by G. Akella
"Go on already, Casanova, get reacquainted with your lady friend," Bonbon slapped the warrior on the shoulder, giving him a shove in the right direction. "We'll grab a nearby table. Join us once you're done talking."
Max felt his knees shake traitorously as he approached the table where his best friend's sister sat. He had so much to tell her. But...
"Hi," he said in a voice that had suddenly grown hoarse with anxiety.
"Not interested," the girl raised her eyes at him irritatedly, and was about to turn away, when her eyebrows started to rise. "Max?" she said in a low voice. "You're here? Ma-a-a-ax!"
In a single flowing motion, Alyona wrapped herself around his neck and started to cry into his shoulder.
"It's like I knew something would happen, so I wouldn't leave. It's as though something held me in this dump. The group I had been leveling up with left a few days ago. And me... I have been sitting here for three days," whispered the girl haltingly. "I had a feeling something would happen. There were also the dreams... I called you and Roman every hour, I thought... Then I had an idea—I got the local police station number and called Sergei. He said they buried you three days ago, and... I... I was so afraid I would never see you or Roman again. But look at you, you're a dark elf too! But how did you find me?!"
"Of course I found you," replied Max in a low voice, stroking the girl's back, still shaking with sobs, and feeling perfectly happy. "How could I not?"
There was a silence in the dining hall. All the heads were turned in their direction. Max felt the male patrons look at him with envy, and his friends with approval. He took the girl by the shoulders and looked into her eyes, still filled with tears.
"You and Roman can't be left unattended for so much as a second. Someone has got to look after you."
"Where is he? What happened to him?" she virtually exhaled her question, looking at him with tension in her eyes.
"He's fine," Max said. "At least that's what he told me when we last spoke on the phone. He's also in the game, stuck in Demon Grounds somewhere, but looking diligently for a way out. So don't you worry, we'll find your Loman for sure."
"Trolling me again, are you?" she smiled through her tears.
"And you have the waterworks on again, haven't you?"
"I'm done crying," Alyona sniffled, took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears, and asked:
"What about you? You never played yourself, so why are you here?"
"It's not a question of 'why,' but rather 'for whom,'" the warrior smiled to the young woman. "But it's a long story, and we've got to have a drink if I am to tell it," he took Alyona by the hand and winked at her. "Let's go, I'll introduce you to my friends."
The moon lit up in the skies above Talyan, shining its soft ghostly light over the still surface of the lake. The twilight had long drowned out the bright colors of the day, and the aroma of tall grass hovering over the water had been replaced by the spicy scents of the approaching night. Sleep enveloped the small town slowly, as it grew calmer and its sounds died down. Only the whisper of the waves lapping at the ground remained, merging with the nocturnal serenades of cicadas and the mysterious whispers of the Great Forest.
A maiden of the dark elf race sat on a root sticking out of the ground, gazing at the water in deep contemplation, hugging her knees and resting her chin on top. She had a smooth tanned skin, regular features, and a knee-long tunic. The young woman sat perfectly still, with only the light touch of the night breeze occasionally rustling her long red hair.
"How are you doing?" a tall dark-haired elf in matte plate armor and a simple bastard sworn at his waist approached from the side of the settlement, stopping to the right of the girl.
"I'm fine now," she replied softly, her gaze fixed on the surface of the water reflecting moonlight.
"I really don't understand why you need this..."
"Max, don't start! Do you want the whole group to die just because your healer cannot tolerate pain?" she said in a low voice, raising her enormous green eyes at the elf. "You think we'll keep on coming across mobs that will be just as stupid as these? You've already seen dungeons—you know what it's like down there."
"Still, this is no task for a woman," her companion continued stubbornly.
"Max, this is a game... or, rather, it was one, and women here are every bit as good as men. Besides, according to statistics, we are more resilient, so let's be done with this subject already."
"We've been here for two weeks already, and what do we have to show for it? How much has our toughness grown? Yours by eight percent, mine by eleven." The elf spat on the ground, got out a simple wooden fishing rod and a box of bait, squatted, and started to thread something onto the hook, eyes narrowed.
"Pinocchio says that if your HP drops to twenty percent or so, or if you straight up die, your toughness will grow at a faster rate," the redhead shrugged. "We might as well give it a try before we level up to thirty."
"You really intend to listen to that lunatic? All he does is hang around Talyan—I don't even understand how he managed to get level twenty," Max chuckled, stepped down to the water, and cast the line.
"Got any better ideas?" the girl responded in the same tone.
"Alyona, you're just as crazy as your brother," the young man shrugged, watching the float. "Although, there is probably something to this idea. But do you realize what dropping your HP to twenty percent feels like? You're going to faint at fifty already."
"So what do you suggest we do? Hide behind the walls of Ellorian, like everybody else? Or run around gathering flowers? It's like the central park of a major city here nowadays—everything has been picked clean! There's a hundred herbalists to a single flower. Nettle and lavender cost five copper coins a dozen, and you need to find them first," the redhead frowned. "And stop calling me that. Alyona is no more—my name is Tauriel."
"I'd like to see you tell Roman what your name is later," he chuckled. "By the way, they don't all hide behind walls—try finding any boars, wolves or gremlins in the area! We got real lucky we managed to raise half a level today." The elf pulled a silvery-scaled fish out of the water, and put it away in a special pouch. "We need to depart in the direction of Ascort. There's a small settlement along the way—I heard about it from a level 44 druid earlier today. We'll reach it in a single day."
"What kind of settlement?"
"Amané, a small village six miles off the main road to Ascort. The path to the village leads through a swamp, and it's very hard to find. But I know an oddly-shaped tree that serves as a marker—you need to turn right there."
"So what's in that village?"
"About a dozen quests from the locals, undead with levels 30 to 35, as well as frogs of some sort and a small dungeon for a party of three to five. Hey, look, here's a big one!" the elf showed a silvery fish to the girl, then placed it in the pouch. "I haven't gone fishing for about ten years in real life, you know, not since my college years. And here I go, watching the float every evening," he smiled, scratching behind his left ear. "Did you eat, by the way?"
"Is that your way of telling me to make fish chowder?" the redhead smiled, rising from her makeshift seat. "Too lazy to level up your cooking skill, eh?"
"I level it all the time, but you still make it better," Max returned her smile, dumping his catch onto the ground.
"You should have just confessed that you don't want to clean the fish," said Alyona as she sat down onto the grass next to the fish, still thrashing about on the grass. "Why don't you at least gather some firewood?"
"There you are! I was wondering why it started to smell like food all of a sudden," Bonbon said in a jolly voice, stepping out from behind a tree. "Are you dieting today, Luffy?" he asked the mage to his side. "If you are, I call dibs on your share."
"Yeah, right," the mage snorted. "Don't even think about it."
"This one lives just to stuff his face. Before anything has even been cooked, he can already sense it coming," Masyanya sighed, coming up from behind and el
bowing the bald warrior in the side. She sat down on a nearby tree root. "Need any spices, Tau?"
"Better fetch some water," replied Alyona, focused on the scaling. "And the two of you go get some firewood."
Fifteen minutes later, all five of them sat around a small campfire, the wood cracking pleasantly, a large metal pot boiling over the flames.
"I wonder who invented these bug-eyed wood-things," the huntress shivered watching a patrol tree do its rounds, creaking as it went. "I nearly had a heart attack the first time I saw one."
"You're not the only one," Max chuckled. "Our great and terrifying mage Luffy also felt like running for the nearest shrink the first time he saw a treant."
"That's the normal reaction of any sensible individual!" the mage countered good-heartedly. "Those who lack it are beyond any help—even a skilled psychiatrist wouldn't be able to help!"
"Max, stop feeling up your ears, it looks silly," said the fair-haired huntress in the tone of a strict schoolmistress.
"I still can't get used to them," he shrugged. "But someone had to go and become a maiden of the dark elf race."
"Don't you give Tau that look," his companion smiled. "Every girl dreams of becoming an elven princess deep down inside."
"And there I was wondering why you named yourself after a cartoon character, Masyanya,"[1] the bald man guffawed, interrupting the conversation. "I wrote it off on your being a blonde initially, but turns out you've got your sights on becoming a princess!"
"You're an idiot, Bonbon, and there's no cure for the likes of you," the girl smiled. "When our boss decided to move our entire accounting department into cyberspace, I wasn't too pleased about it. He said operational expenses would be twice cheaper here. So I took this nickname to spite him."
"A boss in your case, and a wife in mine," the bald man sighed and shook his head. "She felt like freaking trying out something new. Well, we've been trying out something new for two whole years, and look where it got us," he frowned and looked toward the town that was falling asleep.
"Stop worrying already," the mage said. "Our race will reach the human borders, or vice versa. You already have good reputation with humans, and that's the most important thing."
"Didn't you hear what they were saying about the Night Blades after their raid?" Bonbon looked at him skeptically. "They didn't even manage to reach their castle in the Borderlands. They had to stop near the border of the House of Whispering Leaves, about a week's ride away. And there are close to two hundred more miles between the castle and the border. Or did you forget about the Rift from the Netherworld?"
"I didn't, but—"
"There were packs of fifty level 250-300 beasts dealing fire damage that gets through even max resistance," said the bald warrior in frustration. "Our guys ain't seen nothing yet. Jin Ho, whom I mentioned way back in Ellorian, is the best raid leader the Azure Dragons have, leading a force three thousand Asians' strong. Seen them anywhere lately? I hear they've lost half their army already."
"No way!" Luffy said in disbelief. "Three thousand strong, and unable to dispatch a pack of fifty mobs?!"
"Do you have any notion of the mechanics of a raid battle? Only five hundred players can fight this pack at a time. The theory sounds simple enough—use crowd control on most of the beasts and take them out one by one, but in practice the chance of your control spell landing is proportional to the difference in levels, and an unsuccessful attempt lowers it further by some percentage. So what are you going to do if the tanks cannot hold the demons' attention, while their AOE alone deals enough fire damage to dispatch a hundred of your comrades at once? Now, the Asians are nothing if not persistent, and they managed to gain some ground, but then the beasts started to respawn behind them, and they had to retreat. I think they'll come back soon to level up their toughness and look for red vine seeds."
"How are seeds of whatever sort relevant?" Masyanya joined the conversation.
"They're used to brew an elixir with a four-hour effect that raises your maximum fire resistance by ten. But those vines are so rare that they're unlikely to stock up on those elixirs any sooner than a year or too. Considering that there's no love lost between the dark elves and the humans, the likelihood of a stationary portal between Ellorian and Vaedarr is extremely low, so it will be a long time until I see my wife again," he concluded with a sigh.
"At least you know where this Vaedarr is," the redhead said gruffly. "As for those freaking Demon Grounds, no one has any idea whatsoever. No one gives a damn about that now—they're either busy surviving, or going nuts with joy at having suddenly become immortal. You've all seen what's happening in the capital.
"Right, get your bowls ready," Masyanya banged her ladle on the pot, diverting the companions' attention away from the unpleasant discussion, and started to pour the fish chowder, which emitted a heavenly aroma, into the proffered bowls. "Does anyone have any bread left?"
The silence lasted about ten minutes, occasionally interrupted by the sound of spoons hitting metallic bowls.
"If everyone's full, I'll finish it off," smiled Bonbon, looking much more cheerful.
"Where does all that food go?" Alyona smiled, rising to her feet.
"I'm a tank, and tanks need to be fed well and regularly," he countered, rubbing his hands in anticipation, and putting the pot with the remaining fish chowder in front of himself.
"Well, at least, we don't have to wash up," Luffy stretched, putting his bowl back in his inventory. "So we're headed for Amané tomorrow, yes? In that case, I suggest that we get some rest."
"I concur," Max rose from his place. "But I'm not spending another night in that bedbug-ridden hovel—open skies are much better, in my opinion. And it's not like we have a lot of money to spend."
"Hold on, guys," said Masyanya in a somber voice. Once she had everyone's attention, the huntress continued. "I suggest that we stay together from now on, no matter what happens. No one can survive in this world on their own. We'll level up, and we'll go to the human lands on our own, if we have to, and find Bonbon's wife." The woman held her hand out in front of her, visibly anxious. "And then we'll find those Demon Grounds and leave no stone unturned there," she finished, feeling her narrow palm covered by four hands in the solemn silence that ensued.
Chapter 19
"The road ends here!" the tall long-haired elf at the head the group addressed his companions, taking a good look around, with an arrow nocked.
"How's that possible?" Max, who was second in the procession, moved Rexar aside and looked in surprise at the shrubs covered in yellow flowers blocking their path.
"Why did we stop?" asked a voice from behind. "Is it time for another break?"
"Looks like we're lost," sighed a delicate-looking green-eyed priestess, bending over a small purple plant as she stepped off the path.
"Hey! It's my turn!" exclaimed an outraged mage.
"Beat it," the girl snapped back. "She who saw it, picked it!"
"Max! Tell her!"
"Be quiet, will you!" the warrior barked, turning toward the party. "Are you in kindergarten or something? Both of you will level up eventually, so what's the difference?"
"Her herbalism skill is almost forty," groused Luffy, scowling at the smiling Ellanca. "And I'm way behind. But why have we stopped?"
"This road ends here," Max shrugged. "Let's take a fifteen minute break. We need to decide where to go next."
"So, Marco Polo," a smiling Bonbon patted Rexar on the shoulder. "Where have you brought us? The swamp stretches for miles around, and you can't see nothing..." The bald warrior rounded the ranger, and plopped down onto the grass under the nearest tree, his armor clinking.
"What the hell?" Masyanya stared at Max inquisitively, scratching a large brown bear behind the ear, threads of thick white drool hanging from the animal's mouth. "Where's this Amané of yours?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Max frowned. "According to the map, there should be maybe three hundred yards left. But the road was supposed to t
ake us right to the village. But this... I don't know what this is," he motioned at the bushes behind them.
"Could this druid have hoodwinked you?" asked Alyona, holding a hairpin in her teeth while rearranging her hair.
"Why would he? What's the point?"
"Did you forget about the PKs?" the huntress reminded him. "He can gather a dozen friends, and... Level 44, was he?"
"What would they expect to gain robbing us? Three gold coinss for eight," Max chuckled. "Besides, we are perfectly capable of biting back."
"This sucks, boss," Rexar shook his head. "This is a bad zone—it only has one exit that's all too easy to block. If they do that, we're trapped and done for."
"I wouldn't say that," the warrior squinted. "There are twenty square miles here, after all."
"But where would we go? Not the swamp, that's for sure. It stretches some two hundred and fifty miles south, and another twenty in the direction of Talyan..."
"Can you imagine how many people they would need to block the exit and send a party after us? All to rob us of three gold coinss? Don't make me laugh, and stop panicking." Max pointed at the bushes, and said to the ranger, "Why don't you take a look at what's out there? But don't go too far—four hundred yards will do it. Then return at once."
"Consider it done," Rexar nodded, slinging his bow over the shoulder, and starting a detour around the vegetation blocking their path.
"Everybody else, listen up!" Max boosted his voice with magic, and pointed at a thick tree trunk roughly sixty feet off the path. "We'll wait there for the scout to return. Keep silent, all of you! Masyanya, apply some camouflage, even the basic kind. It can't hurt."
The dark elves started toward the tree in question, talking in low voices.
"Don't worry so much," said Alyona softly, giving the warrior a pretend punch in the ribs. "Everything will work out fine."
