“I am disappointed,” Kana said. “I thought you were better than this.”

“Oh, shut up,” Valit snapped. “It’s an artifact material. I’d have to be max level and a master-tier smith to do anything with it.”

“Makes sense. So I guess we sell it?”

Valit glared at him, but then sighed and nodded. “That or find someone else to do the work for you. Sorry. It’s above my pay grade.”

“Do whatever you think is best with it,” Kana told her. “Oh, by the way, did you manage to scrounge up the mats to make Spiral’s birthday present?”

“Right! I almost forgot. One sec.”

Valit disappeared behind the curtain she’d set up to divide her stall at the bazaar in half. A lot of players hired NPCs to run the stalls like a store so that they had a place to sell their hard-earned loot without having to actually waste all their time in the city, but Valit seemed to like the company. Kana would not have been surprised to find out she hadn’t gained even a single level since their last quest together.

She’d certainly gained a hefty bank account though, thanks in no small part to Kana’s never-ending supply of rare drops that she got a commission on selling for him. What exactly she was doing with the drol, he had never been entirely sure. Perhaps she just liked looking at the large number when she went to the bank to add the day’s take to it.

Valit came back into view with a large shield held in her hands. “3-star ranked, with a perfect stat balance for a knight,” she declared. “I think he’ll like it.”

He knew his sense of proportion was seriously screwed, so Kana had to actively remind himself that for most players, a 3-star rarity item was a hell of a find. Players who were still leveling almost always had bottom tier gear with the occasional 2-star, or green, as they were called. Every rank had its own color, and when Kana had asked about the logic behind picking the color order, Spiral had just shrugged and told him it had been that way in every game for as long as anyone could remember.

“How do you know when his birthday is?” Valit asked, drawing Kana out of his thoughts.

“Hmm? Oh, simple. We’re family.”

“Oh! I didn’t know. I wish you’d given me a bit of warning though. I could have spent more time looking for something for him myself.”

Kana laughed. “I’m sure he isn’t expecting anything at all. Whatever you found will be a pleasant surprise.”

“Yeah. Any plans today? Going to go try out his new upgrades?”

“I don’t think so. I think he’s doing something with his guild on his ranger this afternoon, then stuff offline with his mother in the evening.”

“Oh, well, if you’re not going to be busy, there are some mats I’d like to get my hands on that I haven’t been able to find on the market yet…”

------

“Happy birthday,” Kana said, opening up a trade window with Spiral. “This is for you.”

The shield he’d commissioned Valit to make was a significant upgrade to the one Spiral had been using, and perhaps more importantly, it increased the duration of the stun debuff his shield attacks applied by two seconds. It was primarily a boost to his stats, but Kana was sure that Spiral would appreciate that nice little bonus perk.

“Aw, thanks. This is a pretty solid piece of work. Did Valit make it for you or buy it?”

“She made it herself. I think it was the highest quality piece she’s made so far.”

“Nice,” Spiral said. He equipped it and gave it a flourish. “How’s it look?”

“Doesn’t really match the color scheme of the armor, but fortunately I have a solution,” Kana told him. He opened up another trade window and put Valit’s gift in there. “When she found out it was your birthday, Valit decided to get you something too.”

It was a chest piece with an impressive amount of physical damage reduction and surprisingly a bit of fire resistance as well. Most importantly, it had a rare skill augment on it that increased the effectiveness of Spiral’s latest ability: grudge. The ability put a debuff on the target that forced its attention on Spiral and wouldn’t let it attack anything else, which was incredibly useful in a pinch. It also increased the amount of damage the target took from Spiral while the debuff was in effect.

“Oh damn. I think she beats you,” he said. “But these are both solid upgrades. Thanks a lot!”

“You’re welcome. You still going out with your Mom for dinner this evening?”

“Family tradition,” Spiral said. His grin faltered though, and he added, “I mean… Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok. We’ve been spending a lot of time together. I’m sure your mother wants a turn too.”

Spiral blew out a long, frustrated sigh. “Sometimes, I just… I wish… I don’t know. That…”

His hands grasped at the air as he tried to articulate what he wanted to say, but failed. He shot Kana a plaintive look, who put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug. “It’s ok. It wasn’t your fault. If anything, it was mine. I’m the one who should be apologizing.”

It had been half a decade since the whole family had gone out for the birthday dinner. Any more, the new tradition was once on Spiral’s birthday with his mom and maybe one on some weekend within the next month if Kana wasn’t too busy working. He always felt bad about that, but the work he did was important. He felt a twinge of guilt that even in the game, he had an ulterior motive to spending time with Spiral.

“Look, you just go have a good time with your mom tonight. Enjoy hanging out with your guild. We’ll do something tomorrow, ok? I’ll pick you up tomorrow and we’ll go out. The ribs are mostly healed now anyway. I can manage dinner at least.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” It didn’t sound like Spiral really believed that, and Kana winced inside. He’d broken too many promises to be there over the years to be taken at his word. That was his fault too. Well, he’d just have to do better tomorrow. He was off work anyway.

“Thanks again for the birthday present,” Spiral said. “I’ll see you later, ok?”

“Sure. Have fun today. Happy birthday.”

Spiral waved and logged out, leaving Kana standing alone in his house. He thought about it for a second, then sent Valit a message asking her to keep an eye out on the market for a nice weapon to go with Spiral’s new shield.

-------

The game didn’t award XP on a flat scale. The gain was determined by the difference in level between the player and the monster or recommended level to complete the quest. Kana had found that by doing quests that were designed for players five or even ten levels higher than him, he could gain significantly more XP, not to mention better quest rewards.

That last part didn’t matter so much to him since the money he’d gained from selling his rare drops through Valit had given him access to better gear than anything he was likely to get as a quest reward. Those were predetermined and his glitched out luck didn’t affect quest rewards at all.

He’d already done most of the stuff designed for players in the mid 20s level bracket by the time he hit level 22, and he’d worked through most of the late 20s content in the last two days. His experience fighting Elan’scathe had convinced him that mid 30s bosses were too much to solo, so he had done a bit of research and picked a place recommended for players just hitting level 30.

Talon Roost was a mountainous area where it seemed like the wildlife took a backseat to the terrain in terms of danger. Kana used the teleportation spire to arrive at a town called Jutan, which was perched on a quarter wide mile shelf on the side of a mountain. The view was spectacular, albeit somewhat spoiled by the monstrous ten-meter wingspan birds flying around.

Kana had chosen the area for two reasons. First: the enemies and quests were far enough above his level to be somewhat challenging and thus more rewarding, and second: there were a lot of animal mobs that dropped various furs and meats which sold for decent amounts of money.

The main quest line for the area started with a woman named Kalanna, whom Kana found without much issue. She was in a small cottage at the edge of town, wringing her hands and staring off up at the mountain. He approached her and, his voice slipping into cop-speak, said, “Are you alright, ma’am?”

She turned to him, her face painted with worry. “My husband, he’s been gone for a week. There was some problem and they sent messages for all of the walkers to travel up the mountains. Something terrible is happening and we’re all in the dark down here trusting them to take care of it. He always sends me a message to tell me he’s safe, but not last night.”

“Do you want me to go see what’s going on?” he asked.

“Oh, no. You shouldn’t. Something dangerous is happening. I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt on my account. My husband is a strong man, he’ll be fine. I’m just worrying over nothing.” She didn’t sound convinced as she said it though.

“It’s really no trouble. I was heading that way anyway,” he told her.

“Well, if you’re sure… here, let me give you this though at least,” she said, disappearing into the cottage and coming back with a rolled-up map. “This will help you find the Lodge. It’s where all the walkers meet up. Someone should be there who knows where my Leo is.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

He really couldn’t help it. Too many years on the job had instilled a certain manner of speaking into him when he dealt with the public’s complaints and problems. He’d done his best to suppress it at first, but eventually he had given up and just let it out. It didn’t seem to matter to the NPCs one way or another, and his brain had been re-wired to talk like that years ago. It was easier that way.

The map Kalanna had given him was a hand-drawn thing, more of a scrawl than anything professional. It showed him a lot of dead-end trails and had the proper route to reach the Lodge circled. There was no equivalent of magical GPS in Istrius, at least not as far as navigating to locations. It could find people just fine as long as they were in his party, but not tell him which way to go to reach a building. It didn’t make a lot of sense to Kana, but he wasn’t going to worry about it.

He left the cottage, wondering briefly why it seemed like they were always at the edge of the village. Nobody who lived in the main part of town ever needed help. Even in the cities he’d explored, all of the quests were always in the outskirts or ghettos. Other than a few system introductory quests to show him where player resources like the bazaar, bounty boards, bank, and housing commission were, there wasn’t much going in in the middle of Aldur.

Kana hiked up the side of the mountain, following a trail through the pine trees that and occasionally stopping to fend off an attack from hungry predators. A cougar tried to ambush him once, leaping down from a tree to land on his back and raking its claws through his flesh. Kana spun in a tight circle with the beast still on him to activate wind slash and hurled it straight back up into the air.

An arc lance and rising slash was all it took to finish the cougar off, despite it being three levels higher than Kana. He got 150 XP for it and was awarded several crafting mats, useful primarily in making primitive jewelry and cooking. Four more times as he was hiking, he was ambushed by drop cougars before he figured out the warning signs and how to avoid them.

Worse than the drop cougars were the occasional attacks from the giant birds the games called cliff skimmers. They had a tendency to attack whenever he came to an open area in the trail, especially when he was near a cliff edge, and their primary form of offense was to attempt to knock him over so that he would fall to his death. They were more like mobile AI controlled traps than actual monsters.

Annoying as they were, they didn’t do any real damage to him, and it turned out that dragoons were decently equipped to deal with them. He had a mid-ranged attack that didn’t work as well as a sorcerer or ranger sniping them from a distance, but gave him enough reach to take them out as they tried to do a fly-by, with the added bonus that they had a weakness to lightning damage.

After ten minutes of constant harassment from the local wildlife, 4230 XP, and a truly disgusting amount of raw meat in loot, Kana finally reached the spot where his map told him the Lodge had been built. He thought that given the hunter and ranger themes of the zone, perhaps the building had been hidden in same way and started poking around.

He found it hidden behind a screen of trees, these ones thankfully devoid of any drop cougars. As he approached though, he frowned. There were bodies everywhere and not a single living NPC to be found. He’d skimmed the notes of an admittedly sketchy guide that hadn’t gone into a lot of detail, but it had definitely said the next step started at the Lodge.

It was possible the guide was just outdated and Sprigot had updated the zone for some reason. Or maybe, just maybe, he had finally found something unusual going on in the world of Istrius, something besides his glitched out luck. Here was a lead he might actually be able to investigate somehow.

Kana walked past the bodies into the interior of the Lodge, determined to learn as much as he could about what had happened.