It took the groups one hour march to reach the beginning of the forest. The area around Asiago was cultivated, but the farms and small villages closer to the woods had been pillaged and abandoned by the local population which had found refuge in the city or more inland. Meanwhile the travelers were making conversation and knowing each other. Jake became the self-appointed leader of our group, although for the first couple of days we would be accompanied by a guide named Jacob to teach us how to proceed. He had entered Endless fifty years ago, in AI time, and he had spent them in other worlds until now. His favorites were ones with wars against aliens or zombies or monsters, with some pauses to enjoy more mundane pleasures. He had started playing Age of Legends because he wanted to give a cut to futuristic warfare, so he chose something with a medieval style. All in all Zortex appreciated his background, having played himself that sort of games in the past, although they weren’t his favorites. His idea was to try those kind of worlds whenever he was blocked from AoL because of his death. Rizza was a quiet girl, almost shy, but the moments she could be alone with Jake she became a lot more lively. They probably balanced each other, with Jake being the extrovert and her being the introvert. She was a full mage, who specialized in electrical magic. She had entered Endless almost two years ago, in Endless time, and she had spent that time following around her sisters in many different worlds, then deciding to follow her own path here in AoL.

I wonder if their couple can last. I mean…appearance-wise we are all the same age, but mentally Jake is seventy years old, and she is in her twenties. Of course here in Endless the mind changes differently compared to the real world because there is no physical decay, still….fifty years of experience are not that small.

Gera was just average. Not too beautiful, but good enough in her own particular way. She had come to AoL because a friend suggested it, but they had not yet met each other because she spawned in a completely different continent. They were keeping in touch every time they logged out, but a trip that long to meet again in AoL would cost time and money, so they postponed their reunion until it became easier for both of them to travel. She had been in Endless for seven years and she had been switching worlds often. She also told us that as soon as this mission was over she would take a break and go to another world, where everything is aquatic. She also told us her class, even though most people are reluctant to do it with strangers they had just met; she was a ‘Common Soldier’, one of the most bland classes possible, obtained by just half-assed training with a sword. Shad explained by gestures how long he had been in Endless and showed them a small Decay Bolt and Entangle to make them understand his fighting style.

Jake can tank for the group, hopefully long enough for us to kill the enemies. He has a nice chainmail armor at least. Gera will be close to useless I believe, probably just good enough to take on a single Srenc, even though I don’t know yet how strong are this monsters. Rizza told us that she has quite good fire power, but it costs a lot of mana, so she will be able to cast only a few times and she cannot miss otherwise we are screwed. At least she has a minor healing spell, so after the battles are done she can help us recover. My role will be to block some enemies to let Rizza hit and help Gera survive long enough to make some damage. When we will have the upper hand I can start dealing damage myself.

We settled camp in a small abandoned village close to the border where the vegetation became more dense. This was one of the first places to be suffer an attack and it had been deserted since then. It took one more hour to complete the logistics and then everything was ready. Some of NPC soldiers were staying behind with the captains to work on fortifying the camp, as there was an high risk of suffering a counterattack sooner or later in the expedition. The travelers would enter the forest and do some reconnaissance for the first day, mostly learning the tricks to do some scouting as they would be trained by a ranger each. There were twenty groups in total and the anticipation was gnawing at them. It was just the beginning of the mission, so the orders were to not stray far away from each other, thus in case of an encounter groups could support each other.

“Listen everyone. We all know why we are here today. Civilians are at risk for their lives and the loss of farming land is straining the economy of the nearby towns, but that’s not the real reason this mission was created. You are here because you need the experience. Basically you are just here to level up. Srenc are weak creatures in this world and could be dealt with ease by any warrior worth mentioning. Almost one hundred of you are present, but this hunt could be easily completed by a few level 100 travelers in a matter of hours. You are the chosen of the Gods, and you must grow strong to defend humanity in the years to pass. Everyone has his own path to strength and for most of you it begins here, in this small corner of our Alabar nation. Now you can go into the forest and show if you have what you need to become a legend. Is that clear?”

“Yeah!” half of the people said.

Captain Canter gave his usual speech, but this time more travelers joined the chorus of appreciation. It was evident that the excitement was rising now that they were a few minutes away from the beginning.

“Ah! I almost forgot. If you want to get paid for your kills you must cut the horns from the Srenc and bring them back. It’s 5 silvers a horn” the Captain said.

Why no ‘Is that clear’? He got out of character.

“Are you ready? We move out in two minutes, so if you have to say goodbye to anyone do it now.” Our scouting trainer said. Jacob. His name is Jacob. I had almost forgot.

Gera went to say bye to some people she had befriended during the trip and Jake went to talk with his two friends he was separated from, Rizza in tow following him, probably to not be left alone with me and Jacob. Our ranger had told us two minutes, but in the end it became ten minutes with all the chaos ensuing from people moving around, hugging, jesting and laughing. That’s what I hate about crowds. Everything slows downs and people like me are made to wait. I hated it before entering Endless and now even more.

Everyone was finally back in their own teams and people started spreading out following their supervisors.

“Let’s make the group now. We will share the experience and we will see each other positions in the map”

Map??? Do we have a Map function???

“Map” Zortex whispered not letting anyone hear him. In front of his eyes a squared map formed. There was the village in the south-west part of it with the word ‘Camp’. In the direction they were moving there was just a grey area with a green cut in the path they had just taken.

“Wider” another whisper from Zortex and the zone encompassed became bigger, with the ‘Camp’ centering in the square. “Wider” and again the same happened, only now in the visible area Asiago appeared.

It seems like the places I passed through become visible and the rest is just a grey area. What if I buy a map in a store? Would grey areas become visible even though I haven’t visited them yet? Once again I acted without thinking. Of course there is a Map in the System. I could have exited the sewers the same way I entered and I could have moved in the city much easier instead of memorizing the streets.

Jake had already grouped with Rizza before leaving the camp, so he shook hands with Gera to form the bond of the group and then came to Zortex. They had already sparred in the past, so Shad had no trouble with physical contact with him, thus they shook hands and a notification appeared:

Jake invited you to a group. Will you accept?

Y/N

Zortex thought yes and a new notification appeared:

You are now part of the group: Team 17

Members:

Jake* level 2

Gera level 1

Rizza level 1

Zortex level 8

Zortex had already asked Endless how names worked. Would his real name appear to the other people or the one he had been using around? What would happen if he knew more than one person with the same name? Can names be changed after some time?

Endless told him that the names appearing with the notifications were the ones he had in his mind for each person. At the moment he was seeing his real name in the notification, but each person would see something different depending on how they named him in their minds. Probably in their eyes right now it was written ‘Shad’ or ‘Creepy dude’ or ‘Scary face’.

The * symbol on Jake meant that he was the leader of the group. The levels instead were the real ones because everybody must know them to make the group. Experience is divided depending of the level of the person, so to avoid to group with people with high level difference the number is shown to each member. The rules were that the higher the level the more experience the member would get. For example if a lvl 90 grouped up with a level 1 he would suck almost all the experience, so it would be inconvenient for the noob to stay with the pro. At that moment Zortex was the highest level, by what seemed a large margin, but it wasn’t as bad as it appeared. A level difference below 10 makes little difference in the experience distribution and considering how easy it is to make the first 4-5 levels the difference would disappear after a few kills. Zortex knew all of this by having asked Endless before leaving for the mission.

They were moving through the zone where the trees were still sparse, together with a few other groups. Every two minutes a team would change directions and enter more deeply into the forest. There were only two other groups left with them when Jacob signaled them to follow him. The first half an hour was still just walking with the forest becoming a bit darker. At a certain spot Jacob stopped and motioned them to his position.

“Look here. You can see the stomped grass and over there the soil has been moved. There are tracks leading to the east. Here something passed by not long ago. These are not signs of a Srenc hunting party, but if I am correct those are the tracks of a Guf. It is a medium sized monster that can reach 500 kg when adult. They are quite docile, but when attacked they become aggressive and prefer to fight rather than ran away. Considering your levels you could probably take one down, but not without some of you dying. It is still important to look for them because Srenc could be hunting them for food”.

They continued for a while, with Jacob showing how to move through the underbrush making as little noise as possible, or to follow tracks to sources of water, or how to use trees to hide or as fighting ground. The ground was flat, so there was no need to know anything about ground conformation in an uneven surface. When they had started, there was tension and excitement, all four of them ready to be attacked at any moment, but after hours seeing only birds and insects they got bored and relaxed. His teammates lost focus and just followed behind Jacob half listening, however Zortex was still taunt, aware that danger could come at any moment. He had made mistakes in the past and he would not repeat them again. Relaxing was what could get you killed.

In the end nothing happened. Before evening they started to go back to camp. The return trip was as uneventful as the rest of the day. Jacob had waited so long to signal to go back, because he wanted them to still be in the forest when it became dark, so that he could teach them how to settle in the forest to be protected. During the night they could not move around without the light, and using the Light spell was out of question, as it would be like painting a big target signal on their backs. Zortex laughed to himself, thinking that at night it would be his perfect time to move around. After the explanation on why not to use the light Jacob casted the spell himself to go back the rest of the way. His orders where to bring them back before tomorrow, so he considered himself close enough to safety to risk an hour of travel by light. They also saw another team far in the distance with their own light and they united to get back together.

Day 1 and nothing happened. Boooooring.