The smell doesn't wane as Yvlena walks forward, the path leads them to another level Yvlena reads only as 'Bloom Forest: Forgotten.'
"Forgotten? What does that mean?" the girl asks, continuing to walk through the area. Dead grass crunches under her feet, some squelch, releasing a goo that sticks to Yvlena's boots as she walks.
The elven girl grimaces, wrinkling her nose at the stench.
"The forest is dying," Sprite says.
"That's what's causing the spread." Yvlena says. "The miasma in Bloom Forest is starting from here."
The quest menu pops up startling Yvlena, who jumps almost a foot in the air.
[Quest: Complete
Investigate the Corrupted Fox
The tainted Miasma from the Verdant Woods seems to be leaking into other areas of Bloom Haven. As the Harvest Guardian, discover the origins of the creature came from and what to do about it.
***
Rewards
Ancient Seed
***
Moon Points x500
Moon Gems x100
EXP x300]
[Yvlena Acquired
EXP: 619/730
***
Ancient Seed
***
Moon Points: x500
Moon Gems x100]
"Ancient seed? I guess I'll have to plant it back at the Rose Manor to see what comes of it, I hope it's something that can help with the miasma."
Looking around Yvlena can see the remains of what used to be a grand structure. Marble columns and giant statues lay broken all around Yvlena and her party reminiscent of something grander.
It was too dark to see anything clearly.
"We'd need a lantern or a light spell if we want to explore this place."
[Quest: Investigate the Forgotten Ruins of Bloom Forest
Bloom Forest used to be a rich forest teeming with life, unfortunately, much of the forest has been left only to the memories of the citizens of Bloom Haven.
As the Harvest Guardian, Investigate the ruins and see why it is the cause of the miasma,
***
Rewards
????
***
Moon Points x700
Moon Gems x150
EXP x400]
[War of the Gods 1.3% completion]
[Story of the Harvest Guardian 7%]
Yvlena reads the notifications under her breath, softly exhaling as she does. This place...
"I have to come back, I've already finished the fox quest but we need a lantern and I need to plant the ancient seed. Maybe Laurent will have something on this place." she says committing the name of the area to memory.
"It must be getting late and I played a lot today." Yvlena says, she pauses, having no idea how to log out from the game with the Revista.
"Menu." she says, scrolling down until she finds the button.
----------
Aya takes the headset off her head and falls back onto her bed breathing deeply.
"That was amazing!" she says breathlessly. Finding some energy, she rolls over to the side to pick up her phone and check the time, it's 6:00 PM. Her eyes widen and with immediate effect, hunger and bathroom cues hit harder than any corrupted wolf can.
She rushes out of bed, running to the bathroom to use it before something bad happens.
At the sound of the toilet flushing Aya embarrassedly heads to the kitchen to make a simple meal.
"Gosh, that was embarrassing. I have to remember to take breaks in between playing." she says to herself.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
A moment of silence passes before she squeals in excitement.
"The game is so much better in VR! I fought a wolf and I won! I'm a summoner! This is so amazing."
After wolfing down a peanut butter sandwich she settles back on her bed to think some more.
"I've got work tomorrow so I'll have to restrict myself to playing in the evenings again." she sighs sadly.
"If only I could quit and just play the game I could just sell things on the auction house to get by." Aya chews her lip in thought.
"Is that too unstable of an income? It's just better if it's a side thing. I mean everyone says job security is important and all that."
While mulling over the choices facing her, Aya opens up the BooTube app to entertain herself.
With the game on her mind, she types in 'Moon Valley' to see what other players are saying. She comes across a sea of videos, different grinding methods, the best places to level up, and how to make more money off the game.
She doesn't find much for her class, summoner, meaning it wasn't popular to play.
"But it's literally the best class though!" she says in disbelief. A few more videos cross her screen
"Boring." she sighs, until she comes across a highlight reel.
"Changelo kill compilation?" Aya clicks the video, watching as a rouge, assassin-like swordsman decimates what appears to be other players and even some NPCs in the game.
"This is brutal." Aya says in fascination and disgust as she watches Changelo rip a player in half with his giant zweihander.
"I thought people who had the knight class were supposed to be noble?!" Aya says. The PVP matches with this guy were especially bad.
Changelo had no problems using underhanded tactics to win his matches, using his environment, or riling his opponents up enough to make them drop guard where he would go in for the killing blow.
"I hope I never encounter this guy." Aya says, "Good thing I don't play PVP."
'But Mars does.' she remembers.
"I hope she doesn't encounter this chump either, this is seriously too cruel. 5 million views?!" Aya cringes, people could be so weird but curiosity would always be a big draw for these things.
----------
After putting the gear away Aya flops back onto her bed to do some thinking.
"I wonder what the ruins in Bloom Forest have to do with the Harvest Guardian, could be it an old temple of some sort? I'll ask when I log in again." Aya says.
She yawns, rolling over to the other side of the bed to rest her head gently on her pillow.
"I should get some sleep, I've got work tomorrow." She says turning off her phone. "The weekend went by so fast, probably because I did nothing but game all day."
----------
Aya yawns as she pushes the mail cart all the way to the third floor, she doesn't bother greeting any of the office workers and simply hands them their mail.
Not like any of them would be thankful for it, and Aya didn't want to be on anyone's list this morning when it felt like she could drop to the ground at any moment.
Heading to the top floor, Aya is once again in the presence of the president's secretary, the woman types away on her computer barely acknowledging Aya who has nothing to say either.
The brunette offers no greetings only placing a few envelopes on the woman's desk before turning around and heading back to the lift. The rustle of papers catches her attention and she turns around to see Viviana sweep the envelopes off the desk with a smirk.
"You're so clumsy mail rat." Viviana sneers.
Aya raises an eyebrow, seeing as she's already at the elevator door she presses the button and enters with her mail cart.
Viviana watches her, gaping like a fish that Aya didn't come scurrying back to the table apologizing profusely.
"Hey, aren't you going to pick these up?!"
"I didn't knock 'em over." Aya says, the elevator doors close with a ding, descending toward the mail room.
----------
Aya takes a moment to open up the Moon Valley app and check her stats, she notices a new window.
"Oh? For my summons." she says reading through it. Aya skims the page, taking general note of Rabbit Knight and Sprite's statuses.
"I should really think about exploring those ruins. Maybe Risel could sell me a lantern."
"Who are you talking to?" Her mail room boss asks, Aya jumps.
"Don't scare me like that, I was deep in thought!" she whines. The older chuckles.
"Something's different about you." the man says.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know how to put it, but I like it." the man says. Aya gives a hesitant smile allowing the man to return to his office.
"Weird." she says.
----------
Aya exits the bus and waves to the driver as she continues her walk toward the crumbling apartment building she calls home.
"Yo!" a voice calls from behind her, the brunette turns around to see Mars, shake in hand walking towards her.
"Hope you had a better day than mine." Aya says with a smile. Mars moves the straw from her mouth with a grimace.
"Oh I definitely had a better day than you." she teases, the girls laugh and continue walking side by side
"Any progress on your Gear yet?" Mars asks. Aya stops in her tracks realizing she hadn't told Mars about the Revista.
"What's wrong?" Mars asks. Aya smiles sheepishly, scratching her head.
"I got...a VR Gear."
Mars stares, boring holes into Aya's forehead with how intense she's staring at the poor girl.
"You mean you finally got a headset and you didn't tell me?!' Mars grabs her by the shoulders shaking furiously.
"You better start running." she says. Aya laughs, taking off as Mars chases her to the apartment complex.
----------
"I'm sorry I forgot." Aya whines. She pouts at Mars, giving the other girl puppy dog eyes. Mars pats her head, turning her lips up in a half smile.
"Oh, you. I'm happy you got it though, the Revista is pretty decent. It was my first gear actually." Mars sighs fondly, Aya notices the far-off look in her eyes. A sad expression falls across Mars's face.
"Are you alright?" Aya asks in concern, watching the girl's expression shift from a pained one to something more wistful.
"Hm? Oh, yeah Aya." Mars says, but the look in her eyes does not go away. The girl pauses, starting to say something.
"Do you ever—" she stops herself, turning around to face the apartment stairs.
"Mars, what's wrong?" Aya asks again, holding onto the girl's arm.
"It's nothing." Mars says dismissively. "Now you can come fight me as soon as you make it out of Bloom Haven and into a better map."
Aya sighs.
"So long as you're not secretly that Changelo guy I think I'll be up for it." Aya laughs. Mars narrows her eyes.
"What did you say?"
Aya jumps, growing nervous at the girl's sour tone, she doesn't know what set the girl off but she repeats herself.
"Well there was this streamer called Changelo, I watched some of his PVP matches and it was pretty brutal." Aya explains folding her arms.
Mars curses.
"And he was playing Moon Valley?"
"Yeah, at least that's what I think he was playing. The area looked completely different."
Mars pulls out her own phone, typing something in and showing it to Aya. The brunette scans the page, pointing out the video she had watched earlier.
"That's the one."
They watch the video together, Mars stares unflinchingly at the brutal scenes while Aya winces at every turn.
"I don't think I ever want to play PVP, Mars." Aya says.
"I know and I hope you don't meet this asshole."
"Do you know him?"
"It's complicated." Mars replies. "But you don't have to worry about it."
----------
Walking into her apartment Aya hangs her bag on the rack and sits at her desk ready to play.
"Oh that's right I have to play lying down, I almost forgot." she laughs.
After setting up her stuff she gets into her bed and loads the game, soon, she's standing back in Bloom Forest's Forgotten Depths.