The quest from Elara came as a cold shower for Bars and Lina. 30 Zipiriks. That number loomed in their minds like a colossal mountain.
"Thirty?" Lina whined, twirling one of her blonde curls around her finger. "Four of them nearly killed us. This isn't fair!"
Bars was silent. In his mind, he was multiplying the tiny amount of experience he had just gained by 30, then comparing it to the massive number required to level up. The conclusion wasn't promising. This would require more than just a blind slaughter.
"Wait," Bars said thoughtfully. "Let's not go hunting just yet."
Lina looked at him, surprised.
"What? Are we giving up?"
"No," Bars replied, his eyes scanning the surroundings. "We need to know the battlefield before we go to war. We haven't seen anything besides Instructor Elara and this tree. We don't even really know where we are."
Lina had no argument against this logical reasoning. She nodded. Bars was right. They were inside a game played by millions, yet there was no crowd, no chaos around them. Just peace and silence... This situation bothered Bars's detail-obsessed mind.
As they left the shadow of the Great Tree and started walking, they realized they were actually in a small settlement. It wasn't a city or a town, but a grove that seemed to have grown as a part of nature itself. "The Genesis Grove," Bars whispered, thinking it was the most fitting name for the place.
The houses weren't separate buildings made of stone or wood as they were used to. Some were nests carved into the trunks of giant trees, decorated with vines hanging from their windows. Others were charming huts built under the caps of giant mushrooms, illuminated by glowing spores. Connecting these structures were silky, sturdy vine bridges that swayed gently in the wind.
A stream flowed with a gentle murmur, and the plants growing along its banks glowed with a faint blue light. There was a faint scent of ozone and sweet pollen in the air.
As they walked, they saw other "people," but they weren't players. They were NPCs without quest markers, who seemed to be living their own lives. An old, muscular blacksmith stood by his forge, hammering a piece of incandescent metal. With every strike, green sparks flew from the metal. Bars mentally noted the tag that identified the man as "Borin the Blacksmith."
A little further on, there was a young woman tending to a garden full of medicinal herbs. She was whispering something to the plants, and the leaves she touched shone more brightly. Her name was "Nia." Lina instinctively waved at the woman, and Nia responded with a warm smile.
"Strange," Bars said, pausing. "It's Neuro Shard's launch day. Millions of people should have started the game. Shouldn't this place be packed with new players?"
Lina looked around. Indeed, there were no other players besides the two of them. "Maybe we're in a very special starting point?" she guessed cheerfully. But in Bars's mind, this registered as a mystery, an anomaly that needed to be solved.
When they reached the edge of the grove, they saw something they hadn't noticed before. A moss-covered, ancient notice board. Most of the parchments on it were worn by time, their writings in Aetheria's runic alphabet rendered illegible.
However, in the center of the board was a simple map drawn with charcoal, looking newer than the rest. The map showed the Genesis Grove where they were, and the forested area dense with the Zipiriks Elara had mentioned. But something else caught Bars's attention.
Deeper in the forest, there was a symbol that had been specifically marked by the person who drew the map: a cave entrance with a strange, spiral rune on it. Their quest had made no mention of such a place.
This could be an unplanned exploration, an unknown danger, or an unexpected opportunity. And Bars's curiosity was beginning to outweigh the quest to hunt 30 Zipiriks.
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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to rate and leave a comment; any feedback or criticism is welcome!
I'll be releasing a chapter a day. Stay tuned!
This is my first release, so I'm releasing 10 chapters!