Morthius directed Jerry back onto the road. The areas road had seen better days and no one knew the area well enough to head down the unpaved paths. Getting back on the main road everybody that stayed above kept their eyes peeled for any sign of pursuers. The Kingdom of Reckett forces were half a day’s travel away and could be anywhere by now.

After several hours of constant surveillance many of the Thirteen got bored and went back to the guild hall to closely examine the loot and decide who should get what based on need before greed. A few of them were also looking at the scavenged material deciding what professions would make the best use of them.

Morthius stayed beside Jerry the whole time examining the carriage and what they could do when they had a chance. Its speed had taken a large hit and they were only going a third of what they had before. The health of it was a little less than 50% and regenerating slowly. If it got into combat then it would improve much quicker but it would also be much tougher thanks to the loss of speed.

Staring at the road considering the situation he noticed a form waving in the distance. The figure stood to the side and had left themselves within easy distance of jumping back into the trees. Smart Morthius thought, if any passerby proved hostile they could escape easily. Any carriage or horses would have a tough time going after them into the trees.

He told Jerry to slow down and stop within shouting distance of the person. Flicking a little bell on the side that would alert the guild in the hall he waited for the person to approach.

As they came closer he could make out the stranger in a brown cloak and some armor. A rogue or warrior perhaps, Morthius couldn’t tell.

“Hello there,” the man yelled. Morthius waved at him and kept an eye to the sides of the road. If it had been an ambush ahead by stopping before it they would have to move closer. If it wasn’t well it was safer to be cautious then sorry and be respawned.

“That’s far enough,” Morthius spoke when the man was 20 yards away. “What do you want?” From the little racket that he heard behind him he knew the guild was ready and waiting.

“A lift if possible. Have you been questing for the last day or two? There’s a bunch of crazy shit going on. The games been corrupted and there’s glitches galore. It won’t even let us log out and the NPCs turned on us like we’re criminals,” the man spoke.

“My name is Morthius and yes we’ve noticed. Who else is with you?”

“I…oh…” he stuttered as he realized his slip of the tongue. Looking behind him he put up a thumb. Four more figures came out the woods stepping hesitantly towards the carriage. “Sorry,” he said softly when the others joined him.

Morthius kept a close eye on them as the rest of the guild came around from the back of the carriage. They appeared frightened and ready to bolt if anything happened.

“Don’t worry, we’re all friends here,” Serion announced walking towards the group. He spread his hands wide in the universal gesture of not meaning harm. Morthius chuckled silently at the small lie.

Serion continued, “We are also fleeing the NPCs the same as you. You may have passage…for a fee.”

They had looked so happy only to see hopes dashed. They looked on in stunned disbelief and once more fear.

“We only ask for whatever you hold in your bags. Soul bound gear and weapons that are now useless to you. And any other high level items, potions and such. Anything you now wear or wield will stay yours, but we want everything else,” Serion informed calmly.

Through his speech the five of them gaped and then started arguing, raising their voices together.

“You can’t do that!” “Where is your humanity?” “This is fucking bullshit.”

Serion waved and the five were surrounded.

“You want passage, I have named the cost. Use Observe and see our levels. We stood in the thick of battle and died the same as you. We however are skilled and can put any items we receive to much better and quicker use then any of you. The highest among you is level 2. Discuss it amongst yourselves. We leave in two minutes with or without you.”

Walking back to the carriage Revenance joined him. “We could just kill them.”

“But we won’t get their soul bound gear or anything else they may hold. Useless to us but all of it can be broken down to level our professions, also it will keep them in line with the promise of getting some of it back if they help us,” replied Serion.

In the end they all five took the deal. They complained and cursed but they took the deal and safe passage was theirs.

After Serion oversaw all their bags taken he announced that if they helped the guild and caused no problems for them their belongings could be returned. This did much to alleviate the constant complaints and made the ride a little more enjoyable.

One by one the guild went back to the hall bored with nothing else going on. Seeing them disappear through the guild hall door they looked on but said nothing. Several of the Thirteen stayed on top watching the road and keeping an eye on the new people. The newbies stuck to themselves talking.

Serion rode up front with Morthius discussing the new additions. It was with a little surprise when one of them appeared behind wanting to talk. They greeted her and traded names welcoming her to the conversation.

“Thank you for the ride, I don’t know what we would have done without your help. We’ve seen a few patrols pass us by and didn’t know where to go,” replied Ascleia.

“Anytime, happy to help,” said Serion.

“I’m sure.” She smiled. “My biggest question is how you are all such a high level. It took me a week to get to level 5. I got the quest to aid the Kingdom of Reckett. When I got there they put me at a triage tent for the wounded. Then after the blue explosion a noble came to the tent telling us everyone was under arrest. A few people tried to argue that we hadn’t done any crimes and then…he ordered our execution. The guards swept in and killed everyone.”

“Go on, what happened next?” prompted Morthius.

“I’m not sure exactly. I was running and suddenly I was in a strange white city in the clouds. It was beautiful at first, but there was no one else around and it got kind of creepy. I tried logging off but the menu wouldn’t open. I couldn’t get anything to work, even called out load for a game master.”

“After an hour or two I respawned in the last town I was questing in. It was chaos, kingdom soldiers were attacking people. There was so much smoke and fire so I ran away into the woods.”

“In there I met a few other players, no one had any idea of what was going on. Some said the game was bugged while others said it was all part of some game event like a civil war. That was a day ago. The groups broke up and went in every direction, I followed the others that are below.”

“We watched soldiers pass by on the road. Early on we saw them surround and cut down a few players so we never tried to get help from them. A few bandits attacked us and we lost some people. This morning we ran out of food. Our mage can only conjure water at his level. Creg decided to hail you because he said the carriage looked different. Now we’re here. What happened to your group?”

“Same start but we had soul stones so we didn’t have any kind of downtime, instant respawn in our guild hall,” Serion spoke tapping his foot against the roof of the carriage. “Went to a local town filled with monsters and using superior tactics and cleared most of them. Easy squeezy, lemon peezy. By the way, that city in the sky, it was probably the Holy city of Light. You must have a high affinity in Holy Magic.”

“I’ve always liked helping people. Healing just seemed like a natural choice but I don’t really understand how all the affinities and things work. Even starting out I had to read a player’s guide to being a healer.”

Serion considered her for a moment. “Okay starting out in Waypoint everyone is an Adventurer. Once they assign their core stat points they are given an arch type or class of Mage, Rogue, or Warrior. From there you can search for class instructors to teach you the ways of a class you prefer.”

“If it’s the players first time playing they can just go out and do random things like questing or killing monsters but you may not get the guaranteed abilities of a class you want. Takes some getting used to, you probably sought out a temple priest and became a dedicated healer. I went to the mages guild and had an arcane and shadow mage unlock those paths for me. All players start with a few points per affinity but when unlocking a path all of them are reset to zero except the chosen path ones.”

“Strangely when all the weirdness started it reset our affinities but we kept our unlocked paths. This saved us a lot of time hunting down any NPCs that would be willing to aid us. Otherwise I could see everyone going warrior or rogue. Higher affinities for mages allow us to cast bigger and better spells. Others get special abilities based on them or can alter their weapons and defenses. With roughly 15 different affinities there are thousands of possibilities and combinations.”

“Most stick to one or two affinities in order to get access to higher levels of spells and abilities. Sticking to one you can become a master of it gaining access to the most powerful tier it has. I’ve met someone that had ten different affinities. They could do all the starting abilities and spells but would never be able to make them any better or alter them.”

“Anything else you’d like to know?” Serion asked.

“The Goddess Rhanna is who I serve, mostly for the increased healing but there were other Holy Gods to choose from. Was she the best choice?”

“Each of them have different benefits so there’s no ‘best choice’ really. On the subject of Waypoint’s Gods there are several pantheons, the above, the below, and the beyond. Almost a hundred altogether the last time I took a look at an info sheet for them. Every affinity has several higher and lower Gods along with those who declared themselves neutral. Hell, in the end game you can even try killing a few of them though they are ridiculously tough. No one managed it before, doubtful it will ever happen now. Besides, they’re all travelers too.”

“I’ve heard that term used by players before, what does it mean?”

“Going back to the beginning of this world, everything was forged by some kind of ancient race of deities. They left behind several still functioning cities that are high level dungeons filled with automatons. Eventually they got bored or something happened and they left.”

“The game world of Waypoint is just that, a waypoint. A rest stop created by an ancient race before they moved on. Eventually other races fled their own worlds or dimensions and created a bridge or gateway to come here. There are numerous abandoned beacons and gates out in the wilderness. Some races fled invasions or dying worlds, others exploring or who knows. However it happened they all came here and established a new home.”

“Amazing, just how big is Waypoint?”

“No one knows. I’ve played since Waypoint came out four years ago and I’m still finding new things. The AIs monitoring the world kept progress going. Find a cave, clear it of monsters and coming back later you’ll find they repopulated or something new moved in. Maybe a necromancer has taken up residence or a group of bandits.”

“There are five continents with tons of little nation, state, or country called realms. Every realm has a different story questline adapting to any changes as time goes on. This continent has nine realms usually in conflict with one another over territory and resources. Sometimes they fight with outside forces like the Holy Cities of Racsha warring with the pirates who belong to no single realm.”

“And that’s as good a place as any to stop. We’re about to have company,” Serion spoke looking ahead. In the distance a handful of figures were standing on the road in front of two wagons.