Taking off his NLA(Neural Link Apparatus), Alex rolled around in his bed. Both extremely tired but at the same time exhilarated at their first successful foray into a Reign of the Aspects dungeon. Checking what time it was, Alex realized it was already fairly late in the day and ended up quickly falling asleep.
Waking up the next morning with his stomach rumbling lightly, he rolled out of his bed and shuffled to his sister's room.
Taking care to knock on the door, Alex asked if she needed anything to eat.
Responding quickly, Melody sounded busy. "Just make me something simple please, there are a couple of people I need to respond to and such."
Yawning and moving towards the kitchen, Alex opened the refrigerator and swept his vision across only to find little in terms of what he could make quickly or without much effort.
Shrugging, he closed the fridge and reached for his stash of cup noodles and mindlessly prepared two for himself and Melody. Bringing the cup to her room, Alex knocked on Melody's door and notified her of the steaming cup of noodles outside her door and went inside his room.
Sitting on the bed carefully as to not spill hot liquid on his delicate skin, Alex pulled out his phone and began to search up more info on Elements as well as Radiance. Eating the noodles after they cooled slightly, Alex found a lot of information about Elements but aside from other articles also talking about the mysterious company, Radiance seemed to have no real evidence as to where they were located, their staff, or anything of the sort.
Elements as a company was a world-famous leader in the renewable energy space and had pioneered many of the widely used energy sources used by most countries at this point. The best part about the company was that it was headed by a very well-liked female CEO that invested back into society and the earth.
Julia Young, the mother to two very promising daughters who also worked for Elements, was, by all means, an extremely young but revolutionary mind that was one of if not the key figure in the solution to cheap, renewable energy for not only developed countries but also 3rd world countries.
Julia started as a somewhat average child life while her father was busy running Elements and she eventually became a researcher in their biology department that was working on bacteria that would help reduce the amount of plastic pollution as well as algae that would assist in the production of storable energy from sunlight.
After only 2 years of being in the department, her team was able to isolate a mutated bacteria that would greatly reduce plastic pollution and was able to reproduce them at a reasonable rate with viability in a wide range of environments.
Just that would have gotten anyone worldwide attention, but just a couple of months later the same group of scientists was able to find algae that we're able to absorb not only sunlight but also a slight amount of energy from moonlight to power a battery with prospects to power a regular household much more reasonable than any other renewable energy predecessor.
From then on, Julia was hailed as the literal genius that would bring in the next leap in progress for the world. While her achievements from then on would not get as much attention, Elements as a company rocketed to the top and stayed there to this day.
'Wow, to think that the sisters have to live under such a large shadow as her. I knew they were a big company but didn't realize that it was to such a degree.'
On the other hand, Radiance was much more mysterious. It had arrived on the scene almost out of nowhere 2 years ago.
Despite their sudden appearance, they had garnered the support of many of the top businesses and powerful figures across the world. Much to the shock of the media, they were unable to pry any information from any of the companies and couldn't even locate where Radiance was even based.
Due to how tight-lipped everyone was and just how low-key Radiance ended up being on arrival, the public quickly forgot about the whole event after a couple of weeks. It wasn't until the advertisement of Reign of the Aspects that people realized that Radiance was still around.
Of course, those at the top were waiting silently for the release of Reign and quickly applied for early slots for the release. Despite their attempts at subtly doing so, there were a couple who picked up on the undercurrents and also tentatively put in resources to the game with high expectations to receive returns.
Blown away by the whole situation, Alex thought again about his sister's past experiences. Unable to fathom just how the future would turn out, Alex was just glad he was able to support his family. Besides, Alex couldn't deny that he was having a lot of fun playing Reign and ended up relaxing on the couch for a bit before Melody came into the room.
"Morning Mel. Surprised to see you up this early, what would you like for lunch?"
Laughing lightly, Melody just rolled her eyes at the obvious poke at her previous tendency to sleep in. "I was just going to suggest we go out to Joe's for breakfast. My treat of course."
Wasting no time, Alex grabbed Melody and practically ran out the door in the direction of their favorite local breakfast place. "No take backs! Woo! Bacon egg and cheese here I come!"
Sitting down, with a large bacon egg and cheese sandwich each, the brother and sister enjoyed their breakfast and said their hellos to the shop owner and a couple of the other regulars that were there.
Taking a break from inhaling his own sandwich, Alex looked over at his quiet sister. "So what's the occasion?"
"What? Your sister can't treat her wonderful older brother to some breakfast?" Giggling, Melody smiled and took a large bite from her sandwich. "Just kidding. I had some good news come in this morning."
"Ahhh is that so? Cool beans."
Flustered, Melody looked at her brother confused. "Not going to ask me who my 'friends' are or what the calls were about?"
Finishing his sandwich and wiping his hands from the light grease and ketchup, Alex shook his head. "Why would I? I'm sure you are looking out for both of us and I realize that you have your reasons.
Plus it's not like grilling you for every bit of information will help me do anything about it anyway. Taking your reincarnation into account, you're older and wiser than I am. So might as well just stick to what I'm good at and be the best big brother I can be!"
Despite her hardships and, at times, extremely dangerous situations she had faced in the past, Melody couldn't help but lightly punch her brother's shoulders at her brother's response.
Kissing him on the cheek, Melody smiled and finished her own sandwich much happier.
Wiping his cheek very exaggeratedly, Alex just laughed. "Ewwww, gross! You know I have a reputation to uphold!"
"What reputation would that be dear brother? Being single and doing whatever I say?" Paying for the meal and thanking the owner before leaving, Melody jabbed back at Alex as she walked outside.
Rushing outside, Alex mumbled grumpily. "Ouch, you didn't have to go that far, sis. I don't choose to be single, just haven't found anyone that would be able to handle all of this."
"So you choose to be under my thumb? And we both know you would have women banging at your door if you tried even a little, you're MY brother after all."
Running up and grabbing Melody's shoulder, Alex confidently replied. "Well yeah, you're super scary when mad, and plus there's nothing wrong with following a super smart, beautiful, and all-around wonderful sister."
Melody rolled her eyes but smiled brightly as they walked the rest of the way home bantering. Arriving home, they both hurriedly hopped onto Reign as they were a bit late to group up with the sisters.
As soon as they logged in, Eilyria hugged Sol's cheek tightly and pouted. "You're late! Minerva and I were so bored waiting for you guys to show up!"
Not as brave to go up and hug Sol, Minerva nodded in agreement and waved shyly at Sol who waved back happily. "You two wait long?"
At that moment, Luna logged on and joined the group. Diana waved towards the brother and sister duo. "No, we got on around 30 minutes ago. What is planned for today?"
Luna rubbed Eilyria's hair slightly in greeting and then faced the rest of the group. "We all reached level 15 after defeating the Corruption Wraith, so we need to get to at least level 20 before we can confidently tackle the next area."
Already leading the way back to the area near The Dryad's Abode, Sol questioned. "So are we going to clear the dungeon again?"
Shaking her head, Luna replied. "No, the way Reign balances the world of Elem is to have the dungeons on a weekly cooldown for each player so they can only enter the dungeon if they haven't defeated every boss.
Because of this, the availability and quality of the gear are overall lower but also more worth keeping for longer periods of time when you do get that gear. It is also another reason to make the bosses noticeably more difficult than the surrounding creatures outside of the dungeon.
Besides we were very lucky to have fought a Corruption Wraith and defeat it so we should be perfectly fine to level until we hit level 20 and go to the next area."
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Sol shrugged. "I guess that makes sense, makes the achievement of beating a difficult challenge more rewarding, while at the same time doesn't unnecessarily inflate the power level of players."
On the way to their farming spot, the group passed by a veritable sea of players. Ranging from completely new level 1 characters in awe of their new surroundings to those that were already around level 10.
Along the way, due to the appearance of three incredible beauties as well as their eye-catching gear, many took double-takes and even triple takes to make sense of what they were seeing.
Unaffected by the gazes, the girls all kept walking behind Sol chatting amongst themselves as if they had long gotten used to the attention of others. Even Sol saw a few female players toss him a few winks which he couldn't help but blush shyly at and speed up his steps, unused to the attention he was receiving.
Aside from some more 'brave' guys who thought much of themselves to try and stop and talk to the ladies, they whispered to Sol to just barge right through since they had no time to waste on pointless flatteries.
Much stronger this time around, the group was able to much more easily clear out the lower level elementals on their way and even cheekily killed the Boulder Elemental but unfortunately wasn't able to have it drop any more equipment.