We were moving at a medium pace through the forest, looking for a worthy location to clear or an NPC with a quest. To sum it up, we've been wandering for over an hour, and haven't left the Glade yet, which speaks to the colossal size of the forest.

By this minute, I've managed to take about 30 screenshots of the local mesmerizing views. Ahead is the agonizing choice of which one will go on my computer desktop. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to fully immerse myself in the atmosphere and focus on the beauty—we encountered other players twice. And we were lucky to remain unnoticed.

The first time we were passing through dense bushes and heard sounds of battle nearby. We had different versions, but we agreed that it would be more profitable to check what was happening rather than ignore it.

Shidy wanted to meet a player who could join the party ranks, because this is generally a newbie zone. I hoped that a mini-event had generated, like "Help the caravan defend against a bandit attack," which would launch a story quest with a series of rewards.

To be on the safe side, we took out our weapons and moved cautiously toward the sound. Eventually, my new friend's hunch was confirmed, but not in the way she expected. We carefully peeked out from behind the bushes just as one player, approximately level 35, pierced another, slightly lower level, through with a spear. He ran up to the fallen one, looted a few items, and masterfully dodged a water wave spell from a third player we couldn't see from our position.

After such a sight, we ducked into the bushes without speaking and crawled back, praying not to be noticed. From that moment, we decided to exercise maximum caution and take into account the smallest suspicious sounds.

The second time happened about thirty minutes later. We were walking in a fairly open area with a minimal number of trees and suddenly heard a roar... of a fucking dragon! Pretty scared, as there was no reason for a dragon to be here, we dropped our gear and fell into the grass. Luckily, it was knee-high, so we could hide.

It's worth noting that all trees in the Bewitched Forest are very tall, on average as high as a 7- or 8-story building. At about that height, a not very large but fully armored golden dragon soon flew by, with a cloaked figure visible on it. The creature let out another prolonged roar and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Flying mounts are extremely rare: they're either bought for an exorbitant price or dropped in locations close to level 100. Dragons are especially distinguished by the presence of combat abilities, but I'm not well-versed in them.

However, I know for sure that if desired, you can fly up to the sky on such a mount and be almost impossible to spot. From this, it followed that the mount's owner wasn't concerned about stealth and was deliberately flying low. There's only one reason to do this—to comb the territory for rival players for the Dagger of Madness, to eliminate them.

I realized that we were literally a hair's breadth from death, because if he had seen magical clothing, he wouldn't have bothered to figure out what level we were or what we wanted.

We didn't know if he was flying deep into the forest or patrolling the Glade to suddenly eliminate players. There was a chance of meeting him again, which prompted us to move more stealthily. It also served as a signal that we were indeed going deeper, although I hadn't chosen a clear direction.

These two moments made us quite nervous and tense, but along with this came excitement and more fun from the game. I realized that I was very lucky that Shidy turned out to be friendly and agreed to the party, obviously such people are a minority here at the moment.

How did it happen that we couldn't find anything worthwhile to clear or quest during that time? Good question, which I would ask the developers, fuck, but... It's a little more complicated.

Initially, from the clearing, we went to the part of the forest that was ahead. After about five minutes, we came across an instance in the form of a gnoll camp, level 2. I suggested clearing it under the pretext that it was a good opportunity to work as a team. Shidy agreed, we built a tactic and successfully managed in about ten minutes.

Acting together, we did... quite decently, I think. True, we didn't even level up and the looted items can hardly be called useful. Shidy was very surprised by my unusual ability for lightning-fast strikes. And I was surprised by how effectively the goblins distracted attention.

The only catch, if you can even call it that—how the roles were distributed. Shidy could only perform the function of a mage-damage dealer, which automatically made me a tank. Not that it's bad, but it can spoil the playstyle and the system might throw up unnecessary classes. Ideally, we need to find a real tank for the party.

In general, I would have already returned to Novalux, bought a scroll, and stopped worrying about mana and class. But (what a surprise!) neither of us knows how to open portals, and when reconnecting, I'll return to the previous place. The servers of this network support the mechanics of fast travel points, but I don't know if they exist in the Bewitched Forest.

As for Shidy, she fought well and managed to hit several gnolls with a spell, although it's designed for one target. At the moment, she's stronger, but I understood this from her statistics when we exchanged them after creating the party.

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Name: Shiny_Candy.

Level: 7.

Race: Human.

Class: None.

XP: 496/1,131.

HP: 1,852/1,852.

MP: 11/11.

STR: 3.

AGI: 4.

INT: 11.

VIT: 6.

CHA: 8.

PER: 10.

Abilities: [Blessing of the Goddess of Wisdom (Passive)], [Ice Arrow (Active, level 3)], [Entity Summoning (Active, level 1)].

Traits: [Novice Mage], [Persistent], [Butterfingers].

Upon closer examination, some things caught my attention.

First, traits: Novice Mage is given to everyone who casts a spell using mana and a special item like a staff, but she got Persistent after ten minutes of fiddling with goblins. But the most interesting—Butterfingers—was given after several consecutive drops of items from hands and now often provokes this. It turns out that getting bad traits at the beginning is a common phenomenon, and I'm not the only loser who got Arachnophobia.

Another point is mana points. Now I know that Patrick completely neglected it and doesn't level it at all, since he, including talismans, has only 94 at level 121, while she already has 11. And mana itself levels slowly without a class, as in 6 levels she only got 5 MP.

Well, during a contact in a quiet environment, I noticed that Shidy has quite an attractive appearance, especially her face. I haven't dared to ask yet if she's edited her appearance, but if not, she could give many of the "school queens" I know a run for their money.

I'm inclined to think she didn't edit, because she has a human race. According to statistics from the developers, if a user seriously takes on creating an appearance (changes more than five parameters), then in 87% of cases they set a different race, even if it's a conditional elf that's little different from humans.

Wait... This is no longer related to statistics.

In the end, after the gnoll camp, we encountered only two dungeons of levels 3 and 5, but decided not to waste time on this unprofitable trifle. I'm increasingly confident that the juiciest part of the forest is in its deep parts. We'll definitely find what we're looking for, and maybe Patrick will come back to life there...

Yes, he still hasn't responded to a repeated message, even though he's still online on the server. I'm not particularly worried about him, because he's a top 100 player and with his set can scatter a whole army, but such a strange turn fills my head with millions of guesses—what's happening with him?

"Ah, careful!" I exclaimed, catching Shidy's falling staff in mid-air. This is about the eighth time on the road.

"Oh, thank you so much," she took the staff and hugged it. "How annoying this thing is, I hope the trait can be removed somehow in the future," she said angrily, but looked cute doing so.

"At least it doesn't have active negative effects. Just try to hold things tightly in your hands," I tried to comfort her.

"I understand it could be worse, but... In life, I also, let's say, suffer somewhat from this problem. And the fact that it continues to haunt me in the game is complete absurdity," she quickly changed from indignation to laughter.

"If it cheers you up—it's exactly the same for me with arachnophobia. Maybe they should have made the immersion not so full."

"Oh, I find spiders—" she stopped abruptly and pulled me to hide behind a tree. "Look! There's some girl. I'm not imagining it, am I?"

She switched to a whisper. I carefully peek out from behind the trunk in the direction Shidy is pointing—in the middle of the nearest path, there's indeed a short girl in a red cloak with a woven basket in her hands.

This... Reminds me of some... Little Red? What?!

"You're not imagining it," I confirmed. "Good job, you noticed in time. What do you think, player or AI? In my opinion, she looks a bit strange for both options."

"Most likely AI, a player wouldn't just stand in an empty area. Considering the size of the forest, the purpose is unclear, and you can't physically AFK in Enchantia. However, the only way to know for sure: check it out."

We looked at each other at the same time. Obviously, going out together is too risky, one should cover the rear.

Little Red looks very shady: she often looks around, shifts from foot to foot, fiddles with the basket, bites something from it... Did the original Little Red eat the food for grandma?

She looks harmless, but how do I know she won't turn into a hellish demon? I mean, I don't want to volunteer to check. Although in my mind I understand that sending Shidy would be stupid: she'll cover the back much better with magic, and in close combat she'll probably crumble.

A choice without a choice.

"I'll approach her and try to interact, watch the surroundings and cover me," I stated, drawing my sword. Usually I don't play the hero, but how pompously I said that! I'm impressed with myself.

"Okay, if anything—be ready to duck."

We agreed and I moved towards the suspicious person. I personally inspected the area first, but found only birds.

At a slow pace, I reached Little Red from behind in about half a minute... almost reached. I stopped about 10 feet away from her, leaving space for maneuvering.

"Ah, hello!" I started friendly. "What are you doing here?"

I decide to proceed from the assumption that she's AI, so I start the dialogue like this. She immediately turns to face me. The cloak is tied at the neck, the main clothing is an orange and white sundress and low boots. She has attractive features, brown eyes, and long chestnut hair. Despite her rather short height—5'2" (157 cm), her face looks about 18 or 19 years old.

"Hello, how glad I am to meet you!" she said happily and ran up almost close. "My name is Little Red, would you mind listening to me?"

Ha, really Little Red! This is definitely AI. I respect the creator, you have to come up with this.

"Of course," I replied, simultaneously waving to Shidy to approach, "what happened?"

"I'm from the Moon Leaf village nearby. In the morning, mom packed a basket of food and water and sent me to take it to grandma in Misty Slope village, she's been unwell lately and can't cook for herself. Halfway there, I got a bit lost, started wandering around the area and met a strange tall gray creature with many tentacles and a hoarse voice. He introduced himself as a kind mushroom picker, I explained the situation to him. He said he would help guide me to the village. I described the landmarks of the road to the village to him, he said he would walk around and return when he found the way... but he disappeared. I've been wandering here for about half a day and can't find the way. Please, can you help me get to grandma? I'm very worried about her. I promise I'll thank you with whatever I can at her house," she explained, her voice trembling slightly.

Wow, Little Red has balls of steel if she wasn't scared of this strange creature with tentacles, flashed through my mind.