After pulling himself back into the treehouse he sat down and started talking to himself.

"Okay, calm down this is obviously a dream. Which means if it is... I could do this."

He scrolled through his mind menus and reequipped his clothes. In a dull flash of light his cleric raiment was replaced with a long flowing cloak, and various other pirate-like clothes from his days as a swashbuckling rogue when he started the game.

It was equipment he'd maintained and upgraded as he leveled up but never wore while in the city.

If this were a dream he'd at least like to see a few things besides this tree house before he woke up. Back in his early days with the guild this was one of his first experimental hideaways before he was able to augment the entire city.

Since then it had seen little use but... he looked for the hidden compartment and found it completely untouched and yet aged just like the rest of the treehouse. It didn't have anything valuable in it besides his old tricorn and an eye patch.

He laughed at the nostalgia and put them both on for old time’s sake. The hat gave him dreadlocks and the eyepatch created a scar illusion of the eye it was placed. It was a flawless recreation of his first days of Tales of Yggdrasil.

Satisfied with his nostalgic gear he leapt from the broken window of the treehouse and began his journey toward his city. He felt light as a feather and pulled out his old cutlass and swung it around to test some of his old moves.

[backstab] [dash] [pirate's fury] [krakens grasp] and so on.

He felt his stamina bar deplete and slowly regenerate just like it would in the game when he used the moves and rested. Of course, he had many more moves that he could try out but his chuuni only stretched so far after he remember his embarrassing proposal to a now nonexistent gathering of data.

When he approached the entrance of the city it was in a different place than he remembered. The city itself seemed bigger than it was just a few hours ago. The styles of buildings and clothes were also different. In his mind he was certain that it was the Pearly City, but everything around him was different from what he remembered. There was a greater concentration of Elves and Demi-humans, there was even a few regular humans.

When he walked through the gates a guard stopped him long enough to verify that he was an elf.

"Name, and purpose for visit?" the guard asked following a taxing procedure that he'd been following all day. Jasper, now Calloway, was mildly perturbed and slightly excited that he didn't recognize him.

"Cal of the Western Shore, I'm sightseeing." It was the honest truth too. Cal was short for Calloway and when he started Tales of Yggdrasil he spawned in the elven nation often referred to the West Shore since most of it cities were port towns.

"Western Shore? Just how old are you Cal?"

"Oh, come on, you know it's never polite to ask a girl for her age." He fluttered his eyelashes.

"You do realize that I'm a city guard, right?" he said unamused by Calloway's humor.

Calloway's charm gave way to a show of boredom as he cleaned his ear with his pinky. "Well, between my travels and the rum I don't keep track of the time very well. Tell me what age it is, and I might be able to tell you mine."

He actually found some wax, wow this dream is thorough. He flicked it off his finger and cringed when it landed on a merchant's hat as he walked by. Okaaay, maybe he was acting too casual.

The guard had seen everything and rubbed his eyes. "They don't pay me enough for this." He sighed. "We are in the third age of Lady Dravenkin, we are nearing the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Great Ones Migration and Lady Dravenkins engag-"

"Wait. Third age? And what is 'The Great Ones Migration?' Just how long have I been gone?" Calloway was taken aback, an age was a hundred years. When he met Shayley... "You mean Shayley O'heira Van Dravenkin the first, right?"

The guard nodded slowly, he was more confused now than before.

When he met Shayley she was in her first age... with the math that means... this was the most elaborate dream he’d ever had. Well it was just a dream, so he could roll with it. If his character was almost 124 years old by the time he met Shayley who was... 102 at the time. If he was 22 years older than her and she started ruling when she was 100... DDAAAHH MATH!!!

"I guess I'm close to three hundred and Seventy something... Great Gaia, I've been gone longer than I was ever around." Calloway checked his age... he should have just started there. "Can I go now?"

"Ya sure, you're giving me a headache just move along sir." The guard waved him along.

Calloway decided it was best to get some more information before he started wandering around the city. He went to a nearby tavern in order to talk to the owner which he hoped that he still knew.

"Ahoy," Calloway sat down at the bar. The tavern owner's name was Peter and luckily Calloway recognized the elf from back when he overhauled the city.

"What can I get for you, stranger?"

"First I'm looking for some information. I want to see if my money's still good seeing as I've been at sea for a good long time."

"I'm no money changer, but I can at least tell you if it's worth a drink."

Calloway scrolled through his inventory in his mind and selected a gold. Gold pieces were the only currency in Tales of Yggdrasil so it made things easy to pay for across the game. Because of how long he had played mixed with all the grinding he had a couple million stored in his inventory and more than one hundred times that in the guild treasury.

"How many of these for a drink?" He slid the gold across the counter and the man's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

"A real gold piece, these were a dozen times more common 200 years ago."

"Ya I've been out of touch."

"I'll say, a handful of these could easily buy my entire business." He picked up the gold piece and inspected it. "Where did you get this? Only monsters killed by adventurers drop Gold coins like this. There hasn't been many adventurers around these parts since the Migration." He placed the gold coin on the counter and looked at Calloway with a hint of fear. "Just who are you Stranger?"

Calloway looked around the empty tavern, it was midday the slow part of the day. "Can you keep a secret?"

Peter's fear turned into curiosity. "If the price is right, I suppose that I could be persuaded."

Calloway presses another gold coin on the table and slid it to Peter. "My real name is Calloway, and I used to be an adventurer of the local guild."

Peter's expression turned sour and he slid the coins back to Calloway. "That's not the type of humor those of us around these parts appreciate. I don't care who you think you are, we all love and respect the great one Brother Calloway. I won't have you make a fool out of him. Take your jokes and your fortune somewhere else."

Calloway cracked a smile. "Brother Calloway, is that what they are calling me now. It's only been a few centuries and they've already sanctified me."

Peter's ears were about to let out indignant fumes of anger.

"Oh, keep your knickers on Peter, is this any way to treat an old friend." Calloway smiled and removed the eyepatch. The illusion spell that scarred his face was temporarily lifted and returned to his original avatar design which Peter showed his recognition by dropping his jaw so far it almost came off.

"Is it really you, Impossible. Improbable, unthinkable."

"And yet I'm still here." He put the eye patch back on.

"No. This has got to be some kind of trick. How can I know?"

"You have a phoenix tattoo over your left shoulder blade which can be hidden easily by a shirt or you long silver hair. You tell people it's there because you admire the way the fire elementals protect the city. But what actually happened was I gave you that tattoo after I brought you back to life after a raid and you died. Hidden in the tattoo is the inscription 'A life to love' written in stylized English Cursive. Which means that in this reborn life that you have, your purpose is to embrace this second chance that you have been given to love more."

"You're really him, aren't you?"

"In the flesh... I think. I'll be honest a large part of me is convinced that this is an elaborate dream."

"Believe me, Your Highness. The feeling is mutual." Peter pressed his hand to his head as if to prevent himself from fainting. "To think, Brother Calloway is in my Tavern. This is too much."

"I came here first because I knew that I could trust you to keep my identity quiet until I can figure out what is going on."

"What about the princess! Haven't you seen her yet!" Peter was leaning over the bar enough to force Calloway to lean back.

"Chill Peter, I've not even been in the city for a full hour."

"But your highness, she's been waiting for your return for over two hundred years. You must go see her."

"First of all, stop with the 'Your Highness' bit, I'm not royalty. Second of all, I only just got here and learned that I've been gone for two hundred and fifty years. Storming the castle doesn't exactly fit in with wisest courses of action when I don't even know how stable the city is. Heck it might be better for me to leave right now rather than sticking around. I don't know yet, I don't have enough information."

"Your Highness, I mean brother Calloway. What shall I call you?" Peter decided to keep his hands busy and poured Cal a drink.

"Cal is fine for now. Why do you keep calling me your highness? I've never been more than a guild master in rank, and even then, I never subjugated anyone or took any titles of nobility for myself."

"Well you see Mr. Cal-"

"Just Cal, and loosen up. The extent of my almighty wrath is that of a kitten. Please speak freely, my friend. As long as your silence is guaranteed we shall have no conflict."

"I understand Cal. When you proposed to the princess and became her fiancé you became royalty. And she still waits for your return. It feels weird talking to you like this, but I got to ask. Why did you leave for so long and why now, why did you come back now?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. I logged out since they were shutting the servers down and didn't expect to come back. Then I woke up here and it was 250 years later. For me it's not even been a whole day."

"I see."

"Wait! Did you say that she's still waiting for me?"

"Everyday. There is even a festival every year on the day that you proposed. She had a lot of suitors because we are the most prosperous city of demi-humans, but she's turned them all down saying that she's make a sacred oath that she wouldn't break for any man. It's even caused a few wars, but with the city's defenses both inside and out being as they are thanks to you, it has never been a problem. Then there are the Sylvan Knights who are the strongest warriors in the kingdom, second only to the princess. Their reputation alone is enough to scare away most of the assassin guilds."

"To think that she would still be so loyal."

"She's the embodiment of perfection thanks to the great ones."

"Hmm? Perfection? Listen bud nobody is perfect, even the princess was designed with flaws."

"You know that's considered blasphemy?"

"But if it's truth spoken by the mouth of the creator, doesn't that make it doctrine." Calloway winked.

"To think that you are the great Brother Calloway." Peter shook his head.

"By the way I recall you had a wife and two girls. The girls should be old enough to be regular servers or cooks, but I don't see them anywhere."

Peter left out a heavy sigh. "That's a long story."

"They haven't passed away, have they?"

"No, Wendy runs a café down the street. My eldest helps her around the café and drops by every morning with fresh flowers and some breakfast. My youngest is too busy getting herself into trouble. My wife and I haven't been exactly on speaking term for the last fifty years since she moved out."

Cal went out of his way to grab his glass and did a spit take.

"Wendy Moved Out!" Cal exclaimed

"Yep." Peter began wiping up Cal's mess.

"That's impossible! She should have the biggest loyalty complex in the world!"

"I understand you had a hand in crafting us, mate. But the issue wasn't her, it was me."

Calloway who realized that he'd been standing up, sat back down. "Do continue."

"Now don't look at me that way, Mr. Cal. I still love her with all my heart but..."

"But..."

"Ever since I got my life back and my second chance. Things just haven't been right. Am I really the same Peter I was before? I don't remember dying, and all my memories from before my rebirth feel more like a dream rather than reality, you see. I've been conflicted is Wendy really in love with me, or the past me. This ate away at me and soon it was too much for Wendy to bare. With her bags and the girls in tow one morning, she claimed that as soon as I was ready she'd listen but until I sorted everything out she couldn't bear watching me suffer and not being able to do anything."

"So what you're saying is that it's my fault?"

"NO, I would never accuse you or anyone of my misfortunes."

"An identity crisis is it?"

"I guess you could call it that." Peter had the appearance of a broken man now that his mask was gone.

"I see. Well maybe the circumstances of your rebirth may shed some light on the situation. Would you care to hear them?"

Peter looked up with a glimmer of hope. "I'll take anything you're willing to give me, Mr. Cal."

"Just Cal. Anyway, you may not be fully aware of this but on the day that you died many other NPC's died in the raid. We were successful in pushing back their numbers but the damage had been done. I was only recently given the power to augment the city and was torn about how to handle the situation. Should I just revive all the elves and make it like it had been, or leave it and start from scratch."

"You mean to say that there were others like me that you revived?"

"No. On that day I decided that the dead should remain dead, but when I found you my heart was moved. It seems as though you died protecting your family, now as rare as it is for elves to have children I found it especially peculiar for you to have two. When the moment of truth came I couldn't leave the family fatherless, yet I only had so much of your... let's call it essence or your soul to work with."

"My soul?"

"Yes, a complicated series of information that makes you, you. I compiled what I could and found it lacking. So I started by inquiring about your character from you initial creator and your wife and children. I repaired your body and inserted your soul back into it."

"So, why-"