Each of the different flowers that were growing on the fir trees lit up, lightening up the clearing with their lovely white light. Xinya gasped at the sight around him, to him it looked as if there were thousands of Christmas trees surrounding him. 

The beauty of the environment left him speechless, he couldn"t believe how those blindly ugly trees could become so beautiful at night. Although he could still see their color, because of the darkness they became dull, making the color more bearable to the eye.

Taking a quick picture of the wooded area, Xinya continued walking to the pond, while glancing at the trees now and then. Along the way, he began thinking about what could be inside the treasure dungeon. 

With all of the weird sights, he had seen today, he wouldn"t put it past the creators if the design for the dungeon is some convoluted mess. He was sort of expecting it to be very nonsensical an extremely difficult.  

He hoped that it wasn"t like that since this was a low tier dungeon. Although, even though this dungeon was low tier it did have a gold chain symbol. Chain dungeons should be harder than normal ones because they would lead to higher rewards.  Deciding to not worry about it right now, he quickened his pace to the pond.

Once he arrived, he almost laughed at the sight before him. It seemed that even a pond wasn"t normal in this forest. Instead of the normal blue water that most bodies of water had, the pond was the color of razzmatazz, with glittery gamboge specks on top of it. 

Bemused, he just shook his head at the sight in front of him, before taking a seat at the edge of the pond. Rolling up the pants of his armor, he submerged his feet in the bright pink water. Knowing that he would be here for a while he took out his fis.h.i.+ng pole from his inventory.

Setting it to the side, he opened his interface to change his t.i.tle, when he realized he still hadn"t updated his stats yet. He had ama.s.sed a total of 8 points that he needed to use. While looking at his stats, he thought long and hard about where he should put them.  

Name: Drifting Cloud t.i.tle: Saviors of Baldahurh Forest

HP: 325/325  (+15)   Level: 23

MP: 275/275  (+15)  EXP:500600/1300000

Stamina: 275/275(+15)  Skill points: 25

Str: 19 (+15)     Dex: 27(+15)

Int: 19 (+15)     Luck: 26 (+15)

Coins: 6 gold 997 silver 700 bronze

Stat Points 8

Knowing that he put all his points into HP last time, he decided to put one point towards it this time. He would give MP two points along with Stamina and for the rest, he would put it in Dex. Once he was finished setting his stats, he changed his t.i.tle to Fisherman"s Recognition which gave him a five percent fis.h.i.+ng bonus and an extra two percent chance of catching an item.

Name: Drifting Cloud t.i.tle: Fisherman"s Recognition

HP: 320/320     Level: 23

MP: 280/280      EXP:500600/1300000

Stamina: 280/280   Skill points: 25

Str: 4       Dex: 15

Int: 4       Luck: 11

Coins: 6 gold 997 silver 700 bronze

Stat Points 0

Picking up his fis.h.i.+ng rod, Xinya threw his line into the water and began to fish. As he fished, he could hear snippets of conversation and quiet laughter coming from the campsite. Turning around slightly, he could see that Wei and Wandering Sound were huddled together talking about something. 

A small graced his face, he knew that it was unlikely that Wei would want to join him now. He wasn"t upset by it, she was in the midst of a budding romance, of course, she would want to spend time with her crush. Giving one last look at the two of them, he turned away and continued fis.h.i.+ng.

With his full concentration back on the water, he didn"t even realize that someone was standing next to him until Melting Snow sat down next to him. Startled by his presence, Xinya almost dropped his fis.h.i.+ng pole to the ground.

"Did I scare you?" Melting Snow asked with a smirk.

Shaking his head, Xinya said, "No, I wasn"t scared, just mildly startled."

"Sure, startled." Melting Snow said, laughing. "So did you catch anything yet?"

"Not yet, I just started fis.h.i.+ng only a couple of minutes ago," Xinya explained.

Taking out a black fis.h.i.+ng rod, Melting Snow plopped it into the water, "Well, I"m going to join you. Who knows what kinds of weird fish we could find in this pond."

"Although they might look weird, they could taste good," Xinya said.

"Like a pig fish." Stated Melting Snow.

Tilting his head to the side, Xinya pursed his lips, "A pig fish? What"s that?"

"It"s a half pig and half fish and it tastes like pork." Melting Snow explained.

Xinya never heard of that type of fish in this game before, but then again he wasn"t an expert on the different types of fish in Haven Online, so he doesn"t know if Melting Snow was making it up or not. "Who told you that there was a pigfish?"

"n.o.body told me about it, I just made it up," Melting Snow said while looking at Xinya as if he should have already known that. "But with how strange this forest is, who can say if it"s true or not. I might even catch one."

Xinya started to laugh loudly at Melting Snow"s words, the imagination of the boy was something else. Playfully, Xinya b.u.mped his shoulder against Melting Snow before going back to focusing on his fis.h.i.+ng. 

"The trees, sure look beautiful now." Melting Snow said while gazing at them in child-like wonder.

Smiling softly at him, Xinya said, "They sure are."

In complete silence they sat there together at the edge of the pond, staring at the lovely glittering white lights of the flowers as they fished. No words needed to be spoken as they enjoyed the ambience and each other"s company. 

~

"Are you sure you want to separate from Drifting Cloud?" Wandering Sound asked. He had already asked this question multiple times, but he wanted to make sure that she knew what she was doing."

Sighing in exasperation, Wei said, "Yes, we talked about this before. Why do you keep asking me the same thing?"

"I just want to make sure you know what your doing," Wandering Sound explained to her calmly. "I know that you feel that you"re depending too much on Drifting Cloud, but you got to remember that you"re still new to this game."

"Yes, I am new, but so is he. We both just started, but if you compare him to me, he is more self-reliant." Wei told him sadly.

Wandering Sound understood where Roaming Wind was coming from, all their successes came from following him. Even this treasure dungeon was something that Drifting Cloud found and decided that it would be a good experience for Roaming Wind since she is a treasure hunter.

Although he was leaning towards Roaming Wind"s way of thinking, because she did need to try to make it in this game on her own, he was hesitant. Wandering Sound knew that there was no way Drifting Cloud would let Roaming Wind go off with him unless he told her who he was. He didn"t think he was ready to do that yet.

"Well before you decide on anything, it would be best to talk to Drifting Cloud about this first." Wandering Sound told her. He hoped that Drifting Cloud would set her straight, and they could revisit this idea later.

"I will," Wei said, glancing over to the pond when she heard Xinya"s laughter. "The next time we log out, I will talk with him."