North from Less Than 3.

        February 14th? Meh. Valentines. Maybe Single's Awareness? No, not even that.

While Arashi may be a solo player, and it's hard to see just what kind of events they participate in, this particular holiday is not one of them. Rather than be anywhere near one of the towns, Arashi headed north to her favorite little secluded spot. A short swim over, and the were fang was on a small island (relative to the rest) that was nice, secluded, and shared numbers with her August birthday. It was a favorite spot of hers for all of the mentioned reasons, and why there was a well worn path and a permanent firepit setup overlooking the ocean. Currently it was crackling away as she attempted to cook a fish by hand. Handicraft, she was told by Xander, tasted better. She'd hopefully find out soon.

Honestly a lot of people probably passed by on the shore, saw the islands, and thought they were just part of a 'background' to give the illusion of a world much larger than a game world probably was. Silly people, were still thinking in terms of a game in the first place... Of course, assuming that there were actual islands was not all that better, because it can still be wrong.

So being the explorer she is Shiruba decided to find out for herself, because assumptions were not a good thing to just let lie around and confuse people. Fortunately, being a cait sith, she doesn't have a lot of fur to smell like 'wet dog', though her tail is going to take time to floof back up once she sloshes up on the small island's shore. "Oooh, there -is- actual land here." She pulls out a quill and some parchment, but before she can get to making any notes looks up and squints. "...Is that campfire smoke?"

Oh well, being first one on the island wasn't really her goal.

    hat -is- campfire smoke. Arashi's been here all day. Did some fishing, (Cause EVERY MMO ON THE PLANET HAS IT) and is still waiting to see if cooking outside the menu works! She hopes it works. The in-game species looked pretty tasty. She had no idea if these were any I R L matches, but hey, they were pretty easy to 'prepare' ... she hoped that part didn't mean they'd taste awful..

Welp, not going to learn anything just standing here staring at it. Shiruba tucks her notetaking supplies back in her inventory and trots towards the campfire. "Hello there! Wasn't expecting to see anyone else this far away from the central town. Or across the water."

Oh hey, fish. Over the fire. ".. Do you actually know how to cook or is this more experimenting?

    Flinch. People? ... Here? ... Seriously? ... ..... Lame. There's a long moment where it may be hard to tell if Arashi heard anything. She did, however, and -eventually- turns a glance Shuriba's way. "Experimenting," she notes before looking back at the fire. She may be a solo player but she isn't some damn dirty player killer. She'll deal with it. "Anything is better than wet crackers."

"Ain't that the truth." Well she didn't say go away (or anything else technically) so Shiruba trots over to sit down by the fire as well. Hey, it will help her dry off. "Fish is easy enough to sear at least." Pulls her parchment out again. "So I guess there are actual islands out here and not just for show, and they're not technically undiscovered either." Oh well. "... You haven't seen any uncommon mineral deposits have you?"

    The were-fang gives a shake of her head. "It's just a nice spot for me. I'm not sure if I can see your nodes since I don't have the same profession, so... you are free to look around. I'm not taking any claims," Arashi explains as she turns her fish on a stick.

One of the good things about friend lists is you can see where your friends are in the game, unless they're in one of those zones that blocks travel like the boss rooms. So Kaydon could see where Shriuba was, and she wasn't too far away from him. He had managed to get himself a boat and was coming to see what the hell she was doing out on this island.

Plus there was a good chance he could find more materials for his project here. Or at the very least fight some higher level mobs to give him some kind of XP. He's looking for just about anything to do since the steel creation process is slow going.

The plume of smoke from the campfire is hard to miss, and it appears to be the only one on the island so he treks towards it, after setting his boat on the beach.

"Explorer." Shiruba taps her chin. "... Well technically the Profession menus call it Archeologist, but with what it does it's pretty much explorer." She shrugs. "I think they just didn't want confusion between it, Tracker, and Investigator. So they picked a fancier name."

    Wow. For once someone actually HAD the same profession as her. "... wait. I don't remember having to look for deposits.." did she mis-read something somewhere? For a moment the fish is forgotten as she goes digging into the menus.

The were fang gnoll comes wandering up the beach, spotting Shiruba and..Oh hey it's that equine from the other day who helped him out with one of the missions. He tries to catch Shiruba's eye with a wave of one of his hands, but doesn't want to call out to her yet. She should be able to see him from the angle he's approaching from though.

Blink. Blink again. And then Shiruba laughs a bit as she realizes the confusion. "Oh, no, no. It's not specifcally a thing for the profession. But I have a friend who does have metalworking skills, so I'm helping him search." And that's about when the gnoll comes into her field of vision. "Speak of the were fang. Hi Kaydon!" Pause. "You're not all wet, you must of not swam."

    More menuing, then she pauses, "Oh." Menu closed. Fish retrieved. Broken sword used to slice a bit off. Nom.

        IT IS DELICIOUS.

    The rest of that fish is gone in nearly an instant. Sure, someone else is here, but after 42 days of wet crackers? She was in HEAVEN. Kaydon can wait.

"Hey Shribua." He grins, "Yeah I found a boat and rowed. It was quicker than swimming." He says, as he hmms, "Saw where you were on the friend list, wanted to come see what was up since I wasn't too far away." He considers, "Plus this island could have cool stuff on it, never been here."

Shiruba points at Arashi while she's got her food. "Wasn't expecting to find other players but that's cool too." She scoots a bit closer, the tip of her tail twitching. "Cool sword. Too bad it looks busted." She's never ever seen that render before, broken or unbroken.

    There's a boat. Of course there's a boat. WHY DIDN'T SHE LOOK FOR A BOAT. ugh. Doesn't matter. Fish good. Lots more fish over fire, now. She kept track of the time so, hopefully, if the game is a game, she now knows just how long it will take. Hurray.

    Sword. Yes. HER sword. Her horribly BROKEN sword. "Mph." Sore spot? Yes. very sore. Even 40 days later, because what she assumes is a repair quest IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO. "42 days ago." Should make it obvious why it broke.

"So this may be kind of a personal question." Kaydon says, as he looks at the two discussing the sword, "But can I take a look at it? I'm working on a project to develop a type of metal that's never existed in the game before...So I think I'm a pretty decent blacksmith I guess. But it's hard. Maybe if I look over your sword it'll help inspire me."

Shiruba does the math in her head. Her ears droop at the realization. "... Oh." She scoots back over the other way. "Sorry." They all had stuff downgraded but that sounds pretty personally.

Oh My God. It's happening again. DO THEY ALL KNOW XANDER. STOP ASKING FOR THE SWORD. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. This is all conveyed by just an eartwitch. It's an angry twitch, but it's just a twitch. Earflick. It doesn't really convey a lot. Instead... as she watches her roasting fish -very- closely. "Have you ever worked on, repaired, or created a legendary item, or even a relic?" Her tone is loaded. It should be obvious. If the answer is no? Fk off.

    To Shiruba's credit, she apologized. That might earn her one of those fish, if Kaydon doesn't send the dire-shire into a full rage. If only she was a warrior. You could click on her and see a rage bar! Alas, that does not exist here.

To answer her question, Kaydon pulls something off his belt. It's just a knife, sure. But it's a knife that doesn't exist anywhere else in Elder Tale Online, "You tell me." He says, as he spins it around in his hand and offers it to her handle first. It's a Marine Corps Ka-BAR, complete with correct insignias and weight.

"Look if you don't want help, that's fine. But there's a very good chance that thing will need real work to fix it, and not just a menu option or two. That's all I'm saying."

"Guess you've been busy with more than testing alloy combination." Shiruba just doesn't bring the broken sword up again. One grumpy reply was enough for her to get the hint it was a touchy subject, and she's not a smith either so it's not like she could do more than gawk at it.

    Well. That didn't go as intended. The offered blade is looked at first, accepted second, and finally recognized third. "Cowboy, hmm?" she's guessing, but those do look like American symbols. She offers it back, and then replies with a tiny vial with an even smaller shard of metal material in it. It is the same dark shimmering metal as the blades of the broken sword against her back. "Depends on if you have more of this." She knows the answer. It's the reason why she wanders so much. Maybe these two will find out, hmm? Xander wasn't quite so inquisitive, now that she thinks of it.

    It's certainly clear these two know each other, and one is helping the other with their forging exploits. ... hrm. He was at that Haggar clear. She has nothing better to do with the stupid pelt she got. She'll have to think about things depending on where their current conversation is going. And now that Shiruba isn't pressing further, Arashi does actually pluck one of the fish-sticks from the fire and slowly offers it over.

It's small and it's shiny. That is enough to get Shiruba's attention again, briefly. "Huh. Never seen that before either." She almost comments on how it just looks like something that would be found in a higher level and dangerous area, just because it IS extra shiny and rare looking. But that is something the equine is probably aware of and would just bring up more touchy points, so she keeps quiet.

That and she's promptly distracted from the thought by the offering of fish. Ah, food, the wolfgirl's one true weakness. "Thanks!" Nomming on that will at least keep her occupied for a bit.

Kaydon takes the blade back and sheaths it on his belt, "You're not far off, if I'm being honest." He replies, "But that's besides the point." He does take a second to look at the vial with the shard of metal in it, though he's not quite able to make out what it is at first, "I'm afraid I don't.." He muses, "Sorry." He considers for a moment.

"You obviously know your way around a blade, even one that's broken. And maybe I can't reforge it yet. But I have no doubt in my mind I'll be good enough some day. So I want to offer you my help, if you'll accept it."

    Well. Isn't he just the nice guy, isn't he? With Shiruba pleased and distracted by feesh, Arashi slowly turns her attention back to Kaydon. "That's .. fine. You may be waiting a while," she explains, heavily veiling her answer, but she didn't say no either. "You both said you were working on something, and the reward I got from the Duty the other day I have no use for, so I figure you can have it, then." If it's even useful for what he's doing. It's a pelt, not ore.

Shiruba is too busy eating fish to pay attention. Mmmm. It wouldn't really matter how good or not it is, food is food. Just made food is better than the bland generic food. Really, probably even made food that turns out bad is better than the generic game food, but that's a caerbannog hole no one wants to go down.

"I don't think I can use a pelt right now." Kaydon considers, "We're mostly looking for materials, people who can mine and honestly, folks who wanna donate money so I can hire Landers to mine for me. I'm doing my best to offer rewards for people who contribute, though it's going to be a long time before I can really offer anything substantial." He hmms, "Pelt might be good in the future to make some armor, though. It'd make a good liner."

    Eventually Arashi nods, reaches out, tugs another fish-stick off the fire, and passes it over to Kaydon, "Sounds like we both have our Ever Quests, so.. why not..? It's more than I've heard from the alliance or the guild.." not that she really listens to the chimlinks a whole lot.

Shiruba bites the last bit of fish off the stick, and sticks the stick back in the fire. Ears perk as she cants her head to the side. "Oh? Which group did you sign up with?"

"Really? Did you turn your chimlink on?" Kaydon asks, "I know you're probably a real solo type, that's the game I always played. But right now guilds are useful." He kinda still wants to make his own guild but he needs more people in order to make it happen, "I'll stick with Silver Sword for now though."

    It's been so long.. "I have them on, they're talking about Tri-Edge right now. The one thing I can't forgive is player killing non-sense.. especially if all the rumors are true about it.." she won't even entertain the thought that came to her. That maybe Tri-Edge figured out how to send people out of the game... but she really doubts that is true. And she isn't about to spread that thought either.

    "So... that one and -- yours." Pause. Blink. Surprised? Maybe a little. "Huh."

"Oh wow, imagine that!.. But I guess you're the sort that goes on your own most of the time." Shiruba stretchs, and hops up from her spot onto her feet. "After that snack, I'm gonna go look around the island more. Catch you guys later. Let you know if I find anything interesting."

"Well at least I know where i can contact you, if I need to." Kaydon says, "Here, hold on." He swipes open his menu and offers her to participate in what he's working on, "You don't have to donate anything if you don't want to, it's a no pressure thing." He says, "I'm just trying to get as many eyes on it as I can. I figure the more folks can help, the easier it'll be for everyone."

    Little more than a parting wave is given to Shuriba, but at least it isn't the next to nothing the Duty Players got. Kaydon probably remembers. "Mm.. I'm usually listening, I just don't respond much. Haven't really seen a need to, yet. Most questions I have are answered by other people anyway."

    Invite? Oh. Hey. Project. Steel? "I'll see what I can do. Maybe once I'm done looking through a few areas."