"All clear." Ory whispered, after checking out the town square. It's not as if this floor had a substantial player base; most players had gone to higher floors or were still in the town of beginnings. But is was still hard to get a moment when the teleporter in the town square was not occupied. Sharpclaw came back from spying on a few other alleys. "No one's coming." he stated with excitement. I wanted to keep them out of our troubles but Ory and Sharpclaw knew Urbus better than we did. "Time to go then." I said to Karla. Then I put my hand out to Ory and he shook it. "Thank you for your help guys. Hope this will all be over soon." I shook Shaprclaws hand. Karla hugged both the boys. "Stay together, and stay safe." she told them. We rushed to the teleporter and called out our destination : Elland

We had debated whether we should have confronted Kabel. But without sufficient resources to back us up we would not be able to control him. There was no police force in the game. I thought under the circumstances people would have maintained a certain civility and social responsibility. I guess I was wrong and until the situation changed we would have to watch our backs. But on this floor we were basically unknown and had a new chance of passing under the radar of those that desired us harm.

So here we were on floor 10. Eighteen floor bosses had been beaten at this point. The clearing group, as people had started calling them, was coordinating tactical scouting parties to find the floor boss then setting up a huge force to take it on. It was giving players hope to know that there were people that were actually pushing to clear the game. I envied such courage and determination and secretly wished that I would one day be of that caliber. But at this point our levels weren't nearly high enough

So, first things first, we decided to have a look around town and find a place to stay. One didn't actually need to have a room, but there was a sense of security and privacy when you had a room that you could go to that wasn't accessible to everyone. We found an inn that offered rooms with two beds. But Karla did not want to share a room. I guess after the time we spent in the storeroom, she wanted her own space.

The next few days we explored the area to orient ourselves. The town was very English or northern European in style. The town was surrounded by a stone wall with a moat and four gates complete with drawbridges and portcullises. In the center of town, in the highest area stood a square keep, three stories high with it's own dry moat and a single gate. The keep dwarfed the other buildings around it which were only one or two stories high, with thatched roofs and plaster walls. Many houses were also made to use the city walls as part of their construction. Everything was built very tightly around itself. The streets were crowded both with NPCs and farm animals, some in pens and some roaming free: pigs, chickens, ducks, the occasional cow, and a fair share of cats and dogs.

The wilderness around the town was also very English in style, changing from tidy walled farmlands to grazing pastures. Beyond that the wilderness varied between forest clumps and windswept moors, eventually leading to the entrance to the floor's dungeon. We learned that a field boss was roaming the moors: a huge hound that could be heard howling some evenings all the way to town. At night the wilderness filled with undead farmers, wolves, and dire rats in some fields. "Best not be going out at night." came the warning from the NPCs.

Alternately during the day the fields had many "farm-able" resources. For those that had the proper skills they could get a rich variety of grains and vegetables from the farmlands, meats, wool and hides, from the grazing pastures. The town was home to a few players who were trying their hand at these gathering skills. There were even quests to prepare country fairs and to help setup for market day. We hadn't given much thought to other skills ourselves but if we ever desired to play farmer, this would be the place to do it.

But even on a farm based floor there was plenty of stuff to hunt, and we did that for a couple of days. We would head out as far as necessary to get creatures that were just challenging enough for our level. The floor had the simplest creature progression to date. We were never surprised by overly powerful creatures, you could almost count your steps as you left town to know what level the mobs would be at. Though it was easier to control what you would encounter and where, It had a risk of seeming too easy. The mobs could kill you if you were careless.

The whole place had an extreme sense of stability. We enjoyed it the first couple of days, the hunting was easy and the stress was at it's lowest. We hunted a lot and quickly, we barely touched our potion supplies, and we hardly needed breaks between mobs. But the novelty soon wore off and Karla seemed weary of the whole thing.

"You up for a little hunting?" I proposed. Karla nodded without enthusiasm. "You ok? We can do something else if you'd like?" I asked. "No. Let's go." she said as she snapped out of it and headed to the edge of the town. I didn't press her with questions and simply followed her, but something was definitely bothering her. "A little exercise should straighten her out." I hoped to myself. I wasn't wrong but I wasn't completely right either.

"Karla let's take on the field mushroom over there." I pointed to a blue and white, round topped, 2 meter tall mushroom. Karla was looking elsewhere and not paying attention. "Karla?" I said a little louder. "What? Did you say something?" she asked. I widened my eyes in slight annoyance. "Mushroom? Fight? Get xp? Shall we?" I pestered. "Yeah. Ok. Sorry I wasn't paying attention. You start, and I'll come in right after." she bumbled. I frowned as she finished, I knew then exactly how my teachers must have felt on a daily basis. I took out my battle axe, charged a sword skill, and rushed it.

I sliced right below the head and it took a lot of damage. "We can get through this one in about fours hits." I told Karla. I swung a second time and yelled "Switch!". Nothing happened. The mushroom shot out a stream of spores which weakened my attacks and slowed me down. I was still recovering from the sword skill when it slammed it's head on me, consuming a quarter of my health. "Karla! Help please!" I yelled. "Sorry!" Karla gasped. She quickly stabbed it with her katana but without a sword skill activated. It suffered minor damage. I saw her hesitate. "Karla, concentrate!" I yelled again as I slammed my axe with a downward swing, which stunned the mushroom. Karla, now fully in the fight, released a dual slash attack that finished with a powerful stab. The mushroom froze, then exploded into shards of blue-green light.

"What's up with you today?" I gasped. She looked at me embarrassingly and sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just not into it, I guess." she replied sheepishly. "Are you ill?" I asked even if in-game it would be very hard to actually be sick unless it was part of a quest or an effect from an attack. "No, of course not. But would you mind if I didn't hunt today?" she asked. "Uh, ok we can do something else, there are in-town quests ..." I started before she interrupted me, "No, you go ahead and hunt, I'll take a break and just spend a little time alone. I'm too distracted to be of use anyway" She said. "Oh. Alright then. I'll just do a little more and head back later. Message me if you need anything." I said trying not to show my disappointment. She waved and headed back to town.

I waited till she left then also headed back to town. There was no point in doing anymore hunting if Karla wasn't there; it just didn't feel right. Once in town I simply exchanged the drops I had received and then wandered through town. I could have done some quests but doing them alone is not as fun. When evening fell I headed back to the inn by myself. I sat at a table and ordered a light meal. Karla never showed up. As I finished my meal and was drinking the tea I had ordered, I looked a long time at the second cup that always comes with the order.

The cup remained empty.