Aquila woke up feeling fresh and well rested the next day. He spent quite a lot of that day grinding, as well as looking for easy quests around the city. Levelling up was slow work – after three days in Novus Town, he’d only managed get his light weapon skill to 3, and his archery to 2. His overall combat level was 2. The quests around the city only provided him with minimal rewards as well, and killing rabbits in the fields was proving to be less and less effective at level progression.
Novus Town had come to thin out quite a lot by the third day. Many players had moved on; there was really only so much one could do here, after they’d learnt the basics. Most of the people who had stayed were only interested in levelling up other skills, like herblore, fishing and enchanting.
The main square had changed a little too – although still quite chaotic, it had now become a hub for traders and beggars alike. Aquila couldn’t really walk through the square without someone either asking him for money, or asking if he wanted to buy something from them – and he’d get a trade request from a player at least every three or four minutes.
During the afternoon on the third day, Aquila found himself sitting down on a bench not far from the main square in Novus City, eating a cheese and bacon wrap he’d bought from the tavern where he’d completed the cooking quest. He wasn’t low on HP, but he really enjoyed the taste; and although his stamina bar was full, he still felt a little tired, and kind of just wanted to relax. He couldn’t help wondering if he’d missed Alister and Sophia, if maybe they’d gone off without him. What if they were together, and they’d left him on his own? No, they wouldn’t leave him. Surely not.
All of this was passing through Aquila’s head as a pale skinned snow elf wandered past. Aquila was in the quieter parts of the town, but it was still quite common for players to be passing by. The snow elf approached him and sat on the bench beside him. Aquila moved to the side to make room. At this point, he wasn’t surprised by players by players randomly approaching him. In fact he was almost a little shocked when the player didn’t immediately ask him for money.
‘Things are starting to calm down now, don’t you think? I mean, players are beginning to focus more on the game.’
The last thing Aquila had expected was for the player to begin making small-talk. Aquila looked to the side. The player was Level 1, and his tag read Spaghetti_man.
‘Yeah, I suppose you’re right.’
‘Do you think it’s really true – that if you die in the game, you like, really die?’
‘I don’t know. But one thing’s for sure. I don’t want to take the risk of dying. Why are you talking to me anyway, you don’t want money do you?’
Spaghetti shrugged.
‘I’m just trying to make new friends. I don’t see any other way of doing that, except by talking to people.’
‘That’s true I guess,’ Aquila felt slightly embarrassed that he’d assumed to worst of the elf straight off the bat.
‘You know, I want to leave this town. See what’s out there. But there’s only so far you can go without hitting a PVP zone – and it’s quite a dangerous place to be if you’re alone.’
‘I know exactly what you mean.’
‘What do you say then?’
‘What?’
‘Want to adventure with me?’
Aquila took another bite of his wrap, chewed and swallowed. Then he looked Spaghetti up and down shrewdly before answering. The player had a genuine pleading look on his face.
‘You didn’t sign up to the beta with anyone?’
‘Nope. I joined the game all on my own. All by my lonesome self. Or you could say by my lonesome elf. Pardon the pun.’
Aquila had been feeling the need to move further out of the safe zones lately; and Spaghetti had made a good point. Travelling was safer with other people. The elf was a lower level then him, if this player was going to turn on him, Aquila would definitely have the upper hand. Plus, he had an array of healing equipment, such as the potions he’d bought and food he’d cooked. Aquila looked down at the player’s belt. There was nothing set to his quick select.
‘Have you heard of the quest that takes you down to the forest by the lake?’ Aquila asked.
‘Yeah, I’ve heard of it,’ Spaghetti replied.
Aquila had thought that he’d stumbled upon a lowkey niche quest when he’d first run into Agitha, but it turns out that many people had also taken the quest, and some had even completed it. Aquila had heard, whilst he had been grinding in the fields, that the rewards for completing the quest was a certain amount of exp toward a combat skill of the player’s choice. Apparently, it was a decent amount too. Just the thing that Aquila needed.
‘I’ve been meaning to go do it, but the forest is in a PVP zone. It would probably be easier if I had someone to do it with? And you wanted to get a bit further out, so…’
The snow elf smiled brightly.
‘Sure!’
‘Cool. Have you accepted the quest yet?’
‘Umm, no I haven’t yet. Want to show me where it is?’
‘Absolutely. Follow me.’
***
Aquila waited outside Agitha’s house while Spaghetti had gone in to take the quest. He leant back against the cobblestone wall watching players pass by in the street. Aquila again began to question weather or not he could trust Spaghetti, but again he reassured himself about the fact that if it came down to it; he’d probably beat Spaghetti in a fight. Even if Spaghetti managed to get a jump on him.
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Eventually, as the sun was starting to set, Spaghetti wandered out of the small cottage with a smile plastered over his face.
‘Did you get the quest?’ Aquila asked.
Spaghetti responded by holding an old rusty axe high in the air.
‘Great!’
***
Spaghetti had been eager to get out to the forest right away, but Aquila had insisted they wait until later on in the night.
‘We both have night vision, so we’ll have an advantage. Besides there are less players wandering about in those fields at night – especially since people figured out that goblins can sometimes spawn there.’
‘What if the goblins spawn and attack us?!’ Spaghetti asked him as they strolled casually down the street.
‘They don’t spawn that often. Chances of us running into them are low. But even if we do, we’re elves. We have a speed bonus. We’ll be able to outrun them pretty easily.’
‘But if they have arrows…I still think that we should go now.’
In the end Aquila refused to go until the sun had completely set. He wanted to wait until even later still – but Spaghetti was getting impatient. The two of them stood at the entrance of the city gates, looking out over the fairy covered fields, along with the lake and the forest beyond. Their destination. It glowed a vibrant blue and purple that was amplified in the night. There were two players out in the fields, but there was nobody at the lake, and the fields around the forest seemed to be quite empty – as far as they could tell.
‘It’s safe. See, nobody’s around,’ Spaghetti gestured toward the scene before him with his pale hand.
Aquila shrugged his shoulders.
‘You ready then?’
‘Yep,’ Spaghetti dashed out into the field without even waiting for a reply. Aquila ran after him.
The two players that were out training in the fields didn’t pay any attention to the two of them. Aquila and Spaghetti made their way down the hill, and found a path that led to the lake. The walk from Novus Town to the lake was only twenty minutes. Apparently it was only five minutes at a run. But they wanted to keep their stamina bars full, if at all they possibly could, and so they travelled at a walking pace.
Parts of the lake rounded off with natural sandy shores, and other parts with hard rock and dirt. Aquila was intrigued, and began to venture off the road for a little bit; Spaghetti joined him without protest. Although the sand slowed their walking speed significantly, the lake was indeed mesmerising to look at. The stars and the night sky were reflected beautifully upon its surface, and they even saw a few fish jump from the surface of the water, creating splashes that seemed out of place in a body of water that looked so peaceful. As they continued to walk through the quiet night, Aquila suddenly realised that the mountainous area that surrounded the lake and the valley around Novus Town was becoming clearer and clearer. They were tall, with streams that flowed down the cliff faces, and cracks and gulleys. Aquila couldn’t imagine what creatures might be waiting for him if he ever decided to venture into those parts.
When they had almost completely passed the lake, Aquila glanced back and saw something emerge gently from within the deeper parts of the water. It looked to be a horse’s head, but fins lined its back, and a tail swished gently behind it. A tag appeared above the creature’s head.
Hippocampus
Level 15
The hippocampus had eyes that glowed a sparkling blue, it looked around for a moment, and then dived back down into the water. Indeed, it was a sight to behold.
They continued forward without conversation until the lake was well behind them. Aquila wondered when they’d be hitting the edge of the safe zone, and as if the game was reading his mind and answering his question, a red text appeared in front of Aquila an instant later.
Warning: approaching PvP zone.
Aquila stopped. Spaghetti turned to face him.
‘What’s a matter? The forest is just up this way.’
Spaghetti pointed ahead of them.
‘Yeah, I know,’ Aquila said, ‘this is the end of the safe zone. I’ve never been out of the safe zone, except in the tutorial. And that doesn’t count really.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ Spaghetti said, ‘let’s go.’
Aquila began walking forward. After about ten steps a new text appeared in front of him.
Warning: entering PVP zone.
Aquila looked over at Spaghetti almost expecting him to spring some kind of trap. Instead the snow elf gave him a hearty thumbs up.
‘Let’s keep going.’
The forest wasn’t too far from the lake. Soon they were approaching the thick odd trees. The leaves glowed blue and purple in the dark; providing a small amount of bright light, and the trunks of the trees were a deep dark brown. The grass thickened as they came upon the forest, and although Aquila could feel the grass against his ankles, his feet moved through the tall thick shrub as if it were just air. Spaghetti, however, seemed to be getting held back.
‘What’s wrong?’ Aquila called back as he waited for Spaghetti to catch up.
‘It’s the grass. I think we’re treading through difficult terrain. You can run ahead of me if you like, but your stamina will drain faster.’
The odd thing, though, was that his stamina wasn’t draining faster. In fact it wasn’t draining at all. He really was curious as to why, but an instant later, he remembered what the guide had told him about his subrace ability.
Whilst in forest areas you are not slowed down by difficult terrain. Aquila moved forward casually, as he did he felt his foot snag on a tree root. Normally he would have fallen forward, onto his face; but instead he felt his foot phase straight through the root. It seemed his subrace ability was extremely useful when travelling through forest areas.
They hadn’t gotten very far into the forest, and Aquila really didn’t want to go too much further. He stopped abruptly, pulled out his axe and began hitting the base of the tree. With every hit, his stamina bar decreased slightly. After about three or four hits a notification had appeared telling him that one pseudo fairy log had been added to his inventory. It took quite a few minutes for him to get all ten. Spaghetti seemed to just been waiting around; until he had finished.
‘Aren’t you going to get some logs too?’ Aquila asked.
‘I will later. I think we should go further into the forest though.’
‘We got what we came for; let’s head back?’ Aquila replied.
‘I thought we came to explore? There’s supposed to be some really cool stuff in this forest. Don’t leave me on my own.’
‘Fine. I guess it can’t hurt, can it’ Aquila said and the two of them began venturing deeper into the forest.
As they continued further into the thick of the wood, things became even more mesmerising; and Aquila didn’t overly regret his decision to not leave straight away. There were vines that dangled down from the canopy, odd bugs that flew around in front of them, Aquila even saw a glowing mushroom that seemed to actually be bouncing up and down. He bent over and grabbed it. Immediately, as he did, it disappeared, and a text appeared:
+ 1 odd shroom.
‘Haha, that’s so cool. Did you see that Spaghetti?’ Aquila asked.
Spaghetti didn’t reply, and when Aquila looked up, he shocked to see that Spaghetti was no longer holding the rusty axe, instead he had a short sword and shield equipped. Spaghetti had an evil grin on his face. Aquila wasn’t too phased. If Spaghetti’s plan had been to betray him, then he’d fight. Aquila let go of the axe he held in his hand, which disintegrated and reappeared in his inventory, and grabbed the rusty short sword orb at his belt, which manifested into a sword in his hands. But what came next made Aquila’s heart jump out of his chest. Another player tag appeared from within the shadows.
Iced_Volcano
Level 2
And another.
Lenbis
Level 1.
And another, and another, and another.
Aquila counted six other player tags in total, including Spaghetti there were seven. As Aquila’s perception skill outclassed their stealth, they became visible, all six of them, equipped with weapons and spells, and they began to move toward him.
‘Sorry Aquila,’ Spaghetti said, though his didn’t really seem sorry.