New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

He reached back, putting his hand on her shoulder, and brought Violette in front of him.

"Everyone, this is Violette. She is a little shy, but don\'t judge her by that. She could probably knock you down a peg in single combat," Astaroth introduced.

Blood drained from the little girl\'s face.

\'Why?!\' she screamed in her head.

Now everyone would want to fight her and teach her a lesson. Or at least, she thought.

The four players sitting at the table started laughing heartily.

"Ahahaha! If you say that, it means she is at least close to your level. What is your class, little one?" Phoenix asked, smiling toothily.

"I\'m a mage," Violette almost murmured.

"Oh? Just like me. What is your favoured element, then?" Phoenix questioned.

"I have a high affinity for the water element and the ice element," Violette responded, easing up a bit.

She loved talking about magic, so being asked questions on the subject calmed her a bit.

Phoenix looked up at Astaroth, who was grinning like a shark.

"My complete opposite. How good is she really?" Phoenix asked, now genuinely interested in fighting the girl.

"I don\'t think she could beat you just yet. But she would definitely give you a run for your money," Astaroth replied, still grinning.

It almost tempted Phoenix to bring them to the arena right that instant, to try out his claims. But she refrained from doing so.

They had other matters to discuss first. Fun should always come after business.

Astaroth sat down across from Phoenix, I\'die, and Athena, sitting Violette between himself and Gulnur. He and Phoenix started discussing the matter of the dungeon, while the other three presented each other to Violette.

After almost an hour of talking and planning, Violette had become at ease with the others in the room. She even joked around with them.

Gulnur and she had hit it off right away, seeing as their ages weren\'t that different. They both talked about what they had seen during their respective travels, with eyes filled with fascination.

It was quite a refreshing scene for the other four, since they were a little older. Phoenix talked about the dungeon run in detail, but always omitted its difficulty or its name.

Astaroth was getting antsy about it, since he loved exploring. His adventurous side loved going into unknown places.

After dangling the meat in front of him for so long, Phoenix eventually satisfied his curiosity.

"The dungeon we are going to has yet to be explored, to our knowledge. It is a dungeon that players steer clear of, since the level of the zone it is in is level fifty." She dropped.

Astaroth immediately went wide-eyed. A level fifty dungeon was a challenge few people could take on yet.

Let alone a small group like theirs.

"Are we going just the six of us? Or do you have other people in mind?" he asked.

"I have another player in mind. He will join us over there, since he prefers to steer clear of cities," Phoenix responded.

Astaroth frowned at that statement. There were few people that stayed away from cities.

"Before you imagine things, no, he isn\'t a criminal. He is just very insecure around people, and cities make tremble in his boots," Phoenix said, clearing his doubts.

Astaroth sighed in relief. He could deal with shady people.

But criminals? He would prefer not.

His life was already risky enough in the real world because of criminals. No need to meet some in the game, too.

"What class is he?" Astaroth asked next.

"He is a priest player. A dedicated healer. We will need one if we are to clear that dungeon." Phoenix said.

I\'die lowered his head at the statement. He knew it wasn\'t aimed at him, but it still stung that his healing wasn\'t enough.

Athena patted his shoulder, trying to appease him. Astaroth looked at the two with knowing eyes.

Phoenix noticed his look and smiled. I\'die was probably the only one who had yet to notice.

Even Gulnur gave the pair a weird look. He wasn\'t used to anything romantic, so to him, this was alien.

But only a blind person would fail to notice how Athena treated I\'die. But I\'die was none the wiser.

"You have been calling it this dungeon all this time. Can I know the name of the dungeon?" Astaroth asked, prying his eyes away from the cooing Athena.

"Ahh yes. The dungeon we are exploring is called \'The Jungle Maze\'. It is located in a more temperate zone, North East of here," Phoenix answered.

From the name alone, Astaroth could already feel the humidity seeping into his bones. He had never visited an actual jungle, but he had read enough about them to know this much.

They were humid!

He could also guess what type of monsters they would be fighting. Most jungles on Earth crawled with insects, snakes, and predatory cats.

The other detail he gleaned from the name was how the dungeon would proceed. The word maze was most likely not just for gravitas.

He wouldn\'t be surprised if they got lost in it a few times before clearing it.

Phoenix gave him time to make his own thoughts on the matter, even if they already had quite a lot of information. They had sent in a scouting party, having the layout for the first few \'rooms\' inside it.

But she knew Astaroth was smart enough to make his own correct assumptions. She was also happy he had brought another powerful mage with him.

A jungle zone would be too humid for her power to be at its peak. And a water mage would fit right in, just as much as I\'die would.

She could surmise they would probably be the two heaviest hitters in the party while they ran it. Of course, she didn\'t discard Astaroth either.

\'This will be a sight to behold, and an achievement for the records!\' she thought, clenching her fists under the table.