Caelus Online

Tyrell awoke to the sun's rays peaking through the gaps in his tent’s entrance, inwardly cursing that the locals in Caelus had not invented things like zippers and insulation. Or, well at least added such things to the cheap tent he had bought. The morning chill reached his skin even through the thick woollen blanket that he was covering himself with causing him to slightly shudder.

The morning air on the highlands was crisp and cold, an aspect he would appreciate at any other time that did not involve him waking up. He could also feel some soreness from sleeping on the ground, but decided he would stretch it out when he decided to 

leave the little warmth he had.

He took a few moments to check through his messages, mainly scrolling through some of the casual banter mixed among administrative talk in the guild leader's chat while responding to a few private messages from some of the guild's new recruits asking specific questions. After reading through all of his pending notifications, he got up and crawled out of his tent. 

The camp was still relatively quiet, it was half 6 in the morning and it seemed only the early risers and the military guys were awake. He sluggishly returned to the campfire which had thankfully been kept burning throughout the night, taking a few moments closer to the source of warmth to let the remaining dregs of the morning chill leave his limbs before sitting down and opening his system menu.

He found a cup of lentil soup in his inventory that he picked up on Aurora’s recommendation the day he had left the Allenos Kingdom, now cold since a day had passed. 

Still relatively sluggish, Tyrell picked up one of the communal pots that the guild had provided for everyone’s use, pouring his soup in to reheat before finally settling down to wait for his breakfast to be ready.

His attention which had been fixed on the dancing flames was broken when a message came from Ben into the chat, letting him know the second group was about to finish their trip through the mountains. 

The message caused a little flutter of anticipation to rise in his stomach, it was getting closer to the time that they would be in the first large-scale fight that featured Immortal Adventurers, and was likely to be the first major thing streamed in the game. One of those events that might end up being spoken of in many years time as the beginning of everything.

And he would be at the front of it all. While he did not care too much for fame or being in the spotlight, instead preferring to just enjoy his time with friends than with random suckers fawning all over him, he would not shirk his new responsibilities. Granted, since the whole truth came out almost immediately and the ante was upped, it made the role he agreed to all the more important. But he had agreed to it and was now more resolved than ever. 

Tyrell took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, the clean and crisp feeling helping him focus his attention back to his soup which he poured back into his cup, steaming up into the cold air. 

The first few sips reminded him somewhat of his mother's home cooking, and a memory of when Aurora had come around to stay one night flashed through his mind.  His mother had prepared something very similar and it was likely this reason why she had recommended it to him.

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A warm smile played on his face as the realisation hit him, allowing him to be startled when Russel clapped him on the shoulder as he sat down.

“Hey man, how’d you sleep?”

Tyrell looked up from his soup as he sat up to get a look at Russel whose appearance was somewhat of a mess. His hair which he had kept the same as in real life was left untied, creating a long mess that covered most of his head. The distinct difference from his usual look accentuated the dark bags under his eyes which gave away how badly he had slept. 

“Not bad, not bad, though you still look a little out of it.”

Russel gave a snort as he started searching through his inventory, no doubt scanning for something to eat.

“How the fuck did you manage to sleep? Bruv, the floor fucking sucks. I logged out for a couple of hours to use my own bed.”

Tyrell gave a huff of laughter as he was about to take a sip of his soup, again taking in Russel's somewhat dishevelled appearance.

“Damn, you a city boy through and through! If our resident posh girl can rough it in the mountains, I’m sure you can get used to a tent.”

Russel rolled his eyes as he finally selected some form of filled baguette from his inventory and gave Tyrell a judging look.

“Aint you one to talk? You are London through and through, so don't chat shit!”

Tyrell gave a triumphant smirk as he eyed Russel's baguette like breakfast with judgemental scrutiny.

“I may be a Londoner now, but I grew up in Sweden. Best of both worlds doncha know”

Russel gave Tyrell a double take in disbelief, his eyes squinted with scepticism.

“No fucking way, I’m calling bullshit.”

Tyrell let out a laugh as he finished off his soup, tossing the wooden cup into the fire.

“Ay man, ask the others if you don’t believe, but I lived there till I was 7 and we moved to London. Anyway, I’ma go find Munro and get myself ready, need to figure out how to get that armour back on. The realism is dope, but armour straps aren’t.”

Russel raised his fist to Tyrell in a parting fist bump as he spoke, understanding radiating from his expression.

“Spitting some truth there brother, armours a bitch. Give a shout if you need a hand.”

Tyrell returned the gesture as he stood up and walked away, enjoying the moment of calm as he returned to his tent, anticipating when they would all be thrown into facing what was left of the gnoll tribe after Aurora had been after them. Although she had not given him or anyone else much information on how many she had killed, she still forewarned of at least 250 at minimum. 

A daunting prospect indeed.

****

The rest of the morning had passed relatively quickly, following the 7 am wake-up call, anyone not already up had an hour to get themselves ready for the day, followed by some practice of getting into their rough planned formation while waiting for the other group to arrive. 

Since they had so little time, the formation was kept rather simple and easy to follow, something that most people could recognise from standard tactics used by uncoordinated PvP groups from prior MMOs.

They were split into three groups, the front row consisted of any melee focused classes, while behind them sat those who were designated ranged fighters. There were a few players who focused on support, and were spread throughout the formation depending on where they were likely to be most effective. 

Tyrell had been quite surprised. He had expected a lot of grumbling and complaints from the new guild members, however, they had only 3 of their players refuse to follow orders. They had their current contributions gained from participating in this endeavour so far removed from their progress to rising up within the guild, and he assumed that they would be leaving Lex Divina very soon on their own initiative since they did not get their way. 

After all, the guild had no use for people who would compromise their activities and refuse to follow orders, especially now since their actions now had real consequences to real, living people. 

Tyrell had no complaints either. He had, over their relatively short time travelling, the chance to speak to most members of their group, answering questions, casually chatting, or giving advice. He had spoken to two of those people removed from the group, and had to admit he found their personalities grating at the very least. 

That was one of the major problems with open recruitment like Aurora had been pushing, many issues could arise from letting such people into the guild, especially at the start. 

But he had to admit, the way she had been going about preventing many of those issues was quite impressive, no doubt created from her own experiences and what she had seen in the future. Or was it the past? Time travel was confusing sometimes.

Any person who entered the guild was assigned the rank of an uninitiated member. It was a rank where you could contribute to the guild, and once everything was properly established, received basic access to the resources of the guild. 

While that may sound relatively uninteresting, Aurora had set up several aspects of the guild that would create massive incentive for people to contribute and attempt to further the guild's progress.