I haven’t been to this side of the village before. I’ve only been at the entrance from where I arrived, and ever since then I’ve been chopping wood close to the center of this village. This area is, however, a bit narrower. The escaped Marauder is still within reach but he’s farther ahead of me. You would’ve thought that dragging an entire person along with you while running would slow you down, but this guy is pretty much running at full speed. I know that the Snowmel race are often times smaller than their Sunmel kinsmen, but how light could they possibly be?!

At this point, the village begins to end while the wall of shrubbery is what stands between this village and the exterior farmland. I’m trying to run as fast as I can, but my stamina is rapidly decreasing. I have no other choice but to slow down or else I will receive negative status effects unto my character for becoming too exhausted.

I can still see the Marauder and his prisoner, but they’re slowly becoming a figure in the distance. Yet, still have an opportunity to catch him. He must also be slowing down sometime soon, or at least he’ll be too exhausted to continue running at the speed he's at now. Maybe because I’m a Dwelf while he, a Lumenian or Himenian, is able to run a little longer and/or faster than I can. This environment is also to my advantage as someone whose chasing and constantly looking to see where my target is heading to. While there are trees dotted around everywhere in this area, it is still mostly flat farmland. Maybe there are some little groves nearby which could provide more cover, but otherwise, he shouldn’t ever be out of sight for me.

I want to catch him because it wouldn’t feel like I'll fully complete this event-quest without ever rescuing the prisoner from these Marauders. Unless there are more allied Marauders nearby ready to support him, then I wonder why this escapee is still holding onto their prisoner. Surely, it’s better to escape with your life than risk still keeping a prisoner with you…or maybe, maybe that prisoner for some reason is really valuable. I’ll just have to see and find out.

Alright, I’m done walking…I should start running again. I spot from the back of my vision some villagers are catching up to me, I guess they want to see what’s going on and help me out. Sorry, but I’ve got no time to waste waiting for you.

I keep running after the small figures in the distance, I still haven’t lost sight of what direction they’ve ran off to.

Closer…

I’m getting closer!

Ah, it looks like he jumped down into a ditch or some slope to slow me down and try to block my sight of them.

Hah! This Dwelf is going to catch up to you eventually…"you can run, but you can’t hide!"

Hehe, I’ve always wanted to say that!

He must be tired of running by now, finally…I’ve pretty much caught up to them. That Marauder is just around this corner…and now…I’ll jump and strike him from the air! -----

AHH! He’s fallen on the ground!

Wait, no, he doesn’t look like he's fallen…and he's got a new(?) big shady mark on his side…

What happened to him? Is that even him? Do I even see what I need to be seeing, am I moving my head too fast for my VR helmet?

No…that’s definitely the Marauder. What happened to him?

Where’s his prisoner?

Oh, the prisoner is directly below me! The path above me is a bit of a vertical drop to the ground. I need to carefully get down here…maybe this is a trap. I’ll look around myself just to make sure there aren't any enemies nearby.

To my left is continuous open farm fields, there’s nobody there. In front and behind me… is just a regular dirt path to the village…I can see a couple of village women still chasing after me, but nobody else. And to my right is the tall but small ditch with some bushes and trees surrounding it. The vegetation isn’t thick enough to conceal anyone, so as far as I can tell…nobody else is here. I guess this Marauder really did just accidentally fall off, but did he really die from that? I know it can happen, unfortunately so, but…that’s a bit anticlimactic, isn’t it?

I guess I'll slowly climb down now. I’m not as short as an average Dwarf, but still, having these large feet but short legs seem to me a bit more disadvantageous than something more medium in size. Obviously because medium is premium…like many things in life!

Anyways, I’ve dropped down to this ditch. I can now tell that the prisoner is definitely a Snowmel, I can now see their body more clearly. Just in case, I’ve taken out my woodcutting axe from my inventory. But… this Marauder sure seems to be dead to me. However, what is this big shady mark on him, it’s dark. Nothing dark is attached to him or anything, it’s not the color of the mud. Actually, isn’t his skin and clothes burnt?

Wait…is that what I think it is…magic?

Prisoner: “Nnnnn... Yaaaaaaaaaaawn...”

That’s the prisoner!

Good to know they’re alive…hey, but wait a second, did they just-…Ah Dialogue options!

MC: “Did you just yawn?”

Prisoner: “nnn…I sure did!”

This Snowmel is a woman, and she is sounding surprisingly cheerful to me. Her voice is a bit high pitched but it's more laid back rather than something squeaky sounding.

What’s the next response option I should pick…this one seems pretty casual-cool to me.

MC: “How’s it going?”

Prisoner: “Not bad, since I’ve had a pleasant nap just now.”

I can see her face better now. She’s definitely one of those lady-cats! I’ve seen some players use a similar model to hers at spawn. A fairly pleasant to look at face, well as far as humanoid cat people can be to a real human. I like her face's shape, it's slightly angular, reminds me a bit of a triangle. I’ve got a fairly round head in real life, so I cannot really judge her too much. But the clearest expression I can see her making right now, is that of a person who really did just wake up after having a nice deep slumber. Well, lucky you!

Even more dialogue options for me to choose... yum! I'm like a chef with a wide variety of spices!

[What’s your name?]

[Do you feel alright?]

[Are you with the Marauders?]

[How did the Marauders capture you?]

[Were you really sleeping just now!?]

[How much will you pay me to remove your chains?]

Let’s see…what should I choose. I guess I should ask [How did the Marauders capture you?], I don’t know why I would ask if she were “with” the Marauders. Instead, I’d like to ask for her name first, to continue the relaxed introduction I started already. Not only do I think it’s a bit of a cool and somewhat comical thing to do after a big fight. But I’ve also heard that reacting strongly to a person in a delicate situation, is possible not good for the other person’s mentality in adjusting to their situation.

Well, I’m going to ask for her name anyways because I want to keep up the “cool” guy act. At least that’s what I consider is cool... I don’t know much about what younger people these days consider is cool or not.

MC: “What’s your name?”

Eseli: “Eseli”

…

Anything else?

…

Is she still waking up, or is her face constantly a blank uninterested stare into the clouds? Maybe this NPC’s AI isn’t so well furnished yet?

Who knows, for now I’ve received more dialogue options. Okay, what about this…I’ll play along with your act for now, lady-cat!

MC: “Hungry? Want some food?”

Eseli: “nnn…yup!”

MC: “What do you want to eat?”

Eseli: “nnn…fish or…something sweet!”

Okay then…I guess I’ve got a new quest now? At least she’s taking off her hood, now I can see what she looks like better. Huh, seems like her fur is larger and curlier at the top of her head…I guess this looks like normal hair on humans, but instead just extra hair when the body is already pretty much covered in hair for them.

I tapped to see her character's information, it doesn’t that she's part of any faction. Like usual, I cannot see anyone’s Health bar, Mana bar, or Stamina bar. It does show to me that she is for certain an NPC. Now that I know her name is Eseli, it even shows me that she’s called “Eseli”. So, perhaps the more information you gain about a selected character, the more information this character description/information window will tell you?

But the reason why I tapped on her was so I could try to talk to her again. Because our first conversation just suddenly ended there when she told me what she likes to eat. Aren’t you going to talk about why you are in chains right now or why you are sitting in a ditch or why there is a dead Marauder man next to us?

Two of the village women who were following me earlier have finally arrived to this place. What do you know, one of them is Allee!

Allee: “Traveler, are you alright? Do you catch the-ah I see you did!”

I’ll ask this because Eseli might join in the conversation and tell us…

MC: “No, I didn’t catch or touch the Marauder, I found him like this when I got here.”

Allee: “That’s odd! Is there anyone else around here?”

MC: “Only us and this Snowmel who was imprisoned by the Marauders, her name is Eseli.”

The other village woman next to Allee looks a bit distressed as she looks over to Allee.

Allee: “A-a-a…a Snowmel you say? …Yes, it’s definitely a Snowmel now that I look closely at it.”

Eseli doesn’t say anything, she didn’t even turn up to look at the two village women standing above her. She’s still staring towards my general direction, not at me directly but I think still aimlessly.

The other village woman continues to look at Allee, as if she’s saying “hey, I recognize Eseli!”

Hmm…something is going on here. I’m pretty sure. I hope this is not the case, but what if this village is, for some reason, somehow a village of very weird or evil people. I’m specifically thinking of, basically demons or undead. I hope they aren’t like that because there is nothing I’ve seen or felt that indicated that sort of weirdness. I wouldn't like that to be the case either. Besides our battle with the Marauders, the scenery in this area is still bright and cheerful looking. Vibrant colors everywhere! So, it’s strange that I sense something fishy going on here...

Oh, maybe fishy isn’t the right word to use right now. Fishy is something I should buy for Eseli-WAIT, why has this come to the point to where I’m buying Eseli food?! She’s a grown lady-cat, she should get her food herself! Ugh, maybe I shouldn’t have picked those dialogue options in that order.

Allee: “What should we do now? Is it safe?”

Hmm, while I still have got my eyes on you Allee, what should I respond with? I think this option is good because then they’ll be able to do something useful.

MC: “Carry the body of that Marauder back to the village. So that we can better examination about our situation.”

Both of the village women nodded. They’ve now began to carefully go down the vertical slope and carry the Marauder man back down the path which me and Elise began walking on.

This is a weird situation. Certainly, interesting and a very unique experience like no other. But I still haven’t removed the chains which bind Eseli, so I’m hold on to the chains as if she’s now my prisoner! She isn't. I didn’t ask for this, well I guess that is indeed the problem. That, I didn't ask to remove them. I mean, I could try asking her right now. But there are currently several mysteries and things in my mind right now, that I’m afraid I'll forget them about them later if I start talking having a long conversation with Eseli. After we arrive back in the village, I’ll ask Eseli more about this whole situation. Such as, why were you sleeping? How much do you weigh? When did you get imprisoned by the Marauders? What do you know about them? Do you know how that one Marauder died in the ditch (A.K.A can you use magic?!)? And why are you so relaxed about still being enchained?

However, just as weird, was Allee’s and the other woman’s lack of reaction to Eseli. They didn’t even mention or ask if I’m going to remove her bindings or not. Maybe this is all just an AI limitation thing in this game, after all, there can only be so many options for players to do in this interactive-dynamic-open world. I could simply be looking too much into this situation.

How nice. In the last 10 to 20 minutes more has happened at this recent moment, than from what I can remember doing before in the past 2 to 3 hours.

One moment, I simply arrived at this village to begin my adventure and to see how AI characters outside the starting town are like. Then, a sudden event-quest appeared as soon as I entered, which I accepted. (I wonder if the Marauders would’ve come here or not if I didn’t accept that quest). Anyways, then the next thing I knew, I was grinding by chopping wood to increase my attribute level’s strength. Lo and behold, eventually the Marauders did come and that is when my game-tone changed because it went from a woodcutting simulation game into a medieval action combat game. Just recently, I was forcing my character to run as fast as he could without exhausting himself too much. Then I found the Marauder goon I was chasing the whole time has already died somehow,+ flat on his face in a ditch. Now that I think about it, nobody could've caused his death besides Elesi, or the goon really did just accidentally kill himself from an unfortunate fall.

This video game is amazing. I can say that more legitimately now, having actually experienced some of it. Out of all the possible routes this whole event could have occurred, I didn’t expect that it would be ending like this.

And now, somehow, I am holding in my left hand the chains which still bind Elesi because maybe I managed to pick a set of dialogue choices which caused this. You know what, I’m starting to feel less weird about it and instead I’m now enjoy this weirdness! What a wonderful time to be alive.

Since this lady-cat should be old enough to realize her situation right now, and I’m pretty sure she isn’t blind or anything, but for some reason she really doesn’t mind what’s going on at all. We’re all now following a dirt path back to the village where came running out from. Two village women who are following us back are also carrying back the body of a Marauder from the ditch. To finish this whole situation off, I guess I’ve also promised to get some food for Eseli and myself, according to her, she wants to eat fish or something sweet!