New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

David went back to his hidden home, thinking about possibilities for the future and how it had already changed. He would still have a lot of preparations to make, but he felt more confident in their chances.

He logged back into New Eden, too.

***Back to Astaroth***

After logging back in, he and Violette waited for Phoenix to come and join them, enjoying a hearty meal at the inn. It didn’t take very long, since she was already logged on and only needed to walk back to the inn.

She had been taking care of a few things on her side, making sure she had no obligations for the next few days, since she wanted to enjoy her time with Astaroth. Violette was thrilled when Phoenix told them they could play together for the next few days.

Astaroth didn’t forget to mention to her they should hold back on levelling to level fifty. He wasn’t happy at the idea of keeping back from harder quests or dungeons, but he had agreed with Khalor.

Phoenix had asked for a reason, but when Astaroth promised to tell her the next time they were face to face, she accepted. She could hardly start their relationship without a bit of trust.

The trio went to the adventurer’s guild to find a hunting quest. Phoenix was a C-rank adventurer, which was already considered the top for players, currently.

The higher rank a player had gotten right at the start was D, and then they had to complete quests to rank up. Phoenix had been lucky to rank there herself, and it only took around fifty quests to rank up.

But when they walked up to a counter, Astaroth insisted she let him pick the quest. It made her curious, so she accepted.

When the notification for a B-rank quest popped on her interface, her jaw almost hit the floor. She watched as Astaroth came back to them, looking at him with wide eyes.

“When did you have time to rank up to B-rank?!”

“Huh? Oh, that. I’ll explain when there are fewer ears around.”

Phoenix agreed when she noticed her outburst had already attracted unwanted attention. Some players were looking at them with voracious eyes.

The quest Astaroth had picked sent them to a forest near the outskirts of Sunpeak, to the west. They had to investigate the appearance of some powerful monster.

The farmers that tended the lands to the west had complained about incursions from low-level monsters into their farmlands to the adventurer’s guild. When they sent a team to clean up the monsters, their tracker found traces of a larger threat.

Since they were lower-ranked adventurers, they had to report their findings to the guild, and the guild issued a higher-ranked quest.

The three of them left the guild buildings, heading toward an exit gate. Violette asked Phoenix why they were heading to the south gate when she noticed, and Phoenix made a shushing gesture.

She typed into the group chat, ‘We are being followed. We’ll need to throw them off our scent.’

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He knew very well Violette wasn’t against killing other players, but it was better if she didn’t do that, for now. This would most likely send her levels flying upwards, and they needed to prevent that for now.

Astaroth had an idea and shared it in the group chat.

‘We can ditch them at the south gate. I’ll meld with Morpheus and grab Phoenix. Violette, you can ride on Genie and we’ll dart out of here.’

‘What if they send an agility-based player on our tracks?’ Phoenix asked.

‘Then Violette can get rid of it quickly with Genie. That way, she doesn’t level up too much and we get rid of our tail.’

Everyone agreed to the plan, and they kept walking in silence. The players tailing them were not very good at dissimulation, and even if they were, the three players they were following had a good grasp on sensing without their eyes.

When the trio reached the south gate and crossed it, Astaroth immediately melded with Morpheus, wings sprouting on his back, and grabbed Phoenix behind her knees and back before lifting off the ground in a strong wing beat.

Violette hopped on Genie’s back as she started galloping behind the flying Astaroth. The sudden speed increase they made threw off their pursuers, and they couldn’t follow.

They only had a rogue player that was fast enough to follow behind, and they sent him ahead, so they didn’t lose their mark.

Astaroth shook his head in disappointment at the decision. Any meat-headed player would have guessed this was a trap, but it seemed greed had blinded these players.

They flew straight out of the city, making a beeline for the hills, where they could hide their change in course. Once they crossed the first hilltop, Astaroth hooked right, and started heading for their actual destination.

Violette ordered Genie to hide somewhere in waiting. A few moments later, the rogue also zoomed across the hilltop, only to be met by a set of fangs to the throat.

His eyes widened as he tried pulling out his daggers to defend himself. He didn’t have that luxury, though, since Violette almost instantly wiped out his health with a high-pressure jet of water through the head.

Violette scanned him as he disappeared and almost clicked her tongue. His level was only thirty-two, so she barely made any Exp.

She remounted Genie, as they headed in the same direction as their two other party members. She sent them a message that she was done, making Astaroth and Phoenix chuckle.

When Violette told them it was a low-level party, they almost cried at their stupidity. The party following them could have scanned them at any moment to verify who they were.

But they didn’t do it, since it would tell their targets they were being followed. The price of their stealthiness was that they lost a member and now their mark’s location.

This was clearly a party that was new to PVP, seeing their level and lack of brains. But it mattered no more to the trio.

Now that they were rid of their tail, they could focus on their quest.