"She's powerful," Markus whispered as the flames around them died away. Brandon nodded but kept silent, his breath taken away in awe by the performance before him.
'She has a blood origin,' Edward thought to himself, 'but I don't even think I'll be able to do that when I reach level four. She was born with that kind of potential.'
Once the flames were gone, Leila walked over to the group. However, before she could reach them, Leila shot her hand up to her head and collapsed. As she fell to the ground, groaning in pain, the three men waiting quickly rushed to her side. Ikarus flew in from above and landed near her shoulder, concern evident in his motions.
"What happened?" Markus asked with concern. As Edward drew close, he immediately recognized what was happening.
"She's learning Draconic. She's in no danger, but she'll be like that for an hour or so," Edward answered calmly. He bent down and lifted Leila into his arms. The moment he did so, she leaned into his body while clutching her head, "The same thing happened to me. I'll bring her back to the inn, you two wait for me here. Start looting until I come back— we might be able to sell some of their equipment."
Markus and Brandon nodded as Edward turned back to the center of the city. As he walked away, he yelled in Draconic.
"Ikarus, once Markus and Brandon have removed the equipment, burn the bodies!"
Ikarus nodded, then immediately did as he was commanded. By the time he was too far away to hear the flames, Ikarus had already burnt everything to a crisp. The walk back to the inn only took five minutes but Edward thought it felt like an hour. On every street, gathered like bunnies, were players gazing at Edward. Some of them had expressions of shock and fear— while very few admired him and his strength.
'I thought those players were afraid of Ikarus,' Edward realized, 'But they're afraid of me? What?'
He was thankful to be wearing his mask or else somebody might investigate his identity later. Once he arrived at the inn, the crowd parted in two to allow him inside. He still had his room from when Leila collapsed earlier, so he headed there as soon as he walked into the building. Some players tried to stop him or ask him questions— though Edward ignored all of them.
Only once he was inside his room did the constant pestering cease. He set Leila down on his bed, then threw the blanket back on top of her body.
"Once you wake up, go looking for us south of the city," Edward said as he turned back to the door, "I'll be trying to catch up to you in the meantime."
At the moment, both Leila and Markus were tied in experience. They were at the very beginning of level four— not one percent higher. Brandon needed sixty percent of his experience bar to reach level four while both Ikarus and Edward were level two.
This meant he had a lot of work ahead of him if he wanted to catch up with Leila and Markus before she woke up. Not long after he left the inn, Edward finally made it back to the battle site and was satisfied to discover a large mound of equipment.
"So, uh, how do we carry it?" Markus asked, his voice echoing through his helmet.
"We don't have an inventory function, so we'll have to find a place to store it," Edward realized. He gazed again upon the large mound of equipment and realized his mistake. This equipment wasn't good enough to warrant renting a storage space. It wasn't even that valuable to sell, either. Edward sighed, then turned to Ikarus, "Burn it."
Ikarus obliged, much to the shock of Markus and Brandon, whose work was now wasted.
"My bad, guys. I should've considered how valuable they were before I told you to loot them," Edward said, "Next time, let's only take the valuable stuff. For now, though, let's go hunt some monsters."
Markus and Brandon nodded enthusiastically. Then, after Ikarus climbed atop Edward's shoulder, they began their journey to the southern gate— where they were supposed to be headed before they were interrupted by Dan and his gang.
Getting out of the city was easy— much easier than Edward expected. Instead of setting up a checkpoint at the southern gate, the guards let them pass without restraint. A few minutes later, once they left the city's boundaries, Edward and the others finally arrived at the southern forest.
A few new players were already gathered around a small campsite not far from the forest. As soon as he saw this, he turned to Markus.
"It's a checkpoint some players set up on the game's first day. You can rent a bed there and reset your spawn point if you want," Markus explained, "Though it's not worth it. They'll end up charging you triple the initial cost if you end up using it."
"So, it's a scam?" Edward asked. Markus nodded, then moved on from the campsite. He led the group to the entrance of the forest before turning to face Edward.
"Now then, most of the enemies we'll face are weak— around level one," Markus said as he put his hands on his hips.
"Let's split up, then," Edward said, "We'd save more time by doing so— plus cover more ground."
"I agree. So long as we stay within three hundred meters of you, the XP system will deliver the XP just fine," Brandon nodded, "We'll be notified if we leave the radius."
Edward and the others nodded, then walked into the forest before turning in different directions. Within thirty seconds, Edward was alone. He made sure to keep close to where he thought the others were, but without a live map, it proved difficult.
Then, a minute into his walk, a notification rang.
︽
+5% XP delivered by Markus Davenport
+5% XP delivered by Ikarus
+5% XP delivered by Brandon Colt
+5% XP
︾
'It looks like one of them found a beast,' Edward smiled, 'Time to hunt!'