Kopius took in deep breaths of fresh air, not realizing how much he had missed it. The grass felt coarse and stiff, pricking him at times in exposed areas and the smell of plants and dirt brought with it a certain peace. An empty window appeared in his view and he was too relieved to be annoyed. He closed it.

He was going to lay there for a bit longer when he heard a sound. A familiar bell-type chime but still a foreign ring, it happened once and was gone.

Ding-dang

Kopius sat up quickly not knowing where the sound had come from. He fumbled for his gear on his back as he stood, managing to free the longer of the two swords, the rest of his tattered goods fell to the ground.

There! His eyes twitched in the direction of… something.

To the left, he saw a light blur and it was gone. He shifted his body in that direction and confirmed he was safe from falling back in that hole.

There!

Again, a blur to his left; gone in an instant.

"Who's there?!" Kopius shouted, gripping his sword.

"Show yourself!" Kopius demanded.

Show yourself? Come on man, you're better than that, Kopius thought admonishingly.

"I have a weapon!" he continued to shout.

Pathetic, Kopius conceded to himself, shaking his head.

He kept turning; anticipating. After spinning a full circle a thought occurred to him. In a VR game that Cory had been heavily involved in playing, Titans of the Fall, the HUD(heads up display) displayed a lot of real time information.

Like a lot, a lot.

So much so that in the beginning, while battling, the notifications would be so intrusive that Cory would miss crucial hits or take damage where he could of otherwise dodged or parried. The information was admittedly useful: you could see damage dealt and taken, health, stamina, mana drain, critical percentages, weak spots and more. All valuable in their own right but distracting to say the least.

In later iterations of the game it allowed for the information to be minimized to the side or transparent enough to not be an obstruction. But, in the beginning, players had two choices: On or Off.

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When the notifications were turned Off, players would see a soft red blinking light that would pulse off to the side of their vision when there was something new like an upgrade or level increase.

With that last thought, but still keeping his eyes alert for a threat, Kopius willed his user interface visible. To his surprise, there was something new displayed. At the top, to the left of his name, the number '2' was etched in silver.

"That's it!" Kopius seethed, closing his interface.

He kept scanning the area, not one-hundred percent sure he was clear of danger. After a minute or two of no flashing blurs and not being attacked by anything, Kopius let his shoulders relax a bit. The tension he was releasing in his body made its way up to his brain.

Two? What happened to One!

"TWO!!" he yelled, taking a swipe at the knee high grass with his sword.

"OF WHAT!?!" he continued, slicing more grass with the backswing, his words echoing up the canyon walls.

After a few more swipes and vulgarities, Kopius picked up the gear he had tossed down and looked for a place to sit to orient himself.

He wandered over to a set of large rocks next to the side of the cliff face. Finding the most comfortable spot he could on a pile of boulders, Kopius rested his back to the cliff and had a much clearer view of things. While previously spinning he had gotten an idea of his surroundings but now able to sit and rest, he could take it all in.

He found himself in a small grassy cove, deep in a ravine. The sheer cliffs raced up more than one-hundred feet and he could see that he was at a dead-end of the deep gorge.

A path, if you could call it that, led off to his right. Bushes, grass and half dead trees were growing randomly about the cul-de-sac in a manner of disarray that only nature, Or a computer simulating nature! Kopius thought, could create.

Some brave plants were attempting to scale the rock face while a small host of flowers grew about a sickly looking pond. He could tell from where he was resting that the water was not drinkable.

The sight of liquid reminded him that he was slightly parched. Mimicked in most VR games as a dry smacking sound, being parched, if not corrected, led to stamina drain, dizziness or any other ailment associated with a lack of hydration. What Kopius was feeling now, again, felt life like.

There was a dryness in his mouth, like the kind he used to get before attempting to ask out the pretty barista or the moment before presenting a project in front of a crowd. Smacking his lips together to produce some saliva, Kopius again remarked how realistic the world he was stuck in was.

Continuing to scan the small alcove, nothing of importance stood out. Seeing as climbing was not an option, Kopius looked down the dark ravine floor path that led off to his right. Much like the dead-end he was sitting in, the path was strewn with bushes and other odd shrubbery. The way seemed to have a slight upward slant but Kopius was not sure if he was making that up or not. With a rumble in his stomach and a half dry mouth, he gathered his meager belongings.

The ground, uneven and lumpy, was much like a riverbed but without the slippery rocks. Grass patches reached out of random, sandy soil while the healthier of the bushes hugged up against the rock face to his left. Few plants lined the cliff on his right.

While the space was wide enough to drive a few cars side by side, Kopius could see the path narrowed just before a bend a few hundred yards from his spot. He could not tell what was past that but anything was worth exploring if it meant not climbing.

Before setting off, Kopius took his jumbled mess of a sword sheath and managed to tie it about his waist in what might have been the ugliest strap-happy belt ever constructed.

Yet, like Kopius, it held.

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