Nodding with a stiff jerk of her head, she said, “Good, I’m off to gather herbs,” and left for a spot now marked on her map. Her face was still hot with frustration, and She wanted to hit something, someone tried to rob her, his grandfather was on the edge of cheating her in a deal. She mentally selected her dark attack, letting her anger fill the power. Releasing the anger, the breath she did not know she was holding, and the attack. A tree on the side of the path fell over, as a notification came up.
Congratulations, you have leveled up to level 3. You may choose 6 power enhancements. You have unlocked the trait, Giant Intimidation. During conversations, you may actively intimidate. If looks could kill, yours would.
Jennifer turned back toward the town. Feeling flushed in the face, she decided to get some water and deal with her level up before heading out.
“I just leveled up. Is there a place in town where I can sit and get a drink while I look at my options?” Her tone showed her frustration.
The mayor, not letting any chance pass him by, said, “How about I show you around, girl, before you help the town by gathering much needed herbs.” A forced cheeriness to his voice.
She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes, she let out a deep breath. Focused on slowing her heart rate down.
The mayor was still smiling, the smile looked odd to her, there was something off about it. There was a sparkle in his eyes she did not recognise.
“I would very much like to see the town, Mr. Mayor.” She wanted to remain formal, she put an emphasis on the word mayor. She was going to need a place to live while getting into the school and taking classes.
Chapter [5?]: One Man’s Town is Another Man’s Kingdom
As he explained the lay of the land, the mayor acted like Hogback was the greatest town ever. “Oh yes, we have the town hall, three inns, four guard houses,” the mayor put extra emphasis on the words guard houses, but continued normally after that, “two warehouses, a Museum of Natural History, an embassy for the Toarcian dominion, the micro foundry factory, and then a few houses for the townspeople. There are six farms set not far from the town wall. Most are for grain, one is for watermelons down by the bay, and the others are for meat. However, since they are outside the town they do not count as town buildings, but they are under the protection of the town, so they generate resources for the town.”
She was unsure how to judge the town. All the houses were tiny with most being only one story high and constructed out of wood. The houses looked cold, dark, and damp. Most had no lights on the inside nor smoke coming from the chimneys. She tried to recall what houses looked like in her world and remembered colors on buildings, but none were distinct in her. Feeling a pang of emotion, at the loss of memory, in her chest, Jennifer decided she needed to add color to the town somehow.
Looking around, there are more roads than people. He talked about every house they passed by, when the house was built, by whom, and how much the house cost at the time it was constructed, and how much the empty houses cost to buy or rent now. Most houses stood empty. Jennifer ignored most of what the mayor said but kept taking in the town. Most of the houses were rectangles, but some were round, and a few looked like repurposed barns.
At the end of the tour, the mayor brought her to the center of the settlement. The town square was more of a rectangle, but she had the feeling that correcting the mayor on this would not go over well.
“Mr. Mayor, can you explain the meaning of what is on the flag?” Jennifer pointed up to the flag waving in the sky.
The smile reached the mayor’s eyes, giving them a certain twinkle when he replied. “The red background notes that we are a Red Alliance town. The green vertical line on the left side shows we are a border town with the dinosaur lands, and we have a…” He seemed to be looking for the correct words or diplomatic phrasing. “We have a somewhat open border with the dinosaur land. They send their trading caravans, and we only hold them for twenty-four hours while we inspect them. Then they go to the larger cities, often taking goods from our town too.”
The mayor's tone shifted from one of boastfulness as he no longer met her eyes while talking. His head tilted down to the right. Adding up the details of the changes in her mind, she presumed holding of the caravan seemed to be a point of contention for the mayor to point it out so much. “The blue outline of a bright violet lightning bolt is my mayoral symbol. The yellow line that crosses horizontally the length of the flag up to the green line indicates that we have a military unit stationed here. That unit fights the town’s bi-weekly paper raid.”
Jennifer was nodding along up to the part about the raid. The town center was just a grass space with a small grove of tall trees on either end on the long sides, and the flag standing tall in the approximate center. A stone walkway mimicked the yellow and green lines on the flag. Near the bottom left triangle of the walkway was a large fountain with a statue of a man holding a yard stick up like a sword while standing on top of a taxi. The taxi stood on its two back wheels. To Jennifer the fountain looked a bit silly, she did not understand how it had not fallen over. Judging on how maintained the statue and fountain were, it probably meant something to someone. A small stone wall enclosed the town center. It was around the height of Jennifer’s knees and about two of her feet wide. This was the only area of town where she had seen many colorful, small plants growing on top of the wall, giving the whole space a garden feel. After noticing some benches positioned around the fountain, Jennifer walked toward them and motioned for the mayor to follow before asking her question. “What’s a paper raid?” So much was new to her, and she wanted to learn more.
Woozle had been loping alongside the pair while the mayor lectured about his town. The lynx-shark had the zoomies. At first, just sniffing around, something caught his attention as he ran about. Jennifer noted that Woozle had started at about the size of a field mouse and was now the size of a small house cat. She smiled as she watched him run from place to place with his shark fins and fur coat shining in the sunlight. He looked happy just running around.
She realized the mayor had not spoken in some time, and he looked as if he was deep in thought. Wanting to give him the time he needed, Jennifer watched the fountain’s water.
After a moment, the mayor spoke again. “You fragments seem so real and remind me of when my grandchildren were much smaller. You know you’re a fragment, but do you know what that means?”
She tried not to glare. Feeling her answer would have a touch of anger either way, she let her frustration show. “I am who and what I am. And what I am is sick of being called a fragment. I feel whole.”
The mayor turned, giving her a strange look as he spoke. “I feel whole too. I haven’t left this world in over a decade. The next time I leave will probably be the last time too.” Leaned back, lifting his head to look at the sky. “Well, to answer your question, a paper raid is a single monster that has been copied over and over. Like a picture photocopied many times.” The mayor slipped back into lecture mode again. If the mayor were to ever become a professor at the university, Jennifer thought she would take his classes, but only if he stopped calling her a fragment.
“In my town’s paper raid, it’s always a monster that has been copied. Not a single person, or distinct entity. Always generic monster mobs, they are the easiest to fight and give the lowest of rewards. The monsters attack in waves, each wave becoming more difficult. The waves are timed, if the wave is beaten within the time limit, the next wave will appear normally a tier above the last wave of monsters. If the timer runs out, and the attackers have not been beaten, a boss will appear. The boss is either at the same power level of the last mob, or one above.They attack here once every two weeks and give decent experience points and loot but nothing fancy. Between the paper raids, caravans, and exports, we’re a profitable town. That’s how I’m able to stay here as a long-term parallel. It is now my play cycle, get game money, trade it for real money to pay for the game.” The mayor looked down and added a half-hearted chuckle.
“What’s a long term parallel?” She asked because it seemed to make the mayor sad for some reason.
The mayor let out a dry laugh. “My choices were to live in a retirement home or live in a game world where I can still be productive.” Joy returned to the mayor’s voice as he spoke. “This way I get to see my grandkids more often, and the pod I’m in makes sure I eat and take my meds. If the ads are to be believed, this has even added years to my life.” The mayor looked up at Jennifer in spite of both of them sitting on the same bench. “So, girl, are you a giant sent to give the town a new quest line?”
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Turning her head, Jennifer looked at the fountain and laughed.
The mayor raised his hands, palms facing out.
Jennifer turned back to him. “What makes you think I’m a giant . . .” Her voice trailed off as she looked down at the mayor and the realization of their size difference sunk in. “I am descended from giants,” she recited her words from before. She asked slowly, “Am I that tall?”
The mayor replied, “I’m as tall as I’ve ever been. And I must be in the top one percent of all men in terms of size.”
She smelled a lie. Men always added an inch or two. The mayor seemed to be no different, but he was a head shorter than her.
Before she could think of a response. Woozle came bounding up with something in his mouth. “Wook wha I caugh.” Woozle’s speech was muffled by the light brown thing between his teeth.
“Oh, your familiar seems to have caught a nice wild rabbicoon. Those are almost all pests around here,” the mayor said.
Her mouth opened in gaped and she instantly went into her inventory menu. She brought out a healing potion as Woozle dropped a creature, which looked like a cross between a raccoon and a bunny, at her feet. She did not hesitate to give the creature the contents of the healing potion.
The small rabbicoon finished the contents of the healing potion and curled into Jennifer, getting as far from the lynx-shark as it could. She reached out to Woozle, petting his head. “You’re a good hunter, but this one seems a little young to be catching.” She looked down at the empty glass container in her other hand then over at the rabbicoon hiding in her robes before turning to the mayor. “Can you please fill this with water? My hands are full,” Jennifer asked the mayor.
Not hearing an answer she looked back to the mayor, the mayor’s eyes were wide open and staring at Jennifer. He took the glass container, strolled to the fountain, and filled it up. Jennifer ran one hand over the rabbicoon and the other over her lynx-shark, hoping to calm both by the time the mayor returned.
focusing on her status bars in her menu, there was now a black bar on her stamina bar that would normally be gray after casting her healing potion power. When the mayor handed the glass container back, the black portion turned back to gray.
“Thank you, Mr. Mayor,” remembering her manners. She took a large gulp of the water and offered the rest to Woozle. Woozle shook his head and bounded over to the fountain to drink from the source. As soon as the scary lynx-shark left, the buncoon took off towards the stone wall nearby, to an unseen rabbicoon hole or burrow.
“You can craft healing potions?” The words came hesitantly from the mayor.
Drawing her shoulders inwardly. “Alchemist is one of my classes. Healing potions was the first skill. The reason I took your quest to find eighty-five healing weeds was because it may help me craft more than the four I’m allowed now.”
“Alchemist at the most basic level would be able to turn ten healing weeds into one basic health potion. But as a man worth his salt, I can tell that what you gave the rabbicoon was at least a rare healing potion.’’ Astonishment resonated in the mayor’s voice.
She tilted her head as an idea came to her mind. A smile crossed her mouth. “Do you want a healing potion?” she asked as innocently as possible and pulled a second healing potion out.
“Oh, yes,” he answered without hesitation.
“How much?”
The mayor’s eyes shot up from the healing potion. She could almost see his bartering mind at work. She moved the potion slowly from right to left and back again. Judging by the way the mayor’s eyes followed the healing potion like a dog would follow a steak, Jennifer had the high ground in this exchange.
The mayor stated his opening offer. “Five oranges.”
Thinking back to her exchange with the masked man, she remembered that she still had no idea what money was like here. “How much is a room at one of the inns?” Trying to find something to compare it to that she wanted.
The mayor promptly said, “Ten oranges for a night at the Dry Boat, twenty-five oranges for the Dancing Clock, and one yellow for a night with breakfast and dinner at the Chateau du Jim.” The mayor’s eyes narrowed at her as he spoke.
Making the connection to the mayor’s name, she asked, “Do you own the Chateau du Jim?”
The mayor pursed his lips. “One night complimentary at my castle and ten oranges. That is giving you a place to stay while you complete the gathering of the healing weeds and start building your own place in town.”
Jennifer saw how much the mayor’s offer had jumped and made a counteroffer. “Three nights at the chateau and twenty-five oranges.”
The mayor eyed her with an appraising look. “Three nights and five oranges. And that’s because I think having you in town is a good investment.”
That sounded like a good deal. Jennifer smiled while she passed the healing potion to the mayor.
The mayor took the potion. “When you get to the Chateau, let them know you have room one-oh-three. Feel free to join the paper raid this week.”
There was no feeling in the world like she felt now, having a weight she did not realize was there being lifted off her shoulders. She had slept on a couch in a school last night. She had no idea where she was going to be staying tonight. It may only be three nights, but in that time, she could gather the healing weeds she needed to get a parcel of land in town. Jennifer only had one question left for the mayor as he handed her an orange bill with the number five on one side and an owl on the other. “What’s an orange compared to a yellow?”
The mayor’s eyebrows shot up before he doubled over laughing.
When the mayor was able to calm down and sit beside Jennifer he explained, 1-99 are red and are basically change and only came in coins, 100-999 were oranges and came in 5-10-50-100 notes, 1000-9999 where yellows the same denominations as oranges but are small bars, and carried on as green, blue, indigo and violet. The gears of her mind were grinding, why not just use the decimal system and dollar. There was a place south of where she used to live that used a unit of measurement that had a strange ratio. Twelve to one, then three to one, followed my one thousand seven hundred and sixty to one. Someone had told her it was needlessly complicated, but too expensive to fix. This world's money was like that to her.
Jennifer thought about the comparison to her own world, which was a cent to a dollar. A hotel room on the cheap end would cost about one hundred a night. But comparing the cost of one thing was not enough to give her a sense of this world’s money, so she searched her mind for something else. While there were medications on her world, she did not remember health potions being there. She needed to find apples and bread to give her a good idea how much this money was worth.
“This really is your first day here?” the mayor asked, the humorous smile stuck on his face.
Jennifer mock glared at the mayor.
A blue bird with a large x in place of his right eye, a metal helm wearing and a sheathed sword on a belt flew up to him. Jennifer thought of how cartoonish the bird looked.
The mayor lost the color in his cheeks, the bird beak was opening and closing, with the feather on its neck moving in regular intervals. There were no sounds or words Jennifer could hear, and judging by the way the mayor reached, the words were meant only for him. She guessed it was a system thing.
“They can’t be coming here.”
“Who can’t be coming here?” She should have asked about the bird first because it vanished in a puff of smoke.
The mayor turned to Jennifer and talked very quickly as if his mind was running faster than his mouth. “We are going to need, well that would need to be done, who could do the catering, the baker man who lives by, no no that burned down the insurance paid out, well the cattle, they must eat meat, wait no his right hand man thing only has those square teeth, they are dinosaurs beast not to make assumption, so if else who else, The king, queen, and probably most of the royal court—” The mayor stopped all of a sudden. “There will be the royal guards and their mounts. OH, they’re going to need a place to stay and what will they ride in . . .” The mayor gave her a scrunched up side-eye look she did not like.
A notification came up in her menus.
You have been invited to join the town of Hogsback as a citizen. As a citizen, you will be granted rights and protections under the town charter, including but not limited to, free entry and exit from the town, access to the water wells, and other such utilities. The town has a flat tax rate of twenty five thousand oranges a year for land tax. The only guarantee in this world is taxes. Death need not apply.
With a nod, she accepted the invite and immediately saw a new menu tab labeled Town Interface. Her access level to the town interface was set to basic, giving her access to a list of town quests, a list of needed supplies, and a weather report. New quests were being added every heartbeat like gathering hay, cleaning the stables, gathering foods, and cooking a dozen meals fit for royalty. The cooking quest was not up for long as someone quickly accepted it. Jennifer’s eyes glazed over at all the quests. She stopped counting new quests after thirty.
From the mayor’s mouth came a loud and clear command, “Temporary Mayor’s Office.” A large, hardwood, dark, L-shaped, fancy desk appeared next to the mayor. A line up of blue birds started forming on the desk. Where they landed on what a miniature version of a landing strip planes at airports would use. On the runway in white block letters had the words, “incoming messages.” On the other end of the work surface was another air strip labeled, “Out Messages.” The rest desk was spotless with multiple unused note pads arranged in a neat pile and pens standing in an organizer. The town’s flag was painted on the front of the writing station. The mayor took a deep breath, with a wave of his hand, “Fine office chair with back massager.” The chair was redwood, black leather. The part of the chair that would meet Jim’s back had moving bulges. The mayor took his seat.
The first on his desk was a blue bird wearing a cheap looking pumpkin mask descended from the sky. It was followed by more birds wearing assorted costumes. They lined up, wings folded standing on their feet on the open spot in front of the mayor ready to take messages. The birds came in all shapes and sizes. She watched as the birds flew with grace and purpose before standing in line like soldiers awaiting orders.
A young man carrying a shiny new briefcase came running up to the mayor, huffing and puffing. “Sir, is there an emergency?”