Shawn

I wake up from my nap about an hour later and decide to go forage in the forest.

After getting up from my bed and putting my equipment on, I walk to the door of my cabin and pause before turning around.

"I feel as if I am forgetting something," I mutter while looking around my little cabin home.

Wait, I almost forgot my storage ring.

"That could have been awkward," I mutter as I grab my storage ring from a nearby counter.

I walk out of my cabin and close the door behind me.

I hope I can find some of those mushrooms again. I know that the wolves seem to like them too for some reason.

I was surprised when I first found out.

I didn't realize that wolves even ate mushrooms.

Aldred

"I am surprised that there might actually be someone living on this island," Amber says to me as we follow the footsteps in the snow.

"When we were sent on this mission, I honestly didn't expect to find anyone. From what I had been told, as well as from my newfound experience on this island, it is not a very pleasant place to live," I reply.

I wonder just what type of person would live here?

We were sent here by the Adventurers Guild under the request of the Island Lord of The Isle of Drifting Ash to scout out this island for any people or possible resources.

He also wants us to do a run of the dungeon, but we would be doing that anyways to get off of the island.

"Who would want to live on a frozen island like this anyways?" Hank asks from behind us.

We had left Elizabeth behind to wait for Varthurg, so it's just Amber, Hank, Josh, and myself going to investigate the footprint's origin.

"I'm not sure, but they have to have their reasons for it," I say before noticing movement out of the corner of my eye.

I raise my hand to call for a stop before discretely motioning towards the noise.

Hank draws his sword as quietly as he can while Amber and I ready our spells.

Josh slowly steps in front and raises his great shield before three wolves suddenly rush out of the bush in retreat.

I let out a sigh of relief and lower my hands.

"False alarm," I tell the others, prompting them to relax as well.

"I was worried that whoever we are looking for was watching us or something," Hank says while sheathing his sword.

"Let's just hope whoever we find is friendly," I point out.

We continue walking through the forest for half an hour before I notice something strange.

"Hey, guys," I point out before glancing around a bit and continuing, "is it just me, or are there no wild animals here?"

Everyone else starts looking around before Amber says, "Now that you mention it, I don't hear any birds anymore."

"Yeah, same here," Josh says.

"That can't be a good sign," Hank mutters as we continue following the footsteps.

He is right.

Did some sort of monster manage to escape the dungeon?

Or is the person living here a high enough level race that the animals instinctively fear him?

I feel a hand rest on my shoulder as Amber says, "Stop worrying so much, we will find out what it is soon enough."

She's right, no use being paranoid now.

Besides, why would such a high-level race visit an island like this?

I pat her hand once before pressing forward.

Soon enough, we come across a small wooden cabin within a clearing.

No one says anything for a few seconds as we all ponder why someone would live on this frozen island all alone.

"So..." Hank starts.

"Don't ask," I interrupt him, "we just need to check it out."

We slowly approach the cabin before arriving at the front door.

"So, should we knock?" Josh asks.

I shrug and say, "Might as well."

I knock on the door and wait a few seconds.

No one answers.

"Is there no one home?" I mutter.

"Aldred! Look here!" Amber says from a few meters away while pointing at the ground.

As I approach to find out what she is interested in, I notice the same pair of footprints as before heading away from the cabin this time.

"I guess they aren't home," I say before walking back to the cabin door and opening it.

"Well, might as well check things out while we wait for whoever they are to return," I say, mostly just wanting to get out of the cold.

One hour later.

I was expecting there to be something in the cabin, but unexpectedly, there wasn't really anything in it at all aside from some cooking utensils and a bed.

At first, we carefully inspected everything for any ideas as to who the person is, but at some point we just gave up and decided to wait for whoever they are to get back.

So here we are, playing Stars.

It's a card game where, in order to win, a player must have the highest number of stars in their hand from each of their Adventurer Cards added together when the draw pile runs out of cards.

The Adventurer Cards are modeled after real adventurers from the Adventurers Guild, so an adventurer in the card game will have the same number of stars as they have registered with the Guild.

Meanwhile, all of the cards are in a deck sitting faceup in the middle of each player, so when one player draws a card, the next is immediately revealed. The next player must then wait three seconds to grab it, and if another player has a card of the same party as the revealed card, then they can attempt to grab it as well after the three seconds is over.

Unfortunately, I am losing this game.

"Yes! I got Frostheart!" Hank shouts as soon as he manages to snag the six-star card for the adventurer Frostheart from me during my turn.

Before I can say anything, the door to the cabin abruptly opens.

We all turn towards the entrance and freeze at the sight of a young man with snow-white hair and pitch-black eyes with one sword drawn.

Excuse me, what?

Shawn

This was a good forage. I actually managed to find quite a few of the mushrooms this time.

Unfortunately, last time I didn't manage to get any of them.

I soon step into the clearing where my cabin is located before freezing in place the moment I sense it.

Why are there people in my home?

I squint my eyes and scan the auras I am feeling from inside the house.

They seem to be distracted by something, so they don't seem to have noticed me as of yet.

I quietly walk towards the door and listen in on their conversation for a few minutes.

What I hear surprises me.

"...o you think the person will return?" I hear a female voice ask.

"I don't know, but they sure are taking a while," answers a male voice, presumably from a person sitting next to the first voice based off of the origin of the voices.

Then they are looking for me, I guess I will go say hi then.

I slowly draw one of my swords as quietly as possible before resting my hand on the door.

"Yes! I got Frostheart!" I suddenly hear someone shout from inside.

I tilt my head in confusion at what he is talking about before deciding to ignore it and open the door.