“Don’t worry you’ll get the next one.” She came face to face with me and inspected my clothes. “Wait those are the default clothes...are you dirt poor?” She squinted her eyes at me as she stared me down and smirked. “Or...are you new?”

“...new” I mumbled as I stepped back a bit from her. “I was making my way towards the [Beginner’s Town].”

“[Beginner’s Town]?!” She laughed at me. “No way, noooo wayyyy.” She patted me on the shoulders. “You’re completely going in the wrong direction newbie.” She kept laughing at me.

“YEAH, I kinda figured.” I crossed my arms. “Where am I anyways?”

She wiped the tear from under her eye and looked at me. “Didn’t you see the text appear? You’re at the [The Great Plains].”

“[The Great Plains]? And what was that monster? It said it was level 45? Isn’t that a really high level considering we’re so close to the starting point?” I pointed back at the woods.

“Well yeah, this game is open world. There’s no restrictions to where you can or can’t go.” She stood with both her hands on her waist. “I’m surprised you wandered off to here. You should’ve received an item at the very start to help navigate these parts...oh well.”

“Item? Well forget that, more importantly could you help me out?”

She looked at me with a blank expression.

“Nope.”

Next thing I knew she was already back in her Otomech and flew off to who knows where.

Left speechless and with the blankest look on my face, at least I knew now that I should be heading back the other way. I made my way past the woods and up in the clearings again I saw Camille.

“CAAAAAMIIIILLEEEEEEEEEE I MISSED YOUUUUUU!”

I ran towards Camille with my arms wide open. She looked towards me and promptly dodged my attempt at a hug at her. Having missed, I fell face first into the ground.

“Welcome back.” Camille smiled at me with her hands clasped together down at her waist.

With a mouth full of dirt I answered back, “...tha.n.ks Ca.m.lle.” I got up slowly brushing more dirt off of me. It hasn’t even been a full day, but I’ve somehow managed get myself covered in dirt multiple times. I let out a small sigh. I looked back at Camille.

“Hey Camille, shouldn’t you have told me that the way I was going was the wrong way?” I brushed off my shoulders as I asked.

She let out a faint giggle.

@[email protected];

“You’re an NPC right? Aren’t you supposed to help the new people out? I could’ve died without even stepping foot in the town!”

How bad would it have been to have died without ever stepping foot into town. That’s like dying to a slime on your first encounter.

She looked the other way and smirked.

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth. She placed her hand on my face and peeled my away from her with a smile still on her face.

“Isn’t experiencing failure the best way to learn?” she said while wearing the most innocent smile on her face. “Oh...that’s right I forgot to give you this.” She waved her hand in front of me.

Item Received

The message that I had received an item popped up in front of me. I opened my user interface to see that the item was a map of the area. I activated it and a map appeared at the corner of my eye. I saw two dots on the map which represented me and Camille. I also saw that the [Beginner’s Town] which was just ahead of me and that [The Great Plains] was in the opposite direction.

“You know...I wish you had given me this sooner Camille...” I hung my head down in disappointment.

“Well you did skip through my dialogue really fast and missed the fact that I asked you if you wanted the map or not.” She shook her head.

“Oh...” I checked the map again. “Hold on...the town. It says it’s just right up...ahead.” He looked at Camille to get a confirmation.

“Yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t notice it.” She pointed towards the horizon down the path. “You can actually see the outlining of the town right there.”

I looked towards where she was pointing and squinted my eyes. “Oh. My. God. You’re right...” Out in the distance was a faint shape of a fairly medium-sized town.

I shook my head in disbelief.

How did I even miss this the first time.

“Is there anything I should know before I head out Camille?”

She stood there and thought about it for a moment with a finger placed on her chin.

“Nope, that should be everything. Good luck on your travels!” She waved me good-bye.

“Don’t worry I’ll be back for you Camille.” I said with a grin while giving her two thumbs up.

“Please don’t.”

Another disappointed look weighed on my face as I headed down the path towards town with my head drooping side to side.

END