When I opened my eyes from the flash, I found myself standing in the middle of a small bustling street filled with people walking and passing me by. From the center of the dirt street, I could see that this whole area was surrounded by 1-2 storey buildings, built from either plain wood, cobblestone, or a mixture of the two, and each building having signs hanging above their entrances, all pertaining to either a weapons or an armour shop. There were also a few weapons and armour shop stands on the sides of the street, with people yelling and bargaining loudly with each other about the prices.
“How lucky, I must have spawned in the city’s mark-” My thought was interrupted as a person bumped into me.
A dirtied old man then scolded me, “Hey, get out of the middle of the street if you're not walking!” As he continued to walk past me carrying an old, slightly torn, lumpy sack over his shoulder, and was picking up garbage.
“Oh, sorry.” I replied timidly, moving myself to the side of the street beside an old wooden building. Then getting back to my thoughts, “This is great, I needed to go to a shop anyway to see how much all the weapons in Infinity sells for, but which shop should I go to?” Looking at the signs in my immediate field of vision, an idea popped up in my head. “I wonder if the Significance can show me which shop is a good one to go to, or maybe only what is important like with that tortured man from earlier.” Using the Eyes Of A Seer, I looked at all the signs in my vision, but the golden aura I was looking for never appeared around anything in sight. Giving up, I wondered “Maybe the Significance only shows up when it’s something related to a Quest?” Not wanting to waste anymore time, I just decided to go to the shop I was standing by, an old single storey wooden building with a smoking chimney, and a sign that said Drune’s Smith & Shop.
As soon as I opened the door to the shop, I was blasted by an intense heatwave, and it slightly made me regret my choice of shop. Entering anyway, the place was really humid, but was a decently sized space. The first half was made entirely from wooden planks, while the second half was made up from a dirt ground and cobblestone walls. The two spaces were basically divided by a solid long wooden counter. The wooden section had racks and racks of different types of weapons in the middle of the space, and also racks along the walls. Scattered in between the racks were different stands of fitted types of armour, some were tall and others were short. Hanging along the walls were individual weapon and armour pieces, and there were also two full body mirrors on either side of the wooden space.
In the left corner of the stone section was a huge burning stone forge with an air pump attached on its side, an anvil on the left, and a few different sized wooden boxes filled with liquid on the right. There was also different smithing equipment and some unfinished pieces of work hanging along the left side of the stone section’s walls, but in the right corner of the space was a large workbench with even more unfinished pieces of work, with a lot hanging on the walls; and on the anvil was a dwarven man hammering loudly on a glowing hot sword.
Stopping to take a break, he wiped his forehead with his forearm and then noticed me. “Hi there, what can I do for you?” Shouting across the room.
Walking up to the counter, I said loudly “I was wondering if you buy weapons?” Then putting my bow on the counter, I added “Also wondering if you sell or make bows better than this, mine isn’t very good."
Grabbing a dirty cloth from his waist, he dabbed his sweat dry and walked up and stood on a stool on the other side of the counter, and then he looked at my bow. Getting a better look at him, he was a dirtied dwarf with a completely bald head, and a slightly singed brown greying beard. He was wearing dirtied and burned leather pants and gloves, and had on an equally dirty and burned leather apron that covered his shirtless muscular torso.
The dwarf said, “Sorry kid, but the town’s guard bought all the bows in town a few days ago, apparently they wanted to train more guards in archery or something.” Handing back my bow, “As for making bows, I’m not even close to being called good at making them if that's what your interested in.”
“Aww too bad, I'll try asking at another shop after then, but what about buying weapons?” I asked.
“Let’s see what you got first, I can tell you if I want to buy them.” He replied.
“Okay, how about a few swords?” I then reached behind me and tried to pull out a few swords out of Infinity.
When I reached inside Infinity, the Dwarf’s eyes instantly widened, and he shouted “What is that!?” pointing at my quiver, “I’ve never seen a quiver like that before, where'd you get it?”
“Oh this, ummmm...I guess it was a gift from an angel.” I chuckled a little.
He began to mumble himself, and then said “Okay here’s the thing kid, my friend’s bow, is the best bow in town, but it was also one of the bows I sold to the town’s guard. The guy who bought it, Galen, he’s addicted to gambling and I’m sure an elven archer like yourself could beat any of the guards in town in archery.”
“Wait, let me get this right, are you saying to bet my quiver for your friend’s bow?”
“You catch on quick, kid.” The dwarf smirked.
“Wow, you sure have a lot of confidence in a stranger you just met less than 5 minutes ago.”
“Well let’s just say I have great confidence in an elf when it comes to archery, especially one carrying a quiver like that.” He sounded so confident in me.
I looked at him cautiously, and asked “Why are you telling me this?”
“Well you see, my friend should be coming to town in a day or two, and I’d like you to let her see that quiver of yours. She loves seeing and examining unique archer related items like that, and she might also get mad if she found out I sold her bow to Galen.” When he finished talking, my Quest Menu popped up.
Quest
Drune’s Friend:
Help Drune recover his Friend’s bow from Galen, and then allow said Friend to examine ‘Infinity’.
Reward: ???
Will you accept:
[Yes] or [No]
“Woah, my first actual Quest already? And I can even decline it if I wanted to, unlike the Tutorial Quests.” Feeling hyped from getting my first Quest, I happily said “Sure, I can do it.” Clicking Accept. “So where do I find this Galen? I’m new to town.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“You probably passed it coming into town if you entered through the west entrance. But if you didn't, just follow the street left of the shop, follow the direction where most people are headed, and then take a right when you get to the town square. You can’t miss seeing the barracks. Good luck, kid.” The dwarf said, as I made my way out.
Exiting the shop, I followed the first direction and it led me to a bigger open street with countless food stands, some odd trinket stands, and other types of shops. There were hundreds of people walking on the streets, bargaining for different types of fruits, vegetables, meat, and other items. There were even some town’s guard patrolling in the area. They wore a simple half plate iron armour, a round iron helmet, and sword on their waists. Looking through some of the shops that had windows in this area, most of them were selling different clothes, more food, and a few selling items. Ignoring all of it for now, I continued following the street where most of the people were headed.
“The last area must've been the marketplace or something, and this must be the town square.” I thought, arriving in a large wide open space with a partially built stone brick road, the rest of the road being the same dirt as the marketplace. A fountain was also built in the middle of the square where the stone brick road was, but there wasn’t any water inside the fountain yet. “It looks like this town is going through construction, and it’s way bigger than I expected for a starting town.” Standing in the center of the square, I got a general view of the town with my new eyes and noticed that it's quite a big town with lots of different buildings, even a few 3 storey ones. Plenty of people were walking through the square, but I could easily spot the other Players in the area by their starting armour alone.
Taking a right at the square from where I came from, I could see down the street a huge raised 20ft tall gate entrance, a wall matching in height that surrounded the town, and some guards posted at the entrance and patrolling along the top of the walls. Then on the right side down the street was a huge two storey tall building, at least 5 houses in length, and was made completely out of stone bricks. It had banners hanging from the open stone windows, with the emblem being a helmet with a shield and a sword on either side of it.
Walking to the front of the building, there were no guards at the arched entrance doorway, and I walked straight through into their huge open courtyard. The left side of the courtyard had about 2 dozen guards training with swords and shields, and a few dozen more who were training with bows and crossbows on the right side. Keeping my sight on the right side, I immediately saw and heard what I was looking for. Making a loud whipping sound everytime it was shot, a recurve bow made of some type of black wood echoed throughout the whole courtyard. Getting closer, I could see that the bow had a silver leafy-vine design engraved on the risers of the bow, reaching halfway up the limbs before ending, and also having a grip wrapped in a white cloth. The bow was being held by a confident blonde man, and seeing his archery skills I smirked.
Waiting until he finished shooting, I asked “Are you Galen?”
“Who‘s asking?” He replied in a slightly irritated voice.
“My name’s Eyes and I heard you're the best archer in town, and are quite the gambler.” Trying to butter him up.
His left eyebrow raised at the word gambler, and he smirked “I am the best but what do you have to gamble?”
“I have this magic quiver that can store 1000 arrows, and as you can see there are none inside of it right now, but if you reach for it..." Taking out as many arrows that could fit in my hand, Galen’s eyes widened, and then I made the arrows disappear back into the quiver. "So my quiver for your bow in an archery competition, what do you say?"
Galen looked me over and smirked again after seeing my bow, saying “You're on, Elf. Set up the targets for a competition!” He shouted, and to my surprise the guards all listened to him. Stopping their training, they all moved out of the way, and some young looking guards carried and moved 3 targets. 1 to the roof on the left, another on the second floor to the right, and the last on the ground across the courtyard. Then Galen announced, “3 shots each, 1 per target, taking turns every shot, and the closest to the bullseye of 2 out of the 3 targets wins. Do you agree to the competition? I wanted to make it quick and easy.”
“You sure you want to give me 3 shots?” I smugly said, grabbing my bow from my back.
“Better keep up that attitude when I win that quiver. I’ll go first.” He said.
"Go right ahead." I gestured.
Drawing his bow, I noticed that Galen struggled slighty to bring it to a full draw, but even so when the arrow was shot, it was almost as loud as a gun shot and it flew with such surprising force at the target on the roof that it almost caused it to fall over.
All I could think was, "I want that bow!"
Seeing that the arrow landed right in the 9th ring Galen chuckled, “Haha, beat that!”
Nocking an arrow and drawing my bow, I heard a cracking noise as I shot at the same target, and my arrow only slightly beat his and with much less force. Looking at my bow, I saw that there was a crack I didn’t notice on the limb, and I asked Galen “Hey, can I switch my bow with my other one, this one has a crack.”
“What? No way, that’s cheating, and if you decide to cheat in a competition, well the guards here might just have to arrest you.” He grinned at me, gesturing to all the guards watching us.
“Not good, the crack on the bow is only going to get bigger if I keep shooting, but I can’t switch out because the guards will probably arrest me, this should've been so easy.” Getting a bit nervous about winning.
Galen shot again, this time with even more force than before, aimed at the second floor target and hitting inside the ten ring. “Wooo!” He cheered.
Afraid of breaking the bow, I only half drew the bow, and the arrow expectedly barely flew straight landing in the 6th ring.
Galen laughed, drawing his last shot and aimed across the courtyard at the target about 50m away. Releasing the arrow, it flew with even more force yet again, and hit directly in the center of the bullseye and pierced halfway into the target. Galen smirked, and said “It’s over now, hand me the quiver without making a fuss.”
Frustrated from what should’ve been an easy victory, I said “You’re right, it is over.” Aiming at the target, I activated Power Shot; widening my stance, I drew the bow to its limits, and you could visibly see the crack growing larger and larger. When I released the arrow, the extra force of Power Shot completely shattered the limbs of the bow, sending pieces flying everywhere, and only leaving the grip I held in my hand. The arrow flew straight and pierced right through the center of Galen’s arrow, then transferring the force into the target, it created a hole the size of the 9th ring. The arrow broke as it hit the barrack’s stone wall.
Archery proficiency increased by 1 Level.
The courtyard stood silent and Galen was in shock. Using that time, I ripped the bow out of his hand, and then activated Sprint. Burning all my Stamina, I left the area in a hurry, afraid that they would say using a Skill would count as cheating.
I ran all the way back to the market area. Catching my breath, I said to myself “I really wonder if that counted as cheating? Oh well, he only said 3 shots he never said no Skills, but I should stay away from the guards, they still might arrest me.” Reading the notifications I got while I ran.
Sprint increased by 1 Level. Fitness increased by 1 Level.
On the way back to the shop, I stopped at a small stand that sold fruits. “Can you give me 1 Golds worth of fruits?” I asked the old woman behind the stand and she smiled happily and nodded, giving me all of the stand’s fruit in 10 completely full bags. “Jeez, I way overestimated the value of fruits.” Keeping 1 bag to eat, I tried to put the remaining 9 bags in my Inventory, but discovered that the bag and the fruits all counted as separate items, and was only able to fit 1 bag of fruits in my Inventory. "Wow, not being able to stack items sucks." Already knowing the answer, I tried to store the fruits in Infinity anyway, but the fruits weren't inanimate objects and they weren't able to be stored. "Oh no, I guess I'll just have to carry these 8 bags of fruits."
Seeing the old woman starting to clean up her stand, I asked her about information on the town and the area, and she happily told me a little before she waved me goodbye. Eating an apple from a bag, I recalled what the old woman said, "So the town's called Asheton, located in the middle part of the continent and the Human Kingdom, and is a town frequently traveled through by traders, merchants, and adventurers. Just learning about the world really makes me wonder how big this new one really is." I lost myself in thought imagining about the world, and wondering about what to do with 9 bags of fruits.