After thinking about it for a bit, Melting Snow just shook his head, before answering, "Not really, but I do know that I will definitely upgrade my armor and swords. Besides that, I don"t think I want anything else."

" Upgrading your items is a must, Melting Snow. You are going to need extra good equipment if you are going to be hanging out with Drifting Cloud," chuckled Wandering Sound.

"Hey! what is that supposed to mean?" Xinya asked, pretending to be offended. He knew that he was a trouble magnet, but now that he was in Arkala the only thing he was planning to do was farm, experiment, and cook. With how busy he will be, there would be no time for him to get into any trouble.

Giving the green-haired man a sidelong glance, Wei said, "You know exactly what Wandering Sound means, I"m like literally surprised you didn"t trigger some quest already just by walking through the town."

"Drifting Cloud isn"t that bad," Melting Snow defended his friend weakly. Although he knew in his heart that the man was indeed that bad. "But even if he is, I don"t mind."

"You don"t mind, because you"re an action junkie," Wei responded.

Sticking out his tongue at her, the boy intoned childishly, "Am not!"

"Are too!" Wei replied using the same inflection that Melting Snow had.

"Children, children!" Xinya exclaimed, cutting in on the two before they really started bickering. "Let"s just agree to disagree." 

Also wanting to stop the sibling-like spat before it happened, Wandering Sound asked, "So what are we going to do next?"

"Well I"m a.s.sumed that once we left the auction house, everyone would want to go and take care of whatever business they had in town," stated Melting Snow.

"Melting Snow"s a.s.sumption is correct, we should split up and go take care of what we need to," Xinya remarked, there were a couple of things he needed to take care of, before the goodbye party. "I for one need to go meet my instructor and run some errands."

"I also need to go to meet my new instructor and register with them. I"m really hoping to get some new treasure hunter skills," uttered Wei with an excited gleam in her eyes.

Wandering Sound looked into Wei"s brightly s.h.i.+ning eyes that held great eagerness and grinned. "Like Melting Snow I won"t be able to register with an instructor here yet. I still need to finish the cla.s.s change quest, but I do want to check out the docks and talk with the NPC"s there." 

"Still interested in getting your own boat?" Wei asked. This was something that they had talked about during their phone call when they were logged out. However, in her opinion, she felt like a boat was a waste of coin, especially when he wouldn"t be using it often. 

With a hum of affirmation, Wandering Sound replied, "I really think that having one would be really useful to us. Also, remember that Drifting Cloud has that map piece to the hidden land of Moo Moo Pow."

Xinya silently agreed with Wandering Sound, having someone with a boat could come in handy. Who knows where he might have to look to find those other pieces, they could be on different Haven continents for all he knows.

"I think you should get one, Wandering Sound!" Melting Snow exclaimed excitedly. "It will be easier to hunt giant sea monsters if you buy a real s.h.i.+p and not one of those rented ones."

"Cough adventure junkie cough," muttered Wei, while Melting Snow just stuck out his tongue at her without responding.

Chuckling Xinya asked, "Well since everyone knows where they want to, how about we decide on where we should meet when we get finished."

As if a lightbulb above her head had just flickered on, Wei said, "I know! Why don"t we meet at the place where we watched the dancers. It will probably be night by the time all of us are finished, so the area should be less crowded."

"That"s a good idea, Roaming Wind," praised Wandering Sound, making the girl blush a little.

"That is a good idea," a Xinya while opening his interface and pinning the spot where they would meet on his map. "Since that settled I guess we should be heading off."

"Yeah, we should," Wei and Wandering Sound said in unison, causing them to turn to each other and smile.

~ 

After a quick goodbye, Xinya watched as Wei and Wandering Sound headed off into the crowd going in opposite directions of each other. Once they were completely out of view, he turned to Melting Snow and said, "It"s just me and you again."

"Well...actually," Melting Snow began sheepishly, "I wanted to roam around the town by myself and check out the sights."

"That"s fine, but are you sure you will be alright alone?" Xinya asked, sounding more like a concerned parent than a friend. He couldn"t help it though he was a little worried about the boy going off by himself in this crowded city. 

It wasn"t that he didn"t trust that Melting Snow could look after himself, but this game was very realistic. Even though most of the places in this area of town are fine for a young child like Melting Snow to go to, there are some other places that should be stayed away from. 

Like in the real world there are bars, and brothels were strewn about this town. It was another easy way to go about making coins, making a beautiful avatar, and selling its body for a couple of silver. 

He knew that he would never go down that route, even when he was at his lowest he didn"t consider it. Other players would say that all they had to do was turn off their settings and it was like they weren"t even there for it, but he knew that they would be mentally. 

Although those places are mostly hidden in the more seedy areas, if someone knows where to look they would be able to find it. And with Melting Snow"s inquisitive nature he might do just that.

Bobbing his head, Melting Snow cheerfully replied, "I will be fine, and I promise that I will head to the meeting place before it gets too dark."

"Okay, have fun but," started Xinya, in a serious tone. "If anything happens, I want you to voice call me immediately." 

"I will don"t worry," Melting Snow told him with a smile. It made him happy to know that Drifting Cloud would be worried about him. 

Smiling Xinya observed as Melting Snow rushed off down an alleyway waving goodbye to him as he did. Once he could no longer see a hide or hair of the boy, only then did he set off. 

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AN:

[Quest for readers: read author note below.]