Three days passed in the natural world with three more weeks passing in the game. The long-awaited day finally arrives and in the early morning, several adults are outside of their family's gates with a group of 25 fifteen-year-olds. One group had an extra member which was Tara.
The trek will take these children through the jungle, each of the five groups going down different paths to explore the nearby area. The experience would last eight days, a full week before they reconvene. All camping and hunting were to be handled by the children with the adults fulfilling the role of a protector.
Within the jungle, among the normal animals, several are Aural Beasts. Even hidden those within were Beasts that had achieved Skin Igniting or possibly stronger.
Each group took off in different directions. Tara's group went Southwest, which hadn't been trailed often. Within Tara's group, each kid was very close to a breakthrough into midtier Skin Igniting being the most talented within their branches of the family. The fact that they were traveling with Lady Di and Lord Casian was proof that they were special. However, this arrogance had left them annoyed and angry that the Lady and Lord had brought their eldest daughter with them. They had worked hard to get here and yet a tiny ten-year-old was allowed to join their party?
This shared thought among the teens went unspoken but easily read on their faces throughout the rest of the day. The oldest in the group by a month, Yating, suggests that since they had a group of six instead of five, half of them should hunt for food while the others set up camp. To his surprise, Tara readily volunteers to go hunting. Unsure of what to do, he glances at Lady Di, who gave him a soft smile. He relaxes and accepts Tara's request. The two accompanying her, a boy named Delan and a girl named Kun, didn't seem to be the most assured.
This changes almost immediately. Even though the Southwest area was relatively unexplored by their family, Tara moves through the terrain with grace and ease. Their group easily caught several Spark Lemurs and even a Fire Silk Deer. As Tara scales a tree for some fruit for dessert, the camp trio has only just started stoking the fire. When the hunting party arrives with more gains in tow than expected, Delan and Kun are given the merits.
Their visible discomfort goes unnoticed and they don't speak out, as Tara ignores the group and gives one of the fruits to her parents.
The next day passes by without incident. When setting up for the night, Yanting decides to venture out with Delan and Kun. Kun shoots straight with every arrow and Delan is quick on his feet, but Yanting isn't sure this was enough to catch something as elusive or nimble as a Fire Silk Deer. They returned with less than the previous night, but luckily they packed enough rations and that yesterday's harvest was plentiful.
To Yanting's surprise as they came back, if not stopped by the two other teens in the group, he almost sets off an alarm trap Tara had set up with her extra time. Confusion is written all over his face as he watches the young girl meditate between her parents.
All of them are put off by how skilled Tara seems to be, but over the course of the next two days, they finally begin to treat her as one of their own. While Yanting took the leadership role, he consults Tara as they make their way. To the group's knowledge, just coming this far was unprecedented.
It was on the fifth day that Casian flashes in front of them with his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Something is wrong here. Lady Di has gone up ahead to investigate. Everyone be on your guard." He speaks seriously, eyes narrowing as he draws his blade. Each teen pulls out a different weapon, tensing themselves. Suddenly, three large gray bears barrels past them. Casian tenses as they approach but relaxes as they run the other direction. "Baby Ash Bears? What could they possibly be running away from?" Several of the group paled. Those large bears were just babies? Then how big were the parents?
Di appears a moment later, her clothes ruffled and hair askew. Her chain scythe was out with red ichor dripping from the edge. "Casian, take the children and head towards the meeting spot. Tara, come with me."
"But shouldn't I stay with the group? I can help defend the group." Tara is confused. Both of her parents share a glance and then chuckle to themselves.
"Even if I ordered you to stay, you'd probably just find a way to follow after me. It's easier for everyone if I just take you with me." Di says earnestly.
Tara was going to argue but her mother was right. She would have probably slipped away the second she could and traced her mother's steps. Di steps forward, kissing Casian before he hugged Tara, "I'll see you soon, husband."
"If the Heavens allow and the Hells ignore," He smiles. Casian gathers the other children, about to leave when the group rushes to give Tara hugs goodbye. Though this was the first time they had interacted with her, she was still family and had been invaluable the past few days.
They ran nonstop for about an hour after parting, until they came in front of a black dome. Despite being translucent, Tara can't peer into it.
"What is this?" She asks, reaching out to touch it. Di catches her hand, holding it tightly before stepping forward. They crossed the barrier and inside was a ruined stone city.
"It seems that this barrier can let Beasts in and out, but for us humans we have to be at a certain level to enter." Di speculates, nodding to the giant dead Ash Bear that she had fought with. Its fur seemed to spark with a dimming fire. "The creatures here are a lot stronger. I can't imagine what's lording over this ruin."
Where they were located was clearly a housing section. It was most likely for common people, as they searched within a few of the homes. They headed deeper in, avoiding different beasts they came into contact with. Several of the houses had become nests of a few Aural Beasts. Luckily, none of them were really a threat to them despite being a little stronger than average.
Di shows Tara how to carefully harvest parts from the Aural Beasts. After thoroughly deciding what was salvageable, Di gave a flick of her finger causing several parts to disappear within her ring. Tara watches with surprise on her face for she had heard about spatial rings but had never seen one before!
They headed further into the city. The beasts became steadily stronger as they ventured ahead until they had to be very cautious about how they moved. The night seems to fall quicker within this domed city as strange symbols appeared all along with the dome, some brighter than the others. "These are the positions of stars?" Di as she realizes, looking up as the two hid behind a building. Tara squints and for sure all the different symbols were aligned with the stars in the sky.
However, before Tara can glimpse further, the ground shakes and a loud roar erupts from the center of the city. A wave of energy rips through the air just as the ground beneath young Tara's feet seems to disintegrate.
The last thing Tara sees is her mother making a grab at her but a second too late. Tara screams as darkness comes over her body. She feels like she's falling for hours as the light above grows fainter the further she goes. Time slows down as despair sinks into her bones like she was drifting off into Hell.
In the next breath, a familiar two-toned voice enters her ears and a screen appears:
[Character Stat Requirements Met. Hidden Feature Discovered. Fate Dice Initiated]
Instead of falling into darkness as a child, Tara was hovering in the white starting space in her teenage form. 3 twelve-sided dice the size of her body appeared before her. On the left was a cobalt blue dice with white numerals, while on the right was a phlox pink dice with black numerals, and finally center was a royal lavender dice with both black and white numerals.
"Fate Dice?" Tara repeats but before she receives an answer, the dice begin to roll on their own. First, cobalt blue on the left stops on a 12, the highest number.
[Hidden Stat, Chance, Acquired. Peerless Soul Skill Unlocked. Reboot Necessary For Multiple Events To Begin.]
Afterwards, the pink one on the right stopped and then finally the purple one. Both dice also landed on 12! The Hidden Stats of Luck and Will were also given. The skills Dream Connect and Indomitable Will were unlocked. The three events, [Heart Guardian + Mind Protector] and [Daughter Of The ???], needed some time to implement the changes.
It would take two physical days to do so which means she would only get two more sessions before school started up again. Though from what she surmised, for Adventure Mode players every session was simply a day. She couldn't find anything concerning other Story Mode players to see if their passage of game time was the same as hers.
They were keeping to themselves, with Adventure Mode players mistaking the sense of secrecy for elitism and sparking a bit of a divide between the groups. Adventure players started calling themselves Explorers, after their server's Explorer's League.
Story players were referred to as Novelists to make fun of their arrogance. So far none of the voices with any backing, like the Captains from major Guild and Workshop Commanders, paid attention to the cries of ordinary players.
Regardless, she could easily make up the missed two days given how long her sessions were. Tara happily accepts the reboot and gently exits from the virtual space. Both her moms were away at work today, so she immediately went to her room.
Opening her holographic screen she pulls up her character information. It is divided into three sections of character statistics, Equipment, and finally Skills. The page immediately opens up to her stats. Much to her surprise while the multicolored boxes of her other stats were blank, Tara has the three additional ones listed. Chance was cobalt blue, Luck was phlox pink, and Will was violet purple. Tara excitedly clicks on each to discover what they meant.
Chance increases the likelihood of finding special plotlines or quests while also increasing her reactions when attacked or within a trap. Luck boosts the amount of possible treasure found and has a bonus chance of crafting something higher level. Will further enhances her mental defenses against Charm and Illusion effects but also offers her some damage reduction.
All three of her new skills were passive with only Dream Connect without a description. It would only be accessed when she rejoined the game. The other two were pretty simple with Peerless Soul increasing her Spirit stat by double while Indomitable Will doubles her Attack and Defense.
The two days passed by quickly with the evening of the first night Tara sharing her new stats and Skills with her mothers over dinner. Karuna's surprise is evident by her raised brow. Curious that such a thing occurred, she couldn't help but ask her daughter to make note of times they came into use and their effects in combat. The next day Tara asks Xia to help form a training regimen around how Di had instructed. Xia was eager to help, while believing that a strong body leads to a sound mind and a peaceful soul. It wasn't a proven science that such a thing affected virtual reality but maybe it would help.
Tara eagerly enters the game again, not noticing a notification .
[Dream Connect Active. Your Story Is Now Interconnected.]