Mythran's Master Of All

Ren took off the VR headset and set it next to the laptop. “Hi, Denise.”

“Hm?” Denise mumbled. She had dozed off in the chair.

Ren smiled and went on the internet on the laptop. Searching through the forums and videos, Ren finally found traces of the Sage of Ages. It was mostly complaints, though. Ren shook his head as he read through some of them. It was unfortunate that she either wasn't good at her job, or the special class was not a good fit for the girl playing her. After a bit more digging, he found the girl's screen name.

“Lara.” Ren said and tried to remember what she looked like. Nothing came to mind so he searched for the introduction video for the contest winners. Ren watched it again and saw her. Lara had blonde hair and full sized elfin ears. Ren studied her features so if he saw her in the game, he would know who she was. Ren closed the video and kept searching the message boards. Ren kind of missed this part of his life. He used to spend hours and hours looking for stuff. Nothing important, just occupying his time between physical therapy, meals, and visits from the nurses. Just for fun, he tried to look up Clint, to see how his adventuring was going. Ren found a few posts, but they seemed kind of bland... and then he found the video.

Ren stifled a laugh as Clint was thrown off the back of a giant boar. It was about the size of a horse and Clint had a few arrows stuck in it's flank. Ren watched as Clint told the boar that it wasn't getting away, in his signature Texas speech, and used a rope lasso to hook around the boar's neck. It yanked Clint right off his feet and dragged him around a bit. Clint flipped the rope over a stump and the boar tugged at the rope hard enough to make itself stagger. Clint almost lost it then, but a well placed arrow in the ground near the beast's face made it reel back. Clint took up the slack and hopped onto the boar's back. The boar bucked and heaved, just like the bulls do in a rodeo, but Clint held on.

After a few minutes, the boar tired out and stopped fighting so hard. It eventually stopped completely and stood still. Clint looped the rope in his hand around the other side of the boar's neck and now had makeshift reins. Clint trotted the boar over to where the video was being filmed. Ren could see that the boar was not happy in the least. Clint slid off the side of the giant boar and held onto the reins tightly. The boar's bright red eyes were filled with hatred... until Clint tossed it a huge piece of meat. The boar chewed the meat happily and even wagged it's tail.

“ 'N tha's how ya wrangle a steed.” Clint said and winked at the camera.

Geez, what's he going to do next? Start a business? Ren thought and scrolled down the page. An add was there, and sure enough, it was Clint advertising in-game steeds. Ren smiled and shook his head. He actually started a ranch in the game to make money! Ren followed the link to Clint's website and whistled at the prices that were charged. Clint must be really good at domesticating animals.

Ren closed the site and went back into the forums and message boards. Ren browsed a bit more at random, not really searching for anything and came across the 'rant' section. Ren usually didn't go into that one, because there's almost never anything good in it, but clicked on it anyways. Ren was right. There was nothing but people arguing over stupid things, like the quality of the sky texture and how the clouds move at the same interval no matter where you were in the game.

Ren shook his head again. Why are they arguing over that? There is so much more to the game than how the clouds work in the sky! Ren browsed a bit more and noticed Tristan's name. Ren clicked on the thread labeled 'Pet Peeves' and started to read. It was more and more of the same little things; people were picking at things in the game, and how they couldn't get the higher level items they wanted because they didn't have enough money. When Ren finally got to Tristan's post, his eyes widened in surprise.