ladies.”

  “No Voyager, the succubi and incubi of civilized NPC villages are inert when it comes to their seduction magic. Succubi you meet out in the wild will be a different story, they will try to talk you into being seduced, will have their way with you, and force you to endure carnal urges until you die of dehydration, exhaustion, and hunger. Not the worst way to go.” She was starting to be a really helpful source of information.

  “Good to know then, Alright kid I’m in to help you. What is your plan, want to go back or want to find yourself a new place to live? I’m down for either option but it will take a little bit of time as I need to do some leveling before hand or I will die pretty handedly, against any major problems we face.” I tried to add some bravado and authority to my voice. I wasn’t sure if it worked, i’m kind of winging it right now and am constantly riding the adrenaline high.

  “I think I want to try and help my village if we can. It wouldn’t be right for me to leave them as they were, if nothing else I need to rebuild it in their honor.” He said and then his change toned and he stared blankly off in the middle distance. I recognized the look. He resembled a normal NPC in the older MMORPG games I use to play. “Will you accept my request Voyager? Will you complete the Quest I offer you?” he said in a low monotone and stared at my emotionless, awaiting my response. It was extremely creepy.

  “I guess”