"Why, I'd like nothing better than to achieve some bold adventure, worthy of our trip."

Aristophanes

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Sometimes people forget how much the modern world corrupts their sense of luxury. It is not a bad thing, there is nothing wrong with wanting a better and more comfortable life. But, when looking back over the vast majority of humanity's history, it is striking how many things that are common in now were considered the pinnacle of luxury in the past. It was at this time that Nero couldn't help but think back to a like in Shakespeare's Richard the Third.

A cushion, a cushion! My kingdom for a cushion!

It should come as no surprise that sitting on hard wood for a while hurt, add to that the jostling from a carriage that was created without the advanced knowledge of suspension and force a person into that position for twelve hours and you have what can only be called a primitive form of torture. So, it was with considerable relief that Nero stepped down from the carriage where he had spent the most uncomfortable day of his life. The sun was setting, the darkening skies and late season combined to give the wind a chill that was on the colder side of comfortable.

Nero did not care for that though, he was just happy to be out of the horrible ride and onto his own two feet. He was not looking forward to making that trip again in a week. As he stretched his sore limbs, he turned to his fellow trainees who, while seeming relieved to dismount as well, did not look as irritated as he was.

The group from Ground Sheer were on the final expedition of the season and, when they returned to Sarra Keep, they would be considered to have graduated. It was a week-long trip, a day there and back with five days in between. They had left the city at sunrise and, traveling south, had reached a village as the sun was setting. They were not the only ones either.

As he looked around, Nero noted that Maqi, the name of the village they would be staying at, was busting with life and that most did not seem to be locals. While carrying weapons in this world was extremely common, Nero doubted that could be said of caravans of armed men and women arriving at the same town. Whatever was happening here, it was bigger than a single training hall's graduation trip.

"We there yet?" Jorry asked sleepily from around Nero's neck. He was too large to stay on his friend's shoulder and had taken to napping while wrapped around his neck like some sort of living scarf. He weighed a bit, but after a while, Nero had gotten used to it. The lazy serpent had also spent the entire day sleeping comfortably, much to the ire of Nero and his abused posterior.

"We are," Nero said to his companion. "We'll go exploring in a bit, for now, we'll follow the group to wherever we are staying."

"Did I miss anything interesting?" The small serpent asked, still half asleep. Nero had no idea how the creature managed to sleep so much, was this normal for snakes?

"It was amazing," Nero said sarcastically, still sore from the uncomfortable ride. "I can't believe you slept through all that, there were explosions, donkeys jumping off cliffs and a marching band. I'm surprised you didn't wake up and enjoy the entire ride."

"Why would donkeys jump off cliffs?" Jorry asked innocently causing Nero to sigh in resignation.

"You don't really get sarcasm do you?"

"What's sarcasm?" Nero took a moment to think about how to adequately explain to the young animal without going into too much depth on irony and its connotations.

"You can think of sarcasm like an obvious lie, something said in a way that nobody would really believe it but is used to prove a point. It can also be used as a means of humor."

"So you were trying to be funny!" Jorry said in realization. "I didn't get that at all."

"Sure," Nero's shoulders sagged in resignation as he answered despondently. He trudged his way forward, following the instructors who had dismounted the carriage along with the other trainees. "I guess it wasn't a good joke."

The pair didn't have to wait long as the with Ken in the lead the instructors led the trainees to a medium two-story wooden building near the edge of the town. Once the large group had entered, the three men assigned four people to a room before calling the group together in the broader living space on the first floor.

"While I'm sure you all enjoyed the trip," Ken smirked at the groans he received for his words, on trainee even flipped him off. "We are here for business. While some of you are aware of why we are here, others are new to the area and aren't familiar to this yearly tradition so I will be going over the basics and what we are here for. This village, Maqi, is the barrier of civilization between Sarra and the wild. South of here is nothing but forest until you reach the frontier town of Machy and further south is the River of Souls and the Deadwall. Typically there isn't much of importance this way, baring a few dungeons and tombs. The animals of the forest aren't too strong, and the undead never cross their wall. As fall turns to winter, however, migrations from the north shift the hunting grounds of animals and monsters leading to an upsurge of low to mid-tier monsters being forced out by invasive and stronger predators. They naturally want food, and they seek to find it in human territory.

While this happens, training halls like us send our recruits to get some practice while simultaneously helping keep the village safe by culling the population a bit. Because the way monster reviving works, they appear at the closest 'safe' location, when they are killed by us the monsters will reappear in either territory unclaimed by powerful monsters or in an area far enough away that they won't pose a problem anymore. Your job is to help them on their way. You will register with the local guild, and they will provide you with information about the common monsters and their corresponding rewards. We, at Ground Sheer, receive half of your rewards automatically as payment for your lodgings and other such things during the event. The other half you can either keep or use to start paying off your debt. I recommend that you all sync up with the local Holy ground first. If you die and are forced to respawn at Sarra, we will not care. Are there any questions?"

"If this is such a common issue, why doesn't country expand and colonize the forest? You said it yourself, the monsters there are not really strong." One of the trainees asked Nero remembered hearing that he had come with a trading caravan from Selwe.

"If you really want to know then you can ask the king," Ken answered a bit, but he continued nonetheless. "I can think a few reasons, not enough population, the lack of rare goods to exploit, the long time it would take to set up a Holy ground, the loss of a low-level training area for the army and training halls, or any number of other reasons. Are there any other questions?"

The group was silent and, seeing no further questions Ken continued.

"This will be our final expedition, we three will be here if you want to spend some of your time on one-on-one training. We've given you the tools you need to survive out in the wild, how far you go will all depend on your own efforts and achievements. For those of you wishing to advance to intermediate training halls or into other occupations, our recommendation will depend on your performance during this expedition. You are free to leave at any time, but if you want to take the carriage back to the keep, we'll be leaving on the morning of the sixth day, and you can meet us then. Until then, I wish you all the best of luck."

With that, the three instructors left the trainees to their own devices. Immediately some grouped up into various clicks of friends or left the building to sync up with the local Holy ground. Nero and Jorry joined the latter group, not having anybody they were particularly close to in the training hall. Leaving the building, it wasn't particularly hard to find the Holy ground at the center of the village where Nero sat on one of the benches that people used when wanting to sync with the Holy land.

As a rule of thumb, Holy grounds were at the center of any sort of established civilization center. This was because of not only their central importance to the revival but also because they were the lifeline to which all sapient races cling. Unlike monsters, sapient races such as humans, beastmen, elves and other such creatures are not able to naturally respawn in the wild a safe distance away from where they died. Without being synced to a Holy ground, should they die, they do not revive at all. Because of this, the importance of Holy grounds could not be underestimated, and people would build their settlements around them to provide an extra layer of security.

But, while Holy grounds were the keys to the continued existence of the sapient races, they were also a fundamental weakness. The destruction of the Holy land you were synced to was one of the only three ways for permanently killing something in Gods' Nature that Nero was aware of. It was also the reason why the Rupture was such a cataclysmic event. During that time, whether it be monster swarms or natural disasters, hundreds of Holy lands were destroyed, and it wiped out entire populations because most were not able to reach another Holy land to sync up to before they died as well.

Even if two countries went to war, generally they left Holy grounds alone, because their destruction was such a reviled act. The other two methods were much tamer in comparison. The first and best way to die permanently in Gods' Nature was merely old age. Though death wasn't permanent for the most parts of the game, people still age and eventually, depending on their race, they would reach the end of their life cycle and die of natural causes. The third was Nero knew to die permanently was if you were killed something of sufficient strength or with specific skills.

Once people, creatures or weapons reach a certain tier of strength, they gain the ability to permanently kill things, a sort of recognition of their ability to shape the world. Most countries had weapons with this ability, they acted as a deterrent force and were used sparingly on only the worst of criminals. Though this method of killing was more common than the destruction of Holy grounds, it was still relatively rare an nowhere near as reviled. The people who could use these skills were at most able to permanently kill only one person at a time and often had very long cooldowns, but the destruction of Holy lands would affect millions of people at once.

All these thoughts flowed through Nero's mind as he sat on his bench waiting for the sync to finish. This was the first time he had to go through the process as he was automatically synced with the Holy ground in Sarra Keep when he first started the game. The process wasn't complicated, he just had to remain within the Holy land until he felt the connection form, but it was long and tedious. Nero had been told he would feel when it was complete but, despite sitting down for almost ten minutes, he felt no such thing. At least there were other people there to provide him with some distractions since the lazy snake at his side had decided to sleep some more instead of keeping Nero company.

"Looking for a healer! Need to be level twenty or above!" A man in armor yelled.

"Tank wanted, no level requirement but needs good armor!" A woman wearing a robe shouted out. She seemed to have more success than the man as already Nero could see three different armored forms approaching her.

"I am looking for a party, I am a level thirty-three ranger and can act as DPS!"

"I need a group of volunteers to hunt a goblin tribe with a war chief. Outlanders are welcome but must be over level fifty." It wasn't only players that were using the Holy ground as a recruitment arena. In fact, without the use of specific terms, it was impossible to distinguish NPCs from players.

"Seeling potions! Need health potions? You can buy these for cheap, and they will last you till level seventy-five, it's a great deal they can restore HP or reattach a limb that has been cut. If you buy ten, you get a discount. Keep your party safe with our potions!"

"Selling armor and weapons! We have everything from steel to leather and bone. If you bring material, we'll forge it for you. Need a weapon repaired to keep hunting? We'll fix it for you! We have arrows, swords, spears, shields, anything you need can be found at our smithy." Of course, whenever there was a large concentration of people merchants would come to hawk their wares.

Holy grounds were generally in large plazas or squares to accommodate a lot of revivals. This led to them becoming the perfect meeting grounds and hundreds if not thousands of people would flock to them every day. Maqi's was particularly busy due to the influx of foreigners that came to hunt monsters. Kaesar could see dozens of merchants, hundreds of players and NPCs, various entertainers looking to make some money from their acts, and a lot of armored guards that kept their eyes on the area in case of any trouble. It was like a festival was going on, which could be considered partially correct. Nero looked to Jorry and sighed, he had no idea how the serpent could sleep through all this hubbub.

"Hey, newbie!" Initially, Nero did not pay attention to the voice, it was simply one amongst a hundred. "Nero right?" It was only when he heard his name being called that Kaesar turned to look.

Approaching him was a lightly armored man who was waiving for his attention. Taking a closer look, Nero tried to place where he had seen his face before. It was relatively handsome in chiseled sort of way with a bit of stubble on his jawline. He was wearing a flat chest plate that gleamed in the sunlight and some armored boots and greaves. Apart from that, his only other characteristic was a flowing green mantle on his back. Despite this appearance, nothing really clicked for Nero so he tried to think back on who this man could be as he approached. Kaesar didn't recognize him from Ground Sheer or from any of the stores he had helped with the rat problem.

"You're Nero, right? It has been a while, how've you been?" The man greeted with a smile on his face.

"You're... Ludendorff?" Kaesar asked hesitantly, slightly unsure of his guess. It had been months since he had started playing Gods' Nature and met the player for the first time.

"Yep," the player didn't seem offended at not being recognized right away. He had always had a knack for faces and names but would never have recognized Nero if not for him sticking out in his memory as the biggest noob he had since met in Gods' Nature. "So you decided beastman then? Or is that a skill?" The more experienced player asked as he saw Nero's forked tongue flicker in and out of his mouth to taste the air. The newbie didn't look like an ordinary snake man, but variances were always possible when changing races.

"A skill," Kaesar answered before asking a question of his own. "You should be a high leveled player right? What's a general like you doing here?"

"Ah well," the player said as he took a seat next to Nero. "My bosses came to the keep a while ago and decided to use my skills to help train some new blood for The Bank." Ludendorff shrugged his shoulders in a 'what can you do sort of manner.'

"Oh, good. For a second I thought that there was some super strong monster here or something."

"There is," the general said casually, and Nero had to hold in a sigh. "There have been movements from some powerful goblin tribes in the area, and there are some reports of tier three goblin king. By the way, tier three means that it is over level two hundred." Kaesar had actually already known that but saw no need to point that out. "It is a bit out of my league at the moment, but I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. One of the stronger players is part of an advanced training hall and as part of his graduation expedition has to hunt it down. I'm also here to spy on him."

"Should you be saying that? Here? To me?" Kaesar had to question the validity of saying something like that in such a public place to a man he barely knew.

"Eh," Ludendorff shrugged his shoulders uncaringly and stretched himself over the bench. "He already knows, he's a smart cookie and probably heard about it as soon as I got my orders. He just doesn't care. He's a nice enough guy, but my bosses can't stand him for some reason so here I am. Speak of the devil, hey Gabriel. Over here!" The general stood up from his seat and waived into the crowd. Nero was unable to see who he was talking to due to some people blocking the way but he didn't have to wait long.

From the crowd, two people approached the bench Nero, and Ludendorff was sitting on. The first was a man of average height, probably a few inches shorter than Nero, who had a rather distinguished face with blond hair, blue eyes, and prominent cheekbones. He cut an imposing figure, wearing thick white armor made from a metal Nero couldn't recognize. There was a sizeable diamond-shaped shield on his back and handle protruded from its top while a large blade sprouted from its bottom. Despite his armor and weapon making him look a bit thuggish, there was a warm smile on his face. Nero guessed this was probably the man Ludendorff was just talking about, Gabriel.

His companion was a beautiful woman in a girl next door sort of way with short brown hair drawn into a ponytail that brought out the expression in her warm brown eyes. She was the same height as the man accompanying her, around six foot seven, which made her tall for a woman but far from the Amazonian status of Nero's sisters. She was wearing a more streamlined form of armor than her companion, and instead of having a shield and bastard sword, she had two blades on her waist, on shorter than the other.

"What a coincidence," Ludendorff said to the pair as they approached. "I was just telling my friend here about how I was sent to spy on you." The pair's smiles turned decidedly more awkward.

"I really don't know what we did to anger those two. Those girls just seem to hate me for no reason." The man answered before looking at Nero and extending his hand out to shake. "Hello, I'm Gabriel, and this is my wife, Michelle. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, I go by Nero." Kaesar shook the man's hand before doing the same to his wife. He was a rather good judge of character and, by the looks of it, the pair's smiles seemed rather genuine and friendly with not a hint of arrogance or condescension in their gazes. If they were put off by meeting a low-level player, they didn't show it.

"Nero here is a bit of a newbie," Ludendorff explained to the pair. "I ran into him when he first started a while ago and gave him some advice. He doesn't seem to have played too many games in the past."

"That's not too bad. I can't imagine what it must be like for Gods' Nature to be your first video game, it must be a unique experience," Mitchelle said. "Although it will probably be tough to play older games after this one, I know it ruined me for my old favorites."

"Really?" Ludendorff asked. "I can see that for other MMOs or RPGs, but I still play some shooters and puzzle games from time to time if I just want some relaxing fun. By the way, what are you two doing here? I thought you were out hunting for that goblin king?"

"We were," Gabriel admitted. "But one of our scouts found something but died before he could report it back, so we are here to meet him when he revives. You?"

"I'm training a few recruits, but they ran into a Brown Wolf and were wiped out. I was waiting for them to respawn to reapply some buffs when I ran into Nero here."

"Are you sure you won't join The Foundation? We could really use a guy like you." Michelle asked.

"I'm sure. I appreciate the sentiment but I like working for The Bank, and I've put too much into it to just leave." Ludendorff answered.

"That's a shame, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find us," Gabriel said before turning to Nero. "It was nice meeting you, I wish you the best of luck in Gods' Nature." He said politely before turning to leave with his wife.

"You too," Nero responded as the pair walked away. He hadn't really interacted with the couple beyond a greeting, but that was no reason to be rude to them since they seemed friendly enough.

"As I said, he's a kind man. Don't let that fool you though, out of the millions of players in Gods' Nature he is easily in the top one hundred strongest." Ludendorff explained once the couple was once more swallowed by the crowd. "Those two were some of the earliest players, and they're the leaders of one of the largest factions in the game. Despite its simple name and good reputation, The Foundation is not something you want to mess with."

"Huh," was Kaesar's only response, not really caring since it didn't really affect him. If Nero could have seen into the future, he probably would have paid a lot more attention to what Ludendorff was saying and asked a lot more questions about the pair.

Then again, if Gabriel or Michelle could have known the future, they probably would have spared no effort to permanently kill Nero before he grew to become the monster that would terrorize the entirety of Gods' Nature.

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