“Everyone’s still with me? Goodie good! Please follow me. I will show you important points of interest in Kalesh. So, don’t get lost or hang behind! You won’t loose time because you get so much more impressions on your own adventure.”

Jay was spinning around once in a fast motion for everyone to catch a great view on her long blonde hair swirling through the air and was heading straight for the next alley. She made good speed with her long strides. We were following shortly behind. I was still wondering that no one was bitching or complaining in our small group or had to be in the center of attention. It was kinda nice.

We happened to pass various merchants and stores, some of them I tried to keep in mind; general store, tailor and most important the blacksmith. We saw a lot of small stalls selling all kinds of food and we really worked our taste buds. Most things were great and delicious and Jay was always paying, her first brownie point besides her being easy on the eyes.

We learned that food or beverages could have strengthening effects or be lethal at worst. Well most of the standard stuff you bought was in neither category. Learning common sense in a virtual world was less irritating than I thought.

We were standing around a bigger place in front of a church. I hadn’t recognized that with just a glance. It really was a big building and was a Temple of Devotion. Funny enough it wasn’t devoted to a specific deity. Jay shrugged it away and just said that every religion or god can be worshipped, but most locals weren’t much into it. It still could be helpful to suck up to one or the other god for a nice blessing or buff.

“Why is nobody asking me questions?” Jay stopped in her tracks and seemed to try to end her talk in monologue.

“I don’t know if I should feel blessed or unlucky that no one of you guys is a smartass.” She was looking at us with one raised eyebrow.

“I guess we are the lucky ones.” I wasn’t able to keep my mouth shut and the comment for myself.

“Haha, there really is one! Now I feel relieved. You are the first, take care of me!” She threw a giggling kiss at me and was back to her normal self in a second.

“Hah?” What? Did I miss something?

Ding

“All places you visited are marked on your map. You got a status menu as well. Why nobody does ask for crucial things?” Jay rolled her eyes but stayed in lecture mode.

“There are two ways to access menus. You can speak it out loud or use a focused thought. Speaking may be embarrassing but it works in almost every situation. The shown menu can be handled with gestures, still embarrassing and creepy, or controlled by thought. Give it a try! Like I said: Speak out loud or think.” Jay held her bottle in her hand again and slowly emptied it while observing us.

I started to concentrate on the map. Yes! I did it in my first try without getting a red face like some of the others.

In front of me was now a semi transparent map of Kalesh. I could make out the city wall and was even able to zoom in without problems.

Jay was right. Two guys spoke “map” and “status” out loud and were waving their hands somehow manically through thin air. You could believe they broke out an asylum.

I really was glad not to have made a donkey out of me. I kept browsing the map with my new earned mental superiority. The visible part was so tiny compared blackened out surrounding of Kalesh.

“Jay, there is not much to see on the map. How do we get to other towns or cities or when we are looking for a certain place for a quest?” I asked her while looking through my map.

“There are some obvious and some roundabout ways. First: Ask someone. Sounds simple, but the quality of the answer is directly related to the visual response on your map. That means, the place can directly show up on your map or you just see a general direction or you’ll end up in the desert.” Her chuckling was sometimes a bit creepy.

“But there are also caravans and coaches going from city to city, sometimes even to smaller towns or villages. Some locations have branches of the mage guild. Those people have portals that are very expensive if you are not a member of their club.”

She blew a strand of her hair out of her face. I was pretty sure by now that Jay couldn’t be a NPC. If she was my great opinion of this game and its developers was raised to another height.  

“More questions on this topic or status?” I shook my head and devoted myself to my status. The map wasn’t too interesting right now. When I opened the new menu I was a bit disappointed.

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“Not much to see, right?” Jay watched me the whole time and could read my facial expression.

Status

Name: CrazyB

Race: Human

Level: 1

Title: 1st Smartass

Profession(s): None

Skills: None

Attributes: None

There wasn’t really much to see. I expected something like numeric values for strength, wisdom and the likes.

“What the hell is with this title?” How did I get this ridiculous title?

“What title? This cannot be!” Jay frowned and moved closer. “What is the name of your title?” Her curiosity had free reign.

“ I don’t want to say.”

“What? Why not?” Now even the other participants of our tour seemed interested.

“It is embarrassing and not really important.” Was there a way for me to wiggle out of this situation?

“It is! Titles are quite hard to receive. Even later in game and a level way above 100 you just get them by chance and can brag about it. Well, sometimes it seems to happen at random. The impacts are nevertheless severe in most cases. You should at least look at the title details.” She was now standing right in front of me and grabbed my shoulders with both hands. Why was she that excited? Everyone got titles in the dozens in other games.

Jay smelled like flowers…

Title: 1st Smartass

There is a chance in negotiations or even longer conversations to generate a random positive or negative effect. With friendly parties this is mostly positive, with neutral or hostile parties generally negative.

The title can not be discarded by the character.

This looked a bit vague but could really backfire in some situations.

While I was still thinking about the consequences Jay had realized that she was standing pretty close to me. She hadn’t stop to tug at my clothes. There was a hint of blushing in her face. She let go of my shoulders and wiped some non-existent dust away.

“What is going on with your title? Do you have to keep it a secret and leave a bad impression?” I got manipulated to an answer with a wink of her eyes.

“Sm…rt…ss.”, I mumbled.

“Hah? I didn’t understand you.” She looked at me full of expectation.

“Smartass!” I was yelling now and felt absolutely embarrassed.

I heard the others snicker.

“Smartass? Ok, right. Very interesting.” Her face was unmoving. But without knowing the exact cause at this moment, she got tears in her eyes, which started flowing. A split second later I lastly realized the reason.

She let loose guffaws of laughter.

“Muhahaha! Waaaaahhhh… Smartass! Pfffffftttt!” I was not sure if I’ve ever seen someone laughing this hard. I couldn’t quite remember. She even had to support herself on me while rhythmically slapping on my chest.

She had problems breathing and got on her knees, still guffawing.

The other guys couldn’t hold back anymore and joined her.

I crossed my arms in front of me with a mixture of indignation and surrender.

“Are you done? Can we keep going? Some people may have a schedule.”

Jay wiped her tears while gasping for air.

“Exquisite! What was your name again? I’m sure you’ll get famous, on way or another.” She chuckled again. It got boring.

“Next important lesson. There are only a handful ways to learn of other travelers and NPCs status. You can only use very rare scrolls or one spell that wouldn’t work in most situations. So, you never know automatically who or what is in front of you. That should dictate your habits particularly with strangers and monsters. At least the name can be shown the same way as you use “status” on yourself.”

After she was watching the group pretty intense she was looking at me again.

“CrazyB, I will be pleased to hear of your future achievements.”

“Jaywina Silverstar, likewise.” With my transfixed gaze I was able to let a donkey without eyelids blink, at least in real life. But I wouldn’t provoke a dangerous blinking contest on my first day. Jay still felt a bit eerie with her unnatural cheerfulness.

“You are right, well spoken!” I had? What did I say?