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The air seemed to carry the weight of hesitation as the air filled with a low hum of static. Technically… you can get a second class after you gain at least a rank in your primary class. However, you do have nearly 98% potential in both warrior and dancer.

  She knew potential had to do with how compatible the person would be with a class, but the fact she was almost completely in line for the pair surprised her. She wasn’t nearly that limber on Earth, and she had never wielded a weapon before. “How?”

  Not sure. Most people understand their potentials. If you don’t, how do you expect me to? Maybe it’s because of how you reproportioned your body? I know you made special arrangements before your arrival.

  Well, fair enough, River thought to herself as she looked between the two classes. “So, can I take them both?”

  Technically. The voice of Gama hesitated again, and the same buzz of sound dulled the air. But I could get in trouble.

  “You just said I could though,” River pointed out.

  A long pause, buzzing excluded, left River to her own devices as she continued to wonder at the reality of her new form. If only she had looked like this back on Earth. The thought was a sad one, but her old life was behind her. She touched the side of her face as she looked back into those sapphire eyes that she could call her own. The ones that matched her hair so very well. Soon, the buzzing ended, and Gama’s voice returned to fill the void of her thoughts.

  Nope, have to wait like everyone else, Gama finally declared. Orders from your test adviser says to let you just take swordsman.

  Damn, she thought to herself. Well, at least she had tried. “Then give me a sword and let me go rank up.”

  Despite her enthusiasm to go and wipe out fresh lines of code in the world, Gama was having none of it just yet. She did have a job to do, after all.

  Hold your data, Miss River. We still need to set up your wardrobe.

  “Just give me whatever. I don’t care. It’s not like I’ll be keeping it long,” River said, eager to get down to the world.

  Her words seemed to strike a chord in Gama, and a silence loomed in their simple conversation. When the silence became palpable and no apology for the unintended comment came, the AI finally replied with a sharp crack.

  Fine! Gama’s voice retorted a few moments later. It was electric with annoyance as Gama’s program fit River with a shirt and pair of pants in the pinkest pink it could muster from the hexadecimal codes, #ff69b4. Strangely, the hot-pink-colored clothing complemented her sapphire eyes well enough. A few moments later, a backpack unceremoniously landed with its full weight on her back with a gravity-enhanced thud. The shock of the quickness nearly took her to the ground faster than the gravity shot did. Now that that’s out of the way, do you have a place you’d like to be put?

  She thought for a moment. Daniel... Dante had said a place… what was its name again? While she thought, time still moved around her, and she still had a rather perturbed AI waiting on her answer.

  Well?

  If only she still had the paper he had written everything down on. Why didn’t she memorize it like he said? Almost stupidly, she simply stated, or rather requested permission to just go, “With Dante?”

  Almost instantly, Gama replied. There are forty-five Dantes in Incipere, so I can’t really put you with all of them. Try again, River. Be more specific this time.

  More specific? Well, here goes nothing. “How about this. His first name used to be Daniel, and his middle name was Dante? He’s going by Dante now and should have come through about… five-ish minutes ago at most?”

  One moment. The buzz of its work returned for only a hair’s breath longer than before, but Gama returned in all its perky, directed glory with its answer. Your Dante, Dante Rior by the way, has accepted the request to join him in the city of Graywall at some local inn. I didn’t really bother to get the name of it. Don’t worry, I know how to get you there in one piece. For the next moment, Gama’s demeanor changed, and it seemed much more sincere as it spoke to its world’s newest Inciperian. Good luck out there, River, and I hope you can find a doctor soon.

  The change in the AI’s voice caught the woman off guard. Especially that last part about finding a doctor. “Why would I need a doctor? Aren’t I fine?”

  Well, Gama began with its most sincere tone. You’ll really need someone to get that stick out of your ass. It must be pretty far up there for you to be such an insufferable jerk. It’s bound to be causing some problem.

  Her face flushed as she looked rapidly from wall to wall as she tried to find the source of her tormentor once more. When she couldn’t find it again, she simply screamed into the cube’s walls. “What…!”

  But her words were heard by no one as her head began the download into Incipere proper.

  In a storm of white pixels, River and her anger were gone from the cube of blue glass and the endless expanse of stars. With River’s data downloaded safely into the world, Gama giggled to itself.

  They make it way too easy.

  Chapter Two: A Gray Haven

  Graywall, the greatest city of the northern section of Ciber, the main continent of Incipere. Outside of the mysteries of the Shadow Lands, the expanse of the Mountains of Ranar, and the first city of Dawnlo, it was considered to be one of the greatest marvels on Incipere. The secrets it held, the darkness it conquered, and the way the Wild Ones tried to reclaim it in the early days only grew its legend in the frontier that it marked the edges of. The popular opinion was that it used to be a dungeon that the first humans decimated and used for resources. Other stories talked about how it was a gift from Ellaunum once the humans forced Incipere to begin a true expansion to keep the feeling of a wide, open world. No matter the stories that were told about the city, there was one universally agreed-upon truth: with its seemingly impossible gray walls, the magnificent buildings that defied even Inciperian logic, and even the most prominent god’s temple, it was the only place that a new Inciperian could really get their feet wet.

  However, its unique heritage wasn’t the first reason for someone to want to go there.

  In Daniel’s case, it was the best place he had found in his research to help his friend adapt. Daniel Rior, now forever known by his middle name, Dante, had planned this far better than his counterpart would have even guessed. Despite being downloaded together, Dante was as always three steps ahead of the game. After making his case with their processing Auxi, it wasn’t long until he had a room ready for their arrival at The Comet’s Fall, Graywall’s newbie welcome center and, just as importantly, the cheapest inn in the city. At least, it had been according to the SIFS Wiki.

  The room wasn’t the fanciest he’d ever seen, but it was cheap and had everything they needed to do just fine. A pair of beds with a nightstand and storage chest each, a window facing out over the city, and a table with chairs were all that furnished the room. Having only had a few moments to himself, Dante was already starting to feel like he was home as he opened his screens to see his mage class’s abilities and spells that were just waiting to help him explore the world.

  “Not a bad haul,” he said to himself with a half smile. “Lots of potential here.” A fire spell, a water spell, a lightning spell, scan and… detect too? With his lineup, he had flexibility, power, and more importantly, a way to keep him far away from the front lines of combat.

  As he continued to read through the list of abilities and their descriptions, a message pinged loudly in his ear, and a voice made itself known to him.

  Gama => Dante Rior: Hey, Newbie. I’ve got a woman named River asking if she can join you. She’s kinda cute if you like the whole blue hair thing, but a total pain in my code. Take her off my sensors?

  At least I know she’s not getting cold feet, he thought to himself. Can’t wait to see her face after the download though! If she looks even half as sick as I felt, it’ll be priceless.

  Dante Rior => Gama: Yes, Gama. She’s more than welcomed to come.

  Dante chuckled for a moment at his pla
n, but began to grow slightly worried as the silence persisted for more than a minute. His worry was unfounded though as Gama’s next message came in hot.

  Gama => Dante Rior: Incoming! I riled her up a bit.

  And that… did not sound like a good thing.

  Dante Rior => Gama: And why did you do that?

  Gama => Dante Rior: Honestly, she made my processes do a secondary scan. She’s a bit self-centered.

  Normally, knowing that his friend was angry would be a cause to prep himself, but despite Gama’s words, he just smiled as he opened his options menu and began to adjust the notification volumes. Even if she was riled up, as Gama put it, maybe he’d get to see some of the old Jordan, River, once she arrived. It’d been far too long.

  Soon after that final message, light began to fill the modestly sized room, and the wire frame of a woman began to emerge from the chaos of the download. If he was being honest with himself, he had to say that it wasn’t a bad look for her if the wire frames filled itself in the way he thought it would. The serene, detailed scene of the woman’s form materializing wasn’t one to last though. Once the color and clothing began to materialize to fill the form in, the anger in her face and seating in her posture were apparent, and a voice echoed out into the room with the fury and the intensity of a woman scorned that almost matched the intensity of the pink in her clothing.

  “Say that to my face, Gama!” River nearly yelled, but she didn’t even have a chance to process the change in environment before her stomach fell. Her face fell with it a moment later and warped into one of the most uncomfortably sick looks Dante had ever seen. “Oh god!” soon followed her threat as she reached out to hold onto the edge of a chair while wearing the pinkest thing he’d ever seen his friend in.

  However, it was just another thing he’d have to remind her about when the time for friendly teasing began again.

  Taking a few steps closer to her, Dante waited for his presence to be noticed. “Well, hello there, River Hexi,” he said with a smile before taking a screenshot with a hand gesture. “Interesting choice of name by the way, but I should have figured.”

  Simply raising a middle finger in response, both to silence and insult him, River did her best to steady her new body. To Dante, the sight was pretty comical as she heaved deeply. He had read vomiting was impossible, but no one really seemed to want to report on those kinds of things on the SIFS. If it wasn’t a true status effect, it didn’t exist in the eyes of the outside world. She must have really pissed Gama off to have it that bad or maybe it was all finalized changes she had made. Either way, he waited patiently for her to recover and look around at things properly.

  “Oh wow…” The phrase was simple as it made its way from her mouth first. Without much care for her friend’s attentions, she rushed over to the window and threw it and the shutters wide open. As the wind rushed in to greet her, something was very clear; they weren’t on Earth anymore. Gone were the smells of a sanitary city, and gone were the scents of ionization and steel. In their stead was the scent of dry dirt, warm stone, baking bread and meat on a crackling fire and freshly cut grass… not that she recognized many of the latter smells.

  Careful not to approach her from behind, he went to her side and smiled as he took in the same air once more. He had done the same thing not a minute after he beat her there. “More than we could have dreamed. Right?”

  She simply nodded as her eyes closed and her mind continued to process everything. The wooden floor under her feet was solid as she stood at the window. The wind was just as real as her deeply blue hair wafting like her namesake. The emotions she felt within still brought life to her beating heart. Her hand moving shakily to her chest, she finally managed to say something with a little more meaning than surprise. “Did you know it was like this?”

  Partly, he thought to himself with a bit of a smile. “Only a little. I’m still trying to figure out what some of those smells are.”

  She turned to him, taking him in fully for the first time with a slight grin on her face. He hadn’t changed himself all that much. Maybe a bit taller? As she spoke, her expression said one thing, but her words said another. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know,” Dante admitted with a slight grin. “I had no idea it’d be this real. Reports were so conflicting that I couldn’t be sure on anything even after the SIFS opened.”

  To his words, she had no answer. In the past two years, she hadn’t been sure of anything. Everything had seemed so far gone that even hope had been a far-flung dream. Only two things had kept her going as she smiled towards her friend, and one of them was right in front of her. “I wouldn’t be here without you, Dante. Well, you and Auxi 42.” At her words, she waited for some sort of reaction, but that stupid grin he wore was all she needed to confirm his thanks. As her emotions started to get the better of her, she couldn’t stop there. “I’m serious. You’re the only one that stuck around after everything. You’re the only one that believed in me, even when I didn’t. I can’t ever really show you how much this means to me.”

  To her surprise, the smile dimmed on his face as he studied her. “I never had any doubts that you could do it, River. You wouldn’t be here otherwise,” came his almost-deadpan response before he looked back out the window. “Incipere doesn’t accept people it sees as worthless. You got here on your own.” The smile returned to his face a moment later. “I’d actually been planning this for some time, if we’re sharing our thoughts.”

  The idea didn’t seem to surprise the woman as she turned to join him in looking out over the streets. In their need and friendship, they were a pair as she took in the breeze again for a moment before she spoke. “Was it really that bad for you too?”

  “It was boring,” he answered after a few moments, thoughtfully. “In some ways, that’s worse. There was nothing there for me to really test myself against that hadn’t already been done before. When you really look at it, Earth just wasn’t for me.” He took a deep breath and sighed as he looked out across the landscape towards the borders of his sight. “I was never close to my family, and our so-called friends… well… you know what they did.”

  “What they didn’t do,” River reminded him as the breeze caught her hair once more as she watched the sun slowly begin to set on the horizon.

  “Yeah…” he answered absently with a frown marring the edges of his face.

  “Yeah,” River agreed without the drone that Dante had. In her heart, she had a hard time really blaming them for it, but she wanted to believe she would have been better in their places as a simmering anger was pushed back down into her heart. “Well, you know what they say about hard times.”

  “That they show you who your real friends are?” her friend offered with a wry smile.

  River shook her head gently as she enjoyed the view and the sound of nothingness that lingered for a moment. “It shows you who the assholes are.”

  The words made Dante smile and River relax just a little bit more as the sun began to set over the outer wall of the city at the edge of the horizon. The pair continued to watch for a long time as the differences within the world truly asserted themselves. The sun, the sky, the newly born stars of night, and the fresh, clean air was more than enough to make the two quickly forget about any hesitations they had about leaving their once home. Data or DNA, it didn’t matter when they still had each other.

  Life was life, friends were friends, and a second chance was something that should never, ever be passed up.

  Chapter Three: Bogged Down

  Time on Incipere is a fickle thing. For some, it moved faster than it should. For others, time crawled by like a glacier. For this pair, it was moving just as they had planned. In a single month, the pair had pushed themselves further and faster than Dante would have liked, but it was all worth it in her eyes.

  “Twenty-four!” River almost laughed as she dispatched another Wild One. “You’re falling behind, Dante!”

  “My spells take durability!” Dante
argued. “I’m saving it for the big ones.”

  Exhaustion had become a thing of the past as River learned the limits of her new body, and a smile painted her face as she looked back at the path she had just carved in the local Wild One population. Two dozen Shadow and Water spawns, a couple bog hags, a particularly dangerous tree, and a slew of other small swamp monsters had filled her inventory with bytes, crafting supplies, and more as she artfully dodged their attacks before slamming her nearly blunted sword into their barely-there shells with a sickly splat, crack, or cry followed quickly by a flash of light. Ever since she had taken the dancer class and took her dual class as a Blade Dancer, she was as light on her feet as she was deadly.

  Most importantly though and after everything they had done, the pair was still together, and at rank four, they stood at the entrance to a dark, dreary cave in the Bog of Shadows, the swamplands to the south of Graywall.

  “Is this really it?” River asked, only slightly winded as she looked at her integrity. Any spawn sucked on the surface when they had the run of things, but at least they couldn’t do that much to her in her heavy armor even if they could touch her. The set might have been a worn affair, but it was still better than Dante’s robes that soaked and dragged as he carried that small orb of a focus around.

  Finally catching up, Dante opened up his windows and flipped over to the SIFS tab. Checking the wiki pages as he always did when they trained, he nodded, making the screen vanish back into code. “The Dungeon of the Land-Locked Tides, a rank-three dungeon.”

  “Really?” she repeated. “What kind of stupid name is the Dungeon of Land-Locked Tides?”

  He shrugged in response before he smiled back. “The kind that’s literal?” he offered, looking at the small, dry area that the cave opening sat on. Turning the screen to her, she read the entry he so helpfully pointed out.

  SIFS Entry: The Dungeon of Land-Locked Tides

  Recommended Rank: Three