The beautiful Eternal Sunset Point atop a mountain, with only a single bench, was not a well-known location. It was hidden deep in the middle of a forest, and Kai had found it by chance once while traveling to the Nyxfall General Portal to trade for some info.
Kai already had a flying copter placed above his head, allowing him to fly above the vast landing planet. Traversing by foot was not advised at all—the place was humongous. The copter was actually a merch item from a very popular ancient anime. Kai had no idea which one, though; he had just bought it when it was on sale once.
They only spent an hour there, watching the beautiful scenery and talking about all kinds of random things before logging off and falling asleep. Once Kai's mother finished her event and her village got bombarded by countless Exodian city defense lasers, she, too, received the Escape Mission. After traveling near Kai's location, she logged off.
The next day, Kai attended school. It was just another normal day. He wrote an invitation letter for the club and sent it to a few good players from his school who were famous last time. He also heard Sora and Zayden's reports about their travels and the events they had started in Stonebinder City.
Immediately after reaching home and finishing lunch, Kai and his mother logged into the game along with Mimi. Seconds after Kai entered the game, the avatars of IllegalMeowves and Call_Me_Prince07 loaded near him. Mimi was beside him on a tree branch with DarkSmile, and his mother stood right under the tree.
For a second, all four of them looked at each other. Then suddenly, Mimi jumped down from the tree, her hands wide open for a hug, screaming—
"Prince! You are so cuteeee!!"
"Ah! Mimi is so pretty!!!"
Kai just ignored the two and shot an arrow into the ground. Together with DarkSmile, he safely Godstepped down from the tree branch. Both Mimi and his mother received -20 damage, but neither of them paid any attention to it.
Damian could not believe the avatar his mother had changed into. She wore decent leather armor and still had her short, boyish blue hair. However, one of her hands had turned dark purple. When he asked what bloodline skill she got, she smirked and stepped closer to him. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she whispered—
"Fatepiercer."
In the next second, her eyes glowed purple, and her hand.. her hand had become a goddamn sword—sharper than paper! And it was just inches from his neck, no less.
Kai immediately stepped away, and she chuckled like a maniac.
He never knew his mother was such a dangerous person. Most people chose wings, eyes, or some other simple enhancement. Who the hell changes an entire arm?! Well.. he had to admit—it did look pretty cool.
"Let's go then," Kai said, and both Mimi and Prince nodded.
DarkSmile had a weight limit of 170 kg. If they adjusted their inventories, it was possible to ride together, but Kai decided to get a new ride anyway. His inventory was mostly full, and everything in it was valuable.
Kai had a list of creatures he had written down in class—fantasy beasts that could be tamed and used as mounts with the Earthstrider skill. It was from the last Nyxfall he had played. Of course, the list didn't include any alien species—just the usual fantasy creatures. He just had to find one of them.
They had fought a pack of direwolves earlier. 'I should have spared one,' Kai thought. Well, they were easy to find.
With Mimi on his back, his mother decided to walk as they traveled out of the forest. Once they reached the clearing, Kai and Mimi finally saw it—the destroyed village that had appeared out of nowhere on the green plains.
It wasn't there before.
"Why did they do that?" his mother asked, her voice carrying a serious tone, laced with slight anger. "Out of nowhere, they just came and started bombarding us.. It announced again and again that Lord Bloodthorne has decided to give you mercy." She clenched her fists. "The mission says I have to find this Bloodthorne guy and kill him."
'Guess Mom also feels for the NPCs,' Kai thought.
It would be a lie if he said he hadn't felt anger when the Exodian laughed like a maniac while slaughtering those villagers. But he had seen too much cruelty in this game to feel anything more than a faint rage.
Mimi answered before he could. "Yeah, his stupid laughter was so annoying. I think the whole story revolves around our characters finding him and killing him."
Kai just nodded, and they moved on.
They had only traveled for half a day when Kai found another pack of direwolves.
Taming them wasn't easy. He had to beat their alpha to a pulp while making sure not to hurt the taming target too much. After killing all the other direwolves, he had to stare the last one down, weapon in hand, until it bowed its head in submission. Then heal him and feed some food to secure it.
Kai had thought the taming method might have changed in the newer version of the game, but it worked on the first try.
He fixed a spare pack saddle—one he had bought in Somnium—onto the direwolf and loaded it with the items from all three of their inventories. Now, all three of them could ride DarkSmile, while the tamed direwolf carried all their items.
It was a risky thing to do, though.
The wolf could die at any time in a monster attack—or even run away if high-level monsters were nearby. But Kai had secured an arrow on the saddle, ensuring that he could catch up if it ever fled.
It didn't.
Tamed beasts or pets only felt fear if their owner's battle was struggling—meaning if the fight was drawn-out and they received a certain percentage of damage.
That never happened.
Aside from Kai and his quite useful skill, his mother was an absolute menace in battle. She didn't just fight—she slaughtered monsters and creatures. Unlike Kai, whose kills were precise and clean, his mother's attacks were pure carnage. Her sharp-arm skill tore through enemies with savage strikes, and she had also learned another powerful battle skill from her starting Hunter NPC family.
It took three long days of riding, killing, and navigating impossible terrain with Godstep, but at last— They had crossed the vast empty lands, passed through many small villages, and finally arrived at Somnium's Gates.