Hee-hee, ha-ha! Hee-hee, ha-ha! Hee-hee, ha-ha! Hee-hee, ha-ha! automatically looped in my head after five minutes of walking. I'll soon turn into a goblin myself.

Out of curiosity, I even let one hit me—the chain mail blocked a whopping 4 units of damage.

After that, I became completely convinced that they posed no threat, got carried away, and lost touch with reality, mentally giggling along with them. Thus, I unknowingly left the forest area and came out to a clearing with dark turquoise grass.

This is still the Glade. The clearing is relatively small and represents a kind of clearing, with the forest resuming ahead. There's nothing special here: the same colorful flowers, fireflies, a column of goblins... abruptly ends somewhere in the center of the clearing.

I look closer—indeed, the goblins have clustered into a small group there. And I think I just saw a magical green flash from which a goblin appeared. I'm getting more nervous, I've finally reached the place where they're coming from. But who or what is summoning them?

I can't make out anything from here. I'll get closer, but maintain enough distance for a quick escape in case of danger.

Following this plan, I scatter about five more goblins and conveniently stop on a kind of path. During this time, I saw three more flashes and as many new goblins.

It turns out the goblins have gathered around a small, seemingly orange log, on which... a girl is sitting?

It's definitely a girl, the race seems human-like. She's sitting sideways so that I'm not in her field of vision. In her hands is a long brown staff with a tip in the form of an arc, in the center of which is a large transparent crystal. All her attention is focused on it.

Suddenly the crystal flashes with that green color and before my eyes appears a new member of the goblin gang.

I'm completely bewildered. Who is she and why is she spamming weak goblins?

However, I'm not close enough, so I can't examine her in detail. Overcoming fear, I scatter four more goblins and end up at a dangerously close distance.

Based on my knowledge, this is definitely not a top magical staff, but it's difficult to determine the power. Can be either rare or legendary quality. She's of average height, her clothes are a pointed purple hat, from under which golden waist-length hair protrudes, and a typical gothic dress. If I skip the thought about how cool the hat is and how much I want one like it, I'm scared.

It doesn't matter if it's a player or AI, it's a mage with the ability to summon controlled creatures. Most likely—a witch, which is even more dangerous. In this scenario, the weakness of the goblins ceases to reflect anything, it might well be specifically to confuse. There are two options: bait from AI to attack or give a quest, or a player figuring out how the ability works.

I can't get out of my head that PvP is enabled here. In the second case, there's no guarantee that upon contact the player will behave friendly, and in the first case, the risk is 50-50.

I have zero chances against magic. So I make the only sane decision—to get the hell out of here before she notices me. If I lose my gear and money, I'll fly back to noob level in progress.

I squat down to blend in with the goblins and slowly turn, preparing to dash into the forest. However, the blessing of luck suddenly leaves me—I hear a voice from behind.

"Hello! Are you a player too?" the girl called out friendly. I tensed up even more.

"Uh... Yes, hi!" I answer after a few seconds, turning and kicking an approaching goblin. But I'm not closing the distance yet.

She's a player, not attacking. It might be a trap, but I should consider a not-so-bad option.

"Oh, nice! You're the first player I've met in this forest."

I think Patrick doesn't count, so...

"Hah, same here. Though I haven't really walked around much, I've been clearing a dung for about an hour."

"That's cool. What dungeon, how's it going?" she turned to me, but continued to stare at the staff. I'm no psychologist, but that seems like genuine interest.

"Just a small level 3, Cursed Crypt. Farming XP."

"Oh, my friend mentioned that dungeon, but I ended up going to the Wizard's Tower, level 6, also to farm XP. How long have you been playing Enchantia?"

"To be honest, literally that same hour," I smiled awkwardly.

"Haha, I understand. I'm a little bit longer—two and a half. Come closer, don't be shy, it's not very convenient to raise my voice. And sorry about the goblins, you can kill them all, it'll even be a plus," she called and at that moment the staff summoned another "hee-hee-ha-ha".

Still need to be cautious. But if she told the truth, she's also a newbie and fighting me isn't beneficial for her due to the risk of losing gear. Okay, if I got into this, I got into it.

I nodded, scattered the crowd of goblins in half a minute, and settled next to her on the log.

What beautiful crystal blue eyes she has. Mine are a completely different shade. If she didn't edit them, I'm envious.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

A rather unusual encounter with another player. On the other hand—a chance to find an ally for leveling up, it's easier to enter locations of superior level together. Patrick won't fuss over me forever... he's already gone off on his own business, damn it.

"Can you believe it, I've been struggling with these goblins for about twenty minutes," she complained. "After defeating the boss in the tower, I unlocked a summoning ability. I activated it and these little weirdos started popping up. I don't know why, but it won't turn off, I've almost run out of mana. I probably messed up something with the staff..."

At that moment, a new goblin appeared, which I promptly kicked away.

Hmm, do the goblins appear on their own after the first activation? I might know the reason.

"No, the staff looks normal. Most likely, the problem is with the ability. Hover over it, is there an additional parameter 'automatic application'?"

She got distracted, looking at the statistics.

"Oh, yes, I see it. It's on."

"Turn it off, and also go to control settings and uncheck 'automatic application of abilities by default'. It won't happen in the future."

While she was fiddling with it, I took down two more goblins. Then the girl nodded and after the interval through which goblins were summoned, nothing happened.

"WOOHOOO!!!" she cried joyfully. "Thank you so much, I didn't even know about such a function. If it weren't for you, I would have gone crazy here until my friend returned."

"Nothing special, but you're welcome!" I replied politely. Now we can talk normally. "You just started playing and already mastered magic? Are you leveling up with your friend?"

"Well, not exactly. I recently bought Enchantia for a new experience and asked my leveled-up friend to be my mentor for the first time. She said this server is perfect for beginners and advised me to choose the path of magic because it's the easiest and I'll be very strong."

Ah, so Celestial Rift is generally recognized by high-level players as... a place for noobs, it turns out. And regarding the path of magic—her friend played a harsh joke on her. I have to give credit to Patrick, he hasn't advised nonsense for the sake of mockery yet.

"I see, I'm in a similar situation: a couple of hours ago my headset arrived, a high-level friend agreed to help and chose this server for leveling. How did you open mana so quickly? What level are you?"

"I'm at level 7 now, but I've had mana since level 1. My friend and I went to a store, she bought me this outfit, staff, several other items, and two magic scrolls. One for mana, it gave 6 units, the other for an attack spell in the form of ice shards. Then she sent me alone to clear that tower, with the ability it was easy but took a long time. And then I was besieged by goblins... thanks again."

I have one suspicion...

"Congratulations, opening magic at the very beginning is a great success. Listen, was the store you went to by any chance 'SWORD AND MAGIC!'?"

"Exactly, that's the one! Such a cool salesgirl, too bad it's closing. Have you been there too?"

Zero surprise.

"Yeah, I bought equipment there too. But about the closing... I have doubts about that."

"We'll see, I hope you're right. I'd like to go there again. Can you imagine, officially she didn't have scrolls in stock, but exclusively for me, she dug into her personal supplies and sold the last two with a 25% discount. And now, thanks to her kindness, I possess magic!" the interlocutor beamed with happiness.

I'm sure it wasn't just exclusive, but EXCLUSIVE! Of course, I could tell her the truth, but why make a person sad unnecessarily? And I (reluctantly) admit that her gear is not bad.

"I heard she has plenty of shops on different servers, so even if this location closes, there's no reason to be upset."

I wonder how she manages to be in all shops at once if she's not an NPC? Patrick didn't mention other sellers.

"That's cool. Aren't you a mage yourself? Your robe looks magical," she puzzled.

"Not yet, but on the full path. I'll soon buy a mana scroll too, but I haven't thought about how to learn spells yet."

"My friend said that the best way to master magic at the highest level is to go study at the Academy of Mysteries, which is on the top 17 server. Level 100 players and pro gamers teach there, but the training costs an unreal 75,000 gold per person. I can't imagine where to get such money without donating," she complained.

I've heard about this academy, it's in every top list of the most successful commercial enterprises in Enchantia, but the rates... That's approximately $15,000, fuck. She's right, here you either have to be a child of a big businessman or capture some territory like a county and suck from its treasury.

"Yeah, we're still very far from that academy... By the way, where's your friend?"

"While I was in the dungeon, she went on some reconnaissance. I think she wants to get some valuable artifact in the forest, but I didn't go into details. She should have returned half an hour ago, but she's not here and she's not answering messages. So I'm a bit at a loss," she smiled sweetly.

Wow, exactly like with Patrick! It's definitely about the Dagger of Madness, so he could have taken out her friend... better to leave this undiscussed. Apparently, something tough is happening there in the depths.

"My friend also suddenly disappeared somewhere, funny coincidence," I grinned; I should write to him again. "Listen, since that's how it is, it would be good for us to show some independence while our mentors are busy there. Since we're moving towards magic, maybe we could create a party? It'll be easier to get into higher level dungs together."

She thought for a moment.

"It seems like a good idea, it really has gotten a bit boring alone here... However, I'm already in a party with my friend, can we?"

"Yes, the number of parties you can join is unlimited. We'll just create a new one."

"Let's try, only I don't know how. My friend did everything then."

"Send me your nickname, we'll add each other as friends first."

No additional instructions were needed here, it appears in front of me—Shiny_Candy.

Very consonant with her character. Getting to know someone in Enchantia is not at all like in reality, slower. Or is the problem with me?...

Your friend request has been sent.

"Unknown07, right?" she clarified.

"Yeah. I know it sounds a bit extraordinary, but I swear—nothing shady."

"Oh, I don't see anything like that, that rabbit girl has a more interesting nickname."

I don't even know if this is relieving or offensive.

User Shiny_Candy has accepted your friend request.

Awesome, I have two whole people in my friends list! Now I need to create a party.

I tell her to wait for a while, as this process isn't instantaneous. I randomly skip through the choice of color theme, fonts, and so on. The key moment—the name.

Not too serious, but also so she doesn't think I'm an idiot. Oh shit, sudoku...

You have created the party [FunnyNoobs] and are its leader.

The first thing that came to mind and didn't seem stuffy. I think such a name perfectly reflects our gameplay.

I'll be very lucky if the party lasts at least until tomorrow.

You have invited user Shiny_Candy to join the party [FunnyNoobs].

User Shiny_Candy has accepted your invitation.

In the party column, next to my avatar, which had a crown above it, appeared the avatar of Shidy, as I mentally nicknamed her. We can now dispel paranoia, we are no longer able to damage each other.

By the way, parties themselves have a limit of 24 participants.

"Cool name you chose," the girl remarked, "my friend named our party simply 'Group 1'. Why this one specifically?"

"Perfectly describes our current situation."

She laughed brightly. Well, any way you look at it, it's a good start—just an hour in the game, and I'm already a party leader.