Although they had enjoyed travelling together, Lotus and Dawn didn't continue to travel with Oak and Dima. They spent a few days stripping the icy region and its surroundings of everything of worth, though they didn't return to the temple, and went their separate ways when their real life schedules no longer matched. While the couple decided to head through the desert towards a mountain bog that was rumoured to contain some supplies Dima needed, Lotus instead wanted to travel north with a river, having read a rumour on the forums that they had found half a stone house jutting from the water. She knew that that area was only lightly patrolled, and that monsters would be more pervasive, but she hoped there might be more buildings further upstream.
Along the way, after several days of travel, they stayed at an inn. It was a simple wooden building, make by stacking tall trees from the woods that surrounded it into the frame, and it sat on a cliff overlooking the vast river they were walking along. A fall from the cliff would take several seconds to hit the water and that water stretched out so far that the distant bank was only barely noticeable when the waves kicked up. Rather than a river, it might have been more apt to call it a lake, but the sweeping current made it clear that it wasn't. Aside from just wood, the inn had reinforced its foundation with the stone that was quarried when the owners made a stairway down to the river. The available stone meant they were able to get creative with fires and, aside from just the main hearth and the kitchen stove, each of the tables was made from tightly assembled stones, that were mortared with what seemed to be a resin or glass. The centre of each wide round table was a stone brazier that could be used on a particularly cold night, which the owners insisted happened fairly often.
The owners were an old couple that looked like they'd been together for most of their more than a half-century-long lives. The lady was Oqua, a Merchant of surprisingly high level, whose black hair and smooth skin seems to contrast with her wise eyes. By looking at her status, Lotus could see that she was clearly much older than her youthful appearance would suggest, and had a few extra classes in reserve. Lotus could tell that she wouldn't normally be able to examine such a high-level person, but Oqua was letting her look. "Some people might take offence if you go about peeking like that, dear, but I think, as an inn owner, letting people know just who they're dealing with helps people relax" Oqua explained.
The gentleman, Coyst, hadn't aged quite as miraculously gracefully, and he had a head of close-cut grey hair and wrinkles above his large and muscular body. He was a Restaurant Manager, which was an advanced version of the Bartender class. It was a class that apparently enabled him to control everyone and everything while within his restaurant. He could levitate and move any object freely, which let him cook multiple dishes and server customers drinks all at the same time, as if he had an invisible staff. He could also mentally compel people into obeying his orders, though the compulsion was apparently easily shaken or avoided. What he claimed he found most useful however was the ability to share his skills and muscle memory with anyone that the skill recognised as staff. "In the many years I've known her," he explained "my wife has never had any knack for cooking whatsoever, and had nonetheless insisted they I eat her practice attempts. When I gained this skill, she was suddenly able to cook the finest of foods." He had said it jokingly, and Oqua clearly pretended to be upset by it, and had clearly heard him tell the story many times before.
Lotus and Dawn had hunted a few creatures along their way, as well as harvesting what the woods had to offer, and preserved the goods with magic. They traded their goods for a room for the night and a well-cooked meal. Despite being in a remote location, the inn was surprisingly busy. There was a young man, whose class was Lord, in what looked like gold timed red silk robes, with an elaborate gold and silver rapier on his belt and two guards standing next to him in iron full plate from head to toe. The helms were only open in a 'T' shape, for breath and sight, and were each decorated with a plume of what could have been red-peacock feathers that were long enough to drape halfway down their backs, like strange ponytails. While both had unadorned long swords on their belts, one of them, who was appropriately a Knight, had a crested red and gold shield slung over his back while the other, the shorter of the two, had a gem-encrusted piece of shaped bone about the size of a police baton on their belt and was, strangely enough, a Meteorologist. Furthermore, they had long spears resting against the outside wall by the door.
At another table was a group of somewhat less cohesive outfits. There was an old man with dark brown skin and a wild grey beard dressed in what seemed to be a robe made by sewing together thousands of small blue feathers. With the robes and a staff that seemed to be made from a mixture of blue ice and quartz, it was clear that he was some kind of elemental wizard or the likes, apparently Coloured Mage; an offshoot of Geomancer. Sitting with him was a young woman, who seemed to be in her early twenties, dressed in a summer dress that appeared to have the texture of cotton but glimmered like a chameleon painted car. Her light brown hair was wildly curling and held back with a ribbon of the same near-luminous material. Appropriately enough, she seemed to be a Dancer, and Lotus could imagine how eye-catching she would be with a dress like that. With how high her skill levels were compared to class level, it was clear that she was more interested in dancing than fighting. That wasn't to say she wouldn't be dangerous; she had a Glaive resting within arm's reach against a wall that showed clear signs of use. The third person at their table was a white-haired man that was only in his late twenties with a heavy looking cupboard chest for a backpack. He was an Alchemist that had just become a Potion Master and was clearly being weighed down by the tools and ingredients of his trade. Dima's small selection of ingredients would have fit into a single draw of the cupboard, and he hadn't needed anywhere near as many tools and bottles. On the other hand, Lotus had heard that Potion Masters could replicate any spell in the game so long as they had the ingredients. As someone who likewise carried about a large selection of ingredients, she felt some sympathy for the man. Other than his shelves, he wore a simple hemp shirt and pants that looked like tan jeans.
The final member of their group was somewhat unexpected. It was a tiny person, about as tall as a forearm, completely scaled with black and green stones, broad-shouldered so that its long arms, which nearly scraped the ground when it stood upright, were almost a third of its body length detached from its centre of mass. Despite its rocky exterior, it also had sinuous and freely malleable fleshy wings more than four times its height jutting from its back, and 'feathered' by what seemed to be layers of moss and bonsai flowers. As it talked they folded and unfurled expressively as if its emotions were expressed through them and not its unmoving stone-beaked face. Its singular eye was large and seemed to shift its shape to suit its needs, and was encased in several stone eyelids that closed where it wasn't looking. It seemed to be able to see all but directly behind it, even without turning its neck. It didn't wear clothes, though no reproductive organs were visible, though it did have sharp talons, seemingly made from green gems, held to its feet with finger-like toes. Even compared with Oak, it was a strange creature, and Lotus would have assumed it a monster had it not been talking with its group. That it's class was Cannibal didn't give it a good first impression.
Dawn and Lotus chose a table near the group of far, steering clear of the noble's table, and waited for their food. It was getting late in the day when they arrived at the inn, and by the time they had settled in the night had come. When natural light was starting to dim, Coyst opened up the main hearth to light the room. When it was closed, it looked like a stone grain silo with carved patterns decorating rings above and below its sliding door. When that door slid around its curved body, a wave of warm light slowly, and unnaturally, spread out from the hearth. It wasn't the warm of a fire, but rather the perfectly even warmth of a clear sky on a summer's day. The light, too, didn't seem to have a direction, with everything being evenly lit; nothing seemed to cast a shadow but there wasn't a brightness anywhere that would hurt the eyes. What was most remarkable, however, was the hearth itself. Rather than being a hearth, it was more accurate to call it a wide basin fountain, one which flowed with golden liquid light instead of water. Coyst levitated some of the golden liquid out of the fountain and filled each of the table's braziers. It didn't change the light of warmth levels, but it did make a spectacular set-piece.
Their meal was a pottage roast which consisted of the fresh vegetables and meats that they traded, complete with an entirely foreign, though very pleasant, spice mix. Despite the ingredients being nothing she hadn't used before, Lotus was taken back by just how much better it tasted, with every flavour blending together but highlighting each other without overpowering. Each ingredient seemed to be filled with its best qualities, as if they were the highest quality and not just things she'd harvested. It was a taste experience that wouldn't have been possible in the real world.
The room they stayed in was a cheap option, with the other guest having already purchased the limited number of rooms the rural inn had, and they were given beds in the storage room towards the back of the inn. The beds were plush, and the room smelled of spices, so it was still a comfortable alternative to sleeping outside. While they slept there, they each logged out, saying that whoever logged back in first would wait in or around the bar for the other.
