The Grind

After receiving the blessing, the group quietly moved out of the spring area and into the neighboring forest. The area was full of roaming groups of forest Sprites as well as adolescent rock elementals.

Forest Sprite (Common) Lv. 3

Health: 35

Adolescent Rock Elemental (Common) Lv. 3

Health: 100

Luna was initially hesitant about pulling the elementals around this area with just herself and Sol.

Dying early on wouldn't result in loss of experience but rather time having to respawn and then moving to a location that wasn't already being swarmed by others.

With the addition of Diana and Minerva, they had enough damage and support to deal with the groups around the spring.

The forest sprites were the same as the ones they faced before with a tiny bit more health, it was the Adolescent Rock Elementals that are slightly more troublesome to deal with.

Each group had around 2-4 Forest Sprites, however, alongside some groups were slow-moving clusters of rocks.

By themselves, the rock elemental was just a large punching bag but alongside the forest sprites, they did strong damage if their attacks hit and took very little damage from their attacks at this point.

Taking care to avoid any groups with the rock elementals, the group cleared the small groups of forest sprites fairly quickly.

One time Sol accidentally pulled an extra group of patrolling forest sprites and the group ended up fighting 7 sprites at once.

Despite Sol almost dying a couple of times during the fight, Eilyria's strong healing and the support from Minerva allowed them to barely kill the sprites which gave them all a nice chunk of experience.

It took them around an hour to finally clear out all the rock elemental-less groups. Luna and Sol had around half the exp into level 5 while Minerva and Diana both had just leveled to 4.

By then the group rested slightly before setting their sights upon the next group. Excited to continue, Sol pulled a group of three sprites and an adolescent rock elemental.

The sprites floated over quickly and shouted in unintelligible squeaks. As a practiced group, Luna and Diana fired as soon as the sprites were in range.

Slowed by the icy arrows from Luna, the sprites were already close to falling as they reached Sol. A faint barrier covered Sol just as the sprites reached him.

Giving a thumbs up to Minerva for the timely shield, Sol eagerly bashed at the sprites with his ax as Eilyria bombarded the small creatures with a few light spells.

Just after the group had killed off two of the sprites, the rock elemental reached Sol and he held his shield up to block the elemental's blow.

Being pushed back and almost falling on his ass, Sol was shocked at the impact of the blow.

"Be careful brother, while the elemental's attack is only slightly higher than the sprites, physical attacks from certain elements affect players differently. Sprites are more balanced between spell and physical attributes while rock elementals are entirely physical based."

"There are a bunch of different elemental creatures so you'll just have to get a feel for how situations will pan out since you're going to be on the frontlines."

Nodding and steadying his stance, Sol took in the information and was careful to avoid the rock elemental's attacks where he could and if he couldn't, block without disrupting his stance.

"You can count on me ladies!" Pounding his chest confidently, Sol was almost knocked off his feet by the elemental again before he scrambled back into a defensive position.

Diana just rolled her eyes and grinned while her sister giggled as she kept Sol's health topped off.

As the sisters began to get a feel for their characters and abilities, killing the sprites and rock elementals began to get much smoother. Sol was able to avoid taking too much damage that even allowed Minerva to contribute a bit to the damage.

The group continued to clear out the creatures for the next couple of hours as they respawned. The loot from the creatures was mostly useless but the main gain from their time was the experience without interference from other players anyway.

By the time they had hit level 8, the sisters began to get fatigued and called it for the day.

Thankfully the trek back to town was quick with their higher levels and had not encountered any undue trouble since other players were still playing with their levels hovering between 3 and 5.

Which was understandable considering the entirely new sensation of gaming control that Reign of the Aspects had.

Much like the first release of AR or VR, being able to control your body to execute various spells and movements your body is not used to took many by surprise.

Waving goodbye to one another and agreeing to play more the next day, the group logged off.

Taking off the gear from his head, Alex stretched and rolled around in his bed slightly. Grabbing his phone, he saw the time and groaned as he realized he had to make dinner before it got too late.

Rolling out of bed, Alex walked over to his sister's room and knocked on the door.

"Yes Alex? I am making a few calls, what do you need?"

"I'm making dinner, what do you want to eat?"

After not hearing her reply for a lot longer than expected, Alex was about to speak up again till Melody finally responded so quietly he almost missed it.

"Can...you make my favorite? I haven't had it in a while and you make it the best."

"Huh? No problem sis, I got it!" Making a quick mental count of the ingredients they had, Alex realized they had all they needed to make the meal. Heading to the kitchen with chef mode activated, he was oblivious to his sister's reaction behind the door.

Relishing these simple conversations that she had taken for granted before, Melody reaffirmed her conviction to keep them both safe. She had not only her knowledge of the game during the time, but a clan could never be strong solely in-game but have connections outside.

Remembering a few contacts that she might be able to convince or gain favors would be difficult but not impossible. Wasting no more time, Melody dialed the first number on her list.

"How did you get this number, and who are you?"

"You don't know me now, but I have some information that may prove useful to you Mr. Shade."

". . . very well. Since you know so much already, I will entertain your so-called information. However; you better not be giving me false information or I will find you."

"Yes, a man of your caliber should be able to do so if you really wanted to. But you may be quite busy after I tell you of this. Watch out for the Shadow Corps, I am sure you already know that they have been watching you but a Jeffory Stein has something nasty in store coming for you, and just thought you should be aware."

"I see."

Hearing the ending call tone, Melody continued onto the other numbers on her list.

In a little over an hour, Alex walked up to his sister's room and knocked on the door. "Hey Mel, dinner's ready! I set up the table for us whenever you're ready."

"Alright, I'll be down in a sec!"

Sitting down at the table, there were two large bowls of fragrant soup. Filled with a broth mixed with seasoned ground beef chunks, Bok Choi, and macaroni noodles. It was a pretty simple dish but extremely tasty and fantastic with additions of sambal, dried shallots, and of course red vinegar.

As they ate, Alex noticed his sister's much more mechanical and solemn attitude show through and felt that she had been acting weird for a while now. At least weirder than a reincarnated sister from the future usually is.

Digging into his own bowl, Alex smiled at Melody. "What's up sis? You look pretty glum all of a sudden?"

Lost in her own thoughts for a moment, Melody looked blurrily at her brother. Wiping her slightly teary eyes, she ate a few big spoonfuls of the soup. "Just some bad memories after those phone calls and all. Nothing to worry about."

"Anything I can help you with?"

Shaking her head and not wanting Alex to be anywhere close to those people, Melody sighed. "I know you mean well big bro, but not really. I just hope you won't poke your nose in this, please. And believe me that I'm just doing what I need to so we can be safe and happy."

Feeling a hand rub her head softly, Melody could imagine Alex grinning widely. "Melody? I don't know what happened in your other life. I can never say I will ever truly understand what you're going through or had gone through and hope I never will. But I'm sure that myself in that life would tell you the same as I am going to now, that I love you with all my heart and soul and will do my best to be there for you through thick and thin no matter what."

Unable to resist crying anymore, Melody felt tears stream down her face despite trying her best to wipe them away. Swatting away Alex's hand, Melody couldnt help but smile and laugh at how she so easily broke down and wondering if her other clanmates would ever believe it. Feeling so unburdened for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Melody handed her empty bowl towards Alex.

"I'll let you off this time for messing up my hair, but don't let it happen again okay? Also, dinner was tasty. May I get another bowl, please? With extra shallots!"

Exaggeratingly wiping his brow, Alex quickly got them both another bowl of dinner and chatted happily with Melody about random topics until it was time to go to sleep.