Chapter 5

The body of a woman holding an axe over her head could be seen at the back of a building decorated with wooden weapons.

“Chopping wood? Making sure I don't stab my foot? Making my skills grow? Split!”

[Chop]

Is this really the warrior guild? I've only been doing manual labour, feels more like I'm working at a sawmill.

“Seriously those men!!”

When I entered the warrior guild they treated me all right. When I told them I wanted to fight using big weapons they laughed at me.

“What can a puny woman do at the battlefield. Here we thought you wanted to work in the kitchen.”

“I'll kill you! You'll regret saying that!”

“Ohh I'm so scared. Ha, you won't even be able to lift a battle-axe.”

“Fine, I'll show you! Give me that.”

The burly man threw the axe on the floor and it hit the wooden floor with a heavy [Dunk]. Christine, now she called herself Ru-Lan grabbed the handle. She exerted all her strength but all it amounted to was the battle-axe handle being lifted off the ground by 5cm (2 inches). She panted heavily looking down at her palm, it was dark red and felt very itchy.

“See you couldn't even do that! Run back to mummy with your tail between your legs.”

“Hahaha!”

He grabbed his axe lying on the floor and left the guild. She felt frustrated at her own weakness and was determined to beat the crap out of him in the future.

“Hi there. I'm sorry for that man earlier. He's a high level warrior but his personality stinks.”

Ru-Lan glared at the young man. He wore soot stained clothes and had many scars and bandages on his arms and hands.

“I'm in charge of repairing weapons and armor here, name is Karp. If you still wish to join I can set it up with the guildmaster?”

“Of course I'm joining.”

“Then I'll tell him you will want the heavy course. When you're done you will be able to handle the big weapons. We'll even pay you if you help us with some errands.”

“What are you waiting for then? Run and get me started.”

I knew it was too good to be true. Ever since I started I haven't even touched a large weapon, all I've been swinging is this puny axe.

“Damn it. The other newbies are actually learning something, I've seen them spar.”

Annoying. I should have joined the mercenary guild instead. My friends stopped visiting me after three days IRL. Said I was being no fun, they'd rather become clerics or magicians. Fine you just sit behind comfortably sipping tea while I fight. No! I can't even afford to eat cake here! All my money goes to herbs for my blisters and the rest I'm saving. A beginner battle-axe costs 50 silver while a good beginner sword costs 10 silver. So unfair!

***

Today's physiotherapy session went all right. He mentioned my complexion seemed to be more full of life. I guess it's thanks to RR that I'm sort of happy again. I haven't been enjoying myself this much ever since my arthritis was discovered. I just hope my joints won't be too stiff from all this playing.

Today Henkel had returned to the café he previously worked at, it was time to tell a new story and it was exactly one month today since the last time the spice merchant came. René was out buying what he could get his hands on and Henkel managed the café in his absence. It has really been a benefit learning to brew tea and coffee, the method is basically the same and recipes are similar. He's been enjoying a good cup of tea both in and out of the game.

Just earlier his cooking skill had been raised to level 5 beginner. The brewed beverages he now made gave bonus stats after consuming. Everything from increasing regeneration to additional stat points.

Brewing is fun, it's easy because the rarer ingredients you use the more experience you get. There are so many different recipes you can make as well, just shifting the ratio of certain ingredients can give a totally different effect. Then I also have to remember them which take a lot of effort, thank god I'm keeping a journal on it. The only real downside I can find right now is that I can't cook. Even though I have “cooking” at level 5 I can't produce a decent dish, be it barbecuing or frying. All I'm confident doing is boiling eggs so I always got a couple boiled ones in my bag.

[ding]

“I'm back Henkel! You won't believe what things I come with.”

“Right on time. All the customers have just left so we have time to look over the things you bought.”

René took out the items from his bag. There were many different dried leaves and other kinds of dried ingredients. He boiled water and poured it into many small cups and then he took just a few leaves and put them into the hot water. This was the way to figure out the taste of the ingredients you had, small experiments. They sat and tested all the different ingredients René bought, they had to be careful handling them since it cost him 20 gold to buy them. 10 gold might not seem a lot to an adventurer but to a small business owner it was a months salary.

The new ingredients were one of the reasons Henkel had come back to the café, the other two were that he was going to the knight academy anyway which was just next door. The third reason was to chat with the customers to see if anyone had any information on the archaeological investigation that was going to take place soon. René hadn't heard anything about it which was regrettable, I'd have to wait after dinner when I tell my story to ask the audience. Hopefully some of the kids would have heard anything.

Time passed again and Henkel had finished another story and was asking the children if they knew anything about it. No one spoke up and they went home. Feeling dejected Henkel sat down checking the contents of his bag. Two boys approached him from the side.

“Excuse us. You mentioned about the archaeological expedition?”

“Yes, I did. Do you have anything you wish to share with me?”

“Ahm... Daniel's brother sometimes does some mercenary work part-time from being a knight. Sorry, this is Daniel he's a bit nervous since he really admires you. I'm Adam.”

“Take a seat and we'll discuss over some tea.”

“Daniel. You want to tell him?”

“You continue.”

“All right.”

“Please speak Adam. ”

“It's an open secret that Daniel's brother frequently goes off on mercenary missions. Then there was this one night not long ago when he came back home all infuriated. He had heard of a research expedition of some sort but they had refused to hire him. You see he's a very accomplished knight which is why nobody bothers him doing mercenary work but they flat out refused him. You can understand the frustration he felt being rejected for the first time. ”

“Sounds like he has a short temper that brother.”

“Well yes. The racket he made that day was loud enough to be heard five houses away.”

“Did he mention anything about them?”

“Not specifically, we could just understand some random words from all his shouting. We think they are at an inn that has some kind of relation with birds or feathers. The team consisted of only women but they wore hoods so he didn't know what they looked like. The purpose of their expedition had something to do with a corpse or burial grounds. That is all we heard.”

“This is incredible boys! You've done more than enough, how may I ever repay you?”

“I don't really want anything but Daniel would want to hear more stories. You think you can grant his wish?”

“I see no problem with that, if you have any time then I can tell you a new story just for you. I will of course continue finishing my story I tell to all the children at the normal times.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The two boy's eyes lit up and Adam grabbed Daniel's neck playfully.

“Isn't that great Daniel?”

“...ehm, Adam...”

“What?”

“You think Henkel would want to make a book of his stories?”

“Heck do I know? Ask him.”

Crouched together Daniel approached Henkel, he looked as a middle-school girl even though he was a head longer than Adam.

“Sir Henkel?”

“Oh Daniel, what is it.”

“Ehm... I was wondering...do you think you would want to print a book with your stories”

“A book?”

Do they have a printing press in RR? I've never seen a book with standardized text before though. Would you have to write everything down by yourself?

“I've never written a book before. How would that be possible? ”

“If you're not against it then just leave it to me. I remember all your stories.”

“You do?”

“Trust Daniel! He never forgets anything he's read, seen or heard before. Kind of creepy but it's gotten him the highest results in the knight academy exams. Too bad he's not as strong as me though, if only his muscles was as strong as his brain he would have become the strongest knight in history.”

“If you let me write them all down then I can show it to you. If you like it I would personally pay for copying the book.”

“I can't agree to that.”

“Eh? You won't make a book?”

“I mean I won't allow you to pay for the book. Leave that to me.”

“Waa! I'm so happy. Ok, let's go Adam. Bye Sir Henkel!”

“Good bye.”

There they run off. Ah! I forgot to ask them to introduce me to a knight instructor. I'll just have to go there in the morning. Well then let's see if the quest got updated. Sure did, hmm... Ok the quest is updated with new information. Locate an inn with a bird motive and find the female researchers.

I wonder why they didn't allow Daniel's brother to join? I hope it's not because they only accept women, if that's true then I won't be able to gather any information. I got time after the bar closes tonight so I'll go search for the inn at least.

The evening passed without a hitch, the same as all previous evenings though tonight both René and Henkel asked around if the customers had heard anything relating to the expedition. The customers were ignorant of the fact such an expedition existed and Henkel didn't acquire any more information. After cleaning up the usual mess the customers left he headed out to look for inns. René had told him there were 3 big inns in town and about a gross of smaller inns having only a few rooms for rent. Many players rented rooms in the smaller inns as a base for their party or guild.

Though it had only been maybe 2 weeks since RR was released on the market a number of guilds had already been formed. Most guild members were from previous games and already were acquainted with each other.

It was impossible for Henkel to investigate all of the guilds tonight and he only managed to scour a couple of inns, unfortunately none of them had any bird motif.

***

“There are no more logs left to chop!”

“You can't be serious!?”

“I've already chopped all the logs that were out in the small shack. I'm done so give me my next task!”

“Let me see.”

Ru-Lan and her instructor went outside, they both stared at the cut logs. She with a satisfied look on her face, he with a frown on his face.

“You call this firewood?”

“What, I did what you asked.”

“I asked you to make the logs into firewood, there is no way these thick logs can be used to keep a fire alive. Split them in two again, then you split them in half one more time. If they are thicker than your wrists than it means you're nor done.”

“I've already spent like 10 days chopping wood!”

“...You're right, I can't let you do the same again.”

“Oh so you do get it!”

“Yes, you need a new axe!”

“No, that's not what I-”

“Here take this one, the blade is sharper so you won't have much problem with chopping. Be sure you don't cut yourself.”

Ru-Lan was left alone again, she looked over at the logs and back to her hand which held the new axe. She shook her head and placed a log on top of the stump and swung the axe down.

***

“Guess this isn't it either.”

Henkel made an X mark on the map, 27 small X's all of them an inn he had investigated without success. He had spent a couple of days searching during breaks in his work.

That was about to change today though. He as usual told a story in the morning before the academy started it's training, this day though he didn't get any stat points. It was the fourth time he didn't get anything, last time he got points it was only 1 point to his charisma. Now though, they stopped being added. Henkel had his suspicions that he had repeated the actions too many times and the affection towards him had been maxed by the children coming to listen.

Henkel had just come back to the café and threw himself on the chair, it took much too long investigating by himself and he was exhausted.

“Why is the city so big? It's like a maze in the side streets hidden away from the main road.”

“Tell me about it. Do you know how long it took me to find this café!”

“Oh sorry I didn't notice someone was sitting beside me.”

“Don't worry it's good I found you. I've been sitting here for a while now.”

“Oh you've heard of me? I didn't know the news spread to the players.”

“What news?”

“You mean you're not here to listen to one of my stories?”

“Stories? No I came to find you Henkel.”

Henkel had a confused look on his face.

Do I know this woman? I can't really tell from her character as I'm sure I don't know any werewolves in real life.

“It's me, Christina! Do I really look that different than I do in reality? Sure I got some beautiful fur and a bit more muscles but my face and frame is the same.”

“Christina! By the gods I didn't expect to see you so soon. Are your four weeks over already?”

“Nah I'm starting on my sixth day today, I don't have the weekend shift so I can play lots more.”

“And seeing you have more time to spend today you took a break to come looking for me?”

“Precisely. I must say that you look more relaxed here than the times I've seen you at the doctor's. It makes me happy to see another side of you.”

“That might be so, it's refreshing interacting with the people living here. You don't have to pretend as much here.”

“You haven't been around many players then? I on the other hand can't stand the NPC I've met so far. You should have seen my first day here...”

She and Henkel spoke for a fair bit of time, Christine was so into her story that she didn't even notice she was drinking a fresh cup of tea René had poured. From the corner of Henkel's eye he could see René chuckling to himself listening in on their one-sided conversation. Not until Christina had told him all about her experiences she finally quieted down and began munching on a piece of brioche she had no recollection of ordering.

“It seems as they are working you to the bone. You should show me that person who insulted you so I can remember to exact a little revenge on your behalf.”

“He's not a player but an NPC. But we're still too inexperienced too deal with him on our own, he's at least over level 50.”

“I see the children are coming for lunch. Why don't you stay and listen to a story afterwards, you'd be my first player I've entertained.”

“Sure, I see no problem in letting some firewood wait for me.”

“Great! Then just for today I'll show you something extra.”