WiseMaster667: “Seems like Amulet’s and Mays suspicions were correct; this is certainly a secret passageway farther into Coldpass. I am not even surprised knowing this now with hindsight, because these types of level design features are common in many games.”

MC: “I’m just glad we didn’t waste time exploring this place and finding nothing while everyone else is getting closer inside the enemy fort”

Sprite: “But who would have thought that this cave would be so unguarded!”

May: “You’re right Sprite, we’re pretty lucky to find this. There aren’t even any mobs here.”

Sprite: “’Mobs?’”

Krafty: “Monsters, common thugs, or simply common animals and various critters!”

Sprite: “Ah! I understand now.”

Krafty: “Are you new to these types of games?”

Sprite: “Indeed I am. And I am also amazed that I had not experienced such thrilling adventures before! I wish I would have started playing these computer games earlier!!”

Wait, she can talk about things outside of this game world? Like computers, monitors, soda, and other stuff from the real world? I thought she was another one of those hardcore roleplayers! I've gotten used to be around these types of people, so when I interact with players like Gerlad I always assume that they dont know about "real life".

MC: “Are you serious about that Sprite?!”

Sprite: “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

May: “Hey Amulet! Are you questioning Sprite? She’s an honest and sweet girl you know!”

MC: “no-no-no, I believe her! But I was thinking of something else…”

May: “Hmmm?”

MC: “Well, Sprite, aren’t you like your big friend Gerald?”

Sprite: “Oh? In what way noble Dwelf?”

MC: “This isn’t a criticism, trust me because I would be a pathetic hypocrite…but uh, this whole roleplay thing you two are doing along with your other guild members?”

Sprite: “Well, it’s true that I am well immersed into this video game, maybe that’s why I am somehow so proficient at it as a practitioner of healing despite me being such a novice to the art of video games…but…I am not sure what you are referring to about Gerald?”

MC: “He seems to also immerse himself into the game a lot, doesn’t he?”

Sprite: “Hehe, pardon my laughter, but many people (Players and Natives of the Overworld) have also made this incorrect assumption about him. He’s simply a knightly aid and guide to the Divine Spirits such as ourselves.”

MC: “But, I am pretty sure I looked at his character status and he is 100% a Player, are you saying a bot is playing as a Divine Spirits?”

Sprite: “A ‘bot?’ Mmm…nope! Once again silly Amulet! Gerald is just another native of this Overworld who’s a champion of righteousness. A true gentleman! And he also happens to be a member of the Nomads of the Griffin- “

May: “HEY! Amuleeeet…stop interrogating this little angel and keep up with the rest of us! Plus, weren’t you the one who wanted to keep rushing ahead, well…let’s go!”

MC: “I-uh, umm, okay…sorry about that!”

Krafty and WiseMaster667 swiftly turn their characters to face me, and they silently nod their heads at me, as if they understand where I am coming from. Well, I suppose they must! The message is clear to all of us guys. Surprisingly even WiseMaster667, who is a strange player that uniquely blends his knowledge of the game’s meta and its technicalities with his own egotistical roleplay to his playstyle, also seems to exactly understand what I was trying to get at. Which is that…Sprite is a cheeky little roleplayer who decides to acknowledge herself as a Player because she can’t be bothered to always pretend to be an NPC like the player Gerald does, where he doesn’t count himself as a “Divine Spirit” like the rest of us.

MC: “The minimap isn’t depicting this cave passage for me... Maybe the developers forgot to close this cave off, so i wonder if we’re accidentally cheating by taking this route?”

WiseMaster667: “That’s a possibility, however, I would not be surprised if there are these types of areas all over the world.”

Krafty: “Yeah the game world isn’t linear after all. It seriously is a crazy open world game. I can’t even be bothered to try and explore every corner of a region even if I wanted to do that.”

MC: “That’s so true. Also, are you two sure that this cave ends at inside the enemy’s fort and not somewhere else? We might be leaving the zone in which this Invasion Quest takes place yknow?”

May: “Amulet you must really be into this event or else you wouldn’t be blabbering so often today! Are you turning into Krafty?”

Krafty: “HEY! I haven’t even talked enough today…”

May: “Krafty, I want you to know that all of our past conversations add up to even this moment, and I am afraid you’ve already borrowed a super high loan from the patience of my ears which will take a VERY long time to pay off completely.”

Sprite: “May, you certainly have a way with words! Are you a wordsmith?”

May: “Gosh I wish Sprite. Anyways, sorry Amulet for comparing you to Krafty (again I think), but to answer your question…come and climb this rock to get up here and see the view for yourself!”

A view? Sounds exciting!

And oh my god it certainly is a view. I haven’t seen something like this in the game before. The best way I could describe it is that this Coldpass place looks like how the first town I went to, Susana, would look like if it did not have any walls and it was more run down. I mean, from a Player’s perspective in game this place looks cool and beautiful, but I bet for the lives of the people here this place must be pretty crappy. A lot of smoke is rising in the air from various small buildings and bonfires. There are as many tents as there are well structured buildings made from brick or wood. Most noticeable is the imposing wall which is a lot taller than any other building on this side of the wall. I guess the fort is also the settlement, or maybe even the capital of this whole area!

The sound design is also equally amazing to the graphics and gameplay of this video game. When it isn’t lagging, I can perfectly hear the spells and clashing of weapons from the other side of the wall. Of course, it’s feint, but that just adds to the immersion, doesn’t it? And I am all about that immersion!

Anyways…I think we are the only Players who are on the other side of the wall so far. We are standing on a cliffside path outside the small entrance of the cave we just pulled ourselves out from. What can the five of us do now? Obviously, we want to loot as much as we can until our inventory space fills up, but we need to consider the dangers of being behind enemy lines. However, with this opportunity… I can help but feel like we should do something reckless and risky, but it’s also a one-time opportunity that I somehow got the chance to find and kill the Ogre Captain as Fate-fan urged me to do.

MC: “This view is pretty amazing”

Krafty: “And it’s an awesome opportunity to steal as much treasure and money from this place! Think about how much clothes and other fun items I could buy with over 1,000 gold coins!”

Sprite: “Oooh, is Krafty also interested in commodities?!”

May: *Sigh* “Krafty, of course you would want to waste your money on a lot of unnecessary virtual clothing. Anyways, you do understand that we might not even find anything and get killed by some dumb ogres and then we’ll have to respawn back at the academy?”

Krafty: “You’re no fun May, let a man dream!”

May: “Correction. Man-child.”

WiseMaster667: “May brings up a good point that we are indeed in a precarious situation…how should we act on it? I have already thought up several routes we could take, and I am considering what we should do first…which is important because I believe that our allies will soon emerge on this side of the wall as well”

MC: “Alright everyone! Let’s do it this way. I’ll count down from three to one, and after I say “one”, we all say what we want to do first.”

Everyone else: “Okay”

MC: “Three…two…one! - Defeat the Ogre Captain!”

Krafty: “Find as much treasure as possible!”

Sprite: “Help open the gates to this place!”

May: “Kill the Ogre Captain!”

WiseMaster667: “Sneak farther into Coldpass and obtain the best items!”

WiseMaster667: “Seems like both May and Amulet want to fight the Ogre Captain, and Sprite wants to help our allies. How admirable.”

Sprite: “I am after all a representative of my guild after all, tee-hee!”

May: “I’m fine with either killing the big boss or doing what May suggests because at least that way we’ll actually be useful to everyone else”

Krafty: “Don’t worry about it May, let’s just go and get as much loot as possible because there is bound to be awesome items to find, and it would be super lame to not take this opportunity to take them all before anyone else!”

WiseMaster667: “This time I am in agreement with Krafty, about how it would indeed be a shame to not acquire items that might become very important later on. And I should remind everyone that I doubt that all the other participants will be stuck fighting NPCs for more than ten or twenty minutes.”

May: “I’m sorry Sprite, but as it happens I am stuck with a party of greedy men!”

Sprite: “It is alright brave spear maiden May! I completely understand the situation of our party that I am in right now. So it would also be very selfish of me, the proclaimed “Number One Super Cute Angel Priestess” by my guildmates, to take away our high chances of fortune away.”

May: “Spearmaiden, huh? I like that. I understand Sprite!”

Krafty: “N.O.S.C.A.P”, huh? I like that…”

May: “You liking Sprite’s NOSCAP title while being as greedy as you are right now is disrespectful Krafty”

Krafty: “I’m sorry Sprite! Next time I’ll consider our allies…I promise!”

Sprite: “Heehee, you are all forgiven!”

The range of body motions and facial expressions by Sprite is impressive. Twirling around, smoothly moving her limbs around, and smoothly fitting her tone of voice with a smile… no wonder her guildmates nominated her as the cutest priestess in their guild…Hey, we can’t keep wasting time like this!

MC: “We’re taking too long, sorry May but I am rushing again! By majority vote and compromise, let’s do this, we sneak farther back into this settlement like Wise suggested because that way we might find more and better treasures and money to loot. And if we spot the Ogre Captain, we should all quickly jump into formation and kill him as soon as possible…agreed?!

May: “Fine by me”

Krafty: “Me too as long as I’m guaranteed to get some money”

WiseMaster667: “That’s a good compromise Amulet, let us begin!”

Sprite: “Hi, umm, this might be too late to ask everyone. But what shall our battle formations be like”

Everyone else: “Oh…”

While it’s true that me, Krafty, May, and Wise already have a good understanding how each of us plays like and how we could combine ourselves in a fight, we not only have a new healer in our party, but we’ll also be fighting a supposedly really tough boss character. The whole Invasion Quest’s main goal is to push into Coldpass and damage it and kill the Ogre Captain according to the quest description. So, if we go and fight him carelessly-“

WiseMaster667: “Do not worry about that Sprite. As a healer, you’ll easily find a way to accommodate yourself to our party’s fighting style because as long as you heal us, we should be good.”

MC: “Woah Wise! Are you sure being so careless like that is fine? I didn’t expect you to be fine with going into the boss fight without a plan.”

WiseMaster667: “We’ll you’re right, it would be optimal if we had a plan but we simply don’t know enough information about the Ogre Captain to worry about it.”

Krafty: “That makes sense!”

WiseMaster667: “But most importantly, Sprite as you may have already noticed, we have a 6th party member, Eseli! Don’t worry, I’m sure we won’t complete fail to succeed in this event somehow because Amulet’s AI companion is really powerful!”

MC: “Oh so that’s how it is…THAT MAKES SENSE.”

May: “Y’all good now? Okay pals, onwards we go!”

Krafty: “Sneak swiftly and silently, like a ninja!”

Sprite: “A ‘Ninja’?”