As we materialized in Xuanpu I could see one of the larger cities looming before us, nestled in a valley through which flowed a great river. It was perhaps less a city and more a town to be honest; there weren't many walls, though some of the buildings looked as if they belonged to nobles of some kind. Those buildings had walls, or at least some sort of barrier between them and the rest of the place. There were lots of farms around the area as well, but only those with animals had any sort of fences. Most of them seemed communal anyway. All in all, it was like walking into a scene from a medieval fantasy anime. A sign to the right of us named the rural city before us as Ti'jori.

“All right, we made it -- and we got some excellent new gear.” Lizzy remarked as she examined her with a window. “Looking at this... our current gear can last us a long time, so long as we find the right ingredients for upgrading the pieces. Given that we're technically mid-levels for the game, each piece is gonna get trickier to reforge as it gains in levels; unique ingredients won't grow on trees, after all.” she continued.

“On the contrary, I'd be surprised if they didn't grow on trees.” I quipped back, and the other three laughed while Lizzy affected a wry grin.

“... Point taken.” she returned.

“But anyway; should we do anything else for the night? I feel kind of tired, and we stayed up way too late last night...” I then said.

“True, we broke our rule more than we intended to do.” Ariana agreed.

“Let's get to a safe spot and log out, then.” Maryn nodded to us.

We made our way to a traveller's lodge near the edge of the townlands, and when we had settled ourselves into a room for the night (at least as far as real-time goes -- the game does take that into account, somehow), we logged off feeling pretty satisfied with the outcome of our time that night.

***

Monday morning started off as a mostly-cloudy kind of day. Ty was back on the bus as usual, and we exchanged a nod as I sat down beside him. The bus doors closed, and we were on our way to school.

“Ain't heard from you guys in game a while,” he said to me.

“Haven't seen you on the bus for a while either; we just got out of the Marshes last night.” I replied.

“That's right; you guys went thataway.” Ty nodded back. “We got out of Heimgar pretty quick; and then we spent the rest of the week in the Wastes. Damn, that place is wack.”

“It's almost steampunk, isn't it?”

“Yeah, that sort of thing. All sorts of crazy gizmos and machines runnin' around that place, and the bosses there were a real pain, let me tell you.”

“I can imagine; one of the dungeons we got into was steampunk as well. Probably because it was so close to the Wastes itself,” I told him.

“Dang, boy, you gonna have to give us cliff-notes,” Ty quipped back. “I don't know all that much about fantasy and stuff, but 'steampunk' and 'marshes' sounds like an off-the-wall combo to me,” he added.

“Tell me about it.” I agreed with a wry grimace.

“So y'all in that Asian place now, huh? Where to from there?” he then asked.

“Hm.” I looked up at the ceiling, pondering the answer. “Guess we'll explore it out for a while; it's not as big as the Marshes, but I get the feeling it's got a lot of adventures waiting.” I then said, and he nodded.

“I heard that. Our guild's growing some more, so now we got three to four groups running around some times, helping newbies or exploring new places; 'think we're gonna hit Stormwraith Hold next from what Wild says.”

“He really picks them, doesn't he?”

“Boy and how.” Ty nodded back. “We'll see y'all at the tournaments and stuff, I guess.”

“Guild competitions coming up, too.” I grinned back, and he returned the look.

“Damn right. Let's see that Queens power come to life again, Dans!” he said, holding up a hand for me to take; I took it, and he gave it a shake before letting go.

“We'll be waiting for you, Tigers.” I returned. He nodded, and we lapsed into a silence until we got to school, whereupon we disembarked, I got flicked, and we went our separate ways.

Feels like I'm forgetting something, I thought to myself, hoping it wasn't homework or some other assignment. Oh, and I'd better start really paying attention in language classes now. That's part of the reason we went there, after all, to get some immersion; although the game probably has an auto-translate feature we'll need to see about... I pondered to myself. Auto-translate has come a long way since its early stages several decades ago, by the way. That's because its newer versions are designed by people who actually work with languages and not people who program foreign language dictionaries into a database and hope for the best. Nuances, dialects, slang words: the auto-translators pick them up and render them in a properly equivalent way rather than an overly literal one, unless the settings are adjusted.

I pretty much bumped into my locker, interrupting my train of thought and earning a few laughs as other students continued on their way. I gave the thing a tired look, and opened it up to get things sorted for the morning.

“I've never seen you do that before.” Rachel grinned as she joined me at the lockers.

“Eh, I got lost in thought... really lost, I guess.” I replied. “Feel like I'm forgetting something today...”

“Oh, Mary's surprise for us is happening today.” Rachel then said.

“Oh right! That's what I forgot,” I said with a snap of my fingers.

“Whatever it is will have to wait for lunch, I guess,” she nodded back.

“Right.” I replied. We finished sorting out our books, and headed on inside to take our seats and await the inevitable four hours of morning classes.

“But anyway,” Rachel said as she turned around, “We finally made it!” she exclaimed with a bright grin.

“We really did,” I smiled back.

“I liked that town we saw; I wonder if we can get a house or manor there...”

“Let's look at the housing guide some time and see what's around; maybe we'll happen on a quest like the one we got for Cloverbell.”

“Oh! I miss that house, too. Now that we've gotten the wayport for... Ti'jori?” she wondered, and I nodded back. “We should definitely check in at least once.”

“Agreed.” I said.

“But finding another quest house would be nice,” she reflected, and then smiled. “I might forget to do homework this afternoon from thinking about it too much!”

“If you forget, there's no way I'll remember,” I grinned back, and she softly giggled. The bell rang at that moment, and homeroom began.

Well, what can I really say about morning classes? I mean, sure, they didn't drag on today, at least. But still. By the end of it all I felt like I was going cross-eyed. I did perk up in literature class a bit, I think, but then mathematics came along and sucked the life out of me. Science came along to poke the dead horse a bit, and then finally the sweet release of the lunch hour happened.

Rachel and I then took our morning books to our lockers for a change, not entirely sure what Mary had in mind but pretty certain we wouldn't be staying in the classroom. Mary herself soon happened along with Ellie and Andrea, and she took us to a quieter wing of the school, where she showed us to the door of a room none of us had seen before. Upon the door was a paper sign, neatly designed with bold print: G.A.M.E.R.s Club: Games, Activities, Media, Entertainment, and Recreation.

“Well that's new.” Ellie remarked.

“Did we just get legitimized as a club?” Andrea wondered with amazement.

“Yep!” Mary grinned with satisfaction. “Dad told me as long as I can make it meaningful to our education in some way that we could have our own club and a sort-of hideout for our activities and discussions!” she told us, flashing a victory-sign. “Well, what do you all think?” she asked us, clearly excited.

“Cool!” Ellie smiled back, putting an arm around her. “This is great!”

“Totally cool!” Andrea agreed.

“Definitely!” Rachel nodded. “Sean?” she looked over at me. Personally, I was stuck for words. It really was cool. I felt a smile coming to my face, but also a hint of tears in my eye. I placed a hand over the half of my face that was tearing up to try and say something.

“Wow... I...” I started to say, then got choked up. Rachel put an arm around me, tears now in her eyes as well, and the other three exchanged knowing looks.

“Feeling a little less like a recluse now?” Ellie grinned at me.

“I... guess you can say that.” I replied with a laugh. “This is really great,” I then said.

“Let's go in.” Mary then said, and she opened the door to let us inside.

It wasn't a big room, but it wasn't small either. I'd say it had enough room for maybe ten people at most, if we're talking personal space. There were two computer desks (with computers, of course), four regular ones, a coffee-table, three chairs, and two sofas, along with four shelves that lined the walls. These were about half-filled with game-related books and media, and the coffee-table had a couple of magazines about the entertainment industry on them.

“Sweet! Let's eat!” Lizzy said as she plopped down in a chair at once. The rest of us did the same, Rachel and I taking a sofa while the others took to the chairs.

“Now, just a couple things,” Mary told us, “We have a supervisor: Mrs. Brown, from the English Department. She had some experience working in media before becoming a teacher. Next: we are a club, so we'll have to do club activities now and again like field trips or such. Third: we may end up with new members, though I doubt we'll get many more this late in the year. It's been a couple months after all, and it's nearly Halloween, too. Fourthly: we need a club president.”

“That should probably be you.” I said at once.

“I was thinking about you, actually.” she smirked back.

“Maybe next year?” I said with a wry expression and Mary adopted a thoughtful look. “I mean I'm only a first-year, and you're a senior. You, Ellie, or Andrea should be president of the club this year.” I continued, and the older girls looked around at each other.

“He's got a point,” Ellie agreed. “I know you're busy-ish as class president, and I'm gonna be tied up with work soon; how about Andrea?” she suggested, poking the redhead beside her.

“M-me?” Andrea blurted out shyly.

“No complaints here.” I agreed, and Rachel nodded.

“I agree, you'd be good at it!” she smiled.

“I think that would definitely work.” Mary said with an approving nod.

“Ah--” Andrea started uncertainly, but then relaxed into a smile. “Well, I guess I can try it out. But I'm not going to make it easy!” she then said with a mischievous grin.

“Looking forward to it -- 'boss'!” Ellie grinned back.

“Right; Club President: Andrea Summers.” Mary said, filling in a piece of paper.

“Ooh, it's official.” Ellie quipped teasingly. “But anyway; so what are we going to do now that we're in Xuanpu? We're gonna end up split a bit, to be honest. My one interview apparently went super well, so I'll be starting sometime next week. I'd like to make some more epic memories this week, y'know?” she then said.

“We were talking earlier about finding a quest for a house in the area,” Rachel said.

“Nice!”

“Let's get warmed up to the area a bit, then hit some major quest lines, and see about the house or such at least by Thursday or so.” I then said.

“That sounds like a good plan.” Andrea agreed.

“Still, for all that school started way early this year, I can't believe it's almost Halloween, not to mention Homecoming...” Ellie remarked.

“True...” Rachel said.

“Right?” I agreed with a sigh.

“Crazy, isn't it?” Andrea nodded.

“Picked out your dresses?” Mary asked the girls.

“Def!” Ellie replied at once, and Andrea nodded.

“I did too!” Rachel said, raising her hand.

“H-heh?” I turned to her with surprise.

“Get something in blue.” she said to me with a wink.

“B-blue, huh...” I noted to myself, still mentally unprepared for the dance itself.

“Or you could get him another yukata.” Ellie smirked.

“Oy!” I quipped back, and the four girls burst out laughing. Just after that moment, there came a knock at the door.

“Oh! That's probably Mrs. Brown,” Mary said as she got up to answer it, opening it to find -- not the teacher we half-expected, but a young girl about our age. She had East Asian features, and her dark-brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. “Oh! Anhe Liang -- ahh, sorry, that's the other way around for you, isn't it?” Mary amended, and the other girl nodded. “Come in if you like!”

“Thank you, Mary,” the other girl said.

“Liang...” Rachel repeated to herself. “Wait, you're Liang Chao-Xing's daughter, aren't you?” she then exclaimed, and the young girl smiled as she bowed.

“That is true, she is my mother.” Anhe replied.

Huh? Ohhh, she's our Chinese teacher's daughter, I realized, suddenly remembering that she was part of our class at that time as well.

“What brings you by?” Mary asked her.

“Actually, I was walking by, and then I saw the sign on the door; I was wondering if maybe I can join this club?” she asked us shyly.

“Oh, wow,” Andrea said, and then smiled. “We'd love to have you, if you want to join!” she said, and Anhe bowed again.

“That makes me happy!” she said in a clearly relieved tone.

“Come on, take a seat!” Ellie told her, and Anhe sat down near us on a chair while Mary moved her things to sit closer to her. It seemed like Anhe then half-moved away from me, but I paid it no mind.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“We were just discussing some basic things about the club; what games do you play, by the way?” Mary asked her.

“Ah, I usually play a lot of table games with family; but I also got into a new kind of game a few weeks ago. Like, more of a computer-type game.” Anhe replied softly.

She's *really* shy, huh? Is this like the first time she's interacted with other students here? Come to think of it, she does kind of just hide in Chinese class, I thought to myself, wondering if--like me--she was now seeking a group of people she could better relate to.

Okay, so maybe I hadn't been actively seeking friends at first; but I guess a part of me was always hoping to, at least someday.

“Sounds like fun -- what's the name?” Mary then asked.

“Hmm... what is it called... oh, the name is 'Panarena Fantasy Online' -- have you heard of it, any of you?” she told us, and we all exchanged a grin.

“I think we're going to have lots of fun together.” Andrea told her.

***

Okay, so. Anhe was already around our level in-game (we were all at least sixty-five thanks to our recent escapades) and she had been playing in Xuanpu for most of her time there, so it seemed that the area had a greater level range than we expected, or maybe the guide just gives people the most relevant levels. She had started off in the Isles of the Seven Lucky Spirits south of Xuanpu around the same time as Rachel and I had -- though the fact that I was involved in the game somehow didn't turn up.

This was explained to me later as we finished lunch and left for afternoon classes by Mary; Anhe was apparently very shy about other people, especially boys, so Mary actually wanted to keep me a secret. Which was kind of funny to me considering how fast Mary herself picked up on it. I half-shrugged in agreement, wondering quietly why she had hopped in to begin with if I or other boys would frighten her off.

“Well, for starters,” Mary whispered back to me, “She probably knows you from class and you don't really give off the typical 'guy' vibe.”

“What's that supposed to mean?” I asked her with a funny look.

“Because of that,” she continued with an amused look on her face, “It seems she's willing to give you, and thus us, a chance. My dad has actually had a few conversations with Mrs. Liang about how anti-social she can be; this could be a really good thing for her. So for the time being, Lana is someone else.”

“I think I can do that... again.” I returned.

“Good! We'll let her know eventually, I promise, but for right now--”

“Right now you just want to ease her into things,” I nodded back, and she smiled.

“Thanks, Sean.” Mary said, patting my shoulder as she headed off to her next class. Rachel and I watched her for a moment, and then looked at each other.

“Wouldn't it be better just to tell Anhe you're Lana?” Rachel wondered.

“That's not... untrue, I guess? But it's not like I'm gonna outright lie about it; it just, won't be said for a while.”

“Hmm,” Rachel sighed as we headed for our lockers. “It's true you won't be lying, I guess; Lana is a friend we met and formed a guild with.” she then said with a smile.

“See?” I returned.

“But let's try and boost her confidence in us real quick; it's fun to play with the secret, but it's more fun when we all know!” she smiled brightly.

“Then it's not a secret anymore...” I replied with a bemused grin, and Rachel giggled. “This is gonna be super fun, though; I mean, Anhe would probably be open to helping us learn the language more this semester, right?”

“Oh, true!” Rachel agreed. “Yes! Things will definitely be more fun from now on!” she said excitedly, and I grinned back, nodding.

Anyhow. Afternoon classes went pretty okay, as usual. Anhe actually joined us in Chinese while her mother taught the lesson, which kind of surprised us but hey, it's nice to have a new friend around. Her mother seemed really surprised, though. When class was over, Anhe talked with Rachel about meeting up later in-game, and then went to rejoin her mother after a goodbye. We heard Mrs. Liang talking to her daughter in a very surprised tone as we left the classroom.

“Heh? She really was surprised,” I remarked as we made our way to the lockers.

“Sure seems like it,” Rachel nodded in agreement. “She's super cute, too.”

“Hm? Anhe?” I wondered.

“Absolutely! Don't tell me you didn't notice?” she returned to me with surprise.

“Ahh...” I began uncertainly. H-how do I respond? I mean, I guess it's fine since Rachel brought it up first, but I just--

“It's okay to notice other girls are cute, too.” she told me with a faint grin.

“Sh-she is... now that you mention it... I just... wasn't focused on that... I mean...” I stammered out. And I was being honest, just so we're clear. I really hadn't been focused on how pretty our new friend was; I was more focused on the fact that we had a new friend.

“Hey.” Rachel said quietly as we got to our lockers. “I love you. I'm kinda surprised you're having a tough time saying that, but at the same time I'm also happy you're more focused on me than other girls. I guess that's a little selfish of me.”

“I mean, a little selfishness is healthy, maybe, isn't it?” I replied. “Not that I'd stop you from having other guys as friends... that'd be stupid... but I can't see myself with anyone but you.” I said to her, my cheeks feeling hot, and she smiled at me again.

“You're so adorkable.” she said, giving me a hug.

“A-ad--'adorkable'?” I wondered to myself with a funny look as I hugged her back. She let go after a moment, and smirked at me.

“Let's hurry!” she then said, and I nodded back. We sorted our things for the evening, and then dashed for the buses to head home.

We plowed through homework easily enough for a change, and then of course after a little bit of extra studying (and some refining of our extra-credit assignment) the two of us went to our separate dinners, after which I dashed upstairs to hide away for the evening in Panarena, barely noticing the exchange between my parents as I did.

“Obsessed as always,” my mother remarked.

“His grades aren't suffering any more than usual, and he's out of the house with friends more than he was. Let him play.” dad returned.

“Still, it'd be nice if--” she began, but at that moment I quietly shut my door and didn't hear any more of the conversation. I slipped on the Dream Machine, and was soon whisked away to that magnificent world of wonders.

***

As soon as I logged in, I found Ariana and Heali waiting. The two of them waved at me, and I smiled back; Ari then came over and took my hand.

“We're meeting her around the wayport; she's been on another side of the map with her quests, so we'd like to help her finish those before we try and start anything new.” she said to me, and I nodded back.

“That's fair,” I said as we left the room and began heading to the wayport. I made a brief stop to purchase a new bow, since my old one would no longer equip, and then we headed out to find Maryn and Lizzy already at the wayport. A few moments later Anhe herself appeared, and she greeted us with a smile and a gentle wave.

By the way, yes, Anhe was also her character's name. And her virtual self was nearly identical to her real self, the same long, dark hair bound back in a ponytail, the same soft brown eyes and slender figure, and her character's race was Kyotan. She was dressed in brown leather with subtle floral patterns etched on to it. And it was... fairly teasing. Then I noticed one slight oddity: she had no weapon. I blinked in curiosity, and then noticed that her gloves and boots had metallic-plates worked on to them.

“Oh! Cool! You're a fist-fighter, huh?” I said at once, and she smiled at me, nodding back.

“You could say that; people say fist-fighter, pugilist, martial-artist; I mean, I also have trained some staff skills, and a few healing or defensive skills also, but I use them very sparingly. Mostly I just use real-life skills.” Anhe replied.

“Hmm? That sounds neat,” I remarked.

“You are a lot cuter than they said you were.” Anhe said as she came closer, and I could feel myself turning red. She grinned, and then we all shook hands, Ari giving me a subtle smirk. Anhe then eagerly accepted accepted the guild invitation, and the Silvernight Queens thus grew to six.

“Welcome!” Maryn told her with a smile.

“I look forward to many adventures,” Anhe replied with a bow.

“As do we,” I said, bowing also.

“So, my quests are not actually that far from here. They are in the... hmm, how does it go? Ah, Forest of Lost Dreams.” she then told us.

“That's west of us?” Ariana asked her.

“It is west, yes.” the other girl nodded. “Shall we?” she said, and the six of us turned to head west through Ti'jori to start our new adventures together.

On the way we exchanged stories; Anhe had heard about the Silvernight Twins from the forums, and everybody knew about the Garth-Queens War, of course, but she was very interested in our more recent adventures -- and of course we wanted to know about hers as well.

As it turned out, she had been in a few groups before now, but she had never joined a guild until meeting us. That alone made us feel pretty special. Anhe had also been involved in a few PvP battles, mostly on the seas though. Apparently she had been a “pirate” for a couple of weeks before doing an atonement quest at the Monasteries of Shushi-mei, near the border of Kunlun Province. After that she had adopted a more warrior-monk style of fighting, and had become pretty famous in the region as a solo fighter.

“And now everyone is going to be so surprised; I can hear them now: 'Anhe, Anhe, why did you not join us?? Why did you join all these Western girls and not join our guild instead??'-- but whatever.” she told us as we walked through the countryside of the region. In the distance I could see some qilin, as well as a few more realistic animals, such as yaks or goats.

“I never expected that; you're so shy in school!” Maryn remarked.

“Hmm... school is... different.” Anhe returned. “I feel more... relaxed? Yes, more relaxed in this place, being this Anhe.”

“I can understand that,” I said.

“But now that I know there are people who enjoy these things at school, I hope to become better at being friends, or at making them.” she said with a smile. “By the way; Sean does not play this game?” she then wondered. “I mean, he is a guy... and even if he is nice, guys kind of scare me.”

Well then, how's this going to go?

“Would it be fine if he did?” Maryn asked her.

“Um, hmm...”

Wh-what kind of reaction is that?

“I am not sure I have an opinion on that, yet. I hope to get a little braver with him in class so I can get over being scared, though.” she then said.

“Sean's not that scary.” Lizzy shrugged. “To be honest, I feel like I'm more scary than he is,” she added with a subtle wink.

“Hmm? But he beat that really rude person earlier this year, yes?” Anhe asked.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess he did!” the blonde girl replied.

“So he must be at least a little scary!” the other girl asserted.

B-but all I did was let him trip over the janitor's mop-bucket... h-how did I turn into a scary punk? I thought to myself with bewilderment; Ariana put a hand over her mouth to keep from giggling as she saw the feeling spread across my face.

“I'm sure he'd love to be your friend; you'll just have to give him a chance. And trust me, he's not scary at all.” Healina remarked.

“I will take your word for it, and I will try to be braver.” Anhe replied.

“Oh, we're almost there,” I then noticed as we drew near to the forest. “What kind of quests are we doing?”

“Hmm... mostly gathering quests, but also some bounties.” Anhe told me as she checked her log. “A lot of hard bounties, I think. But in a group it should be a lot easier.”

“H-heh? You've done those bounty quests solo?” I wondered with awe, and Lizzy gave an impressed whistle.

“Wow,” she remarked.

“Hmm? Are they not solo quests?” Anhe suddenly wondered; I pointed to the indicator on her quest log.

“This little symbol here means it's a party quest,” I explained.

“Oh! How very silly of me! I wondered why the last five were so hard,” she then said, and the rest of us looked at each other with amazement.

“Wh-what kind of monster player have you made yourself?” I asked with a nervous laugh.

“I am not a monster!” she protested at once, and I raised my hands defensively.

“N-no, I get that, what I meant was how exactly did you turn yourself into the kind of player that solos group quests like that?”

“Oh! You should have just said that to begin with!” she returned. “Ohh, I get it; that was, what was it again? Slang?”

“Oh, right; sure, slang, colloquialism, something like that.”

“C-colloq--hm?” she said uncertainly, a confused smile on her face.

“Don't worry about it,” I smiled back. “But yeah, it was gamer slang.”

“Hmm,” Anhe nodded back.

“Now I want to know what you were soloing so I can try them myself some time!” Lizzy remarked.

“Ohh, I can show you where I got the quests when we turn them in,” the other girl said.

“Sweet!” our halberdier replied with a clap of her hands.

“All right, here we are,” I then said as we got to the forest gate. “Ready?” I asked; the others nodded, and we ventured onward into the forest.

The pathway leading into the Forest of Lost Dreams was a sort-of gate. Two ancient trees that had bent sideways and ended up intertwining their boughs together formed an archway that marked the division between the woods and the fields and hills of Eastern Xuanpu. There were more qilins that we could see, along with fierce gorillas and a few tigers. Anhe told us that some of the rare-elite ones were on her target list, along with a boss-champion level robber. And, of course, there were an abundance of resources and ingredients we found as well while walking around; Anhe collected some of these for her quests, while the rest of us stocked up what we could until we had a storage place for them once more. This inevitably reminded Lizzy that she had to rebuild the waggon we had disassembled in the Marshes, which I suggested we do after we got back to a town.

“Well of course, doofus,” she returned to me, and I affected a wry grin. “Not like we can build one right here. And we'll need to get a pair of beasts to pull it again, too.”

“I heard a rumor about a quest here that gives you a strong beast as a reward, if you are a merchant or crafter-type player,” Anhe then remarked.

“Ooh, that sounds nice!” our smith said gleefully.

“It does! But I have no idea where it is; I am not actually a crafter, I just like to gather stuff for those who do.” our new friend told us with a shrug.

“To each their own,” I said. “I don't actually craft much either, but it is fun to collect stuff, isn't it?” I added with a smile, and Anhe smiled back.

“Yes!” she nodded, suddenly turning serious again as we neared one of her quest goals.

All in all, we spent several Panarena hours in the forest working on the bounty quests. This time I stayed mostly in the back with Ari and Heali, shooting from range, on account of the fact that Anhe was a melee-fighter. And boy she could smash things up. Her unarmed attacks were disciplined and precise, and when she did use her staff she seemed twice as fast as Lizzy -- which is saying something because our halberdier-smith is a tornado in a fight.

“S-so now we have two tornadoes,” I muttered quietly as I observed the melee with our two mages.

“Right?” Healina said with an amused expression.

“You get pretty wild yourself when you're up close.” Ariana quipped.

“Ahh...”

“Might want to rephrase that just a bit,” Heali smirked, and Ari blushed.

“I didn't mean it like that!!” she protested, and our healer giggled.

“'Ey! Focus!” Lizzy called from up front, and we returned our attention to the battle.

By the end of our battles, the six of us were decently in tune with each other for a fight. Anhe went to turn in her quests when we had finished, and after that Lizzy went to a workshop in the town to reassemble the waggon while the rest of us meandered through Ti'jori.

“There's a lot more quests and activities here than there were in the Aldholt, and this is just a small town!” Healina remarked as we paused in the market square.

“And how,” I nodded, looking around.

Bounties like the ones Anhe had just finished were the main thing, but there also looked to be several story-quests for the area. There were also notices for regional quests; errands for the Monks of Shushi-mei, services for the Legions of Zan, a mystery quest, a notice from a city called Yu in the north requesting aid to deal with pirates, and then my eyes alighted on one in particular. I walked over towards it in a sort of trance,

“Lana?” Ari said to me, then her eyes apparently caught sight of the notice as well, because she came dashing over. “Is that...?” she wondered excitedly, and I nodded silently.

“What did you find?” Maryn asked as the other three came over, and then I heard her let out a soft gasp. “Ooh...” she said with awe.

“That's an incredible offer!” Healina remarked appreciatively.

“Mm, but everyone says it is too hard to beat. I was planning on trying someday, but now maybe with all of us together we would have a better chance,” Anhe told us.

“Too hard to beat, you say?” I said with a grin, looking over at Ariana, who grinned back.

Notice: Legion General Dai-Gong Wu offers the estate overlooking the Jade Sea to any adventurous soul who will undertake a special quest of utmost importance to the legion. Come to the castle at Zan to receive more details.

There was a picture, or painting, maybe, of the estate itself below the notice. It was a large one, almost castle-like itself, with white walls and golden or silver-tiled roofing, situated on a tiered hill overlooking a pathway down to the seaside, where we could see the hint of a dock in the distance. The estate had no name; apparently we ourselves could choose a name for it upon completion of the quest.

“That's just asking for us to take it, then,” Ariana smirked.

“Hm? Hm??” Anhe wondered, a puzzled smile on her face. “Ohh! Right! You are the Silvernight Twins, after all,” she then grinned. “Every time you do something it ends up on the forum in some sort of confused rage post.”

“Ah-heh-heh-heh...”

“Th-that's not... w-well, I guess it can't be helped,” Ariana said with a faint laugh.

“'Ey! What're you looking at?” Lizzy said as she rejoined us, and then noticed it at once. “Oh, cool! We gonna do that quest, then?”

“I think so,” Maryn nodded.

“Sweet! But first; Anhe was right. I got that special quest for a special beast at the place I was rebuilding the waggon. Wanna do that first next time we get on?” Lizzy asked us.

“Of course!” I agreed.

“Cool! It involves the Forest again, though.” she returned. “But apparently we don't have to 'turn it in' turn it in; we just tame the beast and then it's done,” she added, looking at her log.

“Nice! Then I'll just grab this quest anyway so we don't have to go back for it next time,” I nodded back, taking the notice. My quest log updated at once, and I stowed the notice in my inventory.

“Good thought,” Maryn nodded.

“Gotcha.” Lizzy nodded as well.

“Anyway; let's have a little celebration here and then log out for the night--still Monday, after all!” I said.

“True! That tavern over there?” Heali suggested, and the rest of us agreed. We spent a few minutes more lounging together here, trading a few more stories and wondering what lay in store for us with these new quests, and then we logged out for the night.

Our first day there and it's already shaping up to be an epic adventure, huh? I thought to myself as I fell asleep.