Is it Christmas break already? Wow, time sure does fly by. This semester certainly seemed to fly by faster than most. I spent most of my time hanging out with my new friends, we would all hang out together at school and in AO. Now, since Jen and Tyler were both going home for the break, AO would be the only way for us to hang. I know, you want to know what happened that night, or rather morning, right? Nothing. Nothing happened, and we didn't talk about it. I wanted to bring it up but never got the opportunity, and after a while it just seemed like it would be a bother, so I kept my trap shut.

Luckily, we all still got along great. Tyler told us the details about his night every day for weeks. For the record, it ended with them fighting over the toilet because they were both puking so much. Back to this whole school thing, another semester down, another semester with all A's. The last day of school, or rather the last day I got to see Tyler and Jen, was quite an interesting one. When I got home I went straight to my room, closed the door behind me, and just stood there. The room was quiet, empty, no sense of joy. I'd gotten so used to rushing home to jump on AO to hang out with them or join a Skype call to do homework together. Hell, sometimes I didn't even come home, we just stayed at school all night. Doing homework, hanging out, talking about life. I actually talked, believe it? I don't.

That's all history I'm afraid, maybe when spring semester rolls around it will resume where we paused it, but as for now, it was just me. I looked at my phone, the background was a picture of the three of us. We were making some goofy ass faces, it made me smile. That brings me to my next point, I say it was an interesting day because of the way the goodbyes went. Tyler and I had a whole bro moment with a nice hug and fist bump, but it went a little differently whenever I was alone with Jen. Tyler took off earlier in the day so it was just me, walking her to her car after we got some lunch. It went a little like this….

~Flashback~

"You didn't have to walk me to my car, idiot," she was playing with her keys the entire walk from my car to hers. I had drove to lunch, some very healthy Wendy's, "and thanks for buying lunch," she brushed the hair out of her face.

"I just wanted to give you a proper send off," I shrugged my shoulders. She was standing right outside her car door, we had stopped walking a few seconds ago, but she was still looking down, playing with her keys.

"Well-" we both said at the same time, I cleared my throat, "go ahead."

"Well..I..I just wanted to say," she wasn't making eye contact with me, she hadn't acted like this since that one night.

"Spit it out goof ball," I gave her a little love tap on the shoulder. Joke. Really? Wow I'm an idiot.

"I wanted to say thank you for all of your help this semester," she blurted it out like it was an excuse or something. Weird.

"It was fun, I learned a lot too. Hey, we have class together next semester, so you'll probably get sick of me," I tried to chuckle, but deep down I started to feel a pain. It felt like my heart was aching, I don't know why.

"Fuck Jen just say it," she cursed at herself, I was actually a little taken back, "Nick I've been wanting to talk to you about that night."

Pretty sure my heart stopped at that moment. I wanted to talk to her about it for so long but damn, now that it was actually happening I was bitching out. My mind was just screaming "Get out! Run!" I tried letting out a deep breath, yeah didn't help. "Okay...I kinda...wanted to..too," there you go you big lug, get some words out.

"Oh," she looked at me, then off to the side, "You wanna go first?"

Yeah...I had no idea what to say. It's funny, I wanted to talk about it, but I had no idea how I was going to talk about it. Let's see...nope, nothing. "Uh..." I scratched the back of my head, I hadn't done that in a while, "it was nice." Wow, I really am a dumbass.

"Nice?..." she looked at me confused, "Okay..well I just wanted to thank you for being...you know, a good guy," she looked away at that last part, "I probably shouldn't of kissed you..." Her voice trailed off after those last two words, it was like she froze, just like me. She was looking at the ground, which is good because I don't think I could take eye contact right now, "I just don't want you to get the wrong idea..."

It was like a knife out of the bushes, everything was quiet before and after she said that sentence. I don't know why it made me feel this way, like my heart just got stabbed. I never really thought about her in that way, I mean, I wasn't expecting her to want to date me or anything, but then...why did it...hurt? I could do nothing but focus on my breathing, my mind was a blank. I literally did not know what to say. She noticed, but said nothing. C'mon, man the fuck up for once. Alright. Do it. "Wrong idea?" I gave out a fake ass chuckle, "C'mon we were both drunk, it was a silly decision. Don't even worry about it," I swear her eyes got a little bit more dull the more I talked, but I pressed on, "It was a fun night, we had fun. That's all it was. No need to go into it...You should get home, your parents are expecting you soon, yeah?"

"Yeah..." I could tell she was reading straight through my bullshit, "You good?"

"Yeah," I started turning around to walk back to my car. I never looked back. I got in my car, and by the time I looked up she had already driven away.

~End Flashback~

I sat in my desk chair, replaying the whole memory in my head. I must have sounded like such an asshole, blabbing on about that stupid crap. After a while I turned on my computer, a desktop notification greeted me in the bottom right corner. It was a special message from a player run newsletter about AO, I opened it up. "Mystical Quest CONFIRMED!" the headline read, "Magic does exist in the world of AO." I guess they finally pressured the devs enough for them to officially come out and say that there is a way to use magic in AO. I had looked into it a little bit, but hadn't wasted too much breath on it. Word going around was there was a specific quest that you have to complete in order to unlock mage skills. Up until now, it was just a rumor.

I read through the very extensive newsletter, which was pretty much players piecing together the little bits of information the devs released. At the end I still felt like it was more of an assumption rather than a confirmation. It got me thinking though, I wonder if the quest needed to unlock the skills had something to do with that mountain…

Quite a while ago, while I was hunting in the more northern region of the map, I came across a very strange landscape. I pulled up my map to find that an entire mountain was blacked out, no map data available. There appeared to only be one route into and up the mountainside, but I didn't stay too long to investigate. There were way too many strong monsters around there and, at the time, I was pretty weak. The more and more I thought about it the more it made sense, hints left by the devs seem to point in that direction. I researched the topic more over the next few hours, I mean hey, I didn't have anything else to do.

It was a theory that not only could you become a mage in the game, but there was actually only a limited amount of players that could obtain the skill. The theorist think that each element may have something to do with the potentially mage's power. After linking up some hints for the devs, it would appear that each mage power would become a unique skill to only that person. That would explain why obtaining it is so difficult, if someone were to get that sort of skill, that would drastically change the balance of the game. "Hmmmm..." I thought out loud, then another notification popped up labeled "URGENT!"

It was a video, a conference that literally happened about two minutes ago. The developers were discussing things about AO, and apparently they decided to touch on the subject, "To all of the players out there that have been heavily investigating the skill of magic within the world of Athalia," the quest master spoke, "I can confirm your theories. There are magic skills in Athalia. However, they are unique skills that can only be obtained by those who are worthy. As for how to obtain these skills, I'm sure there are plenty of creative minds out there that will figure that out soon enough..."

Well, I just wasted the last few hours of my life on research. Everything I was researching just got confirmed within a few seconds. Just then, my phone buzzed, it was...Jen. 'Home safe and sound. AO tonight?'

I don't think I've ever been so relieved to see a text message in my entire life. I was actually quite interested to see if this mysterious mountain of mine was legit or not, but then again I couldn't exactly just say no and then they catch me online later. 'Sounds good,' I replied. Well, I know what my life is going to consist of for the extent of winter break. I'm totally going to find this mystically quest, if there is one, and I will get my hands on that unique magic skill, or skills.

"Are you an idiot?" Tyler spit out his drink as I broke the news to him, and Jen.

"It's something I gotta do alright..." I looked down at my drink, we were at our usually spot in Myrefall. For some reason we always ended up here chatting after doing whatever.

"It's stupid, Nick," he was more upset than I thought he would be, "it's a hoax! They are just trying to stir things up! Why would they put something that powerful in this game?"

"I don't-"

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right on this one," even Jen didn't support my decision.

"I don't know why," I was still looking down, "but it's something that I have to do."

"Why?" Tyler looked at me deeply confused.

"Personal reasons..." I mumbled as I took a drink.

"Fine," he gave out a loud snort and crossed his arms, "then we're coming with."

"No!" I didn't mean to say it, but as soon as he finished his sentence I just reacted. They both looked at me, stared at me, not understanding.

"Why not?" Jen asked after quite a long pause.

I didn't really have an answer, I just knew in my heart that this was something that I have to do on my own. Is it possible that I just want it for myself? Am I that selfish?...No. It's not about the power...or is it? What the fuck am I doing? Why is this so important to me? Why? Why can't I answer a simple question?! I put my head down on the table. What is going on with me…

"Forget it," I heard her say, I could only assume she was putting on a fake ass smile as well.

"Shit...I gotta go, just got a message from the parents," Tyler gave out a big sigh, "I'll see you guys later...and Nick..." I didn't move, "Let me know if you need anything, buddy."

"Thanks..." I mumbled softly, I don't know if he even heard me.

"Want to tell me what the fuck is going on?" I looked up barely to see a very angry faced Jen, man, she can flip that on like a light switch, "there was no reason to snap at us like that."

"I'm sorry..."

"Nick..." her face turned from violent and hard, to vulnerable and soft, "What is going on with you? All day you have been acting more standoffish than normal. It's like..."

"Go ahead."

"It's like when I used to see you at school...before all of this, that's how you looked at us today," she was actually starting to tear up a little bit, I couldn't hide the look of astonishment on my face, "Don't...Don't push us away..."

"I'm not," I tried to gain up some sort of confidence in my voice.

"For fuck's sake..." she cursed at herself wiping away potential tears.

"I'm...trying..." I was trying to search for words, I couldn't help but feel like she is right. I wasn't meaning to do it, but for some reason I felt more like my old self more today than I have in a while. It was a weird feeling, like something inside me was slowly taking over.

"Try harder...that would devastate Tyler," Jen stared at me, then looked away, "...I guess I would be pretty upset too..."

"I'm sure you two would be-"

"Finish that fucking sentence and you die," her stare shot straight through me, "You are our friend. If you think for a second we wouldn't miss you if you just walked away..." she was fighting back tears again "...fucking idiot..." she waved her hand bringing up the menu screen.

"Wait!" I jumped out of my seat trying to stop her from logging out, she looked up at me teary eyed, "I...I'm sorry..." she logged out.

I sat back down in my chair, what the hell am I doing? Why am I trying so hard to screw this shit up? Why do I always do this? I have something...something special...friends. Real friends. People that care about me. I slammed my head down on the table, my eyes were filling up with tears. Why can't I just be normal? Why do I have to try and push everyone away? Maybe I'm meant to be alone…

"Fuck this!" I stood up slamming my fists on the table, a couple of NPCs in the bar looked over as I stormed out of the bar. I am going to get this skill. Maybe then I will be proud of myself. If I can do this, maybe I can actually face myself. I need to know that I'm not worthless. I need to know that I am strong, that I'm meant to be here.

A teleport and couple hour run later I was standing in front of it. The snow covered ground sent chills through my toes and up my legs. The wind was whipping around rather violently, sending little snowflakes flying about. I can do this. I ran down the path. I noticed that as soon as I entered this mysterious path, my location on my minimap vanished. My minimap was completely black, it would be no help for me here. The path kept going down farther and farther as I approached the gigantic mountain's bottom. How can no one of seen this on their travels?

The strange thing is, my journey over to this location was littered with monsters, yet, on this path, I hadn't seen a single one. I finally reached the part of the dirt path that started leading up the side of the mountain. As I climbed, the path became more and more vague and destroyed. The weather had certainly had its fun with the primitive path, nonetheless, there was still enough for me to maintain my heading. I climbed, and climbed, and climbed. Each step as I made my way up the mountain took more and more of my stamina, causing me to have to stop more frequently in the frigid weather. The game did a great job at simulating the feeling of freezing to death. I certainly felt it.

"Fuck..." I had to stop, I propped up against the rocky mountainside, I slid down until I was sitting on the path, my feet dangled off the edge, that's how narrow it was. I looked up, I wasn't even halfway yet. The monstrous mountain extended past the clouds into the sky. The altitude felt like it was affected my breathing as well. If only I had been smart and bought some potions before I left. I looked out, I couldn't see anything with the amount of snow whipping around in the wind now. I bet it would be a lovely view though.

"Alright..." I slowly stood up, "You got this..." I started running along the path again. My mind did nothing but race through the thoughts of my friends while I ran. It was all I could think about. Maybe...once this is over, I will be able to explain to them why I had to do this. Maybe they will understand...do I even understand? Why do I have to prove this to myself?...I have to...because it's the only way...the only way I can be happy.

"Why aren't you happy?" A deep voice boomed through the mountain. Echoing throughout every nook and cranny. I slammed my feet into the ground to stop myself. I looked around, blades drawn, ready to fight.

"Who's there?!" my voice echoed through the mountainside.

"Why aren't you happy?!" The voice boomed through once again, this time I took a step back.

"Who are you..." I whispered looking around, there was no one.

"Why aren't you happy?!" It boomed once again.

"Fuck you!" I screamed, "It's none of your business!"

"Really?" The voice sounded familiar this time, a figure appeared in front of me, "It is very much by business..."

"Who.." the figure wore a dark cloak, covering every part of its body, "..are you?"

"I..." the figure turned around, pulling the hood of the cloak off, "..am you."

I fell backwards, scrambling to back up, it was me. I was looking at myself. What the hell kind of trick is this. I managed to scramble back to my feet. "What the fuck is this?" I asked, blades still drawn, hands shaking.

"Why aren't you happy?" the figure asked me.

"Is this some sort of joke?!" I looked around and up, expecting to see...I don't know, something.

"This is no joke," the figure stepped toward me, "completing a stupid quest is not going to fix all of your problems."

"Who says I have problems..." I tried to lie.

"Honestly?" The figure looked at me like I was stupid, "I'm you. Believe me. I know. You have problems."

"You aren't me," I was getting angry, "get out of my way. Go back to whatever hell you came from!"

"Oh really?" it laughed, "You sure treat yourself like shit, oh wait, that is exactly how you actually treat yourself, shocker."

"Fuck off!" I activated a speed skill striking through the figure. I went straight through him and fell of balance, landing right on my face.

"Really?" he turned around and looked at me, "You really thought that would work?"

"Fuck you," I slowly got up.

"You really should start watching your language," he mocked me, "What are you expecting to get out of this...'quest'?"

I just stared at him, or me, or whatever the hell it was. What was I expecting? "You expect getting a unique skill is going to magically solve your problems?" he laughed at me, "You are avoiding the actual problem."

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" I asked, not really wanting an answer.

"Only you can answer that question," he turned around, "but I'd go back if I were you..." He disappeared.

Maybe he's right. This whole thing is stupid. I'm expecting a stupid quest to fix everything that's going on with me. I put my blades away and looked up into the snowy sky. Why am I doing this? I let out a big sigh, I should probably go back. I need to log out soon anyway, I'm getting tired. I looked both ways, up and down the path. I've never been one to shy away from a challenge, in fact, I stayed up plenty of nights trying to solve problems I had with my code and what not. This isn't much different. It's not in my blood to just give up. "Fuck," I smacked myself in the head, "I can't go back."

I turned and starting running up the mountain. Maybe I will be able to answer all of these questions later, but for now, the only thing I want to do is find this mystical power. Maybe it will help me, maybe not. It's too late to to turn back now, I made my decision. I'm sticking with it. I will find out what secrets this path holds.

A/N: Well how about that. Jen and Nick certainly got a weird little relationship going on, don't they? Why does Nick think he needs some mystical power? More importantly, why the hell was he talking to himself? I'm not even sure I know! Until next time!