Chapter Three

Disclaimer

I don't own Mabinogi nor any NPC's connected. Either Devcat or Nexon does.

A/N

I still do not have a clear picture of how to handle the conversation Jack has with Tarlach. I have a couple of ideas but not the general direction of where it will lead. Such is my basic writing style. Let's see where it leads together.

I arrive at Tarlach just before he transforms from a bear into a human. I soon realize what is about to happen a little too late, "ARYEIII!"

I drop to the ground in pain. The light burned my eyes. When Tarlach transform there is always a blinding light. From the other side of the screen the light does not affect us. I often wondered why Tarlach was all the up here where the only people he sees are the 'Militants'. Now I know why. The light of his transformation will blind a normal person in this world.

As I lay on the ground, I here Tarlach yelling, "Follow my voice and come over to me. I can heal your eyes if you hurry." Easy for him to say, I am totally disorientated. It was then I remembered seeing eye dogs from my world so I called out, "Summon Starbreaker."

Instantly, my prized sled dog popped in. "Come here, Starbreaker. Come here boy." Starbreaker, I could tell, was a little confused. Normally I just grab his reign, his sled materialized under my feet, and off we go. Other time I call him just for his inventory. This time he knew something was different.

It took some doing but he came to me and nudged me. I grabbed hold of his reigns and his sled materialized under me so he can pull me. Tarlach must have caught on to what I was doing for the next thing I heard was him calling, "Starbreaker, come here boy, Come on."

I have to give the dog credit for ha must have realized what was going on. He took me over to Tarlach with no trouble at all. Tarlach helped me off the sled and onto my back.

The next thing I know a soothing burning sensation was over my eyes. It felt like burning but instead of hurting me, it was soothing me. When the burning sensation was over my vision came back into focus. I looked up at Tarlach as if he was a god. "In all the time I been here I never seen you do any kind of magic other than helping us turn our weapons into spiritual weapons."

Tarlach chuckled, "Well that is all the game servers will let me do and besides the transformation spell takes a lot of my magical power. I don't complain as it is the only thing keeping me alive."

"You just said game servers. You know the truth about us militants?" I had to ask.

Tarlach helped me up, "I've always known. I am about the only human NPC that does know. Nao know as well as the goddess. But you know Nao is no longer the human I knew as Mari. I also know why you are here. I have been expecting you although I thought you would be here sooner."

"I would have been if I could have waited the hours for you turn back into a Human the first time I was here. You don't remember the first time I was here since I realized a long time ago you remember very little of the time you spend as a bear. Anyways can you please tell me what is happening to me."

Tarlach thought for a second, "I think you already know what is happening so I think your real question is how did this happen. Well as I can figure it out a very strange event happen in your world as you were playing Mabinogi the night before all this happened. Your house was hit by three separate lightning bolts simultaneously. One hit your power lines and it went straight thru to your computer even jumping you surge protectors doing it. The two others well hit you directly. Somehow, your consciousness went into your computer and somehow you materialized here. The rest you know."

I digested what he had said and felt sad. With tears in my eyes, I croaked, "Then that means I am …" I could not bring myself to finish the rest.

Tarlach finished it for me in a low voice, almost a whisper, "Dead … yes I am afraid your physical body in that world is no more. However, you are alive and well here."

I felt disgusted with that statement. Sure, I am alive here but so what. All I cared about was over there. Moreover, what happens to me now? What happens when the game developers decide to end the dream of Mabinogi? Will I cease to exist?

Tarlach must have seen my questions written on my face. "Don't worry. When the game ends in the other world this world will continue and you still be here. For all purposes, you are the first and only true Militant of this world. You have yet to understand how special you really are. The Goddess, Nao, and I have been working very hard to make this as easy as we can make it. One of the first things we did was give you the body of character we know you loved but thought you could not have anymore. All that character stats are just as you left it before you accidentally deleted him. We know you had three shall we say Mabinogi interfaces. You call them accounts I believe. We gave you pets from all three of those accounts since you purchased them."

I had to interrupt, "I gave away one of those accounts."

"We know but we also know it went inactive and no longer is in service. It was never reactivated after you gave it away. The only thing is the dragon was transferred from that account to another."

I thought for a second. "That is fine. There are very personal and strong reason why I gave that account away. I just don't wish to cause more harm is all. Can the pets I gain from that account be returned to it?"

Tarlach smiled, "If you so wish."

"Then please do so." I then sat down and still thinking about my death in the other world.

"You can't do anything about that Jack," said a somber Tarlach, "There is no way you can go back. It's best you start living here in this world."

"It's not that simple, Tarlach. Imagine your being over there and me telling you your body here is dead. How would you feel?"

Tarlach got angry, "You forget I almost died myself and now I must spend the rest of my life here in the wasteland doomed to transform into a bear during the day while eating mana herbs so I can transform back into a human at night. My best friends, well one turned into Nao and the other into a traitorous Black Knight. Yeah I know something about losing all you care about."

I could feel the bitterness in his voice. "I'm sorry." I then started to walk to the moongate.

"Where are you going? There is more we need to discuss," stated Tarlach.

"I need to be by myself for a while to think," I answered back. Then I paused. "Is there a way I can get to my homestead?"

Tarlach chuckled, "Say 'Control Menu' and a lot of your questions will be answered."

"Control Menu!" Up in front of me was what looked like the regular interface every player uses while playing Mabinogi on the screen. I used the same method as I used with the moongate to interface with it. I thanked Tarlach then left via the moongate.

When I got back to Tir, I went to a private spot near the school I liked to go to. The spot was along the outer fence line that surrounded Tir, a gate was right there. Beyond the gate was a trail that went up the hill. I knew that trail well. That was the trail players used to travel down when they first came to Erinn. They will meet a person named Tin who gave them meager beginning supplies and told them to meet a person named Duncan down in the valley. The system changed since then but it was nice remembering the good old days.

I called up the Control Menu and punched in for me to go to my homestead. Travelling to my homestead was no different than using the moongate, both were painless and rather instant. I was surprised to find homestead to be just as I left it before I accidentally deleted this avatar.

I sat down and investigating the Control Menu. I found it illuminating. I was able to pull up my inventory screen and found it contained three Nao stones which surprised me for I recall having no Nao stones on this toon. Another thing that surprised me is that I had three bombs as well. 'What the hell is going on here?' I asked myself.

I then checked my character's status screen. It stated I was at level 728. I was flabbergasted. I soon realized I was wrong about this toon being my highest level toon. My newest female toon named Reginastang was much higher level. Well I am glad to have this one over her though. If I were stuck here, I would rather be stuck in a toon closer to my old real self.

One thing I note is that this toon used to have black Spaika armor with blue pants and white sleeves. It also had black Spaika boots and blue snake gloves. Now all I had on was blue newbie clothes. Now that I am able to pull up the Control Menu, I went into the wardrobe. After searching several minutes, I saw no armor at all but I did find my Black Spaika boots which I put on. I also found my black vicking helm that Danster made for me a couple years back. He also made my Spaika boots. I am very pleased to see them. I noted I had enough money to pay for an Adventurers Outfit from the store. Luckily, Malcolm had it in black with brown pants. In the wardrobe, I also had a pair of black guardian gloves. After that, I thought I look decent enough.

I then checked my character status screen again and found I was eligible for rebirth. I wondered if I should do it or not, if it would hurt or not. After debating for several minutes, I realized I would be meeting up with Nao. Tarlach mentioned she was one of the ones that helped with his transfer into this world. Since I had more questions I decided I needed to talk to her so I hit the button to rebirth.

A/N

I wonder if any of your can tell when I wrote these chapters. Well if you can guess at the exact same time then you win the prize yet to be determined. My cable it out and while I am waiting for it to come back up I am bored to I decided to start writing this story. Oh, I will busy afterwards checking my spelling against Mabinogi wiki. I think I will delay in posting a chapter until a week later just to add suspense.