There was but one goal to life. Enter wander X. Removing unnecessary responsibilities and dependability to cater towards the realm of adventure. But what was ironic, was that being an adventurer meant taking on responsibilities and dependabilities. As such, I was unable to completely devoid myself and wither away like I had done so for many years. At 37 years of age, a man was compelled towards control and power. But truthfully, it was my own choice what and how to implement that. Lot of guys did not understand this. They would impose their way of life on me, trying to circumvent deep desires into escapism. But now, finally, I had managed to be more stronger. And therefore, I had the opportunity to exact some revenge on the sweaty suits who drank their whiskeys and talked about stocks. Firstly however, I had to undergo what I had come to call 'mechanized living'. Drink 2 coffees, read books, exercise, do chores and arrange the day. The objectives I needed to achieve were a myriad of things. First, I needed to get a job and renew my driver's license. The job had to involve some tenure so I could call in sick to play wanderX. Therefore,I needed to earn the tenure and work extremely hard. I needed to travel and discover places where the miasma extract could be found and harvested. Laeti would become my girlfriend for a while because she had a lot of money and worked at a university. I could definitely mean something there. It meant quite a lot for me to think in this manner. She liked me, I was likeable. But instead of enjoying her presence,I had to lie,deceive and charm my way around her. That way, I could tap into WanderX l, locate Alyx and adventure with her again.

  The beauty of this plan was that I probably wouldn't stick to it. Such was the beauty of plans. I was confident,yet felt a bit caged and constrained in using Laeti. I felt odd about the concept of romance and felt little to reiterate such things. I had done them before, once. Before my addiction. The romantic adventure is a beautiful thing but it seems over once it's highlights have been achieved. I wasn't feeling that need of love. It was a faint mirage to me now. Something women wanted. The pursuit of it, now that was something I understood. The hunt! The game! Playing with their feelings to understand my own. Being in the moment,doing the deed so that the doer within me is found. The best lessons are in the moment. I hate planning for I thrived within the moment, within the beat. Being with her made me feel boring beige and common. Yet we were dating. I knew she had already set up some perimeters and they were safe, albeit somewhat controlling. I needed to break these rules and identify the things she wanted. But I had to handle her with care. She was rich, pretty and kind. I had heard from Owen that Naomi too , had connections to the root. Though, Naomi was out of my league completely and had a tendency of being a rumormongerer. Still, she too had a connection to the elite. She could help as well. Life offered a vast scape of opportunities and occurrences for me. Things still happened. I had remembered a time of reclusivity, where everyone was with their children. Such times seemed to be over. Most of these women were in their twenties, so I had an advantage over most things,provided I achieved all the goals I had set up. Getting money was a first. Therefore getting my appearances in sync was a second. As such, I had to look formidable. Exercise had resumed its course. Another thing exercise does is that it makes everything look better, except art. Well, one could be artful, but it did require a different energy. One that was less macho. But it's as if my body knew this. It went the extra mile just for that idea alone. I had come to divide my exercise into maintenance and goals. Maintenance was fun, it consisted of only exercises I enjoyed doing and which felt great. I was a particular fan of kettlebell halos and squats,combined with pushups and situps. There, I thought. Couple of reps,sets,aim for 40 minutes and I'll be ok.

  Laeti had taken me in her home and seemed happy to have me around. I had no idea as to why so I blatantly asked.

  'You want honesty?' She asked.

  'Yes, why are you so nice to me?'

  'I like the way you look in WanderX, besides you are powerful in the game.'

  'So I'm hot?'

  'No...ah...how do I say this. You know how fat men used to be a sign of strength to women in history?'

  'Sure.'

  'You're like that. I don't even like the fantasy genre, but you have it.

  'Wait,you play the game but you don't like the world?'

  'Its awful, knights,war, swords. It's just boyish no?'

  'Ok, so why play?'

  'Oeh la la, I play for the gods, the visions, the miasma, the bitter butter that gives golden taste'

  '-Hmmmm I lost you Mon cherry.Truth or dare?'

  The synapse in my dormant reptilian mind kindled automatic reply.

  'No'

  'Come on you bore'

  'Fine, truth'

  'Lose some weight' She said.

  'Yeah, that's not how the game works' I replied.

  'It is now. If I provide you with money and a job, you do as I say,understood?'

  I had nowhere to go and I probably had to accept this proposal. But it also gave me a sense of my value within wanderX.

  'Ok, understood'.

  '-Might I ask why?'

  'This house is your stage, we must perform, perform the qum'barim!'

  'The what?'

  'Ah Mon Dieu, how did you get this far into wanderX without knowing anything, you do not know Markus Knotter? The knight with the belly and the beer'?

  'Oh, yeah. I met him'

  'You met Markus? I doubt that respectfully. I had performed his play in Muurvaak which caused me to kill my guildmates, I serve this mission to rectify my misdoings, but also to study the play and master it'.

  'Why, to what end?' I asked.

  'My own, but suffice to say that mastering the qum'barim is like microdosing on miasma. It is almost too late because of the Maat abhorris.'

  'What is the Maat abhorris?' I enquired.

  'It is the way the psychedelic and spiritual realm is going to reset it's technology and gameplay features. It is how the game refreshes itself.' She explained

  '- We're going to stall that by saving Mornath'

  The following days made it quite clear how the roles between her and me were divided. She was going through her own phase, I was desperate, it worked. Aside from her eccentric nature she was also orderly and neat, which, while antithetical to my ways, proved a great help. I could watch her being efficient upon efficient. She would not read a book once she had filled her laundry, no. Indeed, she saw apt chance to fill the time with cleaning surfaces whilst the laundry machine was on.

  She looked at me in playful disdain when I watched her doing the chores.

  The time had come to feign some idea of competence. Yet, as I started talking about the game, I had become a vessel of gods. I knew, saw and listened to this energetic glow from the great beyond. I had been so accustomed to faking and giving up that I hadn't recognized the concept of vigilance and resolve. Yet, such energies soared through my core. As it happened, in the real world,I had come to feel far more confident. I didn't want to be a broad chested viking northern man. With some work, I was already there. Now, was the time to learn about class and manhood. Such was the role of this french companion, to learn class. As the first words about wanderX were almost uttered, my mind went into a different direction.

  'I should help'

  'No, no it's fine' She said, smiling.

  'Allright, well...I asked'

  '-Say, what level are you in WanderX?'

  'I'm level 3, you?'

  'Level 5, close to 6'

  'So, you'll protect me? Scout back and forth to save me from the monsters?' She asked, her face deadpan with a soft glaze in the depths of her auburn eyes.

  'Shouldn't be a problem, yes. You'll be safe.' My mouth tasted like fucking thunder . For jugular truths strode upon the planes of WanderX .

  Later that night, we slept together, although in seperate beds. She tossed and turned as the dream of the root lent wings to our minds. My gaming time had become my dream time. And all perilous and fantastic adventures in the annals of the human experience would surface within the game of games. We had nothing to lose by going. Except our lives

  Our party was comprised of other players. A ratlike engineer, a techno-mage donning bluish robes and robotic features and an envoy wearing a dark blue leather uniform. Laeti looked like a mercenary lady with camouflage armor.

  The Techno-mage had his spells prepared.

  Laeti had her rifle carefully loaded and her boots strapped.

  The envoy lit his pipe. And I was ready to engage, equipping myself with axe, sword, horn and auto-target drone rifle.

  A loud humming sound combined itself with the roaring of the engines and the creaking of the steel hull as the shuttle departing from the floating skull tavern descended down the Moon.

  The mission was clear to us: find and locate Mornath the drifter within the cult-city of Farenheim and see if he has any means of escaping the Maat abhorris, The technological reset through the valley of wanderers, the cosmic collection of moons within an arcane storm.

  Everything from the undocking procedures to the atmosphere of the quondam moon went according to plan. A resurgence of anticipation soared throughme as we neared the surface. The weather was extremely bad according to the beeps on the console. The Ratengineer who piloted the ship looked at us four and said;

  'the CM gauge is broken and I skipped maintenance, but we'll be alright, pretty confident to go, shoddy shit this freighter though, not gonna lie, terrible... Terrible equipment!'

  With the piloting skills of the Ratlike engineer , the landing was the perfect mix between an elegant fall and a harsh crash. The female computer voice listed a couple of errors, from frame-bending to malfunctioning life support in one of the expansion bays, as a couple of asteroids and rocks were hit upon descending. The beds that were also put in started to fall and break as the rat-engineer landed the ship. The engineer cried, out of breath, as the door of the shuttle opened.

  After checking our gear and equipment we unbuckled our safety straps and headed towards the exit of the shuttle. The Rat-engineer did a small salute attempting to be nonchalant about the whole affair.

  Our Ship had landed near a town that was completely deserted. Our fates, whatever they were, were tied from then on.

  The dusty clouds smelled of dark-green and gathered in the sky obscuring the breadth of space and the freedom once associated with it, which now made way for the sensation of being strayed far from the known. our only guide the mission, and the new companionship we had formed.

  We stood in front of what appeared to be a ruin from an age older than the houses surrounding it amidst an otherwise deserted landscape of breathless grey and yellow unused fields of rotten wet wheat. The odd thing was I was already exhausted from the landing. Safe for Laeti ,she regarded her teammates and expected that the anticipation of a mission had the potency to tire rookies. She, however, was no rookie. The envoy, in his regard, was behaving somewhat laconically. The techno-mage appeared to soak in his surroundings and quickly started his scans. An assortiment of tentacle-like and robotic limbs extended from his magestaff. On the top of the staff rested a pearl which functioned as videofeed with ordinary sight. Additionally, the tentacles would rise up 2 metres above the party and scan, magnify and classify their surroundings.

  The envoy regarded the structure and gathered that it served different purposes over the ages, from an age old defense to a meeting spot, to a defense outpost again. The town appeared ECA level 1 but the surrounding structures were between ECA 2 and 3 in my estimation. The architecture, therefore, was in accordance with the CV law. The CV, or conflux veritas was some force within the worlds of this game which governed the levels of technology for whatever purpose..

  There were several directions and objects for us to investigate. Four big barrels as big as 2 Metres in height stood almost next to the Old ruin. No one was in the vicinity, and the barrels appeared to be in a forgotten state.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  While no one could be seen, murmured growls could be heard, reminding our company of the undead presence. It was a quick and silent agreement among us players that we had to be on guard.

  'Watch the barrels' the envoy said.

  '-Fire farenite. Extremely volatile, after securing out our landing location, let's make sure to take them aboard.' He concluded

  'Bringing extremely volatile barrels on our only transport?' Laeti asked.

  'Volatile, and valuable I might add ,Sheretouched' the envoy replied.

  '-It is a useful bargaining chip if we find the right kind of people.'

  Laeti kept on walking and tried to peer into the mists, ignoring the obviously drunk envoy. She noticed the strange muffling of leaves on the grass next to the ruin and deduced the placing of traps. Nothing fanciful by my estimation, but still skillfully placed. She carefully walked through some of the traps and touched the wall of the old ruin.

  The envoy stood next to Laeti and attempted to climb up the 3 Metre high wall of the ruin. Laeti sighed and quickly tried to push the Envoy up with the aid of the Techno-mage.

  The envoy fell but his feet kept stuck in a hole in the wall so he performed a backflip in savant fashion. While successful,he was quickly out of breath, considering the heaviness of the climb.

  Laeti scouted the outer walls and motioned me and the others to follow her. She started to lie down prone towards some bushes and crawled up further.

  I looked away to scout a bit on the side.Further up behind the sprawling traps I spotted a spider near what appeared to be train tracks. I quickly whispered this to Laeti.

  Laeti looked back from her scope upwards at me as she had firmly put her legs and body in a stealthily position:

  ‘I’ll be scouting up ahead, you two stay put, Pandarpha, get over her and lie next to me. Perhaps there are more of these spiders within the ruin.’

  I motioned towards the bushes and fell prone to proceed inside the ruin.

  It was a good hiding spot from the surroundings, as well as a good spot for finding what was inside the ruin.

  I could crawl under the bushes into what seemed to be a natural pit, which immediately came in handy for I heard soft voices speaking, painfully aware we could've been seen.

  As I crawled to the stem of the bush next to Laeti I saw that the inside of the old ruin revealed an out of use marketplace. Aiming her rifle, I considered that my old preference of Melee weapons was having an argument in its favour, for crawling with his long hunting rifle was an arduous endeavor indeed. The benefits of her classical hunting rifle with a scope were numerous however.

  It had a ballistic impact, ergonomically designed to quickly look down the scope and lift. Such consideration seemed out of place were it not that there were two targets in his line of sights whom she had his rifle pointed at in silence as I stared at her.

  Two strange soldier looking soldiers were conversing with one another.

  ' The Prefect took my sense. He lured me into his office and stabbed me. At least, now I know. He is bereft of a liege,

  for I saw it through the silver lining....I saw it!'

  The other soldier nodded vehemently, but twitched in between as he spoke.

  'Sign of devils, Farengulf..BA...Farenheim...Lo....Farenith...Fi....The Dark rider shall know the doom of his era.

  ...The necrotic plains are no match for us....We serve it....Yet....we cannot destroy this blasted lantern of theirs...'

  At the mention of the lantern, I noticed something behind the two soldiers. There was a dark green linen tent with a bright-burning green lamp inside, the lamp appeared translucent.

  To my left, I could hear something growling a little louder and we decided to return. Laeti raised her gun as she crawled out.

  Upon our return we gave our comrades a sitrep

  'Negative on more of the spiders, there were two humanoid-like fighters within the ruin.

  They were speaking about some sort of master, a cruel master, and there was some liege.

  If we fire on the spider, they might come out.' I said.

  Laeti looked behind her to check if she wasn't followed.

  'I would be hesistant to consider them friendly

  for they were conversing about some evil leader, but I'm not sure of their intentions.' She whispered

  The envoy nodded and held up a finger to take his turn to speak.

  'If we were to attack them , we should leave them and keep one alive. We are to enter the city, maybe they know a way in? Perhaps an incentive or monetary payment,granted they are not inclined shooting at us.

  ‘-Thoughts?'

  Laeti and I thought for a moment.

  'Our primary objective is to find a train to enter the city, Techno-mage, anything on the trains on your scans?' I asked.

  'No,nothin on the scanner apart from the train tracks we spotted, but I like the envoy’s idea, we could negotiate.' The Techno-mage replied.

  'You guys sit up somewhere, and I'll be trying out my sales pitch.’ The Envoy concluded

  'There were some monstrous sounds, be careful'.I added

  The envoy added his frag grenade to the wall on the castle's side and linked it up to his datameter as a safety-measure. Then he put his hand behind his back, smoked a pipe and walked up to the opening near the bushes and announced himself loudly, as the Techno-mage and Laeti and I were in position to cover fire. My Auto-target drone rifle was attached to my sagestone armor, pointing towards the ruins.

  'Hello? Helloooooo??? I was wondering if we could come to a parley or negotiation of sorts, I have some questions, for I am lost! Lost and willing to compensate anyone who can get me where I wish to go.' The envoy said, as his voice slowly faded, distancing away from us. We tried to near the place stealthily so we could have closer look at our target.

  Upon seeing the two soldiers, I noticed that they seemed depressed, if anything.

  They were distracted and had difficulty in focusing on their surroundings, yet hellbent on survival.

  The soldier clad in a jacket twitched and stood upright as he watched The envoy.

  'Blessed are the beings shone,shine,shining from the Light of glory, The legend of legacy. Why are you here? Patricide for earning someone's miasma perhaps? Forsaken or in search I wonder.....

  He tried to flex his muscles to the Envoy and he moved his face as if he almost wanted to say something to him yet remained silent.

  He pointed at the middle of the ruin where a small dark green tent stood.

  ' The lantern....The lantern interrupts our......delicate intervention.........Perhaps..who? what? THE RED PATH....I holster my gun for the red path.....'

  He kept murmuring the red path to himself not paying attention to the Envoy.

  The envoy nodded and said ' The red path, don't worry about it, I am but an envoy and I was wondering if there is anything you guys would like to have. Maybe we can share some delicious food to get us started. I myself am quite famished,

  They lowered their gun and seemed ok with the Envoy approaching with food.

  ' You two appear hurt, can I have a look? '

  Although from a second look they appeared to be mentally hurt instead of physical.

  'Could we help you with anything? If there is anything you need help with we can offer it' The envoy said

  The soldiers twitched and merely said

  ' We are the wretched'

  The envoy nodded slowly, an age-old trick in the realm of diplomacy.

  'Good to know'

  I tried to deduce what exactly these two people were.Laeti looked at me and whispered

  ‘Few reports have had people escaping a miasmic cult-city because of the dependency on the mineral. These two appear people depleted from the mineral known as miasma and had gone mad.’

  Wandering addicts, forsaken by the drug-mineral. This is how the city worked, those who would stop partaking in miasma would be exiled to live like wastelanders and protect the city from miasma.

  The blind, odd looking soldier-creature looked in the direction of the envoy.

  ' Paaahhhhh, The necrotic ones rise even after slain. I had cleft one in twain...cleft one in twain I tell you.

  ' I cannot.....focus.....for the light must be witnessed again and a spark of darkness to be remained in the gorges of the mind...mulled mind.....For I am...... '

  Suddenly, the soldier seems to be more sober.

  ' Ah...see there ought to be a tome somewhere...

  .A tome that might aid you in talking to the lantern?.

  ..But please provide me a lectern to continue my speech...for I am....I AAAMMMMMMMMM'

  He climbed up the crates next to him.

  'THE WINGED ONE, THE PHOENIX...Or perhaps the eagle?

  To take up flight and land within the well of the abandoned.......'

  He jumped high up in the sky and stretched himself in mid-air only to fall flat on his face.

  Not knowing exactly how to react, the envoy started to search around, possibly looking for the tome. He walked near the green linen tent and was going through the table.

  Suddenly a voice came from the tent.

  ' Who is entering my domain?'

  'I was looking for a tome I...'

  The Envoy said

  An inauspicious looking lamp was hanging in the middle of the tent. We had eyes on the Envoy and could still observe what was going on without being seen.

  Within the lantern green vapors gathered and swirled showing a face every now and then.

  ‘Whaaaaaaattt would you assskkkkkkkkkk ooooffffffffff meeeee insinuating pretendaaaahh?'

  ‘I was wondering how to enter the city ‘ The envoy asked.

  ‘The city?’ the lamp inquired.

  ‘The one that is guarded from these abominable dead things.’ The envoy stated and followed it up with a question.

  ‘-You know the undead hunt for the city?’

  ‘This is not the city, this is the outskirts, I shall say no more, for you must prove to me.’ The lamp said.

  He started to sound strange and shouted.

  This accursed lantern was doing something alien.

  ' How DARE YOU MORTAL!'

  A deep alarm sounding command came from the lamp.

  ‘What is with this lamp?’ The envoy asked the soldiers

  the twitched soldiers looked afraid.

  ‘You must honor it, the undead are coming!

  We heard a strange communal howl. From the depths of the swamps all around us, the undead had risen.

  ‘Look alive!’Laeti said as she retreated to find a proper vantage point.

  I immediately drew my longsword and entered the courtyard next to the envoy. The rat-engineer and the techno-mage stood by Laeti outside of the ruins.

  There were crates next to the odd soldiers that broke down. Fleshy pinky red walking zombies came walking towards us with a low and deep moan. A smudge of green and yellow could be seen on the faces as they neared us.

  I quickly struck at the first one whom I hit across the chest inflicting 16 damage. The zombie almost fell, but his wiggling carcass gave him the momentum to slam against me hitting me in the throat. I was mortified at the prospect of turning into one of these. His hand smelled of sweet decay.

  The robotic voice of the techno-mage boomed ‘Throw a grenade in that opening and get out, this place will be a deathtrap within moments’.

  The zombies started to cry for help. It was as if they were suffering and clinging to a form of consciousness.

  The envoy walked towards the rat-engineer and asked. ‘Can you have your drone search the buildings? These zombies are tied to some sort of tome that resurrects them once they are dead’

  I stood in front of the zombies and one of the crazed soldiers had emptied its magazine on the one I had just struck. The zombie had fallen, but now 2 or 3 more came towards me and him.

  The rat-engineer shouted into some wired thing ‘Search the house for a….what am I looking for?’

  I had to strike the next zombie keeping him at a distance. The zombie which had just fallen, stood up again.

  A shot from the rifle released and hit a couple of zombies in the head, making them fall down. There were now three standing in front of us. They went for the soldier who was slowly being eaten.

  The other soldier ran out of the ruins and bolted towards our shuttle. He seemed to try and hijack our ship.

  ‘Lawrence, blow the wall, abort this mission, abort!’ Laeti shouted.

  A click could be heard, and the wall which the envoy had rigged beforehand was blown up. I retreated but two of the zombies marched towards me, lunging their attack. They were easy enough to avoid luckily.

  A loud crack could be heard as wood was flying all over from behind the wall besides the zombies. A deeper bigger roar could be heard.

  Another sniper shot could be heard which ended the other soldier who tried to hijack our vessel.

  I quickly made for the outside of the ruins, trying to get my bearings.

  From a small house, a hulking white undead beast which walked on two black talons and two meaty claws was attacking both Laeti and the Techno-mage. Several of the zombies came creeping up towards the mage who released oil from one of his metallic arms. Most of the zombies became greased and fell down. Both him and Laeti retreated, Laeti fell down on the grease and quickly got up.

  ‘The fire, throw it into the fire!’the Techno-mage shouted towards me.

  I was dumbfounded, then saw that the drone of the rat-engineer provided me with a tome that smelled of necrotic dust and old paper. I grabbed the book and walked towards the fireplace in the middle of the ruins. I had to dodge and shove a couple of zombies and threw the book into the fire.

  ‘Quickly, engage the greased ones’ Laeti said as she, with an oily smudge on her face and uniform started to shoot at the zombies on the ground.

  I faced the zombie I had just shoved away and hit it with my longsword for 20 damage in total. The zombie got hit and fell over a small table. He got up and turned his face towards me as he slowy walked towards me, A blast that went past my ear shot the zombie in the face and he fell down.

  Combat was over.