[Welcome back, Ethereal]

Sora entered the game, appearing within his outpost. The amount of players going in and out of the chasm was still pretty hefty, making the little outpost filled with discussion and laughter. Every now and then a ‘Phoenix Rising’ guild member could be seen walking through the crowd, with a group of players following them. Sora didn’t have anything to do here so he decided to leave, letting the territory coffer fill up for a while so he could come back and start making an actual outpost, instead of this hole in the floor with a few buildings. He decided to hunt a few more bosses down, the ones he could take on solo at least.

Sora began walking towards Frost Peak Village, thinking of what boss he should fight first. A boss he could solo would have to be level 40 or a level 45 with a low difficulty. His ears started to pick up complaints from passing players, all wishing that Frost Peak Mountain was closer. That suddenly gave him a clue about where he should go next. Sora had missed his mounts from the previous life, so he decided to go mount hunting instead of boss hunting. There wasn’t a lot of options for mounts at the moment, they couldn’t even be bought yet since it required a specific demon territory to be conquered. The only mounts he could think of were obtained from a village to the North-East of Var, the village specialized in training wolves to become mounts but would only let people they felt were family take the mounts. Sora had his destination in mind and started to head back to Var so he could take the flight service to a place close to the village.

Sora made it to Var without any problems, other than the players whispering things as he passed by or even completely becoming fanatic. There was even a girl who had offered to have his child, followed by her boyfriend also offering to have his child. Sora had been keeping his information public since it helped with publicity but he decided to hide it again after that incident. Sora entered Var and went straight to the flight service, the line was no longer as empty as it usually was since more and more players were funneling into the game. The entire city was beginning to seem too small, even with it’s huge size. Sora took a flight to one of the farthest towns from Var, a place called ‘Tidal Wave Pass’.

The town was located near the Eastern coast of the continent, it specialized in items from the sea. Swords were made from fish scales, Jewelry was made from pearls and coral, armor was made from shells, and the food was all fished up from the ocean. The town was somewhat of a tropical paradise and many players had already started to enjoy themselves here. Sora remembered that he had two solar worms in his inventory and was tempted to use them right now. He quickly put that idea aside, he wanted to achieve one goal at a time.

Sora started to make his way to the North of the town, taking a road that followed along the coast. The sand was so white that it almost looked like snow, with the foamy water brushing over it at a steady pace. The scenery was relaxing and the walk down the road didn’t seem too bad. After walking down the road for a few minutes, Sora suddenly made a sharp left and made his way through a forested area. The enemies here were all around level 30 so he was able to leisurely make his way through. The forest finally opened up after a long walk, revealing a plains area that was surrounded by trees. A small village could be seen within the center, located on a hill and surrounded by wolves of different colors. Sora started to walk towards the hill, stopping when the wolves started to snarl at him. A man wearing simple cotton clothing with some leather armor pieces over it walked out from the village. He signaled towards the wolves with his hand, stopping them from acting aggressive.

“Adventurer, what bring you to my village?”

“I was walking through the forest when I saw that your village was surrounded by wolves, I came here to make sure you weren’t being attacked.”

“Hahaha, your worries are well founded but these wolves are the only things keeping us safe.”

“You have tamed them?”

“Indeed. Through the efforts of many generations we have built a family of wolves that are domesticated.”

“That’s a very impressive feat, I don’t suppose you are willing to let me in on the secret are you?”

“I’m afraid our methods cannot be revealed to outsiders, I can however offer you the chance to become a guest to our village. If you prove yourself worthy of our hospitality, then other rewards could be gifted to you.”

“I would be happy to become a guest of your village.”

“Good, then follow me into the village. If you ever want to leave then make sure you have someone escort you or else the wolves might attack.”

Sora followed the NPC up the hill, into the village. Other NPCs looked at him weird since he was wearing such flashy armor. The man he had talked to was the village chief, which was pretty obvious by the way the other villagers treated him. After walking to the center of the village he turned around and pulled out a badge. The badge was a simple circle with a wolf in the middle. This item would let the other NPCs know that he was a guest within the village, while also letting Sora view his reputation.

“This badge will show your status as a guest within the village, be careful not to lose it. You can start to walk around but try not to do anything that makes the villagers uncomfortable.”

The chief gave Sora the badge before turning around and walking towards a fairly big building in the middle of the village. The badge disappeared from Sora’s hand and filled in the circular outline within his reputation menu, right next to the words ‘Wind Wolf Village’. Next to the badge was the word ‘Neutral’ and a number that indicated how close you were to the next reputation level. The reputation goes as follows; Loathed, Hated, Hostile, Cautious, Neutral, Acquaintance, Friend, Ally, Family. Reputation could be gained but could also be lost, to the point where NPC hunters might even come after you. Sora was aiming for the ‘Family’ reputation so he could obtain a wolf mount.

The first place Sora went towards was a building at the edge of the village, it had a fenced off area that was filled with baby wolves. The little wolves were extremely fluffy and looked like little balls of cotton hopping around. There was a NPC that wore high boots and a more rugged clothing style than most of the NPCs around the village. The NPC was a woman and measured up Sora as he walked towards her.

“You new around here?”

“That’s right, I just came through and thought I could help out a little.”

“You want to help? I got a job for you if you don’t mind a little dirty work.”

“I’d be glad to help.”

“Alright, the village has many benefits thanks to the wolves but we also have some downfalls. The biggest concern is the amount of feces that accumulated all over town. If you want to help, start by cleaning up any feces you come across.”

Sora could only sigh since this was the only thing he could do until his reputation ranks up. Luckily it doesn’t take too long and was pretty easy. Sora took out his shovel and started to scour the area. Many people would do much worse tasks if they knew they could get a mount, this little bit of work was absolutely worth it. Sora started to run around the village, cleaning up any feces he could find. The villagers seemed to be delighted as the village returned to a nice clean state. Sora was able to grind up to Acquaintance within just two hours of work. He returned to the NPC after making sure he was finished.

“Good job adventurer, the villagers seem to be really thankful for your work.”

“Is there anything else that I could help with?”

“You actually came at a good time, the baby wolves are acting up. They need to go to the other area so they can feed on their mother's milk but they won’t cooperate. Could you go in there and start catching them for me?”

“Got it.”

Sora went through the gate as the NPC opened it, looking at the little fluff balls that were running at a surprisingly fast speed. Sora went to grab the first baby wolf but ended up being spun in a circle by it. Sora suddenly remembered how tedious this part of the reputation grind was. He started to slowly creep up on a wolf pup that was facing the opposite direction, staying low to the ground so he could sweep it up in one motion. The wolf pup seemed to have felt his presence as it tried to bolt away, luckily Sora was close enough to catch it before it could get very far. He carried the pup to a side of the fence that had a bunch of female wolves on the other side. The wolf pup happily skipped over to the mother and started to cuddle next to it. Sora turned around and looked at the field full of little bouncing cotton balls before letting out a sigh.

…..

Nobunaga and Athenes were traveling up and down Frost Peak Mountain, collecting the Azure Spirit Flowers. This flower had quickly become Athenes’ favorite ever since she first saw it. Nobunaga didn’t mind running up and down the mountain since he saw that his little sister was having a lot of fun. The journey was easy for the most part, with only occasionally having to fight stray enemies that wandered around the mountain. Athenes still hasn’t found a use for the flowers but continued to collect them with glee. It wasn’t until they had reached the bottom of the mountain that they ran into an issue. A group of men that looked to be friends had crossed paths with Nobunaga and Athenes. One of the friends seemed a little obnoxious and had been whistling at the women that passed by him. His friends looked embarrassed and would hit his arm whenever he did so, making somewhat of a game for him. When he saw Athenes he had once again started his cat calling, deciding to take it a step further this time.

“Hey pretty lady, do you have a boyfriend? Do you need one?”

The friends just face palmed as they looked at the man that stood directly next to her, thinking that this guy was her boyfriend. The cat caller had noticed the man too but still thought he was being funny when he said that. Nobunaga had already started to draw his sword before he even finished talking. It only took a second for the man to be viscously attacked by Nobunaga, killing him before he was even able to draw his weapon. The friends just shook their head and sighed at the trouble he had gotten into.

“We are sorry for our friend, he had that coming. He is a good person so please don’t take it to heart.”

The group of friends just kept walking and Nobunaga could hear them talk about how the man he killed had always made trouble wherever he goes. This wasn’t the first time Athenes had seen this happen, she was already used to guys getting beat up by her brother when they tried to tease her. She still had the happy smile on her face as she once again started heading up the mountain to collect more flowers.

…..

Sora used [Relentless Pursuit] on a wolf pup as it tried to run away, giving him enough movement speed to catch up to it. It made a sharp right, making Sora slide as he switched his direction. Sora had been catching the pups all day and was on the last one. He was done with this tedious task and just wanted to finish it already. After a few more sharp turns, Sora was finally able to catch the wolf pup. He let the last pup go to its mother and cuddle up. His reputation becoming ‘Friend’ with the village as the pup found its spot next to its mother.

Sora had finally finished the task and reported back to the NPC that has been giving him the quests. She seemed a lot more friendly now, due to Sora raising his reputation. She was even showing a bright smile that was absent the last time he spoke to her.

“You have really helped me out a lot Ethereal, thanks to you our village has caught up in work. Things inside the village should be running smoothly now, go talk to the head of our guard to see if there is anything else you can help with if you want. You can find him near the entrance of the village, in the building made from bricks that has iron bars in some of the windows.”

Sora gave a simple farewell as he started heading back towards the area where he came in. The buildings all look like log cabins, with some made from bricks. The building that the head guard was in was only distinguishable thanks to the iron bars within the windows. Sora walked towards the doorway and was able to pass by the guards without being stopped. The inside of the building looked like a barracks, with many training dummies and equipment racks. There were also a few cells that had some people captive, one of which was signaling for Sora to come over and talk. It was a fat guy with a bald head, he looked around with shifty eyes to make sure no guards were nearby.

“If you help me bust out of here then I could give you rewards beyond your wildest dreams.”

“Why are you locked up?”

“Hehehe, I was caught going through the village records, trying to figure out how these people tame the wolves here. With your help we could find out their secret and get wolves of our own.”

If you are hated by the village then this was a way to let players get the wolf mount, it was a lot harder but if you are accidentally put on the villages bad side then it was the only viable way to get the wolf mount. Sora just walked away, ignoring the offers and threats that the man had started to yell out. He found a room with a desk and many papers thrown around randomly. There was an NPC dressed in sturdy looking armor that sat behind the desk, when he saw Sora come in he signaled for him to sit in the chair in front of the desk.

“I have heard of your services to our village, on behalf of the guardsmen we thank you for your efforts. This may be rude of me to ask, but we require your assistance outside of the village. Will you help us?”