Kaldalis set about poking around the camp, looking for something to keep himself busy. As he moved, he realized that he didn’t feel tired past the initial inertia of getting up. At first he was concerned that exhaustion was going to catch up to him later in the day, but as soon as he started to think critically, it made sense.

Because of the streaming system, Monsoon would profit from increased active hours of the players. Right now, there weren’t systems in place to occupy every hour. Once the crafting stations were fully set up, no doubt some people would spend all night grinding up their skills. And if someone built a tavern, he knew that it would be full of drinking and improvised karaoke all night every night. Even if all the only result of the town being fully established was the Infernal Horde getting pushed back out of the immediate area, there would certainly be people venturing forth and doing quests and gathering at all hours instead of only safely during daylight.

In real life, he was just a man in a jar, right? Wasn’t he already technically sleeping, and having an online multiplayer dream sequence?

Maybe he didn’t have to sleep at all, and it was just a mental association with night that was driving him to bed.

If that was the case, he had an activity to chase at night to fill that extra time. He had his fishing. And with ten thousand pale perch to catch for the old man’s quest, every little bit counted.

He went out to the shore and saw that the tide appeared to be all the way out. The far end of the floating dock was only a few feet past the water line. It wouldn’t make for very good fishing, based on what he was told the night before.

Just the same, he walked out and tossed in his line. He brought in about a half-dozen more of the pale perch as the sun rose.

It helped.

Kaldalis got to enjoy about a half hour of calm, watching the sunrise and relaxing. It brought him peace. It also brought him three of the oilfish he needed to provide for the town construction, so it was nice to know that those were saltwater fish, and were caught out of the ocean instead of fished out of a river or lake deeper in the forest.

After just enough fishing to clear his mind, Kaldalis returned to the camp. It was just in time for the cooks to be starting to assemble breakfast, so he made polite conversation with them - just enough to keep his face associated with pleasant talk. A little familiarity went a long way when it came to the people cooking your food, after all. He didn’t even have to wait for a payoff as the kindly bhogad woman dishing out his plate of food added an extra scoop of scrambled egg onto his plate with a wink.

He was about halfway through the meal before Haldir sat down next to him. Kaldalis let the other vathon dig into his breakfast rather than start talking about their plans for the day. Not long after, Balrim sat down on his other side. Myrin joined him right as Kaldalis was finishing the last of his meal.

“So what’s the plan for the day?” Kaldalis asked Haldir once they were all together and listening. “Divide and conquer, you said, but how?”

“Here’s the situation,” Haldir said around a mouthful of scrambled egg. “We all need to provide a number of resources, both for the censer and for the reinforcement of the encampment. But we just need to provide those resources. We don’t need to collect them personally.”

“Ah,” Kaldalis said with a nod. He thought back to how splitting the party had worked out for him before and almost argued, but stopped himself. It wasn’t like he was going to suggest the three of them go do one task, and he take on another alone. He wasn’t some glory-hogging fool. And so he sat tight, leaving an awkward amount of silence between them.

“Right,” Haldir said, drawing out the word. When Kaldalis still said nothing else, Haldir continued. “We split up, two and two. One pair goes inland to get the junglewood and the cut stone for the town, along with the herbs, minerals, and fruit for the censer. One pair hits the beach to get the driftwood and oilfish for the town, along with the shellfish and coral fragments for the censer. We gather enough of everything for all four of us, and then meet up to divide our haul so everyone gets everything done with minimal fuss.” Haldir turned and looked through the gap in the encampment wall where the ocean was visible. “We could also gather materials for potions and other consumables, as long as we’re gathering things. Without knowing what’s waiting for us in the dungeon, we could no doubt benefit from some health potions.”

“If we see any clawed rock shrimp, we should take those, too,” Balrim added. “The guy I helped the other day taught me how to make those water breathing potions, and you never know when those will be useful. I have enough of the other materials, but the shrimp shells are the limiting factor.”

“We’ll take care of that,” Haldir said, gesturing towards Kaldalis. “He and I will hit the beach. You two hit the jungle.”

“Why?” Kaldalis asked. “Not that I mind an excuse to do more fishing.”

“Easy,” Haldir said. “Out in the jungle, nobody is going to see what you’re doing. On the beach, everyone will see you collecting things that aren’t part of any quest they’ve heard about. Maybe nobody says anything, but maybe they do. Maybe word gets around that the guy who tanked the raid boss in camp is collecting weird materials.” Haldir leaned in towards the rest of the quartet, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “And if that rumor starts circulating, then the League personnel hear that the big damn hero they respect is not just on the job, but giving it his undivided attention.”

“And Onirioago gets what she wants,” Kaldalis said, nodding.

“Yeah, she gets everyone to think you’re on her leash,” Myrin grumbled.

“Not that,” Kaldalis said. “The crafters and builders all get a security blanket. They’ll keep their heads down and go to work instead of fretting and hesitating and complaining.” He patted Haldir on the shoulder. “This is for the good of the whole camp. Excellent thinking.”

“We’re adventurers,” Haldir shrugged. “We have to extract value wherever we can get it.”

“So, not to be the wet blanket or anything… but we’re all going to still get credit for all this, right?” Myrin asked. “I mean, I get it that we’re supposed to turn in the materials for the other quest, but we’re turning in the censer stuff to you. How would you gathering the stuff for us even work?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Haldir said, his tone dismissive. “As long as we’re all in the same party group, quest progression will count for all of us.”

“I guess you get to make the rules when you’re the quest giver, huh?” Kaldalis asked.

“Not all the rules,” Haldir said with a thin smile. “But enough of them.”

Kaldalis already felt the tingle of Balrim inviting him to party. At his mental direction to join, HP bars for Balrim and Myrin appeared in the upper left of his vision. A couple of seconds later, Haldir’s health bar joined them.

“So, uh...” Balrim furrowed his brow, obviously choosing his words carefully. “You being in our party will affect our experience rewards, right? Will things be, um, harder?”

“What, because I'm at a higher level?” Haldir shook his head. “Everything scales. Rewards scale, enemy strength scales, all that.”

Kaldalis looked at him inquisitively. “So you won’t tank our progression, and you won’t make everything we face higher level, but you can’t hard carry us?”

“I mean, I’m only a little higher than you three. Even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to.” Haldir shrugged before returning to his meal.

Kaldalis thought it was odd to hear someone he was sure was an NPC speak so frankly about game mechanics.

Was Haldir actually an NPC? Maybe he was one of the developers playing a part?

Or were NPCs aware they were in a game? Their AI seemed awfully sophisticated, and each one seemed to have a unique look and personality. Some of them seemed integrated into larger systems. For example, his reputation among the league seemed to get him some amount of recognition among the individuals. Others didn’t seem as affected. Haldir certainly wasn’t in awe of him despite his apparent importance to the expedition leader.

That reminded him. He had that quest to meet up with Sivima for whatever special task she wanted done.

“Before we head out, I have to make a stop,” Kaldalis said.

“No problem,” Haldir said, shoveling the last of his breakfast into his mouth. “Let’s get moving now, though. Daylight’s burning.”