Darith arrived at the front gates of Avistion with his jaw dropped. The large walls, giant gates, and towers filled with guards made him feel like he was sitting in the middle of a fantasy movie, it was surreal. When he got over the wonder of it all he noticed a large crowd gathering at the threshold leading out of the city. From a distance he could not tell if it was a gathering of NPC’s or players, but as he got closer and heard them talking he could tell they were definitely other players.
They were of all sorts of varying races and levels, some below 10, some much higher than Darith, and they all seemed to be crowding around something in the middle. Darith found himself somewhat interested, but decided it best to focus on his goals, opting to instead inch around the crowd as they shouted and giggled with excitement with one another.
“AHEM!” An obnoxiously loud forced coughing sound came from the center of the crowd, a female voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Darith. He turned to look just as he’d passed the crowd to see it parting, opening a path in the crowd between the person in the center to Darith, as the crowd all turned to look at him curiously. “You’re going to walk by without saying hello, Paradigm?”
She was a small Nemothyne, but beyond beautiful with long bright pink hair that could stand out in any crowd, a young asian girl wearing beginner armor with big white bunny ears and a puffy bunny tail and small pink star tattoos around her eyes. As Darith recognized who this person was, without even needing to read her name, he also recognized the angry glares he was getting from the, now obviously made up of only men, crowd that had parted for him.
“H-hey Glitterstar.” Darith waved at her awkwardly, causing her to run over to him through the crowd excitedly.
“Finally, the person I was waiting for. No need to escort me guys!” She called to the crowd, while doing an indicative eye motion to Darith that only he could see.
“Y-yeah, sorry I was late.” He scratched his ears nervously, the stares were piercing him.
“Who the hell is that guy?”
“He’s too low level to protect her, I should go with Glitterstar instead.”
“Wasn’t that the one from the Desert?”
“Oh it's one of those Knight of Justice guys.” The crowd began talking amongst themselves.
“Should we get going then?” Glitterstar smiled, grabbing Darith’s arm and leading him through the gates out of the city of Avistion. He heard a few angry mumbles as the crowd behind them began dispersing, Glitterstar pulling his arm quickly along.
“What was that about?” Darith asked once they’d gotten a good enough distance away.
“Ahehe, someone recognized me so I thought it’d be okay to give an autograph, but then suddenly everyone knew who I was. News really goes fast in this place huh.” She sighed as she let go of his arm. “Finally I found you! Ryan said you were also playing.” She skipped forward a step to turn and look at Darith.
“Yeah…”
“If I’d known that’s what you were calling about I would’ve joined your party instead. Wow already so high level!” She commented as she looked at his level, then went back to walking beside him. “So, watcha up to?”
“I’m uh… heading to mine some copper. Not really exciting.” Darith shrugged.
“Can I tag along?” She asked with a smile.
“I guess… I mean I doubt it’s going to be fun.”
“It’s gotta be better than what the other guys in my group are doing. They apparently got some really good classes lined up and are working on unlocking them. What about you, what class do you want?”
“I’m… not sure yet.”
“There’s so many to choose from right?” Glitterstar chimed in with an enthusiastic nod. Darith noted her real name, [Olivia - Level 9], above her head, but couldn’t help but think of her as Glitterstar, the alias she used in the games they’d play together in the past as well as her streaming handle that she’d become famous for. “I’m kind of just trying out everything. You’re going to try the crafting stuff?”
“Yeah, figured since the New World Guys’ are hogging all the good resources, better to try and find a way around it.”
“Good idea.” She nodded. Darith continued to watch his map to navigate in the direction of the copper mines as the two continued to talk. Glitterstar for Darith was always easy to talk to for him, simply because she felt more like another guy friend from all the time they’d spent playing together. The two caught up about the game and what they’d been doing in it so far, Darith admitting he’d watched her stream a few times since they’d last played a game together.
He was more interested in learning what Ryan was up to, but was happy to hear that he and his party members were equally annoyed with the New World guys and none of his party were planning on joining them. He couldn’t get any information about what classes they were going for however.
As they travelled off the main road they found themselves walking through fields of grass with the odd tree here and there. There were groups of other players and solo adventurers scattered about the fields as well, fighting in the tall grass the many creatures that resided around them. Simple level 1 slimes or small boars rushed about as players got familiar with the game through fighting them.
They eventually closed in on the rocky mountains west of Avistion where they could see scaffolding of wood built into the cliff sides as the grassy fields turned to dirt and stony terrain. Scattered about the rocks were numerous players in various attire working hard to mine the stone and ore in the area, the loud clanking of their pickaxes echoing throughout the hills nearby.
A main path leading up the mountainside split off into multiple cavern entrances, but as the two began to ascend upwards Darith spotted a chunk of copper ore sticking out of stone, and quickly pulled out a pickaxe and ran to it.
“That’s copper?” Glitterstar asked as he clinked away at it a few times, watching as pieces broke off and appeared in his inventory.
“Yup! This is easier than I thought.”
“Look’s kinda tiring.” Glitterstar commented. “I bet there’s more in the caves.” She pointed up.
“Probably, but we’re safer out here than going into a narrow cave. I don’t know what sort of monsters are around here.” Darith replied between swings.
“Those things, right?” Glitterstar motioned to a strange creature climbing over some rocks nearby. It resembled a ram, but with stony skin instead of fir and large stone horns. It was able to nimbly navigate the steep and stony area around them, and as Darith watched, many players mining near it made sure to clear away as it roamed close, being careful not to aggro it. Darith reached his hand upwards towards it without hesitation.
“Magic Reading.” He whispered so that only Glitterstar could hear him.
> Stonegoat - Level 13
>
> HP: 560
>
> Magic Reading: Uses the [Charge] and [Horn] skills, high rank [Sprint] and [Climb]
>
> High Physical Defense
>
> High Lightning Resistance
>
> Low Water Resistance.
“Ooh, a scholar?” Glitterstar grinned as Darith’s purple spell circle faded.
“It fights exactly how it looks.” Darith replied, then went back to mining.
“Imma kill it.” She stepped towards it with a devilish twinkle in the corner of her eye. Darith looked up to see a sword materialize in one hand, a small crossbow appear in the other as she got closer to it. “You’ll save me if I’m in trouble right?” She turned back and smiled, to which Darith rolled his eyes and went back to mining.
He occasionally looked up to watch her battle the goat, starting with her weapons as she dashed around the charging Stonegoat. She mixed in spells from various elements and added them to her attacks, almost as if she was trying to level up multiple skills at once. Several other nearby players stopped mining to watch as the tiny pink haired nemothyne skillfully dispatched of the Stonegoat without taking a single hit.
Once it was dead, she pulled out a skinning knife and attempted to skin the creature, but Darith could see her getting frustrated as her skill seemed too low to skin the beast.
“Well done, Glitterstar. I’m a big fan of yours. Impressive that you beat it as just a level 9 player.” A loud voice called out, echoing through the hills. While his words were directed at the frustrated Glitterstar, the man spoke loud enough to be sure all around could hear him.
“Thanks.” She politely smiled while glancing up at him as he approached, then went back to her goat, but did a double take after taking a glance at his name and level. Darith uneasily stopped mining as well, as did the other players.
> Cardian - Level 81
>
> HP: ??
The player’s most interesting feature was that he had seven swords sheathed on his back and around his waist, all high grade metals, materials far beyond Iron that Darith didn’t recognize. What made him uneasy however was the tabard of the New World Order that the player was wearing. Darith gently did a hand motion to cast Magic Reading silently on him, but the moment he did, Cardian turned and waved his hand at Darith. A grey spell circle appeared in front of Darith’s magic reading spell circle, fusing with it and canceling it out.
“Tsk tsk, no peeking.” Cardian wagged his finger in Darith’s direction. Darith recognized the spell, it was the same that the high level Knights had used against Nara. He was able to keep his composure knowing that they were in the safe zone, but he still remained on edge.
“There’s no need for you all to struggle here, mining copper to make ends meet in this fantastic world. New World Order offers a place for all of you, and promises protection, equipment, supplies. Top grade mining gear, or weapons to hunt the beasts beyond the safe zone. Join us and experience this world the way it was meant to be experienced.” Cardian waved his hands out, giving his speech to all around the mines before turning back to Glitterstar.
“You in particular, you’d be treated with great reverence, with your reputation and skill you’d surely rise the ranks and reap the benefits of being a high ranking New World Order member.” Cardian leaned forward while unsheathing a sword, cutting the Stonegoat into leather in a second. Glitterstar sighed frustratedly as she stood up and backed away, looking at the Stoneleather item that dropped to the ground in front of her.
“No thanks.” Glitterstar glared at him, ignoring the item on the ground. Other players watched the scene unfold anxiously, Cardian staring down at Glitterstar as Darith watched from a distance. The two looked at each other for a tense few seconds before Cardian let out a soft chuckle.
“Well, that’s a shame. You’re throwing away a great opportunity. How about the rest of you, are you happy digging away at stone all day using poor materials, when you could instead be living a life of luxury with endless power at your fingertips?” He spun around to the onlookers as he spoke, including a glance towards Darith. While all nearby players looked at him, none reacted, some taking a chance to glance at each other nervously instead, as if everyone was waiting to see what everyone else would do.
“Unfortunate, but not unexpected.” Cardian sighed overdramatically while putting his hand to his forehead, shaking his head in disapproval. “I pity you all for your stubbornness.” He mumbled quieter as he took one last grin at Glitterstar before walking around her up into the mountain, stepping into the caves.
The other players slowly went back to what they were doing as Glitterstar walked back towards Darith.
“Being a streamer used to be fun.” She groaned as she got close enough to Darith.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. What’s with the way that dude was talking though?”
“I don’t know, I think they all talk like that.”
“Bunch of RP fanatics. Man I can’t wait to get high enough to kick their asses.” She clenched her fists as she looked up in the direction of the cave that Cardian had entered. Darith didn’t reply, but looked as well for a second before he went back to mining. After a few clinks of Glitterstar watching him mine intently, he stopped to look at her.
“You sure you’re okay?” Darith asked.
“Yup, fine. Why, you don’t like me watching you mine?”
“N-no, I don’t care.”
“Good, I’m just gonna watch you mine then. Stupid stonegoat.” She mumbled under her breath while taking a disappointed glance at her skinning knife. She eventually put it back in her inventory and sat on a rock directly beside Darith, kicking her legs around and watching as he chipped away the ore with his pickaxe, noting his Mining had reached rank 2.
“It’d be nice if we could play together, you know, like we used to, but in this game. I was really sad when you quit our guild. Why’d you stop playing?” Glitterstar asked.
“Well... beat everything. Top guild, top players, highest ranks. Nothing left to do.” Darith replied between swings.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“It was still fun though, spending time together, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah… it was. I wanted to try out that new one, Silvergate Online, remember?”
“I know! I heard you went and started playing it. I started playing too when I heard, but it was a bit too late, I think you already stopped.” Glitterstar sighed.
“Really? You played? But that game was terrible, super buggy and unbalanced.”
“Yeah I know, but I thought it’d be fun to play with you again. Instead I ended up just streaming it, and suddenly everyone wanted to watch. And… yeah, here we are.” She did a waving hand motion.
“Sorry about that, didn’t know.”
“What’d you play after?”
“I started playing a bunch of single player and console games. My mom took in a girl who was in a car accident, and she liked watching me play, so… yeah.” Darith shrugged back.
“Oh, so that’s where you went. Playing with another girl hm?” Glitterstar leaned back, laying her head on the ground to look up at the sky.
“She’s a lot like you, you’d like her. You should meet, she’s in my party!” Darith stopped mining for a second to look at her excitedly.
“Oh yeah?” Glitterstar replied skeptically. “So she’s like your girlfriend?”
“Huh? Liana? No, she’s more like my little sister.” Darith went back to mining.
“Really?” Glitterstar sat back up slowly.
“Yeah, she’s 3 years younger than me and, you know, she lost her family so I feel like I’ve got to look out for her. She’s also a pretty good healer.” Darith added.
“Hmm.” Glitterstar replied as she began swinging her tiny nemothyne legs in the air again. It went quiet for a few moments as Darith mined more copper. “I’m glad we finally get to play again together.” She said as she moved towards Darith’s pickaxe, and sat directly beside it so that her eyes were millimeters from where it was hitting the ore. “You sure you don’t mind me watching?” She asked in monotone.
“That’s a bit close, I might hit you…” Darith stopped swinging.
“How about here, can I watch from here?” She moved to stand directly in front of where he was striking.
“That’s even worse.” He sighed as he leaned back, giving his energy a second to recover as she moved to stand in front of him with her back facing him, so that her bunny ears wiggled around in his face.
“How bout this. Is this bothering you?” She chuckled.
“Perfect, best spot.” Darith groaned sarcastically. Suddenly a white flash of light appeared on the main path near them, one that lead up the mountain to the cavern entrances. Both of them turned to look and see Cardian standing there once more, walking away from the caves.
“Last chance, people of Avistion. Join the New World Order or risk your own demise.” Cardian shouted out, turning to face the miners. Everyone stopped once more to look at him.
“Nice try buddy, this is the Avistion safe zone.” An orc miner shouted out angrily at him from across the stony hills. Cardian turned to face him with a devilish grin, and seeing his expression Darith got a bad feeling, quickly putting away his pickaxe and taking out his Polearm. Glitterstar had a similar reaction. Darith’s brain went to work, seeing that grin, what could Cardian do that would validate his threat, given the rules that Darith knew about the game already?
He began considering the possibility of another guild spell, one that might disable the safe zone, if that was the case, he couldn’t imagine beating a fighter type player that outleveled him, not one that wielded 7 swords and could counter his spells. As he tightened the grip on his spear, the uneasiness spread to the other miners, and eventually the ground around them began to rumble, and seconds later a familiar debuff appeared on his character interface indicating they had entered a boss area and could not use return skills, but no dome had appeared.
“No takers?” Cardian shouted out disappointedly. “Since you refused this first offer, the next offer will come at the cost of all of your gold and copper ore that you’ve collected.” He paused, then dashed to a nearby mound of stone and sat atop it.
“If he did what I think he did, we should probably go.” Glitterstar whispered to Darith.
“There’s a lot of low level players here…” Darith replied to her, the two having reached the same conclusion. Darith jumped up onto a nearby high rock as well and looked to the nervous players. “He’s most likely gone into the caves and aggroed a boss monster, and who knows how many others from within. I think he’s planning to lure them to us to let the creatures kill us. Everyone should run now!” Darith shouted as loud as he could to all the nearby miners. Hearing his words, the players stopped what they were doing and started rushing down the mountain back towards the plains below, some shouting in panic as the rumbling on the ground got louder.
“Very keen observation. As expected of Glitterstar’s escort. Interesting weapon you have there as well. Darith. If you were to join our guild, our skilled crafters would make you some fine equipment suitable for a polearm fighter.” Cardian commented, watching Darith turn to face him. “It’s unfortunate that you weren’t fast enough to get your message to the players already inside the caves though.” He smirked.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Glitterstar tugged on Darith’s arm as the rumbling got louder and louder. Darith began walking quickly with Glitterstar, but glanced back multiple times to watch the various cavern entrances that lined the mountainside, some entrances higher up the cliffs than others.
From one entrance suddenly a huge stampede of Stonegoats began rushing out of it, row upon row of them ramming against the stone walls of the cave and each other as rock and dirt flew upward from their hooves. Easily over 20 pushed out before a second stampede formed from another cave entrance, all charging down the hills at maximum speed in the direction of Cardian, who raised his hand into the air.
“Taunting Roar!” Cardian shouted, as a brown spell circle formed above him that amplified his voice, causing it to echo through the hills. Once it was done casting, all of the Stonegoats turned to face him and continued charging angrily down the hills while he dashed to catch up with the other fleeing players.
“He’s not going to let everyone just run away…” Darith said to Glitterstar as they started running.
“I can dash pretty fast, I think we’ll be okay.” Glitterstar replied nervously.
“What about the other players?”
“They’ll have to join his stupid guild if they can’t outrun them…” Glitterstar sucked her teeth as she watched Cardian move ahead of the fleeing players, he was significantly faster than them using his dash skill.
“Please, help!” A voice screamed out, causing Darith and Glitterstar to turn back towards the caves. 4 out of the 5 mine entrances were now pouring with Stonegoats, but the 5th, the highest up the mountainside, instead had 7 figures standing in front of it. There was a heavily armored female human standing in front while carrying 4 other players that looked badly beaten, 2 others next to her looking exhausted, all of varying races. Darith noticed the female had a faint yellow glow around her body, but as she called out for help once more, the yellow glow faded.
> Mandy - Level 26
>
> HP: 205/835
>
> Class: Paladin
>
> Debuff: Exhaustion - 24h+
“She just used through the pain… that’s Kenneth’s…” Darith mumbled to himself as he stopped moving down the mountain, causing Glitterstar to stop as well. Just then there was a loud booming crash as large chunks of stone flew out of the cavern entrance behind Mandy and a huge, scruffy Stonegoat stomped out behind them, causing the 7 of them to desperately limp away.
> Stonegoat Matriarch - Level 25 - Boss
>
> HP: 35 000 / 35 000
“They haven’t hit it yet, I can get its attention.” Darith said as he carefully aimed his right hand towards the giant Stonegoat Matriarch, the stampede of hundreds of smaller Stonegoats quickly approaching.
“Doing stupid stuff that’ll probably get us killed? Just like old times.” Glitterstar smiled as she moved to stand beside Darith while aiming her crossbow up at the Matriarch. “Don’t forget, you promised to save me if I’m in trouble.” She fired the crossbow at the Matriarch, causing it to let out an angry roar and turn towards her, much to the relief of Mandy and the players she was fleeing with. The Matriarch quickly stomped down the mountain and joined the herd of Stonegoats as they rushed towards Cardian, while Glitterstar turned tail and started running away.
Darith watched the scene unfold as he moved back as well. Some of the Stonegoats were beginning to break off and charge in the direction of the 7 players that were stranded on the mountainside with no clear way to get through the herd, while the ones rushing towards Cardian were moving too quickly, there was no way that the fleeing players would be able to outrun them. It was only a matter of time before they ran out of stamina.
It was obvious from a quick glance, every player around them with the exception of himself and Glitterstar had only 2 possible options. Get Game Over, or join the New World Order. As Darith thought this, he glared at the herd of Stonegoats and the Matriarch rushing down the hillside.
He made his decision, digging his heels into the ground and taking a fighting stance as Glitterstar glanced back to see that Darith wasn’t running yet.
“Come on, we’ve got to go, what are you doing?”
“My goal is to stop these guys. The world isn’t going to wait for me to get strong enough, I have to start here. Keep running, I don’t want to be the guy who got two people from Ryan’s party killed.” Darith shouted to her.
“I’m not a person from Ryan’s party, idiot. I’m Glitterstar.” She shouted back, having stopped sprinting away as well. “If you’re gonna fight all those monsters, I’m going to help.”
He glanced back to see her determined expression, then looked up to see the goats breaking off into random directions, surrounding the players trapped on the hillside. He’d figured that Cardian’s taunting skill had worn off and the beasts began to run wild, though the Matriarch and the majority were still running down the hills.
Darith stomped his left foot down and rose up his right hand, the motion he decided would be the casting command for Firewall. A large ring of red flames grew up in a circle around Mandy and the other weakened players, causing the goats that were rushing towards them to get burned and cry out in pain.
Seeing the flames, the Stonegoats stopped charging towards the 7, and those that had gotten damaged quickly turned their attention towards Darith down the mountainside. Once he was sure he’d gotten them all away from the 7 weakened players and had their focus on himself, he canceled the Firewall to conserve mana.
“You’ve got an AoE Spell? It’s intermediate?” Glitterstar commented as she watched it cast.
“It’s a fire wall, it does a lot of damage but only in a line, and it drains a lot of mana fast.” Darith replied to her as she moved to stand next to Darith again, watching to Matriarch stomp towards them.
“In that case… Wind Wave!” Glitterstar shouted, waving her sword up the mountain towards the Stonegoats. A large blade of wind shot forward from her sword, piercing through the Stonegoats as it travelled upward in a cone shape. Darith noted that it was dealing roughly 1 to 2 damage to the Stonegoats as it hit them, but it aggravated the goats into focusing the stampede towards Glitterstar.
“If they just pass through it once, it won’t be enough. I’ll need them to run in the line through it to take damage for as long as possible.” Darith shouted, the rumbling of stone and hooves was drowning out most other sounds now as the beasts got within 100 meters of them.
“Got it. Everyone form a nice straight line! No need for pushing! Plenty of fire for everyone, coming right up!” Glitterstar shouted out at the goats. She began dashing to the left and right sides of the mountain, attempting to herd them so that they rushed at her in as narrow a line as possible.
They slowly began to close in on Glitterstar due to her non linear movements, but once the Stonegoats were gathered in as narrow a line as possible, Darith dashed to stand behind her, stomped his foot down and raised his hand to cast Firewall.
He used his spell mastery to line up the wall for maximum length starting from the front line of the goats and ending up through the herd
The firewall wasn’t wide enough to burn all of them, but because they were funneled together and pushing against each others stony hides, the ones on the inside of the stampede had trouble pushing their way out of the spell
Darith’s mana drained quickly, but as the goats were stuck running in the center for over 5 seconds, they began dying. A staggering amount of Stonegoats died from the initial firewall. Darith instantly gained 1 rank in the skill and reached his next level which caused his mana to refill.
He took advantage of the mana to cancel the first firewall and cast a second, cutting off any partially damaged goats that broke from the left side of the firewall. It worked, he got a ton of more dead goats which granted him even more experience and another level up. Once they had dispersed enough on that side, he cancelled the firewall and casted it once more on the opposite side, this time he killed another large amount of them, but not enough to level up, and his mana quickly hit 0.
“That went pretty well, but you missed a few. Particularly the big angry one!” Glitterstar shouted as the Matriarch continued her charge down at them. Roughly 50 Stonegoats charged down with her, having survived the ordeal.
Suddenly Darith’s entire body began to glow blue, and he watched as his mana bar began to fill back up. He looked to see a buff suddenly appear on his interface and tapped it quickly without losing track of the approaching goats.
> Oath of Infusion - Rank 13
>
> While under the effects of the Oath of Infusion, the paladin who pledged the oath will share their mana with your own, allowing you to utilize their mana in place of yours. You may only have one Paladin Oath pledged to you at a time.
Darith read it and turned to look up the mountain and see the same blue glow surrounding Mandy as she and the other players looked down at him from above. With access to her mana, he had the chance to cast one last firewall. He carefully dashed around the Stonegoats until his energy was nearing depletion but was able to line up the last few as effectively as possible, while the Matriarch ignored him and kept charging Glitterstar.
“Finish the little guys, I’m okay with big momma.” Glitterstar shouted as she lured the Matriarch away. Darith nodded back, and with his last dashes, he got a nice clean row of angry charging Stonegoats coming directly at him.
“Firewall!” He shouted out, this time using Mandy’s mana. He drained her mana incredibly fast, but just as his firewall ended from lack of mana, the last of the Stonegoats fell over. He let out a momentary sigh of relief and turned to Glitterstar across the rocky mountainside only to see she had stopped dashing, clearly out of energy.
Darith dashed in her direction with the intention to get the Matriarch’s attention, then saw his energy getting dangerously low, with his mana still sitting near 0. With no option remaining, Darith’s body began to glow a dark yellow. He had a timer of his through the pain buff counting down from 61 seconds.
He didn’t waste it, dashing multiple times in quick succession to get to the Matriarch, he used his lunge skill to stab at its legs. It only took two strikes to have it stop rushing at Glitterstar and instead attempt to stomp and attack him. Knowing he only had 60 seconds to kill the boss, he didn’t hold back and constantly dashed and attacked furiously, gaining multiple skill ups for his polearm Mastery as he turned the creature into a pin cushion.
The moment he had the mana to spare, he enchanted his weapon with fire and continued the barrage of attacks while constantly dashing around the Matriarch, causing her to spin in circles attacking him wildly. He took small amounts of damage as she began slamming the rocks and earth around herself, but Darith was forced to ignore it and keep up the onslaught. As the seconds ticked down on his through the pain buff, so did the Stonegoat Matriarch’s hit points, and it wasn’t long before Glitterstar joined in with attacking.
When the timer ticked down on his buff to 15 seconds, the Matriarch still had 20 000 hit points left, her skin highly resistant to his attacks. Darith began considering how to run away until magical bolts began to fly at the Matriarch from all directions. Arrows, Waterbolts, Firebolts, Radiant Bolts. Darith looked to see that not only the players with Mandy had joined in, but many of the mining players that had run away had come back to help him fight. The health of the beast began to drop much more quickly until just as Darith’s through the pain buff wore off, the Matriarch fell over dead.
A loud cheer roared through the hillside from the mining players as they all rushed towards Darith, Glitterstar arriving first to watch Darith collapse on his bottom on a hardrock.
“That’s some pretty good movement. You gotta teach me that one.” Glitterstar spoke as the two of them panted to catch their breath.
“Just like old times.” Darith grinned at her, as the other players cheered.
“Take that, New World Losers!”
“I aint ever joining you idiots!”
“Bunch of scumbags!” The various shouts roared out at Cadrian as he climbed back up the mountain, making his way towards Darith and Glitterstar. Just as he arrived, so did Mandy and her group of adventurers.
“Thanks for the save. This jerk pulled the Matriarch of the cave, she has a skill that calls for the help of all the nearby Stonegoats. We’ve been working on clearing the cave of Stonegoats so that we could challenge her… but I guess if you challenge her first and then just set all the Stonegoats on fire, it's also effective.” Mandy said as she reached her hand out to shake Darith and Glitterstars. They couldn’t make out any of her facial features due to her full plate mail, but both gladly shook her hand.
“Looks like your plan failed.” Glitterstar smiled as Cadrian looked down at them.
“Not exactly. Recruiting lowly miners was a secondary objective. The primary one was to learn the capabilities of you and your allies, to see if you’d be a threat to our guild. You are quite famous after all. I’d be careful about getting in our way in the future, seeing as how it’s so easy to find out where you and your family live, Olivia.” Cadrian glared down at her.
“What the hell, you’re threatening her family?” Mandy shouted at him angrily.
“They have nothing to do with the game!” Glitterstar joined in.
“Oh that’s cute. You’re still calling it a game.” Cadrian smirked. “Take care, and watch your back.” He turned to glare at Darith, seconds later using a spell to disappear.
“Man I frickin hate those guys, they’re the worst.” One player nearby commented. Glitterstar went quiet, looking down at the ground for a second.
“You really think they’d go after my mom and dad?” She looked up to Darith worriedly. He didn’t reply right away, looking back into her eyes for a moment.
“I’ve gotta hurry up and make better equipment.” Darith mumbled, looking to his spear before putting it in his inventory. “I’m definitely gonna stop them.” He tried to reassure Glitterstar.