Instead of giving a verbal reply this time, Harry reached up with his right hand and opened his Menu again, his hand trembling like a furless cat stuck out in the snow. He let his fingers hover hesitantly over the option to view his Player Stats for a long minute as he mentally debated on the wisdom of showing anyone his Stats. Agil's hand dropped down to rub his back and Harry tensed for a moment before slowly relaxing as the warmth of the continued contact soothed some of his fears. After another minute, Harry opened the Stat Page for Agil to see; silently hoping that his friend could tell him that his new classification was nothing to worry about.
"Classification: Indefinable Immortal Object, Total HP: System Error, HP Incalculable," Agil read aloud as his hand paused on Harry's back for a split second before resuming the soothing circular motion. "That's strange; I didn't think a Player's classification as a Human Player could change. I was also unaware that there were Immortal Objects within the game but it makes sense that there would be. The incalculable HP is a little concerning but that's most likely related to your new classification in some way and so probably not as bad as it sounds. Kirito, you've spent quite a bit of the last six weeks on the front line and you were a Beta Tester; have you ever run across any immortal beings within the game?"
"No, but that doesn't mean that there aren't some out there. If I see or hear anything as I move on up through the floors, I'll be sure to contact you and pass on whatever information I learn though. There's also a chance that James's new classification is nothing more than a system glitch that will fix itself in a day or two."
"Players and Monsters shatter when they die in the game and all Items shatter when they expire or get damaged beyond repair," Harry interjected weakly, his voice thick with emotion. "I was shattering over and over again for hours. I kept dying over and over again for hours but I'm still here. The first time the Carrion Crows attacked me while I was sitting up in the branches of the tree, my HP Level never went down no matter how many times they struck me; not even when I fell out of the tree. I don't know why it went down the second time. I thought maybe it went down because I was bleeding so much but I don't really know."
"James…?"
"I'm scared, Agil. What if… what if I don't really exist any more? What if I'm nothing but a memory that was left behind because my body died? My aunt and uncle hate me! They wouldn't have lifted a finger to help me. What if they just locked my body in my cupboard under the stairs and left me there to die like they'd always threatened to do? No one cares about me there and they wouldn't have bothered taking me to the hospital because they'd never wanted anyone to know that I lived with them or that I was related to them."
"What about your school teachers?" Kirito logically asked in a voice that was laced with tension for some odd reason.
"They all ignored me. They never called on me during class and even the other kids ignored me. The only reason I was even allowed to go to school in the first place was because it meant that my relatives wouldn't have to feed me breakfast or lunch during the day and because my aunt hated seeing my face all the time."
Neither Kirito nor Agil responded verbally to that declaration. Instead, Harry found himself being lifted up into Agil's arms once more. Harry curled up against his friend's chest shortly after the man had sat down in Harry's chair and settled the nine year old on his lap; the distraught nine year old then promptly cried himself to sleep as he was once more overwhelmed by everything that had happened to him. This time not even Harry would be able to deny the fact that he'd snuggled into Agil's embrace (the young wizard desperately craving the comfort that he'd been denied for so long); not that he'd ever admit to that out loud.
...
Wednesday, December 24, 2019 9:42 PM
Kirito stared numbly after Agil's form as the older man carried the now sleeping kid to the bedroom he'd cleaned up earlier so he could tuck him into bed. The fourteen year old was having difficulty wrapping his mind around everything he'd seen and heard from the moment Agil had asked for his help in locating his friend four days earlier. Kirito would have helped no matter what because he owed Agil a favor and he would not have wanted the guilt of another's death on his shoulders but when he heard that it was Tracker James that was missing, he'd dropped everything else to lend a hand.
The name Tracker James had become fairly well known before the Beta Test ended and it had been bantered about in the pubs from around the end of the second week after the launch of the official version. Kirito had never personally met the man but he had heard of his prowess in Tracking, Trapping, and Treasure Hunting from many different sources. Rumors had said the guy could track and catch anything that was not a Boss Monster and that he could find any Item, Ingredient, or Raw Material with nothing more than half a fact.
Most of the rumors were, without a doubt, exaggerations but they all hinted at the fact that the man was a highly skilled Player. He was also known to be friendly if shy and prone to long silences, completely honest, and usually willing to help others. Three traits that ensured he got along with most of the other Players that crossed paths with him even if he was considered something of a recluse; that was especially true after everyone had been trapped within the game six weeks earlier.
Very few people have had anything bad to say about Tracker James and those that did were often the ones that had tried to cheat the man after hiring him to find an Item. According to what he'd heard, the man wasn't much of a fighter and tended to solve the conflicts he had with other Players with creative and humiliating pranks made from traps that could be used within a town because they were harmless.
So Kirito had jumped at the chance to meet Tracker James since very few people knew how to find or track the man out in the Dungeons and fields (rumors said the man rarely ventured into any of the various towns). He hadn't even known Agil was a friend of the hermit-like tracker until the black man had sought his help in finding the missing man. When he'd first heard what had happened in the forest from one of the Guild Members that had last seen Tracker James, he was certain that the man was dead; which Kirito thought was a real shame since the man's skills were useful and because any deaths were tragic within the deadly game they'd been trapped inside.
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