*snore* *snore* *beep* *beep* "I'm not in the mood for this shit..." Soren commented tiredly, as he turned off his phone's alarm and slowly rolled himself off of his bed. He was currently feeling groggy, as he had stayed up late into the night looking for more information, but had ended up finding nothing more than the usual forum misinformation and hearsay. Granted, he would try to ask some of his colleagues about it, so that might have rendered all of his previous efforts useless, but then again, he didn't have anything else in particular to do and he wasn't exactly interested in checking anything else for the time being.

  After a thorough clean up of his face and body, he decided to grab something light for breakfast and made himself a quick cup of coffee, before going to his post and prepare for his shift. As he was making towards his post with food and drink in hand, he'd occasionally overhear some of the conversations between some of the other employees, but aside from the usual gossip between employees and higher-ups, he found no particularly useful information, unless he counted their love stories as anything useful.

  "Mornin' Soren... *groan* You look like you've seen better days." Nicolas greeted casually, as he was sitting in front of the PC and drinking a cup of coffee himself.

  "Top of the morning as well... *slurp* So where are the two of them? Still haven't awoken?" Soren greeted back in a similar manner, as he put his own coffee cup next to the PC and slowly ate a croissant.

  "They should be arriving soon." Nicolas stated, while taking a sip out of his own cup.

  "Hmm... Speaking of which, do you know why skills in-game randomly disappear?"

  "No clue... I don't have any particular knowledge on the topic. Maybe ask Dr.Vale? She might know something." Nicolas suggested, as he put his own coffee cup down.

  'Figured it wouldn't be that easy...' Soren commented inwardly, as he decided to put on his helmet.

  "Soren, we haven't started our shifts yet... I don't think it's a good idea to enter the game right now."

  "Relax, I'm just going to turn in some quests. Nothing's going to happen in five minutes."

  "When someone usually says that, something always happens. Don't you know Murphy's Law?" Nicolas warned, as Soren laid down completely.

  "Relax, this is the real world, not some thriller movie." Soren casually retorted, before entering the game. As he was entering the game, Nora and Vale also arrived, each eating a muffin of their own, with Nora being the one to grab his attention. "Hey, don't start the party without us."

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Relax... He just entered the game, so you haven't missed much. Speaking of which, is that hooded individual hiding over there with you or should I call security?" Nicolas asked curiously, as a person wearing a black-hooded parka was staring at them from a distance.

  "Just ignore them for today. They'll leave sooner or later." Vale stated casually, as she ate her muffin silently and turned her attention towards the screen.

  ...

  "Alright... We're back in the ga-AAAHH!!" Soren stated casually, before being struck on the back of his head with a speeding projectile. As he was rubbing the back of his aching head, he turned his head towards the direction of the speeding projectile, only to end up finding a stunned red bird, laying on the ground and twitching occasionally. Seeing the bird in front of him, he wondered if this bird was a new kind of enemy, as he had no prior encounters with it and aside from the vermins, he's never been attacked in the settlement before.

  'Maybe I should ask at the Hunter's Guild. Stephen might now something about this bird.' Soren thought to himself, as he grabbed the bird for now and carried it on his arms, as he made his way towards the guild. Upon entering the guild, he found Stephen, half-asleep on the counter, as he seemed to mutter something to himself.

  "Hello? Stephen?" Soren waved his hands in front of his face, but seeing as he hadn't registered his presence just yet. He thought about trying to prank him with a quick jumpscare, but the bird suddenly woke up, giving him a jumpscare, as it flapped its wings violently and cawed as loudly as it could, giving a jumpscare to Soren and waking Stephen up in the process.

  "Urgh... What's with the loud noise? Can't a man sleep in- Oh god, put the bird down quickly!" Stephen yelled out in shock, as he just managed to shake his grogginess away and saw the bird flapping its wings and claws on Soren's face.

  "I'm trying, but this thing's flapping so violently, I can't even catch it to put it down on the floor!" Soren yelled out desperately, as he could feel his face hurting from the scratches.

  *whistle* "Aisha! Aisha! Stop!" Stephen yelled out, as he blew on a small whistle, grabbing the bird's attention and causing it to fly on Stephen's arm. As Stephen was petting the bird to calm it down, Soren couldn't help but comment in an irritated manner. "If you had a whistle, why didn't you pull it out earlier?"

  "Hey, I just woke up. Don't expect my mind to work at fully capacity immediately. So, where did you find Aisha?" Stephen retorted frustrated, as he turned his face towards Soren.

  "Aisha? You mean that bird?" Soren asked, as he pointed towards the bird.

  "Yes. She's a young Crimson Falcon I use for communications between bases and squads. So where did you find her?"

  "She smacked the back of my head when I entered the settlement. Afterwards I carried her all the way here, before we reached our current situation."

  "Hm... I see. Still, thanks for bringing her here. So, how may I help you? You got any quests to turn in?" Stephen then saw Soren slowly started pulling out piles of carcasses from his inventory and waited until he managed to pull out every carcass related to his quests.

  "So... Should I assume that the amount of Slothful Knights is the same as the required amount for the quest?" Soren nodded, as Stephen then turned his attention towards the knight carcasses.

  "Saves me some trouble. Let's see now..." Afterwards, Stephen was fully absorbed with the carcasses, as he quickly examined each carcass and quickly put them in different wooden boxes. After around a few minutes of sorting and number crunching, Stephen then pulled out a small pouch, filled with bronze coins, as he informed Soren about his reward. "Your current reward from the three quests totals to 26 bronze coins. In reality, it totaled to 25 bronze coins and 97 copper coins, but decided to round it down a bit."

  "Fine by me." Soren grabbed the coin pouch and put it swiftly in his inventory and while doing so, he noticed Stephen pull Aisha's entire left leg and from inside its leg, there was a rolled piece of paper. Seeing such an action, Soren couldn't help but ask. "Umm... Did Aisha always have a prosthetic leg?"

  "Nothing of the sort. It's just a little spell I use for communications. Don't mind it too much." Stephen stated casually, as Soren decided to stop thinking about it and focus on more important business.