Honestly, when Frӧst heard the price for one night he really wanted to beat the old man up. 5 silvers were enough to buy a simple house back in the beginner city of the Nevidia empire, where he started. However he contained himself, since the level of favorability of the NPCs would influence the quest that could be obtained from the whole area. So if he made a mistake and angered one of the key NPCs in the quest, it would be difficult to get any rewards. Heck, they might even stop interacting with you and your reputation in the village or city would drop.
There were exceptions, but they were rare.
A very low reputation would also turn the guards against you, making the player an habitual visitor of the local prison.
Frӧst begrudgingly payed the hard earned 5 silvers. He tried to lower the price a bit, but the old owner told him that if he wasn’t satisfied with the price he could always go sleep outside. The ‘well rested’ bonus was important in case of an unexpected fight. He didn’t know if he would encounter any danger, but he knew that some quests would disappear if you ended up dying while doing them.
When he logged in the next day he was almost on the verge of crying. There was no ‘well rested’ bonus on his character. Five precious silvers went down the drain. Sleeping in the woods was really better than staying at this inn. It took him a while to recover from this mental blow.
He had lost enough time commiserating himself. He came to this remote place only for one reason: to find Layla, the character that probably knew the most about the Night Crunchers at this point in time.
When he got downstairs he saw an old lady arguing with the innkeeper, whom had a shotgun in hand. “You old witch, I’m not going to let a random smuck rob me!” the old man’s face was so red from anger that he thought he would shood the granny. “Hmph, weren’t you the first one to rob him?” “Business! It’s called business! It’s not my fault if they’re stupid enough to get cheated!”
He could see the old lady scoffing at him, while the innkeeper reluctantly put away the weapon. As soon as the granny left, the old scrooge looked way happier.
In this game, unless you were some kind of kingdom-wide criminal, no one could distinguish a player from an NPC. In fact, many scams had some players faking being NPCs. Items and abilities that could distinguish the two existed, but were rare and expensive. Only if you committed a lot of grave crimes, like serial murder and king-robbing, would your name be displayed on top of your head in big red letters.
That’s why he thought that the granny was an NPC. If a normal player tried to argue like that with the innkeeper, he would be shot on the spot.
The old scrooge, noticing him, stopped smiling like a schoolgirl. “What is it? Do you want to pay for one more night?” And just like that, he noped right out of there. No way he would stay in there for another night.
According to Frӧst memories, Layla was the shopkeeper of the general store. However once he got there he couldn’t help but doublecheck the name. The sign ‘Sally’s Trove’ was in big letters over the shop entrance. “Was it called like that?” Shaking his head, he went inside. He was going to check anyway.
He was disappointed when he saw that the one at the counter was a young boy with black hair. The little guy had a magazine on top of his head, but Frӧst could clearly feel how he was staring at him intensely.
He didn’t waste time browsing. He directly went to the counter to ask his questions. “Hello. I’m searching for Layla. I’ve heard that she’s staying here” The boy raised his head and with his pitch black eyes he stared at him “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who she is”
Frӧst was confused. Did he remeber wrongly? He wanted to ask him a few more questions, but a window appeared before his eyes.
??? is warning you.
It was as if something was whispering to his ear that something really dangerous was coming. His expression froze, then he quickly smiled. “I see. I’ll go ask someone else then” And rushed out of the store. His whole body was having goosebumps. “What was that?” Could that have been the unknown effect of his ability ‘De Novo’?
He glanced back at the shop’s entrance. As his goosebumps were only increasing, he quickly decided to leave the premises. Whatever it was, it looked like a bad idea to linger near that place.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
ᴥᴥᴥ ≈ ° ≈ ᴥᴥᴥ
Granny Ariel used the VR glasses to browse the game’s forums. She would have never thought that she would be still alive to see interactive holograms to be a thing, just like in those old futuristic films. What a marvelous time to still be alive!
Nowadays all big games had multiple servers. EO:WA wasn’t any different. Mittilagart, Alfheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Myrkheim. Those were the five servers that the game offered according to what part of the world you lived in.
But what if two people found themselves in two different servers?
That was no problem at all! The devs had released a statement saying that travel between servers could be unlocked by playing the main quest, or by using consumable items.
Elysium Online was a game that was advertised as the one with the most freedom ever created. In fact, aside from the character creation, there were no tutorials or hand holding. Some of the players hated that, while some others loved the fresh feeling of discovering new things as they played. Some of them even sold at high prices the mechanics discovered to those too lazy to test new things. However, once three week passed, most of the mechanics became public knowledge on the forums.
Things like NPC favorability, red criminal names, how to get drops and money, shop prices and how to get and change classes, were all over the community forum.
Ariel even found a post about the Smiling Pilgrim inn.
> Tipe3: Warning for all players that visit Rosecott village in the Leronell kingdom: THE INN THERE IS A SCAM!
I payed 5 silvers for a one night stay and did not get a well rested bonus.
You’re better off camping in the woods.
> Rice’n Toast: LMAO The innkeeper got you good
> RayShowd0wnLegend: What? Really? Now we have to be wary of the inns too?
> Potbydaylight: Op, what made you think that it was a good idea to pay 5 silver for a room in a backwater village? Lol
...
> BlueStripe: F*CK! I wanted my money back, but the owner shot me half to death
> Potbydaylight: LOL I wish I could’ve seen it
> Tipe3: Same
> Rice’n Toast: Same 2
> Goat4ever: Same 3
> sweetcupc4ke: :O There are guns in the game!?
…
The one that was complaining that was shot was probably the beastman that she saw arguing with old Hans earlier today. She was tempted to leave a comment, but then changed her mind. There was no need to shame that poor guy any further.
Scrolling down she found another interesting post, titled ‘Death and respawning’.
> Ritterpeak: After each death you need to wait for 30 real time hours before logging in. Not sure why the wait is so long. Once done waiting, you’ll respawn in the latest World Sprout that you’ve registered, or if you haven’t yet, in the Shrine of Beginnings you’ve spawned in when you created your character.
The game punishes you for dying multiple times. The first time you won’t lose anything, the second time you’ll lose 5% of your accumulated exp, the third time you’ll lose a random stat point in addition to the 5% exp loss.
Keep in mind that this data was compiled in the span of a week. Looking at the advanced AI of the game, it might be more a punishment for multiple deaths over a short period of time. I’ll check to see if there’s any difference over longer periods of time.
> Culdesac: Op are you a masochist? Don’t you know that the game is set to make you feel 15% of the pain of every hit?
> HoiBoiChoi: Only older pod models have high pain settings. Newer models can change the pain felt at will.
...
Grandma Ariel was curious about the World Sprouts that could be used as respawning points. Just by the name they could be linked to Yggdrasil, the tree that spoke during character creation. Maybe exploring the lore of the game wasn’t a bad idea. Looking at the posts that described NPC behaviour to be very realistic, Ariel was very excited to know more.
And just like that it was time for lunch. When she opened the fridge, she saw a lonely looking radish. After giving it a glance she took a couple of carrots before closing the fridge. She cooked up a tender breast chicken with steamed potatoes and carrots as side dish.
Once done with lunch, she looked over at her neighbor, Mrs. Wattson. On her window still she could see the reflection of the sun coming from a pair of binoculars. Beyond that was an empty armchair.
As Ariel was musing over the bad habits of neighbour she had a wicked idea. “She likes to spy the neighborhood? Then let’s give her something interesting to watch” She got herself dressed for a fun shopping afternoon. She needed a few things to make her plan successful.