--An) Merry X-mas all, another chapter on the way.--

Vance and Alice walked out of the bathroom in fresh clothes with small, refreshed smiles on their faces. In the bath, the two kissed for a while but did properly wash up. "Alright, let's have breakfast and then head out. We will be going to the forest to begin leveling up."

Sally, who watched as the two acted as if nothing happened let out a small sigh of relief, that was until Alice skipped over to Sally's side and hooked her arm with Sally's, and whispered into her ear. "It was much bigger than I thought, but not so scary."

"Pffft!" Sally almost tripped and fell on her face as she choked on air. She turned and stared at her princess with wide eyes. 'Did she need to tell me this!?' But seeing her big smile, Sally did not say a word. She knew they did not cross the line but now that her princess had exposed her body to a man, it meant she was destined to be with him from this day forth. But that did not mean she needed to know the small details!

After breakfast, the three got their armor on, did a bit of shopping, then left the city through the south gate, the same gate they entered through when they first came to the city. "Alright, we are already teamed, so anything killed by any of us should allow all of us to gain experience. Sally, you will protect Alice while I take the lead. With your level reduced along with your stats, it will be best to just stay as Alice's guard for the time being. My goal is to get the two of you to level ten today."

"Are we really camping outside, though?" Sally asked. They had stopped off at a general store to pick up a few items, and one of them was a tent. Sally did not know if they would be sleeping outdoors or not.

"Yeah, we are on a mission to get as many levels as possible before we have to go to the palace the day after tomorrow. So it will be better to sleep out in the forest. I made sure to hold our room at the inn as well, so we have a place to stay while we are in the area. But Sally, me, and you will need to be on guard starting tomorrow. Alice's hair should return to normal by tonight." Vance gave a reminder. Once Alice's hair is seen, her identity as a princess will be discovered instantly. Once the prince hears about it, he is sure to make a move. Because of this, Vance also hoped he could gain a few levels before then.

"I understand…." Sally nodded as her eyes wandered to the spot between Vance's legs. The words from her princess early kept running in her mind causing her to unconsciously look at that certain area. Vance nodded without noticing anything strange only Alice noticed as she gave a sly smile. What she was thinking at this time, no one knew.

When they exited the city, the area around the road was packed with players. When Vance saw this, he frowned. He noticed that many low level monsters that were not here before had also started to spawn here. Slimegoons, are monsters made from magic. They are level 1 to level 2 and are easy targets for the people in this area. Seeing this, he understood why some of the early players leveled faster than others. It was their starting zone.

The area around the capital was always filled with low level players. But he started in a different place than others, so he never paid much attention when he had to come here for a life quest once. But now that he was looking at it from another perspective, he kind of wished he had spawned here in his early levels to make his life easier. But then again…. As he looked around, he saw that not everyone was having an easy time. Many players were getting their butts handed to them by the slimegoons.

Slimegoons were tricky because if you did not attack them and kill them in a single strike by stabbing their cores or shattering them in some other manner, they would split their body, creating another slimegoon. This made killing them hard but, at the same time, easy once you got the hang of it. He could see a few players had gotten the hang of it, but there were a few that had been encircled and slashing away, causing multiple slimegoons to appear around them.

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Vance shook his head as he pulled Alice by her hand and walked ahead. Well, at least he tried. He only got a few steps when a group of players stopped in front of him. "Hey! You look strong. Can you help us out? We are having a hard time leveling."

Vance looked at the three young men, who, all but the one speaking to him, were looking at Sally and Alice and frowned. He opened his mouth and said one simple word: "No."

He then reached out with his other hand and grabbed Sally's hand, and pulled both her and Alice along. Sally was caught by surprise when her hand was grabbed, and did not know what to do. She just started wide eyed at the hand grasping hers as Vance pulled her along.

Vance just wanted to get to the forest without making a scene, but it seemed the three young men were not going to give up so easily. "Hey, wait!" one of the young men yelled out and grabbed Sally's free hand. Vance paused his steps, pulled Alice and Sally behind him, freeing Sally's hand from the young man's grasp, took out his sword, and thrust it into the young man's neck. "Never touch my people. Go sit at the spawn point."

"You…." The young man's body began to break apart in balls of light and disappeared. Both Alice and Sally stared at the scene in surprise. The two other young men took a step back.

"Look, we did not mean to offend you, but…." The young man who was trying to apologize did not get to finish before Vance's sword cut cleanly through his neck. The other young man wanted to run, but as soon as he turned around, a sword went through his chest, sending him back to the spawn point along with his friends. Vance killed all three young men instantly, all because one of them grabbed Sally.

Alice had a small smile on her face as she quickly began picking up the copper coins that had dropped. Each of them gained 3 experience each per kill, so they got 9 experience total for the low level players. Sally was the first to speak as she said: "Th-thank you but…. Was that okay?"

"Hmmm? Just some people who do not know basic manners. You both are with me from now on, and as friends and team members, I will protect you both from these other worlders." Vance replied as he walked over and patted Sally on the head, causing her to stare at Vance in surprise.

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