Fred, Bard and Phil's eyes were twitching as they stood at the edge of the woods in the night. They each dove into their respective menus.
"Wow! I have 9 stat points to allocate!" Phil said, "I only expected to get 1 per level, but it looks like we actually get 3!"
"Yeah, same here. That's cool. I went from 10 HP to 18!" Bard cheered.
"That's good!" Pebble felt a weight off of his chest.
"Wait, how? I just put my 9 points into constitution and went from 10 HP to 28!" Fred pointed out.
Pebble started counting with his fingers again, "Wait, he's right! What happened to your 6 other points?"
"Well, you were close, but there were actually 5 points that were missing and I had to put them into Charisma to unlock an ability I really need. I now have 25 Charisma and 9 Constitution." Bard shrugged, "You've got my back. I think we can afford the 5 points, and when you see the ability, you'll understand!
"Dude, this is your life! I'm clearly going to do my best to keep you alive, but please take it seriously!" Pebble wanted to yell, but knew that screaming in the woods at night might not be the best idea for their entrance.
"I am taking this seriously. Look, I selected a trait called mycologist and it had some unique combo interaction with my class and another trait that I selected. I can now charm fungus!" Bard was ecstatic.
"What the f*ck is that going to do for us if you die?! In fact, what does that do for us if you live? You know what, just don't talk to me for a minute." Pebble was furious, but Bard laughed it off.
"It's cool bro, you'll see." Bard replied confidently.
"I'm kind of with Pebble on this one, Bard." Fred interjected, "Look, when we created our characters, I selected the elderly trait. This allowed me to take additional points out of other stats and boost my intellect to 30 off of the bat. For a videogame, that was an easy trade, but now I'm actually old." Fred leaned hard on his staff and lifted his robe to show his veiny legs, "I didn't want to complain guys, but I'm hurting. This hike hurts. Skydiving hurt my bones. The parachute jolted my spine. Swinging my staff at that creep that jumped out at us hurt my elbow and shoulder." He took a deep breath, "Guys, what I'm saying is, I'm scared. I don't want to make any more mistakes here. Alain is now Pebble and he's half dumb. Phil is a snake. He's a f*cking snake. Bard, you might be living the life you've always wanted right now, but we need to make sure we all get to that point, right?"
Silence filled the air before Puffy spoke up, "Hey, Fred, I took that same trait when I came to this world. It didn't affect me much because I'm a gnome and aging is a bit of a difference for us, but this world is full of humans that just don't seem to age. You might have to make some friends in high places to learn their secret, but there's definitely a solution out there." Puffy playfully punched Fred on his calf, "I didn't know you felt that way Freddy. Truth be told, the points you put in constitutionshould help you a bit already." Puffy kept boxing against Fred's leg, "But the real remedy would be daily physical activity."
"You're kidding me." Fred pushed Puffy back with his staff but Puffy climbed up the staff and started lightly slapping Fred's face.
"Nope! New world with magic. It might be cool and wonderful at first, but at the end of the day…" he slapped Fred again and Fred tried to catch Puffy, but Puffy dismounted with a small flip, "You have to work for what you want, Fred. Hard work pays off, you just have to keep going and keep your eyes on the prize!"
"Your big idea is exercise?" Phil questioned, "And yes, I am a snake, thanks for rubbing it in, bro."
"I didn't mean it like that, Phil. I've just been trying hard to not freak out, we just need to air out all this sh*t and move on. I don't know." Fred sat down on a log and sighed.
"Phil, your race is actually viewed as a symbol of success and strength in the lands to the south." Puffy sat down next to Fred, summoned a grinder out of his inventory and began grinding some tobacco and other herbs.
"Really?" Phil was intrigued by Puffy's news.
"Yes, really. Snake Men are notoriously heat resilient and they thrive in the desert. They run some of the most successful trade routes and mercenary groups in that region. People who find out you're a Snake Man Hero might view you as a beacon of hope in the scorched lands." Puffy said as he continued grinding herbs. "It's all about perspective."
Phil was quiet. Pebble elbowed him, "We will just keep moving and figure it out as we go, buddy. What's your HP now?"
"I'm at 32 HP now." Phil ignored his encouragement.
"Pebble is right, we should go into town and purchase a room. The King put some coin in that supply cache right?"
Pebble opened his inventory and confirmed the existence of a coin purse. He summoned the object and held it out to the team, "Whoa, this has some heft to it."
"What the hell, they really hooked you guys up! They didn't give my team sh*t!" Puffy spat, "Whatever, I won't dwell on the clear favoritism. I am hooked to your wagon now after all."
Pebble's coin began to buzz from inside his inventory. It was an odd sensation, almost like he had to sneeze, "Oh, I think I'm getting a call!" Pebble jumped and pulled the coin out of his inventory and wiped his nose to clear the discomfort, "Hello?" He spoke to the coin.
"Hey there, Little Rock!" Artia's voice immediately soothed Pebble's nerves.
"Oh hi, Artia!" Pebble turned away from his friends quickly and started to power walk away.
"Uh no Sir! You come back here right now! I want to listen too!" Bard pulled his shirt but Pebble kept walking without even noticing the resistance.
"I see that you've arrived at the township of Kris. You should hurry along and get a room. I may have a mission for you soon." Artia said through the coin.
Pebble looked up and kept walking as Bard was being dragged behind him, "Whoa, how did you know that? Are you watching me?" Bard wasn't able to hear Artia's words, but he could clearly hear Pebble. He started looking around sheepishly after Pebble's words.
Artia was surprised by Pebble's question, "What do you mean? We are all watching! Haven't you looked at your Divine Favor tab in your system yet?"
Pebble stopped in his tracks and looked back at Bard, "Hey, can I have a second? I'll update you when I get back."
Bard let go of Pebble's shirt and looked at him curiously. "Are you good, bro? You can tell us everything, you know that, right?"
"Yeah, and I will. I just need to have a chat real quick." Pebble insisted.
Bard shook his head, "Alright bro, but you need to sort your sh*t out quickly. You've been acting differently lately and it's really starting to make me nervous."
Pebble looked at his friend and dismissed him, "Everything's fine, just go back. I'll be there soon." Bard shook his head again and left.
Pebble's eyes began to twitch as he quickly opened his challenge mode menu and selected the Divine Favor tab for the first time.
"What the actual f*ck." Pebble was stunned.
"You're a star, Pebble!" Artia's giggle broke Pebble out of his stupor.
"I'm a star? How does this work? Who's watching me?" Pebble had an immediate case of stage fright, "Can they hear us right now?"
"No, they cannot hear anything a direct sponsor says, and that's exactly what I am! They can hear you otherwise, though." Artia said with another chuckle. Pebble's heart sank, "The viewers are gods, attendants of gods, and citizens of ascended worlds who get to access the AetherTube."
"Why are they watching me?" He said innocently, which seemed to please Artia even more.
"Why? You have chosen to become the first ever Double Challenger. There are lots of bored individuals out there who just want someone to look up to. Of course there are those who watch because they want to see you fail. Or maybe they want to see someone they don't like get gutted, take that top donor request for example. Puffy clearly pissed someone off."
"I don't want to kill Puffy though!" Pebble complained, but within seconds he got a notification and the Divine Favor screen updated.
"Yo, Puffy really pissed someone off!" Pebble gasped.
"Wow, looks like it!" Artia laughed, "Okay, Little Rock, the reason I reached out was to let you know that there's someone in this town that I'm very interested in."
"Someone that you're interested in?" Pebble felt unexpectedly jealous, "What's so special about him?"
"I'll tell you more after you meet him, but just keep a lookout for a confident man adorned with lots of gold jewelry. He's extremely fit with giant arms and spiky blond hair. He wears a red shirt that's skin tight." Artia detailed the man. Her voice had an inflection that indicated she was smiling.
Pebble felt dead inside, "Are you asking me to meet your lover?"
"Watch it." Artia said bluntly, "It's not exactly what you think. Just look for him and I'll reach back out after you find him. Oh, he also has a mustache that looks like it came from the '80s from your country on Earth. Good luck!" Artia hung up.
"F*ck this d*ck bag." Pebble said as he kicked a rock. After a moment, his face turned bright red when he realized Artia could probably hear and see what he just did. He looked back up at the sky and spread his arms, "Get a hobby!" He yelled into the air.
Pebble reopened his Divine Favor screen and looked at his viewers again.
It went up slightly already, "Ugh." Pebble began walking back to his friends. He found a new awareness of each of his movements as he imagined 7 million people staring at him. He became sluggish and sweat began beading on his forehead.
"I almost wish I didn't know." Pebble said as he wiped his face. He continued through the woods until he made it back to his party. He decided not to inform them of their viewership for now. Gods only know how Bard would act if he knew.
"Hey guys, I'm done with today. Let's just get to the inn and get a room." Pebble offered Fred a hand to help him up off of the log. Fred nodded and accepted Pebble's help.
"Cool, back to our adventure!" Phil tried to uplift the mood with a cheery tone.
"Yes, indeed. In the morning, we can check out the adventure board in the town's Adventurer Guild if you'd like. We should try and get you guys some levels before we continue further south." Puffy stored his grinder and a couple bags of pre ground herbs into his inventory and climbed onto Pebble's shoulders.
"Don't we need to make it to Devil's Gouge?" Phil asked.
"There's no real timeline on that, and if we went as you are now, I don't really think we'd have the best odds." Puffy replied
"Alright, I guess we are off." Bard gave Pebble a side eye glance as the party set off towards the lantern lit town of Kris.