Welcome to Gaia! ::

The next few weeks fell into a steady rhythm, though a slow one at that. Adventurers were getting bored without access to television, internet or music. Most of the books in the world were fairly boring texts, usually instruction manuals or history texts. There were very few works of fiction and those were usually few and far between.

Midknight Sun, Pixilated Madness and Ergo Proxy held their loose alliance, making Nambri a fairly safe place, though not without its troubles. A few smaller guilds started PKing anyone they could, and in response to that, several senior members of the alliance decided to create several patrols to deal with anyone outside the city indulging in what they saw as a despicable act, preying on the weaker players.

As such, while the situation in Kulin deteriorated, players migrated from there to Nambri, making the long and dangerous journey in large groups, supporting each other. Yuni on one end organising supplies and parties to head out, Camelli and Midknight Sun on the other sending parties to meet them where possible. With food being as dismal as it was, living costs had plummeted, making the long journey fairly cheap.

Kulin had started to fall apart straight away. With only Yuni to represent Midknight Sun and no other senior members to support her, the other major guilds bullied the smaller guilds and Midknight Sun where possible. While Yuni and the other guild members couldn’t easily support their allied guilds, they were still strong enough to defend themselves, so had little problem themselves with being attacked. They generally provided an escort out of the city and as far as they could for anyone who wanted to escape, but were reluctant to leave themselves, even with the call of family and the major body of the guild in Nambri.

Botany on the other hand was turning into something similar to Nambri. With Maverick in command of the second largest group of Midknight Sun, totalling fewer than two hundred players, he had forged an alliance with the only other major raid guild in Botany, Sunburnt Country. Relations in the player city were fairly good and while trade between Botany and Nambri was currently non-existent, groups of people did migrate between the cities on occasions.

The exploration around Botany went smoothly, with Maverick overseeing every part of the guild operations in Botany. With a fairly stable environment, the exploration went fairly smoothly and information was relayed between Nambri and Botany on a daily basis.

Gingerbeard and Liz in the tiny player city up north had formed alliances with the other guilds there, all small and most of them low level guilds that enjoyed the isolated city. The only major raid guild there was Midknight Sun, so the offers of protection and support were well met and some of the few solo players had joined up for access to greater resources and company.

The pair, isolated as they were, rapidly organised the city into a functional as possible place. The smaller guilds were asked to help in the research of the areas around the city, while the higher level players were sent to dungeons to either confirm what they already knew or to confirm that it had changed. With the large player city of Mian-jin in the way and only a small guild presence there, Gingerbeard and Liz had become a little isolated from the rest of the guild.

The other major player cities in the Oceania server that had Midknight Sun guild presence were mixed with how they developed. Kulin deteriorated drastically, Mian-jin deteriorated, but due to lack of interest in doing anything. The player city there wasn’t as large as Botany, Kulin or Boorloo, but it was bigger than Tom’s area. Midknight Sun had next to no presence in Boorloo, Larrakia and Risdon, the cities furthest west, north and south, though had plenty of allied guilds who pledged support and were happy for the returned support from Midknight Sun.

The parent guild of Midknight Sun was well known all over the continent and server as being a fun, friendly guild who supported everyone they could and had very few real competitors. Established early in the game’s history, the guild had been made by Kyran initially for his friends and him to play the game. As the game and the active player pool grew, so did the guild, rapidly becoming one of the top guilds worldwide. While no longer in that position due to a lot of other guilds around the world, Midknight Sun was still well known and loved around the Oceania server. Many small guilds had come from the larger guild, people wishing to focus on certain aspects of the game, but they generally kept frequent contact with their parent guild. More often than not, if a guild was either falling apart or most of the members went inactive, the smaller guild would return to the larger, giving their members the sense of protection or community they may be lacking.

The major guilds that competed with Midknight Sun, besides Ergo Proxy and Pixilated Madness, were surprisingly few. Sunburnt Country in Botany was a guild formed from Midknight Sun, and while their guild leader had retired from the game, there were still a few senior guild members who had come from Midknight Sun. Slaughterhouse Rock, Dawn and Killers Inc. were the three major guilds in Kulin and were the cause of most of the deterioration, as they held little respect for other players outside their guilds. The major guilds in other cities were either splinter guilds from Midknight Sun, or were guilds who, like the ones in Kulin, held little respect for Midknight Sun, regardless of its history.

Because of the presence it had in each major player city, Midknight Sun was a go to guild for anything you needed, whether it be players willing to mentor, participation in major raids or items crafted. The senior members held no restrictions on what their guild members were or were not allowed to do, other than to be respectful of all other players. Very rarely was a guild member called up on anything. The senior guild members were known for being helpful and able to point people in the right direction if they were unable to provide the exact assistance needed. And while the guild had a loose leadership, because most of the senior members were friends outside the game, if one was unable to do what was needed, another would willingly step in.

After the third week had passed with barely a change in tempo, the biggest change of all swept through the server. The rumour that food could have taste and that new items could be made.

“Man, I wish we’d discovered the secret a few weeks ago,” Vint said as the group walked between a few vendors that had sprung up overnight. Burgers, sandwiches and all sorts of basic food and drinks, things that everyone had taken for granted previously were being sold for insane amounts of gold as those who were quick enough to learn the secret applied it to making some money. Already there was competition as two burger vendors facing each other lowered their prices a full ten gold to try and get others to buy theirs.

“Mmm,” Cai-ann said, agreeing around a chicken skewer. “I’m just glad that there’s flavour again. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could take no flavour for.” She dropped a few coins into the hand of a fellow Midknight Sun member, someone who was selling cups of hot tea. The guild member smiled and handed her a large cup, bigger than the ones she was serving other people with. “Thanks,” Cai-ann said, sipping at the tea gingerly. “You’re going to have to get over your distaste of taste,” she said, waving the cup at Vint.

“As long as I can eat basic things like before, I’ll be fine,” he replied as he in turn chewed on a fresh loaf of bread. “This tastes so much better than the bread that is made by the menu.” Tearing a chunk off, he offered it to Cai-ann, who nibbled on it and nodded in agreement.

“Hey guys,” Tank said as he approached the pair. “One of the stalls run by a little guild mentioned that they would run out of supplies quickly. I said we’d supply them. Was that ok?”

Cai and Vint nodded immediately. “Yeah, that’s fine,” Cai said.

“Sell to them below market buy price, but above sell price,” Vint said. “If buy price is ten and sell price is five, sell to them at eight, seven or six if they’re buying bulk or an allied guild.”

Tank nodded and ran off in the gathering crowd. “That’ll give people more to do,” Cai said. “That’s great. That will help with depression levels immensely.”

Vint nodded. “With food being the reward, I would happily go forage for ingredients each day.” Waving the bread at Cai he continued. “Even if the food is just bread or sandwiches.”

She laughed and shook her head at him as they continued to walk through the stalls, looking over the new food.

~

Kyran looked over the furniture that Plumpiest had already made. Most of it was just basic shelves, cupboards, drawers, but the fact that he had made it himself, without the menu was still amazing.

“I didn’t realise that making something like this was important,” he said.

“It’s all good Plump, we didn’t know either.” Kyran touched the worked surface. “I wonder if you can do carvings in the wood.”

Shrugging, Plump took up his tools and started carving a simple pattern into the top of a table. As the pattern took form, Kyran nodded. “There’s nothing in the menu that has a carved pattern like that, is there?” he asked, receiving a shake of Plump’s head. “Mmm. That means we can create new things.” Patting the elf’s shoulder, he smiled. “You may have more work soon, but I would suggest that if you want to make some money, you can sell these for a profit as a one of a kind item.”

The elf chuckled and nodded, turning his attention back to the pattern he was carving into the table top as Kyran left.

~

“I want to experiment with some of the rarer ingredients,” Match was saying as Cai and Vint entered the guild common room. “I want to see what the difference between various things does to the end result. Like, does a golden apple change the flavour of a pie compared to a normal red apple.”

“I’ll help gather things if you let me eat them,” Cai said, immediately volunteering. “I’ll take you to any dungeon you want so I can get what you need.”

“Hell, I’ll join you for that,” Kyran said. The Bard hadn’t been all that interested in doing combat himself, as the thought of it still frightened him a month on. He’d been part of a few raid groups and knew what he should be doing in combat, but he had preferred to stay back in Nambri, gathering information and spreading it around. “I think you’ll get a lot of people wanting to get you to make a lot of food now that we know how to make it with flavour.”

“Chef may have just become the most popular subclass,” someone commented, making Match grin.

“Well, I look forward to having something to do.”

~

And that seemed to be the general sentiment as the information spread around the cities. People became more active, looking forward to selling their items or giving them to friends to have a flavourful meal at the end of the day. Raid parties on the second day after learning the secret left as early as before the dawn, people leaving in all size and level groups.

One such group was twelve of the highest level guild members from Midknight Sun. They intended to raid two different dungeons, then swap, raiding the one that the other group had raided.

Leading the way was Match, who wanted to get the ingredients from the dungeons as quickly as possible. All the people in the group pulled out a whistle and blew on it, summoning a flock of Storm Eagles, a rare mount that the highest level members of Midknight Sun had access to. The whistle was granted on defeating a level 85 raid, ‘Windtorn Terrace’, which the senior members of the guild enjoyed and regularly challenged.

As the eagles landed, one after the other, the two raid groups formed up, mounted their eagles and flew off in different directions.

Cai, Vint, Match, Tank, Aaron and Darren in one group, Kyran, Camelli, Pete, Missy and two other guild members in the other.

Some of the dungeons had items that were only able to be foraged in them, and Match wanted to see the difference between those items and normal versions. One raid, ‘The Golden Apple’ was to the north, along the mountains and was an open air dungeon that had turbulent winds above it to ground anyone flying too close. It was a similar dungeon to other Golden Apple dungeons in different servers, and was popular enough to make into a dungeon on the Oceania server. Match was just happy that the dungeon was within flying distance.

The other dungeon they wanted to scour was ‘Not Mushroom Left’. The dungeon was south of Nambri, a few hours flight distance, well within the time limits of the eagles. It was a traditional below ground dungeon, but unlike most dungeons, it didn’t have many walls. Basically, the caverns of the dungeon were almost always filled with mushrooms of all kinds. Lots of the mushrooms dropped spores, stems and various small items, but some of them occasionally dropped ingredients. Inside the dungeon was also mushroom related creatures and a small grove of coloured mushrooms, which were used in high level chef recipes.

Both dungeons were over level 80 and both raid parties had challenged them both on other occasions. Now, they were after not just the item drops, but they were after the ingredients too. And, just to top it off, the friends all became incredibly competitive, challenging each other to try and finish first.

The Golden Apple was not a raid on the golden apple tree, but a quest to protect the tree from encroaching undead. Something in the area had corrupted the dead, making them rise up and hate on anything radiating life, which considering that the golden apple tree was the single most radiant life energy in the area, made sense for them to attack it.

The raid proceeded in a fairly typical fashion, the raid party proceeding in a spiral heading towards the centre where the tree and the final boss were. Along the way they had to use healing spells of potions to restore damaged roots and had to encourage the growth of the tree to counteract the spread of the disease brought by the undead.

Vint pushed the vines on the entrance aside and stepped through, holding the vines back for everyone after him.

“Such a gentleman,” Cai said as she passed her tank. “Always opening doors for me.”

“I wouldn’t be a knight in shiny armour if I didn’t,” he said, dropping the curtain behind the last person through before drawing his sword and shield.

“Can we get into this raid?” Match said, excited energy practically rippling off her. The thought of finding out if golden apples made the best pies was way too enticing for her.

Taking the lead, Vint and Tank strode forward, almost identical in stance and posture. Both had focussed on being the best tanks possible, Tank chasing after Vint, who had mentored him. While Vint had years of experience and the best gear he could get, Vint made up for what he was missing with sheer enthusiasm and wanting to be the best.

Match was also one of the best sorcerers in the guild, while Aaron was the best enchanter. Darren had made himself a Medium, finding that he liked that style of play and, as they travelled into the raid, was casting the barriers over the group that were likely to be needed. With only a Medium as their healer, everyone had stacked up on healing potions, just in case. That being said, all of them had done this dungeon multiple times and knew where and when each encounter would be, making them able to race through it as fast as any group could.

The pair of guardians charged the first enemies along the path, Tank less than half a step behind Vint. The pair collided with the monsters, hitting them with shield and sword, drawing the entire groups attention before Match and Cai unleashed damage onto them. Aaron and Darren stood at the back of the group, casting the occasional spells to assist in the combat, but were casually chatting between themselves.

“I wonder what the pie is going to taste like,” Darren muttered to Aaron after casting a barrier spell on Cai.

“Hopefully better than what we had at home,” Aaron said, unleashing a sleep spell on the biggest enemy in the group.

“Do you think custard or ice-cream can be made?”

“Probably. Milk and gelatine for custard, Milk, sugar and cream for ice-cream. There’s the cold storage for temperature sensitive items that could work for a freezer, or just use an ice spell of some sort.” Aaron tapped his chin before casting another spell into the battle. “I suppose it wouldn’t be hard to do anything once people remember the recipes, or find something similar.” He watched the unfolding battle as Cai and Match finished off the enemies. “I guess people will experiment now that we know food can have flavour.”

“Anchor Howl!” Vint roared as the next wave of undead minions rushed them. On a signal from Vint, Tank grinned and yelled “Anchor Howl” on the other side of the undead. The group paused for a second before continuing their charge at Vint, causing the second ‘Anchor Howl’ from Tank to explode, causing them all massive damage.

“Oh, nice!” Match said as she threw a fireball into the remaining undead. The moment the air cleared, Cai spun around Vint, slicing the last of the undead apart.

“Where did you learn that trick?” Cai said, poking Vint with the blunt end of her war fan.

“Eh, Tank thought of it and I wanted to try it. It was amusing and worked as well as I expected. I think it would work better if we could trigger both of them, maybe if Tank triggered agro after my howl went off. It would take some coordination, but that seems like something that could work.”

Cai raised an eyebrow at Tank, who blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before, when this was still a game,” he muttered.

“Well, good work,” Match said, going over to Tank, stretching up and planting a kiss on his already red cheek. The young man looked like he would explode from embarrassment as he turned and started leading the group. Vint almost had to jog to catch up.

They made their way to the first boss staging area, where a virtual horde of undead was. According to the story for the quest, this was the first of the bosses, one who gathered the undead and sent them forth towards the tree. The group could, if they chose, ignore the undead surrounding their master, however, they would be surrounded and assaulted by many undead hands while still having to fight the boss. As it was, they would likely have to fight the boss at the same time as the undead horde.

“Right, Tank, you protect the others, I’ll tank the boss. Darren, strongest barriers please. Everyone else, rely on Tank.” Vint looked over the group.

The group nodded as Darren cast a few really strong barriers over Vint as the others readied themselves.

With a burst of speed, Vint barrelled his way into the horde and used his strongest taunt on the boss, while Tank did his weakest but largest area effect taunt.

The effect was what they wanted, with Vint taking the entire attention of the boss while Tank gained the attention of a lot of the horde. Spells and fans became a blur as Cai and Match unleashed their attacks with Aaron and Darren standing just behind Tank, supporting the other three. As Tank moved forward to taunt more of the trash, the others followed. Match targeting large numbers or the strongest nearby, while Cai moved into Tank’s flanks to pick off any that got too close.

As the group cleared the trash from the area, they caught up to Vint, who was grinning as he dodged a blow from the warrior undead and returned it with a vicious strike. Moving up next to him, Tank let Vint keep agro, but added his defences and strength to the battle.

As the fight wore on, the shields around the pair shattered, only to be replaced again by Darren. Vines rippled into existence over the boss as Aaron finished a spell, to which Vint and Tank took full advantage of, breaking the vines and killing the boss with the burst of damage.

“Well, that’s a good start,” Cai said, scooping up a trinket, inspecting it and tossing it to Match. “Can you use that?”

After looking at it, she shook her head. “Nope. Sell it, give the gold to the guild,” she said, throwing the trinket back. Cai pocketed it as they prepared themselves to go further towards the tree.