Author's Note: Well, Raiden the OC, I'm sorry about Jason always losing conscious, so don't flame me for that jeez. I'm trying to improve the story. Anyways, I don't have much to say, so let's get into the story.


I woke up in my bed and I feel like crap. The events of yesterday is already pretty hazy in my mind. I was just about to recount the last few events when suddenly, next to me, I feel something move. I slowly turned around and lower my blanket. Light hair slowly came to view as I realized that a certain someone is sleeping next to me.

"L-l-lilliana?!" I stuttered and stumbled out of bed; I tripped and landed hard on my back. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and yawned.

"Why did you wake me up?" she mumbled, and I searched through my memories, but I don't remember falling asleep with Lilliana. She, as if reading my thoughts, took pity on me and explained.

"I brought you to my room since your room is locked, and I let you sleep in my bed, but you kept tossing and turning, so I laid down next to you to you down," she said. "You were quite grabby," she said shyly and I felt steam coming off me. But before I could apologize, she bursts out laughing and said, "I was just joking, but you should have seen your face. Your so cute when you blush." That comment of course, deepened my blush.

I was about to ask about the outcome of the tournament, but Lilliana quickly gave me a rundown of the situation. According to her, we won the tournament and our faction received emeralds, which are the currency in this world, animals, and crops. We as the players or participants got a bag of emeralds. We got to keep whatever we found in the last tournament, minus the potions given to us at the begin. However, we can't use it at all throughout the remainder of the Durane. To keep it secure, we have an enderchest in our room we could use to store it. Honestly, the enderchest is mind blowing, and it's probably the safest storage system in perhaps the universe.

I gathered my items and after storing it in the enderchest, headed back to Lilliana's place. I realized that me losing conscious is because of high fatigue after participating my first ever tournament. According to Lilliana, it's suppose to not happen during the next tournament, which takes place in two days. Lilliana was still in her nightgown, so I went into the living room while she changed. I already switched back to my regular gear instead of the enchanted ones, which are also stored in my enderchest along with my loot I collected.

"Oh, I remember something urgent," Lilliana exclaimed after changing into normal attires and dragged me along with her to what seems to be a potion brewing shop. Inside, she walked up to the counter and talked with the worker there, and the worker handed her a potion in exchange for a few emeralds. Lilliana handed me the potion explaining that it will help with my acrophobia. I shrugged and drank the potion, but I don't feel any different. She told me that in the next tournament, standing in the glass waiting room won't bother me anymore, so I believed her.

Along the way, we met up with Jionni, who congratulated us and chatted for a while before having to leave in preparation for the next tournament. I'm suppose to meet up with Jordan for another swords lesson. We also met some of our teammates, who we talked to and handed out complements to each other, but I can sense a mental divide between them and Lilliana. In fact, I can sense their uneasiness around me also. Soon, Lilliana and I parted from the group of people.

"So what do you usually do?" I asked Lilliana, and she shrugged. "Not much, I don't fit in with the faction." That reply got me curious.

"Why not?" I asked and she looked uncomfortable, so I quickly added, "You don't have to tell me." She waved the last comment aside and sat down on a bench. "I trust you," she told me, "and I feel safe telling you my past." I don't think anyone has given me that much trust before, so I feel honored. I sat next to her and listened as she talked.

"I was never originally from this area," she started, "In fact, I was born in a small village in the mountains a few hundred kilometers east of here. The village is part of a chain of peaceful communities that isolates themselves from the outside world. We lived a peaceful life, until some factions knew of our exist." Her expression hardened. "I was in the woods that day," she continued, "and I was playing with my friends when we heard screams coming from the village. We ran back and saw armored men slaughtering our people. Without weapons, we weren't able to defense ourselves. A group of suvivors took us with them to the nearest village, but some kids, including my friends, wanted to see if any of their family members are still alive despite the warning given out."

"They never returned," she whispered, and I had a sudden urge to comfort her, but I didn't. "We made it to the village and brought them the news. Apparently, we were attacked by a rouge faction called the Hellhounds," Lilliana said bitterly.

From what Jionni told me, rouge factions are made up of people banished from their previous factions: murderers, rapists, and more. However, Jionni told me the most feared factors in this world are mutants. From what I've learned, mutations occur when the victim gets bitten by a demonic silverfish, a rare species of silverfish that has an molten red layer covering its body. When bitten, the victim has a 10% chance of being turned into a mutant. Mutations vary depending on the bite, but the victims develop nerve loss, which results to the inability to feel pain, and bloodlust. Mutants are either banished from the faction or killed on the spot.

"They held a meeting that night," she continued, "and the children are being taken care of by the local orphanage. I knew sooner or later we'll be attacked, so that night, I snuck out of the village with a map, compass, and a backpack full of supplies. I managed to sneak pass the villagers and escape to the nearest faction, which is Izkabäni. At first, no one but Jionni accepted me into the faction, and still today, most feel uncomfortable around me even though I'm 17 now and have been here since I was 14. However, my top priority now is to train hard enough to destroy Hellhounds."

I don't know why, maybe because I can understand some of her loneliness, but I told her, "I can help you." Lilliana's expression softened. "You were different from most of the other faction members because you didn't push me away and I feel like you would understand me," she said. I told her about my life so she see our similarities. In fact, I even revealed to her that I was adopted by my parents. My real parents died of an accident, and I've never told anyone about it, not even Josh, until today.

Lilliana held my hand with hers, and I looked up at her. She is smiling warmly at me. "Let's be friends, so we can help each other out," she said, and I feel warm inside. I agreed and she nodded. Sadly, I reluctantly parted her because of my swords lesson, and she waved as I headed deeper into the forest.

Jordan greeted me in his usual attires: enchanted diamond armor and a broadsword strapped behind his back. I noticed that his sword, like Lilliana's bow, has symbols engraved on it, causing it to shine. I realized suddenly that it was enchanted, which I didn't see many players do to their weapons. In fact, my dual swords don't have any signs of symbols being engraved onto it. Shrugging that aside, I greeted Jordan and I started my swords lesson. For the next few hours, I practice sparring with Jordan until I collapse to the ground gasping. Jordan helped me up to a chair and handed me a bottle of water, which I dranked gratefully.

"I saw your tournament, so congratulations on winning," Jordan said, and I nodded. "However," he continued, "I saw your encounter with the archer. If Lilliana wasn't there you save you," "I would have been dead," I concluded, and he slapped me on the back and nearly knocked me over. "Right on track, lad!" Jordan chuckled, but his expression became serious again. "Everything in the philosophy of life has at least one advantage and disadvantage, and being a dual wielder has a bountiful of pros as well as cons," he told me, and I agree with him wholeheartedly.

"So what are the pros and cons of being a dual wielder in the Durane?" I asked, wanting to be more knowledgeable in the future. For the next hour as I cool down from the exertions, Jordan explained to me all the pros and cons of being a dual wielder. As I listened, I realized that I've already experienced many starting from the encounter with the archer to my lack of defense against the broadsword user. After he explained everything about the pros and cons of a dual wielder, I ventured another question, "Is it difficult to enchant a weapon?" I asked Jordan and he replied with a simple no.

"Then why do I rarely see players with enchanted weapon?" I continued asking, and Jordan sighed. "While factions are required to enchant their players' gear with level one protection, the players have to enchant their own weapon," Jordan told me. "However, most players don't have the patience to gather enough experience to enchant their weapons, which could decide the winning factor of a battle," he continued, "Eragi was like most of the players, he was impatient. I tried to convince him to put even the most simple enchants on Burhavious and Falcontavus, but even that would take a few days. Of course, he didn't listen to me even though I was his battle master."

"There aren't a lot of people that enchants their weapon in smaller factions like ours," Jordan said, "In fact, there's only about two dozens of people in this faction including me that has enchanted weapons. There are even less people who consider enchanting past the default enchants that were applied to their armor for the Durane."

"Can't you hire enchanters?" I asked, but Jordan shook his head. "There aren't many people willing to take on the reputation of a enchanter because of the amount of work required to earn experiences," he explained, "and it cost a lot to hire an enchanted and most enchanters are hire by the higher ranking factions. In fact, our default enchants are applied through a system created by Herobrine." Since the knowledge of enchantment is so helpful, I want to gain enough to help me no matter the efforts required.

"How do I obtain experience?" I asked and Jordan told me many different ways to gain experience from mineral smelting to killing mutants, which gives a bountiful amount of experience. He then explained the levels of enchantment: 1-10 levels of enchantment gives me low leveled enchants, 11-20 levels of enchantment gives me decent leveled enchants, and 21-30 levels of enchantment gives me the best enchantments, but that would take days after days of grinding. According to Jordan, when I engrave the enchantments onto my gears, using lapis lazuli could help me identify the enchants, so I could pick out the more helpful enchantments.

As the Sun starts to set below the horizon, my lessons with Jordan ended, and I'm suppose to meet with him after the third tournament, if we make it of course. So far, on the ranking system, our faction is in rank 539 out of 698 factions. I headed back to my place, and an idea is slowly forming in my mind.


Author's Note: Happy New Years! Woah, now it's 2017 and my winter break is almost over -_-. Anyways, this chapter results to my story having officially 10k words and that took me less than a month *pats self on back*. Okay, I'll be frank with you. I'm starting to get a writer's block, so the next upload may take a while. Of course, it wouldn't take more than two weeks, but with school starting back up in less than a week, I won't be having enough time to think about what to write, so please don't kill me if Chapter 8 took a week to write. Anyways, I'm going to enjoy the New Years so seeya!