We stepped into the clearing and closed the door behind us on its own. The wall was made up of dark stone slabs easily as long as I was tall. Wild flowers and ivy dotted the spaces between. A gentle breeze carried the scent of baking bread and wood smoke. I looked at the sky again. It felt like we were outside, but the lattice only let in the wind and sunlight. I had to concentrate to see it. It was light blue with random patches of white to mimic a cloudy sky.

[New Area Discovered – 100 XP]

"We need to be careful," Ashley said snapping me out of my fugue.

"This was the life skills room," Bruce cut in.

"Life skills?" I asked.

"Cooking, sewing, how to make a budget, and stuff like that," he answered. "The guy who teaches it is a little weird, but you get to make cookies."

"Did you recognize any of those merchants?" I asked as we walked through the field. "Before they were turned into clowns, I mean."

Ashley shook her head. Bruce thought for a few moments.

"No," he slowed down as he spoke. "I don't think I ever saw any of them before."

"What was the room like before all this?"

"It was an open area with a couple of benches, some of small tables and chairs, and vending machines," Bruce said. "Why?"

"When things changed the stuff in my bag did too," I explained. "I'm just trying to piece things together if this happened everywhere."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Those stalls were the vending machines," Ashley said as she led the way.

"Yeah. Kind of figured," I said nodding. "But what about the merchants?"

"What?" She looked over her shoulder at me.

"The merchants," I repeated. "Where did they come from? You didn't recognize any of them so who were they?"

"I don't know," Ashley said turning back to face our destination. "Does it matter?"

"You need to think of all of this like it's a game," I continued. "Those people were NPCs. Just like your math teacher and the staff in the office. The codex said that the world was more efficient now. It takes people, assigns them to a new role, and then puts them where they are needed."

"So, who were they?" Bruce asked.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I said after a moment. "The people in the office made sense. They worked there, now they are NPCs on a loop. The merchants in the market took the place of vending machines. Where would that connect?"

"The people who stock them?" Bruce offered.

"That's a good guess," I replied.

"He's a useful minion," Ashley said.

"I am not a minion," he said staring daggers at her.

"Quiet," she said.

"I am not-"

"I said be quiet," she snapped.

She tilted her ear up to the sky and stretched upward onto her toes. Ashley dropped into the wild grass. It was tall enough to cover her with a few inches to spare.

"Get down," she whispered. "Someone is coming."

I turned to say something to Bruce. He was gone. I turned back to talk to Ashley only to find myself looking at a group of three riders rapidly approaching my position. They would see me if I tried to hide and then they would probably look for the others too. We couldn't fight people on horses with a single dagger.

"Stay where you are," one of the riders yelled. "Identify yourself, demon."

"My name is Mason," I replied. "I'm not a demon."

"What is your business here?"

"I going to the town," I said.

"Oh," the rider on my left said leaning forward in his saddle as he continued to get closer. "If that is the case, we'll be happy to escort you. There's all sorts of strange things going on lately."

It wasn't a request and I was in no position to argue.

"Lead the way," I replied.

[Speech Check Failed – 10 XP]