Excitement clouds my mind. I’m a whole new person and at the same time, the same old red head with freckles.

Following the girl from the coffee shack's directions I head to Quentin's shop. It doesn't dawn on me then, but I never even asked for her name despite her asking for mine. Either way, I'd find it out later on down the road.

"Welcome!" a voice calls out from inside the Tannery as I walk in.

"Thanks!" I reply, but there was no one around me.

Puzzled I look around. There is animal heads and hides hanging on and from the wall respectively. This is a serious hunter's lodge. Even Beatrice didn't have animals up on her wall.

"Hello?" I call out. The shop was smaller up front but I can see there is a room towards the back behind glass cases that wrap in a U shape around the store. Inside the cases are knife, arrows, crossbows, blowguns, pistols, rifles, and other hunting equipment. This is looking less and less like a Tannery and more like an Ammunitions Depot.

In the middle of the U shape is a few tables with sliced leather and fur in different shapes and colors. Further away from the entrance is a table top with a display of different rivets, sewing needles, and thread. It’s a leatherworkers one stop shop. Get the gear to kill the animals and the tools to make something out of it.

I step up to the counter in the center near the opening that leads back to the workshop area. I can see a large table with cutting tools right ahead of me and some shelving with more supplies.

"Hello?" I call out again leaning over the counter to look into the back.

"Coming!" calls out a voice from inside.

Clanging sounds then a crash come from the back room. A moment later a wiry man in overalls comes out wiping his hands with a dirty rag stained with some dark brown liquid.

"What do you want."

"Uh, I was sent over by the coffee stall girl."

"Luna send you over?"

"Yea, her."

"Hm..." he took off his cap and scratch the remnants of hair left on the top of his scalp, you'd never be able to tell he was balding from the ring of think grey hair showing from the cap when it was on. "I didn't think she was working today."

"Honestly, I didn't get the girls name. She was on her phone and it completely slipped my mind."

"Meh, it doesn't matter. What do you want?"

"The girl said you buy animals for their pelts. I have two rabbits, was wondering what you'd offer me for them."

"3 Dims if I have to skin them, 8 if you skin them yourself."

Wow, that’s a pretty sizable difference. But I don't know the value of the currency yet so I ask, "How much are these knives."

"Says right on the tag."

"Right." I nod slowly looking through the case.

"Not from around here are you?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really."

"A Dim is worth 100 Zeni. Those knives are marked in Dims."

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"Oh!" A pistol is worth 380 Dims, so I can trade rabbits for a weapon! Not that it would be easy to get the 130 rabbits that it'd take to trade for one.

"But if you bring me too many rabbits the value goes down. Rabbit hide is pretty easy to get around here." I must have been easy to read if he is already getting ahead of me.

"Can you teach me how to skin them?"

"I'll teach you, but I won't give you any Dims for these two."

"What! You mean a course is worth 16 Dims?"

"It's actually worth 50 Dims, but since you're a new kid I'm cutting you a break."

"Welcome" the voice from earlier sounds again from behind me.

"You're a cheat Quentin! Most people learn how to skin an animal for free down at the local frontier offer."

"No ones talking to you Beats!"

I turn around and Beatrice is walking in with a satchel over her shoulder. From the size of it, I'm surprised she's not falling over!

"Brought you some new wolf hides. This 'new kid' helped me hunt some wolves yesterday."

"Oh ho ho ho! Who's taking advantage of who now hmmmm? Are you going to share the profits from those pelts with him?"

"Actually I am." Beatrice replies as she drops the satchel and pulls out the hides to set them on the counter.

"Hmph." Quentin grumbles as he picks up the wolf pelt and pulls out a pair of glasses from his pocket. "Oh! These are really nice pelts."

"I agree." she gives me a sly look, "I didn't expect this scrawny kid to hunt those dire wolves so efficiently."

"Dire Wolves?" Quentin and I speak at the same time.

"Yup, turns out those wolves that were pestering me weren't regular wolves. I didn't notice it until you dropped them off. The paws give it away." She pulls a large paw from her satchel. I shiver remembering the wolf that had pounced on me the day before. "See how the paw is almost the size of your hand? That means these were young Dire Wolves."

"I'll give you 100 Dims per pelt."

My eyes bulge, "100 Dims! For just 1 pelt?"

"Yup, a dire wolf pelt is worth a lot around here. They have extra thick skin which make them good for protective gear."

"Plus they rarely come down from the mountains and hunt in this region." Beatrice adds as she puts the paw back in her satchel.

"Why do you think they're coming down from the mountain?" I prompt. If these pelts are worth that much and I can hunt them with a rifle, maybe I can get a quest and make a good amount of Dims from it.

"I'm not sure, some of the folks over at the Frontier office were talking about getting a group to go investigate it. You're welcome to go check it out after Quentin gives us our Dims."

"Thanks. I really appreciate you cutting me in the on the profit!"

"It's nothing, you did me a favor and I'm just paying you back."

"300 Dims for three pelts. Should I transfer it to your personal chip or do you have a portable unit?"

"I'll take 120 on my personal chip, you can give the rest to the kid."

"What's a chip?" I ask as I watch Quentin pull out a small device that looks like a wireless remote from his pocket. He punches in a number and it makes a beeping sound as he waves it over Beatrice' wrist.

"Haha! You poor kid. Did someone just decide to drop you off here on the latest fly by from another system?"

That was the first time I'd heard about other systems from I'd logged in! This whole time I thought I was in the wrong game.

"I guess, technically yea."

"Wait," Beatrice looks at me with a furrowed brow, "are you from another planet? I don't recall anyone asking my permission to land in my clearing back near the cabin."

"I'm not really sure how I got into that clearing. I just remember waking up there." when I logged in, I want to add.

"Well, you two can figure that out." Quentin interjects as he reachs around and grabs something from a draw behind the wall. "This is a new chip, you can keep and use it around town while you're visiting us." He waves the devices, that I take to be a payment processing tool, over it and hands it to me.

"There are terminals like these at most shops." Beatrice gestures towards a small square pad on the counter top. She waves her hand near it and it beeps. "Since you're chip isn't implanted, you can't sync it with your neural link, so you'll need to rely on the display to show you how much is on it."

Relief washes over me again when she mentions the neural link. "Is there a neural link customization terminal around here?"

"Yea, you can ask them about it at the Frontier shop. I also had one at home if you needed it." Beatrice says as she hoists the bag over her shoulder. This time it's almost down a tenth of it's original size.

"I asked you about it yesterday, a User Terminal."

"Oh! I didn't know you called it that. I could have let you use mine back home."

"It's alright."

"Well, maybe she could." Quentin cut in. "The neural links from other planets and systems might not be compatible with ours."

"That's a good point. You might want to double check that with the Frontier shop. They usually keep an NL Inspector in the office so they can help."

"Sounds like that'll be my next stop."

"I can show you where it's at if you want."

"Sure, but you mind if I get something first?"

"Here?"

"Yea."

"What are you thinking of getting?"

I turn to Quentin and ask, "Can you show me what weapons I can buy with 180 Dims?"