Tutorial Day 17
Touching the door handle for ‘my room’ I was greeted with a message that instantly made my teeth clench hard enough that my neck shook.
As per the agreement upon accepting a room at the Alchemy Academy, you will be charged for Room and Board. Monthly fee of 10,000 Tutorial Points.
Insufficient Tutorial Points.
Would you like to put the charge on credit?
Yes |
I’d known this was coming, and had planned to have more than sufficient funds for it. Not to mention already have tried my hand at creating Pills or Potions! My hand clenched around the door handle, ready to rip the thing off in my frustration.
Claude had husking screwed me. That husking program had bankrupt my starting Tutorial Points, and because I hadn’t expected it, all of my Herbs and Plants were behind this door!
The handle creaked as I pulled with all the Strength my exhausted body could muster. My mind wanted to select no. I desperately didn’t want to be in debt to this place—but what options did I have. I either needed to go farming with London and his group everyday for almost a month, and hopefully scrounge together ten thousand points.
The problem with that approach was that another ten thousand would be due shortly after. While I hoped I could make some Pills or Potions to offset that—there was no guarantee.
The second and far more ominous choice was to select yes and be in debt to Maelstrom.
London and his group had said that was pretty common for new people—even they had started in debt. Or so they claimed. In a way that did explain their impoverished circumstances a bit…
Maybe it wouldn’t be—
“Hey Brodie,” London’s voice said as he walked down the hallway. Instantly, my frustration gave way to suspicion. His timing seemed a bit too good. Like he knew I’d be here…
Considering I’d been trapped in a Martial Pavilion for nine days, the chances of him casually coming to find me now—were practically zero.
London froze mid-step and blinked at me, clearly catching my current moody vibe off of my stance and face. He held up his hands and stepped back even. “Should I come back later?”
I tried to dial back my glare but likely only partially succeeded as London took another step back. Swallowing to wet my dry throat I growled, “What do you need London?”
His head tilted and he looked down at himself, clearly asking himself a few internal questions I wasn’t privy too. One of which was likely, ‘do I look like I came to beg?’ In the end he sighed heavily, and said, “That obvious?”
It was my turn to blink. Had London actually shown up here to find me, and knew nothing about my current circumstances? London looked at me his face and every part of his body displaying a bit of anxiety. I stared back at him, clearly still frustrated but beginning to feel bad about my reaction.
“Sorry, I’m having a terrible week,” I said. “Did you come here for something?”
“Yeah, well, you see,” London began, seeming to search for words. Eventually he stopped took a deep breath and said, “The group is struggling hard, man. We’re making more money with the tricks you’ve shown us but, we only are getting a quarter of the value you did when you collected the Heart Cores, Skins, and Manes. Plus with the added equipment and the need for repairs coming up soon, we’re not saving enough to not end up back in debt.”
After another deep breath from London and from me, he continued, “I was sent here to beg you to come out with us some more. We’re even willing to offer you sixty-forty…”
I looked at my door, and then the nearby SunStone. I was still sure it was early or mid afternoon. Why were they here and not out Hunting?
“Have you already gone out today?” I asked.
“Yep, our usual Hunting spot was taken, so we either needed to go deeper or come back. In the end the group didn’t think going deeper would be worth it without a Gatherer…”
“Would you all go out again?” I asked, think that if I could somehow gather some Herbs or Meats, I might be able to make this better.
London shook his head while looking absolutely aghast by my suggestion. “No way,” London said, accompanying his body language with his tone. “Monsters get stronger when it’s ‘Nighttime.’ It’s not worth the risk that we’d be out late.” London motioned at the SunStone, highlighting the fact that it clearly was getting on in hour.
“You couldn’t front me ten thousand Tp, could you?” I asked, with a world weary sigh. I spun and let my back collide with my door, before sliding down it to the floor.
London took a moment but eventually put everything together. I could almost hear the moment the light bulb switched on thanks to his tongue click. He came over, and slowly lowered himself down beside me. “Room and Board is due, isn’t it?”
I nodded and looked to him, hopeful he might also have the money to lend me.
His lips were pursed and I could tell he was licking the backs of his teeth just from the jaw line movements I was seeing. He moved his tongue onto his molars and opened his mouth mouth letting out a sucking noise that told me everything I needed to know before London said, “Yeah, even as a group we don’t have ten thousand. Sorry, man.”
He patted my shoulder. “Anything important inside?”
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“All the herbs!” I complained.
“What?!” London shouted. “I thought you were going to use them for Alchemy. How do you still have them?”
“Ever heard of Claude the Drunken Spear Master!” I shivered as I admitted my folly.
London started laughing, and I could tell it wasn’t at my expense. When he got a breath in he squeezed out, “That’s a great nickname for that old thief! However, I doubt he’s a master at anything. He just carries that spear around to keep up appearances.”
My mouth morphed into a frown, and I studied London’s face. He seemed sincere. Something I likely should have noticed earlier in my forced confinement made my skin tingle. No one else seemed to be aware of AI characters.
What had games like Hunter X called them? Non-player characters? NPC’s!
London’s words clearly indicated that he believed Claude to just be a scamming thief. Like I originally had. Looking back on my interactions with the man and his reaction made me question whether he was truly an NPC. His reactions and words too human to even be an AI that passed the Turing test.
To hide my confusion I tried to force a chuckle but it came out strangled, and more like a sob. London patted my shoulder, with one hand and wiped tears from his eyes with the other. “How long did he have you? Really wish we’d warned you about him, but we had suggested a teacher—so…”
My growl was not fully intentional. His words sounded a bit to much like a, ‘you should have stuck with us.’ My guttural noise also wasn’t directed at London, and he got that because he started with a low chuckle that morphed into full blown laughter.
“Did you think it was suspicious for us to be so poor?” London asked between laughter.
A chuckle escaped me at the accuracy of his prediction, and I dropped my head and sighed. “Well, yeah—kind of. That and Jacky seems to ask all the questions you all really want to know about… Like you’ve made her into the ‘bad’ guy of the group.”
London’s laughter only grew. “Dude, trust me when I tell you this—that’s just Jacky. She’s always been like that. We’ve lost so many potential members because of her.”
His laughter died out as he reached the end, and his expression grew serious. “But if we let her go, no one else is going to take her. You know?”
A great deal of my suspicion seemed to evaporate at London’s words. They were a group, and accepted Jacky for who she was. They were poor, for obvious husking reasons—I looked at my own situation.
My ability to collect points quickly had given me a false sense of security. I motioned at my door. “What do you think I should do?”
“What do you think the herbs and plants are worth?” London asked, looking at the door with me.
“Well, at least three thousand—probably closer to four or five.”
London motioned down in the general direction of the large entryway. “You get Room and Board too, which you won’t find cheaper than two-thousand a month, and trust me—you don’t want those places. So, really if you pay the ten thousand, you’re only down a few thousand. With some hard work or some luck we can make that back and get you enough for next month with us at Frasier’s.”
“What’s Frasier’s cost?” I asked, not having ever cared enough before this.
“Well, the four bedroom suite is twenty-two thousand. The Five bedroom I think is twenty-five thousand a month. So, in theory you’d be saving us some money by upgrading with us.”
“Wouldn’t it be a pain to move?” I asked.
“Ahhh,” London said raising a finger. “At Frasier’s a room just gets added to your Apartments. It’s kind of like Magic, or maybe one of those mazes that have interior walls that can move?”
“So, is this place as big as a scam as Claude?” I asked, looking around myself.
London shook his head. “Nah, that guy’s a thief. You can actually learn stuff here. Since you have access to the library.”
“You what?!” I asked incredulously even as I shot to my feet.
“The guards didn’t show you the library?” London asked.
“No, they did not,” I responded, my hand back on the doorknob. I figured with some time spent in a library I might be able to figure out how to combine some herbs to make a good pill.
London smiled me as he too stood up. “It’s in the basement. If you ask a Guard I think they’re obligated to show you. However, all the high level books only have one copy—from what I hear. So, getting your hands on them is pretty tough.”
London brushed himself off and then looked down the hallway the way he’d come. “See you tomorrow, then?”
“For sixty percent, certainly.”
London’s smile became a bit forced but he nodded before walking away. I almost felt bad until I clicked yes and was suddenly at negative ten thousand Tp.
* * *
The Library was monstrous in size but drastically disappointing in ‘volume.’ I guess when I’d heard the word Library, I’d figured that it was going to be something the System put here to help ‘teach’ people in a Tutorial.
What I got, was in some ways more fascinating but in almost every way more disappointing. Every book was essentially a handwritten journal. Even worse—to borrow one cost Tutorial Points.
The worst part was that I only had a title to go off of. These books contained no fancy cover, or even small blurb that might help me decide which one I wanted. To even remove a book from the shelf I needed to pay ten to five hundred Tp.
That was currently the most expensive book available—that I’d found, at least.
I stared at the Alchemical Pill shelf and sighed.
Pill Cauldron’s and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them - 10 Tp
Burning Materials and Points - 10 Tp
The Differences Between Potions and Pills - 10 Tp
Trying Not to Waste My Money with Pills - 20 Tp
Failed Potions Have Value, Pills Just Burn Up - 30 Tp
A List of Ingredients that Don’t Work in Potions - 30 Tp
Pill Making and Where to Start - 50 Tp
If You’re Already Wasting Tutorial Points Pick Me - 50 Tp
The Never Ending Challenge that is Pill Crafting - 100 Tp
Tips and Tricks of Pill Cauldrons - 100 Tp
Each cost was also for an hourly rental—and the more expensive books were thick enough that I thought they’d take me days to finish.
At least from the one hundred Tutorial Books and up I was finding far less disparaging titles. Just from the context there were some things I was able to ‘infer.’
Clearly, Pill Crafting was looked down on. I was even able to get a good idea why thanks to the titles. It would seem that it was an all or nothing Craft. Either you put in the Materials and created a Pill, or you turned them to ash.
With the debt system here in Tutorial Town—that second option was terrifying. Still, there was also an opportunity here, wasn’t there?
“What if I create a journal of my experiments?” I muttered, looking away from the shelf for some hint as to how these books were placed here. There was no desk or attendant—that I could see. “So, then—”
I was cut off in my muttering but a hissing shush from one of the nearby tables. I looked over and there wasn’t even a person sitting there. I checked the other nearby tables, and found no one at them either.
“Who just shushed me?” I whispered, while looking for a response. A shush far louder came from a nearby table. My eyebrows raised, there wasn’t anyone there. What in the husk was happening?
I found the nearest human, and stared at her. She wore a smirk. Then knocked on her table—but no sound got made. Hoping for some more information, I started to move toward her only to see her face fall. Sighing, I turned to the nearest table hoping I could figure out what her strange message meant on my own.
As soon as I got near the table I was stopped. There was almost an invisible wall separating me from it.
Library Table Rental - 100 Tp per hour.
Book rentals offset this cost.
Each table is made from Noise Dampening Materials, and equipped with a Shushing Enchant to stop people from disturbing the user.
Book this table?
Yes |
Well, that certainly explained the situation, and gave me another reason to get some Tutorial Points and come back. My only question now was, should I sell some of my Herbs and Fruits, or wait till tomorrow?