I might not be the first one to admit this but riding on a wagon, or any mount, is amazing. It’s super-fast!

Without having alternate modes of travel, this game surely would have sucked for the more casual players. I don’t think I would consider myself fully hardcore, but I’m certainly not a “casual”. Well, we’ll see in the future…but even if this game didn’t have mounts, I still would have played it. Yet, I can see why so many people wouldn’t have wanted to play this game. Even if it is super amazing, simple gameplay decisions like 'only allowing players to walk' would have heavily damaged many people's enjoyability for this game. Maybe it’s just the wagon, which is this fast, since it’s being ran by two horses. So, when it comes to personal mounts they might not be as fast. Even so, it’s only been around 15 minutes and it looks like we’re actually going to enter another region called Orchard Hills. I think WiseMaster667 might have been there before, maybe not. But me, Krafty, and May certainly haven’t. You can clearly see the mountains appearing taller and taller in the distance and the general elevation has been rising higher. We’re also technically heading south if I remember it right, but it looks like the environment is getting a bit crispier, in a good way I think. I wish I could breathe this air because outside my apartment it’s less pleasant.

I’m just glad I didn’t have to spend like 30-50 minutes of grueling walking from Susana to Orchard Hills.

Krafty: “Hey aren’t there a lot more hills than before?”

May: “What about it?”

Krafty: “Well…isn’t this Holy Lands place supposed to be flat?”

May: “Remember seeing the mountains at the start Krafty?”

Krafty: “Ahhh I got you!”

*5 minutes pass by*

Krafty: “How long is this Journey Quest going to take? Shouldn’t there be some enemies ambushing us…I just want to shoot my bow already! And why are there so many apple trees!”

He’s right…there are a lot of apple trees! Before we’ve seen a lot of woodland coming in, but I think we are already technically in Orchard Hills. And if I am correct…I think we are also at Malus-Seversi already! Instead of rolling hills of wheat, these are rolling hills of apple trees! They are all neatly planted in organized rows, I can see a lot of NPCs gathering them. And directly up this straight road…that’s definitely a town. The walls cover a lot of my sight of it, but even from this distance I could see that there are towers rendered in the distance. Albeit blurry, like everything a Player sees far away, but still noticeable and clear enough to tell what that thing is.

Krafty: “Oh this Journey Quest is located in another town?”

WiseMaster667: “Welcome everyone, to another region!”

MC: “Hooray! No seriously, it’s a lot more different than I expected.”

WiseMaster667: “Isn’t it great? We even have the sun behind us rising in the east, it’s like a cinematic!”

MC and May: “You’re right!”

Krafty: “Hey May, everyone, what’s going on?!”

May: “Didn’t you hear? We are in another region.”

Krafty: “W-wait what? What about our Journey Quest?!”

WiseMaster667: “This is the Journey Quest dear friend!”

Krafty: “B-b-b-b-but… I wasn’t done with all my things in Susana!!!”

May: “And you never would have been done…be thankful to Amulet and Wise!”

Krafty: “What do you mean thankful?! So, all of you are saying that we are in another REGION?”

MC: “Orchard Hills”

Krafty: “Aghhhh! But there was so much you could do in the Holy Lands…aren’t we rushing too much? Why the Orchard Hills?!”

MC: “Umm, actually I’m not exactly sure about everyone, but me and Wise are here to learn magic. Oh, and Eseli is apparently from here!”

Krafty: “Good for Eseli, but I’m an archer…what’s the point of me learning magic?”

May: “Krafty just shut up and enjoy the ride! We’re already here. Amulet even got us a cheaper ride thanks to Eseli.”

Krafty: “But I’m not even interested in magic or this place. It looks stupid! This place is called Orchard Hills, just because they have a lot of apple trees growing on hills?! You don’t see the Holy Lands being called “flat plant farms”!”

WiseMaster667: “Perhaps you aren’t interested in magic Krafty…but like May said you should give this location a try. You could somehow add magic to your archery, explore another settlement, oh and most importantly (I know this is what you like), the fashion available in different regions like this one is going to be different than what you saw in Susana. In this game there are many NPC shops catering to casu- I mean people who like discovering and following professions.”

May: “See Krafty, it ain’t so bad after all. Remember, there are also many other regions you haven’t been to yet and you don’t need to rush to see them all. But it doesn’t hurt having seen another region.”

MC: “Also you can’t tell me this sunrise isn’t cool? It’s like a movie!”

Krafty: “Fine! I’ll go along with you guys…I just hate that I’ve gotten tricked by all of you…you played me like you’d do with a child!”

May: “Aww don’t be so gloomy! I’ll buy you something nice for my sweet little friend!”

Krafty: “Shut up May! You’re just a few years older than me!”

*Krafty takes out an arrow and shoots it at May’s knee*

May: “Ahaha! Amulet could you also pass me a slice of that cake we made earlier? After my health is regenerated, I should be able to continue our adventure with Krafty…”

MC: “Yeah sure thing…wait isn’t that a ref- “

I’m pretty sure that reminds me of something, oh well never mind. I’ll just hand over this last slice of cake they cooked at Orana’s. I’m surprised you could actually cook a cake in this game, and it doesn’t just involve the process of collecting ingredients and pressing a single button.

Anyways, Eseli and Orana are still sleeping. Krafty and May are still bickering as usual. And WiseMaster667’s character is just standing still with little motion, so that means he’s probably away from his VR controllers and on his computer right now, looking up information online or something.

Well, we’ve practically almost reached the gates. The gates are tall and thick wooded. But are wide open right now because there seems to be a bunch of peasant NPCs who were gathering the fruits from the trees coming in and out of the city. Is it normal to harvest apples at dawn? There are also a bunch of guards everywhere, alongside the road, in the orchards, and at the gates who appear very calm.

Compared to Susana…this place looks a lot different and a bit bigger. For one, there aren’t any suburban buildings around this settlement, I guess they are farther away in the distance where more of the orchards and farms are at? But one thing is for certain… if I peer into the city, I can see an awesome looking castle sitting right on top of a hill in the distance! There are also many slender trees surrounding that hills. The roof of the castle and almost every roof I can see inside the city are dark green colored, even the towers of the city have ceilings above them. And unlike the palace in Susana, the castle has more walls surrounding it along with its own towers. Yup, this is a certainly medieval fantasy!

Ah, several guards are approached laxed with their spears leaning on their shoulders.

Orchard Guards: “Who is the captain of this wagon?”

The guy we hired who is driving this wagon isn’t answering, he’s looking at us to speak up.

MC: “Are you guys in this conversation as well?”

Krafty and May and Wise: “Yeah, you should answer it!”

MC: “What’s with this sudden coordinated democratic vote?!”

WiseMaster667: “It’s only logical dear Amulet Pond, for you are the one who unlocked the event which led to the purchase of this wagon ride.”

Krafty: “Yeah what he said!”

MC: “Alright that makes sense.”

To be honest, I do actually want to be in charge because if it was May or Krafty who would answer I’m afraid they’ll spill the beans and let everyone know we are all Divine Spirits. I have no idea what the culture of this place is like, particularly what the AI’s attitude to Divine Spirits is at this place. And, if Wise was going to answer, I bet he’s going to disregard any penalties in search for loot or something to directly benefit him/us. At least those are my stereotypical suspicions of these guys.

Come to think of it, we’re all really friendly together since of course we are all Players, but I think it’s also because none of us really know each other. Well, besides how Krafty and May know each other in real life. We’ve been referring to ourselves in our in-game names, so I feel like there is this sort of unspoken rule going around where we’ve placed a limit to how much real-life things we talk about, particularly when it becomes personal. It’s probably not for the sake of our immersion, but just our unconscious respect for each other’s gameplay experiences. Whatever, I’m just theorizing, I doubt any of them are thinking of stuff like this. And obviously, my new friends are real people who go beyond mere stereotype. They have many sides to them that exist outside of this game, and they are certainly not equivalent to even the most complex NPCs in this game. Well, maybe besides the FeeNix guy I met yesterday. I still can’t determine if he was a bot or a real person. I hope he’s not my Anna Boten.

Orchard Guards: “Hey! You should already be answering us by now. Come, let’s get this over with.”

Ah! Right, I dazed off again…

MC: “I am in charge of this wagon”

Orchard Guards: “Right. What have you come here for?”

Once again there are many dialogue options- actually, not really. There are certainly multiple, but not a huge amount. I guess this is where the game begins to resort to the default options that are available in every settlement?

[To seek adventurous opportunities]

[Join Orchard Hills] [Faction]

[Shop or Craft]

[Simply explore/No reason]

[Simply enter the city/rest/pass through]

[Train in Magic]

[Enter Malus-Seversi with Eseli] [Eseli]

The options I can choose from which stand out to me immediately are the ones about… joining Orchard Hills as a faction choice, training in magic which is something that I would’ve immediately picked, and the obvious one that I am going to pick which is [Enter Malus-Seversi with Eseli], it even has the special [Eseli] mark attached to the option.

MC: “I wish to enter Malus-Seversi with my companion Eseli”

Orchard Guards: “Hmm? Which Eseli do you speak of?”

More dialogue options! Agh! I don’t remember her last name or whatever title she has… Is it “Eseli the Clear Enhanceress”? Or is it “Eseli Snowspring?”? Is it “Eseli of Malus-Seversi”? I DON’T KNOW! I forgot. When I tap on her character information…it just says Eseli! So, it must be this option…simply “Eseli”?

MC: “I’ve come with my companion simply called Eseli”

WAIT! I could have just looked back at that logbook! I’m pretty sure Orana called Eseli something else…! Undo-undo-undo! Is there a way to undo my choice I just picked?!

I swear, next time I will remember to check that logbook which records my previous chat I’ve had with NPCs…it’s right there on the top right of my screen. Ugh. Anyways I probably wouldn’t have had enough time to browse it for 5 minutes until answering these guards.

Orchard Guards: “Just Eseli? Is she a resident of this city, of this duchy, or also a foreigner?”

MC: “I think she is the resident of this city or this duchy…”

Orchard Guards: “You don’t even know? Fine, we’ll ask her ourselves. Anyways we’ll need to also inspect this wagon to make sure you aren’t transporting anything bad.”

MC: “Understood”

…

…

Orchard Guards: “Is this Snowmel your friend called Eseli?”

MC: “Yes”

Orchard Guards: “Why is she not waking up?”

MC: “She merely sleeps very strongly”

Orchard Guards: “She’s barely breathing! Oi, what’s the meaning of this? Answer now!”

Why are they suddenly aggressive?! Ah but Orana is there, she should be waking up now and explain to them!

Orchard Guards: “This other lady, a Himenian, isn’t waking up! What’s going on here?!

MC: “She must also be sleeping very strongly”

Orchard Guards: “Oh, very convenient…you thought you could abduct two women and sneak them into our city at night!?”

Hey hey hey…this doesn’t look good. And what do you mean by night?! It’s already dawn! Can’t you see that beautiful sun rising up from the horizon behind you?! Crap this is a big misunderstanding. Wise is still AFK, but at least May and Krafty are seeing the armed guards angry at us!

*In voice chat*

MC: “May! Poke Eseli in the foot or something to wake her up!”

May: “Uhh- okay!”

Orchard Guards: “OI! QUICKLY GRAB EM! Stop these lunatics. Resist or you’ll be even more severely punished!”

Goodbye wagon, goodbye wagon driver, goodbye Orana, and goodbye Eseli. I didn’t think we’d get sent to prison as soon as we arrived here at Malus-Seversi.

May: “How did you manage to convince me stabbing Eseli’s foot with my spear would have been a good idea…”

Krafty: “This is what happens when you rush into new regions in this game. You understand this game is big!? Nooo, we just had to rush into another region.

MC: “Look, I might have screwed it up a little bit but I’m pretty sure this is just part of the event chain we have with Eseli”

May: “Yeah, but didn’t you know or say that Eseli sleeps a lot? So why bother asking me to damge her when it probably wouldn't have woken her up anyways”

MC: “Remember earlier? She suddenly woke up when I started talking to Orana after I was dragging her upstairs while you guys were in the kitchen baking the cake and later also came upstairs. So…I thought she would have actually woken up after getting stabbed! It’s only normal right?!”

May: “Silly, this is a video game. You’re expecting too much realism.”

Krafty: “Yeah, what May said. But of course, it is normal for someone to scream something like “OUCH!” after waking up in pain, right?”

May: “Well, I know of few times where I got away with inflicting pain to someone while they were asleep, and they didn’t react...”

Krafty: “Who was it? Is it someone I know?”

May: “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t remember them exactly…”

MC: “Whatever. At least Wise doesn’t know that we’re being sent to the dungeons yet.”

Krafty: “Is he AFK?”

May: “Yeah. Boy, I wonder what kind of reaction he’s going to have when he’ll get back in. Somethin like “Oh dear it appears we are in prison” haha.

Krafty: “May that’s not even funny. He doesn’t even sound very posh like that. He just uses a lot of unnecessary terminology sometimes.”

…

WiseMaster667: “Ahem...”

MC and May and Krafty: “Oh”