Chapter 7: Party up

I lay my sword on the ground inside its scabbard, sitting down next to it with my back facing the tree. I pull out a small book bound in leather and flip to the next blank page. I rummage through my bag briefly and find the small leather pouch I'm looking for. Inside the pouch are several shaped pieces of coal, I pull one out and put the others back into the small pouch.

With my tools, I get to drawing. I look around and do some quick sketches of some simple objects from nature, rocks, leaves, tiny wildlife, and other things in the area. The wind ruffles the pages of my sketchbook lightly, but it's gentle enough that it's not disruptive. I take in a couple deep breaths of the fresh lakeside air. I look up from my sketchbook after a couple quick sketches to scan the shores of the lake for some other adventurers to try my hand at drawing.

At midday this lake has a decent amount of visitors and has ever since word started getting out about it around Aberystwyth. I lose myself in the drawing, bobbing my head to the gentle rhythm of everything around me. On the beach of the lake the faint clangs of clashing weapons carries it's way to me.

I glance up occasionally to look at the parties of adventurers hanging around the lake. I hold my sketchbook up beside the two swordsmen sparring, nodding to myself in approval at how it looks. At some point in the future, maybe I'll look into finding some source of ink so I can actually do a bit more than sketching. For now though, it's fine enough to pass the time while I'm resting.

It's been a week out of game since Terrasite came out and I'm almost level five. I'm still clumsy and not nearly as deft at swinging my sword as some others, but I'm loving every bit of it. Every morning, inside and outside of Terrasite, I stretch before going for a run. It's always a little harder out of the game, but it's surprisingly a good distraction from the dysphoria I feel after logging out. It gives me something to do, and it's something I'm starting to enjoy doing.

Still, my stamina is about all that's gotten better. I'm getting the hang of combat, but I wouldn't say that I'm much better at my coordination. Swords are surprisingly hard to use effectively.

I'm a little concerned that I may start to get outclassed by other adventurers quickly if I don't start learning how to properly fight. My real concern is the PVPers.

I'm too low level to have to worry about it, but that won't be the case for much longer. At level seven players can attack each other outside of safe zones like towns. I've seen a couple of players fight in person, all players that are more intensely devoted to grinding and leveling. I've been doing my fair share of grinding, but at a more casual pace.

"Astraea?" I jolt at the sound of a voice from in front of me. I look up from my sketchbook and notice that one of the figures from the lakeside has walked over to me. Now that he's much closer, my scan ability identifies him for me. Fox Farrowsorrow lvl. 4.

"Fox!" I exclaim, "I haven't seen you since my first day ingame." I close my sketchbook, putting away my charcoal and standing up. I brush off the backside of my sky blue cloak before looking Fox over more carefully. He's wearing a different outfit from the first time I saw him. He's wearing a rich brown robe with silver accents, his outfit from the adventurers guild likely. It goes with his red hair and eyes well.

"Y-yeah, it's been a while. What are you doing over here?" He asks, looking at my sketchbook.

"Um, drawing I guess." I open the sketchbook to show him what I've been working on. "Was taking a brief break from killing the trash mobs in the area. What about you? If I'm not mistaken, you came with those people over there?"

He nods absentmindedly, still looking at the drawings. After a second he seems to realize what I've said and actually give me an answer. "Yeah, we're in a party actually! We were on our way to try our hands at that dungeon a couple miles from here." He points at my sketchbook, looking up at me. "These drawings are really good! Are you an artist?"

I blush lightly, closing the sketchbook and putting it away. "Uh, I guess so. I've been practicing and when I realized my rest breaks in here could be spent drawing, I went and bought this notebook. Coals a little harder to use than pencils, but I've been doing well with it I think."

"Definitely. That's really neat. I know I've seen some people trying to pick up new craft skills for when they can get their craft skill levels. A couple of the bigger players are close to level ten." Fox says thoughtfully.

"I should look into picking up some sewing tools somewhere then. I want to get into the tailoring craft class when I can." I look down at my own clothes, "I think it would be really neat to eventually be able to make my own gear and outfits."

"Maybe you can make me some nice stuff when you get there too!" Fox exclaims, nodding excitedly. I can see his robes shifting behind him and I stifle a giggle, his tail must be wagging at the prospect. "I've started trying to cook in the game already. I'm going to choose the chef craft class. It's actually really impressive how comparable crafting in the game is to real life."

"I don't know how to sew in real life. Maybe I'll be able to learn here and continue in real." I say. That would be really great, it would be really neat to know how to make my own clothes.

"Probably! I've been trying to cook breakfast for myself outside the game and the skills are pretty transferable there at least." Fox shrugs, folding his arms. "The one thing that hasn't been getting easier is spellcasting. I picked up a couple new spells these last couple of levels and flipping between them can be stressful in combat." He sighs, his ears flick backwards slightly in concern.

"I hear you. At least it's still only a couple spells right now." I say in an attempt to reassure him. I look at my own sword and thank the heavens that I picked a simpler class. That doesn't mean that the class isn't without it's difficulties, abilities involve a lot more physical input than I realized. I'm lucky that the maneuvers are still mostly simple in the lower levels. "Actually, didn't you just say you and your party are on your way to a dungeon?"

"Oh, y-yeah. Why, did you want to come? I think we still have an empty party slot…" His ear flicks in thought as he counts on his fingers quietly. "Yeah, one free slot! If you come we'd have a full six person party."

I pause at that, looking nervously at my level. "Isn't that dungeon only available to level five and above?"

"The recommended party level is five." Fox does the exaggerated motion for air quotes with his hands as he says 'recommended', "Our healer and our tank are level six though and they've both run the dungeon before. They've been offering to help groups through their first runs for a price. You help pitch in for the completion fee though and I'm sure they won't mind having you along."

I mull the thought over. I haven't worked with a party before yet and I'd have to sometime. I'd much rather my first time be with someone I know like Fox around as opposed to just strangers anyways. Not to mention, it would be nice to meet people in general. I haven't done much socializing in game since I've started, and most that I have done has been with shop npc's.

"How much is the completion fee?" I ask.

"With you it won't be very much at all." He beams.

"Well then, count me in I suppose. It'll be a nice change of pace from the normal spawns in the area." I stretch my arms up high before gathering my things together and strapping my sword back to my waist.

"Come on then, let's go tell the rest of the party." Fox says excitedly. I chuckle, gesturing for him to lead the way. I find my hands instinctively reaching for my hoodie pockets as we start to walk over. I force them instead to rest on my sword hilt and bag strap.

"Another swordsman?" The man lifts an eyebrow at Fox. I don't see a weapon, but he's level six, so I assume that he must be the brawler and the tank of the party. His name is Miko.

"Well, I mean, I figure that we could use another DPS member, and our party isn't fleshed out anyways." Fox reasons.

"As long as she pays the completion fee, I don't see any reason why not." Another man speaks up from beside the Brawler. This man is carrying a wooden staff and I think I would have mistaken him for a mage of some sort if not for the fact that he's level six as well. His status bar says his name is Berry, like the fruit. "Good to have you aboard, Astraea." Berry extends a hand to shake and I tentatively accept it, "I don't suppose you have any experience with the dungeon then?"

"Uh, no. Not with fighting in a party either, I only know the basics." I answer awkwardly. Berry just smiles and nods.

"Well, we've got a way to travel yet. We can introduce ourselves and our builds on the way. After that I can give you and some of the others some tips on fighting in a party." Berry beams me an infectious smile that I can't help but return. He just oozes helpfulness, so much that I can't help but think his choice to be a support was very deliberate.

"Hey, new girl!" I look over my shoulder at the two people I'd watched sparring from afar earlier. "You wanna spar?" One of them shouts.

I look down at my sword questioningly, my hand still resting on the hilt. I've never used it against a human before, I don't know how good I'll be at sparring. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the brawler, Miko, watching me with his arms crossed. My grip tightens on my sword and I look back to the people closer to the lakeside. I glance over my shoulder at the man with the infectious optimism and ask, "Do I have time?"

He waves his hand dismissively, in response. "Oh sure, we're still resting for a bit longer before hitting the road." I nod in response before making my way to the lakeside.

As I approach the lakeside, their statuses pop up over their heads. The first ones name is Risk and he's level five, and the second one's name is Bridget, she's also level five (after learning the scan skill, I found out that you could find pronouns in a player's extended status).

“So, I take it you’re down then?” Risk asks with a cocky smile.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t have a training sword though.” I respond, looking at the dull metal swords the two are carrying.

Bridget flips her sword around, offering the hilt of hers to me. “You can use this one. Not that it’s super important, you can’t do any real damage to each other at this level anyways.” I take the sword, feeling its weight. It’s lighter than my normal sword, at least it seems that way. I step back and take a few practice swings, noting that it definitely feels different from my normal sword.

“Have you sparred before?” Risk asks.

“No, this will be a first.” I say, still testing out the sword.

“Well, it’s a good time to learn. I believe I saw you pop up on the party list, are you joining us for the dungeon?”

“Yeah. I don’t even know what to expect.”

“Skeletons. Expect skeletons. Some of them with swords.” He says, pausing briefly before adding, “At least, that’s what I’ve been told so far.”

“Is that why it’s a perfect time to learn?” I ask, tilting my head.

“Exactly.” Risk raises his sword with both hands, holding it at the ready. “En garde.” he smirks.

I raise the training sword into the ready position and repeat back, “En garde.”

-

I got my butt whupped, to put it lightly. It turns out that fighting against people who also have swords is much harder than I thought. It was good practice for the upcoming dungeon if he was right about the skeletons with swords. I lost a couple times, each time going back at it a little wiser, but I didn’t win any of them. I almost got a really solid hit on Risk once, but I messed up my footwork and ended up stumbling my way, literally, to a loss.

I had a couple matches with Bridget too. She had been training with Risk before I showed up, but it turns out that her class is actually Archer. She was training with Risk for the experience fighting against sword fighters, practice for the dungeon as well. Fox watched us spar from the sidelines, content not to join in the fighting himself. He talks about mage being hard a lot, but he also mentions the sword isn’t for him.

Eventually, Miko and Berry gather us all back up to continue towards the dungeon. It’s only a couple miles away from the lake, but that’s still an hour or two of travel. Along the way Berry imparts bits of wisdom upon us for the coming dungeon with Miko sprinkling in his two cents every once in a while. Usually bringing up enemies that we’ll fight and specific tactics for certain sections.

Risk was right about the skeletons according to Miko, but they’re much slower than humans. Because they’re so slow, they telegraph just about every attack, so it shouldn’t be too hard to deal with as long as we pace ourselves.

One of the final things Berry covers is loot distribution. Apparently for dungeons, most loot is individualized. The only thing that isn’t is natural drops from killing the monsters of the dungeon. Berry lets us know that Gold will be divided, class geared drops will go to someone with the class, and anything else will essentially be raffled away.

I haven’t played any RPG’s in the past, but it sounds vaguely familiar to what little I have heard about before. The idea of getting an upgrade to any of my equipment is interesting and I’m actually eager to find out what kind of loot this dungeon can drop. I’m technically under leveled for it at the moment, so whatever it could be would probably be a big boost. I’m starting to feel as excited about this experience as Fox looks. Which is to say that the whole walk his tail has been wagging in either anxiety or excitement. Probably both, but in my head I imagine him bouncing around excitedly.

After almost two hours of dungeon discussion, Miko and Berry stop us and announce that we’re here. We’ve arrived at the dungeon entrance.

SylkWeaver

A bit of a shorter chapter for now. Not much happens between the last chapter and now, so I decided to skip ahead a bit. Next chapter we should get a look at Astraea's first dungeon!