Book 1: Chapter Five

**These books are made by Horizon354**

They take place in Aetheria, the world of Cube Kid.

Formula sat uncomfortably in a chair. *Well, a wooden staircase that works as a chair.* Formula, unlike Ayla, had a hard time seeing these kinds of Aetherian things as what they were meant to be. Ayla was creative, so it looked like she had gotten used to making this world a reality, while he simply saw it as a wooden stair with signs on the sides. Before the crash, Formula *did* see it as a chair, or table, or anything else that was built. After the crash, however, it was his reality now, and therefore more real, and therefore more noticeably fake. Formula tried to imagine some things as real, but now he could *feel* how uncomfortable using a wood staircase was for sitting in. In the original version of the server, you couldn’t feel uncomfortable. You didn’t feel pain, or otherwise the game would be a lot less pleasurable. *But now…*

Formula was gladly interrupted by Arlo and Alya coming through the door. They had called a small meeting to explain to Arlo everything that had happened ever since they left the capital. They all shuffled into their not-chairs around the table. Arlo immediately began asking questions:

“What on earth is going on?!? Alya told me you were trying to *assassinate* someone!”

“We can explain.” Formula said

“You’d better!” Arlo said, almost fuming. Formula sighed, and began the story. All three of them began the academy at the same time, and they met each other and became good friends. They had continued to learn during their time, until one day, after school, Ayla and Formula were walking in the street while Arlo was still studying. Suddenly, a man in a white robe whispered into their ear:

“I know you. I’ve been needing an assassin for my, ahem, quest.” At first, they had both been creeped out. Formula had gazed into his hood, but it seemed like only shadow was there, as if no one was there at all.

“What is it?” Formula had asked, suspicious. A menu popped up in front of their faces:

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ has given you the following quest:

[Eye of the wizard]

Kill Iluz

Orchestrator:

Invalid

Reward:

5,000 ⬥

Formula read the description, and was amazed at how short the quest description was. And how complicated it was going to be. He knew who Iluz was, and he then realized that Alya *definitely* did.

“No!” Formula dove for Alya’s hand, which was already reaching for the accept button. He was too late. She pressed the button and the menu screen fell away with a cheerful ba-ding!

“Now I have to accept, too!” Formula said, on the floor after diving for her arm.

“You don’t necessarily have to. But I need to. He stole my family, and I am going to get them back.” She had said.

“But there’s a catch. There’s always a catch” he said, looking up at the man. Or, where the man had just been. “Oh, good grief.” Formula had said, and pressed the button.

“Whoa whoa whoa.” Arlo said, breaking their dramatic tale. “Who’s Iluz? How come I’ve never heard of him?”

“He is a wizard servant of the Eyeless One.” Alya explained. “He specializes in summoning and spatial magic, and he was the one who made my family disappear, at least I’m pretty sure.”

“Sounds rough.” he said. “Continue”

Alya then proceeded to explain everything that had happened in the tavern. “We tried to defeat Iluz, but he must have used teleport. We thought we killed him at first, but no. We went home, but nothing eventful happened”

“Wow.”

“So, Here’s the question. Will you accept?” Alya said.

The quest screen flew up in Arlo’s face. He immediately pressed "accept".

“So that’s that.” Formula said, “But now we need a plan.“

“This is not just a three person job. We need help.” she said.

“And so how do we get more help?” Arlo asked

“We could send out some kind of flyer...” Alya suggested.

“Kind of like the old quest offices! Good idea!” Formula said, catching on. Before the server crashed, there were old buildings created by the Knights of Aetheria where you could put up a poster, showing what the quest was, and anyone else looking for work could go there and take the poster and accept the quest.

“We should set out at first light. Sounds like a plan?”

“Absolutely.”

“Yes!”

“Great!”

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