章節 9: Off to Mining!

"Hey Mark, What other items do we need for the journey?" A brown short-haired started to poke at the boy next to her.

"What did I say about using my real name in-game Vivian." The boy next to her slapped her hand away.

The unique thing about the 2 was how closely they resembled one another. It was as though they were a pair of siblings. But their appearance was the only thing that connects them to the word sibling, and their personality couldn't be any more different. The younger of the 2, Vivian Wood is a feisty young woman with a cheerful and outgoing personality. She has a natural curiosity for the world around her and very straight forward with her words, in short, a tomboy. The older sibling of the 2 is Mark Wood, a calm and collected young man with a severe deposition. He shows his serious nature as a front, but inside he is a kind man who worries mostly for his little sister.

"This is a game, just call me by my in-game name, Valec." Valec immediately said right after rebutting his sister.

"Hey, you called me Vivian too, what gives you the right."

"Alright, Alright I'll call you by your in-game name Coco." A sigh escaped his mouth a he turned back to collecting items.

Laughing to herself seeing that she won their small dispute, hse proceded to fill up her bag with some more snow weeds. Suddenly from the corner of her eyes, she noticed a mountain walking towards her. Well, the hill was a bit stretching it looked more like a bear with a little child in tow.

"Hello new blood, can you help me with a task." The bear-man appeared in front of the 2 adventures in the Item Shop.

This was, of course, Fotas and little Abby. Staying 1 meter away from the duo Fotas began to speak again.

"Hello nice to meet you, my name is Fotas, and this is my little sister Abby. I headed from the blacksmith that you were headed off towards the mines and hoped that I could join you." Fotas spoke very slowly and gently. The slight smile never left his face.

It seemed as though Fotas became the BFG (big friendly giant), every action he took made it seemed as though he was well mannered and harmless. From behind him, the little girl popped out and spoke to the siblings in a shy and quiet tone.

"Hello, I am the daughter of the mayor of Winterhorn. I know this is sudden, but could you please help my brother. I'm anxious about him due to his clumsy and slow nature. I know he can take care of himself, but it still worries me. Can you 2 strong adventures please escort him."

Looking at the worried little girl in front of them, they felt a slight connection with her. Seeing that the little girl cared for her brother so much it reminded them of their relationship and understanding of taking care of each other. Not long after Abby finished her plea, a notification popped up on the sibling's interface.

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[New Quest]

After hearing the plea from the little girl Abby, you now feel the need to help her. Escort Fotas towards the mines.

[Success]: Fotas successfully reaches the mines.

[Failure]: Fotas dies on the journey there, Fotas doesn't reach there in 2 days.

[Rewards]: Favorability with Little Abby +100, Experience +100

[Penalty]: loses trust from Little Abby -100

[Time for completion]: 2 Days

[Accept]: <YES> <NO>

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Looking at the quest in front of them, Coco wanted to accept it immediately, but Valec held her back. Telling Fotas and Abby that he wanted to discuss it for a bit with his little sister he proceeded to pull her towards the side.

"What are you doing Valec we should help her."

"Don't you find this suspicious, the moment we decided to go to the mountains after doing all the small quest a random NPC joined us? An escort mission too? Look at everyone in this town their levels are higher than us. Even the little girls level is higher than ours! We can't see any information from the man. It only shows his name and nothing else, not even a level. Don't you find this weird?" Valec started to list off his suspicions, and with each point that he made the more suspicious he got.

Thinking to herself, she realized her brother was right. Everything seemed too much of a coincidence, but she still had her doubts about all the suspicions.

"I know that your assumptions are true, but look at them it's just a little sister worried about her older brother I think we should do it. Seeing him and how he acts around us and how he acts around her, he seems to be a gentle guy, I don't think he will cause us any harm. This is a new game, after all. Remember when we were talking to the other NPC's earlier? They had their own unique "life" to them; maybe this event is the same." Coco didn't drop her stance on helping out the siblings. She was firm in her belief to help out the poor young girl, or at least that's what she saw.

Fotas seeing the hesitation on the older brothers face guessed what the duo was talking about and intervened.

"Oh, before we head out on the journey I would like to know your [Forte] new blood. My Forte is [Suction Body], with it I'm usually the one that tanks the damage on the way towards the mines, but I don't deal damage at all due to my slowness haha. I would usually go towards the mine with the group of miners, but I got stuck behind talking with the Mayor and Healer." Fotas explained with a calm and steady voice. Nothing that he said so far gave him away.

Seeing that maybe he over thought about the situation, the older brother calmed down and cleared his thoughts. Seeing that his little sister is still adamant on helping the little girl, he sighed and gave in to her request.

"We will safely escort your brother toward the mines."

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[Quest Accepted]

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"Thank you so much! Brother, please be safe."

The excited Abby jumped up and down full of smiles. Quickly remembering her role, she stopped and turned towards Fotas and wished him to be safe. Chuckling at her antics, Fotas reached his hand out and rubbed her head.

"Silly girl I will be fine, don't worry about it so much. I'll give you candy when I come back from the mines."

Hearing about the promise of candy, the little girl jumped up and down in more excitement. The adventurer duo had a small smile on their face, watching the little girl and her big brother. After a while, they told Fotas to gather his supplies and meet them at the gate. They will embark towards the mine when everyone is collected at the entrance. Thanking them again, Fotas went inside the Item shop and proceeded to gather everything he needed.

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[Hunger levels rising please eat some food or you will receive a debuff]

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A notification popped on his interface. Realizing that talking with everyone in the town, dying twice, and doing some small quest for the blacksmith, Fotas hasn't eaten yet. Thinking back to his [Forte] where he gets hungry twice as fast, he decided to stack on more food. Seeing that the shop also sold some jerky and some chip like substance, he bought a few packs. Looking one more time at his inventory and making sure that he had everything he started to head towards the gate.

The brother and sister were talking at the gate. Seeing a small mountain move in the side of their vision, they turned to face it and wave. Fotas slowly approached them with a bag of chips in his hand. Munching every few steps by the time he reached the duo, there was a new bag of chips in his hand. Wondering how he could consume at such an inhuman pace the pair stood there stunned. Waking out of their stupor, they started to walk alongside Fotas towards the outside world.

Five minutes after leaving the town, Fotas got to learn more about the sibling duo. They were born at the same time, but Valec was taken a bit earlier, so he was the older brother. Both of the siblings were 19 years old.

The girl was very naughty and always causing trouble. She almost started to hit a level 1 Icicle Rabbit before Fotas stopped her. Witha cold sweat on his face, he explained to her that level 1 monsters could summon hordes of more monsters. The older brother realizing this, also drew some cold sweat and scold Coco. Sticking her tongue out, she apologized and started to draw circles on the ground.

Fotas found the boy, on the other hand, to be an earnest guy. Everything that came out of Fotas mouth was quickly remembered by Valec and questioned. Asking Valec if no one explained to him about the monsters and the history of Winterhorn Valec said no. He told that when he and his sister got here, they only talked to a guard to let them into Winterhorn, after that they just went around to do some small quest around the town. This was their first time stepping outside the town.

'Does this mean that I was the only one who got the main quest for this area right away? It was probably due to my [Fatso] Forte. It allowed me to have friendly relations with the Mayor and skip all the small details to get to that point. This is very convenient.' Fotas then remembered that he hasn't asked the duo about their Forte yet.

"Oh right, my Forte, you told me yours, but I haven't even told you mine. Where are my manners. My Forte is [Wooden Sanctuary] it allows for me to use the trees around me to heal or do other stuff with allies/ enemies. I can wrap a wooden vine around my aloes and give them health regeneration, or I can wrap my enemies in those vines to restrain their movements." Valec started to explain his Forte, halfway through his explanation, he got even more excited and started to talk faster as though no one was going to listen if he dragged it out too long.

'He seems serious all the time, but when he starts talking about the game, he gets more passionate than anyone else, interesting.'

"Oh, oh me, next!" Coco heated her brother talking and jumped over.

"My Forte is [Lumberjack] it lets me gain more strength when using an Axe. It also comes with a few skills that mostly deal with heavy damage! I also get bonuses being in a forest or having trees next to me."

'Interesting, a heavy damage dealer and a crowd control healer. Plus me which is a tank we would have a pretty well rounded 3-man team. Also, those 2 abilities compliment each other well, we will have to test that in the future.' While thinking of the possibilities of the [Fortes], Fotas realized a similarity.

"Wait now that I hear it from you both of your abilities deal with wood, why is that?"

"We don't know." Valec responded, "but we figured that it is due to what we did in the past."

"What you did in the past?"

"Yea, me and Coco grew up in the snowy mountains like you. Our father was a lumberjack, and every day we would go with him into the forest to explore and learn about nature, that's why we probably developed these [Fortes]." At this point, Valec and Coco still thought that Fotas is an NPC.

The siblings don't know if the NPC was birth with [Fortes] or if they developed throughout time. They didn't even know if NPC's could have [Fortes], they just assumed it because of Fotas. Fotas doesn't even know if NPC's could have [Fortes], but after inspecting the townspeople, he believes that everyone has a Forte that is built just for them.

While walking towards the directions of the mine that the map showed Fotas began to realize that the Rabbits groups are slowly getting smaller and smaller. Soon the group of 3 reached a group of 2 Icicle Rabbits hopping around in the snow. Seeing that they were both level 2 and nothing was near them Fotas wanted to test the 2 siblings out. He asked them if they wanted to take a go at fighting the Rabbits, and they agreed with a hint of excitement in their eyes.

Slowly backing away, Fotas sat behind a bush and continued eating the bag of jerky in his hands while the sibling started to prepare to fight the Rabbits.

After the siblings got in place, they gave each other a look to signal their start and rushed in.

'This is payback for the stampede earlier, hehe' still laughing to himself internally Fotas our another jerky into his mouth and watched the siblings charge at the Rabbits.