Cliff.

Edwyn immediatly understood something was wrong, weither it was the way Aelya reacted or the fear in Wallace's eyes. He decided to gather his courage because he felt that he needed to know what was happening.

"Milady Aelya, who is "Blue Moon guild"?

Stephen cast a scornful glance at him.

"No wonder you dare to be so brazen, you don't even know who are the real masters of this game! Every real gamer knows of them, they are the best of the best!"

Wallace came closer and explained to him.

"Blue Moon guild is among the best guilds in every game of those last years. They are very powerful and have a lot of followers. Some people even said there is 20 000 members just in their main guild."

"Exactly!" Stephen added. "So when you attacked us, it was as if you attacked Blue Moon guild themselves! Do you understand how grave is your mistake now? You offended one of the best guild in this game!"

"Milady Aelya, did you know that?" Edwyn asked, feeling that something wasn't right in this story.

"Not like I really care, pretty boy."

Stephen looked at her as if she was crazy.

"You don't care? Do you know who they are?"

"Yes, you already said it a few times. Does working with them made you dumb?"

Edwyn carefully observed her, her hand relaxed a bit, as if she took back her emotions into control.

Then was it possible she had a grudge not with the crafter association, but with Blue Moon guild?

Aelya was very strong, maybe she was part of them before, like Wallace with Smith & Weapon, and she left or she was fired? This could explain her attitude.

"So, now that you have bragging about your masters, what are gonna do?" Aelya asked. "Killing us with your friends here? This won't give you back the time you lost you know?"

Stephen smiled, but it was a vicious smile, one that Edwyn didn't like at all.

"No, I won't be that petty. I'm gonna call the guildmaster of Blue Moon guild and tell them the name of those who messed up with us. This way, you won't be able to play peacefully anymore. Countless players will come and hunt you down for your deeds. You will feel the wrath of peoples you should have never messed up with!"

Wallace began to shiver, this time they were completely doomed. Maybe if he gave a proper apology, Stephen could let them go? His new friends didn't diserve such a treatment, they were just beginners who wanted to enjoy their game. It was his fault to have warned them or stop them before so he had to do something.

However, just before he could say anything, Aelya made her move.

"Oh, you want to call Cliff? Fine, tell him that Aelya gives him her greetings then."

Stephen chocked and his eyes opened wide.

"You... you know him?" He stuttered.

"Of course."

"You're lying! You are trying to manipulate me to get off of this!"

"You don't want to call him? Then i'll do it myself." Aelya said with confidence.

And in front of everyone she used the system setting to make a vocal communication.

"Aelya? What a surprise! How are you? Can I do something for you?"

Stephen opened his mouth, but no word came out. His eyes were fixed on the young woman as if he was trying his best to understand what was going on.

Edwyn and Wallace weren't any good, especially Edwyn. He thought Aelya may have a grudge against them but it looked like she was friend with their guildmaster. Then if she knew Stephen and his crew worked for that Cliff, why did she still hinder their business?

Something was definitively fishy.

"I'm good. However a friend of you named Stephen pretend to work for you and is now threatening me. He said he would ask you to kill me."

Stephen finally came back to his senses.

"I never said that! Boss it's not what happening!"

They all heard a laugh coming from the vocal device, however it was a cold laugh, from someone who wasn't joking at all.

"Stephen, is what she said right? Did you tell her that?"

Aelya didn't add anything, patiently waiting on the side with an enigmatic smile.

Stephen, however, was on the verge of tears.

"Boss, it's more complicated. We were mining when she came with her friends. She used the monsters over there to kill our people and then stole our deposits. We are the victims! That's why, when she came out of the crevasse, I told her that we were working for you and that she would need to pay for her actions!"

There was a silence, then a sigh.

"Aelya, why did you do that?"

"I needed ores, they were occupying all the deposits so I took a few for me. That's all. They decided to leave and ambush us above so it's my fault if they stopped working. They can only blame themselves for being weak and use dirty tricks."

New silence.

"I see." Cliff finally said. Stephen, let them go and go back to your work, we are not paying you to ambush players but to craft items for us. Aelya, I hope you won't make things difficult for us anymore."

"This shouldn't happen again Cliff."

"I believe you. If there is no more problems, I take my leave."

The call ended, but no one say anything. Stephen looked like he just saw a ghost. He made a gesture and all his men leaved, taking the stairs to going back in the crevasse.

Wallace carefully observed Aelya.

"You are not simple." He said after a while.

She laughed and winked at him. Edwyn, on his side, was still thinking, unable to find what bothered him.

"Everything is fine pretty boy?" She asked with visible concern.

"Yes, sorry i was lost in my thoughts. Were are we going next?"

"We have the core and the ores for the axe, now we just need to find the fur and the wood."

"If you need some woods, there is the Dark-Pine forest close to the town, you should find what you need there." Wallace suggested.

"Will we need a lumberjack?" Edwyn asked.

He didn't really want to rely on another crafter, he liked Wallace and trusted him but that was all. He was used to not trust anyone and he already made two exceptions for Aelya and the blacksmith.

"Maybe later. But not for this forest : you'll find tree-spirits walking in the forest. As for the goblins, they'll give you the pieces of wood you need." The blacksmith explained.

"Perfect, then it's settled, let's head to the forest."

"This is where I leave you then. I'll go to the town, melt the ores to get the ingots."

Edwyn and Aelya nodded, but the young woman reminded him.

"Keep the rare ones aside. We may need them later to craft an alloy."

"Good idea, milady is smart!"

After seeing how she was friends with some powerfuls guys, Wallace began to call her as Edwyn, making the last smile. It looked like se left a deep impression in his mind.

As they were heading towards the Dark-Pine forest, Edwyn decided to ask a few more questions.

"Milady Aelya, you were talking about amking an alloy earlier, what does that mean?"

"Usually in the games, blacksmith melt ores to make ingots, and the more you advance in the game, the more the ores needed are powerful. It often happens that you need to combine a few different ores in order to make a more powerful ingot, that what we call an alloy. As we don't need rare items in order to craft the first Split-skull axe, we should keep the rare ores in stock in order to craft rare alloy later."

"You seem so knowledgeable milady, that's awesome!"

She laughed at his compliment.

"It's a must-have if you want to climb to the top pretty boy! The more you are invested in a game, the more you remember about it, that's how you can see the difference between players."

Edwyn nodded, that made sense after all. People who hard tried usually do their best to totally comprehend every aspect of the game, while those who were there to only enjoy their time without thinking at their real life would just want to indulge themselves in the virtual reality, and nothing else.

They finally arrived in front of the forest, and it really lived up to its name : in front of them was a wall of dark pines which seems impossible to break through. The branches formed a dense celing and projected a menacing shadow onto them.

"Not the most welcoming place I've ever see." Aelya commentated while advancing forwards without an hesitation. Edwyn followed closely behind, a little bit scared but somehow curious to know what they would discover inside.

Wallace talked about treants but the young boy had never seen one of them and he was quite eager.