“Ugh. I just want to kill something.” Ethan’s voice was muffled by the couch cushions he’d face planted into.

“Dude it hasn’t even been a day.” David was back behind the kitchen counter, making himself a sandwich. “And you’re the one who said we needed to take a couple days in town.”

“I know but FUCK.” Ethan raised his head off the couch he was laying. “But I’m so bored.”

“How are you bored? You’ve been gone all morning.” David walked over and sat on the couch next to the one Ethan was currently laying on. “And get your feet off the couch.”

Ethan spun around and sat up.

“You know what I was doing? Helping Daniel find a Blacksmith who’d take him on.” He rubbed his temples trying to forget the mundane morning he’d experienced.

“And how’d that go?” David began eating his prepared meal. “You find him one?”

“Not yet. Leah is still out with him.” Ethan eyed his friend's sandwich as his belly rumbled. “You know how many blacksmiths there are? Hundreds. And they have to have an open apprentice slot, which most don’t. I’m starting to think we didn’t plan this out very well.”

He dramatically fell back over on the couch, resting his feet near David.

“He’ll find one. Just give it time.” David knocked his feet back onto the floor. “You check to see what the vault has you can use yet?”

Ethan bolted upright.

“I have not!” He said excitedly at the prospect of getting something as an upgrade as he hurried over to the communal chest.

“Have you already looked?” He called at David as he walked away.

“Yeah, take whatever you need.”

He immediately skipped the weapons tab, his axe was still more powerful than anything they had for this level he already knew. But other than the leather headband he’d picked up, he had nothing in the way of head protection.

Scanning through the list quickly, he saw there was only one option that would work for his current level:

Strong Corinth Helm

Quality: Good

Durability: 50/50

+2 Strength

+2 Constitution

10 armor

“A well made plate helm that offers good visibility.”

A series of rapid hand motions and the helm was in his hand. It looked like something a Roman gladiator would wear. Simple and shaped to fit his head without and flash to it. A large Y made up the face slit, without putting it on he felt it would give decent peripheral vision without the loss of protection and wouldn’t obstruct his breathing.

He hesitated before equipping it. Once he did it was bound to him. The stats were good, but he wanted to make sure David couldn’t use it.

“You sure you don’t need this helm?” He held up the armor in question, verifying again that their tank wouldn’t need it.

“Nah, there was one with better armor that I snagged earlier.” David called back from the couch without looking back.

As he raised it to his head, a prompt appeared asking him if he was sure he wanted to bind this armor to himself and he hit accept. It fit comfortably, the back extending down his neck provided a measure of protection from behind. The flavor text was right, his visibility wasn’t hampered too much. I’ll have to see if Daniel can find a recipe for this type of helmet in the future. He thought to himself.

“How’s it look?” Ethan turned to show it off to David behind him on the couch.

“Amazing. It really goes well with your flowing white shirt.” David said between bites of his sandwich.

Ethan rolled his eyes and returned to the chest, looking for anything else he could use. There wasn’t much left. Apparently his guildmates had gotten to their stash before he had. He did pick up two rings, one that gave him +1 to strength and one that gave him +2 to his dexterity. Both also gave him some additional points of constitution.

“Jesus, this is picked clean.” He lamented to David.

“Should have gotten there earlier.” His friends responded unhelpfully.

Ethan groaned.

“Guess I’m heading to the auction house.” He hated spending gold on early level gear. The prices were often higher than they had any right to be, opportunist players trying to make extra gold off the newly respawned.

After he’d unequipped his new helm he withdrew 600g from the guild vault. Most of the gold had come from their scouting missions, anyone could use it, but everyone also had contributed what they could through their own sales and quest rewards. It was more than he would need, but if the opportunity came to get something really good he wanted to be prepared.

“Laters.” He waved to David as he left.

The auction house was in the center of the original section of town, a fair walk from where Disorder had established their guild hall. At the start of the game, it had been just a handful of auctioneers selling whatever anyone brought it. Now it was much larger, encompassing two buildings with dozens of NPCs to accommodate the influx of players that had located themselves in Startesgarde.

The street he walked down was mostly residential buildings, other guild halls or NPC housing and taverns. Only a few small shops lined these streets and none of them crafters. When the council had taken over the city, they’d organized it into districts. All the crafters were close to each other, making it easier to shop for crafted gear. It also helped keep prices reasonable, if someone could walk down two buildings and find the same armor then no one could price it too high.

Old Town, where the auction house was, also had the massive personal bank. Players who weren’t in a guild or didn’t have a guild hall could use it to save anything they wanted through their deaths and not lose anything. Ethan’s account was dormant. Since they had their vault he hadn’t even checked what he had in the bank in a while.

He debated checking it, but remembered that he’d taken everything of value out a while ago. If there was anything left it was herbs or other materials he didn’t have a use for at the moment.

As Ethan passed one of the many taverns on the road, a large man in shining silver armor with a massive two handed sword sheathed on his back exited in a hurry, knocking him to the ground.

“Watch where you’re going!” The heavily armored man barked at him on the ground.

Ethan looked up and recognized the dark haired stranger who’d knocked him over.

“Fuck you Kevin.” He pushed himself to his feet, wishing he had his axe equipped.

Kevin was the leader of a rival scouting group. In a previous game he’d been a guild member, along with Leah, Daniel, and Sam. He had left the guild after he started a fight with another player over something dumb. Kevin had gone on to form his own guild, taking several of his friends, and had spent years at this point harassing Ethan and Disorder.

“Looks to me like you’re right where you belong. In the dirt, below me.” Kevin sneered at him, his black goatee rising with the snark of his comment.

“Wow Kev, you think of that on your own or did Jacob come up with it?” Ethan stared daggers at the Paladin. “He know you used to fuck his wife yet?”

Kevin, almost involuntarily, reached for the hilt of his sword. His gleaming metal armor creaking as he tensed. Ethan took a step closer. He could feel his inner rage building. He wanted Kevin to attack him. Even if there was a power disparity, the burning rage was needing to be quenched in violence.

“Come on Kevin. Hit me. I’m sure the raid clan would love it for you when you applied again, how many times is it now? Five? Six? I have no doubt that we’ll beat you to joining them, just like we do everything else.” Ethan knew Kevin had no idea of his familial connection to the Raid Coordinator, but if word got back to anyone in the raid clan leadership that Kevin had issues with a well respected contributor to their progress, he’d have a much harder time getting his guild accepted to the clan.

Kevin nervously looked around him, wanting to make sure no one had seen him reach for his blade. PvP wasn’t allowed in open streets. If one of the guards or PvP players that served as a player made police force had seen it, he’d be in trouble. He took a step back.

“That’s what I thought.” Ethan smirked at him, Kevin was just another bully, always worth taking down a peg.

“Enjoy it now asswipe.” He crossed his arms, trying to hide his frustration. “Your pathetic group wiped and now you’re even farther behind us.”

“We’ll get the next several levels scouted before you’re close to where you even were.” He continued gloating, his tone mocking.

Ethan said nothing. His jaw was clenched in determination, inside he was struggling with himself not to attack the man in front of him.

“That’s what I thought.” Kevin spit at Ethan’s feet. “You’re not even worth it.”

The larger man pushed past him, knocking him aside with his armored shoulder. Ethan kept glaring at him as he walked away.

Finally, he took a deep breath and turned back around, scanning the crowd to make sure no one had seen him and Kevin. He had mostly been bluffing. If Arianna found out he was fighting Kevin in public, not even being his sister would get his guild into the raid clan.

As he looked around he caught sight of a man in a black cloak trying to slink away.

Probably one of Kevin’s flunkeys. His anger began to return, several of Kevin’s guild members had once been a part of Disorder and had left with him. There was a chance this had once been a friend of his.

As he watched the man turned around, checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was following him and Ethan recognized who it was.

“Sam!?”