Darion awoke in a cell on a cot. He was alone in the Cell but outside Biron was just coming into the Holding area. He looked pissed. Darion had to remember that this man was a local authority figure and that he told Darion to keep his nose clean. He was fully prepared for an ass chewing.

  Which was why Darion was surprised when. "Are you alright Darion?” were the first words out of his mouth. “I came over as soon as the meeting ended. Reginald had to gloat. But I understand if this is at odds with your livelihood. You can keep the gear. I understand if you want to withdraw.”

  Darion began to shake his head. “No… honestly I'm glad this happened before they got any contractual obligations on me. And I doubt I'll be keeping my job anyhow. Whether it was in game or not they are going to say I assaulted that man. The enforcer who grabbed me. So I might as well still go. Maybe I'll make enough that I can sell some coin or rare cards and hit one of those guilds who do real world payouts for in-game money and gear.”

  Part way through Darion's explanation Biron began to wave his hands and shake his head, “No no no… this is at least partially my fault. Let me sponsor you. It will mean a political allegiance, but for the most part I follow the Founders intentions for this place. Arthur Slate is a friend, and I'm on fairly good terms with Kris as well. You will likely get to meet them throughout our association. I will assign you a personal room in my facility, the compound has a personal space that you can access and a respawn area that isn't the public Obelisk.

  Darion stood and smiled, just then the door opened and a large man with a shiny bald head and a massive black beard. “oh good you're awake.” the man said in a deep voice. “Apologies for earlier, when whatever was holding back the guardswoman's aura ended the full force of a near tier 3 bore down and it was more than you could take.”

  Darion nodded. “I was wondering if I died… glad I didn't, but that's been my luck lately.”

  The large man grabbed the cell door and with a clank the door unlocked. “You are free to go, I’m Tank Emmerson, sergeant in charge of this district.” he slid the door open and stepped to the side.

  Darion left the cell and. “I hope we meet under better circumstances next time. Did you have any questions about what happened?”

  The large man shook his head. “No, we have a solid accounting of what occurred, you were not at fault. Likely value mart will opt to pay you out to not press charges since that would make them vulnerable to censure. They were solidly in the wrong. Granted this won't have any bearing on any response out of game.”

  Darion nodded and he and Biron headed out. “The dungeon will be tomorrow when you log back in. if you log in around the same time as you did today. Now, for the rest of your session today, I could teach you the skills of an Artificer, now the title can be deceiving. It's my class but it's also a skill like smithing or tailoring. I could teach you the meditation skill. Or we can go back to the guild hall and we could run some simulated dungeons. To make up for not being able to get out there and level.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Darion nodded his head and took some time to think about what he wanted to do. It was true, he did want to get out there and grind away, but with as real as this felt, it felt more like he was beginning a new life not just playing a game. He mulled over what had been discussed, and decided that as much as he wanted to get to grinding. “How about we work on meditation, and after I've learned that Skill, let's see about at least some combat training with my sphere of perception.”

  Biron nodded and the two of them went down a new series of corridors to a room filled with pillows, there was a residual scent of incense, not like any he’d smelled; Yet still relaxing. “Alright get comfortable, make a nest, kick off your boots. Sit or lay however is most relaxing.”

  Biron walked Darion through meditation, until he received the skill. It hastened the regeneration of expendable resources and gave him access to his inner core, where for now all he could do was see his core, and the patterns for the Talents that had been etched into it by the system. Afterwards they returned to the Adventurers guild, and into the Training room.

  Darion stood panting, his hands on his knees, dripping sweat. “Jesus fuck… that was what the Founder did by himself? 9 goblins and then Gorilla warfare with a whole village?”

  Biron clapped. “Yes, but he was leveling the whole time. And his first talent is a little too overpowered. Consider that his abilities aren't even tied to mana. They are tied to stamina and calories. Now I know your day is about to end but the last thing I want to tell you is to practice applying your Affinities to everything you do. Meditation will make that easier. But that is a way to strengthen yourself. All this will go into your class when you form it at Tier 1.”

  With a final nod and thanks Darion willed himself out of the Expanse. Everything went black; and he was on his couch in his studio apartment on earth. He got up and stretched, he felt completely rested and awake as if he got a perfect night's sleep. He didn't even need to pee, and sure enough 8 hours is all that passed. Moving around was actually kind of strange, he'd adjusted to his new height and now everything felt off. Darion grabbed his phone, likely the most expensive thing he owned. and after inputting his pin he saw that his access to all the associate apps had been locked out, and his final pay week was paid out for his scheduled hours. Upon going into his inbox he found the termination email, citing conflict of interest and not upholding company ethics in a public forum. Followed by an offer to settle for 10k cash but 30k gold within the Expanse. The current going rate was almost 15$ in gold. Darion turned his tv on, connected his Android smart box with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and got onto his browser. He created his Expanse account and entered his name, and with the headband serial number associated with him he linked his Them tube account, after a few email confirmations. He emailed the settlement request stating he wanted 60k gold and no cash compensation, to which they immediately accepted, which means he could have likely asked for more. He sighed and got dressed. He needed to go return his vest and any other ppe assigned to him. And maybe grab some groceries while he was there.

  After a day of running errands, he returned home and showered again before checking his Expanse account, upon seeing the 60k he then went to a guild exchange and sold 30k in gold for… his jaw dropped and his brain short circuited. As soon as the confirmation went through 450,000$ hit his account. He immediately went to the irs website to calculate if he owed taxes. After doing some figures and crunching some numbers he knew how much he needed to set aside.

  After his shower Darion settled down for another dive. And after the darkness faded he came to in a stark room with a bed and a desk.