The weapon shop was laid out as a jewelry store or museum, with all kinds of different armaments stored under glass casings with copper name plates pinned to their redwood bases. If you touched the plates, a status window appeared with the weapon’s description along with its price. He guessed that in a shop this large, it didn’t make any sense to wait in line for a digital vendor, despite the fact that they were the only players in the shop. Perhaps the developers were expecting more from the players, or more survivors. Thousands had been part of the crowd funding. In fact, considering the size of the city, they hardly saw any other players at all. The ones they did see were mostly still in their noob clothes, and ran away at first sight. Their reaction spoke largely to the rumours of forceful recruiting by Gambits, but they’d yet to see any members of that group either.

The prices in the market were steep, and the only really affordable items were basic gear. Sakura and Belladonna had gone straight to the tools shop. It was the first time in a while he and Daphne had been alone together, and it was somehow much more awkward than it once was, back when it was just the two of them at Baldor’s Loft.

“So what are you going to buy?” Daphne asked, while they wandered around the second floor of the unique armory.

“I don’t know. There’s so much to choose from. It’s like an impossible decision.”

“I guess.”

Daphne stood by an open table, fiddling with a knife nearly the length of a short sword, while Edge slowly made his way around the outside of the room. He was searching for the perfect weapon for himself, instead stumbling upon the perfect weapon for Daphne, if she could play it. The ivory harp was strung with golden threads, but where your average harp was made for music, this one was made for battle. The ivory frame bent as a recurve bow with a harp set in its center. Its outermost string was silver wire meant for nocking an arrow against. The bow had little for garnish beyond the strings, overall it was a sleek and deadly bardic missile weapon. Though how a player could play music, while they simultaneously aimed and shot was another dilemma.

[Hunter’s Harp] He tapped the copper label, and cringed at the price tag. They could afford it, but it would cost them about half of their accumulated stash, if Sakura hadn’t spent it already. They had agreed it would be better to leave town penniless and well equipped, rather than rich and vulnerable, but half of their money on one weapon seemed especially excessive to Edge.

“Daphne, over here.”

She walked over to the tall display case. “It’s beautiful.”

“Can you play it?”

“A nineteen string harp, of course, with a little practice. But I’m not sure I can shoot a bow and arrow.”

“Let’s have a look at your weapon proficiencies again,” suggested Edge. The pair stood close to one another, looking over Daphne’s character menu. An enormous painful tugging on his ear pulled him away.

“Don’t stand so close,” ordered an angry Belladonna.

“Ouch, that really hurt,” said Daphne, rubbing her ear. “And Edge smells good.”

He was not responding to that.

“Did you find a weapon?” Sakura asked Edge.

“Sort of, just not for me,” he replied, pointing at the display case.

Sakura whistled. “This would add one more to our DPS, and boost all of Daphne’s songs.”

“We hope. The description doesn’t actually say she’ll get a bonus.”

“A risk then.”

“Is it worth it?” Edge asked the group, in all seriousness.

“I bought a leather worker’s kit, an herbalist's guide, a mining pick, and a lumberjack axe, so we have all our bases covered for gathering,” she replied. “There were far more crafting and gathering tools than I would have imagined,” she added the last with a sparkle of joy behind her calculating elvish eyes. “Belladonna already found a simple bow, quiver and ammo downstairs. If we bought this item for Daphne, most of our funds would be depleted. Certainly not enough leftover for armour upgrades.”

“Ooo a leather worker's kit. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie,” said a wide eyed Daphne. She tinkered with the kit, and her stash of Gecko hides. “Bell, why not?” She pouted at the popup window. [You can’t learn this skill].

“Maybe you’re maxed out on trade skills,” Belladonna replied.

“But I only have my skinning knife!”

“Ugh,” Edge grunted.

“Oh yes, that might troublesome,” acknowledged Sakura.

“What is? Why won’t anybody tell me anything,” exclaimed Daphne.

“We are both alchemists,” answered Sakura.

“What from just tasting that one potion that time?”

“Ugh,” Edge repeated, distastefully. “If Daphne can’t use it, we might not be able to either. I took cooking and camping after all, one of those could easily be a trade skill. Pass it over and I’ll try.”

“No-don’t,” Belladonna blurted. “If Daphne has skinning, then I should be the leather worker.”

Edge wasn’t exactly sure what this was about.

“I concur,” agreed Sakura. “Archers are much more efficient at farming wild game. Your skills would match your classes better.” That actually made sense to Edge. Sakura’s sensibility was a blessing on their little group.

“Edge . . . Edge should be my partner,” Daphne announced, rather coyly, strumming her fingers together mischievously.

“No, Belladonna is right. Her class suits leather working a lot more than mine,” Edge concluded, handing the kit over to Belladonna.

It was almost like Belladonna was actually blushing, but her dark skin and long bangs made it much harder to know for sure.  “Thanks,” was all she said, however, all the while twirling her braided ponytail. Why did Edge feel like even her shyness was just a tease?

“I’m taking the Herbalism skill,” said Sakura. “That way I can keep track of the ingredients I gather, and make sure to have enough to raise both of our alchemy skills, together.”

“But I wanna do alchemy,” wined Daphne.

“Really? I never thought that you might like working right next to Edge as his intimate crafting partner,” tormented Sakura. “He and I will probably have to stay up late at night together in his room to . . . raise our skills.”

Daphne became thoughtful over this new important piece of information. “It’s . . . it’s not fair!” she exploded.

Eugene marveled at Sakura’s ability to manipulate, wondering if he too fell victim to her particular charms. “I’m not sure we should both do alchemy,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be better to focus on raising one person’s skill to max. Pots are a distinct advantage in combat for most games, but low level players tend not to have, use, or make them-”

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“Because you don’t normally need them at early levels,” Belladonna finished.

“But in Levia . . .” Edge added. It didn’t need to be said. In Levia they needed every advantage they could get, especially if their gathering skill could make them for free, or at least cheaper. “We need to get an alchemy kit as well.”

“How did you forget an alchemy kit?” challenged Daphne.

“About that,” Sakura hesitated. “It costs seventy-five rubies.”

“So much money!” Daphne pouted.

“Just enough, actually,” formulated Sakura.

“I can’t believe how rich you guys are,” sighed Belladonna. “No one at the Watering Hole ever had a ruby.”

[Your observation skill has increased: 22]

“Good afternoon, Raylor. What business does the Captain of the Guard have with a humble merchant such as myself?” asked the weapons vendor from behind the counter downstairs.

“You know why I’m here,” rebuked Raylor. The Captain of Cobbletown’s guard stood two hands taller than the average man. He was a beefy sort, clean shaven with short cropped black hair that fell over his pale forehead in a greasy mess.

The merchant fidgeted behind the counter. “I’m not paying. I already pay my taxes and, and, and that should be enough,” he stuttered.

“Your shipment arrived on time, unmolested.” Raylor let the statement sink-in.

“You defenders are the real bandits,” he complained, but pulled out a heavy pouch from under the counter and slid it over to the guard captain.

The captain pushed it back to the merchant.

“What’s this? It’s all there, I promise,” the merchant stammered in panic.

“I know it is. The town guard wishes to purchase a shipment of longswords and additional ammunition. Place the order.” Raylor began walking out of the store, then paused, “at your standard rates, of course.”

[C Rank Quest: Guarded Extortionists] It only popped up for Daphne and Edge.

“What was that about?” questioned Belladonna.

“Should we accept, Edge. This quest line is getting really interesting. I wanna see what happens,” Daphne grinned.

“It’s [C] rank, that has to be way above our level . . . I’m afraid that if we keep taking quests we can’t finish, our codex could get full,” he replied.

“Oh,” said a surprised Bell, “quest rank doesn’t have anything to do with difficulty. It’s about rarity. Someone told me they dropped an emerald in a wishing well and found a [D] rank once . . .”

“If it’s rarity and not difficulty . . . then we should accept. But what I can’t figure out is if rare quests actually give better rewards or not,” Edge complained.

“The codex keeps track of all the quests you finish, and the number of quests completed in each rank is on the sidebar, see,” said Belladonna.

He already knew that, but why was the real question. “It could be the way out, you know. Maybe we need to finish enough quests of every rank before we can logout.” The problem with the codex was that it didn’t display any of the ranks, until you actually found or completed a quest in one. So there was no way to know how many ranks were going to be listed.

“Do you really think so?” Daphne asked.

He couldn’t say yes and be certain, so Edge didn’t say anything at all.

“It’s one possibility,” Sakura answered for him.

“Let’s just buy what we need and go. We should see if we can’t scout a place to farm mobs. I don’t suppose you know of an area with low level monsters?” he asked Belladonna.

“I’m not on speaking terms with any Gambits,” she said grudgingly, “if that’s what you’re getting at, but I know an entrance to the Cobbletown sewers that they use. I heard there are oozes and giant rats down there, and that a lot of recruits have gone down, and some of them don’t come back . . .”

“Okay, bandits or sewers?” Edge asked the party. It was too much to ask for the girls to volunteer for sewer duty, but the bandits were the bigger threat as far as Edge was concerned. They needed to raise their new weapon abilities, and Belladonna was still level one. No one wanted to make the decision, and when he suggested the sewers, a group wide cringe was the response, so they put it off. Why wouldn’t they just listen to him for once?

“Ooo, there is an ice cream shop,” drooled Daphne, who was still partly enamoured with her new [Hunter’s Harp]. “Edge, you need to buy me ice cream.”

“Do you think we can get fat here?” wondered Sakura.

“I doubt it,” replied Edge. “It just wouldn’t make any sense to alter character avatars after every meal.” Apparently, that was the right answer, because Daphne was dragging him by the arm into the shop. After purchasing both an Alchemy kit and the harp, their funds had been all but depleted. In the end, he was still relying on his wooden shield and a pouch full of rocks.

Each member of the group purchased one of the many different flavours of ice cream, which fortunately for Edge was relatively cheap. Sakura was doling out an allowance to each group member, and he could only frown at the meager handful of crystals that was his portion. Why was she always so cheap with him? Was it so that he would have to go beg her for more?!

“It’s purr-fect,” Daphne hummed into her strawberry ice cream. “Every shopping date should include ice cream,” she said as a matter of fact, rubbing her cheek into Edge’s shoulder as she kept his arm in a lock. At least with an inventory, their window shopping adventure didn’t have him weighed down with shopping bags.

“It is quite good,” agreed Sakura, who was latched onto his other arm. Though somehow he ended up just as encumbered. How was he supposed to eat his ice cream without arms?

Belladonna walked sheepishly beside Daphne sampling her cone.

“Date.” The word fell off Eugene’s lips like a foreign language. Somehow this weird stroll around the plaza had become his first date. But he wasn’t even sure who he was on a date with. “S-sorry about this, Belladonna. They can be a little-”

“Don’t be,” she stopped him short. “It’s only ice cream. It’s not like we are taking your virginity,” she added, brusquely. “Yet,” she barked a roar of laughter.

Neither Sakura, nor Daphne gainsaid her remark.

Edge paled.

College girls were just-

They were really-

He just wanted to-

It was like being caught in a trap with a lion, a panther, and a pink elf. Gecko Kings, bandit bosses, oozes, and giant rats, suddenly became minor threats in comparison. Edge was faced up against three amorous college girls. And he was petrified.