Congratulations, you are the first in your settlement to die. You bold soul, gain +10 to your health.

  The words passed in front of Payton’s eyes like a watermark on the world. Her health bar grew a tiny bit and then she realized her stamina was still low despite now being at full health.

  “Well, crap. That was quick.” Payton heard the man before she could see him. It was the man who had addressed the whole village before. He left the group he had been talking to with a stick and a stone in his hand and approached Payton.

  “I’m really the first one to die?” Payton asked. She was hesitant to move around. She was still very winded from her sprint, the fight, and then getting killed.

  “Everyone else is busy within the town limits. Nothing that’s awake right now can come into our village. Where did you go?” The man asked.

  “My sister said her manual pointed her to a manor in the forest outside the valley. We have to help my sister!” Payton remembered Sage rather suddenly and the man held out his arms to stop her from running off to the manor again.

  “I’m sure she’ll be right back. Tell me about this cloth.” The man touched the lace shawl that Payton had forgotten she was holding.

  “I don’t know. I just grabbed something after they attacked me. These zombies are insane.”

  “Tell me about them, what did they look like? How did they actually kill you?” The man gently held onto the lace to keep Payton near.

  “Gray. Grayed out eyes, rough skin. They were horribly strong and cold. They killed me by freezing me.” Payton looked away from the huts and the rusty bell at this man. He was not excessively tall or muscular, it was not immediately apparent why he had been chosen to lead this entire community.

  “Icelings. This manor must have been right up against the ice wall. That ice wall is dangerous. It’s not just terribly cold, it is cursed. Powerfully cursed.” The man shuddered visibly and dropped the lace shawl.

  “Who are you?” Payton asked.

  “I’m Zahir. I’ve played this game a lot for most of my life. The Icelings you fought are pretty powerful, we’re not supposed to encounter them for months. Closer to the end of the tutorial year.”

  Off to one side, Sage appeared with a violin in each hand and swayed a little while she woke up from being dead.

  “I bet the Icelings got her too. Maybe you two should go back to your hut, it’s starting to get dark and some bad things come out at night. Even in the village. Find me tomorrow and we’ll find a way to help you two level up without leaving the village for now.” Zahir looked at the violins and then rang the bell three times.

  Apparently the word had spread that the bell was the signal to go home. The Bell Square began to empty and all work stopped around the village as everyone moved back to their huts.

  “You grabbed two violins?” Payton put the shawl around her sister’s shoulders as the wind was picking up and the setting sun’s warmth began to fade.

  “There were two. I panicked. You got something nice though.” Sage looked at the lace shawl.

  “I was the first in the town to die thanks to those violins. This shawl better make me fly or invisible.” Payton responded. Seeing as Sage could still see her, Payton didn’t put much hope in the invisibility. Blue and purple flowers spread across the creamy lace. It sure didn’t feel magical, but it was nice to have it around her shoulders.

  “These are really nice violins, I think the neck on this one has mother of pearl inlaid. The musicians really took good care of them.” Sage admired her new violins as they walked. One was a burnt orange with a high shine and a lovely carved border around the body. The other was a simple, flat black that looked like it had been burned almost entirely.

  “And they work? They actually produce music? That one doesn’t look…healthy.” Payton didn’t know the right word to use to tell her sister the violin looked like it was going to fall apart.

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  “I’m sure they sound great. And I do not know what this violin is made of, but it survived getting manhandled by those things. And I’ll have to wait until we get to the hut and I can get my…bow. I need my bow to see how they really sound. I’ll need a bow to play them.” Sage’s steps slowed and her words sunk in.

  “Sage, are you telling me you grabbed two violins and didn’t grab the bows? I know nothing about music and even I know you need a bow to play the violin!” Payton stopped with her hand on the door.

  “I didn’t expect zombies in the manor. We’ll have to go back.” Sage said confidently.

  “Not this week we don’t! Those weren’t zombies, that Zahir guy said they were Icelings and we aren’t supposed to fight them this early. We are not ready for these guys, we aren’t even ready for those toads. We will go back to that manor when Zahir says we go back to that manor.” Payton scowled at her sister, jerked the door open, and stomped over to her bed. The sun was down and their fire had gone out. She crawled under her blankets with her clothes on and waited to fall asleep.

  “Payton, I’m really sorry about dragging you to the manor yesterday. I didn’t know it was going to be so dangerous. We were so unprepared too. I promise, I’ll get you armor before I ask you to leave the village again.” Sage finally came around the hut the next morning while Payton was again applying mud to their wall.

  “At least we didn’t die,” Payton said with a laugh and threw another handful of mud at the wall.

  “I’m serious. I didn’t realize how realistic this was, I didn’t expect it to be so intense. I’ll get you armor. You got me the violins, it’s only fair I outfit you.” Sage tapped her toe on the ground nervously.

  “I’ll take it. We need everything we can get. Have you leveled up or anything?” Payton asked. They had been technically playing the game for twenty-four hours now and that seemed like a long time to wait for level one.

  “No, I haven’t leveled up. Things change up and get serious once we level up.” Sage shrugged.

  “This hasn’t been serious yet? Is this really necessary?” Payton wondered what she had gotten into with this game.

  “It has to engage our brains. It has to be as real as possible and make as many decisions as possible. And we now know that dying isn’t so bad. We don’t have to be good at the game, we just have to keep playing.” Sage was speaking more to herself than to her sister.

  “None of that was in the advertising.” Payton pointed out with raised eyebrows.

  Sage pursed her lips, nodded, and then walked away without addressing what Payton had said.

  Zahir interrupted Payton’s work next. It was around midday and she was finishing the second wall. Zahir had a stick with a piece of rock to one end in the rough shape of an ax.

  “That looks like it sucks.” Payton said at the first glance of the ax.

  “We’ve broken three trying to chop down a tree. We have no way to sharpen them and the twine we’ve found in the village is horrible. In the other season starts I’ve done have always had decent tools near the village.” Zahir admitted with a begrudged smile.

  “There aren’t any tools in the village and I’m a little worried the manor you found is the closest place with actual tools. We need to make our own as best we can. We have three blacksmiths ready to start working and only one person who has worked in mines before. If you saw iron ore, would you be able to recognize it?” Zahir asked.

  “Show me the mine. I’ll dig it out.” Payton flicked mud on the ground and followed Zahir out of the village. They went further into the valley, to a steep section of the valley wall. A stone arch cut into the side of the valley and this seemed to be where Zahir expected to find iron.

  “I don’t think there is anything dangerous in there, but I don’t really know. I’ll go in with you and they’ll wait until we bring something out.” Zahir gestured at the four other villagers waiting outside the mine.

  “Did you try to go in here yesterday?” Payton asked.

  “No, we only found it yesterday. We thought there would be another source of iron and so we didn’t do anything until today. We don’t have anything to mine it properly, but we need to get something so our smiths can get some experience.” Zahir shrugged sheepishly.

  “Standing around won’t dig up this ore.” Payton wiped the spiderwebs out of the way and walked into the darkness of the abandoned mine. Wooden beams and stacked stone columns held up the dirt roof and crates of supplies lined the sides of the mineshaft.

  “Let’s start with one of these and see what we have.” Payton picked up one of the crates and walked right into Zahir with it.

  “Wait, aren’t you going to dig it up?” Zahir sounded disappointed.

  “If we can get iron from these crates it’ll be faster than me digging with a stick. So get out of the way and we’ll see what’s in this crate in the light of day.” Payton didn’t wait and pushed past him to get out of the mine. The contents of the crate shifted and grated as she walked.

  With the crate on the ground, it was easy to lift the lid off and be grateful it wasn’t nailed on. It was filled with green and brown pebbles with sharp edges.

  “It’s not iron, but if we can find some tin we might be able to start the bronze age.” Payton left the crate with the other villagers and went to get more.