“Yes, mayor,” Brian said. “I sit on the council, and we’re looking for a good candidate. We have decided that having a chosen of the gods take the position would be ideal. However, my endorsement would not be enough, you would need to impress the others on the council as well though, if you want the job.”
This game is awesome! Corey thought. Just then, a couple of system prompts opened in Corey’s peripheral vision. As he focused his attention on them, the semi-opaque windows enlarged and moved to the center of his vision. The first read, quest update, and the second read, quest available.
Corey reached out his hand to tap on the first floating prompt with his index finger, causing it to expand and reveal the entire message.
[Quest Complete: Ore Really. You have found an Iron Node close to the town that will help the town prosper. You have been rewarded with 20 experience points and access to Brian’s Forge. You have also gained 250 reputation with the town of Butteville. Current Reputation: 250/5000. You are Neutral with Butteville.]
Corey opened the second prompt window.
[Quest Available: Mayor Indeed. You have impressed Brian the Blacksmith, one of the seven council members of the town. He has given you his support in becoming Mayor. You will need to discover who the other council members are and garner the majority’s support in order to claim the position of Mayor. Accept Quest?]
[Yes] or [No]
Sweet! Corey thought. This could be my chance to make it big in this game. He reached out and tapped yes.
The prompt closed. All right, now to see what I’ve gotten into, Corey thought, and navigated through his menu to the Wiki page. Scanning the list, he found the link he was looking for. There had been vague hints about prize money released before the game’s launch, but nothing had been listed yet. Now, however, it looked like they’d finally revealed them.
There it was, mayor of a town.
“Yes!” Corey said, raising his fist in victory, “I’m gonna be rich!” The smokey heat of the blacksmith forge suddenly felt wonderful.
“Becoming mayor doesn’t mean you will be wealthy, young man,” Brian said.
Corey looked back to Brian in confusion.
The NPC blacksmith continued, “You’ll have to work hard to help the town prosper. Only then, will you be rewarded. We can, however, get you some muscles on that scrawny frame. Smithy work is great for increasing your strength attribute. I will also have special tasks for you from time-to-time.”
Corey hadn’t expected an answer to his outburst from the non-player character, but it just showed how realistic the NPC’s were in this game.
Looking back to the Wiki panel he’d opened he realized this was the perfect opportunity to explain his plans to his dad. Corey had been dreading the conversation. Now though, he had some actual prospects, and this would likely be the best chance he’d get.
The new article was straight from the Ultrasoft Arts, and listed prize money for various things. So there was a prize. It didn’t elaborate what the prizes were on the first page though. He’d have to dig deeper.
Not wanting to be rude, and fearing a reputation penalty if he ignored the smith, he looked to Brian, Corey said, “It was my pleasure to help, and I think I’d enjoy being mayor.”
Corey rubbed his hands together in excitement. Becoming mayor would probably allow him to guide the towns development and level it up. Corey didn’t know how it all worked yet, but this was one of the towns that was available, and the race against other players was on.
Brian nodded and went back to work pulling the now red hot metal from the forge with a pair of tongs. Corey mentally commanded the in-game’s Wiki to appear again, this time ready to dig up more info.
The semi-translucent panel appeared in front of him again displaying the Wiki. He tried tapping on ‘Town Development’ on the list of potential prizes. It was indeed a hyperlink and he found a page explaining that becoming mayor would indeed give him power to control and level up the town, along with the prizes associated with it. It was a short read though, as it looked to be more of a place holder for users to add information later on.
But the prize amounts and requirements were there! The towns that could be taken over by players all started at level zero, so it would be a level playing field. They would give generous cash prizes for the trailblazers who managed to level towns up to levels 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 first, and offered much lesser consolation prizes for being second, third, and so forth to reach those levels. It was life changing money if he could manage to stay ahead of the rest of the competition.
He checked the prize amounts against a few other prizes he could think of, like enchanting, which Leroy was going for, and found that leveling up a town first seemed to be way higher paying than the prizes for professions and skills, but that the profession based prizes allowed for more people to earn a decent amount of money, rather than the lions share going to the number one spot.
“Cool,” Corey said, closing the wiki. “Now I just need to get enough of the city council to support me and I can get on with it.”
“Indeed,” Brian said, pausing his banging on the anvil to look to Corey.
“Oh, right,” Corey said, looking at the NPC. “Thanks Brian.”
The blacksmith responded, “This new mining node will certainly help the town grow. However, the other council members have other priorities, so it won’t impress them much.”
“Right,” Corey said. “What would you recommend I do next?”
“You should speak with Mistress Anna, the town’s Innkeeper. She is having a… problem. One that you would be well-suited to take care of.”
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Another prompt appeared, and Corey opened it.
[Quest Available: Inn for a penny, Inn for a pound. This is a sub-quest of Mayor Indeed. Brian has tasked you with helping Innkeeper Anna with a certain problem that she has. Accept Quest?]
[Yes] or [No]
Corey tapped yes on the prompt floating in front of him.
“Also,” Brian added, “I can teach you the basics of smithing whenever you are ready. It’s far easier to learn if you have a good instructor.”
[System Message: Blacksmithing profession trainer, Brian, has been unlocked. Speak to Brian at any time to begin your training.]
Blacksmithing would be super handy, Corey thought, but it can wait.
“Thanks Brian, maybe later. I’m off to talk to Anna,” Corey said.
With a wave, Brian turned back to his work in the smithy and Corey whistled happily as he walked across the cobbled street to the imposing two-story town inn. It looked like a medieval version of a log cabin, but with clay tiles on the roof.
Before entering, he sent a quick message to Leroy.
“Hey man, I just stumbled onto a quest to take over as mayor of a town!”
Leroy responded instantly. “That’s awesome dude! I’m having trouble finding the enchanter trainer here in the Dwarven Capital. I thought it would be smart to head straight here, but this place is huge and everyone seems to want a bribe to give out even basic information.”
“Dang,” Corey responded. “I think there might be one here that could teach the basics, I mean we have a legit blacksmith and probably everything else, so I’ll let you know what I can find out about enchanters if I learn anything here. The Capital is probably where you will need to be later on though, since they will likely have the higher level trainers.”
“Yeah,” Leroy said. “That’s what I was thinking.”
“Well, I hope you can find it soon.” Corey said. “I’ll leave you to it, I don’t want to distract you.”
“It’s no problem,” Leroy responded. “You know I don’t mind. I’m starting to think maybe we should have picked the same starting zone though. It seems like this game might require a lot of teaming up based on the little I have been able to learn.”
Corey laughed. “You’re the one who wanted to start as a dwarf.”
“You know dwarves are awesome,” Leroy said. “I might head your way once I can figure out how though. That is, unless I can find a guild or something,” Leroy conceded. “It might be a while before I can anyway though. I heard you can get a portal to other Capital Cities, but it’s locked by a level and gold requirement.”
“Yeah,” Corey said. “I heard something similar, but I didn’t know about the level requirement. Let me know if there’s anything I can do on my end. For now I’m going to be busy trying to get this town going. I might need some help later if I can pull it off though, so you should definitely head this way if you don’t’ get locked into a quest chain over there.”
“Sure, being a friend of the mayor could be super handy.”
“Cool, talk to you later.”
“Later.”
“Boo ya!” Corey said aloud, bounding up the front steps of the inn. “Prize money, here I come!”
The inn had a huge common room filled with wooden chairs and tables, along with noisy patrons shouting for more ale. There was even a sunken area in the back corner that looked like it had been designed to eliminate the floor entirely, only instead of dirt, the missing floorboards showed that the bottom was covered in sand.
Corey looked around until he finally found the short plump innkeeper with graying brown hair standing behind the bar. Above her on the wall was a slate that read “Daily Special: Beef Stew.”
“Hello,” Corey said. “Brian said you could use some help with something, but he wouldn’t say what.”
She shushed him and added in a low whisper, “Yes. If Brian trusts you, you are ready to help me. Come.” Then she led him around the counter and through a back hallway. Corey could smell bacon or something similar cooking in the kitchen down the hall, but she stopped short and opened a door revealing the stairs to the cellar. Anna looked back down the hall they’d come from, and all around before asking him to close the door behind them and leading Corey down the steps and into the dimly lit cellar.
“I have a rat problem,” she said in a low voice.
“Rats?” Corey asked.
“Shh!” she said. “I don’t want anyone to know, but I need your help since I’m often needed upstairs and I’m having trouble keeping up.”
“Okay,” Corey said. “What do you want me to do?”
“You see,” she explained, licking her lips. “I can’t have anyone knowing I have a rat source, er, I mean, problem. If you could please kill ten rats I would appreciate it.”
The cellar wasn’t that big, so Corey asked, “Where are the rats hiding?”
Anna responded, “They aren’t down here right now, but they seem to be getting in and out somehow. They keep raiding my food stores. Look,” she said, pointing over to the center of the room. “I’ve set some cheese on a platter just over there.”
There was indeed a platter with some cheese in the middle of the room next to a stack of wooden crates.
Pointing to the crates, she said, “You can hide behind those until you hear their claws scratching as they skitter toward it, then, wham!” She slammed one fist onto the palm of her other hand. “Smash their heads and they should die quickly and you can just put them in one of the empty crates. Here, you can use this.”
[Quest Update: Inn For a Penny, Inn For a Pound. Anna wants you to place 10 dead rats into the crates, and she would like you to use ‘Anna’s Rat Smashing Beat Stick’. Accept Quest?].
[Yes] or [No]
“You don’t want me to get rid of the dead rats for you?” Corey asked.
“Oh don’t you worry, I’ll take care of them myself,” she replied with a smile. “I mean, I wouldn’t want anyone finding out that there were rats down here, so just put them in the crates.”
“Okay,” Corey said, accepting the quest and taking the beat stick.
[Item Received: Anna’s Rat Smashing Beat Stick. This wooden club can club things. Durability: 50/50. Damage: 2-3 Blunt Damage.]
“Wonderful,” Anna said. “Now I’ll leave you to it.” She gave a smile and turned, starting up the stairs.
Corey looked to the platter of cheese, then back to the stairs as he heard her footsteps pause. “Hide behind the crates or the rats won’t come,” she said. “They are crafty little morsels, err, pests. Yes, so disgusting they are.” She then continued up the stairs, leaving him in the dimly lit room with his next task.
“I think I know where she gets her ’fresh beef’ for the stew,” Corey said to himself with a chuckle. Then he hid behind the crates.
After five minutes the first rat appeared. He smashed its head. The rat’s head gleamed with neon red light while it squirmed for a moment, but not with blood like he’d half expected. The neon mark faded as the rat died and stopped moving an instant later. The rat now lie motionless, so he picked it up and put it in the crate.
Five minutes later he got the second rat, and he desperately hoped that the time between each of the rats wouldn’t continue to be five minutes. Sure enough, five minutes later he heard the scratching of claws. He stood and leaned over the crate to bash rat number three. “Great,” he mumbled. “This is going to take forever.”
Corey was glad that there didn’t seem to be any gore in this game, but otherwise it was so realistic. He took in all the amazing details around him, reminding himself again that it was all just data being sent to his brain through his new N-Cog headset.
Nevertheless, he found himself soaking it all in. The dim light flickering from the oil lamp that Anna had left on the table to the side of the stairs. The motes of dust that floated in beams of light coming down through the cracks in the floorboards overhead. The thumping of boots and muffled music of the days entertainment above fell on him creating a sensation of busyness despite him sitting in the dim cellar.
He even appreciated the dank smell of the cellar. What surprised him the most though, was being able to feel the chilly air that left him grateful for his simple yet surprisingly warm clothes. It all seemed so real.
Corey crouched back behind the crate, not wanting to waste any more time and reminding himself to ‘hurry up and wait.’
Eventually, he had all ten rats. After putting the last one in the crate, Anna opened the cellar door, as if on queue, to ask, “How is your progress? Have you finished yet?”