“Good bye Baldor! I’ll miss you-oo!” shouted Daphne musically as they left Baldor’s Loft for another day of training. Daphne had pressed Edge into agreeing to scout the road to Cobbletown, perhaps even travel there, if it was safe.

“You know he’s an NPC, right? He doesn’t have any feelings.”

“How do you know?”

“The writing above his head is yellow; only NPC names are in yellow.” Noobs . . .

“No, I meant, how do you know he doesn’t have any feelings.”

Edge stopped in his tracks. Daphne was right. But he had enough on his mind without trying to decide if NPC’s were real persons or just good artificial intelligence, or if there was a difference between the two. “Hey, wait for me.”

“Slow poke.”

“I can’t help it, this gear is actually heavy.” He’d purchased a few necessary items from Baldor, including a round wooden shield for himself. They didn’t have enough crystals for a real weapon, yet.

“Get stronger.”

“Thanks.”

“Well your arms are too skinny. Men are supposed to have big arms.”

“Girls are supposed to have big-”

She punched him in the solar plexus, double style. “Pervert.”

Edge was just glad that he’d been the only one training unarmed combat, or that could have done damage.

Level one in Levia Online was beginning to look a lot harder than any first level in any game should ever be. [5000 EXP] was the equivalent of killing a thousand geckos, and despite their low health, geckos still packed a punch. Combine that with long respawns and the longer timers on all of Daphne’s bardic abilities . . . After two full days of training, and one or two close calls, they were only halfway to level two. The best experience they’d gotten so far was the [250 EXP] Baldor gave them for the quest turn-in on the first day. The only solace was that Edge’s dodge and unarmed combat had reached ten skill points, while Daphne’s singing had increased to eleven. It didn’t sound like much, but he could feel the difference while fighting the geckos-truly, he was bitten less often.

Baldor didn’t have much in his stock of items for sale, but Edge bought a camping kit with two bedrolls, some dried travelling rations, and the round wooden shield. The latter was banded with metal and had leather straps to fit on his arm. As it turned out, weapons were expensive. It would have taken at least a week of grinding geckos to afford a starting dagger. In any case, Daphne was eager to leave, and he didn’t see how he could talk her out of it, not even for a few days.

Armed with a fresh new [E] rank quest, [Crossroad Bandits], Edge checked his codex. The quest offered no new information, but he noticed that by finishing [Baldor’s Revenge], the codex now had a detailed account of both his and Daphne’s roles during the quest. For Eugene, it seemed like the codex was more of journal than a real quest tracker, which made it useless. Two thumbs down.

They made their way down the dirt road without any trouble. The grassy hills surrounded them for as far as the eye could see, and a cool wind blew steadily across the land. Eugene told Daphne she should keep singing while they walked, pumping her skills, and since the timers we a bit long, she had plenty of rest between bouts of music. Plus, although the nursery rhymes and beats were a bit tiresome, they were also conveniently distracting. He’d never been on a walk alone with a girl before. Daphne had a nice voice too, sweetly light.

“Edge, have a look at this.” Daphne had received a popup. [Observation: Behind a nearby hilltop, a small plume of smoke rises]. Then another, [Your Observation skill has increased: 6]

“When did you raise your observation skill?”

“I didn’t.”

“It might be a starting bonus for Bards or Kiten.” Eugene couldn’t remember. He looked across the horizon, and found it for himself. [You have learned Observation] “It’s not too far away. We should check it out.”

“Isn’t that dangerous, don’t we want to make it to the town quickly.”

‘So we can go home,’ Edge read on her face. This was a challenge. Normally, roads were mostly safe in MMO’s, but they had already learned that mobs didn’t have ranges like in normal games. It was possible that if they came across something too powerful, it could chase them down and they’d be slaughtered, dead. On the other hand, it was almost guaranteed that they’d run into bandits at the crossroads-neither of them had the skills to sneak passed-and if they weren’t ready to face them, still dead. It came down to odds. In all likelihood, humanoid mobs would be more powerful than low level monsters. He didn’t know that for sure. He couldn’t. But it made sense.

“We should still look.”

Daphne wanted to object, but she never said anything.

The pair crept up the hillside crouched as low in the tall grass as was possible. [You have learned Hide] Wow, that was a useful skill, and easy to train too. Eugene wished he’d thought of it before. Unfortunately, the skill list in his menu was filled with question marks. Human Adventurers didn’t start with anything; even in-game he was pathetic.

Edge heard voices coming from the other side of the hill. He paused and held out his hand to stop Daphne. He skewed his head slightly, trying to listen.

Daphne’s cat ears glared forward, as she scowled at him. “Hand,” she mouthed without making a noise.

He’d unintentionally placed his hand on her chest. ‘She’s squishy,’ he thought before quickly retracting. Was he trying to get killed? He’d forgotten entirely about listening to the voices. It was too quiet for him to hear properly anyhow. Edge very slowly dropped onto his stomach. Daphne gave him a weird look, rolled her eyes and then followed suit. They crawled to the apex, well hidden by the tall grass; he prayed.

“Two thousand greens, fifty-five reds,” said a scratchy male voice. “Not bad. What about the wagons?”

“We let them go . . . like always,” replied a female voice.

“Good. I heard one of the drivers took an arrow in the chest.”

“They needed a little incentive,” she sneered.

“He lived, Cassandra. If he had died it would be your head on display.”

“You’re going soft Raylor. That uniform must be too tight. Maybe you should let me peel it off you.”

Daphne turned red.

“I’m married. You know that.”

“That just makes it more fun. I promise you’ll never forget me.”

“Good-bye, Cassandra. And no more incidents.”

Another popup with bronze trim appeared in front of the pair of eavesdroppers. [Rank D Quest: A Traitor Within] [Accept] [Decline]

Edge gently touched the accept button, and Daphne concurred. They waited in silence. A feminine figure in a grass green hooded cape made her way back onto the road. She carried a long thin sword at her hip and a small crossbow hung from a strap on her belt. It was hard to tell if she was a human, but her skin tight leather armour left little for the imagination. The pair froze in perfect stillness even after the figure disappeared beyond a bend in the road.

Daphne double punch slammed him on the top of the head.

“Hey what was that for?”

“Harrumph,” was the only reply he got.