When I get closer to the campfire, I can see not one, but three familiar faces.

““It’s you?”” All four of us simultaneously speak.

I had seen the two of the people before me not even one week ago. They are Elayne and Astrya. Elayne’s dark brown hair hangs loose down her back rather than her usual intricately braided style. Her scholarly aura is slightly disturbed by her surprise, but she quickly regains her composure. Astrya, on the other hand, still has her light brown hair tied in a pony tail. She is not clothed in her priest’s garb, but rather is wearing a loose fitting pale green dress.

The third person, however, is someone I haven’t seen since the beginning of the game. I knew he was alive since his name had not been greyed out on my friends list, but I hadn’t contacted him at all since then. His name is Venkon, and he is the only other blacksmith I know.

“Fancy meeting you all here.” I try to break the awkward atmosphere, “How do you all know this guy?” I point towards Phil, who is wearing a shocked expression.

“Y-you all know each other?”

“Yup. Venkon and I met around two hours into the game, whereas I travelled with Elayne and Astrya in the dungeon.”

“W-wait. So, the Quinn they had mentioned was you!” He stares in amazement with a hint of admiration.

“Haha, should be.” I ignore his expression and take a seat around the fire, “So, how have you all been?”

“Ahh, I’ve been well.” Venkon is the first to respond, “Since we last met, I’ve become the leader of my own guild called the Dishonest Saints. You may have heard of us, we’ve got close to 1,000 members as of now and are still growing.”

Nope. Never heard of them.

“Interesting. The Dishonest Saints, eh? What’s it like trying to manage a guild?” I inquire, “I’ve been considering starting my own.”

“Haha, to be honest, it’s a pain. I have so many responsibilities it’s not funny. My time for improving skills decreased dramatically once the amount of members grew over 100. Thankfully, I am able to push off some of those responsibilities on others and label it as a position.”

Venkon is still equipped with bronze armour. Apparently, he has not had time raise his blacksmithing to level 3.

“Damn, I hadn’t thought it would be that bad.”

“He’s just exaggerating,” Elayne interjects, “You can’t believe everything this guy says.”

Venkon’s reaction to Elayne is to just shrug it off as if it’s expected. Elayne, on the other hand, has a look of annoyance on her face. There appears to be some history here.

Astrya and Phil just have awkward expressions on their faces.

“Please,” Astrya pleads, “Don’t get started on this again.”

I lean towards Phil and whisper, “Is there some history between these two?”

Elayne and Venkon continue their bickering back and forth in the background, so Phil whispers back. “Haha, those two are actually brother and sister.” He looks over at them briefly before continuing, “I met Venkon through my trading and we soon hit it off, so when I brought up the topic of buying land and asked if he knew anyone interested he brought up his sister and her friend.”

“Brother and sister, huh? At least they have each other.” It’s not really a surprise that they could afford this either, because of what we went through in the dungeon.

“Yea, although it would be nicer if they didn’t constantly clash; however...” He takes a look over at them, “It can be amusing at times.”

It’s interesting to see this side of Elayne. It goes to show that certain people can draw out different personalities from another. My image of the scholarly figure is slowly cracking.

“Hey!” Venkon raises his voice, “Are you talking about us behind our backs?”

“Nope,” Phil quickly denies before adding a smirk to his expression, “We’re talking about you right in front of you.”

“Ahh,” Venkon exclaims in frustration, “Just forget about it. I’m getting hangry.” Speaking of which, so am I. I haven’t eaten anything since noon, yet already the sun has gone down.

“Let’s start dinner then,” Astrya offers, “Quinn, do you know how to cook?”

In reality, my cooking is limited to a select few dishes along with frozen, pre-prepared meals. While in game, I have been lazy lately and neglected my cooking skill; therefore, it’s still at level 1, and nowhere near level 2.

“I know how to cook some things.” I hesitantly reply, “I can’t guarantee their quality though.”

“Oh?” Venkon sarcastically interjects, “The powerful Quinn, the vanquisher of countless foes, the bane of spiders, is insecure about his cooking? hehe.”

“Hey! What’s with those titles?”

The other three start working in the background. They set a grill over the fire and bring out some raw deer meat.

“Elayne told me about what happened within the dungeon.” He takes on a serious tone, “How you basically saved them all.”

“Mhmm.” Astrya affirms, “We became stuck in a teleportation trap and he took charge to kill the hidden boss.”

“Oh?” Phil becomes interested, leaning his head in, “Do I detect a hint of admiration in your voice?”

The atmosphere around the fire suddenly took an awkward turn.

*Cough*

“Well, naturally I would be grateful to my saviour.” She states it as a matter of fact while her face shows a hint of red. She quickly busies herself by placing a piece of meat seasoned with salt and pepper over the grill. The sound of the meat sizzling draws everyone’s attention.

“I have an idea,” Elayne breaks the silence, “How about we each cook our own food and then compare to see whose is best.”

“Alright”

“Fine”

“Sure”

Everyone seems in agreement. We’re all making the same thing on the same fire, so there shouldn’t be too much variety, but I guess it is a way to break up the monotony.

“Well, that’s settled then.” Elayne then passes out a chunk of meat to everyone. “Astrya already has a head start, so there’s no time to waste.”

She proceeds to bring out a frying pan and chopping board from her inventory. She places the pan over the fire and proceeds to chop up some onions. She then scores both sides of the meat with grid lines and hammers it with a meat tenderizer. She sprinkles the chopped onion into the score marks and places the meat on the pan.

Immediately a nice scent wafts from her pan and drowns out all other smells. I can tell what she is trying to go for, with the onion tenderizing the meat, but shouldn’t it be marinated for longer with the onion? I have minimal knowledge on cooking, but I at least know that much. However, I cannot deny it smells good.

While all this is going on, the rest of us are just grilling the meat over the fire. Venkon and Phil look enviously at Elayne’s dish, but can only look at their own with disappointment; cursing themselves for not thinking ahead.

“Shit!” It doesn’t take long for the meat to take on a charred appearance and the smell of burning to come from one of the steaks. Venkon, in an attempt to beat his sister, had placed his steak too close to the fire. However this proved to be his undoing.

Smoke rises from the meat as he hurries to salvage it from the flames, but it is too late; the meat is already ruined.

“That’s a shame,” Elayne comments, “Weren’t you laughing about Quinn’s skill just 10 minutes ago? Look at his,” She pauses, “It at least hasn’t caught fire.”

“Shut up!” Venkon is clearly irritated by his sister’s remark.

Within a couple minutes, the rest of our steaks are finished. My mouth is already watering just looking at them. Elayne has a proud, almost smug, look as she gazes down at her steak and onions, while the rest of us carnivores are left with very primitive meals. Obviously, Elayne won the contest, but unfortunately for her, the only prize was bragging rights. As well as a delicious meal.

We finish the meal without any further conflict, and the girls decide to go to sleep early. They give the reason of going hunting early tomorrow morning before heading to their tents. I hadn’t paid much attention to the tents before, but they look fairly large. Almost as if a small room could fit within.

Phil adds more wood onto the fire, creating a large flame in the process. The surroundings have become dark, with the only light coming from the fire and the sporadic street lamps along the road. To not ruin the atmosphere, I keep my night vision skill unactivated. My night vision has already reached level 2, which enhances vision by 20% in the dark, but I find it very straining on my eyes if I leave it activated for too long.

The remaining three of us gather close around the fire; bathing in it’s warmth. This island is not exempt from the cold that accompanies the night and without the protection of trees, the wind sweeps unhindered over the mountain.

A calm settles over the campsite as I decide to pose a question from my mind. “So, do you find it worthwhile being in a guild?”

“Definitely.” Venkon pauses, “It’s reassuring knowing that someone has got your back, you know?” He continues, “Take hunting for example. Finding a hunting group only takes a few minutes, and you’re less likely to be kicked out of your spot. Also, there is a lesser risk of being pk’ed in the hunting grounds.”

“I see.” I stare into the fire, “I was thinking of creating one, but i’m not too sure of how to go about it.”

“Well, anyone can start one just by going through their player menu.” He continues, “Once you’ve. . .”

"Hey Quinn,” Phil starts talking over Venkon, “If you end up founding a guild, I'll join on the condition that I get a high position."

"I was going to give you one whether you wanted it or not."

"Sweet! What should we call ourselves? The Mighty Saints? The Hellfire Slayers? The Enemies of Desire? The Forsaken Wolves? Or how about The Crimson Maggots?”

"Pfft... You're even worse at name than I am!"

"Hey, come on." He says in a semi serious tone while putting another log on the fire, "I'm not that bad."

"Hey!" Venkon attempts to grab our attention, "Speaking of guilds, who do you guys think has bought that property right by the teleportation hub bridge?"

Phil is the first to answer, "I don't know, but whoever it is has pissed off a lot of powerful people."

"That's what I don't understand." I interject, "Are these people like children, crying when they don't get what they want?"

"Haha!" Phil gives a hearty laugh to the point of tears, "It really seems like that, huh?"

"Seriously though, why does everyone seem to care about this?"

"Well, there are two reasons. One reason is due to the extravagant cost. Even the best residential property only goes for 1 billion Tor." He continues, "And two, is just based off the Sacred Order's reaction. Since they had proclaimed the plot as their's, they are ready to kill whoever owns it."

"Would killing the owner really settle it?"

"Yup. There are three ways to obtain a property: buying it from the system, buying it from the player, and killing the player. The last option would put the property up for auction, where it could be bought for a possible low price.” My heart drops slightly after hearing that. Well, I don't have any plans on dying or selling the property.

"Is that so..."

Another wave of silence breaks out amongst us. The only sounds are the crackling of the fire and the minute movements of fidgeting. I look to the sky and see a host of artificial stars shining brightly without interference from light pollution. I haven't had a good chance to observe them since my time in the Pleylf forest.

Already the worth of items and properties has gotten way out of proportion compared to those simpler days. Back then, a copper dagger could fetch 50 Tor, but now an iron dagger will go for upwards of 5,000 Tor. Although, taken in the perspective of copper, silver, and gold, 5,000 Tor is only equal to 50 silver.

As hard as it is to believe, I’ve come to enjoy being in this world. The only disturbing thought is that my body on the outside is probably atrophying as a bunch of tubes and lines are inserted into every hole. Right now the media would still be able to push the governments into funding beds for us, but I pale to think of what will happen if this drags on too long.

Enough of that depressing train of thought.

The three of us continue stay up for another hour before retiring. I choose to stay here over night. It’s too much of a bother to leave and head back to the Prancing Mare. Neither Phil nor Venkon have room in their tents, so they just give me a blanket and let me fend for myself against the night. Slowly, my consciousness fades as sleep overcomes me.