“It’s such a shame that you got to him first”, White Light said with a fakely cordial tone. “Not even a competitive player but so close with such a precious mage.”
“Ice magic is only rare, not unique”, the mage muttered weakly. It was true, but he was still the best mage right now. Probably due to his language talent. “Uhm, back to the topic.”
“Right. Maybe we can go somewhere with a bit more…” Bloody gestured around in the darkness. The light of the city was helping, but they were still standing in the middle of the field and talking. There were better suited places for this.
Because White Light’s guild hall – Sovereigns – was placed in the capital. Everyone greeted their guild leader with smiles and salutes, but their faces twisted into slight confusion when they saw players of a foreign guild waltz into the entrance hall.
White Light waved his hand into their general direction and they retreated. He invited the others into what looked like a reception room, where they all sat down with an exhausted sigh.
“If you aren’t planning on going back up today, I’d offer you some wine”, White Light started, pointing at a cabinet at the side. Pretty glass bottles were placed there, looking quite expensive.
Players could brew alcohol, but if you wanted the truly good stuff, you’d buy off dwarves.
No one ever challenged dwarves when it came to alcohol and smithing.
Moments later, four cups with pretty red wine were on the table. Knightrider swirled it in his cup, but his movements couldn’t compare with the rich second generation youth, Ice, who had grown up learning things he wasn’t even aware of.
Bloody lifted his cup, looked at Ice – who was breathing in the scent as he swirled and drank in little sips while his eyes moved around searching for a complementary snack – and placed it right back down. Better than making a fool out of himself in front of his friend.
“Let’s make a list.” White Light pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.
He already noted down things without any particular order.
[1. Reaching Castle
- Stealth mission
- Need wild boss route
- Use ledge to hide
- Need place to keep equipment
- Need warmer clothes/warming equipment and cold resistance potions]
Bloody placed a map, which he must have prepared while waiting, on the table next to the list. The route they had walked was marked with a red line, including a short note on where the ledge and the castle was.
“Reaching the castle is only the first step. We need to consider the time it will take to acquire a proof of its existence, and even worse, to acquire proof of the owner being hostile, friendly or neutral.” White Light tapped his pen on the table. This was, of course, given that they’d take that complicated path, as simply confirming its existence was technically enough.
“Everyone can ask a couple of friends to set up a camp for us to switch equipment. With our guilds, I believe us getting cold resistance accessories and clothes shouldn’t be hard”, Bloody commented, placing a finger on the lines.
“Blackstone is creating potions for us”, Ice said calmly.
“And my people are recreating the wild boss route for us.”
“That leaves us with this very nice gap and a wall to go down”, Knightrider interjected, pointing at the end of the red line on the map and dragging his finger over to the circle of the castle.
“We should expect monsters at least over level 100 there. I fear we might have to make a run for it”, Bloody mumbled, taking a very quick sip of the wine while no one was looking and then smacking his lips.
“I’m at my playtime limit soon.” The Ice Emperor leaned back in his seat. “Bloody too. We can’t explore any more today.”
“We should go to sleep. Maybe… Maybe we can use tomorrow to find out what that last bit looks like and look down the chasm at least? We might be able to see a path. I’d prefer not dying again, but if it can’t be helped, it’s acceptable.”
“I’ll gladly leave the task of dying to you”, White Light quipped.
“We have some days until Blackstone has created enough potions for us. We can use that time”, Bloody calculated. When Ice glanced at him in confusion, he explained. “I mean, the Cold Resistance Potion is kind of supposed to be used during bossfights. They don’t last long. We’ve got a long trip in front of us and we are several people. We will be drinking them constantly.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Vtf mjc qgbyjyis mgfjaf rbwf wbgf qbafca qbalbcr, yea atf vlraliilcu qgbmfrr jirb ajxfr alwf. C iba, jmaejiis. Qjla, P’ii jrx tfg.” Qtlaf Oluta wbnfv tlr tjcv jgbecv jcv rqbxf lcab atf gbbw. “Dijmxrabcf, mjc sbe ulnf er jc fralwjaf bc tbk ibcu sbe’ii cffv? Cirb, lo sbe’gf bea bo wjafgljir – sbe mjc mbcajma wf vlgfmais.”
More motioning around before his focus returned to the people in the room.
“My leftover time is limited, too. I’ll use the time to prepare for equipment. Let’s go together tomorrow, with Spiderlily and Little Droplet too. We will attempt to go as far as possible.”
“Oh, then should we wait for you? Ice and I are awake pretty early. Also, do we wanna take Absinth along?”
No one in the room looked like they wanted to, but Absinth could make a mess out of their mission if she decided to go against them so ignoring her wasn’t an option. “I’ll talk to her”, Knightrider took the job.
“Use the time while we’re offline to prepare as well”, White Light suggested.
After some more discussion, everyone had their tasks and parted for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Ice found himself in Bloody’s guild hall, sitting across six very tired looking people.
“Teleporting all over the place whenever you please”, the smallest one complained. “Rich people. Tsk.”
“He’s working hard for it. You know, by looking pretty and getting photographed. And by sponging off the Ice Emperor’s popularity”, another joked. “How could he not earn money?”
“Are all rankers early risers? Do I have to wake up early if I want to get better?” A third person had their head on the table. He was slurring his words so badly that one had to wonder whether he wasn’t actually sleep-talking.
“Most players are owls. Late sleeper, late riser. It’s pretty empty around here in the early morning and that’s great for grinding”, Bloody responded cheerfully. A broad grin was drawn on his face, his eyes glittering gleefully. He turned to face Ice and went through their names again – Ice didn’t see them often enough to remember well.
“Allister, Best, Poly, Six, Everheart and Lunch.” The names he repeated weren’t their usernames, but no one would bother calling out IAmTheBest every time they wanted to call a user, and likewise it felt quite weird to call RolyPolyBug.
Ice also felt more comfortable with their shortened nicknames. Haven had all kinds of nicknames, going from actual names, over random words and poetic phrases, and finally stopping at absolute nonsense like VeryTastyLittleLunchbox.
Haven had a lot of players.
People had to get creative if they wanted to find an unused name. It did, however, result in some players breaking out into laughter when NPCs said the weird names with straight faces.
Some had fun with it. For example, there were people called SCP-something, or a user called Redacted, or one who was called Objection. The latter loved making NPCs shout his name, very reminiscent of a certain game.
“Okay, back to topic”, Six grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. He yawned loudly, showing off his teeth. Once he was done, he put a number of items on the table. “So I’ve got every single accessory with increased cold resistance I could find. Uhh, I mean those with stackable effects anyway. It should help a bit.”
Ice lifted up a pair of clippable earrings.
[Precious Earring (Warm)
An earring that makes you think of a warm summer day.
- Increases cold resistance by 1%
- Effect stackable
- Cannot be combined with other earrings]
Although Haven did not have a literal slot system for equipment, there was a combination restriction.
Unless explicitly stated, you could only wear one pair of earrings, one ring on each finger, one belt etc. If you did put on another one, the effect wouldn’t work and in some cases, the second item might break.
People called this the items’ jealousy. They didn’t share their places with other items of the same kind.
Likewise, effects did not stack. This was to avoid people reaching a 100% increase in something, for example. An item with a stackable effect would always have a lower value than one without it, so it all came down to how many items you had.
If Ice wore two rings with the same effect, the higher one would work. Only if they were stackable effects would both work together, one after another.
A lot of people had whined about that kind of messy effect system, but the answer they got had shut them up:
Do you think balancing Haven is easy?! We tried it during the beta phase and this works best! Stop whining and be happy we added effects for accessories at all!
Well.
There was no fighting the developers.
“Looks good. What about clothes?”
“We’ve got everything. Just as you asked, we made sure to choose the one with good effects but thick fabric. It was expensive though, I’m warning you. Also its defense honestly sucks.”
Lunch took out two sets of clothes. As he displayed them, Bloody felt his lips twitch. “You guys…”
The set for Bloody was simple, with loose shoulder areas and tighter pants that were more comfortable for a beastman to wear. They looked practical and comfortable.
The Ice Emperor’s clothes…
There were golden embroideries on the tan-coloured cloth. He had fur linings around the hood and cuffs, and every button was delicately decorated.
“Expensive, alright!” Bloody hit his fist onto the table. “You guys…! What is this blatant bias! Am I not your friend?!”
“You are”, they all nodded in unison. “But that’s the Ice Emperor. He’s also much nicer than you. Besides, you’re our friend, so we don’t have to suck up to you.”
“Thank you very much”, Ice whispered, lowering his head. He felt embarrassed about the difference in treatment, but since none of it showed on his face, he looked quite nonchalant.
“Ice Emperor, you can count on us. We promise we will keep watch over your things and return them without problems!” Poly thumped his chest, puffing it out.
Ice gave them a tiny smile, and at the side, Best sobbed quietly. “It’s not fair that he’s so handsome… Why does he look like a model…”
Probably because he looked like his parents, who were models.
Ice swallowed the words and turned to Bloody, who raised a thumbs-up. “These guys got everything overnight. Later when we meet up with the rest, they’ll come along and go through the motions with us. We can test the equipment setup already.”
“We demand a salary for this, by the way”, Six hummed.
“Yes, yes. The rich guy here should invite us to a meal. We want at least three stars!”
“God, you guys are expensive!” Bloody laughed. “Ice, you’re also invited if you want to come. I think you said you’re close to X City?”
In fact, he was so close that they were neighbors.
The mage shook his head but Bloodless Sunset didn’t mind. He already expected this, but he wouldn’t stop inviting Ice. He preferred Ice rejecting him every time over Ice thinking that Bloody got tired of asking him.
“We will have a feast once this quest is over. For now, we gotta get to that castle first! It’s too bad I can’t take a camera along.”
“Excuse me, us peasants don’t even have cameras. We are normal players that don’t have access to this kind of fancy expensive cash shop stuff.”
The camera – it wasn’t called that, but the real name was too bothersome – was indeed a cash shop item. It would invisibly follow you when activated, filming whatever was happening, and was mostly used for streams or guides. Obviously, certain areas didn’t allow the use of that tool to keep people from seeing areas they were supposed to explore themselves. For now, the mountain was almost completely restricted.
“It’s not like I can break the rules.” Bloody blew up his cheeks. “I can only use it where it’s allowed or in the sandbox area.”
“Sandbox area”, Lunch groaned. “See?!”
Ice relaxed while listening to their happy banter. It would be nice if he could join them in reality sometime. He wasn’t sure he could go into a common restaurant, but maybe they could all go to that one place that his mom’s friend owned?
They could reserve a whole floor and Ice could ask his grandfather to drive him over…
That sounded manageable and not as scary as eating out in the open.
Bloody bickered with his friends for a whole hour. Even while they ate something in preparation for their trip, they didn’t stop. Only the beastman’s exclamation when the others were finally online could stop them.
“On we go!” Bloody jumped out of his seat.
“Are you that motivated to run back to that cold mountain?”
“Do not dampen my hard-kept motivation”, Bloody threatened. “I’m serious. I’m trying very hard to stay determined. You don’t understand the feeling of being killed by harpies after crawling through the snow!”
The guys snickered and hit his back, one after another.
Their chattering slowed when the mountain came into view, then completely stopped as snow started crunching under their shoes. They all returned their mounts to their inventory with grim faces.
“It’s cold”, one of them muttered.
“Do not remind me of it”, Bloody howled, pulling his leather armor tighter around himself. “If I didn’t plan on fighting until we reach the inner circle, I’d already change clothes…”
He looked at the Ice Emperor with envy. Ice was wearing his warmer clothes already, considering it was unlikely he’d be in danger. Of course it was better to have his gear close by, but he didn’t need to keep it on him.
In fact, one of Bloody’s friends had begun staring off into space when he handed his things over. Maybe the descriptions shocked him?
The first one of their party who they found was Blackstone. She was covered in layers and layers of fabric, only a bit of her ginger hair and her bright eyes peeking out. She waved at Ice, who was surprised to see her around. “You’re coming along?”
Blackstone shook her head. She tugged her scarf a bit down with a gloved finger, revealing her reddened nose. “I’m gonna wait with the people you all brought. It’s a great chance for me to take a look at the mountain, and who knows? You might need me. I can at least cook you guys a meal before you get to the stealth stretch.”
“I hate stealth!”
Ice couldn’t see Bloody, who was somewhere behind him, but he sure heard that howl.
Author’s Note
Dear Readers, please remember that I’m not trying to make up a game mechanic – I’m trying to make up a game mechanic that also doesn’t affect the realism as much as somehow possible. If I just made limited item slots that’d be easier, but people in reality don’t have slots on their bodies…. Hhhhh…. TT_TT
I’m trying hard. So, jealous items you get.
Little Theater:
Bloody: “Stealth!!! We seriously have to, Ice?”
Ice: “Yes.”
Bloody: “Ugh, fuck me!”
Ice: “…….”
Bloody: “Don’t give me that disapproving look”
Bloody: “I wasn’t cursing”
Bloody: “That was an invitation”
Objection!!! xDDDD I laughed at that part. And I’m really curious if Absinth will be an obstacle later or if she’s just a grumpy, impolite person.
Bloody, I see what you want from Ice >3 (And how he didn’t dare drink his wine in front of Ice :3)
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
thanks for the chapter <3
omg hahahah yes player names are funnnn
“item jealousy” is such a cool concept!
also so cute that Bloody’s friends are blatantly sucking up to Ice!!!🤣🤣🤣
one day, Ice and Bloody will have their dinner together….I mean their date 🥺🥺🥺
does Haven have like….spatial storage rings? asking for a friend
Originally yes but that was discarded… for reasons. >_<
(≖_≖ ) *cries at Owl*
Thank you for the chapter 💜
I wonder if there are nose piercings and the like? Would you also get buffs? Or would it be just cosmetics?