EV B2 Chapter 5:

It only took a few minutes for me to understand what I was doing wrong. Immediately after receiving my minimal reward of a single coin, I went over to the nearest tavern and got a drink. Not because I really needed to spend the money the second I found it, but rather because I wanted to listen in. Apparently, the nearest tavern was obviously the most logical place to go, as many of the people there were coming directly from the challenge with their team. The turnover was rather high, as it was usually a single drink before they split up after their day. If a team wanted to stick together more, they usually went someplace else. There was probably something to do with pricing or whatever, but I wasn't in the mood to figure it out.

Instead, I just sat at the bar and did my best to tune in to the conversations around me.

"I can't believe that fucking idiot wouldn't come with us," I overheard someone say.

"Yeah, I think they're trying to make us split the party. Someone has to protect him and his moronic family while the rest of us deal with the invaders. At least the landing party raid is not that bad. Two or three of us should be fine to save most of the village ourselves."

"I hate escort quests," I heard someone from another party say.

I tuned out the rest of the tavern around me, listening to people complain about the first step of the challenge. Hearing it through, I realized that it wasn't just an impossible situation—it was an impossible situation for one person to deal with alone. Presumably, the village and the farmer needed to survive in order to reach the next stage of the challenge. But I just wasn't able to do it by myself. I would need a team to be at my back the whole time the challenge was running. Someone would need to go and protect them or clear out the village. I couldn't be in two places at once.

I ground my teeth in frustration. Why would they design it so you had to have a party and work together, but still let you go by yourself? Maybe I had my head filled with ideas of kidnapping the family and dragging them along, protecting them while clearing out the raiders from the village. But it didn't seem like a great idea. And besides, I might have been more skilled than the average challenger, but pulling that off would take a whole other level of awesomeness with a blade.

Listening in to a few other conversations, I found that what I had first heard was mostly similar to the others. One group had actually managed to get through the first round. Why weren't more successful groups talking here? I wasn't sure. Were they hiding their tactics, or were they in a different part of the city? Or did they just not come to this particular tavern? I left after only twenty minutes, satisfied that I had done well enough by myself and gathered enough information to know that I needed a team—preferably my team.

If they would have me.

In reality, I had been gone for longer than I had been in Valhalla proper by a significant period of time, but I had also gained significant strength. Whether or not it was enough to keep up with my team, I didn't know. But I was definitely a leap ahead of where I was when I first started in Valhalla proper. Judging by everything I had seen, people didn't really grow that much, especially not after the initial shock of the new challenge of being involved in Valhalla proper versus the lesser Hall.

I wandered through the streets for a bit, asking around. I wasn't exactly expecting success, but when I asked if someone knew anyone named Bjorn, giving a brief description, they looked at me like I was an idiot.

"I think I know eight people matching that description," one man responded.

Frowning, I thought of the futility of searching for someone named Bjorn in Valhalla who looked like a stereotypical Viking. This was going to be more difficult than I thought. But the man gave me an idea.

"Why don't you just have a locator look for him?" he suggested.

I frowned again, but not wanting to rouse too much suspicion or show ignorance, I just thanked him for the reminder and left. It was a brief interaction on the street, so I'm sure he forgot me moments after the conversation ended. But the knowledge that there were locators made me uneasy. I felt that this was something Loki should have warned me about—that someone could apparently be located with some sort of magic. Was there some sort of protection that I could get? I didn't think I wanted to be able to be tracked down on anyone's whim. But at the same time, how else was I supposed to find people in this sprawling mess of a city that seemingly went on for infinite amounts in every direction?

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Though there were differences in the city I hadn't explored thoroughly, and while I wanted to be able to find and contact people, I also wanted my own privacy, especially if I was going to be doing shady things with Loki. I could visit Loki, but I didn't particularly feel up for a talk with a god at the moment. So I went to the only other point of contact I could remember. It took me several hours of wandering and backtracking as I tried to remember landmarks and street names that I had never paid attention to before. Eventually, I found the shop of Phil the Gnome, with the little indications still hidden on the sign that he had an association with Loki.

Going in, we exchanged greetings, and after a moment, it was clear that he remembered me.

"Miles, my friend. It's good to see you again. I heard you were dead."

I waved my hand. "Died many times. Never been a problem for me," I said with a smile.

He laughed. "No, I meant dead dead. You've disappeared from Valhalla."

I winked. "Must be someone upstairs looking out for me, then."

He tapped the side of his nose and laughed. "Well, I see you have another newbie token." He trailed off. I wasn't sure if he meant to say expected, unexpected, interesting, impossible, or whatever, but whatever emotions he was feeling about this—or surprise—he reined it in quickly.

"So what can I do for you? I can't imagine you're flush with cash at the moment."

I winced, knowing that I was flat broke. "Yeah… Um," I said, pausing to think before continuing. "Yeah, I might need a little credit. Nothing big, but I was told in order to find someone here, I might need to get something like a locator?" I asked.

Phil nodded, and the little gnome hopped down from his stool and came around the counter, pointing through the glass. "A locator amulet? Yeah. I mean, they're generally standard practice, but most people don't need them until they've been here a while. I suppose you have been. Well, sort of. It'll give you a general direction of someone, as long as they're not blocking it with a location blocker amulet. And then we have a location blocker amulet suppressor upgrade if you want." He went through a list of countermeasures, counter-countermeasures, and counter-counter-countermeasures that made me think it wasn't a matter of whether it was possible to find you or not—rather, just how much money you'd want to spend on protecting yourself from being found or finding one particular person.

"Of course, if you have someone you know you want to find regularly, you might be able to get some sort of party amulet," he said, gesturing to a different case where there was telepathy, chat, and location sharing. "It's generally popular with parties, but not always affordable nor desirable for anything besides permanent parties."

Phil went on and on for a bit, and I mostly just tried to keep track of all the possible ways this could work. Eventually, I broke in as things were getting way far out of my price range. I held up my hand, and Phil paused mid-sentence to let me speak.

"Sorry to interrupt," I said, "but well, I'm trying to find my old party. I'm not exactly sure where to start, but I'm in particularly hot water as the challenge doesn't seem to be very well-suited to solo players this month." I quickly explained the difficulty I had had. It seemed like Phil already knew this, but he let me tell my story, if only to express my frustration for a moment.

"So I really need to find my party. I hope that they're still together or that at least one of them is willing to talk to me. I can't make any money to actually afford any of this stuff without help," I said. "No offense, of course."

"None taken," he said.

"So… I don't know, is there any way you might think to help me out? Maybe I can negotiate some sort of deal?" I tapped the inside of my arm where my gesture tattoo was.

Phil looked at it knowingly and rubbed his beardless chin thoughtfully. He looked up at me and nodded.

"Yes. I think I can get you something. The very most basic isn't that expensive, and I do know you're good at it. But I can't just give it to you. No, I think I'll have you do a simple chore for me in return."

I nodded. "As long as it doesn't take too long. I'd be happy to work for some coin." I'd heard that it was nearly impossible to get jobs, at least on the up and up, but this chore sounded more ominous than I'd prefer. Still, I wasn't sure I had much choice. Besides, the brief interactions I'd had with him before seemed fine.

"Yeah, so I have this competitor," Phil said, launching into an explanation. The more I heard, the more a certain knot in my stomach started to grow.