BACK TO THE PRESENT

Once Kopius had finished, the two men stood there in silence processing the information. The only time Oh-jin made any movements during the whole story was when Kopius spoke of the skeletal remains. Besides that, the old man listened patiently.

"Soooo," Kopius said, breaking the silence, "does any of this sound, I don't know, normal?"

"Yes." Oh-jin offered in a small, distant voice, slightly shaking his head in disbelief. He then stood up straight, adjusted his leather apron, and cleared his throat.

"Yes." Oh-jin repeated with more authority. "I do not know where to begin exactly. You see, Lexsore was to inform all adventurers upon their arrival and escort them here. I give them the tools to start their journey. What I can tell you," Oh-jin paused, "is that I am here to help. What Lexsore was to tell you, I will have to look among his notes."

It sounded to Kopius that some man named Lexsore was supposed to give new arrivals the background story while escorting them to Oh-jin, who would then give next step instructions; supplies too. While all of this was well enough to advance a storyline, Kopius still had no answers to his predicament.

It's like the authors of the game weren't even trying, Kopius thought.

"Your friend, Lexsore," Kopius began, "He was supposed to bring me here?"

"Yes," Oh-jin said.

"I'm guessing he would have told me what was going on, why I'm here, things like that?" Kopius continued.

"Well, of course. This whole business would be quite confusing otherwise."

More broken than confusing, Kopius thought. Let's just keep it moving along.

"Once Lexsore had escorted me here, what then? What would you have done?" Kopius asked, hoping to move the story along. His current line of thinking was that if he continued advancing the game, eventually, the system would fix itself. Also, he figured if he was going to be here for the foreseeable future, he did not want to spend it cooped up in a medieval lab.

"Well then," Oh-jin perked up, "First I offer the marshromo, as all are hungry after such a great journey. Next, I would document their profiles using my Peek skill. From there, they are fitted with basic gear, a weapon, and a small pack for food," he said, gesturing at the sack he had come back with earlier.

"That's it?" Kopius said with some surprise.

"No, boy! I have more to offer than treats for the welcoming! You will discover one shortly as I know how to fix your profile's visibility."

"Really?" Kopius sputtered.

"Yes," Oh-jin answered. "It has been some time, but the ingredients are simple enough. An old midwife recipe from my people… "

He turned back to look at his laboratory. The old man started to point indiscriminately around the room, murmuring to himself.

"Cyanins, optical-quartz, powdered fern, and…" He was a bit puzzled and started to rummage through a shelf just behind him. "I will need a petal from an eyebright flower."

"Kopius," Oh-jin said, turning back to face him, "if you would like my help, I can offer you this. Lexsore was a most studious man and kept extensive writings in his many, many notebooks. I must look through them in order to, eh, fill in the blanks," he replied, almost as a question. Like one would using a phrase they were not totally familiar with. "In the meantime, if you accept, I will need several petals from a flower called an eyebright. This last ingredient is needed to create a remedy that will clear the absence of your full profile. Do you accept?"

For the first time in a while, a notification window with a glittering bronze border popped into Kopius's field of vision. It was absent of any words, but when Kopius tried to mentally shut it the window did not close. He tried several times, flexing his mental smite button, but the window remained.

On a whim, Kopius thought, Yes? and the window disappeared. A bit of a smile crested his face as he guessed that he had just accepted his first quest.

"Excellent!" Oh-jin shouted, clasping his hands together loudly. "The flower can be found by rivers, mostly in dammed areas where trees have fallen. They have white petals, yellow centers, hard thorny stems, and grow in bunches of seven." Oh-jin paused to hand over the small pouch with a drawstring to Kopius. "Use this to gather at least a full flower, five petals."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Simple enough," Kopius replied, "but I didn't see any rivers out there." He motioned beyond the door he had first run through.

"You will not be going out there," Oh-jin chuckled. "You will need to go up there." Pointing to the ceiling.

"Up where?" Kopius said with dread, "I already climbed out of one hole today, there's no way I can climb out of here. Have you seen those cliffs?!"

"No, you will not need to climb anymore today," Oh-jin replied. "There is a lift to the surface in the back. It will take you up to another tunnel that exits just below the crest of the valley. Are you understanding so far?"

Kopius nodded.

"From there," Oh-jin continued, "once you are out of the valley, head a short distance north to the trees. Along the tree line, you will come to a river. That is where you will find the eyebright."

"The flower with white petals, yellow center, grows by downed trees," Kopius stated.

Oh-jin nodded.

"And what is this going to do for me?" Kopius asked.

"Well," Oh-jin paused to scratch at his chin, "Eyebright by itself would poison you if eaten. Now, if you dry the petals and grind them into powder, it becomes a useful ingredient for vision ailments."

"So, what, it's like a potion?" Kopius replied.

"Many plants and herbs can be used to make potions or stronger elixirs," Oh-jin said with a practiced tone. "Depending on the ingredient, it would give you any variation of enhancement to your Skills, Abilities, or magic. With some, you could see in the dark or swim without the need for air for short periods of time, say, to the count of one hundred. Potions can restore health or cure poison, among many other things. I will not bore you with the details, but stronger potions give greater enhancements for longer periods of time. To answer your question, no, I am not making a potion. I am making a remedy. A remedy to see your profile."

"I take it that everyone has their own profile they can look at?" Kopius asked.

"Of course," Oh-jin said with a bit of curiosity. "Is this not the same where you come from?"

The question caught Kopius a bit off guard. Not that it was profound, but that Oh-jin understood that Kopius had come from somewhere else. Besides the absence of his friend Lexsore, Oh-jin acted as though it was just another day at the job.

An NPC would be totally cool with random strangers showing up at their front door. Kopius thought. Hell, he's expecting them to show up! Where did he send off the others… ? Who cares where the others went! Where are we going?!

For all the internal arguments of his existence, this was a short one. Kopius was starting to feel the familiar pangs of anxiety creep into his chest, his breathing coming in shallow gasps.

How the fuck did they simulate an anxiety attack?!

"NO!" Kopius yelled, to rid him of both his thoughts and building anxiety. He took a deep breath or two before continuing. "Sorry, I, ah, I didn't mean to yell. No, we do not have anything like that." Now more collected, Kopius needed to get something off his chest.

"I would like to back up a little further–before I woke up in the cave. It may sound a little crazy," Kopius laughed, "but I just told you a crazy story." He looked about Oh-jin's shop before continuing. "I don't think any of this is real." He swept his hands around. "This is either the most lucid psychotic breakdown ever or I am stuck in a…" Kopius paused, searching for a description that wasn't 'virtual reality simulation'. It was clear that they shared a common language, yet when he used words like electrolyte and fuck, Oh-jin had obviously never heard them before.

"My real body, my physical body," Kopius said, gesturing to his current body, "is inside a chamber. That chamber sends my mind images of different places. Those places look and feel very real. It feels like you are very much in there, moving around and everything. Now, I should be able to shut down the chamber and end the images whenever I want, but right now, I can't."

"Like you are dreaming?" Oh-jin interjected.

"Yes!" Kopius exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Like a dream you can control."

"But you are unable to control the, ah, dream, now?" Oh-jin asked.

"Exactly." Kopius said with some satisfaction, feeling that the two of them were finally starting to find common ground. "Where I come from, we don't have magic. We have science. We read stories about people using magic. It's like I am stuck in a story written by a guy fresh off a mid-life crisis, trying too hard to live out his childhood dream of being an author."

"I don't know what to tell you, Kopius," Oh-jin said kindly. "When the others arrived, Lexsore had put almost all doubt to rest. There are always some with lingering doubts, but they all understood."

"Understood what?" Kopius asked, the bile building in his belly already knowing the answer.

"That they—and you—are here," Oh-jin answered softly. "I will know more once I address Lexsore's notes, but you are here."

Kopius could feel genuine empathy in the words, but his logical brain was blaring a different tune. All he could manage to do was shake his head in disbelief. "I don't even know where here is," Kopius whispered.

"Metem," Oh-jin offered. "Where we lay within the stars I do not know, but this world is known as Metem."

"Metem." Kopius breathed the word in as he said it, filling his lungs and exhaling for a long while. His logical brain was telling him that this was all a game, while another voice had just crept in and asked him 'what if?'.

What if this is real? What if I am really here? His head spun as his logic and skepticism duked it out in his skull. A firm hand grasped his shoulder, partially relieving some of his dizziness.

"You look like you need some fresh air. Let us get you outside," Oh-jin said, his voice sounding as if it was coming down a corridor.

Like a drunk being led through a crowded bar, Kopius let Oh-jin guide him through the maze of shelves, trinkets, and cauldrons until they were through the back door of the lab.

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