A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

"We settled on a plan, we are going to Dvemoj," Myropsis replied, currently wearing adventure-like clothing. Deep brown leather armor over a dark green skirt. She nearly blended into the shadows perfectly in the night.

Continuing on she explained, "It was abandoned due to one of the wandering hordes attacking it. It is near Trowcrawling, which will be our fallback should things go south. Jannet should also be in Trowcrawling, so should the enemy be too many and chase us we should be able to turn the tables there."

Nodding, Eldrian opened his map and searched for the village. He quickly confirmed that the number of red dots in the village was still only around a hundred.

"However, if it is only the hundred then we should have no problem," Myropsis added, of course, scouts had been sent to confirm. However, they had not gone into the mines so that situation was still uncertain. "We have to stay careful as we are unsure of the condition of the mines.

Just as they were about to exit the city, the group stopped. Turning to look at the company of dwarves talking with the gate guards. A massive line of lanterns indicated just how long this company was. Their arrival was late, the sun had set a few hours ago.

Eldrian and the rest's departure however was stranger. But they wanted to get to the village as soon as possible since it itself should be safe according to all reports.

'Isn't that the dwarf we talked with, and Sanja?' Eldrian mumbled, rushing over to hear what was going on.

"Sir Eldrian!" Viggo quickly greeted, "It is great that we could meet you here, we've come with a delivery of metals and to also give you the materials from the reavers you've killed."

It took Eldrian a moment to recall what the reavers were, "I'm glad, I assume then that everything worked out fine?" Eldrian said, looking at Sanja.

"Indeed, we've brought around a ton of iron and a few hundred kilograms of celestial ores. Rank 2 metals however are in short supply, you must understand." Viggo replied.

"No, that's great news!" Eldrian smiled, "Oh, right... Pelaros was healed about a week ago, so I'm no longer acting as the mayor."

"Is that so?" Viggo frowned. After all, the deal had been made with him and not Pelaros. "Where should we take the materials from the reavers?"

After explaining where his mansion was, Eldrian apologized and explained that he was actually about to head out on a mission.

"That is sad to hear, please do come visit when you have time. I'd love to introduce you to the family."

Recalling clearly what Sanja had explained to him when he had been there to negotiate, Eldrian smiled and said he couldn't wait.

Returning to the group they continued on their way. Eldrian had to keep at a fast jog to not slow the group of centaurs, and as he was running he thought of the reavers and pondered if they might be of use when he tried to make himself a collection of weapons.

'Their only Rank 1 materials, but they're free. At the very least I can experiment with them, and who knows, maybe they have some interesting abilities?'

Luckily, the moon was not blocked by any clouds tonight, allowing them to move clearly and quickly.

Reaching the village took them a few hours, nearing midnight. The group stopped a distance from the village, nestled between two mountains. The shadow of which made the area surprisingly dark, causing everyone to become warry. In such conditions, the undead would have a great advantage.

Before rushing into the village, Eldrian first confirmed the undead's Tiers. Finding that they were all lower undead he asked if he could go ahead and clear them out. Explaining that he wanted to recoup the cost of using his scouting ability.

The group was greatly relieved and realizing this Myropsis gave her blessing. "We'll stay in the inn until morning." Myropsis indicated to the building on the outskirts of the village. Only kept in business thanks to the frequent travel a mining village saw.

Nodding, Eldrian rushed through the city, making quick work of the skeletons. None were still zombies as all their flesh had completely rotten off by now. Thanks to his ability, Scourge of Undeath, Eldrian had no trouble killing the skeletons just with Crystoi. And thanks to his map he would not be taken by surprise.

When he faced a larger group he would use Ice Rain, the Tier five variant of Frost Needle to take care of the group from afar. This was not just because he was keenly aware of his weakened state, but he also saw no reason to attempt close combat against multiple enemies.

The spell certainly was expensive, but he could cast it almost five times even with only half his normal mana pool. If any skeletons survived the onslaught he would kill them with Thora.

Clearing the city took him just slightly over an hour and netted him a total of 2.6M XP, completely paying the 56k cost of inspecting the skeletons, plus easily recovering the daily drain of all his system functions for an entire month. Heck, it could cover the daily drain for an entire year.

Returning to the inn, Eldrian found the group busy enjoying a drink and making their own food in the central hearth on the first floor. Joining them, Eldrian smiled at the calm atmosphere where everyone was sharing stories and talking about anything they wanted to discuss.

'I wish I could have this...' Eldrian mumbled, shocked when he felt a soft arm pulling him in. "What are you-"

"Don't look so down, you're ruining the mood," Myropsis replied before shoving a large piece of meat into his mouth.

Nearly suffocating on it, Eldrian was then assaulted with a jug of beer being thrown into his mouth. Most of which spilled and ruined his and Myropsis's clothes.

Continuing to try and escape, Eldrian found to his horror that in his current state he was like a child compared to Myropsis. Who continued to feed him until he finally started feeling like he was actually part of the group.

He was truly shocked that a royal could be so close with these people. He recalled clearly their first meeting and how cold and distant she had been to the man who had shown him the way.

'Did her travels change her?' Eldrian wondered as he joined in on the fun. Trying to get back at Myropsis in a manner that he was able. Sneakily using ether to tilt her jug, causing all the beer to splash on her face.

Only Eldrian had Myropsis knew that it was not an accident, which made her turn red as the other thought she was too drunk to even drink without throwing the beer in her own face.

...

In the mines, Eldrian was shocked by its size. They had started with the mines in the left mountain, deeper in the two connected so the plan was to move through and exit through the other to ensure no monsters could slip past them.

The mine was large, this was naturally required since centaurs themselves were large creatures. The roof was three meters high, enough to let everyone walk comfortably. But should they rear they would certainly hit their heads. The mine was also wide, allowing three to five centaurs to walk abreast.

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