“Boar incoming!” Davoth called out. Winter was in the middle of pulling cotton from a cotton plant growing in a small clearing of the forest, but looked up to see a small boar charging at them from the nearby brush. Davoth shot two arrows into the boar before it got close, at which point Eli jumped in front with his small shield and blocked the beast’s charge. It knocked him back off his feet and the pain was excruciating, but he was getting used to it.

During that time Davoth was able to land two more arrows and finish off the boar.

Level Up!: Shield Mastery reached level 2!

“Finally, it leveled up.” Winter said as the pain faded. He pulled out the skinning knife and began using it on the dead boar.

“I just hit level three.” Davoth smiled proudly. “You sure it’s alright I hog all the monster experience?”

“Yep.” Winter spoke without hesitation.

“Alright, I’ll go pull some more boars.” Davoth shrugged as he scanned the surrounding forest for more targets. After a few seconds of using the skinning knife, Winter was able to get a few notifications.

Acquired: Small Boar Leather [Quality: 1%]

Acquired: Chunk of Boar Meat [Quality: 0%]

Quest Complete! Return to Hoggan the Craftsman

“That’s one down…” He mumbled to himself, standing up as the boar corpse vanished. He looked around to see 2 players still following them from a distance wearing high level armor, both had the camera icon above their heads. Shaking his head to himself he made his way back to the bunch of cotton plants growing in the forest clearing. He carefully picked them one by one, getting low quality cotton after low quality cotton until he finished the herbalism quest as well.

Next up was the woodcutting quest. He pulled out his copper axe and looked for the easiest trees to chop down. Having no experience with it, it took him a while to get the 10 pine logs he needed, but eventually he got them all in between blocking for Davoth.

As the 10th tree fell over and he could finish cutting off the excess branches to get a log, he got a notification that his Woodcutting quest was completed.

“Davoth, I’m done here.” He called out into the forest, prompting Davoth to rush back.

“Good, I’m tired of boars. Next stop is Greybone Forest, right?” Davoth smiled.

“Yup.” Winter nodded. With a skip in his step, Davoth led the way further south into the forest, the streaming players following close behind. It was another two hours of walking south before they reached their destination. Along the way they made sure to kill any boars for leather and meat, chop any wood and gather any cotton or other useful herbs.

The trees and brush around them changed abruptly when they stepped into the Greybone Forest. The tree bark turned grey and withered, the plantlife browned and darkened. Webs strung about from tree trunk to tree trunk, and the sounds of birds singing and insects chirping was replaced by an ominous howling wind.

“What are we looking for again?” Davoth spoke with an uneasy tone.

“Something called a Poporon flower. No idea what it looks like.” Winter said as he navigated around the forest, avoiding stepping on strange spiky looking weeds that had broken through the ground and coiled themselves around fallen tree branches.

“I don’t think any flowers grow here.” Davoth drew an arrow out and held it near his drawstring. The dead and dried leaves crunched underneath their feet with every step as the ominous howling continued, but they could hear the sounds of the streaming players still following along behind them, whispering commentary about their gameplay. Winter couldn’t imagine anyone would enjoy watching what they were doing.

“There, that should be it.” Winter motioned to a small 4 petaled flower growing inside the skull of a dead beast. His game interface indicated that the flower was an unknown herb. “Watch my back.” He said to Davoth who nodded. Winter cautiously walked up to the skull, it looked to be a humanoid type skull but with a large snout. As he got close enough and leaned in to pick the flower, suddenly the skull began to rattle as the bones around it collected, levitating into the air until it formed into a skeletal figure. [Brittle Skeleton - Level 7].

He put up his shield just in time to block the creature as it slashed out with its sharp finger bones, while Davoth fired off an arrow. The arrow hit but did reduced damage to its bony form. Even though Winter took 6 points of slashing damage, he didn’t feel any of the pain. Instead the shield lost 1 durability and had a huge set of scratches in it.

“You might need to help me with this one.” Davoth said as he pulled back another arrow and shot it.

“Nope, no way. If I help then I’ll hit level 2.” Winter replied.

“What’s so bad about hitting level 2?”

“Goes against my plans.” Winter replied as the creature scratched at him again. He blocked it once more, losing another 7 health and 1 more durability on his shield. Davoth let out a frustrated groan as he started firing arrows more rapidly. They were doing hardly any damage, but the skeleton was being whittled down little by little. The exchange of blows continued until finally the Brittle Skeleton collapsed into pieces on the ground.

Winter was left with only 24 health remaining, and his shield was sitting at 8 durability, while Davoth reached level 4 for killing the creature. The two were gasping for air and put their hands on their knees to recover.

“Let’s not do anything else until my Health and Stamina are back up.” Winter said as he bit into an apple.

“Agreed.” Davoth replied, looking to see his stamina was low as well. Both took out some fresh apples from their inventory and started eating as they heard the sound of footsteps approaching. They looked to see 2 players, both in the level 30’s with camera icons above their heads. One was a female with wavy brown hair wearing silver chainmail and a large hammer on her back, the other was an excited young lizardfolk with leather armor and dark green scales.

“Excuse me, my name is Samathara and I’m streaming with S-World News, do you mind if we take a moment of your time?” The female asked, holding her hand out to greet them both with a smile. Winter and Davoth politely shook her hand and the Lizardfolk’s as well.

“And I’m Zekor from Virtual Gaming Network.” The Lizardfolk spoke. Davoth looked to Winter to let him reply.

“Sure, why not.” Winter shrugged.

“Great. Many viewers and fans of Makarath have been wondering, what made you decide to choose Kalmoore Island as your starting location?”

“Uhm…” Winter looked to Davoth, then to Samathara. “No reason, I guess.”

“Many people are theorizing that Makarath told you to start here because there was something about the Kalmoore region that people didn’t know about. This is causing many new players to choose this island as well, even though it was very unpopular until now. Can you share your thoughts on this?” Zekor asked with enthusiasm.

“No, I don’t talk to him. People should start wherever looks most interesting to them.” He replied bluntly. Both the interviewers looked at each other nervously, which almost made Davoth burst out laughing, but he held it in.

“D-do you feel a lot of pressure on you, knowing how powerful your father is in The Shattered World Online?” Samathara asked nervously.

“Not really, that guy can do whatever he wants.” Winter shrugged.

“Uh… it appears you took the quest to take on the priest class, could you tell us a little about what intermediate path you are planning to take?” Zekor whispered back.

“Don’t know yet.”

“Why did you decide to go with the Goddess Eirene? Many people believe her to be the weakest deity for worship-based classes.”

“I thought the symbol on the church looked really cool.” Winter replied with fake enthusiasm. Both the interviewers pulled back for a second and whispered to each other.

“Is he really Makarath’s son?” Samathara asked Zekor under her breath.

“That’s what all our information says.” Zekor whispered back, but sounded unsure. “Do you have any plans to join the Sages of Destiny guild in the future?”

“Nah.” Winter took a big bite of an apple, making sure to chew loudly.

“W-well then. Thank you very much for your time, do you mind if we continue to broadcast your adventures? Many viewers are interested in seeing what you’ll be doing to get stronger.”

“Go for it.” Winter gave them a thumbs up.

“Good luck on your quest. I promise you’ll barely notice us.” Zekor added, the two awkwardly bowed and backed away from them. “He’s either a complete noob, or he’s trolling us.” Zekor whispered to Samathara, who nodded back. Once they were gone, Davoth and Winter looked at each other and Davoth shook his head with a giant grin, letting out a quiet chuckle.

“I’ve got a good show for them planned.” Winter winked at Davoth as he stood up and moved to the skeleton corpse. He carefully harvested a flower out of the skull and collected a few of the bones that might be useful for crafting.

“Good news, it’s the flower I needed.” Eli said when he finished gathering.

“4 more like that?”

“Yep.” Winter nodded. The two continued their search for the remaining flowers, spotting out each one hiding inside the skull of a creature. Knowing what to expect now, they were able to plan out each encounter and kill the skeletons from a distance, minimizing the damage taken, but during the fight with the last skeleton Winter had his shield break and become unusable.

Quest Complete! Return to Priestess Clara

Level Up!: Shield Mastery reached level 3!

Wooden Shield’s durability has reached 0 and is unusable until repaired.

“We heading back to Orm now right? I’m about out of arrows. Good experience though.”

“Yup, all four of the quests are done.” Winter said proudly. “This thing is useless though, I’m gonna keep gathering wood on the way back.” He chucked the broken shield on the ground. The two made the long trek back through the forests north towards the village of Orm. Along the way Winter made sure to chop down any trees for more logs and gather any usable cotton and other herbs, and in the end they arrived back in Orm with quite the haul.

He’d managed to get 50 Pine Logs, 80 cotton, 40 boar leather and meat, and an assortment of a few other alchemy based herbs. All the while the two broadcasters followed behind him. After the 2 hours of walking was up and the sun began to set, Winter couldn’t help but feel a little bit sorry for them for having the job of just following him around all day.

“I’m really feeling the bow, I might head to Kalmoore city to find a good class trainer and do my class quest too. You wanna tag along?” Davoth stretched once they entered the village square.

“Nah, I’m gonna hang around here and do some stuff. It’ll probably take a few days so you’d be better off leveling without me to be honest.” Winter replied.

“You sure? I mean I talked you into the game, I can stick around and help out.”

“It’s fine, you should go have fun. I’m gonna try out some ideas I got from reading guides today. It should get rid of the Makaroth fan club too.” Winter motioned to the two streamers tailing behind them at a distance still.

“Alright, sounds good. Let me know if you need a hand!” Davoth replied as he waved and headed off. Winter stretched his arms and neck, smiling to himself as he made his way towards the church of Eirene.