The light from the sword slowly begins to disappear. All I can do is stare at the blade in my hands with horror. Breathing heavily, too scared to move a muscle. The gemstone on its hilt feels like a watchful eye staring right back at me. Right back at my heart and soul.

  “Look out!” Star's call snaps me back to my senses. I bring the sword up and block an incoming attack from the 2 goblins I was originally planning on ambushing. These 2 little green men have their bone blades locked with mine. Guess the bright light tipped them off. With the sword I push them back and create some distance between us. It takes a moment for me to really understand what’s even going on. Alright fine, guess I need to deal with these 2 first.

  With my turn started I begin to rush to the goblin to my right. Once in range I activate Lion's Slash and swing upward, however the skill doesn’t activate, making my swing just a basic attack. The goblin recoils back and grabs hold of his right shoulder where the blade connected. While the attack did land, not activating the skill dealt a massive blow to my damage output. Enraged, it tries a sideways swing to my chest. I'm fast enough to block it. However the second goblin is still unaccounted for and lands a hit on my back. My health bar slowly drops down to around 80%. Come on! At least give me a second to figure out what the hell is even happening first!

  Finally it's back to my turn. First things first, I need to find out why Lion's Slash didn't trigger. I open my menu and sure enough it is no longer in my skill deck. In The Realm Of Timeless Lands there are many skills each class can learn, so to simplify combat each player can only use 8 skills that they select as their skill deck during battles. Looking at mine really confirms it, some of my abilities have been swapped out for hero class abilities. Three abilities I haven't seen before, Guardian of Light, Celestial Slash, and Aegis. I still have most of my thief skills, Shadow Foot, Viper's Strike, and Twin Fangs. My knight skills seem to be what got replaced the most, only keeping Valiant Will and Vanguard Rush. Interestingly, I still have both my knight and thief class. I guess for divine classes like hero, they’re considered like an add-on bonus or something?

  The goblin in front of me begins a deep growl and grips its bone weapon with both hands. Crap my time is almost up, I need to pick something now. Screw it, Celestial Slash sounds powerful. Activating the skill guides my hands into the correct position. I move my right hand out and slash forward vertically. Excalibur cuts through the goblin cleanly. The arch it made shines bright white and shoots out until it crashes into the river water.

  The second goblin behind me begins to tremble seeing his buddy get chopped down. Is it even possible for it to be scared? Just as soon as I think that the goblin’s knife digs into my back. Using the knife and its nails it jumps on and clings to me. Okay, maybe it was just trembling out of anger.

  “You sure you got this?” Star asks. Her face has a concerned expression. Does this situation look that bad right now?

  “Yeah, Yeah… Just a little set back is all.” Hey, it’s just 2 goblins, and I also have this cool new legendary sword too… Guh, why does it feel like I’m trying to reassure myself more than her. Now how exactly should I get this guy off of me? Stupid game replaced all my area of effect skills… Alright I might have something… maybe.

  I bend my knee forward ready to dash. Pointing Excalibur forward I activate Viper’s Strike and lunge toward the river. With my speed the little guy and his knife fly off of me fairly easily. However with no target for my attack I end up stumbling once I hit the water and fall on my butt. The goblin doesn’t hesitate to retrieve his blade and charge toward me. I hope this still works.

  “C-Celestial Slash!” Like before I swing Excalibur to the side. Just as I hoped the blade fires a projectile, earning me my second goblin kill for the day. All I can do is let out a long sigh of relief as I sit back into the cold river water. Star begins to walk over to me waving.

  “Hey, are you sure you're okay? You looked like you were freaked out that entire fight.” Huh? I look down taking a peek at my reflection in the water. My eyes are wide open and my whole body is shaking. When did that happen?

  “S-sorry, it’s nothing.” I create a small cup of water with my hand and splash it on my face. Come on man get a grip.

  “Does it have something to do with your sword? You completely froze up as soon as you pulled it out.” I twitch a little. She hit the nail on the head.

  “...Yeah…” I confess with a sigh, “I guess I was just shocked that this thing is real.” I bring up my arm to show her Excalibur, however it looks like at some point it transformed back into my normal old sword.

  “Hmm? That's not the sword you were fighting with?”

  “R-right, Maybe it only appears in combat or something?” That kind of thing isn't too uncommon in media. Wait, does that make the legendary sword a magical girl transformation? I hope not.

  “Hold up, you don’t know? What is it, then?” I just learned all about it, so it isn't too surprising she doesn’t know about the sword or the hero class. I begin to get up and walk with her back to the flowery area of the meadow.

  “Well… I believe the sword is named Excalibur…” I begin to explain what I know. How there are ultra rare divine classes most players will never find. How there are rumors of a hero class that only one other player has ever unlocked. How in-game the goddess Luminastria sacrificed herself to make the sword. I explain everything, that is up until that nightmare. I mean who even knows if it was a nightmare or real at this point? “... and then…” I do want to talk about it, explain what I'm experiencing to someone. But as I try to form the words a flash of my own creepy mug pops into my mind. “...Then the sword just appeared out of nowhere today.”

  “Wow, that must be super exciting!” She exclaims, “You get a cool new sword and abilities no one else has!” No way! I'm still super skeptical of this thing after that bad dream. Though it's not like I can say that now.

  “A little bit I guess.” I shrug, trying to play off my unease. This sword is definitely more trouble than it’s worth. Star runs up the hill ahead of me, back towards the tree the flora were at before. Once she reaches the top she spins back around with a mischievous grin.

  “You should totally post about it online. I'm sure you will have everyone talking. You’ll be famous before you know it.”

  “Well, I'm not too sure. I'm not really someone who likes being in the spotlight, you know?” I nervously scratch the back of my head

  “Hmm, I guess that makes sense.” As I walk up to her she stretches her hand out towards me. “But doesn’t that make you like, really amazing or something Amber?”

  “Huh? I’m just a little introverted is all…” The sudden compliment catches me off guard. Embarrassed, I slowly look up to her face, but she simply shakes her head.

  “That's not what I mean. I'm talking about the fact you even have the hero class at all. If it is so rare doesn’t that mean you have to be really good or do something really amazing? Otherwise more people would have it, no?”

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  “Oh! Right, that... I'm not so sure. There’s always the chance it is just pure RNG.” While she does have a point, I don't think I quite fit the qualifications. I'm not the highest level, I don’t really play a lot of the endgame content, and I'm fairly average skill wise. If we are talking about merits, the only thing that comes to mind is taking down that hacker. But I seriously doubt TROTL has any kind of reward system for something like that.

  “Eh? But that's not as fun!” She pouts, “Hey! Can you show me what Excalibur looks like? I didn't get to see it up close earlier.”

  “I don't mind, but what if I need to be in a fight to appear?”

  “That works then. If the hero class is new for you too, why not get some practice in?”

  “I… I guess that is alright.” I hesitate at first, but give in. I still don't feel super confident about how safe this thing actually is. “Instead of us fighting, I'll take some pot shots at that tree from earlier instead.”

  “Boo, come on, I wanted you to fight me.” Star crosses her arms in a dissatisfied ‘X’ shape, but I ignore her complaints. I walk forward and change my skills over to all the hero class skills I currently have. Apart from the 3 I currently have equipped there are 3 more Destiny's Blade, Champions Resolve and lastly Sacred Strike. With two slots remaining I keep Viper’s Strike and add in one of my knight skills, Warrior’s Oath.

  I take a deep breath and once I get in position opposite of the tree I draw my sword. Just like before light radiates out and the sword transforms into Excalibur. That was a little test itself, apparently it will transform whenever I draw my blade, no enemy proximity or combat limitations so far. Unless, is it counting Star as an enemy? I open my skill deck and expand it to show the skill descriptions

  “S-Seriously!?” Already I feel like I have been thrown a curveball. The first skill reads “Aegis: If you can read this, then this text is bugged”

  “What is it?” Star questions

  “Nothing sorry, just one of the skill descriptions is bugged apparently. Guess I need to figure it out the old fashioned way.” I look forward and prepare to activate the skill but stop myself before It’s too late.

  “...Are you sure you're doing okay Amber?”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah I'm okay. I'll do it now.” To hell with it. I slam my eyes shut and picture one word in my mind, Aegis. After a little pause I open my eyes. My body didn't move at all. It doesn’t look like anything around me changed. I turn my head towards Star. “D-did anything happen?”

  “No, nothing I could see.” Huh, strange. It should have worked. Hopefully the skill itself isn’t bugged, or worse. I open another menu and begin to look at my character, then my stats screen. There it is. Looking at my stats it looks Like each one has been buffed by about 15% or so. Ugh, why do I have to get so worked up over nothing, get a hold of yourself!

  “It looks like it is just a stat boosting skill, sorry, let's move on to the next one.” Next is Destiny's Blade. Its description reads: “Increases the power of Excalibur, guaranteeing a critical hit next turn.” Pretty simple, and a lot better than “It's bugged LOL”. Using the skill causes me to raise Excalibur into the air above my head, the sword lighting up bright. Moving on is Celestial Slash, the skill I already saw. “the user slashes using Excalibur, sending a projectile towards a target dealing both physical and light damage” Nice, doesn’t look like there are any health requirements or anything for this projectile. I give it one more test swing towards the tree. It crashes into one of its branches causing it to detach and fly off, sending a few wooden splinters flying. While the damage was boosted from Destiny's Blade, I bet you could probably get a similar effect with a normal weapon.

  “So far that's the only cool one.” I nod and agree with her.

  “Let's try this one then, it's called Sacred Strike: A forward thrust with Excalibur dealing more damage the higher the user’s level.” I activate it and bend my knees. I pull my arm back for a moment before launching it forward. I run and stick Excalibur straight into the trunk of the tree. I quickly try and pull it out before the skill ends and it gets stuck in there. While ‘fighting’ against the tree is good for learning the movements, it isn't really giving me a good estimate on damage. Is the damage equal to my level or based on my level? “These last two seem to be more defensive and support based, probably won't be too flashy.” I explain to Star.

  “I don't mind, those skills are important too.” truthfully they both seem pretty self explanatory. “Guardian of Light: Block an incoming attack with Excalibur's power, significantly reducing damage taken” and “Champion’s Resolve: Remove all negative status effects from user” I don't have any negative status effects to test Champion's Resolve, so I use Guardian of Light instead. Like I expected, it causes me to raise the blade up in a defensive stance. Hey, at least the sword glows a little when I do this!

  “Amber! Look out!” Out of nowhere a large figure dashes into me, their blade meeting my own. What the? I'm too surprised to react to the massive tail that swings into my side knocking me to the ground.

  “Wait, don’t-” Star stops and brings her arms up to block an incoming sword.

  “You can shut up and wait your turn. I'm gonna break this one first.” Standing over me is a large red reptile therian with a familiar smirking face. His name appears above his head, Dead-F4. “This time I decided to just go ahead and max everything, but you were still able to guard my attack. You ARE pretty good at this, aren't you.”

  “Well actua-” he sends a swift kick into my right shoulder, in turn sending me tumbling… Ouch.

  “I don't give a shit, this time I get to be the one to break, and destroy you as much as I want.” Slowly I use Excalibur to lift myself back to my feet, as I hold my shoulder.

  “I… I just need to ask one thing before we start this…” he rolls his eyes at my request.

  “Fine, out with it pipsqueak.” He nonchalantly raises his new claymore over his shoulder.

  “Is the number in your name seriously just how many alt accounts you made?” he begins to growl and raise his blade in anger at my stupid joke of a question, not noticing the girl readying a punch next to him. She lands the hit into his side but he doesn't flinch, only changing the target for his blade. I rush in and barely block the incoming attack in time. Well, this isn’t great. Guardian of Light doesn’t block all the damage so I won’t be able to block too many more. We need a plan to get out of this sooner rather than later. With his speed maxed out I won't be able to out speed him like last time. He also hasn’t made this an official battle, so I can’t use the turn order to my advantage.

  No time to think. An uppercut is heading straight towards my face. I instinctively dodge backward, but I don’t get enough distance. Luckily Star grabs my cloak and pulls me back more, just out of range.

  “Amber, do what you did with the goblins before. I’ll keep him occupied!” Star has a determined look in her eyes.

  “What I… Okay got it.” We both nod in agreement. Dead-F4 begins to use Earth Cleaver, instead of blocking, I counter with Viper’s Strike lunging past him.

  “You won’t get away with that now!” He turns to give chase but can’t move much. Behind him Star is holding on to his tail. Holding on and pulling on it like a rope in a game of tug of war. “I told you to wait your turn!” he changes his focus back to Star. With my opening secured I need to go for the kill. I use Celestial Slash, aiming the projectile at his neck.

  “AH!” He noticed the projectile just in time to bring his hand up and block the projectile with his palm. “What the hell?” instead of a retaliation he simply looks at his palm. I however can’t afford to let up. I need to end this before it’s too late. I fire off 3 more Celestial Slashes in quick succession. Dead-F4 Whips his tail up and down making Star lose her grip before he dodges the next 3 attacks with ease. Shit. I immediately block expecting a follow up attack but it never comes.

  “... Huh?” After a moment passes Me and Star exchange concerned looks. He is just standing there still looking at his palm.

  “W-What the hell is wrong with you guys?” Dead-F4 says as he clenches his fist and grits his teeth. “You know what? Screw it! I don’t give a rat’s ass about any of this anymore! Money isn’t worth this shit!” Hold up, what is he talking about? I’m a little lost. Did he say money? Star doesn’t listen and tries to throw a punch but he grabs her arm and throws her to the ground. “You A-holes are above my pay grade. I hope this game burns to the ground.” Dead-F4 moves his hands to open the menu. His body turns completely white before it vanishes and he logs out of the game. Just like that we defeated the hacker for a second time… I guess?

  “That was… Strange.” I turn my head to Star who gets back on her feet.

  “Yeah that seemed… a little anticlimactic, don’t you think?” I nod in agreement. “At the end there, he mentioned money and a pay grade. You think someone is paying him to cheat Amber?”

  “I-I don’t know for sure…” All I’m sure of is something is wrong about this whole situation. I look down at my sword for just a moment before quickly deciding to sheath it on my back. While I begin to wonder about it all I can’t help myself from reaching up and rubbing my right shoulder.