Abel got out of his pod and stretched. He hadn’t exercised earlier because he didn’t want to waste the double EXP buff but he wasn’t feeling too sore right now. Regardless, after a short bathroom break he started going through the Yang-style movements until late in the afternoon.

After finishing up his cool-down exercise, he pulled out his phone and ordered some dinner from Seafood Glow, one of the best restaurants on the island. He wasn’t in the mood to cook anything and he wanted to take care of some chores he neglected like cleaning and laundry. After placing his order to arrive at 7 in the evening, he got started right away.

He washed his dirty clothes, cleaned and vacuumed his room and checked up on the animals in the yard. After cleaning out the chicken coop and rabbits burrow, he took a shower and realized he was out of ointment. Fortunately, Melly had placed a couple of jars in the kitchen earlier so he reapplied the medicine and went to check on the bacon in the fridge.

It seemed like it was finally done curing so he took it out of the air tight bag and started rinsing it under cold water. Once he cleared off the excess cure, he dried it out with some paper towels and placed it back in the fridge. It was now ready and could be fried whenever they felt like it. Once he was done, he went over to the living room and turned on the TV, wanting to see what was going on in both the real world and the world of Faeron.

After flipping through a few different news channels and seeing that not much had changed in the world, he switched to GFTV, Realm Quests broadcasting station. GFTV stood for Gaming Fanatic Television and they would focus on other games but ever since Realm Quest’s release, it had all been about the world of Faeron. In the mornings, they would have some programs about childrens games but from afternoon onwards, it was all about Realm Quest.

He heard the front door open up and guessed it was the couple coming back from work. “Hey Abe, I’m surprised you aren’t online, I thought you said you would be super busy?” Frankie asked as he stepped into the house, Melissa trailing behind him.

“Yeah, I am super busy. I plan to get some sleep before logging back on and starting this quest. I was too lazy to cook so I ordered seafood for dinner, go and wash up it should be here soon.”

“Abe, don’t be wasteful. We have plenty of food still!” Melissa said as she admonished him for an unnecessary expense.

“Actually, we’re out of a lot of stuff like ground beef, steaks, chicken, celery, onions, garlic, strawberries, banana’s-“

“Ok, fine I get it. We’ll go for a grocery run after our next shift.” Melissa cut him off when she saw he was going ramble on about the list of things they needed.

Abel chuckled while the couple went upstairs to wash up and change. He went back to watching the broadcast, seeing what was new in the world of Faeron. The segment for Ethan King and Serena Tay wouldn’t start till 9 pm and would last for 2 hours.

Right now, it was another anchor that was pretty well known. He went by the name Jaxx but not much was actually known about him in real life. He was a former pro-gamer that turned to hosting after he peaked and left the gaming industry behind. While Realm Quest was very different from prior games, there were still many parallels that he could draw on to provide some insight.

“… and in most recent events from the west, the Iron Crescent Kingdom has waged yet another war against the Vylna Confederacy. Many of you might not be aware, the Iron Crescent’s barbaric armies have tried conquering the woodlands the Confederacy call home numerous times without anything to show for it. However, this will be the first major inter-species war where players are involved, whether they merely serve as cannon fodder or actually contribute anything meaningful is still up for debate…”

The Iron Crescent Kingdom was led by an Orc King; Kaldor Blackfoot and he was the only orc with a last name. This kingdom was mostly made up of orcs, goblins and minotaur’s with an overall militaristic society. They weren’t very adept at crafting professions so they always tend to wage war on their neighbors for resources or finished goods. The constant wars would also help in quelling their overpopulation problem as each of those races tended to reproduce and grow quite quickly in comparison to other races in Faeron.

The Vylna Confederacy on the other hand was led by their Grand Arbiter, Fairy Lirael Whisperwing. Their society was mostly made up of fairies, treants, halflings, centaurs and other magical creatures that called the enchanted woodlands home. The entire confederacy came into being in order to protect their homeland, seeing any action against these woods as a direct affront to that which they held most sacred.

‘They’re at it again huh…’

Abel had read up about several past wars between these 2 powers of Valtoria with Branthor even taking part in one of them. He had crafted several high-level bows for the centaurs of Vylna and he had quite a good relationship with one of the fairies in the confederacy’s high-council.

Tinggg Tonggg

‘Right on time.’

He checked the time when he heard the doorbell before he stepped out to get their order. By the time he got the food out of their containers and set up the table, the couple had stepped down after a quick shower and were directed to the kitchen, probably following the tantalizing smell of the seafood. He had ordered an assortment of different crustaceans like shrimp, crab and lobster as well as some dishes of fried fish. Even though he had been eating grilled lobster and crab in the game for the past day, he would never get sick of eating seafood.

“Abe, don’t you think you ordered too much?” Melissa said as she took a look at the pad in the corner, checking to see how long of a shopping list they had.

“Nope, I plan on stuffing myself silly so you two should eat as much as you can before I clear out all the food.”

“Babe leave that list for later, come and eat.” Frankie only had his eyes on the food but was still caring enough to tell his girlfriend to come and join them.

“How was your first day back part-time?” Abel asked as he started digging in to the scrumptious food.

“It was fine, you know my job isn’t nearly as bad as Mell’s”

“Yeah it was good. Since I’m only working part-time, I switched from customer service to customer care which is way better.”

Most people would think the two positions were similar enough but they actually weren’t. Customer service mostly dealt with post-purchased products while customer care dealt with potential customers instead. They’d walk around the isle’s in the store and help any customers looking for things or answer any questions about a certain good.

“Did you start your weapon training?”

“No, not yet but we plan to after dinner…”

They discussed the rest of their plans over the delicious food and talked about many things. Abel mentioned some tips about the training course for the sword training and archery practice, giving them his own experience. Frankie picked the sword instead of the spear and Melissa chose to learn the bow since she wanted to become an archer.

By the time they finished all the food, Abel felt like he was on the edge of a food coma. He had truly overdone himself this time so he fixed up a pot of tea to help with digestion and all 3 of them carried their discussion over to the living room.

The TV was still on Realm Quests broadcasting channel but Jaxx’s segment was coming to an end. The channel would play all the trending clips in the past week over the coming half hour and then give an analysis of the financial forecast within Faeron before Ethan and Serena came on for their 2-hour late night gaming news segment.

After relaxing for a while, Abel finally decided to call it a night and headed off to his room. He had no trouble falling asleep with how stuffed he felt. Even though it wasn’t healthy to sleep on a full stomach, it wouldn’t matter if it was done on occasion. Besides, he couldn’t afford to miss the deadline for the quest. He still remembered that his quest panel hadn’t updated, he figured it would do so when he met the team he was going on the expedition with.

When he woke up again, it was slightly past 12:20 am. He got up and went to the bathroom, after washing up and brushing his teeth, he didn’t even think of eating anything. He was still feeling bloated from all the food he had just a few hours prior. He drank some water to rehydrate himself and jumped into his pod.

Whooooosh

After establishing the Neuro-Link, he saw the flashing icon denoting an unread message. He already knew who it was so he opened up the thread between them and took a look.

“Heyy~

I know where Glimmer Mountain is! I think the highest level of monster there is level 25 which is still too strong for me to handle. I guess I can hire some guards… anyway, thanks a lot. I’ll keep you updated with what happens with me! Take care~

 ‘I wish you would just leave me alone…’ Although Abel didn’t voice out his thoughts, he didn’t reply.

He thought about why this girl was so friendly but just like always, he was drawing a blank. He had long known that a female’s cognition was far beyond conventional understanding but this chick took it to a different level. Even Xiaowen’s memories from dating couldn’t shed any light on this conundrum so he decided to just drop it entirely. Just like the weird fusion of memories, it would only hurt his head if he kept thinking about it. This is also why most men didn’t even bother arguing with girls most of the time. He shook his head and clicked on the Realm Quest portal before stepping through his user home door.

He found himself back on the street around the corner from the army base. Although it was still a couple of hours before sunrise in Veridia, he figured he’d better be early instead of cutting it close. As he walked up to the front gates, he realized the commander hadn’t given him a token or anything to denote his agreement so he was slightly nervous.

“Halt, this is a restricted area!”

“Excuse me, I had an agreement with Commander Dusk about joining an expedition for today. He asked me to check in before sunrise.”

“You’re the traveler the commander told us about?” The soldier asked as he scrutinized Abel intently while the latter let out an internal sigh of relief.

“Uh… yes, the name’s Red Sky.”

“Follow me kid, I’ll take you to the captain.”

Abel nodded and followed after one of the soldiers, he was slightly nervous about this meeting. Although the commander accepted him, he wasn’t so sure about this captain seeing as they haven’t met. He hoped to leave a good impression as he was quite eager to get started on this quest!