Haru: Apprentice 1/Acolyte 1
Optifex: Legionnaire 1/Initiate 1
Haru marched back toward the auction house and looked at the trade stations within the wide stone depot. Without hesitation she walked up to one of seven that looked the least crowded, right in the middle.
“Are you sure you have that much money?” Optifex sounded like he was pleading. “Maybe we can see what the NPC vendors have.”
“I’ve made up my mind, we’re going to do it right this time.” Haru hiked up her shoulders and balled her hands into fists. “I don’t want to be poorly geared when we go to level again.” She prodded the station, and a trading window popped up. She could buy or sell.
Choosing buy, a list of item types displayed. Everything from weapons, to armor, consumables, crafting items, and even room decorations was listed as a potential selection.
Haru wanted a weapon first. She pressed that button, and then a list of weapon types showed in the menu. Going through one by one, she looked for what she wanted: daggers, swords… staves. Having selected staves, a wider window appeared and showed a list of all tradable staves in the game, sorted by level.
The only one she could equip, the Pine Staff, was highlighted in a brighter hue of blue background. Everything else was grayed out and against purple. She moved to buy the Pine Staff. Another menu popped up and asked her how much she wanted to buy it for.
Haru tilted her head. “What in the world…?”
Opti leaned in next to her. “It’s a silent reserve auction. You have to place a bid and if it meets or exceeds the lowest offered item, then you get it.”
She had 531 dobluens to her name. Haru bid one.
“No one is going to just give awa—” Opti started.
Haru received 1 Pine Staff.
The legionnaire blinked. “What the…?” He crossed his arms. “Why would someone just give away a Pine Staff for one dobluen? They could just sell them to an NPC trader for about 20.”
“Maybe they just wanted to get rid of it and the auction house was faster?” Haru exited the staff menu.
She then switched to swords. “You want me to see if we can get a deal for you too?”
“Well, yeah I do.” Opti nodded furiously.
Haru couldn’t equip any swords, so everything was grayed out and purple, but the Copper Sword was usable by a first level Legionnaire. She selected it and bid one dobluen.
Haru failed to bid on the Copper Sword.
Opti cradled his chin and stared at the ground, squinting.
Haru increased her bid by 10 dobluens.
Haru failed to bid on the Copper Sword.
Then the legionnaire looked up into the sky, toward the forest. His eyes widened and he clapped his hands. “That’s it!” He turned to her. “I know why.”
The apprentice then tried 20 dobluens. “Why?”
Haru failed to bid on the Copper Sword.
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Opti pointed at the tips of the trees that could be seen on the mountain afar. “We’re in the Plentiful Glade. The headquarters for the Carpentry Guild is in Fairbank. Everyone must be going outside to farm pine trees and then grinding levels on Pine Staves.”
“Oh.” Haru couldn’t hide her disappointment, hoping she could have scored a cheap weapon for Opti.
“Don’t worry about it, the Copper Sword isn’t much better than the Novice Sword anyways.”
She switched to armor, and the only thing that either of them could wear was on the body. Judging from how the fights went before, she didn’t anticipate getting hit very much so long as Opti was tanking. She checked and found the Cotton Tunic was the best in slot, doubling the defense of the novice gear they were still wearing.
“Oh, if you want an idea of how much things cost, don’t forget to check the trade history for the item.” Opti pointed at the menu. “It will tell you the value of the most recent trades.”
Before she checked the history, Haru tried to buy the Cotton Tunic for one dobluen.
Haru failed to bid on the Cotton Tunic.
She passed a sly smile to Opti as she opened the trade history for the Cotton Tunic. It looked like the average price was about 200 dobluens. She bid that much on the item.
Haru received 1 Cotton Tunic.
Haru was down to 330 dobluens. She exited the auction house menu and then turned to open a trade offer with Opti. Then, placing the tunic in for free, she accepted her side of the offer.
Opti blinked. “Why are you giving me this for free?”
“Well, you need it.” Haru nodded. “You’re going to be taking all the hits.”
“But remember what Emu said, that’s my job.” Opti started. “…well he said it’s his job, but he was a Legionnaire, and now I’m one and it’s my job.”
“And you can do your job better with better gear. Go on then.” Haru motioned for him to take it.
Opti opened his mouth to speak but stopped and blinked rapidly. “…thank you.” He accepted his side, and the tunic was transferred to him.
Haru smiled. “That’s what friends are for, right?”
The legionnaire’s form blinked for a moment as his model changed when he equipped the tunic. It was bright white and somewhat puffy around his core.
Haru looked toward the gate. “We should get going, let’s do some leveling.”
Opti nodded. “While it isn’t the most efficient, we should just go back to the starter area. We would need to form a whole party to go to the best area, the highlands. Since it’s just the two of us, and we have nothing but time, let’s take the sure-fire route.”
Haru liked that idea, considering she couldn’t de-level.
The two departed and trekked back toward the starting area. Once they got back to the garden, they stopped at the fountain.
Haru hesitated, staring at the portal back into her encounter. “Do we have to go all the way back through the dungeon? I don’t know if that’s such a good idea…”
“No, we don’t. Follow me.” He walked around the huge stone tower, toward a small section of broken wall hidden behind some of the hedgerows. On the other side of the broken wall was a series of ledges that led back down to the dirt path just outside the start of the Old Lord’s dungeon.
“Don’t worry,” Opti started, “it’s not far enough to cause falling damage.” He jumped down to the first ledge without another word.
“I have a heal even if there was some.” Haru commented as she followed her companion.
Down three ledges they hopped until they found themselves back on the dirt road, standing in front of the dungeon’s starting portal.
“I am curious though.” Haru looked up at the ledges. “I thought we went down into the mines to get to the exit. How did we have to go down to get back to the start?”
Opti cleared his throat. “Ah, well… that—” He shifted uncomfortably. “I think there were some last-minute design changes. I like to think that it’s a magic spell that puts you back up high.” He laughed, clearly uncomfortable.
Haru shrugged, satisfied.
The two continued back to the starting hamlet, filled with yet more new players all slaying boars in the pumpkin patch.
“It’s only the two of us now.” Opti looked to Haru. “Let’s just take it slow, no need to go overboard.”
Haru agreed and they wandered into the farmer’s field. Since they already completed the main quest, the only thing they could do to level was grind. But the experience gained from the enemies was sufficient that the main quest wasn’t entirely necessary, just a nice bonus.
“I’ll tell you what,” Opti stopped at the precipice of the field, “let me do the pulling for now, until we get used to our jobs.”
“Alright,” Haru tilted her head, “though I’m not a stranger to magic casting you know.” She smirked smugly.
Opti winked. “I know.” And he turned to find a boar that wasn’t being engaged by another player. After a few tries and failures to pull before the mob being taken, he managed to claim one using Line Breaker. “C’mon Roo, let’s go!”
Haru rushed to get in range and targeted the boar. She got ready to cast Ice Bolt when she hesitated. The thought of her glitch crossed her mind and suddenly she felt like a fool for choosing to take a magic DPS job. What if her overpowered ability suddenly went off without warning and she was exposed for being a surrogate? Or worse, what if everyone thought she was a hacker?
Opti struck the boar with his auto-attack. “Hello? Do you know how to cast spells on enemies?” He called out to her.
Fear gripped the apprentice, and she couldn’t force herself to attack.