The big change in the atmosphere almost overwhelmed Liam and his friends. From the bleak, war-torn Greypine Town to one of the busiest cities in Crunaboul was a bit too much. The party pushed their way through the crowd of players and NPCs. At this point Fate of Crunaboul had more or less reached a ceiling, at least on Falva Star.
Most of the people who wished to play the game and could afford it got their hands on a console. Now it was time to spread the console to neighbouring planets.
Falva Star was part of a small star system. The neighbouring planets were even less populated but counted together they were not irrelevant. The Falva Star server also encompassed these smaller planets.
Of those people living on the smaller planets only those wealthy enough managed to procure a console. But over the next month Falva Star would slowly start to export.
Of course, the people on those planets were at a great disadvantage. Only the most diligent and perhaps lucky newcomers would be able to catch up to the old players.
Liam and his friends didn't think much about such issues. For them the current number of players was just right. Any less and it would be difficult to find talents. Any more and every place would be too crowded.
Liam shivered just imagining what those servers in the densely populated central star system would look like. Although they had multiple servers, each of those would still be more crowded than their Falva Star server.
Such thoughts fluttered through Liam's mind as his party pushed through the crowd. They entered a square towards the edge of the city where it was relatively less crowded.
"Strange, strange. I thought there were more…"
As the surroundings became less noisy everyone could hear Cyclone murmur to herself. Silver Blade raised a brow, asking her what she was talking about.
"I thought I had 17 green-striped carps. But I only picked up 10 earlier. I don't know…"
Suddenly Cyclone stopped and eyed her friends.
"Who took my carps?"
Everyone was silent until Balm suddenly began chuckling.
"Balm?"
"Ok, ok. It was me. I never thought you would notice after scattering so much stuff all over the ground."
"Hmpf. You underestimate me."
"I guess."
Balm chuckled and didn't tease Cyclone any longer, giving back the few carps. The others were amused by their antics as they asked Cyclone to show them the compass again. The blond mage placed the item on her palm, holding it horizontally. Immediately the needle began to spin wildly. With this speed one might think that it would begin to lift off any second.
But fortunately, this didn't happen as the needle soon stopped, pointing towards the north-east.
"Well, there we go. Do we have anything left to do?"
"Nope. Let's leave the city and follow the compass."
"Finally!"
"Let's go!"
Everyone was looking forward to going on a quest with the original party. They left Svebrial together, mounted their basilisks, and rushed off. Surprised shouts accompanied them as people discovered the famous Hotpot. Only when the party left Svebrial far behind did the number of players in the vicinity rapidly decline.
Since they didn't know where exactly the compass led them to, the friends couldn't take a teleporter. They were forced to go on an adventure, admiring the landscape of the Rising Basilisk Empire. They passed villages, forests, and fields, saw monsters and quest givers. But they didn't stop as most of the area around Svebrial was not relevant at their levels anymore.
This only began to change as the friends reached a certain familiar region. The roaring of the Great Spirit River separating the Rising Basilisk Empire and the Red Steppe reached their ears. To the party it almost felt like years had passed since they power-levelled in this area by luring some wargs to a bandit stronghold.
However, the party had still not reached their target. They passed the region, travelling parallel to the river. Soon a large lake came into view. The friends stood on a hill with a forest behind their backs, admiring the scenery.
The lake was also called Lake of three corners. Looking around it was quite obvious where this name came from as three different landscapes came together around the lake.
Going clockwise one could admire a dense forest, a dry savannah, and a vast steppe. They belonged respectively to the Rising Basilisk Empire, the desert nation Aviar, and the orc-occupied Red Steppe.
The friends admired the view for a while before continuing on their way, circling the lake. Liam didn't say anything but he already had a suspicion. Out of all the locations the void compass could point to, the Lake of three corners was quite a prominent one. The likelihood of this being their target was quite high.
And indeed, as the players circled the lake, they discovered that the needle moved, always pointing towards the lake's centre.
"Guys, I guess we found it. But how should we continue from here?"
Listening to Silver Blade's question everyone looked around, searching for a possible solution. Just as Silent Acacia wanted to suggest swimming, Watchful Eye pointed towards the other side of the water where a branch of the Great Spirit River flowed into the lake.
"There are people over there!"
Everyone squinted their eyes trying to spot something.
"Really? I don't see anything."
"I see a few dots."
"Watchful Eye might be right. Damn, how did you spot that?"
The others were amazed. Praising Watchful Eye, they circled the lake until they reached the other side. Soon they approached three people positioned in a triangle, gesturing angrily as they argued with each other.
The first one was an older human woman with a fit body and eyes which had seen their fair share of hardships. She stared angrily at a young human man with dark skin and a bare upper body. The man however pointed at a tall, male orc with an intimidating, rough face, who fletched his teeth at the old woman.
"It must be the fault of you Aviarner! I saw it with my own eyes how one of your mages practiced next to the lake. With all the dirt they threw in, it is not surprising that all the fish died!"
"Bullsh*t! Old woman, you should know that the orcs have infested the lake with their food waste for countless years. All those bones and old meat were finally too much for the poor fish."
"Stupid human. We fed the fish for years and they have always grown healthily. Instead, those empire bastards reproduce like rabbits! To fill their gluttonous stomachs, they have fished more and more with each year. It's only natural that it couldn't be sustained forever!"
As the players got closer, they heard the trio arguing, constantly throwing around accusations. From that the problem was easy to figure out. Once, the lake had been used by all three factions to fish. But since a while ago the rate at which they caught fish has drastically reduced.
Eventually the factions even had to give up the lake. Only those living in the surrounding villages still tried to revive the lake. Obviously though, they only had limited success. Even the fish living in the river seemed to actively avoid the lake.
The arguing trio wasn't disturbed by the approaching players. As Cyclone listened to them, she revealed a thoughtful look. With a flick of her wrist a fishing rod appeared in her hand. Showing skilled movements she put a bait on the hook and threw it into the water.
Ten seconds passed. The players were quiet, watching Cyclone curiously. Suddenly she pulled the fishing line back, a look of shock on her face.
"They are right. There are really no fish left in the water!"
Fortune looked at Cyclone, saying with a puzzled expression:
"You barely waited for ten seconds. How could anything bite in such a short time?"
"What do you mean? I never have to wait longer…"
"Well, that's definitely not normal."
"Fortune is right. Perhaps you should try it again."
Cyclone shrugged her shoulders and threw the hook again. Twenty seconds passed.
"You see…"
Just as she wanted to say something, the fishing line suddenly shook. Everyone's eyes showed surprise, especially Cyclone's. She pulled back the fishing rod with all her strength and something flew in a large arc above everyone's heads. The friends all turned their eyes towards it.
"It's… a dagger?!"
"Damn. I give up. Even without fish, Cyclone can still pull out a dagger. Absurd."
While her friends expressed their shock, Cyclone behaved as if nothing special had happened. She sauntered towards the dagger, picking it up and checking it out. It was a level 44 uncommon weapon. Her friends didn't need it but perhaps someone in the guild might like it. Cyclone put it into the treasury and turned towards her friends.
Silver Blade smiled as she spoke up:
"Alright. Now that we have more or less confirmed that the lake indeed has no fish, should we continue the quest?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go."
"Who wants to talk to the NPCs?"
"Let me!"