Astral Flow

Chapter 2

The night was long and filled with minor chit chat, it was rather uneventful to say the least, the only surprise was a few more players coming back to join the group. By the time morning rolled around their numbers had grown to 40 or so, it seemed people were learning the dangers of the world. More might be found on their marches, expeditions to help establish safe routes through the map.

Most of the starting area had been farmed dry overnight, items, enemies, crafting supplies, all gone. "There must be some players still out in the field, the supplies should've respawned by now." Aranea spoke as she overlooked a rough sketched map. "If we want experience we'll have to wait longer, otherwise we'll be underpowered."

"How underpowered? What exactly would we need?" Ryder asks as he looks down at the map, surprised at just how bad it looks. It had a basic outline but aside from that, it was near impossible to tell what anything was, looking like random smudges and symbols on the parchment.

"Well if we want to survive the final encounter on this island? Probably... level 20 to 30, and our equipment should be at least twice or thrice upgraded." She produces a piece of charcoal and puts it on what looks like a circle. "We're here, the main path is this way to the west. It leads to the port town of Thelmur."

"Alright, what about the other path then? As I imagine we're clearly underleveled for the main path." Ryder asks, his mind slowly figuring out what each symbol on the map means.

Aranea nods before moving the charcoal to a different section. "We'll move around the mountains the other way, clearing dungeons and securing the villages along the way." She traces a trail to the north, looping around the hastily scribbled mountains. "This way will prevent us from rushing headfirst into death, it also gives some nice opportunities for extra experience."

"How so? Know some secret spots?" he asks, while still trying to figure out where such things on the map would be.

"Yeah, from my time in the beta there was a dungeon to the northeast." She makes another mark on the map. "It was hidden by some shrubbery near a tree, so chances are most players missed it." she closes her eyes and seems to think for a moment before continuing. "I don't remember it being particularly difficult, though things often change between beta and final release."

A dungeon could be rather valuable... though if they could avoid anything risky he'd rather have them take the safer option. "Is there anything valuable in there? Worth the risk I mean." he asks, slightly hoping that they could just ignore it for now.

"In the beta it was mainly just exp items, now though? Who knows... it could still be just that or there could be some early armor and weapons. Might even have an npc waiting down there." Aranea says nonchalantly while slowly reworking the map, her mind drifting ever so slightly.

"Npcs can be in dungeons?" Ryder looked at her genuinely perplexed, sure it didn't sound outlandish but it's not something he would've thought of.

She looks over to Ryder now, a bit surprised by the question. "Yeah, it's not unheard of for some npcs to be found in dungeons. Sometimes they're just prisoners or lost explorers, other times they're more important and help with the story."

Suddenly all sense of worry left his mind, if there was an npc there it would likely have important information, if not ensure the dungeon wasn't too dangerous. "I see, would you mind if I check it out then? It looks fairly close and there's minimal enemies out in the plains right now, right?"

"Huh? You want to go check it out? Like right now?! Are you crazy?! We barely know what's in there! It could be some insanely tough enemy!" Aranea's usual calm demeanor suddenly jumped into a panic, her voice getting noticeably louder and slightly higher.