Aquila left the forest and the lake behind pretty quickly. A hard and dirty path had been carved out through the grassy plains; after it passed the area he was familiar with, it then began to snake around the mountains. Though there were only mountains on the one side. On other side there were fields, and green trees and even a tranquil stream that flowed several hundred meters from the road.

When Novus Town was no more than a spec on a hill in the distance, Aquila stopped to take a break by the stream. It was true, moving at a walking pace didn’t drain his stamina – and players didn’t really get physically fatigued in the game, but there was something mentally exhausting about walking and travelling for a substantial amount of time. And he knew players weren’t supposed to get sleepy; but he’d caught himself longing for a bed on multiple occasions.

The stream was shallow, barely ankle deep, and crystal clear. He could see each smoothed over pebble that lay on the surface of the riverbed. Aquila unequipped his boots and dipped his feet in the water, which was cool but not cold, then he sat back against the grassy bank, took a loaf of fruit bread from his inventory and began to pick at it casually. The bread was soft and sweet and as warm as if it had just come straight out of the oven.

Aquila looked back down the road from where he had came, as he chewed. He could barely see the tops of the purple trees that made up the mushroom forest (which was what he called it now) where he’d nearly gotten himself killed. And Novus Town itself was now nothing but a light glowing in the distance.

Aquila turned his gaze back to the stream in front of him, and the valley beyond. He noticed that in the field, on the other side of the stream, there were several white horses dashing through the green and golden grass. No. Not horses, the tags appeared above the creatures: Unicorns. Level 5. Yes. He could now see the large white majestic horns that protruded from their skull. They pranced playfully, and looked peaceful, and placid. He doubted they were aggressive. As he was watching the unicorns bounding through the fields, a red light appeared in front of him. A fairy. It buzzed around his head and the flew off into the distance. As the sun was setting, they were all beginning to appear through the fields. Blue, white, red and gold. Aquila couldn’t help but smile.

An abrupt hiss wiped that smile right off his face though. Aquila jumped to his feet and dropped the bread which disintegrated instantly (but didn’t reappear in his inventory because he’d already taken a few bites). In front of him, crouching in the shallows of the stream, was a turtle-like creature with large claws, a beak, and what looked to be a pool of water on its head. A tag appeared above it. Aquila instantly drew his silver sword.

Kappa, level 4.

The mob stared him down with its now glowing yellow eyes. It hissed again, not looking away from him for a second. The creature wasn’t advancing, but neither was it backing away. However Aquila was backing away. Slowly, but surely. But for every inch that Aquila stepped back, the Kappa crept an inch closer to him. He was worried that if he ran, the Kappa might chase him. And he really didn’t want to get into a fight right at the moment.

Aquila let go of his weapon and it disappeared; hoping to ease the creature’s tension, and show that he wasn’t a threat. To his surprise, it worked. The Kappa turned its tail and began crawling back through the stream away from him. A text appeared.

Animal handling level increase - level 2.

Aquila had never known how that skill had worked – and he’d certainly had no idea how to level it up. But he now assumed that it had to do with the way a player interacted with mobs and animals. The placid ones and the aggressive.

Darkness was beginning to cover the plains now, and Aquila didn’t want to test his luck by sticking around the stream any longer. He equipped his shoes and continued along the road.

His mouth was still watering just thinking about the fruit loaf that he had lost, it had been a disappointing waste, but Aquila couldn’t help but take another loaf from his inventory and continue to munch down on the food. Eating was an odd sensation in the game. You couldn’t really get hungry, or full, but sometimes you really could feel the need or desire to eat. And after eating there was some sense of satisfaction. But it was a hard feeling to describe. Needless to say, Aquila was definitely craving food, and he was more than satisfied once he finished his second fruit loaf.

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Once Aquila had finished eating, he had full intentions to cross the field, onto the road, and continue his journey exactly as he had been. But then he noticed several player tags hovering in the distance. Because of his night vision, he could make out the silhouette shadows of the players, but that was as much as he could see. The odd thing was that there was something different about their tags – they were highlighted a vibrant green, a little different to the normal green he would usually see around Novus Town.

Aquila didn’t give the thought too much attention. His main priority was to put a safe amount of distance between himself and the oncoming players. Aquila began walking through the fields in between the road and the stream. The players were travelling the opposite way to him – he didn’t know why anyone would want to go back to Novus Town, there wasn’t much there, but Aquila wasn’t going to ask. He would pass them and if they tried anything; he planned to run as fast as he could.

Walking through the grass was a little slower than walking on the road but Aquila didn’t really mind at all. His gaze was constantly swivelling back from the road to the stream. The last thing that he wanted, whilst focusing intently on the passing players, was to run into another Kappa without realising. The players drew closer and closer to Aquila, and as they did they became clearer and clearer. Soon he could make out their races, their equipment and even their facial features.

The party was made up of an umbra, two snow elves, a half-blood and a fae. Aquila had gotten to know the standout features that defined different races over the past few weeks, during his time in Novus Town. Now he could pick out each race quite easily.

The group wore decent looking gear too, from long black swords, to thick steel armour, and blue robes that he could only assume were for the mages. But there was an air of tranquillity about them, they were striding playfully, and Aquila could hear them laughing and joking among themselves. Maybe Roselyn had been right. Maybe not all players were people killers.

As passed him by, one of the players with the tag Iced_Volcano, the umbra, looked over at him, smiled and waved before turning forward and continuing to press on exactly as he had been. Was it their way of reassuring him that they weren’t out for violence? Most probably. But Aquila still wasn’t going to risk finding out – even if he did have a good feeling about them. Aquila continued to stride through the grassy fields until their tags had completely disappeared behind him.

Aquila encountered a few more players travelling along the road after that, and he did the exact same thing every time. He hid in the fields, close to the stream until they passed him. They were probably more suspicious of him, after all, seeing someone walking through the fields at night with a cloak that was red, but probably looked dark, couldn’t have gone down too well. As long as nobody attacked him though, he didn’t care what anyone thought of him.

He joined back up with the road when it was empty, and it continued until the mountains were far behind him. Soon he was completely surrounded by fields. Though there were trees dotted throughout the grassy plains, and in some parts they grew in clusters, forming a kind of mini forest. Aquila was disappointed, but not surprised, when he walked through one of these mini forests and it wasn’t actually classed as forest terrain. Aquila also passed a large cave, that seemed to open up and lead to a tunnel that burrowed under the fields. It might be worth exploring at a later time, but certainly not now.

A few hours passed and Aquila began to wonder if it had been a good idea to travel at night. Sure, there were less people about; but he had heard several wolves howling in the distance – and it might just have been his imagination, but they seemed to be getting louder and closer. Goblins had spawned close to Novus Town at night, he wondered if there might also be high levelled wolves prowling about too. Another howl caused Aquila to pick up the pace slightly. As he did, his stamina bar began to lower extremely slowly; but he didn’t care.

He continued along at this slightly faster pace for about another ten minutes, during which time Aquila didn’t hear the wolves howling again, though he did hear a loud screeching cry which made his heart jump. The landscape was fairly unchanging. However Aquila had noticed a dim light appear in the distance. At first Aquila had thought that it was just a lone fairy buzzing about a few meters in front of him – but he soon came to realise that the light wasn’t moving, and it was growing brighter as he moved forward.

The light was getting bigger and brighter the down the road he travelled. Eventually, to his relief, he was able to make out its source. It was coming from a shabby three storey building, nestled under a glade of trees. The stream he had been following flowed right behind it. The closer Aquila got to the building, the more details he could make out. The place was surrounded by a splintery fence, with a single lantern out the front. Now that he was coming into view of the windows (they had been obscured by the trees before), he could see that the place was alight, bright and looked very much alive. A sign out the front read The Three Daggers Inn.

A text appeared in front of him a moment later.

Approaching safe zone.

And then after a few more steps afterwards:

Safe zone.

This was just the respite he needed.