“So! Where are we headed now?” Gina stretched her arms over her head and twisted back and forth. Kraant couldn’t help but notice that, for a humanoid, she had a decent body… not too fleshy or soft… but it was a clinical sort of appreciation. He wasn’t some kind of pervert, after all, lusting after a mammal.

“…We?”

“Well, you’re interesting, and I have nothing important going on. Besides, you’re like level 3 or 4. You really can’t handle these woods on your own.”

“…I thought I was doing alright…”

“Peblus was doing alright. You can’t even feed yourself.”

“Fair enough. I was going to head north, following the river once I found it, and see about getting to an area less full of players.”

“Makes sense, I guess, as long as you can survive the trip. You realize that the further north you go, the harder the enemies get, right?”

“Well, yeah, but isn’t that true in any direction?”

“Only technically. To the west is the easiest, to the east is the desert which, while it doesn’t have many strong enemies, is a hazard in itself. And it has rare, but extremely powerful, wandering Boss monsters. The south is toward the ocean, which has its own issues but the coastal region is pretty much the best bet for newbies because it’s where the most towns and villages are, and that’s where most people get guided by quests and such. The north… the north has more enemies, and more organized ones. You get closer to the opposing faction’s territory, which means you’re going to start encountering roving patrols and the like.”

“Then why are you headed north?”

“I wasn’t planning to go much further than this. I was gonna break west soon and see if I could find a good balance of Dark enemies, for the experience boost my class gets against them, with the lower average level to the west.”

“Sounds good, I guess, but I really want to… well, I want to progress as quickly as possible for now. I think we make a pretty good team, so we could probably make it quite a ways before we encounter anything we can’t handle.”

“…Fukkit, sure, why not? You know how death works, though, right? Where’s your bound portal?”

“The Temple of Kue in the capital. I know it hurts, but that’s about it.”

“…Hurts? We’ll come back to that. You also have an 80% drop chance for each piece of equipped gear, but higher-rarity gear lowers that chance. So, a Divine piece of armor would only have a 30% chance because it’s Tier Five. Make sense?”

“Yeah. I think my robe is Uncommon, but I haven’t checked.”

“Well, I’m fully kitted out and only one piece is Uncommon. So if we die, I’m stuck in the Modesty Wrappings, which are embarrassing and have no bonuses. I’d rather not die for no reason.”

“Alright, West it is then. Are there any towns that way?”

“A few. Part of Survivalist is the ability to draw and read maps, so we shouldn’t get too lost.”

“Man, Survivalist sounds way better than Trapper…”

“Well, I’m level 6 in it. You stop getting free skills and abilities after level 5 in most classes, but by then you’re pretty well-rounded. Trapper should give you some neat stuff, like a more reliable way to butcher meat than my Survivalist does.”

“…Yeah, I’m only level three in it. I’ll work on that.”

“I highly recommend it. Any class, or combination, can be useful, but you have to put in the work.”

“Well, in my defense, Pebl has been useful…”

“That’s because he works hard. Not like his squishy wizard.”

“…” Kraant turned to west and started walking. He wasn’t gonna take the bait.

“Hey, hey, we gotta break camp and put out the fire. We can’t just leave it!”

“Why not?”

“Well, first of all, a wildfire could catch us up pretty easily. Secondly, if we start a fire through negligence, I’m pretty sure the God of Wood would smite us with a curse. Lastly, it’s bad Survivalism. You have to actually do the things your class is based on if you want to progress any faster than a dying snail.”

“…Oh. Alright then.” Kraant turned around and started breaking down the lean-to, while he had Pebl cast Splash on the fire a few times. Pebl was not enthusiastic about losing his warm little bed of coals, but he did what he was told.

“While we do this… what do you mean, dying hurts?” Gina got to work breaking down the rack where the meat was hanging, and stringing the Lapine Shadow carcass to hang on a stick so it wouldn’t bleed all over her.

“Well, it hurts. It was like every part of my body was ripped apart, then slammed back together until they got stuck.”

“That… shouldn’t happen. It should feel like coming together into a whole piece, a peaceful and almost religious experience. Do you feel pain all the time?”

“Well, not all the time, but yeah. I feel pain like anyone else.”

“Kraant, my dude, nobody feels pain in Final Escape. Not unless they modded their cocoon, and even then it’s got safety regulations. It has to. What did you do?”

“Well, since my warranty was void anyway when I gave an AI access to my visual and audio feeds, I sort of… ignored those safety warnings? I mean, it’s not like… ow!” Kraant’s head felt like a spike had been driven through it… sideways.

“Dang. That’s hardcore. You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Talking, or even thinking too hard, about the outside world, gives me a nasty headache.” Kraant used Siphon Life on a tree, and after the glorious sensation of vibrancy passed, his headache was mostly gone.

“What spell was that? Was that a void thing?”

“Uh. No. Why?”

“Well, you gestured vaguely at a tree and it just sort of… withered. That’s not a low-level Magus spell, unless you got a unique spellbook somehow.”

“…Something like that. Actually, since you didn’t kill me in my sleep and it sounds like we’ll be fighting together, I should probably tell you. I’m a Life Magus.”

“Aspected magi are rare, that’s usually a High Magus thing. At least, the only aspected magi I know of are all High Magi or higher. I haven’t heard of any PC’s getting that far yet, or starting out with it.”

“It has to do with my Kobold race. I guess Kobolds are like lesser dragons, except even less than drakes or wyrms. Since all Dragons were aspected, there’s a chance that any Kobold Magus will have an aspect from the get-go, and I happened to luck out especially hard and get Life. I think. Ow.”

“Even that counts as meta-gaming?”

“Yeah, I gave Clara pretty strict instructions on what I could say or do without the headaches, but she’s not a perfect AI yet. Her judgement is a little off.” Kraant had his back turned, and didn’t see the way Gina stiffened at the name Clara, or the term AI.

“You let an AI into your head?!” Gina responded, only slightly late.

“No, of course not. Just into my cocoon.”

“…No wonder your warranty was voided, damn. Well, your secret is safe with me. You’re way to interesting to risk offending you and making you run off on your own.”

“…I think I’ll take that as a compliment.” Kraant finished up his part of breaking camp, and Gina suggested they take a quick detour to the river before heading west. While neither of them technically needed to bathe, and she wasn’t anywhere near as intense in her role-playing as Kraant, she still preferred to take some time for simpler things and detours, as opposed to rushing from battle to battle. Not that her level would suggest anything of the sort.