Chapter 9: Chapter 8: an unfortunate wolf

Once separated from Zena, Jools starts by looking through both sets of memories. He does this primarily to get an idea of how the ingame abilities have changed since becoming real. This was not done earlier as Jools is strong enough not to worry, even without abilities. To start the testing, he throws a few simple punches and kicks, which is significantly powerful, though not any more so than his muscles could provide. Channeling his stamina into the subsequent punches, increases their power significantly, and in the spur of the moment he decides to punch a tree. It shatters and falls over.

After running through the gauntlet of moves, some more fancy than others, he notices a figure jumping towards him with an open mouth. Turning just in time to stop the assailing wolf with his forearm, only to have the wolf bite down onto it. Feeling pretty happy that Zena convinced him to wear a jacket, since those teeth would probably have hurt, if not for the enchanted jacket. Not really feeling the force behind the bite, he decides to grab the wolf by its scruff and pin it to the ground before looking around for a pack. Finding none, he realizes that this area must be very low leveled, since lone wolves are some of the earliest enemies you would face in the game. Feeling a bit sorry for the wolf who clearly bit off more than it can chew, he starts to pet it hoping that Zena can put it to sleep so that he does not need to kill it.

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Entering the clearing that Jools occupies, I see him holding down a wolf amongst some broken trees. The wolf seems to have given up despite not appearing to be in any pain and is quietly whimpering under Jools grip.

“What’s going on here?” I ask, causing them both to look at me.

“This guy tried to attack me, and I didn’t have it in me to actually harm him. Just look at him.” Jools answers whilst lifting one arm and scratching the wolf on the head.

“I can see that you are enjoying yourself, but it doesn’t look like the wolf is enjoying it very much. So what are you planning?”

“I would love to take him as a pet, but he is a wild predator, so I can’t. I was hoping you could put him to sleep with some magic so that we don’t have to harm him.” Thinking a bit about my repertoire of spells, I nod at Jools. I have a couple variants, but skipped testing them earlier since they fall under the same general category as paralysis. 

“I can do that. I was thinking of having food, or heading back to the town. Seeing that you want to get away from the wolf while it’s sleeping, we should probably head back to town.” I channel my sleep spell whilst speaking and the wolf slowly relaxes and falls asleep. Seeing the wolf fall asleep in Jools’ hands is kinda cute, even if you consider that one is a menacing wolf and the other is a big burly man. Seeing the wolf fully asleep Jools releases his grip, giving it a final pet before standing up and walking over to me. Restarting the conversation once we are near the road, I ask him “Aside from petting the wolf, did your abilities work as expected?”

“Yes, most abilities work as I expected, though if I am being honest, I spent most of the time petting the wolf. Also since it was a lone wolf, I think this area is pretty low leveled, possibly near one of the starting cities.”

“Good to know.”

Hearing his stomach growling, I take out one of the meaty sandwiches he gave me earlier and hand it to him wordlessly and him giving me a word of thanks. We slowly walk on the road back to town, with him enjoying the food and me taking in the scenery. The game had a few beautiful areas, but seeing it in real life makes it better. The forest road is not quite as beautiful as the lake from yesterday, but seeing the afternoon sun shining through the canopy is beautiful.

As Jools finished his sandwich, we start talking, mostly reminiscing about our adventures in the game. At one point he mentions that my current voice sounds quite a lot like the voice changer it occasionally used when playing as Zena. At least I used it when we played with larger groups, doing dungeons and raids. I used to lean quite a bit into the role playing aspect of the game and got a few others to do it as well, though it never was something James was particularly into, but to each their own. Thinking back to how it sounded, I realize that I never really heard the output all that often. I mean, I tested it before using it, but for the most part it was just the others hearing it. And much to our amusement, it occasionally broke horribly. Once this caused them to break out laughing in the middle of a boss fight leading to our loss. Both of us chuckle at the memory as we continue walking. We were mostly online friends, thanks to us living in different cities, but we did meet up once in a while.

Not running causes the trip to take much longer and it is evening by the time we enter the inn. At this point I’m feeling quite hungry, not having taken the liberty of eating on the road, so I order a meal from the proprietress and Jools does the same. Today’s meal is a stew and I once again have mead as a drink. Not really feeling like being intoxicated, I sneakily cast detox on it. It worked, the bitter taste of the alcohol is gone, leaving the mead tasting slightly better. Jools found out that he preferred the ale whilst drinking yesterday, stuck with his choice, though he seems to have decided that moderation is a thing today.

At some point the militia men came back in for dinner and waved at Jools who took it as an invitation to join their conversation. Seeing as I am done eating, I simply head back to the room.

Closing the door behind me, I take out the hovering mirror and stare at the woman in the reflection, me, not Zena. I can’t keep putting it off, so I say out loud “I guess I’m not miraculously waking up back at home tomorrow either, so I should probably sort out my thoughts about this.”