After a few hours of walking the sun began to set, painting the lush rolling hills in a warm golden color as the last rays of light began their descent behind the horizon. Even now Andius couldn’t help but admire the beauty of this game; in his day to day life he lived in a dreary city filled with nothing but metal and concrete where any form of plant-life struggled to get a footing.

Amira pointed off to the side a bit, “Hey, I think that’s a road there.” Everyone turned to look where she was pointing, and sure enough there was a breaking in the gentle hills where a dirt path had been carved. They changed course while Andius still took in the scenery that was completely alien and beautiful to him. Amira noticed his look of wanderlust and lightly elbowed him on the side, “What’s the matter with you, never seen nature before or something?”

Andius turned and looked at her with a furrow to his brow, he really didn’t like how she could read him so well. “No, not really. I live in an industrial zone of a city. Pretty much only ever seen tiny trees.” Amira’s eyes went wide, one of the few times he had seen anything but irritation on her face, but something caught his attention in the corner of his vision. “What’s that?”

A bit down the road, there was a dilapidated looking structure about the size of a person. Amira leaned forward a bit and squinted her eyes, “I think that’s a shrine, we can bind our spawn points there!” She took off without a second thought for it, Andius and Raizus following her a second later.

Amira fell with a surprised yelp, loose grass and dirt giving way to a pitfall a few feet away from the shrine. Raizus drew his sword without hesitation and Andius raised his hands, ready to cast a spell as giggles resounded from behind the shrine.

A small girl walked out from behind the structure, standing just barely over five feet with long matted black hair that looked like it hadn’t ever been washed. She had distinctly Asian features, a soft face that was covered in dirt and sharp eyes that gleamed with knowledge and playfulness behind a pair of overly large round glasses. She was wearing what looked like tribal clothing, a thick orange shirt with bold jade square embroidery that formed an intricate design and a pair of plain rough-hewn pants. Her feet were bare and caked with dirt and calluses, but she wore a bright and mischievous smile on her face despite that.

What was most eye catching about this girl was the large leather backpack she wore, which was willed to bursting and had various poles hanging from it with various odds and ends dangling haphazardly. “Ha ha! I got you you vile bandit!” She looked up from the hole and spotted Andius and Raizus, “Oh, there are more of you…. Mind coming back after I dug more holes?” She casually stepped back as a gout of water flew up from the hole into the air, peeking her head back down to look in curiously. “Wait a minute, the bandit didn’t have magic before?”

“That’s because we aren’t bandits!” Andius called out, still not moving his aim away from the strange girl. “We’re just travelers, hoping to pray at the shrine.” It was a confident lie and he was certain it would work on someone as scatterbrained as this girl.

She tilted her head to the side and looked at Andius for a moment, then at Raizus and finally back down at Amira again. “Andius the Reborn, Raizus the Phoenix and Amira the Sea Serpent….” Her words startled Andius, and he was about to pull the trigger on a Black Bullet when she gave him a big grin, “You’re players! Oh my good gods I haven’t seen any but those nasty bandits, and let me tell you they’re not one for conversation.” She casually pulled a ladder out and tossed it down the pit for Amira before walking up to Raizus and knocking on his sword, who was equally as unnerved by all of this as Andius was. “Hmm, a blade made of Ignium and laced with Essenic powder… definitely a high tier magic item! How much do you want for it?” Her eyes gleamed with greed like a crazed goblin spotting loot, but Raizus just pulled his sword away and sheathed it on his back.

“My sword is not for sale, you should know that a knights sword his his life.” He said with utmost confidence as a big grin spread across his face.

Andius blinked at him and scrunched his brows, “Since when were you a knight?” This made Raizus’ cheeks go red and flip his friend the bird before moving to help Amira up. Andius chuckled at his team’s antics and turned to look at the girl who was now staring at his Dark Heart bracer with far too much interest. “How did you know our names and titles?” It was a useful skill for sure and he wanted to be sure he had every tool at his disposal. “And what’s your name?”

The girls bounced back a step and gave Andius a brilliant smile, “My name is Gidget! The scan was easy peazy, just focus on someone reeeaaaaaaal hard and just try to know it, trust me!” Andius shrugged and stared at Gidget, squinting hard for a while before the information just popped up.

——————

Name: Gidget

Title: The wanderer

Specialization: ???

Level: ???

——————

Skill Examine Level: 1

A skill that most players gain in their first few hours of joining Astrala, Examine allows the user to glean information about their target, be they player or monster or plant.

Gains new effects as skill level increases.

——————

Gidget giggled and nodded at Andius, “See? Super easy! Anyways, if you lot are players and not bandits, I got some useful info for you!” She flopped down on the ground and pulled off her backpack, pulling out a plethora of scrolls and setting them around. “I have some rules of course, only one scroll per group, and nothing is free….” She paused for a moment and pushed two scrolls forward, a big energetic smile on her face, “These two I think would be the most useful for you guys, but they’re also pretty pricey.”

Amira walked over while brushing some grass off of her clothes and looked down at the two scrolls. Andius noticed one of them was far newer than the other, and by the look on her face Amira noticed it too. “Can you give us a hint about what these contain?” She asked cautiously, clearly not one to act without all the information.

Gidget flashed her a brilliant smile and nodded, “This one,” She said while pointing at the newer of the two scrolls, “Is the location of a rare and really expensive ingredient used for all kinds of magic stuff!” She moved to the older one and gingerly tapped it, “This one though, is the location of ruins that I didn’t feel safe going into.” Andius looked at Amira, but she was completely lost in thought. After a moment she reached for the older of the two scrolls, but a dagger was at her throat faster than any of them could react, which was saying a lot since Andius had enhanced reflexes. Gidget just shook her head, “No touchy until you pay for it, those are the rules.”

Amira pulled her hand back and Gidget swiftly his the knife in her sleeve again, “How much for the scroll then?”

“Fifty gold.” Her response was completely without hesitation, making Andius nearly choke on air.

Amira wasn’t deterred though, and she fished out five shiny white coins stamped with the face of a woman. “You have a deal. And if you ever put a knife anywhere near me again I’ll be sure your remains are spread over the ocean.” her voice was cold and venomous, but the wanderer just grinned and handed her the scroll before packing up her supplies with energetic movements.

“Thanks for the trade! See you lot in Arcanis!” Already an impressive ways down the road for moving at what looked like a casual walk. Andius squinted and noticed that the ground itself was slightly moving under her feet, was she an earth mage?

Amira turned and stared at Gidget as she walked away, “Wait, did any of you guys tell her we were going to Arcanis?” Andius and Raizus both shook their head in unison which made Amira’s usual frown return. “Alright, lets make camp by the shrine and head out at first light, I want to see these ruins before we get to Arcanis.”

“Already? I feel like we haven’t been up that long.” Raizus called over, voicing Andius’ thought without even meaning to.

Amira gave him a small glare and shook her head, “I’m aware, but if you keep sleeping during the day and working at night, you’re going to screw up your bodies chemistry.” Her tone was assertive and she spoke like she knew what she was talking about, so Andius thought better about trying to argue with her, instead moving towards the Alter and taking a look at it.

It was a poorly constructed thing, four walls and an arrow shaped roof with a shelf inside of it that was holding a candle. The wood was splintering and any semblance of paint that it might had had was long gone, not to mention that the ceiling was slightly singed from the candle. Despite it’s shoddy looks Andius felt drawn to it, and when he rested his hand on the roof a notification popped to life in his vision.

——————

As you are the chosen champion of an elemental lord, you have the ability to convert shrines to your element. Claiming Shrines and Temples as well as certain other locations and artifacts will improve the power of your Elemental Lord and strengthen magic of it’s kind. Be warned that doing so will change the landscape around the shrine, and you will have to fight off the defenses of the shrine if it has already been claimed.

Current owner: None

Would you like to claim this Shrine?

——————

Andius furrowed his brows and turned to look at his companions, “Hey guys, this shrine is saying that I can claim it for my element, think I should?” Amira’s eyes perked up and she looked over with a big grin, “Oh, that’s true? I’d assumed people were just talking about a myth. Apparently it’s pretty great.”

Raizus seemed a bit more miffed though, crossing his arms and frowning at Andius in a rare look of dissatisfaction. “What about me man? I want to claim a shrine too…” He paused for a second before asking, “Wait, what does it do?”

Andius barely held back a laugh, “It makes your element stronger.”

“Then I definitely want it.” Raizus wasn’t usually one to be so assertive about things he wanted so Andius was torn between giving him the shrine and claiming it for himself.

An idea came to him and he walked away from the shrine and held out a hand. “Rock Paper Scissors?” Amira immediately groaned and went to setting up her supplies, but Raizus grinned at his friend and held out his own hand.

“Rock, Paper, Scissors!” The both shouted in unison, Andius throwing Paper whereas Raizus threw Rock. The metal-clad warrior groaned and backed away, “Alright fine, but i get the next one!”

“Fair.” Andius agreed before stepping back to the alter and placing his hand on it, getting the same prompt as before. He selected yes, and immediately the flame in the candle turned black before the entire structure started to shift. The worn and splintering wood cracked and groaned in protest as it’s surface started to twist and shift to a deep gray color. The entire thing began to twist and rise up into the air, branches growing from the warped wood and spreading out until it was a massive gray tree void of any leaves and life, a small opening appearing at the base where the candle appeared once again.

All three of them stood in shock at the suddenly shifting shrine, but the changes weren’t done. In a single pulse, all of the grass for almost a mile shifted to a dark purple color, pulses from the tree causing it to shift to a brighter violet before reverting back to purple almost like a heartbeat pumping power through the land. The few sparse trees in the area got similar treatment, glowing purple veins growing just under the bark and pulsing in tune with the grass, it’s leaves behaving just the same.

The effect was stunning to the party, but more so when they saw a creature that looked like a mix of a deer and a wolf cautiously walk by a few feet away; it was covered in strange symbols that glowed and pulsed just like everything else, it’s eyes shining in the rapidly growing darkness. “Holy shit….” Amira whispered, getting nods of affirmation from the rest of the party. “I was kind of worried your element would make this place hideous, but I guess that’s just you.” She jabbed with a grin.

Raizus snickered at Andius, who pretended to be offended for a second before looking around at what changes had taken place. He noticed a few lights dancing in the sky that weren’t there before, bats that had the same glowing eyes as the creature they had seen before, but much much larger than a normal one. By this point the sun had wholly set, but the area was illuminated by the pulsing light of the plant-life nearby which somehow made things look almost ghostly. “Very funny Amira, but I honestly didn’t expect this… Maybe my magic has been taking on such a scary look because that’s how I perceived it?” There was a tickle at the back of his mind, it felt like someone smiling.

Raizus chuckled and started to gather sticks and stones near the alter, setting up a makeshift campfire, “Either way it’s nice to see your shadows doing something that doesn’t involve ripping throats or scaring people. Seriously man you’ve got some messed up magic!” Andius couldn’t help but agree with his friend, he would have to see if he could make something not intended for killing. Raizus held his hand out at the completed campfire he had built and it burst into flames with no resistance.

Andius followed suit and started to pull his furs from his bag and laid them out on the ground, taking a seat and opening some of his rations to snack on; he couldn’t remember the last time he had taken the time to eat. “So,” He said between bites, “Might not be appropriate to ask this, but what do you guys do IRL?”

Amira gave Andius a confused look, but Raizus just tapped her on the arm, “It means ‘in real life’. Take it you weren’t a gamer then!” He laughs cheerfully at his own little jab before taking a drink from a waterskin. “I didn’t really work much, my family was wealthy so I was able to play around in the stock market for a while. Made enough off of that to not work for the rest of my life really.” He scratched some forming stubble on his chin for a second before adding, “Buuuut I spent a lot of time at Medieval war reenactments, Andius I swear to god it you laugh you’re going to get your head chopped off.” Cutting off the summoner before he even made his jab.

Amira raised a hand and started talking in a calm, if annoyed manner. “I’m a Bio-engineer. Maybe was is a better term since I haven’t been able to log out of this stupid game, they probably fired me.” She grumpily took a swig from a beaker she had on her, which glowed in the throat on it’s way down. “But I also studied chemistry and served in the marines as a demolitions expert.” Both Andius and Raizus looked at Amira with wide eyes, completely shocked. “What?”

Raizus laughed and looked over to Andius, motioning for him to speak. He didn’t like being put on the spot like this, so he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the fire, “Eh, my life is boring, not much to say.” He said, trying his best to dodge the question.

“Nope, not getting out of it man.” Raizus said with a grin, “Come on, we told you what we do, you gotta now!”

Andius let out a soft sigh, “Alright… I worked at a gas station making barely enough to survive. I mined crypto-currency so I could afford to get my daily meal. I didn’t know anyone in the city and I was ostracized from my family, so I was just trying to get by as best as I could…” He paused for a moment as a realization came over him, this was the happiest he had been in a long while; his life before now was just a bland repeat of work, game, sleep with the occasional meal here and there. “Honestly… Getting trapped in the game was probably the best thing that could have happened for me… Don’t have a whole lot to go back to if they fix the issue keeping in here.”

Silence took over the camp after Andius’ admission, neither Amira nor Raizus knowing what to say and both looking equally uncomfortable. Andius blinked away some moisture from his eyes and cleared his throat, looking up at the pair and saying, “But aaaaanyways, we got a long journey ahead of us, right? we’re going to go see those ruins and probably get some super cool loot and stuff.” He was trying his best to steer the conversation away from himself, but it was painfully obvious since he was being far too cheerful.

Raizus leaned over and patted his friend on the shoulder, “Yeah man, lets all get some rest so we can go raid it together in the morning.” His voice was unusually somber, which didn’t help Andius’ mood at all, but Amira did something that actually did help.

“Here Andy, drink this.” She handed him a beaker filled with a murky brown fluid, “It will keep you from dreaming, but it’s really bad for you so I wouldn’t recommend relying on it… But I think you need the rest tonight.” Andius thanked her with a smile and downed the contents like a shot, the taste like pine needles and sweaty gym socks.

He handed back the container with a shudder, “Thanks Amira, see you guys in the morning.” She nodded and went to her furs to get to sleep, so Andius did the same. He fell asleep shockingly fast and to his surprise, everything was just black before his consciousness faded.