The sound of bone breaking filled the air as Hedwig chewed on the enemy scout’s skull. Ryan flinched and looked away. Having a powerful owlbear companion was amazing, but at times, his beastly appetites were quite gruesome and disgusting.
“That’s the third scout today,” Dawn said with enthusiasm. She wasn’t nearly as squeamish as Ryan about Hedwig’s dietary habits.
“I wonder why they have so many scouts in this territory,” Ryan said. They’d already travelled several hours west of Mara and to see the Braven scouts this far away was surprising.
“Either they have another village they plan on attacking, or they’re watching for another army to attack them. At this point I think either option is a reasonable option. I’ve seen rumors that the mods don’t like how easily the guilds have been able to take over villages and towns and plan on making things harder in the future, so all the guilds are trying to capture as much territory as they can before the rules change.”
Ryan thought about it. It did make sense, and he certainly wasn’t a fan of the way players were abusing the NPCs. To Ryan they were far too lifelike and real to abuse. In so many ways New Realm Online felt completely real. Sometimes it was amazing, but there were moments like watching Hedwig use a scout as a chew toy where he didn’t appreciate the realism as much. The virtual reality system was beyond amazing, but in such a dark and gritty world, having a weak stomach wasn’t a good combination. “As long as the Braven and all the other guilds leave Mara alone, I’m happy to stay in our little corner of the world.”
Dawn snorted and shook her head.
Ryan frowned. “What?”
“You. You’re so obtuse some times.”
Laughing, Ryan replied. “Tell me something I don’t know. Now, what did I say this time?”
“That you are happy to stay in your little corner of the world, yet here we are walking across enemy territory to go into the territory of another guild and rescue someone. You think this is going to be the last time something like this happens? Terry and the others picked you to be the leader for exactly reasons like this. You’ll drop everything to help out someone in need. There are going to be other medi-pod players that get screwed over just like Betty. This won’t be the last trip like this we make.”
As he absorbed Dawn’s logic, Ryan scratched his jaw. She was right, and it was something he should’ve known. Sometime he wasn’t as self-aware as he’d like to be, but Dawn and the others were right. If his friends were in trouble he’d help, it was that simple. And if Dawn was right, and others would need his help then his plans of hiding away and just developing Liberty into a city was folly. “I suppose you’re right. The question is, what do we do about it?”
“Get mounts, all this walking is overrated,” Dawn said. “That and get stronger. Who knows what kind of troubles we’ll get into when we find Betty and her friends.”
Ryan looked at Hedwig, who was licking his paws clean, looking like a cat who’d just eaten a field mouse. “Somehow I’m not too worried about trouble finding us.”
Dawn chuckled. “Having Hedwig eat all your enemies isn’t going to work.”
Ryan shrugged. “Maybe.”