The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 3 Read Online Free Page B

in that state? Would walking back through the portal help?” Darwin remembered the feeling of wanting to kill very clearly. It was like being forced to eat nothing but stale, leafy food for a year and then coming face-to-face with a juicy hamburger--except a hundred times stronger.
    Charles smiled reassuringly. “Well, that’s also one of the beauties of the game. If you die while going berserk in the game, it won’t let you fully revive until the condition passes. Hopefully, even if you stay in Tiqpa permanently, that will just mean that we have more time to research and more data to draw from. During your first forty levels, we were able to isolate the condition and label it as ‘Hunger,’ a name of my choosing.” Charles was still in the middle of his explanation when Stephanie shot her hand up as if she were the brainy kid in class who couldn’t help but show off.
    “Actually, I named the other skills! Every time we started to identify conditions related to our race and its natural development in the game, or came up with skills for your class, I got to name them! The boss was only insistent about Hunger since he said the name I picked was too vulgar,” she excitedly interrupted him.
    “Yes, and it was,” Charles continued. “Anyway, we have isolated key parts of the neurological pattern, chemicals your brain seems to release when it goes into a rage, and we marked them so that the system we use to control Tiqpa will hold you until it fades. Regardless, you may still want to avoid being around non-respawnable NPCs or anyone you invited into your faction that isn’t a player. While the players will respawn without any problem, the NPCs won’t. Given your predilection towards saving them, I am recommending that you stick to player-only groups during battles and let the NPCs in your faction live out peaceful lives.” Charles looked over at one of the staff before finishing. “I am also highly recommending you keep this between us.”
    “Is there any reason we can’t tell Kass and the others? Would it jeopardize something?” Darwin had to ask. The whole ‘let’s keep huge, important pieces of information a secret until a huge misunderstanding results in something awful’ trope was so aggravating to watch on television that he didn’t have much of a desire to live it out.
    “Well, you can tell them about Hunger,” Charles answered, “but we’d rather the information not go public. I don’t see your guildmates Minx or Kitchens telling anyone, and if they’re going to fight next to you within sword's reach, it might be best for them to know. But Kass, well . . . Just recently, we had to stop a live interview on G.O.R.N. where she was talking on camera, and you were the subject.”
    “She was doing an interview on me?” Darwin’s mouth hung open. What the-- Kass was doing an interview about me on national TV? What was she trying to tell them? There is no way she would tell them my secret . . . is there?
    “If you don’t believe me, you can ask her in a minute. She’ll be here very soon.” Charles nodded his head towards the door at he finished speaking.
    “I see.” Darwin waited for a moment, staring in the direction Charles had indicated.
    “Darwin, I am not sure why you’re looking so intently at the door. It’s not going to make it open any sooner. Frogs don’t boil faster if you watch them,” Stephanie laughed.
    “I think you mean water,” Charles corrected.
    “Did I?” Stephanie just brushed off his correction. “Anyways, the choice is yours, but you don’t have to make it now if there is too much pressure. I mean, you and I discussed some plans earlier in the cave if I’m not mistaken. You owe me some donuts and TV in our underwear.”
    Charles didn’t say anything at Stephanie's mention of scantily-clad couch-potatoing, but Darwin, still somewhat naive in regard to certain subjects, shifted uncomfortably in his chair again. “Well, since you all have worked so hard on