We planted my spare teleport in some long grass a short distance from the magic circle and Masa popped off to the mansion first while I made my way to Nevda Town. There were many more people here than when we last visited, which made me question whether time was really stopped when we were not in the "game". Maybe it continued running as long as there were other players here? This game already had lots of bugs, so I wouldn't be surprised. I still had a bone to pick with the lack of level-up notifications, or any alerts about my Skills improving, for one thing. Having to Inspect myself all the time was a bit troublesome. Perhaps I should compile a list of improvements to tell Feyril if he ever showed up again. Masa might have some suggestions to add too.

Distracted by my own random thoughts, I accidentally bumped into someone. "Ah, I'm sorry," I apologised out of habit before looking up.

"No worries, mate," replied the blond young man in what sounded like an Australian accent as he smiled down at me. "I didn't get out of your way fast enough."

The red-haired lady next to him lightly slapped his shoulder with a frown. She sighed and said, "What are you talking about, Daryl? You totally just went out of your way to bump into her, didn't you?"

"Shush, don't ruin the template with your lame comments!" hissed Daryl as he gave his female companion a shooing gesture. She simply rolled her eyes at him in reply.

I stared at the both of them in surprise. This was the first time I was hearing someone speak in a clear foreign accent. For some reason, the natives here spoke English with a neutral tone, neither with an American or English accent. Were these two players too? And what did Daryl mean by template? Some kind of trope? The stereotypical scenario kind of template?

I looked them over more carefully and realised they were wearing t-shirts, khakis and sneakers under their cloaks. Definitely from Earth. They were also each carrying a sword with a different design. One looked like a Chinese dao while the other was a straight sword without a hilt. Maybe some kind of ancient sword?

They looked pretty friendly, so I introduced myself and asked for their permission to Inspect them. The lady tilted her head while the man gave me his consent right away. "Hope you don't mind if I do the same," he said with a wink.

Daryl Smith

Race: Human | Age: 20

Level: 21 | Condition: Normal

Attack: 285

Endurance: 257

Agility: 201

Speed: 198

Intelligence: 230

Mana: 332

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Skills:

Swordsmanship 1, Bargaining, Inspect 1, Map 2

Magic:

Adaptation, Class 1

Light, Class 2

Transportation, Class 2

Crystie Smith

Race: Human | Age: 18

Level: 15 | Condition: Normal

Attack: 131

Endurance: 147

Agility: 237

Speed: 200

Intelligence: 169

Mana: 219

Skills:

[Swordsmanship 1], [Inspect 1], [Map 1], Evasion

Magic:

Transformation, Class 1

Dark, Class 1

Huh, the guy seemed to have trained up his skills and magic while the girl's still had brackets around them. Hadn't she used them at all? Not only that, their magic affinities were different from mine or Masa's. I wondered what they could do with those. Dark magic sounded a little scary, but Transportation should be very useful. Maybe he could teleport without having to use actual teleport points? They had the same surname and sorta resembled each other, so I assumed they were siblings.

The man whistled. "Level 36, huh. So you aren't a newbie. Have you been here long?"

"Not exactly. Where are you guys from?" I asked, looking from him to Crystie.

"Australia," he said with a grin, before adding, "as you could probably tell from the accent. And you? You're not Japanese. Chinese, perhaps?"

I nodded. "Singaporean Chinese here. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine," said Daryl with a broad grin and slight bow. Crystie nodded at me with a small smile.

"I take it that you're stuck here too?" asked Daryl, scratching his head with a sheepish expression. "We've been earning some coin by doing quests, but that's barely enough to pay our lodging fee."

I was about to agree, but stopped when he finished his sentence. Lodging fee? How long had they been stuck here? Couldn't they just buy teleports to go back home? I mean, I could just go back to Malaysia for a break whenever I wanted even if I couldn't travel overseas without a passport. Or maybe I was just making an assumption and they merely wanted to have the full adventuring experience that included staying in a local inn. Actually, that sounded kinda fun too.

"I've just arrived in town, actually," I told them. "Which inn are you guys staying at?"

Daryl exchanged glances with Crystie. "There's only one inn in town," he replied with a shrug. "It's just across from the Adventurers' Guild. I presume you've already registered and gotten your guild card, right?"

"Ah yes," I said with a nod. "I didn't have time to check out the inn the last time though. We only visited the guild and the item shop."

"Well, we're on our way there now, so let's just go together," suggested Crystie. "It's nice to finally have a girl to talk to rather than this bore."

"Hey! I'll have you know my conversation skills are highly valued at my workplace," protested Daryl, but Crystie ignored him and grabbed my arm before starting to walk off.

I was a little stunned by this show of familiarity, but didn't say anything, like a typical Asian. We soon arrived at the guild and the two went to submit their completed requests while I looked at the request board. There were the regular goblin and pest extermination requests, plus unusual ones in which certain plants or animal pelts needed to be collected. I balked a little at the latter. There was no way I was going to hunt down a rabbit for its pelt! Maybe I wasn't cut out to be an adventurer after all. Hmm.