"Alright, I'm pretty close now…"

Mickey was approaching Lonnie's marker—the one indicating Danica's location. Northwest of the midway-camp, the terrain wasn't entirely flat, but rather, this part of the land was deformed with foothills and dirt mounds with spires and branches of dead trees sticking out of them. Walking was still easy, but he had to be wary of monsters appearing from behind hills. That said, this area was strangely quiet. There didn't seem to be much monster activity, and the monsters he had fought so far were ones that appeared at the onset of his trek.

Ahead of him, however, was the ray of light Lonnie told him about—a very useful guidepost. The ray of light seemed to be bathing the spot behind one of the hills. Mickey, having walked for an hour, was grateful that the safe spot was so close.

Mickey climbed the hill obscuring the ray of light's landing and was astounded.

"Oh wow," he muttered as he laid eyes on the sight.

He had only gotten used to Torea, but right before his eyes, where the ray touched, the land was verdant and lush. Before him, there was a circle of healthy grass big enough to fit four homes on it. And even more surprisingly, near the center was someone's camp—likely Danica's camp. Even knowing that a camp should be expected, Mickey was astounded by how shabby it was. It consisted of a simple tent with some wooden barricades surrounding it and some bent and lit lampposts placed haphazardly around the camp. The bases of the lamposts were barely buried and supported by rocks. Even more surprisingly, in the middle of it all was a person lying on the grass.

Mickey went up to the boundary of the light and went no further. It was likely Danica that was at the center of this safe area, and it was likely she wasn't territorial, but Mickey felt rude crossing over without announcing himself.

"Excuse me," Mickey called. "Danica? Is that you?"

The person sprang up immediately. Their silhouette looked more monstrous than it did human. From a distance, it seemed that the person had wild and unkempt hair too.

"What are you doing out there? Come on over. I don't bite," responded a hoarse but female-sounding voice.

Mickey accepted the invitation and crossed over, glancing over his shoulder as he did. The moment he was bathed by light, the surroundings around the light darkened, and their features were obscured. Mickey noted it was just like whenever he was in Torea looking out and faced forward again. He walked to the figure as they stood up from their rest.

"Ahh, Danica, right?" Mickey asked once he was close enough to make her out.

"Yeah, that's me," Danica replied, facing Mickey fully.

Danica was a brown-skinned woman with hair as red as the sunset and as wild as a beast's pelt. She wore a confident grin, sported a few scars on her face, and wore an eye patch over her right eye. Beneath all those layers of grit, she looked to be maybe only a few years older than Mickey. A woman out in the wild—she looked the part. Her armor was dented and dirtied and falling apart in some places. It was a simple breastplate over top some thicker, red, and padded garments that barely slipped out from beneath the plate. She had no sleeves—her muscular arms were exposed with only old, brown bracers covering her forearms. Her greaves were similarly beaten-up, but they looked strong, and her tights, though torn in spots, looked easy to move in.

Mickey extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Danica. I'm a Trailblazer. My name's Mickey."

Danica cocked her head and sized Mickey up. She grinned and took hold of his hand. "I'm Danica. Nice to meet you, Mickey."

"Yeah, same—hold on. Did you call me 'Mickey' just now?"

She raised a brow and laughed. "Yeah? Is there a problem with that? Do you want me to call you Lord Mickey or something?"

Mickey waved frantically. "Oh, no, no! I was just surprised. It's just, people here don't use that name—"

"Even though you introduce yourself as that?"

"Y-Yeah. Honestly, I thought it was kind of weird." Mickey lightly shook his head and refocused on Danica. "You're the first to use the name I mentioned—thank you! Nice to meet you!"

"I'm the first…" Danica repeated. "You been talking to the people of Torea a lot?"

"Torea?" Mickey narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I have. Actually, the people of Torea and Lonnie at the midway-camp are the only people I've spoken with so far."

Danica responded with shock. "Only them? You haven't been to the other communities? What Level are you?"

"I'm about to hit Level 6—"

"And you still only know Torea?!"

"… I'm taking my time," Mickey responded, a hint of suspicion coming through in his voice.

Danica laughed and shook her head. "Come on, don't use that tone with me. Hold on, let me pull up some stools. You're probably here for something, right?"

Danica walked off to the other side of her tent, leaving Mickey standing, watching her.

Is she REALLY an NPC? Mickey wondered, utterly shocked by how emotive she was and by how energetic her voice was. She seems so much more—is she actually a special NPC? That's probably it, right?

"Hey, catch. Plant this wherever you want," Danica said, returning with a stool in each hand. She tossed the wooden stool over to Mickey and planted her own down. "So, what can I help you with, Mickey?"

Mickey followed suit and took a seat. "Yeah, so, I was planning on taking on a named monster near here." Mickey showed Danica the map with the marker. "But I was told by Lonnie that I shouldn't, and then he recommended I come see you."

Danica laughed. "Yeah. Good thing you listened. The monster you're hankering to take a swing at would have squashed you like a bug." Danica pointed at a darkened spot beneath the marker. "See this dark splotch? That whole area is really corrupted by undeads' miasma. It's a swampy area with all kinds of undead you probably haven't seen yet. Walking in there at Level 5 with no party is a death sentence."

"O-Oh… A swamp, you say… What Level would I need to be before I tried taking a shot at it?"

"Probably a highly-skilled Level 20. Pumped-up stats wouldn't cut it. You'd definitely need access to more of your Skills, and you'd need some high-damage Skills to be able to break some of the monster's defenses. You'd definitely need a traditional party composition at the bare minimum unless you got lucky and started the game with some broken Root Skills. What, I got something on my face?"

Danica had asked in response to Mickey's wide-eyed surprise. "N-No. Sorry… I just wasn't expecting someone to speak so much like a—"

"Trailblazer?" Danica asked with a smirk.

"Yeah. It's kind of different."

Danica laughed. "I bet." She fell quiet, and her expression softened as she looked at the sky for a moment. She lowered her eyes and smiled at Mickey. "I picked up the lingo from the Trailblazer I followed around as a party member."

"Oh, okay," Mickey said, nodding repeatedly. "That makes sense."

Danica grinned. "So you happy with my answer about the threat level, Mickey?"

"Absolutely."

"Great. So you need anything else then?"

"Actually, yeah. I've got some quests that need me to take down boss monsters and find some Landmarks. Could you help me with that?"

"You mean like giving you directions?"

"No, could you help me out—like actually accompany me? Having someone that knows the land could only be an advantage for me."

"Huh." Danica became serious. "Yeah? You want me to join you?"

"Is that allowed?" Mickey asked, worried he breached some protocol.

"Of course, it's allowed. Who's going to say no? It's just we won't be a formal party and won't get the benefits that come with it."

"Is that critical?" Mickey asked, twisting his lips.

"For me, it's not." Danica stood up and extended her hand to Mickey. "All right, Trailblazer Mickey. I'll join you as a guest. If you need a guide and a battle bud for these lands, then I'm your girl."

Mickey was surprised for a second but stood up as soon as he realized he was keeping Danica waiting. "Ahh! Yeah, happy to have you."

Mickey and Danica shook hands once more, and a chime came from Mickey's Slate.

"Great. It went through. Check out your Slate."

Mickey narrowed his eyes as he pulled at the Slate. "I thought you said we wouldn't be able to form a party."

Danica smiled. "It'll be faster if you see."

Mickey tapped on the notification and was taken to the Party Menu. There, at the bottom of the menu, was Danica's face-icon with a tag next to it.

"Guest… Oh I see. You're a guest member."

"Yup. You know what that is then?"

Mickey nodded. Usually, guest party members were characters a player had less control over with the understanding that the guest was an extra member that would leave you after a certain time or point in the game.

Of course, in HWO, Mickey didn't know what a guest meant due to not having any idea about regular party members and what controlling them would translate to in this game.

"I think I've got an idea, Danica." Mickey tapped on Danica's icon, and a Status Menu popped up with her statistics and Skills. "Hey! You're Level 15?!"

Danica stood proud, her feet a shoulder's leg apart. "You better believe it. I'm a veteran."

"Wow. And you have Skills too... They look pretty neat... Hey Danica, what's—oh."

Danica was in front of Mickey, stabbing the air with her spear, a metal-shaft, and obsidian-tipped one, adjusting her grip after each stab. "Yeah, looks like I'll be fine." She glanced at Mickey and smiled. "Let's have a bit of a duel, Mickey."

"Huh? Why?" Mickey responded, taking a step backward.

Danica laughed after seeing him pale so much. "No, don't look so scared. I just want to get a sense of your style and Skills!" She threw her spear away, the spear disappearing less than a second after it left her grip. "I'm the type that learns better by doing. So come on, hit me with your best shot!"

Seeing Danica's friendly attitude and her confident beckoning, Mickey stepped forward again. "So just a test run, then? Yeah, I'm happy with that." Mickey had his Ball&Chain appear in his hands.

Danica whistled. "That's a unique weapon... How exciting." She beckoned Mickey over with a finger. "Well? Don't keep a girl waiting."

Mickey had the first move—

Danica's Level 15. No way my hit's going to land. She's probably faster than me too! I can't wait to see what a Level 15 performance looks like!

Mickey spun the chain and launched his ball at Danica.

She's not moving?

Danica did nothing but smile. A moment before the ball would hit her, she spread her feet a shoulder's width apart and smiled.

"Gah! Danica!"

The ball struck Danica in the temple, but rather than get lodged and draw blood, it bounced off her—Mickey swore he heard a hollow clunk even.

Danica lowered her body, her eyes still fixed on Mickey. "What's wrong, Mickey?" She summoned her spear and ran for the boy, closing the distance in a few seconds while Mickey was shocked.

"Gu—"

"What's wrong, Mickey?" Danica repeated, her face an inch away from his. "Not used to fighting a lady?"

A swift strike from the butt of Danica's spear drew a pained groan from Mickey and launched him a few feet back. He landed, flat-footed and did his best to not fall over while clutching his stomach.

"Damage Rejection!"

"Don't take your eyes off of me!"

Mickey's eyes went from his injury to Danica, who was right in front of him again. He went wide-eyed as he caught sight of the spear's shaft coming for his face.

Mickey's extra hand erupted out of his back and met the shaft head-on, trying to catch it—

"Dang it!" Mickey yelled as his extra hand was pushed into his face, and he was thrown off to the side.

"Oho? That's three," Danica started walking toward Mickey again. "Pretty weird ones—oops? Huh?"

Danica noticed a moment too late that Mickey wrapped the end of his chain around her leg. It was a simple little trick, but with one pull, he had her stumble. Her eyes stopped looking at him for a moment, and when they focused on him again, they saw the spiked ball flying right at them.

"Oh, yeah," Danica said, smiling. The ball passed by her face, carrying with it a gentle breeze. "That's pretty merciless. Could've taken my other eye out."

"Would I, though?" Mickey asked, letting his weapon disappear. He straightened his back and soothed his face. "The first strike did nothing to you."

"Yup." Danica chuckled and put away her weapon. "My defense score is too high for your attack score."

Mickey slapped his forehead lightly. "Ahh, right! That's why it didn't do anything! Obviously, you have a defense stat too!"

Danica chuckled and lightly punched Mickey's shoulder. "Don't sweat it. It's pretty weird—being so durable without actually wearing armor.

Mickey laughed. "And it really is creepy to see it in action. I mean, you took it in the face like it was a paper ball! Weren't you scared?"

"Nah," Danica replied, grinning widely. "I know what Level 5 damage will feel like."

"I guess you're the old hand after all. So, are you satisfied with that?"

"Definitely." Danica went over to her gear and strapped on a few pouches to her belt. "You're clever, and a bit merciless. Even if there was no danger, swinging a spiked ball at someone's head within moments of meeting them is pretty brutal."

"Sorry. I just thought you were going to be fine."

Danica laughed. "Yeah! Of course! Don't get me wrong. I'm happy you acted how you did. Hopefully, it means you won't freeze up too often or go soft. Anyway, seeing how you used your other two Skills—the healing one seems useful and the third hand was surprising. You acted quickly using the third hand, but bad move taking your eyes off of me."

"Yeah. I'll keep that in mind. Up til now, I haven't really fought any monsters that needed me to pay attention to them at all times."

"Totally understandable," Danica said, giving Mickey a thumbs-up. "Anyway, let's get a move on. You can tell me more about your Skills and what you want to do with them." Danica turned on her heels and started walking north.

"Huh? Oh! We're jumping into action right away? Just like that? No quick break?"

"Yup, the last thing that anyone should waste in Asniels is daylight. Also, Mickey, I'll tell you about my style too. The more you know, the better you can work with me. I'll keep an eye on you in turn and get a sense for your style."

"Understood! I'll do just that!"

Now Loading... New Guest Member

Danica Level 15

Skills:

Undead's Bane- Servant Of The Spear

She Who Has Seen Too Much

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Inter-chapter Action

Danica and Mickey defeated:

8 Laughing Bones

3 Skeletal Dogs

Inter-chapter Dialogue

Mickey: "Looks like the Laughing Bones aren't giving me experience anymore... And the dogs gave me 1 EXP."

Danica: "Yup. Laughing Bones are Level 1 monsters. You won't be getting experience from them anymore. One more level, and you won't be getting experience from the dogs either."