Still, he followed on her heels as they rushed through a thick underbrush, then stopping for a moment to get their bearings. Sang was grimacing as she looked over her map.
“Why are you frowning?” Van asked.
“Well, there’s something wrong with the map. Look,” she said as she shared her map view with Van. He could see about fifteen red dots swarming the forest.
“Are you kidding me?” Van groaned. “Those are companion NPCS. Guilds can hire companions, one per player, to guard an area. NPCs like these aren’t usually that powerful, but they’ll alert their owners of trouble and give an exact pinpoint of their location.”
Sang nodded in acceptance of what they were facing. Finally, Van could see the frustration of their situation starting to creep over her face. “Okay, I’m not going to admit any wrongdoing yet, but… but maybe this is a bit harder than I thought it was going to be.”
“I’m totally counting that as an admission of wrongdoing, Sang.”
“There’s got to be some kind of way to escape, Van. Just think. You’re the gamer here... you probably know some kind of special thing that will help us avoid all these guild people!” Sang insisted. It was clear that whatever adventuring high she had been riding was now over. The cold reality of risk was sinking in. This wasn’t particularly uncommon for an adventurer, Van knew.
Truthfully, he could count more than enough times where he had gotten caught up in the excitement of an adventure and completely lost touch with reality. One time, back when he’d been playing Sivlander, he’d gotten so excited about his chance to fight a boss that he’d rushed well ahead of his teammates, assuming that they were following him. This triggered all of the enemies to Aggro, and they swarmed Sivlander, killing him and then taking his team down with him. It was a common enough mistake, and while he didn’t want to get too angry at Sang, it was only that he’d expected her to act with a little bit more professionalism since she was a CIA agent and all.
“Alright, relax. You can use your Stealth and I…” Van trailed off with a glance at his inventory.
The Potion of Invisibility… when had he gotten that? Van read it with curiosity.
Potion of Invisibility: Allows a player to remain invisible for up to 10 minutes. Player cannot speak nor use any kind of chat or the effects end immediately. Allies cannot see you and nor can they register you on the mini-map. Any violent action will end the potion’s effects immediately.
He didn’t remember getting the item, so he figured it had to have been automatically given to him when Sang had looted Kraggoth and his buddy earlier.
“Alright, I’ve got a Potion of Invisibility, but it means we won’t be able to communicate at all while we’re using it,” Van said. “I’m going to drink and then leave. Have fun getting out of here.”
“What? You can’t do that!” Sang argued as Van quaffed the potion and vanished from sight. He didn’t feel particularly bad about leaving her alone, either. She was resourceful enough to survive, and her Stealth skill should be high enough for her to avoid being spotted by more than a few NPCS. The only danger was from any player who might have higher level Spotting skills. The enemy ranger hadn’t seemed to have enough points in it, though, or else she would have spotted Sang while she’d been creeping around to begin with, so that was a plus.
Van chuckled to himself as he scuttled away from the scene. He could see a few Dwarven NPCs patrolling the area, and he was cautious not to make any noise as he walked. While he was invisible, he could still trigger them by stepping on branches or twigs, so he made certain to watch his step. As he walked, he saw Kraggoth and Savorn running through the underbrush.
“We’ll find them!” Kraggoth shouted as he ran right past an invisible Van. Van grinned, knowing that ten minutes was more than enough time for him to escape. He didn’t need to get to any specific place, after all—he just needed to walk until his map told him that he was no longer in a wild zone.
Almost out! came a private message from Sang. Van grinned; he’d been right. She had been able to sufficiently navigate without much of a problem. He took pride in knowing that the reason she was so successful was partially because he had worked so very hard on her character design. It was good to see that she could go totally Rambo and still survive.
As Van reached a massive, hollow log, he noticed the red edge of his map. A few more steps and he’d be free from all of this chaos. He rushed forward, through the hollow log and out the other side. There was a small river on the other side, with a rickety old wooden bridge hanging over it. Van let out a sigh of relief and sat down by the water. His invisibility wore off quickly once he began resting, and he sent his coordinates to Sang. Hopefully, she’d be able to show up and help him figure out where to go next. In all of the chaos, he had completely lost his bearings, and his Map skill was too low for him to even get an overland view of the area. The only view that he had was of his mini-map, and it didn’t seem to tell him anything interesting other than the fact that he was safe from the wild zone.
“Seriously?” asked a voice from behind Van. It was Kraggoth. Van turned around and took a deep breath. Technically, Kraggoth could still kill Van, but he’d be labelled as an outlaw if he did, which was usually suicide for a character.
“Oh, uh, hi,” Van said as he took a step back. He could run across the bridge if the man tried to kill him, but maybe he could smooth the whole thing over somehow.
“You kill me and my teammate, you steal our valuable root, you lie to my team, you almost get me killed by that stupid Noose tree, and then you just run out and hide? You’re a terrible player!” Kraggoth said, shaking his head.
“Look, man, I’m really sorry that my teammate went rogue and killed you,” Van said, “but I didn’t want anything to do with it. I genuinely thought we were helping you out.”
“Well, it’s a funny way to help,” Kraggoth said. “I’d murder you here and now, but I’m not risking the outlaw brand. Don’t worry, though—I’ll be sure to send someone after you.”
Van sighed. He genuinely felt bad for the barbarian. It wasn’t really fair for him to have lost all of his items, but then again, that was the sensibility of a player. Van had to admit that Sang was right... they had an important mission, and that mission came first. Still, he wished that there was some way he could apologize to Kraggoth, and more importantly avoid having a bounty hunter hired to go after them.
“Hey, Kraggoth, what if I make you a deal?” Van asked. “What if I give you all of my gold right now and, in exchange, you don’t send anyone after us?”
“I’d rather have all of my items back,” Kraggoth growled.
“Yeah, but the problem is that my crazy teammate took all of the items, and I only got a Potion of Invisibility... that I just used. She’s nuts, and would be furious if she found out I was making this deal at all,” Van said.
“Why help me at all?” Kraggoth asked.
“Man, because I’ve played this game for a long time and this is just one of my alts. My teammate’s new and doesn’t understand that actions have consequences. I feel bad about it.” Van said, shrugging as he pulled out a bag containing all five hundred pieces of his gold. “I know it doesn’t really help, but it’s at least a peace offering. I’m sorry for all of this mess.”
Kraggoth sighed and took the bag of gold. “You’re gonna be lucky if I decide not to send a hunter after you,” he said as he turned around and began to walk off. “But this gold might have just made you a bit luckier.”
Van shrugged at that. Bounty hunters were pretty expensive, so unless the guild itself was going to chip in and invest in killing both Van and Sang, they’d probably be in the clear if Kraggoth was appeased. He hoped that his little effort to help would calm the man down enough, but he wouldn’t really know for sure until some elite player started hunting them for sport in a few days, or if enough time went by that he felt sure that the situation had passed by.