New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Two of them were humanoids, almost blending in the night, while the other two were canine. No lethal strike was ever made from any of them, as they seemed to be training.

"Violette! Keep focus! I see water dripping." came Astaroth's voice, sounding like a drill sergeant.

"Yes, teacher!" The other player replied.

This other player was called Violette. She was a young girl that had only recently started playing the game.

She had chosen the Ash Elf race because one player in the tournament had made a deep impression on her. And by maybe God's will, she had ended up in the same village as said player.

After fumbling around for a while, trying to figure out what to do, she eventually tried leaving the village. It was what normal players did when starting games, or so she had read online.

Violette didn't even know she was making a mistake, and luckily for her, someone stopped her. A gruff hand had landed on her shoulder just as she was walking across the barrier, protecting the entrance.

"Where do you think you are going, girly?" The deep voice had asked her.

Violette had practically turned into stone. The voice was so similar to her father's, her instinctual reaction was to apologize.

Only after apologizing for the third time did she raise her head. That's when she noticed the man wasn't her father.

The tall, well-built man before her was none other than Chris Pentalogius. He frowned when she looked at him.

"Hmm? I don't recognize your face. Are you new here?" Chris had asked her.

After explaining her situation to the man, he laughed and brought her back inside the village. He explained to the girl that outside the barrier was no place for a kid to wander.

They had forced Violette to stay in the village all day before she met someone willing to take her out. And that person had been Astaroth, the player she had seen in the tournament streams.

This was now almost a month later, and the girl might have not grown in size, but she definitely had grown in power. Astaroth had been slowly training her, every day showing her new things.

He also brought her on his hunts, making sure they were in a party together, so she could benefit from his kills. In a month, she had made it over level thirty, and was now almost reaching the mainstream level ranges.

Violette had been blessed with an amazing affinity for water magic, much to her displeasure. And so, Astaroth had been training her in the arts of combat magic.

He would bring her out of the village to hunt, monitoring her at all times, only making sure she didn't get killed. Her growth had been extremely rapid, considering she was still a child.

This went to show how kids had the highest adaptability speed among humans. She had also been learning how to control more than one spell simultaneously, trying to emulate a mage she had seen in the tournament.

Astaroth recognized the attempt, and had some thoughts about the woman that had used that in the tournament.

'I wonder how they are all doing,' he thought, keeping up his attacks on her, trying to break her focus.

Many times, her concentration would break. But that was what training was for.

Right now, Violette was keeping up a disk of water in the air while fighting with Astaroth simultaneously. The disk was floating slowly, amplifying the moonlight under it, like a magnifying glass.

And right under that concentrated beam of moonlight, a small ethereal object was floating. It was an egg.

Cracks covered the egg, and it would occasionally shake lightly. Astaroth monitored it at all times, even while he fought off the girl shooting spells at him.

He had gotten much better at splitting his focus himself in the last month, and most of the time, it was like two brains were thinking in parallel inside his skull. This had been Aberon's idea.

The egg suddenly started shaking more rapidly. Astaroth swatted aside an incoming spell before lifting his hand in a stop motion.

"Let's take a break. It's almost time," he said to Violette.

Violette then snapped her head toward the egg, as a bright smile illuminated her face.

"It's hatching! I can't wait to see what's inside!" She screamed, gushing.

She looked like she had just been promised a puppy. Astaroth chuckled at the reaction.

He wasn't much better, albeit he contained his excitement inside himself. It had been a month since he used melding with the entity within that egg.

Since then, he had already chosen a name for her, because it was a she, as the creature had abundantly made clear through thought. He was naming her Luna.

Yes, that might be very unoriginal, considering she was feeding on moonlight, but she had reacted the most to that name. Hence, he called her that.

The egg was shaking faster and forever by the second, now.

A few seconds later, it stopped shaking entirely. And then, two holes appeared in it.

From these holes, two little stubs were poking. The stubs retracted inside, before another impact on the inside of the egg broke the top of the shell.

A small head popped up from the orifice. It was a fawn, with lustrous grey and white fur.

Her eyes were like milky white mirrors, reflecting the moonlight on them. Above the fawn's head, a small white bead was floating in place.

When the fawn moved its head, the bead followed the movement. Astaroth found it adorable, but not as much as Violette, who was almost crying in joy.

"Welcome to the world, Luna," Astaroth said, walking forward, and picking the small creature from the egg.

*Squee!* *Squee!*

"Awwnnnn!" Violette gushed, hearing the fawn's small bleats.

Right as the fawn bleated, the moon itself pulsed. This startled Violette.

"What was that?" She asked, slightly scared that a beast would lunge at them.

"That was a blessing. From Luna's mother, or progenitor, I should say," Astaroth responded.

"It was a welcome to the world for our new little friend." He added, looking up at the moon with gratitude.

This fawn would someday be one of his most treasured and strong ally.