The new player had his eyes on The Guardian Elder at first, but as he turned his head he locked eyes with Yang and the others, his face going slack with shock as the three mirrored his reaction. He had a bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to their back, along with a series of leather straps wrapped around his waist. His straight silver hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, with skin so pale and unblemished it nearly shined, and pointed ears that extended a few inches away from his head. His soft gold eyes were wide as he continued staring at the rest of them, all four players stunned and silent from the unexpected meeting.

A loud snort broke the silence and jolted the players from their stupor. The Guardian Elder had had enough of their antics and turned its attention back to the entrance of the passageway.

With the tension easing up, Yang approached the new player. “Umm…Hi?”

“Hey.” His stunned expression slowly shifted into an excited smile. “You guys are from that big settlement in the valley, right?”

“Yeah, that’s us.”

“You knew about us and never tried to visit?” Zed asked. Meeting up with other players had been a hot topic ever since the possibility was brought up, so it was strange to see someone who didn’t seem interested.

He shrugged, climbing off the goat as the others got closer. “It’s not like we didn’t try, but it wasn’t easy. After a while, I gave up.” He held out his hand. “Anyway, I’m Alvor. What brings you guys to Ziege?”

“Ziege?”

Alvor shrugged. “It’s what I named the place up ahead, Ziege Basin.”

“Um, okay. I’m Yang, and these two are Zed and Alexx.”

“We were just curious to see how far we could travel now that the version update gave us the inventory,” Zed explained. “So is there a village nearby or what?”

“It’s more of a camp, but yeah, I’ll show you.” He turned to get back on his goat, but stopped and looked back to them. “Actually, you guys can ride Van, I’ll get on someone else.”

“Are you sure?” Yang looked at the goat skeptically.

“Yeah.” He turned to the goat, Van. “They just need help getting through the pass. You’re cool with it right?” Alvor asked while nodding his head toward them gesturing to the goat’s back. The goat stared at his rider for a moment before lowering itself to a sitting position and looking at the rest of them. “See, he’s cool with it.”

The three exchanged looks before Alexx shrugged and climbed onto the goat’s, or rather Van’s back. The other two joined him with Yang in the back and Zed in the middle. Van was fairly large and had enough space for the three of them, but it still felt a little cramped.

Once they were situated, they watched as Alvor walked up to another goat that was heading into Ziege Basin and quickly pulled himself onto it. The beast began to buck under him for a moment, but Alvor rubbed its neck, made a few calming sounds, and the confused goat quickly calmed down before continuing on its course.

“I don’t think taming an animal is supposed to be that easy,” Alexx said.

“It’s not,” Alvor responded, grinning. “I’ve had some practice.”

“I can tell.” Zed had used [ANALYSE] on Alvor and found the results very interesting.

[NAME]: Alvor

[SPECIES]: Human

[LEVEL]: 9

[STATUS]

{HP}: 50/50

{SP}: 135/150

{MP}: 50/50

[END]: 10

[STR]: 10

[AGI]: 14

[DEX]: 20

[PER]: 20(+10)

[INT]: 5

[SPT]: 5

[SKILLS]

[ANALYSE] Lv.10

[ARCHER] Lv.10

[GOAT WHISPERER] Lv.10

(Passive) Greatly increase the efficacy of non-verbal communication with beasts.

[BEAST RIDER] Lv.10

(Passive) Remain stable on mounted beasts. Mounted beasts receive a 15% increase to AGI.

[INCREASED ACCURACY] Lv.10

[OBSERVANT] Lv. 10

[SP BOOSTER] Lv.10

Several players around the village had attempted to create a Skill for taming animals, but so far nothing had worked. Most had begun to theorize that the system would only trigger once they successfully tamed a beast on their own, but that was proving too difficult.

With most creatures responding violently to the mere presence of the players, their efforts would either accomplish nothing or simply enrage the beast if it was already in a calm state. The best results had been with the herds of Spined Deer, who would sometimes remain docile as long as the players were careful, but any attempt to interact directly would agitate them.

“So how did you tame it?” Zed asked. “We’ve had people looking for a taming Skill for weeks.”

Alvor’s eyes narrowed. “Him.” His expression relaxed as he continued. “I met Van while he was young. The goats are pretty peaceful, so it wasn’t that long before he was comfortable around me.” He shrugged. “Although the adults were pretty tense for a while.”

“It’s just that easy…” Yang sighed.

“Did your guys not think of that or something?”

“No, they did, it’s just harder than expected.”

The Ziege Basin was clearly some kind of protected space where the Mountain Goats raised their young, and Alvor having access to it made finding and raising Van relatively easy. The same could not be said for the other animals of the valley. Whether it was Spined Deer, Hell Pigs, or Moss Wolves, even finding one of their young proved to be difficult, as if they were staying hidden until they were able to defend themselves. Some players even started thinking that there were no young animals in New Eden Online and that adolescents were simply spawned in wherever the system deemed appropriate.

“So do the goats reproduce normally?” Zed asked.

Alvor’s expression became strange. “Not really? It’s weird. They don’t give birth if that’s what you’re asking.”

“So they do just spawn in?” Alexx asked, surprised.

“Yeah, but not randomly. Two adult goats will get friendly with each other, go to sleep, and the next day a kid wakes up with them.”

Alexx squinted at Alvor. “...When you say friendly…”

“I don’t actually mean sex; it’s usually just nuzzling up with each other.”

“Really?” Zed asked, seeming a little shocked.

“Is it really that surprising?” Alvor asked.

Zed shrugged. “I guess not, but it’s not like injuries and deaths have been toned down. Why is this the part that the system made PG?”

“I did say that it’s usually cuddling, not always. Plenty of them also just have sex. Since this place is basically a breeding ground for them it actually gets kind of annoying seeing them just-”

“CAN WE PLEASE NOT TALK ABOUT GOAT SEX?!” Yang shouted. The sheer volume of her voice caused the others to flinch in response, and even a few of the Mountain Goats around them became briefly startled. Yang blushed as she realized she said that louder than she meant to.

Once the shock wore off, the mood picked up again as Alexx and Zed began laughing at their friend’s reaction.

“What’s the matter, Yang?” Zed asked, trying to suppress his laughter as Alexx was still in a fit of giggles. “Can’t say I ever expected you to be such a prude.”

“I am not a prude, I just can’t say I’m interested in the sex life of a goat. Can we please drop it?

“Is there something you’re not telling us?”

“I’m going to strangle both of you if you don’t drop it.”

“Tell me about your mother,” Alexx said with a bad Austrian accent.

“She was a bitch, drop it or I strangle you.”

“Yeah guys, drop it,” Alvor said, drawing the attention of the three. “You’ll want to see this.”

Turning forward, the three players were stunned silent at the sight before them. Although smaller than the valley, Ziege Basin was massive, easily three miles across. The surrounding walls were steep cliff faces, dotted with small paths and outcroppings that reached a few hundred feet up before turning into sheer stone. On the northern wall, a waterfall poured down from the top of the cliff, covering the surrounding area with mist and forming a small river that lead to a lake in the center of the basin. The floor of the basin was covered with a thick field of grass, with a few trees scattered about in small clusters.

The central lake was surrounded by a small but dense grove of trees. Unlike the woods they were familiar with, the grove and surrounding clusters were composed mostly of an unfamiliar type of tree with a few Maple and Birch trees scattered about. Moving about the trees, numerous small animals could be seen. Most of them were young Mountain Goats grazing the lush green grass that covered the entirety of Ziege Basin, but there were also numerous other small critters from around the valley.

Lastly, on the edge of the grove next to the river was a small camp with a few players milling about. At the center was a large fire with a few short structures around it.

“Wow, this place is beautiful,” Yang said, eyes wide as she took it all in. “You guys really-ACK”

Yang, Alexx, and Zed shouted and landed in a heap as Van reared back, throwing them off and moving over to Alvor, who was chuckling at the display.

“Sorry about that,” Alvor said as he dismounted the other goat. “I did say he promised to carry you guys through the pass.”

“We didn’t realize your goat was so specific,” Zed grumbled.

“Yeah, he tends to nitpick.” Alvor pulled himself up onto Van. “Anyway, let’s get going.”