"John seemed really down earlier, I should go talk to him." thought the Thief, in her hand she held a small wooden box containing the food Pedecree cooked up and with a wooden spork.
She wore a jGuardian themed coat since it was pretty cold out, them joining the guild was never mentioned yet.
It was dark, luckily the light of the crescent moon illuminated her way to and from the bush.
When she approached it, she saw the bottle and cucumber laying on the ground beside the bush.
"Hey, John, how're you feelin'?" asked the Thief crouching down next to the bush and moving some of the foliage out of her way to see him, despite this, his face was still too poorly lit.
Unlike the Thief, John saw everything perfectly thanks to his undeath.
"Yeah, my unspecified-period-in-life crisis wore off a while back," John replied dismissively with a shrug.
"Great! So why are you still in the bush?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I started petting my cat and she refused to let me stop..." John explained.
"You have a cat?" she asked.
"Since when does John keep any pets? I guess there was that mutant hamster but it died in the assassination plot by the chipmunk mafia... hopefully..."
"Yeah, Arachnophobia," John replied gesturing towards his cat, that said, the Thief still didn't see the cat except for her glowing eyes.
The Thief sat down on the ground next to the bush.
"Ominous..." she remarked.
"Anyway, I brought you some of Pedecree's food, he's a culinary genius!" she exclaimed.
Upon hearing this, JohnWillStab stopped petting Arachnophobia and sat up much to her displeasure.
"Oh, thank!" he exclaimed, leaving the cover of the bush.
"So, I heard you've been having some fun!" the Thief exclaimed.
JohnWillStab opened the box and revealed several mini-meals in the box.
"Yeah! I'm having a blast, honestly." John replied before grabbing the little wooden spork provided and digging into what looked like scrambled egg.
He gave a bit to Arachnophobia, she accepted his tribute as an apology for interrupting their petting session.
"Well, the snowy place we appeared in sucked, but I guess I do like how everything has gold!" she remarked holding out a few gold coins.
"Yeah, I thought you'd enjoy that part!" John laughed.
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A strong scent of pine trees was in the air, mostly because of all the trees that were cleared out around the jGuardian base.
"Anyway, seeing as I'm not exactly tired and you allegedly don't sleep anymore, let's go for a stroll!" she suggested.
"A stroll? Sure, but it's pretty dark," John replied.
"Are you saying you don't want to hang out with your only IRL friend?" she asked sarcastically.
"And the one who spent more time in my house than out!" he argued.
"Because I'm just such a good friend!" she replied smugly.
John let out a sigh.
"Fine, you win!" he relented.
"Great!" she grabbed John by the hand making him leave the food behind, as John looked back he saw Arachnophobia giving him a betrayed look before she started eating his food.
"Maybe Brutus would have been a more fitting name..." John thought looking at his cat saltily.
John's gaze went back to the front where he saw giant wall they were about to run into.
Before they could do anything, John and the Thief walked face-first into the wall before balling to the ground.
"Nice navigational skill!" exclaimed the Thief.
"Nice communicative skills when you let me know to watch out where you're going!" John retorted.
"Alright, you got me there..." she sighed playfully.
"The gate's this way," John said leading the Thief away from the wall and towards the large gate which was still under construction.
"Here we are!" John said turning to the Thief.
"Yep, can't see shit..." she replied.
"Yeah, I'm not sure why you wanted to go for a stroll in the dark..." John replied.
"Look, I thought maybe we'd be attacked by zombies or something fun!" she exclaimed.
"..."
"What?" she asked.
"I have an idea!" John exclaimed.
"You do?" she asked.
"There's a pretty nice town northeast of here!" John exclaimed.
"A town? I haven't seen any big organised groups of people yet!" she sounded noticeably excited.
"Yeah, there's an inn over there; with any luck, it'll still be open!" he exclaimed.
"In other words, alcohol!" she remarked.
"I should probably tell her it tastes like piss beforehand... Nah!" John though.
"That's right!" he exclaimed.
"Alright, now you got me excited! Let's go!" she instructed impatiently.
"It'll be bright by the time we get to the town..." John thought.
"Alright, I might know a shortcut!" he exclaimed.
The thief raised an eyebrow.
JohnWillStab performed a shadow step outside of the walls while holding onto the Thief's hand.
He looked over and saw that luckily, her hand was still attached to the rest of her, he successfully performed a two-person teleport.
"What is it?" she asked.
"She didn't even notice!" John thought.
"Hold on..." John performed a few more shadow steps.
"Here we are!" he exclaimed, they now stood outside of the gates to Levelgreen.
Torches and a campfire lit the town as a few people walked around carrying boxes of food and whatnot.
"Ah, JaneWillStab!" exclaimed Ed, the large man in charge of the town, he was still balled, though he had recently acquired a helmet.
He wore heavy-looking armour and on his back carried a large hammer.
"JaneWillStab?" thought the Thief.
"It's a name I came up with to stay incognito a while back..." John explained.
JohnWillStab turned to face the man.
"Hey! What's up!" he exclaimed.
"It's good to see you, as you can see we've been making steady progress in the town!" Ed replied.
"You may struggle to see it, but we have recently got two members who picked the farming profession, as such, we have already begun building fields outside the town walls!" he exclaimed, JohnWillStab looked out and saw that the man was correct, several patches with sprouting crops littered the outskirts of the town.
"You're right!" John exclaimed.
"And who is this you brought with you?" asked Ed extending a hand toward the Thief who shook his hand.
"Hey, I broke into his house so we're friends!" she exclaimed.
"I... see..." Ed replied uncertainly.
"I see you guys made a load of progress here thought!" John remarked upon seeing the gravel poured out over what was once a muddy road.
All the homes were back to their former conditions except for the glass which was sadly too advanced for any craftsman to create yet.
"Yes! Thanks to the everyone who helped clean this place up we've been receiving waves of newcomers from other settlements, even a few trade deals." He exclaimed.
"Nice!"
"In any case! Let's go to the inn and have a drink!" suggested Ed.
"YEAH!" the Thief cheered.
"This may also be a good moment to let her know I can't get drunk..." John thought.
The three went into the inn and received three pints of booze.
John looked on with sadistic pleasure as the Thief drank her booze.
"It's alright..." she remarked.
John's eyes widened as he heard this.
"Is her booze-taste that terrible?!" he thought before trying some of his booze.
"What the-?!" he drank a little more.
"It doesn't taste like piss!" he exclaimed.
"That's right! Since places like inns have an infinitely respawning supply of booze, we used the previously mentioned trade-deals to get some juice from Mourwood and Greatpart, we mix it with the piss-booze in massive barrels making it more drinkable!" he exclaimed.
JohnWillStab reached into his pocket and pulled out a black orb.
"Here, try planting this - It's a seed from Ajuan but this place seems pretty warm too!" John remarked.
"You've been to Ajuan?!" Ed asked.
"I've taken down the leading faction in Ajuan!" John corrected him with a smug look.
Everyone at the inn looked at John in complete silence.
Ed turned towards the innkeeper.
"Do you think... we could get another round of booze?" he asked in a shaky voice.
"...sure..." replied the innkeeper.
The Theif downed the entire pint before turning towards John.
"Wait, you thought the booze tasted like piss and let me drink it!?" she demanded.
"Perhaps..." he replied.