Inside the adventure’s guild, it looked very similar to Summerfall with all the adventurers but it was much less chaotic. People were quietly talking amongst themselves while crowding around a weird looking, white and gray pillar near the center of the room. But before I can even take it in fully, I’m being pulled in by the arm towards the front counter.

  “Will, my sister is ready to register!” Natalie said, pushing me in front of her and towards a dark haired man that didn’t look much older then me.

  Apparently he hadn’t even noticed us until this moment because when his name gets said he jumps in his chair slightly and quickly glances between the two of us.“O-oh, Natalie! I see … well, happy birthday then miss…”

  “Elvira,” I answered while trying to hide my amusement at his reaction.

  “Miss Elvira then. Give me just a moment and I’ll have the registration sent over.” After saying this, he then proceeded to stare blankly at nothing for a bit. I gave my sister a questioning glance and she explained: “It’s all done with START, check his class.”

  “Huh, glad I didn’t get a class like that. Imagine being forced to work the same job for the rest of your life,” I murmured quietly to her.

  She raised a hand to cover a chuckle but then shook her head and corrected me. “Classes that don’t involve fighting evolve every twenty five levels. If you decided to do something else then it would change eventually.”

  “Oh, I figured it would be the same as normal classes; every fifty.”

  “That would be pretty funny though. Imagine START telling you that you have to be a shit shoveler for fifty levels.”

  “Is there even a shit shoveler class?” I snorted.

  Natalie shrugged, wearing an uncharacteristic frown. “Probably not. But if it did exist I know a few people that would be level 100 by now with the amount of shit they shovel at me everyday.”

  “Something wrong?” I ask, feeling a bit worried.

  “Tell you later.”

  I stared at her for a moment but then a box appeared in front of me, nearly making me fall onto my back if not for Natalie catching me. “Oh look, another two points”.

  I rolled my eyes and thanked her before studying the offending message.

  I accepted and then immediately wished I could take it back as I hadn’t considered how my class might affect things! What if the guild can tell what my class is now?! I’m as good as dead if everyone in this room turns on me!

  I turn to Will and try my absolute best to hide the terror from my voice. “Did that … work?”

  “Everything looks fine. Elvira Reed, level one rogue. No active guild quest.” Will says, sounding perfectly normal.

  “Is that all you can see? Like … does it show my age or anything?” I asked carefully.

  “No… that’s it. Your name will disappear, however, should anything happen to you; so it does show that you’re alive in a way.”

  “Right … so what happens now?”

  “Now you may view any quests posted by other adventurers and accept them if you wish,” he pointed back over towards the pillar I noticed before. Instead of just being a simple pillar, many blue translucent squares could be seen hovering just a few inches away from the structure. “Note that some quests do have level restrictions but otherwise, you are welcome to do as you like.”

  “I see… thank you.”

  I turned back to my sister but immediately stepped back when I found her face to be inches away from mine.

  “You’re going to have to work on not startling so easily if you don’t want to get jumped while you’re sneaking around,” she snickered.

  “I’ll just startle quietly” I shrugged.

  “Riiight, why didn’t I think of that,” Natalie said, playfully thumping the side of her own head.

  “Anyway, what happens now that I’m in the adventurer’s guild?” I asked, deciding to move onto more important matters.

  “Nothing unless you want something to happen. You go over there and take a quest if you want to help for some experience or you leave your own quest if you want help.” She gestured with a thumb behind herself, roughly towards the pillar.

  Well, I’m absolutely never going to let anyone know about my murderous quest but if killing monsters doesn’t give me much experience then this could be a good alternative.

  “Then do you have the time to go on a quest with me?” I asked, hopefully. I know any quest I could take her on would become laughably easy with her strength but I wanted her to come with more for the moral support, rather than the physical.

  “About that…” she said slowly, facing away from me and fidgeting with her hands. I could feel disappointment welling up, already knowing the answer that was coming. “Can we go sit down?” She led the way to an empty table near the outside wall and I felt myself numbly follow behind.

  “So … you know about that world alert by now, I’m sure.”

  I nodded. I know not only because the stupid message was about ME but also because it’s all anyone in this entire city has been talking about. Even here in the adventurer’s guild I’ve heard brief mentions of it; doing my best to ignore them and instead focus on Natalie. The more I hear people say the name of my class with terror in their voice, the more I fear I will begin to hate myself.

  “Right after that happened, all of us Paladins had a talk–which is why I was unable to see you until late yesterday. We even communicated with Paladin branches in other cities. It was decided we’d head over to Ingrel and meet with The Hero to-”

  My hands immediately slam against the table in indignation. “What the hell does HE need?” I say, unable to hide the venom from my voice.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  My sister pauses, looking quite startled at my words. I then realize how I just reacted and quickly try to recover. “Sorry, I mean … someone like him is strong enough to not really need help with anything …. Right?” I know START can change the words that leave my mouth but it’s never affected my emotions so far. I can only guess my class and his have some ingrained hatred built into its very core. I just hope that if we ever meet, that my trait will somehow shield me from this.

  After a momentary pause, my sister continues. “He … wants help with The Villain. We don’t know the full story yet but I’m pretty sure he’s going to send us out to small settlements throughout the country and keep an eye out for him. He is strong, yes, but it’s the duty of all humanity to work together against The Villain. People are scared, we need to take action before The Villain can get too powerful.”

  “Right.” I say, not of my own will. What my sister said sent such a cold feeling of loneliness coursing through my body that START had to answer for me. I know I can’t reveal anything even if I wanted to; but I always held hope in my heart that Natalie of all people would side with me. It appears I might be wrong.

  “So you’ll be gone for a while?”.

  Placing a gloved hand over my arm, she smiled solemnly and nodded. “I made a point to spend a lot of time with you after that meeting. I won’t like this either but I still need to go.”

  It was true. I didn’t think to mention it but I did briefly note earlier today that this was the most I had seen of her at one time since she became a Paladin. I was thinking she was just spending so much time with me because of the occasion; I never imagined it was because she was going away.

  “When are you leaving?” I asked dryly.

  “Tomorrow morning but I also need to head to the temple soon to get ready. I’m sorry Evi; but I sincerely believe you will become a great Rogue, even without me.”

  She tried to talk to me about some other stuff to lighten the mood but it all rang hollow to me. What could I say? She is my big sister, my role model. I want to live up to her ideal as well as mine and make her proud of me. Younger me always fantasized about the day we could stand side by side during a fight. I wanted to become a heroic adventurer not only to do good, but also to make her proud. Now my guiding star is leaving and I feel like I’m about to lose my way.

  Feeling that the time was right, we stepped outside the guild and prepared to say farewell. I gave her a big hug and did my best to blink away the tears, but it was not easy. “Take care of mom for me, while I’m away.”

  She didn’t even need to ask but I simply nodded. “Does she know?” I asked.

  “Yup. I told her last night when you went to bed. We already said goodbye.”

  A few silent moments passed before we separated. There was nothing left to say besides the final farewell. So with a bright toothy smile, my sister wished me well and began to walk away but I decided to remain there as I watched her go. With a start, I realized I was forgetting something important!

  Cupping my hands over my mouth, I shouted: “Good Luck Natalie! I love you!”

  She stopped in her tracks and turned to face me, revealing the tears in her eyes, matching mine. She smiles anyway and shouts back at me: “I love you too! Don’t die on me, okay?!”

  Even after I couldn't see her departing figure anymore, I found myself unwilling to move. Without her Radiance aura calming my emotions, all the worries and stress over my situation began to slowly creep back. Questions of what I can do, what I should do, and what I need to do revolve around in my head.

  But really, there was only ever one answer for each of these questions. It’s the same answer to most problems for people such as me; adventurers. If there is a problem, the best solution is to simply get stronger, and so I shall.

  But first, I need to get ready for my inevitable “disciplinary action.”

  Fourteen hours to go.

  Returning home, I spent time doing everything I could to keep myself busy. I cleaned the house, I helped mom cook, I swept up outside, and whatever else I could find to distract myself. My mom noticed right away what I was doing but she thought it was just because of my sister leaving and I guess … that wasn’t entirely wrong. Bed time arrived and I lay down, fully expecting that I won’t sleep very much tonight.

  I don’t actually know what disciplinary action entails but as the night crawled by, my thoughts spun wild. Is it going to give me an experience penalty? Is it going to make the quest harder? Is it going to take away my attributes or talent points? Any of these options would be the preferable choice in my eyes but I couldn't find myself believing such a fate would be a fitting punishment for a villain. Villains don’t deserve to get off lightly for their actions. I can’t even believe START would even allow such a class to exist! Why do there need to be Villains?! Am I just experience food, destined to grow fat through murder until The Hero decides to butcher me?!

  No, I can’t let myself think like that; what’s done is done. I have my class now and I will do what I want to do with it. I do, however, need to avoid letting START do with me whatever it wants.

  My biggest fear by far is that START will force me to kill people in order to complete the quest. It has shown that it has the ability to manipulate my words and expressions, why couldn't it also influence my actions? With these thoughts in mind, the moment the sun rises, and with less than an hour until the time limit arrives, I leave town.

  I followed the creek east of the city for a while. I wanted to be away from the city but also didn’t want to be too close to the road. I don’t know what is going to happen but I would prefer to be out of sight from nearby travelers. If I am forced to kill someone I can only hope those closest are picked and I’m not forced to seek out specific people. My trait says my identity as a villain will be protected at all costs; surely it will obey its own rules. It probably wouldn’t force me to kill someone unless there were no witnesses. It will likely pick random travelers. It’s a grim thought but if I do end up unwillingly killing some innocent travelers, I promised myself that I would do everything I could to make things right, even if it meant tracking down their families so that I could return their belongings.

  Out of time, I found an area with heavy enough foliage that anyone passing nearby wouldn't see me. This might be a bad idea; maybe I should to be seen, but I have faith that the system won’t risk killing me. The Villain, like The Hero, is clearly important somehow–and if it could easily replace me with a better alternative then I wouldn't have been offered traits like “Rigged from the Start”. It wants me to survive for some reason.

  Taking a deep breath, I put three points into both endurance and willpower. I have no idea if they help but the simple feeling of being that much more durability brings a small amount of comfort to me. I watch the time limit as it frustratingly refuses to drop to a measurement of time lower than minutes. With no idea of the exact time it can happen, I can do nothing but sit there for the longest minute of my life and … brace myself.

  Pain. More pain than I’ve ever felt in my life surges through my entire body like venom. There is no single point from where the pain comes from; it’s just an all-consuming, all-encompassing torture! All my worries, all my thoughts, and all my feelings are drowned out by the overwhelming onslaught of unbelievable pain!

  I can only distantly feel my body collide with the ground as I writhe in shear agony. I don’t even want to breathe because each inhale of air is accompanied by the feeling of what I imagine swallowing red hot needles is like. I can do nothing but lie there as I pray and hope this will soon fade; but it does not. Rather than fading, the pain somehow intensifies from mind numbing to mind shattering! This is hell!

  “S-s-status!” I scream, desperate for answers. I attempt to open my eyes and view the information before me but my eyes simply cannot make anything out through the fog of pain and tears. Eventually I can no longer take the simple agony of keeping my eyes open and so give up and shut them.

  All I know and all I am is pain. My hope of the suffering fading soon vanishes as the dread sinks in. I have no idea how long this has been going on for but I can feel my sanity beginning to shatter. Desperation fills me as the thought of this torture going on forever! I need … this … to stop.

  Flailing wildly, I desperately feel around me for something hard. I need a rock or just anything hard, something in which I smash my skull against to hopefully knock myself unconscious. But that thought, too, fades as I grit my teeth and clutch my hair; desperate for salvation.

  Make. It. Stop!

  I sit up slowly as echoes of agony course through my body like an angry memory. I shift to a sitting position and clutch at my arms and sob with relief. I attempt to take a deep breath and fail, falling into a violent coughing fit. My throat is raw from the stress of constant screaming. The sound of running water reminds me of the creek I had chosen to sit beside and so I crawl my way over until I’m close enough to lower my head down into the cool water. The first few mouthfuls of water only result in more coughing but I eventually succeed, giving my poor throat some small relief.

  I fall over onto my back and just … take a moment…. to rest.