NOVEL NEXT 48. A Short Trip Through The Mountains
Astaria decided to cut the poor Asian man’s suffering short, amused that he had become so flustered over such a minor thing.
“Don’t worry Master Sing-Ming, I was just teasing you. I am familiar with the saying but decided to joke around based on how a Westerner might take your words literally.”
“Yo, I was totally like ‘what’s this B chatting’, but I see. Guess man thought the same from my comment?”
Master Sing-Ming looked over to BigZ and nodded, his face showing relief after knowing he had not offended the beautiful woman who had become their benefactor since she was responsible for solving their earlier predicament.
“Indeed brother BigZ, this young master was quite confused by your words, the translator did not clearly express what you said.”
Sombrerbro nodded in agreement as he looked to the others in their small party, hoping that they may have an answer.
“Right muchacho, I do not know how it works but being able to speak to you all normally is mind-blowing.”
Astaria spoke up to explain what she knew, her future knowledge being quite helpful in answering this quite niche question.
“Well, it effectively works on the intent of the word. So, imagine for a second the sentence ‘Skidashski is cool’. The translator effectively takes the intent of each word and translates it into the listener's native language. For words that don’t exactly have an exact translation in another language, it may not translate them irrespective of intent.”
Sombrerbro nodded his head in understanding, his face serene with the new enlightenment bestowed upon his mind.
“I see, it truly is amazing. This game uses some incredible technology.”
Astaria gave the three a knowing look as her gaze turned serious, her tone reflecting her expression.
“You guys should treat this game like a second earth, just a bit of advice. This is all too real for it to be a game.”
BigZ was the first to look at Astaria incredulously, his eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, I get what you man mean about this shit being too real, but like, suggesting this is like some second world?”
Astaria gave a nod and dismissively waved her hand as she looked back into the distance. The slopes to each side of the road had begun to become steeper as they made good progress through the beginning of the mountain pass.
“Just something to consider while playing. From what I have seen so far, there is just too much detail for a game that came out of nowhere like this. Anyway, now we are getting deeper into the mountains, monsters will occasionally appear. I suggest that…”
****
As Astaria and her party continued to make their way through the mountain pass, they continued their discussions to pass the time.
The 3 temporary members had enquired how both Astaria and Ash had managed to level up so quickly, and after telling them the story of her first two days, they bombarded her with questions.
Ash had, like his awkward personality dictated, silently ridden alongside Astaria, listening to the conversation as Astaria gave the three some tips on how to use their classes and the best areas to farm at when they arrived in the Calesian empire.
They had seemed sceptical about how she knew so much, but she simply explained that it was fairly easy to get information on the places to find monsters from the adventurers guild and class tips from her companions. She was not too worried about spreading general information to other players since it would become common knowledge as soon as people reached those areas, and if the general player base became stronger, it would save lives in three months time when everything began to influence Earth.
On their trek through the mountains, they had encountered a couple of groups of wolves all below lv 10. Since Astaria and Ash would instantly kill them using any of their skills, they let the 3 low-level players in their group deal damage while they remained in defence and restricted the enemy’s movement.
If one of their party members found themselves in danger Astaria was ready to cast a ranged skill to instantly kill the enemy, however, the three other players had a decent level of skill for players who had just started. Thankfully there were no problems and despite the differences in level, Big Z and Master Sing-Ming took up positions on the front line while Sombrerbro would dash out from behind and make use of any openings the other two managed to create.
It worked quite well and the three had managed to gain a couple of levels despite the XP reduction from having higher level players in their party. Astaria mused that the easy levelling was one of the joys of being low-level with small XP requirements to level up.
From Astaria’s memory of the terrain, she could tell they had managed to reach just over halfway across the mountains by the time the sun had sunk beyond the peaks of the looming mountains that were casting ever lengthening shadows. With the light now too dim for them to safely continue their trip, they looked around and found a relatively flat area just off from the main road with an incline of just over 5 degrees, so they decided to set camp there for the night since it was the flattest area they could find in their immediate mountainous terrain.
Ash, Sombrerbro and Astaria set up their tents and prepared for the night in the mountains while Master Sing-Ming and BigZ went to gather whatever burnable wood they could find in the surrounding fairly barren landscape. Making use of Astaria’s fireball skill they easily lit the small fire.
Astaria and Ash had shared some of their food with the others since only Sombrerbro of the three had actually prepared for a long trip. Astaria who had the most experience with camping outdoors out of the group due to her prior years in Caelus Online had been in charge of cooking and had made a simple soup. Using some of the meat she had bought earlier, carrots, potatoes, and some standard spices, she created a decent enough soup. She was far from a master chef, but she could easily make decent enough food in the wild.
With all their needs being taken care of, they had sat up talking for a short time before deciding to call it a night early. Master Sing-Ming had elected to take the first watch since he would need to log out since for him, it was morning where he lived in China and he had things to do. After that BigZ had taken the second watch, followed by ash then Sombrerbro.
Astaria had been prepared to take one of the nighttime watches, but her four companions had all insisted that she sleep the night and take the last watch, reasoning that she could also start preparing breakfast so they did not waste much time in the morning.
Astaria had felt that the reason they had insisted she take the last watch was to win points with her and not so she could start cooking breakfast early, after all, nobody wanted to be woken up partway through their sleep. She could also tell they were enamoured with her new looks, constantly taking peeks at her through the trip and time around the campfire.
Astaria could tell simply from her experience as a guy, and it was starting to get a little annoying for her. Both from the fact that it kept reinforcing her new circumstances and that people kept on looking at her in that way.
Master Sing-Ming had logged in not long before they had agreed to eat breakfast, and after a quick meal, they had continued on their journey. After a few more hours they had managed to reach the other side of the mountain range, and they got their first good view of the expansive Calesian Empire that would be the centre of events for Astaria in the coming future.
Looking at the time, Astaria still had half an hour before she would be able to log out, so she stayed with the group for another 20 minutes before excusing herself after explaining she needed to log off.
Astaria’s three new party members had seemed quite disappointed that she was logging off, but after adding them as friends their moods had improved. After bidding them farewell and receiving a wish of good luck from Ash who gave her a knowing look, she left the party and moved to the side of the road, sitting under a tree as she saw them walk off into the distance.
Astaria decided she needed a few minutes to mentally prepare herself before logging off, worried that she might become overwhelmed if she didn’t brace herself. She leaned against the trunk, letting some of the encouraging words that had been shared with her play through her mind. Her conversation with Roxxane and Marie from last night played through her mind, becoming one of the things her mind focused on.
‘So would that not mean that you will change anyway?’
Astaria let out a deep sigh, just wishing she could have a stress-free break. Opening her eyes, she accessed the system menu and navigated to the [Log Out] button which had become solid and not greyed out. while gritting her teeth, she hit the button, hoping deep in her heart to wake up as a guy.
