Moonlight reflected off the river. It was enough for Freya to see large obstacles, but she felt confident that no one could see her interacting with her game screen. She had found a deer trail running alongside the river, which allowed her to turn her attention to typing instead of watching her footing. She opened the DM from K13 and finally answered.

[Freya Evenkey: I’m okay, I’m in a trial right now.]

[Freya Evenkey: Do you know a Red Star Lightning?]

Freya tried to structure her messages like the other game players. They always seemed to send straight-to-the-point, one sentence messages. However, Freya felt hers were a bit stiff and formal.

[K13: Never heard of them]

[K13: Are they a player?]

What normal person would have that name? Freya thought to herself before responding. She briefly explained their meeting and her concern that the demoniclast Daveth might have found him.

[K13: The only way to DM a player is to add them to your friend’s list]

[K13: The game doesn’t allow players to DM people that haven’t agreed to be friends]

[K13: Maybe Bis or Heilong knows him?]

Freya sighed. There was a very slim possibility, but it was worth exploring. However, for Freya, that meant explaining what she was doing.

[K13: I can ask if you want]

She bitterly smiled. K13 understood her hesitation, but she didn’t want to pass her burden off to him to explain.

[Freya Evenkey: No, I’ll ask in the group chat.]

It took her a little while to remember how to pull up the group chat, but soon her finger hovered over the chatbox. She had no idea where to begin. This group chat included Infamous Biscuit, Heilong, K13, Nightscythe, Hamra, and Scrimmancer. Perhaps she could just ask if any of them knew Red Star Lightning. But they’d surely have questions.

I should just explain from the beginning, Freya thought.

Stretching her hands, she began typing.

~~~

“And send.”

Freya watched the large chunk of text from the chatbox appear in the group chat. She reverted to her habit of writing in a continuous, letter-like way. But she thought for something like this it was more appropriate.

She explained everything from why she wanted to join the demoniclast trials to asking for help in reaching out to Red Star Lightning.

Nervously awaiting a reply, she had to slow her steps as the moonlight disappeared. The high overhead clouds dimmed the full moon. Freya yawned. Her lack of sleep from the night before and the full day of running and hiking caught up to her.

It would be a good time to sleep now, but someone will reply any time now.

She could afford to stop and sleep for a little bit. Given that she was the first to arrive on the top of Mt. Lowena, she was probably still ahead of the other participants. It was past midnight now; a few hours of rest would do her good. Struggling to keep her eyes open, she finally stopped and rested against a tree.

I’ll try to get a little sleep. That loud beep sound when someone responds back will wake me.

~~~

Sunlight hit Freya in the face. Blinking awake, she shot to her feet.

The blood rush to her head made her sway. Surveying her surroundings, she found to her relief that it was the early morning; the first sun rays had woken her up. She was still in good shape for the trial. However, no one had responded to her group chat message.

According to the setting in the group chat, only K13 had seen the message.

That’s odd. I did send it in the middle of the night, so I suppose it’s not surprising the other Earth players didn’t see it, but Hamra lives here. She will always get messages no matter what. Why has she not read it?

Biting her lip, Freya started walking down the river once again. She was tempted to DM Hamra, but now that the sun was out, she was hesitant to use her game interface.

Scrim explained the game messaging system to Hamra. She should know what it is. Could she have slept through the notification?

Freya found that hard to believe. The beep sound that accompanied messages being delivered was impossible to ignore. It had woken Freya up from a deep sleep many times, and she was a heavy sleeper.

As she continued down the deer trail that followed the river, she noticed multiple pairs of human footprints. Most had deer tracks on top of them, but one pair looked pristine.

Did someone pass me last night?

She wondered if it was another participant or perhaps just a demoniclast. However, it wasn’t long before she got her answer. Just an hour later, the flag came into view.

The red flag was planted in a small meadow. It hung like a large handkerchief since there was no wind. At its base stood two demoniclasts. Both had grey text boxes, indicating they were not players.

“Congratulations, you’re the second to reach this point.”