Morgan awoke the next day with a start, dislodging Trip who had sprawled across his face. The sky was barely brightening, but knowing that there was no point in getting back to sleep, he dragged himself out of bed. Two message notifications had come as he slept. A chorus of meows and a parade of beasts rubbing against his legs prompted him to feed the cats. With that done, he focused on the message window.
[Ralph: Hey buddy! You got us at a good time, we’ve just finished up a couple of quests around Dilinar and were thinking about heading somewhere else. Apparently, Caslon is North-West of where we are, is that right?]
[Lillian: Hello, Morgan. I’m afraid I cannot at the moment due to previous obligations, but if you still need assistance in a few days' time, feel free to message me again. Regards, Lillian.]
He quickly replied to Ralph, outlining his location and what he needed to do, then sent a small message of thanks to Lillian for replying. Ralphs reply came quickly after.
[Ralph: OK! No worries bud, we’ll be with you late tomorrow if we don’t get distracted on the way down. Catch you soon!]
With a smile, he packed the cats away and headed out into the town and towards the blacksmiths shop. On the way, he caught the grocer outside his shop setting up, and persuaded him to let him in early to buy some provisions. He left a few silvers lighter, but with the ingredients to at least put together a few sandwiches, and a generous helping of dried apricots.
Soon he walked up to the building, its chimney billowing smoke into the brightening sky. The door was propped open, and Tag greeted him as he arrived.
“Hi Morgan! Good to see you. What can I do for you?”
Morgan smiled as he greeted the man, while pulling items from his satchel. “Hi Tag. I’ve got a six iron plates for you, and this goblin sword if you’ll take them.”
The blacksmith nodded, “Of course. I’ll give you 60 silvers for the lot.”
Tag held out the silvers. Morgan took them, before pausing to ask, a grimace on his face, “One more thing. Have you got any sickles for sale? As you know, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“I’m sure we can find something. Give me a second.” Tag disappeared into the back of his shop and came back with a sickle identical to the one he’d owned. “Some lass sold me this a couple of days back.”
“Looks very familiar,” said Morgan “I think that was once mine.”
Tag raised an amused eyebrow at the player. “Oh, was it now? Well, I’ll cut you a deal; you can have it for what I paid for it. 15 silvers, and it’s yours.”
Relieved, Morgan fished out 15 silvers from the loot he’d acquired from the iron plates and handed them back.
“Thanks, Tag, that’s generous of you.”
Tag grinned widely in reply, “Well, if you’ve got no income, you can’t come buy my wares now, can you. Consider it an investment on my part.” The blacksmith peered at the weapon hanging through Morgan’s belt. “Is that a goblin sword at your belt? By the cores of the ores, you do need my help. You’d bludgeon a cheese rather than slice it with that edge. Pains me to see it. Give it to me and I’ll sharpen it a bit. On the house.” Gratefully, Morgan handed over the crude blade.
A quarter of an hour later, Morgan was heading back to the Inn, his sickle in his satchel and the freshly sharpened sword at his side. He sat down at the inn for breakfast, and was half way through when Dillan appeared and put his own plate of food on the table. He greeted Morgan as he sat down.
“Good morning to you, Morgan. Any luck with the reinforcements?”
Morgan nodded as he finished his mouthful, before replying, “Should have a couple of friends I met when I started coming down in the next couple of days. Ralph and Chris. Ralph is great, though I’ve not actually met Chris. Hopefully with their help we can get into those caves. I’ve still got to ask Harl, he’s a lumberjack around these parts. Though he has his own quota, so I’m not sure if he’ll have the time to help.”
Dillan smiled. “That’s great. I’m up for a bit of a walk in the woods today. If you show me which plants you’re after I can do some scouting for you while you harvest what you need.”
“That’d be great,” replied Morgan, with more cheer than he’d felt in a while, “I have no idea how I’ll ever repay you.”
Dillan gave Morgan a mock look of offence, “Repay? I'm no mercenary.” He paused there for a moment, contemplative, before continuing in a more sombre tone. “Look, for me, this is a game. Barely even that, it’s just a better way to pass time than in a wheelchair in my apartment. I’m invested in your story, Morgan. I want to help. And it sounds like this is going to be a lot of fun. I’ve only fought monsters a few times in my time here, and I think it’s time I gave it a go properly. I’m looking forward to these caves of yours, if I'm to be honest. I’ve never even been in an adventuring party in earnest. I’m here for new things, and you, my friend, are providing.”
Morgan nodded slowly. “Ok, when we’re done here, we’ll head out to the forest and get to work. I do know of one thing that you’ve probably not seen in this world; I’ll show you when we get there.”
Dillan raised an eyebrow, “Oh, something new? Now I’m intrigued.”
A message came to Morgan, and he called it up into his vision,
[Lana – Hi cat man! We can help. We’re not too far away. We’re meeting some friends later, and we’ll be round after that. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I hope the cats are ready for some snuggles! XOXOXO]
Morgan raised an eyebrow as he read the message, and told Dillan that there may be more people coming to help. The two chatted away as they headed out. As the pair headed off the road and into the forest, Morgan changed the topic of conversation, “Do you have a class, Dillan?”
“Yes, I do.” Replied Dillan, “I’m a level 23 Courier. It’s pretty neat. I get better stamina regen, a skill for evasion, a skill which is like a short speed boost, and I'm up to eight extra slots in my satchel. Oh, and I only have to sleep once every other night.”
Morgan whistled appreciatively. “Wow, that’s a great class. And a high level. I’m impressed. I’d love to see that speed boost.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
DIllan grinned, “I’m not as high level as I probably should be for the time that I’ve been playing the game, but I have picked up a thing or two. Watch this.” He picked up his pace from a walk to a sprint, as Morgan started to run to try to keep up. Suddenly, Dillan blurred and shot forward, the leaves kicked up by his passing showing here he had gone. Dillan blurred around trees in a loop, soon skidding to a halt back near Morgan.
“Pretty cool, hey? Five seconds of beautiful speed. It costs over half my stamina, but with the regen boost I can use it pretty freely. Got me out of more than one close call.”
Morgan was impressed, “That’s unreal. You’ve got to be going at least 60 kilometres per hour. That is one sweet skill. How do you control yourself when you’re moving so fast? What if you run into something at that speed?”
“Great question,” Dillan replied, “It’s kind of like time slows down, so I’m running fast, but the world is going slow to compensate. I still have to pay very careful attention to my footing. How about you, did you manage to pick up a class?”
Morgan nodded slowly, “It’s not as useful as yours, at least not yet. It’s a bit of a weird one, so I hope you’re ready for this.” With this, he pulled the Bag of Cats from under his shirt, turned it upside down and pulled it open.
Dillan stared wide eyed at the six cats that had fallen onto the forest floor, as they picked themselves up and started sniffing the area. “Uhhh, cats? Lots of cats? What?”
Morgan grinned and shrugged. “I know, right? I’m a Cat Herder, level 9. I’ve got a heal animal skill, minor cure animal disease, and a slot in my bag for animal feed.”
Dillan stared at the cats in confusion. “I’ve seen beast tamers, but they get one animal. A cat herder? For real?” Morgan nodded in response, and Dillan continued, “Wow. It doesn’t come with a lot of skills though. What do they do? I mean, if you had one large cat, I’d get it, but six normal sized cats?”
Morgan nodded, “Yeah, it’s a bit wacky. I think it was some kind of bug in the game. I was supposed to become a cattle herder, but this happened instead. It’s a long story. I know I don’t get a lot of skills, but check this out.” Morgan called out to the cats. “To me! Trip, Harriet, care to show off for our friend?” The cats looked over and a couple started to wander back towards Morgan. Trip rubbed against his leg before settling down on the ground, and Harriet started to paw at a leaf.
Morgan looked down pleadingly at the pack of cats. “Come on, please, a small demonstration?” Harriet looked at him, before turning back to her leaf, ignoring his request. Trip stood up, arched his back, and disappeared in a flash of darkness.
Dillan started, “Morgan, that black cat just vanished! Is it ok? Oh,“ He paused as the small black cat appeared from where his shadow fell behind him, and rubbed it’s face on his leg with a contented purr. “Well, OK then.”
Morgan laughed, then explained, “All the cats have skills. Trip, the vanishing black one can teleport into shadows. Harriet there can shoot magic icy claws, when she feels like it. The big ginger Tom is a sort of tank with a taunt. The tabby, Ivycat, can cast a bubble shield. Scrap, the other black one with the white socks, he’s a rogue and gets a backstab bonus. And the small grey one, Luna, is a berserker. She... uh... gets angry.”
Dillan listened to this while scratching a contented Trip behind the ears. When Morgan had finished, he shook his head in amazement. “Wow. Now truly, that’s something I never expected. You have a full party... of small cats. Have they been in a fight before?”
“Only one true fight, they were too small before. I got them as kittens, almost two weeks ago now. They’ve grown so fast as I’ve levelled the herder class.” Morgan continued on to explain the battle in the wizard's basement, and how they’d managed to win by using the combined skills of all the cats. “But there's a caveat. I have no idea how to resurrect one if it dies. Apparently, it’s possible, but I’d have to find a class trainer to find out, and as far as I’m aware, there isn’t one. I think I’m the only person with this class in the game. So, while I have a full party of cats, they’re too precious to risk. There's also the risk that if that Eleos guild gets wind of this, they may try to take the cats from me, so I’m trying to keep them low key.”
Dillan nodded at this as the pair started to walk again, now surrounded by the pack of cats, “That’s a good idea. I’m not entirely sure what Eleos is up to, but I don’t think their goal is a noble one. From what I can patch together, I believe they’re using people like you who have no other options to grind resources for players who have the means to pay for it. Do you remember the slogans the game launched with? ‘An equal start for all’ and ‘The level playing field’? That’s a reason they’ve been using to supress news and details coming out of the game; so, no one starts with an unfair information advantage, ironically. Every player is pretty much slapped with a non-disclosure agreement, and there was a massive furore in the news when they made a few very public examples at the beginning. It was incredible that they’d managed to get any cases through the international court at all, the sorry way that it is now. I think that guy that started the player forum got 15 years in the labour camps. Anyway, I digress. The Eleos guild obviously represents the game company, and they’re effectively channelling money out of the game by selling the digital resources you gather to players for real currency. There’s been some speculation in game about why they have to do this in such an underhanded way. Why can’t they just add the extra items they want into the game? Why recruit such a large, and technically expensive labour force to do a job that could be made redundant in a second by the system?”
Morgan paused as he came across a small clump of the mottled brown Versfern, pointing it out to Dillan. He bent down to harvest them as the runner continued with his musings.
“The common theory is that they simply can’t change the game anymore. There were a few balance and content updates the system informed us of over the first couple of months I was here, then they stopped coming. Tie that up with the rumoured disappearances of the lead game architect and the CEO himself, and you’ve got a pretty compelling theory indeed. The thing that’s harder to understand is the use of the capsules themselves, they’ve got to cost a pretty penny to build and run. Mine certainly does.” He smiled wryly at his own words before lapsing into silence.
As Morgan stored the herbs and they started walking again, he thought of Angie in the lab’s canteen, telling him about the rumours before he’d even arrived in this strange virtual world. He remembered the massive building, and the incalculable value of technological marvels it held. He responded to Dillan,
“I have no idea about all of this, my business with the guild certainly feels coercive. But what can I do?” His face fell as he shrugged. “Just get on with it and get them what they want, I guess. It would have been pretty easy if I hadn’t gone and messed it up. Harl seems to be working hard though, and Angie has been drafted into some kind of military. I’m having a hard time putting it all together as there's so much else to do, to learn and see all the time. I’m just feel like I’m rushing headlong into chaos, and I need to be ready, but I don’t know how, and for what. I was in reality basically crippled less than a month ago, with nothing to do and nowhere to go, and now all of this, all at once. Sorry man, I’m just complaining now.”
Dillan laughed, a warm sound that filled the nearby forest. “Don’t worry, I get it. I walked in shoes like yours. It was hard, at first but it got better over time. It’s a big change, this place, a new body. But it’s easy to see the upsides. For me, it’s very easy. Look, I can walk!” He grinned widely, bouncing up and down. “I’ve also seen and done more in the last year than I ever expected to in a whole lifetime. Have I been chased by a bear? Yes, I have. Have I saved a life? Yes, indeed. Been in a large battle? Yes, once, and hopefully never again. Have I been mildly traumatized by seeing a monster that froze my very blood to see? I’ll let you guess the answer to that one. It’s been a pretty wild ride. There's not a lot we can do from our position about the wider politics of the issue, but we can take a moment to appreciate the gift we’ve been given.”
The pair wandered and chatted for a while longer about lighter topics, until all the plants that Morgan could harvest had been found and shown to Dillan. After Morgan had explained about the Corpsebloom he’d found, and with a request to keep an eye out for anything else that looked like it may be harvestable; Dillan sprinted off into the forest. Before he’d finished the clump of Valoplant that he’d finally found, a system request appeared in his vision:
[Dillan invites you to their party.]
He accepted quickly. As soon as he had, three faint points of light could be seen on the ground near the route that Dillan had gone. He squinted at one of the points of light. It seemed to have its source about a hundred meters away behind the dense forest vegetation. How could he see the light through all the foliage? He was about to ask whether it was Dillan’s doing when a message appeared in his vision.
[Dillan: I forgot about this; I have a spell called Light Marker. I can leave a temporary beacon for party members. Each beacon lasts half an hour. I’ll go tag some more plants.]
Morgan’s spirits soared. He’d have all his Valoplant back in no time with Dillan scouting for him. He set off, cats in tow, towards the first beacon.