Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "Carley?" Brooke questioned. She crouched down beside him to get a closer look at his face, and she could tell he was in a deep sleep. "He's asleep, but this is a really strange place for him to be. Should we wake him?"

  "Who's room is that?" Elliott asked quietly, and gestured for Brooke to keep her voice down.

  "I don't know. Is it hers?" Brooke quietly replied. She then noticed that Carley was holding a key in his hand. She checked the number on it, and it was not the number for this room. "It isn't Carley's room."

  "Is Damion okay?" Snipes asked as he and Inami walked past everyone.

  "Damion? I dunno, why do you ask." Elliott questioned.

  "Everyone is crowded around Damion's room. And Carley's been sleeping there ever since Damion walked in." Snipes answered.

  "This is Damion's room?" Brooke asked.

  Snipes nodded. "Yeah, I saw him go in."

  Brooke gave Elliott a suspicious look and stood up. "There's something going on between the two of them." She quietly stated. "Carley isn't acting right, this is all way out of character for her."

  Elliott nodded a little. "Yeah, I feel like we are missing some key information somewhere."

  Snipes walked a little closer and whispered to them. "You guys told me to keep an eye on Carley. You want me to spy on Damion too?"

  "You were spying on Carley?" Brooke quietly asked, shocked by that statement.

  Snipes nodded.

  "Nice work." Elliott replied. "And yeah, try to watch the two of them. If you have to pick one or the other, watch Carley. I think she's onto the killer or something, I don't want her to do anything crazy, but I get the feeling she's about to."

  "You think Carley knows something we don't?" Brooke asked, keeping quiet but struggling to contain her shock. "Would that mean that Damion is the next target?"

  "I think so. It's my best guess, and would explain why Carley is following him everywhere. It would make sense for Carley to act this way if she had information that Damion was the next target, and she was trying to guard him."

  "Shouldn't I watch Damion then?" Snipes questioned.

  Elliott shook his head. "No, stick to Carley if they ever separate. They could both be in danger, and to be honest if I have to choose just one of them to protect, I'm going to protect Carley. Damion seems like a nice guy and all, but he's a little creepy and Carley is our friend, not Damion."

  Brooke nodded a little. "I agree. It's a horrible thought to have, I do hope we don't need to choose one over the other. But if it comes down to it, we save Carley."

  Snipes nodded in agreement.

  "And don't tell anyone about this plan, or any of this." Elliott looked straight at Snipes as he spoke.

  "I know, I'm not dumb." Snipes insisted.

  "Alright, we'll have this solved in no time if we all work together on this." Elliott replied.

  They split up after that and set up their rooms for the night. They took a few hours to rest once that was finished, and then they walked out into the village feeling awake and refreshed. Carley still had not moved from his spot guarding the door, and was still asleep.

  It was getting close to the evening when Brooke and Elliott left the inn and began wandering around the village. There wasn't a whole lot here, there appeared to be multiple inns, an armory, a few storage buildings for the food, a couple training grounds, a medical center and a lot of farms. It seemed like they were starting to build individual houses for people to own and live in, and they had a few rows of them already finished, with many of them still not quite done. There was also a huge house almost the size of a small mansion up on a hill far to the north east, just outside of the village.

  Spotting the medical center Brooke and Elliott walked in, they looked a little lost but when they spotted Matthew getting healed by a short girl with long white hair they approached the two of them. The girl looked to be in her late teens, maybe early twenties. She wore a elegant red tunic top with black leggings and tan boots. She had her hair tied back with a blue ribbon, and her eyes had a soft and gentle expression. She was using a spell that looked almost identical to Carley's healing spell.

  She was finished healing Matthew in no time, much faster than Carley's healing spell worked. Once she was done with him Matthew spoke up. "Um, miss, I have a few friends who were injured on their trip here, and it would be difficult for them to make it here. Is there any way you could come to the inn to help them?"

  The girl nodded. "It's Cathrine, and yeah I can come help." She replied.

  "One of our friends also completely exhausted themselves the other day. She learned some healing magic and got carried away. Do you have anything to help with that?" Matthew asked.

  "Um, normally no, doctors can't do that unless they have some energy stored in a crystal." Cathrine replied. "But I am a special case. My signet ring gives me an aura that heals everyone around me, and replenishes their stamina. It's at a very slow rate, but it's something. I'm the only one in the world who can replenish someone's stamina with magic."

  "That would be a useful spell to learn." Elliott spoke up. "How would we get it?"

  Cathrine shook her head. "You can't get it. It is my signet skill." She replied.

  "We can't get the same signet skill?" Brooke asked.

  Cathrine shook her head again. "No." She held up a signet ring that was attached to a small silver chain around her neck. "A signet ring is a special ring. It can magically tell who you are, what your personality is, what your future holds, and what you need most from it. And then the ring will grant you a special power that is unique to you and only you, based off the information it gained from you." She explained. "That's mine, it helps me protect my friends in even the most dire of circumstances when I am unable to heal them like I normally would. Even if I overdo it with my own magic and knock myself out again, my signet will still heal my friends while I'm out."

  Elliott and Brooke couldn't help but to laugh a little. "You're just like Carley." Brooke laughed.

  "Who?" Cathrine asked.

  "Carley is the friend I mentioned who knocked themself out trying to heal us all." Matthew spoke up.

  "O-Oh. Well yeah." Cathrine blushed a little, embarrassed about admitting to it. "I tend to do that a lot. But it sounds like this Carley will make a great doctor here, I can probably get her a job working here where she'll have much more access to healing spells, and she'll be able to do something she loves." She replied with a bright smile, showing off her bright and bubbly demeanor. "U-Unless I'm just projecting, she does sound similar to me."

  Matthew nodded "I don't know much about her, she's pretty shy and quiet. But I'd guess she would like it here." He replied.

  "Ah, well given some time I'm sure she'll open up. We've had a few shy girls here, and they all become more sociable after a while." Cathrine replied. "Did you two need help?" She asked Brooke and Elliott.

  "No, we actually came to ask for the same thing Matthew did. He just beat us to it." Brooke replied.

  Cathrine nodded. "Alright, lead the way then. I'm looking forward to meeting our new doctor."

  Matthew, Brooke, and Elliott lead the way back to the inn. Cathrine first healed Sophia's leg, allowing Sophia to finally walk on her own again. After that they made their way over to Carley who was asleep in the hallway.

  "Is she okay?" Cathrine asked the others, who just shrugged.

  "She's been acting odd all day, we don't really know what's going on but something is definitely wrong." Elliott quietly replied.

  "Well, I don't usually do this. But I do have some skill in telekinesis and empathy magic. I could enter her mind and try to figure it out." Cathrine replied. "It's a huge breach of privacy, but I can't say I haven't been in the same state of mind. If she's like me I am worried about what's going on." She offered.

  Elliott and Brooke both hesitated and looked uncomfortable with the idea. But at the same time they were worried that Carley was going to do something dangerous and get himself killed or something. It was a hard
choice to make, but after a moment they looked at each other and both hesitantly nodded. "Please do. We are really worried she's going to get herself killed tonight." Elliott spoke up.

  Cathrine nodded and started to focus. She closed her eyes, and for a minute there was silence. Then Cathrine suddenly snapped back to reality, and as soon as she was back she began frantically checking her own arms, and trying to feel her back. She was suddenly shaking uncontrollably and was starting to cry.

  "What's wrong?" Brooke nervously questioned. Elliott and Matthew also looked worried.

  Cathrine shook her head. "I can't get through to her mind." She shakily answered. "I ended up in her nightmare, it was so real. I-I'm sorry I can't go back in there again."

  "What was it? What could have been that bad?" Elliott questioned.

  Cathrine was slowly starting to calm down from her near panic attack, she was taking deep breaths and using her empathy magic to help her calm down and to bring herself out of the panic she was sent into. "I-I don't really know, I couldn't stay long. It was a nightmare, I can only assume I was seeing things from Carley's perspective. I was in a deep hole in the woods, there was so much blood, my back and arms were all slashed up. I was lying on my back, looking up at a group of four people. Highschool kids if I had to guess based off the uniform. One was laughing, the others looked panicked. They were shoveling dirt into the hole. The person I was viewing the world through was pleading with them to stop, but they wouldn't stop." She took a deep breath. "It was so painful, and there was this overwhelming feeling of fear, I couldn't handle it and had to back out. I've never seen a dream or nightmare like that before. I-I do not handle pain well, I'm sorry."

  Elliott looked a little closer at Carley and noticed that he was very tense and was even shaking in his sleep. He was conflicted about what to do next, but after a moment's thought he decided to just do it. 'Sorry Carley, but we need to know what's going on if we're going to help you.' he thought as he gently reached out and took Carley's hand, lifting his hand and straightening out his arm a little.

  Brooke gave him a confused look, but when he looked back and silently gestured to Carley's sleeve she got the idea and hesitantly pulled back Carley's sleeve. Everything looked fine at first, but as she pulled the sleeve up over his elbow it revealed several old scars on his upper arm that didn't look like they were self inflicted. They carefully pulled his sleeve back down and then Elliott gently leaned him forwards a little. Brooke gently pulled the back neck of his shirt down a little to reveal more old scars, that clearly were not self inflicted.

  Carley had exhausted himself so much that he couldn't wake up, he could detect people touching him but was so deep in sleep that he couldn't tell if it was real or not and couldn't break out of his deep sleep.

  Brooke and Elliott gently leaned Carley against the door again and let him go, then they turned back to Cathrine. "She's got scars in the places you mentioned being injured in the nightmare." Elliott whispered.

  "Oh…" Cathrine didn't really know what to say, that was all a severe breach of privacy, but at least she now understood the nightmare. "Well, I should just heal her, then I'll hang around a little to make sure she regains a bit of extra stamina." She said as she focused again, and without touching him Carley's body began to glow a little, and his wounds were slowly healed. Once Carley had made a full recovery the three of them moved a short distance away to give Carley his space. They remained close enough for Cathrine's signet to keep restoring his stamina though.

  After a few hours of idle chat, Cathrine went back to the medical center. Elliott and Brooke were about to leave when a loud announcement was played through the building.

  "Will all newcomers please meet us by the stage in the center of the village for an introduction to this world and to Belle village." A woman's voice echoed through the building.

  Carley was jolted awake by the voice, he stood up and seemed a little confused. For once, he looked well rested and he wasn't in pain at the moment, he wasn't sure what had happened but he wasn't going to complain. He still looked very sick, shaky, and stressed but he at least looked like he was having a much easier time moving now.

  Damion walked out of his room moments after, and Carley followed him out of the building. He didn't say anything to Brooke and Elliott as he passed them and was avoiding eye contact with them.

  Brooke and Elliott followed them outside to the stage, and it wasn't long before Sophia, Snipes, Fate, Inami, and the rest of the group also met them outside. Everyone crowded around a small stage that had two people standing on it. One was a short, strange looking woman, she had pink hair, wore a violet blouse with a matching skirt, and had butterfly wings sticking out of her back. Beside her was a taller man who's brown hair was a little long for a guy and was loosely tied back. He wore a green set of armor, but he looked to be somewhat strong beneath his armor.

  The woman cast some sort of spell on herself before addressing the crowd. "Hello everyone, I am Estellese." She started. The spell amplified her voice, making it loud enough for everyone in the crowd to hear. "We brought all of you here today to give you all some bad news, news you may already know. Unfortunately we were all sold a lie, the video game Immersion does not exist."

  She paused for a moment to let the crowd take that in, before she resumed speaking. "My friends and I here were supposed to be the Alpha testers of the game, we entered this world a little over two years ago. I can tell you from our experience, that this is not a game, this is not Immersion. I do not know how, or why, but we have been transported into an entirely different world and there is no way to go back, we are stuck here. And because this is not a game, death, pain, illness, all these real world problems, they are all still real and still exist in this world. If you die here you are gone for good. We need to continue taking care of ourselves and our health, just like we would have back on Earth. This is why we brought you all here."

  She paused for a moment before continuing. "Humans did not exist in this world before we came, there was just the empty remains of one human city that was taken over by goblins. So here, behind me, we are making the first human civilization, Belle Village. I have taken the responsibility upon myself to lead and protect this village, and my friend Mendelen has plans to take back the other human city. He will discuss that after. This world is dangerous, probably far more dangerous than any of you know, so we are opening our gates to anyone who wants to seek refuge in this village as long as you are willing to play your part in helping out. Those of you who are skilled in combat, or willing to learn, we need guards to keep this town safe and for those who are exceptionally skilled in combat we need adventurers to go secure loot from dungeons. For everyone who is unskilled in combat, have no fear you do not need to learn to fight. We have non-combat jobs, farming is a big one right now because we will all need food, but as the village grows we will need people to fill in for all the jobs you would expect from a normal city. You are safe here, we can protect everyone in this city, and we will provide housing to everyone who wants to stay. We suggest you stay here, even if it's only for a short time to get your feet on the ground and prepare for the dangers out there. You're safe here."

  Estellese took a moment to catch her breath, then continued. "For those who intend to travel outside of the city, one of the most important things to remember is that this is not a video game. This is not a fake world. The monsters and other creatures you see out there are not AI, they are real living creatures. Please do not harm them unless it is self defense, they are alive just like we are, we need to work together with them. Monsters inside of dungeons do not count, they do not appear to be sentient. That was agreed upon by many of the other races who live around here. Who we are all in a big alliance with. To keep you safe I will be handing out special rings to everyone, they are magic rings, wear them for a few days and they will give you a unique power as long as you continue wearing them. In addition to all of that, upon entering this world we gained one new power right off the bat. If
you wave your hand palm-down in front of yourself you will summon a holographic keyboard and screen. With these things you can post on the global message board, send direct messages to players, or access your stash. Your stash is a secret room only you and people you want to enter can enter. It can be opened anywhere there is a door frame, but you must have a door frame nearby to open it. And, um, that's all."

  Estellese stepped back once she was finished with her part of the speech and let Mendelen step up. She put the same spell on him so he could speak. "Everyone out there, I need your attention. There is an entire modern human city to the west of here, on the other side of the forest. This city is overrun by goblins, some giant spiders, and worst of all a massive dragon. I am gathering together an army to go and take this city back, we can definitely do it. That city could help and house so many people, and it has supplies that we could use, despite needing some repairs and cleaning. I know there are some true heroes out there, those of you who believe you are one of those heroes, those who want to help and can either fight well or are willing to learn come to me in the large stone building over there after this." He pointed at the building. "Those who help will be paid in equipment, I will provide you with signet rings, some equipment, and some magic to use in the battle and you can keep everything you use. In addition to what I provide, the training will include tackling several dungeons, in which whatever you find is yours to keep." He finished and looked through the crowd. "And again, I will be in that building over there. If you have the skills to be a hero, or are willing to learn, come join me."