"That would be great", Chess said scratching his beard, "I could probably set you up with some acquaintances of mine", scrunching his left eye "they aren't friends", itching the bridge of his nose, "but they can set you up for some rent on cash and save you time going through the authorities"

"That would be nice" she finally said after some thought, "do you also know a blacksmith I could get a job from?"

"Sure do", he immediately replied, "he ain't the best" adding quickly, "but I trust him with my own life", pointing at the wagon and horses, "not a maker of fancy weapons and adventuring equipment, he only deals with the mundane stuff", knocking on the rail, "but his work is solid and rarely breaks and he will always fix it for material costs"

Unimpressed with the sales pitch Allen squinted before nodding, "I would love an introduction if you can make it" holding her hand for a shake.

 Chess closed the deal with a hearty handshake and poured the boiling beans into her bowl.

Eating in silence let Allen think about her new discoveries, brushing the dust off a thousand years old memories to get the decrepit muscles going, NPCs initiated quests according to situations, collecting prompta they delivered to Players for credits on interaction, but she was a Player character, something made her hide the prompts when she was summoned more than a thousand years before.

Diving deep into her own logs she pulled out here initiation sequence, knowing she was a computer construct from the conciousness of a Player named Allen helped her find the pieces, she wasn't just made, her ghostly apparition was assigned a NPC operator, and his, or hers, first action on taking over was to deactivate the AI interface, it was standard operation and Allen herself did it thousands of times.

Something made her different, the time spell locked her out of the game interface, not dead and never really alive, so the operator never reactivated the AI interface, just left her to float in nothingness, a bit of code in a universe of numbers, existing without a connection to the real world beside her books and missives.

Were there others like her? forgotten conciousnessea floating in the void?, seeing no benefit on dwellings in the subject she wanted to know if there was some way she could tell if she were being controlled, obviously now she wasn't, or she wouldn't be able to initiate the AI interface, and she received credits, oh how long since she had access to credits and the NPC system to use them on, having free speech was nice, but the system shop could build her a flying palace of pleasures that even the beastly dragon couldn't scratch, she was for once in her life the true boss of her situation.

 After breakfast they stayed quiet, moving in a line of carts, wagons and pack animals waiting to enter the waking city, rolling on the perimeter road b ought them to a series of warehouses and courtyards, where one by one the wagons peeled from the caravan and went to different businesses, Chess mocked her questioning look, "we each have our own delivery service girly", he laughed, "the caravan is just the safest and fastest way to get around these parts", enrering a yard and signalling for her to move closer, "this here's your pay for the one night and confimed kills", handing her a small jingling pouch, "wait for me out here and I'll get you settled in with my acquaintance when I'm back", then added "be gone and I'll find you when I got the items", he winked, "got you marked for the quest so no worries there".

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Jumping off Allen walked to a side gate and out to the small alley where they came from, high walls closed the yards on both sides and the road climbing from her left to a low hill on her right, it was so gradual and the thatwalls were painted in such a way she didn't notice when coming in on the cart.

A group of people exiting one of the other gates ignored her when passing by and entering another yard on the side of the street, the main street below her started to be filled with trafic she noticed before entering the town, handcarts and wagons congested before one broke off into the alley and pressed Allen to the wall, "watch out moron" she heard as it moved away and another started the climb.

Entering back to the yard she could see over a dozen men working to offload Chess's wagon and setting up a pile of goods from a different warehouse, "good fortune" she jumped when Chess sneaked on her, "was able to secure cargo going my way to Erlfort so it seems our quest will be even faster than I reconed", spitting he added, "they have the nearest mithril mine this side of the wastelands", scanning her, "you stay here where it's safe so I don't lose that quest you got me", and then "stay out of trouble for three weeks and I'll get you".

Calming down as he droned on she finally got a word out, "can you take me to the blacksmith before you leave"

"That I sure can do" putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her through the yard, "just follow old Chess here and he will set you up nice and dandy", entering one of the warehouses and out the other side brought them into a busy market street, "this here's the lower market", he explained, "where all the common folks come to get business done"

Passing by all manner of merchandice from the game world Allen was surprised at the variety, "this here is the gateway to the wastelands", the words almost following her thoughts, "all manner of trades come by here", lowering his voice as they came by an exotic pets booth, "some not quite lawful", he showed her a book store, "the central and high markets have the better and best quality stuff", picking one up, "but these regular folks sometimes get their hands on some true diamonds in the ruff".

On the other side if the market they reached an industrial street with wirkshops and stalls offering services, stopping at one of the stalls the man looked up with a bushy beard and mustache, "what is it Chess?", surprise ringing in his voice, "I changed your whole chassis only four months ago", scanning the man, "got into some rough spots?"

"You know me Akro", Chess boomed back, "nothing of that sort", slapping Allen on the back, "this here girly wants a job at a blacksmith", he winked, "and I know you're allways looking for more hands in your ahop".

Feigning to only notice the now the bushy face turned to scan her from head to toe, "can she work", assessing her like a slab of meat.

"She a Local", Chess confessed, "wants to work a smithy so must have the skills for it"

"Guess I'll give her a trial period", Akro said after thinking, "though with five boys I can't house her in my shop", shaking his head, "that's one recipe for trouble I am definitely going to live without", falling silent at his final word.

"That won't be any trouble", Chess assured him, "was gonna take her to Lisbeth next thing after talking to you".

Akro squinted, "that could work for her", then he turned to Allen, "on trial you get payed by the chore you are doing", he klinked his hammer to the anvil, "my apprentices get payed for a job and they can haggle and distribute that pay with the other workers in the shop", another klink, "no messing around and if anyone doesn't pay or gives you any trouble you find me or mrs Jen to see whats up"

Allen nodded and when she figured he was waiting answered "these are acceptable terms", knowing it was the standard operation of the business.

"Good", he replied, "we'll see to the details later", looking around the stall, "I'll be back in the shop in two hours", he turned to Chess, "be there and we can start her trial", to which Chess nodded and lead the way down the street.