Allen logged in to his recreation therapy session, NPCs were encouraged to create Player characters in the game worlds so they would become more familiar with the game and to make them part of the community where they held their day 'jobs'.
The only problem was that NPC recreation characters could only be chosen from the free to play races and classes and their rank up levels were restricted which left most of them at the bottom of the food chain.
The kobold slave used his pickaxe to loosen up another ore laden rock, he picked it up with both hands and dropped it in the sack the troll overseer was carrying.
Letting idle routines take over the mining Allen switched between his kobold characters, holding more than one player character was a crime punishuble by prison in the Neuro Psychological Correction facility, also known as NPC, being the biggest joke ever made on the plebian society.
After going through the motions for his 13 kobold miners he moved over to his human adventurer, being banned from all payed classes and races hurt the inmates a lot, a lot of them being used to play at the top whether through hacks or exploits, it wasnt even punishment, just a statement that the company was trying to help them regain their financial capacity and that charging money for online content would be counterproductive to their mandate as a correction facility.
Allen joined a group going through one of the starter quests, hunting a giant wolf that was terrorizing a small community, the quick travel gate put the group in the village square, their leader talked with the elder to pick up the quest.
Making the idle routine follow the group he checked his kobold tribe for any trouble, finding nothing peculiar he rejoined the quest just as the group was facing the charging bull.
Stepping aside and stabbing the back foot of the bull as it passed him got the glitched spot to shoot out and the bull fell over the river bank, being last in the group made sure no one would see what he did and their archers could kill the fallen bull with ease.
The next encounter was in a forest clearing, playing the ambush as a NPC told him all the idle routines for the small pack of rabid chickens and he spotted the NPC enhanced chicken in half a second when it wouldnt charge through the brush, he made the agreed signal but got no confirmation so he killed it with a slash while the group killed the other 22 monsters.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" the tough looking dwarf had a distinct feminine voice, "only killing one chicken isnt helping us", she puffed her chest "my group has no room for poachers", pointing a finger at him "either pick up your act or i kick you"
Allen nodded "ok" he said meekly, "what do you want me to do?"
"Whats your class?" she huffed at him, Allen sent her his sheet and her eyes went wide, "who picks peasant for a class?", she looked him over, "oh, oh you're one of them Neuro Correction players?", lingering on his sword, "tough luck buddy", checking his boots and gloves something clicked "BAHAHA Grandpa's sword", her eyes were tearing with laughter, "yea fine you do your best, bahahaha" she held her stomache laughing in short bursts and trying to catch her breath.
The other players started making jokes about how a farmer was the best class to fight charging bulls and rabid chickens while Allen was doing his best to hide his impatience.
"Next fight is the big one" she started explaining, "we will get 3 to 8 wolves and a direwolf", measuring them all up she added "that direwolf is sometimes smart", picking up her axe "like his got some kind of better AI controlling it", she swinged the axe "so pay attention and point any weird acting wolf"
Pointing at the archers, "Dan, Osh and Sam you stay back", she drew a line in the dirt "we will come to a narrow trail" she put a few pebbles at one end of the line, "me Kain and farmer boy will walk here" she drew an X at about a third of the line from the pebbles, "the wolves will attack", she added to the line "we will pull them all the way to the middle" and added a twig, "the direwolf will appear around here" she moved the pebbles to about a third, "you walk here and take it down".
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She looked at Allen, "do you have some pole weapon like a pitchfork or scythe you can use?", when he just moved his head from side to side she blurted "useless farmer, fine, stick with me".
The group walked through some brush and breaking through it they could all see the fissure in the ground.
"don't look like much but it widens up and its a nasty place to get caught unaware" the dwarf hefted her axe and pointed "so you archers stay at the start till we call you" and she climbed down using the rocks for hanholds.
At the bottom the air got chilly and the group spread out across the floor "there is another way in down the path" the dwarf pointed with her axe at the left wall, "but that's certain death for low levels like us".
Thirty meters in the group heard a growl and looked up to see a wolf with his heckles up and drool dripping from its mouth, "keep walking" the dwarf ordered and the group obeyed.
An hour into the quest and they still didn't kill any wolf, Allen thought this was a personal record when the 4th wolf joined the pack that followed them, this dwarf woman knew her business but she apparantly only knew the stupidest paths for the quest and no side quests or secrets.
Five wolves blocked their way, the biggest one was more than twice the size of the others and Allen almost slapped his forehead when he figured this newbie NPC actually used credits on this with an added wolf and the enhanced size, he drew out his sword and took a step to the right, putting the dwarf between himself and 7 out of the 9 wolves including the big bad brute.
A sharp whistle cut through the growls and two seconds later the big wolf was riddled with half a dozen arrows, two coverd in oozing acid, one frosted over its fur and the slowest to hit exploded when it hit the wolf's head and sending hot shrapnel that hit its companions.
The wolves from the walls jumped down and charged at the three adventurers while the direwolf seemed to be dazed from the blast, another flurry of arrows sunk in its fur while the dwarf was smashing the attacking wolves with her axe.
A wolf gnashed its teeth at Allen and he stabbed at it, seeming to miss but the wolf whined in pain as its eye started bleeding, another stab and the wolf was dropped to the ground and allen's luck had betrayed him as the wolf gave one last charge and buried the farmer under its dead body.
with the big wolf neutralized the others were done with quickly between the dwarven axe and human swordsman, alone, blind and frozen it only took a few hard hits to kill the direwolf by splitting its skull, when the last blow was dealt they all vanished and a few seconds later a pile of pelts, coins, feathers and magic items appeared where it stood.
The dwarf picked up the pile and started passing on items to the other players when she noticed she couldnt pick one of the items up, "well well, looks like our farmer killed the chicken king", the pointed at the item spinning an inch above the ground, "you need to pick it up and hand it over by our agreement", she seemed pissed "dont try to scam us, i know what this is".
Allen stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to the gathered players, he picked the 'golden rooster feather' and handed it to the dwarf, "what is it?" he asked as if ignorant, knowing its value was in the tens of thousands as an ingredient for enchantments but testing this group to see if they were good enough to play with.
"This my silly friend is the main ingredient for creating feather fall capes" she held it up, "its the most prized item this quest can drop", drawing circles in the air with it "its probably worth at least 5k gold to the right person", exaggarating the motion she swished it up and down with obvious excitement "our agreement sais i get first pick on every drop", she could barely contain her excitement "but to show you all i am fair I will pay for it to the whole group", she drew a purse and counted out "thats 8 platinum coins I will give each of you if farmer boy lets the feather go".
Not quite unfair, she probably didnt even know that the feather was used to enchant boots of flying and to summon flying mounts, her assessment of 50% from a feather fall cape didnt drop too far and Allen decided it was good enough for him, "ok" he nodded, deciding to trust her that far.
The group erupted into cheers as this was the a great prize on top of everything else they got in less than an hour and no grind on this quest that was the top of the newby list and sometimes even at the bottom of the advanced quests.
When they got back to the Gates Of Eden where all adventures started in V.R.G the group dispersed and allen logged off and went to sleep.