“Yes, the quest has already spread. It’s hanging out in all adventure guilds now. Those that want to participate are either searching for weapons that can be used underwater or are trying to find a way to breathe underwater. Everyone has their own way of approaching it.”

“Are there items like that?”

“Try to ask Blackstone about it. I can’t say anything else.”

“Thank you.”

Ice had read out the messages for everyone to hear. The moment he was done, Bloody was already contacting Blackstone.

“If you knew how often I’ve heard that question today! Yes, there’s items for breathing underwater. There’s potions and equipment, with the former having limited use time. What do you want?”

“Equipment. We will have to prepare for a longer time.”

“Have fun grinding then. For one person, I’m going to need 25 Blue Slime cores, 10 Cave Olm gills, uhm… right, 25 Moonfish scales and some Snow-Core Silver. Oh, and just to mention it, the crafting isn’t 100%. There’s a chance it might fail.”

Bloody pulled a face. “Not the Moonfish!”

“Yes the Moonfish. Everyone is overrunning the fishing grounds. I’ll take care of the crafting for you guys, but getting the materials is your own business.”

It was mostly Ice and Bloody who reacted to the list of materials.

Slimes were numerous, but not all had cores and they broke easily while attempting to take them out. In return, the Cave Olms were fewer in number but easier to strip for their gills.

Snow-Core Silver was the new material of the mountain. It was exclusively sold by nobles and royals, with a set amount appearing in auction houses and a good lot being found here and there in the blackmarkets.

Moonfish, however, were the most annoying part. They were actual fish, and not monsters, and like any other fish they fled when people approached. If you wanted a Moonfish, you’d have to sit down with a fishing rod and wait for one to bite. Four or five fish would be enough for the necessary, larger belly-scales, but you’d have to catch them first.

“Let’s split up”, Ice suggested after a pause. “I’m patient. I’ll go fish. Huntsman and Ithiel can go grind Slimes, Dead Rabbit should be able to go for Cave Olms. Bloody has the most connections, so he should be able to look out for the silver.”

Bloody whined. “Splitting up…”

“It makes the most sense. In the meantime, we will need someone who keeps an eye on Woodcutter so we know what he’s going to do. He doesn’t know where the other parts of his necklace are, so he will have to get that info somewhere.”

“I’ll just annoy my friends to take care of it.” Bloody shrugged.

His friends were considerably unhappy about it, but they did as he asked.

Everyone made sure to set up times when they’d be online. It was a convenient network as they knew each other in reality, so as soon as Xi Yang got a call about news, he rushed out of Jian Lin’s apartment and they entered the game together.

“Northern sea…” Bloody frowned.

“It’s the mermaid for sure”, Dead Rabbit shouted. “She must have given him the hint! Why isn’t she accessible to anyone else!”

Woodcutter had returned to the cave where the mermaid stayed. No one knew why exactly, but she hid whenever any other player approached, so it was only Woodcutter who could talk to her.

“This isn’t fair. It doesn’t make sense to restrict the info…” Huntsman frowned.

Ice noticed Ithiel tilt his head. He raised an eyebrow at the elf, who blinked rapidly and then gave a lopsided smile.

“Ithiel? Your thoughts?”

“Oh, just… I mean, you say it’s not fair, but what if, for example, Woodcutter said that anyone else who comes over is hostile and will kill her?”

The group paused at that.

“That’s…”

Dead Rabbit’s sentence didn’t finish.

Ice rubbed his forehead. “...Human reactions. We will have to get used to it. Haven isn’t just a game anymore - fairness is fairness, but no one keeps us from playing tricks to gain advantages.”

Huntsman frowned. “What do you mean by Haven isn’t just a game anymore?”

“He means that the AIs are at a very high level”, Bloody evaded the issue in Ice’s stead. “It’s more like talking to actual people than a classic game AI.”

The reptilian nodded after some thought.

Ithiel looked everywhere but at Huntsman, visibly awkward.

“Alright. So she has given him some hints and he went to the northern sea afterwards? There’s nothing there.”

“We will see if that’s truly the case. It’s a wide, open space so they couldn’t get too close, but if they saw him somewhere there, we can also try.”

“Wait, does that mean we have to walk over that stupid mountain?” Dead Rabbit shuddered.

“Of course not. How would Ice, Huntsman and Ithiel survive that? It’s gotten less dangerous but it’s still a high-level area.” Bloody smiled and shook his head.

“Thank god…”

“It means we have to walk around the mountain.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

The smile persisted.

Haven didn’t keep you from walking all the way around the mountain. There were none of the strong ice monsters around, simply some more basic ones from the forest edge. They could also use their mounts to make their way over, which helped a lot.

Ice’s mount, the Highland King, lowered its head when he got on. It moved its claws over the ground, suspiciously eyeing the other mounts around it. Ice had planned on letting Ithiel ride with him, but the deer-like mount had resisted.

“You’re not fond of others, are you?”, Ice mumbled gently, rubbing his mount’s long neck. It exhaled through its nose and shook its head, the crystalline antlers shining.

It couldn’t fly, but considering the numerous no-flight zones around the mountain, that was fine for everyone. Not to mention that Huntsman only had a horse. At least it was a recallable event mount.

Ithiel shuddered when they entered the colder regions. He wrapped his clothes tighter around him, puffs of white air coming out from his mouth.

The north-eastern sea was at the edge of the mountainside. Cold winds were whipping around, the freezing blue sea sparkling under the sun. There was fine sand under their feet, but they couldn’t appreciate it when the whole ocean in front of them was like a dangerous beast lying in wait.

Ice asked his mount to wait and it snorted in agreement.

“Here we are”, Bloody mumbled. “Let’s walk on, sooner or later we will find something suspicious.”

The biggest advantage to the scenery was that you could see far and wide. Ice and Bloody walked at the top of the group, with Ithiel last - he walked right behind Huntsman, enjoying the fact that the large frame could shield him from the wind.

None of them talked, simply looking around for anything suspicious. A cave, a sign, whatever it might be. More and more time passed, to the point where they started wondering if they should log off for the day.

“Over there!” Just as Bloody was about to speak up, he was interrupted. Dead Rabbit was the first to notice something. He pointed at a nearby corner of the shore, where someone sat on the stones, fishing.

“Is that a fishing rod?” Bloodless Sunset squinted as they walked forward.

“It looks like one.”

“That’s funny.” Ithiel stared right ahead, resulting in him stumbling over some rocks. Huntsman caught him by the waist, pulling him upright again. Ithiel smiled up wryly, giving a bashful thanks. “I don’t think this is a good spot for fishing, especially since the fish in this part are supposed to be a bit ferocious. But I don’t know enough about it!”

“Well, stand back. We’ll be at the front.”

To be safe, Ithiel was pushed back again to the last row, right next to Huntsman and behind Dead Rabbit. Bloody and Ice walked foremost, the former awkwardly clearing his throat to catch the attention of the fishing man.

When the man turned his head to them, they could fully see him.

It was an old person - back bent, face wrinkly. All of him was unnaturally pale, and he was wearing a blindfold. Crisscrosses of mean-looking scars covered every visible inch of skin, many of them looking like claw or teeth marks.

“Excuse us?” Bloody kept a polite distance. “Sorry to bother you.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The old man’s voice was grating to the ears. They flinched at the sound of it, but kept being polite.

“We are a group of Foreigners. If you don’t mind, do you know if someone passed by here recently? A man by the name of Woodcutter? He’d have asked about the merfolk, probably.”

“I do know.”

Silence.

Bloody’s eye twitched. Ice put a calming hand on his shoulder, stepping forward. He bowed even if the man couldn’t see.

“We’re sorry to be bothering you while you’re fishing. The man named Woodcutter is an acquaintance of ours, who has recently spread information about a task involving merfolk. We know him as someone who does not share all information, so we wanted to see what he might have found here. If we may ask, did you two talk? If you did, would you be willing to tell us what he asked to know?”