Chosen Path

He didn't know when to even consider the current task finished, the burrow was beginning to appear spacious it has three branching tunnels, he had long since lost track of his time spent. Every now and again Yuna would take breaks, she would either lie down next to him or go back up to the surface. He had learned a few things about Yuna, her parents are not in Heelune and never lived here. In fact, her parents never even came to Heelune, she was abandoned at birth. Apparently, Yuna wasn't really sure how she had gotten here in Heelune nor does she remember her parents. Her story reminded him somewhat of his own though, he was unsure about her parents. He also tried to figure out what species she was, but she just looked at him curiously and was unsure how to answer. He also learned that the other burrows inhabitants, won't really be coming back until it is dug out. He tried to find out what they were from Yuna but, she simply told him their names.

Even after all the time spent digging he was unable to come to a complete decision, on whether he should pursue what appears to be a religious path. He had discussed some things with Joseph, and he found out that getting an initial class before level ten was difficult but there were benefits from doing so. Apparently, when a player reaches level ten the system would assign the player a class randomly based on their current skills, and their respective levels. So far it has been determined that the classes can range from common to rare, no one has gotten any classes categorized as anything higher from the random designation. However, players that already have a class and reach level ten are said to have been given options from a selection of classes to evolve their current class into. Daniel knew people were in a frenzy to find out what decides the quality of classes, many people are guessing it is determined by the skill ranks, and so some players have chosen to grind skills prior to reaching level ten.

From what players have gathered on the forums, classes are ranked by; common, uncommon, rare, epic, unique, legendary, and mythical. Daniel even heard from Joseph, that a couple of the top players have been reported to have epic classes, Daniel was surprised the highest level reported player was 17. Daniel considered this pretty high considering Joseph who has been playing for practically non-stop was only level 9. Daniel was surprised to find out that the highest level player reported also had an epic class called Blood-Knight. Benedikt was his name and he was from the guild Dauntless Brotherhood. It was consistently one of the top ten guilds, however, when it came to the professional scene Daniel was surprised to find out that positions swapped around quite a lot. If one guild tried to step too far out of the power balance, alliances would be formed that could set them back.

Looking at his own stats screen, he noticed he was getting close to level three due to his passive experience, he was feeling impatient, he wanted to go out and start leveling, and start exploring. He was losing his early game advantage, it was already going to be difficult without the support of a major guild. He didn't have a reliable name or anything, it was obvious he wasn't worth investing it for a guild, no one would give him too much thought until he became a consistent reliable member. He was after all only one player, though he was confident in his own fighting ability, thinking about it though he knew he would be nothing in face of a large gathering of players. Being drawn from his thoughts he got a sudden incoming message.

"Hey, man, so I am finally back at Shalee and I have been asking around and yeah.. it might be difficult for you to do stuff in Shalee right now," Joseph sent in his message.

Daniel had expected such, even Joseph had thought so when Daniel brought it up to him before. "What do you mean? can you be a little more specific for me," he replied.

"Well bro, there is a multitude of reasons, there is some racial prejudice, and with the added hostile relations with the beastkin tribes to the far east, naturally, the high elves find beastkin to be inferior savages that bring no value to society. In fact, you probably wouldn't be very welcome even at the gates. To be honest, I haven't seen a single beastkin in the city or near it yet, and looking back I don't think I have seen a dwarf either," Joseph replied.

"Wait, you're saying they will bar me from the city?" Daniel replied.

"I don't really know but, the guards could quite literally kill you on the spot if they wanted to, the NPC's can be pretty ruthless, even if we are considered the same race we are treated like foreigners, building a name for yourself, is already quite difficult, unless you join the church faction I am unsure of how exactly you will even get in or survive Shalee..." Joseph responded.

"Really is it that bad?" Daniel asked. He was starting to realize how limited his options were in Sylvantir.

"Yeah... the church is pretty active though right now, they are just pulling in followers and marching around the city, the priests and wardens are also helping keep the cities peace alongside the guards and soldiers. thinking about it bro, unless you joined a church, you would probably just be a target in the city for crimes..." Joseph responded.

"What the hell, what do you mean..." Daniel asked.

"I mean just think about it man, the guards would most likely take the elves side, you'd just be easy pickings, just about anything could get pinned on you. And the guards don't play around, they will kill or cripple you on the spot or haul you off to prison. With their strength and level advantage, you can't even flee from them, especially the officers, they are crazy powerful." Joseph replied.

"Is there no other possible faction for me to join inside the city?" Daniel asked.

"Well, there is the free-lance adventurers guild, but they wouldn't back you up or support you, and then there is the Spire of Magic, and well you aren't an elf so I doubt you'd even be allowed to join if humans can't, though you probably wouldn't even be allowed to enter the structure. And you can forget about enlisting or joining the kingdom's military as a beastkin, I heard the training is tough but it will give you a class early so there was that." Joseph replied.

"What about getting vouched for or a sponsor?" Daniel asked.

"Bro, that's what I am saying I am pretty sure only the church would vouch for you, you have nothing to your name, and neither do I.. I mean maybe I can get you inside the city... and that is stretching it but after that then what. I mean I would really have to try and convince the guards, and who knows how that will go... some of them are really grouchy and annoyed because of all the travelers. Apparently, every single guard is active right now, while the situation is being dealt with," Joseph replied.

"Damn, well thanks man for asking around while you were in town at least my choices become clearer," Daniel asked.

"No problem, here's my advice bro, give up and just follow through with what you are doing there, don't worry so much much about your level. I am pretty certain that what you said before was correct about the trials and stuff, and I am pretty sure you are kind of on the right track when it comes to your current task. It sounds like she wants you to return to the shrine of your own free will and offer prayers and servitude to her on your own after being lost," Joseph replied.

"Really? but dude, come on, I don't really wanna be a religious fanatic... I don't even know anything about the lore of this world," Daniel said.

"Bro, classes aren't permanent, anyway, why would you give up such a great opportunity to potentially receive rewards from a deity of this world. Don't be such a baby, look you better learn to act if you need to. NPC's can bestow sub-type classes that are a reflection of their own, so I am pretty sure a deity can bestow any possible holy or religious class from their church." Joseph responded.

Daniel could only sigh, he knew Joseph was actually right, but he really did not want to actually be a paladin, he just wanted his skills to be like one. "Fine, I'll follow through with it, I like your idea, about the prayer and stuff," Daniel said, he was already picturing his own future. He couldn't help but to want to cry when he imagined himself, gossiping and trying to convert people to faith or always doing good deeds.

"Sweet, so I am gonna have a war priest in my group soon hopefully you don't have to take a vow of celibacy, Oooh, by the way, do you know how to pray?" Joseph said.

"So your true colors were revealed and that's what you were after huh, I better not have to... Anyway, before you talk me out of it, and I don't really have any other options. For prayers, don't you just say a few words and direct it towards the deity?" Daniel replied.

"Haha you were right, maybe I just wanna see you when you're bald, no, but seriously you have to manipulate your mana into a religious icon of that deity. If your thoughts and prayers align with the deity the icon should absorb and take your mana. I was almost tricked and converted to join the Church of Adira they are some crafty folks by the way," Joseph responded.

"Adira? who is that?" Daniel asked, he hadn't heard the name and was curious.

"She governs fire, she isn't really that popular in Sylvantir, given that there is so much forest, but she is still a major deity. Given that you are stuck in a forest and you apparently don't check the forums much you probably don't really know any of this stuff. There are countless gods and goddesses, Kaena is an intermediate deity, from what I can tell, there are three types of deities, Major, Intermediate and Lesser, I am not really sure what classifies and Intermediate and Lesser, but a Major, is basically a deity that created other deities, almost like system administrators, they typically govern everything inside that domain and they help maintain the balance of the world." Joseph replied.

"How does that work then? sending prayers to the major deities like Maeve or Adira?" Daniel asked.

"Well, from what I can tell a dedicated follower of a major deity also prays to the children of the said deity as well, for example, let me look it up, give me a second," Joseph replied.

"Haha, I could have looked it up then if you needed to," Daniel said.

"Pfft, you keep digging sucker, I am currently walking to the training grounds in the adventurers guild, I plan to grind up my skills and learn a basic class from the guild before I reach level ten, the goal is to at least get a rare class. Anyway, so there are a lot of deities, for example in the Life Domain, under Maeve you have; Kaena Goddess of the Wilds, Kudea Goddess of the Summer, Eshena Goddess of Harvest, Odur God of Hunting, Shyldur God of Autumn and so forth there are actually quite a lot. They are all considered children of Maeve, and each is classified differently." Joseph sent.

"Thanks, but if I pledge servitude to specifically Kaena, how exactly does that work?" Daniel asked.

"Bro, you're the soon to be the priest, not me, I couldn't find anything on the forums about something like that, so my guess is it is rarer? or there simply is nothing to it? or people just don't want to share information? I mean I wonder if anyone else started at a specific shrine honestly, I am sure there were plenty of hidden requirements," Joseph replied.

"Fine, fine, I get it, so how are things going over there in Shalee by the way? And yes, I am still digging so don't ask...." Daniel said he was getting really tired from all the manual labor, he didn't even push his stamina to the limits to level natural recovery, he decided to just inflict damage to himself to level it. It was a lot simpler to stop and scratch himself so that his health was always regenerating with his stamina.

"Haha, of course, you'd still be digging a hole bro, anyway not too much, just grinding skills, when you get here I'll introduce you to my group of online friends. Oh, by the way, start thinking of what guild you want to join. We are considering either joining Viridian Enclave, Jade Council, Order of the Undaunted, or Judgment. Those are the four major guilds in Shalee right now, there are a couple of other lesser guilds but, whether they can get a foothold in Shalee will be difficult to determine." Joseph said.

"Really, you are already planning on joining a guild, I don't have a preference so which one are you actually looking to join?" Daniel asked.

"Well yeah, you kind of have to join one if you want to compete later. As for which ones either the ranked 69th Jade Council or 78th Viridian Enclave, I still plan to try but I doubt Judgement will let us join with decent conditions since they are ranked 36th, and you are well currently level 2... As for Order of the Undaunted, they are a newer guild and they are ranked 113th, they are rising in ranks but globally they are still relatively new, that would be the last pick if all else fails, but I'd prefer not to join a zerg." Joseph replied.

"Really, and how have your negotiations been going? I get the feeling you have been talking to the recruiters from each already," Daniel replied.

"You know it, so honestly, we could join any of the four but the biggest issue is maintaining a member status, Judgement requires a lot from its members, they would also treat us like fodder, that goes for both Viridian and Jade. The upside is Viridian and Jade require less from its fresh members, each guild has a donation/merit system which allows the players to build up guild merit points which leads to many benefits inside the respective guilds. But Judgement actually also requires donations to simply maintain member status which seems really tedious." Joseph replied.

"That does seem pretty tedious, couldn't their ranking swap around at any moment?" Daniel replied.

"Yeah, that's the thing, right now, it's funny because Order of the Undaunted are zerging really hard, as far as numbers go they surpass the other three. I am expecting the requirements to be reduced for the other guilds temporarily because the order practically is enforcing none, they just ask for players to pool together their currency when the time comes to purchase land. But, a guild like that is bound to have problems and a lot of friction, so it is best for us to avoid it," Joseph said.

"Sounds like a scramble, well, go ahead and secure your spot in a guild, make connections and I'll try to join it later," Daniel replied. He was pretty confident in leaving that decision to Joseph because he knew that Joseph had way more experience when it came to stuff like this. Daniel noticed he got a quick and sudden reply, he had personally thought it was Joseph.

"Hey, how's it going, you still in that forest?" Lisa sent.

Before Daniel could respond, Joseph had also sent his response.

"Bro haha, I was going to join one with or without your consent, anyway we will probably be joining the Viridian Enclave. It has the greatest opportunity available for us since we could potentially become core members," Joseph replied.

Daniel wasn't really thinking when he responded to Lisa, "Yeah, still just here digging and currently talking to Joseph about joining the Viridian Enclave," he sent. Noticing his inventory was stuffed he had to begin crawling out of the burrow. he hadn't even gotten a chance to respond to Joseph before she had sent a reply. He decided to empty his inventory and move back down into the burrow before reading her response or responding to Joseph.

"No way, really? I joined the guild yesterday when they were in the Laeroth Forest. I remember seeing Joseph and his group out there leveling as well, they weren't too bad, tho we were crushing them in levels since I am currently level 11. Oh, and don't get me started on your current level you are really falling behind," Lisa sent.

Daniel couldn't help but laugh, "So Lisa, already joined the Viridian Enclave, I guess that means they all did, anyway how many times did you cross each other in that forest?" Daniel sent to Joseph. Daniel didn't have to wait for long to receive a response.

"Not too many times, why? Did she say something about me? And yea, I already figured they joined since they were trying to push further into the Laeroth forest with the guild," Joseph quickly sent.

Daniel wanted to throw fuel on the fire, to get back for all the priest jokes, but then he remembered his own level, "Just a little, she mentioned her level and compared it to yours, anyway, how did it go with them trying to push deeper inside the forest," he sent to Joseph.

Before Daniel could respond to Lisa or check his message from Joseph, he could hear Toga coming down from outside, he stopped what he was doing to turn around and face him. "I think it will be finished by today, Toga," Daniel said as he looked towards the entrance.

"Hmmm, really, I am curious how much you have gotten done," Toga called out.

"Yeah, we are already making it way bigger and better than the last one," Yuna called out as she ran towards the entrance to look upwards towards Toga.

Daniel could see Yuna's excited expression, but it took him a moment to register what she had said. He paused for a moment to look around, the burrow had become pretty spacious and had multiple tunnels, and holes, he looked back towards Yuna. It never occurred to him to get the visual specifications from Toga, especially when it came to what the bottom would look like. He suddenly realized that he had simply accepted verbal instructions from an old tortoise when it came to size and distance. Covered in dirt, he began to crawl forward and wait at the entrance beside Yuna, "Maybe we should stop and not make it any bigger," Daniel said.

"Nooooo, let's keep digging and make it bigger," Yuna said as she turned towards Daniel.

"Ooooh, that sounds like a splendid idea, I'll help if there is enough working space," Toga said from the entrance.

Daniel peaked upwards and could see Toga still coming down the slope, he could only cringe, imagining the trio of them still working. "But, what about the adventure I promised, we can head to the shrine in the center together," Daniel said towards Yuna, he really did not want to dig anymore, even if it raised his skills.

"Silly, I have already been there before, that's not dangerous for me, let's go on a bigger adventure," Yuna said as she puffed herself up proudly.

"Okay, fine, we will go somewhere else for our adventure, but I do have to go to the central shrine before then," Daniel said,

"Really, let's go now then, I know a shortcut to the central shrine, sorry grandpa Toga, we can make it even bigger next time," Yuna said as she quickly darted up the entrance of the burrow, completely jumping over and crawling past Toga.

"That's fine, you both already helped out enough, I can handle the rest," Toga said as he continued to make his way down.

Daniel tried to call out to Yuna, to tell her to wait or to slow down but she had crawled out too fast. He actually wanted to get out of the burrow as well, but he had to wait for Toga, the passageway was simply to narrow for him.

"Come on Daniel, let's go, what's taking you?" Yuna called from above while peaking down into the hole.

"I am gonna wait for Toga, to at least come down here and look around before we set off to leave," Daniel said. He wanted to actually leave immediately, but he didn't want to be rude nor was he going to try and squeeze over Toga.

"Don't worry, I am almost down there," Toga said.

"Okay, I'll wait with you," Yuna said as she scurried back down the burrow kicking up what loose dirt remained. She completely ignored Toga as she crawled over him, stepping on his shell.

Daniel was honestly worried they would come sliding down, but surprisingly Toga held his ground. "Careful," he tried to call out, however by the time the words left his mouth, Yuna was already back inside next to him.

"Careful?" Yuna asked curiously as she looked at Daniel.

"Nevermind," Daniel said, he decided to roll onto his side and just lay there while he waited for Toga.

"By the way, how far is the central shrine from here Yuna?" Daniel asked he was curious how long it would take them to travel on foot. Daniel looked towards her as she paused to think, he thought it was cute when she paused and began to think by tapping her tiny claws against the ground.

"A lot of Sun," Yuna replied proudly.

Daniel had no idea what to make from that description, but he decided that at least it probably meant that the sun was still up. "Thank you, you are a great help, I am glad you will show me your shortcut," Daniel replied.

"Hehe, you're welcome Silly, I like helping friends," Yuna replied happily.

Daniel reached out and gently patted her on her head, "I am lucky to have you as my friend," he said. He could feel the smoothness of her grey scales, they appeared dull from all the dirt.

"I am glad to see that you two are so close and are getting along, I'd join you both on that adventure if I was younger," Toga said.

Daniel couldn't help but smile, he was extremely thankful that Toga was not younger, "It would have been fun I'd imagine, but I mean you do have your new home here you probably have to decorate," Daniel said. Daniel was pretty sure that there was gonna be no decoration but he honestly, had no idea what else to say to Toga.

"That's okay Grandpa Toga, we will tell you all about it when we come back," Yuna said.

"Haha, I am sure you will have plenty of stories to share, I can probably pull out a few of my old adventures to share as well when that time comes," Toga responded.

Daniel couldn't help but smile he really did enjoy the interactions of this family. He was truly excited when he saw Toga reach the bottom of the burrow, he couldn't wait to get out of there. He felt pretty proud when he saw the happiness and expression on Toga's face when he was looking around. "In a way, it was worth it, I suppose," Daniel thought while looking towards Toga. "Well, I am glad I could help you, I am gonna be leaving here, Toga it was nice meeting you and can you thank Ruthgar again for me the next time you two meet? It may be a while before I see him again," Daniel said.

"Of course, I can do something as simple as that, thank you, Daniel, by the way, Yuna if you are gonna be going with him, make sure you behave and stay out of trouble," Toga said.

"Of course, Grandpa, let's go now," Yuna said as she excitedly took off back up and out of the burrow.

Daniel laughed as he began following behind her trail, "Wait don't go running off, I want to bring some of the cherry tomatoes with us," Daniel called out. Daniel could no longer see Yuna since she had sprinted up and out of the burrow. However, that wasn't for long, arriving at the surface he could see Yuna over by the bush, with her head buried in it munch on the tiny fruits.

"Makes, sures, you eats, before we goes," Yuna said while looking back with a mouth full of food.

"Hahaha, thank you for that good idea," Daniel said as he pulled himself out of the burrow entrance and began moving towards the cherry bush.

"Welcomes," Yuna said as she turned back to the bush.

Daniel could only shake his head as he watched Yuna greedily eat the tomatoes, he decided to sit down beside her and begin stuffing his inventory with the fruit. He did not realize how tedious of a task it actually was to gather them and fill his inventory. He wanted to fill a large portion of his inventory with the tomatoes but that simply wasn't going to happen. His inventory space was simply too large once he removed everything but the tangerines. He quickly grew impatient and decided to stop when looked into his inventory and could see hundreds of the little tomatoes all clumped with the tangerines. Picking one a tomato off the bush and eating it, he turned to look towards the expectant Yuna, "You ready?" he asked. He noticed her excited tail flickering as Yuna's eyes lit up.

"I was waiting forever, let's go follow me I'll show you the way!' Yuna said as she spun around, she began to slowly and proudly trot northwest in the forest.