Chapter 56- Throwing A Bone
When they finished dinner, they decided to sit outside in the backyard. The weather was starting to turn hot but it was mostly felt during midday. At night, they'd still feel a cool breeze and at most, a person would need a light sweater.
Melissa had made a fruit salad and ordered a bunch of pastries from Coral's Bakery so they could enjoy dessert in cool weather with a nice view. The night view on the emeralds was much more beautiful than mainland cities due to the low light pollution in the area, especially on Luminara. The faint luminescent glow from the local plants along with the clear starry sky was a gorgeous sight to the tourists that came from overcrowded cities.
"That fence is new, I didn't see it the last time I came over." Samuel asked as they sat on the outdoor furniture out back.
"That's the new rabbit home Abe made, since he's been so busy lately and can't find time to hunt like before, he figured he'd just breed them." Frankie answered with a chuckle but his words reminded Samuel about Faeron.
"There are rabbits in there?" Esme asked in excitement, it seemed all girls would be drawn to furry and cute creatures.
"Yeah, let me show you." Melly brought her to the rabbit den to show her the newlywed rabbit couple.
"Is Faeron taking up too much of your time? How's it going by the way?"
"It's alright. I made back the money I spent on the pod so I'm just focusing on increasing my level now."
"What! How'd you make it back so quick?" Samuel was shocked to say the least.
It was obvious how resourceful Abel was but hunting and survival skills could only take you so far in the game. It wasn't really a way to earn a lot of coin, unless you hunted all day long which was unrealistic due to several reasons.
First, before advancing your class past level 25, players wouldn't be able to regenerate their HP which means they'd have to spend a lot on consumables to keep their HP up. Even getting a class would cost a lot of money to new players, especially to those that don't have the real-life funds to make use of the exchange. Besides, you would have to find a place that spawns a lot of monsters that could be killed solo, which isn't easy. Even then, it would take a long time to save up close to 2,000 credits.
Abel didn't want to explain too much, he definitely didn't want to mention his hidden profession but he figured he could tell him he simply got a little lucky.
"Well, I came across a chest on my first quest after the training citadel. It had some precious ore that sold for 5 gold coins… that's pretty much it."
Frankie gave Abel a look but he didn't say anything. Although he considered Sam a friend, he viewed Abel as family and understood his caution against others. Thankfully, Sam didn't notice the look Frankie gave.
"I see… that's pretty lucky. Where did you start?"
"Caelondia, Kingdom of Veridia. It sounds like you play?"
"Not really, I mean I do but I tend to visit gaming lounges since I can't exactly pack a pod in my backpack. I wanted to go on a date with Esme in Faeron but we're half a virtual world apart for now…"
"Didn't you say you'd come over to Kaelia?" Esme came back holding one of the furry guys in her embrace while Melissa cradled the other.
"Yeah of course, I will babe it just takes time."
"Why don't you use a teleportation gate?"
Abel interrupted their flirting, unintentionally of course. He wasn't even looking at them, he was busy stuffing his face with the fruit salad Melly had made. When he heard what Sam said, he looked up as he was curious why the man was going through the "traditional" way of travel.
"What teleportation gate?"
Abel was confused. Were they talking about the same game?
"Uh… every kingdom or state with a Legend should have a teleportation gate available. It's really expensive but you should be able to cross continents and regions if you spend some gold. Not sure how much it'll cost but it will definitely save you the time of going by sea. I'm guessing you're in Valtoria in the west, crossing the world to the far east will take a few months by sea."
"Even Mell and I know this bro, how could you two not be aware?"
Abel would sometimes tell them about the stuff he'd learned at old man Rye's place over breakfast while the couple thought it was just general knowledge.
"Really?! Where did you hear of this?" Samuel and Esme seemed genuinely unaware of such a thing.
"I uh… Just ask around… the place you started in probably doesn't have a Legend. I'm sure other players are aware of this in some place. You'll be able to see a weird dodecagon shaped building somewhere in the kingdom's capital city if it was guarded by a Legend. The 12 sides represent the 12 current elder mages that make up the circle of Magi…"
"Did you find this out from the forums?" Esme asked, wondering why she hadn't read anything like that online.
"No, Veridia has a Legend protecting it so it has this building, though not a lot of players are aware of what this building is yet. The public forums are full of traps for newbs so don't trust everything on there. There's some good information but don't believe everything you read. Sometimes the info is just half true while the major points are kept hidden. If you want solid information, then read up about it in your city library instead of the forums in the real world. You could also try to build up favorability with NPC's, depending on what they do for a living they could give you some decent information about the area… or even the world."
Abel decided to throw them a few bones considering they seemed like nice people and got along so well with Frankie and Melissa. He interacted with Samuel enough to know he had a decent character while Esme seemed to be humble and down-to-earth even with her obvious wealthy background.
Those who owned and operated wineries on Sylvanholme were usually super rich, at least from his perspective. But globally, they would be considered upper middle class which was still quite well off.
"How do you know all this stuff?" Sam was truly stunned while his new girlfriend was eager to know the answer as well.
"The training citadel… I built up some favorability with my instructor so I heard some things from him. For example, archery at it's height is something really epic. You could shoot at an enemy from kilometers away. Even if they dodge, you'd be able to turn your arrow mid-flight. A bard could advance down the line of a Stormsong Harbinger that would be an absolute calamity near a body of water…"
Abel went on to give them a few examples of things he read about in old man Rye's study but he attributed this information to instructor Cedric. Suffice to say, the couple were happy to hear such things. Although they were casual gamers, any player would be ecstatic to hear such information.
After telling them a few tidbits of knowledge he gained recently, Abel slowly steered the conversation back to the couple and their meetup.
"But if you find a teleportation gate, you should be able to reach another region in a jiffy. You can meet up with Esme after a few days of travel, depending on where you land in Kaelia. Regardless, it beats spending a few months at sea."
"Thanks Abel, I really appreciate it. It would've sucked to hear about this after reaching Kaelia."
"No problem. I wanted to ask you Esme… do you know about the kingdom of Woldam?"
Abel wanted to know because of that ruin he read about in Branthor's records, the one with a teleportation gate that took him to Anvard. Although he was still too low-leveled to venture to such a distant land or even make use of this information, he figured he'd ask since Esme was based in Kaelia.
"Yeah that's the kingdom next to my starting location. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing much. I just read a record about it and was planning to pay it a visit in the future, when I'm at a higher level of course."
"Well when you do come, let me know. I can show you around and play host this time. Sam should be there by then, even if he came by sea."
"Now that I know about these teleportation gates, I'll be there much quicker."
Samuel interjected, he thought he'd take forever to cross such a distance. Not only would he have to spend a lot of gold to hire a strong sailing crew, but he barely logged online due to his nomadic lifestyle. He was actually contemplating deleting his account and starting over, his level was still very low so he wouldn't lose much. But now with the knowledge of teleportation gates, he could cross a much greater distance regardless of how low his level was.
"Anyway, you guys enjoy your night. I have to log on… it was good seeing you again Samuel, nice meeting you Esme."
"Come on Abe, stay a while longer…" Melly tried convincing Abel to hang out for a bit more but he truly had to go.
"Sorry Mell, Veridia's timezone is 3 hours ahead of ours so its midnight there. I got that dungeon run to make… I have to go on before those douches get back online."
"What douches?" Melissa asked in confusion, she hadn't heard him mention anything of the sort. Abel suddenly remembered he had only told Frankie on their way to the wharf so he looked at the latter and said "Just some guys I got into a fight with, it's not a big deal. Frankie can tell you about it later, I really have to go."
She finally let him go after hearing his explanation, already eyeing her boyfriend for not mentioning this all day long. Frankie didn't consider it a big deal and had even forgotten about it, just like their bad luck on the wharf, that's why he hadn't said a word.
After paying a quick visit to the bathroom, he gingerly hopped back into his pod.
Whoooooooooosh
Once he connected through his user home, he was back in old man Rye's study.
'I should get this last dungeon run over with. I'll also clear out the mine for the last time, I doubt I'll get the chance to mine peacefully once it's overrun by eager players.'
Abel planned out his night in-game and headed straight out to the city's southern gates.
He wasn't too worried about those guys trying to ambush him. They were a level lower and were missing a lot of their good equipment. Even if they bought some starter weapons and came to attack him again, he was sure he could handle himself even if they came at him all at once.
He slowly made his way out of the city gates and dove right into the Hollow Forest.