Chapter 6: The Silver Demon
While the leader of that one, particularly stupid, group was back at spawn calling our hero all sorts of names, Kane was in the ravine examining his new sword.
"So..." Reaper popped in, "Do we count that as your 'rare item drop' or-"
After a quick bop on the head from Kane, the group settled down and waited for the next batch of wolves to spawn.
Jol kept glancing around the ravine suspiciously. "Don't worry Jol, even they aren't dumb enough to try that again so soon." Reaper smiled and flexed his arm.
'I somehow wouldn't put it past them,' Kane chuckled to himself.
Reaper stood up, "Think the wolves have spawned yet?"
Kane put on the evilest look he could muster and said, "They surrounded us a while ago."
"Not this crap again!" Jol hopelessly sighed.
A few minutes later, the wolves had finally respawned, and the team got to work.
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After a 10 minute fight and a half-hour walk, they arrived back in town and collected the quest rewards.
This time, however, instead of losing all hope, Kane was smiling as he tossed a small black crystalline core up and down.
"I still can't believe that actually dropped," Jol examined the core closely.
"Me neither, guess it's time we part ways then."
Reaper beamed, "Yep yep, you're welcome to come hang out with us whenever, next time we'll bring Jordan along."
"Was he the guy who left before we partied?" Kane asked, slightly confused but pretty sure he got it right.
Reaper nodded. "Here, just send us a message if you need help some time."
A friend request popped up on Kane's screen. "Alright, we've got places to be, see ya!"
Kane accepted the request and waved goodbye as they walked off, Jol mumbling about how there's no way he was blind.
Kane laughed to himself and began making his way to a nearby building.
Being in the elf village always felt odd, especially now that his senses had been heightened even further from when he first joined.
The treehouses especially threw him off, he could always hear footsteps above his head.
And he was pretty sure he heard a waterfall somewhere in the sky...
Arriving at a forge, he 'looked' inside and was met with a small red-haired woman hammering away at an anvil.
She jumped in surprise as a voice came from behind her, "Child laborers are in short supply these days, thank you for your sacrifice."
She turned around only to find the man who'd said that had already walked away.
Kane meant to go to the appraisal shop next door.
"Ah, if it isn't the Silver Demon!" Boomed a large elderly-looking man with an obvious voice changer.
"Oh god, is that what they're calling me?" Kane rubbed his forehead in pain, the fake old guy snickered.
"So, what can I do ya for!" He said whilst rubbing his fingers together hungrily.
Kane pulled a black crystal core out of his pocket, "I need this item appraised."
"Oh-hoho, that'll cost ye 300 gold!"
Kane did a double-take, "Fuc- what?! No! 50, and stop talking like that."
The 'old man' sighed, "Fine, 50 gold then, gimme the damn thing."
"Oh, now this is interesting!" He said with wide eyes. Kane leaned closer, "What? What is it, old man?"
"I'll tell ye for 200 go-"
"Fifty."
The old man clicked his tongue. "Basically, you just insert 50 mana into this and you'll unlock a skill."
Kane snatched the item out of the man's hand and ran off.
"Hey, what about my gold!!" He yelled exasperatedly.
"Sorry! I don't like supporting unethical businesses, I'm a person with very high moral values, hope you understand!" Kane said cheerfully as he ran off.
"Should have activated the transaction function first..." The man muttered to himself.
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Sitting under the shade of a tree over by the Terrestrial Glades, Kane began pouring his mana into the rock.
The more he poured in, the brighter the rock shone, though Kane wouldn't know that.
Some of the players battling rabbits had their attention caught by the bright glow.
The rock began rapidly dissolving into Kane's body as a felt a chill creep into his very being. He was also surprised to see that learning a new skill gave him 50 Xp, bringing his level up to the higher end of 13.
[Beginner Skill: {Compatibility: Assasin, Aport} Shadow Step(1), those with mastery over space and shadows can bend their very presence to become one with the dark. Costs 20 Mp per-use, hides the user for 30 seconds, can only be activated in darkness. {Reach Rank 'Common' to level up skill}].
"Well that'll be useful... or maybe not, teleporting away might be easier."
"Woah- hey, what was it you did just now!? Wait a minute- Hey guys, it's the silver demon!"
He turned only to find the demon was gone.
Did Kane hide himself with his brand new spell?
The answer!
No.
He left the game.
"Ah, that was fun." He said to himself as he got up, feeling the warmth of the rising sun penetrate through his window.
The great thing about this kind of VR is that your real body is forced into REM sleep while you play, so if you were to play Ember all night instead of go to bed, it would be the equivalent of dreaming rather than playing a video game.
Because of this, players would never run out of opportunities to play.
Kane got up to open his door and heard the sound of sizzling, a smile formed on his face as he effortlessly walked through the halls of his apartment to meet his massive father, now clad in a pink apron.
"Hey bud! I was just about to come get you." His dad said while placing some plates on the table, Kane could smell scrambled eggs with herbs and ham mixed in, along with some bacon of course.
Kane gave his dad a hug and sat down for breakfast, while eating possibly the most amazing scrambled eggs on the planet, Kane realized something.
His hearing, taste, touch, smell, pretty much everything was much clearer than before.
'Maybe this is some kind of potat- placebo?' He mused.
Maybe it really was, after spending what felt like a day straight experiencing senses several times sharper than what he was accustomed to, it seemed his real body was trying to keep up.
And partially succeeding.
"I'm guessing the sight thing didn't work out?" His father asked with a sad expression.
"Nope, I still had a lot of fun though, since my senses are sharper in the game I can still keep up with the other players for once, it feels great!"
"Well that's good... Kane, I think you should give up on the 'sight' thing. If you were a normal blind kid, maybe, just maybe we could find a way. But without eyes at all? I just can't think of anything."
His father seemed greatly hesitant to say this, not to mention greatly troubled. But in response, Kane just began laughing.
"I'm sorry dad, I didn't think that bothered you so much. I was born this way, being blind is normal for me. I'm curious about sight, not desperate, so don't beat yourself up about it, none of it was your fault."
Kane's father rested his face on his hands and visibly slackened, "I needed to hear that, thanks kiddo. Now finish your food and bugger off, I don't want you to see your old man cry."
"Was the pun intended?" Kane smirked.
"Of course it was."
Kane thought about heading off for a morning stroll, as he blindly wandered towards his bathroom to get ready.
'Teleporting would be nice, but I'll gladly take the improved hearing.'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Want_A_Martini
Want_A_Martini Bit of a short one, but I try to finish my chapters off when I feel they'd naturally end, even if there's no downtime between that ending and the next chapter's beginning.
Not to mention pulling off the 'daily chapter' thing even remotely consistently would be impossible for me if I had to double down on the length.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
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