The two suns were high in the sky. It hadn't rained in days, the air was hot, and dust rose from under the horses' hoofs. I raised my eyes and looked at the blue sky. I wonder if a real planet with two suns would look like this? How does the weather function? Was this a random thing, or were they doing some plausibility calculations?

When we rented our horses, the NPCs there had said that a drought was coming. Do they get some insight into the planned weather, or is it just some NPC guessing game?

I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked ahead at the dry plain. If this weather continues, if the weather keeps up, I may need some kind of sombrero to survive here, or maybe I should better get someone to enchant my armour with a chill spell!

I yawned and turned my eyes to Alice.

She was riding in front with Noviel, my new friend's new bodyguard. I had to chuckle again, seeing how much she looked like Ayra: a blonde girl with melancholic blue eyes, about one meter sixty-five tall. She was a couple of years older than Ayra and several centimetres taller.

I shrugged. She must be his type of girl. Yes, I know he is a kid, but a bit of romance is also allowed for fourteen-year-olds. She will not go further than looking into his eyes, eventually a hug or hand-holding. She must know this instinctively.

But it was not her looks that were intriguing. What surprised me was to see the level of understanding the NPCs have. Their conversation and situation awareness were downright scary. I could not differentiate between what a real person or these NPCs would do or say; it doesn't matter if you talked about the weather or other mundane or non-mundane things.

This is specific to Mephisto's world; no other game has come close to what they achieved. The size of this reality-like project was amazing.

Spartacius came closer to me:

“Well, do you think she will make it?”

“Make it? Noviel is good; you just saw what she can do!”

We've had a demo in the camp, and she had hit her targets in nine out of ten cases at fifty meters distance in various challenging situations: riding on a horse, riding on a horse shooting backwards and so on. That was quite good. She could also cast incendiary arrows at a rate of about one per minute. Decent for a level nineteen rogue-archer.

“No, I mean Ayra. Will she make it to get sponsored? I mean the training; if nobody is going to sponsor her, she will get into debt and might be forced too early into a mercenary contract! Who knows what player will take her to use her only as a meat shield for some quest...”

Ah Ayra. I almost forgot about her. He seems to care about this NPC!

I shrugged, then sighed. Only now does he ask about her when it would be too late to do anything? Kids are very impressionable but obviously not so good at planning things; good that at least I have something to soothe his worries. I thought that he would care.

“Do you remember when she gave me her purse to pay us for freeing those NPCs? Before I gave it back to her, I put four gold pieces inside it. She will need that money if she goes to the camp to train.”

“Four gold? How much did she have?”

“Eleven silver”

“Lol. Cala-the-miser gives four gold pieces to an NPC. I would not believe it if I would not hear it from you!”

I shrugged and smiled. From how he was joking, I understood that he was happy and relieved. I raised a brow. Now I need to invent a reason for why I did it. I could not just tell that I did it because I knew he would care, because then he would feel compelled to give me the money back. Four gold was pocket money for me, but it would be a significant amount for him.

“Look, I did it as an experiment. She is a sales clerk NPC, right? You've managed to spin her mind so much that she decided to go to an archer's training! That's a performance! I could bet that we'll find her in a sales clerk job in the camp next time we get there. I also bet that she'll give it back to me with interest. Anyhow, the slaver wanted nine for her, so I saved some. I'm just curious if an NPC can change her programming so much as to switch from sales job to archer?”

“Aha, you only want to make more money! Lol, why should she not be able to switch her job?”

“Well, we'll see. I wonder if she can physically train?”

He shrugged, raised his head, and looked forward. He made himself truly a handsome guy. Who knows what lies beneath in the real world. A skinny kid?

I looked around: the graphics continued to be good, undistorted, even during movement. Everything seemed to work well and move smoothly for both near and far vision. Nice. A clearly improved game engine.

Spartacius grinned when the city appeared on the horizon.

“Oh. There is the town. I must test my new mercenary!”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I symbolically put on my 'experienced player' hat:

“Welcome to the Denikan Kingdom! People here are called denika, or the denik, and are related to the Denka Republic, which we just left behind. They speak the same language; you do not need translators. You can make the next five levels around here if you do not get bored. Saves a lot of travelling time. Good to get friendly with the population.”

“No, no. I don't plan to spend half a year or more here. I only plan for a couple of weeks. What do you know about merc tests?”

“There are all kinds of stupid tests in blogs. Most of those come from chapter 3 with that pirate city Tortuga. It's true; you get there the best chapter three mercenaries... but... I hope you don't want anything bad from the girl?”

“Oh, come on, you know me? How can you think so about me?”

I sighed. I don't really know him. Yes, we played some games together... For instance, that Paris-Dakar rally! The two of us huddled together for hours in that cabin under the scorching sun, him reading the map and me driving like a madman. Then in the stations, we had to fix the car, talk to sponsors, run to buy spare parts, get the right fuel and many more. And we did this for hours, day after day, for a couple of weeks.

OK, maybe I can say that I know him.

“Oh well, I'll go into the market. You can find me there!”

“They never have interesting things in this market! You know that magic is not allowed in this kingdom; there are maybe just a couple of smuggled things, but anyhow of low value. If you could buy me something from the Golden Empire? There is a bigger town on their side of the border?”

I sighed.

“You know you cannot wear those things yet. That area is for higher levels. Speaking of the empire, hopefully, they'll still let me in after what we did!”

He shrugged, ignoring my fears:

“I know I cannot wear those yet, but I hope to level soon. The fight with the slavers brought me some good experience, you know? What are you going to do if they find out and become hostile?”

Sure it brought him some experience; those were chapter three NPCs.

“It depends on the level of hostility... If I can fix it, I will. It's a lot of work if you start working from a hostile level. I will do jobs for them, I will pay them, and I will bribe them. If it's too much of a pain in the ass, I'll try the solution with a good party.”

“What do you mean by a good party? How can a party fix it?”

I laughed: that's a calamity joke. That's why I'm called Calamity Lara. I earned that name and not because of the jokes.

“Simple, you gather a nice party, preferably pirates and orcs, and visit a couple of towns with it, steal all you have on the shopping list and burn down the rest. If it's a calamity, then let it be a freaking calamity. That will fix your reputation forever with that nation!”

There are some nations that I could visit only with a raid group. You do not earn the Warlord title for peanuts, but that is fun too. I have no love lost for the Golden Empire.

He chuckled.

The guards let us in without asking; apparently, they still recognized me or were told to let all nonsuspicious people in. That had been the case around here before. The atmosphere wasn't as relaxed as usual, and there were more guards, not just the standard two. Well, it makes sense that raids by slavers in the nearby republic would make the authority more cautious.

There was a minor entry tax of 20 copper per person, and I let Alice pay it as she handles petty cash for me. I let her chat with some guards while reviewing the wanted posters.

Oh, maybe that's why they let us in so quickly; apparently, they know Alice and Noviel. Interesting. Alice is from here; I recruited her from the same camp. Is the game so fucking consistent that the NPCs keep track of each other?

There was a nice list of quests, and the lynx was prominently on top, probably the best-paying quest in the area. There was nothing else really interesting for me.

We left our horses at the gate, and I watched Spartacius disappear with Noviel in tow.

Well then, about Spartacius: he sometimes behaves like a fourteen-year-old because he is a fourteen-year-old boy.

I sighed. How come I did not realize it until now? We had fun together; we played several different games together. In that rally game, he had good ideas and was an excellent co-driver for weeks. He worked hard to help maintain that team, all that administrative work with the mechanics, the good choices for the engine, and he had his good moments tuning the chips in a couple of situations. Only when the system told me did I realize he was a kid.

I shrugged. So, who cares?

Back to business... I should take the time to visit the assassin's headquarters; maybe there are some saucy jobs for me there. Kill some prominent target to invigorate this sleepy border town?

Alice came near me. We exchanged a glance, and I knew we agreed on Spartacius. Alice smiled:

“He is a child's mind in a man's body.”

I had to chuckle.

“You don't know how right you are!”

Another thing I like in Mephisto is that every character has such an advanced dialogue you think they are real, not 'spawns' as they are called. I giggled: they even call themselves proudly 'spawns of this world', not really understanding what that means!

And yet, I raised my eyes and looked intrigued at Alice. She smiled back, and I saw it in her eyes: she cares for me to the point that it even pains me. When she talked about Spartacius, it was a mix of maternal feelings and a roll of the eyes. When she looked at me, it was only love and devotion.

How on Earth did they program that? All these fine nuances!? And when I think about that NPC, what was her name? Ayra. Well, she even asked me what's an NPC. Pfuh, it cannot be more real than that; you cannot talk here and not be in the role. Could I tell that she's a non-person character? Non-person?… That girl has more personality than some players…

I sighed. Oh, well, I'm here to play, not to think about NPCs.

Maybe I'll have time later to check some high-level areas once we finish our little quest here. Perhaps I can port Spartacius there, too; he would surely like to see some of it, and I may find some items for him. Hopefully, in some secure zone.