Having exited the crowded passageway, the group was able to move at a much faster pace. It was now Alvor's turn to be surprised, as he had expected to need to slow down for the others, but Yang, Alexx, and Zed had little difficulty keeping pace with Van, even with [BEAST RIDER] boosting the goat's AGI higher. Alexx and Yang were understandable, as both were clearly running intensely, but Zed almost seemed to be treating his mount's top speed as a casual jog.

It didn't take long for his curiosity to get the better of him. "Okay, seriously, what level are you guys?"

"You haven't looked for yourself yet?" Zed asked.

Alvor shrugged. "I didn't want to be rude." He then blinked as he processed Zed's question. "Wait, how did you know that I-"

"I Analysed you the moment I saw you."

"...Seriously?" Alvor sighed. Although Van didn't understand the exchange, he glared at Zed as he sensed his rider's disappointment.

"It's basic threat assessment. I have no idea who you are or what you're up to, I at least needed to see if you were strong enough to be a threat."

"ZED!" Yang shouted. "CAN YOU BE POLITE FOR ONE FUCKING MINUTE?!"

"Apparently not," he responded with a laugh. "To answer your question, I'm level 32, Alexx is level 35, and Yang is level 21."

"God damn," Alvor said reflexively.

"I'm guessing there isn't much for you guys to hunt up here?"

"Not really. There's some small game in here and out in the fields, but aside from that, there's just the ants and the goats. I can't fight the former, and I won't hunt the latter."

Although surviving in Ziege Basin didn't appear difficult, it didn't change the fact that this was still a high-level area and would be incredibly deadly were it not for the peaceful nature of the Mountain Goats. There were no mid-level enemies to bridge the gap between the weaker beasts like the White Squirrels and the terrifyingly powerful Iron Ants.

"I'm kind of surprised the goats let you guys stay here. If this place is supposed to be special and all." Zed could only assume that the Mountain Goats were responsible for removing or keeping out animals like the Moss Wolves and Hell Pigs. It turned Ziege into a haven for the young with no threats or competition for food. The appearance of the players seemed like something they would react violently to.

"Honestly, we kind of got lucky with that."

Alvor explained that while adult and adolescent Mountain Goats would visit The Basin frequently, only nursing mothers would be present for extended periods. More often than not the area was almost exclusively filled with unsupervised kids, becoming even more prevalent the further one went from the passageway.

"It's not as if the parents need to protect them from anything, so when we spawned in it was just us and the kids, most of which are too young and curious to see us as threats. By the time we made first contact with one of the adults, they realized we weren't going to hurt them and were willing to tolerate us for a while."

"And they were willing to share their food?"

"There's nothing to share. They have their grass and milk, and we have fish from the lake and game from the fields. The only thing worth competing over is the apples-"

"You guys have apples?!" Alexx asked suddenly, almost tripping as his head snapped to look at Alvor.

Alvor looked at Alexx, amused at his excessive reaction. "Yes but they're not in season. We cook a few every now and then but we want to leave most of it for a real harvest. The goats don't really eat them either, but that will probably change once they ripen."

"Why not just eat them raw?" Zed asked.

"You ever eat an unripe apple?"

Zed shook his head.

"They taste gross and can cause stomach pains, which one of our guys chose to learn the hard way." Alvor looked like he was about to say more, but he stopped as his eyes flicked upward. "We're here. Let's get you guys settled in."

~~~~~

The other players were astonished to see Alvor return with other people. Apparently, he was the only one to ever leave the basin, and his description of a settlement farther down the valley seemed a little too unbelievable. Seeing that they were wrong left them extremely excited as Yang, Alexx, and Zed were quickly introduced. There were only thirteen of them including Alvor, so it wasn't long before they were all settling down for lunch.

Deciding to celebrate a little, they brought out a few clay pots filled with a sweet-smelling liquid, made from boiled apples, to go with the rest of the stew that Yang and the others decided to share.

The Apple Cider was a welcome change of pace for the three high-level players. The village was mostly limited to either plain water or a berry mix that always ended up tasting like watered-down juice, but the cider was strong, sweet, and tangy in a way that each of them was craving dearly.

The players from Ziege Basin were even more enthusiastic about the stew. With none of them having any experience or ideas of how to cook in an environment like New Eden Online, their diets had been composed almost entirely of roasted squirrels, rabbits, and fish. To hear that the village players had a wide selection of ingredients and a competent chef, made them want to leave The Basin for the first time since the start of their imprisonment.

Yang, Alexx, and Zed were surprised to see that these players had access to clay pottery, considering how isolated they were. Apparently, there was a large clay deposit at the base of the waterfall, with more flowing down the river into the lake. Once again, none of them had any relevant experience, but with no one besides Alvor able to hunt effectively and nothing better to do in the peaceful monotony of the basin, they had experimented endlessly.

They hadn't been able to make anything substantial for the first month, but they slowly improved in both skill and understanding. By the end of the second month they had learned to make the kilns that surrounded the camp's large cooking fire, and now they could reliably produce all kinds of stoneware.

In terms of levels, they weren't much better than Alvor. The bonuses from crafting had given them a considerable amount of EXP, more than Alvor had been able to gather from small game hunting, but recently they had started to hit the limit on what they could get from just stoneware. Wood was also a somewhat limited resource for them, so they couldn't experiment with it as much. Aside from Alvor's bow and arrows, nearly all of their wood was used to cook their food.

As they all ate and talked, it was quickly decided that once preparations were made, Yang, Alexx, and Zed would lead everyone from Ziege Basin back to the village.

~~~~~

Most of them had finished eating rather quickly, unable to stop themselves from devouring the best meal they'd had in weeks, and were now enjoying a show as Yang got into a fight with Van. It had started with her trying to feed the beast, but the two quickly became hostile as Van repeatedly pushed her aside. Van was intelligent enough to realize that she wasn't trying to seriously hurt him as she didn't equip her weapon or armor, and it quickly turned into something of a wrestling match like some of the adolescent goats would do.

"This whole thing almost feels too good to be true," Alvor said, taking a sip of his cider as he watched his friend's charge get neutralized as Yang caught him by the horns. "I woke up late for my hunt this morning, and on my way to the fields, I run into you guys?"

"It's definitely pretty lucky," Zed said, swallowing a mouthful of stew. "If you hadn't shown up when you did we might have left or tried fighting The Guardian Elder."

Alvor sputtered into his cup. "You can't be serious?! Beskyd would wipe the floor with you guys!"

Zed shrugged. "Leaving was obviously plan A, but you already know how difficult it is getting through that crowded passageway. If it attacked first we would have to defend ourselves."

"She," he corrected. "And yeah, I guess that's true."

"Okay. By the way, I've been meaning to ask why you call her that."

"Beskyd?"

"Yeah, I mean, her name is The Guardian Elder, and you do know that."

"True, but 'The Guardian Elder' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue very well now does it." He took another sip of cider. "Besides, she looks like a Beskyd."

"....Sure." Zed took a long sip of cider as he watched Yang try to force Van to the ground, only to get flung through the air as the large goat whipped its head to the side. "How did you name him by the way."

"Van? He just looks like-"

"No, I mean, named monsters are kind of a big deal, just look at The Guardian Elder. But there doesn't seem to be anything special about Van." Zed had checked Van's stats right after Alvor's, and while the system had accepted the name it didn't seem any different from any other adolescent Mountain Goat.

Alvor's eyes widened. "Other named animals? Like what?"

"Well, the only fully named monster was a wolf called The Wise One. It was tactical and lead a small army of Moss Wolves. Aside from that, a friend of mine had a run-in with a Hell Pig that the system said was ready to be named but hadn't been yet. According to him it was bulging with muscle and ran away when it saw he wasn't an easy target."

The beast tamer's eyes were practically sparkling at Zed's descriptions. "Moss Wolves? Hell Pigs? What are they like?"

"Hey, my question first."

Alvor blushed slightly. "Right, sorry. Honestly, I didn't really do anything special, I just kept calling him that until the system changed it."

"Just like that?"

"I think it happened about when he started really listening to me, so maybe the animal has to accept it?"

"Makes about as much sense as anything else in this game."

*RAAAAAAAA*

Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the basin, sending the young goats into a panic as they rushed to hide within the apple grove. A flood of goats rushed out from the passageway.

"What the hell was that," Yang asked, getting up after having been knocked over by Van.

"That was Beskyd," Alvor said grimmly. "It's an Iron Ant raid."