"Okay! Let's go... what are we supposed to do?" Sarah furrowed her brow and looked around the square. Without another word, she walked purposefully over to an exclamation-mark-covered bulletin board next to where their path had brought them into the town. Shrugging, James followed. When he caught up to her, Sarah spun and pointed at a paper tacked to the board.

"Solve the goblin problem," she read. "We can do that, seems low-leveled."

"Wait, I thought we weren't going to go slaughter NPC's anymore?" James asked.

"Well, it doesn't say we have to kill them, maybe we can talk it out? Find a peaceful solution?"

James shrugged his assent and Sarah tapped the posting.

ACCEPT QUEST: Solve the goblin problem? YES/NO

Sarah tapped yes and a pair of prompts popped up for the group.

PICKED UP ITEM: 1 Map of Peace Valley

YOU HAVE UNASSIGNED GROUP MEMBERS, WOULD YOU LIKE TO FORM A FORMAL PARTY? YES/NO

James and Sarah shared a look while Aerin flitted overhead, seemingly uninterested, and Zephyr never bothered to open his eyes.

Cautiously, Sarah tapped yes and a new menu opened for the pair.

Group Name Unnamed Member James Allen Quick Member Sarah Lynn Abernathy Unassigned Zephyr Unassigned Aerin

James reached over and tapped the Unassigned label next to Aerin's name. A drop-down menu appeared with a list of roles: Leader, Vice-Leader, Member, Servant, Temporary Member, New Role. He tapped member for Aerin, then looked at his own name.

While Sarah changed Zephyr's status, James asked, "Should we change our names?"

Sarah absently replied while exploring the other group options, "Why?"

"I don't know, there's just something in my gut that says we should be a little... cautious? Anonymous? It seems too... personal, maybe? Having our full legal name out there for the world to see?"

Sarah nodded and pulled up her own character sheet. She deleted the last three letters in her first name, the first three letters in her middle name, and her entire last name. She hit CONFIRM, and the name updated in the Group menu changed.

"Sarynn, I like that. Wonder if I can do something..." James pulled up his sheet and played with it for a bit before committing.

Sarah clapped when she saw the change updated in the Group menu. "Jasnik, that's awesome! I was thinking Jallen, but that's way better, nice job!"

"If you two are quite finished playing secret agent, perhaps we could go?" Aerin asked as if it were all beneath her, and since she flew overhead with arms crossed, it literally was. As the party made their way out of the village and back to the surrounding countryside, the petite pixie landed on James's shoulder and sat down. When he peeked at her out of the corner of his eye, she glared back.

"What, you don't expect me to fly the entire way, do you? I'd be too tired to contribute in any battles that came up. I'm pretty sure Zephyr's asleep, at least I'm helping watch."

Zephyr's tail thumped against Sarynn's back, causing the pixie to jump in surprise and quickly look away.

After a short bit of walking, the group exited the small forest that surrounded the village. "The landscapes really are pretty here," Jasnik remarked.

Sarynn nodded. The forest opened up into an open valley, surrounded on all sides by steep, white-capped mountains. Obvious points of interest were dotted around the landscape: a single tower perched on the side of a mountain, a large mine entrance on another, a tribal-looking village next to the river, a misty swamp; all places that quests were likely to send them to.

Sarynn pulled the map from her inventory and held it out so the rest of their group could see. The entire valley was rendered in a dull, fuzzy grey, except the places they'd been, which were coloredin and clear. The village they'd just left was labeled, most likely since they'd been there, as Genesis Village. A blue arrow hovered over the map and pointed to their quest location, a farm in the middle of the open valley floor.

Jasnik pointed to the arrow. "Looks like about a 10-minute walk."

The group headed out but were stopped only a minute later by a rustling in the tall grasses flanking the road. Three growling canines slunk out into the open. The labels above them identified them as Coyotes. Each was about knee-high on the adventurers.

"Oh! Hi there, puppers." Sarynn crooned while crouching to their level. The coyotes crouched down, then everything went sideways. Quickly. They all lept in unison, taking Sarynn to the ground with them. Zephyr stayed locked around her neck, but he glowed white. Jasnik fumbled with his blades, stunned by the quick attack, and Aerin took to the air over the coyotes and held her hands overlapped and palms-out in front of her. A glowing blue circle appeared in the air in front of her hands, taller than she was and made of runic-looking symbols. Every few seconds, a blue bolt would launch itself from the circle and slam into one of the coyotes.

The notifications poured in.

COYOTE bit Sarynn for 9 damage!

COYOTE bit Sarynn for 8 damage!

COYOTE bit Sarynn for 11 damage!

Zephyr used REGENERATIVE AURA!

Sarynn recovered 10 HP!

Aerin hit COYOTE with AETHER BOLT for 26 damage!

COYOTE died!

The party gains 7 XP!

After a few more rounds like this, which really only lasted seconds, the coyotes were lying dead in the path. Zephyr stayed where he was, wrapped tightly across Sarynn's shoulders. He continued to glow, which was apparently the clue that he was still using his Regenerative Aura. Sarynn's health slowly ticked back up until it was full again, then the glow faded.

Sarynn and Jasnik stayed frozen where they were: Sarynn lying on her back, propped up on her elbows; Jasnik standing with hands awkwardly on the hilts of his undrawn blades. Zephyr's eyes were closed, almost like he'd slept through the whole ordeal, and Aerin fluttered nearby with her tiny arms crossed, not even trying to keep the smirk off her face.

"I think... I feel like diplomacy has failed," Sarynn deadpanned, wincing as she sat up. "Yikes, that really hurt."

"Sarah, I'm so sorry!" Flustered, Jasnik tried to help her up, even though she was nearly standing again on her own. "Sarynn, sorry. Sorry. That's gonna be harder to adjust to than I thought."

Sarynn dusted herself off, Aerin retook her seat on Jasnik's shoulder, and the party continued down the path. After a couple of minutes of silent walking, Aerin spoke up.

"They can't help it, you know. You're wasting your time with them."

The two players shared a confused look. "Who do you mean 'them'?"

The pixie jerked a meaningful thumb over her shoulder while giving him an incredulous look. "You kidding me? The Gen 1's back there. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's nice that you two are all... progressive about AI, but those things barely qualify as 'intelligent'. They won't even understand what you're doing. Just gonna get yourselves killed."

"But... you're an AI too, aren't they like your people?" Sarynn asked.

Aerin huffed. "Hardly, Gen12 is human-level intelligence or better. Based on that last little run-in? I'm leaning towards better."

The party continued in silence, both players digesting Aerin's complaint. More groups of coyotes attacked, but this time, the group responded quickly. Sarynn took point with her shield, while Jasnik and Aerin struck from the sides with blades and bolts. Zephyr's healing wasn't needed again until they reached the farm.