New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Inside the case in his hands, four arrows, displayed on a velvety cushion. Astaroth had just scanned them, and the four of them had different enchantments.

*Stun Arrow*

This arrow has a stun spell engraved on its arrowhead. On impact, the arrowhead will shatter, dealing reduced damage, but stunning its target for three seconds.

*Alert Arrow*

This arrow has a magic stone inlaid inside that has an Alarm spell stored within. When the magic stone is lodged inside an enemy, the alarm spell activates, producing a shrill sound that can be heard from far away.

*Vine Burst Arrow*

This arrow has vines carved into its shaft, with strange runes etched into them. The arrowhead also contains a strange seed in a glass encasing. On impact with anything, the glass case shatters and the seed embeds itself in the surface hit. The runes on the shaft then nourish the seed for explosive growth. Can form restraints, a vine wall, or a single high vine.

*Silence Arrow*

This arrow has a silencing effect enchanted into it. It makes it practically untraceable by sound, and when it hits its target, it transfers the effect to it. Can also limit spell casting that requires a chant.

Astaroth inspected each one, grinning as he did.

“These are great, Elaina. Why haven’t you had them brought to Athena yet?”

“Sir. They deal no added damage. How could they be of any use in a fight?”

Astaroth looked at her weirdly, before lightly conking her on the head with the wooden case. Elaine rubbed her head, looking at Astaroth with wide eyes.

“There is more to fighting than who deals the most damage. As a gamer, you should know that.”

Elaina looked at him with reddening cheeks.

“I… I’m not much of a gamer…” she muttered.

“Come again?” Astaroth asked, with confusion on his face.

“I said I’m not a gamer. New Eden is the first game I play…”

Silence permeated the room, as Astaroth was at a loss for words.

Coughing to clear his throat, he shoved the box into his inventory.

“Ahem! In that case, keep it in mind for the future. Sometimes, the weirdest effects are the most valuable in combat. Now. I’ll head to the palace and deliver all the arrows on my way there. Remember to send all your new experiments there too, from now on.”

Astaroth grabbed the bundled-up regular arrows and shoved those into his inventory, too. He turned tail and walked at a brisk pace out of the shop, before Elaina could tell him something to make him feel bad about reprimanding her.

As soon as he was out of the blacksmith’s hut, he blasted away, quickening his steps with wind magic. Elaina stood in the back of her workshop for a while.

She was conflicted about how to feel. Should she be happy he validated her work, or insulted that he bonked her head for being inexperienced?

She eventually shelved her confused dilemma away, getting back to work.

Astaroth reached the tree palace in record time, heading to the newly built lifting platform. He set the arrows down on it, next to the case, and wrote an interface message on the case to deliver it to Athena.

The players acting as couriers for the materials had found out this option, and relayed it in the guild chat. Astaroth found it quite useful.

After activating the lift mechanism that worked on counterweights and gravity, Astaroth walked into the palace. He immediately directed himself to the second floor, where the rooms were.

Arriving there, he pushed open the doors to the center room where Leon was now living. Instead of finding Leon sprawled on the ground where he had left him, Leon was now balled up cozily in his bed.

Astaroth briefly scanned him to see if the exhausted effect was still present, but found no sign of it.

“Tsk.”

Clicking his tongue, Astaroth walked up to the bed, kicking its side with vigour.

“Get up, you lazy cat. We are besieged. It’s your duty to defend this place now, remember?”

“Mmm.”

Leon grumbled before turning to the other side.

Astaroth looked at him with anger.

‘That’s why I prefer dogs.’

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Leon started falling back down, and his eyes popped wide open. He caught himself back, landing on his feet, looking at Astaroth with anger.

“Hey! I was having a delightful dream.”

“We are under attack and you elected to sleep instead of helping us.”

“I was going to help when you needed me the most. I know I have a job to do, but I didn’t want to take away the fun for you.”

“Tch. Just give us a hand now. How about that? I don’t need you on the battlefield just yet. But I would appreciate a little help.”

Leon looked at him with a moody stare.

“Fine.”

After giving his response, he sucked in an enormous amount of air.

Astaroth saw the mana in the air get sucked along, and Leon suddenly shone brightly in his eyes. The next second, Leon roared mightily, shaking the tree palace and the Bastion’s walls.

The roar reverberated all across the forest in every direction. The players attacking the Bastion stopped in their footsteps.

After a few seconds of silence, a few weaker roars echoed back in rapid succession.

Leon smiled, turning his head to Astaroth.

“There. I got you some reinforcements. Is that good enough for now?”

“What do you mean rei–”

As he was asking, Astaroth received a report from Athena.

‘Leader. I have some rapid movements coming from every direction. Whatever is coming, it’s big.’

Astaroth frowned. Looking at Leon’s smirk, he felt uneasy.

“What reinforcements?”

“I challenged every other zone boss in the vicinity to fight me. They should trample on any abnormal standing in their way while they come here.”

Astaroth took a second to register what the guardian had said. Then he snapped.

“You idiot!”