The Empires Rise

Selecting 'Yes' I am brought into the fog. I walk forward a little bit and notice that there is no one behind me and only Ritotorous is on my shoulder. A prompt flashes.

"New Quest

The Lost and Found

You and your party have entered an area that has displaced you throughout this small region. Find them.

Task: Find your party members (0/4)

Reward:

1 X Race Specific Population Summoning Scroll per party member found.

New Personal Quest

Treasure Hunt

You have gone into the fog thinking there will be monsters, now while that is correct you forget with danger comes opportunity. As you are exploring the vast plains keep your eyes out for valuable loot.

Task: Find Treasure (0/?)

Kill a minimum 2 groups of enemies (0/2)

Reward:

1 X Class Experience Bag

1 X Class Equipment Box

1 X Companion Experience Bag

1 X Profession Tool Box

???"

I wait for a little longer to see if anyone else comes through. With a sigh I turn around and start to head deeper into the fog.

After several steps I hear a hurried set of footsteps behind me. I turn to see Uxa waving his hands up in the air at me but he is further away than he should have been.

Seeing him I get a 'ding' I wave back and ask. "Did you get any quests upon entering the fog?"

He nods his head. "Yea, I just have to kill 5 monsters this time around, though with how you all are ranged damage dealers I will have a hard time killing anything."

I let him know that we have a quest to find all of the party members. I hesitate about telling him about the rewards for the quest at this time as I don't want him to run around frantically trying to find the party members.

I also let him know about the personal quest that I have.

"Hmmmm, I think it might make it harder for you since you have already completed one quest." He comments off hand to which I can't help but agree with him on that point.

"That does make sense. Hopefully the rewards for completing it are better since it looks like they will be better." I acknowledge. "Shall we start looking around and see if there are any points of note or see if we can find any one of our party members?"

"Lets." He gets in front of me and takes a vanguard position before moving forward at a slow pace. I tell Ritotorous to fly into the sky and see if he can make out anything.

With a flap of his wings he leaps into the air and doesn't find any monsters. He does find something shiny in the distance and lets me know that it isn't far. I called out quietly to Uxa. "Ritotorous has found something shiny in the distance. We should head a bit to our right and see if we can figure out what it is."

He nods back acknowledging the information and starts to head in the direction that is stated. As we are approaching I do spot some movement to the side and cast an arcane shot in that direction. I blast a goblin right in the chest for it to fall and not get back up. There is more rustling and 4 more goblins pop up and charge towards us.

Uxa not wanting to waste an opportunity to get some kills charges forward and uses his longer reach to attack and shouts powerstrike. Chopping one of the goblins from shoulder to its sternum. It falls backwards dead.

Ritotorous sends an arcane shot at another enemy blasting it to pieces. Now with only 2 more goblins left one heads to keep Uxa occupied and the other comes towards me.

It slashes but Uxa is about to block the blow with his shield and counter and with a normal slash he decapitates the goblin. The last one still running towards me leaves me just enough time to cast one more arcane shot at it. And it jumps out of the way of my shot right as I release it.

It takes a slash at me with his dagger like fingers and hits me for 1 point of damage. Seeing that I still have one Uxa rushes in my direction while I swing my staff at it. It pushes my attack wide but Ritotorous was about to get a shot onto it before it could attack at me again blasting it apart.

"Congratulations, you have killed 5 level 1 Goblins. Reward: 5 Experience points (1 for you, 2 for your companion, and 2 for party member Uxa.)"

Breathing out in relief I look at Uxa and give him a small smile. "Looks like that helped us both out! Shall we see what they were guarding?"

He nods at me and we go and see what Ritotorous found before we had to fight the goblins.

- Treasure of the Fog: Upon bringing it back to your settlement you will be able to further inspect what this treasure provides. -

I look at Ritotorous and have him store it in the bag since it might fit and thankfully it does.

"Ritotorous, could you go up again and see if there are any more treasures in the area?" I ask him.

With a gleam of greed in his eyes he flaps his wings and once again is in the air looking for treasures.

We walked for 45 minutes in a straight line from where we were when I felt a familiar weight on my shoulder. With one of his wings Ritotorous points. "There are more treasures if we keep going in the same direction but there seems to be a small encampment of goblins, I could only see 5 of them in the open as well as a cage with someone in it."

"Could you tell who it was?" I ask.

"No, but it appeared to be a large cage."

I look towards Uxa and ask if he wants to take a closer look at the goblin encampment or if we should try and find out party members. Uxa puts on a brave face, "I think we should look at getting whoever is in the cage out since there are only 5 goblins that should be too hard for us to handle since we could try and surprise them."

We proceed with caution up to the camp, now considering that we have a raven who can fly, a mage from a technologically modern era and a warrior, so we semi-waltzed up to the encampment.

The goblins notice our approach and start to rush at us. Seeing that the stealthy approach didn't work, Ritotorous and I started to cast our spells. Both spells hit downing a goblin each. I receive a 'ding' which I tell myself to look at after the battle is over.

Uxa charges at the goblins and swings over the heads of them. The leading goblins swing at Uxa with a small cudgel deflecting the blow off to the side completely.

Another round and we drop two more goblins with our spells when Uxa shouts back to us. "Let me kill this one, then I will only need a couple more for my quest!"

I agree with him on that and tell Ritotorous to scout for some loot as I watch to make sure that Uxa doesn't get hurt.

They go back and forth several times and it is quite awkward to watch as they both keep missing each. It makes me wonder how he was supposed to be the best warrior in his little group. Though he did kill several skeletons yesterday before we caught up to him....

Anyways, Uxa finally hits the goblin while shouting 'Power Strike'. He downs the goblin. I look at my messages and see that my arcane shot has leveled up and somewhere along the way my analyze skill also leveled up.

"I have found a chest out in the open. Since I didn't want to go inside any of the tents and they make an ogre's body odor smell pleasant right now." Ritotorous reports into me.

I walk up to Uxa who is panting from the small confrontation with the goblin. "So how many more till you are done with your quest?" I ask, trying not to make it awkward for him.

Embarrassed at the display he responds. "I need just two more. Also don't tell anyone what you saw please. I am not used to this way of fighting yet."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Aren't you always having to fight on your home planet?"

"While yes we are always fighting on my home planet. I typically have a long halberd that I used so I am thrown off with a sword and shield.”

"Ahhhh, that explains the reason for some of his personal quests." I hear Ritotorous say in my head. "The personal quests are there to try and help you with your abilities and teach you some basics."

I nod my head and explain that to Uxa and he bows to Ritotorous. "Thank you for the information. I am curious if I could find some halberd schematics from the quest reward I will receive."

"We should keep moving and look around at this encampment while it seems to be empty. And also we should see who or what is in the cage." I point to the tents then the cage respectfully.

Pinching my nose, I go inside the closet tent and find a small bag in the back of the tent. Grabbing it I leave the tent and look around. I see Uxa also running into a tent quickly and coming out just as quickly.

Running into another tent I look around and don't see anything. I head back out and figure it isn't worth looking through. I head towards the cage.

When I get there I take a look inside and see Strauvana inside. She appears to be knocked out. I also see that my party option for her has become clear showing that she is at low health.

I suddenly get another prompt.