The Spirit of Adventure Guides Us All

Eidiri swept up the soot and ash that had accumulated within the workshop, dutifully cleaning his workspace.

After the matter of tidying up the smithy was settled, Eidiri strolled on out, but not before he made sure to store away the weapons he had made.

Deciding to get some more leveling and exploration done, Eidiri gathered supplies for a brief excursion outside the village.

While he had done a basic dungeon, as well as an exploration of some of the game's features, what had truly disappointed Eidiri was the lack of a cohesive overall storyline.

This was mainly in part due to Eidiri not having encountered actual storyline plots, at least that's what Eidiri hoped.

It would indeed be a grand shame if there was no real substance to this game besides, 'Kill each other and grow. Maybe work together sometimes. But only sometimes.'

With that line of thought, Eidiri really wanted to get to know what plots were occurring in this world.

'Maybe it would be the stereotypical good vs. bad of angels or demons. Hopefully, it's not that,' Eidiri hoped, 'That horse is already dead.'

Eidiri walked out of the village, walking in a random direction, deciding to go to whatever fate had in store for him.

The direction that he had picked wasn't developed in the slightest, no roads or trails were there to guide the way for Eidiri.

All that was there was lightly packed woods, with there being enough space for Eidiri to weave through the trees.

Sunlight peeked through the blanket of leaves from overhead, dancing around the forest floor and casting mesmerizing little light shows; the sunlight flickering in and out whenever the light breeze came in, stirring up the leaves.

Eidiri simply took a rather relaxing stroll through the woods, relaxing and unwinding from the rapid business and university work he had gone through.

Of course, as he walked he was still alert to his surroundings, entertaining the various thoughts running around in his head while staying cognizant of his surroundings.

'Maybe I should give up on this university thing by now?" Eidiri asked himself.

'I'm making pretty good money, and if I drop out now, I'll be able to invest that time into developing myself even further.'

'But I've spent so much time on trying to earn this degree. If I drop out now. Wouldn't that mean I've wasted the entire past year pretty much.'

'But on the other hand, it's not like I was actually interested in economics in the 1st place. It was really only to make sure that I would be able to make money, wasn't it? But if I go down this current path, then wouldn't that matter be settled?" Eidiri internally debated.

Eidiri shook his head, trying to organize the thoughts going rampant.

'I really don't see the benefits of uni right now. Perhaps it really is the time to close that chapter.'

'I'll settle that later,' Eidiri finally decided. 'Should probably discuss with mom and dad first.'

As Eidiri kept walking, his footsteps had eventually led him to a potentially dangerous opponent in front of him, other players.

These players were currently preoccupied with slaying a couple of undead animals, probably one of the simpler mobs.

They took shifts, rotating with their wooden spears in sort of a shield wall formation.

The players formed a steady line, jabbing forwards with their spears when the undead came to close.

When a player ran out of stamina, another player watching from the back would tag in, taking their place and sub in to keep slaying the monsters.

Right now, some undead wild dogs were running around the group, trying to find an opportunity to leap in and latch onto any one of their throats.

Their mouths and heads make moves to bark, but the lack of vocal cords prevented them from making sounds, only resulting in an eerie whistle sound being produced from them.

Deciding to leave them be, Eidiri adopted the non-confrontational attitude, leaving the players be, not wishing to get involved in any form of conflicts right now, especially with how the players were grouped together.

With that done, Eidiri took note of the undead being present in this location before proceeding forward.

As he continued forward the trees started to thin out, and as he kept walking, the trees grew sparser and sparser.

This pattern continued onwards to the point in which the sight of the lush woods was replaced with cold, dead grass.

The soil also felt gritty and quite uncomfortable to walk on, the previous sounds of forest life having long gone quiet.

'Now this is the moment where the vampire drops in and slits my throat isn't it' Eidiri sarcastically thought, making light of the eerie situation.

'Welp, guess I'm a portion of the story I asked for. Nice,' Eidiri hyped himself up, continuing to make light of this supernatural occurrence.

"Why is all this grass dead though?" Eidiri asked aloud.

The silence was all that answered him; 'Guess I'm not lucky enough for some sort of plot device to appear out of nowhere. Oh well.'

As he kept on walking the dead grass now only appeared in patches, dotting the terrain in little clusters.

'Well shit, guess everything dies here then. If this isn't a sign to say to get the heck out of here I don't know what is.'

'But the spirit of adventure calls to me, yearning for my touch!' Eidiri internally cried out, giggling a little at his own joke.

Time passed quickly, and Eidiri simply kept walking through the undead wasteland, the sun having long been obscured within the heavy cloud coverage overhead.

Eidiri's footsteps grew heavier as time passed, having to take rests at constant intervals to ensure he had the stamina to keep on going.

And soon enough, the first signs of civilization slowly crept into Eidiri's vision from over the horizon.

'Maybe this place will have some answers to whatever's going on,' Eidiri contemplated.

Eidiri drew his weapon as he continued to approach the lone building that stuck out on the barren plains.

Upon approaching closer and further inspection, this lone building wasn't actually alone, but instead, it was 2 units.

A rather ordinary farmhouse with a shed that accompanied it.

A sight that was rather concerning for Eidiri though was the dried-up fields, the husks of crops being the only signs that hinted at prior life at this dilapidated farmhouse.