Walking back to the camp she saw Phionex standing near the tent, he was looking around trying to puzzle it together, though he nodded at seeing her.

He figured it out then.

"You look tired still," she remarked shifting through the dead goblins things. Collecting the coins, like she did with the others.

"I am, its like my character didn't get any rest."

"You need to sleep in world then, I thought as much. How long were you off line?" Janet grabbed the goblin by its arms and started to drag it away from the camp. Fang wagged his tail as he followed her back and forth.

"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes?" he said. "I didn't want to leave you for long."

"Roughly five minutes per hour," she walked back towards the river taking the, once again wounded and bloodied shirt off. She was still worse for ware herself. Clothes off for the second time this night she ducked into the cold water, and cast heal on herself. She didn't need to fully clean this time, just wash off the blood. Getting out of the river her eyes landed on Phionex who was looking at her, his face as red as his hair. A hand went to her hip.

"Don't look like that, its not like you don't have these dangly bits."

"Janet," the mage moaned and covered his face. "Aren't you embarrassed?"

"Yeah, I am, but not like I can do anything about it except get use to it," answering she got fresh clothes, she only had one more set of undamaged clothing. Dressing in the underwear and pants she knelt over the river and washed her clothes of the blood. "Is there a spell that can clean or mend clothes?"

He squat next to her watching the water. "There is a spell called mending, I don't know about cleaning." His stomach made a noise and he placed a hand over it. "I have to eat too?"

"Sleep, eat, drink... all of it," she said it would take her a while to get used to the other bodily functions. "I'm hungry too." she said with a smile before taking her pants off again and hopped into the river. Waded out a bit, she lowered her hands into the water and waited.

"Really think you can catch fish like that?" Phionex asked sitting on his rear watching past a yawn.

She didn't know honestly, but she applied her survival skill as a bonus to her hunting. It took a few minutes for her large hands to grasp around a fish and toss it to the bank where it flopped and failed about. Her hands went back into the water Phionex watched the fish, "so huh... is there... a wait to... huh."

"This isnt SAO, its not like I can touch a knife to it and it turns into ready to cook fish," she said. Even she knew that from the little she has actually knew about the game. She tossed another to the bank. Fang was over sniffing at the fish and he gave a bit of a whine. "How long will the other three be gone?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "But you can't really stay here for days on end... Its not fair to you."

"After we eat, you take a sleep, I will rest after." She tossed a third and then canceled the hunting bonuses. Summoning a dagger she carefully took the fish and gutted them, cleaning them in the river. Phionex stood up and went to prepare a place to cook the fish.

They sat near the fire as the fish cooked from a makeshift wooden grill above the fire.

She leaned back and rested her head on Fang.

"When you get to the city you will want to look into revival stones," Phionex said. "The tutorial said the only way to revive without restarting at level 1 is the stones. We were given a beta package," he explained to her as they waited for the fish to cook. Her hand lazily scratched at Fang's head behind the ears as she listened. "Two Superior Health potions that heal 75 % of your health, two Superior Mana potions that restores 75% of your mana, a revival stone, and a basic survival kit. Tent, axe, fire starter, a couple days rations, a kettle and a water skin."

"Sounds like a decent boon," she said, "I woke up almost dead in the middle of dead goblins, then when I woke the second time I was being attacked." Her eyes drifted up to the sky and watched the clouds move, and the sea of stars in the dark inky blue and purple of the night. A sky of darkness, not muddied with light pollution, it was pretty.

"The corporation is wanting to issue these game sets to coma patients and hospitalized patients, issuing statements that they can work within Aether and they will be paid based on the gold, there was a page dedicated to this, so maybe your set was suppose to go to one of them."

"Maybe," she said and pulled up her screen. Phionex leaned over to look. "Can you see it?"

"Yeah. You're going to want to be careful, there is a hide toggle in the settings."

"I don't have a settings." She responded.

"Figures."

Quest :: Part 1 Orcish Rites The Warrior's Heart are given to esteemed warriors that have proven themselves in battle. It was taken off the buried corpse of the warrior orc. Objective :: :: Find the remaining 9 medallions off goblin warriors or elite warriors. Progress :: 1 / 10 Reward :: :: Gold : 25

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

:: Token : 1

:: Unlock : Orcish Spells

Phionex whistled. "That's going to be hard. This area has been over run with a lot of goblins according to the story in the starter village. A dozen or so clans and hundreds of goblins."

"So its a war against the goblins."

"Normally aren't they part of the same team?" Phionex questioned as he turned the fish over, shaking his hands as it was hot.

"In fantasy, yes, typically. I don't know though, this might have something to do with the clan I am from... Its going to be a chain, what ever it is."

"Yeah but, 25 gold is a lot," the mage replied and sat back down. "And a token too."

The grunt that she gave was very deep. Phionex laughed and poked her gut. She cracked an eye open to look at him. Then she started to laugh, it was deep and rich sounding. Even now it was easy to talk to Heater. A pop-up window appeared.

Phionex (1) would like to add you as a friend. Yes No

She didn't even need to think about it and accepted. In the main display screen was now a tab called friends. "Thanks." She dismissed the windows and sat up. Phionex got the fish off the fire, and they ate in companionable silence. Just having one person know of her predicament helped calm and ease her mind.

After they ate Phionex went to the tent he was sharing with Jones. The mage paused looking back at her. "This isn't fair to you," he said.

She gave a shrug and smiled at him. "Its alright, get some sleep," she said, "I'll wake you in a few hours." Her friend nodded and then ducked into the tent. Leaving her alone with the fire.

Reaching out she placed a hand on Fang's head scratching behind his ear before she lay down and placed her head on him. The fire warm as she watched the night sky.

Admittedly she dozed off for her four hours of sleep and when she opened her eyes it was still very dark out. Fang was sleeping soundly, seemingly content as Janet used him as a pillow. Sitting up she reached out to feel her clothes. They were dry, so she took them off the bar and folded them into her inventory.

Taking the coins out, she started to count them as she waited for dawn. In total she had 2 gold coins, 37 silver coins, and 61 copper coins. The coins still went into her inventory as a pile of coins. Standing up she stretched and popped her bones. Feeling the pops she let out a sigh.

"Why the hell does it say I'm still tired?" came Ellik's voice from the tent, he sounded upset and disgruntled. She had woken up just in time then. "I was gone for almost an hour, several hours should have passed in the ga- oh, hi." he said stepping out of the tent. Janet looked towards him and tilted her head.

"Have you awoken?" she asked, she didn't flinch at the sound of her voice this time. Ellik was rubbing his arms and face as though trying to ease some aches. She watched as he ignored her and pulled up his character screen. She couldn't read it from the back, it was opaque blue purple with shine marks like a window pane in comics.

"And I have armor fatigue?" he asked himself likely.

Speaking of armor she pulled the padded armor out of her pack and slid the thick vest thing on, the armor went to her knees and had thick leather buckles. Fang yawned and got up walking around her feet sniffing at her pack as Ellik did whatever he did. She was getting her belt on over the armor when the elf spoke. "Hey NPC." Janet considered not giving him her attention, NPC was not her name. "Do you have anything to sell? Or do you have food? My status effects say I am hungry, I also feel hungry and tired."

"Perhaps you need more sleep. I am sorry, I do not have food to offer you," she said and finished attaching her belt.

Phionex walked out yawning. "How long was I asleep?" he asked.

"Little over four hours," Janet replied.

The mage stretched and looked at Ellik. "I'm going to log off and message Jones, can you message Lorali?

"Yeah, pop back on after?" Ellik nodded and walked back into the tent, and then a loud thud.

"Didn't learn the first time," Phionex muttered and turned towards her. "I'll be right back." Her friend vanished into the tent again. Once more she was left alone. She carefully started to put out the coals of the fire. Using the small pot of her mess kit to douse the area. It took several trips, and the realization that a bucket would be very useful. It was nearly an hour again by the time Phionex walked out of the tent. Janet looked up at him from her sitting on the ground petting Fang. The puppy was trying to bite and wrestle her hand and arm. Its growls pitched and happy as it barked occasionally. While she was distracted the puppy's maw clamped down on her gloved hand. Shortly after Phionex exited there was movement and groaning from the tent.

Jones stepped out and looked around. "I'm still fatigued... and hungry?" he said looking at his character screen.

"Ow, why am I waking up in a crumpled mess on the ground?" Lorali asked, she stepped out with Ellik. Their long hair in tangled messes. Which brought Janet the idea to get some hygiene items. "I'm hungry, and still tired, why are we leaving like this?"

"The day has started, and it would be best to get moving," phionex said as he and Jones took their tent down. Ellik was the only one taking the other down.

"Why?" Lorali asked then looked at Janet. "You, go get food."

Janet continued to play with her wolf pup, ignoring the rudeness of Lorali. She's doing a terrible job at pretending to be her. With the tents down and packed up, she stood up and picked up her pack. Fang sat looking up at her. She would have to hunt for food for them to eat until the pup could hunt for himself.

She fell behind them as they walked along the path of the river up stream. This is where she wished she had ear buds, or a mute function. Lorali didn't offer anything useful, and complained the entire trip to the road. Janet was sick of hearing how tired she was, or how hungry she was, how the game should have these bugs fixed because they had logged out. She could tell that Heater was getting annoyed because he kept looking back at the elf, and she had a message icon near her health and mana that had several messages bubbled in the corner.

Finally around early mid morning they reached the road. Thankfully the river also split here and traveled along the road from the look of it. Game worlds break geology rules a lot of the times. The party started to cross the bridge over the river. Jones and Phionex stopped mid way as the two elves continued on. She lifted a hand up in farewell. Phionex waved at her, and Jones lifted a hand as well.

"Safe travels Cagen, and may we run into each other again," the tank said and hid a yawn behind an armored hand.

"May the road you travel fill your pockets with wealth, and good companions keep you well," she said. Jones lowered his hand. Janet turned down the road. "Fang," she called. The puppy bounced excitedly beside her.