And consider bad decisions

I was an idiot.

I knew that. In retrospect, it was painfully obvious. Who the hell uses brand-new technology that can potentially fuck with your brain without reading the warnings? Or the user manual?

Even commercials for drugs had warnings.

I hadn't paid attention, and now I had something worse than necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum.

Was death worse than that?

Maybe I was overreacting. Necrotizing fasciitis of the perineum sounded pretty fucking horrendous. Maybe death was better…

It didn't matter. I was an idiot. And now I was paying for it.

And all of this… the world still seemed real, despite the Aegis malfunctioning.

I could still smell the forest around me. The chill in the air as we got closer to the mountains. I could hear little woodland creatures scampering through the underbrush. The forest looked dark because it was nighttime, despite the fact that it was probably daytime again in the real world.

And after spending three days with Valentia and Ami…

I'd already had trouble not treating them like people.

My brain knew they were just bits of code running on a computer. That even though they didn't have a script, they still weren't real.

But Ami's joy at reaching level two had been infectious. The warmth of her body when she'd snuggled up to me in the night had felt real. Valentia's hugs. Her touches. Her optimism. It all felt so fucking real.

How the hell was I supposed to reconcile all of that?

Did I spend the last few days of my life pretending this was real? Or did I go chasing some stupid quest that had next to no chance of getting me out of here?

I mean, what were the chances that this was actually a real quest and part of the game? I hadn't gotten a pop-up saying NEW QUEST: NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

If that was what I needed to do, wouldn't the game give me a hint?

Or was this some Dark Souls bullshit with no quest markers and no official quest notifications?

Or maybe it was a bugged quest. Something that should have started, but never gave me the notification. Something I couldn't complete because the System had simply fucked up.

A scream cut through the night.

Valentia's Health ticked down in the bottom left of my vision.

“Shit.” I took off running. I wasn't that far from camp, but it was far enough to make me worry.

“Leave her alone!” That was Ami’s voice.

I heard a cry of pain.

Ami's Health ticked down.

“Ami!” Valentia screamed.

There was a sound of splintering wood.

Valentia's Mana started ticking down, along with her Health.

Ami's Health was performing a losing dance. It would drop, jump back up, then drop even lower.

I burst into the firelight. And saw… me.

Long claws slashed at Ami. They struck her armor, carving through the toughened leather and scoring the skin beneath.

Valentia was on the ground, blood pouring freely from her arm and leg.

Ami stood in front of her, cut and bruised. Her sword lay beside the fire, but she held her ground anyway as the thing - the Skinthief - hacked and slashed at her.

Valentia cast another Restore on Ami.

Some of her wounds closed.

The thing immediately opened new ones.

I sent a Spark Lance at it.

Shit. There went that.

I drew my sword and leapt in.

It leapt back. The thing was fast. Faster than me, at least. And worse, it seemed to know what I was going to do before I did.

A blinking light appeared at the bottom right of my vision.

I swung.

It dodged.

I swung again.

It dodged that too, then darted forward and sank its claws into me.

I threw another Spark Lance at it. Those, apparently, it couldn't dodge as easily.

But the damage was pitiful, and I was losing Health faster than it was.

I needed something different. I hoped a change would help.

I could take two more hits like that before I died. I cast the spell.

Yes!

I would've jumped for joy if I wasn't facing off against a monster that looked like me while slowly bleeding out.

I prepared another spell.

One Health. I had one fucking point of Health left. I feinted with my blade, then released the spell.

The Skinthief staggered and fell.

I collapsed and immediately started casting Restore.

I forced myself back to my feet and checked on the girls.

Valentia had healed Ami almost to full, and Ami was trying to convince her to heal herself.

I ended the argument by healing Valentia myself.

“What in the Emperor's name is a Skinthief?” Valentia asked.

Ami and I both shrugged.

“Is that what had Roland so scared?” Her voice shook slightly as she got to her feet.

“Maybe,” I answered. I looked down at it.

It looked like me. Except the clothes were on backward.

Weird.

The places where the magical fire had burned away its skin were white, almost like bleached bone. I crouched down and poked it. The white skin beneath the parts that still looked like me felt hard. Like bone.

I grabbed it and dragged it out of camp, dropping it a few hundred feet away.

It was lighter than I expected something made of flesh and bone to be. Or at least something made of bone and bone.

I returned to camp and checked on the girls.

“I'm sorry,” Valentia said, looking miserable. “About making you leave.”

“Don't. Please.” My voice was soft. “I chose to walk away. Don't take responsibility for something I did.”

“You wouldn't have left if I hadn't been such a bitch.”

“I should've handled it better. I'm just scared. And frustrated. And I shouldn't have taken it out on you.” I sighed. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put you two in danger because of my temper tantrum.”

“But you wouldn't have-”

“Stop.” Ami's voice was sharp enough to cut through both of us. “Yer both blamin' yerselves fer somethin' that ain't yer fault. No one knew this Skinthief was gonna show up. And yeah, ye both overreacted. But it's done. There's nothin' neither of ye kin do about it now. So just let it go. Forgive yerselves and each other and forget about it.”

Valentia went quiet.

I walked over to Ami, dropped to my knees, and gave her a hug. “Who knew wisdom came in a package so small?” I grinned.

She pushed me away, a smile tugging at her lips. “Deep knows it doesna come in big packages.”

We all laughed.

After that, I opened the notifications that had been blinking in the lower right corner of my vision.

“Hey, did you guys get the Borrowed Face quest?” I asked.

They both nodded.

“What were your success criteria?”

“Survive, protect Ami, and discover why the Skinthief was following us,” Valentia replied.

Ami frowned. “Mine was to survive, protect Valentia, and discover why the Skinthief was following us.”

“Were any of them optional?”

“Just the discovery one,” Valentia said.

“Same,” Ami agreed.

My brow furrowed. “Everything except survive was optional on mine. Why are you guys showing as optional in all of my quests?”

Ami's frown deepened.

Valentia looked horrified.

I shook my head. “Don't look at me like that. I'm never going to treat you two as optional. I don't care what the System says.”

I ran a hand over my face. “At least you guys got a level out of that, right?”

They both nodded, but neither of them looked particularly excited about it.