The Beginning

I hear nothing but Birds Chirping, I feel the breeze of the wind and I smell fresh baked bread. I wonder on which island I ended up.

I open my eyes to the sight of Many people looking at me with fear in their eyes. The surrounding area is badly damaged as a lot of the houses were destroyed beyond repair.

What happened here? It has been only 6 weeks since they were trapped here. There also seem to be far less NPCs here, I guess most got killed for XP gain.

Every living being drops XP orbs. That is a given fact, no matter if it's a player a monster or an NPC, all give XP according to their Level.

I walk towards one of the NPC's, a man wearing farmer clothes with a black beard and black hair. His Eyes get more fearful the closer I get, and no one has moved or said anything since arrived, everyone was frozen in place.

I stop only a meter from the man in front of me.

"Which island is this?"

"Th-Th-This is we-west Bo-Bonterra."

"Thanks, good to know."

I better leave. The players here are seen as Heroes due to the Lore, but after all they are just players. I guess a lot of them have caused quite some trouble, that would at least explain their fear.

The NPC's are designed to portray different states depending on the player actions.

I know West Bonterra perfectly well. It is one of the smaller islands, and it's close to Brizura and Strey Prurug.

Perfect starting conditions, and because I have spent most of my time on this island, I know where I can find the best materials.

With the release update the Shadow army arrived, I wonder how their fighting style is. Most of the enemies previously were goblins, hogs, and wolves.

I walk along the path that takes me outside the Town.

Lore wise, the islands of Adustea were the only ones saved from the Shadow Lord's wrath and DAI created a safe heaven on every Town so that the Shadows cant enter them.

As I get to the front gate of the Town, I see a vast land of grass and a little Forrest up ahead, but also something strange that shouldn't be there.

Something would be the wrong word, but there is a girl with shoulder long blue hair fighting a lesser shadow soldier. Her gear appears to be used a lot. She does not have a green Crystal over her head indicating that she is a player, and I didn't turn that function off.

An NPC fighting. Nothing new in general, but NPC's only attack when threatened. NPC's cannot engage in combat on their own, someone must have told her to fight because there is no way a shadow soldier would get into town, and this is very far out on the field.

Her fighting ability is incredible. She strikes fast and hard, does not get hasty and waits for openings. Using two daggers she has a perfect stile of going in for attack and evading the second her opponent is ready to attack her.

But something is odd, I feel like I have seen her before. Thinking back, I spent a considerable amount of time on this island. Not many players went to the islands as their intention was only to teach the basics and had nothing great to offer. Reading books about magic that DAI made for me on a bench was what I did here most.

There was one NPC who would always sit next to me reading a book. Long lushes blue hair and emerald Green eyes. She had only one routine, tend to her garden, sell vegetables, read a book out on the bench and go back to her house to sleep. But hat does not add up, she looks a bit like her. She also seems to have green eyes, but I can barely make it out from that distance and her speed. She also has two scars on her face, one over her left eye and one big one going across her face. I never have seen a character model developed for this. There were some NPC designs with scars, but only in a small variety, and none were for females. Did she get them in Combat? But then again, why is an NPC fighting?

The moment I ended my train of thoughts, the girl defeated the shadow soldier and the XP orbs flew into her body and crystals fell on the ground. A light engulfs her and then fades.

She just leveled up.

Now that she is standing still, I can get a better look at her. Her armor seems to be really run down and her daggers look blunt as well.

She picks up the crystals, looks at me and then immediately turns around and walks towards the Forest.

I look after her for a little while and try to remember the NPC. Saphia was her name, I think, but I'm not certain. Too much is different about her. Maybe a sister?

I should not start overanalyzing again.

I pull out the sword from my waist and walk towards the Lesser Shadow soldiers standing around. Lesser Shadows are idle monsters that only attack when someone enters their detection range, which makes it easy to sneak past them.

I anger one by getting closer, and the Shadow immediately starts attacking me with the sword connected to his wrist. A normal standard attack which does not even take any effort to block and counter. I have gotten so used to overly fast attacks that my body moves on its own, making the fight easy and not really fun. I spent roughly 2 hours on the field hunting one respawning Shadow after the other and stopped out of boredom. Currently, I only need to get to Level 30 to activate my magic abilities.

Because of the advanced difficulty that is magic, it was restricted to players with more experience. But even the Advanced ones didn't really get it. Even those that called themselves magicians in this game only used the Systems help function for casting.

I need to focus on higher XP gain, but after Hunting the Shadow soldiers who were all level 5 I only managed to raise my level to 16 and the amount needed for the next level up has substantially increased. But still 16 levels in 2 hours is efficient enough.

My next goal is also the Forest where that girl has gone to. There should be higher leveled Soldiers or even Shadow beasts.

On the way there, I took down some more Lesser Shadows, but they aren't even a hindrance anymore. According to the lore, Lesser Shadows are like insects with no awareness and attack anything on sight. Shadows are like aggressive beasts that hunt and look for enemies, and Greater Shadows are Shadows with full consciousness and control over their bodies. The lesser, normal and Greater only determines the amount of control they have over the Shadow Lord's power, not their Level or Danger.

As I walk over the Plains, I take in the Fresh air and walk with something that I might be able to call Happiness, but I'm not sure what happiness feels like. I do however like this feeling inside my chest.

"KYAAAA!"

My moment of freedom was interrupted by a loud and sudden scream coming from in front of me.

I sprint towards it and see the same blue-haired girl fighting a shadow Bora, and she is badly injured. Boras are basically just Boars with 4 Tusks. Someone got lazy on the job.

"You need some help?"

"Not from you!"

"Ok."

I turn around and leave, i should not bother her.

"Wait where are you going."

"You said you didnt want my help, and i respect that."

"Ok sorry for lashing out at you. Could you Please help me?"

"Sure."

All the while she was dodging from his attacks, every time she managed to dodge only by a small margin.

This Bora is tough and way to fast for its own good.

The Bora sprints towards her ignoring me and the Girl dodges, I use the moment he has to stop, I jump up and stab the Bora. The blade gets repelled and the shockwave rushes into my arm.

The Bora shakes his entire body and throws me off. It is now in front of me, glaring at me. I ready my sword again and the moment he starts running at me, I dodge to the side and slice through his stomach.

As I turn around, I see the shadow disappearing from the bora and only a live less body remains. The beast was bleeding out, from both sides. I look at the girl.

"You are really fast."

"When he focused you, I used that time to prepare for a final attack. You also targeted its weak point, you're no amateur."

"I'm more surprised over the fact that you needed help. Why did you scream so loud? You seem perfectly fine."

"He got me with his tusks. I guess I got a broken rib or two."

"You should get that checked out."

"By whom? The only Doc on this island was killed by one of you Heroes."

"What do you mean, you Heroes. Never call me that again."

I detest the Title hero.

"so one of the Dumb Fucks killed the only Doctor on this island?"

"Uuh... yeah."

"Looks like we are going to have one hell of a time here."

Without the Doc here, there is no way to buy potions. I have to rely on auto-heal Completely.

"Gotta say, though, it's strange to think that a hero would save me."

I pull up my sword and point the tip at her throat.

"What did I just tell you? Don't call me a Hero."

She holds her hands up and sighs with a face that says calm down and not a single shred of fear.

"Then what should I call you?"

"The names Ifsam."

"Well, hello Ifsam, you can call me Saphia."

Huh?