//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: An Open World Awaits // Story: Equestrian Earth: A Life Beyond His Own // by Nxegex //------------------------------// “The land below was green and fair The greatest beauty to behold Plains and forests planted there And mountains filled with hidden gold” Now barely armored and with a few dozen bits to his name, Paperback trotted down the streets of Aeroslida, where various players higher levels than him were shouting out their wares for sale, either created using the in-game profession system or found while roaming throughout the land that was ancient Equestria. Most of the players were in the level range of five to nine, but an odd few were running around in the double digits. He thought he even saw a fifteen gallop by him. No doubt others had reached this level by now, with the game having been open all night and some ponies apparently not requiring sleep. Most of them must be out in the world, though, going through intense grinding sessions or being some of the first players to run through the dungeons that supposedly filled the world. He was already level three, wasn't it about time that he went out grinding and questing? This game didn't have a plot structure that was coherent to him yet, or perhaps he just hadn't found the right NPC to give him the quest on how he was supposed to get off of this city. That left him wandering around, gazing at the spiraling structures and being shouted at by player merchants, who upon seeing that he was a low level figured that he didn't have the bits and left him alone. Since he had some money on him from completing the tutorial quest chain, he retraced his steps back to the spell trainer where he had first learned shocking grasp. It wouldn't hurt to have another spell to alternate his Strike ability with, since Shocking Grasp had a longer cooldown time. Browsing the meager amount of spells that were available to his class and level, he eventually settled on a spell called Chilling Touch. A frost spell, Chilling Touch didn't have the damage progression that Shocking Grasp would in the later levels, but it had the Chill effect, which slightly sapped the strength of those affected. Satisfied with his purchase, he continued on his way to look for a quest. Honestly, he knew it would destroy the realism a little bit, but the developers just had to have a way to identify quest givers. Nothing says 'Hey! I have a job for you!' like a giant exclamation point above your head. Turning up a hill, he headed into a circular plaza overlooking the drifting world below, which his map quickly marked as Chariot Park. The plaza itself was huge, it would take him about three minutes to walk around the circumference. On the far side by the ledge of the city were the chariots that gave this part of the city their name. They were continually taking off and had new ones landing every minute or so, with ponies entering or leaving the city with each one. Around the other edges of the plaza was the largest concentration of players that he had seen in the game so far. The nexus of activity was quite obviously where the routes of travel met, and ponies were using anything they could to stand above the crowds and shout what they were selling. Paperback stood there for a moment, trying to figure out the best path to wade through the sea of ponies, when the sight of a uniformed captain of the city guard caught his eye. This pegasus pony had an actual name over his head, and seemed to be talking to several ponies at once. As he approached the guard, whose nameplate read Corporal Breezy, the pony suddenly turned to him and started spewing out a lengthy amount of words. Despite the clamor and hubbub of ponies around him, Paperback could clearly hear each word as though the plaza around them was empty. It must be another scripted event, since so many people seem to be using this NPC at the same time. He thought, tuning in to listen intently to the words. “You there! Yes, you! I don't suppose I can ask you to run a quick errand for me? I need these reports handed off to-” At this point, Corporal Breezy suddenly turned away from him, as another pony walked up to start the quest, yet the words continued on uninterrupted. “-Lieutenant Crossroads, who's positioned at the primary camp of the guards just outside of Saddleworth. I would do it myself, but I'm stuck here on guard duty for a few hours yet. Can I count on you?” Realizing that the Corporal was waiting for a response to continue the script he replied, “Of course. I can deliver them for you.” The quest giver, having turned two or three times during the conversation to different ponies to give them the same quest that he was starting on, turned back to him and said “Thanks! Here's the reports. Just tell Crossroads that I sent you, and she'll give you a small reward for your efforts.” There was probably more to be had from that conversation, but any in-depth characterization for Corporal Breezy must be overwritten by the automatic dialogue that is preset to deal with overcrowding from players. Turning away, he began maneuvering slowly through the churning throng of ponies that were buying, selling, meeting, greeting, laughing, or whatever else they were doing. It took him a full minute to get to the other side of the plaza to the launching station for the chariots which should have been only a fifteen second light trot. Really, the players needed to decide consensually to find a new meeting area. This was ridiculous. The chariots seemed to be scripted as well. Pulled by uncharacteristic, unnamed pegasus ponies, they seemed to arrive regularly once a minute per town in order down the line. Locating the Saddleworth chariot line, he saw that he was still third down the line for a chariot to arrive, the one for Chafferton was just leaving now. Not much to do but sit and wait. As he stared off towards the south at a far distant mountain range, he found himself wishing that he had made a pegasus character. ------------ Jumping off the chariot with the other ten or so ponies who were riding with him, Paperback landed on solid earth for the first time since starting the game. Saddleworth seemed like a quaint enough town for the virtual world. About fifty or so buildings, including a stone town hall and a large inn. In front of the inn was another market area, however this one was a lot less crowded with only about thirty ponies milling about in small groups. Most of them were of only a level or two higher than him, and could be easily picked out by the poor quality of their armor. The ones that were his level and lower could be picked out by their lack of armor. There was a small group of players that appeared to be in the level nine to eleven range sitting around a table with a roll of parchment stretched out on it, arguing pointedly in lowered voices. He knew that he was going to be heading out to the nearby camp, which he could see on a hill from here. From there, he was probably going to get sent out on a quest into the wilderness to help defend the borders or whatnot. He might as well get a head start, and gather all of the quests that he could find while he was already in the village. Which meant going around and talking to every single NPC. ------------ At least the town was small. Going into the inn and talking to the master of the house sent him to three different ponies that might need his help. The barkeep needed someone to go out to the Cushaw farm and collect pumpkins to be turned into cider. Being sent to Farmer Cushaw, who was in the city with his wife, gave him a quest to clear off a pack of boars that had overrun the farm. The Mayor needed somepony to investigate the mine, because the workers sent off a few days ago hadn't returned. Of course, the fact that there was a military encampment on the hill less than five minutes trot from the town did nothing to alleviate the troubles of the townsfolk. Upon arriving and speaking to Lieutenant Crossroads to whom he delivered the papers, he was asked to do another quest since the guards were just oh so busy at the moment. Paperback knew that the game developers were doing this for the sake of giving him some early level quests, but he wished that they weren't so contrived, since he could see a couple dozen generic NPC warriors just milling about. Crossroad's quest for him involved him patrolling down the main road to the east, where supposedly they were having troubles getting reports through to an outpost located outside of a place called Barrelforest Valley. The developers just got lazy with the names in some parts of the early game, he could tell. Hopefully the areas in which higher level monsters dwelled would be far more creative. He wanted some doomy doom names of doom. A Baron Armageddon to rage through for him to fight. He supposed he was getting his hopes up this early in the game. True, he had only played for a couple hours now, but it was the walking that was getting to him. In most games despite everything appearing to be to scale, distances between cities and places of importance were skewed, allowing the player to gallop between them within a half hour for a distance that should have been a day of travel. In Equestrian Earth, with virtual reality a norm for the game, everything, even distances were to scale. Yet again, he found himself wishing he had chosen to play a pegasus. Flying from place to place to complete quests so much faster probably meant that pegasi had a few levels advantage over the rest of the players already. Ending his mental tirade, he found himself about halfway down the east road, where his map notified him that he had reached the 'Cushaw Farm', one of the places where he was supposed to quest. Sure enough, as he poked his head around the side of the farmhouse he saw a field full with pumpkins and boars. The boars seemed to be milling about aimlessly, one of them was munching into a smashed pumpkin. It looked like this would be easy enough, the boars were only second level. Paperback slowly moved forward with his knife out towards the nearest boar, which was staring blindly at a fencepost and completely inattentive to its surroundings. Apparently he crossed some invisible barrier that existed though, because suddenly the boar turned around and charged him! Crap! As the boar reached him and tried to swing it's tusks up to gore him, he sidestepped, catching one tusk in the side rather than both in the chest. The blow pivoted him, allowing him to stab the boar in the neck with the Strike ability, empowered with Chilling Touch to weaken it. The boar swung around, now visibly slower than before, and it attempted to knock into him again. He sidestepped easily, and landed a slash across the face. I am so much more agile in this game than real life! He thought happily, as a third and a fourth attack from him hit home on the boar. The effect from Chilling Touch seemed to have worn off, but Paperback speared his dagger through the boars face for the killing blow, empowered with Shocking Grasp. The boar fell, sparkling softly to indicate that there was loot to be had. Kneeling down, he searched the body and came up with a boar hide and a tusk. As he came back up, the body digitized and disappeared, as slain foes in this game are wont to do until they respawn. This seemed easy enough. After his spells cooled down, he was already prepared to fight the next boar, sitting idly a few steps into the field. Disregarding his previous attempts at subtlety this time he ran straight up to it in a charge, knife set to strike with Chilling Blow again. The boar turned and leaped at him as he closed the distance, and the two of them clashed. His weapon scored a hit and triggered the spell while the boars tusks smashed into his chainmail. The two backed up a step only to clash into each other again, the boar's attack weakened from the effects of Chilling Blow. Paperback struck again with a Shocking Grasp imbued into his knife, and a few arcs of lightning raced across the boar's body. As he brought his knife down for the final strike, the boar dropped over dead, falling on to the ground with a solid whump. Confused, he stared at the knife in his telekinetic grip. He hadn't brought the blade down yet, how was it dead? He stared down at the body. He couldn't loot it. He looked at his quest information; the counter of boars he had killed had not gone up. He gazed at the body for another few seconds, before giving up and assumed that the game had glitched on him. He would get the next one. He stopped to gather a pumpkin from the field. Going about this task was not like he expected. Instead of physically picking up the pumpkin and putting it in his pack, he simply had to crouch and loot it like he would a monster, and it appeared into his pack. It didn't seem to add any weight to him, nor did he know how a whole pumpkin could fit into the pack. The answer was probably the same one as a lot of things in both the real world and the game. Magic. Now started on two quests Paperback turned towards the next boar, which was pacing randomly with him a few meters out of its aggravation zone. Another battle ensued, with him following much of the same strategy as before. As he prepared to strike the final blow, again the boar fell over dead before he could hit it. This time however, he thought he saw the cause, a small bolt of magical energy struck the boar in the side, causing it to hit zero hit points. Turning, he looked back at the house, where he saw a blue and red head poke back behind the wall. Was that it? Did somepony seriously just steal my kill? Snorting loudly, he trotted back to the farmer's house to confront the obnoxious kill stealer. He came around the side that he had seen the head, but nopony was there. He knew he had seen that head. It couldn't have been his imagination playing tricks on him, could it? No, whoever it was probably just started walking around the house the other way. Well, he'd show them! He galloped around the house now, determined to confront the kill stealer. As he turned the corner, still nothing. He continued around another corner, now he was back at the side of the house facing the field. Still no one. Turning around he galloped in the other direction, nostrils flaring in annoyance. He reached the side opposite the field. Not even footprints! What the hell! Unless- He looked up. There, lounging on the roof as if he was watching a show, was a dark cyan pegasus wearing a simple cloth robe grinning like an idiot. “You! What the hell, miss! Stop stealing my kills!” Paperback yelled up at the offender, who was now chuckling into her hooves, as if trying to keep from bursting out into laughter. “I don't care what's so funny, just knock it off.” Paperback continued, snorting as he stamped away back to the field. Hopefully now he could kill something and actually get experience for it. He stared at another boar that was looking back at him uninterested, since he wasn't in it's aggro range yet. Hopefully he'd be able to kill this one, if the pegasus would stop interfering. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, he saw her there, smiling at him from the roof where she lay watching him. True, her blue and red mane was kind of cute the way it hung down over her face like that. Maybe if he actually got to see her up close he might like her. He shook his head furiously. Now was not the time to be admire the enemy. He faced the boar again, and they charged at each other to meet with tusk and knife. Again, he prepared to deliver the final blow. Again, a stray bolt of magical energy arced around him at the last second, striking the boar and slaying it, taking his experience, quest advancement, and loot along with it. Sighing, Paperback turned and walked back to the mare with a defeated look on his face. She looked at him smugly, perched on the roof where he couldn't reach her. “Alright. Fine, you win. What do you want?” She turned her head and brought a hoof to her chin exaggeratedly as she pretended to ponder what it was she wanted. Finally, she called back to him. “Well, you seem like a strong fightery type of person... I don't suppose you'd be willing to group up and take some hits for me? That way we can both get our quests done.” Weird. Her voice was a strange southern belle soprano with a lilting tone to it. It was an accent he was unfamiliar with in person, but he heard it on television shows every now and then. “Yes, yes. Fine. Whatever it takes to get these quests done.” Paperback said. “Could you at least come down here and stop acting all princess like on the roof?” The pegasus complied with a smile and spread her wings, gliding down to him. “Why of course darling, anything for you.” Sweet Celestia this mare was laying it on thick. What was up with that? Then sh got closer, and Paperback could see some of the features more detailed. Wait a second... That jaw was far too square, the body too angular. “You're not a chick, you're a dude!” Paperback blurted out angrily as the now-confirmed male pegasus landed next to him. The colt started laughing hysterically, his voice now far lower than before in an acceptable male range. “Ding ding ding! He's a winner!” The colt said, with that idiotic grin splashed onto his face again. “Honestly, I was expecting you to run around the house a few more times before you looked up. And the look on your face right now is priceless! What, were you thinking of asking my virtual self out before you realized I'm a stallion?” Paperback's face turned from a dark orange to crimson as blood rushed to his cheeks, an angry frown on his face. The hair was kind of cute... and now it's not. He thought. “No.” He said sternly, an obvious lie through his normally stoic face. “Aw come one, don't feel bad. I pull that one on a lot of people. It's the hair that confuses em, you're not the first.” He stylishly threw his hair back in a 'fabulous' manner, obviously exaggerating his movements. “Since we'll be working together, I might as well let you know that my name is Sound Wave. E Tu?” “Paperback. Pleased to meet you.” He said through closed teeth. He was still miffed at the prank, but in hindsight he supposed that it was pretty funny. As Sound Wave offered his hoof, Paperback took it, and the two shook as Paperback mentally sent a group invite to him. Looking at Sound Wave's title above his head, he noticed that he was a level two bard. Squishy early game character, no wonder he wanted someone to group up with. That cloth robe he was wearing probably couldn't take a hit well at all. “Well alright then Paperback, let's kill some boars and gather pumpkins now, shall we?” ------------ It really was easier with two people rather than one. As a low level bard, Sound Wave only had two spells. One of them was the basic attack spell he was using to steal Paperback's kills earlier, and the other was a light buff he could use to increase speed for a short time on the both of them. After another fifteen minutes of quick fights and waiting for a couple of boars to respawn, they had each killed and gathered the necessary amount of boars and pumpkins. They had talked all the while too. Mostly of things they noticed in the game, but Sound Wave mentioned that he was a singer and worked on the weather part time. His cutie mark, a G Clef next to three tied, ascending eighth notes and a quaver, was evidently his mark in real life too, marking him as a talented singer. Proven, when halfway through Sound Wave started lightly singing a little jingle to the background noise of killing boars. As they were leaving the farm, Sound Wave turned to Paperback. “So, what other quests are you working on? Might as well knock them all out of the way together.” Paperback didn't like to admit it, but the relaxed nature of the pegasus next to him was rather pleasant to be around, kind of like Rusty Nail who he met yesterday. “Well, I've got to clear the road to Barrelforest, and see what happened to some ponies at the mine, which is in the other direction.” He replied, looking at his quest log. “I have the second one, but not the first. Who's that from?” Sound Wave said. “It's from Lieutenant Crossroad, in the military encamptment.” “Seriously? I was there and only got a quest from the smith to get some ore from the mines. Never even saw the Lieutenant.” “Wait, I didn't get that other mine one. Share it with me?” “Oh yeah, sure. Share the Crossroads one.” The two of them went to their respective quest logs, and shared the quests with each other so that they could both get the rewards for them. If it was really that easy, then working with a group might help Paperback get quests in towns faster too. With Sound Wave flying above and Paperback running below, they could each get half of the quests and just share them with each other. It would save the two of them probably a half hour each time they reached a new town. “Well, this is the road to the forest, shall we keep going this way?” Paperback said, gesturing to the road that lay next to the farm. Sound Wave agreed, and they both started trotting towards the distant Barrelforest Valley. The trip there was rather uneventful. A few new locations were discovered on his map on the way, some of which Paperback made a note to come back and delve into later. The terrain they went through was mostly plains, with some sparse forest thrown in every now and then for texture. The monsters encountered just off the road were a bit more challenging than simple boars, and a wandering hermit offered them a quest to take out a highwaypony who was camped out on some rocks overlooking a fork in the road. They gladly accepted, since they were already headed in that direction. During all of the random encounters, Sound Wave was bumped up to third level, and Paperback jumped to fourth ten minutes later. Level Up! Sound Wave has reached level 3! He has gained the following Skills! ~Piercing Note, Rank 2: Caster plays a note which rips towards the target. Increases Damage to 130%. Like scraping a chalkboard. Level Up! Paperback has reached level 4! He has gained the following Skills! ~Strike, Rank 3: Your next Physical attack deals an additional 9% physical damage and 3% magical damage if used with a spell. Strike harder; with more magic! Modestly pleased about his continued progress in the game, he was happy to note that the next level he would be able to start branching out to different talents, rather than just putting a rank into Strike every level. Although, he might just choose to put the last two ranks in there anyways. It looked like their was another ladder option that you would only be able to take with max ranks in strike. Oh well, he would figure out his mind later. Right now, there was a bandit to kill. The duo saw in the distance a place where the road they were traveling on split in two directions. One headed off towards the northern mountains, and the other headed towards a forest nestled at the base of a grouping of large hills. Overlooking the fork about fifty meters away was a large natural rock structure which the highwaypony was supposed to be camping out at. “So, how do we wanna go about this?” Paperback said, looking sideways at his compatriot. “Knock on his tent and politely ask him 'Hi there! We know you don't know us, but could you please stop robbing and murdering ponies? That'd be great, thanks!' I'm sure it'll work fine.” Sound Wave exclaimed in a voice that was difficult to contrast between excited sincerity and sarcasm. “Sound Wave, I'm no good at sarcasm. Was that sarcasm?” Paperback looked puzzled. “Yes, Paperback, yes it was.” Sound Wave said in a mock sigh. “We're going to march into his camp, probably exchange a line or two of witty banter, and then slay him easily. Now, forward march!” Paperback rolled his eyes at the idea of being given orders like a soldier, but started walking towards the rock nonetheless. As he reached the rock, he could see the faint smoke trail from a campfire on the other side. He began a slow, quiet shuffle around the side, attempting to stop his mail from clinking while keeping himself low in the high grass to avoid being spotted easily. His magical reflexes were poised to seize the dagger hanging in the sheath on his side. Sound Wave crept up behind him, a spell charged and ready to fire at the slightest sound. Finally, they could see the corner of a tent. Sneaking ever so slowly, more and more of the campground came into view. Finally, they saw the bandit, a brown earth pony wearing a red bandana over his mouth, laying on the ground relaxing. And Paperback stretched his head out a little more and saw the other two bandits. Whoa. Three of them. Probably not a challenge we can face quite yet. Paperback tried to back up, but his retreat bumped him into Sound Wave, and the abrupt stop made his mail clink. All three of the bandits turned and looked at the sound. He muttered, “Oh for the love of-” but whatever love he was swearing by was cut off as the three enemies simultaneously charged at him. Various challenges issued forth from the bandits mouths, spewing such inane drivel like, “Your money or your life!” “No one crosses us!” “Your head will be a nice trophy for the boss!” Wait a second, what was that last one? Paperback thought. So these highwayponies have an organization of sorts? How contradictory to their chaotic nature. Paperback filed the information away, and roared in response to their challenges. He drew his dagger and lunged forward. A bolt of sound energy rushed over his shoulder and struck the first bandit, courtesy of Sound Wave. As he brought down his first attack, he charged it with a Strike and Shocking Grasp, cutting the bandit's health down to a third of it's maximum amount. The brown earth pony took a moment to recover from the blow, by which point Paperback was already swinging his dagger for another hit. A slash was scored across the side as Paperback leaped sideways to avoid the second bandit. A swing from a short sword impacted off of his mail, doing less damage than it would have if it had hit flesh but still dropping a noticeable chunk off of his hit points. He turned to face his new opponent, a second earth pony that was an azure color with a straw mane wielding a short sword. Unlike the previous pony, this one was wearing some armor that looked like it was about to fall off, as ratty as it was. Paperback retaliated to the attack from the short sword, scoring a hit on the azure pony in his unprotected facial region. The next swing from the sword missed him by a hair. The first brown earth pony was maneuvering around short sword to finally take a swing at Paperback, but Sound Wave had charged another Piercing Note, and brown fell over as the last of his health was depleted. Wait a second, wasn't there a- WHUMP He didn't need to finish his internal question as his thoughts were distracted by a crimson blur that shot at him from the sky, launching him back several feet. Great, third bandit is a pegasus. Paperback mused as his health points cried out that he had just taken a critical hit. Now depleted to a third of his HP, he needed to start playing defensively as his two opponents had barely taken any damage so far. To his left, Sound Wave was frantically charging another Piercing Note spell, and by the time it was ready the two had closed the distance with Paperback, who was still picking himself off the ground. Sound Wave's spell struck Short Sword pony, while Paperback used Strike with Chilling Touch to reduce the strength of the pegasus, who was wielding a solid ball of steel on a metal handle. Even though the game was only triggering a minor ache in his side from the blow, Paperback could imagine what it would actually be like to be hit like that. Maces hurt. He pranced back and forth, taking a glancing hit from both his opponents while waiting for his Strike to cool down. Sound Wave launched another Piercing Note at Short Sword, who responded by turning his aggravation onto the bard. Unable to get airborne in time to escape the charging bandit, Sound Wave was reduced to comically running around the camp, unable to charge a spell in fear of taking hard damage. At least it left Paperback with only one opponent though, and he was now able to retaliate at the pegasus who was continuing to try and break his ribs with the blunt instrument. His Strike came up again, but Shocking Grasp still had another second on cool down, so he saved it while making another swipe with his dagger. Now he had two spells up, and triggered them both simultaneously to deal enough damage to finish off the mace-wielding pegasus. He turned his attention to the final bandit, who was still chasing Sound Wave around the encampment with fury sounding between clenched teeth. Borrowing a tactic from his now deceased pegasus opponent, Paperback charged forward, barreling into the side of the earth pony. Racial modifiers weren't on his side, however, as the pony was not knocked prone by his attack and merely shifted the aggro back onto his near-dead avatar. Jumping backwards, he bought himself time until Strike was up again, and lunged forward with the dagger as yet another Piercing Note came from the now freed Sound Wave. Both attacks hit their mark, and Short Sword collapsed mid charge like a ton of bricks. “Well now. That was fun.” Sound Wave said, looking over at Paperback. Paperback glared daggers at his uninjured friend; his own hit points only at about a tenth of their maximum. He was distracted, however, by his quest log bonging at him. Looking inside, he found that not one, but two quests had been completed. The one for the wandering hermit who asked them to kill the bandit was cleared, and so was the one for Lieutenant Crossroad who had asked him to scout the road to Barrelwood Valley. Sound Wave had obviously gotten the same notice, because he was staring interestedly into a blank point in space from Paperback's perspective “Huh. I'm guessing that what happened was that we fought two separate mob groups. One was the bandit that we were supposed to find here, and the other was the two who were probably patrolling from here to the forest.” Paperback thought aloud. Now they had four quests completed, and it was time to return to Saddleworth and the military camp before heading off in the other direction towards the mines. First, however, the was the matter of loot... “Alright. I'm taking this mace here. I can probably do a ton more damage with this than that kitchen knife I was using.” Paperback said, kneeling down to loot the pegasus of his valuables. Alongside the mace was some some coins which was automatically split between him and Sound Wave, and a miscellaneous item that he could sell for a paltry sum. Sound Wave was kneeling over the body of the brown pony, coming back up having looted the bandana off of the bandit's face, and his weapon from the ground. “You're taking the bandana? I'm pretty sure I ripped that thing up enough with my dagger that it's not even worth selling anymore.” Paperback said, moving on to the armored azure pony. Sound Wave just shrugged. “I can get it repaired by a tailor back in town or something. Wear it on my forehead. I'll look cooler that way, and people will mistake me for a girl less. “Alright then. We better head back to town now, we've got all the loot.” Paperback replied, having looted the belongings of the second bandit. “We can turn in some of these quests on the way.” ------------ About ten minutes in on their walk back to town, Paperback felt something in his pack heat up to a noticeably warm temperature. “Hold on, Sound. Something's happening.” Opening the pack, he brought out a parchment labeled Friend List and saw that someone was trying to add him. He glanced at the username, and saw it was 'Manic Mechanist.' Memories from last night flooded his brain, and he realized that it was Rusty Nail trying to contact him. “Hey, it's this guy I met at the game store last night. Gimme a sec to add him.” Sound Wave nodded in reply, and their walking speed slowed to a near crawl as Paperback attempted to multitask. Accepting the friend request, Paperback soon started receiving private messages on the parchment from Rusty Nail. 'Hey mate, where's your location?' Speaking aloud, and leaving a confused Sound Wave nearby, he replied “Heading to a town called Saddleworth to turn in some quests.” A reply was not long and coming, and soon Rusty's words appeared on the sheet of paper. 'I was there just last night dude! Think it would be cool if I joined up and hung out?' “Hey Sound Wave, this guy Rusty Nail who I know wants to turn our party into the three musketeers, you alright with that?” “Sure. After that last battle, I would consider a third party member to be of quite strategic interest.” Sound Wave spoke nonchalantly. Of course, he wasn't the one who almost got killed. Goddess knows what dying is actually like in this game. Looking down at the parchment again, he said “Yeah, it's fine. I'll see you there.” A reply of confirmation from Rusty, and the parchment was rolled up and put away into the pack again. A few more minutes passed, with the two of them talking amicably about nothing in particular. They soon reached the hermit who had given them the bandit quest, and upon turning it in, Sound Wave gained enough experience to level up again. Level Up! Sound Wave has reached level 4! He has gained the following Skills! ~Piercing Note, level 3: Caster plays a note which rips towards the target. Increases Damage to 140% ~Soothing Chord: A light blast of magic is directed towards the caster or his allies, healing them for a small amount. “Next time I get injured like back there, I expect you to use that.” Paperback joked, once Sound Wave told him what abilities he learned. “Heh, don't worry. You won't be shipped home in a coffin on my watch.” “So they'll be sending whatever is left of me in a matchbox then?” The friendly ribbing continued on like this as the two wore out their stamina bars a few times while galloping back to Saddleworth. Upon arrival, they turned in the other three quests that they had completed, earning Paperback just barely enough experience to level again. After deciding whether or not he would continue leveling up Strike, he decided that he would, because the talent that required him to fill all five levels of it led up the middle of the talent tree, where he guessed that all the really good abilities lay. Level Up! Paperback has reached level 5! He has gained the following Skills! ~Strike, Rank 4: Your next attack now deals 12% bonus physical damage, with any spell attached dealing 6% more damage as well ~Elemental Weapon: Enchant your weapon to do minor elemental damage on each swing. He liked the sound of that second ability he earned for leveling. Looking at it more closely, he saw that he could make his weapon deal either fire, cold, lightning, or acid damage with each strike that would passively consume a small amount of mana. He enabled it on his new mace right away, now each strike would deal fire damage not to mention any spell or ability he used in concert with it. The two of them split up for a while to sell their respective loot. Both of them had boar hides and tusks from their first encounter, and some from random encounters on the road. They also had the loot from the bandits, and Sound Wave wanted to get that trashed bandana repaired. While Paperback was browsing some of the wares of an armor merchant, he felt the hair on the back of his neck go up. Turning around, he didn't see anyone watching him, but as he turned back to the merchant, he found a green face staring him in the eyes. “Wagh!” he cried, falling backwards over his hooves. Rusty Nail stood there, laughing uproariously. “I swear, that is never going to get old.” Rusty said. Paperback took a moment to examine his friend as he picked himself off the ground. Rusty was a level five rogue, wearing some sort of brown or padded armor over his chest that gave moderate protection. A wicked looking curved short sword rested in his sheath, it was probably enchanted in some way. “So, ready to adventure, mate?” “Hold on a few minutes Rusty, I'm looking at armor. I need to replace this rusty piece of junk I'm wearing right now.” Paperback said, turning his attention back on the vendor and all of the stats that the different armors had. Rusty groaned and rolled his eyes. He shook himself and fidgeted in place for a moment, before giving the rest of the area a look around. Something caught his eye, and he turned back to Paperback. “Alright then, while your doing you shopping thing, I'm going to go hit on a lady or two. Be back in fifteen minutes.” Rusty said, trotting off in a strut obviously meant to impress. Paperback turned, and his eyes widened. “Rusty That's not-” Paperback started, but suddenly cut himself off. “Not what?” Came Rusty's reply “Nevermind. It's nothing. Go ahead.” Paperback said. Rusty turned, and continued to canter off with a humongous smile on his face. Paperback nearly died from holding in the laughter that threatened to burst his lungs as Rusty sidled up alongside Sound Wave and brushed flanks.