"Buzz off, kid." Mold shoved the kid angrily away from himself. Even if he looked young and poor, he was not going to give gold away to some newbie that can't even make a decent living. Everyone knew what they were getting themselves into before entering the game, just that they didn't know it would become real. And that doesn't give them a reasonable excuse to get free gold. It is not that hard to make some coin here. Do what you are capable of. Hunt monsters, make armors, sell your armors, do whatever, it's all possible. This is real life now.

The dirty and hurt kid kept bugging Mold as he loitered there leaning against the wall of an inn which seemed to always have action. It was about mid day when this kid woke him up from his daydreaming session. He kept pushing him slightly, as if trying to wake him up from a good night's sleep. "Misteeeeer, please, I beg you, spare some coin for food." He kept asking.

Mold put up his palm in front of himself, and out of nowhere strings of energy came circling into a form of a ball. A black ball which was now floating above Mold's palm. "Look, kid. If you don't butt off right now, I am sure as hell going to shove this in your face." Mold aggressively threatened the blonde haired child. It was hard to tell whether it was a boy or a girl due to the long blonde hair, but from the voice he could tell it was a boy. He backed off quickly after, and ran away crying. The ball dispersed back into strings of energy that faded into thin air. He crossed his arms back together in his chest area, and continued to relax in the sunlight of the day. It was not long before he grew bored of this activity, and decided to pick up something new, something more interesting. Gripping his long wooden staff tightly, he launched himself away from the wall and began walking towards the exit of the town. "Time for some action, I guess.

It was slow work, traveling through the forest, trying to avoid drawing attention. It took a long while of creeping for the entrance to disappear from sight. Travis took a moment to look over his head, noting the lack from of sunlight. Occasionally a twig would crack somewhere in the distance, or a rustling could be heard as something crept by. Travis had a feeling that they were staying just out of his view. It was enough for the hair on his neck and arms to stand up. Sweat collected on his brow, and he wiped it away impatiently. If they were attacked, he couldn’t be half blinded by his own sweat.

He seemed to lose track of time even though there was a clock on the HUD. With each step, it became obvious that it was getting darker. In the distance grunting, and footsteps could be heard. Travis’ heart jumped his throat. Sebastian commented something, but in the confusion the words were lost in translation. All the mercenary knew is that they were now barreling through the woods. He used his shield to assist in deflecting the briars, and hastened to stay on Sebastian’s heels. The worst thing that could happen would be getting separated.

What they found instead was another interesting class. She was lightly armored, with hardly any weapons. Yet a spider lay dead at her feet. Travis had to admit he was impressed. She looked worse for wear, the poison of the spider whittling away at her health slowly. He was about to offer her a health potion, when Sebastian beat him to the punch. As it was Travis continued to keep his ears peeled, occasionally peering into the woods surrounding the clearing.

Constant Vigilance! He quoted from one of his favorite book series from back in the other world. They were sitting ducks here, and Travis hoped that they could avoid running into a group of these spiders. Not bringing a healer had started to seem more like an amateur idea. What if something terrible happened? There was no respawn point. He swallowed hard feeling a lump form in his throat. Still though, if they could get away perhaps he could give them ample time by being the distraction.

Tanika was still staring at her hands trying to decide what to do about them. She was about to shred her tunic to wrap around them when she heard something crashing through the forest. She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, ready to run, but despair instantly filled her. She wasn't sure she could battle another spider, not after the damage from the first one. She'd barely had time to breathe in between. Run, she had to run. That was what she was best at after all. Out of the corner of her eye two creatures burst through the foliage and she darted back a couple steps, about to sidestep them and run back the way she'd come, when she realized they were much too tall to be spiders. She stopped and looked at them. Two men, huffing and puffing with a hint of surprise on their faces. One of them stepped towards her, making her nervous. What does he want? I've already taken the gold. She was about to run when her HUD lit up, directing her attention to a trade the player had just opened up for a health potion.
"Hey you okay? I thought I heard a struggle you're not poisoned or anything right?" He paused a second. "You killed that thing with dinky little throwing knives? What class are you some kind of marksman or somethin'? Do you need a health potion or anything?"
Her face instantly lit up and she managed to mumble a thank you before greedily gulping down the potion. When she looked at her hands again they were already healed.
Wow. she murmured Quick work. Thanks! she beamed at the duo. I probably would've been monster chow trying to make my way back with half a health bar.
She marveled a moment at her strike of good luck before she remembered he'd asked several questions before he'd even given her the potion, she'd just been eying it so intently his queries went straight through one ear to the other. No, I'm not a marksman, I'm a Runner. she blushed, suddenly aware at how ridiculous the scene must look. A scrapped up girl next to a dead spider with nothing but some knives and cotton armor. There isn't much work around town, so, if I wanted to eat tonight I had to take down a monster. She looked between the two of them. They seemed like good people. They'd helped her out when they didn't need to. They could have killed her and taken her gold, or saved their potions for themselves but instead they lent one to her. Those things are nasty. The jerk that sent me this way failed to mention that the spiders were higher level monsters than the cave rats. I would have brought somebody with me. she shrugged, she was alive at least.

Lance watched the healer answer simply then make her way out the door, he stood there for a second before blinking hard and following suit, hurrying to keep up.

"Uh, I think...that we can get some health potions from a stall going that way..."

he pointed towards his left down the road where a smoldering stall layed and a grumbling chef had recently made his way back down. "N-not that one..."
he mumbled about the clearly destroyed shop. He hoped no one had been hurt, it looked pretty intense in terms of damage....Lance sighed and started to make his way in the general direction, making sure not to go faster then his new partner, he didn't want to seem rude...sure they weren't exactly in their natural social habitat but still, one should be civil.

"I-I think I have enough for a good amount...I can give you some for when we actually...you know, fight things." He reached his destination of a familiar little stall, it had a middle aged woman behind it who had a slightly genuine slightly fake smile. She was an NPC Lance had talked to many times already. "H-hello again miss...uhm...12 I think this time..." the lady nodded and accepted the gold Lance was sending to her through transaction. He received the potions in his inventory and lost quite a good amount of gold. He would need to kill a decent amount of monsters to make that back up...

"Uh, five for you..." he said turning to Colleen and sending her a trade request. He planned on keeping the other five for actually combat later and using the other two to heal himself back up now. He looked to the blacksmith they were near and debated on going to get his armor fixed, he did say so earlier but he didn't have any other armor and going to buy some more then paying for repairs would take too much time and gold as on right now. So he supposed he would just have to hope for the best when they reached their hunting grounds.

"W-we should get going soon. If we want to get a proper amount of gold for tonight we will have to get hunting..."

Lance wasn't sure about how vocal to be with this person, she seemed very quiet and he wasn't exactly used to being the more talkative end of the conversation, maybe he was saying too much? Maybe to little...Either way it worried him in the back of his mind, despite living in a life or death style now, Lance, or Louie, was till a kid with social problems inside.

Colleen didn't really say much. She simply nodded and followed Lance, ever-so-slightly behind him. She was letting him lead. Her short hair bobbed about her head, and she was rather focused. She didn't seem to be distracted by the chef or the usual crowd of the streets at all. Colleen was also eerily quiet. Even her movements were nearly silent, especially above the noise around them. She was like a robed ghost. Without a word, she accepted the trade request.

She only seemed to react when hunting monsters was brought up.
"All right. My mana is rather high, and my health is full, so we can leave any time you wish," she said softly, "Though perhaps finding a bigger group would be wiser... I believe it's common knowledge the nocturnal monsters are stronger than the day ones," she said to her new companion, brushing her hair back with one slender hand.

Wolfing down her meal with ravenous zeal, she swiftly decimated her meal. She was restless now , not content to be in the company of others any longer. She'd had enough of that with her 'breakfast.' Getting up she nodded towards her waitress in silent thanks before reequipping her weapon of choice. She refused to take the front door this time, preferably choosing to exit through the bathroom window. The night was quiet except for the sound of snores and late night melees. But she could not relax, not an inch until she was back in her...home? She guessed she could call it that. Home... For a moment she didn't feel like tough, calculating Sentinel but prone, vunerable Anna Reyes. She hated that.

That's not my life any longer, it's better to forget...

For a moment she frowned before slinking into the shadows, calculating her next destination.

She opened her HUD looking through her notes. Yeah, she took notes so she could refresh her mind on locations and strategies, especially useful now that there was no independent strategy guide. At least, not one she was willing to pay for. Filing through her notes she came across the info she was seeking. She'd gotten info of one of het targets about a certain 'hidden' cave not far of from her residence that had huge farming potential, the huge part being that the inhabitants were giant cave rats. According to the directions it should be northwest of her right now. Closing the HUD quickly, she crawled from the cramped drainage pipe, pushing the rusted gate back into place behind her. She was noticed only briefly by a group of NPCs and a wandering knight that was way too far off to catch up, but other than that her travel was uneventful.

Arriving at near the supposed place, she decided to climb the tree for reconnaissance. She didn't want to be embroiled in anything she couldn't handle. She wanted to observe how armed they were and how they fared against the initial enemies. Then she'd make the call on if she would test the dungeon or not. Or just make targets out of any that approached. She prepared herself, positioning so that the branches would cloak most of her body while leaving room to aim her rifle. And so she waited.

Lance sent the potions over to the elf, or who he thought was an elf, and took out one of his own to drink it, he chugged it on spot then sighed with relief after topping off the bottle. He felt his energy returning and his life feel a little more stable in the world.

"That helps a bit..." he said smiling fully for the first time. He was relieved to say the least. "L-let's get going then..." he motioned with his arm so that the two could begin walking, he took lead because he was almost sure she wasn't going to.

"About finding more people...maybe that Jester man...girl, thing, we were talking to before, would still be willing to team up..."

He thought about what to do more instantly, there was no certainty that they would reach teammates before finding a battle. "We can just take it careful and rush to the caves...it's rather easy to stay safe there, the forest along the way is probably the more dangerous area..."

He walked at a decently brisk pace, he did say they were in a hurry, but urgency wasn't what he wanted to add to any situation.

"I-I think we could be alright for a short while with just the two of us...I could hold off enemies and if they get close I can still sort of fight them...if I take any damage you can heal me up, I don't know about how much damage you want to try but...maybe just wait until they are distracted by me?"

He was making it up as he went, he wasn't the best at strategy but it mostly seemed like common sense to him...

"Wh-what sort of abilities do you have anyways?"

He asked as they walked closer and closer to the city's limits

Back stepping over the breaking twigs and shimmering fall leaves that fell a long time ago he traversed the dark forest towards hell knows where. The leaves on the ground seemed to be dry and old, but the game was not that old. It was probably just one of those details that the game had. Breljorn began to wonder if this game actually has seasons, if it will start raining in three months, that is, if he survives that long. He was also surprised that chaos and looting didn't start yet. In real life, if people felt danger, they'd start rioting in streets, causing hell on earth. It was probably pointless to do such things, since this was still a game and some things were prevented from happening.

Darkness engulfed his body as he was looking around while traversing the forest. These times you can never be too careful of what's going to happen. With his dagger in hand and his armors on, he slowly ventured forward. Or was it backward? Breljorn was too confused up at this point to even know, since his pathfinding skills were not as good as he expected them to be. Especially with no sun around.

Stepping into a tall bush he quickly changed into the form of a fox to hide himself from what he had seen just then. Three people in somewhat of a clearing, talking. Two guys with melee weapons and armors, and a gal barely equipped. There was a dead carcass of a spider near the girl, laying there on the ground, bleeding green blood. Hoping they did not hear him change, he turned into a brown fox he usually takes form of, and sat there, in that bush, watching them, spying on them."Jerk... Spiders... Rats..." He heard the girl speak, although couldn't make sense of what she was talking about, since Brel was not yet used to the fox hearing. It was different than that of a human's. Much different. An idea popped into Brel's mind - STEAL!

He had the urge to steal from at least one of them. Steal something of value - be it gold or items. Circling them through bushed, around trees and through grass, he slowly found himself behind them, hiding in a pocket of grass. Watching them from behind, following their every move, Brel waited for the right moment to jump out and snatch their gold satchels with his fox teeth. The guy with two swords in his hands had a pouch up his waist, that probably carried gold, and so Brel was attracted to him more than the guy near him, who also had a pouch up his waist, but a smaller one. And the girl didn't seem to have anything at all. Poor lady.

Brel jumped out of the bush, quickly sprinting towards the guy with the bigger money pouch. Soon, Breljorn changed his mind, thinking the other guy would be easier to steal from since he had harder armors on - Bronze plate. He switched targets, and leaped towards the guy. It was a simple plan he had in mind - snatch the pouch with his teeth and run back into the forest to hide. But plans almost never go as planned. As he leaped up to get the pouch, he bit it, and was left there hanging. The pouch was attached tightly, without a chance to take it off without either tearing it or untying it from the waist. Both weren't good options, he was just left there hanging with his teeth up the pouch.

Shit.

Travis watched as the new arrival downed the health potion, and was happy to see her health bar quickly increase in size. Being low on health always left him nervous, as it was just another opportunity to be killed. After hearing her talk for a moment, he realized that they were likely heading to the same place. He wondered if Sebastian would extend another party invite to her. There was always strength in numbers, and theirs were meager at the moment.

“I’m Travis. Travis Ironhide.” The mercenary addressed the runner with a quick smile. Sebastian was the party leader, so there wasn’t much else that Travis could do except introduce himself. It never paid to be unnecessarily rude, that was something that had been drilled into his head in the other world. A quick look over his shoulder showed that the Jester was gone, probably still on the other side of the brush that the duo had shoved through frantically moments before.

The dark made him nervous, though not because of the darkness itself. What scared him about the dark, was the fact that there were creatures lurking in it. They were always prepared to pounce, to attack—

As if to prove his point something darted from the shadows. Travis stifled a cry, determined not to blow their cover. It darted towards Sebastian, apparently interested in the pouch hanging off his waist. At the last second, it changed directions instead leaping at him. He had almost shield bashed the little thing, and was glad he hadn’t when he finally realized what it was.

A fox hung from his coin pouch, an obvious glint in its eyes. Travis couldn’t help but give a perplexed look at before tapping it on the head lightly with the handle of his sword. “You would do well to remove your teeth from my gold little fox.” He commented to the so called animal. “I do not take well to thieves.” He trailed off, staring at the creature’s face. Truth be told, he wasn’t angry in the slightest. The whole situation was a little comical.

Still though, it was awkward to have a live animal attached to his side.

Realizing what situation he had gotten himself into, he noticed that the person talked to him as if he knew that Brel was human. Brel forgot to acknowledge that name tags of players may be shown above their heads, he never paid attention to that. Starting to shake his head, pulling the gold pouch to different sides, he struggled to get it off, but with now luck, he soon let go. Cover blown, open for an attack, the brown pelted fox backed away a few steps, swiftly changing shape and form into one of a human's.

"I warn you, I can fight!" Brel said with obvious fear in his eyes, as he readied his dagger, and stood in a battle stance, fixing his legs into the ground for a stable position. Glancing at everyone around, adjusting back to the newly changed body, he stood there, ready to be attacked.

Colleen stored the health potions in her inventory. She didn't really need them right now. She had full health anyways. Colleen was indeed an elf, her character was intentionally created elfish.

When Lance motioned to go, she picked her pace back up again, matching Lance's step for step. Her brow furrowed slightly in thought.

"Yes, we do need more people. Perhaps we can join some of those people we saw running around like chickens with their heads cut off as well as the Jester that talked to us," she replied to his first comment with a sage nod. The elf girl plucked absent-mindedly at a loose string of her simply-embroidered robe as she walked to help her think. She didn't seem to really mind being asked about her abilities, basic as they were.

"I'm a well-rounded mage. I have the healing spell, which you knew. I also have an energy blast and a shield," she responded matter-of-factly, looking up at the walls as they grew taller and taller with each brisk step.

"Your strategy would work for a weaker monster... but we really need to find more team mates for that to work well on tougher ones," she added as an afterthought.

Lance watched his conversation partner as they walked, waiting until it actually sounded like she was finished, "Mmm...y-yeah, joining a group sounds best..."

He was hoping they could find a good group of people when they got to their destination. He didn't want to tough it out for too long without any extra help. He wasn't confident in his ability to be the only real offensive point of a team.

"Uh, I-I can place a sort of drone...they shoot once I do, I can shoot fast for a short time and uh...I can't actually use my other ability..." He didn't understand why, all it described to him was duel wielding, maybe he needed a different gun, though that sort of didn't make much sense, why would he have an ability he can't use right away? Who knew, hopefully in time he could figure it out...

As they passed the city's walls and into a flowery field Lance equipped his weapon, he didn't enjoy being ambushed, and the monsters nearby where annoying to deal with.

Not to mention all the PvPrs around...

"W-we might want to be careful..." he commented, the fact that they would soon be in the forest probably made his statement quite unnecessary.

As soon as they passed into the dark trees he took up a slightly faster pace, keeping ahead of Colleen, if there was anything that came up to them he would plan on taking most of the initial damage, he wasn't exactly the wall of china but he though he should take the hits, his partner seemed like the type who wouldn't mind but, Lance did.

Lance looked back every so often to make sure that the healer was still behind him, he didn't want to have her be jumped on by some huge spider or something of the like...

"W-we should be at the cave pretty soon..." Lance sounded a bit unsure, every travel through here felt different, sometimes he was more brave and it didn't take long but other times...it went on for miles and miles.

Little to Lances actual knowledge the pair was getting rather close to the cave, it wasn't amazingly far off ahead of them but through the darkness Lance couldn't properly tell.

All of a sudden, Lance stopped moving, he titlted his head as if to see something better from afar,

"...D-do you hear something" he asked in a near whisper, he wasn't sure but to him it sounded like something or someone was talking nearby...

"S-something about a...fight"

He said the last word as he tightened his grip around his weapon, he seemed to already be pointing it at the brush, he wasn't sure of what was going, or if anything was
even going on, but, you know what they say, better safe then sorry

If Tanika had been startled when a little fox jumped out of the underbrush she was certainly startled when it morphed into a player. Curiously, she didn't run away, though she fought the urge. Instead she lightly bent her knees, a stance that allowed the greatest mobility, and drew a knife. She didn't know why she felt an obligation to help these people. They'd given her a health potion, sure, but they had done that of their own accord. She didn't owe them anything. The smart thing to do would be to take advantage of the fox's distraction and to high-tail it. If this new player meant to steal from them, which he obviously did seeing as how he was dangling like a rag doll from a coin purse only seconds ago, then she would be the easiest target. She had little armor and possibly the most gold of the trio, what with the new gold from the monster brought her coin total to 5350g. Yet, for some reason she decided to linger. They were kind people after-all, she would feel guilty abandoning them to a thief. She wouldn't be much dealing damage if a brawl should start, but if the thief were to direct his attention at her she might be able to distract him long enough for the other two to do something.
"So," she stepped forward, though never putting her feet flat on the ground "You want gold right?" she dangled her coin purse in front of her. "Well," she snatched it back up, concealing it safely in her inventory. "The other two don't have anything. You'll have to catch me first." She smiled before throwing a knife and bouncing backwards. She knew it would miss but hopefully it would get his attention. Look at me all strategic and stuff. she thought to herself. She sincerely hoped that her being an easy target would be incentive enough for him to go after her, rather than the other two, but she had another motive as well. She was also trying to keep the thief from getting killed.

Three-seconds cast time, and then a ball of light flared off from Ein's staff.

Energy Ball

The targeted rat let out a sad wail as it got blasted away by the magic attack. Another one lunged toward Ein, only to be knocked back by the swing of her staff. Before it could stand back, the head of the oak staff had pummeled him. There were only three of them left. Before, it was thirty or so.

When the horde of rats suddenly came out and chased her down, Ein ran as her feet allowed her to. Unfortunately, running without map or any clear goal in mind just served to drive her deeper and deeper into the cave. Soon she reached a dead end. In verge of tears, she resolved to at least take one of them down if she was about to die anyway. The Energy Ball struck a rat, which instantly disappeared from sight. Light from the effect of gaining experience point engulfed her. At that time, a rat jumped up and bites her arm. The attack did…nearly nothing, honestly.

Suddenly she realized that these monsters were hopelessly low-leveled, even a weak mage class like her could defeat them with at least two strikes from her staff. The experience point gained was comparably low, but their drops were nice. She gained meats (rat’s, of course), feeble amount of gold, and some basic crafting materials. Quickly the horde was decimated, leaving Ein alone once more in the darkness.

This cave was surely a dungeon for players, yet she hadn’t seen any players yet. Perhaps they were not satisfied with such low-leveled monsters. As much as she didn’t like to meet any players, the darkness of the cave started to frighten her. Seeing such closed space by her own eyes awakened basic claustrophobic fear within humankind. Where was the entrance again? She needs to find a way out. Weak as they were, sleeping with those rats around was too dangerous.

Another chirping sound resonated in the cave. It was slightly different from the rats which she had defeated. No, it could be rat after all. Biology classes were somewhat useless in game, where developers could put anything that they want and call it a day.

“Hello?” she exclaimed. The cave carried her voice away in echoes. Somehow the chirping sound went off again as if answering her call. Was it a monster? Or…a player? Either way, she needs to move. Hoping that it was the latter, she followed the sound toward the darkness.

Sebastian was smiling at the girl, feeling like something of a hero. If they hadn't found her she could easily have become food for the next thing that came along. Glancing around he realized the Jester seemed to have been lost in all the chaos, or perhaps he just puttered off not interested in the group anymore. We might have to go looking for him just to check if he's alright he thought before deciding to invite this girl with them. Sebastian opened his HUD, opening the party panel and preparing to send an invite when something leapt from behind toward him, at first his instinct was to kill causing him to take a quick jab at the creature before it managed to turn on a dime and redirect itself at his comrade, barely escaping death at the end of the skewer. The thing's teeth latched onto the bag but resulted in him dangling there shamefully, allowing him to realize it had been a little fox. Foxes had always been some of the coolest animals in the real world, and naturally Sebastian wanted to see if he could manage to get it as some kind of pet. Did this game have a pet function? he thought to himself before the creature backed off and transformed into a human. Caught off guard, Sebastian dropped his sword on the ground which made an odd wobbling sound as the skinny metal blade wiggled about. He shot glances to the two around him confused.

"Hey thief!" Sebastian shouted as he snatched the rapier with his left hand from the ground before reaching with his opposite hand towards his back where a heavier longsword was. The enemy had taken a battle stance and then so had Sebastian, it seems it would come down to PVP but could he handle killing this person? His feet kicked off the ground launching him forward before a knife from the first girl flew past his gut and stuck into a tree behind the group. He stopped cold in his tracks and paused, looking at the thief in front of him before he began to laugh, it began as a slight chuckle before engulfing him into a frenzy of howling laughter for a couple long seconds before he finally calmed down and wiped his eyes. "Kid what are you doing trying to rob a group of three people out here? Are you trying to die or something? What's wrong with you are you that desperate or silly in the head, can't afford anything?" He sized the kid up a bit, not too fit for combat but ballsy and that's what Sebastian wanted in his group. "Let me ask you something" he shot glances at both the thief and the girl they had met up with. "So what are you guys doing out here? Farming? Lookin' for gold and loot, all that fun stuff? Why don't you come with me and my party to a cave. We have a quest." Within a second, both the thief and the poor girl would see a party invitation appear before them. "The name's Sebastian Castle. Nice to meet you two." he offered his hand out to the thief to shake, showing no hard feelings between them besides Sebastian would rather have a thief stealing from his enemies than himself.

Far above the small group, a creature sat within the darkness of the trees with rage bubbling inside her. The young she had just given birth to yesterday laid slain on the ground before them but the spider knew now was not the time to act, alone she could not kill these four maybe one or two but not all four. Being of a higher level, the monster's AI was sentient and understood exactly what the man with the two blades had said. They were going to the Rat King lair and if they didn't die in there, they would have to walk back through the forest where she would be waiting. They would pay in blood for what they did to her young, as the thought of devouring their flesh filled the Spider's artificial mind a thick, viscous fluid began to froth and bubble on her thick fangs.

"The money wasn't the priority." Brel muttered, slowly releasing the firm grip on his dagger. Realizing a fight was not a thing these people were after, he lowered his weapon, in hopes that he won't get tricked and killed like many people here do. Get people to trust you, hang with them, and then assassinate them, stealing their gear. People have always been unforgiving and greedy.

As the guy named Sebastian stretched out his hand for a shake, Brel was confused whether he wants to accept it or not. And the party invite also seemed quite intriguing. The name's Breljorn Sunfray, but you can call me Brel." He said accepting both the handshake and the party invitation. Slitting the dagger back into his waistbelt, he put his hand on the handle, fixing up his bandana with the other.

"So where are we going?" Brel asked the people in front of him that were in his party now. He was afraid he'd be betrayed, but he felt like he could trust them. They were kind enough not to s\lay him on the spot.

Travis had only been traveling with Sebastian under an hour, but in that time he realized the player was the most charismatic he had met thus far. The fox had leapt back, its body shimmering, and in its place formed a player. A thief by the looks of him. Travis had been about to step forward to intimidate the man, but both of his party members had step forward to his defense. It was very touching, and Travis could only stand in awe. He found himself truly grateful that he was able to join up with a group like this.

Instead of attacking however, Sebastian had laughed. Travis was confused for a second before it clicked. This thief had no chance of winning however he looked at it. If he managed to escape Travis’ stuns, the runner would easily run him down needling at him with her throwing knives. It would be a death sentence. That was why Sebastian howled with laughter. Travis remained stoic throughout the whole ordeal, trying his best to look threatening.

Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Sebastian had turned the tables again, and was now offering to party with the newest additions to the group. It was better to let bygones be bygones, since the stakes were higher. Surely they all knew that their best chance of survival was to group up. The mercenary looked around the clearing, straining to see through the inky black. The uneasiness settled over him again. It almost felt like they were being watched.

“I’m not trying to be the negative one here, but I don’t like being a sitting duck.” Travis added to the conversation. “We’re lucky we haven’t encountered anything besides what she killed.”

A decent party was now forming, and Travis had high hopes for this group.

"Damn it!," Brombrent muttered. "I knew I should have put more points into tracking."

Shortly after tailing the suspicious group of players into the the Dark Forest, Brom had not only managed to lose thier trail, but also lose himself in the dark depths of the forest.

He tried to retrace his steps, without any luck. He had no idea which way he had come.

Ahead he heard a noise, angry hissing and rustling. Rushing ahead to investigate he stumbled into a small clearing filled with rats and spiders attacking each other. A smile returned to Brom's face, maybe this little trip wouldn't be worthless after all.

After the monsters were done killing each other, Brom would finish off any survivors and grab the loot.

Colleen's eyes flashed at the mention of a fight. She left Lance's side, hunching over to slip through the undergrowth like a little brown-eyed ghost. She hadn't replied to the bit about the drone, or the other ability. As she watched and listened, her curiosity kept mounting. Her brow furrowed thoughtfully as it often did. They were a decent party. Should she consider asking Lance if they should merge with them? The one that had referred to himself as Sebastian seemed the leader, and he looked the leader type. The bandit was a very useful asset, especially because of his shape-shifting ability. The Jester was a little strange, but Colleen guessed that they would provide an excellent, colorful distraction, if needed.

Suddenly feeling watched and exposed, Colleen backed up at least ten paces. She didn't know of the spider above, but she wasn't looking up. She padded back over to Lance, pulling down the sleeves of her cloak. "Lance, I-I think we should join up with them. They seem to be pretty well organized and trustworthy, from what I can see... that is, if you think it may be a good idea," she said softly, trying not to be heard by the party ahead.

Tanika was intrigued by the bandit's neglect at chasing her. What did he mean gold wasn't the priority? Surely as a bandit it was... Suddenly her HUD lit up. She smiled, a rush of excitement filled her before she noticed that the thief was receiving an invite as well. Wha...? Why would he do that? He just tried to rob you.... Then she noted the kind of man it would take to do that. Either a very desperate one, or a very honorable one. Hoping for the later she accepted her invite. She looked around, shifting her weight back and forth to keep her muscles warm. The other player hadn't spoken since they'd met, though now they were supposedly allies. He had a rough appearance but she noted his kind face. The thief didn't look like a bad person either, though a thief, she couldn't hate him for it. He'd made that character before it became a real world for them. She couldn't fault him for his line of work.

Suddenly the hair on the back of her neck stood up and she had a creepy feeling that something was watching her. She whirled around expecting some terrible Hollywood monster to be standing over her dripping blood between its teeth, but she saw only darkness. Fear crept up on her. The only story she could recall from the forests was that sometimes spiders would come in hordes and take entire parties down. The one she'd just taken down had been difficult enough without having several others attacking her at the same time. "Hey," she was on edge, anxiety dripping from her voice " I think we should keep moving." She continued looking around for monsters in the forest but if anything was there, it was hiding in the darkness.