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quits, can hit it again tomorrow."
    "I could kind of guess from the accents, but Aussies yeah?" I decided to ask, just for future reference. "It's only ten in the morning here, so figure you're on the other side."
    "Yeh, it's a bit late 'ere," he replied. "We'll be back at it, I'll invite ye if yer around." At that moment, I received a friend invite from the dwarf and I readily accepted it, seeing as I had no reason not to. He was a good player, had his head on straight, and was a bit aggressive, all the things I valued in a party member. Now his name was visible in the drop-down menu that listed all of my two friends and I started to chuckle at how empty it truly was.
    But hey, I was on the road to popularity now!
    Ellieby was the first one, that trader I had met previously, and now, this dwarf tank known as Barik Grimsson was on my friend's list as well.
    I wasn't expecting much from the Call to Arms so everything else was a bonus.
    I was only really expecting to find some quests, random pick up groups, maybe some loot, and a bit of experience, but as it were, I was forging some early connections that could be quite useful down the stretch. It was always a good thing to have potential allies in a game that was so heavily focused on both the Player versus Player action along with the Player versus Environment aspect.
    "Ey, mage isn't yer first role is it?" asked Barik with a grin.
    "Nah, started with archery then worked my way into axes, picked up lightning just recently actually," I replied honestly. I had no reason not to be upfront anyways, no one knew anything about lightning magic in general, since it was an unpopular proficiency. There was little risk in him or anyone else finding out I was a bit special.
    "Right, figured that was the case," said Barik plainly as he turned to walk away with a light wave. "Be seein' ya."
    "Likewise, thanks for the group," I followed up as the party disbanded and everyone went their separate ways, not wanting to waste another minute.
    It was always funny how abruptly groups disbanded and fell apart once the goal was reached. You could spend hours with some people, develop a short but ultimately temporary acquaintanceship and then when the task at hand was complete, in a matter of seconds everyone would bail as if they couldn't stand to be in the party a minute longer. Heck, the dungeon wasn't all that hospitable anyways, so I couldn't blame them.
    But, online relations were certainly strange.
    The funny part, was that it wasn't always like that.
    In the past, people treated online communication as an extension of normal face-to-face communication, using proper manners and such as if it were required. Then somewhere down the line, as more kids gained access to the net perhaps, acronyms and slang became more prevalent. Now, it was almost weird to see interaction sometimes. Just like the archer in the group who didn't talk, that was considered normal behavior.
    It was socially a bit strange, but not online.
    Not here, in this game.
    Well, we had been pushing hard for around two hours, so even I was feeling a little fatigued after the party disbanded. Not that I was exhausted but, it was just one of the game's strange features to prevent excessive grinding. It was a bit odd that it hit so quickly though. Maybe that had to do with the harsh environment of the dungeon, breathing in this smoke… an added effect for realism, perhaps.
    Oh well, it was a good enough of a time to take a break.
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Chapter 44: Perusing for Profit
    (Saturday, May 29th Game Day / Friday, February 19th Real Day)
     
    After finishing my breakfast and taking care of my, duties, I walked back into the cube and started to connect all of the required attachments. Most of them were sensors but the ones that attached to your head were used to send and receive electrical signals from the brain; those were the important ones. Sometimes, when strapping up, I would get that feeling of déjà vu, as if I had