An eternity later, I regained control of my body. The others were sleeping, so I guess they didn’t notice.

“Maybe they fixed the logout issue!”

I opened the menu, and to my great disappointment, saw that not only was the logout button still missing, the UI had been not-so-subtly changed, it now only had the basic character sheet that I was used to, and the inventory system. Much to my surprise, they had reduced the number of inventory slots down to just one that sat in the corner of the character sheet. The goods I had been storing in it up to that point spilled to the ground around me. Luckily, when we had geared up in town, we had the foresight to buy some large leather rucksacks for increased carrying capacity.

Cursing, I began to gather up the gear that had spilled around me in a circle. Having managed to just barely pack my things away, a wave of tiredness overtook my body. I guess I had pushed myself too much. I nudged Nathan with my toe, rolling him onto his back.

“Wha?” he asked blearily.

“Your watch.” I said, yawning.

He sat up with surprising speed and rubbed his eyes, “On it.”

We high fived, and I laid down in his bedroll. A few winks would clear my mind.

***

The smell of bacon roused me from my slumber. Laurels’ silhouette in front of the fire made me smile.

“Who decided bacon was important to bring? That person deserves a raise,” I stretched lazily and took a place beside Laurel, who kissed my cheek and continued frying the pork she had shaved from the ham she had purchased the day before.

“You know that was me.”

“You get a raise."

She swayed and bumped me with her hip as she cooked.

“Find me coffee and we’ll be even,” she grinned.

“Say, where did Nate go?" I asked, finally noticing that he was nowhere to be seen.

“Ah,” She replied, “He said he was going to scout the area out before we took off for the day.”

“Good man. Say, did you notice the update?” I asked as I shook the sand out of my boots before sliding them on.

“Now that you mention it, I did have kind of an issue with my inventory,” she replied.

“Yeah, I was awake for the update. It was super weird. Did you notice anything different other than the inventory thing?”

“Now that you mention it, things seem a bit more.”

“A bit more what?” I asked.

“More everything! Just generally more intense. Just wait till you taste this!” She turned and offered me a wooden plate of. Bacon and fried potatoes.

I accepted the food gratefully, and sat. The bacon looked amazing. Perfectly cooked, somewhat caramelized, and the potatoes a beautiful brown, dripping with the bacon grease they were cooked in. I glanced at Laurel who looked on with an expectant grin and nodded.

I took a bite of bacon and groaned in pleasure. “That is amaz-za-zing.” I rolled my eyes as I savored the flavor and textures that exploded in my mouth.

“Try the potatoes.” She said, her smile even larger now.

Glancing from her to the potatoes and back, I plucked one from its resting place and popped it into my mouth. Again, the flavor exploded in my mouth.

“I can tell they were cooked in bacon fat!” I was amazed. Previously, food would just taste like the food itself, without any crossover from the pan’s previous foods.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“You damned right. I wonder what else was changed. Kinda wish there were patch notes.” I quickly began devouring the bacon and potatoes.

A few minutes later, Nate came busting out of the brush with a wild look in his eyes.

“Guys! You’re never gonna guess what’s going on with the goblins, they’re on the move!

“A warband?” I asked, shocked.

“The goblins?” Laurel stated, her eyes squinting in confusion.

“Naw. They’re literally moving. All of them as far as I can tell. They’ve packed up and are coming this way. They’ll be here in an hour at most.”

“Well, it’s a good thing they didn’t see you,” Laurel said, passing a plate to him.

“Well. You see… They totally saw me. The update must have changed the way stealth works."

“At least you made it out alive,” I said as I tried to dislodge a bit of bacon from my teeth with a fingernail.

“About that…,” He began.

I raised an eyebrow.

“They don’t seem to be violent. In fact, one of the sub-chieftains took the trouble to warn me about a big wandering monster nearby,” he continued as he started demolishing his bacon, “Wow this is good stuff!”

Laurel tittered and returned to her cooking.

“How do you think this’ll affect our guild quest?” I asked Nathan.

He shrugged his shoulders and continued wolfing down his food, “No idea man. But these guys seem pretty non-violent. I’m not about killing innocent people.”

“I feel ya, bud. We’ll wait till they arrive and have a talk with them. Hopefully we can keep this peaceful. I don’t wanna die today,”

Nathan shivered, “No joke.”