Instead of sleeping, Eden went back to review her stats and began to shift the troops again and pushed all her Knights in robes to the academy. She then expanded the academy to send her remaining army. The shield would remain up for 8 hrs. There was no need to have her troops out of the city gathering food, lumber, stone or iron. She began to look at her arsenal and saw a building buff of 50 percent more. She activated it and pushed her builder to improve the castle and its defenses.
"My liege, you unlocked a general role for your wall. Would you like to recruit a general or select a knight you wish to promote to general?" Said Ezra.
"Take me to the recruiting hall before I make up my mind."
In the recruiting hall she saw lots of portraits of generals she could hire. The gold frames indicated prestige and higher ranking buffs. Below was their commissioning cost. In addition it showed the stats that can improve their strength once certain items were needed. Eden reviewed each general and asked Ezra, "Do I need a general at the moment? Can I leave the position open until later?" Ezra replied hesitantly "The position can be left open, but I advise that you keep a general in charge of the troops you leave at home to defend the territory in your absence."
"Leave it open," said Eden as she turned her heel to walk towards the exit, then paused, "I need more of those force shields, take me to purchase some."
When they arrived at the market, there were three types of shields that could be purchased. The shields were 8 hours, 24 hrs and one for 3 days. Eden purchased 10 of the 8 hours shield and one 24 hour. She figured that the attacks didn't just happen right after the shield would stop. They have had to travel to notice that her territory was not able to defend a strong attack.
Eden called for Thunder and climbed aboard. Ezra quickly ran to her side as she said hastily, "My liege, if you ride on your own, there won't be an army to defend you in case of an attack."
"I know that. Thunder and I are only going to venture in the lands to scout our surroundings. I have all my troops in the academy for another few hours. When I return I will have an idea of what is out there."
Thunder took off west of the territory. They reached a small village within an hour and noticed that there was a crest of an alliance over the gate, USS. From afar Eden observed that their army was not as large and continued to roam in a circular route, her territory at the center. Again she noticed another Alliance, FOX. This one seemed more active than the last one. Eden kept traveling where she saw SSC and DRK villages. Eden marked her map to know where they were seen. DRK was one of her allies and decided to visit that village.
Upon arriving she was greeted with caution. The main gate slowly opens and a woman with a glow of grace walked over to Eden. Her hair was brunette and she was tall. She had fair skin. She was wearing a red silk Kimono embroidered with a gold dragon that wrapped around her silhouette. She noticed the emblem on Eden's horse Thunder and the initials DRK. She held her hand up and slowly dropped it down with her palm facing the ground. Just then Eden noticed the archers on the wall lower their bows and arrows.
"I am Corruption" She smiled as she took a step back to the side. "Please come in, your horse must be tired and hungry from your travels.
"I am Eden, thank you," replied Eden after snapping back from her thoughts. She then got off the horse and walked inside the village. Eden realized that she was too presumptuous that she would be recognized as friend rather than foe right away from a distance.
They took a seat in a gazebo in her garden. There was tea and pastries set out for them. Eden wasn't fond of tea but didn't say anything. She didn't want to be rude and it wasn't the most terrible thing she has ever had. Corruption noticed Eden's hesitation to pick up the tea and cleared her throat a little. "The tea has gotten a little cold, please brew a different batch. What flavor did you prefer Eden?"
Eden's face lit up, "actually, I would like some coffee with cream and sugar please," she replied incredulously.
"Would that be a light, medium or dark roast?"
"Dark roast," Eden paused and smiled before saying thank you.
Corruption was very perceptive and showed her elegance in the way she handled the tea situation. Eden was more at ease once noticing how thoughtful Corruption was and saved her from being impertinent.
"I want to thank you for your hospitality and for teaching me a lesson," said Eden with her eyes looking down at her cup. Corruption stayed silent as she sipped on her drink. "I rode here without being cautious and forgetting that there are those who would attack feing friendliness. It won't happen again."
Placing her cup down, Corruption spoke softly, "I must say, you were either very brave or very foolish to ride on your own without sending a message in advance. But because I couldn't tell, I decided to keep my guard up."
"Foolish indeed," replied Eden with a laugh. They both laughed for a bit and inhaled before letting out a sigh.
"Do you know what's going on? I imagine you arrived here like I have and we are on the same boat." asked Eden as she took a bite of cake.
"It looks like we were sucked in after accepting that contract and we are stuck here until we reach a certain level. Although I am used to MMO games with a storyline , this one doesn't seem to have a storyline to follow. It's almost free range."
"MMO?"
"Massive multiplayer online game"
"So does that mean we aren't from the same area either"
"Nope, check your chat icon on your messages, select alliance, there's world chat too but it's full of nonsense."
Eden opened her chat and noticed her alliance was barely speaking to each other still. Then switched over to world chat to see postings for recruitment and people asking why they got attacked.
"How come our leader just asks us to get stronger and doesn't say how to do it? It's hard work trying to find out the answers on your own."
"Well we had multiple leaders, they've been poached. This guy doesn't speak English, look at the stamp on the end, it tells you what language they are writing in."
"What! We aren't even in the same country!" Eden's eyes widened in amazement.
"We understand each other perfectly because I assume we both speak English" Said Corruption as she crossed her legs and leaned back to look over the garden.
Eden said slowly, "I'm in the USA, or was"
Without looking at Eden, Corruption sighed and said "I'm in Europe"
"That's actually really cool, to meet here of all places." Eden said as she perked up a little.
"Well, that's how MMO games work. I can see how thrilled you are." said Corruption with a small smile.
A bird suddenly flew into the gazebo and dropped a scroll on Eden's lap. It had a seal with her crest on it. She broke it and read it quickly. It was a report of the progress of her troops. They had leveled up and the castle repairs were complete. New upgrades were available to fortify her walls. Decisions needed to be made. Eden wrote approval on selected areas and closed the scroll. The bird flew back and took it with it.
"You can make decisions through your passport too. You don't have to wait on your messenger to give you an update. Just add it to your queue," said Corruption.
"Thank you for telling me that, that saves me loads of time."
Eden opened her passport and began to add more things to her queue. Corruption would look over at Eden once in a while as she kept going over her stats. She couldn't help herself and chuckled a little. Eden ignored the chuckle. "she probably thinks I'm a little kid" thought Eden as she was finishing up. "I don't think you're a kid, I just think you have a sort of innocence to this environment. It reminds me of when I played my first MMO game. It was a good feeling."
"I think you are a very intelligent person and perceptive. I want us to remain friends." Eden said seriously as she was putting away her items. Corruption paused and stared at Eden, wondering how quickly her demeanor changed. She showed a sort of maturity with a level of sternness in her voice. "Very well, I will help you where I can," answered Corruption after a few minutes of pondering on the type of person Eden was. With that, Eden stood up and thanked her again.