Vendors are crooks.

The town blacksmith was a big Irish man. Greasy red braids draped over each shoulder. He was wearing a smudged white apron over his bare chest and black pants. I supposed the black pants made it easier to hide the soot. He was also a computer character. I could tell by the way he moved, and lots of repetitive motions and pointless stoking the fire of the forge.

I pointed at the round gray shield hanging on the wall. "That is not worth all of this!”

“The shield is two hundred.” He pointed at my items. "A hundred for the ore, twenty for each of the blades, forty for the axe.”

“That shield has been used!” I pointed at a dent. "And not gently!”

“That’s why it’s only two hundred.” He said. "A new one is five hundred.”

I picked up the ore.

“You don’t want it?” He asked

“I do want it.” I put the blades back in my bag. "But I won’t trade all of my items for it.”

He shrugged. "Your loss.”

I left the blacksmith and headed back to the inn. It was just past noon. If I went back out, I could probably get enough copper ore to buy the shield with what I had, but I wasn’t going to lug all of this around.

I waved at the bar keep as I walked back to my room. The one good thing about the game was that rooms could only be accessed by the people staying in them. Not even party members could walk in unless they were invited.

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I dropped the weapons on the floor and dumped the ore next to it. I knew that they would still be there when I got back.

I locked the door when I left the room. On a hunch I stopped at the bar.

“Where can I buy a spell book?”

The bar keep put down the mug he was cleaning. "There’s a mage school up the road.”

“Do you know how much they charge?”

“There are some quests you can do.” He said. "You’d have to join up with them though.”

“Join up with them?” I asked. "You mean join their group?”

“Their guild.” He said. "You didn’t read about guilds?”

I shook my head.

He picked up another mug and started wiping it out. "It’s in your book.”

I sat down at one of the tables. I had yet to see any patrons come through the inn, except my group. I wondered how much traffic he actually got and why he was always cleaning the mugs.

I flipped to the section about Guilds. Guilds existed to make progressing in a certain type of play style easier for the players. For instance the Mage Guild would help new players that wanted to cast spells. By doing a series of gathering quests and proving an aptitude for casting spells, I could earn certain spells from the Mage Guild without having to buy or hunt them down.

There were drawbacks. In the schools of magic there were a lot of Guilds. Each of these could be at war with any of the other Guilds at any time. If I joined the Mage Guild and it started fighting with the Necromancer Guild, then I wouldn’t be able to be in a group with Mei. Though it would only count if she was in the Necromancer Guild. I wasn’t sure if she was or not, I’d have to ask her when she got back.

Leaving a Guild wasn’t as easy as just walking away. Every Guild item would be destroyed when you left the Guild. If I wanted to join back up with the Guild at a later time, I would have to pay a fine and the items that I had gotten before, I would have to earn all over again.

I waved a thank you to the bar keep and left. I didn’t plan on joining the Mage Guild, but it was worth checking out.