The crackling of fire could be heard as the group had set up camp not far from the site of the battle. The warm flame was welcomed by all after having to fight for such a long time under the cold environment of the necromancer's dungeon and tiring themselves out.
They all pooled together rations taken out from their inventory which was given to Sing to cook into an early breakfast.
With help from Rastel, Sing took out a pot from his inventory and chopped up a lot of the dry rations to make a thick soup filled with meat and some mushrooms.
He then toasted some bread and cheese to make sandwiches and then warmed up some wine their team carried around by the fire to complete the meal.
Throughout the process, Rastel eagerly went up and down the fire mostly disturbing Sing than helping as he was thoroughly excited by his first cooking experience in the game.
As he considered himself a lover and expert of the finer tastes of the stomach, he couldn't help asking questions about any ingredient he saw that he couldn't recognize or about any process Sing was going through.
Sing on the other hand was patient and answered his questions for the most part.
"What are those, onions?"
"Yes"
"But they are blue!"
"Yes"
"What are you doing now?"
"Cutting up some mushrooms"
"Let me do that one! I'm good with small blades."
"Okay"
"What are you checking there?"
"I want to be sure the temperature of the wine is just right"
"Oh, that's nice"
"....."
"What are you doing now?"
Iron and Snow just ignored them as they waited for their meal. But it was actually a situation where Snow was giving Iron a talk down about being reckless.
"Are you stupid, oppa? Why did you think you could tank a hit from the giant? You should have dodged!" she frowned at him as she tied some bandages around his body.
"Yes Snow, I am sorry." He looked lost and ashamed.
"Don't be sorry, be careful! My spells are not powerful enough to heal you well yet, you need to be more careful!" she yelled as she tightened a bandage around his chest with extra strength.
"Ouch! I am sorry Snow, I will be more careful." he winced in pain from her actions.
"Good! You better be careful next time or I would beat you to death with my own arms." She said trying to look fierce.
Iron just smiled at her cute looking face as he nodded vigorously.
"Stop smiling and take me seriously!" she tightened another bandage extra hard!
"Arghh! I am not smiling! I'm really not smiling!" he yelped in pain.
Doe was sitting down by the fire with reddened eyes and a solemn expression. From time to time, her eyes would dart towards the location of the collapsed hill and pain would flash in her eyes and she would look sad.
But also every once in a while, her eyes would move towards the unconscious tied up necromancer and intense hate and anger would show on her face.
Everything went to a hold though as soon as Sing finished cooking and they all fell to the food gratefully.
Rastel spooned up the contents of the soup and spread it on top of the bread baked with cheese before topping it with another to make a bigger sandwich. He then sipped the soup from the bowl while munching down on his sandwich.
"Wow this is really good! Sing, brother, I have immense respect for you now. Come, let's be friends!" he mumbled enthusiastically through a mouthful of food.
The rest of the group, Doe included first stared at the massive sandwich he was cramming up his face before looking back at him weirdly.
Iron stared for a moment before quietly taking his spoon and replicating Rastel's weird combo. He took a huge bite into it before showing a satisfied smile as he chewed. "It is actually nicer like this"
Sing looked appalled at what he considered blasphemy to his food while Snow just facepalmed. Doe looked at them quietly as she continued eating her food normally.
"I know right! You understand these things brother. Come, let's be friends!" Rastel waved happily at him.
He was quite happy and satisfied to have met people and gone through such an ordeal with them. And they also seemed nice, he wouldn't mind having a few more people on his friends list he could talk and share the game with.
Without further pause, he sent a friend request to all of them and waited for them to accept.
Iron was the first to accept followed by snow. Sing hesitated for a bit as he still looked disturbed by the unholy combo Rastel had made and his tail unconsciously wagged in agitation. He later accepted the friend request though and Rastel laughed as he saw all their names in full.
Iron's was 'Iron Mountain' just as he had said. It was a weird name but then a game would never lack in such weird names, people were very relaxed when choosing in-game names.
Snow's full name was 'Snow Fairy' and Rastel just nodded internally when he saw it.
'There must be something about girls and fairies these days' he thought to himself as he remembered Mary but then shivered.
Sing's full name was 'ArrowSingsDeath' and Rastel couldn't help but feel he was missing out on some trend when he saw all their long expressive names.
The only person whose name was a short one word affair like his was Oron. Even Marco and Ann had extra adjectives and such to their names. Except for Gai though and Rastel felt he didn't count since he felt the monk was just too abnormal.
"I can't believe the famous Sleeping beauty would be such a guy though" Iron suddenly blurted out.
Rastel froze at the sound of the name and couldn't help but cringe. That name was really sticking?
"What do you mean famous? I'm a very lowkey person" he said with a little laugh as he suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.
Although they had figured out his identity, he didn't mind as he felt that they were alright but it seemed that there was more.
"What do you mean lowkey? Don't you know anything?" Snow turned her face to him looking confused.
"What is it?" Rastel looked up from his bowl of soup now fully alert as his sense of foreboding increased.
"As far as the Kingdom of Gorm is concerned, you are now the most famous person here. Especially with the Guilds, they are doing their utmost to collect any information about you and some have even set a bounty on your head." Sing slowly laid out the situation to him.
Rastel felt his body go cold as one of his biggest worries seemed to have already manifested to a point beyond his control. "Wait, what?"
"Exactly like he said" Iron shook his head solemnly.
"The player base of the Kingdom of Gorm is hunting you down!"
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In a large hall with long glass windows and a tall ceiling propped with elaborately carved pillars. A large round table took the center of the hall and twelve chairs were arranged around it.
Sitting in these chairs were 11 people composed of six men and five women, all of varying races and classes and each of them looking powerful in their own right.
But although they all had powerful and domineering auras, they looked on silently and patiently waited on the man that was supposed to occupy the last chair.
The man was standing behind his chair as he looked at the large banner that hung majestically on the wall directly behind his chair.
It was a long rectangular piece made with a material that you would feel was soft even looking at it from a distance. It was entirely white with beautiful gold embroidery bordering the banner and in the middle of it was a simple blue leaf that looked like it was floating in the wind.
The man stared at the banner for nearly ten minutes before turning to face the people waiting on him.
He was a Human with dark blue hair and eyes of the same color but with a shade so dark it could be mistaken to be black. He stood about 170cm tall and his long elegant blue shirt that reached his knees and the matching trouser couldn't really conceal the fact that he had a muscular and well trained body.
He had soft facial features and an amiable disposition which would make one wonder these many people waited on him with respect. But in his own way, he exuded a kind of pressure that would make one want to serve him.
He first turned his head to a female muan sitting three seats to his right and called her with a smile. "Lysa, I am very happy with the new banner. You must have worked really hard on it."
The female muan called Lysa stood up to acknowledge his praise. She had black hair with blue streaks going through it which was tied up in a long braid and her eyes glowed a bright blue. She was also dressed in a simple long blue robe with the emblem of the guild over her heart, she gave a small bow in his direction.
"Thank you, Guild leader. The people at the workshop put a lot of effort into making it. I am sure they would be happy when they hear that the Guild leader praised it." Her voice sounded composed and professional and her tone was light.
The man who was the guild leader nodded his head before turning back his attention to look at the rest. Although every single one them had different classes and wielded different weapons, they all had one thing in common. They dressed with a color theme of blue.
The man looked at the faces of all the men and women at the table with him. These people were the heads, the commanders of his Blue leaf guild. All of them were renowned experts in their area of expertise and seeing all of them gathered in this room always filled him with immense joy.
"We have a lot to discuss here today" he said with an amiable smile.
"But before we do that, I wish to address something really quick" he took his seat elegantly and folded his fingers on his lap as he leaned into the high back chair.
He turned his gaze to a man adjacent from his seat.
The man wore a set of leather armor designed with a theme of black and blue. He had greaves and gauntlets made with thin pieces of a dark colored metal, and an elaborate chest plate made of the same material with the guild emblem carved over his heart. The handle of a slender short sword could be seen sticking behind his back.
He had short golden blonde hair and onyx black eyes and although he looked like the handsome popular type. His face was now serious and his expression was solemn as he acknowledged the guild leader's gaze.
"I have received the report that your brother had apparently failed to establish negotiations or capture Sleeping beauty. This has set us back quite a bit and we have now lost our head start on the competition with other guilds." The guild leader stared at him intensely with a slight smile still on his face.
"You had lobbied diligently for this chance for your brother despite all the gossip going around but now that he has failed…." The guild leader shook his head.
"I hope you realize what this means, Hunter" Hunter's face fell and he grimaced as the guild leader's words echoed in his head.