Leaving the tent, Fang was surprised to see the settlement bustling with activity. He was very impressed by the discipline these elves showed.

Now, yesterday, Fang had seen some shops, or at least a few tents that offered repairs for equipment. He was in dire need of new body armour since he still had the one from the beginning.

[Old Mage's Robe]

[Grey-Trash-Set]

It didn't even give any bonus and it was the only part of his equipment at the trash rarity. Since the camp had about 100 people, it would be pretty hard to find the right tent, so he decided to try his luck by asking someone who was walking by.

-You seem to be a Mage, so you are probably looking for new robes, the passant looked at Fang's clothes with disdain. Luckily for you, there is a tailor towards there, he said, pointing a direction.

Fang thanked him and started walking in that direction. About a hundred meters down the dirt road, the young man saw a tent with an open front, thinking it might be what he was looking for, he went in.

-You look awful, an old woman said, so brutally honest that it wasn't even insulting.

-Yes, I know, I was looking for some new robes, are you the tailor?

-I am. What exactly is your budget for these robes?

-Would 30 copper coins suffice for something simple?

-Well for this much it surely won't be handmade, she said with ringing laughter.

-Ah, of course, I'll settle for anything better than this, Fang replied, his heart stinging at the thought of losing 30 copper coins for a small upgrade.

-Then I've got the perfect thing for you, the old woman had a huge grin. She went behind a curtain in the tent, before peeking back at Fang and telling him: "Don't worry, it won't be too bad" with a smug smile.

Five minutes later, the tailor grandma came back to the front of the shop :

"Hope you like it, it took me a while to find it under all the robes."

[Ordinary Mage's Robe ?]

[Grey-Rare]

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

[I was sure I made it to be ordinary ?]

[Intelligence : 1

Magic Endurance : 1

HP : 25]

[Repels stains, at the cost of attracting mosquitos]

-...

-Sure, I'll take it.

Seeing the robe, Fang found the side effect pretty annoying, but it was still alright for how good the robe was. It gave him 2 stats points and nearly doubled his HP.

-Pleasure doing business with you, don't hesitate to come back if you have a larger budget, the grandma told Fang, with her strange smile. In fact, it wouldn't seem so strange on a young lady, simply, on an older woman, that smug smile gave one chills, instead of a sweet feeling.

-Alright, thanks for the robe, have a good day, Fang replied.

Happy with his purchase Fang decided to go back to his tent, to see if his teammates had logged in. When he came back, to his surprise, everybody, including Kirk this time, were in the tent. It was way livelier now. Looking at the in-game clock, he saw that it was nearly dawn. He could infer that nobody wanted to make Humera wait.

They all gathered together, before leaving to the rendezvous point. Humera separated everyone in groups of two. Kirk was with Black Tooth, Jokil was with Ayla and Fang got matched up with Golden Goose.

-We matched together, honey, Golden Goose said enthusiastically.

-It appears we did, Fang replied, smiling from the way Golden Goose said things.

***

Fang and Golden Goose made their way out of the settlement. They would be going about two hundred meters west, before heading for the border, to, hopefully, find out valuable information.

It was about 8AM in-game, and the sky was very clear, the sun shone brightly. This didn't give the two much cover. As for the forest, it was thick, but not enough to guarantee stealth. Luckily, the Forest Camouflage Cloaks actually gave them a lot of help hiding in the forest; Fang couldn't see much of Golden Goose's imposing figure from more than sixty meters away. The teammates walked a bit. Golden Goose stopped.

-I heard a sound, one that doesn't seem very "foresty". I think we should be very careful, someone might be nearing us.

-No sweety this time around ? Fang replied, laughing.

-There's a time for sweeties and a time for enemies, honey, the old lady replied, with a heart-warming smile.

-Now, we might go for a kill, so let's focus ourselves, Golden Goose continued.

Her smile didn't seem so heartwarming anymore. They hid behind a luxuriant patch of bushes, hearing the sounds, that they now recognized as footsteps, approaching them. "It's three players !", Fang finally saw the figures more clearly.

-What should we do, my system labels them as enemies? Fang whispered to Golden Goose.

-We should fight !

-Didn't Humera say to try and avoid conflict as much as possible ?

-She said to avoid conflict that we weren't sure winning, now, I'm Level 4 and you are Level 3, plus we have the advantage of ambushing them. I'd say our odds at winning against two Level 2 and a Level 3 are pretty good. Don't you think so ?

Fang nodded, he wanted to see what fighting against other players would be like. After all, most of his gaming experience was done in huge multiplayer games, so, while he liked fighting against the environment, his gamer soul was shouting at him to fight.

-Alright, what about this...

Fang and Golden Goose made a plan. Fang would start by shooting his improved Earthen Shard at one of the lower levelled players, hoping to straight-up one-shot him, or seriously injure the player. Golden Goose would come out right before to tank the first hits and, hopefully, get easy kills on the surprised players. So, with the plan in mind, they started to take action.