“2 Zombies, coming left. Take them out Nick.” Nick shot off two fireballs with sweat beading down his face. The Level 12 Zombies weren’t a match for any of us, but it had been a long day and those Level 12s were looking a little more deadly now than earlier. “3 Zombies and a Skeleton Lieutenant, coming right.”

“On it!” Cain rushed out, sword and shield in hand, with Rosco right behind him. Rosco was using one of his two beast forms, [Shift Thorncat]. It resembled a large panther with porcupine quills up and down and on the sides of its body and tail. Thorncats, from the game manual, roamed South and Central America, as well as some species in Asia and Africa. The fact that there weren't any wild ones North of Panama was something I was grateful for, because Rosco looked absolutely terrifying in the form.

The two met the group with Theresa behind them. Cain clashed blades with the Skeleton Lieutenant whilst Rosco bolted into the Zombies. A flurry of quills and claws and swords occurred on the right while two more Zombies and another Skeleton Lieutenant showed up on my left. This was much harder of an escort mission than I had thought it would be.

When we introduced the 3 new comer players to Chief Cassil, the game produced something else that I was surprised about. Not only did Cassil react enthusiastically, a new quest appeared to guide a trade caravan to Softpaw Village. It was a Level 13-recommended quest for a party of 5. Nick had just hit Level 12 recently, but Graham was nearly 17 and I was 63% to 16. The three new comers were all at or almost at Level 14. Suffice to say, we were over-levelled for the quest. When we got it, I expected it to be a calm wagon ride with maybe an encounter or two. Instead, it had been a gauntlet of small, tedious encounters from start to finish.

Theresa sat on top of the wagon with me, firing off healing spells to the left or right when needed. I would wait to see if anything got close enough to attack the wagon before firing. The wagon was protected by 4 guard-rabbits, but they were all only Level 11 and I didn’t want to risk losing even one. Who knows what they’d be good for in the future?

After 10 of the 11 miles, we got to US-283 and the road was soon to turn into dirt. As soon as it did though, we got an unwelcome surprise. A Level 14 Elite strode in front of us. The profile read, “Ol’ Bones Manhatten”. He was a massive skeleton with aged golden armor. His claymore was massive, at least 6 feet long, and he wielded it like it was nothing. Behind him, 6 Level 12 Zombies stood and waited for our caravan to hit the aggro zone. Cain looked at me and gave a nod before charging in, Grant to his left.

I fired off a [Multi-Shot] as Nick sent several fireballs into the zombies. It was chaotic, made only more so by Rosco’s attacks causing ludicrously loud screams and wails from creatures that had been impaled by his quills. Somehow, none of those porcupine quills ended up inside any of us. The Zombies went down relatively swiftly and we began to focus on the Elite. With a group of 5 Level 13’s, this would have been a serious encounter. With a 16, 15, two 14’s, a 13, and a 12, this was no issue. Graham put out high amounts of DPS and was probably the biggest reason that we brought the enemy down swiftly. The fight was just enough to push Theresa to Level 14, and Nick to Level 13.

The Elite dropped lots of gear and gold, which was divided up amongst those who needed it. Nothing was built for me or of a high enough quality to be useful. I got my share of the wealth: 83 Gold Pieces. We had so far decided against putting in any form of Guild Tax on sales or drops. There wasn’t much to spend it on besides cosmetic gear. That may, and probably would, change in the future. Until then, it was unnecessary to drain any resources away from the six of us.

As we rode into Softpaw Village, I was impressed. The village was almost equal in size to Harehill. A few dozen rabbits moved between similar buildings. What was interesting were the large farming fields to the left and right of the village. That was something that Harehill did not have, instead having small gardens around most buildings.

Upon turning in the caravan, a new quest appeared in my log, “Funding the Trade”. That was interesting. I opened the details.

OBJECTIVES

* Ensure both settlements have at least 50 citizens.

* Harehill (48/50)

* Softpaw (42/50)

* Talk to Trade Masters of both Settlements

REWARDS

* Trade Caravans will run daily between the two.

* Population will grow slowly over time.

* Settlements will begin to improve their materials, buildings, and products for sale.

That seemed to be what we needed. Unfortunately, we were about 10 rabbits short.

“Did y’all get this quest?” Graham was looking at his own menu.

Theresa nodded. “I did. What do you think Part 2 is?”

Nick frowned. “Where do we get 10 more Rabbitfolk? Didn’t we complete all the rescue quests?”

“Yeah, pretty sure we did. What’s a Trade Master?”

Cain looked at the Caravan. “Maybe they need to hit 50 population before one appears?”

Rosco, back in human form, shrugged. “Hell, let’s just turn this quest in and move on. We can come back to this.”

Upon turning the caravan quest in, we each received 50 gold, a small portion of XP, and a piece of gear. My selection was a new pair of boots, “Steel-toe Boots [10C, +3 DEX +3 AGI]”. That bonus was going to be helpful. It increased both my DEX and AGI by +2. I was already faster than anyone I had met so far. My dodging abilities were high and I was confident we could handle tougher opponents.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

I headed into the tavern in Softpaw Village, The Crimson Carrot, and talked to the bartender. “Any work you need done?” The question was getting severely repetitive to me, but it was the quickest way to access any quests that were available. Nick and Graham seemed to enjoy talking to the NPCs, but it seemed silly to me.

The bar-rabbit, a female wearing a long brown apron over her silver fur, nodded. “Yes, sir. It seems a tribe of Gnolls have started pushing north. With Ol’ Bones Manhatten dead, nothin’ south of Albany controls the night. If ya would, could you put a stop to these monsters?”

QUEST RECIEVED: Send ‘em Back! (Recommended Level: 15, 3+ Players) OBJECTIVES

* Kill 0/20 Blackmoss Gnolls

* Burn 0/4 Blackmoss Supply Crates

* Kill Rackles

REWARDS

* 200 Gold

* 600 Experience

* Level 15 Loot Chest (MAX. 5)

This was a good, solid quest. Everyone in the party could pick it up. Unfortunately, if everyone picked it up, one person would not get the Loot Chest. I smiled and nodded to the bartender, picking up the quest. This also confirmed my suspicions. Everything we added and removed from the world affected the ecosystem. By completing the transport quest and killing the Skeleton Elite, we have reduced the Undead’s power in this part of the County. This was a relatively small scale change, but part of me was wondering what would happen if you killed a larger boss. What if we beat one of these dungeons? What would that do?

Theresa came into the tavern and smiled. “It’s nice being Level 14. All the fights here seem easier. 6 more levels and we are higher than anything else in the zone.”

“Definitely. I’m curious why the dungeons are only Level 15 if some things in this zone hit 20 apparently.”

She shrugged and checked her map. As of now, we haven’t figured out a way to share map data and so Cain, Theresa, and Rosco were the only ones with the dungeon details. “All 3 say recommended Level of 15. Do you think the bosses in them are Level 20?”

“Maybe. We know Elites are the normal monsters plus a level or two plus their Elite status makes them stronger than a regular monster of the same level. So, a Level 10 Treekin, if it was an Elite, would become a Level 12 Treekin Elite and be stronger than a regular Level 12. It’s possible the bosses are Level 20’s with extra modifiers.”

“Then how could a party of Level 15s beat them?”

I thought about it for a minute. “We are gaining skills both in game and our actual ability to fight is increasing just from our own knowledge. Maybe the stronger we get the more capable we are in beating higher level creatures?”

“That makes sense.” She brushed her red hair off of her shoulders and back into its standard ponytail. “How many rabbit villages do you think there are?”

I gave a shrug. “No idea, but I think we can use them. If we get this trade route up, the villages will grow by themselves over time. This will let us have safe places to go and buy gear and rest. As of right now, all of the gear they sell is low level. Level 6 Uncommon Plate Armor was the highest I saw back in Harehill. If we improve them even further, we could get really good gear from these armorers. It’ll help with not relying on the randomness of open-world drops so much.”

She thought about what I said and nodded. Out of the three newer people, she was the one I knew the least about. She was quiet and stayed in the back of the groups. Cain was proud, smart, and strong. He had opinions on everything and loved to share them. Rosco was bull-headed and always wanted to move on to the next thing. I knew what both of them thought all of the time. I never knew much about Theresa. I could have asked her about her life before all of this, but it wasn’t really my concern. Besides, the others would be inside shortly.

Graham and Nick came in with wide grins. “We’ve got a quest for y’all. You’re gonna like this one. One of the guards is requestin' that we save a group of rabbits who have been captured by some Gnolls down south. Apparently one of them ‘escaped’ and requested help from Softpaw.”

I nodded. “Blackmoss Gnolls?”

“How’d ya know?” Graham got a tankard of rabbit-ale from the bartender and sat down at the table across from us along with Nick.

“Got a quest from the bar-rabbit. We have to kill 20 of those Gnolls, burn some of their supplies, and kill a special mob. Decent kill quest.”

“Nice. I figure the guard-rabbits will be near one of those supply stacks.”

Cain and Rosco came in next, sitting down at the table as well. “We didn’t find anything big. A few collection quests and other solo things. I did find a new shop that wasn’t here when we left. A little market stand is selling tribal jewelry. Bone necklaces and rings and stuff like that.”

“That wasn’t here when you left?” I raised my eyebrow.

“Nope.”

Theresa smiled. “So they’re building even without our intervention.”

I nodded. “Who knows what the world’s going to look like in 5 years. We all thought this was an apocalypse, but it looks like there’s some hope for humanity after all. We’ve gone from the dominant species on this planet to one faction out of…god knows how many. We know the Undead, Ogres, Kobolds, and Gnolls are enemy factions. We know the Rabbitfolk are friendly. All we have to do is figure out how to help the friendly factions and get rid of the enemy ones. We can make this place safe.”

Nick frowned. “This would be a hell of a lot easier with the Eastland people.”

I shrugged. “They didn’t want to come.”

Nick looked at me. “If we make this place safe, and get the rabbit settlements big enough, maybe they’ll change their minds?” Unlike me, Nick had grown up in Eastland and held significant attachments to everyone there.

We had no way of knowing, but I wondered if that’s not exactly what the bigger guilds were doing. Maybe Red Liberty and Houston Republic and all of the other ones were building up their own friendly factions and spreading their kingdoms across Texas. If that’s the case, we were way behind. If I wanted my own territory for our guild, we needed to get it now. We needed to expand and find more villages. We needed to get rid of these enemy factions in Shackleford. The exact steps weren’t clear yet, but I was suddenly starting to realize exactly what objectives I needed to accomplish to do what I wanted to do.