The air felt cool and fresh after the heat of the day. Making my way down the street I slowly walked towards the nearby park. My map showed several golden glimmers scattered throughout the park. One of which was much brighter than the others. After walking by the bright moonlight down the main street I turned onto a side street. Following the map I made my way deeper into the maze of small side streets.   Most of the buildings were clearly abandoned. The final three city blocks showed no signs of life at all. I kept to the shadows walking slowly and softly. I would be lying if I were to claim it was not surreal and somewhat scary.

Eventually I came across the entrance to the park. The map did not do justice to the size of the park, the overall area must have encompassed several city blocks. The entrance was overgrown with shrubs and small trees about thirty feet tall. Making my way through the underbrush I eventually walked into a central clearing, several copse of trees were visible in the small dells that appeared further into the park, a brook was bubbling in and out of the terrain. It was wooded and peaceful with the sound of the brook bubbling along in the moonlight.

I stopped and stared, this was an amazing find, I was having a hard time accepting that this was both man made and then abandoned. Calling out to Twink I asked her if she could fly over the park and then we would add more information to the map. As I saw the details appear I saw that near the back of the park  several buildings were visible and that is where the largest golden glimmer was.   Noticing a few smaller glimmers that were visible further into the park I began to make my way to the first one.

I realized that I was walking on the remains of a path and that made a lot of sense to me, most people would have walked along or near the main paths when they had lost the coins they carried. That unfortunately, was bad for them, but good for me.  Listening to the insects making the little night noises and hearing what sounded like an owl hooting in the distance I realized that this area had gone wild. This gave me a bit of a chill down my back as I am a city boy and the largest animal I had ever seen was a cat. 

I also knew that some people in the city kept dogs, wild looking creatures that were all aggressive and territorial. Most of these beasts have gone through selective breeding over the years to be small and gentle and yet for some reason they were loud and bothersome. Yippy, I had heard these little monsters being called. 

If I ran into anything like this I would give Twink permission to eat the damn thing before it would attack me with the yippyness. Whatever the yippyness is.  However, perhaps I would not run into dogs in this game world. I had not seen any dogs but that did not mean they were not present in the game world. Cats and rats seemed common in the city, maybe there was a ban on dogs by the city council.

Interrupting my musings on pets was the fact that I had arrived at the location of the first golden glimmer. The location was beautiful, the path had begun to run parallel to the brook with a small sandy beach leading to the water. There were several trees growing on the opposite bank.  The brook itself was about ten feet across and the shores seemed to be shallow with the middle of the brook deepening. It appeared to be only a couple of feet deep, and that made me happy as the golden glimmer was about three feet from the shore I was standing on.

Stripping down to the tightywhitey that all players had from the moment their avatar was created I looked at my body. It was about five feet nine inches tall. The shoulders were broad and heavy with muscle, in fact my whole body looked like that of a bodybuilder before they all turned to steroids. My skin was a light brown color that appeared to have golden hues to it in the moonlight. My eyes were reptilian with the Dragon eyes ability activated. I also knew that I was heavy, weighing more than my size would indicate. Being part dragon had really changed me; it is a good thing that I look human.  I wondered if it would help me in the water.

Entering the small brook, I noticed the water was pleasant not feeling cold at all. Slowly walking out to the golden glimmer, I reached out and felt among the small stones and sand at the bottom. Scraping off the top layer of scree, I dug deeper into the detritus until I felt something metallic and solid.  Holding tightly I pulled what I held up into the water and letting the current wash off the item I lifted it into the light. It was a small solid bar of some metal I could not identify.

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 “Twink” I called out “can you tell me what this is.” Hearing her voice in my mind I suddenly felt the AI of her personality take over. “Scan commencing, searching databases.” “The item in your possession has a 90 percent chance of being the fictional metal Methrill.”  I had heard of it, seems like every fantasy novel and vrp game used it in some capacity.   “Twink, within this world what is Methrill used for?” “It is coveted by mages and blacksmiths as it is one of the few naturally occurring objects that once enchanted seems to somewhat modify or empower any spells conjoined to it.”

“How much would this size be worth in the game” I asked? Latest auction house data would indicate that it is within the range of 50 000 gold.” Twink replied.  I was rich, I was rich, I was rich; the words kept running through my mind as my inner greedy self surfaced. At the point my inner circumspect self arrived and said, “Slow down boy.”

Reordering my thoughts, I reflected on the fact that I had only scratched the surface with my treasure finding ability. Putting the chunk of metal into my bag I walked out of the brook and slowly dried myself with the cloak and then dressed. Staring down at my gear I resolved to get some better items as I could now afford to. 

Looking at the map, I began to make my way to the next golden glimmer. Walking among the trees and shrubs with the wild grasses growing knee high, I made my way through several of the small vales until I arrived at an overgrown flower patch. Near the edge facing the path was a golden glimmer. 

Kneeling down I began carefully to remove and pull away the stems and roots of the flowers, I made an effort to do no damage the plants. Slowly brushing away the soil I felt the hard outline of a coin. Lifting it up, I saw that it was old and the metal appeared to be gold. Noting a golden glimmer still on the ground I crouched down once again and gently removed the topsoil until I felt another coin. It was the twin of the first coin, and clearly they had both been here for some time. Silently thanking the person who had dropped them I stood and began to make my way to the next treasure spot visible on the map.

I collected a variety of different coins as I made my way towards the buildings located near the rear of the park.  Looking at the map I saw that I was almost there.   Following an overgrown path up a small hill crowned with trees I saw the three white buildings situated at the bottom of a narrow vale.  Stopping under the trees, I sat down on a overgrown rock bench.  Glancing at the time I noted it was about 2:00 am.  The two full moons were chasing each other in the dark sky. It was light enough that one could read a book if one was to be had, just a beautiful night.

I opened my bag and began to count the coins I had collected, using Twinks ability to access both forums and the AH I obtained a value of 50 075 gold for the evenings effort.   Depending on the sale of the Methrill.  A job well done I thought as I stared down at the buildings. I glanced again at the time it was now 3:00 am. 

Deciding that I would return here tomorrow night to find the large treasure, I turned around and began my journey to the front entrance of the park. I was on breakfast cleanup duty and did not want to be late for that.  It was important to be able to curry favor with all the Npc that I would have dealings with.  Especially the ones that I lived next to.