Aya's alarm rang through her room jolting her from, sleep. She jumped out of bed in a panic, fearing she would miss the Seelim bus. She showered and had breakfast but when she got to the rack her uniform usually hung Aya found it empty.
Events flashed through her mind until she remembered she forcefully quit her job at Nue Corp and even said goodbye to the president, Aya scoffed.
"He hasn't even bothered to call me, well he probably has other stuff to do. Other more important stuff," she said solemnly. It stung a bit that the person she was just learning to call a friend hadn't even bothered to reach out.
"Whatever, I get to sleep in some more and that's better than a dumb phone call right?" she said to herself. In the silence of the apartment, no one answered.
Aya changed back into her pajamas and flopped back unto her bed for a much needed rest. The rest of the building would no doubt be heading to their various jobs or errands.
"I'm not going to answer the door until I know for sure it's Mars, I can't let Lydia know what I'm really doing," Aya said. She rested her head on the pillow and thought some more about her mother.
Anything she thought about her now, was always connected to the game. Moon Valley was the last connection she had to her mother. Aya wondered if her mother voiced a character.
If she had motion captured for someone? Motion capturing was something she'd recently learned about the more she looked into the game the more foreign it seemed.
If the Goddess Selendriel who had her mother's face were to appear in the game did that mean she could meet her mother again? Even if it was a fictional counterpart who didn't know her?
And what about her father? Was his face in the game somewhere too?
Aya drifted off to sleep, when she woke up again she would do the merchant's quest and try her best to restore the Rose Manor.
----------
Aya was roused from sleep by a harsh knocking she knew to be Lydia's. She placed a hand over her mouth before she could announce her presence, then rolled silently off the bed and crept towards the door to listen.
"The brats not around," she heard Lydia tell someone, presumably over the phone. Aya wondered who the other person was but had no time to process it as the door knob started jiggling as Lydia tried to pry it open with force.
"It's locked, I told you she had the locks changed!" Lydia yelled in a louder voice than any of the tenants she frequently accused. Aya snickered, changing the locks had been a lightbulb moment during one of the first months she moved in.
She saved up her first few paychecks and had gotten some expensive ones, locks sure not to break any time soon. It was a risk she couldn't afford to take and now, it had paid off.
Slowly, her aunt's footsteps receded and she could no longer hear the woman over the phone. Aya breathed a sigh of relief.
"She makes so much money from the tenants though, why does she want my grandma's house?"
Aya felt there was something more to this, a piece of the puzzle she hadn't figured out yet.
"It won't do me any good right now to ponder this," Aya said. She chewed her lip, anxiety grew like a bramble in her chest as she stepped away from the door as quietly as she could.
"I'll give her the illusion my work shift changed, that way she'll know I'm home more but not when," Aya whispered.
----------
Yvlena found herself safe and sound within the Rose Manor grounds, she didn't like spawning in the street where anything could happen even if Bloom Haven was safe.
"I've got two objectives, meet Soren the Blacksmith and work on the merchant's quest,"
With this in mind, she examined the ores for more information about the old kingdom of Gliresea
[Plain Ores of Gliresea
***
Type: Rare Ore
An ore from the bygone era of the old Rabbit Kingdom, Gliresea.
Once mined in Quarries of the Old Kingdom, the ore grows increasingly hard to find and is even harder to obtain.
Instilled with special properties, it can be used to upgrade weapons from the region.]
After reading, Yvlena pushed the old gates of the Rose Manor open and ran towards the Artisan district to complete her task of finding the Blacksmith, she ran past the apothecary and into the crowd of elegantly dressed people.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The cobblestone road seemed to go on forever, flanked by rows of shops Yvlena hadn't even bothered checking.
She knew there were some clothing shops, maybe some furniture for the Rose Manor as well but she needed to get her sword sorted before any of that would interest her.
"I should probably see if the Floral district is doing better, maybe I can get some more seeds for the Manor,"
In her haste she passed a man dressed in a rich blue suit who called out her name, Yvlena skidded to a halt nearly tripping over a stall of fresh fruit.
"Oh Laurent it's you," Yvlena said, spinning around to face the man. The blonde man quirked his lips up in amusement.
[Affinity with Laurent increased+1]
"Where are you off to this fine morning?" Yvlena asked.
"There's a new merchant in town and I wanted to see if he had any books I could purchase for the library," Laurent said. Yvlena gasped.
"He definitely would, he's an Aruergo Merchant and I hear they're a big deal in Moon Valley!"
"Really, now?"
[Laurent appreciates the information you've shared with him]
[Affinity with Laurent increased+5]
Yvlena nodded.
"He's doing the mercantile trials right now and Bloom Haven must have been on his list of towns to visit,"
"Ah yes, those are very important to anyone classed a merchant, especially to a member of one of the great merchant families of Moon Valley. It's an honor to be graced by his presence,"
"Yeah!"
Laurent threw his head back with a laugh, the first Yvlena had ever seen, he looked quite handsome when he wasn't so grumpy.
"Your manner of speech is quite refreshing, where are you off to?"
"I'm looking for the blacksmith,"
"Soren I take it. Well, you're certainly on the right path, it's just further down from here shorter if you take a carriage,"
"Thanks! I wanted to ask how you knew but you're probably the smartest person in Bloom Haven I'll bet," Yvlena said with a laugh. A fierce blush quickly spread across Laurent's face.
"Oh...I," He stammered. Yvlena giggled and waved at him before rushing off again.
[Affinity with Laurent increased+5]
----------
Following the instructions of Risel and Laurent, Yvlena eventually finds herself deep within the Artisant district's smithing quarters.
Soon apothecaries and other food shops were replaced with merchants selling ores and smithing materials. As Yvlena walked further down, the merchant shops began fading from view, replaced with rows of smiths working on their metal craft.
The clanging bangs of metal on metal reached her ears while the location only she could see read, Artisan District Smithy.
Yvlena approached a man who seemed free to speak with her. She walked towards a tall blond man with close cropped hair and a thick blond mustache above his lip that complimented his face.
He sat on a bench with a towel around his neck, wiping off the sweat from a hard day's work.
The man was large, with a hulking muscled frame that could only have come from years of heavy lifting at the forge. The elven girl felt a wave of intimidation wash over her.
What if he was as mean as Laurent was when they first met? In her hesitation, the man spoke first.
"Oh my dear, we don't get many elves at the forge what can I do you for?" he said in a cheery voice. Yvlena breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm looking for a blacksmith by the name of Soren, my friend Risel referred me to him," Yvlena said. The man laughed jovially
"I am he, how may I help you, elf girl?"
[NAME: Soren
RACE: Human
OCC: Blacksmith]
"I'm Yvlena, I came to upgrade my sword and was wondering if you could help me?" she said. Yvlena retrieved her carrot sword and presented it to the man who inspected it.
"I see, I see," he said, Soren inspected the blade, squinting his eyes as he did. He focused intensely on the blade of the carrot sword itself.
"The ores one would need for this are quite rare, the make of this sword has not been seen since the war of the gods. How did you come by this anyway?"
"I fought a giant rabbit for it," Yvlena replied. Soren laughed again, loud and raucous like Ricardo's.
She wondered if the two of them would get along.
"You're funny, I like you a lot!" He put his hand under his chin in thought. "There's still the matter of the ores, you could see if the new merchant in town has some that would fit the blade,"
"He did," Yvlena said taking the ores from her pocket and showing them to Soren.
The blacksmith looked at the two lumps of mineral in Yvlena's palms in awe. He picked one up, the big rock looking comically small in his large plans.
The Gliresea ore was a pale orange lump of rock as big as Yvlena's balled fist, it glistened even in the pale sun of the smithy obscured mostly by the smoke from various forges.
"It's beautiful," Soren said. He looked at the ore with such affection a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Soren, are you alright?" Yvlena asked in deep concern. She hoped she hadn't broken the game's character.
Soren leaped up from his bench, the towel previously on his neck flew off in an instant. The excited man landed in a crouch on the hard stone floor, yelling as he punched the air.
"Oh dear, what's gotten into Soren all of a sudden?" A voice asked from one of the forges behind them.
[You've presented Soren with artistic inspiration]
[Affinity with Soren Increased +5]
[Soren considers you an acquaintance]
"Already?" Yvlena said in amusement.
"I'll upgrade your beautiful sword, Yvlena just give me a couple of hours and check back later," Soren said running into the forge behind him.
"Yeah!" But as he began work on the blade Yvlena was hit with a realization.
How was she supposed to fight?