Aquila spent the next three weeks in Novus Town; which had changed quite a lot in such a small amount of time. Some players hadn’t expected things to drag on for this long, hoping that something would happen in the real world to get them out of the game. But as it was; the game continued to run as normal and people were beginning to adapt.

There weren’t many secrets left in Novus Town, or things to be discovered. It was quite a small village – and although there were some niche NPC’s with some odd questlines, mostly everything that Aquila felt was worth discovered could be discovered within a few days. As time passed, rumours began spread about new quests or a rare item that could be obtained in some obscure location. Although some of those rumours were true, most of them were invented. The majority of the players who had chosen to stay in Novus Town, at this point, were low levelled players who were focusing on non-combat skills – and it was becoming common practise for higher levelled players to lure unsuspecting players into the PvP zone by claiming to be able to show them the location of some rare piece of equipment. But Aquila knew better.

At this point, Aquila was becoming more and more doubtful that Sophia and Alister were in the town at all. After all, the population of players who were still around had come to thin out quite a lot. If Alister and Sophia were still here, he was sure to have run into them by now. Aquila could only hope that wherever they were, they were still alive.

Aquila wandered casually through the town square of Novus Town. The once chaotic area, full of new players who had just been taken from their lives and thrust into a game they knew nothing about, was now a quiet place for hanging out and trading with NPCs. Aquila walked straight through the middle of the square, past an orc who seemed to be approaching people and asking if they had any wood for sale, as well as a group of players who just seemed to be gossiping, and opened the large double doors that lead into the general store, which was now much quieter than it had once been. In fact there were only four other people in there.

‘Morning Astrid,’ Aquila said to the dark elf behind the counter. He had gotten into the habit of greeting the NPCs that he saw on a regular basis, maybe because they did such a good job of emulating a real person that he’d forgotten that they weren’t real people.

‘Morning Little_aquila,’ Astrid replied.

Aquila clicked on the trade tab which opened two windows, one showing Aquila’s inventory, and another showing the items that the general store was offering. It was normally impossible to buy from the general store, anything that any player sold to them re-appeared for sale, so it was flooded with junk items like rabbit skins. But they had unlimited cashflow, and items didn’t devalue if they had plenty of that item in stock.

Aquila selected a stack of redfin from his inventory, a fish that could be caught down by the lake and sold for about 4 gold each, and sold half the stack immediately. 40 gold was added to his cash stack; the window disappeared as Aquila waved his hand.

‘See you Astrid,’ Aquila said.

‘Until next time Little_Aquila.’

Aquila slipped out of the general store and began dawdling through the town square. There were a few people about, the orc had disappeared, but now he noticed a couple of players sitting around on the edge of a fountain eating ice cream and laughing. Others were approaching the various stores that had remained unchanged since they’d entered the game. The sun shone down in full brilliance, from where it sat at its peak. Aquila found a bench and sat down, admiring the weather that he had discovered would change occasionally.

Since he’d survived his encounter in the PvP zone, he’d sold the loot and used the money to upgrade his armour. He found out that although heavy armour and weapons heightened defence and attack significantly in the game, they also detracted from agility and stealth – which would be counter intuitive since he’d invested most of his passive points into agility, perception and health. Aquila had found a blacksmith on the edge of town that sold some gear, that although was low levelled, was still an upgrade from his current armour set. He bought a full set of light leather armour, as well as a patched red cloak (which heightened his agility and stealth by +1). He’d used the rest of the gold to restock his arrows.

A light breeze blew through as he sat back admiring the day, causing his faded red cloak to flap about in its wake. Aquila opened his inventory and took out a toasted sandwich and a mug of mead; spending a short amount of time doing nothing but looking out and enjoying the day. The cheese melted in his mouth and the mead had a satisfying aftertaste. When he’d finished his food, he stood up from the bench and began to walk toward one of the sideroads that lead out from the town square. Suddenly he heard a voice screaming from behind him.

‘AQUILAAAAAAAAAAAA!’

A few heads turned, including Aquila’s, as a silver haired female fae with pointed teeth ran through the town square towards him.

‘AQUILA, AQUILA, AQUILA!’

The girl skidded to a halt in front of him, and bent over huffing deeply to catch her breath.

‘Did you keep some fish for me?’ she asked.

Aquila smiled.

‘Of course, though I almost thought you weren’t going to be here today.’

‘Well I almost wasn’t,’ the girl said.

For the past three weeks, Aquila had spent quite a bit of time fishing and smithing. Fishing because it seemed to be the best way to make money, and smithing because he wanted to get his level high enough to be able to make something better than a rusty short sword. He’d been mostly just selling his stick to the general store, as there didn’t seem to be a fish market in Novus Town, but it hadn’t been long before he ran into Roselyn. She had been in the town square trying to buy raw food of any kind, and when Aquila had heard her, and asked if she needed fish, she got pretty excited and offered to buy it for a little more than general store would offer. Apparently she was cooking food items and reselling them for quite a bit to players who were planning to travel out of Novus Town. Since then, Aquila not only sold to her regularly, but she’d often chat with him about game mechanics, giving him tips and tricks that she’d heard from people she was selling to. She was the closest thing that Aquila had to a friend in the game.

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‘What do you mean you were almost not going to be here?’ Aquila asked, hoping his most loyal buyer hadn’t found someone else to buy off.

‘Why don’t we trade first, and then we’ll go for a walk and a talk. How does that sound.’

‘Sure,’ Aquila said, quickly sending the trade request and two windows popped up, each of them showing the player’s offer. Aquila put up the redfin and Roselyn put up an amount of gold that was slightly more than here usual bid. She was clearly feeling generous today. As soon the trade was accepted, and the windows closed, Aquila noticed that Roselyn was holding a cup of liquid out for him to take.

‘Hot chocolate?’ Roselyn offered.

‘Thanks,’ Aquila said reaching out and taking the cup from her. For some reason the game seemed to register when one player was physically giving an item to another player. The two began to walk side-by side down a wideset road.

‘Any news about what’s going on outside this place?’ Aquila asked as they walked.

Roselyn nodded.

‘I met a few players who had returned after exploring quite a bit of the mountains. They didn’t stay there for long because there are some high level mobs that spawn there. Oh, and apparently there’s a large city called Ambrosiana about a week’s journey from here. Many players have been congregated there.’

‘Interesting,’ Aquila said taking a sip of the hot chocolate which exploded with flavour in his mouth. The higher the cooking level of a player, the better their cooking tasted, ‘and what’s this about you not being around tomorrow.’

‘That’s the thing Aquila. It’s time for me to leave Novus Town. I’m going tomorrow. I was going to go today – but the group I’m leaving with put it off slightly. There’s just nothing here Aquila. There’s only so much ingredients you can buy – you yourself can’t even buy a decent short sword from the blacksmith. In Ambrosia there’s supposed to be tons of restaurants, and places to buy from. Plus, a lot of merchants are there.’

‘But you have no combat skills,’ Aquila protested. Although many of the fields, and land that surrounded Novus Town was a safe zone, eventually it ended. If you wanted to leave the town, you eventually had to go through PvP zones.

‘It’s not so chaotic out there as you might think. Yes, there are some scumbags; preying on lower level players out there – but a lot of people just keep to themselves. Plus we’re paying a few higher level players to escort us. There’s only so much we can do here Aquila, cooking Redfin and scrounging up basic ingredients from the general store. I know you’re waiting for your friends but…’

‘I don’t think they’re here to be honest, I would have seen them by now if I had.’

They were beginning to get to the edge of town now; though it was the opposite side that led to the lake and the forest. This path led to a shallow tranquil river that ran through some leafy areas. They passed through the outer gate, and began to walk under the shade of the oak trees.

‘Come with us Aquila. You could probably do with getting out of here too. It’s going to cost about 2K per person, to pay for the higher-level players to protect us. Though it will be cheaper if we can get more people along.’

‘That’s a lot of money that I don’t have. Plus, if I did have it, then I’d probably spend it on gear. Your group are all merchants, so you can afford to spend that kind of money. I’m trying to focus on combat.’

The truth was, over the course of two weeks, he had only managed to level up his light weapon skill by two, and his archery skill by one; bringing his light-handed skill to level 6, his range to level 4, and his overall combat level to 4. But his plan was first to invest in gear, and then train as hard as he could – which was why he was putting so much time into smithing.

‘Well then this might be it,’ said Roselyn as she finished off her hot chocolate in one large gulp, ‘maybe we’ll cross paths again.’

‘Maybe,’ Aquila replied.

‘Add me as a friend. If you’re in Ambrosia, I’ll sell you some hearty meals.’

‘Sure,’ Aquila smiled and brought up the friends window. He quickly typed Roselyn’s username in, then sent her a request. She accepted it a moment later. Suddenly her player tag turned green. It was his first friend in the game. Her name appeared under friends, in green online. Aquila didn’t understand how that worked, as none of them could log off.

They parted ways soon after. Sure enough, just as she’d said, Roselyn didn’t turn up the next day, or the day after.

***

Aquila walked into the blacksmith and began smelting a whole pile of ore, which appeared in his inventory as metal bars. Then he placed them on an anvil and began hammering away. This was it, he was finally about to level up his smithing high enough to make a decent sword. After he crafted his fifth rusty sword a text appeared in front of him:

Smithing level increase – 10

He was done waiting around. He had resolved that when he’d levelled up his smithing skill high enough to make a half-decent weapon, he’d leave Novus Town too. Sophia and Alister were out there somewhere, and he was going to find them.

He’d managed to buy the ores to make his new weapon from another player who’d claimed to have mined them in a cave not far from here. The ores were expensive, more expensive than the weapon itself – but unfortunately there wasn’t anywhere in the village (that he knew of) where he could buy the weapon. Apparently there were other smiths in other towns that sold higher level gear, but not the blacksmith in Novus Town.

Aquila smelted the ore, which just required him to hold them out over the coals in the furnace before they turned into solid bars and appeared in his inventory. Then he would place them on the anvil and then he began hammering away. It depended on the material in regards to how much hammering was required. Aquila had to hammer for about a minute before the window popped up giving him certain options as to what weapon he would like to craft.

Aquila immediately selected the steel short sword – which was the strongest finesse weapon he could make at his level. The bars on the anvil transformed into a short silver sword that seemed to glitter slightly. Aquila held it out in front of him admiring his work. This would be fitting, he knew, and would do well for his journey. The NPC blacksmith complimented him on his work, and Aquila couldn’t help but feel good about himself even though he knew he was being complimented by a computer program.

That afternoon Aquila spent what little money he had on potions and other supplies. When he was completely stocked up – he made his way to the front gates of Novus Town, looking out on the fields, the lake, the forest and the path that stretched out further beyond. The sun was a deep scarlet red as he began to tread the path that led out of the town.