Speaking of swordsmen, there was significantly more than she'd noted before. Previously, they would pass through quickly, and be on their way. But now, there was small groups of them keeping to the major streets. Gathering at corners that had good views of large swathes of the town; seeming to be keeping their heads on a swivel, even as they were close with other swordsmen. Everyone, it seemed, was on alert. The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with her sword, but she could probably scoop it with a finger and smear it on bread just as easily. It was an odd feeling, to notice this shift in the demeanor of the village-turned-town; yet for all the oddness of it she was glad. At least with this atmosphere there was little risk of a repeat of the situation from before coming up.

Still, the smell of fear in the air was a thin undercurrent of sour stink that made Mina want to wrinkle her nose as she moved between the flow of people chatting and going about their business. But at least the church remained a consistent landmark as the tallest structure. Albeit, one that had been refurbished to sit wider, with an extra segment to the bell tower and an extra floor to allow more room inside. A row of windows high into the structure scintillating with multi-hued light from the flecks of stained glass set into them. Not a whole image, as of yet, but still an improvement from the drab structure before.

If she was this close to the church......Mina glanced around, and found the inn she and Natty had first had lunch at so long ago tucked on the corner like usual. Her heartbeat picking up at the thought that she might see him relaxing at the familiar table inside, the one with the leg that used to wobble until he fixed it. Adjusting her sword from resting in the crook of her elbow to her hand, gripping the sheath tight as she walked faster across the street. Questions about the town could wait, questions about the players with the axes attacking them could linger a bit longer, right now there was only one thing that mattered---seeing with her own eyes if Natty was safe and well!

Bursting into the inn's common room, she scanned the space quickly. Picking out the various locals and players alike, before noticing that there were several faces missing from the throng. Natalia, the innkeeper, wasn't behind the bar; nor was Wilson the painter at his usual table with Acolyte Rodrick. In fact, most of the faces were new! To Mina, at least. New.....until her gaze slipped to the far wall, where she found the familiar faces sketched onto memorial plaques. Natalia, Wilson, Rodrick, and many more......Her hopeful expression fading as golden eyes alighted on the last familiar name in the list. Natty......

Natty had died? But then why didn't he just log off? Why hadn't he answered? Her mind reeling with questions and far too few answers found in the roil of emotions that followed, Mina stumbled to the side and collided hip-first into a table. The stopping force of the impact forcing her to sit down. Hard. Rattling the chair as it tried to jump and skid underneath her as she simply stared at the table for a long span of moments.....Struggling to process the whelming grief surging up through her chest amidst the confusion and disorientation. Just what had happened in the hour she'd been offline? Just what had spurred all this change?

A hand reached out to grasp her shoulder, just as Mina saw another hand set a tankard of ale on the table in front of her. The foaming head of the draught fizzing with a soft hiss, while the act itself drew her gaze up to the warm expression of the man attached to both of the hands in question. Bright green eyes twinkling merrily, a handsome face and short blond hair that seemed perpetually afflicted with numerous cowlicks. He was wearing a sky blue tunic over his leathers, a white hawk emblazoned on the chest of it. Sword a showier version of her own blade, the blade a bit wider than her own with an upturned crossguard and gem-capped pommel that gave Mina the same impression as the basic hero weapons in other games. Drawing her brow to arch as she caught the sight of two other figures with the same tunic nearby.

Another man, this one larger than the sunny smiler in front of her, built like a barrel given legs and looking to be significantly older as well. His beard and mustache were uniform and flecked with salt amidst the chestnut tresses of it, a sprinkling of age that was reflected in his shoulder-length waves of hair as well. But the lines in his weathered face spoke to more smiles than frowns, particularly in the crow's-feet around his eyes, a nutty brown that was warm like hot chocolate. A greatsword slung across his back, peeking out from over his shoulder. Beyond him was a tall woman built like a whipcord. Long black hair spilling down to her waist around the belt of her tunic, sharp features cutting at a glance with her angular brows and high cheekbones, but her eyes were kind, a piercing violet that twinkled slightly with a mischievous light. The sleekly curved shamshir on her hip jingling with a small motion as she adjusted her posture. Lips quirking up in a slight smile as she caught Mina eyeing her, the scar cutting up her cheek from the right side of her jaw pulling her smile a bit crookedly. Before the woman remarked in a sly tone that had a faint purr to her neutral toned voice. Ambiguous at best, and not quite masculine or feminine to the ear.

"Careful Cade, looks like this one might be more my type than yours~"

Immediately, the sunny looking man's expression turned dour, shooting a glare back at the tall woman over his shoulder with a petulant pout. "Hey hey hey! You don't know that! And it's Kincade, Val, Kin. Cade. Not Cade!" His expression brightened again as he turned his attention back to Mina, continuing in a more chipper tone than his petulance had suggested a moment ago. "You looked like you'd just been hit upside the dome with a bad bit of news, miss. So I figured you might like a drink, and some company! The name's Kincade Westone, and that rascal behind me is Valerie, while the big guy is Sir Princeton. Mind if we take a seat? Keep you company?"

Her instinct was to say no, to tell them to leave her be, but Mina knew that there was critical information she was lacking. For how big of a game it was, Age of Ambition had a massive amount of information flitting through it in the world and through the players......She would be at a disadvantage, if she didn't find out why things had changed, at the very least. Plus, the antics of this Kincade, at least, were too amusing to pass up. Reminding her of the other games that supported in-game chats, where there were always people that had a hero complex who took things far too seriously. He had that air to him. A would-be hero.....it was refreshing, for once, rather than tedious.

Perhaps that was because this game was so different from any she'd ever played before? That the tropes people leaned into, rather than tedious and tiring, felt fresh and new all of a sudden. Pink eyes glinting as Mina gave a small smile and nodded. "Go ahead~ I could use a good laugh. And it's Mina, not miss."

A laugh escaped the weathered man as he clapped a hand on Kincade's back. The woman, Valerie, snickering behind a hand while taking a seat. Before the blond man himself pulled up a seat and pouted. Flustered and flushed in the face, taking a big quaff of his ale. Leaving the big man, Sir Princeton, to speak. His voice a warm rumble of cascading noise. Like a rockslide in the distance, if it was somehow soaked in molasses. "Quick-witted, I see! I haven't seen someone handle young Kincade here so handily since the captain....." He gave a kindly smile, taking a seat, before humming as one hand came up to stroke his beard absently. "That was quite a look you had though, miss Mina. Are you alright?"

Sighing softly, Mina shook her head at the candid question. A straightforward and caring man, it seemed, was Sir Princeton's type of personality. Looking down into the tankard that had been given to her by Kincade, she didn't respond for a long span of moments. Before taking a sip from it, and setting the drink back down. Clasping her hands together as she rested them on the table. "No......not really. I was away, and in the time I was gone, so much has changed." Her gaze trailed to the memorial wall, and all three of the figures at the table with her seemed to clue in. Kincade rubbing the back of his neck while Valerie's hand reached over and squeezed Mina's own. Sir Princeton's cocoa hued eyes softening empathetically.

Whether these were other players, or npcs, it didn't matter. Who and what this gathering of souls was was irrelevant, in the moment. Only that there was a mutual recognition of one heart's grief, and space given for it to rest and be seen. A moment of silence given, before Valerie spoke up in a softer tone. "You must have missed a lot, then. The attack? The expansion? The garrisoning players?"

So they were players....that made things a little easier to talk about, at least. "The last thing I was present for was a group of Axemen sneaking up to attack the village. I dealt with them, then logged off for a bit to take a shower, and came back to all of this." Gesturing to the space around them, she looked between Kincade and Sir Princeton, before glancing to Valerie. Frowning slightly. "So what the hell happened in the hour I was offline?"

Valerie ran a hand through her hair, sighing softly as her sharp eyes narrowed slightly. Lips pursing, as she frowned too. "So it's only been an hour? That's....really weird. Because I logged in about an hour ago, myself, and it's been a whole month already in here." 

Sir Princeton, stroking his mustache, gave a thoughtful hum. Before musing aloud. "I suspect, they've snuck in an update when we were all logged in. Or out. Under everyone's noses, certainly." He thumbed over to the wall behind him. "The long and the short of it is, really, rather simple....at least for how absurd it is when you take a step back and look at it. Those Axemen you fought were, it seems, only an advance scout. The village was brutally attacked not long after." He gave a quiet hum, before sighing heavily. "It was only because the corpses of the slain were found, that we were able to muster any resistance at all. To think the territory war would come this far inland..."

Tilting her head, Mina arched a brow. "The territory war? What's that?" At the incredulous looks given to her by the trio, she lifted her hands in a warding gesture. Shaking her head. "I only started this game a few weeks ago, mind you, I haven't even left this....I suppose it's a town now....but this area, yet."

This time it was Kincade that spoke up. Setting his tankard down a bit too hard, the ale inside sloshing around as he exclaimed in shock. "You're telling me you haven't even been to the borders yet? That's where all the best fighting is!" Calming after a stern look from Valerie, he cleared his throat and leaned in as he quieted to a conspiritorial murmur. "One of the options in Age of Ambition is cross-faction conflict....People from different "paths" can fight each other, like you found out. But it's for more than just the thrill of it---there's real stakes! You can capture the territories of other Paths, if you wipe their presence out of an area, and rebuild it with your own people and npcs."

Sir Princeton added in a solem tone more serious than his normally warm rumble. "This place is quite close to the statue that new Sword path players spawn at, when they start the Path....if they had succeeded, our whole Path would be stagnated by the loss of new players coming in." He took a sip of his own drink, which smelled more like cider than ale, before continuing solemnly. "That, is why it was decided that the village needed to be expanded into a proper town. So that not only can it be better fortified against future incursions, but to support those that will be protecting it and new players alike."

"All the better that it gave us a chance to come back through this place and meet you, Mina! The Captaini is out at the moment, but the White Hawks have been needing a new member to balance out our fighting power!" Giving a winning smile, the blond man intoned cheerfully. "Taking out four Axemen all by yourself when you haven't even been to the border is some next level skill! What'cha think? Care to join us? We're going to be heading to the north, as our next stop, so you'll get to see a lot of the Sword Path territory if you come with us!"

"That's if she passes the test." Valerie chimed in with a dry tone that couldn't quite manage to quell her smirk. "She still has to earn her wings, you know the Captain's rule."

Earning her wings.....joining a group....seeing the territory of the Path she was on. It would have bored her, if it was any other game. Been too drole and rote to join a group just to have to do the same things she would do alone. But perhaps it was this game...perhaps it was because it was this place, that made her feel alive, that washed away the melancholy for a while. Perhaps it was because she'd learned this world was alive, reacting to stimuli in a cause and effect give and take, growing with the people that worked within it to grow themselves....perhaps it was all that, that made her chest warm with something she hadn't felt in a long time. A burning flame lighting within her that made her fingers tingle, and Mina's lips curve into a smile as her eyes flashed golden in the low light of the inn. Picking up her tankard and swigging it with a chug, drinking the draught dry and slamming it down with vigor.

"A test, huh?" She grinned all the wider, looking at these three that had approached her with....friendship. An urge to giggle giddily barely contained. "Alright. Let's do it! Where do we start this test?"