Savanto

Two

For every dune that Santiago conquered, another one more imposing than the last one seemed to emerge. It was easy to get lost in the Mosara Desert. The initial momentum that Santiago once had vanished after an hour of riding, so he came to a halt atop one of the wind-blown sand mountains. It was a good thing his map could somehow remember where he had been, drawing a pointed trail to his trajectory so that he knew how to come back—the problem was, of course, to move onwards to his goal.

He had checked his instructions in yet another panel located as part of a menu sidebar on his left, where he could access his journal; the quest given to him by his 'masters' was laid down to him in a very handwritten and somewhat difficult to read style, the person who had done it had horrible calligraphy skills.

Santiago then peeked at his log out button—it was still offline, so he had no choice but to press forward. He would complain to the Newak Institute (the company responsible for releasing the game) and then probably quit. In order to do just that, he needed to unplug the neural transmitter from his virtual reality visor so that his brain can actually come back to reality.

His mask protected him from the sand blown away by the strong wind currents, but they negated his vision, making him depend on his map for directions extensively. His Elekron, the massive lizard that navigated the sands like water, seemed to be in perfect shape but a little bit eerie on its master's hesitation, it twirled the head slightly so to tell Santiago that it wanted to move, that it was not made to stand idle.

"I feel you man," the gray, tattoed man said, "but I wish I knew where to find what we're looking for."

Soon, his desperation was stronger than his prudent mind.

"Well, here goes nothing, perhaps if I die, this thing will disconnect and I'll go back to my room."

He indicated the Elekron to move, and straight he went. As he advanced, his spear, ever glowing and imposing, emitted a trail of light thanks to the reflection of the airborne sand. 

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More time went by, and the sun began to set, thus the temperature dropped dramatically as the stars became visible. Somehow, the winds intensified and more sand was lifted into the air, making it not only impossible to see but also harmful to keep going. The Elekron was fine yet reluctant to move anymore due to the temperature. Santiago deduced that since it was a reptile, it also meant that it had cold-blooded anatomy. He dismounted his giant lizard friend and looked at the endless desert.

A message appeared on his interface. 

Temperature is dropping beyond tolerable limits. Seek shelter or make a campfire.

That message sent a shiver down on Santiago's spine as he looked at his HP bar. Although he had recovered from the shocks and the beating a few hours earlier, point by point, his health started to drop every second.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the cold and wind got the best of him—and yet a thought suddenly breezed in...

"What if I just die?"

The idea flooded his other priorities. Yes, if he died, maybe he could disconnect from the game and finally be free. After all, it all had been forced upon him. His odd-looking character, his class, his starting area... Not that he had not read of this before—Savanto was known to be an extremely harsh, realistic game that sold itself as one more VRMMORPG in the market but that it was immediately tagged by the first generation of players as a survival game— this so-called 'alternative reality', what a truly outstanding and revolutionary piece of technology this game was. Santiago, however, did not want an alternate reality ten times harsher than his already mediocre life. Perhaps the Psychological test that granted him a character during the first setup of the game had branded him as a masochist given how he was in extreme emotional pain by the time he signed up. Still, this is not what he wanted.

He laid his back against the Elekron, who was standing still, twirling its head so as to shake the sand that stuck in its scales. He watched as his HP neared its half, the vial full of a red pool emptying with each passing second. His senses in-game began to dull, as a red screen began to appear, pulsating with every heartbeat. He had seen this effect before, in other games, when your health bar dropped to critical levels. It was a nice touch to make it feel so realistic, as he actually sensed the cold getting sharper and burning him. He closed his eyes so as to await his fate, now it was only a matter of time.

Then he heard it. Santiago opened his eyes again at the painful moan of his mount, the only one who had been willing to help all this time. His hand instinctively touched the Elekron, who gasped in a more agitated way. Its legs gave in and it dropped to the floor.

"Oh shit."

The lizard was a cold-blooded animal, or beast, meaning that it could not withstand the cold. It needed a heat source. An overwhelming panic filled the gray, masked avatar. How to create a fire? he thought. His touching hand manifested a slight bar for his beasty friend, it had been more damaged than his. If he was to die in an hour by his calculations, then the Elekron should die six times earlier. How to create a f*****g fire? he cursed.

He looked around so to search for a place to begin his work. His eyes hurt and the pulsating red he started to perceived actually intensified with every single one of his movements, yet down he went, to the sand, his hands touching it and searching for a way to start a fire. He then noticed how his mount had some bags on its rear and rushed as much as he could, wrestling with sand and wind to get it. He touched the Elekron to check on its health. It was almost gone.

He touched the back and his interface showed a bunch of materials to make exactly what he needed. He had been foolish, how could he not notice such useful items kept there since the beginning, he was so busy dealing with his miserable existence in the game that he forgot to do the most basic thing in an MMO—no, in a survival game: Check his inventory and all available tools.

Santiago eyed the there and selected it. a bunch of logs dropped on the sand, slipping away from him and into the nearest sinkhole in the dune. "Damn it, get back here!"

The Elekron moaned in pain, its breathing dying away.

"No, no, no, no. You are not dying on me!"

He gathered the logs with his hands, chose a bunch of them, and piled them together. Santiago set his idea into motion as he grabbed his glowing spear and raised it skyward. It shone with greater light and electricity. He then plunged it into the sand, right where the wood was, and it exploded. He was sent flying a few meters away, digging his head on the sand. That had cost him a bunch of health—he did not have any more time as well.

He observed any changes in the Elekron. It had stopped gasping, and so Santiago thought the worst. He rushed to his companion's side and touched him again. The health bar popped next to the lizard's scales.

It had stopped decreasing.

Santiago let out a huge sigh of relief as he also noticed his HP stopped going down, albeit it was still being chopped away by the flying sand.

"Wait a minute." 

He glanced a the fire he had created just moments ago, it had begun to die out due to the intense winds.

"Aw, I can't catch a break today." He uttered as he fought against the wind currents again to reach his campsite.

He went back to the bags on the Elekron's rear and checked the items one more time.

A piece of long cloth, some building materials like a hammer and nails, as well as more logs he had not burned up in his initial 'fire starting' technique. Santiago smiled—a grin unseen due to the mask, and his one visible eye glowed with excitement. He could do this.

His interface showed him that he had the minimum ability to build a small tent. He proceeded to follow the instructions—he first lodged a three-point base of nails with the pyramidal shape the blueprint indicated, all with the cloth and logs in mind. The logs took the shape of long sticks as soon as he selected to repurpose them for the tent. It took two logs of basic wood for each of the three poles composing the tent's skeletal structure, so he made sure it was done by the book. After making sure the cloth resisted the strong winds of the sand storm, Santiago then plunged the Elekron's giant head into their makeshift shelter so that it could get heated and not lose anymore HP. 

Exhausted, both mentally and physically, the young man within the gray avatar of his rested its back and head against the head of the beast, the Elekron he had worked so hard to preserve. It was not until that moment that he questioned his motive, yet he knew too well. Nobody was dying because of his negligence, besides, the Elekron's cries of pain had moved his already warped feelings.

Deep down, as the red filter disappeared and he got his HP points back from the temperature drop (not from the beating, however), he felt a sense of fulfillment and a feeling of accomplishment that he had not felt before in the game. He looked at the sky, which was beginning to clear from the bronze cloud of sand covering it earlier. The starlight filled his mask, his bare shoulders. The tattoos on his skin glowed in response to their light, and Santiago was amazed to see such a beautiful icy blue glow on his own body.

"Wait..." he said, unable to keep the words to himself.

The glowing turned into a gleaming liquid that traversed his hands, his arms, and shoulders. It traveled across his body at a steady pace, and whenever these waters went, his dusty body would heal from the sand wounds.

"Wow..."

He opened his interface and, for the first time since he got there, he opened the logs about his own Class. He was not intrigued.

As they opened, he proceeded to devour their contents.

>Race: Shial

"A mysterious race hailing from the Colossal Shial Erdu Mountains to the South. Known to be the Children of the Stars, the Shial possess a powerful ability to heal from the very light of the cosmos, the starry sky being their ultimate panacea. Having been conquered by the Mosara Sultanate a millennium ago, the Shial live under servitude, putting their polearm mastery and their unique relationship with the desert and the mountains' wilderness for combat, serving as shock troops in the frontlines.

Polearm Starting Skill + 10

Passive Ability - 'Stargazer' acquired." - By standing idle and looking at a starry sky, the Shial heal overtime.

Santiago smiled.

"So this is how I healed, I have to stargaze, somehow. Although the 'idle' thing makes it useless in a fight."

He opened another log, this time about his class.

>Class: Warrior-Servant

"Rare Class. the Warrior-Servant loses freedom while on missions established by their masters. It is normally a class used by the undesirables of the Mosara Sultanate.

Passive Trait - 'Servile' - Cannot log off nor deliberate make important choices to the Class without their Master's consent.

Passive Ability - 'Master's Blessing' - Receive a set of boons directly related to your master's skills.

>>>Lighting Manipulation

Santiago looked at his spear, still glowing. He tried to touch the diamond but as his hand neared its surface, a small, harmless discharge of electrons made him retract his hand. 

"So, I got this from my unknown master... no wonder they used a lighting-based artifact to subdue me back in town." 

He closed the interfaces and heard the winds were still going strong against them. He needed a clear sky before he could continue on his apparent quest—yes, he had resolved on finding more about this strange world.

Still, something bothered him—Not a single time he had seen another player in town nor in the desert as he traversed it. Savanto was huge, its faithful fanbase was as large as 7 million solid on a single, unitary server, so he assumed he would find at least one by now. Something more alarming came to light as he lost himself in thought, and that was the fact that he had never read anything about the Mosara nor the Shial in the forums or the lore databases. 

Savanto's colossal world was unforgiving, that much was a fact, and the hard-struck reality that in two years players had only uncovered about 20% of its contents had disenchanted many players as much as it had attracted even more users knowledgeable in survivalist gaming. Still, the entirety of the world was considered a mystery—such a masterpiece had the Newark Institute created.

A new screen popped in front of his sight.

Riding Skill Level Up.

You can now name your mount and communicate with it.

Santiago glared intensely at the last remark on that message.

"Communicate with my mount?"

A thought, intrusive to his mind, suddenly invaded him.

"Master..." a voice uttered like an echo. Santiago looked around, but with the hissing winds distorting his hearing senses, he deduced it came from somewhere else.

"Master..."

Santiago looked at the beast, its blue eye fixated on him.

"So you can finally hear me..."

Santiago gasped, appalled at the notion of a creature talking, he stood up, panicked.

"What in the f-asssssssss..."

His words were lost in the overwhelming storm, in the middle of the vast desert.