Haven Online

Melting Snow saw all sorts of warnings on the forums about how players shouldn"t try to barter with the NPCs. It was said to be one of the hardest things to do, with only a 5% chance of being successful, and if a player fails then they better move to another town.

He wondered if that"s the reason why Drifting Cloud took the chance since he knew that they would be leaving this village soon. Either way, even if what he did was amazing it was still very reckless.

If the NPC had gotten upset and kicked them out of his shop, then they wouldn"t have been able to sell the mirror. Which would have been terrible, since they would have needed to find another town quickly. 

Melting Snow was certain they wouldn"t have been able to do, before the full moon. He would have been okay with waiting another month to visit the fairy place, but he had a feeling that their other two party members wouldn"t have been as complaisant.

Once the rush of excitement left him, Xinya began to look back on his actions. He felt that Melting Snow was right, what he did was risky. He could have jeopardized them being able to go to fairyland this month when he took the initiative to haggle with the shopkeeper.

Even though he knew he shouldn"t have, he still thinks he was correct in his decision to do so. He saw the look in Ronald"s eyes when he pulled out that mirror, the NPC was completely taken by it. 

His instincts were correct and he made an extra 100 gold coins from following it. He wasn"t going to use that to justify what he did, because things could have gone terribly wrong, but he couldn"t deny that following his gut this time was the right choice. 

"I was amazing wasn"t I," Xinya replied a bit playfully, pretending to ignore the second part of the boy"s sentence.

Seeing through the older man"s antics, Melting Snow said trying to be serious, "Don"t forget risky."

"How could I forget that," Walking in front of Melting Snow, Xinya brought his hands up and smushed to boy"s cheeks, erasing that serious look off his face. "What happened to the adventure-loving boy I first met? Are you maturing on me already?"

Giggling at the exaggerated sad face that Xinya was making, Melting Snow just shook his head. "I"m not, I"m still that boy. Something just opened my eyes making me more aware, that"s all."

"Aware of what," Xinya asked, removing his hands from the boy"s face.

"That for other people," Melting Snow looked away from Xinya as he began. Moving his gaze to his feet. "this game is more about making money than it is for fun. I already knew that of course, but then I found out that there are people who are willing to do anything to make that money." 

Xinya could see the worry radiating off the boy, kneeling down in front of the child he grabbed his hands while saying, "Was this something you learned yourself or did someone warn you of this?"

"My cousin did after I sent him the link to the video I made of our giant sea creature battle." the boy explained.

Xinya did remember Melting Snow telling him how he was going to upload a video while they were on the boat, but didn"t think much of it at the time. "What did you show on the video."

"Nothing really," Melting Snow quickly said, not wanting the man to think for a second that he would let out the party secrets. "I blurred and m.u.f.fled all the skills used, the only thing that really showed was the monster dying."

"Then no harm was done," Xinya told the boy with a gentle smile. 

He realized that the boy"s cousin had already given the boy an earful so there was no reason for him to do the same. As long as he realized that even though he hid what skills they used and the rewards they got, that people would still be curious.

A monster like the one they battled was rare, so many people would think they got great rewards from it, even more so since they couldn"t see them. Most players would just speculate on the forums and not really bother them, but there were some players that would most likely want what they have.

PVP (Player vs Player) wasn"t really that common in Haven Online, but like in the real world, there were people wanting to get rich quick everywhere. Killing other players was a way to do so because the killer would be able to loot five items out of the victim"s inventory.

Although this was a good way to make coins quickly, it does come with a downside. Murderers in Haven will leak a murderous red aura for a week in real-world time, which was over a month in-game time. This aura would make it impossible to enter a town since the guards would try to arrest them.

If they get arrested by the guards, they would then be sentenced to a year in one of the prisons. If that"s not bad enough, if they somehow made it into town without being caught, then the NPCs would treat them lower than dirt. They wouldn"t be able to sell, buy or get any quests until the aura is gone. 

When players learned how bad illegal PVP was, n.o.body but a small percentage was keen on doing it. However, for a big enough reward, Xinya knew that even the most reluctant would give it a shot.  

 "Listen to me, Melting Snow," Xinya began, making the boy look him straight in the eyes. "It"s good that you learned to be more cautious, but you shouldn"t let that rule you. Let me worry about all of that, you just keep being the fun-loving boy that you are."

"I will, but I"m just worried that something might happen to us now." Melting Snow told him.

Xinya knows that once a person"s eyes are open to the truth around them, it will be hard to close them again. "Is there anything I could do to make you less worried?" 

"Actually, there is," The boy answered with unexpected quickness.

Tilting his head to the side curiously at the boy, Xinya said, " Tell me."

"Well," Melting Snow began, "If we join a guild, we would have people to back us up if something was to happen."

"That"s a good idea, but I don"t want to rush to join a guild. I want to make sure I can trust the people in it first." Xinya told him.

Nodding his head in thought, Melting Snow said, "So as long as you get along with the people and learn to trust them, you will be willing to join their guild?"

"Yes," Xinya replied, letting go of the boy"s hands and getting up from the ground.

Melting Snow watched as Xinya dust himself off while thinking of ways to get the man to become closer to his cousin so that they could become friends. "Once they are friends, then we join his guild and I will feel more secure." 

Xinya laughed when he saw Melting Snow"s face scrunched up in thought. He wondered what could be going through his head.  Xinya rubbed the boy"s hair, snapping him out of his thoughts, "Come on, let"s go to the meeting place and wait for the others."

As the two of them started walking down the stone-covered road to where the village gate was, they didn"t notice a lone figure watching them from a distance.