New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

***Back out of the game***

Alexander took Violette out, bringing her to his favourite arcade nearby, and he decided they could enjoy the day to the fullest. They stayed in the city for the day, eating some junk food at food carts on corners.

Violette quickly forgot why she was sad, only wishing Kary could have been with them, but overall having a lot of fun. Alexander used this chance to cool his mind from his previous night.

The images were still playing in his head, and he was trying to focus on something else. The arcade games helped him, but having to watch over Violette so she didn’t run off was even tougher.

When dinner time was around the corner, Alex brought the little girl to a fancy restaurant, taking a table for two at an Italian place. It looked like a date from afar, and the people around found this almost cute.

After their dinner, they walked back home under the city lights. Violette was already yawning, and Alexander had to pick her up eventually, before she fell asleep on the sidewalk.

Once they were back home, he brought her up to her room, only waking her up so she could change into pyjamas and brush her teeth, which she did with her eyes still mostly closed.

After she was done, she fell back into bed, falling asleep almost instantly. Alex closed the door to her room while smiling.

‘I guess she won’t be playing tonight.’

He walked to his room, getting ready to hop in his pod and log in, but something caught his attention again. He saw some shimmering spots again, like the day before.

But this time, he couldn’t mistake them for dust, since the sun was down and there was no light to catch their form. The little particles were emanating light on their own!

There was a cluster dancing in front of his gaming pod, looking like some small fireflies.

As Alex walked over to inspect what it was, he thought it looked strangely familiar. He tried passing his hand through the cluster, and the little particles danced aside from his hand.

The way they danced reminded him of mana particles, but he couldn’t believe it was that. Just as he was about to pass his hand through again, he blinked, and the particles were gone.

‘Am I hallucinating?’

He looked around his room again, trying to find the lights again, but he couldn’t find anything. After shrugging his shoulders, Alex lay down in his pod.

‘No use thinking about it now,’ he thought as he closed the top of his pod.

“Log in.”

*Launching ‘New Eden’*

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*Welcome back player Astaroth*

Astaroth opened his eyes to the inn room’s ceiling. He could hear the hustle and bustle of Sunpeak through the windowpanes of his room.

‘I guess I’ll pick up a quest at the guild and do some solo adventuring today.’

He got up and‌ walked out of the room and inn. But as he was about to leave, he received a feeling of indignation from Genie.

‘I know you want to come, Genie. But I can’t open up Violette’s room from the outside. And I would rather you don’t burst through the windows, either.’

Astaroth received a short, sad whine from his wolf companion. But before he could respond, White interrupted his thoughts.

‘Master. I know I should have told you this before, but I thought you would find out.’

‘What is it, White?’

‘Since Genie is your blood-contracted companion, you can summon her anywhere.’

Astaroth’s brain almost shut down.

‘White.’

‘Yes, master?’

‘Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?!’

White could feel the indignation come from his master’s soul, and he remained silent. Astaroth lightly boiled in anger.

There were so many situations where he could have used Genie’s help, but she wasn’t nearby. And now White told him he could summon her?

After mentally berating the wolf, he finally calmed down and asked how to proceed.

‘All you need is a drop of your blood infused with mana. Let it drip on the ground, thinking of Genie, and she will teleport to your side.’

Astaroth’s mind went numb at the simplicity of the process. He kind of understood why White thought he would figure it out by himself.

Then again, no one had taught anything to Astaroth about his class, aside from the basics that Aberon drilled into him. And companions weren’t even a part of his class.

He guessed that maybe someone taught this earlier on to hunter classes. He sighed in defeat at his lack of knowledge again.

He then did as White Death instructed, infusing his blood with mana, and pricked his thumb with a dagger, drawing a single drop.

He then pressed his thumb so the drop of blood fell to the ground. He thought about Genie as it fell, and as soon as the drop hit the ground, Genie appeared next to him.

Astaroth grumbled mentally, as he thought he should have known this sooner, but eventually let the topic go. He walked away with Genie in tow, heading to the adventurer’s guild.

Once there, he grabbed a simple-looking quest, since he was alone and didn’t want too much of a hassle, and accepted it. The woman at the counter gave him the official papers he needed for the quest.

The quest comprised fetching an item for a noble, so he had to enter the noble district to meet the man first.

‘The noble district. I wonder what it looks like on the inside of those walls.’

He walked over to the guarded entrance to the district and stopped by the pompous-looking guards there. They did a verification of his papers, giving him the stink eye as they did.

He could easily guess they treated him like dirt because of his lack of a title. But they still had to let him through in the end.

Once he walked across the big iron gates, his jaw dropped.

All the homes on this side of the gate were humongous, and they all had their own gated yards with guards at the gates. It was like he was suddenly back at the entrance of the district.

‘Talk about paranoid people. Well, not my problem. I’m just here for my quest.’