Surpise Acts Of Love

Ember scanned over his options. Thanks to the extra skill points from the quest, he and his friends had gained two more levels each aside from Maggie who was now on par with them at level seven. He was also fortunate enough to have made enough use out of his maul to receive an additional point in that as well. He began of course with his class skills, weighing the decision to upgrade an older one or pick a new one. This time around, his attention was split between his Berserker tree and his Bloodbath tree. His first berserker specific power that he had yet to touch was Intimidate which could reduce the attack of nearby opponents when he defeats an enemy. The other ability on his mind, completely ignoring the middle tanking path once more, he laid eyes on Living Weapon. It would increase the damage of his unarmed attacks while wielding non-fist weapons. It looked to him as either a backup should he lose his maul, or perhaps a chance to sneak in extra hits should he need some quick damage between swings.

Ultimately, with his two points, he decided on both. With his mind on his team, the idea of reducing how much damage their opponents can deal, even if just by a little bit, was comforting. He could forgo a point in his offensive capabilities for that. Meanwhile, he still had one point to allocate to his maul abilities, and three choices were presented to him. Balanced Strikes would decrease the stamina cost associated with his attacks so long as he was using a maul. The second was Charged Swing, which allowed him to build up power for a single massive hit. The final one available was Meteor Dive, a situational looking ability that dealt additional damage and effected a small area around him whenever dropping from a height of at least ten feet. Before he could decide however, he was suddenly interrupted by Thordon who had walked up beside him.

“Ember, just got a DM from Clarissa. She’s back and is asking if we could head back to town real quick. It’s about your dad.” Thordon said.

With that, the two made their way out of camp, leaving the others behind to get their levels sorted while Ember followed Thordon. A quick party request came through and Ember accepted it, noticing another name on the list. Patrick Vinland. Ember didn’t recognize the name at all, yet his eyes went wide and a tear formed. No, there was no way. His dad only played the occasional old PC game, he had never played anything like Birthright before. He’d never even showed interest, heck, he’d never even used a VR headset before. Despite that, the context was there, and he hadn’t even realized how absolutely gormless he looked. He was nearly silent the whole time, his head flooded with conflicting thoughts and emotions. When he finally looked out beyond the fields, He noticed Clarissa standing there beside the most generically heroic looking human fighter he’d ever seen and struggled to keep the tears in check.

As the two groups approached one another, Clarissa pointed towards Ember, causing the human beside him to run forward briefly before stumbling. Their gaze suddenly shot skywards as his hands rose oddly. Ember could practically picture what was happening on the other end, his dad looking for a button on the controller. Eventually, his head righted itself and he began to sprint towards Ember.

“Ember, Ember! Is that you!?” He called out, his voice altered by the voice filter, but Ember knew already who it was.

Too stunned to think, Ember slowly stepped forward.

“D-dad, is that really you? You, you seriously went and installed this game to get in here?” Ember asked.

Ember could hear the sound of someone breaking into tears in the background. Patrick turned his head as if to see what was happening and the avatar moved to look as if they were hugging someone.

“Ember, Ember, oh my god, we were so worried when we didn’t see you this morning! C-clarissa came over though, she told us everything I - oh my god, I still can’t believe it. Is, is that really you in there baby!” Patrick said, his voice slightly different depending on who was speaking through the character.

“Y-yea, yea it is ma.” Ember replied, still dumbstruck, though at the very least, he was able to recall the terms mom and dad, even if the only name in his head was Patrick.

“W-what was that sweetie?” Patrick asked.

“Th-this is what I was telling you about. He can’t really answer questions like that, but that’s him.” Clarissa explained.

With that, Patric suddenly walked over, kneeling down before wrapping Ember in a hug. It was an embrace he could feel thanks to being in the same party as them, and though they could feel nothing in return, he couldn’t help but wrap his arms around them. His tough guy attitude continued to deny his tears, but some did slip through. Still, his stunned expression had been replaced with a wide smile. Despite everything, at this moment, everything felt alright.

“Listen bud, we’re gonna get you out of there, okay, Clarissa explained everything. We don’t know how yet, but right now, your mother’s got another headset on order. She’s gonna make a profile, and whatever it takes, we’re gonna help you.” Patrick assured him.

The tears began to dry out of Ember’s eyes, saving him from suddenly bawling in front of everyone as everything was replaced with pure happiness.

“Sure, I’d love that. Thordon was able to help us earlier, so from the looks of it, if you guys can learn the game, you can definitely help us get through this.” Ember happily explained.

“Yes, Clarissa told us about that. But who’s Thordon?” Patrick asked.

“Oh yea, it’s Thordon, but unfortunately, Ember doesn’t remember anyone’s name and can only recognize character names.” Clarissa explained.

“Oh Dang it, I should have named myself Patrick instead. Oh well, maybe your mom will be able to use her real name and maybe we can trick the system.” Patrick suggested.

“Oh! Interesting. I’d definitely like to try that out. But, anyway dad, we’ve got a big day tomorrow. We’re going to try to figure out what’s going on, so I need to get back to camp. After that though, we’ll see about getting you guys leveled up.” Ember suggested.

With that, the four chatted only a bit more, covering details they had already covered with one another, catching everyone up in the process. Before long, it was time for everyone to head their separate ways. Ember’s father logged out, his character vanishing into thin air while Thordon and Clarissa tagged along, accompanying Ember back to camp.