New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***In another level 50 dungeon***

Khalor was fighting against the last boss of the dungeon he was in when the world notification popped. He couldn’t pay it much attention, but still caught the gist of it at a quick glance.

“Tsk. Guess they were faster than me on this. I’ll have to have a little chat with Alex again.”

He focused back on the fight before him. Even if his class allowed him to send an almost never-ending army of undead at his enemies, their levels were all pretty low.

Even if there was a quality in quantity, even a numbers’ advantage held no sway against absolute power. The only thing keeping him from losing was the death knight serving him.

The raven was still on the lower scales in terms of level, and the manticore had lost levels during its raising, so the knight was the only undead he had at the right level.

Of course, that didn’t keep him from killing his way to the last boss on his own. The numbers more than largely made up for the level difference up to this point. But last bosses were always in a realm of their own.

After fighting the boss for another thirty minutes, it fell to its knees before drawing its last breath. Khalor was pissed at not having the option of getting a world announcement, but he was still okay with clearing the dungeon solo.

He glanced at the level ranking, and his eyes turned to slits once more.

“When did he pass me? Guess that talk will come sooner than later.”

Even with the dungeon reward, his level was still under Astaroth’s. But he knew it wouldn’t be like that for long.

Playing on your own had certain benefits, after all. He barely had to share his Exp with anyone else, and aside from his stronger undead, almost all the Exp from kills went to him.

It didn’t matter to him that some of his undead were weak and could be considered fodder at best. He still kept them around, and just raised more along the way.

He could only have as many minions as his Int score, but since they couldn’t really die, he could always re-summon them.

He closed the panel for the leaderboards and disconnected for the day. He still had business to attend to in the real world.

‘Guess these idiot contractors really can’t do anything without seeing the money first,’ he thought, as he logged out.

***Back to Astaroth***

After regaining his bearings, Astaroth walked back to the safe zone next to the dungeon entrance. He and Phoenix acted like nothing had happened, to the pleasure of the others, who didn’t wish to see any awkwardness.

After resting for a short while, they left back in the direction of the city of Sunpeak. Even if the group enjoyed playing together as friends, they still had other responsibilities to attend to.

Phoenix had a lot of grinding to do to keep her spot on the level leaderboard. Athena and I’die preferred adventuring and discovering unknown places together.

Gulnur was slowly becoming a social bug, making friends left and right, since he could hardly do that in the real world. As for Silent Light, he preferred to wander between groups.

That left Astaroth and Violette to go explore on their own again. Neither minded, though, as they still enjoyed the novelties together.

Astaroth would hardly leave the girl alone with strangers. That went against his conscience, and he had developed quite the big brother instincts with Violette.

After travelling back for another two days, and making it back to Sunpeak, the party enjoyed one last moment together, going to the cat café and getting a meal.

Silent was a little more outgoing during the meal, slightly losing control of his act once surrounded by catgirls. After being threatened to be thrown out a few times, for trying to pet unwilling waitresses, he calmed down.

The group enjoyed their meal, talking about their future plans a bit, before parting ways well into the night. Some of them had already overstayed their gaming time by days.

Phoenix, Astaroth, and Violette walked to the nearest inn, where they rented rooms for the night. Before entering hers, Phoenix turned around to look at Astaroth.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and she had both hands behind her back.

“Umm. About our… situation. I would like to talk about it in person, if possible. Can I come around your place sometime soon?”

Astaroth’s heart skipped a beat for a second before he cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Yes. You already have my address. You can come when you have time.”

His cheeks were burning up as he tried to contain his shyness. Phoenix smiled before opening her inn room door.

“In that case, see you soon.”

She shut the door behind her, not even looking at him. Violette was still standing to the side, her hand on the door handle to her room.

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“Umm… Could I come too, someday?”

Astaroth frowned a little. He remembered Violette was barely old enough to be outside her home alone.

“Wouldn’t your parents object to you going to an older guy’s house? I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble. Or me, for that matter.”

“My parents don’t mind, as long as they know where I am. My mother might want to meet you first though.”

“Hmm. I wouldn’t mind meeting her first, so her mind is at peace. Talk to your parents about it, and we’ll talk about this again after. Deal?”

Violette beamed a smile at him.

“Okay! I’ll bring up the subject at breakfast tomorrow! Goodnight, Bro–Astaroth!”

After saying that, she opened the door, throwing herself inside the room, before slamming it shut. A few seconds later, her tag already showed her offline.

Astaroth chuckled a bit. They had a good relationship, and he already saw her as a little sister.

It wouldn’t have bothered him much if she called him brother, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

He walked into his own room before lying in bed and logging out.