Well… despite having been told not to keep someone waiting… it was a little difficult to do that in actuality. The Crimson Hall was all the way out in the Light Marshes, and I still had yet to leave the Capital. As for the only way out of the Capital, you had to pass a certain level threshold to do that. More specifically, you had to be Level 15.

I’d tried to cheese my way out of it by running straight for the Roots right after Rosa left, but alas—

“Halt! Only Champions above Level 15 are allowed beyond this poi— Hey! No jumping the Roots!”

—I awoke at an Outer City spawn point after trying and failing to challenge the Capital Guards.

So, unable to avoid it any longer, I did some quest grinding. Went back and did some errands for Rosa (not the creepy one. This one was just a quest spitting hologram at the base of the Great Oak, who seemed to be void of any personality) until I levelled up to Level 10.

Then with a total of 3+1 Skill Points, I got the skill Compensation to double the quest rewards to quests I did perfectly (which included exp points). Together with my Experience raising Perk and Compensation, I went ahead and did some fetch quests and hunting quests (relatively generous quests which had been unlocked from reaching Level 10) for the various NPCs in the Inner City until I got to Level 15.

Most of the quests I’d gotten were from Richard, who was all too willing to hand out quest after quest regarding bringing his daughter, Emmie, to various places in the Outer City to play.

It wasn’t all that hard, just bringing her to look at this particular river, or beating up some slimes in front of her. All very straightforward quests, and quite easy to get done perfectly. Besides, I quite enjoyed her company, to the point of agreeing to bring her along on quests other than Richard’s.

“Mr Luck, I found another one!” Emmie came over to me for the umpteenth time to show me a spider she’d caught.

“Great! Thank you, Emmie,” I took the spider from her, ticking off the fifth and final spider I needed to bring to Poppy the seamstress. “Ready to go home?”

“Yep!”

I took hold of her hand and teleported to the Alliance’s Guild Hall. While I had figured out how to work the Guild’s warp function, I had also happened to figure out that you could take an NPC with you if you were holding onto them during the teleport. It certainly made the outings with Emmie a lot easier, since we were spared the time trekking up and down the Great Oak.

Emmie shook herself free, running out the Guild Hall and down the stairs. I followed after her, finding her happily chattering about the spider hunting to Lydia, her mother.

“And then shing! Mr Luck threw out all these knives and bam! The slimes exploded!” I waved goodbye to the two of them as I headed to the seamstress’s to turn in the spiders, Emmie’s chattering growing further and further away,

After four day-night cycles (or half a day, according to the clock in the inventory) of grinding, I was finally nearing the limit of Level 14. With all the time I’d spent grinding, I was tempted to ignore Rosa’s invitation and go test my new limits within the dream. But then again, keeping someone waiting wasn’t very kind, was it?

I reflected my excitement to the seamstress as I slid the spiders over the counter to her.

“Are you leaving the Capital, sir?” Poppy asked, handing over my Quest rewards.

“Yep, I’m going through the Forest to the Light Marshes,” I answered, checking my status as the experience rewards went through. And three, and two, and one, Level 15!

“I wish you the best of luck, sir,” said Poppy politely. “I hear that the Redcaps there get more aggressive at this time of year, so I would advise caution.”

“Thanks, Poppy,” I replied.

As I walked out of the shop, I considered my status menu.

Bad_Luck

LV 15

Class: Kobold

Guild: Chosen Ones’ Alliance

HP: 500

MP: 40

Stamina: 20

Attack: 100 + 180

Defence: 1

Speed: 4

Dexterity: 1

Skills:

Short-range Teleport (3)

Throwing Knives (3)

Compensation (3)

6 Skill Points remaining

Hmm… With 6 Skill Points, I could either get two 3-cost skills or one 5-cost one. Or, I could save up for a big 7-cost skill afterwards. Honestly though, that last one was probably off the table until I was higher level and had a bigger MP pool. Fundamentally, which one I picked depended on what I was missing at the moment, be it movement abilities or attack power.

I decided to go with something that I didn't usually do until late game, something that would raise my attack power. I exited the Kobold’s Skill Tree, and instead chose to get two non class specific Fae skills.

Gift of the Wind (3)

5 MP cost. Cooldown: 15s

Grants the user 20% increased speed.

Gift of the Sun (3)

5MP cost. Cooldown: 15s

Grants the user 20% increased attack.

Gift of the Wind, and Gift of the Sun. Or in other words, a skill to buff speed (including attack speed), and a skill to buff attack. Both these skills had low MP cost, having a buff time of 10 seconds each and a cooldown of 15 seconds.

The Gift of Wind would double my Speed, letting me attack twice as fast and theoretically doubling my damage per second.

The Gift of the Sun was self explanatory.

Having a low cost, they would let me raise my damage per second without limiting my Short-Range Teleport options by taking up too much MP. Gift of the Sun would be less useful later on as I gained access to more powerful skills, but I could always replace it when I got to that point.

Then, I set to binding my new skills to some actions. While it seemed as if my body automatically knew how to jump twice my height or dash 5 meters in one go, things like skills or the inventory needed a command to be able to execute, either by saying the name of the skill out loud or by binding them to a key action.

I bound Short-range Teleport to snapping my fingers. I decided to use vocal commands for Gift of the Wind and Gift of the Sun, except replacing the command names with Speed and Attack.

And now, with my skills in order, my Level up to standard, and my quests done with, I was ready to leave the Capital.

***

The guard at the gate didn’t try to stop me this time when I tried to leave the Capital, though he did make a half-hearted attempt to convince me to not climb over the root wall.

“Champion, the gate is right over there,” he said, pointing in the direction of said gate.

It was a tiny, wooden door stuck in the side of a massive, entwining bundle of roots, painfully ordinary compared to the rest of the structure surrounding it.

“Noted for next time,” I told him as I cleared the final thick bundle of roots and popped up over the wall to be met with a magnificent view.

The Forest was massive. Massive, not as in “it was massive in volume” (though admittedly it was), but as in “it was massive in everything”.

Picture yourself, a normal sized human in a normal sized forest, with tree branches overhead and the sun shining in through the leaves. Then shrink. And shrink and shrink and shrink, till you find yourself wading in fallen leaves, till mushrooms at the base of the trees come up to your waist. That was how massive the Forest was.

Sitting atop the Roots, I was given a good amount of height to see farther than I would have been able to if I went through the tiny door. The sunlight dappled in through leaves nearly the size of me, shining onto the forest floor in ribbons of shattered gold. Trees stood in solemn, woody, pillars, rows of sentries guarding the Capital of Briarwood.

The forest floor was covered in fallen leaves, the greens and yellows of the undergrowth adding a nice complementary effect to the browns and reds above. The sound of the wind rustling through the leaves filled the air with a comfortable ambiance. I would say that the smell of the earth filled the air, but in the dream, there were no smells to be had.

I slid off the top of the Roots and dropped down to the ground. My fall didn’t disturb any of the leaves covering the ground on the way, because those seemed to be static images pasted to the floor. Which put a damper on the beauty somewhat, but oh well, you couldn’t have everything.

At first, I walked, drinking in the sights and the sounds that were both familiar yet foreign to me. Seeing things in person instead of through a computer screen was definitely a whole lot more of an experience. I took my time checking on the things I knew were there from my experience in BR, inspecting glitches exclusive to the Forest that I knew I could exploit, playing around with some of the mobs for a while.

Then, I decided to test out my newfound physical competence.

For the rest of the journey, I flew like the wind, dashing from tree to tree high above the png of the forest floor. Although the experience was lacking somewhat, without the feeling of the wind whipping your face (because the wind was a sound file, and didn’t actually exist), being able to go as fast as a car was still exhilarating.

I got a change of scenery when I got to the Light Marshes, having traversed a small portion of the Forest to get there. Here, the forest undergrowth gave way to half submerged patches of grassland, fog creeping low over the water.

Jumping down from the trees to land in the grass, my landing made a squelching noise as my boots collided with what was presumably mud at the bottom of the marsh. Presumably, as there was no squelch sensation to be had, only the sound.

Off through the fog, I could see the vague figures of houses, and even farther in, the scraggly shapes of crooked swamp trees. These were the Light Marshes, where the Kobolds of Briarwood dwelt.

I threaded through the marsh towards the houses, navigating my way around Slowness inflicting puddles that barred my path. Those puddles were deeper than they looked, and sometimes there would be Level 30 flesh eating mermaids hiding in them.

Putting mermaids in a marsh was an odd choice on account of the devs, but it was what it was. Some people theorised that they got chased out of the Lakes of Luna by the nixies, but I was a bit sceptical about that.

As I got closer to the ruins, more and more floating lights began appearing through the fog. The Will O Wisps in BR were good, unlike their mythology counterparts, guiding your way through the fog to friendly Kobold encampments.

Walking through the ruins, small, hooked noses were beginning to peer out from behind crumbling walls. Eventually, I began to see signs of life.

The Kobolds were small fae, about the size of children, with big feet, big ears, and noses that looked like question marks. Despite their childlike size, their faces were that of adults, even elderly looking at times.

Despite how their walking animation looked like they were slapping their feet across the mud, they moved surprisingly quietly, not making a sound till they were upon you.

Atop their heads were bright coloured caps adorned with trinkets. Some had feathers in them, some pinecones, others had bells. One even had a huge thimble sewn to the end of the hat that conked solidly down by his feet, making it a miracle that he didn’t tip over backwards.

This was Bog Down, one of the few friendly settlements in the Light Marshes. Filled with Kobolds, Bog Down seemed more like an army camp than an actual village. No houses, no homes, just rows of camouflaged camping tents nestled amongst the ruins of stone houses.

Lean, dagger armed Kobolds perched atop stone pillars on lookout, while others formed groups carrying fishing poles on their backs. All of them looked solemn, contrary to the typical impression of mischievous sprites, and they dragged their feet when they walked.

There were other Kobold settlements, of course. I just picked this particular one because it was the closest to the Crimson Hall.

Some settlements were friendly.

Others were filled with hostile Kobolds that wore red hats, known as Redcaps for self explanatory reasons.

This settlement’s randomly generated village chief turned out to be the thimble Kobold, and I managed to convince him to let me complete a few quests in exchange for his help.

“The Redcaps have been coming out of the Crimson Hall in droves. They drive the critters around these parts wilder than usual.” he remarked, staring grumpily around the drab looking village. “As a result, the mermaids have been getting rather frisky as of late. The Bog Beasts too. They chase the fishers away from the fishing holes, stop us from getting a good catch. Clear them out, won’t you? All six groups of them?”

Three groups of mermaids and three groups of Bog Beasts. I checked the quest description. Level 30s and Level 20s. This was harder than the fetch quests I’d gotten back in the Capital, especially at my level.

Would take some effort but it was doable. I’d have to complete this quest at one point anyway, since it was the only way to unlock the Crimson Hall.

Which was where Rosa’s mysterious confidant was supposed to be. I wondered what they were waiting for me for.

I sped over the marshlands towards my next destination, Bog Down slowly shrinking further and further away into the distance until it was nothing but a spot on the horizon. I made sure to check the map to confirm that I was heading in the right direction.

On the way, I passed by the Crimson Hall itself. It was a huge, Victorian mansion standing on an island of particularly dense fog, a region of the Light Marshes known as the Misted Bog.

Typically, you would walk down a long winding path from Bog Down to get here, following the Will O Wisps until they faded away in the fog, and the sound of hunting dogs resounded in the distance. Then, you would step through the mist, till the road behind you was shrouded in fog and you could barely see your fingers in front of you.

And then, a spark of light! You would hurry forwards, following the light of the lanterns. The grass beneath your feet would turn to gravel, then stone cobbles as you entered the vicinity of the Crimson Hall. Drawing closer and closer, till the mansion itself, constructed out of massive blocks of stone, came emerging out of the mist, curling ivy growing wild upon the iron wrought windows, its great gates swinging open in the nonexistent wind.

Taking a detour off the path, I traversed my way through the waterlogged gardens to check and see if I could skip the quest and get inside prematurely. Sadly, it was not to be. The massive front doors (and back doors) stayed shut to me, the gaps underneath too small to wriggle through.

The windows were occupied by dried up corpses hanging off the edge by their hair, not to mention barred with iron even when I chanced getting up close and personal with a zombie. Not even the actual way in opened up, no matter how much I knocked on it.

So I left the mansion and continued on my way to my actual destination. A spot close to where the groups of mermaids and Bog Beasts were. Another village.

Of Redcaps.

I took a flying leap and perched myself atop a half broken down flagpole, overlooking another set of ruins. The remains of another Human village, but this time covered in ragged flags and decorated with animal skulls. Some Kobolds stood guard at various points in the village, their eyes beady and sharp, blood red caps positioned atop their heads.

I watched as one of the guards sneezed, only to be slapped by its companion. The Redcaps were a nasty bunch, apparently even to their own allies. When aggroed, they attacked relentlessly, coming at you all at once with no regard for their own survival. Not only did they come in droves, they’d also follow you to the ends of the earth if you didn’t slaughter them all.

They also happened to aggro to any other mob that attacked them.

“Throwing Knives.”

I activated the skill and launched a knife at the fellow who slapped its friend. The level difference made it impossible for me to kill it outright. The knife stabbed it straight through the chest, taking off a reasonable chunk of HP before dissipating.

The Redcap shrieked. Its friend stared at it in shock, and then began screaming as well. One by one, the Redcaps on guard began sounding the alarm, stomping their big feet against the ground and wailing at the air.

Out of the cracks and crevices of the ruins, Redcaps began pouring out like rats. Big and small, thin and fat, they all came running out of the woodwork with wicked looking daggers, their beady eyes spinning around in their sockets trying to catch a glimpse of the intruder.

Those beady eyes zeroed in upon me.

Either my plan would work, or I would get mauled.

“Let’s go, boys!” I shouted at them, and took off.

There was a loud, collective scream of anger, then the sound of stampeding pigs as the Redcaps began running after me. I sprinted across the marsh, maximising my dash to the fullest as I sped over ponds and fields of grass. From the sound of it, the Redcaps weren’t having too much trouble matching my speed even when there were so many of them, the distance between us never seeming to grow even as I ran faster and faster.

I chanced a glance backwards. What I saw was a whole tidal wave of jangly red caps, bouncing up and down as the Redcaps charged behind me.

They were closer than I thought.

I began using Short-range Teleport to zip past the Slowness ponds rather than go around, briefly checking my map every so often to make sure I was going in the right direction.

First group of mermaids should be right around… here— oop, almost got me there. I slashed at the mop of seaweed hair that had appeared in the bog below my feet, razor sharp teeth getting a full crunch of my Sorrow before I dragged it out of its mouth and dashed to land.

The Redcaps had no qualms about going around, and they just charged straight into the pond, their arms floundering as the mermaids began gnawing on whatever had just stumbled into their territory. I counted three slimy fish tails splashing around in the water as the Redcaps began pouring in.

If I was right, even though the mermaids were higher level than the Redcaps, their meagre numbers meant that the Redcaps would be able to finish them off no problem.

I led the remaining Redcaps that had sidestepped the pond back around a few more times, making sure that everyone had had the chance for a soak.

Eventually, the quest marker dinged, signalling that I had cleared out one camp. The mermaid’s remains floated to the surface in the form of their drops, along with the drops of the sacrificed Redcaps, but I didn’t have the opportunity to pick them up.

On to the next location.

I took off again, the Redcaps that hadn’t died in the scuffle once more following behind me as I led them towards a group of Bog Beasts.

They looked kind of like fish with limbs, with huge bulging eyes, and flailing webbed arms. There were five of them this time, but they were all Level 20, so they weren’t too difficult for my impromptu army to dispatch. I made sure that every Bog Beast had flailed its last before continuing on, my slightly diminished but still girthy army stampeding behind.

I felt like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, leading the rats out of the city and into the ponds to drown. Except the rats were head biting fairies and there was no music.

By the time we got to the last group (another 5 Bog Beasts), the massive Redcap horde had been shaved down to three valiant warriors, aggressively sprinting after me waving their little daggers.

I led them through the Bog Beasts where they were mercilessly slaughtered, before taking care of the Beasts themselves. It took me longer than I would have liked to get rid of them, even with Gift of the Sun and Gift of the Wind, but then again, that's what I got for coming to this area early.

I then had to make the rounds, retracing my steps to pick up whatever loot I had left behind during the rampage of the Redcaps.

By the time I got back to Bog Down, the village chief had apparently heard the news and was looking a lot more chipper. For my efforts, I was awarded a new accessory, 10k gold, and 5 whole Levels.

“This is an heirloom passed down through our clan for generations,” said the Village Chief, bowing respectfully as he handed me a ring that looked like it was woven out of strands of grass. “You may have it as thanks for clearing out the camps for us.”

Oho! An accessory? For little old me? Don’t mind if I do.

I took the ring into my hands and immediately inspected it.

Ring of Dimensions (B)

SPD: +2

Increase ACCESSORY equip slots by 1

Argh! I mean, it wasn’t the worst I could get, and it still gave me two more speed points, but damn!

The Ring of Dimensions was one of the potentially good B accessories dropped by mobs in the Crimson Hall. Based on how your RNG luck was, you would get a random equip slot increase. You could equip one more shirt, or another pair of pants, or another five slots in your Inventory…

The one I was hoping to get was the one that would allow me to equip another weapon, but that was down the drain. Oh well, at least this one wasn’t the Inventory one, else I would really be upset.

“What is wrong, Champion?” the village chief questioned. “You look upset.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” I shook my head and equipped the ring. “Don’t sweat it.”

“I can see that you are disappointed,” the chief said mournfully. “But I know what you come for. Come with me, I will offer you passage to the Crimson Hall. It is the least I can do”

“Already?” That wasn’t how the script was supposed to go. It was usually three hunting quests in exchange for unlocking the Crimson Hall dungeon.

“Yes, yes. You have been a great help. You cleared all six threats, and even destroyed that large Redcap village encroaching on our territory before I could ask you to,” the chief shook his head. “An eye for an eye, as they say. Repay mischief with mischief, and repay favour with favour. As chief of Bog Down, it would be most shameful of me if I were to ignore your deeds and continue with the usual… proceedings.”

With one wrinkled hand, the chief waved me over to a corner away from the other Kobolds, his demeanour secretive as he whispered. “Our once Mistress in the Hall wails each night, shaking the Marsh with her cries. She has gone mad with grief.”

“She slings her servants out the windows by their hair and bends the Kobolds of the Hall to her will. Any who draw near are tainted by her madness, growing restless and aggressive. Such is the origin of the Redcaps.”

I nodded along, pretending to be shocked and horrified, as if it were the first time I was hearing of this issue.

“If granting you passage would put her troubled soul to rest, then so be it. You already have our trust, Chosen One. We lose nothing from guiding you.”

I followed behind the chief as he took off at a leisurely gait, receiving a quest to escort the Kobold safely to the Crimson Hall.

Along the way I exchanged my skill points for a 5 cost skill, Candle Flame, letting me summon up to three nifty balls of fire that spat smaller balls of fire at my enemies.

That, along with the stats from the level up, made the process of dispatching all the incoming Redcaps a lot easier than it used to be.

The escort was completed without a hitch. We successfully traversed the Misted Bog, passed through the gates of the Crimson Hall and once again stood in front of the great doors.

The village chief walked up to the door and rattled the doorknob. Hearing no response, he shook it harder. He then sighed, and gestured for me to follow him down a small side path into the gardens.

“Back in the day, we would run up to the doors, rattle them, then run off as the servant opened the door to nothing,” he remarked to me, hobbling across the overgrown lawn. “After a while, the Mistress was the only one who would indulge us in our fun. She had such a lovely pouting face. A shame that the Marshes fell to Ruin.”

“The prank hasn’t worked since, eh?”

“No…” the Kobold sighed. “Hasn’t worked since.”

We strolled around the corner into the innermost part of the gardens. There, sitting fenced off from the rest of the place, was a small cemetery.

The chief strutted up to one of the graves — one with a headstone much larger than the rest, and tapped his shoe against it. With a slow creak, the grave slid open to reveal a narrow corridor leading into the earth.

Escort Quest Complete!

500G

“Worry not about desecration. This grave has been empty for ages, the passageway belonging to the Kobolds,” said the chief proudly, ushering me into the dark tunnel. “Follow it all the way in, and you shall find yourself in the Crimson Hall.”

“Thanks,” I climbed into the darkness, looking back up at the chief at the entrance. “I’ll see you later?”

Silence.

“I’d rather not,” the chief’s face fell, as if remembering something nasty. “Your kindness is appreciated, but her Highness does not trust Chosen Ones. Only quests, says her Highness. Only interact for quests.”

His face then went pale.

“I beg your mercy. His Majesty must not hear of this. Good luck on your quest, and goodbye. I hope we never meet again.”

Before I could ask him what he meant, he slammed the grave shut, leaving me alone in the dark tunnel.