I was pulled along with the flow until I came to a large intersection. As the throng of people split up to go different ways, I managed to move to the center of the square where I managed to join the groups standing around a fountain. Many of whom sat on the edge as they talked about this or that while others were busy trading items. Or at least that’s what it looked like based on the number of items being handed back and forth.

  I ignored them all as I gazed up at the fountain itself. The statue in the middle was of a planet. Okay, it was a simple sphere of metal with pits and grooves meandering across its surface. What made me realize that it was a planet was the water that flowed across its surface. It was like the stuff didn’t acknowledge physics or gravity.

  Little bumps of water and the ripples of movement told me that the water didn’t originate from any one place. It was being pushed out from many spots. Spots that looked to be evenly distributed across the surface.

  From there, the water flowed up and down the grooves. It traveled up various ridges and pooled in multiple spots yet left others bone dry. It did all of this until it reached the top of the sphere and shot up into the air. The stream flew a good five feet until it reached yet another sphere where it vanished into a hole at that sphere's bottom.

  The entire display was intriguing. It captured my attention enough that I didn’t notice as someone came to stand next to me until they spoke. “They say that this is the gods’ view of this world.” I nearly went into orbit that someone would talk to me and not one of the groups around us. When I turned, I found a man with thin spectacles on his nose. The things reminded me of what one imagined older librarians wore. “Sorry, I did not mean to frighten you. You just seemed like someone who might have appreciated the information.”

  I shook my head as I returned my gaze to the fountain. “I am grateful for the information, though I wish you didn’t have to take a few years off my life to give it to me.” After a second of silence, I asked, “If this is supposed to be the planet as seen from space, what is with the second planet?”

  “It is not an orbital view, or at least I do not think it is. Not based on the few beings I have consulted on the subject. From what I can piece together, it is a god’s view of the world.”

  “What does that even mean?” I snorted, not quite believing in gods. Then again, this was a video game. Who knew what the designers would have added? Now that I thought about it, having a planet defy physics would be something a designer would create just because they could. “And who is it that you are talking to about this? Who would have a clue what the gods can and cannot see?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shrug. “A few others and I travel across the world, gathering knowledge wherever it can be found. Sometimes that knowledge is not in any tome or scroll but kept in an oral tradition. Whenever one of us finds new knowledge, our AIs help us copy and carry it to the real world for study and discussion. This point is one that we have argued about quite often. While many of my colleagues agree with you on the interpretation, most of us disagree and think that the words are meant in a more literal sense.”

  “Wait.” I turned to shoot him a curious glare. “Are you telling me that there are real-world scholars and researchers in a video game? Ones that are trying to puzzle this fictional world out?”

  “It is not like we have many options back there. At least here we can do our work without someone telling us where we can and cannot go.” I had to agree with him there. It would suck to know that the answer I wanted was in a spot I would never be allowed to go. “Plus it is cheaper to pay for a pod for each of us than it is to travel anywhere.”

  I nodded. “Makes sense. But who is footing the bills? Who would want the information on a video game world and why can’t they just ask the company that made the game?”

  “I know I was not the only one to ask that same question when the idea was first proposed.” He sighed. “According to what they told us, the company that made the game just made the base world and simply let time pass. Effectively allowing the world to evolve naturally. This means that they have very little information on the planet’s history. No myths. No legends. Nothing.”

  “That would mean that the first people to discover the information would be truly the first to do so.”

  “Correct,” He said as he pulled out a SoulStone. I don’t know why I expected it to look any different than mine but I was still surprised that his was identical to the one that currently sat in my inventory. “But it has never been about being first. At least not for me. It is about the journey and the knowledge itself. Take this object for instance. We each got one, and I am fairly sure quite a few people have used it already, yet I am still curious what it will do to me. What the game will choose to change me into.”

  “If you are so curious, why have you not used it yet?”

  “As I am the only one of my group in the city, I was wandering around looking for someone to act as the outside observer.” While I could see that his eyes were locked onto the stone, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was looking at me. “You looked like you were curious enough to want to look for answers to your questions and observant enough to notice details others might miss. Both were requirements that needed to be met before I was willing to approach someone.”

  “And if I say no?” Not that I was going to. I wanted to see what these things did. And, if he was offering to let me watch, who was I to turn him down?

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “You would not do so.” His smile looked like he was sure of his answer. “Are you ready?”

  I shook my head. Holding up a finger as I spoke under my breath. “AI, can you record what I am about to watch?”

  “I can. Shall I send a copy to the professor when the process is complete?”

  “Sure,” I snorted at the fact that the AI referred to him as a professor. It just seemed so cliché that the first researcher I met looked like this and was a professor. With that, I nodded to the professor to begin.

  The professor didn’t hesitate. A pale green fluid-like material entered the crystal from the sections his fingers touched. As the liquid bounced off the other side, the color shifted, going from pale green to a brilliant gold that hit yet another side. Unlike the section where the pale green hit, the gold liquid stuck to the spot where it landed.

  For a moment, the only thing that changed was how much liquid was sticking to the one side. Moments later, though, that changed. The outer crystal changed color as the symbols etched into the surface flared with golden light. As the light intensified, symbols started to peel themselves off the crystal. Floating around it and forming a complex ring that encircled the professor.

  The light must have brought him quite a bit of attention as people around us started to stare, stopping their conversations and walking over to watch. While I was sure that this would create quite a traffic jam, I didn’t care. My attention was focused on the professor and what was going on in front of me.

  Given the symbols that floated about, the process had to be magic of some sort. As soon as I realized that, I wanted to smack my forehead. If it was magic, I wasn’t watching this transformation with every sense. In fact, I was missing my best sense for the task.

  Quickly, I dumped a fair amount of mana into my Mana Sense. With as much mental power as I could muster, I focused every bit of the skill onto the professor while ignoring all the other spells and abilities in use around us. The professor was practically cocooned by a mass of mana so dense that it felt solid to my Mana Sense.

  Without warning, the circle around the professor flared with light. A pulse of mana flared off the cocoon at the same moment before both collapsed inward. Some of the mana compressed more while the rest formed a shape in the air. Given the sudden looks people around us shot in his direction, the mana was visible to everyone.

  While I could see the shape, I had no clue what it was. If anything, it looked like a disjointed mix of creatures, not that it mattered. If I wanted to know, I would just ask the professor when the transformation was complete. He would likely know or at least know where to find the information. Instead, I turned my focus away from the shape and to the professor's shimmering body.

  His hands were the first things to change as far as I could see. The thumb shrank a bit as it relocated further up the arm while the rest of the hand seemed to fill out and grow fur. As it changed, it reminded me of a paw of some sort. Though, judging by the size, whatever he was changing into wasn’t some small creature.

  Without warning, something in his legs shifted. The change forced him to drop to all fours. His reaction, though surprised, didn’t look like it caused him any discomfort. A tearing sound filled the space as his clothes ripped from the muscles on his body filling out. Luckily, or by design, the flesh below was already covered in fur, protecting his modesty. Then things got weird.

  I was certain that he was some sort of large, four-legged predator up until the pair of wings started to push their way out of his back. They stretched upward as they grew and grew. The things finally stopped when they were even with the roofs of many of the buildings around us. As soon as they folded down, the golden light faded but didn’t disappear.

  “So,” the professor asked, “How do I look?” His voice was a little bit deeper. Something about the sound made me think of riddles and secrets. My eyes traveled up his magnificent body before finally reaching his head.

  The damned thing was out of place on that body. While it had changed, it wasn’t by much. Shocked, I whispered, “Fucking weird.”

  “What is weird?”

  “Your face is nearly the same.”

  His brows furrowed. Turning from me, he approached the fountain, looked at his reflection, and started to laugh. “A Sphinx! Hahahaha. It is perfect.” The conversations around us grew, but after a moment, people started to disperse.

  While I had heard about Sphinxes in a few books, I had never seen one. Which made sense as they were myths. The closest things to the creature in front of me I had ever seen were the crumbling structures in Egypt. “Anything else change, or just your appearance?” I asked while looking at the wings with a bit of jealousy.

  “A little,” the professor turned to me. “I am tall when I am young. Short when I am old. Your breath kills me. What am I?”

  While it took me a second to find the answer in the mess that is my mind, I knew the answer thanks to a riddle book I had once read to annoy some of my coworkers. Don’t ask. “A candle.” As soon as I answered I felt something inside me change. It didn’t hurt or anything. Whatever had changed just felt…odd.

  “Correct,” he smiled. “And the reward should be a single point in wisdom if I am reading this correctly.”

  “That is cool,” I said, a bit in awe at getting a point in any stat from a player. “What if I had gotten the question wrong?”

  “You likely would have lost a point,” he turned to face me. “And before you ask, I cannot purposely give out easy riddles. I already tried.” Of course he couldn’t. There had to be a limitation somewhere. Also, that would have sucked if I had not known the answer. Bowing his head to me, he continued. “Thank you for your video. It will help me write up the experience for my records. If I have any questions about what you saw, can I contact you?”

  I lifted my eyebrows. I had expected the guy to either grill me or expect me to write everything down for him. I was getting off fairly lightly. “Sure. Where are you off to?”

  “I think I am going to go watch the tournament before heading off to the next city,” he said as he turned and headed to the left path, relative to the direction of the guild. The people in the crowd gave him a wide berth which made it easy to keep track of him. Not that it mattered. The tallest people around us only came to about shoulder height on the professor.

  As I gave the crowd of people a once-over, I noticed a few men dressed strangely. By that, I mean they were dressed in skirts and even dresses. Based on their cherry-red complexion and efforts to hide their faces, they were not wearing the outfits by choice. The sight reminded me of the first outfit I got in the guild. That piece of cloth and been both useless and uncomfortable compared to the dress I had on now.

  With a smile, I turned and walked down the street after the professor. Maybe I would get lucky and see one of those guys try and fight in the tournament. It would also be cool to see if any of the fighters would use their SoulStones before the fight. Maybe then this city wouldn’t seem so overwhelmingly human.